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Progressive Thinkers as of 12/1/2022
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While some may say they would like to return to the past (via a time machine) in order to hear the old languages, this is not the case when they have to smell the stench of body odor and body waste, along with the smells of butchered animals, rotten teeth, ignorance, widespread superstition, fear and multiple other issues that some today take for granted and may think that today's humanity is civilized, and yet may be the very things which keep in the future from traveling back in time to. We of today can not see the widespread ignorance, impoverishment, disease, war, unintelligibility of languages, backwardness of Medicine, Numerology of Mathematics, Alchemy of Science and depth of Academic insanity which actually exits. It is astonishing how many do not hear the level of ignorance and utter irrationality being portrayed in popular songs, just as much as we of today might describe ancient songs if they had been recorded as they were sung with or without some musical accompaniment. While some may have established a sentimentally romanticized perspective of some former age, the reality of such... if they could experience it first hand, would quickly slap them in the face and tell them to wake up from their illusions, if not delusions. Heaven forbid anyone getting trapped in an age in which they could not speak or even interpret the standard verbal language, much less acquire the "language" (proficiency) of some needed skill such as making a stone axe, obsidian knife or even campfire, much less how to hunt without a gun or fish without a pole and readily available fish bait. And let us not get into making shoes, gloves, how to skin an animal, or choose which plants are edible. We of today take many things for granted, and by so doing, overlook the ridiculous nonsense and irrationality all about us that would keep anyone in the future from traveling back to... no matter how wonderful some people of today think it is.
When we have a situation in which all the previous languages of all the previous gods have fallen by the wayside, let us propose that by changing the language one changes humanity's disposition to its gods... all by way of an elaborate system of rationalization. And speaking of a change in languages, let us look at the history of verbal language(s) and suggest, that because we might want to also conjecture that the right hemisphere of humanity (with its tonal and artistic inclinations) was most dominant; thereby the first type of language to plant a flag for widespread usage was a tonal one such as is today described by the Chinese language. Whether we call the right hemisphere a big brother or big sister and the left hemisphere the little brother or sister, does not change the meaning unless we want to include an indulgence in thinking that an overlooked characteristic of the hemispheres can be one or the other gender. Then again, if we include the limbic system with the notion of a reptilian mind or brain or brain portion, we have the possibility of describing a male, female and neuter (or is that neutered?) distinction. However, regardless of playing around with the idea of hemispheric attributes, let us say that the right hemisphere was dominant (just as cerebral blood flow is indicated in infants), and that the left hemisphere came afterwards. If we then look at the brain as a miniature globe or Earth, the right brain hemisphere would be the East and the left brain hemisphere would be the West. The right hemisphere (with its affinity for tonality) can be aligned with a Chinese superiority having developed first (attached to a tonal language), which was followed by the development of the left hemisphere (with its affinity for pitch) assigned to the West aligned with its Indo-European languages out of which came the Industrial, Mathematical and Scientific Revolutions.
Let me provide a personal example that I will describe as showing up instantaneously in mind that another might claim to be a revelation, because they are primed to interpret their impressions in such a manner; while still others may describe it as a Eureka! moment, or a light-bulb-over-the-head occasion, or as another "crazy thought or goofy idea" (if only because those to whom one is sharing with are not particularly intelligent enough to grasp what is actually taking place). In any respect, depending on how a person wants to describe an incremental (or over-whelming) change in conscious which the unprepared might well interpret to mean they are losing their mind... but since it happens so frequently with others they simply define it in terms of creativity because they are probably already involved in repeated exercises of creative expression.
