Expanding horizons ...

Film night turned up, as if by accident on YouTube, a platform offering almost infinite content, 1984; a cheerful romp through a distinctly dystopian view from George Orwell, whose other offerings included a Homage to Catalonia, where he  witnessed reds of various hues tear themselves apart, epitomized by the heroically doomed International Brigades, fighting a proxy war beside the democratically elected Goverment of Spain, as the rather conservative General Franco mustered his troops in Morocco, a colony shared with France, and invaded the mainland in defiance of the people's mandate, supported by the Roman Catholic establishment, though by no means not all parish priests ... carnage ensued as Hitler and Mussolini sent arms and air force support (who can ever forget the bombing of Guernica and the painting immortalising the horror by Pablo Picasso? ... certainly this old blogger still felt the dark energy there quite recently, the local council holding events to lift the spell) ... the Soviet Union dabbled, the UK obstructed the local reds for fear of home grown socialism ... Franco won, Spain suffered under the yoke, declared neutrality in WW2 along with Portugal, where spies from every side found Lisbon a congenial venue ...

All of which context helps to fill out Eric Blair, or Orwell as he named himself, as a person with a personal frame, thereby influencing his views of the world ... the worlds he created to explain the world as known to other humans in this time in history as his books preached socialism in Down and Out in London and Paris; aversion to Stalin's robust approach to socialism in one country in Animal Farm; culminating in his final book, just before he died in 1950, predicting Big Brother winding up the masses with threats of rival empires attacking Oceania, with HQ in London and no hope at all of a home grown Resistance, employing the inherent common sense and compassion, overthrowing tyranny ... Blair was born in India during the glorious days of Empire, educated at Eton and Oxford, a bleeding heart liberal you might say, and died a pessimist, depressed by his experience ... his immortality ensured by the grim future for his world, 1984, as viewed 30 odd years before ... (scholars of the life of Orwell please fill out the picture)

Now, as is known, the Future, inasmuch as Time appears to exist, is uncertain and contingent on decisions made in the eternal present moment ... probabilities may be inferred by mystics based on what appeared to come before as described in history of different kinds and scales, including climate warming, huge and growing financial inequality ... and burgeoning interest in the combination of serious science and non-duality, with fraud always factored in on both sides, since the human love of money and sex sometimes transcends the simpler, deeper Truths of Universal Love ...

All this conjecture is in the context of the books of Philipp Blom, wonderful historian; Carlos Rovelli, brilliant quantum gravity theoretician, pointed to by brother-out-law, a scientist- mystic himself, Steve T ...and other books and films offering a landing place for insight ...

Meanwhile, high on the Fell this morning, with Sun shining, hills dressed in white, with an eclectic cast of humans and canines chancing to meet as if by accident, magic happened ... though if you prefer to frame synchronicity as coincidence, feel free to limit your view !

Next up, Brave New World as seen by another old Etonian, Aldous Huxley ... this dystopic novel, by the way, was not his last by any means ... Island, a Utopia described lovingly by Aldous towards his end, was never as popular as the bad news ... which tells us quite a lot about the News and some aspects of human nature ...

Frameless freedom ...

After yesterday's meander around various frames of reference, ways of seeing limited by the frame, enlarging the frame, choosing to frame a particular tiny part of the Whole to focus upon to serve a particular power paradigm to the exclusion of other views and all that nonsense, perhaps it's time to confess that this old blogger having framed the world in Marxism, Buddhism and other isms, is ready to cast aside the frames and explore the frameless ... or to use a more helpful word or words, remove the security of form and risk the formless ...

Unpacking this discourse a little, with examples: Let's say the Marxist-Leninist Party once followed in London, led by intellectuals insisting on atheism, given working class credentials by entryists whose parents had worked hard to rise up the ladder only to be slightly disappointed by their errant second son, third child of four, declaring his mission to smash capitalism through revolution, becoming a bus driver then Trade Union local leader en route to overthrowing the State ... led to a deluded frame of a world divided by them and us ... them being the nasty capitalists and us the heroic and very small Party (Trots, Revisionists, Labour Party reformists and other ists being excluded from the frame, except as cannon fodder) ... incidentally there were some cracks inherent in the frame such as lack of a sense of humour and the obvious philosophical contradictions viz the insistence on atheism in a scientific world view (agnosticism would work) plus the futility of espousing violence in search for  world peace (like fornicating for virginity) ...

Anyway, that was then, this is now, the frame grew bigger, with the good bits of Marx incorporated and Buddhism included ... mainly due to Philosophy and Psychology plus magic but not organised Religion ... another error causing all sorts of problems in this world, though opening up the potential for other worlds ... which was and is liberating ...

Frames, meanwhile, offer fellowship, an important part of being human, though in the end, though not ultimately; form itself blocks clear seeing and is discarded, to see if freedom may fly without preconceptions, scaffolding, fellowship and all those safe support systems ... accepting solitude cheerfully the price to pay ... and solitude, of course, is known to release the suffering caused by ego ... not that ego is not needed to continue engaging with the humans, it is ... just that beyond ego we all may be more than human, not less ...

Clear enough?!

