The Maverick's Mind-Space

"I'm going to show them a world-- a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible."

It was 11 in the night. My cellphone buzzed. A message.

"Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya." Send this message to 20 people, and in 5 days, you will hear a good news."

I hate such messages, and I mercilessly delete them as soon as I see them. But that day, I didn't. I patiently forwarded it to 20 of my friends.

"Why did I do it? What is happening to me?", I wondered. But I already knew the answer--

It was the 27th of May, exactly 5 days before my Visa interview.

Such was the impact, the fear of Visa had on me. But now, its all over; and I understand that "Visa is nothing; absolutely nothing."

Today(June 1), now that I've got my Visa, dont expect me to forward any goodluck spam messages. I am not superstitious anymore:)

How many times have you wondered if anything that happened to you was just a mere coincidence or a miracle on a small scale? How many times have you got confused if your life really was under your control ? With lots of strange things happening everyday..like people predicting that their house would be burgled..and it happens, and optimists suddenly having a feeling that they would meet with an accident and they do,and people predicting the time of their own death..

Serious things like this can be explained by saying that these are signs to give you a precaution that something bad is about to happen. And we are consoled that but for such serious things, life IS under our control. But when trivial day-to-day events happen in such a way that they cannot be dismissed off as mere coincidences, one gets a feeling that one's life is not in one's own hands.

For the past few months, it has been an untold rule that it should rain the moment I leave my house. Well, I don't go out of my house often (Probably once in a week). But the moment, I go out of my house, it starts raining. I like getting drenched in the rain, and I only wanted an excuse to do so. So I resume my journey as if it were shining.

Well, if that seems coincidental, read this.The other day when I planned to visit my friend's house, I got a phone call from an other friend which engaged me for around 20 minutes. Later when I dressed up and was descending down the steps to go to the friend's house, I had this strange feeling, 'What if he is on his way to meet me?'. I dismissed the thought and opened the gate. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the same friend whose house I was leaving to. He parked his bike and asked me,'Oh no! Are u leaving out? I wanted to meet you.'

How would you explain things like these? Its easy for a theist to explain. "Simple, Its all God's deed", says he. Its even more simpler for a nihilist. He says," Nothing is real. Life isn't real. Happenings aren't real. So why investigate?". Confused are the people of three kinds--the atheists, the agnostics, and ME. Well, I cannot be put into any of these types since I believe that God is just an energy and it can be harnessed through the mind. Iam proud of my theory, but after such occurences, I am afraid if my theory would be proved wrong.
There are thousands of questions to be answered. Is man in control of his own life? Or, is everything pre-decided? And, if fate can be overcome by extreme will-power? If so, what does one achieve by doing so? And ultimately, what is the purpose of life?

The questions remain...

A few years ago, I believed that astrology was humbug, and clairvoyants, fools. I used to stifle a laugh when someone predicted the future. But now, here Iam, visiting astrology websites and reading the astrology column in newspapers. This transformation, I owe to The Chaos Theory.

Chaos theory is the study of complex non-linear dynamic systems. The word 'Chaos'is a misnomer since the chaos theory doesnot lay emphasis on the disorder of the system, but on the order inherent in the system.It deals with the sensitive dependence on initial conditions. Just a small change in the initial conditions can drastically change the long-term behavior of a system. This can be understood more clearly by 'The Butterfly Effect'.It states that 'The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does.'

This effect along with a study about fractals made me a believer in astrology. Fractals can be thought of as the images of chaos .Fractal has come to mean any image that displays the attribute of self-similarity. The figure below shows a fractal pattern called a Koch curve.
To create a Koch curve, imagine an equilateral triangle. To the middle third of each side, add another equilateral triangle. Keep on adding new triangles to the middle part of each side, and the result is a Koch curve. A magnification of the Koch curve looks exactly the same as the original. It is another self-similar figure.

All this may seem irrelevant to my transformation, but it is not. I felt that the solar system itself had a fractal pattern in it. Consider the structure of an atom. It has a nucleus at the centre around which electrons revolve in an orbit. Many atoms constitute to form the Earth. The earth can be imagined as a nucleus around which the 'electron' moon revolves. At the next level, the sun is at the centre around which the earth and the other planets revolve. This is surely a fractal pattern. Just as how a small change in the Koch curve would change the shape of the curve drastically, it is possible that the planetary position changes have an influence on each one of us. Thus astrology is a science; not a black-magic. But the question is whether man can accurately manipulate the planetary positions to predict future. Thats one thing Iam not certain about..

After spending months searching for this book 'Simulacra & Simulations', I finally managed to 'get hold of it'. Yeah! It IS a book; I can read it; I can even bookmark the pages. But is it really a 'book'? Can I touch it? No! Because after much of a search, what I got was an E-book- a simulation of the actual book!

