Sand Art

So its been a rather considerable amount of time since I've last written in here, much to my disappointment. The semester has been insane in terms of having time to do things unrelated to course work, it is hard to find a free moment to escape the immense amount of work I have, let alone devote time to more then one endeavour outside of the realm of work. Then again, it may merely be my own lack of enthusiasm that I have or something along those lines. Regardless, I'm not one to make excuses and I'll try my best to avoid such a long gap between posts. I've found plenty of sources of inspiration for topics I'd like to bring up and discuss, so maybe over the course of the next few weeks I can devote a bit more time to this creation.

With that being said, I'm going to post a couple of links to some amazing videos. Two of these videos are by individuals who do Sand art on projector screens. Let me begin by saying that this is unbelievable and how I admire these artists. I wish I had the talent to do this sort of work. The musical scores go quite well with both of these videos, so I hope you enjoy both of them.

Video 1

Video 2

If you find any more of these or have any recommendations let me know!

Religion and 'Mind', Part 1

In wrapping up my last two topics that I mentioned I would discuss I'm going to examine the idea of creating one's own Religion and as well as contrast between the notion of the Spirit and that of the 'Mind'.

So, let me start off with religion. Throughout my life religion has been a fascinating topic for myself. I recall the days of high school where I would be constantly redefining what religion I followed, spending time examining a multitude of beliefs and cults by reading religion dictionaries. I never became an expert on any religion per se, at least in the sense of what one would be like had they devoted a more substantial amount of time to it, but it was nonetheless an important experience for myself.

Today I still find myself constantly redefining my beliefs. I find myself at a loss when trying to find a religion that addresses all the questions that I have and presents a model of beliefs that are consistent and in harmony with my world view. My latest foray is into Buddhism, and I must say that my relation with Buddhism is amongst the strongest I had with any religion. I belief that at last I've found a set of teachings, a model of wisdom, that is held in consistancy with the world view I had a priori.

Nevertheless, I'm not sure if Buddhism will have all the answers. I don't know if any religion has all the answers. Nor do I know if I can completely dismiss the teachings of one religion if I find that another religion better suits me. And I've come to the realization, that one of the ultimate acts of self-expression is the defining of our own Religion, the expression of our own beliefs made manifest into a set of principles that anyone can adhere to. I don't mean to see that we should use the exercise of creating Religion as a means to bolster one's ego, quite the contrary. It should be seen as a means to help people on their own path of creating their own religion. And its not to say that this act of creation has to be based entirely on one's own, formulated worldview. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel. The amount of wisdom present in the existing world's religions is immeasurable. But to deny the teachings and wisdom of one religion because it conflicts with the doctrines of another belief you currently have is erroneous. One should not deny him/herself of a body of wisdom simply because it doesn't conform 100% to your already established beliefs.

So, the act of integration and the act of acceptance is extremely important, both in the formulation of ones own religion or the expression of ones pre-existing belief set. The force of religion is one of the most, if not the most, domineering aspects to human society. The fact that a person is willing to lay down their very lives in the name of, at often times, an insubstantial truth is phenomenal. It goes to great lengths in presenting what I believe is the beauty of the human condition. Not the fact that humanity is so predisposed to violence, but rather that we cry so much for that transcendence, some relation to God, that even in the face of rationalism, logic, and the forcing of the acceptance of our intuition, that we go to such great lengths to preserve our beliefs.

The act of creation of one's Religion could simply be the statement that I follow the teachings of Christ, or the Koran, or that I simply affirm I have no beliefs. Or one could go so far as to compile the entire volume of their beliefs and adhere to the ones you set for yourself. But the important thing is that we recognize that we can, and should, create our religions for ourselves and acknowledge our beliefs, our religion, as our own.

I'll touch on the issue of the 'Mind' in contrast with Spirit tomorrow. Its getting rather late and I want to try to get a good night's rest for once. I'm not sure if todaqy's topic or tomorrows will go exactly like I had hoped and planned for it to go when I first constructed the list, but I think it still went in an interesting direction. I'd appreciate comments, insights, or suggestions for elaboration.