Those who are "experienced" (with incremental, inter-mediate, or abrupt alterations in consciousness development) may become distracted for a while, but the inexperienced may become faced with a change in consciousness that is personally traumatic— for which they are not adequately prepared either to define nor incorporate into some exercised project (craft, job, writing, mathematics, sport, etc...) that is already being undertaken where the words "creativity" or "talent" or "gifted" or even "knack" or "aptitude" are not commonalities of self-speech (thoughts), conversations with others, personal readings, etc.; such people may well become "disturbed" and seek to nullify or mollify the effects of their perceptions in self-destructive ways or seek help through a professional counselor or "shrink"... that is if they don't seek to indulge in some good or bad self-help technique. In short, I do not interpret the following impression in a "Revelatory" (religious) way, though I must admit that it seemingly came out of nowhere; which might apply to multiple people who might openly confess that some or many of their ideas are pieced together in the quiet corners of our mind before making a debut in the lime light of a candle lit room which provides the necessary ambiance for indulging in a bit of creativity such as writing a New Age story of Frankenstein, the poem of the Raven, for painting the Mona lisa, for constructing a Model T, or a Wright flyer, or germ theory, etc...
The view came to mind (unexpectedly through the voice of a character in a poem I have been writing), concerning a developing consciousness that the character was being cryptic about. The character in the poem said that all religions and Eastern philosophies are either ground level or basement achievements of a sought-after higher consciousness made by those who have experienced a subterranean type of darkness in their lives, be it because of illiteracy, enslavement, impoverishment, abuse, denigration, indenture servitude, exploitation, etc... While the character in the poem did not give all these examples, they were imagined to be implied and easily understood as acceptable representations. The poem also describes the character telling the others (3 women 1 man) that they must find a steeple within themselves which referenced it as a metaphor for the presence of an evolving consciousness that they must reach before ascending beyond the concepts of Heaven, Energy and all other present day concepts which are linked to the "ground floor or basement" points of entry in their attempts to reach a higher consciousness. (The idea about a "steeple in oneself" was not a reference to the present day religious notion of a person's body being a temple.) While the characters in the story didn't understand, I sure did. (HA!) They must seek the point of their consciousness where they are ready to move beyond it. The concepts of Heaven, Nirvana, ascendancy into becoming a "pure energy" entity, and all other such nonsense views, are all ground level entry points for beginning one's journey; that is beyond their present grasp... but they must want to reach for such a state of being in order to go beyond. Ceremonialized language can trip you up or be a useful ladder, but neither should be adopted as a pedestal that must be worshipped and provided offering for. This is little more than exploitation. (And let me ask, what language isn't ceremonialized even on a personal usage basis? The idea of Ceremonial shouldn't automatically be interpreted as an institution-only exercise, since the typical exchanges among friends can be ceremonialized by repetition of topics, just at one's own "thought-language" can be ceremonialized by its repetition or 'looping'.)
It should be noted that a person who becomes aware of changes in consciousness (though not necessarily described as such), may experience it as an (natural brain chemical) "endorphin rush" that becomes coupled to a particular activity (those termed either creative or criminal). Others however, may experience the high but don't realize it was generated by being engaged in a given task such as a momentary excursion into building a tree house, working in a garden, painting a room, decorating a cake, doing needle work, working on a car or equation or reading a book, etc... While one or more particular activities may create the increase in endorphins (and to each their own sensitivity as to how much is needed to create a "rush" or meandering flow); a person may be of a mindset or live under such conditions which makes it difficult for them to discover what is needed, and thus seeks out an artificial substitute.
Endorphin: any of a group of opiate proteins with pain-relieving properties that are found naturally in the brain. The main substances identified as endorphins include the enkephalins, beta-endorphin, and dynorphin, which were discovered in the 1970s by Roger Guillemin and other researchers. Endorphins are distributed in characteristic patterns throughout the nervous system, with beta-endorphin found almost entirely in the pituitary gland.
