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Old 17-06-2011, 02:59 PM
Prokopton
Posts: n/a
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SerpentQueen
Surely you do know that history is re-written all the time, no? The Texas state board of education and Sarah Palin have been doing that right before our very eyes!

But I don't get my history from Sarah Palin and the Texas State board of education.

Sure, history is rewritten all the time... by people who do research into it. The bias against history in this age is formidable (because people want to escape it) but the records remain. Saying you 'cannot trust it period' is just a sign of not wanting to read it! Which is common enough and not 'sinful'! But not my approach.

Quote:
If you want to prove your thesis that not all Serpent images represent Kundalini, then that is what you will get, when you open the box.

Well misappropriated QM stuff aside, I don't set out to prove one single thesis -- I remain open to the actual evidence of what people say (not all of them dead!) and modify my version of reality to fit in with their experiences, as well as my own, as sensitively and intelligently as I can, as opposed to keeping a single theory intact come what evidence might. And that is an ongoing process. The only other way is to ignore what people say about it and that doesn't get you anywhere.

As far as 'measurement' is concerned, it can tell you stuff to do with the kundalini process (because physical changes happen during that process, in terms of hormones, endocrine, parasympathetic dominance etc. etc.). And these are not subject to quantum revisionism! But also, simply listening to what people say about their experiences can tell you a lot, and that's not "measurement", let alone measurement of quanta. Although I rarely talk about my experiences I'm knee deep in them.

Quote:
No, history is merely stories with rich symbols and archetypes

History is the record of the past, written by people attempting to make such a record for the benefit of the future... and much of it highly useful in the present -- including some things which, if ignored, cost humanity dearly. (Read the history of stock market crashes sometime ^_^.)

On the 'myths and symbols' front, here's an example: before Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were translated, some people didn't believe they were a language, but simply put the meanings onto them that they chose to project. Whole books were written about that way of interpreting them. Athanasius Kircher, a Jesuit and esotericist of great repute then and now, produced a particularly fascinating example full of lurid claims about what all the signs meant... then, lo and behold, the Rosetta Stone was found! Suddenly the real language could be decoded, and then we knew what it really said -- which bore little resemblance to what people had decided it said before the translation.

The use of symbols from the past is often like that. The past really exists, and the people who made the symbologies had specific meanings in mind. Of course, we're free to put our meanings on their symbols! But we can't say that our meanings "are" their meanings! That is a statement about fact, and in order to know facts, you need to investigate them -- and be prepared to take account of what you find.

Quote:
Be more abstract, less concrete. With concrete shoes, you'll sink to the bottom

On the contrary, I'd say without one's feet deeply planted on the earth, one threatens to become seriously ungrounded. As I mentioned, I know very well time behaves differently in non-physical locales, but in this reality, history exists and cultural meaning exists (and not just here either.) The decision to ignore physical and cultural history doesn't make its reality go away. :)

Last edited by Prokopton : 17-06-2011 at 04:29 PM.
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