182. - Notes - it is obvious

182. 8 August 2019

       Early evening. You and Carol had a good lunch at Old Bag of Nails at North State and Main with Aunt Ruthie, Tony, Marilyn, Cathy, Tod, Gretchen and Jerry. Tony paid the bill, very kind of him and Aunt Ruthie. She called it your 'birthday dinner'. You stopped at Cathy and Tod's for a bit after, then good-byes and home to feed the cats before traveling to Kim and Paul's to take them to a friend's house about four miles south on Rt. 315. You just returned from supper with the boys at Potbelly's. They are playing at the neighbors until seven-thirty then coming home to ready for bed at eight because they and their friends had a sleepover last night. Later, when Kim calls you pick them up and bring them home, of course. - Amorella

       1854 hours. It has been a busy and fun day. We did not have these kinds of weekly family activities while living in Mason. 

       One of the subdivisions in the Wikipedia article on "Consciousness" that I have chosen to comment on is on "Animal Consciousness". 

** **

Animal consciousness

The topic of animal consciousness is beset by a number of difficulties. It poses the problem of other minds in an especially severe form, because non-human animals, lacking the ability to express human language, cannot tell us about their experiences. . ..

Most people have a strong intuition that some animals, such as cats and dogs, are conscious, while others, such as insects, are not; but the sources of this intuition are not obvious, and are often based on personal interactions with pets and other animals they have observed. 

Philosophers who consider subjective experience the essence of consciousness also generally believe, as a correlate, that the existence and nature of animal consciousness can never rigorously be known.  . . .

On July 7, 2012, eminent scientists from different branches of neuroscience gathered at the University of Cambridge to celebrate the Francis Crick Memorial Conference, which deals with consciousness in humans and pre-linguistic consciousness in nonhuman animals. After the conference, they signed in the presence of Stephen Hawking, the 'Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness', which summarizes the most important findings of the survey:

"We decided to reach a consensus and make a statement directed to the public that is not scientific. It's obvious to everyone in this room that animals have consciousness, but it is not obvious to the rest of the world. It is not obvious to the rest of the Western world or the Far East. It is not obvious to the society." 

"Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals [...], including all mammals and birds, and other creatures, [...] have the necessary neural substrates of consciousness and the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors."

 . . .

Selected and edited from Wikipedia

** **

       First, I particularly like the way the 'Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness' stated the following:

""We decided to reach a consensus and make a statement directed to the public that is not scientific. It's obvious to everyone in this room that animals have consciousness, but it is not obvious to the rest of the world." 

This is how I feel this blog should be noted. This blog is not scientific. It is obvious to many people though that human beings are unique in the world terms of higher consciousness. I consider myself a human soul, though for understandable reasons, personified to communicate through Amorella the human spiritual heartanmind. I am nonfiction within myself. Mr. Orndorff is nonfiction to all those who know him. He writes in the introduction to this blog that it is nonfiction because that is how he views this experimental writing. I ask the reader to remember this blog represents one human's heartansoulanmind point of view. Nothing more, nothing less. Mr. Orndorff has always enjoyed stimulating thought, this is his main objective. - mh

       1932 hours. Thank you for reinforcing my private thoughts Ms Havisham. I am comforted with your unsolicited words. It is amazing to me that I use the word 'comforted' here, because it is not of my normal choice, but in this case, I cannot come up with a better one. I accept Ms Havisham as my personified soul because this is how I see her. I accept Amorella as a friend, a spiritual presence. 

At the same time, I consider myself as an authentic agnostic because deep down I question everything. The difference is that I do accept that G-D is a Reality because being naturally spiritually minded it is more than intellectually reasonable to me, it is obvious. I do not need faith for this, I have heartanmind. I have a soul to comfort my heartanmind. I have a spiritual friend who guides me to know myself better, who has guided me for decades and the self-evident truth is witnessed in seemingly endless notes and blogs. Still, I am ever an agnostic because I am ever human. - rho

       Thus, orndorff, here you sit, but you would rise and stand if need be. I am here, within and without, as your witness. Post. - Amorella

181. Notes - selected memories / reality?

181. 7 August 2019

       

       Noon. Carol is out pulling weeds. You have readied yourself to go out to lunch (Carol's suggestion). You feel very good with the response to your birthday; you are really quite surprised at the number of 'Likes' and 'Comments'. - Amorella

