View allAll Photos Tagged physically"
A baby gorilla at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park was physically introduced with her mother, Imani for the first time this morning. The baby was born at the Safari Park on March 12 after an emergency C-section was needed. Since the physical introduction occurred, Imani has been extremely attached, holding and constantly carrying around the young gorilla.
Animal care staff placed the 12-day-old gorilla on a soft hay pile and then let Imani come in to physically meet her daughter for the first time. Imani examined the young gorilla by smelling her and then picked her up, carrying and cradling her around the bedroom area, even letting the baby cling and hold onto her back as she walked around. Animal care staff let other members of the gorilla troop have visual contact with Imani and the baby through a protective mesh barrier while the introductions occurred.
Animal care staff let Imani spend some time alone bonding with her baby and then let 5-year-old male gorilla Frank come into the off-exhibit bedroom area to be with Imani and the baby as well. Imani has a special bond with Frank, as she served as a surrogate mother to him after he was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2008. Both Imani and Frank came to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park from the San Diego Zoo in January 2013.
"Initially she was just carrying the baby, she never set the baby down," said Andrew Stallard, animal care supervisor at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. "About three hours in, she began nursing the baby. After about a five-minute bout, the baby fell asleep, which is exactly what we were looking for, so we were really excited!"
The baby gorilla was observed nursing, but staff will continue to closely monitor the infant to make sure she is getting the nutrition she needs. This is the first baby for Imani and the 17th gorilla to be born at the Safari Park. The Safari Park is home to eight gorillas, including the new baby.
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
And with advance to REALITY COPY there’s certainly no way of changing this perception only enforcing it, nothing in reality is good enough for “REALITY COPY” that is just another paradox that is not futuristic.
We might be still skeptical about the arrival of REALITY COPY, but its only before its sold at the supermarkets.
What would happen after “Reality Copy” when the progress of all possible levels of true “reality copy” (in technical sense, not psychologically-philosophical) are achieved. The reality hence is copied and sealed.
Technology won’t stop there… one wonders. What is next.
In political sense when reality in representation is something embraced by conservative social power than with “reality copy” the conservative power is the dominating from the social point of view having new level of reality and it’s copy to be controlled.
*seems like the only possibly alternative to REALITY COPY could be ultra radical Invisibility)
In principle the artist aims to deform the reality subjectively to create not the “reality copy” lacking such skills but to convey the artistic poetic goal of expressing whatever given artist wants to express.
In a matter of “reality copy” what is left for the artist to argue with and deform… to question and test… Nothing really changes socially except for more pressure applied to the issue of dealing with self-image and tools to “sell” When a person changes the image the higher the technology the more transformed is the final product.
The progress of mental growth is just as conservative as control on the “visual image of reality” and its copy.
The ongoing technological progress is irreversible as it carries percent of good with bad,
It is common knowledge how for instance internet is benefit and at the same time does damage. A person who knows about the addiction and suffers would acquire the knowledge and hope from the place the person suffers the internet of course.
Same thing is with photography and video. Reality copy would add more psychological problems to the present but create more visual attraction of true-life experience with whatever could be rediscovered in Lifecopy style. Probably is benefits pornography since it will continue same as consumption of food. The basic things… Consumerism benefits since it is super-trained for “instant reach” affect and will commercially exploit the “reality copy” to sell more of “reality copy” gadgets the phones, screens, etc.
New generation of people will repeat the cycle in new technological means of having “reality copy” as nothing new but similar to any visual information currently available.
The creative people are the ones BEHIND the time it seems in a matter of “reality copy” and being unable to have anything is an alternative.
The Invisible alternative is the ONLY ONE to question “reality copy”
That is the power of UNKNOWN.
Techno progress can deal in “reality” bringing higher resolution to the fore to sell new generation of phones and gadgets.
But it really doesn’t change the philosophical issue of questions asked by philosophers, what is life, what is art, why do we live. Questions remain unanswered when techno progress veils those questions with the promise that higher technology would bring the end to all unanswered questions and answer them for people.
So far the techno advance puts the artistic, literary and philosophical field out of business. As when people get the toys (gadgets) and the playground (the podium of internet) the art is irrelevant and completely disconnected from the social phenomenon of self-representation. Art is not interested to question something with no philosophical substance to it.
The commercial art is willing to supply more stuff for consumerism. If its reality-copy than someone empowered by financial wealth (born rich) would come up with more decorative solutions that could serve REALITY COPY in needed fashion, add more details to the “reality set” to those who can afford it.
Same way it is now when people with means live with more things.
“Reality Copy” of people without means would look just as it is in reality, gray and unexciting. To help people without means the software would offer “decoration” solutions to add the faux details able to transform the surroundings to less depressing. It would enter the person into “life copy” of vacation at Caribbean resorts… etc.
What in such situation could be philosophically questioned, if nothing changed in human morality, but techno advance manage to involve people into self-entertainment to such degree that a person is no longer interested to read books about other people or watch movies and hear news. Self-promotion is the ongoing and time-consuming thing. One has to research the “popular” topics.
As to participating in reality activities, there’s the issue of not having time for anything that doesn’t deal with self-promotion and earning a living.
ART commerce is growing commercially going Industrial since supplying consumer goods is always rewarding in sales. On the other hand this and techno revolution reduces interest of writers and philosophers to dig in depths where there is no depth. It makes such people disengaged with the process. When there are no critical voices to the established situation or some few art critics pretend to do what is expected of them – know about current situation not only on the art scene but at large - socially, and have strong voice against the trends that contribute to the lowering of culture. There’s no more liberal freedom since nobody reads the newspapers. Even if the working critics were principal enough to write articles and books they know their voice would not be heard. They are not vociferous about anything at all because there’s a concept of supporting and art endavour since art is in decline and anything that relates to art needs their support.
There are no voices to oppose the current situation for many reasons such as no younger people would be interested in such undertaking also for many reasons of being disoriented in expectation of techno changes or living their me-life.
The young ones are the invisibility movers, every day someone who is young, information and internet savvy adds the invisibility statement to their online identity. I saw it on tumblr and Iheart. (samples year web address – source)
Art consumer goods sell and make the seller get the goods since sale is the rule.
Art critics silently agree and actually it seems if they even try to disagree there is nothing in art that presently shows any direction against the established art situation.
There isn’t anything not saying a serious claim to deny aesthetic values of the art present and past, to turn away from any influence and history by the fashion avant-garde to question than resuscitate (bring back from death) art that lost vitality and practically is a dead art of dominating taste in an authoritarian culture and conformity.
Bring new blood to reinvent the art into weapon against the outlived old and positioning itself as direct opposition AGAINST art that represents culture of the present time.
Culture of consumerism that turned into visual consumerism with the help of internet is hard to oppose and challenge in any attempt of making bid public art spectacle, won’t challenge any concept but serve certain need for entertainment.
Invisible art of Paul Jaisini stands against all that is dominating and culturally regressive in the present, false visual multiplicity that imply democracy and absence of segregation in visual sphere, all inclusiveness.
On so many levels Paul Jaisini brings knowledge of how the present condition reflect on a mind. (non-linear thinking, information processing, constant analysis is the advanced state of high analytical creative mind /osd, adad is the side effect but there are more worse side effects) Shows the burst to create in manifestation of genius mind (can do any task without training) but unable to maintain the creative process as wholesome, bored with the immediate results. Invisibility is theoretical stability and result of high impact activity that gives fast result of creativity and genius realized in art. Then instability in the fact of the created art un--preserved and lost, destroyed.
On a lower level of people who start building some blog with enthusiasm dedicating time, research than abandoning it to become digital graveyard demonstrates inability to continue and search for new. Inability to face what yesterday seemed interesting and capture someone’s mind to give the creative boost.
(fast life, no sleep, high tech knowledge, constant search for new, unsatisfied… new is old – altogether supports “CONSUMERISM” when buying is haul more than physically needed, quantity is the need for new.
Invisible art as a concept seem to attract wide public and elite in such diametrically opposed combination, of people without high aesthetics in mind or the complete opposite illuminati-culturati. People with average or below average taste and aesthetic requirements are as interested and supportive as the elite. When it comes to someone in the middle- another phenomena, quite often those who are educated and intelligent take a stand against even one mention of the art being possibly somehow invisible.
These people respond very well and willing to agree with the concept as Invisible art is brought to them by mass media. In the beginning I was using internet to send out essays and saw the proof that as avant-garde wanted to reach people who never acquired artistically developed taste the invisible art was and now is more than ever suits their taste even to degree of obsession.
That’s adds insult to injury when nobody even pay attention and there’s nothing to offer as the alternative.
They want something tangible as the alternative, the grown philosophy to brew in the minds of people and artists as the sign of time.
The invisibility is the idea that has the power to antagonize the “reality copy” but not in a sense that is widely used in the present time. To express social isolation in case of the teens as seen on tumblr. (examples and variations of Invisibility trend in primitive pictures shared every day in such huge quantities no art publication ever knew, teens and pre-teens are those with passion among the rest of us, when they spread the word it goes far, same as the early internet time, when the word would go far distances to large number of people)
Historically known of the episodes when many artists tried to create the so-called invis art but it really didn’t involve much creativity except for the concepts they came up with, but in reality it involved the reduction of visual means and performance art when the audience came up with more ideas acting around the non-existent artwork than the artist.
Personally I discovered high interactive value of the “PRESUMED” invisible painting when I was getting a lot of responses with very interesting commentaries from the people who actually insisted I was sending them info about the invisible artworks. I never made any claims when sending written essays. People decided for me and probably this is the best way for the interactive dialogue to let people decide.
The only known versions of invisible artworks would be not something that can turn into a philosophical school of thought but random reductions of visual means of various artists. It all came to same MOA that involved frames etc., not the process of creativity or life long creativity that would show how such artistic philosophy develops and what various periods of the artist’s life produce by his belief in his artistic style.
The known precedents of exhibiting so-called invisible art were always random statements that never continued to develop in a distinct style.
What one usually expects is a blank canvas, a picture with some written ideas which is more a topography art, a picture that is in a wrapping of covered up and is a found object art. The only known artists who continued wrapping is Christo but his art is not considered invisible even though he hides or attempts to hide what is inside the wrapping….
Recently same as in more distant periods in time many artists are trying to reduce their visual means. There’s a difference though. In previous times artists ventured into reduction of visual means with more ease. The artworks from older times with reduced visual means had much less labor and look less worked on.
Now the reduction of visual means is something that doesn’t fall under the artistic philosophy when an artists trying to prevent an overkill of the visual imagery.
If Rothko worked on his abstract painting laboriously than in current standards his work would be considered not sale’s worthy. Now to be sale-worthy the abstraction is worked to show a lot of workmanship. Surely Rothko doesn’t want anyone to see a lot of workmanship quite the opposite, he wanted his paintings to look fresh and not overdone. And in current standards he would have to toil on every dot in his painting to perfect it.
Today’s abstract paintings look like very hard-worked on simulations of surfaces that look like some textures (varieties of plain or distressed surfaces /stone and whatever is the decorative surfaces of abstracts, patterns that are used in interior design.
Overworked, machine-like is expensive looking enough to sell in the gallery but it creates a certain amount of fatigue in time. The commerce knows about it, the fatigue would bring the art buyer to buy more to add some new life to the art collection ed infinitum.
Art commerce wants more art collectors in the times when art is selling and makes money and should be called what it is – decorative luxury items.
Art or luxury decorative items was always meant for people with wealth and they always wanted to get their money worth.
When abstract painting is done in a manner to be worthy of selling price it is not creativity of conceptual thought and has no abstracted meaning. The craft of simulating surfaces is widely known and is used in interior design. When it is unique that no other craftsman can repeat it is recognized nearly as jewelry and rag-making, etc. All the items that cost money due to the high workmanship and hours, months and sometimes years of creation. Same way was built the historical hand-made furniture. Same way the current abstract decorations will hold in time. It is made for someone as rich as royalties but it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with artistic creativity, the most mysterious and unexplained human phenomenon.
So anyone who is interested to earn money as a maker of such luxury items and be able to place them in the store for sale – the art gallery, can come up with own recipe for surface replica and start working will find a paying job on the art scene nowadays...
It doesn’t involve questioning of morals, times and life. It involves many hours of working and ability to produce varieties of the same surfaces in good taste. Instead of questioning human spirituality, or questioning art means that someone considers irrelevant and outdated, not for any breakthrough to create something revolutionary new.
Today marked my first day going back to the office physically this year. It 's also my first day going back to Alviso for some photo shoots. And guess what? This photo is also my first shot with my new Leica M digital body.
Why Leica? That 's a good question. I am curious myself. I have been shooting with my other M6 classic film body and also lurking around the Leica user forum to find out what exactly that Leica look is all about. A rare opportunity arose before X'mas when I discovered a mint condition Leica ME typ 240 being sold at a "good price" from Lensrental. This Leica ME was first introduced in 2019 and was supposed to be an entry model using the same body and specifications as the previous generation M240. Its CMOS image sensor is about as old as it gets and is lacking dynamic range by today's standard. Previously I was looking for an M10 which has an improved sensor but I just could not justify its high price tag. Nonetheless, I have seen prices of Leica M bodies both film and digital steadily increasing over last year. However, the digital bodies usually decline in value over time but at a much slower pace than other brands such as Sony, Nikon, and Canon. Used prices of Leica M bodies typically hold up pretty well. As I have been shooting with my film Leica M6, I figured I needed a digital body to complement it for those low light situations. Yes, there were times when I had a low ISO film in the M6 and I couldn't do anything about it when the light got dim. The two M bodies are also small enough to fit into my three-liter sling bag provided that I don't bring any additional lens. I have already made up my mind that I am going to keep my M6 classic as it is timeless. Heck, it might even outlive me. As for the ME typ 240, I would play further with it to see if I really like its output. It 's quite easily for me to resell it in the used market as this model had a limited production run with its unique "Anthracite Paint". Right of the bat, I have already seen its limited dynamic range where there is really not much head room to recover the highlights from the DNG RAW files. The shadows seem to hold up reasonably well if I push a couple of stops. So I would have to expose for the shadows and try to preserve the highlights. This is counterintuitive to film. I also need to be aware of its shutter speed labels as they are opposite to my M6 classic on the shutter speed dial. So far my verdict is still out there.
Lens: Carl Zeiss C Sonnar 50mm F1.5 ZM
ME
Even though I can physically spend only a few hours each week in this mode, this is as much "me" as the other person. Psychologically, there is absolutely no difference. And, understand, I have no problem with that "other person" when he must be the face of me.
So, is this a better representation of the "real me?" I guess they are simply two sides of the same coin.
The tranquil impression of a sleepy backwater is deceptive at this location, although the grey traffic information sign on the left in the picture gives away this is actually a few yards from one of the busiest motorways in the country near Lofthouse. Don't these buses just look so fine from any angle tho !
For a dog who doesn't like to be touched & can find just being physically close to people difficult, it's always extra special seeing that happy grin, as Flynn races back to me when I call his name! Flynn's recall has always been reliable, since before he came to me - although we're continually working on *keeping* it good & over time he's definitely got more enthusiastic about coming back & sticking around afterwards.
My old Barney has a very good recall too - except if something scares him (usually a gunshot) & then he's capable of suddenly turning tail & running off. It's terrifying having your usually obedient dog go completely deaf to your calls & fleeing into the distance. Usually, Barney would return after a minute but once or twice, he has disappeared for longer, or I've had to hunt for him under bushes & in ditches, after he'd just decided to hide. Those occasional incidents where Barney's not listened have resulted in him spending much more of his life stuck on a lead, when he should have been playing free.
Flynn's never been scared of gunshot in the way Barney is but I've seen him spook a bit - at things like the squeal of a mountain bike's brakes, & I wouldn't put it past him to get into a panic, especially given his other issues. I was determined Flynn would learn that coming back to me is *always* the best option. We practice recalls regularly & he gets a treat party whenever we hear a potentially "scary" sound, or see something unexpected. Looks like the training has payed off - these days, if Flynn hears a bang or sees something weird, his automatic reaction, is to whirl back around & dash over to me.
And with advance to REALITY COPY there’s certainly no way of changing this perception only enforcing it, nothing in reality is good enough for “REALITY COPY” that is just another paradox that is not futuristic.
We might be still skeptical about the arrival of REALITY COPY, but its only before its sold at the supermarkets.
What would happen after “Reality Copy” when the progress of all possible levels of true “reality copy” (in technical sense, not psychologically-philosophical) are achieved. The reality hence is copied and sealed.
Technology won’t stop there… one wonders. What is next.
In political sense when reality in representation is something embraced by conservative social power than with “reality copy” the conservative power is the dominating from the social point of view having new level of reality and it’s copy to be controlled.
*seems like the only possibly alternative to REALITY COPY could be ultra radical Invisibility)
In principle the artist aims to deform the reality subjectively to create not the “reality copy” lacking such skills but to convey the artistic poetic goal of expressing whatever given artist wants to express.
In a matter of “reality copy” what is left for the artist to argue with and deform… to question and test… Nothing really changes socially except for more pressure applied to the issue of dealing with self-image and tools to “sell” When a person changes the image the higher the technology the more transformed is the final product.
The progress of mental growth is just as conservative as control on the “visual image of reality” and its copy.
The ongoing technological progress is irreversible as it carries percent of good with bad,
It is common knowledge how for instance internet is benefit and at the same time does damage. A person who knows about the addiction and suffers would acquire the knowledge and hope from the place the person suffers the internet of course.
Same thing is with photography and video. Reality copy would add more psychological problems to the present but create more visual attraction of true-life experience with whatever could be rediscovered in Lifecopy style. Probably is benefits pornography since it will continue same as consumption of food. The basic things… Consumerism benefits since it is super-trained for “instant reach” affect and will commercially exploit the “reality copy” to sell more of “reality copy” gadgets the phones, screens, etc.
New generation of people will repeat the cycle in new technological means of having “reality copy” as nothing new but similar to any visual information currently available.
The creative people are the ones BEHIND the time it seems in a matter of “reality copy” and being unable to have anything is an alternative.
The Invisible alternative is the ONLY ONE to question “reality copy”
That is the power of UNKNOWN.
Techno progress can deal in “reality” bringing higher resolution to the fore to sell new generation of phones and gadgets.
But it really doesn’t change the philosophical issue of questions asked by philosophers, what is life, what is art, why do we live. Questions remain unanswered when techno progress veils those questions with the promise that higher technology would bring the end to all unanswered questions and answer them for people.
So far the techno advance puts the artistic, literary and philosophical field out of business. As when people get the toys (gadgets) and the playground (the podium of internet) the art is irrelevant and completely disconnected from the social phenomenon of self-representation. Art is not interested to question something with no philosophical substance to it.
The commercial art is willing to supply more stuff for consumerism. If its reality-copy than someone empowered by financial wealth (born rich) would come up with more decorative solutions that could serve REALITY COPY in needed fashion, add more details to the “reality set” to those who can afford it.
Same way it is now when people with means live with more things.
“Reality Copy” of people without means would look just as it is in reality, gray and unexciting. To help people without means the software would offer “decoration” solutions to add the faux details able to transform the surroundings to less depressing. It would enter the person into “life copy” of vacation at Caribbean resorts… etc.
