Tag: spirits

Spirits – Our Alternative Life Foirms

On By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, Mythology, WritingLeave a comment

 

Engaging Spirits

When we step into the world of fiction we may find ourselves in the world of spirits.  What they are and their meaning may be up to our imagination. In many instances they are projections created by the author. The question often asked is whether they are pure fantasy or represent something else.

Calling them something else may seem strange. But when we “engage” them we often find that they represent a wide range of things.

The Unrecognized Self

It may not be just an unrecognized self of the author but the reader as well. When a spirit is given recognizable form and a manner then we recognize that it may be something that resides within ourselves and we have the opportunity to interface and examine. And in doing so we may find someone who subtly enhances our existence or poses a stumbling block with which we must grapple.  As such we need to welcome the realization and the opportunity.

And if we do not see this spirit as part of ourselves, it poses a different kind of opportunity. It is a chance for us to engage and cavort with someone or something intriguing. If by chance we dismiss this spirit as unimportant, then we should ask ourselves why we are being dismissive. 

The fact is that these things are opportunities for growth and enrichment.

And For The Author

Naturally the creation of the spirit is an opportunity for the author. Just as with the reader he may be projecting something of himself or creating someone with whom he wishes to interact.

And, of course, there is the possibility that he or she is trying to engage the reader in a process from which we may all benefit. There may be an education involved or simply a means to convey a possibility.

In Gaia’s Majesty

In my work of magical realism, Gaia’s Majesty Series, I have created the Tethyan people who, in many cases, live in an alternative world in the sea. As mermaids they become more recognizable because mermaids show up across the world fiction and mythology. But these mermaids are deep in human affairs.

For this author they have multiple purposes. One of them is to convey and enhance the meaning of the empowerment of women which is an important developing story for humankind at present. They also have to do with what I term the Mysterium and the Maelstrom. 

The Mysterium is the power which is closest to women. It represents their engagement and creativity. The Maelstrom is closest to men and shows their destructive side. But at the same time, just as in the explosion of a star, it has a creative side.

These are forces that justifiably deserve our contemplation. We are in a stunningly dangerous period of human existence but it also poses opportunity. Of course, it is the opportunity that deserves our attention and we find these things within ourselves.

Another Matter

And then, of course, there is the possibility that who we think we are is just one element of the development of humankind. It is intriguing to think that there are spirit worlds all around us and we cannot recognize them because our development as a species rested on our current focus.

Now comes an opportunity. And at some point we may find our development may permit us to recognize the spirit worlds that may be all around us. What richness may be at our doorstep!

And this is an offering fiction writers may be holding out to us.

###

Don’t Miss My Developing Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy

I refer to it as a work of magical realism. It is a series with a strong mythological element and a real world setting in this time when women are being empowered at last. It is a time of wonder and awakening for all of humankind.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power – Book 1

Avery had dedicated her life to work for the future of third world women. Her life was enhanced when she met the man who became the love of her life. They could not know that they shared a destiny and that a mission set long ago by our Earth Goddess was to be revealed before 

them. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called

—

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge: The Chosen Rise – Book 2

These people, called Tethyans, live in cities in the sea but can morph into fully human form and come to land to form families. They join with the warrior women called the Andromeda to fight against the forces working to impair the future of humankind. Avery has found her birth name of Chantia and she and Beck find there is soon to be a child of seeming great import just as the world falls into terrible strife with millions already dead. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge

Expanding Our World

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, Life Forms, Mythology, visionLeave a comment

 

Other Life Forms

On a day to day basis there isn’t much reason to consider the possibility of other life forms. That doesn’t mean rabbits, deer and water buffalo. Other life forms refers to the ones we cannot ordinarily perceive. But the possibility keeps coming up.

When I started working on the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy I found story lines often led to other life forms. If humankind is, in fact, moving toward some kind of denouement or transformation, is it possible we would come in contact with or form an alliance with other forms, possibly from the spirit world?  Belief in such beings or brushes with them are pervasive.