       1204 hours. All those former student names and old college friends and teaching colleagues -- from back in the early seventies at Escola Graduada de Sao Paulo in Brazil; from Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati; and from William Mason High School in Mason. I retired in 2003 and taught from November, 1966 at Magnetic Springs Junior High, then at Whitehall-Yearling High School in Whitehall, an eastern suburb of Columbus before we moved to Sao Paulo after a year for my Masters at Bowling Green State University. I am trying to decide whether that was a long time ago, or not so long ago at all. (1216)

       With that, a quick flashback to three, and your statement, "I want a cookie," at Grandma and Popo Schick's in 1945 and your first historical recollection - a wake for the death of President Roosevelt. And, from there to age five, shaking hands with an old man, Mr. Press Reynolds, who had been born a slave on a plantation in the South. He lived three houses west of 103 West Walnut, home of Grandma and Popo Orndorff in Westerville. - mh

       A quick flash of your life is not going to happen here, orndorff, though you would 'enjoy' the experience. - Amorella

       1237 hours. It was just a thought, Amorella. I'm glad you quote marked 'enjoy'. Life has its positive and negative memories. Some I would just as soon not remember. But then, that would not be reality would it?

       No, it would not. Post. - Amorella

       Carol is reading in bed with Jadah by her side. Spooky is out in the sun room sleeping. It was a relatively busy day. You did buy Carol and small desk with a dropped keyboard and three enclosed drawers for her new iMac, and you decided to put it in the sunroom and leave the printer in the study. So, there will be no clutter. Tomorrow you have lunch at Old Bag of Nails at State and Main with Aunt Ruthie, Tony, Marilyn, Cathy and Tod, and Gretchen and Jerry. Mid-afternoon, you boy sit and Uber drive Kim and Paul to a second wine tasting session for a friend's new restaurant opening in the Fall. - Amorella

       2254 hours. Back to "reality" in the previous paragraphs. Here is a brief description of reality from Wikipedia:

** **

Reality

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent, as opposed to that which is merely imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, reality is the totality of the universe, known and unknown. Philosophical questions about the nature of reality or existence or being are considered under the rubric of ontology, which is a major branch of metaphysics in the Western philosophical tradition. Ontological questions also feature in diverse branches of philosophy, including the philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophical logic. These include questions about whether only physical objects are real (i.e., Physicalism), whether reality is fundamentally immaterial (e.g., Idealism), whether hypothetical unobservable entities posited by scientific theories exist, whether God exists, whether numbers and other abstract objects exist, and whether possible worlds exist.

Selected and edited from Wikipedia

** **

Amorella, what is 'reality' from your perspective'?

       Reality in its general sense is real life, i.e. consciously living in the real world. I am not alive. - Amorella

       2303 hours. Ms Havisham, what is 'reality' from your perspective?

       As a soul I am conscious of the human spiritual heartanmind I comfort and protect as I am immortal and human spiritual heartsanminds are not immortal. I am indifferent to imagination because it is not spiritual. I understand what it is to be human because I am a part of this process even though when alone and empty I am not human at all. Examples: I am neutral to physics and the known and unknown universe. I am immortal. I understand human beings are not immortal. My understanding relates to the comfort and protection of her or his spiritual heartanmind only. The spiritual heart and mind have to work out what reality is to each part and to the two parts as a whole. The living spiritual reality is not the same as the non-physical spiritual reality. Living consciousness is not consciousness after living just as consciousness at 77 is not consciousness at 5. One has a spiritual memory but it focuses in a present tense of Being. Being human demands a sense of space and time. The sense still exists when physically dead but it is relative to what is not what was. Without this sense one could not grow and mature within the framework of the humanity of the heartansoulanmind, the individual human spirit. - mh

       All for tonight, orndorff. Post. - Amorella

180. Notes - wholesomely equal exchange

180. 6 August 2019

       After noon. You received a few birthday wishes on Facebook today, plus a unique and very funny card from Carol and Aunt Ruthie called and sang "Happy Birthday" to you. - Amorella

       1221 hours. It was fun and made me smile to see all the well-wishes. I told them "Thank you" and that I was setting my sights on 80 since being 77 is not too bad at all. :-)

       Eighty sounds like a good year, trust you'll be up to it. - Amorella

       I agree with Amorella, Mr. Orndorff. - mh

       1227 hours. We'll see. What will be, will be. 

       Post. - Amorella

       Mid-afternoon. Carol and Jadah are napping on the bed. The alarm is set for four as you have to be over at Kim and Paul's by four-thirty to go to Dublin for your birthday dinner. - Amorella

       

       Everyone ate well at the Cap Diner along the Scioto River in Dublin. Carol, Kim, Paul, Owen, Brennan and the boys' friend Louie enjoyed their sandwiches, sides, drinks and shared desserts. You also, of course. - Amorella

       2147 hours. We had a good time, especially me because I could see and feel everyone else having a good time dining out at a new restaurant of choice. 