Ego Dissolution

I had mentioned in my last post about discussing the ego in context of a book I'm reading entitled Beyond Ego. I do not recall if what I've written below is in the same context as my thoughts regarding the book, however, it is an issue I'd like to delve into. This topic is, as the title suggests, about Ego Dissolution.

One of the most confronting issues I have to deal with, and I think that any of us have to deal with, is the idea of the ego. The powerful force of the ego manifests itself, in my opinion, as a psychological tool for the biological need for self-preservation. The ego forces us to be most ultimately dependent on ourselves, which in the context of evolution, is no surprise. Sadly I do not believe that many times the altruistic individual (whether it be homo sapien, some other primate, or of an entirely different family altogether) would be at much of a disadvantage in terms of survival then an individual who seeks to only benefit itself.

If you subscribe to Freud's structural theory, then of course the Ego must exist if to balance the urge to survive (via the 'id'), and the moral constructs we create (perpetuated by the super-ego). The ego is our very sense of self, whether in regards to our physical state of self or our mental state of self.

In the context of the interactions between ego-possesing organisms (humans), we experience the clash of ego's. We currently perceive social situations from the viewpoint held by our ego as mediator. Our sense of self is primarily the governing factor in social encounters. Now our sense of self can be heavily influenced by social values. Avoidance of conflict between egos is an extremely important goal, especially when considered the evolutionary implications of a person who refuses to alter his or her ego to comply with the majority view. However, I believe that even at the social level that the values perpetuated by the mass is still the result of one dominate ego.

What I'm getting at with all of this are experiences in which we lose all sense of self. What is termed Ego Dissolution. I've yet to experience ego dissolution, or alternatively, experience ego death and rebirth. Many religious traditions in some form or another seek to shed the ego and the sense of self, to reunite with the collective consciousness or to free oneself from the confines of samsara (or take your pick of religious goal.) Many individuals who've been under the influence of mind-altering substances have claimed to undergo this ego dissolution.

When I think about ego dissolution from the vantage point of my experiences and understanding, I can feel my ego imploring to ignore it. Our experiences shape us, our understanding and our beliefs. We develop a sense of self and we come to value who we are as individuals and by dissolving our sense of self we in some way devalue the person we are. Realization that we are potentially connected with one another is an extremely disheartening force for the ego. Often times ego dissolution (or ego death) is a very turbulent experience for an individual, from the brief reading I've done of people who claimed to have this experience.

Commitment, Mind, Religion, and The Ego: Part 1

No, these three things aren't going to be somehow related in this post. While each does have correspondances that are shared amongst one another, that would be the focus of this post. In keeping with my vision of Astral Mindscapes I'm posting on some of the materials I've been reading and working with over the past view days.

I'm not sure if I mentioned in one of the last couple posts about a book I am reading, Cialdini's Influence. The author, Robert Cialdini, describes a list of six "weapons of influence", a product of the mental short-cuts we make in order to deal with the barrage of social information we must sort through on a day to day basis. Amongst these weapons is the idea of the commitment we make to both others and ourselves. We often stand by our nonsensical decisions even after the fact of learning of the absurdity to do so because of our desire to remain consistent with our decisions, and to appear committed to our beliefs. Often times this idea is exploited by individuals, corporations, or dare I say, governments, in order to solicit a desirable response from us. The very tool that we have evolved to deal with social situations is now being used against us.