What in such situation could be philosophically questioned, if nothing changed in human morality, but techno advance manage to involve people into self-entertainment to such degree that a person is no longer interested to read books about other people or watch movies and hear news. Self-promotion is the ongoing and time-consuming thing. One has to research the “popular” topics.
As to participating in reality activities, there’s the issue of not having time for anything that doesn’t deal with self-promotion and earning a living.
ART commerce is growing commercially going Industrial since supplying consumer goods is always rewarding in sales. On the other hand this and techno revolution reduces interest of writers and philosophers to dig in depths where there is no depth. It makes such people disengaged with the process. When there are no critical voices to the established situation or some few art critics pretend to do what is expected of them – know about current situation not only on the art scene but at large - socially, and have strong voice against the trends that contribute to the lowering of culture. There’s no more liberal freedom since nobody reads the newspapers. Even if the working critics were principal enough to write articles and books they know their voice would not be heard. They are not vociferous about anything at all because there’s a concept of supporting and art endavour since art is in decline and anything that relates to art needs their support.
There are no voices to oppose the current situation for many reasons such as no younger people would be interested in such undertaking also for many reasons of being disoriented in expectation of techno changes or living their me-life.
The young ones are the invisibility movers, every day someone who is young, information and internet savvy adds the invisibility statement to their online identity. I saw it on tumblr and Iheart. (samples year web address – source)
Art consumer goods sell and make the seller get the goods since sale is the rule.
Art critics silently agree and actually it seems if they even try to disagree there is nothing in art that presently shows any direction against the established art situation.
There isn’t anything not saying a serious claim to deny aesthetic values of the art present and past, to turn away from any influence and history by the fashion avant-garde to question than resuscitate (bring back from death) art that lost vitality and practically is a dead art of dominating taste in an authoritarian culture and conformity.
Bring new blood to reinvent the art into weapon against the outlived old and positioning itself as direct opposition AGAINST art that represents culture of the present time.
Culture of consumerism that turned into visual consumerism with the help of internet is hard to oppose and challenge in any attempt of making bid public art spectacle, won’t challenge any concept but serve certain need for entertainment.
Invisible art of Paul Jaisini stands against all that is dominating and culturally regressive in the present, false visual multiplicity that imply democracy and absence of segregation in visual sphere, all inclusiveness.
On so many levels Paul Jaisini brings knowledge of how the present condition reflect on a mind. (non-linear thinking, information processing, constant analysis is the advanced state of high analytical creative mind /osd, adad is the side effect but there are more worse side effects) Shows the burst to create in manifestation of genius mind (can do any task without training) but unable to maintain the creative process as wholesome, bored with the immediate results. Invisibility is theoretical stability and result of high impact activity that gives fast result of creativity and genius realized in art. Then instability in the fact of the created art un--preserved and lost, destroyed.
On a lower level of people who start building some blog with enthusiasm dedicating time, research than abandoning it to become digital graveyard demonstrates inability to continue and search for new. Inability to face what yesterday seemed interesting and capture someone’s mind to give the creative boost.
(fast life, no sleep, high tech knowledge, constant search for new, unsatisfied… new is old – altogether supports “CONSUMERISM” when buying is haul more than physically needed, quantity is the need for new.
Invisible art as a concept seem to attract wide public and elite in such diametrically opposed combination, of people without high aesthetics in mind or the complete opposite illuminati-culturati. People with average or below average taste and aesthetic requirements are as interested and supportive as the elite. When it comes to someone in the middle- another phenomena, quite often those who are educated and intelligent take a stand against even one mention of the art being possibly somehow invisible.
These people respond very well and willing to agree with the concept as Invisible art is brought to them by mass media. In the beginning I was using internet to send out essays and saw the proof that as avant-garde wanted to reach people who never acquired artistically developed taste the invisible art was and now is more than ever suits their taste even to degree of obsession.
That’s adds insult to injury when nobody even pay attention and there’s nothing to offer as the alternative.
They want something tangible as the alternative, the grown philosophy to brew in the minds of people and artists as the sign of time.
The invisibility is the idea that has the power to antagonize the “reality copy” but not in a sense that is widely used in the present time. To express social isolation in case of the teens as seen on tumblr. (examples and variations of Invisibility trend in primitive pictures shared every day in such huge quantities no art publication ever knew, teens and pre-teens are those with passion among the rest of us, when they spread the word it goes far, same as the early internet time, when the word would go far distances to large number of people)
Historically known of the episodes when many artists tried to create the so-called invis art but it really didn’t involve much creativity except for the concepts they came up with, but in reality it involved the reduction of visual means and performance art when the audience came up with more ideas acting around the non-existent artwork than the artist.
Personally I discovered high interactive value of the “PRESUMED” invisible painting when I was getting a lot of responses with very interesting commentaries from the people who actually insisted I was sending them info about the invisible artworks. I never made any claims when sending written essays. People decided for me and probably this is the best way for the interactive dialogue to let people decide.
The only known versions of invisible artworks would be not something that can turn into a philosophical school of thought but random reductions of visual means of various artists. It all came to same MOA that involved frames etc., not the process of creativity or life long creativity that would show how such artistic philosophy develops and what various periods of the artist’s life produce by his belief in his artistic style.
The known precedents of exhibiting so-called invisible art were always random statements that never continued to develop in a distinct style.
What one usually expects is a blank canvas, a picture with some written ideas which is more a topography art, a picture that is in a wrapping of covered up and is a found object art. The only known artists who continued wrapping is Christo but his art is not considered invisible even though he hides or attempts to hide what is inside the wrapping….
Recently same as in more distant periods in time many artists are trying to reduce their visual means. There’s a difference though. In previous times artists ventured into reduction of visual means with more ease. The artworks from older times with reduced visual means had much less labor and look less worked on.
Now the reduction of visual means is something that doesn’t fall under the artistic philosophy when an artists trying to prevent an overkill of the visual imagery.
If Rothko worked on his abstract painting laboriously than in current standards his work would be considered not sale’s worthy. Now to be sale-worthy the abstraction is worked to show a lot of workmanship. Surely Rothko doesn’t want anyone to see a lot of workmanship quite the opposite, he wanted his paintings to look fresh and not overdone. And in current standards he would have to toil on every dot in his painting to perfect it.
Today’s abstract paintings look like very hard-worked on simulations of surfaces that look like some textures (varieties of plain or distressed surfaces /stone and whatever is the decorative surfaces of abstracts, patterns that are used in interior design.
Overworked, machine-like is expensive looking enough to sell in the gallery but it creates a certain amount of fatigue in time. The commerce knows about it, the fatigue would bring the art buyer to buy more to add some new life to the art collection ed infinitum.
Art commerce wants more art collectors in the times when art is selling and makes money and should be called what it is – decorative luxury items.
Art or luxury decorative items was always meant for people with wealth and they always wanted to get their money worth.
When abstract painting is done in a manner to be worthy of selling price it is not creativity of conceptual thought and has no abstracted meaning. The craft of simulating surfaces is widely known and is used in interior design. When it is unique that no other craftsman can repeat it is recognized nearly as jewelry and rag-making, etc. All the items that cost money due to the high workmanship and hours, months and sometimes years of creation. Same way was built the historical hand-made furniture. Same way the current abstract decorations will hold in time. It is made for someone as rich as royalties but it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with artistic creativity, the most mysterious and unexplained human phenomenon.
So anyone who is interested to earn money as a maker of such luxury items and be able to place them in the store for sale – the art gallery, can come up with own recipe for surface replica and start working will find a paying job on the art scene nowadays...
It doesn’t involve questioning of morals, times and life. It involves many hours of working and ability to produce varieties of the same surfaces in good taste. Instead of questioning human spirituality, or questioning art means that someone considers irrelevant and outdated, not for any breakthrough to create something revolutionary new.
Iphone Digital
INSTAGRAM. @hollographic
6.11.19
After last night I am more confused and lost than ever. I went to find Jordan around 2am and the bar closed for cleaning. I was walking by myself. I was distracted and got assaulted. I was able to get away. Then Jordan showed up and let me stay at his place. We needed each other. Then we spent most of the day together. I went to bed early emotionally and physically exhausted.
Brinkworth.
Brinkworth has around 400 people. It is near the Broughton River but that is not why the town was established. Brinkworth is a relatively new town, compared with Blyth or Koolunga as it was only developed in 1892. Its origins lie with the establishment of a cross country rail line from the deep sea port of Wallaroo which passed through Snowtown and then terminated at Brinkworth. The rail line was also extended from Blyth through Brinkworth to Gladstone in the north. Both lines were agreed upon in 1892 and physically reached the town in 1894! When the first train arrived from Adelaide, Brinkworth was described as a tent village with no buildings. But soon it had a large wooden railway station with luggage rooms, waiting rooms, porter’s rooms, residences for the station master and foreman and porters etc. A railway refreshment rooms was set up in Brinkworth in 1895 and operated until 1941 servicing both Gladstone and Moonta trains. These refreshment rooms could seat 200 people for refreshments which included full meals and alcohol! About 15 women were employed form the town to operate the refreshment rooms. Magpie Creek was dammed to create a railway reservoir and a large water tank were erected in the rail yards. It was a busy rail junction and station complex and stockyards were located next to the railway yards. Much later between 1923 and 1927 the line from Blyth to Gladstone was increased from a 3’6” gauge line to a broad gauge line giving Brinkworth (and Gladstone) a direct rail link to Adelaide without change of gauge. From the late 1890s there was a daily train to and from Wallaroo. By 1927 this service had become a daily Barwell Bull rail car service to and from Moonta. Rail crews had to stay overnight in Brinkworth in railway cottages for the return trip to Moonta the next day. This Moonta service stopped in 1972. In 1959 an air-conditioned Bluebird rail car service began on the Adelaide to Brinkworth line until all passenger services ceased in 1982. The importance of the railway can be imagined from the large expanse of land in the main street. All the tracks and railway structures were removed after 1991.
The land here in the Hundred of Hart was opened for farm selection in 1866. By 1892 the land where Brinkworth now stands was owned by Peter Brinkworth the son of George Brinkworth the original landowner from 1866. The district was known as Magpie Creek. Peter Brinkworth subdivided part of his father’s farm in 1892 to create a private town which would sit at the junction of the two newly announced government railway lines from Wallaroo and Blyth. He called his town Brinkworth rather than Magpie Creek. Like Blyth the Brinkworth area had always had a mix of German and English background farmers. Given the late establishment of the town most of the buildings date from around 1900 or later. For example the school was opened in 1895 (but now demolished), the public hall opened in 1900 and had later additions in 1920 in Art Deco style when it was renamed the Soldiers Memorial Hall, the Police Station and Post Office were both erected in 1909, the Wesleyan Methodist Church was built in 1907 and the Lutheran and Catholic Churches both opened in 1909. The Sunday School and Hall beside the Methodist Church, now Uniting Church, were opened by Miss Brinkworth in 1930. The Anglican Church in Brinkworth opened in 1910 and closed in 1997. It was designed by William Mallyon a bank manager from Port Pirie who designed about 35 churches free of charge for the Anglican Church throughout South Australia. St John’s Lutheran Church still operates in Brinkworth but the former Catholic Church which is right next door to it is now the town Museum. Both of these churches were built in 1909 a year in which many of Brinkworth’s buildings were constructed. Brinkworth has a public cemetery on land along the Blyth Road which was donated by the Hawkers of Bungaree and the earliest burials there are from around 1904.
The Junction Hotel in the Main Street was built earlier than many buildings in Brinkworth as it was constricted in 1893 with extra additions made to it in 1909. Using this as a starting point head south along the Main Street. The old English Scottish and Australian Bank with attached residence was opened in 1909 before closing in 1942. It is just north of the Police Station. Just beyond the Police Station on the corner of Clare Street was the coffee palace built in 1896. When the Temperance movement was popular coffee palaces flourished in South Australia in an attempt to keep people away from hotels. It closed as a coffee palace in 1952 when it reverted to being a large residence. The small shop next door to the Coffee Palace was a saddle maker‘s shop built in 1902. Just along from that is a building with a roof parapet which is marked SSS 1923. Sidney Stewart Sergeant added a new façade to an old building in 1923 for his tax agent office. As a German settled area Brinkworth also had a Eudunda Farmers’ Cooperative general store. It was store number 25 and it operated from 1920 to 1984. It began operating in a small store next to the Bank of Adelaide before much larger premises were erected in 1927 on the next corner south from the Coffee Palace. The old 1927 Eudunda Farmers building is still the store, cafe and deli in Brinkworth. If you turn left into Junction Street here you will see the fancy neo-Georgian style Post Office opened in Brinkworth in 1927 but it has now been closed for some years. An old general store has now been converted to the Post Office back in the Main Street near the old Eudunda Farmer’s Store. Just beyond that is the Bank of Adelaide and residence which was built in 1906 although the bank opened elsewhere in the town in 1903. This building became an ANZ bank in 1979 until it closed in 1983.
“Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”
~ Cassandra Clare Clockwork Angel
With thanks to:
model: Eric
background: Chris Ford
Peter could taste popcorn from the intense aroma in the air. The butter and salt almost stinging his eyes and nose.
Carol Danvers: How about this popcorn?
Peter looked to his right and met the gaze of Carol Danvers. The once pilot now superhero of a government agency by the name of SHIELD that he called his friend was shoveling her face full of popcorn.
Peter Parker: It’s physically and emotionally hurting me.
Carol Danvers: How so? It’s delicious.
Peter Parker: You’ve drowned it butter and buried it in salt.
Carol Danvers: I think that just makes it better.
Peter Parker: You do you-
Carol Danvers: Say boo I dare you.
Peter Parker: …
Carol Danvers: That’s what I thought.
Peter Parker: You do you boo.
Carol stares at Peter with a sarcastic expression on her face.
Peter Parker: Wha- *Urf*
Carol shoves a handful of popcorn in Peter’s mouth and starts laughing hysterically.
Carol Danvers: You should’ve seen your face.
Peter Parker, swallowing the popcorn: Ow.
Carol Danvers: What did we learn?
Peter Parker: Never call Carol “boo”.
Carol Danvers: That’s right, now shut yourself the movie is starting.
=====Queens : New York=====
Peter Parker: Really? I thought it was pretty good.
Carol Danvers: I disagree. Easily the worse of the franchise. I told you they wouldn’t do a good job.
Peter Parker: C’mon give them some credit. They’ve done a pretty good job with the franchise. Remember how good One-
Carol Danvers: They did a pretty “okay” job. I mean seriously, the greatest hero in the galaxy, and he spends generations being a hermit. Not my Sku-
Peter Parker: Let’s just stop arguing about it.
Carol Danvers: …
Peter Parker: …
Carol Danvers: I have a question.
Peter Parker: Shoot.
Carol Danvers: Why are we *walking* home?
Peter Parker: Why wouldn’t we?
Carol Danvers: Well I can give you two reasons. I can fly and you can...you can swing.
Peter Parker: This is true.
Carol Danvers: Then why don’t we?
Peter Parker: We can’t have a nice night on the town?
Carol Danvers: You were never one for a grandeur evening.
Peter Parker: I am one for grandeur evening. I have a girlfriend, y’know. I know how to have a good night with a girl.
Carol Danvers: Woah Peter, I didn’t know you-
Peter Parker: Not like that!
Carol Danvers, laughing: I know, I know. But you have a girlfriend? How did I not know that?
Peter Parker: Eh, it’s a long story.
Carol Danvers: We have the time.
Peter Parker: I’m not feeling it.
Carol Danvers: *sigh* You’ve been grumpy all night long. Does someone need a lift
home?
Peter Parker: No, I’m fine.
Carol Danvers: Clearly you’re not. Why don’t you stop being such a pout and we have a little fun? Suit up and stop some crime. Find a good ol’ bank heist or stop a drug trade.
Peter looks over at Carol and gives her a soft smile
Carol Danvers: Peter what’s wrong with you? Seriously this isn’t funny anymore. This isn’t your normal angsty behavior.
Peter Parker: …
Carol Danvers looks at a now gloomy Peter and yanks him into the nearest alleyway and pushes him against the wall.
Carol Danvers: If you think I’m just going to let you-
???: Got any money?
Carol looks over at a man with bloodshot eyes scratching his chin
Carol Danvers: No.
Carol’s hand glows slightly and sends the man flying down the alley
Peter Parker: Carol!
Carol Danvers: It was a concussion blast, he’ll be fine. Now tell Uncle Carol.
Peter Parker: Uncle Carol?
Carol Danvers: I like your quips, don’t blame me for trying to make one.
Peter laughs
Peter Parker: It was a pretty good one.
Carol Danvers: Much obliged, now please tell me.
Peter Parker: I don’t want to concern you.
Carol’s eyes flash with energy and she punches the wall sending cracks spiraling 3 feet from her fist.
Carol Danvers: I’m not going to let you wallow alone.
Peter breaths in deeply through his nose and stares into Carol’s eyes
Peter Parker: I haven’t been feeling myself lately. I’ve been questioning who I am as Spider-Man and I’ve been seeing...things so my Spidey-Sense is acting up. I’ve been feeling so anxious. I can’t think straight and my grades are slipping-
Carol Danvers: Woah, Woah, slow down. What things are you seeing?
Peter Parker: The Chameleon...he’s...back...out of jail. I know he is. I can just feel it.
Carol Danvers: That’s ridiculous, he couldn’t possibly have escaped. I could pull up his cell feed right now and prove you wrong.
Peter Parker: I’m just telling you what I’ve been seeing.
Carol looks into Peter’s frantic eyes, a sight she’s never seen before. She thinks how Peter was always visibly calm and collected in situations.
Carol Danvers: Just...breath. You shouldn’t be doubting your-
Carol’s wristwatch buzzes and she glances down at it. Tony Stark, wealthy billionaire, honored inventor, and famed superhero appears on her watch and Peter looks at her with both confusion and concern.
Carol Danvers: Damn...I have to go, Peter, I’m so sorry.
Carol steps away from the wall and energy rises around her body wrapping her in her costume. She begins to hover in the air but turns around to face him.
Carol Danvers: This isn’t you Peter...just...just remember who you are.
Leaving Peter with that thought she takes off
into the skyline amongst the tallest buildings of the city.
=====Aunt May’s Apartment : Queens=====
A familiar sight
Peter standing above the trash can, with his mask in hand contemplating his existence as Spider-Man. Though his contemplation wasn’t easy with James Jonah Jameson, Peter’s boss and owner of the Daily Bugle, negative words filling the room.
JJJ: A menace! A menace I tell you! Look, ladies and gentlemen, I know I sound like a broken record player on these shows every night, but I have to provide the truth to the public about Spider-Man!
Peter walks over and closes the tab on his laptop, Jameson’s voice disappearing instantaneously. He then turns his mask inside out and connects it to the computer.
Peter Parker: No more Jameson for the night.
He walks over to his trash can and pulls out the rest of his suit.
Peter Parker, tossing his suit on his bed: God, what’s wrong with me?
