BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know

Subject: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: bobad
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 08:26 PM

1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or
it will digest itself.

3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and
down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

6. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

7. A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".

8. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen
in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!
(That explains a few mysteries....)

10. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II
were made of wood.

12. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

13. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver.

14. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

15. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II
killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

16. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who
discovered this??)

17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

18. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in
the USA."

19. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

20. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

21. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player
for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was
Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

22. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.

23. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot
sink into quicksand.

24. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

25. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest.

26. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman
to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!

27. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from public libraries.

28. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.

29. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 08:38 PM

I knew four or five of them....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: GUEST,know all
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 08:46 PM

The red car in Ben Hur is a porsche...left on the set by mistake.
Celery is in the Guiness book of records as being the least fattening food.
Why do bats turn left?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: bobad
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 08:46 PM

Was one of them the tittle?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: curmudgeon
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:01 PM

#20 is urban mythology. Maybe I can find the correct derivation tomorrow - Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:05 PM

I disagree with No.27. Having worked in a library for 8 years, the book that was ALWAYS, without fail, stolen; was 'The Joy of Sex'. The Guinness book of Records is a weighty tome and was usually in the reference section - ergo no borrowing. But TJOS is a non fiction book and therefore borrowable... but it was never there to borrow.

And here's another little snippet... rats cannot vomit, which makes them susceptible to poisons.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: bobad
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:06 PM

Rule of thumb

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:27 PM

IMO, 5, 9, 14, 21 and 29 are suspect too or at the very least more than a little misleading.

Motorola: "Its first product was a "battery eliminator," (not record player) allowing consumers to operate radios directly from household current instead of the batteries supplied with early models."

"In the 1930s, the company successfully commercialized car radios ( not record player) under the brand name "Motorola," a word suggesting sound in motion."

From a ferret breeder's website: "If females are not bred, they can develop a condition that is often fatal, as they will not ovulate until bred and will stay in heat perpetually. This seriously affects the health of the female. " Not quite what the 'Strange Things' post claims.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:30 PM

No one knows for sure how many are urban legends and how many are true.

LtS is right about rats not barfing. Not related to vomiting, Warfarin is a major rat poison. Warfarin is basically Coumadin, an anti-coagulant. Rats squeeze through some very narrow spots and their rib cages compress, not without some minor and normally insignificant bruising and tearing. When they're loaded with anti-coagulant though, they bleed to death.

The astronaut/beans thing is (I believe) partially full of hot air. They're probably not worried so much about space suits. Even a pressurized cabin is only pressurized to a fraction of what it is at ground level. If someone has intestinal gas, and the ambient pressure drops rather quickly, they're going to be in some serious discomfort. Since the suit has already got to deal with the change from earth to space cabin pressure, an occasional fart in a space suit shouldn't be a big deal. You're gonna have methane anyway because people just fart.

The Bruce Lee thing (#17) is right, because I just heard it on TV recenttly.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: mack/misophist
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:53 PM

I think #1 is only true for kangaroo rats, who live in the desert. IIRC, they can get all the water they need from the food they eat.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:36 AM

30. There is more discussion on non-musical topics than musical topics on the Music Site Mudcat.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: GUEST,
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:51 AM

Where is the nearest quicksand...I have a drunken neighbor who likes to "dare" I would like to send him into quicksand and "dare" him to relax the leg.....adventure is "his way of life"...

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:52 AM

Bats turn left for the same reason that pilots tend to usually break left in air combat: The joystick is in the bat's right hand. This makes it easier to push hard left when taking sudden evasive action, because you've naturally got more leverage on the joystick that way than when you try to break to the right.

If bats were left-handed, then it would be the other way around.

(chuckle...)

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 02:21 AM

Remember those documentaries that show the bats exiting Carlsbad Cavern( I think it is)? The cameraman is filming from the front as the bats pour out in a huge cloud. And unless the film has been reversed- those bats swirl out and swoop to the cameraman's left, i.e. the bats' right. ??

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 02:37 AM

And yet another argument. 4x2 is indeed 4"x 2" if it is rough-sawn timber. If it is processed for construction work, i.e. planed to size, then this loses a little timber, because they start off with 4x2.

This information is out of date with us here, we've gone metric. 100x50 now.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Paul Burke
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:45 AM

"30. There is more discussion on non-musical topics than musical topics on the Music Site Mudcat."

That's because, whenever someone posts a musical point or question, some smart arse posts back within minutes, with a sarcastic comment, along with a link to a half- misheard transcription in Digitrad or some thread from 1972.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 05:09 AM

Was Max even BORN in 1972?

