Just had an interesting question asked on another forum I look at.
They needed to stay still modelling for an art class, and asked how they could 'zone out' while remaining focussed enough to stay in place.
It's something I'm pretty good at - doing wildlife photography I may need to stay absolutely still for an hour or more while being ready to operate the camera at any time. However, how is it done?
Eastern sects talk about a beginners or empty mind, and it seems to me there is a need to 'switch off' the conscious decision making and critical parts of the mind. Achieving this state may be the same as the states named 'meditation', 'trance', 'self induced hypnosis'.
I get there by physical stillness and practising a variety of shamanic exercises I've learnt over the last few years on bushcraft and holistic courses. It is remarkably similar to the state of mind I used to experience while Kart racing, however strange that may seem. The Kart racing required hours of practise of the techniques of cornering, braking, balancing the kart on the throttle round bends. Once these techniques became second nature, actual racing ceased to need the concious part of the mind and the instinctive, subconscious mind took over and did a far better job. I've heard similar descriptions from musicians, artists and combat soldiers.
What's going on?
One of the reasons I took to bushcraft was being made redundant/early retirement from my main job. While on outplacement training I received advice on interview technique. A point it made was that decisions by the interviewer are often made unconsciously - The need for good hygiene, neat haircut, trimmed nails, pressed shirt are not to impress the conscious decision making, but the unconscious. Our logical minds can process just 3-7 pieces of information at one time. The unconscious processes 2-3 million pieces of data simultaneously. Just think - every single nerve ending in your body, every cone and rod in your eyes, every olfactory cell, your balance and sense of acceleration is sending information to your brain constantly. The remarkable barely understood organ has to filter out what's important and present it to the part known as conscious thought.
If you can let go conscious control and trust that the programming you've provided by rehearsing the techniques required for any activity, you instinctive or unconscious mind has far more data at it's disposable, and less inhibiting criticism to get on with the job far better.
There's also the aspect that we are happy to assume animals have evolved instinctive behaviour during evolution. Surely humans, with their advanced evolution, must also have a store of instinctive wisdom held somewhere in their being. We can't seem to access this consciously, so again 'letting go' with the conscious mind may just allow us to make use of this instinctive behaviour.
Try this exercise, based on shamanic rites -
Stay 100% still. Now concentrate on the nearest sound you can hear - listen just to that sound. Now move to the furthest sound you can hear - listen just to that sound. Without allowing your logical mind to criticise, build a mental picture of what the furthest sounds represent. Come back to the nearest sound - if it's, say, a clock ticking, build a mental image of the workings, whatever, let your mind build a picture of what the sounds represent. With practise you may find some remarkable results. To my mind you're not tapping in to mysterious energies or receiving message from god, you're just tapping in to the vast streams of information that are normally filtered out before they reach your conscious mind.
Warning, you may feel strange or dizzy after doing this properly, take a few seconds to gather your wits once back in the room.
Just another thought - how much are the rituals of religions intended to get the faithful to drop their logical, conscious faculties in the interest of belief in the supernatural.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Monday, 11 July 2011
Bushcraft
Just back from four days/three nights living under a basha in private Kent woodland. I help out on Natural Pathways bushcraft courses.
These events really bring out the best in everyone, in five years of going to these courses I haven't met a single unpleasant person. Many have not been the sort of person I'd normally want to associate with, but they've all had something to contribute. This last weekend I've had discussions on anything from the weather to the possibility of a universe with a second time dimension.
We also had the owner of the woodlands grandson doing the survivalist bit in another part of the woods. The disturbance he and his two friends caused alerted us to their presence, so we wandered down and found their camp. They weren't there and a bow and arrows, machete, food and various equipment was scattered around. their shelter they'd built was pretty poor (they also had a tent) and their fire was uncontained and built among pine trees - risking a forest fire! This somewhat shows the need for a bit of training before being let loose in woodland! We hadn't been told he'd be there, so phoned the owner assuming they shouldn't be there - somewhat of a relief to find they were legitimate.