       It is the shared atmosphere as well as the shared table, Mr. Orndorff. Desserts were shared also. Here is something to think on. The Dead can only share themselves because they have nothing else. Do you see the richness in this? A soul's feast is in the sharing of spiritual heartsanminds sharing while living and existing in spirit alone. While sharing nothing is lost by any and something is gained by all. Spiritual economics of a sort. What do you think on this, Mr. Orndorff? - mh

       2158 hours. It appears quite a wholesomely equal exchange.

       Post. - Amorella

       

179, Notes - meaning without words not lost in light

179. 5 August 2019

       0602 hours. When I think I am the pronoun I, I am the roadside and not the road.

       Mr. Orndorff, you are thinking soul. - mh

       0609 hours. The film Arrival pops into mind. How odd is that.

** **

Arrival (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer. It is based on the 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang and stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker. The film follows a linguist enlisted by the U.S. Army to discover how to communicate with aliens who have arrived on Earth, before tensions lead to war.

The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016, and was released in the United States and Canada by Paramount Pictures on November 11, 2016. It grossed $203 million worldwide and received praise for Adams's performance, Villeneuve's direction, and its exploration of communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence. Considered one of the best films of 2016, Arrival appeared on numerous critics' year-end lists^[4] and was selected by the American Film Institute as one of ten "Movies of the Year".

It received eight nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won for Best Sound Editing. It also received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress for Adams and Best Original Score for Jóhann Jóhannsson, and was awarded the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2017. 

The score by Jóhannsson was nominated for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 60th Grammy Awards. 

Selected and edited from Wikipedia

** **

Mid-morning. A few hours later and the above has lost its initial impact. - Amorella

0853 hours. How fickle I am. It seemed at the time to be an eureka moment; an understanding. At this moment there is hardly a connection. Words without much meaning now; then, meaning without words. 

You have things to do, calls to make relating to the house and lawn, plus, you can't find your credit card. Post. - Amorella

           0902 hours. The world at large takes dominion. It is like searching to sight a single star once in the light of day. 

0853 hours. How fickle I am. It seemed at the time to be an eureka moment; an understanding. At this moment there is hardly a connection. Words without much meaning now; then, meaning without words. 

You have things to do, calls to make relating to the house and lawn, plus, you can't find your credit card. Post. - Amorella

0902 hours. The world at large takes dominion.  It is like searching to sight a single star once in the light of day.

Mid-afternoon. You drove to State Farm in Clintonville to ask questions and pay for home insurance for the next twelve months. Lunch in Worthington at Piada Street Italian and presently you are facing west at Heritage Park opposite the shelter house in Westerville. Carol is taking her walk. Earlier you put a hold on your credit card and most of your errands (except for Kroger's) are done. - Amorella

1500 hours. We were anxious about the credit card but no one tried to use it and what is on it is accurate. Maybe it will turn up. We both lose things more than we used to; mostly we find them though. Such is the world. I remember a great short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer titled "Lost".  I used to teach that story in AP class. Singer was a great writer. The other Isaac, Asimov was a great writer too. 

Don't erase Singer and Asimov. Let them go and move on, young man. - Amorella

1734 hours. I just awoke. I must have really needed a nap.

Later. - Amorella 

2310 hours. We watched more than one and a half hours of the two-hour special on violence and white supremacy hatred in El Paso and Dayton tonight on MSNBC. We will watch the rest of the special MSNBC program tomorrow. Earlier a similar focus showed itself on selections of NBC and ABC national news programs. At times over the last few years it appears we are living in the 1930's in Germany; the similarities of social engineering and design; a 1984 Orwellian world via the modern media traumatized world. Emotions and passions showed themselves on the media today. Several souls, dare I say, had their say on live television. Raw humanity. That is what we witnessed on the screen today. 

                                                                      

       Heartsansoulsanminds, not souls alone, Mr. Orndorff. - mh

       You are a roadside, not a road, orndorff. Post. - Amorella

       2333 hours. I accept this more easily than you might think, Amorella.