I bring up this idea of commitment because of my own dealings with the idea. To those who know me well I can appear to be a bit indecisive at times, flipping and flopping from one idea to the next, one extreme to the other, and one course of study to another. Some may say I have a problem with commitment. But this idea of commitment also presents itself in other areas of my life. For example, I've adopted the vegetarian life-style over the summer. For me, it has been due to moral reasons and health reasons. Now, I remain open to those who chose to remain omniverous or carniverous because its not my place to pass judgment on them. As well I remain open behind the philosophy of why one should choose to adhere to a certain regiment of eating. Over the time I've questioned my reasons in for the moral implication of my vegetarian lifestyle. And I'm dealing with the fact, that after reading Cialdini's book, of whether or not I'm choosing to remain vegetarian because I truly believe its the right thing to do, or because of my desire to remain socially viewed upon as someone who is committed to their belief. Now, upon presenting this issue I must say I've addressed it and I do still believe that what I am doing is a morally justified and right thing, at least in correspondance to my personal set of ethics. But, I am curious about others who've had to deal with internal conflict when it comes to staying committed.

Cialdini delves far more into the idea of commitment in his book, which I won't touch upon all of here. I highly suggest you read the book if you've ever felt like you've been tricked or cheated by someone trying to take advantage of you.

Because of the length of this post I'm going to split up the rest of these topics and spend time with each in a separate post. To give you an idea of what I'll write about, here is an explanation of each topic.

• Mind: Contrasting the idea of the "Mind" with the notion of Spirit
• Religion: Creating a Religion consisting of a mixture of doctrines from already established religions
• The Ego: Discussing the field of Transpersonal Psychology, a topic that is the focus of a book I'm currently reading entitled, Beyond Ego.
  

Updated Vision of Astral Mindscapes

As the semester progresses I find myself limited in time to write to this blog. I'm still toying as to what direction I want to take with this blog, and I may have stumbled upon something that will provide what I believe will be interesting content while adhereing to at least a semi-coherent pattern of topics.

I came across a book in the library the other day entitled The Journals of A. H. Maslow, the subject of which I believe is pretty apparent in the title. Essentially Abraham Maslow kept journals for the last 10 or so years of his life, an attempt to better organize the multitude of ideas and thoughts that he was pursuing. He would periodically write in his journals, discussing various topics of interest as it occured to him. He managed, according to this compilation of his journals, to write thousand(s) of pages worth of notes.

I find his work and its vision to be quite fascinating, and an inspiration of what I want to accomplish. I hope to have that sort of encyclopedia, if you will, of material that I have composed over the course of my life. So in an attempt to adhere to the foundation that Maslow layed down in terms of journal-keeping, I'm going to try and pursue the same course of action. I will use this journal primarily as a means of discourse for the various topics I stumble across and pursue over the semester, largely influenced as well by the courses I am taking. I hope that once I have a more solid foundation of information compiled here that I can influence my professors to either take a look at it, or at the very least encourage the use of blogs as a serious tool for class-room discussion and assignments.

Update, and World War III

So, foremost let me update everyone on whats been going on. Foremost let me apologize for the careless disregard for updates over the past week. I'm tempted to use the excuse that time has been something of a precious commodity, though I believe that would be a partial lie.

The semester is in full swing here at RPI and it looks to be quite an interesting albeit demanding time. Over the past weekend I've engaged in several trips involving the campus Outing club, and if I can manage I'll post pictures of the trip. The trips involved exploring two nearby caves in the Capital region of New York state. For my first time caving I must say it was a rather exciting time. I look forward to doing it again. This weekend I shall (hopefully) be attending a nice hike in the Catskills region, and then towards the end of the month going on a weekend excursion to Lake George.

However, I digress. I do not want to sit here prattling on about the going-ons of my life. I'll keep you updated slightly on the progress of my courses and research this semester if time allows and seems relevant to share.

So I'm still looking for a direction for Astral Mindscapes. While it would probably be wiser for me to focus my discussion on a narrow subject field, for those of you who know me personally should know, I do not like the restrictions imposed of subjecting my writings to a single subject field. At the current time I have nothing to write of involving what one may associate with a title such as "Astral Mindscapes", however, my delvings into Eastern Philosophies might change that shortly.

