Lawrence R. Spencer's Blog, page 544

LENSMAN SERIES

In my opinion, the most revolutionary, groundbreaking and classic series of Science Fiction books ever published are The Lensman series, a space opera serial written by Edward Elmer "Doc" Smith.  All of the books in this profoundly important series are available in from Amazon.com (HERE) and the audiobook versions are available from Audible.com (HERE).  If you are a fan of science fiction, or of spiritual phenomenon, these books are mandatory to your education, and insight.

Edward Elmer Smith Ph.D. (also E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, or—to his family—Ted) (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and early science fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.

Robert A. Heinlein and Smith were friends. (Heinlein dedicated his 1958 novel Methuselah's Children "To Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.".  Heinlein reported that E. E. Smith perhaps took his "unrealistic" heroes from life, citing as an example the extreme competence of the hero of Spacehounds of IPC. He reported that E. E. Smith was a large, blond, athletic, very intelligent, very gallant man, married to a remarkably beautiful, intelligent red-haired woman named MacDougal (thus perhaps the prototypes of 'Kimball Kinnison' and 'Clarissa MacDougal'). In Heinlein's essay, he reports that he began to suspect Smith might be a sort of "superman" when he asked Smith for help in purchasing a car. Smith tested the car by driving it on a back road at illegally high speeds with their heads pressed tightly against the roof columns to listen for chassis squeaks by bone conduction—a process apparently improvised on the spot.

In his non-series novels written after his professional retirement, Galaxy Primes, Subspace Explorers, and Subspace Encounter, E. E. Smith explores themes of telepathy and other mental abilities collectively called "psionics", and of the conflict between libertarian and socialistic/communistic influences in the colonization of other planets.

Originally, the series was published in magazines. The complete series in sequence and their original publication dates are:

Triplanetary (1948. Originally published in four parts, January–April 1934, in Amazing Stories )
First Lensman (1950, Fantasy Press)
Galactic Patrol (1950. Originally published in six parts, September 1937 – February 1938, in Astounding Stories )
Gray Lensman (1951. Originally published in four parts, October 1939 – January 1940, Astounding Stories )
Second Stage Lensmen (1953. Originally published in four parts, November 1941 – February 1942, Astounding Stories )
Children of the Lens (1954. Originally published in four parts, November 1947 – February 1948, Astounding Stories )
And, a sequel, The Vortex Blaster (1960. Published with the title Masters of the Vortex in 1968)

Originally, the series consisted of the final four novels published between 1937 and 1948.  Smith rewrote his 1934 story Triplanetary, originally published in Amazing Stories, to fit in with the Lensman series. First Lensman was written in 1950 to act as a link between Triplanetary and Galactic Patrol and finally, in the years up to 1954, Smith revised the rest of the series to remove inconsistencies between the original Lensman chronology and Triplanetary.

Smith's novels are generally considered to be the classic space operas, and he is sometimes called the "first nova" of twentieth century science fiction.

Smith expressed a preference for inventing fictional technologies that were not strictly impossible (so far as the science of the day was aware) but highly unlikely: "the more highly improbable a concept is—short of being contrary to mathematics whose fundamental operations involve no neglect of infinitesimals—the better I like it" was his phrase.

For more detailed information about The Lensman Series and other books by EE Smith, and about this truly amazing man, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Smith

ESCAPING FROM PRISON

The North Korean man in this video was born in a prison camp.  Three generations of the families in this prison were also born, and lived their entire lives there without ANY knowledge that they were INSIDE and prison, or that there was any life beyond the prison!  They lived in as virtual, and literal state of "amnesia", regarding their past, and where they came from!

This is a real-life demonstration of the phenomenon that isolation causes Amnesia.  I am referring to the kind of Amnesia that human beings, as immortal spiritual beings, experience here on Earth.  On Earth, as a "prison planet", we are completely isolated from all other sentient civilizations in this galaxy.  We are born here, we live here, and we die here, generation after generation, with NO communication or certain knowledge that there is ANY other life beyond the walls of our confinement on Earth.

The experience of the young man in this video interview is a grim reminder that we can forget WHO We Really Are, as Spiritual Beings.  Through perpetual isolation, and the lies of "evolution", we also forget Where We CAME From, and who we arrived on Earth, as spiritual entities.  When we know nothing about life beyond the walls of our prison, it is easy to forget our Immortal past.

