Category Archives: Reality

The Incredibly Gorgeous Hollywood Movie Star That Was

“So what do you want to try?”
“I don’t know, man, whatta you think?”
“How about….”
“Wait, I know, we could…”
We sort of knew what we wanted to do, but we weren’t exactly sure how to go aboug doing it. Across the room, in the bar where we had amazingly slipped past security, was the incredibly hot actress that we heard hung out here from time to time. How to approach her? Luckily, perhaps because she thought she was in a safe location, apart from dorky fans like us, she wasn’t surrounded by deadly bodygaurds. Should we approach? Should we attempt to sit closeby and impress her with our witty banter that she would hopefully overhear?

I remember once I was in the movies, waiting for it to start. It was one of those theaters where they have the trivia questions on the screen to keep you entertained. The couple behind us were speaking, and we couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but we were pretty sure it sounded non-trivial. We heard a stray word here and there that wasn’t too garbled, you know, when it is easy to understand something, right? So we strained to hear, and the more I tried, the more I was able to decide that they were probably talking about something really important. But I wanted to be polite, and not appear overly rude.

Reminds me when I was a kid, and I had this old black and white TV. And I knew when the TV shows I liked were on, but my TV was so cheap that the reception didn’t come in very well. You know, when the TV is so messed up you have to make up your own story? And sometimes when you see the real thing, you kind of wish you didn’t, because deep down, you know that your story is better. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen very often, and usually something happens that you miss, because you are focused so much on your own story, you forget to focus on what is happening. Because I’m sure you can understand where I”m coming from, you can probably remember how easy it is to do that now, right?

Potatoes. That’s what they were talking about. It seems they were old neighbors, and they used to share a potato plant that spanned both their backyards.  I guess what’s really important to some people, isn’t that important to others, and if all you have to go on is the tone of the conversation, it’s easy to fill in the blanks, with what you think is important. And the interesting thing about that is, the more you start to think of things in terms of what is important to you, the easier it is to find ways to get there.

So we started talking about our jobs, and how cool and dangerous they were, hoping the beautiful young starlet would notice us. It took us about 20 minutes before we got up the courage to glance over, only to realize that it wasn’t her. It didn’t even look like her. Funny how your mind can make up things that aren’t there, isn’t it?

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Instant Charisma

How would you like to be able to develop such powerful charisma that you naturally and automatically turn people’s heads when you walk into a room? How good would it feel to realize that people can’t wait to see you, talk to you, just hang around you? What happens when you imagine, now, all the reasons why having such incredible charisma can easily lead you to not only be able to achieve your goals more quickly, but almost unconsciously enlist the support of others in doing so?

Yea, yea, I know. Just about now, you’re probably wondering what it is that I might be trying to sell you. Or perhaps your are hoping that I have something to sell, so you can buy it, and immediately use it to create such powerfully wonderful feelings that you can’t help but to imagine how fantastic the world will change once you realize these largely overlooked truths.

Well, I have good news, and I have good news, depending on how you look at it. (Yea, I know, that doesn’t make any sense).

The first thing you might want to do is take a deep breath. Slowly. And another. And one more. Good. Now ask yourself.  What do I want? Got it? Ok. Now ask yourself again, what is important about that? Wait, it’ll come. Got it? Good.  Now one more time. Relax, no hurry. Take a deep breath if you need it. Ok. Ready? Ask yourself one more time, what is important about that?  These are called your values. And guess what, pretty much everbody can see the same values inside. Love. Respect. Safety. Recognition for a job well done. Acceptance. Peace.

And since you can now fully understand not only what other people want, but realize that it’s the same thing that you do, how many ways do you think you might look at people differently now? When you know, really know, that deep down, despite all of our differences, we share much more that we are even capable of imagining. And when you breath into that perspective, and look at people from that source of wisdom, what happens when you become aware that as you discover similarities in strangers that you’d never even noticed before, you will automatically be able to share an unconcious bond that can cut through all mistakenly percieved differences?

Not only will people wonder just exactly why you stand out, if only a little bit, but they will feel compelled to feel a desire to start a conversation with you just to see what you are all about.

So I’ll leave the choice up to you. Will you consciously take on this new perspective, and see how many ways you will discover it already making your life easier and smoother, or will you just stand back, and simply notice the obvious results?