There It Was Again

Recently my wife asked if I would like to go to a workshop about dowsing. Immediately I was intrigued. It had been a long time but I had had a brush with it long ago. We were living in an eighteenth century house in a lovely rural valley. Our water came from a thirty foot dug well in front of the house. One day it was apparent that the sewage system had backed up into it. Time for a new well.

But where were we to drill. I decided to take up water witching or dowsing. The result stunned me. I’d never done it before but could feel tugs and in one place off to the side of the house the tug was very, very strong. We had the well drilled there. What a gusher! The drilling company left the pipe sticking 3 feet out of the ground and the water settled just six inches form the top. We would have had an artesian well without it.

Another Opportunity

The idea of the workshop was intriguing but I didn’t really know much about dowsing. I learned about entities, spirit guides and other powers. There we were asking questions and getting answers. It is a rich system related to other kinds of life forms and powers.

Then I remembered something. Many years ago I had gone to a dump to drop something off and was struck by terrible feelings of fear and despair. There were two employee working at the dump and when they looked up the fear and devastation in their eyes was terrible. I came away with a terrible impression of a murder. Not just a sudden murder but a tortured prolonged affair.

Energy Systems

Human beings appear to be made up of energy systems and other forms are all around us. In the workshop I learned about entities and pervasive systems. It seems I had experienced a residual effect of a cataclysmic event. I’m pleased to say I have never encountered another one.

But the richness of dowsing goes well beyond water witching. The workshop connected me to the experiences I related previously about a ghost at one house and the spirits around another place I had lived. 

Easy to Dismiss

It’s easy to proclaim that these phenomena are figments of our imagination. But, while I don’t spend a lot of time interacting with these alternative worlds, I’m impressed with their possibilities. And then when I turned to fiction and considered the possibilities of transformation as humankind reached yet another turning point I found myself back in that world.

It is enriching to consider these alternatives and more than that, it just may be that the entities, spirits and other being are important to our growth, our development and our future. Especially as we go deeper into this current morass.

May The Force Be With You!

What of this have you encountered?

###

Don’t Miss My Developing Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy

I refer to it as a work of magical realism. It is a series with a strong mythological element and a real world setting in this time when women are being empowered at last. It is a time of wonder and awakening for all of humankind.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power – Book 1

Avery had dedicated her life to work for the future of third world women. Her life was enhanced when she met the man who became the love of her life. They could not know that they shared a destiny and that a mission set long ago by our Earth Goddess was to be revealed before 

them. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called

—

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge: The Chosen Rise – Book 2

These people, called Tethyans, live in cities in the sea but can morph into fully human form and come to land to form families. They join with the warrior women called the Andromeda to fight against the forces working to impair the future of humankind. Avery has found her birth name of Chantia and she and Beck find there is soon to be a child of seeming great import just as the world falls into terrible strife with millions already dead. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge

Life Among the Living

On By Roger B. BurtIn Transformation, visionLeave a comment

 

Do you have a special myth you favor?

Variety of Life Forms

Many of us don’t consider it unreasonable to ask if other life forms really exist. Are there angels, do we have spirit guides and how real are our day or night dreams? Certainly there is a great deal of speculation about paranormal phenomena. It would be impossible to comprehensively enumerate the various kinds of life forms there are and may be. And then should we include various forms of consciousness in humankind? It sounds odd to say that but, in fact, they can be considered.

In fantasy, science fiction and paranormal fiction we see various forms of exploration and belief. The fact of the matter is that it is unreasonable to dismiss any of them out of hand. I consider myself to be a very rational person which translates into meaning rationally it is unreasonable to dismiss them.

Alternative Forms

Alternatives are seen in the belief in spirits of all kinds. We love to think about them, love to read about them and write about them. It seems, though, that we cannot definitively establish their existence. And there is a very sound reason why we can’t. As human beings we have a very specific sensory system which is meant to help us survive in what we call the real world. In most instances we don’t need to sense spirits in order to survive.