However, I would like to Remember Who I Really Am.  I would enjoy knowing other Beings who also remember life outside the walls of our prison. If we want to "escape", we must begin somewhere. The first step toward "escaping" from prison, it to discover that we are living IN a prison!  This may seem like a completely "crazy" idea.  But, think about it.... It is really outside the realm of possibility that an an intergalactic, totalitarian government could set up a planet as a prison camp?  For details about this idea, read the Top Secret transcripts published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW.

POETRY THERAPY

In the Western world, poetry is a dying art form.....  As art becomes extinct or ignored, so do the civilization.  Or, at the very least, the art being created, or the absence of it, reflect the spiritual condition of the individuals in the civilization.  Personally, I have discover that writing poetry is very therapeutic. If create  inner peace, perspective, serenity, spiritual insights, and aesthetic reverie.

Modern "poetry" is most often expressed in Lyrics to music.  Have you listened to very much "popular" music lately?  In the U.S. the most popular (best selling) music is "country music".  The lyrics to the majority of these songs are written specifically to appeal to the LOWEST common denominators of human "intelligence":  sex, cowboys, beer, trucks, parties, and the "idealized lifestyle" of the working-class peasant, jealousy, failed romance, and, did I mention sex?  Fundamentally, modern "music" is all about making money.  Like the rest of Western "civilization", which is artificially created mirage, bought and paid for by NWO bankers, legislated by criminal politicians and enforced the psychotic military-police-state, and propagandized into "popularity" by the Global Media Machine -- everything is about MONEY, Power, Control and Possessions.... and did I mention sex?

There is a quiet, simple remedy for the insane, manic, soulless absurdity in our surrounding.  

It is a simple form of "meditation":  Turn off the TV, turn off your cell-phone, turn on Your Soul.  Write a poem.

If you wonder sometimes why you feel depressed, overwhelmed, stressed out, purposeless and alone, you may find Your SELF by writing a poem.  

Personally, I prefer HAIKU.  How about you?

I you would like to share your poems with me, and others who read the Blog, please post them in the COMMENTS!  :)

SHADOW HAIKU

A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.  Haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan.  In contrast to English verse typically characterized by meter, Japanese verse counts sound units known as " on " or morae. Traditional haiku consist of 17 on, in three phrases of five, seven and five on respectively.  Among contemporary poems teikei (定型 fixed form) haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while jiyuritsu (自由律 free form) haiku do not.
A Classic EXAMPLE:
An old pond!
A frog jumps in--
the sound of water.
 For more detailed information about Haiku, visit the website, 
HOW TO WRITE A HAIKU POEM:   http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem

IDOLATRY

IDOLATRY

You worship another along with your brothers, and carve them as statues: rather than you.

Denying your Self: gather dust on a shelf.  You shatter and crumble like stone in a jungle.

Choose a man to be cause over you:  You become them, then you lose You.

_________________

Lawrence R. Spencer

KNOW THAT YOU KNOW

OUROBOROS: MY END IS MY BEGINNING

Excerpt from the book MORTALITY MECHANICS MANUAL by Lawrence R. Spencer

( Listen to Five Minute Selection from the Audiobook version )

"The Ouroboros Serpent

A variety of renderings of the Ouroboros Serpent from various cultures, religions and philosophical disciplines are featured as illustrative decoration on many pages of this book. (Mortality Mechanics Manual)

I have included this symbol, as it has been used almost universally on Earth throughout the ages, beginning in the Egyptian period, and possible as early as the Veda which dates back as far as 10,000 years. This symbol has been used to represent a variety of existential interpretations of the spiritual and physical condition of humankind and the universe.  

“The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language; (oura) meaning "tail" and (boros) meaning "eating", thus "he who eats the tail".

The Ouroboros represents the perpetual cyclic renewal of life and infinity, the concept of eternity and the eternal return, and represents the cycle of life, death and rebirth, leading to immortality, as in the Phoenix. The current mathematical symbol for infinity - may be derived from a variant on the classic Ouroboros with the snake looped once before eating its own tail, and such depictions of the double loop as a snake eating its own tail are common today in fantasy art and fantasy literature, though other conjectures also exist.

It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting before any beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism and Hermeticism.

The serpent or dragon eating its own tail has survived from antiquity and can be traced back to Ancient Egypt, circa 1600 B.C.E. It is contained in the Egyptian Book of the Netherworld. The Ouroboros was popular after the Amarna period. In the Book of the Dead, which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period,

( DOWNLOAD THE AUDIOBOOK )  

the self-begetting sun god Atun is said to have ascended from chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake, the animal renewing itself every morning, and the deceased wishes to turn into the shape of the snake Sato ("son of the earth"), the embodiment of Atun.

