143. Notes - swarm of souls / grammar of souls /

143. 7 June 2019

       Morning. You woke up early thinking how it was unfair to not include the 'Out of Africa' segment because they were just as important to mention as ayl the others; and, no you were not thinking of yourself, you were thinking of how it is for all of you to remind yourselves of all your ancestors once in a while. - Amorella

       1039 hours. We are all DNA related. We are all cousins (some are just closer than others) that's the way I look at us.

       Drop the "Out of Africa" segment in today, then reference to it in yesterday's blog. Any reader anywhere and anytime can surely see a little DNA of themselves somewhere in the National Geographic Geno II mix. - Amorella

** **

Note, this information is taken from Orndorff's DNA from the National Geographic. Geno II: Out of Africa. The rest of my information is in Note 143. The point is this is a demonstration of how we human beings on the planet and their ancestors are essentially cousins.

Out of Africa

Introduction to Orndorff's Story 

We will now take you back through the stories of your distant ancestors and show how the movements of their descendants gave rise to your lineage. 

Each segment on the map above represents the migratory path of successive groups that eventually coalesced to form your branch of the tree. We start with the marker for your oldest ancestor, and walk forward to more recent times, showing at each step the line of your ancestors who lived up to that point. 

What is a marker? Each of us carries DNA that is a combination of genes passed from both our mother and father, giving us traits that range from eye color and height to athleticism and disease susceptibility. As part of this process, the Y-chromosome is passed directly from father to son, unchanged, from generation to generation down a purely male line. Mitochondrial DNA, on the other hand, is passed from mothers to their children, but only their daughters pass it on to the next generation. It traces a purely maternal line. 

The DNA is passed on unchanged, unless a mutation—a random, naturally occurring, usually harmless change—occurs. The mutation, known as a marker, acts as a beacon; it can be mapped through generations because it will be passed down for thousands of years. 

When geneticists identify such a marker, they try to figure out when it first occurred, and in which geographic region of the world. Each marker is essentially the beginning of a new lineage on the family tree of the human race. Tracking the lineages provides a picture of how small tribes of modern humans in Africa tens of thousands of years ago diversified and spread to populate the world. 

Branch: L3
Age: 67,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: East Africa

This woman’s descendants would eventually account for both out-of-Africa maternal lineages, significant population migrations in Africa, and even take part in the Atlantic Slave Trade related dispersals from Africa. 

The common direct maternal ancestor to all women alive today was born in East Africa around 180,000 years ago. Dubbed “Mitochondrial Eve” by the popular press, she represents the root of the human family tree. Eve gave rise to two descendant lineages known as L0 and L1’2’3’4’5’6, characterized by a different set of genetic mutations their members carry. 

Current genetic data indicates that indigenous people belonging to these groups are found exclusively in Africa. This means that, because all humans have a common female ancestor, and because the genetic data shows that Africans are the oldest groups on the planet, we know our species originated there. 

Eventually, L1’2’3’4’5’6 gave rise to L3 in East Africa. It is a similar story: an individual underwent a mutation to her mitochondrial DNA, which was passed onto her children. The children were successful, and their descendants ultimately broke away from L1’2’3’4’5’6, eventually separating into a new group called L3.

While L3 individuals are found all over Africa, L3 is important for its movements north. Your L3 ancestors were significant because they are the first modern humans to have left Africa, representing the deepest branches of the tree found outside of that continent. 

From there, members of this group went in a few different directions. Many stayed on in Africa, dispersing to the west and south. Some L3 lineages are predominant in many Bantu-speaking groups who originated in west-central Africa, later dispersing throughout the continent and spreading this L3 lineage from Mali to South Africa. Today, L3 is also found in many African-Americans. 

Other L3 individuals, your ancestors, kept moving northward, eventually leaving the African continent completely. These people gave rise to two important macro-haplogroups (M and N) that went on to populate the rest of the world. 

Why would humans have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? It is likely that a fluctuation in climate may have provided the impetus for your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa. 

The African Ice Age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. Around 50,000 years ago the ice sheets of northern Europe began to melt, introducing a period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to savanna, the animals your ancestors hunted expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. Your nomadic ancestors followed the good weather and plentiful game northward across this Saharan Gateway, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined.

Point of Interest 

The L branch is shared by all women alive today, both in Africa and around the world. The L3 branch is the major maternal branch from which all mitochondrial DNA lineages outside of Africa arose. 

Branch: N 
Age: About 60,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: East Africa or Asia

Your next ancestor is the woman whose descendants formed haplogroup N. Haplogroup N comprises one of two groups that were created by the descendants of L3. 

One of these two groups of individuals moved north rather than east and left the African continent across the Sinai Peninsula, in present-day Egypt. Also faced with the harsh desert conditions of the Sahara, these people likely followed the Nile basin, which would have proved a reliable water and food supply in spite of the surrounding desert and its frequent sandstorms. 

Descendants of these migrants eventually formed haplogroup N. Early members of this group lived in the eastern Mediterranean region and western Asia, where they likely coexisted for a time with other hominids such as Neanderthals. Excavations in Israel’s Kebara Cave (Mount Carmel) have unearthed Neanderthal skeletons as recent as 60,000 years old, indicating that there was both geographic and temporal overlap of these two hominids. This likely accounts for the presence of Neanderthal DNA in people living outside of Africa. 

Some members bearing mutations specific to haplogroup N formed many groups of their own which went on to populate much of the rest of the globe. These descendants are found throughout Asia, Europe, India, and the Americas. However, because almost all of the mitochondrial lineages found in the Near East and Europe descend from N, it is considered a western Eurasian haplogroup. 

After several thousand years in the Near East, members of your group began moving into unexplored nearby territories, following large herds of migrating game across vast plains. These groups broke into several directions and made their way into territories surrounding the Near East. 

Today, haplogroup N individuals who headed west are prevalent in Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean, they are found further east in parts of Central Asia and the Indus Valley of Pakistan and India. And members of your haplogroup who headed north out of the Levant across the Caucasus Mountains have remained in southeastern Europe and the Balkans. Importantly, descendants of these people eventually went on to populate the rest of Europe, and today comprise the most frequent mitochondrial lineages found there. 

Branch: R Age: 
About 55,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: West Asia 

After several thousand years in the Near East, individuals belonging to a new group called haplogroup R began to move out and explore the surrounding areas. Some moved south, migrating back into northern Africa. Others went west across Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and north across the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia and southern Russia. Still others headed east into the Middle East, and on to Central Asia. All of these individuals had one thing in common: they shared a female ancestor from the N clan, a recent descendant of the migration out of Africa. 

