Fiona

Thes best technique that worked for me was to get in to the habit of asking myself every so often if I was dreaming and answering the question. Once it becomes a habit you inevitably end up asking the same question of yourself when you are dreaming and 'bingo'! When I was first experimenting with lucidity I had lots of lucid dreams, and found myself incredibly tired all of the time, so somehow it interfered with the quality of my sleep. I guess this might be a clue as to what is actually happening to the sleep/thought centres in the brain - but it is still pretty mysterious :) "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig"

:) Having studied it at degree level I am certainly not unfamiliar with Biology, but then that was about 16 years ago. Things may have evolved since then, obvioulsy not me, I am an evolutionary throwback :hihi: "Never teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

I have lucid dreams frequently. I become aware that I am dreaming and make the conscious decision that I can do/say anything I want to as a result. My first concern is always to avoid waking because I want to control the experience of lucidity and to explore the dream environment for as long as I possibly can. Often times I can manage a reasonable length of time, enough time to interact with characters, explore places/rooms in detail and act. I notice things which I recognise as fragments of things in my conscious waking world, I pick up books and try to read them to see if my brain has the ability to create coherent text in a dream. I have all the mental capabilities, curiosity and critical questioning I have in waking life, and yet I am physically asleep, probably snoring:shrug: Maybe even dribbling :) Does anyone know how this is possible? How can a body be asleep and yet consciously awake all at the same time? I don't understand much about brain functioning, or sleep and I have found it completely baffling.:shrug: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig"

Some issues, there are many others I think. (1) Statistically what are the chances of the components in the primordial soup combining to create the first cell? (2) Is it possible that random mutations most often observed to have deleterious affects on organisms have really been responsible for building strength, adaptation and resilience in to populations? (3) How can complex systems within the body have developed their component parts over time when in reality they only really make sense and only confer advantage when used simultaneously? (4) Would adaptations like eyes, flight etc. really be sufficiently advantageous to an animal unless in their finished form? (5) Some animals seem to have developed characteristics that are biologically costly rather than advantageous to them. For e.g. - Why did some dinosaurs get so big? (6) If animals went through an evolutionary process why have we not found innumerable transitional forms in the fossil record? Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

Hello Bill and thank you for the welcome:) Experiments in to the extent to which evidence could be falsified would be fascinating and would have scientific merit. My hunch is that with the right knowledge, resources, persistence and creativity most things can be reproduced in such a way that they appear to be authentic. This said, you were correct in raising the necessity to learn more about the methods of scientific scrutiny certain pieces of evidence in the sasqatch story have been subject to. "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

My goodness Turtle, you're right! - how bizarre..., there's virtually no difference - and they are just as elusive and cunning as the beast itself - what are we waiting for? I'll bring the coffee, you bring the pig :hihi: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

Agreed. These people are essentially paying to become modern day mummies in a bid to gain eternal life. In several thousand years someone will crack open the caskets to study them and the belief systems that led to their existence - sound familiar? "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig"

Thank you for your comments :doh: . The trouble with these damn varmit hoaxers is that they appear to get a real kick out of it and I reckon they are very active and possibly organised in to networks or groups. I bet they spend every spare moment dreaming up and implementing new and inventive ways of pulling off their scams and watching all of the drama that follows - having a good old belly laugh. I guess there is something both intellectually challenging and creative in trying to pit your wits, intelligence and ingenuity against others, particularly those who claim to have 'expertise' - and perhaps there is something purposeful and helpful to the scientific contingent as well as people in general in hoaxers showing that 'experts' can be duped - but you have to admit, they are a real pain in the butt. :hihi: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

Ok so I think I meant Cryonics! - Sorry Folks!

