Last night was a another landmark in what seems to be an endless stream of political change, with Republicans making a comeback at the climax of a long and bitter election year. Change, of course, had been the motto two years ago for President Barack Obama, and now, it seems that it is still a common theme, regardless of people’s individual political leanings and beliefs.
Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, speaking this morning after his electoral win last night, said “I don’t see last night so much as a victory for one party or another. I see it as a victory for the American people. And I think they are going to stay engaged in this process.” Similar remarks were made by the likes of Ohio Congressman (and likely soon to be Speaker of the House) John Boehner, as well as his political opponent, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But truth be known, perhaps there is more behind this than the more obvious political overtones.
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It’s a ridiculous claim, indeed. However, speculation persists nonetheless among certain individuals about whether our Commander in Chief might be from elsewhere in the cosmos:
With His Head in the Stars: Obama’s Strange Spirituality
Apparently I’m also one of these individuals, though to be fair, my speculation on the matter extends no further than lighthearted humor. Nonetheless, it brings to mind a few aspects of Obama’s presidency thus far that have actually had to do with UFOs, and which could be examined in a somewhat more serious capacity than the notion of his residence on this planet as a law-abiding Earthling.
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How do ideas influence us from day to day? Is it possible to allow mindset and perspectives to ultimately destroy the messages we sometimes seek to offer those around us?
Erik at the Contact website recently did an interesting piece on how polarization that stems from a “memetic” mindset (building on the popular notion of the “meme” first proposed by Richard Dawkins in the 1970s) may actually affect the message of those who it seeks to reach. “There is nothing inherently wrong with a memetic mindset unless the mindset is one of division, polarity or a superiority complex in nature,” he argues, pointing to how this notion of polarization, plainly visible in politics, science, religion, and even the study of unusual phenomena, leads to an unhealthy divide that ousts and ostracizes the rational skeptic, who gets lost in a quagmire somewhere between the extremes.
Their are two major infectious memes plaguing the Paranormal Community today and they are easily recognized as the two camps known as the True Believers and the Debunkers leaving the precious few Skeptics scattered haphazardly and thinly throughout the middle somewhere.
Along with Erik’s ideas, Rick Stokes at The Anomalist added today that, “When zeal, memetic mindsets, hubris, and fervor overcome an individual by those gifted in persuasion, yet without true knowledge, we allow the harm of their polarity to affect us.” Have you ever felt that the messages conveyed under certain circumstances, whether by believer or debunker, left or right, spiritualist or agnostic, etc, is inherently flawed by virtue of its extremity? How often can people effectively juxtapose differing perspectives to compare and effectively analyze, giving the overall argument some kind of solid merit?
After years of scientific scrutiny being applied to ancient relics like the Shroud of Turin (which new studies have relied on in producing the “face of Jesus”), now one of the modern era’s most enigmatic ancient documents, the Voynich Manuscript, is undergoing closer study also, as depicted in a new documentary.
The document and its content, which have riddled scholars for centuries, depicts a variety of flora and fauna, as well as many strange cultural elements and various symbolism that have been associated with everything from early attempts at botany and the study of natural herbs and remedies, to medieval magic and alchemical studies. As has been the case with many documents from this its presumed era, a handful of scholars have gone so far as to offer the somewhat blase’ theory that it was penned by a young Leonardo Davinci.
The new studies, as reported by Fortean Times, represent what are perhaps some of the closest observations performed on the manuscript since previous carbon-14 testing performed at the University of Arizona, which dated it to the early 1400s.
Voynich Under the Microscope
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