The story of haplogroup R is complicated, however, because these individuals can be found almost everywhere, and because their origin is quite ancient. In fact, the ancestor of haplogroup R lived relatively soon after humans moved out of Africa during the second wave, and her descendants undertook many of the same migrations as her own group, N. 

Because the two groups lived side by side for thousands of years, it is likely that the migrations radiating out from the Near East comprised individuals from both of these groups. They simply moved together, bringing their N and R lineages to the same places around the same times. The tapestry of genetic lines became quickly entangled, and geneticists are currently working to unravel the different stories of haplogroups N and R, since they are found in many of the same far-reaching places. 

Branch: T Age: 
About 25,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: West Asia

Haplogroup T was a group of individuals who descended from a woman in the R branch of the tree. The divergent genetic lineage that constitutes haplogroup T indicates that these ancestors lived sometime around 25,000 years ago. 

Haplogroup T has a very wide distribution, and is present as far east as the Indus Valley bordering India and Pakistan and as far south as the Arabian Peninsula. It is also common in eastern and northern Europe. Although your haplogroup was present during the early and middle Upper Paleolithic, T is largely considered one of the main genetic signatures of the Neolithic expansions. 

While groups of hunter-gatherers and subsistence fishermen had been occupying much of Eurasia for tens of thousands of years, around ten thousand years ago a group of modern humans living in the Fertile Crescent—present-day eastern Turkey and northern Syria —began domesticating the plants, nuts, and seeds they had been collecting. What resulted were the world’s first agriculturalists, and this new cultural era is typically referred to as the Neolithic. 

Groups of individuals able to support larger populations with this reliable food source began migrating out of the Middle East, bringing their new technology with them. By then, humans had already settled much of the surrounding areas, but this new agricultural technology proved too successful to ignore, and the surrounding groups quickly copied these new immigrants. Interestingly, DNA data indicate that while these new agriculturalists were incredibly successful at planting their technology in the surrounding groups, they were far less successful at planting their own genetic seed. Agriculture was quickly and widely adopted, but the lineages carried by these Neolithic expansions are found today at frequencies seldom greater than 20 percent in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

  

Branch: T2 
Age: About 19,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: West Asia 

This point in your maternal ancestors’ journey began in West Asia. The woman who had the genetic markers for this point was born about 20,000 years ago at the end of the Paleolithic period. From West Asia, her descendants spread across Anatolia and into much of Europe. 

Today, this line is present most often in Iraq, where it is around 21 percent of maternal lineages. It is 16 percent of the population in Croatia and about 11 percent of the population in Greece. It is around 15 percent of the population in Belgium, around 13 percent of the population in Denmark, and around 11 percent of the population in Switzerland. It is between 9 and 10 percent of maternal lineages in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Wales, and Tunisia. 

Branch: T2b 
Age: 10,100 ± 1,610 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: West Asia

Born at the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, this lineage likely originated in West Asia. 

Today, it is present at the highest frequencies in Croatia (12 percent), Tunisia (9 percent), and Greece (5 percent). In Iran, it is about 4 percent of maternal lineages, and it is about 3 percent of maternal lineages in Armenia. It is also part of some Jewish Diaspora population groups. It is about 7 percent of the population in Bulgaria. Elsewhere in Europe, this line is around 6 percent of the population in Germany and around 5 percent of the population in the British Isles, France, and the Netherlands. 

Branch: P305 

Age: More than 100,000 years old 
Location of Origin: Africa 

The common direct paternal ancestor of all men alive today was born in Africa between 300,000 and 150,000 years ago. Dubbed “Y- chromosome Adam” by the popular press, he was neither the first human male nor the only man alive in his time. He was, though, the only male whose Y-chromosome lineage is still around today. All men, including your direct paternal ancestors, trace their ancestry to one of this man’s descendants. The oldest Y-chromosome lineages in existence, belonging to the A00 branch of the tree, are found only in African populations. 

Around 100,000 years ago the mutation named P305 occurred in the Y chromosome of a man in Africa. This is one of the oldest known mutations that is not shared by all men. Therefore, it marks one of the early splits in the human Y-chromosome tree, which itself marks one of the earliest branching points in modern human evolution. The man who first carried this mutation lived in Africa and is the ancestor to more than 99.9% of paternal lineages today. In fact, men who do not carry this mutation are so rare that its importance in human history was discovered only in the past two years. 

As P305-bearing populations migrated around the globe, they picked up additional markers on their Y chromosomes. Today, there are no known P305-bearing individuals without these additional markers. 

Branch: M42
Age: About 80,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: East Africa 

Around 80,000 years ago, the BT branch of the Y-chromosome tree was born, defined by many genetic markers, including M42. The common ancestor of most men living today, some of this man’s descendants would begin the journey out of Africa to the Middle East and India. Some small groups from this line would eventually reach the Americas, while other groups would settle in Europe, and some would remain near their ancestral homeland in Africa. 

Individuals from this line whose ancestors stayed in Africa often practice cultural traditions that resemble those of the distant past. For example, they often live in traditional hunter-gatherer societies. These include the Mbuti and Biaka Pygmies of central Africa, as well as Tanzania’s Hadza. 

Location of Origin: East Africa

When humans left Africa, they migrated across the globe in a web of paths that spread out like the branches of a tree, each limb of migration identifiable by a marker in our DNA. For male lineages, the M168 branch was one of the first to leave the African homeland. 

The man who gave rise to the first genetic marker in your lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania. Scientists put the most likely date for when he lived at around 70,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today. 

Your nomadic ancestors would have followed the good weather and the animals they hunted, although the exact route they followed remains to be determined. In addition to a favorable change in climate, around this same time there was a great leap forward in modern humans’ intellectual capacity. Many scientists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early humanlike species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn’t been able to earlier allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and replace other hominids such as the Neanderthals.  

Branch: P143
Age: About 60,000 years old 

Location of Origin: Southwest Asia 

This mutation is one of the oldest thought to have occurred outside of Africa and therefore marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of modern humans. Moving along the coastline, members of this lineage were some of the earliest settlers in Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia. 

But why would man have first ventured out of the familiar African hunting grounds and into unexplored lands? The first migrants likely ventured across the Bab-al Mandeb strait, a narrow body of water at the southern end of the Red Sea, crossing into the Arabian Peninsula and soon after developing mutation P143—perhaps 60,000 years ago. These beachcombers would make their way rapidly to India and Southeast Asia, following the coastline in a gradual march eastward. By 50,000 years ago, they had reached Australia. These were the ancestors of some of today’s Australian Aborigines. 