I was 8 years old..... so I seriously doubt it!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 05:20 AM

31. According to the theory of aeronautics bumble bees cannot fly. However bumble bees being ignorant of this carry on flying.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 05:21 AM

#6 isn't necessarily gum. Chewing anything helps.
Not only is the glue kosher, but toilet-bowl cleaner also must be certified.There was a scandal ages ago where one Rabbinate had certified HAM as kosher after accepting a substantial bri- err, um, 'donation'.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:07 AM

Ahh Liz,

You may be right on #27, but who is it who keeps the records? This is why the Guniness book of records is the oficially most stolen book.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:02 AM

I must get my wife to test number 23, whilst holding an accordion.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 09:02 AM

"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge-even to ourselves-that we've been so credulous". Carl Sagan

"War should ONLY be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits" James Madison

"A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate [or select jm] its successors..Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same." George Orwell-1984

"Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false." Bertrand Russell

"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." Aristotle

"God gave the savior to the German people. We have faith, deep and unshakeable faith that he was sent to us by God to save Germany." Herman Goering

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier---just so long as I'm the dictator." GWB-Dec 18-2000

"They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people." Eugene Debs

"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing----to watch over. Institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing and clothing can wear out or become ragged. To be loyal to rags, that is the loyalty of un-reason. It is pure animal. The citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet, holds his peace, and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor. That he may be the only one who thinks he sees this decay, does not excuse him; it is his duty to agitate anyway." Mark Twain


"I can hire half the working class to kill the other half." Jay Gould

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: JennyO
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 10:34 AM

Did you know that flies take off backwards at an angle of 60 degrees - so if you want to swat a resting fly, sneak up on it from behind.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:15 PM

Re: "17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down"

Who is it that assumes we are all so stupid we can't simply read and understand the word "slow"?

Probably the same person that goes around capitalizing and underlining "not".

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:30 PM

Leeniea, don't you think that was a visual gag of sorts?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: open mike
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 12:47 PM

i got a similar list in the e-mail yesterday with a few differences:

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW (??)


1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller.

6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He
was albino.

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces
will kill a small sized dog.

12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the
shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales (eeww).

14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't
wear pants.

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

16. Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower'
because in the time when all original print had to be set in
individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case
on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters.

17. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the
other at the same time ... ( hence, multi-tasking was invented.)

19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was
never a recorded Wendy before!

21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange,
purple, and silver!

22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.

Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was a
Captain Kirk mask painted white.

25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you
have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins
without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.)

27. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law,
which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider
than your thumb (sign of a true civilized society ... not.)

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: curmudgeon
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 01:08 PM

Rule of Thumb:
An inch is the outer part of a man's thumb, 25.4 millimeter to be exact. 12 inches to a foot, two feet to a cubit or three feet to a yard.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 01:29 PM

open mike,

#25 on your list is obviously wrong. With coins in denominations of 1/2, 1 cent, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50 cents, and 1, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, and 100 dollars ( all US coins), there is no limit to the amount that one might have and still not be able to make change for a dollar.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 02:13 PM

The soul doesn't inhabit the body, it's the other way around. ;-) The body lives, briefly, within the far greater reality that is the Spirit/soul.

You see, the soul/spirit first of all builds a body for itself, through the normal Earthly biological processes: sex, conception, building by one cell at a time, gestation, growth, birth, maturing process, etc...

The spirit/soul animates that body, giving it consciousness, awareness, a functioning nervous system and brain, and a purpose. The most superficial purpose of the body is survival. The next obvious purpose is experiencing pleasure/avoiding pain. The next, procreation. After that...one moves into much more subtle and powerful purposes, like: spiritual evolution, the development of Love and selflessness, the awareness of spiritual Oneness with others, etc...

Many people are entirely unaware of the more subtle and powerful purposes of Life. They remain concerned primarily with survival, sense enjoyment, and procreation...plus prestige, in most cases. Accumulating possessions becomes a powerful motivation too.

That's their decision. If a god wants to pretend it's just a worm, then the Universe freely allows that... ;-)

The body is just a vehicle and it never would have happened, if not for the purposes of the Spirit which built it in the first place. When the body breaks down and dies, the Spirit continues. Presently it may well build another body. Spirit cannot die.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:13 PM

The finished size of the "2X4" is more complicated than Gurney told us.

Up until World War I, the finished size of the "2x4" was in fact--you guessed it!--two by four inches. As a wartime economic restraint matter, its official size was reduced by some fraction of an inch, and the size was not restored when the lean times were over.

