February 17, 2008 We are Staying Awake to our intentions, sensibilities and curiosities while attending our experiences at hand. Subscription Management — Essays — Take It, It’s Yours New Solar Minimum Answers to Curiosities Thinking before Believing Focused Excellence author, publisher, originator of this ezine, Staying Awake. Graphic and Web Design Newsletter Production Life Coaching DavidMoorhead.com 1+ 214 341 5599 Email Staying Awake I bring together fun-loving, thoughtfully curious and dynamically creative people! That’s the possibility I bring to clients’ businesses. ~ DM I think with intuition. The basis of true thinking is intuition. Indeed, it is not intellect, but intuition which advances humanity. Intuition tells a man his purpose in life. One never goes wrong following his feelings. I don’t mean emotions, I mean feelings, for feelings and intuition are one. ~ Albert Einstein (b 1879) Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. ~ Plato (b 423 BCE), helped define philosophical foundations of Western culture, authored philosophical dialogues, mathematician, founded the Academy in Athens Cosmology One of the three philosophies in metaphysics is cosmology: The study of the origin and evolution of Universe, especially with such of its characteristics as space, time, causality, and choice. Besides mathematical equations and scientific interpretations, cosmology is philosophies and stories telling how the physical Universe and our planetary home have influenced biotic forms over millennia. One’s personal cosmology distinguishes trainings and educations, relations with other humans and other biotic forms in local geographical environs. ~ DM Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues. ~ Thomas Hobbes (b 1588), English political philosopher What we become depends on what we read after all the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is the collection of books. ~ Thomas Carlyle (b 1795), Scottish essayist, satirist, reared in a strict Calvinist family Faith which does not doubt is dead faith. ~ Miguel de Unamuno (b 1864), Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher All this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country’s pride. ~ Bertrand William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (b 1872), British philosopher, logician, mathematician The awareness of the ambiguity of one’s highest achievements (as well as one’s deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity. ~ Paul Johannes Tillich (b 1886), German-American theologian, Christian existentialist philosopher No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the instrument [of] the Incorporated National Will. … When our dictator turns up you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and he will stand for everything traditionally American. And nobody will ever say “Heil” to him, nor will they call him “Führer” or “Duce.” But they will greet him with one great big, universal, democratic, sheeplike bleat of “O.K., Chief! Fix it like you wanna, Chief! Oh Kaaaay!” ~ Dorothy Thompson (b 1893), American journalist, the inspiration for principal character in the film Woman of the Year starring Katharine Hepburn, 1942 A tragic indicator of the values of our civilization is that there’s no business like war business. ~ Douglas Mattern (b 1933), author, peace activist We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 AM of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. ~ Joan Didion (b 1934), American writer, journalist, essayist, novelist Hover your cursor to see Answers to Curiosities. What in nature might become the next scientific and policy issue? “With more than half of all soils on Earth cultivated for food crops, grazed, or logged, how to sustain Earth’s soils is becoming a major scientific and policy issue,” said Daniel Richter, a Duke University soil scientist. His paper appears in the December issue of the research journal Soil Science. Refer Physorg dot com What is geophagy? Pronounced: gee-ah-fah-gee. Most often seen in rural or preindustrial societies among pregnant women and children, geophagy is the practice of eating earthy or soil-like substances such as clay, and chalk, in order to obtain essential nutrients such as sulfur and phosphorus from the soil. Refer Wikipedia. What warning is printed on tubes of toothpaste, and is fluoride inferred? The warning: ‘Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.’ Key concepts by the editors of Scientific American online magazine, January, 2008: Researchers are intensifying their scrutiny of fluoride, which is added to most public water systems in the USA. Some recent studies suggest over consumption of fluoride can raise risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, brain and thyroid gland. A 2006 report by a committee of the National Research Council recommended the federal government lower its current limit for fluoride in drinking water because of health risks to citizens. Refer Sciam dot com What is the meaning of the Internal Revenue Service to the USA citizenry? The IRS code flourishes by authoritarian states of physical intimidation and mental tyranny. If there is a law requiring income tax payments, where is that law printed? The federal government itself refuses to provide the American people, who are coerced to this extraction of their private property, an underlying legal justification. There is no Constitutional basis for tax on the wages of Americans; there is neither law nor statute that requires the average American worker in the private sector to pay a direct unapportioned tax, or to file a 1040, on their labor in compensation for their services. Refer documentary, America: Freedom to Fascism, produced by Aaron Russo, 2005; duration 109 minutes. What was one error in the award winning global warming documentary? When Lonnie Thompson was pressed to make an appropriate public announcement, given the high-profile nature of the ice core sampling error, Ellen Mosley Thompson, his wife and co-author, stood up and offered that it was Gore’s error, not theirs, so they had no responsibility for it, and in any event there was no forum in which to make a correction. Lonnie Thompson was on the Science Advisory Board for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth prior to its release in April 2006. Refer Climate Audit dot org, and Icecap dot us. Could this be Universe’s conspicuous awareness in action? Sometimes click videos twice to begin. ¹ As international citizenries’ upsets and Earth’s natural catastrophes cascade further into this decade, it seems the healthy thing to do is keep our conversations and imaginations embracing our intuitive wakefulness, our who of being. By practicing inquiry into every direction imaginable, our fearless quests for more information—all possibilities, all tendencies, all intentions—may intuitively neutralize pervasive psychological controls. Fated religious fundamentalism, political radicals, colossal debtor and slavery systems, radio frequency identifications (RFID), and intrusive USA armed security are psychical restraints predesigned by Earth’s ruling families. Interrupting peace whenever and wherever they deem is their care—if that were not so, then an exception to the historical stratagem would be pleasantly and whelmingly shocking, and entirely unlikely. All the more reasons to embrace alerts from the intuitive being for our physical safety and personal sanity. ~ DM ² Frédéric François Chopin (b 1810), Polish-French virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period, invented the ballade, mazurka, polonaise as musical forms that influenced Polish national classical music ³ We can easily presume an understanding of history once we’ve read numerous histories, which authors wrote from differing points of view. Perhaps, too many scribes and historians were persuaded with money and property and prestige (or losses thereof) while penning according to the wishes of their patrons. Many traditional history books were and are written to distinguish legacies and aggrandize ideologies, and for the enjoyment of the ruthless, winning rulers of wars—not for the losers who are women and children. ~ DM † The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. ~ John Keats (b 1795), poet of the English Romantic movement ‡ The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. ~ Albert Einstein (b 1879), German-born theoretical physicist, contributed to cosmology, special theory of relativity, quantum and statistical mechanics, Physics Nobel Prize 1921 © 2004-2008 All rights in all media reserved. You may quote my words as long as you attribute my name. Staying Awake content may be forwarded in full without special permission for nonprofit purposes only, provided full attribution and copyright notice are given. Thank You. Staying Awake Archive and publication dates. My email database will not be given away, borrowed or sold. This ezine distributed by EZezine.com Our constant curiosity is key to watching what’s being created. ~ DM