Likewise, the head of the patent office early in the twentieth century declared that they might as well close up because everything that could be invented had been invented. He was just a little bit off base or, not in touch with reality. At that time we hadn’t mastered wave lengths for radio or other forms of communications. Now we know that there are all manner of waves humming around us that we can’t sense ourselves.

Dismissing Nothing

As I already noted, I was told when I was getting an education as a psychologist that I was being trained as a scientist. Well, as a scientist I have come to understand that it is irrational and unscientific to dismiss all these various kinds of possibilities. And, decades later I’m not entirely sure what science really is. And, for that matter, it is unscientific to dismiss possible alternatives we do not yet understand or can establish. Where would we be without theorizing and exploration. 

But still we torment each other. We cry, “Get a grip! You can’t know that. Get a life. I have one and you don’t”. But the fact remains that what has been speculated may well exist and it may be that we haven’t yet been able to reach out to the other life forms—yet. And so we write about them, give them lives we create and yearn for the future. And it is so enriching to engage in this search and speculation. In fact we have better and richer lives when we do it. 

Let me know when you have made contact. I want to meet whatever it is. At least as long as it or they are friendly and are willing to share. For now please share your thoughts with me/us.

In the meantime I’m staying tuned with the crowd that speculates.

 

What alternative life forms do you believe in?

###

Don’t Miss My Developing Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy

I refer to it as a work of magical realism. It is a series with a strong mythological element and a real world setting in this time when women are being empowered at last. It is a time of wonder and awakening for all of humankind.

—————–

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power – Book 1

Avery had dedicated her life to work for the future of third world women. Her life was enhanced when she met the man who became the love of her life. They could not know that they shared a destiny and that a mission set long ago by our Earth Goddess was to be revealed before 

them. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called

————-

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge: The Chosen Rise – Book 2

These people, called Tethyans, live in cities in the sea but can morph into fully human form and come to land to form families. They join with the warrior women called the Andromeda to fight against the forces working to impair the future of humankind. Avery has found her birth name of Chantia and she and Beck find there is soon to be a child of seeming great import just as the world falls into terrible strife with millions already dead. 

Available Now in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon

Gaia’s Majesty-Challenge

Are We Kidding Ourselves Pt. 2

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, visionLeave a comment

Note: There were no posts last week because my wife and I took the opportunity to visit friends in Florida. One day we went to tour Palm Beach and the Mar A Lago area. Eye opening is my nice way of putting it. We were not able to even glimpse Trump’s operation because the security operations had walled it off since he was in town.

What we saw was a display of extreme wealth including harbors filled with huge yachts. It was a display of how health has hugely aggregated to the very few. And if one was willing to look, close by, were clear indications of poverty. It was a marked educational opportunity which I don’t want to have to see again.

The Unconscious and Spirits

The Defined and the Undefined

Day to day we proceed through our lives and take comfort in the belief that we know where we are going—at least for now. Of course we have to accept options in our existence. But there are some that are clearly defined and some undefined. We don’t usually trouble ourselves with sifting the difference and whether each option presented us is defined and undefined. That would be maddening. Instead we decide to simply accept a working definition of such things as reality and mental illness. How much more reassuring.

Other Options

But I have a problem. While I can lay weighing options aside like most people, I still want, from time to time, to open options and considerations. Two of my favorites are the unconscious and the existence of spirits. The first option is probably of more interest to the psychologist but people can often be engaged in discussions about spirits. 

The Unconscious 

There isn’t a lot of substance that can be concluded about the unconscious partly because it has no substance. It seems that it exists because we have all had the experience of seeing something materialize in our thoughts and that we have no idea why it suddenly came to us. So we accept it and don’t debate its origins. That’s probably the best tactic.

