Absorbing Orbs
Daniel Pinchbeck
This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice.
This summer, I visited Glastonbury, the New Age epicenter of England, to speak at a "Great Mysteries" conference about orbs. Orbs are best known as those mysterious balls of light that have appeared on digital photographs for the last fifteen years, though some claim they can see them with the naked eye as well. Orbs have spawned an enthusiastic subculture of people who believe the blobby wisps are not dust particles or lens anomalies, but angels, spirits, other-dimensional beings and so on. Although I am now an accredited orbs expert, I remain agnostic on the subject. In this area, one encounters the same difficulties in establishing a methodology as one does with other phenomena that float on the outer edge of cultural possibility, such as UFOs, crop circles, occult conspiracies, miraculous appearances of the Virgin and so on.
The Orbs Conference offered an eccentric collection of testimonies, channeling, scientific research and slide shows. My favorite take on the orbs came from William Bloom, a local mystic, who claims he has telepathic chats with the spheres. The orbs told him they work like "a cloud or a flock," and visit us to "support group consciousness." According to the orbs, "As we touch your individual psyches you begin consciously to experience yourselves as intimately connected with all other life forms on this planet and throughout the cosmos." A physicist who connected two cameras to take simultaneous photographs found that orbs would only appear on one or the other camera. While he took this as evidence of their quantum subtlety, it could suggest spoof rather than proof.
In my talk on the orbs, I downplayed the question of the orbs' authenticity to take a sociological approach. A postmodern phenomenon, the orbs only appeared in our world due to new technology, digital media, and social networks like Flickr, or blogs where people share orb images. As our evolving social technologies keep bringing us together in unexpected ways, Bloom's transmission about "group consciousness" is thought provoking. As media theorist Clay Shirky explores in Here Comes Everybody, new social tools are making it possible for previously unconnected groups of people to suddenly behave like a "cloud or a flock," when their interests coincide.
The orbs express a cute, trickster element by redirecting our attention. Most people first discover orbs when they are trying to photograph something else - friends at a party, a politician, their cat. Once captivated by the odd spheres floating through their images, their perspective changes: what seemed most important becomes marginal, and vice versa. A friend of mine once suggested that the year 2012 - end-date of the Mayan "long count" - might be when the center and the periphery of our attention switches places. The areas that our culture now finds important - such as possessions and wealth - might become marginal, while other areas, such as the development of soul and the ability to perceive subtle energies, will take on greater significance.
Although I do not pretend to have certainty in this area, I find the theories of the Dr. Alexey Dmitriev, a Russian scientist, to be highly intriguing. Dr. Dmitriev believes that our entire solar system is undergoing a phase transition, entering a region of the galaxy saturated with more intense cosmic energies. He has documented changes on other planets and moons around our solar system, some of which are developing atmospheres or experiencing polar reversals. One way this phase-transition is manifesting on earth is in increasing "vacuum domains" such as tornadoes, which are occurring with greater frequency. The orbs might be linked to this transition to a higher-energy state, as plasma-based vacuum domains that appear for an instant before spinning away. Plasma is the most unstable form of matter, and could be responsive to psychic energy - the orbs seem drawn, if not produced, by conscious intent. In photographs, they appear with greater frequency and in greater numbers at celebrations, group meditations, weddings and so on.
It can seem a bit reductive to seek to explain phenomena -- such as the gregarious orbs -- that reside at the periphery of our awareness. What is an explanation, in any case? Generally, it is a like cheap magician's trick that pretends to make the Mystery disappear by covering it with language. As a phenomenon, the mass interest in the orbs suggests we are going through another wave of "Spiritualism," a movement that swept the U.S. and Europe in the 1890s, bringing with it a wave of aura photography, levitating mediums and other anomalous events. Only the future will reveal whether the orbs reflect a deeper development of psychic awareness, or whether they are a fad that will soon trail off into the ether, from whence they perhaps came.
Image by Lighthelper, courtesy of Creative Commons license.
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whole life
funny, i just read your article today in whole life magazine at a cafe i frequent, and wondered why you hadn't cross-posted it yet :o)
i think your take on orbs is fascinating, and that the connection to consciousness and what we focus on is key to understanding the significance of these phenomenon.
it seems that we should begin to shift from using paranormal occurances as an opportunity to replicate belief systems (ghosts, faeries, elementals, etc...) and to see what they mean for us as we evolve.
the main reason i replied is that we had an interesting occurence at a performance on 8-8-08, and i had just recently edited the video. it's interesting, but much clearer in the original video that this light energy is shooting up in a spiral fashion (whereas in the uploaded clip the frame rate got screwed up and it looks like its just shooting up quickly.)
anyway, your article really made sense of what we witnessed, as it seemed to be directly linked to the performer's energy, and synched up with the strings in our music perfectly. here's the link...