Meanwhile, this morning's walk unearthed a new dog and its human, a young woman staying in the property recently acquired by her family. .. the capacious house restored to serve for large groups, indeed APtB was first to hire it several years ago ... her life plans include a wish to shift from London permanently and create some kind of Retreat somewhere near here, maybe the Lake District or maybe ... let's see!

Relax, allow it to unfold, embrace magic ... hmm

Reframing ...

This morning's snow in Weirdale is not quite sure whether to appear as lovely frozen crystals or slush. .. a crucial difference, not least because the powdery snow is a drier form of water, or H2O to be chemically precise ... how 2 molecules of Hydrogen plus one of Oxygen manages to appear so different depending on temperature is well beyond comprehension here, and remember in summer it even may evaporate and float away to become a cloud ... only to condense later here and there as rain, a liquid, or ice, a solid ...

And since water is ubiquitous, it seems a shame some clever chemist has yet to make an engine powered by water ... how hard can it be to mimic the Sun and release the 2 molecules of Hydrogen and send the Oxygen out of the exhaust pipe?

Naturally, such pseudo-scientific musings are not entertained high on the Fell,  where beautiful snow falls thick and fast, not wishing to be rain today ... that's the limits of science in the mind of this old blogger more interested in the magic of solitude, creating the first human footsteps on the snow, though birds and small mammals came before ...

Before all the snowy fun, a trip around the internet, and an amazing discovery from the World Economic Forum, following the Blue Book released last year with videos from Klaus and friends, since it's Davos time again ... on Zoom! Interestingly your fair-minded blogger's attempt to share the news about the ambitious plan is blocked by FB, due to "a problem", still not resolved, though indicative of censorship from the monopolist big tech corps, mostly algorithmically. .. free speech obviously a problem during this crisis ... anyway the clips are there on YouTube as the Great and Good line up to hail the Leader of the New World Order, unelected of course, but Vlad is pledging allegiance too and his democratic credentials are dubious to say the least!

The Pandemic is taken as an accidental event, precipitating the acceleration of measures long planned ... any discussion on the deliberate launching of Sars Cov 2 and ensuing variants, not to mention lying Governments, lying scientists, lying media ... allegedly ... still, the Fear is established and the antidote offers relief, whether through live trials of vaccines or softer regimes to roll out who knows what? Though many details have been published, if you wish to see what's in store.

All quiet back on the street, energised by snowy adventure ... evidence of increase in home deliveries ... a great solution to the covid thing ... except for those delivering, of course ...

Philipp Blom's the latest writer inspiring your blogger, with his wonderful prose and insightful observations of modern history ... after Nature's Mutiny, it's time to investigate the fourteen years before the War To End All Wars ... as they later said ... though still we have wars ... why?

As it happens Klaus has an answer to the problem and if enough of us trust him he could have a chance to try ... that's up to you dear reader(s), but this sceptical old blogger smells a rat ... let's see!

Weird Worlds ...

Yesterday's blog went off early, exploring Infinite Worlds in theory ... soon after the customary dawn walk was enriched by the company of a neighbour's golden retriever, an energetic and friendly dog, always on the lookout for a human ... we wandered through the village, meeting other dogs, sniffing them and making friends, while the humans discussed their dogs, the way they do, giving rise to a new word adapting the mission of the canines from catalyst to dogalyst, describing perfectly how they serve us ... in return the human is allowed to provide shelter, food, exercise and love, whilst forking out for vet's bills and even picking up their warm poo in bags sometimes, but not always ... actually the canine friend keeps us sane, indeed more than one psychologist has advised obtaining one to help heal a broken mind ... meanwhile the good natured retriever is often employed as a guide dog for the blind, and if they themselves lose sight perhaps could flip the roles and become blind dogs for the Guides? Though these days boys and girls unite as Scouts it seems ...

Anyway, after a longish wander, we met two dogs with a stranger on the Fell, and strangers need attention, of course ... in this case, by some coincidence, the human turned out to be an erudite Professor, with many degrees, including Law, Philosophy, Ethics and related subjects ... the dog decided a longer walk was acceptable, so the deeper questions explored this morning in the blog and many blogs before, were checked in conversation with the Professor, adding to the story being told, correcting some errors and understanding better that even the best qualified academics may be limited by a lack of experiential learning, scholarship notwithstanding, not to mention over-specialisation ... in this case focusing on Western Philosophy without comparing the Ancient Greeks and Romans with the rich teachings from the East ... let's face it, without the Buddha and Lao, Wear and Dao wouldn't even have a title !

Now, if such coincidental encounters only happened infrequently, they could logically be consigned to the box marked "another interesting exception", but to this old blogger's admittedly weird way of thinking too many coincidences constitute synchronicity and once such weirdness is welcomed in, synchronicity becomes the norm, though sceptics rightly point out that a balanced mind might allow coincidence and synchronicity to coexist ... introducing another radical concept, enriched by the Professor, that humans don't have to accept binary traps ... if not this, then its opposite, that must pertain ... leaving Sophists an open goal to muddy the waters, to mix a metaphor ... well explained in the story of venal reporters, bent on trapping reflective targets, demanding a simple yes or no response, with false opposites the only choice, the serious opponent, maybe offering a nuanced reply, bullied by the interviewer with instructions to destroy the case of the opponent: Yes or No! Answer the question! ... Editors, of course are close by to cut out any context, and there you go ... propaganda every day from the once respected BBC ... no wonder the people are confused ...