Greetings All,

September 11, 2001, changed the ways I regard relations, creativity, curiosity, history, science, and imagination. My own deep sleep became apparent once Staying Awake newsletter began publication.

Staying Awake loves synchronicities, and this year’s twenty-one ezines will indulge more cosmologies, science (particularly solar, and so few reports about the Sun appeared in 2007), classical musical performance, psychology, religion, and ethics.

Since the holidays, a lot of reading and studying still reveal alternative realities in mass produced distortions of 20th and early 21st century history. Rulers, in this their male dominated world, as well as marketers’ and advertisers’ complicities, relentlessly feed us that it’s not cool to study, it’s not cool to be smart, it’s not cool to know anything—it’s cool to party and sing and dance and fight.

But, in synchronicities, we can for a while take refuge. Rhythmical waves of unimaginable energies can create synchronous instants—at just the right moment, capturing our imaginations—surprising us into remembering what has been trained out of most of us by educational systems. It’s time again to remember the synchronicity that eventually pivoted my penchant for writing into publishing an ezine in January, 2004.

In June, 2003, it came to mind that my dad passed away nearly four years ago. Sitting here quietly researching at my computer, I looked up to the wall where his photo hung, and asked, with a bit of tongue in cheek, ‘If you’re around, let me know in a way I don’t have to guess it’s you.’ That request alone was enough to surprise me!

Maybe minutes later, I received what at first I thought was an unsolicited email. It seems a business man, Derek, had had a visit from a spammer who visited his web site to add who knows how many email addresses, like mine, without permission. In his email, Derek expressed his apologies about the incident.

Needless to say, I was curious about Derek’s enterprise, and went to surf his site, Smile At You. When I read that web address, my jaw dropped.