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Blind Crow Lullaby

So I was walking up the steps to the Shinto Shrine in my neighborhood, when I heard this whoosh above my head. I looked up, and saw this big black crow gliding up in front of me, and then coming to rest on the branch of a large tree. I looked up, and saw two more crows sitting just beyond. Watching. Waiting. Images of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds flashed in my minds, along with an old Viking movie whose name I can’t remember where a guy got his eyes gouged out by some angry bird. Were they mad at me? Did I do something wrong? Did I anger the Shinto Gods? Lord have mercy, I hope not. I tried my crow call, (caw caw caw) which usually scares them away, but they don’t budge. They look at me. I’m certain ther’re deciding which eye to pluck out first before they send me plunging down the steps to a painful death.

I remember the first time I killed a crow. I was on my first ever hunting trip. Actually it was the only time I’d ever killed a crow. We went looking for doves, and a bunch of crows started flying overhead. Or a herd of crows or whatever you call a large number of crows flying in formation. I looked at my dad, and he gave me the go-ahead. So I closed my eyes, pointed my shotgun in the sky, and pulled the trigger. Naturally, because the crows were so thick, I hit one. I felt kind of bad. It’s not like the crow did anything to me. But from a skill standpoint, it was pretty easy. Close your eyes and shoot. Not nearly as a hard as I thought it would be.

It’s wierd when you think about it. That is how some people live their lives. You just go through, not giving much thought, and just close your eyes and shoot. I’m sure that most people, like you, have been able to consider at one time or another what would happen if you were to design your life. Instead of pulling the trigger and hoping to get something, you were able to develop a foolproof plan  that would make it almost impossible to not get what you want. Luckily, once you start to realize, now, how easy it is to set your sights on what you want, when you pull the trigger, you naturally can enjoy the benefits. And you know how to enjoy the benefits, do you not?

So after I got home, I looked up crows on google. Of course the first article that came up was how crows that hang out at shinto shrines have a tendency to eat peoples eyeballs when you least expect it. Go figure. Actually, that’s not what it said at all. It said that crows like to nest in places like small hills with lots of tall trees. And in when they have baby crows hatching, they suddenly become very aggressive and protective of their babies. I checked my watch, and sure enough, it was crow hatching season, not eyeball eating season. And here I was thinking the crows were gunning for my eyes, and they were thinking I had come to eat their children.  Now me and crows get along just great.

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Pools of Magic

So my plane, or rather the plane I was riding in, was coming down for what I hoped was going to be a routine landing.  I had never flown in a plane this small, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t just a tad bit nervous. It was only a 8 seater, and I happened to be the last aboard, so I was sitting up front, next to the pilot. While it was really exciting while we were flying above the island.  Gliding around clouds. Able to look down and see the water as it looks really different from this angle. You can see all the way through. 

Kind of like when you fly on a commerical airline. Like when you are flying over a city, the residential part. And you can look down, and see how everything is really well organized. Especially if you compare the experience you can remember, now, of when you drove to your friends house for the first time and when you looked around. Everything seemed strange and out of place. Were you supposed to turn right at the gas station, or left? Everything seemed so difficult back before they were putting talking GPS maps in all the cars. How were we able to find your way around?

Another thing I think is really cool when you fly on a commerical plane, at least when you remeber to ask for  window seat. It sometimes is frustrating when you forget to ask for what you want, you know? But the interesting thing to me is how many people have swimming pools. When you look down, they are obvious. Which is another wierd thing. If you are still confused, and driving around looking for your friends house (assuming you took the right turn back at the gas station), you can’t tell who has a pool, and who doesn’t. You can’t even tell who has lawn furniture. But from a different perspective, things you wouldn’t have noticed before turn into things that you can’t miss.

It’s like when you meet somebody for the first time.  You can’t help but to look at the outside. Thier clothes, their speech patterns, they way they gesture with their hands.  I had a friend who told me that it was really important to keep an open mind when meeting people. She always said that although it’s really easy to judge by looks, its much more useful, if you want to be resourceful to kind of withhold judgement for a while. Give the person time to get comfortable, you know, like when you are able to express yourself without worrying about what other people think. She said that this was the best way. If you do this, you can really develop good relationships with people.  And that is important, right?