It is also likely that a fluctuation in climate may have contributed to your ancestors’ exodus out of Africa. The African ice age was characterized by drought rather than by cold. Around 50,000 years ago, though, the ice sheets of the Northern Hemisphere began to melt, introducing a short period of warmer temperatures and moister climate in Africa and the Middle East. Parts of the inhospitable Sahara briefly became habitable. As the drought-ridden desert changed to a savanna, the animals hunted by your ancestors expanded their range and began moving through the newly emerging green corridor of grasslands. 

Branch: M89
Age: About 55,000 Years Old 

Location of Origin: Southwest Asia

The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to M89, a marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non- Africans. This man was likely born around 55,000 years ago in Middle East. While many of the descendants of M89 remained in the Middle East, others continued to follow the great herds of wild game through what is now modern-day Iran, then north to the Caucasus and the steppes of Central Asia. These semiarid, grass-covered plains would eventually form an ancient “superhighway” stretching from France to Korea. A smaller group continued moving north from the Middle East to Anatolia and the Balkans, trading familiar grasslands for forests and high country. 

Branch: M578
Age: About 50,000 Years Old 

Location of Origin: Southwest Asia 

After settling in Southwest Asia for several millennia, humans began to expand in various directions, including east and south around the Indian Ocean, but also north toward Anatolia and the Black and Caspian Seas. The first man to acquire mutation M578 was among those that stayed in Southwest Asia before moving on. 

Fast-forwarding to about 40,000 years ago, the climate shifted once again and became colder and more arid. Drought hit Africa and the Middle East and the grasslands reverted to desert, and for the next 20,000 years, the Saharan Gateway was effectively closed. With the desert impassable, your ancestors had two options: remain in the Middle East, or move on. Retreat back to the home continent was not an option.  

Branch: P128
Age: About 45,000 years ago 

Location of Origin: South Asia 

The next male ancestor in your ancestral lineage is the man who gave rise to P128, a marker found in more than half of all non-Africans alive today. This man was born around 45,000 years ago in south Central Asia and was likely part of the second wave of migrants to move east from Southwest Asia. 

Some of the descendants of P128 migrated to the southeast and northeast, picking up additional markers on their Y chromosomes. This lineage is the parent of several major branches on the Y-chromosome tree: O, the most common lineage in East Asia; R, the major European and Central Asian Y-chromosome lineage; and Q, the major Y-chromosome lineage in the Americas. These descendant  branches went on to settle the rest of Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Still many others traveled to Southeast Asia, and some descendants of P128 individuals moved across the waters south and east and are most commonly seen in Oceanian and Australian Aboriginal populations. 

Branch: M526
Age: About 42,000 Years Old 

Location of Origin: South or Southeast Asia 

The man who first carried mutation M526 was part of the second wave of settlers that migrated around the Indian Ocean and settled in Southeast Asia. This mutation is shared by men from haplogroups M, N, O, P, Q, R, and S; these are groups common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.  

Branch: M45
Age: Around 35,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: Central Asia or South Asia 

This paternal ancestor traveled with groups to the open savannas between Central and South Asia during the Paleolithic. These big- game hunters were the parents to two of the most widespread male lineages in modern populations, one that is responsible for the majority of pre-Columbian lineages in the Americas (haplogroup Q)—among others from Asia and Europe—and one that spread farther north and west into Asia and produced the highest frequency lineages in European populations (haplogroup R).

Today, members of this lineage who do not belong to a descendant branch (haplogroups Q or R) are rare, and geneticists have found them most often in India. These populations include such diverse groups as the Saora (23 percent), the Bhumij (13 percent), and Muslims from Manipur (33 percent). 

Point of Interest 

Known as the Central Asian Clan, this branch gave rise to many distinct lineages that spent the next 30,000 years gradually populating much of the planet.  

Branch: M207
Age: About 30,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: Central Asia 

M207 was born in Central Asia around 30,000 years ago. His descendants would go on to settle in Europe, South Asia and the Middle East over the following 20,000 years. Today, most western European men belong to one branch—R-M342—that descended from this lineage. While it appears to have been one of the earliest lineages to settle in Europe more than 25,000 years ago, more recent population expansions associated with the post-glacial repopulation of northern Europe after the end of the last ice age, as well as the spread of agriculture during the Neolithic, also contributed to its high frequency in Ireland, the UK, France and Spain. 

One descendant lineage—R-L62—is common in Eastern Europe and India, and was likely spread in part through the migration of Indo-European steppe nomads over the past 5,000 years.  

Branch: P231
Age: 25,000 – 30,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: Central Asia 

The Paleolithic ancestor who founded this lineage lived a nomadic lifestyle. His descendants include two major descendant branches that today account for most European men and many others from Central Asia, West Asia, and South Asia.  

Branch: M343
Age: 17,000 – 22,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: South Asia or West Asia

The first members of this lineage lived as hunter-gatherers on the open savannas that stretched from Korea to Central Europe. They took part in the advances in hunting technology that allowed for population growth and expansions. 

When the Earth entered a cooling phase, most from this line sheltered in refugia to the southeast of Europe and in West Asia. It was from these refugia that their populations rapidly expanded when the ice once more receded. Some traveled west across Europe. Others moved back toward their distant ancestors’ homelands in Africa, passing through the Levant region. Through these movements and the population boom triggered by the Neolithic Revolution, this lineage and its descendant lineages came to dominate Europe.  

Today, it has a wide distribution. In Africa, geneticists have found this lineage in Northern Africa (6 percent) and central Sahel (23 percent). Its frequency in Europe is at times high and at other times moderate. It represents about 7 percent of Russian male lineages, about 13 percent of male lineages in the Balkans, about 21 percent of Eastern European male lineages, 55 to 58 percent of Western European lineages, and about 43 percent of Central European male lineages. In Asia, most men of this lineage are found in West Asia (6 percent) and South Asia (5 percent). However, trace frequencies of around half a percent from this lineage are present in East Asia.  

Branch: M269
Age: 6,500 – 15,000 Years Ago 

Location of Origin: West Asia 

Groups containing this branch spread west toward Europe and east to Central Asia, then south into the Levant region. From the Levant and East Europe, your ancestors took part in the Neolithic Revolution. The population boom that resulted from the move from a hunter- gatherer lifestyle to settled agricultural communities helped push this line to dominance. 