Spirits

Suddenly we tap into something which seems to intrigue people a lot more. Partly it seems it is because it taps into our religious inclinations and almost everyone has had religious experiences and has been raised in one tradition or another.

Where it gets dicey is when we talk not about an inspiring diety but get into what may be lurking around us. My belief in that regard is that we are not designed to experience spirits and do not have the sensory mechanisms. 

At the same time I find spirits intriguing because there is the possibility that our lack of experience may simply relate to the construction of our senses.

Diversity of Experience and Belief

What these things all come back to is the degree to which we seek diversity and inspiration in our lives. Some of us are so inclined, some less so. But in the end we come back to the authors realm. Even in the most clearly defined writing endeavor there are matters of choice and the presentation may be challenging and open creativity. 

Are we kidding ourselves is the question that comes to mind again. But at base we are talking about enriching our personal and collective environment. And isn’t that what we want in our lives.

And then again, don’t we have the need to explore possibilities? Human history has taken some amazing turns short term and long term. Often we are blindsided but it is these types of explorations which permit us to respond to challenges.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

My Valley of Spirits

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, Life Forms, visionLeave a comment

 

 

Personal Alternatives

Sometimes our lives open paths and perceptions totally unexpected. In an earlier post I outlined by experience with what we concluded was a ghost in our first home in Maryland. The theme deepened.

Now I’m going to have to admit more about who I am because it relates to what I am writing in this blog and in the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy. My external persona suggests calm, quiet introversion and probably mostly a fairly focused reality. Such a persona exists, but there is another one.

Quiet Beauty

We lived in the first house in Maryland only a year and early on searched for a home to buy. Since my wife wanted a horse, it had to be in the country. It wasn’t long before we found what we were looking for. It was in a small valley far out in the country. Since we didn’t have an appointment we couldn’t see the house but drove around and looked at its setting. I was instantly engaged and said, “The house is going to have to be terrible for me not to want it.”

It turned out to be a darling two hundred year old stone house set against a hill and looking out to a small river or “creek” as it was called. It needed work, but that just meant we could make it our own. Inside the house I sensed nothing except a calm atmosphere both welcoming and uncomplicated. Outside proved to be another matter entirely.

The Mystery of Evening

Since we were in a valley, the sun set behind the hills and we descended slowly into the fading light of evening. Many evenings I was drawn to stand on the upstairs porch and enjoy the peace. 

Once upon a time the house had been on the road from Baltimore to York, Pennsylvania. On the far hill there was a road hidden by trees leading to the ruined foundations of a covered bridge. The impression of the road could still be perceived in the lawn and then ran up the hill on the other side. At dusk, many evenings, as the mist rose from the river, I had a hazy perception of the occasional traveler in a buggy or on horseback.

One Saturday morning I rose and looked out to the river and had a perception of a union soldier on guard by the bridge. This would have been one of the routes to Gettysburg during the Civil War. I saw him one other time. Again, not clear, but a strong impression.

An Opening to the Depth of Life

What I came to feel was a depth of continuing life from the past leading into the future. The impressions in this landscape were various, unfocused but led me to an inescapable experience making me feel we only perceive a narrow slice of the life and types of life by which we are surrounded. 

After all, our senses on a day to day basis serve us in specific ways and tell us little about what might surround us. I gained a new and deep perception on the property. It offered a richness of experience I found enchanting.

Then Came That Evening

As I said, the house itself was quiet, cozy and, I might even say, loving. But one evening I felt called outside again. Behind the house was a small hill. Rocky on the side toward the house, but even and inviting on top. 

There was one place near the top that I had no reason to visit but it always held my attention. I felt something there. And then one evening I was drawn and climbed up the hill and sat down. I could feel a presence. No words were spoken. Gradually I had memories of when I was a child and my fear of darkness. While those fears declined as an adult, they remained with me. That night they vanished—forever.

