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Yesterday, National Public Radio ran a story “Blind Man ‘Sees’” that was extremely interesting from a psychic perspective.

It took almost 50 years, but slowly, slowly David Stewart went blind.

A former long-time executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C., Stewart has a hereditary disease, retinitis pigmentosa, which affects the rods and cones in his eyes. In his 20s, his vision narrowed. By the time he hit 80, he was almost totally blind.

But then he discovered that sometimes blindness comes with a bonus.

One day while listening to a book on tape — 1776 by David McCullough — he heard how American sailors helped George Washington sneak cannons and horses across the Hudson River to escape the British.

As Stewart mused about those sailors, very strangely, one of them appeared in his head — not a dreamy fantasy, but a vivid, highly detailed, very real-like hallucination.

“He had on a cap, a blue cap with a polished black beak and he had a pipe in his mouth.” The sailor gazed right at Stewart. Then he winked. Stewart was amazed.

Stewart was, at this point, very blind. He had lost his memory for color — for blues, yellows and reds — and he lived in a black and white world. But when his sailor arrived, “There it was!” he exclaimed. “The first color I had seen for a considerable amount of time!”

After 30 minutes, the image faded, but others would follow. Paintings would come to life. Wallpaper would move. Mysterious curtains would appear. Stewart says he was never frightened, but he wondered what triggered all this.

I recommend you listen to the entire story. It is about 6 minutes long. Follow the Blind Man ‘Sees’ link above to the story and then click on “Listen Now” at the top of the article.

The story goes on to state that David Stewart has Charles Bonnet syndrome.

Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) is named after the Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet. In 1760 he described a condition in which vivid, complex visual hallucinations (fictive visual percepts) occur in mentally healthy people. One characteristic of these hallucinations is that they usually are “lilliput hallucinations” (hallucinations in which the characters or objects may be smaller, larger, or regular size). He first documented it in his 89-year-old grandfather, who was nearly blind from cataracts in both eyes but perceived men, women, birds, carriages, buildings, tapestries, and scaffolding patterns.

Most who are affected by this are people with visual impairments due to old age, damage to the eyes or optic pathways. In particular, central vision loss due to a condition such as macular degeneration combined with peripheral vision loss from glaucoma may predispose to CBS, although most people with such deficits do not develop the syndrome.

The National Public Radio story quotes an ophthalmologist that states “it’s very common” and perhaps 10 percent of people who lose their sight develop Charles Bonnet syndrome.

In fact sighted people develop this condition if they wear a blindfold for an extended period of time. See “Visual Hallucinations During Prolonged Blindfolding in Sighted Subjects”.

Abstract:

The authors report the occurrence of visual hallucinations of varying complexity in 13 normal subjects after sudden, complete, and prolonged visual deprivation. The subjects were all healthy individuals with no history of cognitive dysfunction, psychosis, or ocular pathology. They wore a specially designed blindfold for a period of five consecutive days (96 hours) and were asked to record their daily experiences using a hand-held microcassette recorder. Ten (77%) of the subjects reported visual hallucinations, which were both simple (bright spots of light) and complex (faces, landscapes, ornate objects). The onset of hallucinations was generally after the first day of blindfolding. Subjects were insightful as to their unreal nature. These results indicate that rapid and complete visual deprivation is sufficient to induce visual hallucinations in normal subjects.

The audio portion of the Nation Public Radio story goes on quote researchers speculating about the cause of the hallucinations. I have a different idea. I propose that a significant number of the people who have been deprived of sight or hearing are not hallucinating but are receiving sixth sense information through their unused neural pathways of vision or hearing. And I believe these people will be useful to researchers in the future in the studying how psychic data presents itself to the brain.

Others have thought about people simultaneously having the same invention or discovery. There have been studies done and papers written about it. Some have pondered the effects a man of ideas has vs. the effects a man of action has on the world. And some have even concluded that when near-simultaneous invention happened, it must have been “an idea whose time is ripe”. And someone else would have made the same discovery… but when a man of action is silenced, the future is changed.

I don’t agree. Ideas change the world. And the most interesting thing to ponder is, where do world changing ideas actually originate?

Of course some people believe the future is already written. See George W. Bush, addressing U.S. troops at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait (Jan. 12, 2008) and Bushisms.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, when history was written, the final page will say: ‘Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world.’

Note: The first news media article changed the quote. On purpose, I think. Bush actually said, “…when history was written…”. I saw actual video of the speech.

And having a US President believing in the rapture and starting a shooting war in Iraq isn’t a good thing. “The rapture is not an exit strategy”.

Newton and Leibniz simultaneously discovered calculus. I would have said that Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray simultaneously discovered the telephone except … (See my entry on The Study of History). And there are many other examples. An interesting philosophical side note is that the American patent system is “the first to discover” not “the first to file” as is most of Europe.

