This page is designed to be a continually updated list of indigo children. I'm not sure I understand what is meant by indigo children, actually, so this is a selection of links to pages about unusual children in general.
This is a Russian boy who claims to have lived on Mars.
This is an American girl who is a genius for painting and poetry. I must admit I assumed she must have been brought up in a fundamentalist faily, but it appears that this is not true.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
A science of reincarnation?
It's an open secret that I consider it possible that reincarnation may be a fact, which is something I have written about before.
Today, during a surf around the outer reaches of the internet, I found a page which purports to link a group of revolutionaries from the American revolution, with people living and connected today.What I find particularly interesting is that the website includes an idea that, if scientists can suspend their disbelief long enough, a scientific investigation into reincarnation might be possible, comparing DNA from people purported to be reincarnated, to see if there is something in the DNA to link a reincarnated person with their previous incarnation.
I find it an intriguing idea. Conventional wisdom on genetics and heredity suggests that we inherit our eye colour and many other traits from our genetic parents. If our facial appearance is roughly the same from incarnation to incarnation, and the two incarnations are not related, how might that work? Can you even consider it as a possibility without being ridiculed as a scientist?
It is certainly striking that often when one member of a couple looks similar to an historical figure, their partner in this life looks very like the partner in the other life. The most famous example of this is Vladimir Putin, wife and dog, and the famous painting of the Marriage of Arnolfini... I was going to put a link to one of the many pages showing the resemblance of all three to the painting, but there are too many crazy and potentially damaging pages out there... I will let you find it for yourself.
I find it fascinating as a mental exercise to consider how this might work in practice... what would the mechanism be? According to the man who wrote the above-linked website, people can vary in sex, religion and colour between incarnations, and a proof that reincarnation is real would mean an end to racism, and end to nationalism and an end to a lot of prejudice between people of different religions. I'm not sure he's right, but it's a fascinating suggestion.
Today, during a surf around the outer reaches of the internet, I found a page which purports to link a group of revolutionaries from the American revolution, with people living and connected today.What I find particularly interesting is that the website includes an idea that, if scientists can suspend their disbelief long enough, a scientific investigation into reincarnation might be possible, comparing DNA from people purported to be reincarnated, to see if there is something in the DNA to link a reincarnated person with their previous incarnation.
I find it an intriguing idea. Conventional wisdom on genetics and heredity suggests that we inherit our eye colour and many other traits from our genetic parents. If our facial appearance is roughly the same from incarnation to incarnation, and the two incarnations are not related, how might that work? Can you even consider it as a possibility without being ridiculed as a scientist?
It is certainly striking that often when one member of a couple looks similar to an historical figure, their partner in this life looks very like the partner in the other life. The most famous example of this is Vladimir Putin, wife and dog, and the famous painting of the Marriage of Arnolfini... I was going to put a link to one of the many pages showing the resemblance of all three to the painting, but there are too many crazy and potentially damaging pages out there... I will let you find it for yourself.
I find it fascinating as a mental exercise to consider how this might work in practice... what would the mechanism be? According to the man who wrote the above-linked website, people can vary in sex, religion and colour between incarnations, and a proof that reincarnation is real would mean an end to racism, and end to nationalism and an end to a lot of prejudice between people of different religions. I'm not sure he's right, but it's a fascinating suggestion.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
To thine own self be true
I stumbled upon this page, and this quote from Thomas L. Masson: "Be Yourself is about the worst advice you can give to some people".
On the surface it appears to be funny and true. But underneath, it isn't. I believe that people are basically good, kind, honest and courageous. I believe that each of us carries a spark of God, or good if you don't find references to God comfortable.
As a Quaker I believe that if we are still, and listen to that inner guide, we will find our true selves, the person we are meant to be. I believe we are all unique and that we do all have our own paths to follow. We have freedom to change that, to become something different. But inside there is always the person we are meant to be.
Everyone and anyone can ignore the inner guide. Whether you are aware of it, or unaware of it, it is there. We cover it up with concerns about the trivia in our lives... when we are selfish or hurtful or greedy you can be sure that we are stopping our ears to the promptings of our inner guide.
Being still and quiet and listening is all it takes to discover it for yourself. I believe that trying to find harmony between the person you are and the world thinks you are, and the person you are meant to be, is the way to happiness. And that's what being yourself means to me.
So even if you have been selfish or violent or greedy until now, trying to be the person you really are inside, the good and the true, is still good advice.
The full quotation from William Shakespeare reads: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Do you think that when you exhibit negative parts of your character to other people that this is the real you? Does anybody? I don't think so. I believe it is what Jesus means when he says "Love they neighbour as thyself". Many people think it has the one meaning, that you should love other people and treat them the way you would like to be treated, and it does carry that meaning for some people. But much more important, much more relevant to many people is the idea that they should learn to love themselves, and it then follows that to be loved one has to be lovable, and to do the things that allow us to love ourselves.