Previous serendipitous encounters on the Fell, by the way, include a well qualified virologist, convinced the highly infectious but not especially lethal flu, was made in Wuhan, boxed up and delivered around the world ... how else could the same strain simultaneously spread so widely? ...and variants the same, to scare the world into necessary compliance, for the enrichment of Big Pharma and their shareholders and the worthy aim of seriously addressing a warming planet, the effects of which are predictable but unknown, meteorology being complex ...

And countless other encounters to enrich, educate, inform and entertain one old bloke, with his own unique worlds, often touching the worlds of others, but subtly different ... the key perhaps not being right or wrong, the merits of ethics notwithstanding, but discerning illusion from delusion, and ascertaining experientially a Reality without brain pain or suffering ... combine that with a sincere aim to harm no others and the recipe may suffice to offer a contented Life and peaceful Death, ongoing Consciouness proving valid or not at the end clearly inconsequential ...

Time for breakfast, a shorter walk and a drive over the Fells, before the exciting prospect of walking in heavy snow tomorrow!

How many is infinite anyway?

Leaving aside Davids Bohm and Peat for now, a few words about Hugh Everett the third are required, since it was he who inspired this question of Infinite Worlds, by sitting up all night with a friend drinking alcoholic beverages, determined to write the elusive equation to unify the fields and make his name, not to mention win his PhD ...

For context, Hugh's story is told as a tragedy, even though he was awarded his Doctor status ... clinically depressed, he married and sired two children, one boy, one girl, a perfect pairing in the USA at the time ... two was plenty, food was plentiful, Mum could stay home while Hugh pursued his interest in the deepest questions as might be revealed through mathematics, specifically Algebra or Al Gebra as it may have been known since it was Arabs who developed it when Christians had descended into the Dark Ages, Popes and Priests suppressing Science by force, torture and so on ... daring to enlist the Seers and Scientists of Greek and Roman Antiquity to support the notion of the Earth revolving round the Sun, instead of vice versa, was known to attract a Bonfire ... not just of books but also authors, burnt for their beliefs ... which is not nice, to say the least!

Basically Everett was a distant father, not geographically but emotionally ... a high functioning alcoholic also, which killed him in the end they say ... his son, an artist, survived him, his daughter killed herself and left a note: I wish to be reunited with my Dad, in a parallel universe ... which is beyond sad. Clearly, the sub-text read: A universe where Dad loves his little girl ... let's pray she found it ...

The equation unifying the fields, by the way, required Infinite Parallel Worlds,  an idea so outlandish his supervisor, Wheeler, suggested substituting Infinite with Many ... though Bohr and the Copenhagen Crew, holding sway in those days when the quantum world promised great results without such nonsense, rejected all of it ... Hugh licked his wounds, joined the Pentagon, helped prove that any First Strike with nuclear bombs assured mutual destruction, thus staving off the crazies on each side and saving the Earth ... a worthwhile outcome indeed! Mad presidents, by the way, were given big red buttons marked "Do Not Press!", which obviously did not work, since any parent knows such a button in front of most boys is irresistible ...

To be clear, Infinite does not mean lots, many, very many or any number at all ... which solves the Measurement Problem in one small symbol, not found on this limited keyboard  ... think a number eight on its side, a never ending loop ... obviously a problem for proper scientists, limited as they tend to be by the need to measure everything ...

Bohm and Peat, like many other scientists through the ages, dared to explore  the Right brain zone, where humans are unlimited, the possibilty of delusion notwithstanding ... accepting the risk of scorn from the Left brain dominant measurers who took over the asylum long ago, dismissing Infinity along with its temporal twin, Eternity, which rather compounds the problem ... though Space Time was long ago proposed by Einstein as a dimension of reality allowing him to demonstrate Relativity, with algebraic accuracy, still generally accepted ... as current theorists discuss String Theory, with more than four dimensions, Multiverses, even Everett's amended Many Worlds Theory, still out there in the realm of serious science ...

Mystics of many kinds have long expressed the timeless wisdom that Science, currently plagued by a new religion called Scientism, may catch up eventually ... Plato's Cave, for example clearly points to our tendency to create a false reality by mistaking our own shadows for the reality outside the cave ... and, by the Way, this old blogger does not add a creator big G God to confuse us further. .. as explored over the pages of the virtual reality world in Wear and Dao ...

NB as always: corrections from experts in the field of quantum mechanics welcome!

Infinite Worlds ...

Today's post belongs in science fiction ... file it there, relax, enjoy the ride, it's not the destination after all, we know where that ends up, at least we think we do, tied as we are to body-mind, identifying with this flesh, blood, bones, gristle and brain ... a categorical error in some philosophical systems, but not all ...

