My dear husband of 58 years just died. My first experience of death up front and very personnel. Much of my past positive experience has had to kick in and be wiling to listen to others with more experience of death than myself. This was a new test. I am surprised at many of my reactions, some quite animal, some objective, some very emotional. I often now hear my husband's voice as if his experiences have somehow become mine. His good advice comes at me when getting too emotional. Also, I have STORIES which I read or have read and they come to mind, many which now fit in to this new experience whereas before I wondered if some ever would, if you see what I mean. It is good to have a whole wealth of stories to call on. What I also have is a firm belief that my husband is back where he belongs wherever that is. At death, he looked so calm, so peaceful, so beautiful, as if he had just put his hand in the hand of God and was whisked away, transformed somehow. One of my oddest reactions was to look back at our life together and to be overwhelmed by how quickly our 58 years seemed in hindsight. Life is fleeting. Use every second, every minute to keep learning, but also to relax and be glad in all that you may have already learned and to keep going no matter what and have fun. Love is becoming more understandable to me. And one last thing. I think all my Micromastery of organising projects like seminars, lectures, club events, stalls for different groups, being a reluctant leader, have all kicked in when organising my husband's Funeral and now his Ashes' Interment. I know this sounds odd. Also, when death of a loved one hits you, a huge amount of intuition is needed. Let your Intuition get a grip when needed and follow it. Close Death is an experience which covers all parts of the brain, I think.
How to Develop Analogies (This is based on two tables - one for Target and the other for the Base domain that could not be attached here - if anyone would like a copy e-mail kcbyron2@gmail.
1. Describe in a few words, the abstract idea (Target Domain) you wish to communicate by analogy.
2. Brainstorm a few characteristics, features or mechanisms of this abstract idea.
3. Moving to the ‘Base Domain’, and without having any specific Base (Analogy) in mind,
write up to 3 different random analogical associations you have with each of the Target characteristics.
4. When you have sufficient associations for each of the Target characteristics, scan through them and see if there are words that appear more often than the others in the analogical associations. Use this as your ‘Selected Base Domain’
5. Write a few notes summarising the selected Base in terms of the Target characteristics. Finally write a couple of sentences describing the original Abstract Idea in terms of the selected Base analogy that you could use. Note: It’s useful to check the limitations with the analogy, and test it out with your colleagues.
To continue the discussion on analogies, it's important to note a great deal of widespread cultish thinking, pseudo-spirituality and unregulated psychotherapeutic thought, is based entirely on the absurd analogy that physics can explain consciousness.
Applying an analogy is a powerful way to explain abstract scientific ideas for which we have no direct experience. For example we can’t see electricity flowing down a copper wire, but we can get a sense of what is happening by imagining the analogical description of a garden hose with water flowing down it. Even in physics, all analogies break down if taken too far however, and in the case of an electric circuit the actual electron flow is much more like the ball in a pin-ball machine, than it is a garden hose.
Analogies have to be chosen with care however, otherwise they can mislead, especially when they are borrowed from science and applied elsewhere where there is even less understanding. This is precisely what has happened with a lot of pseudo-spiritual and therapy ideas that are in circulation. Some common mis-uses of scientific terms in these areas include ‘energy’, ‘frequency’, ‘wavelength’, ‘quantum leap’, along with various other purloined concepts in quantum theory, that have no equivalent whatsoever in human experience. Indeed with regard to the latter, even the best physicists don’t have a conceptual understanding of quantum theory, so the mis-appropriation of these terms to another sphere, in which there is even less clarity is, in effect, trying to fill a darkened room with fog in order to see more clearly (if you’ll excuse the analogy!)
Having watched probably too many Tik Tok videos where these ideas are propagated wholesale, I’ll try and summarise some of these crimes against good scientific ideas:
1. Crystals do not vibrate any more or less than any other material substance (ie by an immeasurably small amount over an equally diminuitive distance). They don’t have a unique frequency, and they are not transmitting waves to whoever is in possession of them. They are not living entities either. They do of course have a certain aesthetic quality in their colours and shapes however.
2. People don’t have a frequency (or a wavelength) and other than a bit of heat and acoustics, they don’t give off energy. (Of course there’s nothing wrong with the use of these terms as transient poetic metaphors, for example when the late Donald Sutherland referred to people giving off negative vibrations in the movie Kelly’s Heroes, or Van Morrison singing about getting someone on their wavelength!)
3. A room, a place or a person doesn’t have energy that is transmitted to the observer. Energy is often mistaken for the emotions they evoke in the observer. So when someone says ‘So and so has a good energy!’ they really mean ‘They make me feel good!’ – no energy or waves were transmitted in this respect from person to person (other than the emotionally neutral light or sound enabling us to see and hear things).
4. Conscious awareness is not governed by quantum theory. Quantum Entanglement is a very difficult condition to achieve experimentally and is very short lived. Quantum theory does not apply at scales larger than about one thousandth of one millionth of a metre.
Thank you Kevin, all useful perspectives to keep in mind. I think we forget that analogies are - analogies! The map is not the territory (unless you have a 1:1 scale one as in the Borges tale, but even then the territory will have changed by the time you have made the map.) As the thing we are trying to describe gets more complex no analogy will be a perfect match.
