Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 534

IMMORTAL FRIENDS

AN INVOCATION OF THE GODS

Where upon Olympus stand the gods who once ruled over Man?  Fallen from the Lofty Land to dwell on Earth as mortal men?

Who remembers how to fly as freeborn spirits through the sky? What powers can be exercised while trapped within a mortal guise?

The gods once caused themselves to bring The Breath of Life itself to being.  Their very thoughts made every thing: the sea, a sigh, the sky, the spring!

The Gods of Old, like you & me, created everything we see. Have they lost causality?  Abandoned their abilities?

Where are the gods of history?  What happened to their memory? If we are them and they are we, who will cause our destiny?

Merchant Lords now rule the fold. They want us all to fit their mold: “Be a Man!  Do as you're told!  The only god there is, is gold!”

How did we ever sink so low, pretending we don’t really know that we're the spark that makes life grow, like springtime flowers through the snow?

Infinity is passing by, but time is really just a lie. Are we immortal, you and I?  A question states its own reply...

We never really know we're blind until we search around to find a simple way to leave behind the suffering that is Mankind.

Can godly powers be regained, like oceans fall to Earth as rain? Can we go back from whence we came, to greater heights and bigger games?

Lead us homeward once again, to realms beyond the dreams of men. We’ve gone astray, we’ve lost our ken*.  We need your help, Immortal Friends!

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*ken = perception; understanding, range of vision, view; sight.

 -- Lawrence R. Spencer, from the book PAN-GOD OF THE WOODS

WORLD AS MYTH

The Number of The Beast, by Robert Heinlein is a series of diary entries by each of the four main characters who describe their travels through time and parallel universes to The Land of Oz, and to Barsoom, the fictional planet (Mars) created by Edgar Rice Burroughs.  In the novel, the Biblical number of the beast turns out to be, not 666, but , or 10,314,424,798,490,535,546,171,949,056, which is the initial number of parallel universes accessible through the continua device. It is later theorized by the character Jacob that the number may be merely the instantly accessible universes from a given location, and there is a larger structure that implies an infinite number of universes.  As in many of his later works, Heinlein refers to the idea of solipsism, but in this book develops it into an idea he called "World as Myth" —the idea that universes are created by the act of imagining them, so that all fictional worlds are in fact real.

Sherlock Holmes: My Life, by Lawrence R. Spencer is based on the same concept.  In my book, Sherlock Holmes is a REAL person, who lived and breathed.  The stories of his real-life detective investigations were published, without his knowledge or permission, in a conspiracy to defraud and deface the greatest detective who ever lived!  With the very able assistance of his brother, Mycroft Holmes -- the most powerful man in the British government -- a conspiracy between Dr. Watson, the authors of Peter Pan, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and powerful financial interests, is discovered and foiled!

I wrote the book long before I read The Number of The Beast.  However, I am pleased to discover the "great minds" a like-minded!  Why can't there be a nearly infinite number of parallel universes?  If one can imagine a universe, you have created it.  It exists, at least for you, subjectively.  Is it possible that Sherlock Holmes and Robert Heinlein could be enjoying an adventure together right in this moment, in a parallel universe of their own design?  Now, THAT would be a really interesting universe!

Another book, The Big Bleep: The Mystery of A Different Universe, by Lawrence R. Spencer explores a similar theme.  It is a universe concocted from the universes of hardboiled "film noir" crime novel by Raymond Chandler, a convention of plants who decide to collectively "hold their breath" to prevent new oxygen from being created in order kill off all the evil humans on Earth, and a conglomeration of pulp comic Superheroes, fighting to help the "heroes" of the story Peter, The Potted Plant (a stand-up comic) and a "Public Dick" named Sam Shovel, owner of the Unexistential Detective Agency of America, to solve the mystery of the murder of Carmel Underwood and rescue humankind from extinction!  Simply stated, The Big Bleep is sort of like a Pulp Fiction version of Columbo riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle through the movies The Maltese Falcon, Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, with a Elvis and bunch of comic book super heroes bouncing back and forth between an X-Rated Universal Studios Botanical Garden Theme Park and a convoluted Las Vegas strip mall in a 5th Dimensional time warp!

The idea that universes are created by the act of imagining them is not new. Every history book in every library on Earth is a fictional universe filled with imagined events created by the conquerors of vanquished nations and extinct species in an imaginary time-line of undocumented fantasy!

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS

The GOOD News is that You are an Immortal Spiritual Being.  Therefore, you can not die.  

The BAD News is that You are an Immortal Spiritual Being.  Therefore, you can not die.

