Saturday, July 15, 2006

What God Wants

I finished reading Neal Donald Walsch's "Conversations with God" - parts I, II and III with a scientific curiosity bordering on religious fervour. 
His latest is "What God Wants" billed as the "most dangerous book you will read".  All his work is highly recommended reading for anyone who aspires to being secular, fair, open-minded and spiritual. Check in your notions at the cover of the book and proceed.

It is exciting to read his work, because it is a journey through uncharted territory. He is drawing on the common denominators of human perception and understanding when writing on such subject matter. His writing is truly non-denominational - truly secular. What fascinates (me), then, is that this is a trip through the collective conscious. Reporting a conversation with God is as exciting as it gets - this is the granddaddy of any close encounter of the Third Kind.

His claims ring true and feel perfectly logical possibly because its all based on some kind of collectively agreed upon knowledge. 

How does one conduct a discussion about something of which the participants have no direct experience ? You have to draw on something akin to "common sense" - a set of beliefs or logical notions that are common to the vast majority - I want to call this principle "symmetricity". Living beings seem to be soothed, calmed and regaled by a certain underlying universality of proportions - of "form"; Maybe the golden ratio of the Vitruvian man is part of this paradigm.

Apparently, a certain "symmetricity" of outer and inner forms (inner forms - of which musical cognition, thought and pattern recognition are subsets) produces a strong validating experience. For good or bad this is highly valued by human beings, and Walsch could be using this to make such a far out premise sound convincing.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Head over Heels

That elegant, fleet-footed doyen of french football Zinedine Zidane went "down" in history for acting upon one of the oldest directives known to man, woman or child...

"Use Your Head!"

He used his head - too forcefully and in the wrong context. 
(I) he succumbed to a wily war stratagem.
(II) His experience should have told him what was going on - he should have kept his eye on the bigger award instead of the immediate visceral pleasure of decking Maserati. Or Mazzerati. Whateverrrrrr.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Top Ten Egyptian sights

According to a BBC travel programme I watched today, this is the top ten list of sites for a visitor on a tight time schedule in Egypt.

1. Cairo Museum - this has artifacts from all the sites listed below, and more. Reputed to be one of the best museums in the world.
2. The Great Sphinx, 240ft long, 65 ft high. - when napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, it was buried upto its shoulders. His men excavated it, so we are indebted to him for it in modern times.
3. Giza Pyramids - within sight of 20 million strong Cairo. The Great Pyramid is 481 feet tall...Pharoahs Kufu, son Kafra , and grandson (?) built these pyramids.
4. Darshur (this has the world's first TRUE pyramid - aka Red Pyramid, built by Snafaru. )
5. Saqqara (step pyramids built by Imhotep &.... early trials at pyramid building)
6. Amarna - birth place of Tut Ankh Amon
7. Abydas - very well maintained relief work in an ancient temple
8. Valley of The Kings
9. Luxor
10. Mt. Sinai

Going from 10 to 1, this is a travel northward up the Nile.

Let us have a minute of silence in observance of the superhuman feats of imagination, architecture and engineering these people achieved. Even viewed on my moderate 32" television screen - Karnak, the Sphinx and the Pyramids are awe inspiring. It is all very humbling, so let us be humbled.