Today, this lineage accounts for the majority of the male population in Europe. In Wales, it is about 85 percent of male lineages. In Ireland, the frequency peaks along the eastern coast at over 90 percent. It is about 32 percent of the male population in Germany. Toward the southeast, it is 13 to 14 percent of the male populations in Greece and Turkey. It is 6 to 8 percent of male lineages in Iran and about 9 percent of male lineages in Iraq. It is about 5 percent of the male population in Kazakhstan. 

Branch: P310
Age: To Be Determined 

Location of Origin: West Asia 

Members of this lineage have traveled to Central Asia, Europe, and the Levant region. One descendant branch has the highest frequency of any male line in Western Europe. However, rather than a single movement across Europe, this lineage’s branches may represent many simultaneous and successive waves of migration. 

Today, it is 48 to 52 percent of male lineages in Ireland. It is 45 percent of those in France. It is about 38 percent of the male population in Spain. It is about 8 percent of male lineages in Italy. It is about 5 percent of male lineages in Oman. It is 1 to 2 percent of the male population in Iraq and Lebanon. It is also 1 to 2 percent of the male population in Kazakhstan. 

Branch: U106  

Age: 4,250 – 14,000 Years Ago      
Location of Origin: Europe 

Members of this lineage have expanded into the rest of Europe and back into parts of West Asia in the last 10,000 years. 

Today, geneticists have found it and its descendant branches at moderate to high frequencies throughout Europe and occasionally in West Asia. The highest frequencies are in the Netherlands (14 percent), Luxembourg (13 percent), and Belgium (12 percent). In the British Isles, it is between 6 and 9 percent of the male population. It is about 5 percent of male lineages in Oman. It is 4 to 5 percent of the male population in Cyprus. It is 1 to 2 percent of male lineages in Italy and Spain. 

Distantly, yes—we are all connected through our ancient ancestry.

*Selected and edited from Orndorff's Geno II DNA report. 

** **

       1352 hours. This and yesterday's material pretty much covers the Richard Henry Orndorff DNA via the Geno II Project. It is amazing how little paper space is needed to show the scientific background of most of the human ancestry on planet Earth. (Actually, no paper is needed.)

       Miss Havisham finds the above material from today and yesterday to better demonstrate the holistic value of the human spirit, each person's heartansoulanmind in spiritual forms. How would this be, to imagine your own soul in such a conceptual swarm with all human souls past and present? - mh

       Post. - Amorella   

      You are facing east in the north Westerville Kroger lot waiting for Carol. The plan: take food home and decide where to go for an early supper. Cathy is busy and Kim and Owen are down with sore throats, plus Paul's on call. - Amorella 

       1534 hours. Miss Havisham, I like the use of 'swarm' of souls. At first, I conjured 'movement' then I settled on a spiritual swarm as a 'body', a spiritual sun or light, with the bright souls on and those not so bright in the mix or having little to no 'glow' at all. With no space or mass involved and no real purpose for a spiritual human glow or sun I ran out of metaphors. Also, in my head, there is a mix of the conclusion to Arthur Clarkes' Childhood's End where the humans lose their bodies and move their immaterial selves on to other climes, save the few humans not ready to leave; still at larvae or caterpillar stage, not ready to become butterflies. So, with curiosity, why did you choose "swarm of souls" and not something else? 

       Alliteration. - mh

       1549 hours. That makes good poetic sense; you show more intelligence than I usually have. Simple and elegant response, Miss Havisham. Simple and elegant. 

       You had an early supper at Potbelly's and presently you are sitting in the south lot at Macy's at Polaris Fashion Center waiting for Carol. Pleasant cool breeze from the west; still Spring-like in June. - Amorella

       1738 hours. I still like Miss Havisham's "swarm of souls". It is easy to picture the swarm of course, but not the souls. There is little to go on in the spiritual world. Shape and color come to mind. The Living move about. The Dead, not so much. The mind doesn't move either though. 

The heart metaphors with the pumper. Passion suggests movement, objective and goals. Thoughts are about the closest abstract with the spiritual, and thoughts move through grammatical devices or we wouldn't understand the message or thought. (1746) What allows a soul to remember the content of a heartanmind? What is an analogy for spiritual understanding not a factual-like comparison? (1747)

       You are looking for a design, an architecture of the soul. - mh

       1751 hours. A plausible spiritual-like schematic. 

       Think of a flavor of poetic devices that might show this. For instance, you automatically used alliteration to hurry the thought along. Alliteration is as rounding the edge of a plane wing to cause lift and more efficient flow of the thought. 

       

       Alone, alone, all, all alone,

       Alone on a wide, wide sea!

       And never a saint took pity on

       My soul in agony.

       You had Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", memorized in the ninth grade for Miss Harley's English I class. You understood and still understand the spiritual aspects of these lines and the others in the poem. The poetic device is as an example of the spiritual architecture of the soul. - mh

       1812 hours. Excellent, Miss Havisham. Poetic devices move the thought as a soul moves through Nothing. 

       Absolutely Nothing. - mh

       1816 hours. Poetic devices move the thought as a soul moves through Absolutely Nothing.

       Yes, you have it. - mh

       1839 hours. In this case there is no redundancy adding absolutely?

       Absolutely-Nothing is a single noun. mh 

       1843 hours. All spiritual nouns are Capitalized.

       Absolutely. mh

       1845 hours. Wow. This grammar translation moves the heartanmind at once and equally. 

       Yes. When you feel or sense this in your person you are thinking in Soul while writing in English. 

       Post. - Amorella

      

142 Notes - DNA for Miss Havisham

142. 6 June 2019

       Mid-afternoon. You are in the shade of a single tree, facing south at the Social Security Administration Building off Bark Road in south Marion, Ohio. Carol has a question on Medicare Part B; neither of you have Social Security. When the closer Worthington office opens there is already an hour wait. This is easier and more relaxing. - Amorella

       1503 hours. It is a beautiful late Spring day. Feeling better today, overall, I had a better night's sleep than when I awakened. I am not so excited about saying Caesar's "Gallia est . . .." as I was yesterday. Still, it was awesome to actually feel like I was reliving the full moment of my youth a second or so. It was very much like being in the hypnotic trance Dr. Payne put me in during the mid-eighties. I actually momentarily relived the youthful energy I had at that time. Wow. I was for a second or so (long enough to be conscious of it) sitting and reading and verbalizing "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres". I put an imaginary Caesar in my head at the same time. 