Peter sits down and begins to work on the software in his mask. He turns around and stares at his suit
And smiles
Model/Photographer - Delypop Cresci (MVW Italy 2016)
• STYLE CARD:
HAIR: Frenchie by Illmatic
HAIR BASE: Frenchie by Unorthodox
HAT: Jones cowboy - Legal Insanity
EYELINER: Impact II by Blush Skin
LIPS: Soft peach matte 1 by BlackLiquid
EARS: Steking Season 5 by Mandala
KIMONO: Andreja by Emery
SHERIFF STAR: my Creations
BRA: Emma Leigh by Dead Dollz
SHORTS: Pia by Kitja
BOOTS: Vintage cowboy by ZD
GUN: Colt Python 357 by Okari
SCENOGRAPHY: my Creations
• BACKGROUD STORY:
For this outfit I was inspired to environmental characteristics and customs of the Far West. The clothing Cowboy is very practical, convenient for daily activities and even to sleep! That's right, because often the Cowboy / Cowgirl not change the clothes to sleep, and this is the case of our Challenge Ispiration "Coyote Ugly" (film - 2000). The title of this film is adapted from the bar "Coyote Ugly", and this name refers to the feeling of waking up after only one night, and find that your arm is under someone who is so physically repulsive that he would gladly chew away without waking the person just so you can get out without getting caught. Coyotes are known to gnaw the arms and legs if they are stuck in a trap to facilitate escape.
I guess this bar in the middle of the Far West, including many dangers, where a sexy cowgirl is ready to defend you by shooting a bullet and finally celebrate with a sexy dance.
The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.[1] Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989.[2] Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992.[3] The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls,[4] which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.
The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that the NATO countries and West Germany in particular were considered equal to "fascists"[5] by GDR propaganda. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize a physical marker of the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration.[6] During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136[7] to more than 200[8] in and around Berlin.
In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary.[9] After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992.[1] The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990.
(wiki)
Shot with a 24mm tilt shift. PP: B&W, green filter in Lr
Website:
Project: "shade on the wall"
Kunstwerkplaats:
kunsthandel 46-ART B.V:
Chalk stream Fishing
River Test
In every respect, the River Test is the pre-eminent chalk stream. Physically, it is the longest: 39 miles from source to estuary. Historically, it is generally regarded as the birthplace of modern fly fishing. In literature, Halford, Plunkett Greene and Skues, to name but a few immortalised the Test in their fishing writings.
The Test rises in north Hampshire in the hamlet of Ashe, not Overton as generally supposed. It then travels on a south-west curve, growing in width and flow as first the Bourne, and then the Dever and the Anton join the main river.
At no point in it’s first 35 miles can the Test be regarded as one river; it is an amalgam of the main channel, tributaries, carriers that have been man-made for water meadow irrigation, side streams, mill channels and feeders. At some points two, three or even four streams run parallel. All are fishable and such is the nature of the river that it is often hard to deduce which is main river and which is carrier.
On through the sheep grazed valley the river flows, seemingly every sleepy, thatched village on it’s journey having some part of fly fishing history. Below Stockbridge the river becomes appreciably bigger, in places too wide to cast across. Then the Wallop Brook and the Dun join the main river and it is only south of Romsey, a few miles from the sea that the River Test finally becomes one single channel.
Jill is physically limited on her activities. Putting together puzzles is a favorite pastime for her.
*So, I am going to have knee surgery tomorrow because I got injured playing volleyball. It is going to be a few days or so before I can physically move around so I won't be able to make photos for a few days. I just whipped up this photo really quickly so that my contestants would finally have something to do! Sorry that it looks crappy! lol!*
Eight girls are left! Your next theme is black and white fashion.
REQUIREMENTS:
~Model must wear ONLY black and white clothing.
~Background must be ONLY black, white, or both.
~Photo MUST be in color! You can dim the saturation (as I did) but it must somewhat be in color.
~Model should be the only thing in color.
*READ* - This is just my example of the theme. Be creative and try to make your clothes or style together some bratz outfits.
***DO NOT ASK ME FOR AN EXTENSION! My competition is made so that contestants have 2 full weeks to complete a photo. No more time, no less time.***
Any questions, comment below or fm me!
Good luck!
DEADLINE:
FRIDAY, JULY 29
COMPLETED:
Rena:
www.flickr.com/photos/53648281@N02/5937810095/
Lauren:
www.flickr.com/photos/52574794@N03/5944688841/in/contacts/
Sabrina:
www.flickr.com/photos/saycheese141sawsomephotos/5962035007/
Bailea:
www.flickr.com/photos/amazingdollia/5961064023/
Sasha:
www.flickr.com/photos/lilliegolightly/5980548922/
Hazel:
www.flickr.com/photos/bratzswedish/5973886889/in/photostream
This photo had its roots in mindful mending during the Covid Crisis. Three years on and we are still managing to make do with mending both physically and spiritually. Mr Bigg found a desk someone was throwing out, cracked on one end and a bit soggy and rainsoaked around the edges. We cleared everything out of the floor of my office and installed it in front of the window and radiator. This allowed me to relocate many items previously stored under my other desk freeing up leg room so I can actually use the workspace in my office / studio. My first laptop has been relocated there. Bit by bit the studio is coming back to life and I am able to get to the doll goodies. Soon I will be able to take some pictures of the progress on the Morgan Freeman (Phlox's Grandpa) kitchen. Hopefully spring will have things sorted well enough to work on the music room project.
This was posted in May 2021:
One year on I look at how well the Bigg Family has lived up to its goals. We had no idea at the time that we would be moving to a new home. In our new space we did manage to clear out the book shelves to create new doll rooms. Unfortunately we have only unpacked some of the dolls to inhabit them. Our 25 year old cockatiel died in March and we are still coping with the changes in our family dynamic. The space his cage used to occupy is becoming a photo wall. Our entry way has gained new shelves on which the big dolls are now on permanent display along with family photos and other memorabilia. The music room project is still on hold because it is in our bedroom and it seems somebody is always sleeping. :)
Tomorrow I get my second vaccination and Mr Bigg will be getting his sometime in the near future. The girls are all
exempt in light of their general plasticity. :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What are you planning to do after all this is over to 'mend' your psyche?
This article in Psychology Today talks about growing resilience in times of general crisis such as the current pandemic.:
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mindful-self-express/...
Post-traumatic growth has five facets that survivors report experiencing:
🌷 a greater appreciation for life,
🌷 closer social relationships,
🌷 enhanced feelings of personal strength,
🌷 spiritual growth, and
🌷 the recognition of new possibilities for their lives.
In keeping with these guidelines, the Bigg Family will continue to clear book shelves and turn them into themed rooms so that all of the dolls can have an opportunity to be seen every day.
Next project: The Music Room.
BaD 30 May 2021: Mindful of Mending
Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning) is a form of Sama or physically active meditation which originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the source of all perfection, or kemal. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun.
In the symbolism of the Sema ritual, the semazen's camel's hair hat (sikke) represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt (tennure) represents the ego's shroud. By removing his black cloak (hırka), he is spiritually reborn to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys God's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!
NO PHOTOSHOP PHOTOGRAPHY
I am finally starting to feel physically okay again after quitting paxel. I am not just stressed about moving and so ready to be in my new place. I got more of my tattoo touched up. Finally starting to color in my sleeve.
Reluctant child physically pulled along by the paidagogos. The statuette shows the paidagogos holding the boy to his right by the ear, forcibly dragging him behind him. The boy’s resistance is made very evident: he is leaning away from the paidagogos in an attempt to free his ear; he crosses his outermost (and so free) arm across his body in order to try to remove the paidagogos’ hand; and his struggle causes the paidagogos himself to become unbalanced, pulling him sideways under the child’s weight. The younger sister of boy completes the scene.
Clay statuette
Height 10 cm.
4th century BC
From Pella
Berlin, Altes Museum, Inv. TC 7084
Figurina di terracotta, Terracotta figurine, hellenistic art, arte ellenistica, Tanagra, Berlino, Berlin, Altes Museum, Antikensammlung, TC 7084, 7084
I was physically unable to NOT give her her wings. It feels so god to see her with her very own fullset outfit *_* And it suits her soooo well…
YOUNG CHILDREN HAVE an uncanny ability to pick up new languages. Not only do they soak up vocabulary, they also construct new sentences of their own. This ability to use grammar is the essence of language. It’s not enough to know the meanings of words, you also have to understand the structures and rules by which words are put together.
The predominant view has been that humans are unique in this ability. But any time that we utter the words ‘uniquely human’, scientists seem to take it as a challenge to disprove this notion. And language is no exception. If you’re looking for the species that most closely matches our linguistic prowess, surprisingly, you won’t find it in the apes, the primates, or even in the mammals. You have to travel to a far more distant relative, all the way to a family of birds known as the songbirds.
The vocal life of a songbird is similar to ours in many ways. They learn songs by imitating their elders. Like human speech, these songs are passed down from one generation to the next. Songbirds are also best equipped to learn songs in their youth, and they have to practice to develop their ability. They can improvise and string together riffs into new songs, and over generations these modified songs can turn into new dialects. And like us, they come hard-wired with ‘speech-centers’ in their brain that are dedicated to language processing.
But languages are not just learned, they can also be invented. A striking example comes from the deaf community of Nicaragua in the 1970s. Back then, deaf people in Nicaragua were isolated both physically and through language. By the 1980s, the government set up schools for the deaf to teach them Spanish and how to lip-read. This turned out to be an unsuccessful endeavor. The teachers were growing increasingly frustrated as they were not getting through to the students.
However, things were quite different from the point of view of the students. For the first time, they were in contact with many other deaf people, and they started to exchange gestures that they had invented in isolation. At first the teachers thought this gesticulation was a kind of mime, but the reality was far more interesting. By getting together and pooling their ideas, these children had actually invented a new type of sign language, complete with its own grammatical structure. Here was proof that a new language could be born out of cultural isolation, a testament to our innate abilities to understand grammar. And in a few generations, users of this language were employing newer, more nuanced grammatical structures.And this re-invention of language has been mirrored in the songbirds. An experiment from 2009 by Fehér and colleagues took newly hatched songbirds of the zebra finch species and raised them in sound proof chambers. They did this during their critical period of language development. Much like the Nicaraguan children, these birds were raised in a world without song. What happened next is quite surprising.
Just like the children, this culturally isolated generation of birds began to develop their own songs. These songs were less musical than your typical songbird song - they had irregular rhythms, they would stutter their notes, and the notes would sound more noisy. But the researchers were curious where this would lead. They listened to the songs of the next few generations of pupils, the offspring of these children of silence. What they found was quite amazing. In just two generations, the songs started to change in unexpected ways - they were becoming more musical. In fact, they started to converge upon the song of the wild songbirds, even though none of these birds had ever heard the wild songs.
I find this a rather poetic thought - these songbirds are somehow carrying within them the songs of their ancestors. This study suggests, but does not prove, that songbirds must have an innate understanding of the structures of their language. In other words, they seem to have a built-in intuition about grammar. Over time, they may be using these intuitions to develop their phrasing and tone.
n mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, green language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated.The “language of birds” has many names; some call it the “Language of the Gods”, others the “Green language”. Michael Sells has referred to this “sacred language” as the “language of unsaying”, whereby the core of what needs to be said, is actually not said, though everyone understands what is being said.
The “language of birds” is therefore the mystical language, by default an unpopular subject amongst scholars, specifically because of the apparent lack of “clarity”: a clear and distinct sense. The sense is inferred. And whereas this may be possible to map in extant languages, when it comes to extinct languages, or even extant languages the way they were spoken in the past, grasping this “undefined core sense” is not an easy task.
Want to know your future? Try my free online Rune Readings!
The link with green – as in the Green Language – as the colour of alchemy is never far away, specifically as alchemy is equally “obscure” in its words. Alchemy is not so much obscure in what it tried to do; even when it is clear that the process described is chemical in nature, the substances themselves are difficult if not impossible to identify. Birds are also present in alchemy, specifically the phoenix that rises from its own ashes. But a peacock, the pelican, the white swan and the black crow all feature in alchemy. Birds in general represented the element air, but at the same time, their flight was identical to the ascension to heaven. The phoenix also incorporated the element fire, thus portraying the union of two elements and its transformative – regenerative – outcome. What is “bird language”? On first inspection, it would be the language that the birds use to communicate amongst themselves. It is a language the birds understand, but we humans do not. Largely, it is a system of human communication, which has been around for a very long time, but which is ill-understood. Then again: the ability not to be understood unless by those who were initiated into the language was actually its purpose. Fulcanelli stated that the alchemists had to resort to this means in order to obscure from one that which was to be disclosed to the other. To many, the language of birds is therefore nothing more or less than a series of secret codes and phrases, which pass by in daily conversation, except for those with ears that “hear”. The most famous example of this today are certain key words, learned amongst Masons. Each group and grade of Masons has their own specific keywords, which are largely unrecognisable when spoken in daily conversation. Some of these expressions have nevertheless become part of normal parlance. One Masonic expression is “to give someone the third degree”, referring to the strenuous initiation a third degree mason had to undergo. This, together with a series of handshakes and other signals, identify a person and his role – whereby a non-Mason sitting in on the conversation may be totally unaware of what is going on.
English is largely void of a “green nature”, whereas French seems to be full of it. The words “L’hasard” – coincidence – and “Lazare” – Lazarus – are pronounced identically. But in certain conversations, people will play with these two words, and ask whether it is “L’hasard” or “Lazare”, whereby it is interpreted that “Lazare” is no coincidence at all. Anyone not “in” on the conversation will be completely bewildered and will not understand.
In the final outcome, it is nevertheless clear that Masonic and the “green language” as present in French is more a system of codes than a specific “language”. If anything, they seem to be only remains of what was once perhaps a vast system of knowledge. Some have described the “language of birds” as “the tongue of Secret Wisdom. Its vocabulary is myth. Its grammar is symbolism.” They argue that the development of the written language and the language of birds go hand in hand. According to the Fables of Caius Juliius Hyginus, the god Mercury (the Greek Hermes) invented the alphabet by watching cranes, because “cranes make letters as they fly”. The Egyptian god of writing is Thoth, and his animal is actually a bird: the ibis. For the Egyptians, hieroglyphics therefore was the language of birds – and one often recurring hieroglyph is a bird itself.
Hieroglyphics is a symbolic system of writing. Some have argued that hieroglyphs were indeed the “sacred – secret – language” of the Gods, specifically because they were symbols – and the Egyptians only used them within a religious setting. Though they were an alphabet, it is felt that at some point, the symbol itself had a meaning, which is now lost. What Champollion was able to decode, was only the basest of its nature – and no-one has since been able to fathom its deepest meaning. The origin of the “bird language” may go back to primitive societies. When shamans enter a trance, they attempt to speak the language of nature; they are said to speak “the language of birds”. Historians of religion have documented this phenomenon around the entire world and depictions of shamans with wings or as a bird are common.
One biblical example is King Solomon. Solomon was told that he would “be able to understand the language of the birds and beasts… Then Solomon woke up from his dream. He wondered if God had really spoken to him or whether it had been a spirit beguiling him in his dreams. Then he heard the birds squawking and twittering to each other in his garden below. He heard one suddenly cry out, ‘Silly birds — stop all this noise! Don’t you know that the God has just given Solomon the ability to understand what we say and to make us do as he wishes!’” In these societies, bird language is usually learnt by eating snake or some other magical animal. These animals can reveal the secrets of the future because they are thought to be receptacles for the souls of the dead or epiphanies of the gods. The birds are psychopomps, as birds were believed to undertake the ecstatic journey to the sky and beyond; they made the voyage to the Otherworld. Equally, serpents were said to be able to understand the language of birds.
In Christian tradition, some saints are said to have communicated with the animals, whereas the exploits of St Patrick in Ireland, which involves both flight and snakes, clearly have the saint following in the footstep of the “Celtic shamans”. Still, Robert Temple has argued that this “language of birds” was in essence a large con, practiced by the oracles of the ancient world. He argues that the “language of birds” was in fact a form of communication: birds were used as messenger services, as they would be throughout history, until the advent of modern means of communication. The ancient Greek world would use them to dispatch information across the nation, whereby the oracles were the first to receive this information. Therefore, Temple claims, what they prophesized was not so much “Otherworldly”, but merely information from elsewhere in this world, dispatched by “express pigeon”, to give the oracles the semblance of psychic ability. Most authors, including Andrew Collins, in From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race, argue that the origins of the association of the bird and the shaman should be sought within the anthropological realm. He and others have shown that shamans often dressed up as a bird, or used the feathers of a bird to resemble a bird. From a man dressed with feathers to an angel is a small step. Furthermore, the link between the shaman and the bird occurs specifically because in a trance, the shaman is said to be able to fly – like angels. But the connection goes beyond this. In the tenth Homiliarum in Ezcechielem, Gregory the Great compared the music of the angels, heard in the heavenly spheres, to birds’ singing. This was then encapsulated in the “Gregorian chants” that became famous throughout the Christian world – and which continue to lure people to churches.
Still, the angels were said not to speak; like birds, they articulated sounds in the air. At the same time, the sound that was produced was not their mode of communication; angels – like shamans – were believed to be psychic – they only required thoughts to communicate; there was no need for a “language” and the “music of the spheres” was merely the outcome; in short, music had to be dissociated from its lyrics, for in origin, music was either felt to be instrumental, or “Gregorian”. People who are fluent in several languages – including many autistic people – know that thinking often occurs in symbols. They will see an apple, but need to scan their brain for the word, sometimes in all languages, some only in a few. Learning to speak is exactly that: the process by which we associate words with shapes. “Apple.” “House.” “Car.” Words such as “altruistic” or “disingenuous” only come about at a much later state; not because they are more difficult, but because they themselves require a definition that is based on other words.
So where does this leave the language of birds? Some argue that modern languages are a diminutive form of an original, “non-linguistic language”, which is precisely the origin of the “language of birds”. It echoes the story of the Tower of Babel and the scattering of the tongues. It is therefore an interesting phenomenon to note that English, which is a very basic language when compared to other extinct and extant forms of verbal communication, is making major inroads in uniting the world once again in a common tongue. Some have even joked that we are getting God back on the Tower of Babel.
So where does this leave the language of birds? Was it indeed a communication of symbols – whereby the core needs to be divined, and remains elusive, unless “understood”? Does it underline the old distinction between “hearing” and “understanding”? Was hieroglyphics an attempt to bring down into the material world this “divine language”, whereby symbols were transformed into letters – whereby we are now no longer able to grasp their core meanings? Birds in the Egyptian alphabet include the Egyptian vulture, the owl and the quail chick. As such, each played a part in the divine utterances of the Egyptian gods, and their message to the nation. But it was the Bennu bird’s cry at the creation of the world that marked the beginning of time… for the Egyptians, the primeval scream was that of a bird…
Language of the Birds as “the language which teaches the mystery of things and unveils the most hidden truths.” Often called the Green language or language of the gods, this sacred form of communication is believed to reveal the most perfect knowledge and secret wisdom to those initiated into its wonder.
Considering the different names applied to this hidden language may provide hints on how it is learned or re-discovered. The association of the language with the color green gives the impression the language is one which comes with new life or a reconnection. As mentioned, while discussing The Green Cross, the color green has been seen for centuries to signify rebirth. A possible indication a person who understands the mysterious green language may have been spiritually awakened.