It is easy to see that if we are behaving selfishly, violently, greedily, we may obtain what we seem to be after, but how do we feel, inside? Better, pleased with ourselves? I think not... generally we feel worse about ourselves when we behave badly.
Listening to that inner guide teaches without words, without preaching, without sermons. Try it. Do something nice for somebody else, and see how good it feels.
On the surface it appears to be funny and true. But underneath, it isn't. I believe that people are basically good, kind, honest and courageous. I believe that each of us carries a spark of God, or good if you don't find references to God comfortable.
As a Quaker I believe that if we are still, and listen to that inner guide, we will find our true selves, the person we are meant to be. I believe we are all unique and that we do all have our own paths to follow. We have freedom to change that, to become something different. But inside there is always the person we are meant to be.
Everyone and anyone can ignore the inner guide. Whether you are aware of it, or unaware of it, it is there. We cover it up with concerns about the trivia in our lives... when we are selfish or hurtful or greedy you can be sure that we are stopping our ears to the promptings of our inner guide.
Being still and quiet and listening is all it takes to discover it for yourself. I believe that trying to find harmony between the person you are and the world thinks you are, and the person you are meant to be, is the way to happiness. And that's what being yourself means to me.
So even if you have been selfish or violent or greedy until now, trying to be the person you really are inside, the good and the true, is still good advice.
The full quotation from William Shakespeare reads: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Do you think that when you exhibit negative parts of your character to other people that this is the real you? Does anybody? I don't think so. I believe it is what Jesus means when he says "Love they neighbour as thyself". Many people think it has the one meaning, that you should love other people and treat them the way you would like to be treated, and it does carry that meaning for some people. But much more important, much more relevant to many people is the idea that they should learn to love themselves, and it then follows that to be loved one has to be lovable, and to do the things that allow us to love ourselves.
It is easy to see that if we are behaving selfishly, violently, greedily, we may obtain what we seem to be after, but how do we feel, inside? Better, pleased with ourselves? I think not... generally we feel worse about ourselves when we behave badly.
Listening to that inner guide teaches without words, without preaching, without sermons. Try it. Do something nice for somebody else, and see how good it feels.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Drumstick pencils
I decided to revive Miss Pendragon's Miscellany as a place to file all those things I trip over while surfing.
This morning I was looking to see if I could find anything like these tumblers, which my sister liked very much when she saw them. That whole website is stuffed full of amazing stuff...but you need to be pretty well off to consider shopping there.
In searching for those I found these, and then on the same site, these drumstick pencils. I think they combine everything I am looking for in a gift for a man: they're practical, inexpensive, and have a touch of whimsy which indicates you think they are more than averagely interesting... the sort of person who doesn't simply write things with a pencil, which would be a boring sort of gift, but who may burst into song or percussive music at any moment . Potentially, a rock star.
It is quite a lot to pay for a pair of pencils, £4.95....
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Minority Report computer lives!
I'm not a person who really cares about what sort of car/computer/gadgets I have. If it does the needful, then I am not someone who minds about how it looks or how shiny. But... this page includes a video of a multi-screen computer that allows the sort of manipulation shown in Minority Report, and it is amazing.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Printable freebies
I have had a newsletter from the Lisa Vollrath site for Altered Book work - and a lot more - offering free printables in return for links. It seems the least I can do! This is the link.
I love her sites, and her work... it has made me determined to turn some of my unwanted books into altered books.
I love her sites, and her work... it has made me determined to turn some of my unwanted books into altered books.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Paradise Lost
You may not know that I am a big fan of Anton Lesser, whose voice in the title role of Falco on BBC Radio 7 entranced and entrapped me. I can honestly say that I would enjoy listening to him reciting the London telephone directory (if such a thing exists any more) or endless shipping forecasts or something written in a language I neither speak or understand.
It was in that spirit that I downloaded a free lecture from John Carey (halfway down the page for Paradise Lost there's a link for the free download from Naxos books) on the poetry of Milton, because it featured live readings by Anton Lesser. I didn't expect to enjoy or understand the lecture, as I have only vague knowledge of Milton and do not know his work at all well. I suppose I should confess I had another - very slight - reason for having an interest in the content. The Quaker meeting I (infrequently, currently) attend recently celebrated its 350th anniversary and I discovered in my researches about its history that Thomas Ellwood, who prepared the accounts in a fantastically beautiful flowing hand for the first purpose-built meeting house in Uxbridge in 1693, was also Milton's amanuensis, needed as Milton's sight failed.
I had read Thomas Ellwood's journal, in which he takes the credit for the subject of Paradise Regained, and emulates his master in poetic form. I like him, and am interested in him and his time.