Today I want to discuss the current state of affairs of our political machine. Now, I realize how touchy of a subject politics is, not to mention how widely discussed it is. I came across an interesting article entitled Election 2006 & World War III which discusses some of the implications of the current conflict in the Middle East, specifically the US involvement in Iraq. Make no mistake, its clear that the invasion of Iraq is a blunder. The current administration lied to the American people, mislead them with malicious intentions, and have now placed them in a compromising situation which has only escalated the current hostilities expressed against Americans. Where once Americans were viewed in many places with a certain degree of high regard, we find ourselves descending into a chasm of dichotomy with the rest of the world.

According to Robert Parry's article, Bush seems not only content on eliminating the terrorist presence in Iraq and the Middle East, targetting organizations such as Hezbollah in addition to al-Qaeda, but also addressing the issue of extremist Shiites. Both of these extremism mentalities, according to Bush, pose a grave threat to the stability of our country. The underlying issue as suggested by Parry is that Bush is ultimately declaring war against Islam. Yes folks, as we progress further and further on what I can only deem to be a path of further isolation from the rest of the world, we are pushing ourselves into yet another Crusade. It seems we are on the edge of the third World War. Quite frankly, the odds don't seem in our favor.

I find it insulting, at times, to be labeled as an American when such ignorance is present towards our Arab brethren. Because, at the very core of it, I believe that we each our but siblings to one another. Perpetuating this stereotypical fundamentalist Christian viewpoint and making America appear as some rightous tool of "God" completely undermines what the ultimate goal of this country should be. Is it the case that when the right view and the right system comes along, people will flock and naturally accept it? If this is the case, we're far from even remotely achieving that.

I urge you to read this article, it does have some interesting features to it. And if time permits I'll discuss more related issues, but as it stands I have to stop here for now.

Natural Hallucinogen

Try this out, and experience natural hallucination. Stare at the center, keep your eyes still & look away when instructed for an awesome effect! Don't worry, this isn't one of those lame "something pops up & scares you" videos.

Blog Organization

So I'm looking to expand Astral Mindscapes a bit, taking it in new directions. This is both in relation to itself, and also whats the norm in the world of blogging. So I'm going to discuss some of that here.

Foremost, I want to take a step away from referring to Astral Mindscapes simply as a blog. Its far more then that, and I want it to appear and be perceived that way. Its a gateway into the clockwork of our reality, an examination of what we are, why we are, and where we're going. Astral Mindscapes is my vision of the world and a vision for the world, a sort of utopia where anything goes.

With that in mind, I'm looking to add some people to the blog to write their own musings about whatever and I'm hoping this doesn't detract from the vision that I have for Astral Mindscapes, the sort of cosmic-feel that I hope that it portays.

Anyways, as far as content wise I'm trying to devise a weekly schedule to adhere to for content, regularly columns if you will. If anyone has an idea for a column they would like to see feel free to post it.

I plan on trying out my first column later this evening, hopefully. We'll see where it goes. As for the schedule I posted in an earlier post, I'm going to neglect that for now.

Redefining Our Solar System, part 2

So, now onto the original material I intended to discuss. As I mentioned, about a week ago I heard on Coast to Coast AM a story regarding what we classify as a planet. The story stated that a new classification that scientists proposed would increase the number of objects in this solar system to 12. So much for the age old "Mr. Vampire Eats My Juicy Steak Using No Pepper" mnemonic that I grew up using ot remember the names of the planets, or any of the other fun little phrases people used.

This new classification would settle once and for all the debate of regarding Pluto as a planet or not. It would also classify the large asteroid Ceres, Pluto's twin (or moon, depending on what you call it) Charon, and another object which is currently called UB313. To be truthful, I think it deserves a name change. These three objects form what we will classify as the new 10th, 11th, and 12th planets of our solar system.

The new classification, however, creates a classification of two types of planets. The first 8 planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) would make up what we know as the classical planets, and Ceres would be part of a new group called dwarf planets. The remaining three, Pluto, Charon, and UB313 make up the third new group called plutons. Hmm, wonder where that name came from.