Spiraling Orb
(opens in new window)
wanderlust
The Seventh Sense
The award-winning poet Sarah Arvio does a splendid
job "translating" these flock of consciousness beings
in her book "Visits From the Seventh." Pretty great
stuff. Here's what she says about her "voices"and
where they come from: The Seventh is the place they
inhabit: an elsewhere. I was giddily surprised when
they told me that the extrasensory sense wasn't the
sixth sense at all, but the seventh sense, a more fitting
number for a mystical sense. The seventh sense is that
uncanny sense of knowing what you've learned you
can't know.
Orbs
Disappointed
Sounds like my 9 year old saw something like that today
All i can say is, my 9 year old daughter knows nothing of all this, and I have never spoken to her about orbs and neither has anyone else. Yet today at a picnic she says 'look at that daddy', I looked up I couldn't see anything, I asked her what it was. She said ' it was a big white ball or a circle and it was there and then it went, really quickly'. I don't know anything about orbs, but I know my own flesh and blood and she saw something unusual that was round and large, appeared and then dissapeared. As for cameras, can't say. Hmmm interesting.
Ricochet
I'll have to chime in with the party-poopers:
I have looked at scores of these "orb" pictures and I have not seen a single one that is not obviously attributable to flash ricochet, or some other technical artifact -like lens flare or motion blur- intrinsic to photographic technology.
I have been hoping all my life to make and/or see photographic proof of the miraculous, but this ain't it.
As a matter of fact, I've used the effect of flash ricochet in many of my own photographs for twenty years.
It is very interesting to me how deeply people run in their imaginations with this. The same thing happens to me when I see it in my pictures, even though I know the mechanical cause. It does hold a charm. I like kaleidoscopes too.
I have to confess that the credulity of the crowds who so eagerly explain them as manifestations of some paranormal phenomenon rather troubles me. There are so many genuine mysteries at the fringes of our knowledge that call out for our most careful scrutiny, and this seems like a distraction. It also carries the danger of marginalizing anyone who explores any "fringe" phenomena, just by prejudiced association. "Oh, I bet you believe in 'Orbs' too."
i recall seeing an orb
Piercing the Ephemeral Orb
We are some Aetheric whisper through the orb,
a breath of the Gods that once was an orb as well,
some thin membrane that parts us between the orbs,
When we come into this orb the mist is so frail,
we are one with the parting and opening,
as we pass into this orb of existence we are covered in rags and tags we learn how to lie cheat and steal,
or we begin to question what is an orb, the more we ask what matter is the more we seem to drift apart from orb-spirit,
many orbs and fibers pass before our eyes,
we learn how to see things of mere objects, to orbify the orbic language that we specialize,
soon we are ready to abstract the sea of mythology from the ocean of orbs,
or we become pillars of orbital salt, or look back and abs-orb in suprise,
The golden orb is no longer the ultimate prize of Greek lore
, it now is a blob on a camera lens, we have traded with the Phoenicians, no longer make the purple dye,
now we ask why of the orbs immortals,
and after the war in heaven, we shout and beat our breasts with sacred orbs, and bloody well cry
and forgot to run along the infinite orb of nature's chords,
now we can not feel the nurture nipple ripple of the lunar orb between the Orb-acle and the sing song utterance of serpentine wave and voice,
Her brow like black orbs on luminous venusian cave wall, she is tall beyond belief, the mystic signs painted there in relief,
And that the vision will not fade when the orb-watchers boat casts its brass blade through the foamy brew Zero-Hellebore,
she will draw the filaments over the core holy of holy black orb
can not look at the shape of the land and the toss of the jeweled stars from that ancient of ancient darkness, and make the night remove her orb-like gown,
the orb hermit on the edge of the known and unknown, has left the orb-ital sounds of the town behind,
and walks were silence reveals the secrets of her galactic heart in the cosmic rain of time's arrows shooting through the nothing-orb will part her ways, once again.
piercing the void orb...
wow
that poem sure seems familiar(<O>)
i think it was on yonder blog that disappeared into the aether........
......................................(X)
Retreat to Postmodernism
Daniel, isn't there a better solution to "How do we have a modern spirituality," beyond dismissing all explaining, reasoning, and use of language?
Do you really give science (and scientists, and the scientific method) & imagination (and psychics, and religious conviction) equal weight, in determining what's a factual explanation?
Do you think science is a pretty good methodology, for determining the nature of reality? How do you compare it with, say, psionics?
I suspect that that you want to side-step disasgreement and contention, because you are working to connect the cultures. I think that this is a noble cause; There is incredible value in both cultures. Spiritualists express heart, and scientists study natural reality. These good voices at each other's necks, and so there's need of synthesis. But I think this "retreat into the postmodern" is just faux synthesis, not really leading people into the right place.
