Friday, June 6, 2008

another draft of revelation.

Revelation Paper for history

Revelations – these play such an important role. They’ve served as recurring external and internal factors in shaping the world around us, manifesting within the trends of history, literature, and art. It is because of this why coming to a vivid understanding of their existence wields a clearer more lucid view of how things around us work.
There are two dictionary meanings of a revelation, both of which are worthy of being properly explored. They are as follows: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world”; “a surprising and previously unknown fact, esp. one that is made known in a dramatic way”. As one can see the first one holds religious connotation that most have associated with the word while the second one is less divine and can be more easily adapted for everyday things.
As stated before, the realm of literature is filled with revelations and its tropes. Tropes are critical parts of stories that continue to reappear throughout the plot. Thus they are what express and detail the revelation for the audience. Example of such tropes are: the activist/prophet that goes around spreading their message (the revelation), the dumb masses that the prophet is attempting to wake up, and the opposition that stands in the way of the message striving to stop the prophet’s words before they reach the masses. Most stories have all of these tropes and more. It allows for the most basic of connects to be made between the piece of work and audience.
That being said, it is important to note that referring to the revelation troupe actually implies all of the little components that it is composed of. Thus, revelation is more or of a mega-troupe – the tinier components are fully capable of being divided from the group to be analyzed. Yet at the same time, the mega-troupe seems to fall apart if the commonly understand sections are not played out.
That is not to say, however, that all of those stories follow the same mundane plot line. In order for there to be some idea of uniqueness, they all put their own spin on the otherwise commonly understood tropes. As I will explore later, this manipulation of the troupes allows for the overarching message of the revelation to be understood at a deeper level than it would if it wasn't.


(Description/analysis)
In the play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, one can see nice basic revelation tropes in action. The play follows a small town doctor who tries to explain to the masses that their public bathes are infested with germs that can and has made visiting people sick. At first he was able to enlist the help of a few of his friends in the town’s newspaper, but once he came out with the information the vast majority of the towns folk turned against him, including his friends and the mayor, which just so happens to be his own brother. Those who would greatly benefit from the end results reject the doctor’s offer of redemption – having a clean baths that everyone can enjoy without becoming ill.
Like I said before, An Enemy of the People provides a good introduction to the revelation mega-troupe. One example of this is how one could possibly plot out where the characters in the story would stand as the story slowly built up to the climax. We saw how his family members would likely stand by him his side, even if some of them have their doubts. We saw how the town officials (headed by the doctor’s brother, the town mayor) were going to do every thing in their power to silence him and discredit his word. However, we were also should what was one of our first twists in a revelation story - Many of the doctor, Thomas Stockmann’s friends who at first supported him, those who you thought would stand next to him flip flopped at the climax at the story. They choose not to do the right thing and betray the revelation in order to keep with their known way of life. They preferred to turn a blind eye to everything that they heard in order to join with the ignorant masses.
I find it interesting that the first book I read under the veil of looking for the troupes brought forth the subject of the betrayal of the prophet. Betrayal is a very important aspect of revelation. On the surface, whomever commits the act of betrayal is shown not to be able to handle the change the message is trying to bring about. On a deeper level, betrayal is something that most prophets will come up against.


The book Feed by M.T. Anderson also plays with the normal, basic tropes, but in a more sublet manner. The story is told from the point of view of Titus, a teenager growing up in a futuristic world in which many people have little chips placed in their heads called feeds. The feeds are to them are what computers are to us, only more advance; they can shop, communicate with each other, share each other memories, surf the web, go to school – all on the feed. That little device became one of the most pivotal aspects of their lives and therefore culture. Because nearly everyone is hooked up to the feed and the feed is so well controlled by the big companies in the world the wielding result is that of a consumer culture – eerie to what our own may become one day. So Titus and a group of his friends decided to go up to a resort on the moon where they meet Violet. Titus and her eventually end up dating and it is her who is revealed to be the prophet of the story as it continues to unfold.
As with what seems to be a common theme with all of these stories, out of all of those that Titus hangs out with, he is the one that seems to notice things that the others can’t or rather just simply don’t, but still decides to go along with the masses. As Violet pointed out when they were at a hospital after their feeds were hacked into:
“ It’s like…,” I said. ‘It's like a squid in love with the sky.’
She was only looking at me, which was nice, I hadn’t felt anything like that for a long time.
She rubbed my head, and she went, “You’re the only one of them that uses metaphor.”
(Pg. 62-63)

Prophets always appear to have a way of gravitating towards those in the masses that have the greatest amount of potential. As with Violet and Titus, she was drawn to him because out of the group of his friends, he stood out. And likewise, the prospective disciples find the prophet to be alluring. A lot of passing on the revelation message to others deals with the art of seduction. In this retrospect revelation is a lot like falling in love. A person can completely fall for it and be head over heels. Or it could be that the prophet and the future follower play a little game of cat and mouse – both not wanting to lose any ground to the other, but at the same time for some inexplicable reason drawn to each other.
Revelations do not always carry the “for the greater good” cogitation that most people have tagged to them, as seen in the Star Wars series. Throughout the movies, both father and son go through their own personal revelations, of which, ends up being apart of a larger, over arching cast of revelations. However, they end up going to opposing sides of the spectrum of good and evil. As I watched this take place, I was wondering why this was allowed to happen – why aren’t all revelations things that change people for the better. As a result, my reasoning is as follows: The outcome of going through a revelation depends on the person that is faced with it.

The idea of the ‘false prophet’ verses the ‘true prophet’ carries back into literature. In the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, the story takes place in an all-boys private school controlled not only by the teachers and administration but also by an all student underground group called the Virigls. They give out assignments that must be carried out by whomever receive them, or else the rest of the student body would shun that person. Archie, the Virigls’ assignment creator, gives a kid named Jerry an assignment which makes him a marked man – The assignment was to refuse to sell any chocolates during the school’s chocolate sell. At first, one would think that this would not be a big deal at all, its just one child who does not bother to participate. However, the assistant headmaster, Brother Leon aims to have the children sell twice as much chocolates has they had the year before. Because of that goal we went to the Vigils to insure that this task is fulfilled. The Vigils only had wanted Jerry to deny the chocolates the chocolates for ten days, merely to mess with Brother Leon, but after those ten days were up, Jerry came to the realization that he did not have to do what he didn’t want to, and so he continues to hold out on joining everyone else till the bitter end of the book.
When one first beings the book, one starts to see Archie as the prophet figure when the revelation megatroupe is applied. He truly does fit the mold of a prophet – he has his disciples and followers that he expresses his word to, everyone holds whatever he says to some golden standard. But then, at the same time we see how all of that puts a large amount of pressure on Archie’s psyche. He knows he is held to such a standard and feels that if he can’t always keep in par with it, everyone would turn against him. But then after seeing how Archie’s assignments forces innocent people into situations that comprises them, makes you begin to rethink the prophet assessment.
On the other hand is Jerry. In contrast to Archie, when he is first introduced he does not have a prophet-like aura at all – we see his attitude is to merely just go through his four years of high school without drawing much attention to himself. He is more or less a loner, and so when he receives that assignment of disobeying on of the most feared teachers in the school, he does so with fear in his heart. But then we understand that during that time, something clicks in his head. He has his own personal revelation that makes him understand how he didn’t have to do what he didn’t want to. His actions from there on out reflect that of what a true bonafided prophet should do – he makes a stand and in doing so everyone else sees and notices. Some others even began to agree with what Jerry was doing.
This is the point of false prophets – if one is not paying attention, they appear to be the ones with the best revelations. I believe that this warning should be taken and adapted when dealing with real actual prophets. You always have to think about whatever revelation that a person or group is trying to spread. Failing to recognize the actual message and falling for the props will lead one to follow a false prophet.


