Ideological beasts

Humans are becoming their own worst enemies because of ideological differences. We have gone beyond the basic need for food, shelter, and mates into an ideological dimension that acquires a greater importance than reality. Our imagined worlds are so credible and so appealing that any amount of suffering in this world can be considered unimportant.

There have always been selfless acts of heroism in times of need. The people who sacrificed their lives sealing the Chernobyl reactor to keep it from spewing radioactivity come to mind. They died so that others might live.

The images coming out of the Middle East are less comprehensible: Suicide bombers whose only purpose is to kill as many other people as possible without a rational goal in mind. Hate is being taught on a large scale. Young people who have not seen the world chant and believe that "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" are worthwhile goals. Memories of the injustices of prior wars, the Halocaust, the crusades, and the oppression by the Roman Empire become tools to keep young, innocent people engaged in struggles that will never end because they are never allowed to forget and, therefore, they can never forgive.

Psychic predictions

A reader inquired if I am really psychic. I KNEW that I was going to be asked that, therefore, I must be psychic.

People want reassurance. Even mature people want to hear the motherly advice: "Don't cry. Everything will be all right".

If you know what will happen, you can plan and improve your chances of handling the situation better than if you were unprepared. This is why even a prediction of bad things to come, which on the surface cannot make you happy, may actually prepare you to face future problems.

Suppose that I predicted a financial hardship in your future. Wouldn't this make you think about your current financial position? Sure, it would. You would assess your debts, sources of income, resources at your disposal, risky investments, etc. If you believed my prediction, you would sell your risky investments and reduce your debt to prepare to meet the predicted hardship.

Even if the prediction was pulled out of the air and not by the use of miraculous psychic powers, it had the effect of making you think about your future and help you to organize your financial situation.

How much can you rely on your senses?

Reality is the result of our perceptions as interpreted by our brain.

If you don't believe it, here is the proof: A simple checkerboard consisting of black and white squares. There are no curved lines in the picture.

Why do we see curved lines and what appears to be a bulge in the center of the picture? The picture elements combine to create crossed diagonal lines which interfere with our perception of the straight horizontal and vertical lines. Squint to see the diagonal lines that form a cross in the middle.

If you still do not believe that there are no curved lines, take a ruler and check the edges. Even after we understand that there are no curved lines, we still see the curved lines. That is reality.

Here begins our psychic adventure

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, but it is much worse to lose your mind. Don't worry if some of this seems strange. Mental experiences and consciousness are not readily understood or defined, so it may take a lot of interchange before we can agree on what we are talking about. I may not say exactly what is on my mind, or you might not understand exactly what I mean. In any case, there is a lot of room for misunderstanding.

Onward we go into the bloggosphere trying to make sense of something that may not be understandable. At least, there is much room for improvement and that should bring us cheer.