Hughes, Walsh, & Pearce

Cosmic Egg- Chapter 4
Eureka! Is mentioned quite frequently throughout this chapter on means of conscious thought, passionate pursuits of ideas, and logical screening. I tried my best to conceive the idea of this Eureka of which Pearce roughly describes in his writing, quote me if I am wrong but does he mean that the brain can be called the Eureka,? and that the thought that we perceive in our mind in which we react to is nothing more or less controlled by this substance. Pearce also concluded that Eureka can be a formula in the autistic thinking stage. Pearce stated, “In autistic thinking nothing is either true or false, it just is.” For instance a baby was said to have autistic thinking so in order for the Eureka to prove itself false the infant must grow and accept the visual facts of his surroundings and decide whether what he or she perceives is true or false, or it is the way it is.

Hughes- Chapter 4
I would like to first start off with this statement. This chapter was the most interesting chapter I have read for this class and by watching the movie on Thursday made it relevant to what this class is all about. I will be the first to admit I have dreams that do not make any scenes what so ever. Sometimes I maybe discussing an issue around 8pm and that same night during the course of my sleep I will dream that thought and the next night it repeats whatever I was talking about at that time of day (8pm) makes reverence in my sleep. I know this is off topic but I would really like to know why we have nightmares from eating certain foods. I know that I wake up with my heart pounding and sweating in my dream when I eat peanut butter. I believe that creativity can flourish out of a dreamlike state. For instance Edgar Allen Poe, with his masterpiece of “Tell tale heart.” It takes imagination to bring a horror story to life. What better way then to take some sort of dream you had and transpire it into life. I must agree to the quote Hughes, “Since dreaming is universal, it stands as testimony to the universality of the artistic experience. In our dreams, we all become writers, painters, and filmmakers, combining extraordinary sets of characters, actions, and locations into strangely coherent experiences.” Because of this you have the power to control your dreams you become a writer cause in your dream you hear yourself be the narrator of the story, you become the painter because you paint the scene of the crime, and finally the filmmaker because you control the motion picture in your mind whether you remember it or not. Controlling if you want to stay focused on the dream or awake cause its to hard to bear. Out of body experiences seem like they would be an interesting alternative to winning the lottery. Say you had control on picking the right numbers to win the PA power ball.

Walsh- Group V
After watching the video of Shamans on Thursday it was easier to read this part of the book. Shamans have three words the upper, middle, and lower. Reference to us (Heaven, earth, and hell). Each Shaman visits each layer for guidance and help in order to assist the need of others. One statement which caught my mind was this from Walsh, “After all, why would a Shaman want to journey to the upper world without believing there was one?” I guess you must have a belief in some other force than the spirits and animals. For my case I believe in God, it was written in text ( Bible ) of the miraculous miracles he had done on this earth and that he put us here to serve him. So in order to I guess help others you must believe in something. I thought the quote of Shamans living in a simple society and only dealing with measures of helping other people at the level they are in is a precise reasoning for how they can help them. Cause if a Shaman took a wealthy person from a distant land and tried to help him he may not know how to do so. Shamans use the term “spirit vision,” in order to communicate with the spirit. The way Shamans use the flux of visual images of caves seen during altered states I see when I close my eyes in a dark room. I wander what each image means! I find it rather odd that the shaman has many spirits of to which he or she interacts with an controls. Shamans visual sees them face to face, communicates with them, prays to them, and implore them. I like how they interact with animals and how animals are so much like us. Would you consider a medium a fortune teller, because they channel themselves into a mysterious world where they find answers to questions you ask. I liked the story about Lillian and the coyote, and how this un described pain she was feeling suddenly left when the coyote told her to listen to him. But from that story I don’t know why she had experienced the sense of being “gang raped” in order for her pain to disappear. The whole transformation of shamanism is neat to learn about from their mystic journeys to their helping people, really relates to a good citizen of the town.