Of course the plane landed safely, and we all got off, and unpacked our bags. I had probably the most enlightening vacations of my life. At least up until now. How about you? What insights did you discover on the most enlightening vacation of your life?

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Stopping Traffic or Wandering Minds?

“Oops, sorry,” I mumble, apologizing to the woman that I’m pretty sure was out of ear shot by the time I realized I’d bumped into her. People everywhere, walking in groups, in pairs, alone. Heads busily scanning the environment searching for something, anything. Like me. Except I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. But I was supposed to get six of them. Or was it seven? Maybe in there? No, too expensive. Over there? Nope, would never fly. Wait, what’s that? I push through the crowd. Oh, no. That’s not at all I expected.

Like when I was driving down the freeway, jamming along. Radio up high. Light traffic. I’m in the number two lane. Doing about seventy. Saturday afternoon. Warm. Clear. All day to play. Good mood. I see a truck in my peripheral vision coming up slowly on my left. Dog in the back. Probably feeling the same as me about now. Able to just let go, and relax. Everything is in it’s place. Except that’s not a dog in the back of that truck.

Does that ever happen to you? You see something, you’re pretty sure you know that, and you don’t even bother to double check, you just kind of assume it’s there, the way you think it is. But it never really is, is it?Those things that you were pretty sure that you had a handle on, once you allow yourself to see from a different perspective, you begin to imagine different things. And it’s not like when you are reading something, and just following along as your mind is wandering. It’s when you see something, but you don’t really notice it. I imagine that if you recall, now, the times that has happened to you, you might begin to understand what I’m talking about.

Like when I was watching this psychologist give a lecture about the reason that thoughts which come in dreams are different from the normal order. Something with the way the lattice structure of the brain is connected. Certain thoughts are resting on top of other thoughts, and the way the brain organizes it self, sometimes things that are right next to each other, they don’t even communicate well. Like when you pull up to your house, and see your neighbor, and you think to yourself, do I really even know that guy?

So I’m dead even with the truck, and I’m about ready to look over at the previosly assumed canine in the back, complete with it’s assumed tongue wagging out of it’s mouth, and even an imagined name on his hallucinated dog collar. It is a bit of an understatement to say I was shocked when I looked to see that it was a pig. Without a collar. I didn’t think to ask what it’s name was. And it didn’t seem to be at all concerned with mine.

And my eyes must have really been getting tired, because that day in the mall what I thought were some kind of new age toys, were really decorations laying around the christmas trees waiting their turn to get put up. I guess my blood sugar was lower that I had planned for it to be. But I did turn into a Sharper Image, and some shop based on the Discovery Channel, and was able to take care of everything there. And when I left, it seemed that all those people were still wandering around looking for what I assumed they would find eventually.

When this happens to you, how long does it take to realize that something really strange is going on?

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Magic in a Bag

So there I was, sitting there in the coffee shop, in a nice corner spot. The kind where you can periodically stop what you are doing so you can look up and really pay attention, watch all the people walking around, shopping, eating, enjoying their Sunday off.  I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, and for reasons I’m probably not aware of, that particular movement seemed to stand out of all the flurry of movements, so I naturally turned my head so I could take notice. There was a young female employee of the shop standing facing a middle aged guy that was sitting down.  She seemed to have a look of professionalism on her face, and he a look of boredom. Perhaps his wife had dragged him shopping with her, perhaps he was a little light on sleep. We’ll never know. But as she leaned over to get closer to him, as there were plenty of people around chattering about, I saw an interesting phenomenon take place.  I noticed her eyes, and as she was talking to him in what appeared to be a polite professional tone (judging only by her facial expressions and her body langauge), they shifted back and forth between his face, and the bag that she was holding out for him to take. And as she did so, his face turned from passive disinterest, to mild curiosity, to a look of honest appreciation.  Now I’m not sure what was in the bag, perhaps some exotic coffee beans, or maybe a personalized mug, who knows.

Kind of like the shops around my town, they organize some special new years specials, where all the shops that participate put together bags of secret goodies for ten or twenty dollars. The fun part is that you don’t know what’s going to be in the bag. Of course it will be related to the kind of store of course, but you never know what will be in the bag until you open it up. And they all look the same, so you really can’t tell from the outside.