The issue of planet classification has been a long, controversial one. The committee at this General Assembly of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) finally agreed on a proposal of what to deem a planet: that is, any body orbiting a star, thats neither a star nor a satellite of another planet, and is pulled into rounded shape by its own gravity.

I think this committees proposal is interesting, but represents a fundamental problem in astronomy. There are so many objects in the Solar System and we desparately try to classify them all. Our misunderstanding of what to call a planet and what not to call a planet is just one of many problems of trying to classify everything in space. If we continue to discover new objects, in our own solar system and beyond, will we eventually be challenged again on what we call a planet, based on this new proposal? What about calling a planet any object that has, does, or has the potential of hosting life? The question remains what we will call objects that don't support life? Oh well.

Regardless, I can come to enjoy the fact we live in a solar system of 12 planets. The more, the merrier.

Source:
New Solar System? Twelve planets and counting by ScienceNews.org

Redefining Our Solar System, part 1

My main discussion will be about some news I heard on Coast to Coast AM about a week ago and a news site I'm currently reading. The topic in question is redefining what scientists term a planet, and how that effects our current view of our solar system.

But first, today. As some of you may be aware, August 22nd was hyped to be quite an important day. Iran's official response to their nuclear program was given to the UN. Today also coincides with Rajab 27 in which Muhammed rose into heaven, and now Muslims are awaiting the second coming of the 12th Imam.

Iran had made mention of several things which created a bit of fear and hype in the media. Individuals such as Professor Bernard Lewis said that the date could hold awful things in store, a nuclear strike on Israel, for example.

Well, the day has come and gone. A article on CNN's website indicates that Iran nuclear officials state that Iran is ready to return to the table and discuss Iran's nuclear program. Disaster has been adverted, so it seems.

Last night I had a dream concerning August 22nd, today, and Iran. Now, it could be a result of my own interest in the story and my own anticipation to see if anything would happen. I'm not sure. The dream started off with a nuclear explosion, I'm not sure where. I saw the blast wave and the rising mushroom cloud. The dream shifts at some point to a shopping center on a rainy day. I recall discussing with family that Iran has tested a nuclear bomb. I was surprised at this, because as it was the supposed date in the dream, that Iran only tested a nuclear bomb and not used one. I recall later hearing from a news source or finding out somehow that Israel will be destroyed/attacked by (or on) December 6th of this year.

As I mentioned, this dream could simply be a result of my own unscious anticipation of today's event and a manifestation of my own eagerness to see what will happen. On the otherhand, it could be perceived as prophecy. Iran has not tested a nuclear weapon, at least from what we know. I would presume that such an occurence would be widely depicted by the media. Could the day that they tested this weapon, in my dream, be sometime in the near future, a day where it is raining?

Or, could it be, as I mentioned above, just my own unscious? Does this dream hold special meaning for me that I should research? There is an entry for a Nuclear Bomb in a dream dictionary.

I like to believe in prophecy. I used to be a big doomsday buff, always looking for the prophecy that indicates the end of the world. I've since changed, hoping that the future is a brighter, more peaceful place rather then the desolate, postapocalyptic wasteland that doomsayers portray. With only a little over 6 more year till 2012, I hope that the end of the Mayan calendar represents a time of spiritual transformation, a migration into a new form of thought that benefits all of humanity, and not the end of the world as some faiths teach.

Only time can tell. I will continue my discussion in regards to the Solar system in the next post.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

I find language to be quite a fascinating topic. Most people, myself included, do not comprehend the implications that language has on our experiences and perceptions. The question that is often asked in regards to language is whether or not language can shape, influence, or so far as to say create thought? The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis was a theory presented first by Edward Sapir and later expanded by his student Benjamin Whorf, and is one of many ideas that address this question.