Endorphins have been found to be clearly involved in the regulation of pain; even the analgesic effects of acupuncture treatments may be attributable to them. Such substances are also believed to have some relation to appetite control, the release of sex hormones through the pituitary, and the adverse effects of shock. There is strong evidence that endorphins are connected with "pleasure centres" in the brain. Knowledge about the behaviour of the endorphins and their receptors in the brain has implications for the treatment of opiate addictions and chronic pain disorders. ("endorphin." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
In returning to the topic of Language as initially begun in the first paragraph, let us assume that humanity is being subject to one or more visually observable voices... or if you prefer, language or languages; in contrast to the idea of auditory perceptions of one or another voice which many people experience but take them in stride as just a sound-alike quality and does not have any actual meaning such as a god, demon or familiar person speaking. (I was thinking in terms of contrasting visual languages to auditory-specific kinds of voices... then again, the idea of voices or languages may yet be another form of anthropomorphism readily used in the present age just like the voices of the gods said to have been present in ancient Greece. All of which suggests what we are witnessing is changes in consciousness "speaking" to us on the one hand... in the view of auditory voices and on the other... the view of visual voices... and any other metaphor of perception you would like to entertain as an exercise in expanding one's consciousness through an openness of mind which does not involve some sort of drug one becomes enslaved to and exploited by. While some readers may think I'm on drugs for suggesting such, perhaps it's because I am not on drugs nor drink (alcohol) nor religion (or Eastern philosophy) nor love nor greed, nor coffee, nor killing animals, sports, television, etc., which enables me to hear a different language of the "cosmos" that is not being diluted by the various acceptable inebriations of society.)
The latter point about "hearing voices" was developed into a theory by Julian Jaynes called "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind." I also mention it to take into consideration the use of aural (auditory) mantras (like A-U-M: OM) used as a meditation chant but might also be suggested by rhythmic rocking movements used by parents on infants and by children who rock themselves to sleep ("sleep" as a state of ecstasy or "enlightenment" being reached). Yet, we might include dancing, ritual (exercise) walking, etc... (notice the word "hum" at the end of the following first paragraph. We could read the expression as Many "om" pat me on the back to hum... of course I'm just making it up for fun.) It is surprising how many people encounter the symbol of Om and yet overlook the point about the "3".
Mantra: in Hinduism and Buddhism, a sacred utterance (syllable, word, or verse) that is considered to possess mystical or spiritual efficacy. Various mantras are either spoken aloud or merely sounded internally in one's thoughts, and they are either repeated continuously for some time or just sounded once. Most mantras are without any apparent verbal meaning, but they are thought to have a profound underlying significance and are in effect distillations of spiritual wisdom. Thus, repetition of or meditation on a particular mantra can induce a trancelike state in the participant and can lead him to a higher level of spiritual awareness. Besides bringing spiritual enlightenment, different kinds of mantras are used to work other psychic or spiritual purposes, such as protecting oneself from evil psychic powers. One of the most powerful and widely used mantras in Hinduism is the sacred syllable om. The principal mantra in Buddhism is om mini padme hum.
In the following playful exercise, I took the last few words of the foregoing and subjected them to a makeshift English language interpretation, as if I came upon some Old- or Middle- English expression that I tried to make sense of. Similarly, one might view coming upon the Morse code for the first time a very strange language. Imagine a culture which used only dots and dashes or either of these singularly, as a means of everyday communication!:
- om (Could be interpreted to mean "I'm", though as "AUM" is linked with A-men which is linked to Amon-Ra and linked to the prayer ending remark: "Amen" voiced as "Au-men or Ah"-men... Ah-mon)
- Mardi (could be interpreted to mean "many" or even the name manny or mandee or man die)
- padme (could be interpreted as pat myself on the back, or pardon me, or write me down)
- hum (could be interpreted as a suggestion to hum or meditate on or as an abbreviation for the word "human")
Notice the expression "om mini padme hum" contains all the vowels except for "y" and that in the case of consonants we find 4 m's, 2 n's, 1 p, 1 d and 1 h. The m's and n's rhyme, the p and d rhyme, but the h stands alone. Thus there are 3 groupings. If we were to indulge in the application of a Numerological sense of consideration applied to the alphabet, thereby creating the notion of an "alphabetology" instead of "numerology", the next inclination would be to think in terms of being subjected to a hidden mysterious code. I offer the suggestion not as an emphasis nor personal interest, but as an example of a frame of mind I am aware of but am not indulging in, so that some reader will not accuse me of implying nor participating in such a digression characteristic of antiquated presumptions akin to an old arithmetical functioning of consciousness of playing with numbers and letters as a serious vocation of unraveling little more than an obsessive-compulsive indulgence akin to someone using intellectualization as a defense mechanism.
