Consensual Reality
By Billy | December 7, 2010
My thoughts have been focusing around time in varying capacities these days. Understanding time as relative to each perceiver has greatly influenced my way of looking at life — I have been kicking around this term in my head that’s something like “consensual reality.” You can start from many trains of thought — one I like is this. We’re all spinning about the earth’s axis at slightly different speeds on account of our unique distance from the center. Thus, someone in Alaska is moving at a minutely slower rate of speed than someone in Ecuador. According to the theory of relativity and my understanding of time relative to acceleration, this means that Ecuadorian second hands move at a different rate of time than Alaskan second hands, when perceived by someone in neither of those places. Taking this thought to an extreme gives us the gem of knowledge that the moon that Alaskans see is slightly older than the moon that Ecuadorians see, simply because of the acceleration due to rotational energy of the earth. The moon is simultaneously its young iteration and its old iteration, depending on who you are that is looking at it — but the moon is only itself as far as it is concerned. So then we have 3 versions of the moon — the moon’s take on things, the Ecuadorian take on things, and the Alaskan take on things, not to mention everyone in Alaska and Ecuador are minutely further or closer to the Earth’s axis, and therefore every human anywhere on Earth is seeing a different moon, simply on account of its age relative to them.
Well, that’s fairly obvious to me. I’ve been thinking about how we all sort that conundrum out. That very same, “each person sees a different object” applies to everything. We see different angles, iterations, shades, and pieces of it — not to mention that we cognize these objects based on what language we are thinking on as well as every other instance we’ve looked at a similar object or thought about basically anything.
So when all of campus is looking at a rainbow, the people at ISAT are looking at different photons bouncing off different water molecules to make a different rainbow than what the people on the quad are seeing. This is even true for people standing right next to each other. We all pretend that isn’t the case so that we can be conventional. It’s cumbersome to try and acknowledge the fact that we’re viewing different rainbows while we’re trying to take in the beautiful experience. I don’t even know if it’s helpful.
This is where consensus comes in. Two people at different places in Harrisonburg at 3 PM one afternoon can both say, “did you see the rainbow?” and be speaking about “the same rainbow,” even though they were both seeing different molecules, photons, and perceiving it with different brains. This is us coming to consensus. We decide what is real and we invest in it, and the meaning is almost generated out of the absence of anything. (As I write this, I suspect this process is a microcosm of the creation of the universe) It’s exactly the same with language. The word, “word,” doesn’t mean anything on it’s own. It needs a speaker or thinker to think it, it needs words to reference it, and it needs to be defined by words. More concretely, the word, “rape,” etymologically means to force or carry off (it’s linked to the word “rapture”) and has been used in reference to inanimate objects like doors and keyholes (The Rape of the Lock), but its meaning has shifted to sexual assault, and now is being used in reference to industrialized practices effecting the environment, (“mountaintop removal rapes the land and tortures the timber”) This last example is frowned upon by most feminists I know. So the word, as all words, is given meaning by the people participating with it. We come to some sort of consensus as to what it means, and thus are OK using it. This train of thought has been the only way that I’ve come to terms with saying, “how are you?” or “hello” or “I’m sorry,” and even the word “shame.” I acknowledge there is no act that in doing so is inherently “shameful” just as there is no “rainbow,” but we all sometimes experience a feeling that happens when we perform in a way that doesn’t meet up to the expectations we hold ourselves accountable to based on other people’s supposed standards — and we all see white light broken into different wave lengths when it hits water droplets. So we decide to call them things for convenience’s sake.
SO. I understand this as a good reason to believe that reality is a lot softer than we usually pretend (at least in the United States). This pliable reality creates space for miracles of biblical proportions! If the Bush administration can change national consensus on what the definition of “terrorism” is overnight, than I don’t see why we can’t change other aspects of our reality in the same way. At JMU EARTH club meetings, everyone has a say in decisions. It’s a consensus based program. New members are just as important as veteran members. That said, someone who has been toiling day and night over a project carries a certain authority when they speak about their issues. It’s not that their opinions invalidate someone else’s, or they are more valid than someone else because of their hard work, but I think most people who are willing to contribute to a consensus based organization are willing to yield their opinions to the person with more experience. One person may be especially compelling, and make a difference in the overall understanding of things on behalf of an entire group. This is what I’d say gives power to things like Elisha raising that boy from the dead. He had enough know-how/power/spiritual practice/understanding of God’s plan/etc., to effectively speak so persuasively to the universe, that he swayed consensus about the status of that boy’s liveliness. This is how someone can melt snow all around them while meditating on a mountainside. This is how someone can hold their breath for hours or survive on sunlight and water for years. Their vote is so weighty that it defies the general opinion of how things really work — and actually contributes to changing global consciousness.