(Compares)
In the Enemy of the People, the awake is the Doctor, along with the few people who agree with him. The others around him who disagree (his brother – the mayor and the rest of the town) are asleep. In that story, to be asleep means to not want realize that germs exist and not wanting to shut things down for a while to clean up the baths. They think that the Doctor is just making up lies.

In Feed, the awake are Violet and Titus (though this is to an extent). The asleep is all of his friends, along with most of the others in society. Those who are like Violet and are a bit more radical in their methods of resisting the dependency on the feed society is enforcing are thought of as crazy and foolish. To be awake in Feed means that one is aware of just how messed up their world is (for example, their dying and corroding earth) and at the very least noticing how the feed and the corporations behind the feed are controlling things.

In both Feed and Enemy of the People, we have that great line separating people to awake to asleep. However, that is not fully true. People as a whole can’t fall into those two categories so neatly. Instead of having things as an A and B situation, it is more like a scope or a range. In Enemy of the People, we have people who are in strict opposition to the doctor, but then we have those that fall somewhere in between – those that see and can on some level understand what Doctor Thomas is saying. This is also true in Feed – There are people that see what is going on and on some level can reflect upon it, but choose to turn a blind eye to it. Yet, still these people will most of the time choose to side against their would be prophets and revealers, and this is largely in part to societal pressure. The vast majority of individuals who don’t understand the message and reject it create this sort of mass consciousness that has a lot of leverage in making others follow it. People that are on the fence with their decision of whether or not to believe in the prophet(s) message, sometimes have a tendency to go with the crowd. It takes a person that is ready or at least willing to bear the scolding of the masses.

When you apply the ideals behind revelations that we just explored to real life, we see that it does not really work as well as what was hoped. Just like in the novels and movies, people fight against revelation for a number of different reasons. These can include being afraid of the change that the revelation will bring – the uncomfortable shift that will occur. They are already use to the current way things are around them, so they can’t think about anything past their situation.
I know that I personally fight against revelations when they do not go in sync with what I wanted / already believe. I don’t care for ideas that contradict my own personal interests. I also tend to resist when the revelation masks itself into something that just seems to be wrong and does not fit what I think are my needs. Yet still, I noticed that just like in movies and books, the revelation keeps starting you in the face until you choose to deal with it. And I know full well that I would be one of those fools who put off coming to terms with it until it finally whacked me in the head a few too many times. I don’t think most people can’t help but to be hard headed because everyone likes to feel in control of their own lives, their own destiny. Revelation, to a degree, forces one to concede and fit into its own rules.

(deconstruction)
In the movie They Live, there is a lot of talk between two opposing forces – they and us. Now in the basic plot line of the film, the word they refers to the aliens that are taking over the world by using subconscious messaging in the things that we all take for granted as merely entertainment – ads, tv, posters, etc. The us refers to the human race – those that the intended slaves and who must band together.
The movie depends on that line in between the “they” and “us”. It's a crucial element in bringing the intended revelation out to the forefront. As a matter of fact, many revelation stories is heavily reliant on such segregation between the two.
Now there are some deeper levels to this separation that will show that the two are not that clear cut from each other as they appear. One example is how the aliens are going about taking over and why. It seems like they go from planet to planet, sucking the natural resources of each. This seems to be similar to how we Americans (or any other highly regarded country) go about doing the same to lesser countries for our own corporate gain. In addition to that I’ve noticed quite a few ways of how both For example the method of the cutting deals with people of a higher social level, promising them a piece of whatever profit is generated can be seen in both instances. In the movie many privileged individuals knew about the existence of the aliens and their plans. Yet they allowed themselves to be hushed, turning a blind eye to the earth’s takeover.
From this standpoint, its fairly clear how those terms of “they” and “us” can be mixed. Such a distinction falls apart and blends in when you look under the hood and check the patterns.


Is the revelation troup just a bunch of lies or does it really work (evaluation).
At this point I would like to question and offer my thoughts on whether or not the mega-troupe of revelation is merely just a lie or if it really does work. This question is one of the most important ones that has come up all year because we’ve spent so much time and effort into reading all of these stories and watching movies that perfect fit into this groove of literature that it is crucial I make an effort to reflect.

My answer to that question is as follows. I think that it does work. It has been said that if the revelation is merely helping people see something they already had an inkling of, then it can’t really be a revelation. But I don’t fully agree with that. I believe that the revelation not only helps them to see whatever it is that they have to, but it also gives them a chance to actually put what they learned into action. I think that you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you decide to do nothing at all with it, then you fall out of the revelation category.
Another reason why I believe that the revelation trope works is how long its been used. The basic outline of the trope has been recycled so many times into so many different cultures and is still prevalent today, as you’ve seen here. If this troupe did not have as much applications or no truth to it, then it would not have survived all this time. People have value into
There may be a psychological purpose as to why the trope appeals to so many creative thinkers and the masses. Plato’s “The Republic” is what caused me to consider this possibility. In The Republic, Plato talks about a cave in which men are imprisoned in chairs by shackles. Their backs are facing the only source of light in the cave – a fire – and they can’t turn their heads around to see what is behind them. Thus, they can only look straight ahead at the cave wall. As a result of this, they are forever seeing the shadows on the wall and thinking that that is reality, while in fact the shadows are just that – shadows of the actual reality. To me this situation reflects our natural way of seeing the world. To a certain extent there is a part of us that perceives reality in that manner – just mere reflections of what’s really there, never the object itself. And because of that, using the revelation trope in stories will then allow for a psychological connection between the readers and the medium that the story is being told to.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Part II Chapter III, first draft (incomplete)

So far it had seemed that he was indeed getting what he wished for; For the most part at least. He had gone through meeting relatives he rarely saw – many of which annoyed him quite a bit. He noticed the way they were treating his aunt Judy oddly. Almost as if she was cursed by the old man’s passing. From what David had learn via somewhat listening to conversations people took for granted he wasn’t paying attention to, his grandfather had just come to visit his daughter, Judy three days before his death. She said she did not notice anything strange about him, he was just his usual self. However, she did say that there was an almost tranquil tone to his voice when he spoke. And that he would look at her for a while, only issue was that he was more looking through her than at her. A day before the old man’s death David’s grandmother had made it to see him. Judy had said they spent a lot of time together, almost as if they were saying their last goodbyes. But the way things had happened was that it was Judy who came across his dead body first, not his wife. And because of that, the others now somehow thought that she was contaminated by such a discovery.

David came back from his own little world to find that just about an hour and a half had past. The s
The old man himself was quite something during his venture alive. It was well known that he liked to travel all over the world. It was amazing – he could never stay in one place for long, but he always came back home, no matter what. Every since his death, David heard more and more about the man he called ‘grandfather’.

He never let his pride get the best of him. Even as a child, he had wisdom beyond his years. And that wisdom only got larger as he grew older…

All of these and more were a part of the numerous anecdotes that had been floating around family and friends. David’s own mother though, had been the source of what David thought to be the most interesting story of all. She had picked on her son’s vague display of emotion and decided to have a few words with him, right before

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Part II, Chapter II second draft

David sat in the last row of his mother’s mini-van. His closest family members were all surrounding him, all of them wearing the same basic ensemble most appropriate for grieving. The black and white pieces of various clothing, mixed and matched in ways that varied from person to person. Even David was dressed to play his part.

He looked around quietly to take in the scene in front of him. The air within the car held a sort of somber tone, as they made their way to the funeral home. Everyone was together yet separated. Trapped within their own little worlds of sorrow. David understood that the adults, being the only ones to really remember his grandfather were in fact truly taking this the hardest. But it was his cousins that he wondered about the most. Whether or not their behavior was out of respect or a collective state of melancholy influenced by their parents had yet to be determined.