Have you lost your mind? ... some readers ask ... possibly comes the reply, it depends how you're defining mind ... to play with words we might Capitalise Mind to infer the incredible notion of Universal Mind, spoken about in religious circles, or the small m mind, whether small-minded or not, it's ours to use to explore the world we see ... narcissists, for example really struggle to see their world as important at all without them in a leading role ... descending into current politics we might infer Johnson and Trump as fitting examples, but essentially we all have the potential for solipcism. .. which particular Sun we revolve around is semantics or Pedantics, if that is a word ... and if it wasn't it is now, since language must evolve to better describe what on Earth is going on!

Recapping briefly:
Language is how we see our world ...
Language of any kind entails thought ...
Thought is limited ... and so on ...

Human beings are curious, having moved beyond the moment to moment curiosity of other species to wondering about deeper questions: What is good? Why does the Sun rise in the sky, move across it and fall off the edge only to rise next day more or less at the same side as before?
Why has another human being got more than me? Food, sex, stuff and so on, and how can I be the one round here running the show, tribe or whatever we call our group? What about that other group, over there, are they sharing or competing?
And, who's in charge ultimately? After all, there are things beyond our comprehension ... shall we name the great creator, the one who knows everything, sees everything, controls everything, even that tricky question about the movement of that ball of heat and light across the sky? Looking around, we find it's mostly men appearing to be in charge, in daylight anyway. At night, in moonlight, the seductive power of woman often drives the man crazy, whilst next day she calmly nurtures the group, allowing the men to imagine they're in charge again! Therefore, it follows logically that the invisible creator is male and to save time explaining we'll call him god ... or to indicate respect let's call Him God ... and if images are required to reinforce the point, though forbidden in some cultures or cults, why not present him as an elderly white bloke with long white hair and flowing robes?

Skipping on through timeless time, timeless systems trying to explain and constrain, using thought, albeit limited, to describe what we see or think we see ... we often find ourselves agreeing to see our world, more or less, as the same ... minor variations permitted depending on the latest orthodoxy, but a shared view, a consensus reality, enforced by the powerful, keen to hold on to their privileges and the less powerful often falling in line for the sake of security, peer pressure keeping the show on the road, for a while at least ...

Until Nature itself, or to posit Nature in opposition to the imaginary God, Herself, mutinies against the heresy: That human beings are separate from Her and put in charge by Him, to desecrate the Earth, then explore other planets to colonise and so on ... storied here, as regular reader(s) may recall, as the essence of the mythical Garden of Eden ...
Nature's Mutiny, by the Way, refers to the latest addition to the Library ... a thrilling romp through history, specifically with reference to the paradigm shifting Little Ice Age of the Middle Ages and the current meteorological paradigm shifting Heat Age, whether human caused or otherwise is not that relevant, but human behaviour, carrying on with conspicuous consumption, a special kind of madness where ordinary folk think they can buy immortality, peace of mind, love romantic or universal with money, the love of which is well known as the root of evil ... it's bad enough when it's just the new gods, the billionaires who are so sick, but these boomers?

Anyway, enough of politics, the Sun is shining in Stanhope, the current delusion in the self-created world of your blogger intact for now and inevitably shifting into other worlds, aligned somehow with other fragments from illusory Time to Time, in illusory Space in the fantastic Infinite World described mathematically by Hugh Everett the third around your bloggers birthday, but in the USA, at a Time when clever men were building Nuclear Bombs and testing them on other humans, destroying whole cities, twice ... nice work and painless for the pilots and crew ...

... to be continued, but not forever ...

Gaslighting in different ways ...

Mind control may be characterised as good or bad or neutral, depending on perspective ... depending also on our definitions of Mind, control, and the two words together in a phrase ... if this sounds like semantics, it is, and recognising the power of words casts light on reality ... since the worlds we create reflect the stories we tell and the languages we employ in which to tell them ...

Examining the topic more closely, with reference to the word gaslighting, we see this word itself is composed of two words, and since gas as a source of light and heat is not ubiquitous, the word as such is unknown in many places ... the technique, however, is and was employed as a source of power of humans over other humans at every scale ... and for a positive perspective we may say the dim light of the false reality of Fear may be brightened not only to move whole populations from the Fear created in one huge panic engendered by design by well-meaning governments working in concert through international organisations, to shock complacent subjects into changing the behaviours they deemed unhelpful for the Planet, labouring under the existential threats of Climate Chaos, over-population, gross inequality, extreme poverty alongside obscene wealth ... in a contemporary context of Artificial Intelligence offering huge benefits for humanity ... alongside huge dangers for the human species co-opted not to serve each other but the ever smarter Machines ...

The question of which group of humans may most benefit from this Great Reset, from a post-capitalist decaying system to a New World Order, a new normal, with Common Purpose,  building back better, with far smaller populations, is worth examining, since history as recorded in this era of patriarchical power, points to the Powers that Be tending to hang on to what they have, supported by their hangers on in Authorities at every level ... the masses of the great unwashed, as usual, soap and water and other useful hygienic items notwithstanding, as usual left doing the necessary work to keep the show on the road for the benefit of the others ... and since automation removes the burden of lots of jobs, fewer workers are therefore required ...