Derek was an artist, an excellent wood carver. Golly, my dad was a wood carver, too! Dear readers, I realized the email wasn’t unsolicited—I had solicited the email. If I hadn’t been awake and curious, I would’ve missed that near instantaneous nudge in answer to my request, and I would’ve missed a reason to gawk. Just think, Derek and Dad as artists, and David’s piano performance makes three artists pointing to each other.

That narrative illustrates what many of us presume: however mysteriously, unimaginable energies can cause “Surprise!” instances that catch us off guard, and can delight, change, or thwart expectations. ¹

Take It, It’s Yours

When I read this lovely experience of another synchronicity, I couldn’t resist its addition to this ezine. A blogger, Professor Pan wrote: “Many years ago, I was heading to a nearby college bar with a friend, talking about synchronicity (he had never heard of the word). We had a long, interesting conversation and we swapped examples.

“After we arrived at the bar, we had to wait in a line to get in. A young woman walked past me, holding a book in her hands—one of those Time/Life ‘Mysteries of the Unknown’-type books. I knew as she walked by that she was carrying MY copy of the book. The wear-and-tear along the spine, the ripped dust-jacket. There was no mistaking it. It was my book.

“I introduced myself and told her that I didn’t know her, but that she was carrying my book. ‘Oh, Laura loaned it to me.’ We deduced the identity of Laura, and I dimly recalled loaning the book to her many months before.

“‘Here,’ the woman said. ‘Take it, it’s yours.’ I thanked her for believing me. After all, many people would have just kept the book. She smiled and left.

“My friend had been watching. ‘Now THAT was a synchronicity,’ he said. I laughed and opened the book at random. There, staring at us, was a photo of Carl Jung. Beneath his photo, the caption mentioned that he had coined the word synchronicity.

“I’ve had lots of powerful synchronicities in my life, but that one remains iconic, and it’s the example I always trot out when the subject comes up.” Thank you, Professor Pan.

New Solar Minimum

The Sun was put in Staying Awake’s banner in January 2007 after listening to a NASA physicist predict in March 2006 the Sun’s cycle 24. See Staying Awake January 2007. Although scientists will debate the actual date, July 2006 or January 2008, now cycle 24 is official as Space Weather dot com reported in the following announcement January 4, 2008.

Solar physicists have been waiting for the appearance of a reversed-polarity sunspot to signal the start of the next solar cycle. The wait is over. A magnetically reversed, high-latitude sunspot emerged today. This marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24 and the first step toward a new solar maximum. Intense solar activity won’t begin right away. Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max (expected in 2011 or 2012).

A team led by physicist Ms. Mausumi Dikpata of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has predicted Cycle 24 will be intense and peak in 2011 or 2012. David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA, agreed: “Cycle 24 will be strong. Cycle 25 will be weak. Both of these predictions are based on the observed behavior of the [Sun’s] conveyor belt.” Brackets are mine. Reference NASA Solar Cycle 24 Begins and Long Range Solar Forecast.

Whenever the Sun’s sunspot activity increases between now and 2012, Earthlings could observe landscape changes, or sometimes catastrophes, both of which can significantly alter global infrastructures, muck up electrical dependencies, and disrupt digital communications and global positioning systems. Hibernations of animals or their navigational sensibilities could be interrupted. Refer Survival Tips.

Answers to Curiosities

So too are Earthlings’ cultural sensibilities disrupted when catastrophes occur, and as brutal war systems are seemingly perpetuated without end. Refer Wikipedia: Ongoing Conflicts. More times than not, I’m pretty sure answers to spoken or unspoken curiosities can appear when Earthling’s inordinate stress demands creativity for survival, or when we’re relaxing with no particular profound notion in mind. Don’t we allow the intuitive mind to provide answers to our curiosities?

The intuitive won’t be pinned down, and sometimes it cannot be trusted to fit into or stay in line with our particular expectations. But when it comes to women and mothers’ responses to their children, men can only bow to females’ intuitive awareness and their care. We men mostly gawk at women’s commitments, probing conversations, and imaginations!

What creates our curiosities in the first place, and nudges our fascinations for certain things? As always, we attribute our presence, our sensibilities, the unseen Universal whorl swirling energies all together creating the physical one, nanosecond after nanosecond. Below are some exercises I made up by necessity for sensing answers to curiosities, and you may experiment with this ‘to do’ list, if you wish.

Perhaps, cosmologists’ curiosities have yet formed confident answers, but I’m curious and make the leap to suggest the flow of electromagnetic energy creates our bodies and keeps them intact. At every unimaginable instant, the dynamism creates our unique, individual consciousness that surely connects us with each other, and with everything else around us—including the Universe.