Being too sleepy to get down to work (the dog having kept me awake overnight, asking to go out) I decided to listen this morning to the free lecture I had downloaded some days ago, and I was surprised to find myself not only enjoying the accomplished and intelligent readings from Anton Lesser, but also the talk about the poetry by John Carey. I was intrigued that I knew so little about Milton's poetry, and that I hadn't realised how accessible it was - or seemed - with the readings and explanation. Some of it was so beautiful. The reading does make all the difference to that: I have always said that it makes an immense difference if the person doing the reading really understands and loves the words that they are saying. Even though the content remains the same in terms of the words, if Shakespeare or Milton are read by people who do not understand them, they will be gibberish, and convey very little.
Anton Lesser's reading is gentle and so full of emotion and understanding, that the sense of the words comes over even when sometimes if you stop and think about the individual words it is quite difficult to penetrate the meanings. And John Carey had chosen extremely well. The words do sing. I have found myself throughout the day returning to listen again.
I liked the fact that I am beginning to feel I know the period that Milton was writing in, having studied it in drawing up the history of my meeting, but I was surprised to learn that Milton thought he was writing new chapters of the bible in writing his works. That hadn't come across in the writings of Thomas Ellwood. Mind you, Ellwood wrote some execrable poetry in imitation of Milton. I like his prose writing very much, but his poetry is just terrible. I would be incapable of telling you why I think Milton's poetry is great and Thomas Ellwood's is not, but I feel that I know both to be true. Thomas Ellwood is an interesting journal writer, and a very human observer of some of the important people who lived during the founding of the Quakers. But no one would call him a great poet. The words of Milton, as read by Anton Lesser, sent my flying off to find the passage in Paradise Lost where Adam made the decision to follow Eve's fall:
.....
How can I live without thee, how forgoe
Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,
To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn? [ 910 ]
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart; no no, I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State [ 915 ]
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe....
As soon as I can afford them, I will buy the whole reading of Paradise Lost... for now repetitive listening to the lecture will have to suffice.
It was in that spirit that I downloaded a free lecture from John Carey (halfway down the page for Paradise Lost there's a link for the free download from Naxos books) on the poetry of Milton, because it featured live readings by Anton Lesser. I didn't expect to enjoy or understand the lecture, as I have only vague knowledge of Milton and do not know his work at all well. I suppose I should confess I had another - very slight - reason for having an interest in the content. The Quaker meeting I (infrequently, currently) attend recently celebrated its 350th anniversary and I discovered in my researches about its history that Thomas Ellwood, who prepared the accounts in a fantastically beautiful flowing hand for the first purpose-built meeting house in Uxbridge in 1693, was also Milton's amanuensis, needed as Milton's sight failed.
I had read Thomas Ellwood's journal, in which he takes the credit for the subject of Paradise Regained, and emulates his master in poetic form. I like him, and am interested in him and his time.
Being too sleepy to get down to work (the dog having kept me awake overnight, asking to go out) I decided to listen this morning to the free lecture I had downloaded some days ago, and I was surprised to find myself not only enjoying the accomplished and intelligent readings from Anton Lesser, but also the talk about the poetry by John Carey. I was intrigued that I knew so little about Milton's poetry, and that I hadn't realised how accessible it was - or seemed - with the readings and explanation. Some of it was so beautiful. The reading does make all the difference to that: I have always said that it makes an immense difference if the person doing the reading really understands and loves the words that they are saying. Even though the content remains the same in terms of the words, if Shakespeare or Milton are read by people who do not understand them, they will be gibberish, and convey very little.
Anton Lesser's reading is gentle and so full of emotion and understanding, that the sense of the words comes over even when sometimes if you stop and think about the individual words it is quite difficult to penetrate the meanings. And John Carey had chosen extremely well. The words do sing. I have found myself throughout the day returning to listen again.
I liked the fact that I am beginning to feel I know the period that Milton was writing in, having studied it in drawing up the history of my meeting, but I was surprised to learn that Milton thought he was writing new chapters of the bible in writing his works. That hadn't come across in the writings of Thomas Ellwood. Mind you, Ellwood wrote some execrable poetry in imitation of Milton. I like his prose writing very much, but his poetry is just terrible. I would be incapable of telling you why I think Milton's poetry is great and Thomas Ellwood's is not, but I feel that I know both to be true. Thomas Ellwood is an interesting journal writer, and a very human observer of some of the important people who lived during the founding of the Quakers. But no one would call him a great poet. The words of Milton, as read by Anton Lesser, sent my flying off to find the passage in Paradise Lost where Adam made the decision to follow Eve's fall:
.....
How can I live without thee, how forgoe
Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly joyn'd,
To live again in these wilde Woods forlorn? [ 910 ]
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet loss of thee
Would never from my heart; no no, I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State [ 915 ]
Mine never shall be parted, bliss or woe....
As soon as I can afford them, I will buy the whole reading of Paradise Lost... for now repetitive listening to the lecture will have to suffice.
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