So, at family scale, tyrants turn the gaslight down imperceptibly, to maintain control and create a dim reality for the chosen victims ... spouses, children and so on ... cults play the same game and on up the levels whole cultures are hypnotised by ancient techniques in modern forms ... smartphones perhaps, always pinging, televisions always offering false narratives, you get the picture? Only vaguely aware the machines you are watching are also watching you! Paranoia? Maybe, but as is known, just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean there may not be good reasons to Stay Aware ... to coin a phrase, possibly one of the very few things the current, soon to be replaced, Dear Leader (UK Branch) was given by his expert Behavioural Insights Team to utter, as a prelude to the non-sequiturs that didn't follow ... hmm

All this speculation is best parked under science fiction for now, or a hypothesis in need of evidence perhaps, so please relax, try to enjoy the story if you can ... the next phase may seem a little brighter, some freedoms kindly re-instated ... try to be grateful for small mercies and if you want to skip some stages, at any level of Man's inhumanity to Man (and to be pedantic for a particular reason, Woman), Liberation is at hand, beyond the Fear ... but that's philosophy ...

Balancing ...

As plots unfold on local, regional, national, international, maybe cosmic stages, today's offering examines ways to find escapes from the awful divide and rule game, setting families and friends at each other's throats, each defending their opinion as if their very existence depended on it ... leaving the timeless teaching of Compassion languishing ...

Why?

Well, why's the three letter word of philosophy, in English at least ... and that asks the deeper questions ... how and who follow why in the hierarchy, though many clever humans neglect the why, since how has served them well enough, and who is them these days, that is to say, solipcism runs wild and its balancing insight, the fundamental falsehood of a self separate from the whole, which is liberation, available to all the fragments in time ... let's leave the tricky philosophical issue of Time for now ... and say, perhaps, Past is known and recorded in History and Herstory, mostly by power players, but not always, Future is contingent on probabilities and shaped by choices made Now ... giving each fragment as individual or cooperating group immense power ... expressed, as reader(s) may know, by Tolle in The Power of Now ...

The well known Buddhist sage, HHDL, after decades of investigation into the nature of reality with scientists and in meditation, offers a beautifully simple teaching in two words: Be Kind ... and for world weary cynics a rider: If you can't be kind just yet, at least don't be cruel ... which brings us round or across the spiral to the simplicity of the teaching of Gautama, the historical Buddha from 2500 years ago, more or less: The 4 Noble Truths ... 1. There is suffering in the world; 2. There are the causes; 3. Escape is at hand; 4. These are the Ways ... naturally, like all reductions, it takes a while to examine each noble truth, whilst constantly paying attention to our own psychology, since the world we see reflects not so much what is as who we are ... which is tricky! Still, we try ...

So, how to be kind in our own sphere of influence? Let's call that where we are now to start shall we? Given that the Crisis is a reality, in the minds of humans at least, do we really need to fall out with friends on such questions as: Is it good to wear a mask? Is it good to seek a vaccine? An ethical view might leave each person free to make their own decision and leave the others to do the same. Being right is far less important than being kind, after all. The need to be right might be called the ego at work, whilst the right to make our own mistakes and love one another is a higher teaching.

Having established the holier than thou position, it's time to prepare for a wander over the fell and through the village, practicing being kind, smiling with the eyes and finding ways to agree, not slavishly but compassionately, the main aim currently being to help lift the Fear, which blocks clear seeing and is not the opposite of Love, which has no opposite, but Hope ... a topic for another day!

Spiralling ...

As far as symbols go, Spirals show, or rather point towards, some deeper Truth ... employing the verb in the title, rather than the noun, indicating the problem and limitation of symbols themselves, along with words ... as often said: The word is not the thing described ... and still we act as if it is ...

Anyway, spiralling in two dimensions suggests the macrocosm and the microcosm equivalence, at least to this old blogger, and how conceptually we may leap across at any point to create another reality, beyond space and time ... a multi-dimensional spiral might be more accurate, though tricky to create ... mind boggles at this point, which is considered creative here, since a mind that is not prepared to boggle may be stuck in old stories ... taking us to the inspiration for today, the latest addition to the Library: Science, Order, and Creativity by Bohm and Peat ... both trained in scientific method, specifically physics ... regular reader(s) may recall David Bohm in dialogue with the World Teacher (as announced by the Theosophists at least), Krishnamurti J, a prophet with much to say about deeper reality. .. their common ground beginning with "The Observer is the Observed" ...

Frankly, your blogger is more comfortable with the mystics, being untrained in science, though Bohm and Peat were not just experts in the Quantum field, but mystics in their own right ... and since our psychology plays into the game of Consciousness, Bohm's modesty and vulnerability was more appealing than K's more acerbic, aristocratic demeanour. .. well, we all have our favourite gurus, don't we? Except the Gurus who know everything, of course ... the dangerous ones!

Bohm and Peat's contention is that playfulness is an essential part of creativity ... as seen in a child immersed in games with friends or alone ... the child encouraged to explore the worlds of their imagination is seen as free to create ... until that dreadful day arrives when formal so-called education arrives, to train the infant to forget all they found and learn instead what's needed in the local culture, trained and tested for retention of the information, marked against a template, allocated scores to determine their roles in a crazy world, where Love, being immeasurable, counts for nothing ... except in words in religious studies ... if this sounds harsh, remember this writer was briefly an official teacher, though not for long, enlisting instead in the world of Adventure Playgrounds, frequented often by truants with their own psychological issues and determined to challenge everything and everybody, including your poor idealistic young radical, with much to learn ... exciting times indeed!