(Different languages exhibit their own distortions of the "messages" being received from the "Cosmos" or "Heaven" or "Supreme Entity" (however you want to describe it with whatever language (verbal/symbolic) you are most comfortable with. It should be noted that we humans have used other languages to interpret the meanings found in yet other languages. If Nature is providing us with a type of Rosetta Stone, Behistun rock formation or Galle inscription, what if the languages (we think we see) on such items are not all that helpful in deciphering the message left to us by Nature?)
In terms of a symbolic language once heavily used as an interpreted message to humanity, let me not fail to describe the use of "signs" such as in divination... though businesses, governments and religions of today have gone to great lengths to exploit this commodity such as in the use of multiple street signs, "war"-ning signs, signs of the cross, mathematical signs, witchcraft signs (also a specialized vernacular for casting spells), disease signs, business signs, etc., many of which are now labeled as "symbols", "icons", "advertisements", "billboard messages", etc...
Let us take a look at an example of Old English writing so that the reader might note the difficulty those of the present might have in understanding what is being said. Notice the symbol (called a Tironian) that looks like the number "7" but without a quantitative appellation! Hence, as a symbol alone it might well be used by some today as their so-called "favorite number" which might more accurately described as their "favorite symbol" or "favorite doodle", and they are not even aware of it! Interestingly, a symbol (called the Yogh) looks very much like the number "3" was also used in Old and Middle English. I found a single use of the "3" in the same non-quantitatively used manner in a short article found in the Webster's ninth new Collegiate dictionary which is shown as the second image:
Mantras continue to be an important feature of Hindu religious rites and domestic ceremonies. Initiation into many Hindu sects involves the whispering of a secret mantra into the ear of the initiate by the guru (spiritual teacher). Indeed, mantras are thought to be truly efficacious only when they are received verbally from one's guru or other spiritual preceptor. ("mantra." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.)
(OM) in Hinduism and other religions chiefly of India, a sacred syllable that is considered to be the greatest of all the mantras, or sacred formulas. The syllable Om is composed of the three sounds a-u-m (in Sanskrit, the vowels a and u coalesce to become o), which represent several important triads:
Thus Om mystically embodies the essence of the entire universe. It is uttered at the beginning and end of Hindu prayers, chants, and meditation and is freely used in Buddhist and Jain ritual also. From the 6th century, the written symbol designating the sound is used to mark the beginning of a text in a manuscript or an inscription. The syllable is discussed in a number of the Upanishads, which are the texts of philosophical speculation, and it forms the entire subject matter of one, the Mandukya Upanishad. (H.O.B.: All the 3s into 1 reference). It is used in the practice of Yoga and is related to techniques of auditory meditation. In the Puranas the syllable is put to sectarian use; thus the Shaivites mark the lingam, or sign of Shiva, with the symbol for Om, whereas the Vaishnavites identify the three sounds as referring to a trinity composed of Vishnu, his wife Shri, and the worshiper. ("Om." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.) |
Let us make note of a pattern-of-three "expression" that was said to be part of a ritualized "conversation" between worshipper and that worshiped in Ancient Greece which we might reference as three "Ps" (Prayer- Piety- Plea); ("Greek religion." Encyclopædia Britannica, 2013.):
- Prayers normally began with compliments to the deity,
- Followed by discreet references to the petitioner's Piety,
- And ended with his special Plea.
Anthropomorphism is the interpretation of nonhuman things or events in terms of human characteristics, as when one senses malice in a computer or hears human voices in the wind. Derived from the Greek anthropos ("human") and morphe ("form"), the term was first used to refer to the attribution of human physical or mental features to deities. By the mid-19th century, however, it had acquired the second, broader meaning of a phenomenon occurring not only in religion but in all areas of human thought and action, including daily life, the arts, and even sciences. Anthropomorphism may occur consciously or unconsciously. Most scholars since the time of the English philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626) have agreed that the tendency to anthropomorphize hinders the understanding of the world, but it is deep-seated and persistent.