The Lesson

My time in that valley was a rich experience. I came away with a greater depth of perception of the life of earth itself, of the fury there can be as in the day when a hurricane led to a rampage by the river. But above all it made me open my perceptions and the understanding that we are far from alone and may yet experience the diversity and depth of the life which surely surrounds us. These perceptions fed the story which evolved into the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy.

What life forms have you experienced?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Hey Author! Do You Think You’re in Charge?

On By Roger B. BurtIn Transformation, WritingLeave a comment

 

The Same Question To You

We all like to think we are in charge of our lives and, at least to some degree we are. But the author of fiction has an essential problem because he or she is creating something. The process can be surprising.

I’ve come to believe that we live in an emerging universe. As our sight has improved we see what a dynamic place the universe it and we may accept its creativity or fear its dynamism. The same alternatives can be seen in our personal world close in. We each have to deal with what we may be in charge of.

Where Does Writing Fiction Lead Us?

For a long time I felt moved to write fiction but the demands of my life always got in the way. There were thing like marriage, children, a job. They demand our time.

When at last I had the luxury of focusing on stories stirring in my head I found I was not alone. Earlier I talked about the evenings in a valley in northern Maryland and the spirits who dwelled there. Well there were other spirits, or characters if you will, who were nearby and I did not suspect them. They became demanding and, in their own way shaped what I wrote.

My Own Expanding Universe

I thought to write one book but swiftly it became a trilogy. And now it seems there may be a fourth book. At the same time I have to silence callings to other elements that keep developing and creating other stories. Having to deal with this insistent gathering was not in my plan.

In some way it is another set of personal waves. I believe in waves in the lives of humanity personally and collectively and that we have our own life but it is part of the lives of the collective. That means we are never entirely in charge.

Focusing the Challenge

Is that bad? In the end it is essential to see it as enriching. How boring otherwise. We might as well be sitting isolated on a desert island. One essential focus is on where we may be going collectively. Of course as a small individual in the larger crowd we must understand that we are not in charge. And, of course, we can ask if humanity as a whole is in charge.

More recently we are finding evidence of the fundamentals of life in asteroids and are assuming they exist on other planets. That means in a broad sense the universe is alive. Of course our religions have always led us to believe in greater beings but too often we turned in and believed it was all about us and our deity. But, what if it is merely a universe of a living form and that we may find our way to a larger and more diverse future than we had ever thought might be possible.

The Creative Universe

As I’ve been writing my Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy I was constantly thrust to the point where it kept expanding into a larger and larger framework which imposed the thought of a living universe calling us. I haven’t created any of that and wonder where I’m being led. Do I think I am in charge? Not really!! 

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Beyond Speculative Fiction

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, visionLeave a comment

 

Are you searching for a fulfilling perspective?

In fiction we can speculate and explore. But is it mere foraging or are we looking to define emergence and process? Having an adventure is fine but we seem to be arriving at choice points. At choice points we are also looking at turning points. Certainly they are more than entertainment and it is my contention that our world social scene is enduring significant choice points. Information technology is exploding and our world is shrinking. That is a dynamic scenario to which we need to attend. What fun? I think not. It is a challenge.

Utilizing Exploration

In fiction I’m not interested in idle exploration but think it is possible to edge into social commentary and define underlying realities and emerging themes. And wouldn’t it be nice if we had the guidance of a challenging but benevolent goddess. By putting the issues in a different light we may gain choices and recognitions. If we are edging into a postcapitalism world we need to pay attention. If deeply hidden themes are surfacing, we need to pay attention.

Essential Recognition

One theme which is clearly surfacing, but is not sufficiently recognized is the gathering import and impact of women. Women have been subjugated but what is happening is more than the liberation of them as they gain control of their fertility. Clearly men feel threatened by their liberation and try to hinder development.

But this is not about fertility. I would contend there is a fundamental threat and it is being expressed in misogyny as women gain power. I utterly fail to see that this is being recognized sufficiently and I expect this thought will not go unchallenged. 

