Notes - "Presence in the room" and the amygdala / Lesson 7-C completed

         Late morning. Carol is washing clothes, bed sheets and the like, you have been watching and playing with Brennan who is now quiet in the rocker – he has been teething which appears bothersome to him from time to time. You have been talking to him, mainly the ABC’s and numbers one to ten in English, German, and Portuguese and you have to be reminded of the French; plus, some good mornings, good evenings, etc.

         I should know some French to work with him. Italian is similar to the Portuguese in pronunciation. Paul should go over some Korean. We did this with Kim; I think the basic language sounds help. I have been listening to Chinese and Japanese radio stations from time to time. I am sure there is an app for kids on language variety. The only language Kim learned with any proficiency is French in high school and college. I took Latin and Spanish. Sadly, I did not do well in either as I have a version of tone deafness. Kim was a musician too – playing the flute in junior high and high school. Mom played the piano well and Dad the saxophone; both knew French and Dad also knew German. Carol learned Korean and Vietnamese while overseas and I Portuguese (enough to get along in most everyday situations encountered). I don’t know why I’m saying all this.

         If you apologize for it you’ll make it worse, boy. The mind moves into its own mode, you should know that by now. After ‘encountered’ you popped into consciousness. No need to apologize for being conscious. – Amorella

         Later, after reading the recent Romney cover Time magazine, and particularly Joel Stein, one of your favorite, nearly always funny writers; and more importantly, after Brennan is finally down for a nap, you are ready and thinking about your conversation with son-in-law, Paul and Kim last night.

         I began the conversation with asking Paul about what nerves and muscles are involved with my communication with you, Amorella and we went through the fingers, the radial and median and the sensory nerves and cranial nerve seven which controls the orbicularius oculi surrounding the eye, the only two avenues to yourself as far as I know. Then after a preliminary explanation dealing with Lesson Seven I asked, “How would you know a Presence was in the room?”

         Paul mentioned the “sixth sense” and “fear”; then Kim added “fear and flight, the amygdala”, and Paul concurred. 

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Fight or Flight

To produce the fight-or-flight response, the hypothalamus activates two systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system. The sympathetic nervous system uses nerve pathways to initiate reactions in the body, and the adrenal-cortical system uses the bloodstream. The combined effects of these two systems are the fight-or-flight response.

When the hypothalamus tells the sympathetic nervous system to kick into gear, the overall effect is that the body speeds up, tenses up and becomes generally very alert. If there's a burglar at the door, you're going to have to take action -- and fast. The sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) into the bloodstream. These "stress hormones" cause several changes in the body, including an increase in heartrate and blood pressure.

At the same time, the hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) into the pituitary gland, activating the adrenal-cortical system. The pituitary gland (a major endocrine gland) secretes the hormone ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone). ACTH moves through the bloodstream and ultimately arrives at the adrenal cortex, where it activates the release of approximately 30 different hormones that get the body prepared to deal with a threat.

The sudden flood of epinephrine, norepinephrine and dozens of other hormones causes changes in the body that include:

a.             heart rate and blood pressure increase

b.             pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible

c.              veins in skin constrict to send more blood to major muscle groups (responsible for the "chill" sometimes associated with fear -- less blood in the skin to keep it warm)

d.             blood-glucose level increases

e.             muscles tense up, energized by adrenaline and glucose (responsible for goose bumps -- when tiny muscles attached to each hair on surface of skin tense up, the hairs are forced upright, pulling skin with them)

f.               smooth muscle relaxes in order to allow more oxygen into the lungs

g.             nonessential systems (like digestion and immune system) shut down to allow more energy for emergency functions

h.             trouble focusing on small tasks (brain is directed to focus only on big picture in order to determine where threat is coming from)

­All of these physical responses are intended to help you survive a dangerous situation by preparing you to either run for your life or fight for your life (thus the term "fight or flight"). Fear -- and the fight-or-flight response in particular -- is an instinct that every animal possesses.

From: science.howstuffworks

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And from Wikipedia (below)

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The amygdalae (singular: amygdala; . . . are almond-shaped groups of nuclei located deep within the medial temporal lobes of the brain in complex vertebrates, including humans. Shown in research to perform a primary role in the processing and memory of emotional reactions memory of, the amygdalae are considered part of the limbic system.

Anatomical subdivisions

The regions described as amygdala nuclei encompass several structures with distinct functional traits. Among these nuclei are the basolateral complex, the cortical nucleus, the medial nucleus, and the central nucleus. The basolateral complex can be further subdivided into the lateral, the basal, and the accessory basal nuclei.

Connections

The amygdala sends impulses to the hypothalamus for activation of the sympathetic nervous system, to the thalamic reticular nucleus for increased reflexes, to the nuclei of the trigeminal nerve and the facial nerve, and to the ventral tegmental area, locus coeruleus, and laterodorsal tegmental nucleus for activation of dopamine, norepinephirine and epinephrine.

The cortical nucleus is involved in the sense of smell and pheromone-processing. It receives input from the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex. The lateral amygdalae, which send impulses to the rest of the basolateral complexes and to the centromedial nuclei, receive input from the sensory systems. The centromedial nuclei are the main outputs for the basolateral complexes, and are involved in emotional arousal in rats and cats.

