Here and Now

[Allegro]

Here’s an excerpt from narration personally
transcribed from video starting at 2.20 mark.

“…When you look at something, the rods and cones in your eyes fire in rapid succession, but between each firing, there is a brief resetting period during which your eyes are unable to take in any new information.

^ Rods and Cones performed at The
Venetian Resort | Blue Man Group

“Your brain covers up these microscopic moments of blindness with lingering after images, which help make your vision appear to be fluid and uninterrupted even though it is not.

“This phenomenon is known as persistence of vision: it’s the unique physiological quirk that makes the illusion of animation possible.

“The dark spaces between each still frame of animation literally sneak by while your eyes are not looking.”

^ That was a response to this image posted at the bottom of the previous page.


Thanks, Wombaticus.

[Marie Laveau]

“I suggest we start with the impossible assumption that whatever we believe we see in another person or in the world is nothing but a projection.” - Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy Verbatim

I went through my phase of really, really, really believing what Byron Katie said, too. But those babies and toddlers in Bangkok brothels just WOULD NOT stop coming to the front of my consciousness. You know?

"Morals are for people who can eat.". I don't remember who said that, and I paraphrase the quote.

I often wonder (like almost all the time now) if this positive thinking thingy isn't the new replacement for the obvious (or at least it should be) failure that science has been to replace religion.

Once "the enlightenment" got started, they had to come up with something to keep mankind at his desired apex. Evolutionary science fit the bill nicely for a bunch of egocentric little shits who really don't think much.

But once the jig is up - and didn't (at the absolute very least) Fukushima finally prove that once and for all? - they have to give us something else to keep us mollified. So science is over. What's the next thing?

IT'S JUST OUR THINKING!

But I still can't get those babies and toddlers in Bangkok brothels out of my mind. Is it just their thinking, too?

[IanEye]

*



Be Here Now


*

[Allegro]

---

When we consider an authentic “here and now” moment, or being in the present, or being in the moment, my first thoughts continue to be, ‘for whom, and when and where and why?’

I often think, wrt to war, about pregnant women in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan. Must those women have heard, or still hear, the sounds of war around them? What are those women’s here and now experiences? Are women’s sensibilities more attuned for other women’s grief than men’s sense of sympathy or empathy for women or for other men?

To me, those are inquiries for both perceptions and projections with many variables into what we might consider communicating authentically, given the circumstances of whom, and when and where and why.

[brainpanhandler]

For some reason I've always found the Blue Man Group sort of annoying but that performance is astonishing and that set is amazing. I might have to see them the next time they are in town.

[brainpanhandler]

@wombat,

Both Wilson and Perls were residents at Esalen. Wilson experimented with orgone accumulators. Dick Price was a student of Perls.

Wilson, Reich and Perls are an important nexus of thought in my brain.

[brainpanhandler]

@Marie,

I hear you on the human suffering-who-has-the-leisure-for-idle-thoughts stuff. But, really I can't stop my own psychological evolution because the world we've made is a cess pool of ignorance, hate, apathy and suffering. In fact just the opposite.

As for your other speculations I really don't care to get into a quote and argue sort of exchange, although I am tempted.

[brainpanhandler]

When we consider an authentic “here and now” moment, or being in the present, or being in the moment, my first thoughts continue to be, ‘for whom, and when and where and why?’

I hate to seem flippant, but the answers have to be for you, now, here. The why is up to you. IMHO.

I often think, wrt to war, about pregnant women in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan. Must those women have heard, or still hear, the sounds of war around them? What are those women’s here and now experiences? Are women’s sensibilities more attuned for other women’s grief than men’s sense of sympathy or empathy for women or for other men?

I like to think we are vastly more similar than dissimilar, with little to none of the differences being bilogical. In fact I think the more authentic we are the more that is true. Which is an existential direction this thread could take.

To me, those are inquiries for both perceptions and projections with many variables into what we might consider communicating authentically, given the circumstances of whom, and when and where and why.

I hear you, but even imagination is only ever a here and now experience. If I don't understand myself what other understanding should command more of my attention? If we're all largely convinced that our culture is sick and fractures our true nature and creates broken people, then isn't it imperative that we deconstruct ourselves and figure out who and what we really are? And if that's true then don't we have to first reacquaint ourselves with our senses, our perceptions of here and now. That's our only interface with reality. Does it matter? Ask Reich. Ask Wilson. Ask Perls. Ask the psylocibes.