Haven't we just been through decades of post-modern "nothing is true, reality is indiscernable, you wouldn't want to see it even if you could, what's true for you is true for you, ..." ..? I challenge you to find a better way.
My question is now: "How do I inspire people to work towards visions of naturalistic spirituality?"
i like this other guy's chemtrail theory in the comments
forget the dust on the lens
your only talking about photographs, that's like saying that Hollywood movies are only moving pictures on the bottom of the world.Even if that is true, imagine all the movies you have seen in your life and now think of them as nothing more then dust on a lens.Also,There is no water in the chemtrail theory, that has only been going on for the last decade about.Why do people do hit and run posts, just to prove they have some clue as to what is going on? If they did have a clue, they would say something interesting at least.Hey let's kick 2012 again like a tin can, even though we know nothing about it, yeah that proves something!
And, as far as the other post saying "i challenge you to find a better way" this is meaningless, it's like saying i have a better image of Mickeymouse in my head then you do, absurd! Postmodern, is not some word that you kick around like a stray cat.It is a style of thought that invites many styles to enter the picture, put it this way, there is a mountain of lies as big as Mount Everest, so write about it, if you can, the orb will hover just beyond like the object at the end of time.You and your dusty lens of a writing style.
So forget the photographs and the dust on the lens, forget your pithy challenges, write something like you mean it and can write with some balls of light.
post-modern poo flinging
CJ- While I agree with you on hit and run points and love your desire to jump in as protector on this one for a b.s. chemtrails blah blah post- I think Lion has an interesting point.
While post-modernism certainly leaves room for all threads to be considered- it does have a kind of "nothing is real" essence and in my eyes sometimes amounts to "the truth is tarnished beyond all recognition and the copies upon copies" or photographs of orbs are more real than the real thing- which of course- everyone in this conversation is rebelling against.
It seems paradoxical and counter-intuitive to me that someone who is seeking empirical truth (you can feel his desire in your gut) would fall back on "what's true for you is true for you in quantum reality it's all good but that doesn't mean it's real" as this seems to undo the power of the work which at some level is seeking objective truth (correct me if I'm wrong). I don't necessarily mean this critique in regards to this article but as an overall flavor and sense I get from the approach to grok alien wizdom.
From a writer who often takes an empirical approach backed by science which says there is an empirical truth beyond Schroedinger's Meow- I too think it is time to get out of the box and take the cat by his nuts.
Whereas a "naturalistic spirituality" in this case might refer to oral tradition and first-hand accounts of people who have seen orbs and relay their tales to others who trust their opinions. This is akin to a trusted friend telling you about an experience with an orb or UFO- and you- in good faith- believe your friend because your friend has never lied to you. With the sheer amount of these experiences unfolding globally- this is not a far-out way to expect to begin to believe. Alien science is more advanced than human science, so how can a lesser advanced form encompass a more advanced form and retain all its pixelated color?
I for one think faith and first-hand account need to replace this obsession with physical evidence that these phenomena are real. Their physical evidence- if anything- is meeting you in the current state of your mental evolution which is but a baby step to the knowledge that the most enlightened E.T.s are not physical at all. Consider it flattering that they might want to even attempt to communicate in your language at all what with all the good it does for your attempt to poo fling the messenger into submission.
certainly i am all for Lion's quest
that's why i thump his chest.
and the more you write Joan of Art the more i like it.
as far as the postmodern and or existential vacuum that this mystery orb rises through, we are only as good as the language we use, therefore that's why i write about and toss off as many unidentified objects at the end of time my fingers can bang out on this fangled lil flat key thingie
Peace Love & Diggers
If you have doubts
Miceal Ledwith spoke in Warrington, PA 9/26/08
I heard Miceal Ledwith speak in Warrington, PA on 9/26/08. He showed his DVD on orbs and then discussed his experience with them. While I have a lot of respect for him on his impressive life journey, I found myself challenged to simply take in and agree upon everything he was saying. His relationship to the phenomenon is quite personal. I think his sort of unscientific personal experimentation requires much more for purposes of inspiring belief than most subject matter, therefore. He said that anyone who spent one to two hours per day photographing orbs would be able to see them with their naked eyes after a period of two years. I couldn't help thinking, well, the world (most of us) will never know if that's true or untrue, because we don't have enough interest or inclination to find out (I do presume). He also called for people to remain grounded with the subject and predicted that if the treatment orbs have begun to receive from less grounded folks should keep up that orbs will be a passing fancy at large. He seemed to geniunely hope that would not be the case as he himself finds orbs to be a tool for potentially learning the way to perform the great works that Jesus spoke of each of us having the potential to perform. I also recalled Chet Snow's work in connection with this notion in terms of those whose personal (as opposed to mass) dream of the future was to be in a place of unison with nature and be able to manifest that which was necessary for their survival. I believe that Miceal would be a teacher for those wishing to pursue such capabilities. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend his talk the next day on Jesus and the Quantum Field which he said he intended to tie in with the orbs some more. Anyway, most interesting and certainly many, many amazing photos!