David then shifted his attention to the window directly to his left, deciding that focusing too much on it would be a waste. Instead he preferred his head to go on about the past two weeks’ activities…

He had almost turned into a madman. He kept rolling the events of that day in his mind, over and over again, adamant on figuring out what it was and how to re-induce it. His many online searches and New-Age book readings finally brought him some kind of an outcome. Four days after the news of his Grandfather’s passing, David sat in bed thinking about all he had read. His investigation had lead him to the topic of out of body experiences or OBEs for short and so he began to weigh out the possibilities of it being the answer to his problems.

Around a good five minutes into his mental debate, he felt the sweet of call of sleep begin to set in. He did not bother to fight it, he merely just embraced it and fell into a merry slumber, or so he thought. The next thing he remembered was that he awoke. Only thing was it was not his body that was awake. He could feel that part of himself still in the same position he dozed off in, but this, this was something new. This new part of him, the him he embodied now was slightly hovering over the bed. There was a sort of dual presence within him. One that knew and understood the shape that was still on the bed and another that was really just a blob of conciseness. They were in so many ways connected and distant. And he felt all of it. After the brief sense of interest and amusement he held towards being in this state, the bubble of enthusiasm soon broke. He was over come by a sense of fear that accompanied being exposed in such a way. His mind started to think about all of the negative stories he read about people never re-attaching themselves, apparent demons that walked the earth in search of opportunities for harm. All of this made him scramble – for lack of a better word – back to his body, eager to fix the semi-spilt pieces of himself. That panic stayed with him long after he was safely grounded back into his rightful place. And yet, through all of that anxiety his sense of wonder returned. He seemed even more fascinated now, confidant that he was on the right path.

His bout of reminiscence had ended. He looked around himself again to find that everyone was starting to pile out of the car. They had reached the home. One of his younger cousins had turned to him and asked if he was coming. David quickly murmured a sound of affirmation and followed behind, wishing that the day would be over as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Part II, Chapter II first draft

David sat in the last row of his mother’s mini-van. His closest family members were all surrounding him, all of them wearing the same basic ensemble most appropriate for grieving. The black and white pieces of various clothing, mixed and matched in ways that varied from person to person. Even David was dressed to play his part.

He looked around quietly to take in the scene in front of him. The air within the car held a sort of somber tone, as they made their way to the funeral home. Everyone was together yet separated. Trapped within their own little worlds of sorrow. David understood that the adults, being the only ones to really remember his grandfather were in fact truly taking this the hardest. But it was his cousins that he wondered about the most. Whether or not their behavior was out of respect or a collective state of melancholy influenced by their parents had yet to be determined.

David then shifted his attention to the window directly to his left, deciding that focusing too much on it would be a waste. Instead he preferred his head to go on about the past two weeks’ activities…

He had almost turned into a madman. He kept rolling the events of that day in his mind, over and over again, adamant on figuring out what it was and how to re-induce it. His many online searches and New-Age book readings finally brought him some kind of an outcome. Four days after the news of his Grandfather’s passing, David sat in bed thinking about all he had read. His investigation had lead him to the topic of out of body experiences or OBEs for short and so he began to weigh out the possibilities of it being the answer to his problems.

Around a good five minutes into his mental debate, he felt the sweet of call of sleep begin to set in. He did not bother to fight it, he merely just embraced it feel into a merry slumber, or so he thought. The next thing he remembered was that he awoke. Only thing was it was not his body that was awake. He could feel that part of himself still in the same position he dozed off in, but this, this was something new. This new part of him, the him he embodied now was slightly hovering over the bed. There was a sort of dual presence within him. One that knew and understood the shape that was still on the bed and another that was really just a blob of conciseness. They were in so many ways connected and distant. And he felt all of it. After the brief sense of interest and amusment he held towards being in this state, the bubble of enthusiasm soon broke. He was over come by a sense of fear that accompanied being exposed in such a way. His mind started to think about all of the negative stories he read about people never re-attaching themselves, apparent demons that walked the earth in search of opportunities for harm. All of this made him scramble – for lack of a better word – back to his body, eager to fix the semi-spilt pieces of himself.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Part I, Chapter I, First draft

Part I
Chapter I

And so he’s dead, hmm?

Thought David, a 16 year old who just entered his sophomore year of high school. His aunt, the sister of his father was on the other end of phone. David held it in his hands albeit rather loosely. He felt numb. Not sad nor angry, just simply numb. Did that explain his bout of apathy? The lackluster thought he’d just had?

His aunt, now breaking down continued. “I’m sorry to tell you first David. I’d meant to get your mother or father - your father especially – but you picked up the phone and…. Oh my god your grandfather is dead…” Her voice trailed off, the stream of tears blocking any coherent thought.

“Auntie Judy,” David started. “I know, I know. I’ll get my dad for you, please just give me a moment.”

He put the phone down slowly, as if a sound would disrupt her. As he moved further away from the living room, he could still hear her wails of sorrow for her lost father. For this, he began to feel horrible. He began to understand what this would put his family through, and he had no choice but to inform the others.

He found his father in the back yard. He looked at his dad for a moment before calling for his attention.

“Hey, I just heard the phone ring. Who was it?”
“Auntie Judy,” he replied. “Dad it’s really important. Granddad - something happened.”

He watched the look on his father’s face. It went from it’s usual bright-eyed self to a look that epitomized worry and confusion.

They both hurried back silently to the phone where Judy had been waiting, all the while David was still in a state of detachment. He saw as his father picked up the phone, asked a few questions, and fell into the same distress as his sister.

He kept watching and watching, wondering why he could not do more. Why he couldn’t feel anything. But then, it happened. The corners of his vision started to blacken. The darkness ate away at the light until the only thing he could see was what fell within a circle. He began to blink in an futile attempt to fix whatever has happening but it didn’t work. Next everything around him started to break down. He could not see what should have been around him – instead the image that replaced it was quite mesmerizing. It was of what looked to be a stream of luminous treads. The treads were just floating in front of him, moving like wavelengths on a chart. He then simply forgot about everything. He forgot about his grandfather, his dad, even his almost apathetic behavior towards the horrible news. All that mattered now were the thread-like objects here. So close he could almost touch them. So close in fact that….
The jerk came suddenly, harsh and unforgiving. Reality came swirling back into view, giving him whiplash in the process. His breathing became shot, coming in at uneven paces and he felt frantic.

“Hey, hey David. Get up! Get up!”

He was hearing his father’s voice, faint like a whisper. As he inched closer and closer to proper consciousness, he found himself on the floor with his father kneeling over him.

“Look, I know today has been very stressful and all.” His father looked at him, desperately trying to keep himself calm for what he thought to be the sake of his son. “ Go to bed. I’ll take care of very thing else and wait for you mom to get home.”

He then helped David up and helped him to his room. After his father had left the room with one more worried glance, David began to ponder.

What was that? He asked himself. That – whatever it was – has never happened before. Maybe that's why I didn’t feel anything about the news of his death. Maybe it took its toll on me mentally…

He laid back on his bed, eyes struck on the ceiling. He really did not like this, any of it. But somehow he could not get that feeling out of his head. The feeling that he had a fleeting glimpse of something more. Something that had to be explained.

