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Archive for September, 2007

Sep 29

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What Are Family Values?

A few years ago, I remember seeing a sign during the election season with the campaign slogan, “I’m for the Family”. I thought it was funny because I had never met anyone that was against the family? What do these strange appeals for “family values” mean? The seem vacuous to me. Wouldn’t family values include excellent, free education and healthcare for children – not just for the rich kids. Wouldn’t family values mean valuing families? Yesterday I was asked to sign a petition to tell Congress that they should make insurance for children mandatory. A petition. How insane is it that a petition is required to convince the morons on Capitol Hill that insurance for children is a good idea? Read more

Sep 17

Telephone Telepathy?

Have you ever correctly guessed who was calling? Of course. We all have. But how often are you correct? Rupert actually carries out the experiment. This video is a clip from a British TV show where Rupert tests an 80′s pop band, the Nolan Sisters.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/UdOi3s-tBzk[/youtube]

Sep 13

Make Your Dog Famous

OpenSourceScience released a press-release about their search for psychic dogs:

Researchers at OpenSourceScience.net have offered a $1,000 prize to dogs who successfully demonstrate they know when their owners are coming home. Many dog owners claim their pets anticipate their arrival by going to wait at a door, window, or driveway. Some claim their dogs do this even when they arrive home unexpectedly or at odd hours. While some researchers, including Dr. Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist, and former Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge University have investigated this phenomena, many scientists remain unconvinced it really occurs.

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Sep 12

Some Sheldrake Stuff

It’s interesting that the deeper I dive into ancient Hinduism, the closer I come to the same view that Sheldrake expresses in his first book, A New Science of Life. Most people don’t know this, but Rupert has a copy of the original manuscript he submitted for publication. It was reject as far to mystical and far reaching in its scope. A revised, toned down version was eventual sent to press. That’s the version I want to read. He wrote the book while living in an ashram in Hyderabad, India where perspective on the universe is a little different that in downtown London. He’s promised to dig up this version for me someday when he finds it.
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Sep 9

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Pale Blue Dot

Sep 9

Awe, Humility, and Hope

The Zeitgeist is whispering in a new language and something strange is in the air. Something new is trying to be born. Perhaps it is only my experience – it may only be in America – but there is definitely a new awareness of our place in the universe that is slowly emerging. Friends and family that have long been concerned with daily, all-too-human issues and struggles have recently looked to the stars with a little bit more wonder. It’s as if a new level of consciousness is dawning on the planet: a realization that we are a part of the planet and it is a part of us. Even church sermons have begun shifting from discussions of evil to discussions of awe and wonder over how infinite, amazing, and beautiful the universe really is. What is going on?

I do hope that I am right – that there is a new sense of wonder in the air. The promised age of Aquarius in the new millennium may be finally awakening from it’s much too long slumber, asleep from the times when the goddess ruled the Earth. A time of peace and harmony. The images coming back from the Hubble telescope and from our missions from Mars and the Moon and slowly taking hold of our collective psyche. For the first time in history, industrialized nations are taking seriously the impact we have on our planet.

The book 2010, by Arthur C. Clarke, contains a hint of this sort of emerging consciousness. After receiving the message, “all these worlds are yours except Europa attempt no landing there. Use them together use them in peace”, from an unknown source (what does the monolith represent?) Dr. Heyword Floyd says, “We were only the tenants of this world. We have been given a new lease, and a warning, from the landlord.” It is these two realizations: 1) that there is something in the universe much larger and more incomprehensible that we previously imagined, and 2) we as a species are not permanent, we are here at the leisure of the universe. It would take only one large rock from space to destroy all traces of our existence.

From Contact, by Carl Sagan, the main character Ellie Ann Arroway says, “I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniable how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but… that continues to be my wish.”

That continues to be my wish, as well.

Sep 9

Placebos and Mind-Body Relationships

Rupert has just returned back home from Hollyhock in British Columbia in Canada. The popular retreat hosted the most recent trialogue with Rupert Sheldrake, Andrew Weil and Ralph Abraham on the topic of “Placebos and Mind-Body Relationships”. Most of modern medicine and science deny the power of the of mind to heal – yet everyone accepts that placebos are often as effective as the “real thing”. How is it that a simple sugar pill can have an effect on the body’s ability to heal? Head over to Sheldrake’s site to listen to the audio from the discussion:

Placebos and Mind-Body Relationships

Sep 6

Parapsychology and The Skeptics

Sheldrake has written the Forward for a new book, Parapsychology and The Skeptics, by Chris Carter (not the X-Files Chris Carter), on the history of dogmatic skepticism and parapsychology. The book opens with a very interesting anecdote from the seventeenth century – when people believed that balls of fire came hurtling to Earth from space – believers called these “meteorites”. However, because there was not a theory that could accommodate rocks falling from space, the experts agreed that it was obviously a mass delusion. Of course, this still happens today. If the facts don’t fit the theory, to hell with the facts.

In the Forward, Sheldrake writes, “The kind of skepticism Carter is writing about is not the normal healthy kind on which all science depends, but arises from a belief that the existence of psychic phenomena is impossible; they contradict the established principles of science, and if they were to exist they would overthrow science as we know it, causing chaos and confusion.” This looks like a great book. I plan on picking up a copy. I will try to write up a brief review later this month.

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Sep 6

Celebrity Suicide

There is an interesting (and shocking) article over at Mental Floss. The author writes, “I was surprised and saddened last week to read of the reported suicide attempt by actor Owen Wilson. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are staff favorites here, and we’re definitely hoping and wishing for Wilson’s full recovery. But as I started thinking about the comedy star, and mulling over the constant stress of his profession, it made me realize just how pervasive suicide attempts are among high-profile people. Here are some selected 20th century celebs who attempted suicide, but managed to turn their lives around.”

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