The Theremin Temple

Fred needs rest,

I wish I could think of something marvelous to say but today I am simple minded. The only thought that comes to mind is the physics of the universe you know now are not the same physics of long ago. Where did the old physics go? Your knowledge is extremely limited no matter how hard you try and reason everything out as you are trapped in time.

When an idea passes to me from where ever I base its validity on value and feedback from the community. The man, my uncle, who began my journey in electronic exploring was totally blind. He accomplished things as a hobbyist that baffles me today. I mostly laughed every time he came up with an idea.

Free energy or listening for ghosts were two of his favorites.

Hollywood today jumps on folklore and "desensitizes" the community with movies that may be more realistic than fiction. If you ever watch the movie "The Book of Eli" it is about an inspired journey few will come close too.

Are people inspired today to achieve great things?  Of course if they have learned to listen.

Christopher

Fred you are talking about the 'numinous' this is the stuff that dreams are made of..and it's the stuff people make Jesuses out of.It's a strange sense of 'presence' that can be 'communed' with and made into whatever diety/person we think it might be.I think this numinous 'something' has to do with the bilateral symmetry of the brain ie the two haves we have and one side sometimes 'echoes' into the other side thus precipitating (sometimes spontaneously)this strange sense of 'presence' which can be angelic/godlike or demonic or long dead uncle Bob depending on the person.

Oh RS theremin I didn't have a talking machine just twiddled some knobs on my diode altered theremin.

It also occurred to me Fred that the theremin with it's two oscillators which interact to make sound is very like the two hemispheres of the brain that interact to make the numinous.

Hi IJ..

Interesting points about the numinous - and about theremins! I love this kind of thinking - connecting completely different ideas in a way which seems to make some kind of sense until someone (like me) dismantles it! LOL ;-)

I dont actually expierience "numinous" at all - I never have.. Perhaps I expierience it in my dreams, but if I do, I dont remember these.. Perhaps this is why I break my analysis of "communion" down to purely "rational" hypotheses - even if these venture into areas where hypotheses are useless, as they cannot be validated or tested or sometimes even communicated - the murky worlds of metaphysics and "spirituality".

In fact, a few times I have expierienced perhaps the opposite of numinous - I have lost almost all sense of "presence" - it has been "unreal" .. I can be standing in the countryside (this usually happens when I am alone, in a beautiful place like St Ives, surrounded by nature and viewing the sea) and suddenly everything becomes almost "transparent" - nothing has any substance, including me.. There is no "3d" quality (this is the first thing I notice) it becomes like looking at a painting... And no, its not the result of taking mind-altering substances, I gave them all up 20+ years ago, and was never into anything except a little weed now and then - and I dont drink much - glass of wine a week at most.

I have tried to just "melt" into the picture, or to "float" into it.. but anything I try to do in this strange state just teminates the state - so I have learned to just "be" in it, to avoid thinking about it - and, most important, to dispel the fear which I first felt on expieriencing it.. First time it happened I thought I was having a stroke or something.

Fred.

Ok so I was thinking of doing a mod to my EWplus. I want the pitch range switch on there. I'm under the impression it should be pretty easy. Just a tri rocker with a couple resistors post pitch pot. 1 switch a through for bass, then the mid rock w/ a resistor for mids and a slightly higher value resistor for highs. Will this work ya think? I could then tune for the low end and switch up to mids all quick like and not have to lose linearity. Or how about installing a phone jack so that I can plug a Vol. control pedal into it and use my foot to alter the pitch knob. 

The switch sounds better.

Any advice before I start hacking away at it would be helpful

Fred you said;

"In fact, a few times I have expierienced perhaps the opposite of numinous - I have lost almost all sense of "presence" - it has been "unreal" .. I can be standing in the countryside (this usually happens when I am alone, in a beautiful place like St Ives, surrounded by nature and viewing the sea) and suddenly everything becomes almost "transparent" - nothing has any substance, including me.. There is no "3d" quality (this is the first thing I notice) it becomes like looking at a painting..."

invisiblejelly says;

"I think Fred that kind of perception may be when the hemispheres of the brain are balanced which is kind of like the null point on the theremin.To feel again the numinous one has to unbalance the hemispheres again or pull something from the right side (if one is left hemisphere dominant)ie from the right temporal lobe which is where the 'gods' live..to get there one has to cross the rainbow bridge (corpus calosum) this can be done in many ways but usually some kind of extreme primal emotional pull is necessary like when you believe someone died for you so you can be ok or 'restored' in life the universe and everything and feel that god like presence 'again'.This activates the right temporal lobe(the ancients had this down to a fine art as sophisticated as any science today) and capow you feel a 'presence' and one can proceed to make a homemade Jesus out of it.Or you can put on Michael Persinger's  'god helmet'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02UlkYjSi0

this is a frightening kind of reductionism it turns religion into silliness but it doesn't mean that the 'presence' or the numinous isn't something real...that presence may just use the right temporal lobe to manifest it's influence..

That was a nice documentary Invis, I enjoy Morgan Freeman as a narrator.

The question the researcher raises is do metaphysical events occur in our mind or do they have other origins. Of course we have an organ that can sense these things as we are human. As I have had both experiences metaphysical and madness there is a distinct difference as one is productive and the other is to often destructive. This is why community is so important in everyone's life for guidance.

The problem I have with the experiment is, it is the same as putting a person in a dark quiet room for a while and then shining a pen light in their eye organ then asking was the experience within your brain or from some outside source. The answer is obvious, the event was experienced in the brain and sensed by another organ, as my blind uncle that got me started in electronics will attest. His had boyhood memories from 80 years ago. Blinded within year from two separate kid pranks and he did not even have a BB gun!#$%

No this is not heaven...   Does light exist?

An engineer would probably miss the point of the experiment! LOL

Christopher

I have removed this technical posting (reply to Niels question above) from the temple, as it is not, IMO, at home here.

Now moved to HERE

Chris,

I think your (and my) "problem" is that it is probably impossible to get the two "models" (physical / "metaphysical"/"spiritual") to co-exist in a "functional" way..

For me, there are times that the "physical" seems like absolute bullshit - like it "cannot" be - And there are times that every "metaphysical" or "spiritual" concept seems like utter bullshit, and "cannot be" .. And there are times when I feel like I am utter bullshit, and I "cannot be".

I can usually find "enough" which makes some kind of "sense" within the physical model - but not enough to entirely convince me.. There can never be enough to entirely convince me of anything - for the simple reason that there are hypotheses which might be valid, but which are entirely untestable.. And I cannot know that any "data" I am getting is "real".

None of the above would probably make any difference or bother me one iota if I was stupid and happy. But perhaps being "clever" and unhappy is the stupidest state to be in!

"I know it sounds absurd - please tell me who I am.."

Fred.

I perceive Fred that you are happy when you are focused giving great technical explanations that will help someone understand something correctly...ie you lost yourself in the tech..and this is the only way to be happy ie loose yourself in something in a focused way...and being able to share that.Metaphysical stuff trying to convince yourself of this or that won't cut the mustard...when I was young I lost myself in star trek and one of the happiest moments of my life was in the desert (I was opal mining with my dad) with my back to a warm camp fire looking up at the stars and pissing at the same time while thinking how great it would be to explore the universe in a star ship...http://chirb.it/hIdmfI  I lost myself in that..that's the way to be happy..