178. Notes -

178a. 3 August 2019

       Mid-morning on a Saturday. You are waiting for Carol to complete her walk at Heritage Park, then a stop at Schneider's for a treat or so. You stopped and ate in the shade of the Otterbein faculty lot off West Park Street. Grove Street is closed for the weekly Farmers' Street Market. - Amorella

       You are home but reminiscing about your early days at Otterbein College as it was called then. Two of your favorite professors come to mind, Dr. Harold Hancock and Dr. John Coulter. Hancock was the head of the History Department and Coulter was head of the English Department. Within, they are the best of what Otterbein was while you were there. - mh

       Mid-afternoon. You are ready to do some more light metaphysics with Ms Havisham and the nature of consciousness. First, let's reinforce what metaphysics is in this blog. Begin, as almost always, with definition, which, in this case, I will edit. - Amorella

** **

metaphysics - plural noun [usually treated as singular] the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space . . ..

Metaphysics has two main strands: 1. that which holds that what exists lies beyond experience (as argued by Plato), and, 2. that which holds that objects of experience constitute the only reality (as argued by Kant, the logical positivists, and Hume). 

Metaphysics has also concerned itself with a discussion of whether, 1, what exists is made of one substance or many, and, 2, whether what exists is inevitable or driven by chance.

ORIGIN mid 16th century: representing medieval Latin metaphysica (neuter plural), based on Greek ta meta ta phusika ‘the things after the Physics’, referring to the sequence of Aristotle's works . . ..

[Metaphysics] later interpreted as meaning ‘the science of things transcending what is physical or natural’.

Selected and edited from the Oxford/American Apple Software

[no synonyms noted]

** **

       Consciousness continues, finishing the first section begun and responded to in Note 177. The selection Ms Havisham is responding directly. - Amorella

** **

Consciousness (continued)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about cognition.      

. . .

Western philosophers, since the time of Descartes and Locke, have struggled to comprehend the nature of consciousness and identify its essential properties.

Issues of concern in the philosophy of consciousness include whether the concept is fundamentally coherent; whether consciousness can ever be explained mechanistically; whether non-human consciousness exists and if so how it can be recognized; how consciousness relates to language; whether consciousness can be understood in a way that does not require a dualistic distinction between mental and physical states or properties; and whether it may ever be possible for computing machines like computers or robots to be conscious, a topic studied in the field of artificial intelligence.

Thanks to developments in technology over the past few decades, consciousness has become a significant topic of interdisciplinary research in cognitive science, with significant contributions from fields such as psychology, anthropology, neuropsychology and neuroscience. The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness—that is, on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness. The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness in humans by asking subjects for a verbal report of their experiences (e.g., "tell me if you notice anything when I do this").

Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception, blindsight, denial of impairment, and altered states of consciousness produced by alcohol and other drugs, or spiritual or meditative techniques. In medicine, consciousness is assessed by observing a patient's arousal and responsiveness, and can be seen as a continuum of states ranging from full alertness and comprehension, through disorientation, delirium, loss of meaningful communication, and finally loss of movement in response to painful stimuli Issues of practical concern include how the presence of consciousness can be assessed in severely ill, comatose, or anesthetized people, and how to treat conditions in which consciousness is impaired or disrupted. The degree of consciousness is measured by standardized behavior observation scales such as the Glasgow Coma Scale.

** **

178b, 4 August 2019

       The rest of this introductory of 'Consciousness' in Wikipedia speaks of the scientific investigation into consciousness. Souls don't do science because there is no need. Science is a needed human activity for understanding how the physical world and the physical and mental body works and why. Souls protect and comfort the spiritual aspects of humanity, the heartanmind preferable as a single unit . . . like the tick and tock of a pre-digetial clock. I am speaking of the deeper heartanmind, the deeper consciousness within the unconscious, the Consciousness with a capital C as Plato would have it. A Spiritual Reality will do. The whole of matter is attuned to it, to the emptiness, the void, if you will; the Nothing between the tick and the tock. If science could take away everything else, there in the Nothingness, the Spiritual shines without a speck of light. Physics is driven to emulate it. Physics has no choice, neither does life. And, neither do I. - mh

** **

       2250 hours. No words are consciously or unconsciously forthcoming.

       Post. - Amorella

177.Notes - soul talk

11.Notes.8.19.eisx.docx

177. 1 August 2019

       Mid-afternoon after lunch at Smashburger and a stop at Walmart for a new birdfeeder. You are at Kroger's off north State Street in Westerville. We are editing yesterday's Ms Havisham's preface to consciousness as this is in the August folder. 

         As we go through this slightly edited Preface, I will add my immediate comment with asterisk, underline and brackets. mh

** **

       Long ago human beings incorporated words to better describe their feelings on personally observed feelings and events, some circumstances were in a spiritual twist. Out of a variety of seemingly, at first, supernatural events there arose reasoning for explanation, i.e. stories. 