[Marie Laveau]

@Marie,

I hear you on the human suffering-who-has-the-leisure-for-idle-thoughts stuff. But, really I can't stop my own psychological evolution because the world we've made is a cess pool of ignorance, hate, apathy and suffering. In fact just the opposite.

As for your other speculations I really don't care to get into a quote and argue sort of exchange, although I am tempted.

Well, funnily enough it doesn't even matter, does it?

And the thing is, this whole idea isn't even new. Mark twain and William James discussed what is basically cognitive behavior therapy lo those many years ago.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I think CBT basics should be taught in schools. But, again, you said it: MY. Me. I.
It doesn't even begin to address the cess pool and what lies at its root. and is there a cure for it? Might humanity find an answer to the cess pool? We'll never know, me thinks, because we're (collectively) so very much concerned with our "own psychological l evolution."

There's nothing new under the sun.

[Marie Laveau]

Brain:

Ever read Ursula LeGuin's 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas'?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

[brainpanhandler]

@Marie,

I hear you on the human suffering-who-has-the-leisure-for-idle-thoughts stuff. But, really I can't stop my own psychological evolution because the world we've made is a cess pool of ignorance, hate, apathy and suffering. In fact just the opposite.

As for your other speculations I really don't care to get into a quote and argue sort of exchange, although I am tempted.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Yes, I suppose there isn't. Except every moment of lived experience. There has never been, nor will there ever be anyone quite like you or I or anyone. If I'm not authentically me then I may as well not exist and I won't be nearly as able to be of any good to anyone if I'm living a lie.

Now, will you please kindly stop trolling the thread. We could have this conversation in any and all threads here and then we'd never be able to talk about anything else.

Any more talk about how I should desist from wanting to understand my existence so that I can focus on all the pathos in the world and I will simply ask the mods to lock the thread.

thx

[Allegro]

---

Thank you ^^, brainpanhandler, but wait. Do you remember when you and I had clicked simultaneously our comments, yesterday? Or, could you see what had happened? Well, it happened again, just a few minutes ago with your most recent post. Then, rethinking what I’ve already written commenced.*

…For some reason I've always found the Blue Man Group sort of annoying but that performance is astonishing and that set is amazing. I might have to see them the next time they are in town.

At mark 1.31 or .32 in that vid, above, there’s a somewhat subliminal message that blinks: naked people. Seriously! Did you see that?

I watched this video from start to finish, so, yeah, I can focus on a piece of music for 80 minutes, but that’s probably not what you had in mind by focusing on an object, which you mentioned on the previous page. I let this concert whelm me into fascination for nearly 80 minutes. And thoroughly enjoyed it, nonstop!


^ Blue Man Group - The Complex Rock Tour Live.mp4

_________________
* brainpanhandler, I ain’t no writer, and if people only knew how slowly I put thoughts into words on the screen, people could think I was as slow as a sloth doing the tango. There you have it until next time.

[Marie Laveau]

Wow. That was not my intent in the least. I can honestly say I have never been accused of trolling before. Whew! What an experience.

I think my questions are relevant to your questioning. You are kinda/sorta on a 'What the Bleep Do We Know' soort of investigation, which showed we are all one.

IF we are all one, shouldn't we be concerned about the state of everything?

My point being, we might self-examine all we want, but if we are all interconnected then what good will it do us to find out the meaning of our existence is dependent upon everyone else's meaning of existence?

Now I'll stop "trolling" and hope you discover something someone else hasn't and can share it with everyone.

[crikkett]

IF we are all one, shouldn't we be concerned about the state of everything?

My point being, we might self-examine all we want, but if we are all interconnected then what good will it do us to find out the meaning of our existence is dependent upon everyone else's meaning of existence?

The good in learning our interdependence is that we may come to understand our that there's a place for everyone, how important it is to live and let live, and how important it is to help one another.

But that's just me, the Concern Troll, jumping in at the ass-end of the conversation.

[2012 Countdown]

OT: I enjoyed the Blue Man Group clips.