People in all cultures have attributed human characteristics to deities, often including jealousy, pride, and love. Even deities with an animal form, or with no physical form at all, are thought to understand prayer and other symbolic communication. The earliest known commentator on anthropomorphism, the Greek poet and religious thinker Xenophanes (c. 560–c. 478 BCE), criticized the tendency to conceive of the gods in human terms, and later theologians have sought to reduce anthropomorphism in religion. Most contemporary theologians, however, concede that anthropomorphism cannot be eliminated without eliminating religion itself, because objects of religious devotion must have features to which humans can relate. For example, language, widely considered a human characteristic, must also be present in deities if humans are to pray to them.
Nonreligious anthropomorphism also appears worldwide. People throughout history have reported seeing human features in landforms, clouds, and trees. Artists everywhere have depicted natural phenomena such as the Sun and Moon as having faces and gender. In literature and graphic art, such depiction often is called personification, especially when the subject is an abstraction, such as Death or Liberty. Anthropomorphism in science is widely criticized but not uncommon. For example, the discoverers of the pulsar first mistook its regular radio signals for messages from space, and Charles Darwin (1809–82), the English naturalist who devised the theory of evolution, described Nature as constantly seeking to improve her creatures.
- Traditional explanations of why people anthropomorphize may be divided into two sorts. One view, held by the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711–76) among others, is that it is done for an intellectual reason: in order to explain an unfamiliar and mysterious world by using the model that humans know best, namely themselves. This account has merit, but it fails to explain why humans anthropomorphize familiar objects, such as pets and household utensils, or why humans spontaneously see faces in random patterns.
- The second explanation, given by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and others, is that people anthropomorphize for an emotional reason: to make a hostile or indifferent world seem more familiar and therefore less threatening. This also has merit, but it fails to explain why people anthropomorphize in ways that frighten them, as when they hear a door slammed by the wind and think it is an intruder.
- A third and more general explanation is that anthropomorphism results from the uncertainty of perception and from the practical need to discern humans, human messages, and human traces in a chronically ambiguous world. Because every sensation may have any of various causes, perception (and with it cognition) is an interpretation and thus a choice among possibilities.
As the historian and psychologist of art Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) put it, perception is betting. Those bets that potentially yield the most important information are the most valuable, and the most important information usually concerns other humans. Thus, humans are predisposed to perceive shapes, sounds, and other things and events in terms of human form or action, both in unconscious thought and in the conscious thought to which it gives rise.
Abstraction and pattern recognition, including analogy and metaphor, are fundamental to much of human thought. They enable humans to perceive (among other things) elements of human form or behaviour even where humans do not see the whole, as when they see the image of the "man in the Moon." What humans see is also shaped by context, including culture, so that, for example, people in some parts of the world see a "woman in the Moon" instead.
When an interpretation of something as human or human-like is replaced by an interpretation of it as nonhuman, the earlier interpretation can be understood as anthropomorphism. For example, humans may first see a threatening figure in an alley but later realize that the "figure" is a garbage can. Under any of the three explanations discussed above, anthropomorphism can be described as a category of interpretations retrospectively seen as mistaken. (Article by: Stewart E. Guthrie, Professor of Anthropology, Fordham University. Author of Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion and others. ("anthropomorphism." Encyclopædia Britannica.)