Disappointed
Normaly I like the essays, books and speaches of Daniel Pinchbeck but this time I am really disappointed. Every filmmaker or photographer can explain in a very simple way what is happening in this photos.
Flashlight, dirt, reflection and than the mistery is happening maybe the right angle is important and it is not easy to create it by purpose. Waste of time and energy which should be invested in real problems or interesting concerns.
For example for the german-users of realitysandwich protest against GM corn(MON810) from monsanto in Germany. website: http://www.genmais-stoppen.de/gentec/pc2/pcard
Sorry but this childish theme was to much so I had to put this real hard fact GM corn problem against it. Hope for the next Pinchbeck text in its ususal open but good researched manner.
Best regards iamasimpelman
another photo zombie
can't look at anything else, got them blinders on, you know.All there is in the whole wide world is PHOTOGRAPHS of PHOTOGRAPHS!!!
haha haaaaaa.
The Invasion of the Bindu
Hi Iamasimpleman,
I am sorry that you are disappointed, but in what way is this Daniel Pinchbeck’s fault? Yes, he is no doubt one of the “co-creators” of “reality”, but almost certainly he did not invent the lead sunglasses you are wearing. Already, the meta-language of the Bindu has invaded. Complex circles have been projected onto History, updating the flat Earth.
Sir- as Krishnamurti might have said- please allow me to ask one question: Why do you assume that orbs only appear in videos or in photographs?
For quite a number of years, between say, 1990 and 1996, whenever I would enter a high energy state, which at that point was every day, as my immediate environment would begin to vibrate like a network made of lightning, right there in front or above or in back of me would be an orb. There was no escape, and no way to avoid dealing with its long list of demands, with its transmission of faster-than- light encyclopedic knowledge.
Was I hallucinating? Well, no. I have complete faith in my powers of direct perception, as you do in yours; I tend to notice when a weapon has been aimed straight at my head.
To avoid death, I was allowed to step up or step down the explosive flow of exploration, but there was no way that I could refuse to cooperate with its agenda. The orb was not in any way a purely optical phenomenon. It was never clear to me if it existed in physical or in psychic space, since it seemed to partake of both of these, and of neither. It was a messenger from the nonexistent databank of the gods, the body of the primordial female/male, the incarnation of the ancient future, the sphere that preceded the dismemberment of the worlds.
Call it “Bindu” if you wish, or the “Eye of Ra”, or the “Telos”, or the “Stone of the Philosophers.” One thing, however, was made absolutely clear: that I should regard it as the beginning and the end point of creation.
Beautiful Discussion O R B S
I noticed that this blog contained mostly posts of people that believe in orbs or those that don't. Taking one view or the other. Trying to convince or denounce.
I think the whole point that Daniel was trying to make in this article is that it isn't about whether they are real or not, but how they are affecting us as a conscious observer... more or less.
What is being stimulated in our minds when we enter into this "debate"? This search for truth. I've come to enjoy observing the beautiful presentation of ideas and enjoying the process of exchange. Look where we are relating to one another, its awesome! As opposed to choosing a belief.
Notice that Daniel, took a very joyful objective stance and didn't pretend to know if they are real or not...
Think of duality. If we take a stance its easy for the ego to cling to a view. If we rest in our center as an objective witness; we start to dissolve the dualism. If we can learn to become more objective witnesses and not cling to one view or the other we can start to see a beautiful pattern emerge.
To put the ego aside ...
"Place your wonder in the wonder"
Om Shanti
-Aloka
"When the power of LOVE overwhelms the love of power, the world will know peace" - J.H
Well put
hey i'm no either/or person for orb or agin,
i know good writing when i see it, if you want to denounce the orb, then show you have some skill at thinking about what it might portend,before you jump on the photo moto wagon, kemo sabe!
well there was that orb i saw........hmmmm...it wasn't in a photograph.....hmmmmm...i mean i wasn't looking at a photograph at the time......unless i am just a photograph in the head of the big Photogrope in the sky...yeah...that's it
but you know J.H saw a UFO....so...well...maybe "Third Stone From the Sun"
by the way, i put my Ego aside one day...and i forgot where i put it.....hey...maybe it turned into an orb?
nah.
The end of Time at the Center of the Universe
The end of Time at the Center of the Universe
Oh Yeah?
While I find much of interest in this piece -- and thank you, Daniel -- what I really want to know is, how come I haven't seen any of these "orbs"??? I live in TAOS, NEW MEXICO, dammit. If ever there was a place where we ought to be up to our navels in fucking phase-shifting phenomena, this is it.
www.farrfeed.com
yeah
damn straight...if i lived in Taos, i would be incensed, and perterbed even.
where are them recalcitrant orbies when you call them?
oh poo!!! nice tiedye helmet though!!!