Emotional learning

In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdalae perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. Research indicates that, during fear conditioning, sensory stimuli reach the basolateral complexes of the amygdalae, particularly the lateral nuclei, where they form associations with memories of the stimuli. The association between stimuli and the aversive events they predict may be mediated by long-term potentiation, a sustained enhancement of signalling between affected neurons.

Memories of emotional experiences imprinted in reactions of synapses in the lateral nuclei elicit fear behavior through connections with the central nucleus of the amygdalae and the bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BNST). The central nuclei are involved in the genesis of many fear responses, including freezing (immobility), tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), increased respiration, and stress-hormone release. Damage to the amygdalae impairs both the acquisition and expression of Pavlovian fear conditioning, a form of classic conditioning of emotional responses.

The amygdalae are also involved in appetitive (positive) conditioning. It seems that distinct neurons respond to positive and negative stimuli, but there is no clustering of these distinct neurons into clear anatomical nuclei. However, lesions of the central nucleus in the amygdala have been shown to reduce appetitive learning in rats. Lesions of the basolateral regions do not exhibit the same effect. Research like this indicates that different nuclei within the amygdala have different functions in appetitive conditioning.

Memory modulation

The amygdala is also involved in the modulation of memory consolidation. Following any learning event, the long-term memory for the event is not formed instantaneously. Rather, information regarding the event is slowly assimilated into long-term (potentially life-long) storage over time, possibly via long-term potentiation. Recent studies suggest that, while the amygdala is not itself a long-term memory storage site, and learning can occur without it, one of its roles is to regulate memory consolidation in other brain regions. Also, fear conditioning, a type of memory that is impaired following amygdala damage, is mediated in part by long-term potentiation.

During the consolidation period, the memory can be modulated. In particular, it appears that emotional arousal following the learning event influences the strength of the subsequent memory for that event. Greater emotional arousal following a learning event enhances a person's retention of that event. Experiments have shown that administration of stress hormones to mice immediately after they learn something enhances their retention when they are tested two days later.

The amygdalae, especially the basolateral nuclei, are involved in mediating the effects of emotional arousal on the strength of the memory for the event, as shown by many laboratories including that of James McGaugh. These laboratories have trained animals on a variety of learning tasks and found that drugs injected into the amygdala after training affect the animals' subsequent retention of the task. These tasks include basic classical conditioning tasks such as inhibitory avoidance, where a rat learns to associate a mild footshock with a particular compartment of an apparatus, and more complex tasks such as spatial or cued water maze, where a rat learns to swim to a platform to escape the water. If a drug that activates the amygdalae is injected into the amygdalae, the animals had better memory for the training in the task. If a drug that inactivates the amygdalae is injected, the animals had impaired memory for the task.

Buddhist monks who do compassion meditation have been shown to modulate their amygdala, along with their temporoparietal junction and insula, during their practice. In an fMRI study, more intensive insula activity was found in expert meditators than in novices. Increased activity in the amygdala following compassion-oriented meditation may contribute to social connectedness.

Amygdala activity at the time of encoding information correlates with retention for that information. However, this correlation depends on the relative "emotionalness" of the information. More emotionally-arousing information increases amygdalar activity, and that activity correlates with retention. Amygdala neurons show various types of oscillation during emotional arousal, such as theta activity. These synchronized neuronal events could promote synaptic plasticity (which is involved in memory retention) by increasing interactions between neocortical storage sites and temporal lobe structures involved in declarative memory.

Rorschach blot 03

Research using Rorschach test blot 03 finds that the number of ‘‘unique responses’’ to this random figure links to larger sized amygdalae. The researchers note, "Since previous reports have indicated that unique responses were observed at higher frequency in the artistic population than in the nonartistic normal population, this positive correlation suggests that amygdalar enlargement in the normal population might be related to creative mental activity."

Edited from: Wikipedia: Amygdala

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         Upon reading this material it shows (thankfully for me) that science can do much of the explanation as far as Amorella’s pathways are concerned. A good example of this is a selection from the report (from three or four years ago) I received from my neurologist Dr. Ten Pas:

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Here is what Dr. Ten Pas said as she went through your MRI brain scans and blood work.

            You have a small benign tumor between the two halves of the brain. Not to worry, as it should not grow further as you are older. Your cerebellum looks very healthy. The rest of your brain looks good except for a bit of hardening of the arteries at the top left of the lateral ventricle (the central cavity). This has been caused by high blood pressure even though the blood pressure has been treated on and off since 1960 (mostly on since 1972). You have no autoimmune diseases and no inflammations in the brain. You do not have multiple sclerosis though this was suggested as a problem. You do have:

12.6: Occipital neuralgia

The IHS description of occipital neuralgia is the following: occipital neuralgia is a paroxysmal jabbing pain in the distribution of the greater or lesser occipital nerves, accompanied by diminished sensation or dysaesthesiae in the affected area. It is commonly associated with tenderness over the nerve concerned. Diagnostic criteria are:

A. Pain is felt in the distribution of greater or lesser occipital nerves.

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         Indeed, and a scientific explanation is preferred. This can be taken back to the mid-nineteen eighties when you had your only ‘adventure’ in a hospital under the direction of Dr. Paul Payne who was searching for a ‘multiple personality disorder’ at your request after the Indian Hill students' observations of the variety of your handwritings on the chalk board during the day of lecture. At the hospital a nurse noted that you had a glitch in the left temporal lobe on the screen, but nothing ever came from it one way or another. This was before I was consciously on the scene. Post. - Amorella

         1420 hours. Again, the original question: How does the soul exist? And the sub-question: How does the attendant enter the soul? But first, the immediate question: How did I know a Presence was in the room before the dance with the Amorella began? Today's material above shows the various channels I probably went though to note your Presence in the room, starting with the initial suspicion that someone/something is watching me.