For some time he went on like this, flipping the day’s event over and over in his mind. As sleep finally drew closer, he fell into it with one thought and one thought only:

I’m going to find out what it was. No matter what.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Modern Day Prophet 5/4/08

In class, we have been discussion the revelation troupe and its prophets in terms of literature, film, and music. From all of that work, we see how the troupe and its accompanying elements play out in a realm of the authors’ creation. But what about living, breathing prophets? Where in our world today can we find such individuals? Well, after looking hi and low, I have found one I believe is worthy of being discussed. His name is George Soros, one of the world’s most successful investors. But he is not only interested in matters of finances, he is also interested in leaving the world with a brand new way of thinking – he wants to reconnect the dots that we all have so obediently fastened together to show us just how our old methods just aren't cutting it.
Before actually getting into George and his revelation(s), it’s important to go over his past. He was born in Hungary in 1930 into a Jewish family and was able to escape the Nazi’s advancement into his country. He then moved to England, and soon afterwards moved to America, all the while gaining more and more experience as an investor.
One of his main theories is the theory of reflexivity. As described in a nutshell in a New York Times article gave this explanation of it, in relation to the economy:

[Reflexivity is] The idea is that people’s biases and actions can affect the direction of the underlying economy, undermining the conventional theory that markets tend toward some sort of equilibrium.

To recap, trading markets and the like are influenced by people’s actions and likes and dislikes. When you take the basics of reflexivity without applying it to anything, you end up with the explanation of it being how the cause and effect of something is in fact circular and not linear, as is what is popularly thought. The normally labeled “causes” and “effects” then end up begin closely tied together, influencing each other’s state of existence.
The premise behind reflexivity appears similar to deconstruction. Deconstruction aims to take two binary oppositions and show that they are in fact not binary at all. They are both interconnected. Reflexivity seems to be doing the same general idea with causation. Cause and effect, while not exactly holding a binary opposition to them are still tried as two fairly separate objects. Because A happens B will then also happen as a result. But with reflexivity, B does indeed happen because of A but A within itself is also affected by the end result of B. The degrees of separation are broken down to show how it is a circle of influence between the two or more occurrences. A is dependent on B as much as B is dependent on A.
Soros has also demonstrated a completely faithful following to his own message. He has repeatedly stated that through the use of reflexivity, he has been able to become the mogul that is he. He has also spent a lot of time advocating spreading out the message, like a proper prophet should. Here is an excerpt from a speech of his:

When Rudi Dornbusch invited me to speak at this conference, he gave me a totally free hand in deciding what I wanted to talk about. Well, I want to discuss a subject which fascinates me but doesn’t seem to interest others very much. That is my theory of reflexivity, which has guided me both in making money and in giving money away, but has received very little serious consideration from anybody else… It has been out of print for the last several years but demand has been building up as a result of my increased visibility, not to say notoriety, and now the book is being re-issued. I think this is a good time to get the theory seriously considered.

As he himself states, he has not been taken seriously with the theory, but he still continues to preach its ideals in his writings. In addition to this, he also utilizes it in his actions. When one looks into what he has been able to accomplish, it is difficult not to say that maybe he knows what he saying. I believe that a prophet living in accordance to his own message is a vital part of conveying whatever it may be to the masses – It gives evidence to their target audience of how things can turn out if they listen and follow.
I myself do think that there is some truth to reflexivity. I can see how it applies to the situations that I’ve tested it on, but I do feel that there may be some holes in the theory. One question I have is just what makes an event lead into another event, while it would have gone into any number of other perfectly reasonable actions (why does A lead into B, when it could have gone to C, D, or even E)? Does reflexivity take this into consideration or does it just deal with what did in fact happen and not the possibility of other outcomes? Also when you draw the lines of influence from the result to the cause, can you look beyond the point of the event itself to see how the cause and the result perpetuate themselves in later incidents? Even though I have these questions, I think that reflexivity is worth continuing to explore, if for nothing more than finding answers to my questions.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Start of Modern Day Prophet paper

In class, we have been discussion the revelation troupe and its prophets in terms of literature, film, and music. From all of that work, we see how the troupe and its accompanying elements play out in a realm of the authors’ creation. But what about living, breathing prophets? Where in our world today can we find such individuals? Well, after looking hi and low, I have found one I believe is worthy of being discussed. His name is George Soros, one of the world’s most successful investors. But he is not only interested in matters of finances, he is also interested in leaving the world with a brand new way of thinking – he wants to reconnect the dots that we all have so obediently fastened together to show us just how our old methods just aren't cutting it.

Before actually getting into George and his revelation(s), it’s important to go over his past. He was born in Hungary in 1930 into a Jewish family and was able to escape the Nazi’s advancement into his country. He then moved to England, and soon afterwards moved to America, all the while gaining more and more experience as an investor.

One of his main theories is the theory of reflexivity. As described in a nutshell in a New York Times article gave this explanation of it:
Mr. Soros sad all aspects of his life – finance, philanthropy, even politics – are driven by reflexivity, whish has to do with the feedback loop between people’s understanding of reality and their own actions. Society as a while could learn from his theory he said.
To recap, the

Sunday, April 27, 2008

hannah's essay

My modern day prophet is my mother. She may not be a prophet for everyone, but prophets usually aren’t. Sometime only specific people get the revelation. My mom is a prophet because she is trying to open my eyes, and help me through life and show me that I can do anything I want to if I try hard enough. Obviously I am the ignorant mass, just me, I argue with her, ignore her, and sometimes will flat out tell her she is wrong and do the opposite of what she has asked of me, which causes an unacceptable situation where there is lots of yelling and door slamming. I think though, that the message my mother is trying to show me is an ongoing message, that changes as I grow up. After I make the revelation that my work at school, should take precedence over soccer or hanging out with my friends, it is up to me to follow through and actually try to use the revelation to my advantage. And since the revelation is ongoing, there will be a new message that she has to share with me once I make progress with the one before.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

uupdate - revelation

four pages now. (yay.....)



Revelation Paper for history

Revelations – these play such an important role. They’ve served as recurring external and internal factors in shaping the world around us, manifesting within the trends of history, literature, and art. It is because of this why coming to a vivid understanding of their existence wields a clearer more lucid view of how things around us work.
There are two dictionary meanings of a revelation, both of which are worthy of being properly explored. They are as follows: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world”; “a surprising and previously unknown fact, esp. one that is made known in a dramatic way”. As one can see the first one holds religious connotation that most have associated with the word while the second one is less divine and can be more easily adapted for everyday things.
As stated before, the realm of literature is filled with revelations and its tropes. Tropes are critical parts of stories that continue to reappear throughout the plot. Thus they are what express the revelation for the audience. Example of such tropes are the activist/prophet that goes around spreading their message (the revelation), the dumb masses that the prophet is attempting to wake up, and the opposition that stands in the way of the message striving to stop the prophet’s words before they reach the masses. Most stories have all of these tropes and more. It allows for the most basic of connects to be made between the piece of work and audience.
In the play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, one can see the revelation tropes in actions. The play follows a small town doctor who tries to explain to the masses that their public bathes are infested with germs that can and has made visiting people sick. At first he was able to enlist the help of a few of his friends in the town’s newspaper, but once he came out with the information the vast majority of the towns folk turned against him, including his friends and the mayor, which just so happens to be his own brother. Those who would greatly benefit from the end results reject the doctor’s offer of redemption.
The book Feed by M.T. Anderson also plays with the normal, basic tropes, but in a more sublet manner. The story is told from the point of view of Titus, a teenager growing up in a futuristic world in which many people have little chips placed in their heads called feeds. The feeds are to them are what computers are to us, only more advance; they can shop, communicate with each other, share each other memoires, surf the web, go to school – all on the feed. That little device became one of the most pivotal aspects of their lives and therefore culture. Because nearly everyone is hooked up to the feed and the feed is so well controled by the big companines in the world the wielding result is that of a consumer culture – eerie to what our own may become one day. So Titus and a group of his friends decided to go up to a resort on the moon where they meet Violet. Titus and her eventually end up dating and it is her who is revealed to be the prophet of the story as it continues to unfold.
As with what seems to be a common theme with all of this stories, out of all of those that Titus hangs out with, he is the one that seems to notice things that the others can’t, but still decides to go along with the masses. As Violet pointed out when they were at a hospital after their feeds were hacked into;

Revelations do not always carry the “for the greater good” cogitation that most people have tagged to them, as seen in the Star Wars series. Throughout the movies, both father and son go through their own personal revelations, of which, ends up being apart of a larger, over arching cast of revelations. However, they end up going to opposing sides of the spectrum of good and evil. As I watched this take place, I was wondering why this was allowed to happen – why aren’t all revelations things that change people for the better. As a result, my reasoning is as follows: The outcome of going through a revelation depends on the person that is faced with it.
The idea of the ‘false prophet’ verses the ‘true prophet’ carries back into literature. In the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, the story takes place in an all-boys private school controlled not only by the teachers and administration but also by an all student underground group called the Virigls.