The view presented by Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis represents weak, linguistic determinism. That is to say, thought is influenced and affected by language. On the otherhand, strong linguistic determinism goes so far as to say that thought is language. The following quote by Sapir gives a better indication of this view.

"Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached... We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. (Sapir, 1958 [1929], p. 69)"

I've personally always wondered if people who spoke their native language perceived the world differently then I do. Often when I asked this question I got strange looks from people, I assume who were a bit unsure of what I was trying to indicate. This also holds a bit of similarity to my thoughts concerning the perception of sensations. That is to say, do two people perceive the color blue in the same way. People can agree on what the color blue is, but is the visual sensation that the color blue causes the same for each person?

I'm recently become fascinated by Sanskrit, once the primary language in India and the liturgical language of Hinduism. Known as the "refined language", Sanskrit grammer is highly regular and has often been discussed for use in the computer industry. The vast amount of literature that is in Sanskrit is quite remarkable as well. The language is also very well-known for its poetic images. Listen to some examples of Shanti Shanti here, a Sanskrit Rock group here in America. The value and richness of the Sanskrit language is not to be underestimated.

I had taken a different direction in this post then I originally intended to. With the current schedule I have been dealing with its been hard to write and I had lost some of my thoughts. Here are some topics I'll be discussing in the next week or so to give you an idea of what to expect.

Next Weeks Topics:

• DMT and Psychedelic Visions
• Coast to Coast Live's discussion with Simon and the Necronomicon
• Possibly more on Sanskrit
• Commentary on Spiritual Art
  

Sci-Fi Music

I discovered an amazing artist the other day by the name of AQi Fzono. AQi Fzono is a Japanese synthesizer musician. His music is some of the most beautiful I've heard in a long time. A sample of it can be found here. You can purchase his Cosmology album from Amazon by clicking on the ad below. I highly recommend you check this artist out. He is a pioneer in creating the genre of Sci-Fi music. Find out more about AQi Fzono at his website or checking out his wikipedia entry.

Ohio Earthquake

A recent article on CNN's website talked about earthquakes in Mentor, Ohio. The city has been subject to earthquakes on average every two weeks since January. A look at the Ohio Seismic Network showed a 3.8 magnitude earthquake June 20th in Lake Erie. An aftershock of magnitude 2.1 occured on the 1st of July. (Source) Quite interesting since you really don't consider the area to be seismically active (at least not to the extent of states such as California).

The strongest earthquake to hit Ohio occured in March 9th, 1937 and had a magnitude of 5.4 (Source)

Sacred Art: Transcendence through Vision

We often believe that language is the epitome of humanity's success in comparison to the rest of the natural kingdom. That language is the foundation that allows for us to reason, and that it is within language that the potential of the human race lies.

As a speaker of English and only English, I find myself somewhat distraught by my perception of the world around me. The things I see, the images I experience are limited by only what I can express through language. When I gaze out at the sea, I perceive only the sea, some body of water. But, I know inherently that there is much more to the body of water then just the word I used to describe it. It fills you with emotion, invokes fantasies and fears, represents so many things that are simply not expressed through language. You can sit down and describe the ocean all you want to someone who has never seen it, but you can't truly understand what the ocean is till you've seen it for yourself. And it never gets too old to watch it and gaze into the horizon, wondering and admiring. And, thus, I feel that language is fundamentally flawed, that we rely too much on our verbal expressions to one another that we ignore a multitude of other sensations that, while there, we don't pay enough attention to. We become too dependent on our logic and reasoning that we fail to see the beauty in the world around us, and fail to perceive something greater then we are.

It is with this that I present to you several links to fine pieces of art, works done by individuals who see past the veil that language draws over our eyes and captures a world that only few can perceive. I hope you enjoy these links as much as I have.

Mystical Landscapes @ VictoriaChristian.com

Lysergide's gallery @ Mateo.net

Mythic Naturalism

Artist at DeviantArt

Just a small fraction of what's out there, but figured some of you will enjoy.