Statistical studies of patent applications show that discovery are are seldom simultaneous or near-simultaneous. I would argue that not all discoveries change the world in the same way. And using statistics as an analysis tool doesn’t really uncover Gaia affecting the consciousness of people. The Universe doesn’t really care if Amazon.com has a patent for one-click shopping or not.

Some ideas are important to the Gaia consciousness while others are not. The ideas that change consciousness and change the world are the areas of evolution where Gaia might work. These ideas help to evolve the Gaia consciousness. (See my entry on Dream Connections for the mechanism on how changing human thoughts changes the Gaia consciousness.)

Some discoveries and inventions that have changed the world are the discovery of fire, splitting the atom, and the Internet. The Internet is analogous to an additional nervous system for the planet, greatly expanding the spreading of news and ideas. And responsible for the creation of this blog.

(Movies are also a tool that spreads new ideas and thoughts to a great many people. See my entry The Last Mimzy is the best Mimzy).

It is possible to completely change a society in a single generation. The nation of South Africa is an example of sweeping changes in a short period of time.

Many religions are in currently in need of broad changes in thinking and practice. There is now some evidence that some of these religions may be starting to change for the better. In the words of Mohandas Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

For some evidence, see an Associated Press article by Kelli Kennedy about a new strain of Christianity and Donald Miller’s book “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” (2003).

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Donald Miller still loves God and Jesus. Don’t misunderstand him.

His problem is with Christianity, at least how it’s often practiced.

An idea whose time has come?

 From Digging In the Right Place by David Sirota.

In a move making health care lobbyists quiver, Washington state Sen. Karen Keiser (D), chairwoman of her legislature’s powerful health committee, this week introduced the nation’s most far-reaching universal health care proposal. Her legislation is the American West’s version of a parallel Wisconsin initiative, and the replication suggests this model may begin building the universal health care system our country wants.

The plan is simple: Employers and employees pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here’s the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade.

I remember studying history during my school years and my father constantly repeating “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”. I have never liked studying history from school approved text books. History books are written by the winners.

Despite assertions by Andrew Keen, author of “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture” (2007), we need the internet to create connections between people and keep information alive. For a critical review of “The Cult of the Amateur” see David Harsanyi at Reason Magazine.

I have always wondered about the path of Albert Einstein’s (1879-1955) career. From patent clerk to brilliance and international fame, followed by 50 years of little that is remarkable. It makes much more sense that his first wife either collaborated with him or was completely responsible for his first two papers. See Mileva Maric: Mother of the Theory of Relativity by Meryl Ann Butler.

Another new book re-examines the discovery of the key component of the telephone:
“The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret” by Seth Shulman (2008). Check out the Amazon.com review by Jeffrey M. Musser.

One of the goals of my blog is to keep spiritual history and spiritual knowledge alive.

I worked at a psychic fair just over a month ago and met Sue. Sue was a Reiki practitioner and we spent some time talking about spiritual topics. I suspect that she was very good at Reiki because whenever she moved her hands I could feel waves of energy that trailed off them; like spreading waves from a passing barge hitting the shore. I could even feel the effect from 40 feet away but it took a second after she moved until I felt the wave.

Sue also was selling magnetic magnetic bracelets from a leading manufacturer. I didn’t think at the time that wearing magnets would affect a person’s health, but I decided to be open minded and give it a try.

I haven’t studied the medical literature on wearing magnets. I suspect it says the same thing that the scientific literature says about psychic phenomena. When looking for psychic effects, if you believe in psychics, your study has a positive result. If you do not believe, your study is inconclusive or negative.

On a side note, I propose that science needs to borrow a page from anthropologists and study psychics in situ instead of in the lab.

I don’t normally get headaches but over the last five and a half weeks I have headache four times. I suspect that my eye glass prescription has changed a bit. Each time after putting the bracelet on, my headache was gone within five minutes. Scientifically conclusive, no, but interesting.

One thing I did not suspect was that wearing a bracelet would affect my dreams. I know there is no way to quantify this, and the general public would not be able to perceive the effect, but when I wear the bracelet to bed I had a much higher percentage of paranormal dreams compared to normal dreams. And my percentage of dreams recalled in the morning is much higher. In fact when I wear the bracelet to bed, I will remember the last three or four dreams I had before I woke up, instead of just one.

Here are some other blogs of mine that may relate to magnetic phenomena:

Gaia’s Magnetic Field
Deciphering the Crop Circle Code
The Cloud’s of Satun
The Magneurol 6S Advantage (Hint on this one: read the ingredients.)

Your homework is to investigate magnetic fields and see what you can find.

I would love to tell you that crop circles have a code and I have broken the code. Even more than that, I would love to tell you that you decode the code yourself. You just print out pictures from the Internet and put them up in a row on a bulletin board and you will figure it out. But the way that I propose the code will be broken is not that easy.