When you apply the ideals behind revelations that we just explored to real life, we see that it does not really work as well as what was hoped. Just like in the novels and movies, people fight against revelation for a number of different reasons. These can include being afraid of the change that the revelation will bring – the uncomfortable shift that will occur. They are already use to the current way things are around them, so they can’t think about anything past their situation.
I know that I personally fight against revelations when they do not go in sync with what I wanted / already believe. When it contradicts my own internal plans. I also tend to resist when the revelation masks itself into something that just seems to be wrong and does not fit my own needs. But I noticed that just like in movies and books, the revelation keeps starting you in the face until you choose to deal with it.
(Matrix part) I think that I would take the red pill.

another draft

Revelation Paper for history

Revelations – these play such an important role. They’ve served as recurring external and internal factors in shaping the world around us, manifesting within the trends of history, literature, and art. It is because of this why coming to a vivid understanding of their existence wields a clearer more lucid view of how things around us work.
There are two dictionary meanings of a revelation, both of which are worthy of being properly explored. They are as follows: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world”; “a surprising and previously unknown fact, esp. one that is made known in a dramatic way”. As one can see the first one holds religious connotation that most have associated with the word while the second one is less divine and can be more easily adapted for everyday things.
As stated before, the realm of literature is filled with revelations and its tropes. Tropes are critical parts of stories that continue to reappear throughout the plot. Thus they are what express the revelation for the audience. Example of such tropes are the activist/prophet that goes around spreading their message (the revelation), the dumb masses that the prophet is attempting to wake up, and the opposition that stands in the way of the message striving to stop the prophet’s words before they reach the masses. Most stories have all of these tropes and more. It allows for the most basic of connects to be made between the piece of work and audience.
In the play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, one can see the revelation tropes in actions. The play follows a small town doctor who tries to explain to the masses that their public bathes are infested with germs that can and has made visiting people sick. At first he was able to enlist the help of a few of his friends in the town’s newspaper, but once he came out with the information the vast majority of the towns folk turned against him, including his friends and the mayor, which just so happens to be his own brother. Those who would greatly benefit from the end results reject the doctor’s offer of redemption.
(Matrix part) I think that I would take the red pill.
Revelations do not always carry the “for the greater good” cogitation that most people have tagged to them, as seen in the Star Wars series. Throughout the movies, both father and son go through their own personal revelations, of which, ends up being apart of a larger, over arching cast of revelations. However, they end up going to opposing sides of the spectrum of good and evil. As I watched this take place, I was wondering why this was allowed to happen – why aren’t all revelations things that change people for the better. As a result, my reasoning is as follows: The outcome of going through a revelation depends on the person that is faced with it.
The idea of the ‘false prophet’ verses the ‘true prophet’ carries back into literature. In the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, the story takes place in an all-boys private school controlled not only by the teachers and administration but also by an all student underground group called the Virigls.

When you apply the ideals behind revelations that we just explored to real life, we see that it does not really work as well as what was hoped. Just like in the novels and movies, people fight against revelation for a number of different reasons. These can include being afraid of the change that the revelation will bring – the uncomfortable shift that will occur. They are already use to the current way things are around them, so they can’t think about anything past their situation.
I know that I personally fight against revelations when they do not go in sync with what I wanted / already believe. When it contradicts my own internal plans. I also tend to resist when the revelation masks itself into something that just seems to be wrong and does not fit my own needs. But I noticed that just like in movies and books, the revelation keeps starting you in the face until you choose to deal with it.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

2nd draft of Revelation Paper

Revelation Paper for history

Revelations – these played such an important role. They’ve served as recurring external and internal factors in shaping the world around us, manifesting within the trends of history, literature, and art. It is because of this why coming to a vivid understanding of their existence wields a clearer more lucid view of how things around us work.
There are two dictionary meaning of a revelation both of which are worthy of being properly explored. They are as follows: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world”; “a surprising and previously unknown fact, esp. one that is made known in a dramatic way”. As one can see the first one holds religious connotation that most have associated with the word while the second one is less divine and can be more easily adapted for everyday things.
As stated before, the realm of literature is filled with revelations and its tropes. Tropes are critical parts of stories that continue to reappear throughout the plot. Thus they are what express the revelation for the audience. Example of such tropes are the activist/prophet that goes around spreading their message (the revelation), the dumb masses that the prophet is attempting to wake up, and the opposition that stands in the way of the message striving to stop the prophet’s words before they reach the masses. Most stories have all of these tropes and more. It allows for the most basic of connects to be made between the piece of work and audience.
In the play An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, one can see the revelation tropes in actions. The play follows a small town doctor who tries to explain to the masses that their public bathes are infested with germs that can and has made visiting people sick. At first he was able to enlist the help of a few of his friends in the town’s newspaper, but once he came out with the information the vast majority of the towns folk turned against him, including his friends and the mayor, which just so happens to be his own brother. Those around and who would greatly benefit from the results in the end reject the doctor’s offer of redemption.

Revelations do not always carry the “for the greater good” cogitation that most people have tagged to them, as seen in the Star Wars series. Throughout the moives, both father and son go through their own personal revelations, of which, ends up being apart of a larger, over arching cast of revelations. However, they end up going to opposing sides of the spectrum of good and evil. As I watched this take place, I was wondering why this was allowed to happen – why aren’t all revelations things that change people for the better. As a result, my reasoning is as follows: The outcome of going through a revelation depends on the person that faced with it.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Break habits

I was somewhat successful in getting work done. I finished my book and wrote a response, but I feel the response is not as good as I want it to be. Therefore I will hold off on it for another day or two, polishing it up.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Revelation Paper for history - first draft

Revelations – these played such an important role. They’ve served as recurring external and internal factors in shaping the world around us, manifesting within the trends of history, literature, and art. It is because of this why coming to a vivid understanding of their existence wields a clearer more lucid view of how things around us work.
The dictionary meaning of a revelation is two fold, one of religious connotation that most have associated with the word and the other is less divine. The two are as followed: “the divine or supernatural disclosure to humans of something relating to human existence or the world”; “a surprising and previously unknown fact, esp. one that is made known in a dramatic way”.
As stated before, the realm of literature is fulled with revelations and its tropes. Tropes are critital parts of stories that continue to reappear throughout the plot. Thus they are what express the revelation for the audience. Example of such tropes are the activist/prophet that goes around spreading their message (the revelation), the dumb masses that the prophet is attempting to wake up, and the opposition that stands in the way of the message striving to stop the prophet’s words before they reach the masses. Most stories have all of these tropes and more. It allows for the most basic of connects to be made between the piece of work and audience.