During our course we ate some delicious tender young rabbit, shot the day before and prepared by our group. Another wild delicacy was some jelly ear fungus, fried with wild garlic and herbs. I must say I eat more and better than I do at home. The variety of dishes (not all woodland sourced) that I wouldn't consider preparing at home that I eat here is amazing. The wild cooking expert here blends herbs and spices in the way a fine artist uses colour in a painting.
Everything at a camp like this takes longer and much more physical effort than you'd use in a normal domestic situation, but it's all much more satisfying for that. You generally don't have a compost toilet at home that needs emptying and the contents burying.
It's a rather tempting option to buy a piece of woodland and live, at least part of the time, a more natural existence. I've got some good friends from my time doing bushcraft, and a small community of likeminded friends would be excellent. Living in a real community rather than an amorphous mass of people too big to all relate to each other would be a new experience for me, and I think a good one. These weekends with a great variety of people provide a small glimpse at how a community rapidly builds from disparate group of people with a common interest. The altruism shown, with everyone using their better attributes to compensate where others are weaker is wonderful to see.
One of the regular comments at the end of the weekend is "Oh well, back to reality tomorrow". Before I'd retired, I replied quite spontaneously to this comment "Not really, this is reality here, I'm going back to the hell of commuting, it's just not natural or real".
These events really bring out the best in everyone, in five years of going to these courses I haven't met a single unpleasant person. Many have not been the sort of person I'd normally want to associate with, but they've all had something to contribute. This last weekend I've had discussions on anything from the weather to the possibility of a universe with a second time dimension.
We also had the owner of the woodlands grandson doing the survivalist bit in another part of the woods. The disturbance he and his two friends caused alerted us to their presence, so we wandered down and found their camp. They weren't there and a bow and arrows, machete, food and various equipment was scattered around. their shelter they'd built was pretty poor (they also had a tent) and their fire was uncontained and built among pine trees - risking a forest fire! This somewhat shows the need for a bit of training before being let loose in woodland! We hadn't been told he'd be there, so phoned the owner assuming they shouldn't be there - somewhat of a relief to find they were legitimate.
During our course we ate some delicious tender young rabbit, shot the day before and prepared by our group. Another wild delicacy was some jelly ear fungus, fried with wild garlic and herbs. I must say I eat more and better than I do at home. The variety of dishes (not all woodland sourced) that I wouldn't consider preparing at home that I eat here is amazing. The wild cooking expert here blends herbs and spices in the way a fine artist uses colour in a painting.
Everything at a camp like this takes longer and much more physical effort than you'd use in a normal domestic situation, but it's all much more satisfying for that. You generally don't have a compost toilet at home that needs emptying and the contents burying.
It's a rather tempting option to buy a piece of woodland and live, at least part of the time, a more natural existence. I've got some good friends from my time doing bushcraft, and a small community of likeminded friends would be excellent. Living in a real community rather than an amorphous mass of people too big to all relate to each other would be a new experience for me, and I think a good one. These weekends with a great variety of people provide a small glimpse at how a community rapidly builds from disparate group of people with a common interest. The altruism shown, with everyone using their better attributes to compensate where others are weaker is wonderful to see.
One of the regular comments at the end of the weekend is "Oh well, back to reality tomorrow". Before I'd retired, I replied quite spontaneously to this comment "Not really, this is reality here, I'm going back to the hell of commuting, it's just not natural or real".
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Bureaucracy
Half a days work this afternoon.
I do casual work, either for local colleges or private groups. The council run colleges are a nightmare of paperwork and bureaucracy. While it means your tax gets paid and al the admin done, it can take tow or three months to get paid. Small wonder that many private organisations just do it all cash in hand - one may even wonder if many of the employees, who only probably earn a couple of hundred a year, bother to go through all the official hoops to declare their earnings. That would also mean they're probably not declaring their earnings against any benefits they receive.
Personally I run a self employed photography business and lump these cash earnings into this self employment, but for just these earnings it wouldn't be worth my time, or come to that the tax offices time, to process these small amounts.