         What about the “sixth sense” that Paul mentioned? – Amorella

         I looked up ESP on Wikipedia.

         I selected the one section that is relevant in your situation, and the only one on which you also agreed to first. - Amorella

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Extrasensory perception and hypnosis

There is a common belief that a hypnotized person is able to demonstrate ESP. Carl Sargent, a psychology major at the University of Cambridge, heard about the early claims of an hypnosis–ESP link and designed an experiment to test whether they had merit. He recruited 40 fellow college students, none of whom identified themselves as having ESP, and then divided them into one group that would be hypnotized before being tested with a pack of 25 Zener cards and a non-hypnotized control group that would be tested with the same cards. The control subjects averaged a score of 5 out of 25 right, exactly what chance would indicate. The subjects who were hypnotized did more than twice as well, averaging a score of 11.9 out of 25 right. Sargent's own interpretation of the experiment is that ESP is associated with a relaxed state of mind and a freer, more atavistic level of altered consciousness. [citation needed]

Slightly edited from Wikipedia: Extrasensory perception

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         In a further online search I found an article in Psychology Today, April, 2009:

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Visceral Fear of Harm 
Although it can occasionally seem similar to anxiety, there is one kind of nervous reaction that does not give many false alarms and that you must never doubt. I call it visceral fear of harm. It's a feeling in your muscles and in your gut that you will be physically injured. Unlike anxiety, which is based in part on your imagination, visceral fear of harm is a response to physiological cues that your brain picks up when you are close to someone who feels aggressive. This visceral feeling comes over you more abruptly and with greater intensity than mere anxiety about having a bad evening or even a dread of distress, depression, and other worries that go with conflict or emotional abuse.

Visceral fear of harm is not cognitive; you sense aggressive impulses in others before your brain can formulate thoughts about possible danger. That's why you get tense in certain situations, like seeing certain strangers, without knowing why. Women, like the females of most social animals, have a heightened sense of this early-warning system, which is why your man remains perfectly calm and might even get annoyed with your nervousness as you walk near a stranger in a darkened parking garage.

From: An Early Warning that Conflict Might Turn Dangerous

Your body senses danger better than your head.

Published by Steven Stosny in “Anger in the Age of Entitlement” in Psychology Today, April, 2009

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         Although I feared no harm in ‘sensing’ a Presence in the room it still may have been the source of connecting my unconscious awareness to consciousness. (I remember this [the above] was also a part of last night’s conversation with Kim and Paul.) Does the above material posted today answer your question Amorella? (1505)

         It will do as you sincerely feel that you have established a scientific-like, (thus to you a more credible) response for publication here. More questions; next, let’s return to the “How does the attendant enter the soul? Post. Amorella

         How does the attendant enter the soul? I have in mind the attendant is as an endosymbiotic spiritual presence. The spiritual symbiotic relationship is similar to that I used in the development of Diplomat’s AC. In other words, the spiritual attendant (at least since the time of higher consciousness in the physical world) has always existed. References below:

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Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Most other DNA present in eukaryotic organisms is found in the cell nucleus.

Edited from: Wikipedia

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The endosymbiotic [symbiosis in which one of the symbiotic organisms lives inside the other] theory concerns the mitochondria, plastids and possibly other organelles of eukaryotic cells. According to this theory, certain organelles originated as free-living bacteria that were taken inside another cell as endosymbionts. Mitochondria developed from protecobacteria and chloroplasts from cyanobacteria. . . .

Primary endosymbiosis involves the engulfment of a bacterium by another free living organism. Secondary endosymbiosis occurs when the product of primary endosymbiosis is itself engulfed and retained by another free living eukaryote. Secondary endosymbiosis has occurred several times and has given rise to extremely diverse groups of algae and other eukaryotes. Some organisms can take opportunistic advantage of a similar process, where they engulf an            alga and use the products of its photosynthesis, but once the prey item dies (or is lost) the host returns to a free-living state.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia: endosymbiotic theory

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         This will do as it is reasonable in construction. Now, the final question for this Lesson Seven: How does the soul exist? – Amorella

         The soul exists as a condensed spiritual dropping formed from a vapor of a natural decorum, a foreshadowing of light, a halo if you will, of Presence. As dignity forms into substance it communicates ‘humanity’ in the form of the spiritual thought: dignity and freedom exist even within adversity. As the attendant exists in the soul to receive the flowering heart and mind, thus protecting physical individuals with higher consciousness from spiritual death after the physical body has perished so does dignity and freedom exist with the heartansoulanmind of those beings who have evolved and developed a higher spiritual consciousness.

         This will do, thus concludes Lesson Seven. Post. - Amorella

         If there are degrees of Presence (in context) I do not know how to graduate the degrees of Presence.

         In here, boy, Presence is never more than Presence need be. - Amorella

Notes - prelim. on Lesson Seven - C (within a drip) /

         Late morning. Before breakfast you picked up Kim from Honda as she was dropping the CRV for maintenance. You took her back to the Case-Western campus and her office, home, breakfast, caring for Brennan as Carol is working about the house getting ready to leave when the cleaning ladies arrive.