New beginnings

Its the start of a new semester and therefore new papers as well. This time, the class and papers pertain to revelations and their relation to the world around us. So please enjoy these next rounds of posting, hopefully we can all have some more fun with ideas.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

empathy paper

Our interactions with other human beings are some of the most important occurrences within our daily lives. We all hold abilities that range from helping to mend someone to being the driving force that broke a person in the first place. It is because we’ve been entrusted with such power, that we also must deal with the strain of the haphazardly woven responsibilities of the deal/package. Understanding where and how the responsibilities to ourselves and to others come into play is a necessary component for understanding the most basic elements of empathy. Once one has a grasp of such things, the use of empathy can be properly put to use whenever one comes into contact with others.
The simplest definition of true Empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”. While there is a concrete meaning behind that word, its real essence and implications are much harder to pin down and implement. The majority of people possess many selfish tendencies when engaged in conversations with another person. The complete list would be a pointless venture, but some examples include focusing the conversation on you only, being overly cruel, and competing over verbal dominance. Such things prohibit any connection from being established and consequently there can be no presence of empathy; no common ground for it to exist on.
The issue of listening relates back to empathy. When most people have a friend or someone close to them they usually try to console them. However, normal methods used for consoling are not empathic in nature. They are instead trying to pacify the person, while the true empathic thing to do would be to help them explore their feelings. If one is aiming to have more empathy for others in life, then this would be the preferred thing to do, but as in everything else in this world, there are some drawbacks. While you do connect to the person on a deep level, you may end up only making their situation worst. Thus the best method you should use is logic – there are times when you will have to pacify someone to help them along and there will be times when true empathy is needed. More than likely, you will know when what is needed.
Touch is also an important element of interacting with others and empathy. It’s where the physical component comes into play. The presence of touch and the lack of it convey how one is feeling to those around them. For example, if someone does what want to be touched then may they jerk away, go stiff, or even curl their body inward onto itself – as if to minimize the amount of space they’re taking up. But when someone wants to be touched, or are just comfortable, their movements become infinitely more open. In contrast to curling up, they may move in rhythm to the other person, or they may even first engage in physical contact with another person first.

first draft of Meaning of Life – Final Reflection Paper

From this course, there has been so much that I’ve learned this semester. The wealth of knowledge makes the semester one of the very best I’ve ever had at School of the Future. Never before did I attend a class that asked me to look around me, as well as inside of myself and attempt to answer the great meaning of life question. Yet, after going through all of the course work, I have decided on an answer. The meaning of life is to experience everything and anything around you and to live as you see fit. I, after many months of work, came upon this answer after completing and learning many new skills. Of which, I will clarify through a few of the following lenses.

The first and foremost this that I would like to explore is the “Thoughtfulness of orientation to life” requirement. This class has allowed me to have some very detailed and cognitive conversations, the sort of which I thought that I would only have in college. These conversations not only happened in the classroom, but also took place outside with people I would never have guessed even bothered to take notice of things as well. And this is because I was always being asked to open my eyes to the way things are around me, notice them, and then share my viewpoints on the matter. I ended but becoming a more observant creature of thought. I was more willing to listen to other points of views, especially those that challenged my own views. They were the ones that I paid close attention to. I found being challenged either made me depend my thoughts and if I could not logically argue anymore, I went back and edited my viewpoint with the lessons that I learned.
Now I will discuss the “Writing” part of this class. This class has made me produce some very interesting ideas on paper that I never thought I could ever find the words for. While there was some chunks that I felt really I did not connect with, there were others that I felt resonated deep within me. I noticed this as I read through my snowball paper. The deeper I went into the writings the deeper and acute the ideas that I was expressing became. I espieally would like to point out my chunk about dreams. This was the chunk that I had the most connection with and therefore had the most pleasurable time writing. I remember my three-paragraph first draft of that piece. It really crappy, but it help
Last but not least, I got better at my Digital communication skills. Before entering this class, I played around with the idea of creating a blog. But I never actually went through with it. I thought that most of my thoughts would be pointless and worth putting up. Yet, once I created a blog and started to post my papers up on it, I had this strange feeling. The best word I can think of to name it would be enjoyment. I was happy that I had my own personal thoughts swimming out there for the world to see. It was almost as if they did matter. And because they did it taught me that before posting anything online, one should have put a lot of thought and effort into their work. Thus I made it a point to try and give most of what I wrote a proper effort. That way whatever I allowed myself to share was adding to the amount of intellect on the Internet. Not contributing to the mind numbing content that exist in overwhelming numbers.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

My contributions to the class

As of lately I've posted up comments on Crispin's, Yusuke's, and Wilbert's blogs. I'm trying to be as helpful as I can with my comments. As a matter-of-fact, I'm trying to help crispin find a way to sting all of his chunks into one.
Also I've most of the time been willing to share my thoughts with everyone in the class. I tried to keep the thought pool active when most of my classmates did not really bother - even if that meant the class discussion became one between two or three people.

"I get how you feel about touching, but what about people who are too touchy? I know as a fact that you've gotten mad at a certain person for the way that they did touch you (or rather didn't). So to add on the this paper, you may want to talk about that."

""Dreams are, in my opinion, a collaboration of the unconscious and the conscious, with the unconscious dominating one’s dreams. "

I agree with you perfectly. This is the same way I feel and I also think that for any dream that I have, its my job to try and realize them."

"I would like for you to talk ab out lucid dreaming some more. I think you can get really deep into it if you wanted to. You can write about if you believe in it and/or if it ever happened to you."

"Hmm. You're intro is more towards dreams. Is that the theme that is most common through your work? If not then I would suggest that you go and add something that can include your other parts - it would make it easier for you to then tie everything together."

Monday, January 21, 2008

Most of the first paper in one nice long post

As the title says, this is most of the first paper. Its only missing chunk seven and the conclusion. Both of thoses are not good yet.

The awareness that has been bestowed upon us is an amazing thing. Its sheer complexity has been the focus of some of the greatest philosophical movements all throughout time, and so in my Insight into Daily Life class, we’ve decided to tackle this phenomenal occurrence in an attempt to see for ourselves what the are limit and depth consciousness possess. Through the process of introspection, I’ve indeed gained some valuable insight on the essence of my own existence. In, turn, I’m now able to see the trends that reside within by using R.D. Lang’s argument as a focal point of reference. In the end, knowing oneself is a truly important concept to grasp in order to even begin to comprehend the meaning of life, or life in general.
Conclusion: After all is said and done, R.D Lang’s arugment, while fairly valid, one must use their own logic and experiences to figure out how to live their life. Lang only offers us a chance to reveal what he considers to be our true selves, but this is in no way the only path to discovering such a thing.

The task is to notice and understand the world around us in its entirety. But we can't do this. We only can grasp bits and pieces of what is really there.
Adults have lost their awareness of their inner thoughts. And in terms of the body, they keep enough sensations to move correctly and to allow the most basic feelings for survival. But from that they have nothing else. So much so, that much extensive levels of un-learning is needed for anyone who wishes to see the world a new.
The way that things are now expresses a sad destruction of our experience, the consequence of the separation from our experiences. “What we think of as normal is nothing more than a creation of repression, denial, and many other actions of demolition.” And it’s this kind of “normal” that tends to look down on others. The normally alienated people, because they act like everyone else, is labeled as sane, while others outside of this are bad or mad.
“The state of being asleep, unconscious, of being out of one's mind, is the state of the normal person.”
We act in accordance to how we see things thus if our experiences are destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. We also will have lost our true self – our humanity. People can destroy humanity in each other because we are not separated from one another. Every action we do to others changes them in some way.
We act on what we see the world as, and this rule is even true when things conceal themselves from us rather than shows us its true colors. We are not capable of thinking about the actions that are bringing us to this dangerous thin line. We are less than what we can be because what we think is smaller than what we know, which when it boils down to it, is smaller than what really is there.
However, there is a chance, a possibility when a new baby is born. Retrieval may take place. Every new kid is a new light that can stand out in the darkness. Who are we to say that it is hopeless?