As a studier and performer of piano and vocal literature, I like to think electromagnetic energy is the stuff stage and silent artists obey, as well as direct and delight in. As an artistic creative, I like to call the energies ‘conspicuous awareness,’ a personal, artistes créateur cosmology that shows evidence of qualities also called forth in you. Inside surrenders to that awareness appears a dynamism creating all of life—imaginable and nearly imaginable—while we gawk in awe of the malleable, intuited flow: we say all too often, it just is.

Arthur Rubinstein (b 1887), Polish-American pianist, one of the greatest piano virtuosi of the 20th century, was a magnificent master of piano literature and a most elegant gentleman. In this 7½ minute video, Rubinstein demonstrates moving beyond answers, transcending curiosity into mental states of utter competence that appears in a flawless technique, consummating reserved and focused passion. He performs the dramatic Polonaise in (the key of) A Flat Major, composed by Frédéric Chopin. ²

Consider Chopin an activist, perhaps thundering against war and 19th century industrialization in his stunning contrasts of melodic themes and genres in exquisitely difficult piano pieces, some composed as political statements. A knowledgeable and sophisticated audience applauds their thrill for Rubinstein’s brilliant interpretation of Chopin’s composition.

Thinking before Believing

Answers to curiosities are what thinking people have trained to receive. Part of that training is remembering that abandoning logic for comforts of sentimentalities is grounds for believing most anything.

It’s easy to underestimate the psychological difficulties of which humans must be consciously aware before they are able to become curious. Once someone upgrades old information, and voices new considerations, then the safest thing a person can do feels risky, and the riskiest thing is playing it safe.

It appears many people have been trained not to feel concerned about exclusions of information; feeling concerned might lead to curiosity for seeking logical ideas, but their discoveries could cause a painful change of mind or religious belief. For instance, having trained in too religiously evangelical circles in youth, I wasn’t aware psychological repressions were inspired by monotheistic teachings. One’s being in hell after death; believing one of a divine trinity was also a stalking spirit called holy; believing in a pending rapture; feeling guilt if all people weren’t saved by grace from eternal damnation, eliminating possibilities of believing beliefs were illogical.

Millennia of psychological repression make it all the easier for today’s repressors, the gods of banking, military, economical, political, governmental, and ecclesiastical systems to construct and parley ideological campaigns. Sellers of guilt and fear control humans with an expertise that keeps us running in circles like corralled unruly cats, reacting to insinuations, century after century.

The last thing governances want us to depend on is our intuitive senses, which might leak an inkling that deceitful governances are superfluous. Many politicians are wont to conceal their repressed feelings within prestigious enmeshments of mammoth media and retail corporations, and within frauds borne by the central banking system and military industrial-complex. Manly, back parlor tanglements and obstructions that have multiplied during thousands of years are probably impossible to stop. ³

To sustain a sense of relief, albeit a false relief, some repressed groups of people make feel-good bonds, creating a loop of redundant default conversations like ‘What will be, will be’ or ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ or ‘Let’s go shopping’ or ‘The Lord bless us, one and all’ or ‘Everything will turn out just fine’ or ‘We’re to blame for global warming’ or ‘Climate changes will kill us all’ or ‘We’re fighting this war to keep people safe from fascism’ or ‘We’ll work for the change that’s due the American people;’ and the best one, ‘God bless America.’

Umph! Do default platitudinal slabs of rhetoric serve to entertain; to accept the salvation model for politics as relevant; to shut down the shock that peddlers of power over Earthlings is our only destiny; to maintain acceptably disguised stupors to which moralized politicos, and many media editors, have themselves succumbed?

Having said all that, how can thinking people these days know what to believe about anything? Philosophically, we know for sure that what humans think we know is at best uncertain. (Now there’s the thought that reminds me why I began this piece.) What is truth but our immediate experiences? What can be overlooked during our immediate experiences? Are our memories true to our experiences?

We have proof that Earthlings’ malleable memories can alter instantly by invariably active imaginations and intuitions. Every single Earthling can make up anything, believe anything, and live as if what has been made up is true! Oh dear, what to do? A good place to start is read incessantly, write down ideas, be curious, imagine more choices, use your eminent intuition, and think before assuming others’ ideas and beliefs—in anything. †, ‡

Staying Awake an ezine with your awareness in mind. Sometimes click videos twice to begin | duration 5:06 Seth Godin on curiosity