Like when I was a kid, we used to have lots of presents under the tree at christmas time, but you never know if you were going to get something cool  until you decided to choose a gift  to open.  And of course, most of the time we could expect to be really happy  with the present we got.

Which was what was wierd at the coffee shop, because the guy didn’t really know what was in the bag, only that the girl had decided for him that it was something of value.  Now I don’t if you are able to understand this, but this guy, who could be a doctor or a lawyer for all I know,  was able to transform his own emotions from boredom to appreciation over a mysterious brown bag, simply by choosing to pay attention to the words of a most likely minimum wage earning young lady.

Can you see the magic in this? Simply by assuming that there was value in the bag, she was able to, using only her words and expressions, move the middle aged man from boredom to curiosity to appreciation.

How soon will you be able to find something of value , and with only words, move somebody else to appreciation?

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Secrets of the Egyptian Pyramids

Wait, what? The Egyptian Pyramids? What on earth does that have to do with you? I’m sure you’ve heard of the Pyramids before, probably watched a documentary or two on television at one time or another.  Maybe you’ve even given some though to exactly how they were built. And you probably have known one person or heard of somebody that believes the pyramids have some kind of mystical structure to them. Maybe it is their geometrical shape, maybe because they are pointing to certain celestial bodies, although I’ve heard that the celestial bodies they were pointing towards have since moved, or the Earth has moved, or the orbit of the Earth has moved, or something like that.

Kind of like when I was in sixth grade, and we had to do a science project. I remember reading about some kind of pyramid power, how if you get the right pyramid shape, and put it around a plant, then the plant would grow a lot faster than normal. I’ve don’t know if you ever taken the time to consider just how cool it would be to realize that as you can sometimes choose to use metaphysical technology to grow faster you can also use those ideas to grow other things faster. But anyways, some other kid had taken that idea for the science project, so I had to do something different. I had to go back to the drawing board, and think of something else. I think I stuck with the plant idea, but changed it. Kind of like when we have ideas, and you think you are really changing your mind, you’re really not, its just the same idea in a different format.

Which is what I did. I used different colored sheets to cover my plants and tried to find out which ones would grow faster depending on which color light was let through the plastic.  I guess it’s kind of like the idea of separating out the different wavelengths of light, and seeing which particular wavelength, by itself, is best for the plant, or makes the plant grow the most. Kind of how sunglasses filter out different kinds of light so refracted light off of reflective surfaces doesn’t blind you.

Makes me think of that crazy blublocker guy that sold those sunglasses all over tv and other places.  Which is a great example that when you think of something new, even if other people think you’re crazy, if you present your ideas with incredible amounts of enthusiasm, it’s pretty easy to be successful, because that  blublocker guy apparantly made a lot of money, just for selling sunglasses.

So I wasn’t able to see any discernable difference with my project. The blue film, and the yellow film, and the red film, all seemed to produce the same size plants over a four week period. And I’m pretty sure the kid that tried the pyramid scheme didn’t notice any particularly outstanding results in her experiment either.

The the real difference in both of our science projects, was that we were just kids who wanted try someting new. We didn’t really know what to expect, you know? Now those Egyptians, they were different. They didn’t just slap stuff together and hoped it would come out ok, like we did when we were kids. They had a plan. They had a goal. They knew. They picked something far far away, like a distant star, far enough away so that when they kept with the project, the distant star was still there. And each pyramid was huge goal in undertaking, requiring thousands and thousands of workers and planners all working together to get the job done. And one of the great side effects of building the pyramids was that it kept pretty much everybody employed and able to feel really confident, because they all knew that what they were doing was going to somehow contribute to society.

Imagine how much you could accomplish if you did the same thing. Pick a goal, something to point your efforts at, something that is far enough away that you can keep striving for it over the years. Something that will have fantastic side effects as you strive incessantly because you know deep in your heart that with the right attitude and belief systems, you will naturally and powerfully achieve your dreams, and just the Egyptians, leave your legacy.

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Mind Benders for Fun

An interesting thing happens when you start to become aware of your natural ability to unpack reality.  When a person first begins to notice that reality is more of an internal game than anything else, a common tendency is to become a bit frightened. After all, most people like things just the way they are. Take a look around you, have a look at the items to the left and right of your computer screen. Feel the material on the chair you are sitting in, hear the sounds around your head. As you notice those things, you might be able to sense a feeling of familiarity.  And as you might be wondering exactly where I’m going with this, you might be able to open your mind to the interesting concept that people see only what is familiar to them, only what they think is safe. 