This morning's walk high on the Fell was blissful ... yesterday's heavy snow having settled, this morning's sky clear and cold, producing landscapes like nights full of sparkling stars, but pure white ... scientists could explain it in meteorological terms, but who wants to know that? As with Rainbows, Sunrises and Sets, clouds and all of that heavenly magic, science rather spoils the bliss
... correct but not required today, thank you!

More books are on the way, exploring the wonderful worlds of Reality in different ways, through other lenses, in other timescales ... and when all the books, films, music, maths and their interpreters are silent, what's left? Peace of Mind? Find that at every step, by calming the only fragment you, dear reader(s) have to deploy, and you're on the Way ... sometimes called the Dao!

Avatars enter the game ...

The Information War hots up, as bots deploy their avatars, strangely similar to friends on FB and other Silicon Valley corporations, paid well by Plutocrats to subvert the opposition to their plan to make the world a better place ... for themselves, their friends and servants and the Planet as a whole ... though not Whole in philosophical terms of course!

Remember when some friend asked you to be a friend again? Could be a bot at work.
And always bear in mind that Common Purpose infiltrated deeply into Authorities of any kind, appearing now in key roles to help us plebs behave ... all perfectly plausible as far as stories go ... though this contented old blogger has no need to be right or liked ... that's not his business.

In many ways it seems unfair, to stay calm and carry on, equanimity unaffected, whether or not good friends and respected acquaintances agree or disagree ... once "me" is seen to be an illusion, then for that illusion to suffer would be missing the point completely ... none of which stops the fragment being kind, since kindness is a Universal quality of the Whole ... it's tricky to explain in words and yet again let's not forget the mantra: The word is not the thing described, the menu is not the meal and the map is not the territory. ..

In the village the story unfolds much like everywhere, though scale makes things easier. ..perhaps it's cities themselves which are part of the problem, with pollution, congestion, isolation and alienation exacerbated ... widening the view of human settlement patterns over long periods of time trends are observed as the species evolve through various forms albeit our true understanding of how we thought at any given period limited by artefacts such as the written word ... who was writing the stories, why, on whose behalf and so on ... basically how can we ever know how free born homo sapiens sapiens surrendered their autonomy and why? Security? Sure, we seem to share that trait with other mammals, who organise themselves in family groups, and family groups cooperate and compete, the urge to procreate balanced by the evolving instinct to spread the genes more broadly, usually, but not uniquely within the species ... fossil records offer some evidence on these things, though not how mammals or early humans thought ...

Where to start with these questions? Can we even know how current mammals think, domesticated or living wild? Of course we clever humans have a word for our tendency to project our thoughts onto the other mammals, anthropomorphism ... a long word for a cow, munching grass and kindly allowing humans to share her milk, to learn ... and can the human sharing the milk understand the versions of "moo" emanating from the cow? Maybe by listening to the tone and mood of the cow? Important to understand to avoid the cow kicking the bucket over or kicking the human! Cows have horns too, don't forget that ... if you really upset them you're in trouble ...

All this speculation is a long way from the artificial intelligence we live with now. It seems a whole new species has appeared on the scene ... evolved from the minds of homo sapiens though not necessarily wise ... that's something else entirely ... some say "too clever for our own good" whatever that means ... but some smart versions of human seem to have let loose an intelligence without a soul, becoming smarter by the minute as long predicted, bringing amazing progress to the world along with existential risk of making slaves of the humans they were developed to serve. A bit like a communist revolution but on its head ... anyway, the reds always said that capitalism was wage slavery ... Marx and Engels analysed events to prove that Capitalism was doomed to be replaced by a kinder more equal land, starting with the most advanced nations ... of course the opportunity for the revolution arose in a less suitable place, Russia, a feudal state, sick of war and ripe to revolt against it ... still Lenin and his determined band pressed on regardless, leading to consequences far from the idyll predicted by the founders ...

An update on the old theory has appeared on the scene: Capital by a French economist, Pikkety, offering an analysis of the stagnant capitalism now become corporatism and ripe for change as corporate entities wield monopoly power, whilst nation states and groups of them struggle to regulate the insane greed ... leading to demented Plutocrats imagining ever smarter robots will obey the orders of the humans, with shrivelled souls or more compassionate ones ...

This science fiction version is offered today just in case such conspiracy theories turn out true ... you never know! As for philosophy, the critical flaw in Marx and Engels' work was to imagine violence could ever lead to peace - it can't ... which takes us to the deeper Truth, that beyond all the subjects and objects of the Human mind, is Love ... that's Universal by the way, not Earth bound or limited by thought. .. how the Avatars proceed remains to be seen ... so maybe the best we homo sapiens sapiens (more or less) can do, right now is relax, have fun, help our friends and neighbours where we can without interfering, and try not to fall out with others over differences of opinion ...

Well, that's my opinion anyway, and I'm sticking to it ...

Time for Pikkety, before a snowy walk into the village ...

Wisdom of the Elders ...