The government should recognise these small scale earnings and allow them to be declared and duly ignored. That would mean they're legitimate so that when (if) they grow into a reasonable part time job, they can be merged into the tax system without the earner having to worry about their previous undeclared earnings. It will always be difficult and arbitrary to set the limits for amounts to be ignored, but if it's not an accepted derogation of the system, these earnings remain 'black' and encourage individuals to remain outside the mainstream system - and to continue claiming undue amounts of benefits after they've finished needing them. It also removes a fairly reasonable excuse when people are found cheating on a very small scale.
I do casual work, either for local colleges or private groups. The council run colleges are a nightmare of paperwork and bureaucracy. While it means your tax gets paid and al the admin done, it can take tow or three months to get paid. Small wonder that many private organisations just do it all cash in hand - one may even wonder if many of the employees, who only probably earn a couple of hundred a year, bother to go through all the official hoops to declare their earnings. That would also mean they're probably not declaring their earnings against any benefits they receive.
Personally I run a self employed photography business and lump these cash earnings into this self employment, but for just these earnings it wouldn't be worth my time, or come to that the tax offices time, to process these small amounts.
The government should recognise these small scale earnings and allow them to be declared and duly ignored. That would mean they're legitimate so that when (if) they grow into a reasonable part time job, they can be merged into the tax system without the earner having to worry about their previous undeclared earnings. It will always be difficult and arbitrary to set the limits for amounts to be ignored, but if it's not an accepted derogation of the system, these earnings remain 'black' and encourage individuals to remain outside the mainstream system - and to continue claiming undue amounts of benefits after they've finished needing them. It also removes a fairly reasonable excuse when people are found cheating on a very small scale.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Sun!
Yesterday and today we've seen the sun out, hot and bright.
Nice couple of lazy days - minimum housework and maximum sunbathing time in the budgie smugglers. Don't know about others, but I don't use sun block. I just sit in the full sun for less hours and then retreat under the shade of our rowan tree.
Experts never seem to fully agree what is good or bad for you. A few years ago you were supposed to avoid sun exposure at all costs. The along came vitamin D deficiency and a bit of exposure is deemed good for you. Now there's evidence a bit of sunbathing can reduce various cancers.
It's in the paper today that being a thin male can give rise to diabetes - first I've heard of that one. And apparently thin males are much more prone to serious injury in motor accidents as they've got less protective padding.
Moderation in all things I say, listen to your body's instincts and ignore the experts. I've been in for five minutes now checking my email and doing this blog, so I'm going back out to enjoy the sun again.
Nice couple of lazy days - minimum housework and maximum sunbathing time in the budgie smugglers. Don't know about others, but I don't use sun block. I just sit in the full sun for less hours and then retreat under the shade of our rowan tree.
Experts never seem to fully agree what is good or bad for you. A few years ago you were supposed to avoid sun exposure at all costs. The along came vitamin D deficiency and a bit of exposure is deemed good for you. Now there's evidence a bit of sunbathing can reduce various cancers.
It's in the paper today that being a thin male can give rise to diabetes - first I've heard of that one. And apparently thin males are much more prone to serious injury in motor accidents as they've got less protective padding.
Moderation in all things I say, listen to your body's instincts and ignore the experts. I've been in for five minutes now checking my email and doing this blog, so I'm going back out to enjoy the sun again.
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Sunday
Sitting here after traditional roast Sunday lunch. Kids on PS3. Wife on PC in dining room. Washing up done/in dishwasher. Me on blog.
Maybe I should watch the Wimbledon final if I was interested.
Oldest son went out for a picnic with his girlfriend twenty minutes ago. They've just come back because the roads are near gridlocked - they going to walk to the park instead.
Next week will be very different. I'll be out in Kent woodland helping on a bushcraft course. No traffic, no electronic stuff, no crowds. Just a small bunch of people living in home built shelters, cooking on a camp fire, and following the bears' lead for other necessities. Physically much harder than my normal sedentary life, and everything takes much longer, it's all so more meaningful. If I win that crazy £154,000,000 I can buy a nice piece of woodland and just live there. Probably end up not spending anything!
