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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Reading...Dora Van Gelder's "The Real World of Fairies: A True First-Person Account".
Actually, "read", it was a slender book at a mere 120 pages, slender compared to most books, but positively voluminous given it's subject.
It begins by quoting Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and various of Eddington's not only theories but later doubts, making room to color in the margins with all manner of wonderful creatures beyond the apprehension of most mere mortals.
Shortly after this an old bookmark falls out - the bridge, from a pack of rolling papers. Undoubtedly that improved the book immensely.
Now, it is I suspect clearly not only possible but very likely that there are any number of creatures that live in spheres beyond our apprehension, and if we take the premise of a conscious, living universe this should not really be so surprising or absurd.
The miracle of our own sphere - tangible, visible, is a matter of scale...that we are composed of what amounts - at best - to a pinprick of matter that swarms and organizes to give us shape, idea, thought - and that pinprick, even so it may be generous, the further down we look the less that we see, the universe may well indeed possess nothing approaching matter, instead composed of fluid lines of energy.
So in this, given that we are comprised of no less than 99.999999% space, the thought of an order beings perhaps even just a few orders of magnitude more or less substantial than ourselves should not be tough to imagine. However, this did not persuade me (nor did I suspect it would). It was however an entertaining look at somebody else's world...
A gold mine of alternative thinking (not necessarily accurate - although, caveat - reality is subjective - hers is merely a bit more colorful) - links below:
Link: Dora Kunz (nee Van Gelder)
Married to: Fritz Kunz
Link: C.W. Leadbeater
Invisible Helpers, by C.W. Leadbeater- Link: https://cdn.website-editor.net/e4d6563c50794969b714ab70457d9761/files/uploaded/InvisibleHelpers_CWLeadbeater.pdf
The International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occult Periodicals -(this is a GOLD MINE!) Link: http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/theosophist/ - an amazing resource.
Now, very definitely 'twould be handy to get into the gnomes and kobold's good books and find the earth's hidden treasures, so next time I'm on the prospecting trail I'll have to keep my eyes and ears more finely attuned...
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I enjoyed this, especially his descriptions of Afghanistan and the various characters - Lords, Dukes, Herzog, Gandhi - that he met or interviewed in his travels.
He's a pleasant, easy read that inspires one to travel, and meet more interesting people...
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I enjoyed, but a more obscure work by Calvino for a reason. Still, it's good to read an author "becoming", as opposed to an author who's "arrived".
Interesting, but not precious.
It provides me the much-needed reminder that Excellence is a process, not an end or result.
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Picked it up, slender, curious worn cover - it's the slenderness and obscurity that draw me towards it, that and that it's priced at a dollar.
Enthusiastic reviews by nobody I've ever heard of adorn the back cover.
Written, late 1930's
A dialogue between a priest and a physiologist, both on a long ship voyage through the Suez Canal, the Priest, or Padre, on his way to a Mission in deepest colonial Africa, the Physiologist, also in Africa, studying the Lungfish, an evolutionary throwback to the days when fish breathed air before developing gills.
The conversations, on the one hand representing the evolutionary point of view, that life will out in all it's diversity, and the Priest is largely silent, his belief in something other than this - argued, but - not so much.
Not so much a dialogue as a advertisement for evolution and the randomness - and inevitability - of life.
So - always good to read - always, books from a different era, books with something to say. His Point of View stands today - even with all the advancements of science - the world is largely colored by our interpretation and understanding of it.
And there are no ready answers, which is, I suspect, as it should be.
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I enjoyed this. Not, perhaps, the "Travel Classic" the reviews made it out to be - but it's thorough, well researched, introduces you to a variety of places, people & histories that otherwise I might have had no interest in - so in this it succeeds.
And Australia's treatment of the Aboriginals rather mirrors our own failings with the Native Canadians.
Easy reading, thick book, lots to think about - only criticism that I wasn't enormously sympathetic to the authors' point of view - but that is a matter of our difference in personalities, not necessarily a flaw on his behalf. Personally, I would have liked a little more information on the Geology of it all...