“ORBS: Clues to A More Exciting Universe”
Hey, Bobs Searching - I think I saw that on the Playboy Channel.
* * *
New: I HATE THE LEFT! at http://www.xanaduxero.blogspot.com
* * *
PANARCHY!
It alllll has to go - even Anarchy.
i would like to know more
of what Dr. Alexey Dimitriev knows, after all those astronauts thought they were seeing dust on the mirror too... but they were not trained to look for orbs, they were trained to see dust on the wind...cuz...that's all we are....but...we are not in Kansas any more either...so, strange things happen in this world. I mean, let's face it, there is science and there is science, and for some reason some people want to pretend it don't matter to matter, what part is either, or vital life force.
oh look photos floating in the sky!
come on people, the evil empire want you to BELIEVE in the PHOTO!
notice how any scientist is marginalized that talks about either, or plasma, or psi, or pi, for that matter, but you know , Guru's are a dime a dozen, don't you know.
Poets are anarchists of the spirit too, so they see things when they write, like great balls of Fiya!!! and greasy grimey gopher guts.
so how are we going to put an end to GMO'S
...you got it....more UFO's orbies and cropys, and Holy Terror....
Hallucinated oobjects at the end of time written across the Sky like pipes of Pan, written between the writing on the wall, and marked with colored markers with WILL TO ART, THE REVOLUTION will not be televised.Remember...'Time has Come"
really, the photo of the photo, or the orb of the orb, there is a ball of white light floating everywhere you look, and it can be a trick of the camera lens too.
Bebop or be dead...(the Last Poets)
Opening of the Records
Hi All,
Here is a poem written during the period that I described in my post "The Invasion of the Bindu." It is section 10 from my book "To Akasha/ Part 2":
Opening of the Records
That jung frau will rebuild from ash the burning library at Alexandria. For a third time will the Argo sail- it will move beyond the speed of light.
Records breaking records will be present to your touch. The Zodiac will swing. Space will be curved by a bell. The 4 worlds as at once will interpenetrate. Orange are the orbs of Ra that will spin above Eastern Europe. Knowledge will explode.
Hieroglyphs will appear to thousands over Prague.
Long dead- you will sound! Habrock will return from Ur to Eden with his hawks. Elvis will return to Graceland. He will be taken from his great chrome cylinder- thawed out. He will bring a note from mother. The teacher will be an inch. Loki will bring his flytings to the 12 guardians on Nibiru.
Giants aimed at the muse will evacuate the stars. The extended hand will flame. Shadows thrown by geometry will lash the oceanic fort.
A trickster will crow. Ahriman will hang his body sky high on a hook. The age of iron will grind Einstein into flower. Pacific breakers will make love to atoms. Nagas will milk saki. Solomon will open mills. Braagi will bring many poets. Light will weigh their year of work. The Elohim will order: scale the globe. The hounds are to be rounded up by Garm.
A ziggurat in Babylon will sing out in 10 thousand tongues. The Virgin of Judea will stalk naked over Assur’s pots.
Shards will wheel clay citizens. A blackened branch will light a leaf. Veins will mine plutonium. Solar wells will spout. A race will run with the remnant of Methuselah. The Desert Mothers will return with urns to the Euphrates. They will laugh at Krystalnacht. Skoll The Wolf no longer will scare mortals.
Zion will again put on the laundered robe of Io. A laser will be shot from Israel to Jupiter.
War will be declared on the improper use of trees. Books will have no pages. Telepaths will judge the haunted farms. Few of the many will not at first go mad. Joy will punish death. The bird that fought on Mars will take the gag from the future’s mouth. The One will fix itself. Orange agents will scout factories in Thule for Tetragramaton. Teachers will attract the spokes.
Alpine horns will ram through gravity. At midnight they will make a little zone of music.
12 concentric tribes above America will fly. They will involute the Earth. They will triumph over the race. Young will flex the sun at full strength out of Vala. Up he will lift the watcher in his cup. Instruments will cause a god. Arks will party. The Reichstag will again burn bright with dancing human UFOs.
uranium
Crying Diamond Sun
But will blackened hearts make Zorlock queef?
Skoll The Wolf no longer scares
But will scars on hearts meet headlong stares
In stars too distant for mortal eyes
Meet love’s barometer and pluto’s thighs
The orbs of Earth the skies of Death
The Justified Venom of Asuras’ Breath
God- All is Good- and Good is Dead
Will thoust still give us please our daily bread?
We’ve toiled this planet we’ve paid all our debts
We’ve built altars and pyramids to hedge all our bets
Confuse me with your light so I may crave clarity again
Destroy me so that I may crave your wholeness and bend
Kill me with your cosmic chainsaw and then
Diamond Sun Agenda (NOT New World Order) will win
We who are about to die salute you
Hi Joan,
In a reversal of the roles of the aggressor and the victim, the poems from this period duplicate my experience of being taken apart and then reassembled by the energy of the preexistent orb; they are weapons aimed at the head.
