Archive for category Thirsty Thursday

Journey back in time to the days of the Tocobaga, native peoples of Tampa Bay and learn the secret of a spirit that protects Tampa Bay from tropical Storms.  Written and directed by Dewey Davis-Thompson and produced by SoundStage Radio Theatre at WMNF studios in Tampa, The Tocobaga Bargain is available for your listening pleasure at the SoundStage web site.

When I gave up the illusion that I am a normal human being, I became a seeker of truth and why things are often not what they seem.  Christmas Humphrey’s concept of Zen Buddhism was at first, difficult to comprehend.  It took a while to learn how to visualize a plain, white wall and clear my mind.

The Zero Point Field caused me to clear my mind again.  It presents a new confrontational yet inspiring concept with which I am at home because “it contains a blueprint of our existance.”  We’re all connected to each other by an endless sea of energy from man to matter according to Lynne McTaggart.  The “Field” is our alpha and omega.

Accepting that there must be a connection between mind and matter (although I have never been able to bend a spoon with my mind), I’m aware of the power of the energy of the mind.

As pointed out by Rene Descartes, “The human mind is separate from the lifeless matter we call ‘body’”.  We’re all aware of the survival of the fittest where only the strong survive, an evolutionary accident without any particular meaning.  It comes down to science vs. religion, and scientists are falling over their own interpretations.

Matter, to me, is held together by energy.  Einstein’s group couldn’t reconcile new discoveries in quantum physics with Newton in reality and created a scientific monster.  Zero Point Field may provide a bridge between spirituality and science.

Clinical studies on Salamanders showed they might have an unusually strong connection with the energy field around them as do humans.  Similar research done on clairvoyants gave startling proof when they were given co-ordinates of places, then without being there, each clairvoyant could describe the area.

Hall Puthoff of Stanford University concluded that time and space do not exist on the level of the Zero Point Field.  True?  Do past, present and future apparently flow together in the energy field?  Could time be a relative notion?

One human being is connected to another through energy, and together, we create reality.  Ergo: I am one with everyone and I understand the Zero Point Field…a bit.

www.oden\a magazine.com/doc/8/the_amazing_promise_of_the_zero_point_field/

Many of you know that my son, Charlie, and I are sci-fi buffs.  It’s my fault having been a died-in-the-wool fan of Flash Gordon as a child attending Saturday matinees at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis.

Recently, Charlie drew my attention to The Crystal Star which he calls “a knock off” of ‘Star Wars’.  It tells of the ten years following Darth Vader becoming peaceful, and then dying in “Return of the Jedi”.  He enjoyed the book, but said, “You can tell that it was written by a girl because it was all about family, hugging and friendship stuff”.

Princess Leia had twins, and a boy named Anakin after Luke’s dad.  The children were kidnapped by one of Darth Vader’s Imperial Justices.  Luke and Han were off investigating a research vessel which was by a white dwarf that was about to fall into a black hole.  He added that, of course, being by a black hole reduced the Force considerably, so Jedi defenses were almost non-existent.

According to Charlie, “Some being from another universe had come through the black hole, and was drawing from Jedis near the hole to regain its strength in order to go home with the power from the Force”.  As my son mentioned, most of the story is about the twins trying to escape from their captors.  The twins were five, and Anakin was a brave three and a half year old.  Of course, the family dog (Six Legs) was cute, and defending them.

My son said that “the kids found not only were they part of a slave trade with a bunch of other multi-species children, but the Imperial Justice Representative was planning to train them for the Empire Reborn!  Ceethreepio, Artoo Deeto, Chewbacca and the cool starships were all there.  But Charlie missed the whole “Star War’s ” atmosphere.  This was a real family presentation complete with a friendly dragon who loved to play.  Princess Leia of Alderaan, Freedom Fighter, Destroyer of the Empire and Founder of the New Republic seemed to have been well represented.

Throughout the tons of science fiction books I’ve read in the past, there seems to be few female writers.  Maybe…just maybe, I should become an Alpha Female and try my hand at it?

Newswise — The words to “Itsy Bitsy Spider” tell a simple story about an arachnid and a spout, but simply recalling the lines could initiate an unintentional attitude.

That’s the focus of research by Kansas State University’s Eduardo Alvarado, sophomore in pre-law, who is looking at the behaviors elicited from the musical lyrics of common songs.

Alvarado is working with Donald Saucier, associate professor of psychology at K-State to study the effects priming can have on behavior by looking at the positive and negative responses stimulated from music lyrics from a variety of song categories, including patriotic and Christmas songs. Priming, he said, is when someone is exposed to a certain environment and their subconscious is activated, and then they tend to act in accordance with that environment without deliberate intent. Priming can manipulate behavior; if someone witnesses violent behavior, they would likely behave more violently.

“One of the key implications is that behaviors may be malleable in the sense that many individuals have the capacity for similar reactions in social situations,” Saucier said. “Relatively small-scale primes may activate certain reactions, and these may be pro-social or anti-social depending on the context.”

Alvarado said the researchers wanted to see if certain musical lyrics activated a pro-social response, which is a positive feeling like empathy, or an anti-social response, which is a negative feeling like aggression. Study participants had to complete a survey and do a lyrics exercise. For the lyrics exercise, participants had to fill in missing lyrics for different songs.

The songs involved in the study were patriotic songs, such as “The Star-Spangled Banner”; secular Christmas songs, such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”; religious Christmas songs, such as “O Holy Night”; and neutral songs, such as “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

Participants filled out a survey that asked questions about their religion and their attitudes toward other cultures and diversity. Half of the participants were asked to complete the survey before the lyric exercise, and the other half completed the survey after the exercise.

Alvarado said the researchers assume people act similarly to primes, and they looked overall at the surveys to see if there was a change in the responses before and after completing the lyrics exercise. They wanted to see if the songs created a pro-social or an anti-social response. He said the preliminary findings showed that the patriotic songs had a negative effect on the participants, as shown through their responses to the survey’s questions about other cultures and diversity. The patriotic songs made the participants close-minded and prejudiced.

“Once they were in a patriotic point of view, they were less empathetic,” Alvarado said. “They didn’t put themselves in other people’s perspective.”

Though songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” were meant to be neutral primes, the researchers found that they stimulated a pro-social response.

“You wouldn’t think that those songs were going to put people in a certain mind frame, but they do activate a certain attitude,” Alvarado said. “We found it made people more accepting and more empathetic. The reason for this we think is because we used to listen to these songs when we were little and they kind of activate childhood happiness.”

Saucier said follow-up research will focus on using stronger and more salient primes to influence pro-social and anti-social behavior. Jessica McManus, graduate student in psychology, has been collaborating on the project.