         1249 hours. Just returned from a picnic lunch at Horseshoe Lake Park in Shaker Heights. I misnamed it in an earlier posting or two as Shaker Lakes Park or something similar. We split and Jennifer cookie from today and an everything cookie from yesterday as well as had ham and cheese sandwiches on wheat.

         Earlier, before you left you came up with a cluster of thoughts which I’d like you to add unmodified here. An outline, you think of how to work your way through the rest of Lesson Seven:

 1, As Mitochondrial DNA  - attendant always in the soul; 2, Sense of Touch  - hand in the air moving toward it from the couch; 3, as an egg of spirit – a dropping – as a drop in time; 4, Souls condensed from vapor as water; 5, Space –is dense or less dense – relative to substance - ‘gravity’ of souls; 6, Substance is what is worth for dignity and freedom to exist even within adversity – the seven virtues for example – Plato’s Forms

         Two hours later, boy, and you have been busy with other things. Your sister and nephew should arrive within a short time. Later, post. - Amorella

         These are just raw thoughts, Amorella. Cluster is a good one -- one right after the other out of the blue, then done. I have not really had time to look them over for any kind of consideration. 

          Nothing wrong with that, old fellow. That isn't my point for posting. - Amorella

          Then why, I could do this later after Gretchen and Jeff leave. What difference does it make?

          A drop in time, boy. just a drop in time.  - Amorella

          You are such a jokester. A leak. There must be a leak.  :-)

Notes - angry and cooking / Lesson Seven - B completed / to bed

         Mid-morning. When you turned on your iPad this morning to add your daily blood sugar result you found ‘transubstantiation’ still up your Wikipedia Off Line, and it reminded you of your readings last night. – Amorella

         It did, but I think my rebellious nature popped out. I need to shut off my thoughts Amorella It is not good for me to be so critical so quickly. I am afraid it comes with age and with not giving much of a damn about my thoughts. I can be polite, but being polite with thoughts not so easy, mainly because no one needs to know them.

         You have no idea why I brought this ‘transubstantiation’ up. – Amorella

         No, I guess not. I thought it was about my being critical of the concept because why does ‘transubstantiation’ have to stop with wine and bread becoming the blood and body of Christ? It reminded me of the spiritually romantic concept of the ‘Great Spirit’ being in everything living or otherwise. So, I thought you were calling me on it. – You have no comment, so perhaps I should erase this. – I do not have a good feeling about this.

         Why don’t you erase it then? – Amorella

         Arrogance slows me down. What else.

         Now you can post. – Amorella

         Why?

         You wrote the paragraph for the wrong reason. You were actually rather delighted with your thought when it popped in last night. – Amorella

         Okay, yes; I thought, ‘hey, that’s pretty good; I’d probably be in trouble for thinking something like this’. I know, it sounds like something I might say to a friend when I was in junior high school not as a late sixty-nine year old.

         Does it? – Amorella

         I sound like an angry and rebellious sixty-nine year old.

         Now you're cooking, boy. Post. - Amorella

        Early afternoon. You ran a couple of errands as well as had an ‘everything’ cookie from the bakery on Lee and drinks from McD’s. Brennan was quite cooperative along the way and a stop on a quiet street with brick lined two story homes right out of the late thirties one block east of Kim and Paul’s in University Heights.

         1401 hours. I covered 1, Dance; 2, Being and Non-being; as well as 3, On and Off; and 4, Full and Empty. I cannot help but think of Anaximander and logic. One can make observations and deductions, be seemingly logically correct at the time, only to later find the argument is not solid. That’s how I feel with Being and Non-being/On and Off and Full and Empty. In one of the Merlyn books it is suggested through a character (I don’t remember which) that time is as a droplet of water. Everything within the droplet appears to be flowing; time is as river water running one direction forward rather than downstream. However, as each droplet appeared to fall, the brain/mind picks up that time ‘trickles’ as it were, when it’s a continual drip. That’s the gist of the concept. I assume it is somewhere in “Pouch Text” because it sounds like something the marsupial-humanoids conjured up as an early story or myth. I was writing as fiction, but some of the ideas were plausible, or so it seemed to me at the time. As ‘editor in chief’ of Amorella’s work I insisted on plausibility as much as possible. Even in fiction such as Amorella’s it has to have an air of authenticity to it.

         Number five to mull over is “Full of Spirit, not Life”. In my mind (in context) Spirit and Life are not the same thing.

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Spirit: 1 the nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul: we seek a harmony between body and spirit.

• such a part regarded as a person's true self and as capable of surviving physical death or separation: a year after he left, his spirit is still present.

• such a part manifested as an apparition after their death; a ghost.

Life: 1 the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death: the origins of life.

• living things and their activity:

Edited from Oxford-American software

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         If a ‘person’ is full of spirit and not of life, then sheorhe is physically dead. Now, what if a person is partially full of spirit; that is sheorhe has an immortal soul. Immortal might not be the correct word here as forever appears to be an unknown as far as human can know or even imagine. It is a long, long time; that’s what some people may mean when they think or say forever. I cannot imagine being in an immortal’s vocabulary, if an immortal has the rudiments of a vocabulary as physical beings might work up over the centuries. I am often confused when I read of ‘projections’ of what an immortal would even be. This reminds me of those seventeenth century arguments on “How would one know if an Angel were in the room?” (Let alone if there were more than one. It is ridiculous.)