I personally find what the author of this piece is saying to be true. We are all taught to focus on only a few things in life, thus causing us to lose sight our what we can feel. Now that I'm in between being a child and an adult I do see me losing parts of myself. But from what I've noticed taking place I must ask this question: How do we go about regaining what we've lost? Especially when we are constantly bombarded with the forces that caused us to be this way in the first place. The best answer that I've been able to create on my own is that we must consciously take a step back, and remind ourselves to look at what’s around us. And then, after we've done that, we must try our best to analyze what things truly are. But of course, this is easier said than done, and we can never fully grasp reality to its fullest degree, but at least we've done something rather than nothing. If we do this we've taken the first steps. And if enough of us do this, we may be able to give this world a better version of ourselves that it so readily deserves.
“We act in accordance to how we see things thus if our experiences are destroyed, our behavior will be destructive.”
This is the line that I feel that, if for nothing else, must be understood by all those who read it. And it acts as the backbone to my statement above. It is the reason why shifting our outlook on the world is so important. Because how we act and what we do relies so much on what we perceive, changing perception affects everything with our lives. Hence why one must make sure that they are aiming for something more positive in order to receive positive thoughts and actions. If not then they are only leading themselves down the ladder that should be meant to climb upward. For as bad as we are now, we've yet to yet rock bottom, so we must keep our heads at least above water and keep moving forward to prevent that.

When I was taking part in the various sensory awareness exercises, my attention was brought to many new experiences. For example, during the exercise in which we had to find our way back to the class blindfolded, I noticed how many other senses became enhanced when we lost the use of our eyes. My ability to hear took its place as my main source of information, along with my memories of the area I was in. In addition, there was a nagging feeling I had. I was more aware of things around me just from their relation to my body, however even if nothing was near me, it merely felt like I would walk into something. It is hard to put into words but it was as if the air was more active and my skin was noticing the signals. The last item of interest was that I felt some sort of tingling in my eyes. In addition to this, either in my mind’s eye or in the back of my eyelids I swear I saw when I paid attention, little golden sparks dancing around. I’ve noticed them before, and they only seem to be there if the tingling sensation is present. And as many times as I’ve seen them, I never really stopped and asked why they were there. I suppose that I just looked over them as useless information. 

After doing the sensory awareness exercises, I do find Laing’s points to hold true in many aspects. It is very important to be in the here and now. This has the potential to greatly increase the value of our lives.
However, I also I think that there is a greater advantage to be gained from having enough wisdom to know when to be physically aware and when to be the so-called “floating mind with a body”. In the world that we live in, there are times and events that call for certain mental responses from us. For example, school. Some activities need for you to physically aware but the majority of them calls for us to be making good use of our mental being. Even as I am righting this now, I can feel some parts of my body, but overall my awareness is rooted within my thoughts. But in times when one is just walking down the street or waiting for something, it may be better just to relax and take in all that is around you, instead of just being trapped in your head.

My reaction to Lang before starting this unit was that I felt he was saying some very insightful thoughts. His ideas were not shocking to me because I’ve read articles dealing with similar topics, however he was the first to discuss alienation to such a degree. 
My reaction to Lang now that I’ve done this unit is that of understanding. As I said before, I got what he was saying. I recognized his theory for what it was and then carried on. But doing this unit really brought it home for me. I gained a deeper grasp of his words. I believe that Lang’s point of our forgetting of childhood – not only the content but also the flavor is for the most part true. The nature of memories is that they become blurred and muddy over time – a form of mental corrosion. We are then left with bits and pieces, sometimes not even sure if they really happened or if our minds had created it for no apparent reason. I myself have memories of dreams that seemed so real that the barrier between real life and them has broken down. And this is how it is for my childhood. I am certain of some memories in their realness, yet there are others that I have to question.
Pictures play a great role in helping keep a hold of memories. They serve as great anchors of thought, allowing us to recapture what was lost. I remember, as a part of this project, going through boxes of pictures with my mother. Almost each one seemed to bring back a memory of me from the deepest depths. Her face just lit up. Yet for me, only a few really brought me back to an event, but I was able to remember little chunk of things in the pictures be it a toy or a place, so everything was not completely dead and dull.
Along with pictures, scents and hearing stories about yourself as a child can help as well. Scent is said to be one of the senses most tied to memory. There are certain smells that as soon as I pick them up in my head, they invoke a particular feeling or takes me back to something I’ve experienced long ago. I’m willing to bet that everyone has at least one scent they can identify with in some way. And going further than memory, some scents, new and old, can make us feel safe and comfortable or can make us feel disgusted and awkward. As for hearing stories, sometimes I do remember the event. Having the story being told to me can help to guide the memory, but most of the time it just feels strange. Take, for example, my mother’s tales of how bad I apparently was when I was little, like 5 years of age and younger. She likes to tell people about how embarrassing I was when she would take me with her when she went out shopping and to me it feel seems like a different people. I have no conscience recollection of me beating any male who dared to speak to her and when I picture it in my mind, using what she described I’m merely watching a little version of myself running around attacking people – it is all in third person. And honestly, I just can’t see myself, the way I am now, doing such things.

In R.D. Lang’s paper he said that we don’t pay attention to our dreams. And if we were to be aware of them, it would help us in waking life. I do believe that he is correct. I think that dreams are windows to deepest thoughts. Being able to understand them would help us become more of who we want to be. But most people are not able to do this. Dreams are treated as something that is not real. Many just continue with their lives just ignoring them. Our society on a whole is one that thinks of anything that does not give concert evidence as unimportant. However, dreams are apart of our realities. Everything that we experience is. Thus it is illogical for anyone to rid himself or herself of a piece of life them don’t like or wish to understand. 