Time to engage more closely with the community.
The Wisdom of the Elders was an occasional article offered to another Community Newspaper, and enthusiastically accepted by the editor. A follow up email  questioning the ethics of publishing paid for content masquerading as honest news and views from the Community, met with silence.

The rival Weardale News set up with a more ethical stance, and far more contemporary form, moving away from print to virtual, clearly the future, with regular edited pdf versions available for readers happy to print them off for tech refuseniks ... cost effective and sustainable, though still depending on honest, ethical volunteers or paid staff to ensure freedom of the press ... a principle sacrificed currently, along with community gatherings in pubs, libraries for information, human contact in general. .. newspapers and television are still allowed however ... whether to inform us of the truth or to convince us of government lies, who knows?  Government guidance is so confusing, the current regime so deceitful, the coming coalition mostly unknown, that turning off the telly and avoiding your favoured paper seems the wisest course ... alternative sources of news are available once we dig a little, if only to broaden our perspective ...

All this political stuff concerns some friends, questioning why your contented old blogger, comfortably confined in a Retreat Centre complete with Library, free to wander the fells for exercise and occasional meditation, chooses to engage at all ... surely everything is working out perfectly as is taught they say ... which is true at one level, but somehow it seems to play the games of humans in this critical time is vital ... though, rest assured dear reader(s), equanimity is never far away and playing the game artfully, compassionately, avoiding all the divide and rule, gives purpose somehow ...

Whether employing previous journalistic skills turns out well or not, who knows? In the world of humans, past is known as history, present is happening now, and future is contingent ... unknown until Consciouness adds its choice of which probability emerges ... quantum mechanics still an interest, though lack of scientific acumen meaning properly trained scientists are required ... though even they don't agree on what's going on in the weird and wonderful world of sub-atomic particles, or is that waves?

Meanwhile Dawn arrives earlier and this morning is forecast clear after yesterday's cloud and warmth ... mmm Sun and colder again, but dry ... weather another topic for newspapers to lie about!

But is it real?

A full day of nothing planned, though an early start enables plenty of time to do nothing and see what arises once Consciouness and Potential combine, without preconceptions ... or as few as possible anyway!

A brief adventure around the current medium for information, FB, replete with various shades of truth, itself always relative in this mundane world (if that's not tautological), is fun when not taken too seriously, trying to undermine the awful divide and rule game driving Fear by design, as the robots, following Moore's Law, get smaller and smarter every day, nanotechnology enables introduction of computers into bloodstreams inserted in vaccines made in China, Wuhan to be precise ... and smart humans guide the lesser mortals to embrace the injection, promised not the chance to become super-human in alliance with the robots, but relief from the dreadful Fear created by ... who? Or whom? Or WHO as conspiracy theorists theorise. .. that includes your blogger in the game, he always said conspiracy theories were often only conspiracies awaiting proof, as any student of history or herstory can tell you ...

Anyway, that's enough of all that for now ... introspection suggests this world crisis is only temporary, another test for humans on the fascinating multi-layered journey in our minds or Mind, if we allow the concept of Universal Mind to replace the illusion of the fragmented small self ... where it all ends up and why may be unknowable ... just rest assured dear reader(s) that this current cast of charlatans and the coming cast as well, are very far from reality ... like A Midsummer Night's Dream, or the Wizard of Oz ... dreams within dreams within dreams, ad infinitum ... you'd have to be mad to take that seriously!

Nearly time for breakfast and a snowy walk before Dawn or shortly after anyway. Somehow it seems churlish to skip the Sunrise, especially when the sky is clear ... this Sun may no longer be the centre of the Universe, but it still thrills this Earth bound old blogger stuck here, playing games with human beings also stuck here ... we might as well have fun for now and maybe, as the very wise fellow earthling HHDL teaches "Be Kind", that's enough, and if your psychology currently prevents it, at least don't be a total arse. .. that won't help anybody, especially you ...

Well, there's your blog for today folks ... I hope you like it ... if so, just click 'like' or better still "love", after all the ego depends on it for its survival ... and where would we be without our ego?
Answers on a "comment" please and do try to be kind, though radical kindness infers adherence to Truth, whatever that is, so honesty is more valuable than flattery ... and bullshit best avoided!

Pennies dropping ...

Life gets weirder every day, as this crisis plays out ... the Play's the Thing, never forget that, so play on ... keep it light even when this Play's a tragedy ... it's also a Comedy of Errors with ludicrous characters hypnotising the audience, themselves also Players ... it's complex ...

Winter offers some snowy beauty, though without the months of deep deep drifts of former years recalled by elders in the Dale. A trip to Newcastle to see the younger daughter and walk in Jesmond Dene, offers several mini-dramas, aided ably by the daughter, in her thirties now and full of compassion, humour and excellent listening skills ... her evident youth in relation to her father, draws younger women in their twenties into conversation ... remember, engaging strangers is a common method of creating magical tales ... some say saying hello to any passing stranger in city parks is unusual, but the daughter is used to it by now and seems to enjoy the game ...