Taking into account other clues, one may ponder the attributes of birds for their relation to the mysterious wisdom. Most notably are the bird’s songs. Music is well known to hold great power. If man is quiet enough, the beautiful sounds relax and uplift. A pastor friend, who has worked with terminally ill patients, shares the following comforting effects of song; “in knowing their time has come, prepared to go, but struggling to let go, I ask if they mind if I hum a song to ease them. Humming a tune and holding their hand, the soothing sound soon connects to something deep within and they peacefully pass.”
Although this account is one of sadness, it conveys the strong touching sense of harmonious song. Perhaps the Language of the Birds is a music which speaks straight to the soul. To know a connection to the Divine, here now on Earth, could bring a welcomed peace to the common demands and bustle of this world.
Fulcanelli stated it was through Jesus sending his Spirit to his Apostles that caused the green language to be revealed to them. One may wonder if the song of the Dove, symbol of the Spirit, may be of importance to understanding the secret language; or if there is a link to Psalms 40:1, “He puts a new song in my mouth.”
However, the Language of the Birds transcends systems and has been seen in various ways for thousands of years. During the founding of the city of Rome in 753 BC, Romulus and Remus are said to have settled an argument about which hill to build the first site, by use of Augury. Augury is a form of divination by birds. The flight formation, noises, or kinds of birds (a language of birds) were believed to reveal the will of the gods. Romulus, seeing more birds than Remus, claimed victory, and went on to build around Palatine Hill. From this myth, this language of the birds is recognized to communicate the Will from above.
In Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, there is mention of another parallel form of divination; the divining of the liver, called haruspicy. Most commonly used was that of a sheep liver, but sometimes the liver of poultry was known to be employed. The liver, seen as a life force, was regarded like a mirror of heaven. Different marks noticed on different sections would convey the will of the Gods to the sage.
This practice is identified with an ancient board game called the Royal Game of Ur or Game of Twenty Squares. Dating back to 2600BC, the game held deep spiritual significance. Like many ancient games, they have been discovered buried inside tombs and believed to aid in the afterlife. Played during life, possibly during rituals, they offered assurance of a life after death.
Found etched on a model of a sheep liver at excavations of Kamid el Loz was a board of Twenty Squares. This clay model is believed to have been used to teach and/or record the results of divination by the liver. The combination of game board and clay liver model, used for divination, attests the mutual importance of sacredness to both.
Curiously, on a cuneiform tablet written in 177 BC, rules for playing the game of Twenty Squares were inscribed and included names of five gaming pieces characterized as birds; Storm-bird, Rooster, Swallow, Raven, and Eagle. Although the tablet discloses directions for game playing (as translated by Irving Finkel), these ‘five flying game pieces’, portray birds which could signify the remnants of past divination beliefs. Here, the birds, moving across the board, recorded and revealed the will of the gods by spaces they landed on. The Language of Birds, seen again, to communicate knowledge from above with rolls of the dice.
On a brief side note, another interesting game board of Twenty Squares (of different design) was formed from the image of an entwining snake. Inside the coils were the spaces to land on. Where the head and tail of the snake met (similar to ouroborus), marked the position where the player’s piece was believed to have escaped the ‘board’.
Talking about games may seem to some as a distraction from discovering the meaning of the Language of the Birds. However, games have transcended and spread through all cultures. They are one of the first inventions of civilizations and often incorporate beliefs and visions of the time. Many symbolized and represented deeper meanings to life.
A 1283 AD manuscript, called Alfonso X’s Book of Games begins by saying games were created because “God wanted man to have every manner of happiness.” Games were said to give that delight. In the same manuscript, games are used to demonstrate crucial values of life. Playing the games gave awareness and experience to situations found outside of the game.
Presently, there is a game called Mad Gab which some people may like to see Fulcanelli and Henri Boudet play (if it were possible). Boudet was the author of The True Celtic Language and the Cromlech of Rennes-les-Bains. The game of Mad Gab shares one of the important concepts suggested by these two men; the play of words by sound. Fulcanelli connects it with the Language of the Birds.
An example of this coded language is shared within Gerard de Sede’s book, The Accursed Treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau. Sede writes, “But Boudet pretends, against all the evidence, that “Cayrolo” comes from three English words, namely “key”, “ear”, and “hole”.”
Reverse of the Mad Gab game, the sound of Cayrolo hid three words. In Mad Gab, the words are given, like “Pretty Share Weighs.” These need ‘sounded’ to provide the answer of “British Airways.” Players are encouraged to ‘listen’ in order to discover.
For many, the Maranatha puzzle or researching the mystery of Rennes le Chateau offers a playing field for which the game pieces move. Discovery of the language of the birds may be only one of the spaces or could offer the means to move onto another ‘space.’
To wonder what voice could accomplish Fulcanelli’s description of the Green Language in ability to reveal ‘the most hidden truths’, may lead some to feel it is none other than the first, green, voice; the Will of God. It’s possible that in order to hear it, one must be silent and listen.
Contents
1History
1.1Mythology
1.1.1Norse mythology
1.1.2Greek mythology
1.2Middle Eastern folklore
1.3Folklore
1.4Alchemy
1.5Literature and culture
2See also
3Notes
4Bibliography
5External links
History[edit]
In Indo-European religion, the behavior of birds has long been used for the purposes of divination by augurs. According to a suggestion by Walter Burkert, these customs may have their roots in the Paleolithic when, during the Ice Age, early humans looked for carrion by observing scavenging birds.[1]
There are also examples of contemporary bird-human communication and symbiosis. In North America, ravens have been known to lead wolves (and native hunters) to prey they otherwise would be unable to consume.[2][3] In Africa, the greater honeyguide is known to guide humans to beehives in the hope that the hive will be incapacitated and opened for them.
Dating to the Renaissance, birdsong was the inspiration for some magical engineered languages, in particular musical languages. Whistled languages based on spoken natural languages are also sometimes referred to as the language of the birds. Some language games are also referred to as the language of birds, such as in Oromo and Amharic of Ethiopia.[4]
Ukrainian language is known as "nightingale speech" amongst its speakers.[citation needed]
Mythology[edit]
Norse mythology[edit]
In Norse mythology, the power to understand the language of the birds was a sign of great wisdom. The god Odin had two ravens, called Hugin and Munin, who flew around the world and told Odin what happened among mortal men.
The legendary king of Sweden Dag the Wise was so wise that he could understand what birds said. He had a tame house sparrow which flew around and brought back news to him. Once, a farmer in Reidgotaland killed Dag's sparrow, which brought on a terrible retribution from the Swedes.
In the Rígsþula, Konr was able to understand the speech of birds. When Konr was riding through the forest hunting and snaring birds, a crow spoke to him and suggested he would win more if he stopped hunting mere birds and rode to battle against foemen.
The ability could also be acquired by tasting dragon blood. According to the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga, Sigurd accidentally tasted dragon blood while roasting the heart of Fafnir. This gave him the ability to understand the language of birds, and his life was saved as the birds were discussing Regin's plans to kill Sigurd. Through the same ability Áslaug, Sigurd's daughter, found out the betrothment of her husband Ragnar Lodbrok, to another woman.
The 11th century Ramsund carving in Sweden depicts how Sigurd learnt the language of birds, in the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga
The 11th century Ramsund carving in Sweden depicts how Sigurd learnt the language of birds, in the Poetic Edda and the Völsunga saga.
Sigurd is sitting naked in front of the fire preparing the dragon heart, from Fafnir, for his foster-father Regin, who is Fafnir's brother. The heart is not finished yet, and when Sigurd touches it, he burns himself and sticks his finger into his mouth. As he has tasted dragon blood, he starts to understand the birds' song.
The birds say that Regin will not keep his promise of reconciliation and will try to kill Sigurd, which causes Sigurd to cut off Regin's head.
Regin is dead beside his own head, his smithing tools with which he reforged Sigurd's sword Gram are scattered around him, and
Regin's horse is laden with the dragon's treasure.
is the previous event when Sigurd killed Fafnir, and
shows Ótr from the saga's beginning.
In an eddic poem loosely connected with the Sigurd tradition which is named Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar, the reason why a man named Atli once had the ability is not explained. Atli's lord's son Helgi would marry what was presumably Sigurd's aunt, the Valkyrie Sváfa.
Greek mythology[edit]
According to Apollonius Rhodius, the figurehead of Jason's ship, the Argo, was built of oak from the sacred grove at Dodona and could speak the language of birds. Tiresias was also said to have been given the ability to understand the language of the birds by Athena. The language of birds in Greek mythology may be attained by magical means. Democritus, Anaximander, Apollonius of Tyana, Melampus and Aesopus were all said to have understood the birds.
The 'birds' are also mentioned in Homer's Odyssey : "“[...] although I am no prophet really, and I do not know much about the meaning of birds. I tell you he will not long be absent from his dear native land, not if chains of iron hold him fast. He will find a way to get back, for he is never at a loss."[5]
Middle Eastern folklore[edit]
In the Quran, Suleiman (Solomon) and David are said to have been taught the language of the birds.[6] Within Sufism, the language of birds is a mystical divine language. The Conference of the Birds is a mystical poem of 4647 verses by the 12th century Persian poet Attar of Nishapur.[7]
In the Jerusalem Talmud,[8] Solomon's proverbial wisdom was due to his being granted understanding of the language of birds by God.
In Egyptian Arabic, hieroglyphic writing is called "the alphabet of the birds".[citation needed]
Folklore[edit]
The concept is also known from many folk tales (including Welsh, Russian, German, Estonian, Greek, Romany), where usually the protagonist is granted the gift of understanding the language of the birds either by some magical transformation, or as a boon by the king of birds. The birds then inform or warn the hero about some danger or hidden treasure. One example is the Russian story The Language of the Birds.[citation needed]
Alchemy[edit]
In Kabbalah, Renaissance magic, and alchemy, the language of the birds was considered a secret and perfect language and the key to perfect knowledge, sometimes also called the langue verte, or green language (Jean Julien Fulcanelli, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa de occulta philosophia, (Emmanuel-Yves Monin, Hieroglyphes Français Et Langue Des Oiseaux),[citation needed]
Literature and culture[edit]
Compare also the rather comical and satirical Birds of Aristophanes and Parliament of Fowls by Chaucer.
In medieval France, the language of the birds (la langue des oiseaux) was a secret language of the Troubadours, connected with the Tarot, allegedly based on puns and symbolism drawn from homophony, e. g. an inn called au lion d'or ("the Golden Lion") is allegedly "code" for au lit on dort "in the bed one sleeps".[9]
René Guénon has written an article about the symbolism of the language of the birds.[10]
Chinese writer Pu Songling wrote about "The Bird Language" in his anthology Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio".
Hiéroglyphes Français Et La Langue Des Oiseaux, Editions du Point d'Eau by Emmanuel Yves-Monin is a systematic study on the subject but is only available in French.[citation needed]
The artificial language zaum of Russian Futurism was described as "language of the birds" by Velimir Khlebnikov.[citation needed]
The children's book author Rafe Martin has written "The Language of Birds" as an adaptation of a Russian folk tale; it was made into a children's opera by composer John Kennedy.[citation needed]
Melanesian creole Tok Pisin is sometimes called "language of the birds", because the word "pisin" has a double meaning (from English words "pidgin" and "pigeon"). Mian speakers, for example, refer to Tok Pisin as wan weng, literally "bird language".
See also[edit]
Bird vocalization
Confusion of tongues
Glossolalia
Musical language
Notes[edit]
^ Marzluff, John M.; Tony Angell (2007). In the Company of Crows and Ravens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 284–287. ISBN 0-300-12255-1.
^ McDougall, Len (2004). The Encyclopedia of Tracks and Scats. Globe Pequot. p. 296. ISBN 1-59228-070-6.
^ Tipton, Diane (2006-07-06). "Raven Myths May Be Real". Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
^ Kebbede Hordofa and Peter Unseth. 1986. "Bird Talk" in Oromo. Quaderni di Studi Etiopici 6-7:74-83
^ The Odyssey - Chapter 1 - What Went On in the House of Odysseus
^ 27:16 "And Solomon inherited David. He said, "O people, we have been taught the language of birds, and we have been given from all things. Indeed, this is evident bounty."
^ METmuseum.org
^ Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1909
^ Letarot.com
^ René Guénon - Symbols of Sacred Science, Chapter 9 - The Language of birds
Bibliography[edit]
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Animal Symbolism in Celtic Mythology, by Lars Noodén (1992)
Davidson, H.R. Ellis. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY, US, 1988.
Yves Monin (Emmanuel), Hiéroglyphes Français Et Langue Des Oiseaux, Editions du Point d'Eau.
Richard Khaitzine, La Langue des Oiseaux - Quand ésotérisme et littérature se rencontrent, France-spiritualites.com
René Guénon, The Language of the Birds, Australia's Sufi Magazine "The Treasure" 2 (1998).
Ormsby-Lennon, Hugh "Rosicrucian Linguistics: Twilight of a Renaissance Tradition," passim. Ed. Ingrid Merkel, Hermeticism and the Renaissance: Intellectual History and the Occult in Early Modern Europe (1988), pp. 311 - 341.
(in French) Le verland des oiseaux (The Verlan of the Birds) Collection "Pommes Pirates Papillons", Poèmes de Michel Besnier. Illustrations de Boiry, Editions Møtus
*In mythology, folklore and fantasy fiction, shapeshifting, or metamorphosis is the ability of an entity to physically transform into another being or form. This is usually achieved through an inherent faculty of a mythological creature, divine intervention, or the use of magic spells or talismans.
The idea of shapeshifting has been present since antiquity and may be common in all cultures. It is present in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest extant literature and epic poems, including works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad, where the shapeshifting is usually induced by the act of a deity. The idea persisted through the Middle Ages, where the agency causing shapeshifting is usually a sorcerer or witch, and into the modern period. It remains a common trope in modern fantasy, children's literature, and works of popular culture.
The most common form of shapeshifting myth is that of therianthropy, which is the transformation of a human being into an animal (Leda and the Swan) or conversely, of an animal into human form. Legends allow for transformations into plants and objects, and the assumption of another human countenance (e.g. fair to ugly)."
hey guys, woah i can't believe its been more than a week since my last upload.
i've been physically and mentally exhausted, i've been trying to find a balance between "work" and "school" AND "my online life" which is so hard to keep at the moment.
I've been working on a lot of projects, some big news coming up! I've also worked SO SO hard and I've almost saved enough to get back the money I spent on my new camera gear.
my pro account expired and it sucks, I haven't even had time to renew it,
I spent this whole week at my grandma's house because my mom's in Vegas (lucky bitch) and the wireless conection sucked ass so that pretty much explains my lack of updates
In the mean time (while I find some money to renew my account) you can check out my website
or follow my fb page
www.facebook.com/eduardoaciernophotography
for more updates!
-E
...I've been wondering lately....
I haven't shared this yet with all of you but I have been chronically ill for 13 years. I'll be 33 in two weeks and I haven't felt "normal" physically since I was 19. What happened at 19? I got bit by a tick...got a severe case of lyme disease and my life has been a living hell eversince. I've been through the mill and then some...more doctors than I care to remember, more pills swallowed then you'd ever believe, more conventional and alternative treatments than you'd ever care to know about, more years of weakness and so many unbearable symptoms than you can ever imagine.
My day to day life is so hard...I'm too sick to do basic things most days like dishes, laundry, even getting a bath is difficult a lot. Haven't driven in months once again, haven't been to a store on my own for at least 6 months...once again. I'm beyond sick of spending life on my couch and in bed but that's where I still am after all these years.
I never dreamed as a young girl my life would ever turn in such an agonizing, gut-wrenching, extremely difficult direction. I've hoped and prayed and hoped and prayed a million times over for 13 years.....still no relief. I believe God is there but lately it's hard not to question. In my most painful moments, I wonder if God forgot about me. Then again, I know not everyone has an easy life...some people are bound to wheelchairs their whole life, some people get the news of terminal cancer, some people cannot hear or see and the list goes on and on. Sometimes I wonder if I'm just destined to live a life of long-suffering, that maybe I'm living this kind of life for some meaningful eternal character-building reasons...hmmm... I'll never know until I get to heaven where I can finally ask God face to face.
Thought I'd share my deepest inner thoughts and pain that I feel daily through this image. (now you know why I spend so much time on flickr) :) It feels therapeutic in a way to do this. I've thought of incorporating my feelings over all of this in more of my work but I honestly just want to be distracted and not focus on the pain more than I already have to.
If it weren't for my love of post-processing these days and creating beautiful images that nourish my soul each day, I don't know what I'd do with myself. It's the only thing that brings me joy these days except for a few close family members and my WONDERFUL husband, who have stuck by me through it all. That is the one thing...a very important thing...I know God has truly blessed me with.
The ash pit cleaning crew at BCL Selebi Phikwe copper mine on 27 May 2014. The loco behind is LO812 which is an ex SAR 19D, either 2678 or 2689. Both of those engines were bought by the mine in scrap condition in 2011 becoming LO812 and LO813 but nobody seemed to know which was which.
Physically getting myself into the loco shed area was a major challenge. You could see the locos out on the line from publicly accessible places, but you really needed to be able to get into the shafts and the main complex as they could spend hours out of sight otherwise. That said I was informed by a reliable source that one could just 'pitch up' at BCL.
I pitched up at the main gate at about midday on the 26th and told security I would like to watch the steam trains. You could see them from the guard house pottering about as well, which added to the frustration. Unsure of how to proceed they called the loco foreman who duly arrived after about 30 minutes, so I explained to him what I wanted to do. Really nice guy, so helpful but his hands were tied, he didn't have authority to sign me in. After an exchange with the security people he escorted me to the main offices, took me to the public relations department and left me to fend for myself. No problem, perfect, I will just tell them I would like to take some pictures of their trains. There were two PR officers in the room, the guy was semi amendable, but the girl was having none of it. I was told it was basically outrageous and plain rude to just arrive without an appointment or pre-arranged visit....but how does one ever get the details for the person you need to contact unless you physically go there. I explained I had come all the way from England and showed them my British passport, made no difference, it slowly escalated to begging, pleading, offering substantial money and continued like that for about an hour. At that point another chap came into the room with the girl doing her best to shut me up... they discussed something unrelated and then he headed back towards the door. It was pretty obvious this was the head of PR so I opened my mouth just as he was about to leave, the girl immediately tried to shut it. I went through the whole story again with the female PR officer interjecting and trying to make me keep quiet but it's difficult to be rude and aggressive in front of your boss. After I had said my bit he looked at her and said 'that is fine my people will look after you'. In their defense it appeared as if they were following the rule book to the T and not in the position to make a decision. So off we went back to security, the loco foreman was the person I was there to visit, was granted access to the entire mine for 1 day which was written into the visitors book....3 or 4 hours after arriving. They gave me a letter to show the security guards the next morning dated 27 May 2014 only. At 6am the letter did the trick, and I was in the official book for making a visit so they issued me with a security pass and job done.
The way Selebi operated meant that you were using that security pass over and over during the day to get in and out of the plant and shafts as the locos worked their trains. By midafternoon the guards were familiar with me coming and going, stopped checking the pass and just waved me through. At sunset I went back to the PR department to thank them and asked if there was anything I could give them for sorting me out. They did not want anything themselves but said if I made a donation to the local school that would be appreciated. I had £100 sterling on me so gave it to them....the reaction was indescribable; it was like I had given them a pot of gold. All the contact details came out, names, emails and phone numbers. They told me anytime I wanted to come back to just let them know in advance.