       At one time you thought you might be directly related to Caesar's sister according to genealogical records. - mh

       1518 hours. I did. I romanticized most of it via the records of both sides of the early Hubbell family’s genealogies. I already went over most of this in the Encounters in Mind blog. At that time, I used the concept to make me feel closer to the once real people whether I was related to them personally didn't really make a difference. Self-hypnotic trancing is what it was, and probably still is. I look at the concept much differently today. With my three sets of actual DNA records from three different respectable companies I have a better scientific record of my ancient background. Everyone else does also if they have their DNA researched. All it takes is a little spit. 

       Let's refresh that information, orndorff, not a long list, but the specifics of your DNA backgrounds. I ask this because you once believed you could have once had ancient Jewish DNA. - Amorella

       1834 hours. Yes, I did, once into the Pre-Scottish, Scottish Royal, Anglo-Saxon Kings, English Royal 'historical' genealogies goes back to King David and others. From that it made it easier for me to use King David and one or two of the previous Old Testament prophets in my Merlyn novels. I figured that I might be (though highly improbable) in that line with at least 'fifty' million other moderns like myself.  I have copies of those ancient genealogies saved on my MacBook for reference; which I did allude to from time to time in the Merlyn Trilogy. I feel those (um)' documented' royal genealogies were used primarily to officially become a part of the great Crusades in the Middle Ages, i.e. Royals had the blood of King David in their veins. It all seems rather silly today, but if there was going to be war, there had to be a legal reason for it. (1901) -- Amorella, I assume you are going to tell me to erase this vast lead-in to the DNA backgrounds. (1904)

       He won't do that Mr. Orndorff, because the above is an example of how your background literature lectures on the history of the British Isles were constructed. mh

       1909 hours. Amorella has done this before. I get carried away with adding unneeded and perhaps further unwanted information from the students' points of view. Notes were required. I used to love to build up my own notes, move from notes to livelier lecture and have students take the notes. Daughter Kim still has hers. Makes me feel good that she does. -- Again, I am taking up time.

       Gather up the DNA information like I asked, drop it in, then post. - Amorella

       "Yes, Ma'am," says I, "and gladly too."

        Your humor is all that saves you, boy. - Amorella

** **

Here are three different DNA summaries: The most specific is #2. 

1. Oxford Ancestors

Here are the results of the maternal and paternal ancestral DNA testing I had done. Last updated: 12/08/2003.

Paternal line results 

My paternal ancestors belonged to one of the ancient Celtic tribes that lived in Britain before the Vikings arrived at the end of the eighth century AD. On the balance of probability my (our) paternal ancestor was one of the original Celtic people who had already settled the British Isles at the time the Romans invaded. This is almost certain if we can trace our ancestry to Wales, Scotland or Ireland. If our origins are in southern or eastern England, then there is a very small probability that the ancestry is Anglo-Saxon. 

We were hunter-gatherers who moved up from Southern Europe about 9,000 years ago (after the last Ice Age). About 3,000 years ago, during the late Bronze Age and Iron Age the Celtic artifacts (weapons and jewels) began appearing in Britain. This involved relatively few people.

Maternal line results:

Tara of 17,000 years ago – 9% of modern Europeans are related – was born in the hills of Tuscany in Northwest Italy (no grapes, thick forests at the time);

Our family’s direct maternal ancestry is from the clan of Tara. Many of her clan live along the Mediterranean and the Western Edge of Europe. They are particularly numerous in the west of Britain and in Ireland.

***********

***********

2. The National Geographic Geno II Project

Orndorff''s Hominin Ancestry 

(60,000 Years Ago and Older) 

Your Hominin Ancestry 

At that time, at least two other species of hominin—our cousins—walked the Eurasian landmass: Neanderthals and Denisovans. As our modern human ancestors migrated through Eurasia, they encountered these hominin cousins and interbred, resulting in a small amount of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA being introduced into the modern human gene pool. 

Most non-Africans are about 2 percent Neanderthal and slightly less than 2 percent Denisovan. Both percentages are calculated using a sophisticated analytical method that looks at parts of your DNA that you share with these hominin populations. The science around this calculation is very new. Thanks to participation from citizens like you, we continue to learn more and refine this method. For this reason, your result may change slightly over time as our accuracy and understanding improves. 

2.2% Neanderthal 

3.1% Denisovan

***

I skipped the "Out of Africa" material   -- too much information for this page.

The "Out of Africa" material is on Note 143, next blog page.

***

Orndorff's Regional Ancestry

(5,000 Years - 10,000 Years Ago) 

We are all more than the sum of our parts, but the results below offer some of the most dramatic and fascinating information in your Geno 2.0 test. In this section, we display your affiliations with a set of nine world regions. This information is determined from your entire genome so we’re able to see both parents’ information, going back six generations. Your percentages reflect both recent influences and ancient genetic patterns in your DNA due to migrations as groups from different regions mixed over thousands of years. Your ancestors also mixed with ancient, now extinct hominid cousins like Neanderthals in Europe and the Middle East or the Denisovans in Asia. If you have a very mixed background, the pattern can get complicated quickly! Use the reference population matches below to help understand your particular result. 

Results 

Northern European 

Mediterranean Southwest Asian 

Northern European - 42%

This component of your ancestry is found at highest frequency in northern European populations—people from the UK, Denmark, Finland, Russia and Germany in our reference populations. While not limited to these groups, it is found at lower frequencies throughout the rest of Europe. This component is likely the signal of the earliest hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Europe, who were the last to make the transition to agriculture as it moved in from the Middle East during the Neolithic period around 8,000 years ago. 

Mediterranean - 39%

This component of your ancestry is found at highest frequencies in southern Europe and the Levant—people from Sardinia, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia in our reference populations. While not limited to these groups, it is found at lower frequencies throughout the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. This component is likely the signal of the Neolithic population expansion from the Middle East, beginning around 8,000 years ago, likely from the western part of the Fertile Crescent. 

Southwest Asian - 18%

This component of your ancestry is found at highest frequencies in India and neighboring populations, including Tajikistan and Iran in our reference dataset. It is also found at lower frequencies in Europe and North Africa. As with the Mediterranean component, it was likely spread during the Neolithic expansion, perhaps from the eastern part of the Fertile Crescent. Individuals with heavy European influence in their ancestry will show traces of this because all Europeans have mixed with people from Southwest Asia over tens of thousands of years. 

Note: In some cases, regional percentages may not total 100%. 