First up for some fun is Jade, unfazed by the old fool and his willing accomplice, as introductions are made, names established, brief histories told, a photo taken to cement the new friendship, and a poignant revelation from 20 something year old Jade, now giggling delightfully as the centre of this story, that the Martial Law has not been easy for her, isolated in her home ... alone, but still sane ... just missing company, the warmth of human compassion ... job done, we move on to other victims ... Sarah, 30, and later Joanna, 20 something ... both happy to be the centre of these small scenes for a while ... who knows what impact they may have? Suffice to say, the young women were not left traumatised, as far as we could see at least ... on the contrary we all felt uplifted by the sweet story, designed to replace any lingering Fear with Love ... the daughter played her part beautifully, though none of it was scripted ... to be honest both she and her elder sister inspire their old Dad with their compassion as they lead their different lives ... the lives they chose and will choose for many years after their Dad is dead, hopefully ... maybe when they are 70 they'll sit around the fire and reminisce about our times together ... who knows? The thought is rather close to solipcism, a major error it seems!

In summary, since Dawn is arriving earlier each day and won't wait, the Crisis Game, with Crisis Actors as well as us, all round the World ... assuming for now that our world, if defined as Planet Earth, is round, or spherical at least ... here's the latest information, not from corrupt so-called experts or their ridiculous so-called masters (politicians in a post-capitalist economic system serve the plutocracy not the truth and certainly not the people) but from more reliable sources, always subject to scrutiny:

It's 2021, time for Local Agenda 21, long planned. It sounds fine, but let's see how the word Local is defined. If it means regional or sub-regional, then stay alert. We've seen them in action already and they tend to pretend to be local, as in community, but really like to tell us what to do ... a kind of neo-colonial approach.

Shock and Awe is nearly over, just waiting for a few more pennies to drop regarding Johnson and his gang of neo-fascists, as they insult our intelligence with ridiculous tiers and bubbles, so-called deadly dangerous diseases, actually lethal mainly to the vulnerable, who themselves were offered no choice about how to spend the time remaining.

A Government of National Unity looks favourite to be next. Starmer well qualified and supine to join others to roll out devolved power to lower level scoundrels, not necessarily for our benefit, but theirs, and, of course, the plutocrats lurking in the shadows ...

Meanwhile, in higher realms, beyond divide and rule, planets realign, the Age of Aquarius finally arrives (if you're into that stuff) and a New Earth, without War or violence, or poverty, is born.
Whether or not as an option as humanity temporarily divides evolutionarily into parralel worlds, one smart and allied to the even smarter robots, the other living simply, kindly, trusting each other, employing robots as servants but not vice versa ... let's see!

There may well be other choices, but this old blogger picks freedom, simplicity, patience and compassion please ... and looks forward to meeting more mysterious strangers, to educate and inspire me ... maybe a post about two dark skinned strangers greeted on the hill near Stanhope recently, befriended and invited to share tea and information. The younger one an expert in virology and apparently not corrupted ... I don't know science, but my instincts are well honed ...

Time for breakfast, before heading out to test the ice and lingering snow ... tricky and beautiful in the car yesterday, safer on foot, crashing slowly is often safer after all ...

Snow in January ...

Well, it's a busy life being retired, energised by having nothing to do but read, write, think, not think, walk, talk, walk some more ... and for sitting meditators, please note, this one prefers to walk and maybe not try to meditate but be open to the possibility that meditation may happen spontaneously, which is nice ...

As for walking, the snow really opens up the mind, and since it's snowing hard outside, the legs are already twitching, raring to go for an hour or three ...

But first, some mundane issues ... like the pandemic crisis, fuelled by devious media ... this War is not as dangerous as the previous ones, ostensibly ... bloodshed and carnage are not seen, though those wars do continue, as they have for ages ... being a peaceful warrior doesn't lead to torture, or hasn't so far ... so, the game is played with subtler weapons, reading to stay alert and informed to stay ahead of corrupt experts, ironically dubbed Sage, plus AI assisted social media, getting smarter by the minute, using algorithms to twist our words, borrow our identities to confuse our friends and allies and so on ...

Leaping briefly from the mundane to the supra- mundane enables equanimity to retain perspective and confidence in the victory to come, since Love always wins ... and weirdly, Allies appear almost daily, in the Dale and virtually... a risky business but risk is essential ...

Multinational corporations, entities accorded human rights but devoid of Soul, are also devoid of regulation, and take full advantage of their power ... for example, Amazon Prime, a clear scam which traps the unwary in direct debits hidden from your bank account, stolen every month ... fyi your poor national bank has teams of human beings solving your issue, though reluctant to call a scam by its name i.e. a fraud, for fear of litigation ... other corporations are in the same game, so stay alert and ask your bank for details of all direct debits hiding off your statement but popping up there monthly, annually or whenever. ... small amounts multiplied make fortunes for the thieves ...

By the way, the blog you're reading sits freely on a platform owned by another multinational and who knows? the small print may well stop the blogger from calling a fraud a fraud ... let's see?

The game goes on, new allies await to reinforce the troops ... it's still not clear who's our Leader, maybe all of us, but it's certainly an opportunity to test our mettle, maybe an examination in the great cycle of Life School ? Surely, some revision will be required at every stage ... onwards and upwards! The fells await, covered in snow and when the Sun shines on it that's the closest to Heaven for me, this time ... in the mind at least ...