I have never felt pressure to get it right photographically like that before given this was a single day arrangement. So that was that although we had booked 2 nights in a local hotel. Just watch them from the road on the 28th.
So, the 28th dawned and the thought occurred to me to just try and get into the plant and shafts again but not make any fuss if denied. The security staff were so familiar with the aforementioned coming and going from the previous day they didn't give it a second thought and day two panned out in the same fashion as day one.
The following year I used the contact details to pre-arrange another visit but with 2 friends in tow. We all made an individual £100 donation to the school, getting £300 was just off the scale, you can see when someone really really appreciates something. We'd have donated double just to see the reaction again!
In October 2016 the whole operation folded. It had evidently been haemorrhaging vast amounts of government funding for years and was put into receivership. I hope the 5000 people that relied on that mine came right as they were a seriously friendly bunch of individuals.
BCL Selebi Phikwe, Botswana
I'm OK just physically and mentally tired and feel sleepy all day and head aches and feeling sick, the usual migraine headaches and stomach troubles (on going not because of the food lol) so all in all not to bad lol :))
Oh make that 150 now lol
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff an
d two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
For more info on photo tours and scheduling a paranormal investigation, contact Melissa at mjd.pennhurstpara@gmail.com
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location outside their physical body. An OBE is a form of autoscopy (literally "seeing self"), although the term autoscopy more commonly refers to the pathological condition of seeing a second self, or doppelgänger.Do you want to float around the astral plane without dying first? Are you longing to leave your body at home for a few hours to explore the cosmos? People report out-of-body experiences (OBEs) while dreaming, during near-death experiences, or through relaxation techniques such as meditation. For some people, having an OBE can be like being Alice in your very own Wonderland. Read on to learn how to experience this on purpose.Ready your mind and body. Choose a quiet place you find relaxing. You can be indoors or outdoors, as long as you are comfortable. Make sure you won't be interrupted. OBEs are most common in the morning at 4:00am-6:00am, however trying this at night or when you are tired will probably just make you fall asleep.
Find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. Many people choose to lie down on their backs, but be forewarned that temporary sleep paralysis is more likely in this position if you do fall asleep. These may consist of dark figures, ghosts or whatever you fear entering your room. Though this may sound scary, the more you realise they cannot physically harm you for they are your mind's creation, the less scary it is to endure.
Affirm to yourself that you are going to have an out-of-body experience. Say to yourself "Mind awake-Body Asleep" or "I will have a lucid dream." Repeat this several times until it is the only thought left in your mind. Close your eyes and relax. Become less conscious of your external surroundings. Empty your mind of thoughts and ideas. Meditation techniques can be helpful here to maintain an empty mind while still remaining focused and aware. Allow yourself to almost fall asleep. Actually sleeping would defeat the purpose. Instead, let yourself drift close to sleep while concentrating on being conscious of your sensations and mental state. Feel a vibrating sensation in your body. As you relax further, you should become more aware of what's happening inside your mind and body than anything happening in the room around you. Try to feel the vibration of your body, coming from both the larger pulse of your blood and breath to the individual movements of your cells. You may think you hear sounds like a tornado/wind. The urge to move here will be tremendous, especially if it's your first time. Just relax deeper and deeper until the sounds passes, but avoid falling asleep.
Try to slow the vibration. Visualize the movements of your body slowing and the sounds and sensations of vibrations getting fainter. Soon everything will be completely silent and your body will be still. Let your body become paralyzed. Some say it feels like a lead blanket has been placed over you. You may notice all of a sudden that you can't move your arms or legs. Don't panic! If you try to force yourself to move you may wake up. You will, however, be able to move your eyes, mouth, nose, and face, so try moving those slightly instead. Feel your hands grasping an invisible rope. Don't move your actual hands or visualize the rope. The "rope method" relies on the imaginary feeling of the rope, not a mental image. Focus on the texture, thickness and heftiness of the rope. Feel the tension in your arms between the strength of the rope and the pull of your weight. If you have trouble using the rope technique, try imagining a ladder instead. Some people find this easier, especially if they are more accustomed to climbing ladders than ropes.
Use the rope to pull yourself up and start climbing. Feel your muscles contract and your body move upward when you pull. Don't visualize: imagine you are doing this in pure darkness. Keep going up. Soon you will find yourself out of your body, triggering the "projection reflex."
If you experience vibrations in your body as you climb, try to relax more, or else you will only lose more energy and it will become harder.
If you have trouble, try climbing up as you inhale and then resting as you exhale.
The rope method is a more practical variation on the more iconic technique of visualizing yourself floating up. Though floating out of one's body all at once makes for a better image in the movies, it's not as effective in real life.
Open your astral eyes. Once you know you are out of your body, open your eyes. You should be viewing your room from the side of your bed, with your body still lying there still with eyes closed.
If you want, try to open your third eye first, low on the center of your forehead.
Visualize every detail of the space around you. Make sure you get a good look at your surroundings before you lie down. Now try to recall and feel the location and shape of every object in the room, as it looks from where you are resting.
Visualize the space around you as seen from a different point in the room. Once you have the image of the room clear in your mind's eye, shift that perspective to try to see that image as though you were standing over or near your body. In some ways you should already feel like you have left your body.
Rise from your body to the spot you were visualizing from. Stay very relaxed, but be forceful in your will to gently bring yourself to that point. Feel yourself moving up and over to that space, and visualize your perspective changing. Then open your astral eyes.
www.wikihow.com/Have-an-Out-of-Body-Experience
The term out-of-body experience was introduced in 1943 by G. N. M. Tyrrell in his book Apparitions, and was adopted by researchers such as Celia Green and Robert Monroe[3] as an alternative to belief-centric labels such as "astral projection", "soul travel", or "spirit walking". OBEs can be induced by brain traumas, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep, and electrical stimulation of the brain, among others. It can also be deliberately induced by some. One in ten people have an OBE once, or more commonly, several times in their life.
Neuroscientists and psychologists regard OBEs as dissociative experiences arising from different psychological and neurological factors.
Those experiencing OBEs sometimes report (among other types of immediate and spontaneous experience) a preceding and initiating lucid-dream state. In many cases, people who claim to have had an OBE report being on the verge of sleep, or being already asleep shortly before the experience. A large percentage of these cases refer to situations where the sleep was not particularly deep (due to illness, noises in other rooms, emotional stress, exhaustion from overworking, frequent re-awakening, etc.). In most of these cases subjects perceive themselves as being awake; about half of them note a feeling of sleep paralysis.
Near-death experiences
Main article: Near-death experience
Another form of spontaneous OBE is the near-death experience (NDE). Some subjects report having had an OBE at times of severe physical trauma such as near-drownings or major surgery. Near-death experiences may include subjective impressions of being outside the physical body, sometimes visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries.Typically the experience includes such factors as: a sense of being dead; a feeling of peace and painlessness; hearing of various non-physical sounds, an out-of-body experience; a tunnel experience (the sense of moving up or through a narrow passageway); encountering "beings of light" and a God-like figure or similar entities; being given a "life review", and a reluctance to return to life.
Resulting from extreme physical effort
Along the same lines as an NDE, extreme physical effort during activities such as high-altitude climbing and marathon running can induce OBEs. A sense of bilocation may be experienced, with both ground and air-based perspectives being experienced simultaneously.
Induced
Chemical
OBEs can be induced by hallucinogens (particularly dissociatives) such as psilocybin, ketamine, DMT, MDA, and LSD.
Mental induction
Falling asleep physically without losing awareness. The "Mind Awake, Body Asleep" state is widely suggested as a cause of OBEs, voluntary and otherwise. Thomas Edison used this state to tackle problems while working on his inventions. He would rest a silver dollar on his head while sitting with a metal bucket in a chair. As he drifted off, the coin would noisily fall into the bucket, restoring some of his alertness. OBE pioneer Sylvan Muldoon more simply used a forearm held perpendicular in bed as the falling object. Salvador Dalí was said to use a similar "paranoiac-critical" method to gain odd visions which inspired his paintings. Deliberately teetering between awake and asleep states is known to cause spontaneous trance episodes at the onset of sleep which are ultimately helpful when attempting to induce an OBE. By moving deeper and deeper into relaxation, one eventually encounters a "slipping" feeling if the mind is still alert. This slipping is reported to feel like leaving the physical body. Some consider progressive relaxation a passive form of sensory deprivation.
Deep trance, meditation and visualization. The types of visualizations vary; some common analogies include climbing a rope to "pull out" of one's body, floating out of one's body, getting shot out of a cannon, and other similar approaches. This technique is considered hard to use for people who cannot properly relax. One example of such a technique is the popular Golden Dawn "Body of Light" Technique.
Mechanical induction
Brainwave synchronization via audio/visual stimulation. Binaural beats can be used to induce specific brainwave frequencies,[30] notably those predominant in various mind awake/body asleep states. Binaural induction of a "body asleep" 4 Hertz brainwave frequency was observed as effective by the Monroe Institute, and some authors consider binaural beats to be significantly supportive of OBE initiation when used in conjunction with other techniques. Simultaneous introduction of "mind awake" beta frequencies (detectable in the brains of normal, relaxed awakened individuals) was also observed as constructive. Another popular technology uses sinusoidal wave pulses to achieve similar results, and the drumming accompanying Native American religious ceremonies is also believed to have heightened receptivity to "other worlds" through brainwave entrainment mechanisms.
Magnetic stimulation of the brain, as with the God helmet developed by Michael Persinger.
Direct stimulation of the vestibular cortex.
Electrical stimulation of the brain, particularly the temporoparietal junction (see Blanke study below).
Sensory deprivation. This approach aims to induce intense disorientation by removal of space and time references. Flotation tanks or pink noise played through headphones are often employed for this purpose.
Sensory overload, the opposite of sensory deprivation. The subject can for instance be rocked for a long time in a specially designed cradle, or submitted to light forms of torture, to cause the brain to shut itself off from all sensory input. Both conditions tend to cause confusion and this disorientation often permits the subject to experience vivid, ethereal out-of-body experiences.
Strong g-forces that causes blood to drain from parts of the brain, as experienced for example in high-performance aircraft or high-G training for pilots and astronauts.
An apparatus that uses a head-mounted display and a touch that confuses the sense of proprioception (and which can also create the sensation of additional limbs).
Theories of OBEs
Psychological
In the fields of cognitive science and psychology OBEs are considered dissociative experiences arising from different psychological and neurological factors.Scientists consider the OBE to be an experience from a mental state, like a dream or an altered state of consciousness without recourse to the paranormal.
Charles Richet (1887) held that OBEs are created by the subject's memory and imagination processes and are no different from dreams.James H. Hyslop (1912) wrote that OBEs occur when the activity of the subconscious mind dramatizes certain images to give the impression the subject is in a different physical location. Eugéne Osty (1930) considered OBEs to be nothing more than the product of imagination.Other early researchers (such as Schmeing, 1938) supported psychophysiological theories.[46] G. N. M. Tyrrell interpreted OBEs as hallucinatory constructs relating to subconscious levels of personality.
Donovan Rawcliffe (1959) connected the OBE experience with psychosis and hysteria. Other researchers have discussed the phenomena of the OBE in terms of a distortion of the body image (Horowitz, 1970) and depersonalization (Whitlock, 1978). The psychologists Nandor Fodor (1959) and Jan Ehrenwald (1974) proposed that an OBE is a defense mechanism designed to deal with the threat of death.[51][52] According to (Irin and Watt, 2007) Jan Ehrenwald had described the out-of-body experience (OBE) "as an imaginal confirmation of the question for immortality, a delusory attempt to assure ourselves that we possess a soul that exists independently of the physical body. The psychologists Donald Hebb (1960) and Cyril Burt (1968) wrote on the psychological interpretation of the OBE involving body image and visual imagery. Graham Reed (1974) suggested that the OBE is a stress reaction to a painful situation, such as the loss of love.John Palmer (1978) wrote that the OBE is a response to a body image change causing a threat to personal identity.
Carl Sagan (1977) and Barbara Honegger (1983) wrote that the OBE experience may be based on a rebirth fantasy or reliving of the birth process based on reports of tunnel-like passageways and a cord-like connection by some OBErs which they compared to an umbilical cord.Susan Blackmore (1978) came to the conclusion that the OBE is a hallucinatory fantasy as it has the characteristics of imaginary perceptions, perceptual distortions and fantasy-like perceptions of the self (such as having no body).[60][61] Ronald Siegel (1980) also wrote that OBEs are hallucinatory fantasies.
Harvey Irwin (1985) presented a theory of the OBE involving attentional cognitive processes and somatic sensory activity. His theory involved a cognitive personality construct known as psychological absorption and gave instances of the classification of an OBE as examples of autoscopy, depersonalization and mental dissociation.[38] The psychophysiologist Stephen Laberge (1985) has written that the explanation for OBEs can be found in lucid dreaming. David Hufford (1989) linked the OBE experience with a phenomenon he described as a nightmare waking experience, a type of sleep paralysis.[64] Other scientists have also linked OBEs to cases of hypnagogia and sleep paralysis (cataplexy).
In case studies fantasy proneness has been shown to be higher among OBErs than those who have not had an OBE.[67] The data has shown a link between the OBE experience in some cases to fantasy prone personality (FPP).[68] In a case study involving 167 participants the findings revealed that those who claimed to have experienced the OBE were "more fantasy prone, higher in their belief in the paranormal and displayed greater somatoform dissociation."[69] Research from studies has also suggested that OBEs are related to cognitive-perceptual schizotypy.
Terence Hines (2003) has written that spontaneous out-of-body experiences can be generated by artificial stimulation of the brain and this strongly suggests that the OBE experience is caused from "temporary, minor brain malfunctions, not by the person's spirit (or whatever) actually leaving the body."In a study review of neurological and neurocognitive data (Bünning and Blanke, 2005) wrote that OBEs are due to "functional disintegration of lower-level multisensory processing and abnormal higher-level self-processing at the temporoparietal junction. Some scientists suspect that OBEs are the result of a mismatch between visual and tactile signals.
Richard Wiseman (2011) has noted that OBE research has focused on finding a psychological explanation and "out-of-body experiences are not paranormal and do not provide evidence for the soul. Instead, they reveal something far more remarkable about the everyday workings of your brain and body."[75] A study conducted by Jason Braithwaite and colleagues (2011) linked the OBE to "neural instabilities in the brain's temporal lobes and to errors in the body's sense of itself". Braithwaite et al. (2013) reported that the "current and dominant view is that the OBE occurs due to a temporary disruption in multi-sensory integration processes."
Paranormal
Writers within the fields of parapsychology and occultism have written that OBEs are not psychological and that a soul, spirit or subtle body can detach itself out of the body and visit distant locations. Out-of-the-body experiences were known during the Victorian period in spiritualist literature as "travelling clairvoyance". The psychical researcher Frederic Myers referred to the OBE as a "psychical excursion".[79] An early study which described alleged cases of OBEs was the two volume Phantasms of the Living, published in 1886 by the psychical researchers Edmund Gurney, Myers and Frank Podmore. The book was largely criticized by the scientific community as the anecdotal reports lacked evidential substantiation in nearly every case.
A 19th-century illustration of Robert Blair's poem The Grave, depicting the soul leaving the body
The Theosophist Arthur Powell (1927) was an early author to advocate the subtle body theory of OBEs. Sylvan Muldoon (1936) embraced the concept of an etheric body to explain the OBE experience. The psychical researcher Ernesto Bozzano (1938) had also supported a similar view describing the phenomena of the OBE experience in terms of bilocation in which an "etheric body" can release itself from the physical body in rare circumstances. The subtle body theory was also supported by occult writers such as Ralph Shirley (1938), Benjamin Walker (1977) and Douglas Baker (1979).[85] James Baker (1954) wrote that a mental body enters an "intercosmic region" during the OBE.[86] Marilynn Hughes states that the experiences are the projection of the spiritual body from the physical for the purpose of the soul's purification.[87] Robert Crookall in many publications supported the subtle body theory of OBEs.
The paranormal interpretation of OBEs has not been supported by all researchers within the study of parapsychology. Gardner Murphy (1961) wrote that OBEs are "not very far from the known terrain of general psychology, which we are beginning to understand more and more without recourse to the paranormal".
In the 1970s, Karlis Osis conducted many OBE experiments with the psychic Alex Tanous. For a series of these experiments he was asked whilst in an OBE state to try to identify coloured targets that were placed in remote locations. Osis reported that in 197 trials there were 114 hits. However, the controls to the experiments have been criticized and according to Susan Blackmore, the final result was not particularly significant as 108 hits would be expected by chance. Blackmore noted that the results provide "no evidence for accurate perception in the OBE".
In April 1977, a patient from Harborview Medical Center known as Maria claimed to have experienced an out-of-body experience. During her OBE she claimed to have floated outside her body and outside of the hospital. Maria would later tell her social worker Kimberly Clark that during the OBE she had observed a tennis shoe on the third floor window ledge to the north side of the building. Clark would go to the north wing of the building and by looking out of the window could see a tennis shoe on one of the ledges. Clark published the account in 1985. The story has since been used in many paranormal books as evidence a spirit can leave the body.
In 1996, Hayden Ebbern, Sean Mulligan and Barry Beyerstein visited the Medical Center to investigate the story. They placed a tennis shoe on the same ledge and discovered that the shoe was visible from within the building and could have easily been observed by a patient lying in bed. They also discovered the shoe was easily observable from outside the building and suggested that Maria may have overheard a comment about it during her three days in the hospital and incorporated it into her OBE. They concluded "Maria's story merely reveals the naiveté and the power of wishful thinking" from OBE researchers seeking a paranormal explanation.[93] Clark did not publish the description of the case until seven years after it happened, casting doubt on the story. Richard Wiseman has said that although the story is not evidence for anything paranormal it has been "endlessly repeated by writers who either couldn't be bothered to check the facts, or were unwilling to present their readers with the more skeptical side of the story."
Oneness and One
In 2017, Prince Paul Mamakos summarized the three stages of out of body experience.[94] The first stage being achieving an out-of-body experience and experiencing movement within the environment near the physical body. The second stage being going out and exploring outside ones house, going off planet, going into the planet and meeting other beings. In the third stage of OBEs, a person begins to notice the energy within another being as the same as that which is coming out of their own being. The energy essence of another, is the same as your energy. In the culmination of the third stage, a person experiences a sense of connection with all beings. On a linear range of awareness, if we place personality at a proximal point on a line, a point on the distal end of the line will represent an experience of oneness. Personality and oneness representing opposite extremes of awareness. Further dropping oneness results in the 'it' experience. One.
Studies of OBEs
Early collections of OBE cases had been made by Ernesto Bozzano (Italy) and Robert Crookall (UK). Crookall approached the subject from a spiritualistic position, and collected his cases predominantly from spiritualist newspapers such as the Psychic News, which appears to have biased his results in various ways. For example, the majority of his subjects reported seeing a cord connecting the physical body and its observing counterpart; whereas Green found that less than 4% of her subjects noticed anything of this sort, and some 80% reported feeling they were a "disembodied consciousness", with no external body at all.