The more entertainment and leisure opportunities I have, the less inclination I seem to have to actually do anything. Reduce life to the basics and I'm eager to be up at first light, seeing and hearing the animal activity, tuned in to the natural world. Being over-fed, under exercised and over stimulated with drivel is not a satisfying way to live. Big problem is the need for space: Living a natural existence requires acres of land for each person to provide their needs. Uncontaminated water, fuel for heat, animals to hunt, plants to forage from, space to dispose of waste.
Glancing up at the PS3, there's a game set in derelict urban/industrial scenery with various monsters to be killed. Yup, that sounds like most of the games there are - replace monsters with enemy forces and add cars occasionally.
Be quite nice to come up with a pre-industrial type SIMs game. I wonder if the knowledge base still exists to create a realistic set of rules as to how to live in a natural environment. Could be very educational with good and bad plants to eat, divvying up your effort into the necessary functions in order to thrive. Be very interesting if it was an on-line, thousands of players, multi player game with restricted resources. Would individuals cooperate or compete, and could the rules be set to enable either strategy to be viable.
I'm not even going to think about a default starting scenario...
Sunday afternoon - now for me followed by every day holding the option of leisure or working. Semi retirement provides the options, but it's up to me to provide the decisions and actions.
Maybe I should watch the Wimbledon final if I was interested.
Oldest son went out for a picnic with his girlfriend twenty minutes ago. They've just come back because the roads are near gridlocked - they going to walk to the park instead.
Next week will be very different. I'll be out in Kent woodland helping on a bushcraft course. No traffic, no electronic stuff, no crowds. Just a small bunch of people living in home built shelters, cooking on a camp fire, and following the bears' lead for other necessities. Physically much harder than my normal sedentary life, and everything takes much longer, it's all so more meaningful. If I win that crazy £154,000,000 I can buy a nice piece of woodland and just live there. Probably end up not spending anything!
The more entertainment and leisure opportunities I have, the less inclination I seem to have to actually do anything. Reduce life to the basics and I'm eager to be up at first light, seeing and hearing the animal activity, tuned in to the natural world. Being over-fed, under exercised and over stimulated with drivel is not a satisfying way to live. Big problem is the need for space: Living a natural existence requires acres of land for each person to provide their needs. Uncontaminated water, fuel for heat, animals to hunt, plants to forage from, space to dispose of waste.
Glancing up at the PS3, there's a game set in derelict urban/industrial scenery with various monsters to be killed. Yup, that sounds like most of the games there are - replace monsters with enemy forces and add cars occasionally.
Be quite nice to come up with a pre-industrial type SIMs game. I wonder if the knowledge base still exists to create a realistic set of rules as to how to live in a natural environment. Could be very educational with good and bad plants to eat, divvying up your effort into the necessary functions in order to thrive. Be very interesting if it was an on-line, thousands of players, multi player game with restricted resources. Would individuals cooperate or compete, and could the rules be set to enable either strategy to be viable.
I'm not even going to think about a default starting scenario...
Sunday afternoon - now for me followed by every day holding the option of leisure or working. Semi retirement provides the options, but it's up to me to provide the decisions and actions.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
(Dis)agreement among friends
I've been seeing some pretty rude comments between 'friends' on social networking sites. It's very hard to tell if they're meant as banter or if they really are being rather ill mannered towards each other. It does make me wonder at the etiquette of online communication - should it have the same rules applied as face to face, or is a greater degree of rudeness acceptable.
It's always seemed to me that I need to be a lot more careful with emails and forum posting. Computer text lacks the visual clues to indicate that a remark is banter (emoticons excepting). It's very easy to offend unintentionally. Plus, if offence is caused there's, the chance that the sender will never know that offence is caused - any apology for offence caused will also be delayed. Face to face, you'd soon realise if what you're saying goes against your listener's beliefs and could moderate or explain your comments.
I've had the experience of posting on a forum and using a particular word in a restricted context - another user read it in a wider context and, fortunately, laughed at the unintended insult. I think they realised what I'd actually meant.
Another time, a friend on facebook that I rarely meet had posted a series of diatribes against the break up of the forestry commission - an organisation I've never much liked. I either had to bite the bullet and ignore their comments, start an on line argument, or, as I did, just quietly defriended them. We met up a couple of months later and talked the issue through. I could see their points, and in a face to face situation, they could amicably see my view. We remain friends in real life but defriended on facebook.