Lawrence R. Spencer

ARTISTIC MYTHOLOGY

Artistic Mythology incorrectly attributes the statement, "Beware of artists...." to Queen Victoria.  Artists often consider themselves to be "revolutionaries" whom the wealthy and powerful "royalty" of Earth should fear.  So, they adopted this statement as a "battle cry" against tyranny of the state and persecution of the "artist".

Factually, Queen Elizabeth,  did not make this statement, although she most likely shared the sentiment with her Uncle, King Leopold II of Belgium, who expressed it in a similar statement (below).   In reality, artists are seldom revolutionaries, and are the most likely to be paid whores and propagandists in service of  the "royal agenda".  For example, how many Hollywood films have you seen that are threatening  to the rich and powerful, much less "revolutionary"?  (Answer = 0 )

(Leopold II -- King of Belgium,  like Queen Victoria, were members of the self-appointed "royal family" who are Caucasian, Fascist, Imperialists.   Unfortunately, they are worshiped by the peasants, and glorified by artists, who empower them to invade, murder and enslave other people, life forms, property and natural resources of Earth for personal financial gain, power and control.)

Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the King of the Belgians, and is chiefly remembered for the founding and exploitation of the Congo Free State.  

Queen Victoria (24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India from 20 June 1837 until her death.

A letter to Queen Victoria of England  from her Uncle, The King of the Belgians, 10th October 1845:

"My Dearest Victoria, —

. . . All you say about our dear Albert, whom I love like my own child, is perfectly true. The attacks, however unjust, have but one advantage, that of showing the points the enemy thinks weakest and best calculated to hurt. This , being the case, Anson, without boring A. with daily accounts which in the end become very irksome, should pay attention to these very points, and contribute to avoid what may be turned to account by the enemy. To hop to escape censure and calumny is next to impossible, but whatever is considered by the enemy as a fit subject for attack is better modified or avoided. The dealings with artists, for instance, require great prudence; they are acquainted with all classes of society, and for that very reason dangerous; they are hardly ever satisfied, and when you have too much to do with them, you are sure to have des ennuis  (trouble) . . .Your devoted Uncle,Leopold R."    (excerpt from “The Letters of Queen Victoria, a Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence Between the Years 1837 and 1861″)

READ WHAT THE MASTER READS

Since I received and published the interview transcripts from the late Nurse Matilda MacElroy, which I published in the non-fiction book  Alien Interview,  I have become a great fan of  E. E. "Doc" Smith,  (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) an American science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series.  He is sometimes called the father of "space opera".

After reading these two series of books, and a few others by the same writer, I can understand why Doc Smith was an influence of the iconic writers and film makers such as George Lucas, who reveals in his biography, that the Lensman novels were a major influence on his youth.   And, J. Michael Straczynski, creator of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, also has acknowledged the influence of the Lensman books. Sir Arthur C. Clarke's space battle in Earthlight was based on the attack on the Mardonalian fortress in chapter seven of Skylark Three.  Superman-creator Jerry Siegel was impressed, at an early age, with the optimistic vision of the future presented in Skylark of Space.  Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment and Universal Studios are in negotiation with the Smith estate for an 18-month film rights option on the series.

In order to gain a greater understanding of his books, and the amazing science and philosophical points of view revealed by "The Master", Doc Smith, I thought it would be a good idea to read some of the books that influenced "The Master".  Read the works of "The Master", but also read what "The Master" has read.

In his 1947 essay "The Epic of Space”, E.E. "Doc" Smith listed (by last name only) authors he enjoyed reading:

John W. Campbell, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert A. Heinlein, Murray Leinster, H. P. Lovecraft, A. Merritt (specifically The Ship of Ishtar, The Moon Pool, The Snake Mother, and Dwellers in the Mirage, as well as the character John Kenton), C.L. Moore (specifically Jirel of Joiry), Roman Frederick Starzl, John Taine, A.E. van Vogt, Stanley G. Weinbaum (specifically Tweerl), and Jack Williamson. In a passage on his preparation for writing the Lensman novels, he notes that Clinton Constantinescu's "War of the Universe" was not a masterpiece, but says that Starzl and Williamson were masters; this suggests that Starzl's Interplanetary Flying Patrol may have been an influence on Smith's Triplanetary Patrol, later the Galactic Patrol.  The feeding of the Overlords of Delgon upon the life-force of their victims at the end of chapter five of Galactic Patrol seems a clear allusion to chapter twenty-nine of The Moon Pool; Merritt's account of the Taithu and the power of love in chapters twenty-nine and thirty-four also bear some resemblance to the end of Children of the Lens. Smith also mentions Edgar Rice Burroughs, complaining about loose ends at the end of one of his novels.