         When you danced with me, orndorff, you honestly and sincerely felt/feel there was a Presence in the room with you. You even capitalized Presence. How did/do you know this if it is so ridiculous? – Amorella

         This is a really good question Amorella. I wasn’t expecting this interruption. I was/am attempting to make a point.

         So I am, boy. Answer the question. – Amorella

         I will have to think on this.

         Thus the conclusion of Lesson Seven – B. We move on to Lesson Seven – C.  – Post. - Amorella

          1707 hours. I watched the DVRed two-hour presentation of “Touch,” the first season’s conclusion. I love the show and am glad it is continuing next year. – Owen and Paul just arrived, Carol is feeding Brennan and Kim should be home within fifteen minutes or so. Tomorrow the house cleaning ladies arrive between eleven and two and at two or so Gretchen and nephew Jeff arrive for a chat. Gretchen (much younger sister) and her husband Jerry are about to move from the Twinsburg area suburbs back into Cleveland proper. Jeff up from Texas is in his third year of architecture. He spent last summer in Germany studying his subject.

         As this begins Lesson Seven – C I am wondering when we get back to the original question: How does the soul exist? And the sub-question: How does the attendant enter the soul? But first, the immediate question: How did I know a Presence was in the room before the dance with the Amorella began?

         If you were going to dance how did you come to realize a Presence was in the room? – Amorella

         I don’t know. I’m going to bed. (2039)

         Post. - Amorella

Notes - not accounted for / con't Lesson Seven - B /

         Mid Sunday afternoon. You had a leisurely family breakfast at the new Bob Evans nearby on Cedar, grocery, then for you, a nap. You had an off-centered dream during your nap. What you remember is a small rectangular building on a hillside above a wide though not deep river. Once you walked to the entrance of the dark blue mosaic designed building (like an airplane hanger or large garage), you saw small groups of people, some splashing near the edge, a few talking in groups (all you noticed with bathing suits) then you walked around the building and there was a bridge, or a pier and as you walked out (you could see nothing of the other side) you looked down and saw people under the water, individuals not moving and who looked drowned. It occurred to you during the dream experience that all these people were recently dead, all had died by drowning, but they were centered at a central ‘existentialistic’ location in or near the water. You felt these people did not know they had drowned but they were in the similar cultural experience of swimming in a waterhole in a river. A flash, and the interior of the building was a Tibetan styled temple. Then you awoke. Does this sound familiar to the dream experience? – Amorella

         Your description is not exact – there were stops and starts, like an on and then off and so forth. I sensed this even though I was in the dream, it was a lucid-like dream but I was not consciously controlling it. I was outside and inside the dream at the same time. It reminds me of the difference between print and script. I observe life as a script (letters connected in a flow and flourish) but the “on/off” reminds me of a flash of life as a print letter after a print letter – there is a blank space where there is no connection.

         Once at Dr. (Paul ?) Payne’s office at the University of Cincinnati (in the mid-eighties) I told him that I saw reality (a greater sense of reality) that way – a disconnect between frames, and that at times I think of seconds as pieces, that we do the connecting, rather the brain does the connecting, but the mind can ‘see’ time is here then it isn’t, it is here, then it isn’t. This is exactly what it felt like in the Dance with Amorella. Now, this doesn’t have to be a mystical experience at all, though that is what came and comes to mind – perhaps it is a natural occurrence that we don’t normally see, thus we don’t account for it. The experience may manifest itself (for some) in a thought such as this; “I see the world for what it is just like most everyone else – but something is missing. I am not seeing reality as it really is, a piece is missing or not accounted for.”

         Post. Title this “not accounted for”. I understand your point. This early afternoon dream is reinforcement in your mind for what you just described – that even the recent Dead don’t see reality for what it is. - Amorella

         After dinner you did your exercises and thought more about Lesson Seven – B. Here is what you have presently, a homework assignment of sorts. We will continue tomorrow or when nature permits. - Amorella

         It appears ‘being and not being’ at the same time is impossible but what if the ‘being and not being’ only appears to be at the same time because the brain senses the circumstance like an on/off switch. If time were a segment as a particle but the brain resolves this as a flow of motion because, for survival, this is how the brain has to think. It is a way to arrive at point B from point A, and it is a way to find and catch food on the move. That a hypothesis, I guess.

         On and off and full and empty may be aspects of the same event. If it were possible to know when the ‘spirit’ motivates us (and only the spirit) it may be possible to measure such a spiritual energy within our humanity, that is energy from the soul as separate from heart and mind. We do measure ‘mind’ through brainpower. We say a person has heart – we know what this means and sometimes it is measured in courage and fortitude. We even say, “heart and soul” but what is soul, determination? Online dictionaries suggest heart and soul means: “the most essential” and “with complete faith” otherwise I was looking at song lyrics.

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heart: 1 the central or innermost part the heart regarded as the center of a person's thoughts and emotions, esp. love or compassion: • courage or enthusiasm 2 the central or innermost part;

soul: 1 the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal. • emotional or intellectual energy or intensity, esp. as revealed in a work of art or an artistic performance: 2 the essence or embodiment of a specified quality;

Edited from: Oxford-American dictionary software

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         The words do not have the same meaning from my perspective. Yet their use shows that many people may think they are nearly the same, examples, courage and enthusiasm. If the soul is indeed immortal that makes it immensely different than anything in known physics. That’s how I see it. The “Being – Non-being”; the “on and off” and may be manifestation of the soul, which is not human but instead an example of an ‘immortal spirit’. Heart and mind are human. I'll think more about it tonight, but it is good to get this into words in this particular context.