There's a series of culture clashes online. The usual demarcations between classes and generations cease to exist. I have my sons as friends on facebook, something which is maybe needed for safety. But I really don't want to be privy to their 'playground banter', and I'm sure they don't want me seeing their peer group opinions and language. It would be good if you could have groups of friends, and interact only with the selected group(s) you want to. OK multiple accounts would do that and maybe it can be done anyway but I'm not savvy enough.
Text speak / spelling / grammar. OMG - I think that means oh my god. How lazy can people get. It's the responsibility of the sender to make what they send intelligible. I don't want to have extra effort unloaded on to me by lazy ****ers making me try to understand their sloppy typing. I know young people adopt a 'secret language' deliberately unintelligible to their elders - that's OK. I also know it is possible to get too worked up about one or two errors, but for many people there are some basic errors in their efforts which demonstrate they're really too idle to care. If you're one of these people careless with your grammar and spelling, please be a bit more careful.
If you didn't get the to, too, two, there, their, they're, you're, your usage then swot up.
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you're a teacher, thank the rest of society for providing you with a job and all you need to live and teach.
It's always seemed to me that I need to be a lot more careful with emails and forum posting. Computer text lacks the visual clues to indicate that a remark is banter (emoticons excepting). It's very easy to offend unintentionally. Plus, if offence is caused there's, the chance that the sender will never know that offence is caused - any apology for offence caused will also be delayed. Face to face, you'd soon realise if what you're saying goes against your listener's beliefs and could moderate or explain your comments.
I've had the experience of posting on a forum and using a particular word in a restricted context - another user read it in a wider context and, fortunately, laughed at the unintended insult. I think they realised what I'd actually meant.
Another time, a friend on facebook that I rarely meet had posted a series of diatribes against the break up of the forestry commission - an organisation I've never much liked. I either had to bite the bullet and ignore their comments, start an on line argument, or, as I did, just quietly defriended them. We met up a couple of months later and talked the issue through. I could see their points, and in a face to face situation, they could amicably see my view. We remain friends in real life but defriended on facebook.
There's a series of culture clashes online. The usual demarcations between classes and generations cease to exist. I have my sons as friends on facebook, something which is maybe needed for safety. But I really don't want to be privy to their 'playground banter', and I'm sure they don't want me seeing their peer group opinions and language. It would be good if you could have groups of friends, and interact only with the selected group(s) you want to. OK multiple accounts would do that and maybe it can be done anyway but I'm not savvy enough.
Text speak / spelling / grammar. OMG - I think that means oh my god. How lazy can people get. It's the responsibility of the sender to make what they send intelligible. I don't want to have extra effort unloaded on to me by lazy ****ers making me try to understand their sloppy typing. I know young people adopt a 'secret language' deliberately unintelligible to their elders - that's OK. I also know it is possible to get too worked up about one or two errors, but for many people there are some basic errors in their efforts which demonstrate they're really too idle to care. If you're one of these people careless with your grammar and spelling, please be a bit more careful.
If you didn't get the to, too, two, there, their, they're, you're, your usage then swot up.
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
If you're a teacher, thank the rest of society for providing you with a job and all you need to live and teach.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Form filling
Just had two letter from the student finance people demanding information about my income.
I'm getting quite upset about the amount of information this particular department keep asking for, and seriously question why they're asking in the first place.
My son (2nd of 4) is at university. He's twenty. When it comes to child benefit, tax credits and the like he's considered a non dependent adult. When it comes to assessing his financial position he's still our dependent child.
Because I've taken early retirement, our family income has crashed. OK, I've asked for current year assessment of our income and given details. They've now asked for details and proof of my 2008/2009 income - Firstly I've already given them this information as my first son was at university over this time, secondly what possible bearing has that years income got on this years application?
This all comes after the hassle of filling in my annual self assessment tax form. I've got a very small self employed income and the amount of work it takes to record and fill in the forms positively encourages anyone to cheat and not declare small amounts of income.