The first extensive scientific study of OBEs was made by Celia Green (1968).She collected written, first-hand accounts from a total of 400 subjects, recruited by means of appeals in the mainstream media, and followed up by questionnaires. Her purpose was to provide a taxonomy of the different types of OBE, viewed simply as an anomalous perceptual experience or hallucination, while leaving open the question of whether some of the cases might incorporate information derived by extrasensory perception.
International Academy of Consciousness - Global Survey
In 1999, at the 1st International Forum of Consciousness Research in Barcelona, International Academy of Consciousness research-practitioners Wagner Alegretti and Nanci Trivellato presented preliminary findings of an online survey on the out-of-body experience answered by internet users interested in the subject; therefore, not a sample representative of the general population.
1,007 (85%) of the first 1,185 respondents reported having had an OBE. 37% claimed to have had between two and ten OBEs. 5.5% claimed more than 100 such experiences. 45% of those who reported an OBE said they successfully induced at least one OBE by using a specific technique. 62% of participants claiming to have had an OBE also reported having enjoyed nonphysical flight; 40% reported experiencing the phenomenon of self-bilocation (i.e. seeing one's own physical body whilst outside the body); and 38% claimed having experienced self-permeability (passing through physical objects such as walls). The most commonly reported sensations experienced in connection with the OBE were falling, floating, repercussions e.g. myoclonia (the jerking of limbs, jerking awake), sinking, torpidity (numbness), intracranial sounds, tingling, clairvoyance, oscillation and serenity.
Another reported common sensation related to OBE was temporary or projective catalepsy, a more common feature of sleep paralysis. The sleep paralysis and OBE correlation was later corroborated by the Out-of-Body Experience and Arousal study published in Neurology by Kevin Nelson and his colleagues from the University of Kentucky in 2007. The study discovered that people who have out-of-body experiences are more likely to suffer from sleep paralysis.
Also noteworthy, is the Waterloo Unusual Sleep Experiences Questionnaire that further illustrates the correlation.
Miss Z study
In 1968, Charles Tart conducted an OBE experiment with a subject known as Miss Z for four nights in his sleep laboratory. The subject was attached to an EEG machine and a five-digit code was placed on a shelf above her bed. She did not claim to see the number on the first three nights but on fourth gave the number correctly.The psychologist James Alcock criticized the experiment for inadequate controls and questioned why the subject was not visually monitored by a video camera.Martin Gardner has written the experiment was not evidence for an OBE and suggested that whilst Tart was "snoring behind the window, Miss Z simply stood up in bed, without detaching the electrodes, and peeked." Susan Blackmore wrote "If Miss Z had tried to climb up, the brain-wave record would have showed a pattern of interference. And that was exactly what it did show."
Neurology and OBE-like experiences
There are several possible physiological explanations for parts of the OBE. OBE-like experiences have been induced by stimulation of the brain. OBE-like experience has also been induced through stimulation of the posterior part of the right superior temporal gyrus in a patient.[106] Positron-emission tomography was also used in this study to identify brain regions affected by this stimulation. The term OBE-like is used above because the experiences described in these experiments either lacked some of the clarity or details of normal OBEs, or were described by subjects who had never experienced an OBE before. Such subjects were therefore not qualified to make claims about the authenticity of the experimentally-induced OBE.
British psychologist Susan Blackmore and others suggest that an OBE begins when a person loses contact with sensory input from the body while remaining conscious. The person retains the illusion of having a body, but that perception is no longer derived from the senses. The perceived world may resemble the world he or she generally inhabits while awake, but this perception does not come from the senses either. The vivid body and world is made by our brain's ability to create fully convincing realms, even in the absence of sensory information. This process is witnessed by each of us every night in our dreams, though OBEs are claimed to be far more vivid than even a lucid dream.
Irwin pointed out that OBEs appear to occur under conditions of either very high or very low arousal. For example, Green[109] found that three quarters of a group of 176 subjects reporting a single OBE were lying down at the time of the experience, and of these 12% considered they had been asleep when it started. By contrast, a substantial minority of her cases occurred under conditions of maximum arousal, such as a rock-climbing fall, a traffic accident, or childbirth. McCreery has suggested that this paradox may be explained by reference to the fact that sleep can supervene as a reaction to extreme stress or hyper-arousal. He proposes that OBEs under both conditions, relaxation and hyper-arousal, represent a form of "waking dream", or the intrusion of Stage 1 sleep processes into waking consciousness.
Olaf Blanke studies
Research by Olaf Blanke in Switzerland found that it is possible to reliably elicit experiences somewhat similar to the OBE by stimulating regions of the brain called the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ; a region where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe of the brain come together). Blanke and his collaborators in Switzerland have explored the neural basis of OBEs by showing that they are reliably associated with lesions in the right TPJ region and that they can be reliably elicited with electrical stimulation of this region in a patient with epilepsy.[114] These elicited experiences may include perceptions of transformations of the patient's arms and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular responses).
In neurologically normal subjects, Blanke and colleagues then showed that the conscious experience of the self and body being in the same location depends on multisensory integration in the TPJ. Using event-related potentials, Blanke and colleagues showed the selective activation of the TPJ 330–400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Transcranial magnetic stimulation in the same subjects impaired mental transformation of the participant's own body. No such effects were found with stimulation of another site or for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body.
In a follow up study, Arzy et al. showed that the location and timing of brain activation depended on whether mental imagery is performed with mentally embodied or disembodied self location. When subjects performed mental imagery with an embodied location, there was increased activation of a region called the "extrastriate body area" (EBA), but when subjects performed mental imagery with a disembodied location, as reported in OBEs, there was increased activation in the region of the TPJ. This leads Arzy et al. to argue that "these data show that distributed brain activity at the EBA and TPJ as well as their timing are crucial for the coding of the self as embodied and as spatially situated within the human body."
Blanke and colleagues thus propose that the right temporal-parietal junction is important for the sense of spatial location of the self, and that when these normal processes go awry, an OBE arises.
In August 2007 Blanke's lab published research in Science demonstrating that conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality could disrupt the spatial unity between the self and the body. During multisensory conflict, participants felt as if a virtual body seen in front of them was their own body and mislocalized themselves toward the virtual body, to a position outside their bodily borders. This indicates that spatial unity and bodily self-consciousness can be studied experimentally and is based on multisensory and cognitive processing of bodily information.
Ehrsson study
In August 2007, Henrik Ehrsson, then at the Institute of Neurology at University College of London (now at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden), published research in Science demonstrating the first experimental method that, according to the scientist's claims in the publication, induced an out-of-body experience in healthy participants. The experiment was conducted in the following way:
The study participant sits in a chair wearing a pair of head-mounted video displays. These have two small screens over each eye, which show a live film recorded by two video cameras placed beside each other two metres behind the participant's head. The image from the left video camera is presented on the left-eye display and the image from the right camera on the right-eye display. The participant sees these as one "stereoscopic" (3D) image, so they see their own back displayed from the perspective of someone sitting behind them.
The researcher then stands just beside the participant (in their view) and uses two plastic rods to simultaneously touch the participant's actual chest out-of-view and the chest of the illusory body, moving this second rod towards where the illusory chest would be located, just below the camera's view.
The participants confirmed that they had experienced sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from that location.
Both critics and the experimenter himself note that the study fell short of replicating "full-blown" OBEs. As with previous experiments which induced sensations of floating outside of the body, Ehrsson's work does not explain how a brain malfunction might cause an OBE. Essentially, Ehrsson created an illusion that fits a definition of an OBE in which "a person who is awake sees his or her body from a location outside the physical body."
Awareness during Resuscitation Study
In 2001, Sam Parnia and colleagues investigated out of body claims by placing figures on suspended boards facing the ceiling, not visible from the floor. Parnia wrote "anybody who claimed to have left their body and be near the ceiling during resuscitation attempts would be expected to identify those targets. If, however, such perceptions are psychological, then one would obviously not expect the targets to be identified." The philosopher Keith Augustine, who examined Parnia's study, has written that all target identification experiments have produced negative results. Psychologist Chris French wrote regarding the study "unfortunately, and somewhat atypically, none of the survivors in this sample experienced an OBE."
In the autumn of 2008, 25 UK and US hospitals began participation in a study, coordinated by Sam Parnia and Southampton University known as the AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation). Following on from the work of Pim van Lommel in the Netherlands, the study aims to examine near-death experiences in 1,500 cardiac arrest survivors and so determine whether people without a heartbeat or brain activity can have documentable out-of-body experiences. As part of the study Parnia and colleagues have investigated out of body claims by using hidden targets placed on shelves that could only be seen from above.Parnia has written "if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories".
In 2014 Parnia issued a statement indicating that the first phase of the project has been completed and the results are undergoing peer review for publication in a medical journal. No subjects saw the images mounted out of sight according to Parnia's early report of the results of the study at an American Heart Association meeting in November 2013. Only two out of the 152 patients reported any visual experiences, and one of them described events that could be verified. The two NDEs occurred in an area were "no visual targets had been placed".
On October 6, 2014, the results of the study were published in the journal Resuscitation. Among those who reported a perception of awareness and completed further interviews, 46 per cent experienced a broad range of mental recollections in relation to death that were not compatible with the commonly used term of NDEs. These included fearful and persecutory experiences. Only 9 per cent had experiences compatible with NDEs and 2 per cent exhibited full awareness compatible with OBEs with explicit recall of 'seeing' and 'hearing' events. One case was validated and timed using auditory stimuli during cardiac arrest. According to Caroline Watt "The one 'verifiable period of conscious awareness' that Parnia was able to report did not relate to this objective test. Rather, it was a patient giving a supposedly accurate report of events during his resuscitation. He didn't identify the pictures, he described the defibrillator machine noise. But that's not very impressive since many people know what goes on in an emergency room setting from seeing recreations on television."
AWARE Study II
As of May 2016, a posting at the UK Clinical Trials Gateway website describes plans for AWARE II, a two-year multicenter observational study of 900-1500 patients experiencing cardiac arrest, with subjects being recruited as August 1, 2014 and a trial end date of May 31, 2017.
Smith & Messier
A recent functional imaging study reported the case of a woman who could experience out of body experience at will. She reported developing the ability as a child and associated it with difficulties in falling sleep. Her OBEs continued into adulthood but became less frequent. She was able to see herself rotating in the air above her body, lying flat, and rolling in the horizontal plane. She reported sometimes watching herself move from above but remained aware of her unmoving "real" body. The participant reported no particular emotions linked to the experience. "[T]he brain functional changes associated with the reported extra-corporeal experience (ECE) were different than those observed in motor imagery. Activations were mainly left-sided and involved the left supplementary motor area and supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyri, the last two overlapping with the temporal parietal junction that has been associated with out-of-body experiences. The cerebellum also showed activation that is consistent with the participant's report of the impression of movement during the ECE. There was also left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri activity, regions often associated with action monitoring."
OBE training and research facilities[edit]
The International Academy of Consciousness (IAC) is a global organisation, with training centers in California, New York, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, several other cities around the world and a research campus in Portugal. The research campus features specialised laboratories, including a spherical lab dedicated exclusively for the practice and research of out-of-body experiences.The IAC offers courses online and in person, including their signature course the Consciousness Development Programme (a comprehensive 40-hour course covering OBE techniques, with practical classes, as well as many other para-psychic themes related to the practice).
The Monroe Institute's Nancy Penn Center is a facility specializing in or out-of-body experience induction. The Center for Higher Studies of the Consciousness in Brazil is another large OBE training facility. Olaf Blanke's Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience has become a well-known laboratory for OBE research.
Astral projection
Main article: Astral projection
Astral projection is a paranormal interpretation of out-of-body experiences that assumes the existence of one or more non-physical planes of existence and an associated body beyond the physical. Commonly such planes are called astral, etheric, or spiritual. Astral projection is often experienced as the spirit or astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the spirit world or astral plane.
Or excruciatingly changes!
It's unbelievable that the whole wide world we're so used to just a short while ago turning 360deg physically mentally and economically for the worse. And now it's even more blurry and uncertain at every corner of the globe. As advanced as our societies today with the state-of-the-art technology to explore unknown universe and amazing medical progresses to cure numerous agonizing cancers, we ALL are brought down to our knees by only a tiny living thing in a fraction of time that even Darwinism's Survival of the Fittest mechanism can't guarantee the survivability to those with strongest physique or superb health.
That's how fragile human life is. Any unexpected thing can drive us all down or even out of existence ... if we're not prepared.
We've seen how our today gov't has failed us and cost lives due to arrogant lack of foresight. And citizens whining for movement freedom during pandemic hellscape by irresponsible and reckless people including the famous Tesla/SpaceX Elon Musk and no-mask-wearing-at-Mayo-Clinic VP Mike Pence, among some other nonsense celebrities, and including Orange County Board of Supervisors, have caused more serious confusion to general public and calamitous danger for a reversal of COVID-19 infection curve.
California so far w/ leading city like San Francisco has sustained such an amazing low spread with minimal mortality from this disease comparing to the nation's staggering death rate and cases, considering how physically closer the state is to the pandemic source than many other states. So, the stay-at-home order simply works and helps. We can't afford to risk it despite the consequential damage done already by this order to the state's economic and citizens' social lifestyle. But it's totally NECESSARY. I think the GOP control of Orange County are just being so out of touch with reality by allowing thousands of beachgoers roaming and socializing a bit too early with little or no mask wearing or social distancing enforcement. The governor has a dutiful right to shut this stubborn nonsense down to protect everyone, not just people of Orange County. And he's right that the viruses don't take a weekend off, careless if we are black white blue red or yellow.
Just yesterday it's so sad that an ER doctor has taken her own life due to exhaustion, and alike many medical professionals have paid with their own lives to save others. If that's not ultimate sacrifice, I don't know what is, while countless of families are still grieving and forever mourning. Insanely there are people who have nerve to complain they're being unconstitutionally imprisoned in their own comfort home, and can't have the usual right for a good time outdoor drinking beers, eating a good steak, swimming in a gigantic pool of refreshing salt water. How empty of empathy!
So the governor's order, coming soon, to keep or remain all beaches and parks closed is a right thing to do in my view.
What say you? Thanks for sharing.
There has always been a dispossessed band of people who physically and spiritually roam the land. Ironically, the drifter's life looks to have gathered some material weight along the way. The symbol for the "down on his luck" hobo is no longer portrayed by a guy in a tattered suit with a stick and bundle slung over his shoulder. Nope, now days they lug bulky backpacks and even keyboards. Somewhere along the way, those who choose "the road" have acquired a few more material possessions and it has to be weighing them down. It's my personal observation that with added material weight comes an anxious complexity--it works that way for me and I have all the comforts of home. I wonder what Jack Kerouac would say about it?
Nevada City, CA
Dublar Char, Sundarbans, Bangladesh.
Not all prisons confine you physically.
Some prisons let you free, into the open sea and the vast sky....
They just confine your soul in a dark dungeon.
A fisherman busy drying fishes in Dublar Char, Sundarbans. Dublar Char becomes one of the major flocking place of fishermen during winter. Almost all the fishermen gathered in Dublar Char are under the supervision of a specific person, who buys all the fishes caught. What the fishermen get is several times lower the actual price in city markets. However, the fishermen have no way to sell their commodities to any other buyer, because they are bound by debt to that specific person, and with their minimal income, they are never able to clear their debt completely after the fishing season. So, they have to come back next year in the same old 'Dublar Char'. The cycle never breaks.
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. . . seen from my house
A photo like this you make once in your lifetime!
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A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.
Rainbows can be full circles. However, the average observer sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centred on a line from the sun to the observer's eye.
In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.
In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.
OVERVIEW
A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow - farther off - at the same angle as seen by the first observer.
Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours. Any distinct bands perceived are an artefact of human colour vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side. For colours seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence is Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, remembered by the mnemonic, Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV).
Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.
VISIBILITY
Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude angle. Because of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning and in the eastern sky during the early evening. The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of the sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts with the darkened background. During such good visibility conditions, the larger but fainter secondary rainbow is often visible. It appears about 10° outside of the primary rainbow, with inverse order of colours.
The rainbow effect is also commonly seen near waterfalls or fountains. In addition, the effect can be artificially created by dispersing water droplets into the air during a sunny day. Rarely, a moonbow, lunar rainbow or nighttime rainbow, can be seen on strongly moonlit nights. As human visual perception for colour is poor in low light, moonbows are often perceived to be white.
It is difficult to photograph the complete semicircle of a rainbow in one frame, as this would require an angle of view of 84°. For a 35 mm camera, a wide-angle lens with a focal length of 19 mm or less would be required. Now that software for stitching several images into a panorama is available, images of the entire arc and even secondary arcs can be created fairly easily from a series of overlapping frames.
From above the earth such as in an aeroplane, it is sometimes possible to see a rainbow as a full circle. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory phenomenon, but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°.
The sky inside a primary rainbow is brighter than the sky outside of the bow. This is because each raindrop is a sphere and it scatters light over an entire circular disc in the sky. The radius of the disc depends on the wavelength of light, with red light being scattered over a larger angle than blue light. Over most of the disc, scattered light at all wavelengths overlaps, resulting in white light which brightens the sky. At the edge, the wavelength dependence of the scattering gives rise to the rainbow.
Light of primary rainbow arc is 96% polarised tangential to the arch. Light of second arc is 90% polarised.
Number of colours in spectrum or rainbow
A spectrum obtained using a glass prism and a point source is a continuum of wavelengths without bands. The number of colours that the human eye is able to distinguish in a spectrum is in the order of 100. Accordingly, the Munsell colour system (a 20th-century system for numerically describing colours, based on equal steps for human visual perception) distinguishes 100 hues. The apparent discreteness of main colours is an artefact of human perception and the exact number of main colours is a somewhat arbitrary choice.
Newton, who admitted his eyes were not very critical in distinguishing colours, originally (1672) divided the spectrum into five main colours: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Later he included orange and indigo, giving seven main colours by analogy to the number of notes in a musical scale. Newton chose to divide the visible spectrum into seven colours out of a belief derived from the beliefs of the ancient Greek sophists, who thought there was a connection between the colours, the musical notes, the known objects in the Solar System, and the days of the week.
According to Isaac Asimov, "It is customary to list indigo as a color lying between blue and violet, but it has never seemed to me that indigo is worth the dignity of being considered a separate color. To my eyes it seems merely deep blue."
The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version of the bow obtained from a point source, because the disk diameter of the sun (0.5°) cannot be neglected compared to the width of a rainbow (2°). The number of colour bands of a rainbow may therefore be different from the number of bands in a spectrum, especially if the droplets are particularly large or small. Therefore, the number of colours of a rainbow is variable. If, however, the word rainbow is used inaccurately to mean spectrum, it is the number of main colours in the spectrum.
The question of whether everyone sees seven colours in a rainbow is related to the idea of Linguistic relativity. Suggestions have been made that there is universality in the way that a rainbow is perceived. However, more recent research suggests that the number of distinct colours observed and what these are called depend on the language that one uses with people whose language has fewer colour words seeing fewer discrete colour bands.