         Post. - Amorella


       These are just ideas, concepts and hypothesis being worked, nothing more.

Notes - a chat /

         Almost noon. You are at the Village Outlets near Aurora, Ohio and have been shopping for Docksiders shoes at Bass Outlet while the others are nearby at a variety of clothing and children’s stores.

         I cannot believe the store has copy Docksiders called “boat shoes” of all things. You buy one pair and get two pair free, so I am waiting for Carol to see what she wants as I have a pair on hold. Bass Outlet, I thought it was a place for fishing sports clothes and gear. ‘Shoes’ what I know.

         Doug sent you a note in reference to Locke who says “the self” depends on consciousness, not on substance, or the soul. You find this confusing because self (the individual) has substance. You however are working from the heartansoulanmind trinity not the soul itself. Self-awareness you have used once, correctly. This helps narrow your thinking, a good thing, orndorff. – Amorella

         I really do appreciate Doug’s help. – rho

         This will so be noted in The Rebellion and any other work in which he has helped. Funny coincidence – you, Bob and Doug have each been close to being struck by lightning; you more than once, you and Doug sitting on the front porch of his parents’ house. – Amorella

         Why do you mention this, Amorella?

         Because you were just thinking it and your thought shows something about your mind at work, about how superstitious you really are.  – Amorella

         Made naked once again.

         Liberating, huh? – Amorella

         What if I were to deny that I am superstitious, I mean if I were among the recent Dead?        

         Hypothetically, you would find your ‘Attendant’ staring out at you as a mirror and you would be in an immediate hell of your own creation. You would have to work your way out. You know this you have been there, at least hypothetically. – Amorella

         In my books everyone dead is eventually honest before an Attendant, who is there to help remember. People are responsible for putting themselves into situations and are thus responsible to account for their actions to themselves. Seems fair and just to me. - Amorella

         Since we are on the topic, what about event that happen as children but later affect the person’s life either positive or negative?

         Well worded with the ‘positive or negative’ as raising children responsibly and/or not (which is usually the case) – once the child is an adult sheorhe must take on the role of personal responsibility and follow accordingly. As for illnesses, they are of the body (including the brain). The individual learns through coaching (as I have been doing with you) to work out the situation satisfactorily. The final outcome leans positively for the individual but then the individual has to be mature enough to accept who sheorhe is, all in all – that’s part of the accountability. Satisfied, boy? Amorella

         I wish I could be a straight forward as you are and remain human. – rho

         Again, I’m glad you added “and remain human” because in a sense, from your cultural standard and in context, to wish to be like me is blasphemous. – Amorella

         This preceding statement opens a door, Amorella. - rho

         Then it is your personal responsibility to close it. – Amorella

         Dread is just beyond my fingertips.

         That’s how it works in here, my man. Let’s shut down for now. – Amorella

         Gladly, thank you, Amorella. (If the reader is between the lines and smells burnt human flesh when it is not there you are a witness to one of these personal human experiences I do not wish to repeat. Automated self-hypnosis and the power of the mind perhaps, but it can be real enough. - rho)        

         Do not erase. – Now that you are home, post.  Amorella

Notes - Lesson Seven - B: a flash and twenty / Doug G./ Carlo Rovelli / intro / subjective reality

         Mid-morning. You were awake between four and six, which presently feels like it was a day or so ago. When you were awaken by Owen this morning (short awakening as when you were giving Owen a hug he suddenly realized his small blue bowl was out of Teddy Grahams; then promptly, he and his family entourage headed back downstairs; he did say, “Bye, bye, Papa” on his way out of the room) you too realized (in the immediate silence) that reality (to you) is full of separate points.

         It is. I am coming to the conclusion that I have to include in this metaphysics my own observations in life. I want to be as objective and detached as I can be, but my reality is real within whether others can accept this or not is up to them, but to say, “orndorff, thinks it is real enough that he believes his senses down into his heartansoulanmind, then that is where he is coming from as an existential transcendentalist in his books and blogs.” This is awkward and I hope detachable.

         Take a break, old man. – Amorella

         0954 hours. Early this morning I flashed on several ideas, one after the other within seconds or a few minutes. Here they are in order: 1, Land of Substance; 2. Meaning of substance; 3, Dance (Amorella and myself); 4, Being and non-Being; 5. Enrichment; 6. Essential; 7, most Vital; 8, On and Off; 9, Full and Empty; 10, Full of Contentment; 11, Meaning; 12, Purpose; 13, Full of Spirit not Life; 14, Attendant arrives like a thought arrives; 15, Attendant arrives from an emptiness, from a hole in the heart; 16, the Oscillation of on and off allows spiritual energy to “appear” in physical reality; 17, This is how AC protects herorhimself – in the Dance; 18, The reason spiritual manifestations have an electric-like green glow, as seen within the aurora borealis; and, 19, like being struck by a thought as if it were a lightning bolt. Perhaps ten minutes later one more thought hit me: 20, Quantum Entanglement.

