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Largely (but - not necessarily "Entirely") disproven by the Michelson-Morley experiment, the Luminiferous Aether was postulated to be the medium that permeated space and allowed electromagnetic waves and light to propagate across a vacuum.
Now - while we of course reject the earlier theories that - for example - the stars and planets are candles or lights hung up in crystalline spheres - we might have been I think a little hasty getting rid of this one. Call it intuition.
Links:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_experiment
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether
While light can explain it's propagation by being both a particle and a wave - and electro-magnetic waves are explained away using "fields", it does seem that we have replaced the Aether with the term "Space", invented dark matter and a variety of other constants and equations to explain away - never satisfactorily - our relation to both space and neighboring celestial bodies. While the theory of relativity has held up for this long - the presence of an Aether, or medium - which slowed it down, or capped it's speed, would go a long ways towards overcoming it. Certainly the abundance of other planets, stars, celestial bodies in general suggests there must be some reasonable means for us to communicate - or traverse the voids - to them. Accepting the speed of light as an upper bound to the speed of our travels is not a particularly attractive option.
Anyways, the things that get me thinking far too early and never with enough coffee...
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So, going down the more esoteric listening rabbit holes of Theosophy and other such Biblical interpretations.
Noteworthy - and - occasionally cringe worthy - "Acres of Diamonds" by Russell H. Conwell - which takes the old folk tale of the Arabian who dreams of a buried treasure, travels far and wide, then returns to discover it buried in his own back yard. This - the entire narration - be a good neighbor, and you will be amply rewarded. The style of writing - more or less compiled from various of the authors travelling lectures - often painful, ridiculous, but - it's of the era. That said I would be curious to attend one of his speeches, if only to see how he presented his lectures, somewhat in the manner of an itinerant preacher I imagine.
Other books - "Your Invisible Power" by Genevieve Behrend, "The Game of Life and How to Play It" by Florence Scovel Shinn - classics - there are dozens in the same light - as ye think so shall ye become, the world is a manifestation of thought, etc. etc. Noteworthy uploaders include Master Key Society, Esoteric Tower, Psychology Library.
Now, just a quick note - every new age flapdoodle religion or belief has it's grounding in these books. "The Secret" is nothing more than old knowledge recycled and passed down time and time again. What is curious is that we need such an inane movie to readvise us of what is probably the closest reasonable interpretation of the Bible there is.
Other worthwhile listening comes in the form of Alan Watts - whom I'm not perfectly in accordance with, but I enjoy his lectures nonetheless.
And Carl Jung, his own readings or competent readings from his works - his theories on symbolism & psychology greatly embellished Freuds.
So, there, largely, lies my listening pleasures lately, some curious things online, if only you know how to find them.
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Now writing, now taking a break. Playing chess online against the bot "Sven", whom I should be able to beat with my eyes closed, only - for some reason, I don't.
Inaccuracies, Mistakes, Blunders.
Sven, he's a barometer of my mental wellness, 1100, my chess rating should be substantially better than this, only - it's not. My mistakes - blunders, are trivial, yet still they recur, there's no "long term strategy", merely move, move - ooops, the blunderbuss of my incompetence, inattention, keeps the game running to 20, 30, 50, even 150 moves.
Games I should win with my eyes closed.
There are days when I win - it seems that it is the day that decides, not my ability - some days, the games are short, victory is swift. Others - defeat inevitable and invariably prolonged far beyond what I should be comfortable with. There seems to be no common denominator - play drunk, hungover, sober as a judge - there's something else going on upstairs that decides even before I wake how the day will proceed.
Now - I know this game. I've played it - on and off - 35 years. My real ranking should be in the low 2000. Minimum. I used to play a friend, Milan, in the cafe's of Edmonton - we were evenly matched, meaning to say that both of us were bad - but I recall playing him once - he had me cornered - his checkmate assured, when somehow a light went on in the back of my brain, and I saw a full 7 moves ahead, my way out - an epiphany of sorts - and playing them through won the game.
For the record, chess masters only "see" 2 or 3 moves ahead - merely they know what moves are better, what moves are not - and so the game is built largely upon habitual responses to every foreseeable move.
But this is it - the game - it plays itself in the back of your mind, it's not playing the game that's so difficult, it's getting myself out of the way so that the light in the back of my head can play, me, I'm casting an incompetent's shadow on the board, it's not Sven, it's me defeating myself.
And this I am finding highly annoying.
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This, found while doing research into a few related topics, a grotesque masterpiece that's rather fetching, don't you think?
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Triumph_of_Death
Right click, open in a new tab and admire the details. The painting is inspired by the Bubonic Plague, which swept Europe and Asia a number of times to devastating effect.
In some instances, in towns up to 50% of the population died in a couple of years, in countries upwards of 25%.
This Pandemic, hate to say it, but it's just the warm-up before the practice...
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Curious, on the "Mind-Body" connection. Will yourself to death or think yourself young...
Link: https://www.salon.com/2021/12/31/psychogenic/
& Link: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/can-you-think-yourself-young-ageing-psychology