Then in the middle of the 20th Century--I think I remember it as being some time in the 50s-- the official size was reduced again, to its present size. I recall when it happened, but not just when it happened. I'm not sure what the argument was to the Standards Bureau at that time.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: jpk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 08:25 PM

sorry little hawk;the turn left in an a/c is to do with the engin torque.in a single engin a/c the engin will fight a right role but will speed up the roll rate to the left,makes changing direction faster,usefull in a dogfight.does apply to multies also[but to a lesser extent]one noteable exception was the p38 with counter rotating engins it rolled just as fast left or right.
and i have seen bats turn right on leaving their laire as well as left.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 08:31 PM

when I started working in my college wood shop, it was still 3 5/8" X 1 5/8"

...and Little Hawk..*grin*...how about sharing your sources for all that heady info about soul & spirit?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 08:37 PM

"Sources? We don't need no stinkin' sources!"

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 09:35 PM

Sources? Child's play, my dear Watson! ;-) I could direct you to at least 50 brilliant books on the general subject, but I doubt you'd read them. I could direct you to a number of brilliant people in the field, but I doubt you'd be interested in them. You're interested in other stuff, I think, and that's fine, because that is your chosen path for now.

Anyway, sources aren't actually needed. All you need to do is totally still your own busy mind...while still awake. Most people do not find that easy. They find it virtually impossible. They're too impatient and restless. They can't shut up their own internal dialogue.

YOU are the source, my friend. Just still the chattering mind for 15 or 20 minutes, and listen. Observe the thoughts as they go by and let them pass until you experience complete inner silence. If you ever succeed in doing that, you will have all the sources you could ever need to know the Truth.

Don't rely on me. Don't rely on religious leaders. Don't rely on sacred books. Don't rely on spells or ceremonies or icons. Rely on the voice within you. The voice of "God" (as they call It) is within you, but you have to shut up for awhile in order to hear it.

Your mind doesn't want to do that...it's afraid it will die! Your mind thinks it IS you. That is not the case. You're something far greater than your busy little mind.

"If you want somebody you can trust, trust yourself." - Bob Dylan

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: bobad
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 09:41 PM

Grasshopper will try master.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Skivee
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:55 AM

Bobo
I really know more about this than I should.
#14 on your list is totally untrue
Astronauts fart all the time
They fart while they are ascending during launch.(did I just type "ass-ending")
This is necessary because the cabin pressure in much lower in a spacecraft and is bled down to the operating pressure as the rocket launches.
I was just reading transcripts of the Apollo 17 launch.
There is a very odd section discussing the effect suspended gases in the drinking water had on the crew.
One of them remarked that he typically would begin passing gas immediatly after eating. He noted that following one meal, he passed gas for two hours, with great volume and that his cabinmates remarked on the events.
I admired the understatement of the report.

And the bumblebee thing is bogus too. Oft repeated.
It's frequently used by fundamentalist preachers to mock arrogance of scientists
Could you imagine an aeronautical engineer really stating that bumble bees can't fly.
What was said was that the wing area of insect , when viewed as a conventional wing would not support the weight of it in flight.
The original statement was made during the 40's. It was more a puzzle than a statement..."What don't we understand about this situation,...what's wrong with our mathmatical model, since our results clearly don't match reality."
Aeronautics and applied entomology have both advanced a bit since then.
Of course, insect wings are not stationary in a smooth airflow, but use a figure 8 motion to generate downward thrust.
It's actually very elegant when seen in super s-l-o-w motion like a Bruce Lee film.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: GUEST,clogger
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 05:54 AM

"Beeswings"
I was taughht that the arguement was that the force produced by the wing on it's down stroke (mathamatically)could not support the bee in flight. The authour was correct. (s)He did not take into account the vacume produced when the wings are pulled away from each other at the top! It doesn't matter whether it is true or not...it does make you think ;-)
Anyway its Burntwood then Bridgenorth (last one) then Fylde so see you in three weeks!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 07:18 AM

A:
25. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar (good to know.)

B:
#25 on your list is obviously wrong. With coins in denominations of 1/2, 1 cent, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25, and 50 cents, and 1, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, and 100 dollars ( all US coins), there is no limit to the amount that one might have and still not be able to make change for a dollar.

B misses the point of the original statement entirely.

For example, to demonstrate that A is correct, take the coins (and numbers) specified, and try to make up a dollar exactly from just those coins.

Hint: try adding another penny...

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:00 AM

97% of all statistics are made up...

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:06 AM

No - it's 68.37%...

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:31 AM

Depends on the percentage of people polled against the percentage of pollers.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Paul Burke
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:54 AM

The body is just a vehicle and it never would have happened, if not for the purposes of the Spirit which built it in the first place. When the body breaks down and dies, the Spirit continues. Presently it may well build another body. Spirit cannot die.

I rather suspect you don't have any evidence for this. (hint- just feeling it to be true isn't evidence)

In any case, what does it ever need a body for?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: MMario
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 09:04 AM

24. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

incorrect as stated - it takes more calories to eat and DIGEST celery then the celery contains.