Every place on this planet has a unique “frequency” (or “feeling”). (See The Frequency of Trees post for more info on frequency.) If you travel to a place and meditate there, the frequency of that place becomes part of your “vocabulary”, building your ability to communicate in the language of frequency. This method of communication is called telepathy. (See the Energetic Broadcast of Emotions post for more information about telepathy.) Now only certain places on Earth actually have unique frequencies that are useful to building your language; spiritual places like Giza, Machu Picchu. (See my Sacred Bigfoot post for more information about sacred places.)

Also to break the code, you must be a skilled in meditation and able to maintain non-thought during your meditation. (See The Beauty of Questions Part III for more information about non-thought.)

Another think I would like to tell you is that you can Remote View these places and get the frequency of the place. (See Remote Viewing Downtown Portland for more information.) But you need the frequency of a place to Remote View that place. It is possible to get the frequency of a person or place by looking at pictures.  But most pictures of crop circles don’t include unique features in the country side, just an aerial view of the circle itself.

The real trick will be figuring out which circles are real paranormal phenomena and which are hoaxes. No point in traveling to and meditating at the hoaxes.

The New Year in the United States brings another Presidential election. Significant because three of the last four Presidents have served the two term limit maximum of eight years. I see two problems that prevent us from selecting the best possible government. I believe the current format of head-to-head debates used in Presidential elections highlights memorized arguments and showmanship instead of service record, voting record, stated positions, and follow through on stated positions. Secondly, I believe many voters suffer from a lack of knowledge about the individual candidate’s resume, history, voting records and stated positions.

I will my contribution to the fray to floating two simple ideas derived from the out of print and little known Marc Steigler book David’s Sling (Baen Books, 1988). I recommend you purchase a used copy and read the book.

My first idea is to use a process similar to the book to find answers to problems the government faces, and to help us find the best possible person to lead the administrative branch of the next government.

The book David’s Sling is about living in the information age. The main social force in the book is a humanitarian institute appropriately named The Zetetic Institute.

From The Free Dictionary - Zetetic

a. 1. Seeking; proceeding by inquiry.
Zetetic method
(Math.) the method used for finding the value of unknown quantities by direct search, in investigation, or in the solution of problems.
- Hutton.
n. 1. A seeker; - a name adopted by some of the Pyrrhonists.

In the book, the fictional Zetetic Institute trains people to make the best possible decisions; and they also teach a successful class but also fictional on quitting smoking.

To see a longer quote from the book, see windsofchange.net

The Institute recognized three broad classes of decisions, and three broad methods of decision-making: engineering decisions, political decisions, and unresolvable decisions….

Zeteticism had recognized an important truth: the choice between politics and engineering is always an engineering decision. The decision duel technique made its most important contributions on issues that looked and tasted political, but were actually engineering decisions at heart.

The information decision duel is a fascinating literary device that I haven’t found in the real world. Basically it is a moderated, open book, high school debate on computers. Each duel seeks to find the best answer to an important question. An appropriate person (duelist) is selected to champion each of the two points of view. The duels are broadcast in real time to the country (I assume on the internet). The viewing public sees their screen divided into three sections. One section for each of the two duelists, and one section for the moderator, in the center. Each duelist lists there arguments on the their side of the screen.

Moderators are trained by the institute to recognize the types of arguments and decision making. The moderator uses a colored light pen to point out the arguments. Each argument is circled with a color. The specific color indicates the specific type of argument.

See Evaluating Arguments: Two Helpful Concepts for more information.

An arrow indicated where the other duelist refutes an argument. Also the duels are open book. Anyone watching can send a message (an email I presume) to either duelist adding information or arguments that may prove useful to finding the best possible answer.

My second idea is the creation of an information era page to sort, hold, summarize and detail the pertinent information about each elected official in our government and each candidate for elected office. A large task, no doubt; perhaps Google could handle it.

So when you sit down at there computer and decide to check on your government or the next election, you can, with a few clicks of the mouse. You go to www.somewherenotyethere.gov and enter your zip code. Up pops a tree that starts with your local city council and mayor and leads all the way up to the President of the United States. During election years, elections are highlighted. All candidates get equal space. There is a bio, resume, voting record and position papers for each candidate, along with an executive summary for people who just want the highlights.

The site is moderated so that it is not just propaganda. Each candidate is allowed a link to their own personal website where they can publish anything they desire.

The cornerstone of the web site is position papers; a sort of Monroe Doctrine for each of preselected set of issues (e.g. immigration, health care, taxation, size of government, the war in Iraq, etc.). Each candidate can submit their position paper on each issue. Over time, Moderators grade each candidate on how closely their actual performance in office matches their stated positions. Candidates are allowed to change their positions but each change is noted and highlighted.