I once saw a documentary about crop circles in which this perfectly ordinary bloke and his side kick (responsible for making crop circles with their home made 'stomper' device) were charged with the challenge of demonstrating beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could convincingly fake a crop cirlce over night. They did so working methodically and tirelessly and produced an impressive, complex and familiar pattern in the corn, a typical crop circle. They showed how they used a rope to make perfect circles, how they entered and exited without detection and without leaving a trace amongst other secrets of their trade. It was all surprisingly simple. Scientific 'experts' were then brought in. They were told that the circle had appeared overnight and that it was not possible to determine how. They were then asked to cast a very critical eye over it and to give an overview of what they thought had caused it. They were also asked whether they thought it could have been faked by any method. They took measurements, number crunched, studied breaks in the corn, the patterns of the flattening of the corn, directions and studied the wider site for evidence of recent human activity etc., and appeared to take their task very seriously. They then drew up their conclusions. The consensus given was that the circle defied reasonable explanation and could not have been produced by hoaxers. Reasons were given as to why this was the case and convincing evidence based comments and observations were provided to support this. I found it painful to watch and was extremely embarrassed for them. Ever since then I have lost my faith....... Obvioulsy I don't know enough about the sasquatch to make a determination in that specific case, but when you've got hoaxers at large seemingly able and motivated to use their ingenuity to produce a range of impressive results, and examples of where 'experts' have been so easily duped by such attempts it creates tremendous problems. "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It doesn't work and annoys the pig."

I am really interested to hear people's views about whether they feel medical science will ever advance sufficiently to revive people who pay thousands of pounds to have their bodies, or heads cryogenically stored? Surely this is so far from the realms of possibility as to make it utter nonsense? For myself, it feels a little like clever a modern day scam, based on little more than fantasy and science fiction, taking large amounts of cash in exchange for something which people will never be able to complain about if they don't receive. Customers can be tricky, dead ones on the other hand don't tend to make too many demands. To make matters worse I saw a programme recently in which relatives of people who had been cryogenically stored were saying things like, "It gives me comfort to think I might see them one day, that they aren't really dead.." - this was quite a common theme, so people's grief also appears to be being exploited somewhat.:naughty: If we were going to try to attain mortality isn't it more sensible to augment our bodies while we are alive and well, rather than to wait until they are dead and damaged and then subject them to further damage through the process of cryogenics? "Never try to teach a pig to sing, it doesn't work and annoys the pig"

Testing the use of different fonts etc. "test test test"

My goodness! you certainly dont disappoint. Loved your idea but boy oh boy is it mind boggling? :shrug: After all of your hard work you really deserve to have it scrutinised by somebody with more of a brain for this sort of thing. If only I could understand it as well as I would like! -I had periods of deep frowning, scribbling on paper, followed by 'aah!' - eureka moments - then deep frowning again B) . Enjoyed it tremendously! I am going to study it carefully and come up with something very intelligent to say, just you wait and see!

Oddly enough I display synesthesia and have taken part in a research study online. My cross associations are between colours and days of the week, numbers and letters. The thing is, the associations I made during my meditation between colours and musical notes did not feel like synesthesia to me. During my meditation the different musical notes corresponded to different colours, in so far as they were in fact one and the same, made of the same stuff, but just projected differently somehow. I actually heard the notes. Also the colours were not just flat, they seemed to have shape and form, like 3 dimensional images. However, I could not tell you which colour corresponded to which note, and it was the first time I had ever had this insight. In synesthesia on the other hand I know clearly what corresponds with what, the associations are all safely within the constructs of my own mind, flat and fairly boring. Tuesday is yellow and always has been for as long as I can remember as is Saturday and the number 2, where as Sunday is red, Wednesday chestnut brown etc. In contrast this seems far more ordinary and mundane to me! I apologise if I am making little sense:shrug: Of course I cant speak for Orbsycli, so I guess it would be interesting to hear from them.

The original post by Orbsycli was fascinating and made perfect sense to me. How wonderful it must be to connect with the world at this instinctual level and how eloquently expressed. I used to meditate regularly. Once I fell in to a deeply relaxed state bordering sleep. The blackness in front of my eyes deepened and then familiar dancing patterns and lights emerged. However, one bright light was different because it seemed to have a mind of it's own, smudging it's way across my vision, I followed it and rather surprisingly it came towards me. I felt an energy in my body build and I could see my room in vivid colour through my closed eyelids. I heard many musical notes building together like an orchestra, becoming louder and louder - and with them colours, beautiful rainbow colours like penetrating crystals. The noise of the notes became deafening and it scared me. I opened my eyes with a start and everything was completely silent, still and ordinary again. I find it hard to make any sense of this, except to say that it felt to me at that time as if the colours were a representation of the musical notes and vice versa, and that somehow this was a key to understanding something fundamental about the world and my existence in it. I wonder if any of this relates in any way to some of the points raised by Orbsycli.