The Power of Women

Let me lightly touch upon the power women hold. They enrapture men and at first men love it but she had best be careful because men don’t yield power easily. And so then there is sexual exploration. The man feels the rush of desire but with fulfillment comes a diminution of his power. And beyond that women are coming to explore themselves and what they wish for themselves. That means the man must yield some things to her. If they achieve true partnership, which takes some effort and negotiation, the outcome offers tremendous benefits—if it can be achieved. But for now we must attend, define and work to achieve a goal we can use for mutual benefit. It is in our interests.

Spirits and Beyond

We can also approach many other issues. Everywhere in human history are stories about spirits and a variety of life forms to be conjured and raised to awareness. Some of this, of course, reflects our need for an eternal life. But it also may just be touching on something that may be. Our senses are defined for specific purposes in our lives as they are. If our senses were different it is possible we would sight layers of life and amazing diversity.

Reaching Out

And the question “Are we alone” relates to this possibility. It also seems we have the yearning to find the other out there for contact and the wonder of diversity. Of course, there is also danger. But wonder does not always pay attention to danger.

And then, of course, there is the universe itself. Monumentally creative and destructive, it is a lure we reach for. We are stardust and have learned that we are. Again there is danger in the maelstrom of the universe but the creativity is worth the danger and we can only begin to see the kinds of encompassing life forms which may exist.

And to come full circle in this commentary I have to say adventure is intriguing but exploration can lead to the most wonderful discoveries. At the same time we must fight our way through our struggle and conflict. It helps to look out and examine our possibilities and what may be. We may strike a chord of guidance. 

Where does speculation lead you?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Stepfamilies: Professionals and Stepcouples in Partnership

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

The Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy – Book 1 is Here!

On By Roger B. BurtIn Characters, Women Rising, WritingLeave a comment

 

At Last! – Publication

It is my pleasure to announce that book 1 of the Gaia’s Majesty Trilogy has been published. Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called:Women in Power is now available in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon.

To me it feels that it has been so long in coming. What began as an idea for a story took on a life of its own. The story began to take on shapes not expected with characters showing up and demanding inclusion.

A Guiding Force

The guiding force was my belief that the movement to empower women is of unparalleled importance for the future of humankind and I thought fiction might be one way to explore and illustrate its significance and potential. And in an exploration truth of an emerging movement was inevitably illusive. Symbolism was essential.

We open with a couple ordained by our Earth Mother Gaia to find each other because their partnership was essential to a larger purpose. We don’t have to wait for them to fall in love. Their loving partnership begins early and is a harbinger of what may be found for the fulfillment of all of us but it also is a core around which the developing crisis of the world swirls.

A Heritage

In the end it is not a simple story alone. This couple has a heritage of people set aside to be stewards of the future of humankind and our planet. And among these people are the warrior women of the Andromeda. They fight for our future but not wantonly.The world these people lead is rich in potentials of so many kinds.

A Story of Our Future

Now we begin to unfold the exploration of our future and study its implications in the first book of the trilogy.

Join us in the exploration of this grand adventure. There is,the story itself, but also, in the reading, the possibility of the creation of a personal exploration. But above all, it is time to consider the meaning of the growing empowerment of women.

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Life Among the Living

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, Life Forms, MythologyLeave a comment

 

Do you have a special myth you favor?

Variety of Life Forms

Many of us don’t consider it unreasonable to ask if other life forms really exist. Are there angels, do we have spirit guides and how real are our day or night dreams? Certainly there is a great deal of speculation about paranormal phenomena. It would be impossible to comprehensively enumerate the various kinds of life forms there are and may be. And then should we include various forms of consciousness in humankind? It sounds odd to say that but, in fact, they can be considered.

In fantasy, science fiction and paranormal fiction we see various forms of exploration and belief. The fact of the matter is that it is unreasonable to dismiss any of them out of hand. I consider myself to be a very rational person which translates into meaning rationally it is unreasonable to dismiss them.

