Monday, June 26, 2006

Adventure Documentary - A Question.

Just finished watching the National Geographic - Journey of Man - hosted by Dr. Spencer Wells. An extraordinary scientific quest to find out the ancient lineage of mankind. His quest takes him to various parts of the world - from Kalahari Deserts of Africa to the sub 100 degree celcius frozen parts of northern Russia, and that makes me ask a question. Are these adventure stories shot first hand or the paths are traced back only when the success is achieved?

The same question irked me when I watched 'Mystries of the Nile' - where in it shows the close escapes the travellers had - once being attacked by the natives and again by aligators. If these scenes were true, then did the cameraman really choose to caputre the moment in the camera over saving his collegues life? Also the commentry by the protagonist during the trip on actual places seems like he is confident that the trip will end. Moreover if the cameraman was with the protagonist, then why is he/his name not highlighted?

Another question to my list of questions. :-)

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Surprise Dreaming

I got up yesterday with a tingy feeling. I had faint recollection of my dream and what went through the dream surprised me, I asked myself a question. Is it possible that we get surprised while we are dreaming (not day dreaming)?

I believe we have a conscious and a subconscious (may be a super-conscious). When we are sleeping our conscious is sleeping, it is out subconscious that is active. The emotion of surprise involves two entities, the 'event' which creates surprise and entity which 'experiences' it. These two have to be decoupled from each other and incaypable of sharing information. The question then boils down to is - Is subconscious that creates the events or the one that experiences it when we are dreaming while sleeping? Or is it doing both? I rule of the possibility of doing both, by the same reasoning that it is not possible for our conscious to create an event and itself be surprised by the experience of the event. So the subconscious has to be the 'event' creator or the 'experiencer'. And if its either of one what is the other level of cognition that perform the other task?

:-?

Monday, June 19, 2006

After a long time.

Its three quarters over now, I remember I started blogging first to write about myself, my experiences my thoughts, but as time passed this blog was more of stuff that I wrote just for the sake of writing. I like new things, things that give my 'thought' a chance to wonder. But soon that wonder wears off and the things once of deep interst and fervent passion fades away in time. So has been this blog. But thats me, my nature to get over things very quickly and thats what I have to inprove to find a stable souce of joy, a 'non-event based joy'. We are all involved in 'events' in our lives, most of the times so deeply engrossed that we fail to realize that they are events that we are living and some that event with find its natural death and we will smoothly transition to the next event, ...life goes on.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Book Reviews - Apr - June 2006

Seems I am lagging a bit from my resolution of one book per months. From the last beeok review in March . I have only been able to complete two books, though I had strarted three others but lost interest in between.

4. Ayurveda and Panchakarma - Sunil V Joshi
Rating - ****
Borrowed this book from Nitin, when my interest in Ayurveda was high (somehow its experiencing the shallows right now). This book, though talks about advanced treatment techniques of 'Panchkarma', is a nice read even for beginners. The first half of the book is dedicated towards the basic principles and fundamental understanding of Ayurveda. The language is simple yet explains the concepts in a wholesome way. I'd recommend this book for anyone wanting to know in brief what this Indian science is all about. I did not pay much attention to the panchakarma part as it was getting more involved and needs proper experiential knowledge to fully grasp the technique.

5. Many Lives Many Masters - Dr Brian Weiss
Rating - ***
Do you believe in life after death. Or life after death after life after death. Dr Brian Weiss did not but his real life experience with one of his patients made him believe in it. This is his first book in the series where he shares his past life regression experience while treating his patients. I liked the book because I believe in many of the concepts shared in the book ( though some of them seems bit unconvincing), but if what he writes is true, then its helps to bolster my beliefs. What I also about the book is that, he does not waste his energies in convincing the reader with examples, that its not a work of fiction, he merely states his experience and let the reader decide for himself about its verity. The negative part is the it becomes too obvious and repetitive towards the end.

6. My Reminisences - Rabindranath Tagore (***)
Given the greatness of the author I feel I am incompetent to review the book. I have not read much (read any!) Tagore literature, so my incapability to comprehend his artistic form of writing. I was indeed mesmerized by his childhood thoughts and life and was motivated to read his poems and writings(although I have still not done so), but I felt I was not there yet to really appreciate the book. Also it became too much factual details at the end, which, given my interests in autobiographies for the perspective of the author about life, was something that gave me a reason to remain unsatisfied.

7. Self Unfoldment (Next in line)
8. Freedom at Midnight
9. My Experiments with truth

a. Thoughts Without a Thinker - Mark Epstein (Gave Up)
b. Collapse - Jared Diamond - (Will pick up later)