My dear husband of 58 years just died. My first experience of death up front and very personnel. Much of my past positive experience has had to kick in and be wiling to listen to others with more experience of death than myself. This was a new test. I am surprised at many of my reactions, some quite animal, some objective, some very emotional. I often now hear my husband's voice as if his experiences have somehow become mine. His good advice comes at me when getting too emotional. Also, I have STORIES which I read or have read and they come to mind, many which now fit in to this new experience whereas before I wondered if some ever would, if you see what I mean. It is good to have a whole wealth of stories to call on. What I also have is a firm belief that my husband is back where he belongs wherever that is. At death, he looked so calm, so peaceful, so beautiful, as if he had just put his hand in the hand of God and was whisked away, transformed somehow. One of my oddest reactions was to look back at our life together and to be overwhelmed by how quickly our 58 years seemed in hindsight. Life is fleeting. Use every second, every minute to keep learning, but also to relax and be glad in all that you may have already learned and to keep going no matter what and have fun. Love is becoming more understandable to me. And one last thing. I think all my Micromastery of organising projects like seminars, lectures, club events, stalls for different groups, being a reluctant leader, have all kicked in when organising my husband's Funeral and now his Ashes' Interment. I know this sounds odd. Also, when death of a loved one hits you, a huge amount of intuition is needed. Let your Intuition get a grip when needed and follow it. Close Death is an experience which covers all parts of the brain, I think.
Heartfelt condolences Lucinda and thank you for sharing this - there is much wisdom there.
Not sure about wisdom, but much experience which I guess can become wisdom.
How to Develop Analogies (This is based on two tables - one for Target and the other for the Base domain that could not be attached here - if anyone would like a copy e-mail kcbyron2@gmail.
1. Describe in a few words, the abstract idea (Target Domain) you wish to communicate by analogy.
2. Brainstorm a few characteristics, features or mechanisms of this abstract idea.
3. Moving to the ‘Base Domain’, and without having any specific Base (Analogy) in mind,
write up to 3 different random analogical associations you have with each of the Target characteristics.
4. When you have sufficient associations for each of the Target characteristics, scan through them and see if there are words that appear more often than the others in the analogical associations. Use this as your ‘Selected Base Domain’
5. Write a few notes summarising the selected Base in terms of the Target characteristics. Finally write a couple of sentences describing the original Abstract Idea in terms of the selected Base analogy that you could use. Note: It’s useful to check the limitations with the analogy, and test it out with your colleagues.
It's Not Like This!
To continue the discussion on analogies, it's important to note a great deal of widespread cultish thinking, pseudo-spirituality and unregulated psychotherapeutic thought, is based entirely on the absurd analogy that physics can explain consciousness.
Applying an analogy is a powerful way to explain abstract scientific ideas for which we have no direct experience. For example we can’t see electricity flowing down a copper wire, but we can get a sense of what is happening by imagining the analogical description of a garden hose with water flowing down it. Even in physics, all analogies break down if taken too far however, and in the case of an electric circuit the actual electron flow is much more like the ball in a pin-ball machine, than it is a garden hose.
Analogies have to be chosen with care however, otherwise they can mislead, especially when they are borrowed from science and applied elsewhere where there is even less understanding. This is precisely what has happened with a lot of pseudo-spiritual and therapy ideas that are in circulation. Some common mis-uses of scientific terms in these areas include ‘energy’, ‘frequency’, ‘wavelength’, ‘quantum leap’, along with various other purloined concepts in quantum theory, that have no equivalent whatsoever in human experience. Indeed with regard to the latter, even the best physicists don’t have a conceptual understanding of quantum theory, so the mis-appropriation of these terms to another sphere, in which there is even less clarity is, in effect, trying to fill a darkened room with fog in order to see more clearly (if you’ll excuse the analogy!)
Having watched probably too many Tik Tok videos where these ideas are propagated wholesale, I’ll try and summarise some of these crimes against good scientific ideas:
1. Crystals do not vibrate any more or less than any other material substance (ie by an immeasurably small amount over an equally diminuitive distance). They don’t have a unique frequency, and they are not transmitting waves to whoever is in possession of them. They are not living entities either. They do of course have a certain aesthetic quality in their colours and shapes however.
2. People don’t have a frequency (or a wavelength) and other than a bit of heat and acoustics, they don’t give off energy. (Of course there’s nothing wrong with the use of these terms as transient poetic metaphors, for example when the late Donald Sutherland referred to people giving off negative vibrations in the movie Kelly’s Heroes, or Van Morrison singing about getting someone on their wavelength!)
3. A room, a place or a person doesn’t have energy that is transmitted to the observer. Energy is often mistaken for the emotions they evoke in the observer. So when someone says ‘So and so has a good energy!’ they really mean ‘They make me feel good!’ – no energy or waves were transmitted in this respect from person to person (other than the emotionally neutral light or sound enabling us to see and hear things).
4. Conscious awareness is not governed by quantum theory. Quantum Entanglement is a very difficult condition to achieve experimentally and is very short lived. Quantum theory does not apply at scales larger than about one thousandth of one millionth of a metre.
K.Byron
Thank you Kevin, all useful perspectives to keep in mind. I think we forget that analogies are - analogies! The map is not the territory (unless you have a 1:1 scale one as in the Borges tale, but even then the territory will have changed by the time you have made the map.) As the thing we are trying to describe gets more complex no analogy will be a perfect match.