Lucid dreaming is an important tool for reaching the sub-conscious. Lucid dreaming is when you becoming aware that you are dreaming as you sleep. When it happens, one can watch how things play out closely or them could even control what takes place. The reason why it is such an important tool is that dreams are said to be extensions of your own thoughts – if you’re able to interact with them then you can gain a new perspective on yourself. “Dreams are the thread that leads us to and from ourselves.”
There are many techniques that can be used to experience lucid dreaming. One popular prerequisite is keeping a dream journal. A journal helps to keep track of dreams and progress. It also helps with your ability to recall dreams. However, my own use of a journal of this sort was short lived. I tried to keep it but I found it difficult to repeatedly go to it. Getting to lucid dreaming itself, my favorite method is the use of something called Wake-initiation of lucid dreams (WILD). It is described as “when the sleeper enters REM sleep with unbroken self-awareness directly from the waking state”(wikipedia). Basically you carry your awareness from when you’re awake to when you’re sleeping. To me it is a bit of a shoot or miss method. By this I mean that it is possible to have a lucid dreaming, but since most of the time I miss that goal and end up in something else. I’ve seen hypnagogic images and felt sleep paralysis and the popular vibrations at a rarer extent. Because of all of the times I’ve messed up and botched the lucid dreams, I have spent a lot of time playing with these things. The hypanagogic images I’ve seen have been fun. I sometimes see patterns of light and it even can seem as if I’m looking around my room through closed eyes. As for the sleep paralysis, this is my far the most interesting occurrence. It is said that the scientific reason behind why it happens is that chemicals are released that causes the body to almost ‘shut down’ so that it does not act out your dreams. But when you regain (or rather keep) your awareness as you fall asleep you can find yourself in that state. You are there, fully alert to what is going around you, yet you can move. Usually when I first get there I’m calm. I take a look around and try to keep relaxed. But at some point I always start to think of things that can end up freighting me. It’s as if my thoughts go on a rampage, running through everything they can. The next thing I know I become alert of something that was not next to me before.
It feels like a presence. Most of the time it is simply there. Possibly just watching me. Yet it is an uneasy presence. I’m not comfortable having it around. There have been times that I’ve tried to talk to it. I wanted to see if it would answer me back somehow. Normally it would just not reply but there was time once I asked if it was god or something of that realm and things went over badly. The presence seemed to become malicious and hypanagogic images flooded my mind. There was so much fear in me that I went mad with trying to regain control over my body and since then I never ever asked that question again. I’ve actually had a friend of mine chastise me for even trying to ask it that.
It would seem that I’m not alone in feeling this presence or whatever it may be. I’ve recently started the book “The Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James. On page 71 he gives an account from an informant who wrote about his encounter with something like what I’ve felt.
"Quite early in the night I was awakened…I felt as if I had been aroused intentionally, and at first thought some one was breaking into the house… I then turned on my side to go to sleep again, and immediately felt a consciousness of a presence in the room, and singular to state, it was not the consciousness of a live person, but of a spiritual presence. This may provoke a smile, but I can only tell you the fact as they occurred to me. I do not know how to better describe my sensations than by simply stating that I felt a consciousness of a spiritual presence…. I felt also at the same time a strong feeling of superstitious dread, as if something strange and fearful were about to happen."
As I read this passage and those around it, felt as if vindicated in someway. As if I was not crazy, or rather if I am, then at least I am not the only one.

Yet that was not the only time I’ve felt fear during sleep paralysis. When I’m in state, if I’m not dealing with the presence, I’m thinking about random things and trying to experiment with what I can do. I find that generally my ability to visualize becomes very sharpened. I also notice that I can let my mind wonder and sooner or later I fall asleep. But if I try to let go of my grasp on my body, I may start to feel the vibrations. For me at first they are nice and calm. They feel gentle. But I normally have a hard time letting go. I have to force myself to unless I’m really tired. Tiredness seems to bring the vibrations at a quicker pace. But after they’ve come and I let myself drift into them they take over. It really does feel like being engulfed in them. And they don’t really cut through my body. They always enter from my head or feet and travels in almost vertical lines. The vibrations can get so bad that I always get too scared to continue. They really are unsettling, as many times as I’ve felt them.

An interesting question about dreams is whom are they happening to? Are them happening to you or someone else and you are just watching, as if they are movies? It is my firm belief that dreams happen to you, not something, or anyone else. People who say that their dreams happen to something else just don’t wish to talk responsibility or accept that part of their existence. 
If I was to say that the experiences that I described earlier never happened to me but to something that is not me, I would be lying to myself. There is no way for me to deny them. I was fully aware of my surroundings as they took place so I can’t say I was not there. Also they have left such a lasting impression upon me that if I were not to accept them, I would only be stoning myself.
Before entering this unit, as you should be already able to tell, I’ve had a lot of interesting experiences with dreams. I’ve always been mindful of them. I collected books and scoured the Internet for information about dreams. I think it is because of my time investment to the subject that lead me to be able to have positive results with lucid dreaming and just remembering the dreams that I’ve had. However, I noticed that I couldn’t force it. When I do, the average amount of dreams I can purposely manipulate drops. I have to let them happen at a near random basis. However the best way of going about things for me would going to sleep with the intention of remembering or anything else that I wish to do.

The unit we are now in is mainly about thinking. We’ve explored how we normally think, how we can think about our thinking and why it is that we do that. This was all in response to one of R.D. Lang’s arguments, in which he states that most of us who think that we’re smart really are not, unless if is in self-interest. He goes on to say that a lot of our so-called ‘original’ thoughts are not original but really are conformist in nature. I personal reaction to this is that I understand his basis for that theory. It does make sense and it does hold true for many people. When I took at a topic such as politics and see the ideas that exist, I see that most of them are merely in circulation. They reuse so many thoughts that others have already stated that it is extremely hard to find something that is ‘fresh’ to the whole situation. And as for your good thoughts being mostly in your favor I believe this is correct as well. We as humans do have an inert sense of selfishness in all of us. It is fully understandable that we make sure ourselves are fully taken care of before looking out for others around us.
One of the issues we explored was how automatic thinking works. Automatic thinking is when we act on the first thought that pops up in your head, in response to something. For example, if I were to say, “Think of blue” your most likely initial thought would either be of the color blue or something relating to it. We don’t have a real sense of control over it. Automatic thinking then goes deeper in that we live most of our lives in an automatic manner. A lot of things that we do are merely done without any thought about why we’re doing it. This form of thought can be a useful to those in positions of power. Since automatic thinking is one of the most popular ways of thinking, it benefits the controlling party because the majority would not stop to ask questions.
In addition to this we also usually have second thoughts. The notion of second thoughts seems to be a counter-balance. Where our initial thoughts are, for the most part, selfish and egoistical at times, second thoughts take into condition of the situation for more of what it really is.
One way to remedy automatic thinking is to become more metacognitive in daily life. Metacognition is defined as being aware of one’s own thought processes. In class we were given mind puzzles to allow us to experience how metacongition is implemented. Our teacher would pose a riddle to us and we would try to get the answer. After a few minutes of contemplation we would then write down how we went about solving the problem. One riddle was as follows: There is a team of scientists that were on frozen tundra. They discovered a male human body stuck in the ice. They then set out to free the body and before they were done, one of scientists yells out “It’s Adam.” And she was right. How come? A few of us instantly yelled out whatever answer popped out into our heads – once again, automatic thought processes are work there – but we were all wrong. Thus in reaction to that, we retreated into our minds and thought about things on our own. At the end we identified some of the strategies that we used in an attempt to find the answer. We found that a lot of us went back to the beginning of the riddle then systematically broke it into parts and went through each, one at a time. We called this the complete search of the narrow. Others had visualized the situation or contextualized it in order to “understand the little by understanding the big it’s apart of.”

First draft of 2nd paper ~ three paragraphs

History Paper on Empathy
Our interactions with other human beings are some of the most important occurrences within our daily lives. We all hold abilities that range from helping to mend someone to being the driving force that broke a person in the first place. It is because we’ve been entrusted with such power, that we also must deal with the strain of the haphazardly woven responsibilities of the deal/package. Understanding where and how the responsibilities to ourselves and to others come into play is a necessary component for understanding the most basic elements of empathy. Once one has a grasp of such things, the use of empathy can be properly put to use whenever one comes into contact with others.

The simplest definition of true Empathy is “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”. While there is a concrete meaning behind that word, its real essence and implications are much harder to pin down and implement. The majority of people possess many selfish tendencies when engaged in conversations with another person. The complete list would be a pointless venture, but some examples include focusing the conversation on you only, being overly cruel, and competing over verbal dominance. Such things prohibit any connection from being established and consequently there can be no presence of empathy; no common ground for it to exist on.

Touch is also an important element in interacting with others. It’s where the physical component comes into play. The presence of touch and the lack of it convey how one is feeling to those around them. For example, if someone does what want to be touched then may they jerk away, go stiff, or even curl their body inward onto itself – as if to minimize the amount of space they’re taking up. But when some wants to be touched, or are just comfortable, their movements become infinitely more open. In contrast to curling up, they may move in rhythm to the other person, or they may even first engage in physical contact with another person first.