What These Results Mean

Modern day indigenous populations around the world carry particular blends of these regions. We compared your DNA results to the reference populations we currently have in our database and estimated which of these were most similar to you in terms of the genetic markers you carry. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you belong to these groups or are directly from these regions, but that these groups were a similar genetic match and can be used as a guide to help determine why you have a certain result. Remember, this is a mixture of both recent (past six generations) and ancient patterns established over thousands of years, so you may see surprising regional percentages. Read each of the population descriptions below to better interpret your particular result. 

Orndorff's First Reference Population: German - 46%

This reference population is based on samples collected from people native to Germany. The dominant 46% Northern European component likely reflects the earliest settlers in Europe, hunter-gatherers who arrived there more than 35,000 years ago. The 36% Mediterranean and 17% Southwest Asian percentages probably arrived later, with the spread of agriculture from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East over the past 10,000 years. As these early farmers moved into Europe, they spread their genetic patterns as well. Today, northern and central European populations retain links to both the earliest Europeans and these later migrants from the Middle East. 

Orndorff's Second Reference Population: Tuscan (Italy) - 54%

This reference population is based on samples collected from Italians native to Tuscany. The 54% Mediterranean and 17% Southwest Asian percentages reflect the strong influence of agriculturalists from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, who arrived in Italy more than 7,000 years ago. The 28% Northern European component likely comes from the pre-agricultural population of Europe—the earliest settlers, who arrived in Europe more than 35,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic period—and was perhaps increased during the conquest of northern Italy by the Germanic Lombards in the 6th-8th centuries. Today, the Northern European component predominates in northern European populations, while the Mediterranean component is more common in southern Europe. 

********

********

3. Ancestry.com DNA

Orndorff's Ancestry DNA Results:

Western Europe

48% England, Wales, Northwestern Europe  

34% Germanic Europe

Early United States

New York, Long Island Region

Ohio River Valley, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa Settlers

Central Ohio, Potomac River Valley Settlers

This concludes the three summaries of my DNA.

** **

       2236 hours. I find this somewhat embarrassing once again. This is supposed to be about Miss Havisham.

       I carry the spiritual aspects of this physical DNA. This is very much about me. - mh

141. Notes - like beginning again / humor levels

141. 5 June 2019

       Mid-afternoon. Carol is in Kroger's at north end Westerville. You were going to walk but it looks like rain. - Amorella

       1551 hours. Yesterday fielded a different slant on the blog page. You and Miss Havisham were having a conversation while I listened in. I wouldn't know if it were normal or not, but I haven't been caught up in it before. I'm smiling because it was rather funny to observe, and more importantly, I learned something. Souls, by definition can allow accidents to happen by overprotecting a heartanmind. Is this correct (at least in here).

       For your benefit; this is for your inquiring mind orndorff. We are creating a metaphysical system between your heartanmind and your soul. This is theoretical, if you will, not fact. In context, assume this is all theoretical metaphysics, shortrange, if you will. - Amorella

       1601 hours. Shortrange Metaphysics, I like that. Good title. Readers may think it strange that such conversations can take place in my head. Truth is, as a fiction writer, conversations between characters happen all the time. I even allow them to carry on like I'm not here. I've mentioned this in my blogs over the years. I find it amusing that they can do this but if you are going to give your characters free will you can't take it away whoever she or he may be. 

.

       I have never thought of myself as a personification in context; that is, before this blog experience. mh

       1638 hours. When writing fiction most everything observed about human beings is open to be shifted around, disguised and used. I use myself, parts of friends and acquaintances in smaller parts of my characters. I mention this in the Forward sections of the hardbound Merlyn books. I tried to make my Merlyn books plausible; and in my blogs, I attempted to show plausibility throughout. In the short and long run though, it is always fiction. This encountersinspirit blog is theoretical and metaphysical, but still fiction. And, I'm still an agnostic at heartanmind. 

       That's a change. - Amorella

       The Romantic, Mr. Orndorff, likes to consider himself like an embodiment of Caesar's Commentarii: "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" [Commentaries: "Gaul is a whole divided into three parts"].  -mh

       

       1716 hours. Mrs. Maribelle Clary's Latin II class (1957-58) at Westerville High -- we had to translate and read the Latin version of Commentaries. It was so fascinating for me to read something direct from the hand (so to speak) of Julius Caesar in his own language. It was mesmerizing. Caesar was one of my first historical heroes along with the living ones, such as Churchill, FDR, and Eisenhower. I later read works by Churchill, FDR and Eisenhower.

       Caesar's words may not have moved into your soul, but the concept did. 'With words, one could, from the abstract, move into any writer's mind, so to speak'. mh

       1742 hours. Enough for now. This is so overwhelming within me. To remember the first time, to say aloud, "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" . . . Awesome. It is like beginning again. 

       Post. - Amorella

       1945 hours. I had today's blog on Facebook for about an hour. No likes, no comments, so I took it off. Which was/is fine. Nothing new. I get excited with my writings sometimes and want to share; I do, then feel I shared enough so I take it off FB.

       I don't see a problem, orndorff. You do what moves you. With no likes and no comments, you thought it was up long enough anyway. Then when you checked you discovered six people had hit the page anyway. Relax. - Amorella

       Mostly you were embarrassed because there were no hits. Then, you were embarrassed because the first thing you thought of was that there were no hits. You know yourself better than this. You have little confidence in your writing self because few people are interested in reading or discussing what you think and write. This has been lifelong and thus nothing new. Deeper down, you don't really give a damn what people like or don't like anyway. You need to express yourself through writing so you do. That's really all there is to it, Mr. Orndorff. Let it go. mh

       2000 hours. You and Amorella can be so direct, but I appreciate it very much. Both of you have a sense of humor I can deal with. Humor levels me, I think it levels most everyone. People like smiles, wit and laughter even when they come from inner secret and sometimes conflicting thoughts. Humor can bring in a humbling wind and blow the conflicts away or at least subdue them for a while. 

       Post. - Amorella

       

140. Notes - this latter direction of conversation

140. 4 June 2019

       Later morning. You are facing east in the shade at Heritage Park. Carol is on her walk. In a bit you will be picking up the Avalon from Columbus Audio on Morse Road. There are three small bubbles they are fixing on the front-end protective shield. With the first fill-up the car only had 36.2 miles per gallon; used 10.4 gallons from a 13.2 gallon tank. Needless to say, you are more than a bit disappointed. So, you dropped the gear mode to 'economy' rather than 'normal' drive and await to see if it makes a difference. - Amorella

       1035 hours. The old Avalon was getting 37 m/g. I expected at least 40 m/g overall it is advertised new with 43.0; plus, the huge discrepancy from the 50 and 60 m/g registering on the car's computer on the shorter ranged trips to downtown Columbus and out to Delaware city on that first 471 miles. 