They are also yoga in the guise of poetry; ecstatic vehicles, which can potentially whisk the reader from one dimension to another. You have correctly decoded the challenge that they pose, and have responded with two sets of delightful variations on these themes.
Thank you. Your attentiveness would have made me a happy camper, indeed, had my world view not been shattered.
Just imagine my surprise upon reading many of the other comments on this article; to discover that my soul and body had been reprogrammed by a speck of dust on a camera lens! I really should go back to school.
:-)
Let's start a new school where the professors are the students and the photography majors are required to print their orb and UFO pictures on holographic paper. Poetry is the only mandatory course at the school.
Bless me prof. I run amok-
I never meant to make
A quagmire of ingratitude,
A charcoal birthday cake
A cloak of ill remembrances
spun sorely oer my heart
Blackened blood clot throbbing clit
A Cutting Flame of smart
Too cool for trust too fast for bliss
A lasting thrust I stake
"The Man" no more- no need to score
I meant to burn that cake
Wait! They'll say! What do clits have to do with empirical data and synthesis and space and birthday cakes and where's my report card to let me know how I'm doing? The Archangel Michael then comes and burns their diplomas and their orb pictures while Loki cackles at the cremation of our collective burnt contracts. Medusa turns all the students to stone. Super Mario decimates the statues with his hammer and gets zapped up to star land where the coins are all see-through and Luigi is drinking a margarita.
Re: 'delete this user' and 'wow'
Can someone fill us in about the disappearance of Richard Merrick's articles, blog, etc? What happened over the last week-end? I have no idea since my server was disabled from 28 August to 5 September. It also seems his name changed throughout the RS pages. Is it now "delete this user"?
merrick's disappearance
hi roger,
merrick took all of his work off the site because he felt attacked, repeatedly, in the comments section by two people. I found his work to be some of the most important and interesting on the website. Not everyone is thick-skinned or feels they have to accept the punishment of endless nattering criticism from these egomaniacs. We posted our comments guidelines months ago. From now on, we will follow them quite rigorously. If someone descends into personal attacks, or digresses from the subject of the article, their comments will be removed. If they want a place to make such statements, they can do it in the forums area, which is unmoderated at this point. However, if that becomes a morass of negativity, we will pull the plug there as well.
I would prefer that people cared about the future of this site rather than jeopardizing it in order to get a bit of meaningless attention. Unfortunately, some of the posters here seem unable to control themselves.
"Will the transformation."-Rilke
er . . . okay
Hmmm. Well, maybe the answer is in my email in-box which is currently inaccessible to me . . .
So, there was some spat in a blog. What else is new?
I'm trying to remember that new name, that used to be 'Richard Merrick' and became something else, and then it became 'delete user'.
I'm actually interested in the information Pinchbeck is talking about, and don't want to 'hijack' the topic into more acrimony or whatever. Still, I find it hard to believe whatever Merrick may have done to tick-off RS ownership could warrant complete erasure of all he has contributed and what other responders contributed.
Shouldn't there be at least an archive of an 'exed' out 'prior' contributor? And maybe he had a melt down and became obnoxious to the owners of RS. How does that warrant erasing responder's thought and word-expressed?
This is like 'rewriting' history by chisel.
Not Kosher.
er... not really okay
i had hoped to not have to have to deal with this
on this Blog, clean slate and all of that. my thoughts on BALLS OF LIGHT, are just that, my thoughts, i can talk about my actual experience until i am blue in the face, and it would not mean shit to a tree with a photo orb in a lovely picture.
some people take photographs of balls of light, OK but that was not the actual content of topic on here, to begin with.
people seem to want to attack the whole other side of this picture, or they give anecdotal evidence, the point of the article was and still is that things are speeding up on some supersensonic level.We can only refer to harmonics and people like Terence Mckenna or Russian scientists.I think about the poetry i have read and written.I think about events in the world and worlds in the events.
on the horizon.another orb to compare to dust on a lens.
I love woo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMFnQCfHWro
Recent orb video from California. Decide for yourself.
I myself remain not agnostic but indifferent as to the explanation of these types of phenomenon. If alien beings exist and are visiting earth in order to improve or support mankind then great, we need all the help we can get. As long as they don't get in the way of any kind of real progress. But if they exist and are visiting earth in order to molest or destroy mankind then we have a problem. Fortunately, I think we can safely rule out this possibility.
So until we see orbs waging wars or imposing dictatorships I probably won't pay much attention to them. Because right now all they seem to do is float around and ruin people's pictures.