         See, orndorff, you did come up with something. All you need to do now is put it together and form an hypothesis with which we can work – the conclusion of which, for now, will be placed values for basic ‘thing’; nouns – such as form; substance; process/movement; and atomics. Post. - Amorella


       Last night I received a positive note from Doug who asked his own question about the soul. He gave me the boast of confidence-in-direction that I needed. What would I do without my old friends?

         1126 hours. I have been playing on the floor blanket and jungle and attending young Brennan for a bit. Presently he is lying in his swing with his ever trusty pacifier. Carol has been washing and drying her hair and is now working on clothes in the basement. Almost time for me to get a shower and get cleaned up as we are out to dinner at Five Guys and Fries tonight. Oops, lost pacifier. – turns out it is almost time for his lunch.  (1132)

         1421 hours. Back from a drive about the beautiful homes in Shaker Heights and McD’s for drinks and a Jennifer cookie each from On the Rise on Fairmont. Brennan is still asleep after his last noonish meal.

         About two hours ago you read the new Edge #369 article (conversation) on Carlo Rovelli’s “Science is Not About Certainty: A Philosophy of Physics” and feel some of the content is aprapo to our own conversation on metaphysics and the heartansoulanmind. Include the selections here:

** ** **

From: edge.org   [Rovelli’s “Science is Not About Certainty: A Philosophy of Physics]

Introduction 
by Lee Smolin 

Carlo Rovelli is a leading contributor to quantum gravity, who is also made influential proposals regarding the foundation of quantum mechanics and the nature of time. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D he did work which made him regarded as one of the three founders of the approach to quantum gravity called loop quantum gravity-the other two being Abhay Ashtekar and Lee Smolin.

**

CARLO ROVELLI is a theoretical physicist, working on quantum gravity and on foundations of spacetime physics. He is professor of physics at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France and member of the Intitut Universitaire de France. He is the author of The First Scientist: Anaximander and His Legacy; and Quantum Gravity.

** **

Selections specifically from Rovelli's article:

First, science is about constructing visions of the world, about rearranging our conceptual structure, about creating new concepts which were not there before, and even more, about changing, challenging the a-priori that we have. So it's nothing to do about the assembly of data and the way of organizing the assembly of data. It has everything to do about the way we think, and about our mental vision of the world. Science is a process in which we keep exploring ways of thinking, and changing our image of the world, our vision of the world, to find new ones that work a little bit better.

**

Science is not about certainty. Science is about finding the most reliable way of thinking, at the present level of knowledge. Science is extremely reliable; it's not certain. In fact, not only it's not certain, but it's the lack of certainty that grounds it. Scientific ideas are credible not because they are sure, but because they are the ones that have survived all the possible past critiques, and they are the most credible because they were put on the table for everybody's criticism.

The very expression 'scientifically proven' is a contradiction in terms. There is nothing that is scientifically proven. The core of science is the deep awareness that we have wrong ideas, we have prejudices. We have ingrained prejudices. In our conceptual structure for grasping reality there might be something not appropriate, something we may have to revise to understand better. So at any moment, we have a vision of reality that is effective, it's good, it's the best we have found so far. It's the most credible we have found so far, its mostly correct.

**

So summarizing, I think science is not about data; it's not about the empirical content, about our vision of the world. It's about overcoming our own ideas, and about going beyond common sense continuously. Science is a continuous challenge of common sense, and the core of science is not certainty, it's continuous uncertainty. I would even say the joy of taking what we think, being aware that in everything we think, there are probably still an enormous amount of prejudices and mistakes, and try to learn to look a little bit larger, knowing that there is always a larger point of view that we'll expect in the future.  
  

From: Edge #369 – edge.org

** ** **

         Along with friend and scientist Doug Goss’s thinking I feel confident in continuing even though the focus on heartansoulanmind is not specifically scientific. Perhaps a theory can be created; at least as far as the Merlyn books are concerned.

         You are ‘fudging’ here, orndorff, by suggesting that even if a theory could be worked up it is still “in a fiction”. – Amorella

         I am neither a philosopher nor a scientist, Amorella, and you know it. I have a tendency to get carried away when a ‘new’ concept comes up (at least new to me). Best to downplay it all while I’m ‘puttering’ through this. It is fun though, it really is. Nothing like putting the mind to work – to me it is far better than watching and enjoying entertainment in the real world – nuts and bolts stuff even if there are no nuts and bolts.

         Take a break, boy, as it is exactly mid-day from your perspective. Post. - Amorella

        Mid-afternoon. You are beginning work on your morning “flashes” and after you listed them vertically I suggest that you begin with: 1, the Dance with Amorella; 2, Being and non-Being; On and Off; 4, Full and Empty; 5, Full of Spirit not Life; 6, Oscillation of On and Off in Manifested Spiritual Energy; and 7, Quantum Entanglement. – Amorella

         Thank you for your advice, Amorella. You are correct; I can see how these seven flow together before tackling the others. What an initial help. - rho

         These seven will do for Lesson 7 – B. We will work on the others tomorrow (as nature permits) for Lesson 7 – C. - Amorella

         Paul arrived home and mentioned that when Kim brings Owen home you will go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries early since it is Friday night. He went up for a short nap and you are watching Brennan who was recently fed. 