Alternative Forms

Alternatives are seen in the belief in spirits of all kinds. We love to think about them, love to read about them and write about them. It seems, though, that we cannot definitively establish their existence. And there is a very sound reason why we can’t. As human beings we have a very specific sensory system which is meant to help us survive in what we call the real world. In most instances we don’t need to sense spirits in order to survive.

Likewise, the head of the patent office early in the twentieth century declared that they might as well close up because everything that could be invented had been invented. He was just a little bit off base or, not in touch with reality. At that time we hadn’t mastered wave lengths for radio or other forms of communications. Now we know that there are all manner of waves humming around us that we can’t sense ourselves.

Dismissing Nothing

As I already noted, I was told when I was getting an education as a psychologist that I was being trained as a scientist. Well, as a scientist I have come to understand that it is irrational and unscientific to dismiss all these various kinds of possibilities. And, decades later I’m not entirely sure what science really is. And, for that matter, it is unscientific to dismiss possible alternatives we do not yet understand or can establish. Where would be without theorizing and exploration.

But still we torment each other. We cry, “Get a grip! You can’t know that. Get a life. I have one and you don’t”. But the fact remains that what has been speculated may well exist and it may be that we haven’t yet been able to reach out to the other life forms—yet. And so we write about them, give them lives we create and yearn for the future. And it is so enriching to engage in this search and speculation. In fact we have better and richer lives when we do it.

Let me know when you have made contact. I want to meet whatever it is. At least as long as it or they are friendly and are willing to share. For now please share your thoughts with me/us.

In the meantime I’m staying tuned with the crowd that speculates.

What alternative life forms do you believe in?

Gaia’s Majesty-Mission Called: Women in Power by Roger B. Burt

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon home page

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Who Cares About Reality? – Just Live Your Life

On By Roger B. BurtIn Cusp of Reality, visionLeave a comment

 

Do you find yourself ever considering the meaning of reality?

Inspiration and Personal Growth

It sounds so simple to forge ahead in life and find inspiration and personal growth as it materializes. But we do not proceed that way and there is this thing called planning and preparing for the future.

Inevitably we have dreams and one of the ways we pursue our dreams is to read. My personal choice has always been speculative fiction, fantasy and science fiction. I want to be intrigued and want to explore. Certainly stories of romance can be enchanting but I usually want to explore more deeply. If a romantic story or movie involves the theme of women rising I am strongly engaged. Something amazing is happening for women and for our partnerships and I want to explore it.

Colliding with Reality

Speculation often leads us into a collision with reality and may hint at what is to come. Let me give two examples. George Orwell’s novel 1984 was published in 1949, shortly after World War II. My takeaway from the book was that we should be alert to the coming power of totalitarianism. Certainly his projection of the future was born out in the growth of communism and more recently we can see his themes in the intrusion of information technology. It seems we are never alone.

And then there is Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001 a Space Odyssey (published in 1968). There are fascinating themes but my personal love is Hal, the onboard computer. I don’t know about your experience but I am convinced that Hal or a descendant is alive and living in my computer! How else to explain its behavior.

Interacting with People’s Lives

In my office, interfacing with people about their lives, I could not simply focus on the here and now. I needed to sight where they were going and how that might interact with where we were going as people. The lives of people became a collage of who we are and what was happening to us collectively.

Being free to explore and to be a free spirit is delightful but inevitably we run into what we call reality and what kind of reality is being created around us. The reality of hippiedom in the 1960s and 1970s was engaging and entrancing. And now the reality and richness of computer based games opens whole new worlds.

An Enchanting and Expanding World

For me though, living on the cusp of reality permits a jump from the cusp of reality into a glowing and growing movement in a new world. It’s the exploration which is so exciting and, by the way, I want my partner with me. In the end it is she who especially enriches my world and my life.
Where do you think humankind is headed?

Roger B. Burt’s Amazon Home Page

Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health by Roger B. Burt

Creating Characters and Plots by Roger B. Burt