Well, anyway
I'm feeling a little sad and think it sobering to experience an absence. Then we want to go back and restudy a presence now absent. And I think it utterly unfair to castigate someone absent . . . whether by personal choice or by an imposed . . . what is that fancy 40-cent word that means 'to be excluded'? Sounds like it might have been Merrick's choice. I'm familiar with many geniuses who are highly sensitive and are such because they have by some means or another avoided diversion of their insights by ignoring doubters and castigators and critics or 'can't'-ers. And I know of some geniuses who were adamantine beyond reason, and lost the ability to grow or incorporate essential information that could have aided their genius and creativity. Such stories are never black and white.
I didn't agree with all Merrick espoused and expressed, but I feel enriched by him as I do all here. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I like criticism and think it part and parcel to all expression that we pay for the privilege by taking knocks and batterings and even the slight-of-hand of complement that might actually be a suggestion to put a period on a merely developing insight. It would be a childish ego that thinks it has put the 'capstone' on any collection of thought or idea or experience. "yea! I got attention and praise: DONE!" Yeah, right.
So, be that as it may, on to this topic of the 'orb'-ism.
I'm thinking about the new mandate of the transmission of all information via television be 'digital' rather than 'analog'.
There is a form of digital capture that is slightly different from the CCD or "charged coupled-device" and it is termed "Charge injected device".
This latter technology was used to capture in real time the wave front of a beam of light. According to the source of this information, this camera was able to take many millions of frames per second.
That is impressive. The old film from the beginning of photography onto the era of motion-picture cameras utilized a quantum configuration too: atoms of silver on cellulose.
The configuration of the silver atom today is still not completely understood or 'perfectly' delineated.
Anyone can study these antique films and also see 'orbs' and oddities that cannot be explained simply on the basis of 'lens' effects or glares or what have you. We can only speculate that some these 'effects' might represent flaws in the distribution of the reactive or 'capturing' medium: the silver-solution wasn't evently distributed or somebody dropped some sweat on the film-strip, etc. Speculation, retrospectively, can be endless, which the 'Psi-cops' will resort to endlessly to say: all is as it should be, all is material and perfectly explainable. And that is the end of all enquiry. Thanks. Sorry I was curious.
Cosmic rays impinge on the retina of the eye and we experience a little 'spark' floating - - - apparently - - - in external space.
These interactions are so transient, it is rare to undergo them and be able to react quickly enough to turn our head or eyes and so be able to judge: that is happening in my eye, and isn't really 'out there'. And, even if it is 'out there', the processor is without doubt rather hermetically sealed in our skulls. So. Do with that what you may.
This impingement of these highly energetic particles from who knows where (believe it or not, this most highly studied phenomenon has no single and accepted explanation), will now and then actually impact the chip at the interface of the digital camera and that will be translated into the finished stored memory of the device. And these same particles will over time actually degrade the memory chip eventually. Who knows how long that would take. But 'orbs' can appear in digital images which are old and in which no 'orbs' actually were observed in prior viewings.
As the sun moves around the galactic center, it it not illogical to assume that some regions are relatively 'cold' and relatively 'hot': less cosmic ray activity versus more.
Translating these purely geometric possibilities into some 'spiritual' fundement may not warranted and at the exact same time, may not be that far-fetched. How the environment affects consciousness can be seen by looking at how people differ from equator to polar regions. There are significant differences and so that suggests, in turn, that any 'spiritual' or 'material' approach must at least account for these intersections wherein the 'material' and the 'spiritual' or 'psi' observations merge. I'm not drawing any conclusions. It's definitely not 'black and white'. There is so much we just don't know.
Interesting article.
======================
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." HERBERT<
Just one other thing:
Digital transmission is much more easily altered or 'captured and edited' than 'analog' signals.
The ratios of vertical and horizontal are also going to be highly maleable, and I predict many people will get sick looking at television after this 'conversion'. Vertigo will become rampant. We will come to a truly gut experience of sympathy with the idea long ago suggested: kill your tv.
This conversion is an idiotic plan. There is no 'backup', there is no 'fail-safe'. This is the problem of 'photo-editing' via artists (think of the Kent State shootings photo that was 'air-brushed' to take out a pole to satisfy an editor's 'esthetic judgement') writ-large into the entirely obscure region of 'computer nerd shills' working for any-what-all pervert like Rove or Cheney who judge that all is fair in 'war'. And they are at war with truth. Anybody remember when Colin Powell's kid was head of the FCC?
Sickening.<
Reactions . . . funny? maybe just different
I'll give credit to the idea that specialized language . . . 'physics' type talk, or 'math-type' talk, are going to leave most of us in the dark.
Could it not be, that someone investigating a single train of thought gets taken up into a vocabulary that automatically stratifies relevant conversation?
Well, a dumbell like me might take the time to learn these terms to get access to these levels of 'relative expertese' only to find these people are arguing and debating and exploring the same things any dumb-bell like me do on the level of marbles and stick and loop and playing 'Tarzan' in the bushes.