EXPLANATION
When sunlight encounters a raindrop, part of the light is reflected and the rest enters the raindrop. The light is refracted at the surface of the raindrop. When this light hits the back of the raindrop, some of it is reflected off the back. When the internally reflected light reaches the surface again, once more some is internally reflected and some is refracted as it exits the drop. (The light that reflects off the drop, exits from the back, or continues to bounce around inside the drop after the second encounter with the surface, is not relevant to the formation of the primary rainbow.) The overall effect is that part of the incoming light is reflected back over the range of 0° to 42°, with the most intense light at 42°. This angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. Seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, so the radius of a "rainbow" in sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a misalignment of these bows.
The reason the returning light is most intense at about 42° is that this is a turning point – light hitting the outermost ring of the drop gets returned at less than 42°, as does the light hitting the drop nearer to its centre. There is a circular band of light that all gets returned right around 42°. If the sun were a laser emitting parallel, monochromatic rays, then the luminance (brightness) of the bow would tend toward infinity at this angle (ignoring interference effects). (See Caustic (optics).) But since the sun's luminance is finite and its rays are not all parallel (it covers about half a degree of the sky) the luminance does not go to infinity. Furthermore, the amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength, and hence its colour. This effect is called dispersion. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but due to the reflection of light rays from the back of the droplet, the blue light emerges from the droplet at a smaller angle to the original incident white light ray than the red light. Due to this angle, blue is seen on the inside of the arc of the primary rainbow, and red on the outside. The result of this is not only to give different colours to different parts of the rainbow, but also to diminish the brightness. (A "rainbow" formed by droplets of a liquid with no dispersion would be white, but brighter than a normal rainbow.)
The light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection, and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow.
A rainbow does not exist at one particular location. Many rainbows exist; however, only one can be seen depending on the particular observer's viewpoint as droplets of light illuminated by the sun. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. This light is what constitutes the rainbow for that observer. The whole system composed by the sun's rays, the observer's head, and the (spherical) water drops has an axial symmetry around the axis through the observer's head and parallel to the sun's rays. The rainbow is curved because the set of all the raindrops that have the right angle between the observer, the drop, and the sun, lie on a cone pointing at the sun with the observer at the tip. The base of the cone forms a circle at an angle of 40–42° to the line between the observer's head and their shadow but 50% or more of the circle is below the horizon, unless the observer is sufficiently far above the earth's surface to see it all, for example in an aeroplane (see above). Alternatively, an observer with the right vantage point may see the full circle in a fountain or waterfall spray.
MATHEMATICAL DERIVATION
We can determine the perceived angle which the rainbow subtends as follows.
Given a spherical raindrop, and defining the perceived angle of the rainbow as 2φ, and the angle of the internal reflection as 2β, then the angle of incidence of the sun's rays with respect to the drop's surface normal is 2β − φ. Since the angle of refraction is β, Snell's law gives us
sin(2β − φ) = n sin β,
where n = 1.333 is the refractive index of water. Solving for φ, we get
φ = 2β − arcsin(n sin β).
The rainbow will occur where the angle φ is maximum with respect to the angle β. Therefore, from calculus, we can set dφ/dβ = 0, and solve for β.
Substituting back into the earlier equation for φ yields 2φmax ≈ 42° as the radius angle of the rainbow.
VARIATION
MULTIPLE RAINBOWS
Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and are centred on the sun itself. They are about 127° (violet) to 130° (red) wide. Since this is more than 90°, they are seen on the same side of the sky as the primary rainbow, about 10° above it at apparent angles of 50–53°. As a result of the "inside" of the secondary bow being "up" to the observer, the colours appear reversed compared to the primary bow. The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. Each rainbow reflects white light inside its coloured bands, but that is "down" for the primary and "up" for the secondary. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it.
TWINNED RAINBOW
Unlike a double rainbow that consists of two separate and concentric rainbow arcs, the very rare twinned rainbow appears as two rainbow arcs that split from a single base. The colours in the second bow, rather than reversing as in a secondary rainbow, appear in the same order as the primary rainbow. A "normal" secondary rainbow may be present as well. Twinned rainbows can look similar to, but should not be confused with supernumerary bands. The two phenomena may be told apart by their difference in colour profile: supernumerary bands consist of subdued pastel hues (mainly pink, purple and green), while the twinned rainbow shows the same spectrum as a regular rainbow. The cause of a twinned rainbow is the combination of different sizes of water drops falling from the sky. Due to air resistance, raindrops flatten as they fall, and flattening is more prominent in larger water drops. When two rain showers with different-sized raindrops combine, they each produce slightly different rainbows which may combine and form a twinned rainbow. A numerical ray tracing study showed that a twinned rainbow on a photo could be explained by a mixture of 0.40 and 0.45 mm
droplets. That small difference in droplet size resulted in a small difference in flattening of the droplet shape, and a large difference in flattening of the rainbow top.
Meanwhile, the even rarer case of a rainbow split into three branches was observed and photographed in nature.
FULL-CIRCLE RAINBOW
In theory, every rainbow is a circle, but from the ground, only its upper half can be seen. Since the rainbow's centre is diametrically opposed to the sun's position in the sky, more of the circle comes into view as the sun approaches the horizon, meaning that the largest section of the circle normally seen is about 50% during sunset or sunrise. Viewing the rainbow's lower half requires the presence of water droplets below the observer's horizon, as well as sunlight that is able to reach them. These requirements are not usually met when the viewer is at ground level, either because droplets are absent in the required position, or because the sunlight is obstructed by the landscape behind the observer. From a high viewpoint such as a high building or an aircraft, however, the requirements can be met and the full-circle rainbow can be seen. Like a partial rainbow, the circular rainbow can have a secondary bow or supernumerary bows as well. It is possible to produce the full circle when standing on the ground, for example by spraying a water mist from a garden hose while facing away from the sun.
A circular rainbow should not be confused with the glory, which is much smaller in diameter and is created by different optical processes. In the right circumstances, a glory and a (circular) rainbow or fog bow can occur together. Another atmospheric phenomenon that may be mistaken for a "circular rainbow" is the 22° halo, which is caused by ice crystals rather than liquid water droplets, and is located around the sun (or moon), not opposite it.
SUPERNUMERARY RAINBOWS
In certain circumstances, one or several narrow, faintly coloured bands can be seen bordering the violet edge of a rainbow; i.e., inside the primary bow or, much more rarely, outside the secondary. These extra bands are called supernumerary rainbows or supernumerary bands; together with the rainbow itself the phenomenon is also known as a stacker rainbow. The supernumerary bows are slightly detached from the main bow, become successively fainter along with their distance from it, and have pastel colours (consisting mainly of pink, purple and green hues) rather than the usual spectrum pattern. The effect becomes apparent when water droplets are involved that have a diameter of about 1mm or less; the smaller the droplets are, the broader the supernumerary bands become, and the less saturated their colours. Due to their origin in small droplets, supernumerary bands tend to be particularly prominent in fogbows.
Supernumerary rainbows cannot be explained using classical geometric optics. The alternating faint bands are caused by interference between rays of light following slightly different paths with slightly varying lengths within the raindrops. Some rays are in phase, reinforcing each other through constructive interference, creating a bright band; others are out of phase by up to half a wavelength, cancelling each other out through destructive interference, and creating a gap. Given the different angles of refraction for rays of different colours, the patterns of interference are slightly different for rays of different colours, so each bright band is differentiated in colour, creating a miniature rainbow. Supernumerary rainbows are clearest when raindrops are small and of uniform size. The very existence of supernumerary rainbows was historically a first indication of the wave nature of light, and the first explanation was provided by Thomas Young in 1804.
SCIENTIFIC HISTORY
The classical Greek scholar Aristotle (384–322 BC) was first to devote serious attention to the rainbow. According to Raymond L. Lee and Alistair B. Fraser, "Despite its many flaws and its appeal to Pythagorean numerology, Aristotle's qualitative explanation showed an inventiveness and relative consistency that was unmatched for centuries. After Aristotle's death, much rainbow theory consisted of reaction to his work, although not all of this was uncritical."
In Book I of Naturales Quaestiones (c. 65 AD), the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger discusses various theories of the formation of rainbows extensively, including those of Aristotle. He notices that rainbows appear always opposite to the sun, that they appear in water sprayed by a rower, in the water spat by a fuller on clothes stretched on pegs or by water sprayed through a small hole in a burst pipe. He even speaks of rainbows produced by small rods (virgulae) of glass, anticipating Newton's experiences with prisms. He takes into account two theories: one, that the rainbow is produced by the sun reflecting in each water drop, the other, that it is produced by the sun reflected in a cloud shaped like a concave mirror; he favours the latter. He also discusses other phenomena related to rainbows: the mysterious "virgae" (rods), halos and parhelia.
According to Hüseyin Gazi Topdemir, the Persian physicist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; 965–1039), attempted to provide a scientific explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. In his Maqala fi al-Hala wa Qaws Quzah (On the Rainbow and Halo), al-Haytham "explained the formation of rainbow as an image, which forms at a concave mirror. If the rays of light coming from a farther light source reflect to any point on axis of the concave mirror, they form concentric circles in that point. When it is supposed that the sun as a farther light source, the eye of viewer as a point on the axis of mirror and a cloud as a reflecting surface, then it can be observed the concentric circles are forming on the axis." He was not able to verify this because his theory that "light from the sun is reflected by a cloud before reaching the eye" did not allow for a possible experimental verification. This explanation was later repeated by Averroes, and, though incorrect, provided the groundwork for the correct explanations later given by Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (1267–1319) and Theodoric of Freiberg (c.1250–1310).
Ibn al-Haytham's contemporary, the Persian philosopher and polymath Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna; 980–1037), provided an alternative explanation, writing "that the bow is not formed in the dark cloud but rather in the very thin mist lying between the cloud and the sun or observer. The cloud, he thought, serves simply as the background of this thin substance, much as a quicksilver lining is placed upon the rear surface of the glass in a mirror. Ibn Sīnā would change the place not only of the bow, but also of the colour formation, holding the iridescence to be merely a subjective sensation in the eye." This explanation, however, was also incorrect.[65] Ibn Sīnā's account accepts many of Aristotle's arguments on the rainbow.
In Song Dynasty China (960–1279), a polymath scholar-official named Shen Kuo (1031–1095) hypothesised—as a certain Sun Sikong (1015–1076) did before him—that rainbows were formed by a phenomenon of sunlight encountering droplets of rain in the air. Paul Dong writes that Shen's explanation of the rainbow as a phenomenon of atmospheric refraction "is basically in accord with modern scientific principles."
According to Nader El-Bizri, the Persian astronomer, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236–1311), gave a fairly accurate explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. This was elaborated on by his student, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (1267–1319), who gave a more mathematically satisfactory explanation of the rainbow. He "proposed a model where the ray of light from the sun was refracted twice by a water droplet, one or more reflections occurring between the two refractions." An experiment with a water-filled glass sphere was conducted and al-Farisi showed the additional refractions due to the glass could be ignored in his model. As he noted in his Kitab Tanqih al-Manazir (The Revision of the Optics), al-Farisi used a large clear vessel of glass in the shape of a sphere, which was filled with water, in order to have an experimental large-scale model of a rain drop. He then placed this model within a camera obscura that has a controlled aperture for the introduction of light. He projected light unto the sphere and ultimately deduced through several trials and detailed observations of reflections and refractions of light that the colours of the rainbow are phenomena of the decomposition of light.
In Europe, Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics was translated into Latin and studied by Robert Grosseteste. His work on light was continued by Roger Bacon, who wrote in his Opus Majus of 1268 about experiments with light shining through crystals and water droplets showing the colours of the rainbow. In addition, Bacon was the first to calculate the angular size of the rainbow. He stated that the rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42° above the horizon. Theodoric of Freiberg is known to have given an accurate theoretical explanation of both the primary and secondary rainbows in 1307. He explained the primary rainbow, noting that "when sunlight falls on individual drops of moisture, the rays undergo two refractions (upon ingress and egress) and one reflection (at the back of the drop) before transmission into the eye of the observer." He explained the secondary rainbow through a similar analysis involving two refractions and two reflections.
Descartes' 1637 treatise, Discourse on Method, further advanced this explanation. Knowing that the size of raindrops did not appear to affect the observed rainbow, he experimented with passing rays of light through a large glass sphere filled with water. By measuring the angles that the rays emerged, he concluded that the primary bow was caused by a single internal reflection inside the raindrop and that a secondary bow could be caused by two internal reflections. He supported this conclusion with a derivation of the law of refraction (subsequently to, but independently of, Snell) and correctly calculated the angles for both bows. His explanation of the colours, however, was based on a mechanical version of the traditional theory that colours were produced by a modification of white light.
Isaac Newton demonstrated that white light was composed of the light of all the colours of the rainbow, which a glass prism could separate into the full spectrum of colours, rejecting the theory that the colours were produced by a modification of white light. He also showed that red light is refracted less than blue light, which led to the first scientific explanation of the major features of the rainbow. Newton's corpuscular theory of light was unable to explain supernumerary rainbows, and a satisfactory explanation was not found until Thomas Young realised that light behaves as a wave under certain conditions, and can interfere with itself.
Young's work was refined in the 1820s by George Biddell Airy, who explained the dependence of the strength of the colours of the rainbow on the size of the water droplets. Modern physical descriptions of the rainbow are based on Mie scattering, work published by Gustav Mie in 1908. Advances in computational methods and optical theory continue to lead to a fuller understanding of rainbows. For example, Nussenzveig provides a modern overview.
EXPERIMENTS
Experiments on the rainbow phenomenon using artificial raindrops, i.e. water-filled spherical flasks, go back at least to Theodoric of Freiberg in the 14th century. Later, also Descartes studied the phenomenon using a Florence flask. A flask experiment known as Florence's rainbow is still today often-used as an imposing and intuitively accessible demonstration experiment of the rainbow phenomenon. It consists in illuminating (with parallel white light) a water-filled spherical flask through a hole in a screen. A rainbow will then appear thrown back / projected on the screen, provided the screen is large enough. Due to the finite wall thickness and the macroscopic character of the artificial raindrop, several subtle differences exist as compared to the natural phenomenon, including slightly changed rainbow angles and a splitting of the rainbow orders.
A very similar experiment consists in using a cylindrical glass vessel filled with water or a solid transparent cylinder and illuminated either parallel to the circular base (i.e. light rays remaining at a fixed hight while they transit the cylinder) or under an angle to the base. Under these latter conditions the rainbow angles change relative to the natural phenomenon since the effective index of refraction of water changes (Bravais' index of refraction for inclined rays applies).
Other experiments use small liquid drops, see text above.
CULTURE
Rainbows occur frequently in mythology, and have been used in the arts. One of the earliest literary occurrences of a rainbow is in Genesis 9, as part of the flood story of Noah, where it is a sign of God's covenant to never destroy all life on earth with a global flood again. In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge Bifröst connects the world of men (Midgard) and the realm of the gods (Asgard). Cuchavira was the god of the rainbow for the Muisca people in present-day Colombia and when the regular rains on the Bogotá savanna were over, the people thanked him offering gold, snails and small emeralds. The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow. This place is appropriately impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which cannot be approached.
Rainbows sometimes appear in heraldry too, even if its characteristic of multiple colours doesn't really fit in to the usual heraldic style.
Rainbow flags have been used for centuries. It was a symbol of the Cooperative movement in the German Peasants' War in the 16th century, of peace in Italy, and of gay pride and LGBT social movements since the 1970s. In 1994, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela described newly democratic post-apartheid South Africa as the rainbow nation. The rainbow has even been used in technology product logos including the Apple computer logo. Many political alliances have called themselves Rainbow Coalition.
WIKIPEDIA
Our AirBnB host tipped us off to a much less physically strenuous way to go to the castle, largely unknown to tourists. Rather than head up the hill on foot into the castle, you instead go up the funicular through Petřínské sady and then walk back down the hill to the castle. This, of course, worked out for us because it gave us an opportunity to revisit the Bella Vida Cafe, which we had so perfunctorily dismissed on our first day.
What can I say? Our highest recommendation and top honors for atmosphere, comfy chairs, and cute tea timers. The coffee was pretty darned good too.
Bernauer Straße, Berlin, Germany.
[EN] The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds", and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany.
GDR authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall). The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame", a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt in reference to the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border (IGB), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize physically the "Iron Curtain" that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.
Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, over 100,000 people attempted to escape, and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin.
In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries—in Poland and Hungary in particular—caused a chain reaction in East Germany that ultimately resulted in the demise of the Wall. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall. The Brandenburg Gate in the Berlin Wall was opened on 22 December 1989. The demolition of the Wall officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in November 1991. The "fall of the Berlin Wall" paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990.
[DE] Die Berliner Mauer war während der Teilung Deutschlands ein Grenzbefestigungssystem der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (DDR), das mehr als 28 Jahre, vom 13. August 1961 bis zum 9. November 1989, bestand, und die DDR von West-Berlin hermetisch abriegeln sollte. Sie trennte nicht nur die Verbindungen im Gebiet Groß-Berlins zwischen dem Ostteil („Hauptstadt der DDR“) und dem Westteil der Stadt, sondern umschloss völlig alle drei Sektoren des Westteils und unterbrach damit auch seine Verbindungen zum Berliner Umland, das im DDR-Bezirk Potsdam lag.
Von der Berliner Mauer ist die ehemalige innerdeutsche Grenze zwischen West- (alte Bundesrepublik) und Ostdeutschland (DDR) zu unterscheiden.
Die Berliner Mauer als letzte Aktion der Teilung der durch die Nachkriegsordnung der Alliierten entstandenen Viersektorenstadt Berlin war Bestandteil und zugleich markantes Symbol des Konflikts im Kalten Krieg zwischen den von den Vereinigten Staaten dominierten Westmächten und dem sogenannten Ostblock unter Führung der Sowjetunion. Sie wurde aufgrund eines Beschlusses der politischen Führung der Sowjetunion Anfang August 1961 und einer wenige Tage später ergehenden Weisung der DDR-Regierung errichtet. Die Berliner Mauer ergänzte die 1378 Kilometer lange innerdeutsche Grenze zwischen der DDR und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, die bereits mehr als neun Jahre vorher „befestigt“ worden war, um den Flüchtlingsstrom zu stoppen.
Für die DDR-Grenzsoldaten galt seit 1960 in Fällen des „ungesetzlichen Grenzübertritts“ der Schießbefehl, der erst 1982 formell in ein Gesetz gefasst wurde. Bei den Versuchen, die 167,8 Kilometer langen und schwer bewachten Grenzanlagen in Richtung West-Berlin zu überwinden, wurden nach derzeitigem Forschungsstand (2009) zwischen 136 und 245 Menschen getötet. Die genaue Zahl der Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer ist nicht bekannt.
Die Berliner Mauer wurde am Abend des 9. November 1989 im Zuge der politischen Wende geöffnet. Dies geschah unter dem wachsenden Druck der mehr Freiheit fordernden DDR-Bevölkerung. Der Mauerfall ebnete den Weg, der innerhalb eines Jahres zum Zusammenbruch der SED-Diktatur, zur Auflösung der DDR und gleichzeitig zur staatlichen Einheit Deutschlands führte. (Wikipedia)
Another way to physically layer images that intrigues me as a direction to pursue.