There is a historical figure in Judaism called the Baal Shem Tov. Cooper, in God is a Verb mentions several stories about the Baal Shem Tov using time very uniquely. He is attributed with being able to travel great distances in a vastly shorter amount of time than it would take normal people. I am beginning to suspect that this is possible because he has found a way to utilize the non-linear nature of time.
Thinking about time as a network, and a framework within which a mind can actually travel freely opens up a lot of interesting doors with regards to healing and prayer. Preventative maintenance is invariably more effective than repairs, and I’ve been thinking about the possibility of prayers or efforts exerted on something in the past and the healing implications for today.
Topics: Philosophy, This is my life | 5 Comments »
More Worky Blatherings:
By Billy | December 3, 2010
It doesn’t matter.
If you breathe, you are powerful. If you don’t, you are still powerful.
When you were born, you were perfect. When you die, you’ll be perfect.
The electromagnetic forces binding your strings and quarks and particles to eachother…
the nothingness between the empty spaces in your body…
they hold more energy than any bomb any human ever dropped anywhere.
Hmph. Power.
A pen and a sword. In a pocket, in a stone.
Are as mighty as their masses and the force of their relative gravity.
But they don’t have to be
simply the sum of their parts.
The propensity to do on the part of a weilder turns a sword to a shield or a pen to a dagger.
The pen and the sword are useless.
Lame in their own right.
The power comes from the action and how
they are used to fight.
The propensity to do the part that we’re here for, whether it’s chose by us or for us. Whether it will try us or destroy us.
There is a roll that you are filling
There’s always a role, if you are willing.
When you breathe, you are powerful.
When you breathe, you are whole.
Topics: poetry | Comments Off on More Worky Blatherings:
Blatherings From Work
By Billy | November 30, 2010
I have a lot of time to think and write at work. Sometimes it makes sense. Other times it rhymes. Sometimes it manifests as this:
The spirit is there. Well before we manifest. Our actions reflect our universal aspect of intention.
Try this. When you hurt, close your senses and ask yourself, “why does this body feel this way?” Presume that there is a reason. There is. Supposing you ate too much, ask yourself why your body was inclined to fill itself, suppose there is a reason. For there invariably is. Supposing you ate something that your body disagreed with, what does it mean to have consumed poison. Why was that thing, which is currently assailing your body, such a place that you might ingest it, whatever it is. Assume there is a reason.
When you feel relieved, why is it? Think about it as if there is a reason.
Pretend your body is your soul’s metaphor. Pretend everything you do is imprinted on a finer, subtler realm. Pretend you are the imprint.
Pretend every daydream is real and important.
Pretend you don’t know who you are. Who you’ve been. How would you think of yourself. How old are you? Who do you want to have as a friend. Pretend you’re the only human in existence and the only one to have ever existed. Are you now satisfied with the way that you look? The way that you act?
Are you absolutely comfortable at this moment? What are the sources of physical discomfort?
Pretend your body is a metaphor for your soul. What would be the source of discomfort, if your body represented your spirit? If you were dreaming this reality, how would you interpret the experiences you’ve had today upon waking?
How could you relieve yourself physically? What is the metaphorical parallel to that action.
When interacting with other people, think about the implications of your actions in the parallel metaphorical, or archetypal sense. What does it mean to make eye contact with someone? To avoid it?
Pretend that everyone is the messiah. Really. How do you feel about them. No Messiah can exist without the evil to necessitate it. Good implies bad. Life implies death.
Topics: Utterly Random | Comments Off on Blatherings From Work
Thanksgiving? National Day of Mourning?
By Billy | November 17, 2010
I like the idea of a national day of giving thanks. I also like the idea of a national day of mourning. I even like these two being celebrated on the same day, even by the same people. While on a conference call this week whose purpose was to organize a Mountain Justice alternative spring break camp, someone mentioned that next week is Thanksgiving and/or National Day of Mourning depending on what people identify with. As I received it, the two days seemed completely opposing one another. Either you are pro-Thanks or you are Pro-Mourning. You are either an “American” today, or you are the only group of people who can rightfully call themselves American, i.e. indigenous Americans.
The binary-ism fronted in this battle of days is exactly the same binary-ism that caused the confrontation in the first place. Us Versus Them. The Otherization of “things.” I understand the victimized position that The National Day of Mourning has come out of. If you don’t see that point of view, consider that the racism towards indigenous American people created the worst case of genocide on the planet. That is, indeed, something to mourn about.
On top of all that, the “Thanksgiving Day” that we all look so forward to has been blown out of proportion several times over, mythicized, and pack up into neat little sterile packages. Nonetheless, TurkeyDay is an American Tradition, right? You must eat more than your belly wants, you must be nice to people your loved ones are related to, you must be happy, and you must watch American Football.
