Group think

Muse takes another break, though musing continues, along with reading, walking, foraging and some engagement with other humans and canines ...

Meanwhile Autumn seems to have arrived in Stanhope, though well before the equinox, even a little before the calendar definition ... mushrooms and blackberries in abundance ... heatwave of summer a dim memory as sunshine and showers set up hot topic in the village as to weather for Stanhope Show Weekend ... last weekend's Wolsingham Show saw a brief return of summer Sun, though the event is too big and busy for your blogger, whose simplified mind resists return to previous levels of complexity ...

Lynne McTaggart's Power of Eight intrigues, with its references to the power of intention, specifically when amplified by a group and notably effective in healing intenders focusing on the needs of others rather than themselves ... lots to digest, not all brand new ... Emoto's well known work on water, for example ... a group tuning in to effect significant change for individuals, war zones and so on resonates with Thich Nhat Hanh's proposal that a community tuning in to higher frequencies may become a superorganism in an evolutionary leap for mankind ... which leads tangentially to a fruitless search for a book by the Zen master in order to ensure correct spelling of his tricky name ... an ommission to be addressed, since his writing is very clear and insightful and Zen Buddhism, along with Taoism, key elements in the library here ...

Social media is full of Thay of course, well it is when tailored for such content ... Tao and Zen FB page, for example ... though FB, the main platform for Social Media, or S&M as it often appears, is edited broadly enough to allow a range of perspectives and FB itself imagines certain paid posts which may be of interest ... as for other platforms, Google plies personalised feed with football, though interest in it is fleeting these days ... Twitter has never been embraced, though many tweets turn up on FB and other "news" sources of course ...

Local FB groups offer opportunity to engage emotionally ... petty thefts, misbehaviour, uncollected dog poo and so on ... perpetrators labelled "low life", "scum" and other unpleasant words ... virtual lynch mobs reinforce otherness ... while national and international polarised political positions pose plausible scenarios for our participation ... some beyond belief and suggesting creative script writers at work ... as observed before ... whether group think at lynch mob level takes us off into hell realms is an interesting question along with its relation: if a community tuning in to higher frequencies may become a superorganism, might a community tuning in to lower frequencies also become one, albeit on a different evolutionary branch ....? Lynne McTaggart's work suggests group think operates virtually equally well as in physical proximity ... her non-local field coming into play ...

As you may observe, dear reader, a simplified mind has lots of time and space to explore unusual topics ...

Meanwhile, afternoon bus ride to Wolsinham to buy the best bread in the world, a seeded sourdough created by Alex, artisan baker of Rise, a man on a mission, liberated from retailing, not his strong point, by persuading local cafes to stock his wares ... a wander back along the valley to liberate some tasty apples from a tree growing by the railway with fruit hanging by the footpath through the farmer's field ...

In other reading matter, Terence Stamp offers some fascinating information in his memoir ... including a terse comment from his occasional mentor, Krishnamurti, who, upon hearing of Stamp's flirtation with gurus in India: "it is not to be found in supermarkets" ... "it" being the Truth, That which is not to be described, Tao or whatever ... the gurus guru, he taught not to follow gurus, but to work it out for ourselves ... and held the infamous Osho in special disregard ... his view of non-dual master Nisardagatta is not noted, the N's view of K, who he never met in person, is intriguing "we are in the same ancient condition" ... questions of direct transmission linger along with reflections that being in the presence of spiritual masters leaves a mark ... those who knew K, though not necessarily exhibiting enlightenment, are dedicated to his teaching and his memory, or their memory of him ... of course those who met him and were not impressed don't show up at Brockwood, so who knows? Personal experience is limited to being in a theatre with 1,800 others and the Dalai Lama on the stage, a moving, magical event ...