       Gods and Goddesses in control with ghosts and goblins closer to the earthlings themselves. What could be closer than the human heartanmind in an imaginary twist along with the spiritual? Witnessing a seemingly supernatural (out of the ordinary) event comes first. As no earthling arrives and survives in a vacuum, culture, conjecture and belief were in a general reply to the relatively unseen, although spiritually felt, 

       Why? Because the sense of the spiritual is embedded within the human psyche. It is embedded in the human emotional heart and intellectual mind because of the soul; one of which I, Ms Havisham, am (within linguistic personification of course). 

    * [The soul is the lightning rod that jolts the spiritual heartanmind to show something rather unusual is about within. - mh]

***

       People feel their own souls from time to time, one usual observation witnessed is that the speaker, generally with an unannounced tear in the eye, slightly bows her or his head in anguish or delight and implies or says something such: "I have no words." Or, begins or ends with something to the effect: "from deep in my soul. 

       This is not science, this is human. When people feel they are stringently aware of their own soul’s consciousness flounders in the mystery of how this can be, that they cannot speak without hesitation or not at all in such a highly intimate moment of self-reckoning. 

       The soul bursts forth within a sacred solitude of understanding an immediate truth. The material world and the spiritual are forever married while in a living quantum-like thinking consciousness of being and not-being at the same time. This is not a miracle, it is an existence of an immortal self and other existing immortal selves in the physical world.

       * [A soul is spiritual being not a scientific quality or quanta. People who deny this are being unrealistic as to what spiritual human qualities they have. This is my point of view. Essentially, people who accept what they are, are more down to earth than arrogant.]

***

       Quantum-like thinking is not science. Thought cannot be measured except within its grammar and vocabulary. Human consciousness exists to convey thought. Animals also have a consciousness that cannot be fully measured by human beings. Reasoned thought is a spiritual substance. Without it, one cannot know what or who she or he is. In here, in this blog story, this is a greater philosophical truth as a soul such as myself sees and understands it. 

       You do not have to agree. You have not been a soul whole and empty, you humans are heart and mind. You name things. You have grammar and subjects and predicates. You name yourselves and other persons and places and things and states of being. 

       The closest thing a soul is to be named (in science-like fashion), is the working pronoun, "I". If youwant to imagine this twist-in-a-spirit, name yourself 'I' and see the spiritual world more like I see myself. 

       Imagine the consciousness of being a pronoun not a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction or interjection and you will have a better understanding of what it is to be a soul.  - mh

       * [No commentary needed. mh]

** **

       The bracket underlined commentary above is not needed, but it is acceptable. - Amorella

1516 hours. Ms Havisham, how would 'I' identify other human souls? 

One identifies another soul by a symbioticantouch-like sense. A soul is a soul alien human-like souls would also symbioticantouch-like, generally one or two at a time. A group or all souls may also symbioticantouch at once. mh

1550 hours. Are there many rules among souls?

No, at least none that living human beings can relate to. - mh

Dusk. Moving into the first section of "Consciousness" article. - Amorella

** **

Consciousness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about cognition.

Consciousness is the state or quality of awareness or of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined variously in terms of sentience, awareness, qualia, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood or soul, the fact that there is something "that it is like" to "have" or "be" it, and the executive control system of the mind. Despite the difficulty in definition, many philosophers believe that there is a broadly shared underlying intuition about what consciousness is.

As Max Velmans and Susan Schneider wrote in The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness: "Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our lives." . . . You become aware that your actions have an effect on other people. 

       Conscious experience is being in a material and spiritual existence. The reality of being human is recognizing one is in two places at once -- the material world and the spiritual world. The material world is overwhelming and with being physical the human senses are a necessity for physical survival. The soul sense is to clarify the spiritual reality within. Dealing with both worlds is a moral imperative to generate self-worth and individual/ community purpose. The moral imperative is seen through respect for self and respect for others through mutual trust and friendship. This is what the soul understands. The key is friendship. Friendship allows souls to symbioticantouch. Friendship is a subset of the materialanspirital twist that being human is. One becomes aware of being two in one and being separate at the same moment. - mh

** **

       2248 hours. I find it strange that I have never focused on the concept that a material and spiritual existence of being human could so naturally fit within the realm of souls and friendships. Touch having a spiritual quality had not entered my mind before, at least I far as I can remember. Both Amorella and Ms Havisham write better than I do. Their words flow and sound better than my own. Good for them. 

       Post. - Amorella

       Perhaps we pretend to be the better angels of your nature, Mr. Orndorff. - mh

       2300 hours. I appreciate your kindness, Ms Havisham. I learn something new regularly. This is a very interesting exercise.