Hm. This year, in my own world, I will be celebrating a national day of Appreciation. When an appraiser appreciates something, they take note of the good and the bad. They evaluate it. That’s what it is to appreciate something. This Thanksgiving day, when you eat that factory farmed, hormone injected, never-seen-the-light-of-day bird. The one who was murdered without a care for your taste buds, but more for your sense of accomplishment when you have a “successful thanksgiving.” There are a zillion and a half things going into that dinner. As you eat, you are consuming the efforts of every human, animal, event, chemical, intention, and the quantum opposite of what actually happened. You can’t separate your dinner from the person who cooked it, right? Can you separate your dinner from the person who shipped the turkey to the store? The person who scanned the turkery’s price at checkout? the person who murdered the bird? the bird that lay the egg that turned into your dinner? You are eating the entire universe in that dinner. Try to appreciate that. And with that, you will be consuming the tears and blood of Americans slaughtered because of their non-Anglo-Saxon nature. You are consuming the biological warfare our ancestors waged. You are consuming every moment that lead up to this current one.
As such, you should rightfully be thankful. The minute workings of gravity could be 1% different and the big bang would not have happened as it had, this planet would not exist as it does, and your football certainly wouldn’t be flying the way it is through that sky. You should be thankful that the nuclear forces allow water to freeze in its crystal lattice structure so that ice floats, because otherwise the planet would freeze solid during the winter, and not thaw by summer. Be thankful that the electromagnetic forces as just so, because any variation on these would have made your Walmart bought Electric Deep Fryer malfunction at cosmic proportions, and you could never enjoy the taste of fried turkey.
The same forces that make ice float, hearts beat, and music sound are the forces that make nukes fall, bombs explode, and bullets hiss. Yes, European colonialism was despicable. Yes, Thanksgiving dinner is tasty. You can’t have one without the other, so the best thing to do about it now is to accept the past and change your present so you can enjoy your future.
Topics: Utterly Random | Comments Off on Thanksgiving? National Day of Mourning?
Mountaintop Removal: Burning the House to Keep Warm
By Billy | October 28, 2010
Chances are if you go to school at James Madison University, this is being illuminated in part by electricity from a power plant burning coal from Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. If you are a student, professor, or employee at JMU, this story is your story. Don’t tune out just yet; I’m not asking you to chain yourself to hundred million dollar mining equipment, throw your TV out the window, change your thermostat setting, or even ditch your old inefficient light bulbs. I’m asking you to read, and learn, and feel something (anything!) and act in whatever capacity you feel appropriate. I’m asking simply for your time.
Activists and media trespass on "reclaimed" mine site.
Kayford Mountain is part of the oldest set of mountains on the planet and is part of the most biologically diverse
forest of its kind. In these mountains sit the roots of freedoms and possibilities we take for granted today. Think of your 40 hour work week, 8 hour shift, child labor laws, the civil rights movement, the 21st Amendment, and many drugs you buy at the pharmacy. These are things we should thank Appalachia for. The mountains from which these things came are under attack. Literally. Do an online image search for Kayford Mountain and contemplate that one atomic bomb worth of explosives is used each week in the mountain range just west of Harrisonburg. All those explosives are used so the mining companies can access the coal hundreds of feet below the mountaintop, so the powerplants can burn the coal, so the energy companies can provide electricity, so JMU can illuminate, heat, and cool its campus, so you and I can log on to Facebook.
Adella Barrett, who went on a trip to Kayford two years ago explains, “it’s called mountaintop removal. After they blow up the top of the mountain and push the rubble into the streams, they spray these seeds from Asia that will take root on anything – literally on the sides of moving trains. That’s called reclamation.” The EPA allows for strip mining provided that the mine site is returned to its “approximate original contour,” which students who saw such “reclamation” first hand agreed this weekend, “is pretty much impossible.”
Activists illegally planted trees
On October 24th, JMU students joined dozens of other students, activists, politicians, and numerous representatives from international media to make a statement regarding the mountain top removal mining and the supposed reclamation of the mountains. After a weekend of camping, trainings, lectures, prayer, and conversation, the weekend culminated in the illegal actions of 44 concerned individuals. These 44, supported by even more onlookers singing songs and playing instruments from a legal vantage point, trespassed onto the mine site, which supposedly resembled the mountain’s “approximate original contour,” but looks more like the surface of another planet, and planted trees.
The civil disobedients carried huge banners with messages saying, “Reclamation FAIL,” and “EPA We Are Doing Your Job,” in their peaceful but assertive effort to fight against the devastation. The tree planters did their work in front of CNN and FOX News cameras, as well as with an Italian photojournalist. Although there were no arrests during this action, many students think going to jail for illegally planting trees would be a worthwhile endeavor. “It’s a small price to pay,” Freshman Lyndsey Tickle says, “Society says you’re a criminal, but who is in the wrong? The people blowing up the mountain or the people planting trees?”