It’s like when I was sitting a coffee shop earlier today, and I was reading a fascinating book about how different people interpret various events. How you interpret different things like conversations, other people’s ideas and behaviors.  And this person was saying that when people communicate,  they are really communicating more of what they think is going on around them than what might be really happening. And I certainly didn’t want to get something fearful to happen like a brain spasm or something, so I tried not to let my thoughts be swirled into that particular reality too much.  And as I was reading, I noticed a girl studying next to me, so I asked what she was studying.  And she said it was history of some sort.  I think I remember it was someting about the construction of the Great Wall of China.

Which is kind of interesting, because I know that it is a common myth that the Great Wall of China is the only man made thing that can be seen from space, but I’ve read several places that that just isn’t true.  I even got into an argument about it with somebody back when I used to believe the myth. It’s wierd how that happens, you would swear you believe this thing, even argue about it, but something simple like a well written report can allow you to convince yourself  that you were wrong all along.  Like Santa Clause.

So anyways, I was talking to this girl, and after we finished talking about old Chinese Military Projects she started  telling me about her sister, who is a real supporter of President Elect Barack Obama, but this girl wasn’t (I never did get her name). And she even said that they sometimes fought over politics (I didn’t ask her who she supported, it was too interesting listening to her tell me about her sister). It’s funny how two people who grew up in the same house with the same parents could believe two totally different things. I think one of their main sticking points was the issue of his birth certificate. Personally I really don’t care where Barack Obama was born, I am just concerned that he’ll do a good job. Birth certificate or no birth certificate. I know I’d be hard pressed to find mine. 

I guess the two sisters held on to their beliefs so much because they are so familiar to them.  And one thing that few people have been able to realize is how you can easily change the reality around you simply when you question your beliefs. And the fantastic thing about changing beliefs is that it gives you a whole new perspective on things, and familiarity starts to look completely different.  One key ingredient among people who have really been able to achieve success is the ability to look at what they represent as true, and then ask themselves “Just in how many ways can you improve this?”

It’s amazing what you can find when you send your mind in new and wonderful directions.

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It All Begins Here

What all begins where? Another blog, on another site from somebody you’ve never heard of before?  As you sit there, reading these words, wondering exactly what it is that this page can offer you, among all the billions of pages on the ever expanding internet, you might begin to really wonder about whether or not you might gain something from this site.  And as you think about, perhaps you are starting to get a little curious about the title of this blog.

Reality.

That which you see, hear, feel, taste, smell.  All that exists around you. The light which has traveled billions of miles to reach your eyes, the sound which travels hundreds of miles an hour to reach your ears. The smells slowly wafting along the breeze to reach your nostrils.  The rough feeling of the bark on the tree, or the smooth silky glide as you slip into the freshly washed sheets of your bed. Right here. Right now.

Or is it?

The light, the sound, the smells. All pure non living, non thinking hard data. Bound by the laws of chemistry and physics. Unreadable by devices not equiped specifically for their detection. The wavelengths of light must be refracted and split in order for the brain to make sense of them. The sound must vibrate the eardrum and the resulting frequencies must be transformed from the energy of physical vibration to electrical impulse to the powerfully undefinable energy of thought.  Do we experience reality?  Or only interpretation?

Deconstruction.

This is where the fun begins. I propose to take seemingly obvious aspects of everyday life, and by assuming they are intrepretation rather than reality,  to deconstruct reality.  To see what aspects seem truer than others. To see what “truths” seem useful and helpful, and which one’s seem less supportive of the things that we want to accomplish.  And by doing so, by examining the less than friendly truths that we somehow got tricked into believing, we can rebuild them. Just like Steve Austin, we can make them better, stronger faster. The point is not so much to get angry at those who sold us “truths” that were not completely accurate, because when you really examine your beliefs most people will readily agree that the culprit is not the seller of false truths, but the buyer. And that is us. And by taking apart some interpretations of reality that can be powerfully upgraded to better serve us, we naturally gain more choice. And you do want to have more choice in life, don’t you?

 

Stay tuned.