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Studio 26, assignment on collage
Photocollage -- Acrylic painted canvas background, with polymer transfer & pasted images
(Product from a Holly Roberts workshop at the Durango Art Center -- www.hollyrobertsstudio.com )
Thank you, everyone who participated in this assignment, & also the travelers who intend to revisit. I love the collage assignments for their unexpected turns, surprising their makers & everyone else.
This one was a surprise to me -- how much fun I had painting, to begin with. And how fortuitously the images fit together, including the rather haphazard transfer method.
A Letter to High School Students
During our travels, I have always encouraged my students to observe the details of the world around them and to become more aware of their actions and the results thereof. There is a multitude of reasons why I need to teach such a thing, but perhaps the most pressing of them (for this essay at least) is this: most of them being of middle and high-school age means that one of the biggest choices they will face in life is just around the corner: which university to attend and what subject to major in. This is the time when we essentially pressure a child with little life experience to decide his fate, often without him being aware of what he is most suitable for nor capable at. Selecting a university major, in essence, is the choosing of a direction in life, and since this is generally a terrifying situation for the both an inexperienced or naïve child and parents who wishes ‘the best’ for them, we often find parents calling the decisions based on their own interpretations, ideals and insecurities. It is no small matter to wilfully invest at least four years of our most physically capable years into something, so you had better choose wisely!
The question is: “But how to choose?”
And my answer is: “How do I know if you don’t even know?”
But what I can do is offer a few examples of some familiar student-parent predicaments that most likely resonate and of which would be well worth your time reflecting upon during this anxiety-inducing time. See if you see yourself in any of these.
THE GIRL WITH THE UNSATISFIABLE FATHER
This seemingly all-round unsatisfied man wants to decide on his daughter’s university major despite her preferred path being of stark contrast to his heart’s desires. His desires include the daughter taking a degree that will require a considerable number of years of struggle in order to obtain, and even worse, these desires are to be met by being based for all these years in a relatively small industrial city just ‘to be nearby’. This girl is well aware of the bright lights and opportunities that a cosmopolitan city offers, and even worse for her, is that she has already travelled to two far-away continents with me and knows what exists beyond the limited scope of her father’s ‘tastes’. The question for her is whether to listen to him or not? Is the world meant to flow forwards or is life just water in a still paddy field? And the questions for him: do you even have a field that you need to your daughter nearby to attend to? Are we living in the abundance of the twenty-first century, where even your own daughter has already been to lands that most could only dreamt of? The problem here is that he will never earn true peace in life when his (hypothetical) satisfaction comes from dictating the lives of others, nor will he ever curate a quality relationship with his daughter. If someone's sole goal is to have others listen to them then you might want to consider changing the goal to ensure something healthy and happy comes as a result. Unless your intended goal is precisely the opposite, of course.
THE MOTHER SO INVOLVED SHE CANNOT SEE ANYMORE
One mother is so involved she has been stressing for years over her son’s grades so that she can get him into a good university to study business – a path that he himself always wants to follow. The funny thing, to me anyway, is that their family already owns several successful businesses and so the template, opportunities for experience and the resources are already available – in fact, a business university is already right there in their own hands! Why spend all these years studying just in order to have some institution ‘approve of’ what you already have, when you could invest this time and energy into building something of your own right now instead. Sure, you may not receive a paper degree to dangle on a wall behind your desk, but those were only invented to hand over to someone else in order to prove you’re capable of doing a job for someone else, never as a prerequisite to becoming your own boss! Sometimes the obvious gets lost in the fog.
THE BOY THAT DOES FOR THE SAKE OF DOING
This boy is in university doing a major he is not passionate about, though luckily, one that is not too dissimilar to the field he would have preferred. Of course, this was because of his father’s belief that by following his advice means more prospects for getting a ‘good job’. I often wonder: how many people give much thought to what a ‘good job’ actually is? Does having a position in a company on a fixed salary and schedule, under someone else’s command, not to mention the risk of getting fired at any moment, constitute a ‘good job’? If you are not passionate about this ‘good job’, are you going to magically fend off competitors who would otherwise be better suited for the position? Don’t forget that these days everyone and their dog have the same degree and they are hot on your heels in the current job market. And, are you confident you know the future so well that this ‘good job’ will still retain its goodness in the ever-changing future? At least the training of your skills in the areas you are passionate about and naturally talented in ensures that you will hold on to your enthusiasm and energy – and the world highly needs your passion and energy right now as can be seen by a quick look at the social trends of many young people at the moment. But, maybe this boy might be able to incorporate his interests into his field of study at some point in the future if he is creative, just as I managed to combine travel with education when the idea sprung upon me unexpectedly one day.
THE FORTUNE SPENT ABROAD FOR LITTLE GAIN
This former traveler/student of mine has been studying in a ‘prestigious’ college abroad for a couple of year already in a country not known for its low cost of living. Another case of a person studying a major chosen by his father, but in any case, this boy was extremely happy to go abroad, not only to escape the tight grip of his parents, but out of pure excitement to surround himself with a foreign environment. This boy came to visit me at my place in Istanbul during a holiday period and when after making a quick calculation of the price of which I purchased this property located in the center of a famous tourist city, plus the rental gains I could accrue should I chose to rent it out as tourist accommodation, and in comparison to the university fees and living expenses he has been paying for the so-called ‘honor’ of being there, it would turn out that he could have purchased properties in Turkey instead and already be financially independent and, travelling off the income generated. Good economics, and funny because he is studying an economics-related degree, and sensible because his strengths and interests lie in the humanities. But at least this boy speaks impeccable English and as I have always said: ‘knowing English is like having money in your back pocket’ when it comes to looking for work and opportunities around the world. His degree may come in handy though eventually, but at such a cost? Only time will tell.
THE ONE WHO DUMPED THE CHAINS
This boy is more of a unique case, and a healthy one at that. This high school-aged teenager quit attending school in order to pursue music. He is self-disciplined, diligent, interested in life and curious about the world – the right combination to put things into action. Perhaps more importantly, he has a supportive environment with parents and a community that is brave enough to step out from the norm and make their own educational and lifestyle choices, and have enough confidence to encourage and assist him to risk and be responsible for taking his own path in life. Who he has surrounded himself with is who he has become, so involving himself in interesting things with like-minded people has significantly aided him in his pursuit of seeking authenticity, meaning and truth. I have no doubt he will bring good into the world while progressing onto a career in his chosen field, whether someday that be music or not. With a strong skillset and a healthy mind, it is impossible to fail in life, but the opposite be true too, degree in hand or not. As a teacher, I a dream of the way when cases like this are common place.
THE BOY WITH THE INSATIABLE DESIRE TO TRAVEL
Well, that boy was me. Yes, I know what it is like to be deceived into believing you must attend university in order to have any ‘status’ in life, and although I did mostly enjoy school and studying in general, in reality I was a little hesitant about committing myself to yet another institution for four more years. I generally preferred ‘the betterment of self’ as a higher goal in life as opposed to obtaining a degree as some sort of self-approval. I had stared at world maps since the age of ten and more than anything else in this world, I just wanted to get to meet what I had been looking at on paper for all these years and leave behind the confinements of familiarity; those of home, school and society. So naturally, I departed the country the day after I graduated high school, and found myself living and teaching English in South Korea - aged eighteen, self-sufficient though rather lacking in life experience, but of which I would come to learn. Apart from the Korean language and customs, I was also influenced by the cultural narrative being: ‘in order to be successful you need to go to university’, and so like young people do, I followed along because I too wanted to fit in. Not long after that, I actually got offered a five-year scholarship in Taiwan to study Tourism Management - school fees and all living expenses paid. I went. Within a semester I realized I probably did not need this, nor belong there. Happenstance, I packed my bags, hopped on a plane to Shanghai, then a train to Xinjiang, then a bus to Almaty, Kazakhstan – a place I had never been before, in the midst of a bitter cold winter in order to find work and suffer while figuring out my life. But, sometimes just the excitement is the antidote the suffering, which I then learnt. In hindsight, staying at university and living for free by just following instructions, completing tasks, and listening to classes I did not care for would have been the easier route, but I am glad I did not settle for that! However, I am grateful for the experience and the insight into these institutions of ‘education’ and even these days they can at times even seem more like play centers, brainwashing facilities, or corporate money-making entities. I do like the historical concept of universities though, but the prestige is ruined when everyone with a mid-wit IQ and low intellectual interest attends willy-nilly. Universities definitely have their place in society and their use for humanity at large, but for many people, often a more suited education comes from experience in the big wide world that sits waiting to be explored. The one thing that has amused and puzzled me over the years in my professional work is that no one ever asks me which university I attended – it just goes to show that your passion, skills and experience is what people want and when you know what you are doing and your heart is in it then it obviously would seem that the rest be damned!
CONCLUSION
It could be likened to a societal illness if people are studying for the wrong reasons and motivations - whether those be pressure from your environment, social or parental expectations, cultural traditions, desire for status, or out of fear, greed or other emotions. The thing is; society, parents, culture, tradition, status and emotion are social, biological or evolutionary tools that exist to support our journeys in life, and were never designed to serve as the great evils that would destroy us - but that is precisely what we are witnessing if we observe the effects and certain social trends these days.
If it were up to me I would make it a rule that one shall be at least 30 years old to enter university (except for exceptional cases, of course), and then after some life and work experience, only the highly-driven with the thirst for intellectual brilliance would fill the institutions and then once again be able to graduate with guaranteed employment. The rest would continue to go about life investing their time and energy into other things of utility and beauty. But it is not up to me, and here we are. I do not want to contribute to this endless cycle of meaninglessness and cynicism, so instead try to open the doors of possibility through the way that I know best: education through travel, then where possible, sharing the experience. But the time has come for you too. Learn to observe yourself. Practice observing the world around you. Bravely stand up and take responsibility for your own path in life. Start now. You do not want to sink into the abyss of misery. During this important time of your life, consider this advice and ponder these ideas. Choose wisely! Don’t regret it!
... well physically for two days a week. Home office the rest of the weekdays until further notice. Masks and distancing are a must.
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA with the Pennhurst Paranormal Association
May 25th, 2014
"No man has a wholly undiseased mind; in one way or another all men are mad." - Mark Twain, "The Memorable Assassination"
Some info on this historic location:
""Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
For more info on photo tours and scheduling a paranormal investigation, contact Melissa at mjd.pennhurstpara@gmail.com
My mind is going crazy today, I'm thinking about so many things.
Things have been bad in my mind for a while, like what else can I do to change things, make them better, pay things off, get Erin to school in NY, pay off my car, pay loans off, get rid of stuff at home so I can move in the spring, overwhelmed with work and too much stuff at home, animal messes, not enough sleep or time for myself.
I have images in my mind from the past about "good" times and what I wanted for my life in the future. A house. Nothing fancy, just comfortable. Even if I could have a basic plain house and have to put my stuff in storage and sort through it all later, that is what I want. A fresh start, something clean and bare. I have so much clutter all around me, physically and mentally, I don't know how much more I can take. I don't know how I've kept on this long. The first words out of my mouth every day are "God help me" and I say that several times a day. He is the only one that truly knows me and what I'm going through, good, bad, sad, and he knows all my thoughts, which is fine with me. I want someone to know. I want help.
Always, I have thought about houses and a "feeling" that a house gives and the type of house I want. I have been thinking about past houses that I have lived in and friends of mine have lived in. And I can "feel" how it was. I want that again. I want comfort. I haven't had comfort in a long long time. It has been survival mode, for at least 18 years. I have never been "back on my feet." I have never been "on my feet" to begin with. I have started out underwater and am continually trying to "keep my head up" literally and figuratively. I am overwhelmed. My parents helped me as much as they could. Looking back, I don't know how they did it, raising my sister and I. We lived in a "priveleged" area but we were not. My dad constantly struggled with his business, but somehow kept it going until he couldn't do it anymore. He worked until two months before he died at age 79 two years ago, and he never missed a day of work. My mom has Alzheimer's now, and really only remembers things from her childhood, and gets those mixed up with stuff from present-day.
I work like my dad does. All the time. Little time or money for vacations. Or time off. It is just trying to stay "ahead" which really isn't ahead at all. It is "just making it." I don't know how or if I will ever be ahead. Even working as much as I do I am "just making it" and that isn't enough. What I do is never enough. I stay up late so I can do things I enjoy to kep my sanity, like art or watching TV shows I like. I get little sleep. I don't want to sound "heroic" or get sympathy, but I feel like other people would have crumbled a long time ago in my situation. I still feel like I am "crumbled" and will not ever be together again.
I think of buildings and they styles of architecture I like from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. And the images from those eras bring to mind. Yesterday I was thinking of the Ford Rotunda building and the Christmas Fantasy display that everyone came to see, and that was in the 30s through 60s and the building burned down in 1962. I think of our house on the mountain in the mid-70s and the big windows looking out over the city. It had orange carpet and dark brown paneling and a moss rock fireplace. It was beautiful. I want to re-create this house, and build it someday for myself. Who knows if that will ever happen. I think of the schools I went to in the 70s and 80s. Cement buildings with character and design and shapes. Buildings don't have any character these days. I think of the playground that went out to a field and the hot sun making the weeds dry in the field, or growing up through the cracks in the pavement that the 4-square lines were painted on. I played Jacks on that pavement with a friend. I remember the green carpet inside the school and the folding accordian walls to divide the classrooms. I remember the crayfish we had in a wading pool in the classroom for a pond unit. And walking down to a pond to study the tadpoles.
I think of walking home on the last day of school before Christmas break, and a boy friend gave me his Christmas ornament he made, a ice cream sugar cone base with a silk ball ornament on top for the icecream. I think of our basement at that house and the craft room and the big living room area and my dad's desk with a behemouth of a calculator. We liked to play store and use the calculator/adding machine as the cash register. So many memories in this house. I want to re-live them all in a house of my own. It was comfortable. The covered patio. The chain-link fence with light purple irises along it, dividing it from the neighbors yard, in the spring. Now it is all fences that you can't see through. Our swingset. I would go out and swing and I remember a song I made up while swinging "your are my boy" and I can hear the tune in my head now.
I remember bike riding and riding on dirt trails between houses. I remember my mom watering flowers in the evening when it was cool. I remember my dad snowblowing the long steep driveway in the winter. While there are some good things about computers and internet these days, more conveniences, it was so much simpler 20 - 30 years ago. I cannot keep up with technology, all the new stuff coming out. My "old" stuff is so out of date it doesn't work anymore and I don't make enough money to replace it all.
Right now, my thoughts have left me. As soon as I leave the screen from typing this, the thoughts and memories will come back. I want better times. There was something happening in the 50s and 60s and 70s that was right where only one income was needed. I am not saying at all that women shouldn't work or have careers or a profession, I am a woman myself, but nowadays, it is impossible in my eyes to have a household with one income. And I hate that. For 20 years I have wanted to provide for myself and my kids, and have a comfortable house or place to live. That hasn't happened. As I said before it has been survival mode. I can't even begin to think about owning a home. Even small older homes, like 50 year old homes that aren't anything great, are impossible for me to own. And the new houses these days are insane. There is nothing "small" or reasonably priced. I think there needs to be more smaller and affordable housing built, that a single person could afford to own.
Anyway, I am thinking about songs that remind me of "better times", and not necessarily the words, but the tone and music. New Radicals "You Get What You Give" and "Someday We'll Know." It reminds me of malls in the 90s. I liked how that was back then. Alot of malls are gone now. The age I was in the early to mid 90s, it was before I have done irrepairable damage to my life. Heart is full of pain. I try to keep moving forward. I keep hoping for the best. It never happens. I feel alone.
My favorite books are about houses and/or photography. The House At Sugar Beach is an autobiography about Helene Cooper and growing up in the 1970s in Liberia and then fleeing the country when war broke out. But I love it, the description of the house, and the photos she shared, and they all had American names which was interesting to me. I wish I could transport back to that time and see it. S is for Silence by Sue Grafton is a favorite of mine, it takes place in 1953 and "present day" 80s, about a housewife that goes missing and they find her car. This book of hers touched me the most and I have read her whole alphabet series. Double Image by David Morrell, about a photographer that was in Bosnia and then came back to America and found a house with a connection to the Hollywood Golden Age. It takes place part of the time in a Frank Lloyd Wright-type house. I love it. I love that style.
I'm thinking about the Jetsons and the Mid-Century modern era which I absolutely love. I want a house like that style, even if it isn't large and dramatic. I want a small Mid-Century house that I can get furnishings for in that style and start fresh. I am sick of all my literal baggage I have, and I am working hard to get rid of it.
I remember watching Flintstones, and Jetsons, and Bullwinkle in the 70s, at my friend Heather's house, and they lived in a mountain forest in a big beautiful house. Her dad was an architect and her mom was an artist. They had a beautiful alpine type garden outside. Dark walls inside but lots of windows all around and a light blue carpet in the house. Heather had hamsters and I wanted one. I remember when we moved to the city from the mountain, I got a white albino teddy-bear hamster that I named Fuzzy. And when Heather's had babies, I remember her bringing it to our city house and it was brown on the nose and butt and white in the middle and short haired and I named it Happy.
This is as close as I'll be able to get (physically at least, zooming in with the camera is a different story!) to the west side of the old store (east side, pretty much impossible to view straight on). Here we can see the back wall on the main section had just about been completely been torn away (as opposed to the small section seen removed a week prior). And the area where merchandise pickup and the vision and garden centers once were had been reduced to rubble. I thought the guy jogging past added a little something to the photo as well, so this is the September 10, 2016 side view that I chose to upload!
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Sears, 1957-58 built (closed April 2016), Poplar Ave. at Perkins Ext., Memphis
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
That is the name that is still on the bed.
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff an
d two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
For more info on photo tours and scheduling a paranormal investigation, contact Melissa at mjd.pennhurstpara@gmail.com
The person in the mirror is so different physically than a few years ago. When you're young you don't notice the slight changes of time but as you get older it tends to accelerate.
This is how I look but is it who I am? This is how I'm feeling right now.
I shot this with my trusty Ricoh GRD, it's the only digital camera I like and use.
My goal is to take out my film cameras and clean them and order new batteries for them.
I want to shoot film again but struggle with the cost of it all. Then I have to deal with the scanning and storage too. Storage for the scans and the actual film sleeves.
This shouldn't be a struggle but it is. Am I just getting in the way of myself? The answer is yes.
I think I need to organize things, put the film in the archival sleeves, throw out some slides, and focus. That always seemed to have helped me in the past.
Dublar Char, Sundarbans, Bangladesh.
Not all prisons confine you physically.
Some prisons let you free, into the open sea and the vast sky....
They just confine your soul in a dark dungeon.
A fisherman busy drying fishes in Dublar Char, Sundarbans. Dublar Char becomes one of the major flocking place of fishermen during winter. Almost all the fishermen gathered in Dublar Char are under the supervision of a specific person, who buys all the fishes caught. What the fishermen get is several times lower the actual price in city markets. However, the fishermen have no way to sell their commodities to any other buyer, because they are bound by debt to that specific person, and with their minimal income, they are never able to clear their debt completely after the fishing season. So, they have to come back next year in the same old 'Dublar Char'. The cycle never breaks.
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