The weekend was organized by a loosely defined collection of activists called Mountain Justice. If you’re interested in making a visit to see Mountaintop Removal for yourself, visit MountainJustice.org
Topics: Nonfiction, This is my life | Comments Off on Mountaintop Removal: Burning the House to Keep Warm
Moast
By Billy | September 27, 2010
I have begun to spell the vowel sound in the word, “most,” the same way I do as in the word, “toast.” Microsoft word doesn’t like it.
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Black, I, Mountain.
By William Alexander | August 20, 2010
I dedicate this to anyone in the world who has ever had a tiny kit of make up
Hidden, maybe, hidden in the upper right hand corner drawer of the bathroom.
A tiny kit of makeup specifically
for covering up black eyes.
Black eyes given to them by that same person to whom they have said on a daily basis,
“I love you.”
I dedicate this to anyone who has ever looked at a mountain and felt the same shame.
You see, I believe everything is a microcosm and a macrocosm of everything else.
And as such, this is a song about me learning the difference between being in pain and being a victim.
And as such, this is a song about you learning the difference between letting go and giving up.
Also, this isn’t best as a song, but better just being spoken and maybe alternating between a G and a E minor chord.
——
It is called Black. I, Mountain.
I opened my eyes for the very first time
with these… hands…
around. my neck! (?)
These hands that broke my heart and soul
and slowed my blood and breath.
I opened my eyes in that hospital bed
when my skull and my flesh were a wreck.
and I escaped (and I mean every sense of these words)
I escaped from the shadow of death.
And I crawled back down on my palms and my knees
to that den of torment and lies.
But this time,
the make up I used in the mirror to hid the black and the blue that was housing these eyes could never, no matter how hard we had tried, begin to pretend to start to disguise
the fires that we hand kindled.
Because I have my own foundation.
I opened my eyes for the very first time and I lost the power to see
as the seer and seen got lost in between
the self
the other
and me.
and I looked to the stars and saw family
and in the rocks and the trees and my friends.
and I forgot what it meant to believe in a soul
with beginnings
or middles
or ends.
We are all children in grown human bodies.
and we are broken and lonely.
but pure.
We are humans and we are all dying.
And we are boiling over,
looking for more.
We are humans with eyes that have rarely been used.
and humans with souls all badly abused.
We are standing above that stranglers reach
and blessing them for the lessons they teach.
So with our blackened eyes and our torn up skin,
with our hollow smiles and faces thin…
With the hand of our god gripping esophagus,
with their fists and their feet raining on top of us.
We may just… lay there.
despite these attacks.
We may just close our eyes
and in smiling stillness
drift
off
to sleep.
And somewhere in that simple stillness
you will begin to actually open your eyes
and you will get off that floor, and stand on your feet, and walk out that door.
And your god will howl and shriek and cower.
As you realize that you
are one with their power.
And you, in smiling stillness,
will have had your eyes opened.
Topics: poetry | Comments Off on Black, I, Mountain.
:D
By William Alexander | August 6, 2010
Topics: Uncategorized | Comments Off on :D
Tonight, Saturn is on His Knees
By William Alexander | August 6, 2010
Andrea Gibson has created a very beautiful piece of goodness for y’all to hear.
Listen: Say Yes
Topics: poetry, quotes | Comments Off on Tonight, Saturn is on His Knees
Graduation is a silly thing.
By Billy | July 25, 2010
Graduating college is a ridiculous thing to do.
The night before is ridiculous.
The morning before is ridiculous.
The ceremony is ridiculous.
The faux diploma (difauxma?) is ridiculous.
The traffic afterwards is ridiculous.
The idea that you are in some way more qualified to do stuff, ready to move places (emotionally or physically), or that you are more valuable afterwards is ridiculous.
The number of opportunities this planet provides for human beings, especially human beings privileged enough to attend college, is absolutely ridiculous.
By ridiculous, I definitely don’t mean ridiculous. Words are hardly acceptable forms of expression to convey the experiences. By ridiculous, I mean to excuse myself for not being able to wrap my head around much of it yet.
By now, I have finally finished all of the work required of me from college and I have said goodbye to people whom I will never see again. I have also acquired a level of skill that I am finally comfortable with with regards to my ability to pursue an intentional, deep, and life long relationship with learning. I feel as though my last two semesters most fully cauterized those skills.
Furthermore, I have begun to wrap my mind around the necessity of my pursuance of learning and experience. These are some of the most important things for me.
Topics: This is my life | Comments Off on Graduation is a silly thing.
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