Same concepts, different lingo. We expose ourselves to new things and find either: we like the talk and the people talking or we don't. What does this have to do with intrinsic value of what's talked about?
If I am really lazy, and don't really want to have to go through the turmoil and rigor to learn this new vocabulary, just to get in on the conversation, I think I might have to simply drop out and find others with more relevant talk or terminology or vocabulary. More'n likely, I'll toss my head left or right and mumble: elitists! How cum you caint dumb-down yer talk?
I'm really trying to understand this. I cannot, for the life of me, understand what possible motivation could lead anyone to be so viscious towards another as to give or leave no room for the possibilty that they themselves are wrong. And, even if not wrong, to be right must have, in some way, a generosity so as to not find in the errant one any grounds for personal gloating about one's right-ness and justification for feeling happy that that errant one is now extinct. In polite society, sometimes, it pays to just not pay any attention to gaffs and mis-steps. To harp on such proves to the world and is a testimony of one's own ungenerous character. To forget is to forgive. It takes some heart to be willing to forget. I think I'll go do that now. 'Cause this entire thing is very unpleasant.
Have I rebuked thee? Am I now a hypocrit? Very well, so mote it be. For I have always enjoyed your rebukes of me.
you missed the history and philosophy and or gnostic
Again: a big blank now
Well, I'm completely at a loss. Since:
Number one: I can no longer review the sequence of posts from the beginning to the 'end' of Merricks original article and so see where-all this schism began . . .
Number two: can't contribute intelligently to the sequalae that refers back to those 'lost pages' or erased pages.
So, I guess, I'll just pick up from where we are.
I had to look up this term "troll", but only because it came up in a NY Times Cross-word pussle and it came out as a 'lurker' or someone who reads but doesn't talk.
Interesting. This really is interesting, since this is what Benjamin Franklin felt about Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was known as a very 'quiet' person, didn't orate, was a kind of odd stand-back type of individual.
We only know about Jefferson today as a President and the author of the Declaration of Independence. But he was a 'troll', I guess.
Right you guys? That little idiot.
What's this business about 'trolls' really all about? I don't get it. Who, ever, was a writer or maybe publisher, who expected every reader to respond and be something more than a reader? Is this business about 'trolls' some kind of class-distinction between writers versus 'readers'? Well, Jefferson listened for years and restrained any enunciation of his personal thought until it was so aged or matured and self-informed or public-informed as to be, in his estimation: informed.
So, I find this attitude summarized under this term 'troll' just pejorative and a summarization by maybe someone who is less careful, less concise and less terse but maybe also less deep. When the 'troll' speaks, there is this lashing out.
Alright. Fine. You go do that. As for me, I'm quite content to say who I am, and so you can find out on your own whether I'm such or not: My name is Roger Scott Cathey. My web site is: The Robert Cathey Research Source. I live in Portland, Oregon, USA. I'm 54 years old and have one wife and five children. I'm the fifth child of six children of my parents.
Any one can find out more information just using google or other resources or talking to me directly.
Anger and un-self-regulated reaction can go too far. And I think this has happened here. It is tragic. You have no idea. Not kind. Not good in my humble view. We have the right to grouse and critique. But what I've seen here is a kind of all-out warfare. And I call that highly ugly and I'm no party to it. You go do that. Leave me out of it.
Despise me not, for I am not poor. Poor alone are those whose desires are merely material.
Paraphrase of Leonardo Da Vinci.<
Oh, and by the way
I'm fully aware of disinformation specialists and not 'trolls' but topic-diverting 'hit-men/women'. People of the same ilk as Rove and Cheney, people who spend a lot of their salaried hours fixing up specialized results.
These folk think they are smarter than everyone.
When reality smacks them in the face, they find reality is much kinder than they, in this new realization, estimate they deserve. And there are no recriminations. There is an inbuilt fault in all summing and every estimation of counting and this problem automatically provides not only for us to err but gives every error an outlet. It doesn't, at the same time, mean one won't be spanked.
Here's a little saw, I don't remember who told me: Somewhere back in time a child did some little pecadillo, and as was wont to that time and culture, the child wasn't punished by the parents, but by the grandparents. And this grandparent told the called-forth child to do a certain thing: go out younder and cut down a switch of the field wherewith you'll be spanked. And, the child, being 'smart', walking across the expanse, had a 'genius' insight: "I'll cut down the smallest possible switch".
Ah! Not very smart. The smaller the switch, the greater the sting. Now, if the kid was smart, they would have brought back a log. <
Orbs?
We'll see
I for one don't know what happened. If Merrick had an epiphany or a "hissy fit" or if his topics were removed by RS or some other possibility. It is very interesting all by itself. Now I, for one, am gonna return to Daniel's piece.
A report