This brings me to the big question. Is the government system meant to be serving us, the people, or are we meant to be slaves pandering to every whim of the government system.
Yes I know there's quite a bit of fraud going on, and I accept that if I 'try it on' the system should come down hard on me. BUT, I play by the rules and meticulously follow the advice I'm given - I'm still repeatedly hassled for the same information by different government departments, and the threatening tone the take BEFORE any wrongdoing has taken place is completely over the top.
Try chucking your telly out as I did a few years ago and see if officialdom assumes your innocence when it comes to not having a TV licence!
I've come across individuals working for the government who are friendly and helpful, and others who are right bureaucratic pains in the posterior; I'm not particularly having a go at the people who operate the system but the complexity of the systems and the alienation engendered by the assumption of guilt the letters they send so often have.
MPs are supposed to represent us and serve our needs, as are all the various civil servants.
If they wish to serve my needs, please provide simple transparent systems I can understand. I don't wish to avoid my responsibilities, but for heavens sake keep it all simple so I don't inadvertently break the law. I don't earn that much that I can afford (or justify) spending hundred or thousands of pounds on professional advisers. If I'm suspected of fraud, or for a random check, I'll cooperate with any investigation - up until the point anyone is found guilty of fraud, please treat us with a decent amount of respect.
I also didn't vote for any government to spend more than the country can afford, and certainly not to get us all into debt.
Re the strikes going on at the moment. 15,00 employees going from Lloyds, private pensions decimated by G Brown changes to pension taxes. Government employees need to have a look at the world outside before they think they're hard done by.
Re Greek riots. They're not helping anybody, but I can't help wondering why the British people aren't on the streets rioting about things like the national debt, officialdoms attitudes, stupid priorities...
I'm getting quite upset about the amount of information this particular department keep asking for, and seriously question why they're asking in the first place.
My son (2nd of 4) is at university. He's twenty. When it comes to child benefit, tax credits and the like he's considered a non dependent adult. When it comes to assessing his financial position he's still our dependent child.
Because I've taken early retirement, our family income has crashed. OK, I've asked for current year assessment of our income and given details. They've now asked for details and proof of my 2008/2009 income - Firstly I've already given them this information as my first son was at university over this time, secondly what possible bearing has that years income got on this years application?
This all comes after the hassle of filling in my annual self assessment tax form. I've got a very small self employed income and the amount of work it takes to record and fill in the forms positively encourages anyone to cheat and not declare small amounts of income.
This brings me to the big question. Is the government system meant to be serving us, the people, or are we meant to be slaves pandering to every whim of the government system.
Yes I know there's quite a bit of fraud going on, and I accept that if I 'try it on' the system should come down hard on me. BUT, I play by the rules and meticulously follow the advice I'm given - I'm still repeatedly hassled for the same information by different government departments, and the threatening tone the take BEFORE any wrongdoing has taken place is completely over the top.
Try chucking your telly out as I did a few years ago and see if officialdom assumes your innocence when it comes to not having a TV licence!
I've come across individuals working for the government who are friendly and helpful, and others who are right bureaucratic pains in the posterior; I'm not particularly having a go at the people who operate the system but the complexity of the systems and the alienation engendered by the assumption of guilt the letters they send so often have.
MPs are supposed to represent us and serve our needs, as are all the various civil servants.
If they wish to serve my needs, please provide simple transparent systems I can understand. I don't wish to avoid my responsibilities, but for heavens sake keep it all simple so I don't inadvertently break the law. I don't earn that much that I can afford (or justify) spending hundred or thousands of pounds on professional advisers. If I'm suspected of fraud, or for a random check, I'll cooperate with any investigation - up until the point anyone is found guilty of fraud, please treat us with a decent amount of respect.
I also didn't vote for any government to spend more than the country can afford, and certainly not to get us all into debt.
Re the strikes going on at the moment. 15,00 employees going from Lloyds, private pensions decimated by G Brown changes to pension taxes. Government employees need to have a look at the world outside before they think they're hard done by.
Re Greek riots. They're not helping anybody, but I can't help wondering why the British people aren't on the streets rioting about things like the national debt, officialdoms attitudes, stupid priorities...
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