         You have been working on an opening paragraph, which should be added now and posted, as Kim may roll in any time. Also, I note your sudden anxiety that someone might lift this material as herorhis own as this is new stuff, at least to you. Let me assure you, boy, that this is not going to happen, primarily because you have enough witnesses to show this is your work (with perhaps some scientific/moral advice and/or guidance by your friend John Douglas Goss). Though something is shared it does not mean; it is not owned by both of us though it is legally under your ownership. – Amorella

         It just popped up, Amorella. I did not expect your comment, but thank you, your comments relieve anxiety. The world is full of all kinds of people who will do things for all kinds of reasons. It is silly of me in that all this is related to series of fictions, but I am not so trusting – lived too long, seen and heard too much. – rho

         Here is your opening paragraph at present:

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         Reality is primarily what I have consciously observed and felt first hand. My observations are soberly witnessed, selected life events are not completely objective, but they are firsthand, and from my perspective, empirical evidence demonstrating that the basic humanity of our species (and perhaps other highly conscious oriented species) is synthesized in spiritual trinity that I call the “heartansoulanmind”.

** **

         Post. - Amorella

         On 4 February 2011, “Notes – A Remembrance of the Mystical” I described one of the most important selected events in my life because my perspective was changed to the point where I began to realize I was a “transcendentalist” by unique personal experience. Otherwise, I had no explanation for the spiritual-like experience. (I was then and now an agnostic. This is not a contradiction.)

***

4 February 11 – Notes – A Remembrance of the Mystical

        “ Doug sent you an email, an article on Near Death Experience and the ‘mystic’ sense of being at one with everything. You told him you did not think you felt that experience, and from in here you have not. Your mystical experiences are based on a oneness with me, orndorff. Funny, huh? – Amorella

         I believe it because my sense of the mystical is being separate (yet somehow feeling connected with a mystical being). I don’t know when I felt it the most.

         When we danced, orndorff, when you thought I was an Angel of G---D or G---D.

         The thought at the time (in 1988) was deeply felt and I suddenly surmised I was out of ‘space’ and ‘time’ and ‘did not exist in a body’, yet I had a body nevertheless and I got up from the couch in the finished basement (about eleven at night) and I put my right hand somewhat high in the air (though the bi-level we lived in on Majken Place in Mason had a low ceiling) I danced a little jig for a short period; the music I danced to was “Hava Nagela” or something similar, something Jewish. This was a surprising sense of being nothing and yet still being. I was dancing within an invisible Angel. That is the only thing that came to mind. I have, at times, wondered on this subjective experience (though somewhat objective experience to me also). I ‘caught’ a sense of what it would be to be dead, to exist without a body. That is what the experience was in my heartansoulanmind at those moments. That is the most mystical experience I have ever had and it rolls between some of the lines in the Merlyn books. I know this. It was an authentic experience no matter how it was induced. This was not the same as an hypnotic experience because I was within something else, I was surrounded by an angelic-like being. 

             I wondered afterwards if it were G---D, then I thought that would be blasphemous to think on, so I dropped the sense of the being down to ‘an Angel of G---D’. Today, I have, in all these years, downgraded it into something I can understand and have some intellectual identity with, you, Amorella. I do not say this with the intent of disrespect as I do not know what you are or if you are ‘real’ in the sense of the physical universe as we understand it presently. One can never know these experiences for sure (that is to what the experience actually was). I never lost my ability to doubt. I was allowed to remain comfortable in that sense. I still had a sense of Free Will because of it, I never lost my humanity, (I never had a sense of a presence of Evil because I was allowed my Free Will), I never became One with the universe or anything similar. I appreciated that at the time and still do. I gained from the experience even if it was self-invented. People can think what they want. I don’t care. This is how I remember it. – rho

         Indeed, it is. Post, orndorff. – Amorella.”

Passage selected from Blog Posting: 4 February 2011 – “Notes – A Remembrance of the Mystical”.

***

         Today I can read this and better realize the experience was set and induced within my cultural framework and background. I never had an experience like this before or since. This shows me the human mind is extremely powerful, just as Dr. Payne suggest during the times I was hypnotized in his office at the University of Cincinnati in the mid-nineteen eighties.

         During the singular mystical experience I sensed I existed and did not exist at the same time. I ‘understood’ this is a possibility because I experienced it to the point it was real enough to be accepted as real from my heartansoulanmind according to Amorella.

         I concur. It was real enough for Richard to feel completely honest about the event’s (subjective) reality. – Amorella. (For what it is worth, the event is real from my perspective. Richard did indeed dance for several seconds, moving in a tight circle from left to right while holding his right hand above his head as I held his right hand.)

         I do not remember the direction but I did have my hand above my head and it was a tight circle. The dance lasted several seconds. I felt I was surrounded by a Presence, a spiritual Being, an Angel as I could think of no other being but G---D being Present. Yet, I still had doubt, but not enough not to dance. I existed and did not exist yet even while not existing I existed. The experience showed me that it may indeed be possible to survive physical death. My mind was expanded. I was an agnostic but could never again ever think or say I was an atheist (which I had said from time to time before this experience).

         Post. All for tonight. We will continue tomorrow. – Amorella

         I really don’t know what I am getting myself into here but I cannot deny my memory on the above. No one has to believe me. I don’t care if a person does or doesn’t. Anyone who has felt such an experience, if sheorhe is honest, cannot deny it as at least a subjective human experience. Was the experience “reality”? How real are you?  I am real enough to feel I am mostly imagination, especially after that particular experience. - rho