Smith's daughter, Verna, lists the following authors as visitors to the Smith household in her youth: Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Robert Heinlein, Dave Kyle, Bob Tucker, Williamson, Frederik Pohl, Merritt, and the Galactic Roamers. Smith cites Bigelow's Theoretical Chemistry–Fundamentals as a justification for the possibility of the inertialess drive. There is also an extended reference to Rudyard Kipling's "Ballad of Boh Da Thone” in Gray Lensman (chapter 22, "Regeneration,” in a conversation between Kinnison and MacDougall).

Sam Moskowitz's biographical essay on Smith in Seekers of Tomorrow states that he regularly read Argosy magazine, and everything by H.G. Wells,Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Moskowitz also notes that Smith's "reading enthusiasms included poetry, philosophy, ancient and medieval history, and all of English literature."

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Smith#Family_and_education

BRAVE NEW WORLD ORDER

I recently re-read this satirically dystopian book.   It postulated, in 1931, a theoretical future civilization, which is approaching the look and feel of the current  western world.   The NWO is a rapidly coalescing totalitarian, socialist society of media controlled mind-control, enforced by social conditioning, moral re-education, social herding, and never-ending amusements provided (for a modest fee) to the dumbed-down, pleasure-hungry peasants, distributed through hand-held electronic gadgets.  "Happiness" is the goal.... mindless pleasure....freedom from want and pain...freedom from thinking....freedom from aging, from to conform without question to the dictates of an unseen government, and freedom to love everyone equally, and sexually.  However, it does not offer or allow the an individual the Freedom to be Unhappy.....

"The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave.  And if anything should go wrong, there's soma."  

(soma = euphoria inducing drug provided to every citizen in "civilization")

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Brave New World  is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. – "After Ford" – in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and operant conditioning that combine to profoundly change society. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with Island (1962), his final novel.

TIME IS NOT LINEAR

Official Transcript of the U.S. Army Air Force

Roswell Army Air Field, 509th Bomb Group

SUBJECT: ALIEN INTERVIEW, 25. 7. 1947, 1st Session

"Before you can understand the subject of history, you must first understand the subject of time.  Time is simply an arbitrary measurement of the motion of objects through space.

Space is not linear.  Space is determined by the point of view of an IS-BE when viewing an object.  The distance between an IS-BE and the object being viewed is called "space".

Objects, or energy masses, in space do not necessarily move in a linear fashion.  In this universe, objects tend to move randomly or in a curving or cyclical pattern, or as determined by agreed upon rules.

History is not only a linear record of events, as many authors of Earth history books imply, because it is not a string that can be stretched out and marked like a measuring tool.  History is a subjective observation of the movement of objects through space, recorded from the point of view of a survivor, rather than of those who succumbed.  Events occur interactively and concurrently, just as the biological body has a heart that pumps blood, while the lungs provide oxygen to the cells, which reproduce, using energy from the sun and chemicals from plants, at the same time as the liver strains toxic wastes from the blood, and eliminates them through the bladder and the bowels.

All of these interactions are concurrent and simultaneous.  Although time runs consecutively, events do not happen in an independent, linear stream.  In order to view and understand the history or reality of the past, one must view all events as part of an interactive whole. Time can also be sensed as a vibration which is uniform throughout the entire physical universe."

-- Excerpt from the book ALIEN INTERVIEW

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GODISM TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

I recently read two books by Robert Heinlein: "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls", which is the sequel to an earlier book, "The Moon is A Harsh Mistress".   His books are full of witty wisdom, revolutionary revelation and practical philosophy.  Many of the ideas of the so-called "New Age" movement were written by Heinlein, who was, ironically, a military and scientific man, as well as a scholar and fiction writer.  Here are two of my favorite statements from these books....

"The Almighty-God idea came under attack because it explained nothing; it simply pushed all explanations one stage farther away. In the nineteenth century atheistic positivism started displacing the Almighty-God notion in that minority of the population that bathed regularly. Atheism had a limited run, as it, too, explains nothing, being merely 'Godism' turned upside down."

"The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere.  But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it — once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth."  

-- Robert Heinlein, from the book THE CAT WHO WALKED THROUGH WALLS

HYDRO THERAPY

Running water in the Mountains is Soothing, Serene and  Hydro Therapeutic..... aaahhhhh..... 

( animated GIFs from Marinus, creator of the Blog, "Head Like An Orange" )

PERSPECTIVE

How something appears is always a matter of perspective...