12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the
shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

actually by ruptering the internal organs.

22. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet

"violets" are also white, yellow, blue, multi colored, etc. I've even seen some that could be classed as pink

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Amos
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:39 AM

Don't follow leaders!
Watch thuh parkin' meters!

Most of what LH says is individually discoverable, and would have very little meaning in any other context. In a heuristic or academic or lab-experimental framework, his information would have little bearing, because it essenetially a description of thenature of the aware viewpoint behind all formal frameworks.

I admit he gets a little free with imponderables (like Capital-S Spirit) but essentially the separation between mortal form and spiritual self is purdy much as he describes it. The body is much like a highly evolved smart-card, designed to prove identity and prove that one is present in material scenarios.

That doesn't mean, however, that it is "what you are" or that there are not other kinds of scenarios. The SUV is not the driver; the telephone is not the speaker behind the voice; and the body is not the owner.

The strangest thing that we do not really know is who we each really are in full.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Paul Burke
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:02 AM

essentially the separation between mortal form and spiritual self

If by 'spiritual self' you mean a feeling (which could be invalid in that it has no objective reality) of individuality, nihil obstat. But I don't think 'spirit' can possibly be a useful word to use for it, as it means too many things, and could lead to the assumption that, since we have 'spiritual' aspects- those aspects not immediately examinable by external physical means, such as our feelings- there must be an object called a spirit, somehow separate from the body, which feels them- the 'ghost in the machine'. It assumes the existence of an observer, separate from the biological workings of the body, which monitors its operations.

If, on the other hand, the potential for self- awareness is simply a property of matter- that it is the appropriate organisation of that matter that makes the matter aware of its existence- there is no separate 'spirit', the ghost IS the operation of the machine.

I really think that words with less historical baggage should be used- perhaps 'awareness' is neutral and descriptive enough?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Amos
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:10 AM

the potential for self- awareness is simply a property of matter

Wal, I don't see as how something not objective is invalid. Most spiritual phenomena is non-objective, of course -- it's tautological that the spirit is subjective because it is the ultimate in subjectivity, the very viewpoint and seat of awareness itself.

As for self-awareness being a property of matter, the proposition strikes me like the farmer who just saw his first giraffe. "Maw, there ain't no such animule!".

Far and strange are the boundaries of non-objective universes, and somewhat uncomfortable sometimes, too.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:19 AM

Yup. That sums it up. The greatest question in human existence is: "Who am I?"

This is what people think they are: A body, a mind, a personality, a personal history (based upon memory). Well, all those are temporary things that pass away. What a person really is, is the eternal presence from which those temporary things emanate...manifest...and later pass away.

Paul Burke - So....you want me to provide physical evidence for what is not physical? ;-) Don't hold your breath waiting for that. You yourself (if you think carefully about it) know all kinds of stuff you cannot provide physical evidence for, and you know it beyond the shadow of a doubt. You know it by direct awareness, not observable evidence.

What does Spirit need a body for? It doesn't need a body. It doesn't need anything.

It may freely choose a body, however, in order to experience certain things. What is itself unlimited can become curious as to what would happen when one operated instead within an arbitrary frame of limitation...like a body in a material world. It's fascinating. It's like playing a chess game, and seeing what will happen. It is the playing out of a chosen role.

What is referred to as the spiritual "fall of man" was what happened when Spirit deliberately descended into physical form, and in the process forgot that it was Spirit! That is exactly how a god becomes a frightened, scrambling, ego-driven little mortal creature, in fear of its own eventual demise, competing with others, and in such cases it can even invent crazy religions to appease its tremendous levels of fear and imagined need...or it can concoct equally unlikely concepts like atheism or existentialism in its efforts to compensate for its general level of insecurity and discomfort.

And that is what you see around you. The reason people fight like tigers to be "right" in a debate about anything is that they subconsciously equate being "wrong" with the death of their own identity. The ultimate fear of the embodied spirit that has forgotten that it IS spirit is the fear of death. But Spirit cannot die. Spirit is organized energy and awareness. Energy and awareness change, they change outer form and conscious purpose, but they do not die.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Amos
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:21 AM

The reason people fight like tigers to be "right" in a debate about anything is that they subconsciously equate being "wrong" with the death of their own identity.

Nicely put, old Hawk!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: Torctgyd
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 11:41 AM

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver

Shouldn't that be or as otherwise it's not surprising that no words rhyme with three other randomly chosen words?

Subject: RE: BS: Strange Things You Likely Didn't Know
From: jpk
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 10:08 PM

when i was in the airforce,the bumbe bee thing was said to have been that the same eng. that proved that the c-5 galaxy cound not fly had also shown that the bee[bumble]could not fly because of bad areodynamics.
wrong on both i reckon.