       You see Carol through the trees returning on the other side of the soccer/lacrosse practice field loop. - Amorella

       1045 hours. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful wife. I would be in a different, not so fortunate world without her near silent guidance, all these fifty plus years. 

       Late evening. You are fortunate. You survived your birth. - Amorella

       2226 hours.  That was blunt and to the point, but yes, after some thought, I agree. I am fortunate I survived. (2237)

       Amorella struck a chord that is unanswerable, and it appears to have been with intent. Mr. Orndorff cannot know he is fortunate because he survived. What was the alternative? And, how would that have been unfortunate for Mr. Orndorff alone? It is an unfair statement. What was the purpose of the statement? - mh

       The purpose was to draw you out, Miss Havisham. Orndorff needs to realize what you do, how you affect and effect his life in very discreet and indirect ways. - Amorella

       2248 hours. Is this true, Miss Havisham, and if it is true, is it also true of everyone's individual soul, that the soul discreetly and indirectly affects and effects everyone's life? 

       We souls protect and help to guide the heartanmind through the path the individual chooses to live. Free will wins out however. Sometimes protecting the heartanmind opens doors for unintended free will. Sometimes accidents happen through overprotection. Anyone who has been a parent can come to an understanding with this comment. - mh

       2301 hours. This is interesting and this latter direction of conversation was completely unthought by me. 

       Post. - Amorella

139. Notes - theatre / humility / imagination and spirit

139. 3 June 2019

       Mid-morning. Carol is with Gayle with a stop at Schneider's for doughnuts before heading to Otterbein Cemetery to stake pots with artificial flowers created by niece Jean at the headstones of Mary Lou and Mom and Dad Hammond in the north old Cook section not far from the old Schick and Freeman sections. - Amorella

       1004 hours. Your tone is reminding me of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, my favorite play of a lifetime of plays I have read and/or seen on stage or film. Strange how this is. Numbers two and three are Shakespeare's Hamlet and As You Like It; four is Sophocles'Antigone. In earlier stages of life, the top four plays were different titles and/or numerical orders. This is probably the list I'll go out

with.

       

       You're not a candle, boy. - Amorella

       1021 hours. It's just an expression, Amorella.

       Not to you. You see yourself as a candle with a very small flame, actually mostly a warm, glowing wick, don't you think? - Amorella

       That's about right, Amorella, a warm, glowing wick with little candle left. mh

       1026 hours. Most of that wick is nothing but pomp and circumstance; Sir Edward Edgar's "Pomp and Circumstance", Westerville High School's senior graduation marching song in 1960. Mostly theatre before; mostly theatre since.

       Post. - Amorella

       Early evening. Carol is out watering the new wildflowers in the back eight feet to the old fence. You had a nap but not good enough. As Steve G. uttered long, long ago, "Cheer up things are bound to get worse." The comment still makes you smile. Things did get worse, then eventually things got better to the point you have recognized for a long time now that thing are about as good as they are going to get at least on a personal greater family level. Do you agree? - Amorella

       1902 hours. I do, Amorella. I have, overall, had a very fortunate life. I took off the Facebook postings of the blog about three this morning. A few might want to read them but if they do they can go to the blog online and look the pages up for themselves. No need to advertise mental shortcomings or otherwise. One of my worst fears, always, was the books would become best sellers. I would be terrified by the ridiculous commercial publicity of it all. The same with the blogs. I like to check the stats (hits) just like I like to check the stats on the car mileage. It would not be good for me to have it any different. A few readers is enough. Shoot, one is enough; though having none would be a lesson in humility. Nothing wrong with that either. 

       Post. - Amorella

You have for your adult life secretly felt you are a stranger in a strange land. The science fiction aspects of the Merlyn books show evidence of this. It was as easy to pretend to be an alien marsupial humanoid from ThreePlanets as it was to be Merlyn and other characters from the post-Celtic Anglo-Saxon Isles both male or female. This is because you feel that the spirit only lives once and through imagination and empathy you wanted to experience as much of the world as you can while you are here. This really began when you talked to your grandparents about how life was for them growing up. You put yourself in their shoes as much as you could through imagination, recognizing early on that you were human and that they, being human, would have had similar childhood experiences but without cars and electricity. You experienced life on a farm without electricity at three, four, five and six which made such imaginary realism easier. You had ridden horses and been pulled by horse drawn wagons and sleighs on Auntie and Uncle Doc Haines' hundred-acre farm on Freeman Road north of Westerville, in Delaware County through the mid-forties on. You were born in 1942. The science fiction of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov lead your imagination into probable futures, particularly Asimov when you were ten and eleven on. You feel you were born to write the Merlyn trilogy and you did in three years, one book a year self-published. mh

2051 hours. This is supposed to be about you, Miss Havisham, not about me. I know all these things and had written about them in pre-blog and blog days. Why are you reiterating them? 

Because these 'things' are in me, in your soul, as well as in your heartanmind. mh

But a lot of this was spurred by reading and imagination not reality, particularly the future aspects, lots of reading. 

Do you not think your imagination is a part of your human spirit? mh

2102 hours. I don't feel I ever thought about imagination in that way. I understand fully why once dead the spirit, if it continues, would desire to keep precious memories from having lived but what use would there be to have imagination once physically dead? I can understand how having an imagination is important in developing a metaphysical/spiritual aspect within, but once dead -- I assume as a whole spirit, you are then in the spiritual world. I like objectives and goals in my personal life, but I cannot imagine what objectives and goals I or anyone else would have in a spiritual life. Culture says we will be with our spiritual family groupings and Angels and G-D, not much else that I can remember. Heaven, Hell or Both or Neither. Spiritual stages perhaps. Reincarnation perhaps. I haven't heard much of anything else. (2120)

"Is there anything else?" is what you are thinking, orndorff, but you are suppressing the thought. - Amorella

2124 hours. I really don't want to know. It is not natural to know the objectives and goals or whatever of the human spiritual world. I can't imagine we just sit there and have good loving times or lie there under torture forever. All that would get boring either way. The human spirit does not like to be bored. If you know you are going to be loving and friendly or if you know you are going to be torn apart by monsters [every day or whatever timeless period] then what's the point? What is the bloodless spiritual point? Whatever it is we don't have and are not supposed to have the imagination for it. That's all I've got at the moment. (2134)

I agree wholeheartedly. mh

2137 hours. Total surprise with your response Miss Havisham.