In the first paragraph the last reads: it is deep-seated and persistent. Yet, so are the use of certain numbers. Do we explain both of these recurrences as types of a proposed "cognitive language" instead of with the label described by Carl Jung as "Archetypes"? Some consider that archetypes are a language. But in as much as the topic could be directed along a research corridor of psychology, I prefer to contour it with respect to the presence of enumerations, many of which have to created from an underlying application directed towards the intention for cultivating the presence of a numerical identification which may be concealed by the morass of multiple ideological layerings from one era to one culture to the next. But this requires looking into the past not only of human history, but of developmental biology, developmental mathematics, developmental physics, developmental philosophy, and so forth into all the ideological venues humanity has pursued, sometimes using numbers specifically, at other times using direct or indirect word substitutes and yet at other moments using entire ideas to reference a particular quantity; most of which exhibit a low number value such as the "one" god, or "one" Universe. In some cases the one is stretched into two such as the notion that humanity was at one time an hermaphroditic creature but split and became two separate but soul-connected beings, (hence one might think of the term "soul-mate").
Let me also note: We must ask why such an inclination persists, just like the usage of numbers and other "artefacts" of cognitive antiquity. We do not have an adequate explanation of whence it began, why it began, was it at first an isolated phenomena, is it increasing, decreasing, or at the same level of activity? And also, does this indicate the human brain/cognition is not advancing in terms of the human collectivity as might be expected for an advancing evolutionary trend... or is that which nudges, pulls, or pushes evolution to be expressed in the cognitive dimension not active and will never again be active? The typical reply is a three-patterned slogan: "We Don't Know".
Some ideas such as the commonly known duality of Heaven/Hell, at some period took on a third, middle partner known as Purgatory. But what such theorists don't tell you that there exists a parallel with this ideological development and that which occurred much earlier on the biological level with respect to Germ layers. It is noted world-wide that less complex life forms (called Diploblasts) arise from two Germ layers called the Endoderm and Ectoderm, while the more complex life forms (which includes humans) grow from three Germ layers called the Ectoderm- Mesoderm- Endoderm, and more formally named the Triploblasts. Please note the former two took on a partner that has been placed in the middle which can give the impression it developed 2nd in terms of biological development, but it actually came third. Hence, let us not overlook the fact that in some cases the mind of humans can play musical chairs with concepts and align them according to some relevancy they have in mind during a particular era and culture; of which we should note that different disciplines of study are themselves a culture, very often exhibiting a vocabulary and associated language, idioms, vernacular, jargon, etc., with specific culture-aligned trappings of dress, manner, thinking, association membership and ideological bent.
The idea of a more primitive life form (like a more primitive language) has come to the minds of several people. In biological development, we might assign the term "Monoploblasts", though I admit I made this up since it is not a term I have come across in any reference on biology. But the word has some referential merit seeing as how we find the term "Monad" being used in philosophy along with dyad and triad sequence of ideas... with triad sometimes being replaced with a term such as Multiplicity or Plurality, which I interpret to mean a word such as "Many" or much, or heap, or plenty, etc... In any event, the idea of single-layered life form might well be illustrated by the simplest of animals called the sponge. Whereas some researchers would disagree, the point is that we do not always have a readily available example to fill in a gap for a presumed sequential event. As in Anthropology, we may neve find a suitable specimen to be defined as the "missing link" and are left with a script that is some ways indistinct or missing a piece. Such is the case (so far) for identifying a "Mother tongue" for all languages or even each separate language group. In short, some part of a sequence may be missing and may or may not be found.
Another example from biology is the case for the basic macromolecules called RNA and DNA. At present, it is thought by many that RNA preceded DNA in development (by way of a theory denoted as the "RNA World Hypothesis"), which would go well with the idea of a numerical sequencing since RNA is single-stranded and DNA is double-stranded, but there is not a stable triple-stranded molecule that is thought to have succeeded DNA. If RNA had been termed with the three initials ONA to go along with DNA and a considered TNA, the "ODT" symbols could be used to designate the number One- Double- Triple. To make the "R" work, we have to engage in some mental gymnastics by saying the "R" stands for "root" which is similar to the idea of proto... even though in each case a researcher may want to go further back in time and view the precursor event which marked the exact moment when the development of the first began.
Date of (series) Origination: Monday, 21st November 2022... 6:00 AM
Date of Initial Posting (this page): 9th January 2023... 11:22 AM AST (Arizona Standard Time); Marana, AZ.