The famous Ouroboros drawing from the early alchemical text The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra dating to 2nd century Alexandria encloses the words hen to pan, "one is the all". Its black and white halves represent the Gnostic duality of existence. As such, the Ouroboros could be interpreted as the Western equivalent of the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol. The Chrysopoeia Ouroboros of Cleopatra is one of the oldest images of the Ouroboros to be linked with the legendary opus of the Alchemists, the Philosopher's Stone.

Plato described a self-eating, circular being as the first living thing in the universe - an immortal, mythologically constructed beast. The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him.

All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. In Gnosticism, this serpent symbolized eternity and the soul of the world. The universe was early divided into Earth below and Heaven above. These, two as one, gave the idea of opposites but forming a unity. Each opposite was assumed to be powerful and so was their final unity. For creation of the universe they projected reproduction to conceive creation. Now reproduction results in the union of two opposites as male and female.

Correspondingly, the Chinese believed Light and Darkness, as the ideal opposites, when united, yielded creative energy. The two opposites were further conceived as matter and energy which became dual-natured but as one. The two opposites were yin-yang and their unity was called Chhi. Yin-Yang was treated separately in Chinese cosmology which consisted of five cosmic elements.

Since Chinese alchemy did reach Alexandria probably the symbol Yin-Yang, as dual-natured, responsible for creation, was transformed into a symbol called Ouroboros. It is a snake and as such as symbol of soul. Its head and anterior portion is red, being the color of blood as soul; its tail and posterior half is dark, representing body.

Ouroboros here is depicted white and black, as soul and body, the two as "one which is all." It is cosmic soul, the source of all creation. Ouroboros is normally depicted with its anterior half as black but it should be the reverse as shown here. With the name Chemeia taken to Kim-Iya, the last word would take Ouroboros to Yin-Yang.

In Mesoamerica the serpent god Quetzalcoatl is sometimes portrayed biting his tail on Aztec and Toltec ruins. A looping Quetzalcoatl is carved into the base of the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent, at Xochicalco, Mexico, 700-900 AD.

In Norse mythology, it appears as the serpent Jormungandr, one of the three children of Loki and Angrboda, who grew so large that it could encircle the world and grasp its tail in its teeth. In the legends of Ragnar Lodbrok, such as Ragnarssona patter, the Geatish king Herraud gives a small lindworm as a gift to his daughter Pora Town-Hart after which it grows into a large serpent which encircles the girl's bower and bites itself in the tail. The serpent is slain by Ragnar Lodbrok who marries Pora. Ragnar later has a son with another woman named Kraka and this son is born with the image of a white snake in one eye. This snake encircled the iris and bit itself in the tail, and the son was named Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye.

Christians adopted the Ouroboros as a symbol of the limited confines of this world (that there is an "outside" being implied by the demarcation of an inside), and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere this-worldly existence following in the footsteps of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes.

It could very well be used to symbolize the closed-system model of the universe of some physicists even today.'

In Freemasonry the Ouroboros is displayed on numerous Masonic seals, frontispieces and other imagery, especially during the 17th century.

The Ouroboros is featured in the seal of the Theosophical Society along with other traditional symbols.

Alchemically, the ouroboros is also used as a purifying glyph. Ouroboros was and is the name for the Great World Serpent, encircling the Earth.

Ouroboros represents the conflict of life as well in that life comes out of life and death. 'My end is my beginning.' In a sense life feeds off itself, thus there are good and bad connotations which can be drawn. It is a single image with the entire actions of a life cycle - it begets, weds, impregnates, and slays itself, but in a cyclical sense, rather than linear.

Thus, it fashions our lives to a totality more towards what it may really be - a series of movements which repeat. "As Above, So Below" - we are born from nature, and we mirror it, because it is what man wholly is a part of. It is this symbolic rendition of the eternal principles that are presented in the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, (cited earlier)."

HUMAN ANATOMY IN 80 SECONDS

THIS 80 SECOND VIDEO SHOWS YOU THE ESSENTIAL INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE ANATOMICAL COMPONENTS OF A HUMAN BIOLOGICAL ENTITY.  ANY QUESTIONS?  Consult Greys Anatomy for further details....

IMPORTANT NOTE: THE SPIRITUAL ENTITY THAT ANIMATES THE BODY IS NOT SHOWN because Spirits are INVISIBLE, except to other Spirits....

The Human Body (stop-motion!) from kellianderson on Vimeo.

FREEDOM

WITHIN