Post. - Amorella

            2139 hours. Good. I'm tired anyway. We have to take the Avalon over to Columbus Audio to get a new protective shield for the front of the car as the other developed bubbles; at nine o'clock no less. 

138. Notes - be ye be or no / and you don't

138. 2 June 2019

       Early afternoon. This morning you decided, out of the blue, to share one blog a week. From now on then, on Sunday you will share a blog of your choice on your Facebook page for your 'Friends' not the world to see. - Amorella 

       1349 hours. I feel better with this kind of sharing -- once a week is enough. I had six likes last time I did. That sounds about right too. I'll pick one with humor and irony since Miss Havisham likes that too. 

       As this is about me (and souls in general) this is appropriate.Perspective is what I want you and the other readers to see. Perspective is enough. - mh

       1356 hours. Good. Perhaps it will cause me to hesitate before I begin the bully pulpit business, i.e. lecturing. 

       Define 'lecturing' orndorff. You lectured about one thing or another three to five times a week in your classes; sometimes for the whole hour for thirty-seven years. It's built in, only now you don't use any notes. You were notorious for using notes and at least inspecting what the students were taking down once in a while. - Amorella

** **

lecture - noun- an educational talk to an audience, especially to students in a university or college. • a long, serious speech, especially one given as a scolding or reprimand: the usual lecture on table manners. 

verb[no object] deliver an educational lecture or lectures: she was lecturing to her class of eighty students. • [with object] give a lecture to (a class or other audience): he was lecturing future generations of health-service professionals. • [with object] talk seriously or reprovingly to (someone): don't lecture me! 

ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense ‘reading, a text to read’): from Old French, or from medieval Latin lectura, from Latin lect- ‘read, chosen’, from the verb legere.

Selected and edited from the Oxford/American software

** **

       Orndorff, underline the first use also even though you didn't teach at a college or university. - Amorella

       1410 hours. It doesn't seem proper because I didn't teach at a college or university. I would not have made a good college professor because I don't have the qualifications needed, never did, i.e. I am not a scholar. 

       You are a student. Remember your Chaucer. - Amorella

       1414 hours. Thank you. Amorella. I am humbly appreciative. I feel better not underlying the first definition. 

       Later. You are at the Proper Garden Nursery at the northwest corner Rt. 315 and Hyatts Road. Carol is looking for plants for your eight feet-to-the-fence of 'natural outback'. - Amorella

       A move (with two plants in the back seat) up to Shale Hollow park. You are facing south at the trees and fifteen-foot naked shale cliff about fifteen yards ahead of you. Carol is on page 149 (Chapter 18) of Coben's Darkest Fear. - Amorella

       1522 hours. I can smell the fresh oxygen from trees and vegetation. A pleasant Sunday afternoon. What, ho! A baby chipmunk, about the size my fore and middle fingers plus a tail. Cute little guy. He was about twelve feet to the southwest beside a tree trunk before disappearing from view. 

       What does this scene remind you of, orndorff? - Amorella

       

       1529 hours. It reminds me of Merlyn in his private camp area in Avalon, or a facsimile of Avalon in my imagination. This was about five or six hundred Anno Domini in the story. He has a pet with him, an owl or hawk I think. He has a small cabin, conjured up from the concept of Thoreau’s cabin (size-wise) at Waldon's Pond, but Medieval-like in structure. There is a river nearby and the setting is out of his time alive in a small forest of trees in Scotland. The river is about ten feet from the cabin and he has a small boat, I forget the name, that the Celts of the area used. To the north there is a mountain (in his soul - this is all in his soul) and somewhere on or beyond the mountain is his secret way back to Earth, returning as a spirit to Amorella so she can translate the scene. After all, he is Merlyn and he knows things mortals such as I do not know. (1544)

       In a moment you were there once again in your head. - mh

       1546 hours. Whoa. Once again, you are like a faery of old, Amorella, placing me into a momentary enchantment. 

       This is how it still is in your head and spirit, Mr. Orndorff. Those books your fingers wrote (not grammar error and factual free) are in here for your personal and soul bound comfort. The writing was real enough to drop in here. Perhaps not word for word, but the sense of it is similar to your paragraph at 1529 hours. - mh

       1554 hours. Oh, were this so it would be as Heaven to me. I miss Merlyn and his pet, whatever it was. Avalon was a neat and mystical place where I couldn't go but Merlyn could. And, as such, at this moment, you are as an Angel, Amorella, be ye be or no. 

       Post. - Amorella

       Carol is out working on her flowers after you both watched the national news while eating a light supper. - Amorella

       You dropped into a slump because you had your highlight of the day, the paragraph at 1529. Once that paragraph was written your momentary 'enchantment', as it were, immediately disappeared. - mh

       2009 hours. It is remarkable that I could draw up that scene so close to the intensity of the original writing. I was perhaps hypnotically self-reintroduced into that general scene. The shock is that the scene is still in my head in the first place. I haven't thought about that scene for years, maybe a decade. Where is that memory set itself, for this length of time? Surely, it is in the brain. Spiritual memory has to have a basis, a bio-chemical place. I don't have a good memory. Anyone who knows me knows this. Memories don't readily reconnect and it is difficult to believe any memory is completely factual unless it is indeed an accepted fact, and, even then, if it is based solely on human observations, it might still be questioned, and rightly so -- that's what courts and judges and juries are for. (2029) [I can't believe I have been writing this for ten minutes.]

       Your time spent writing is the key. Ten minutes is way too long in your mind for writing such a short thought that you can read in a few seconds. You envision yourself as not-in-a-flowing-consciousness-while-the-fingers-are-on-and-off-the-keyboard-until-the-work-is-completed; until the thought is completed in word and sentence form the thought is not real. The confusion comes with the thought being real, but the thought may still be real imagination in content, not reality real. mh

       That indeed may be the case. I become confused over the thought being real when it is only real imagination, not real, and I use this confusion to add a believable reality to the fiction. I allow myself to accept this error to attempt to make my story more realistic to the reader, and also to myself. It is no wonder I am confused with it sometimes, but only in writing. I can accept this. I am not a madman. I can understand and accept what being human is, but I don't have to like the conditionals as they are.

       And, you don't. Post. - Amorella