' simulate v.tr. 1 a pretend to have or feel( an attribute or feeling). b pretend to be. 2 imitate or counterfeit.'

This is how The Oxford Dictionary defines the word 'simulation'. Everyone is of the idea that to simulate is to feign to have what one hasn't.But the matter is more complicated, since to simulate is not simply to feign. In his book 'Simulacra & Simulations', Jean Baudrillard says that the words 'feign' and 'simulate' have a thin strand of difference between them.
"Someone who feigns an illness can simply go to bed and make believe he is ill. Someone who simulates an illness produces in himself some of the symptoms", he argues. This kindles an interest to know more about this book.

'Simulacra & Simulations' is a French book written by Jean Baudrillard, translated in English by Sheila Faria Glaser and made famous by movies like 'The Matrix'. The book covers many topics like Nihilism, psychoanalysis, politics, world wars etc. with respect to 'Simulacrum'. One of the most interesting areas of the book is where the author knowingly or unknowingly explains Chaos theory.(Look out for articles on Chaos theory in the months to come.)
The essence of chaos theory, known as sensitive dependence on initial conditions, states that just a small change in the initial conditions can drastically change the long-term behavior of a system. This is exactly what Jean Baudrillard says in his book. He states there there is nothing called 'A perfect simulation'.For eg. Go and simulate a theft in a large department store. How do you convince the security guards that it is a simulated theft? There is no "objective" difference: the same gestures and the same signs exist as for a real theft; in fact the signs incline neither to one side nor the other. As far as the established order is concerned, they are always of the order of the real.
Go and organise a fake hold-up. Be sure to check that your weapons are harmless, and take the most trustworthy hostage, so that no life is in danger (otherwise you risk committing an offence). Demand ransom, and arrange it so that the operation creates the greatest commotion possible - in brief, stay close to the "truth", so as to test the reaction of the apparatus to a perfect simulation. But you won't succeed: the web of artificial signs will be inextricably mixed up with real elements (a police officer will really shoot on sight; a bank customer will faint and die of a heart attack; they will really turn the phoney ransom over to you) - in brief, you will unwittingly find yourself immediately in the real, one of whose functions is precisely to devour every attempt at simulation, to reduce everything to some reality - that's exactly how the established order is, well before institutions and justice come into play.

This is just a drop in the ocean of this book. It seems complicated, but then, it talks about reality and simulations in everyday life. Since life itself is complicated, there is nothing wrong in this book being complicated. But on completing the book, one is sure to experience a revelation.

" Unfortunately, some things can't be explained. You'll have to feel it for yourself."

At last, I've completed my GRE. I never thought it would be so difficult. Having written CAT, I felt GRE would not be much of a burden. But it really had me taxed a lot. Unlike CAT, where you can omit the questions you don't know, GRE smirks at you with a mind-boggling question which you will have to attempt in order to go to the next one. I also learnt that to do well in GRE, you need something called luck, which I've never had for the past few years; not without a prefix 'bad' attached to it. Anyways, it is over now. Let bygones be bygones.
The most important part of the prep. was the wordlist. I tried every method to memorise the words; methods ranging from the conventional 'mugging up' and the 'roots method' to the most unconventional but popular 'Norman Loose method'. Here are some of the words I memorised using the 'Norman Loose' method.

pastiche- imitation of another's style in musical composition or in writing.
"What do we say when someone copies another's music? He has 'cut..copied..and PASTED"

hegemony-dominance
" Strikingly similar to Tamil "Ejamaan", meaning 'leader'"

husband- use sparingly, conserve, save
" I've watched many movies where the husband is a miser. (Its a loose connection; But anyways..I couldnot find a better way to remember it). This word always reminds me of the graffiti 'Before marriage, a man yearns for a woman; after marriage, the 'Y' becomes silent'"

monarchy, oligarchy etc.. relating to govt.
"Rhymes with tamil 'Aatchi', meaning 'rule'

hardy- sturdy, robust
" Now...Dont ask me if 'Laurel' means 'lank' or 'gaunt'

Well, there are so many other words. But Iam planning to publish a book on how to remember GRE words using 'Norman loose' method, and I dont want any copyright problems later..

Many people would have watched 'The Matrix' and enjoyed it as a movie-- A movie known for its amazing fight sequences, action scenes etc. But there is much more in the movie apart from all these. . Now, Let me tell you that most of the names of the characters in The Matrix are meaningful. They tell about the character. They speak for themselves. Here are some of the names and what they mean:

Thomas Anderson
This is the name of Keanu reeves in The matrix. 'Ander' means 'man'. So 'Anderson' means 'Son of man'. This is an intended irony since we come to know later in the movie that Anderson was not 'born'. He was 'manufactured' by the machines.

Neo
Neo means 'new'. Since Keanu reeves becomes a new man in Zion, He is called Neo. Moreover, Neo is an anagram of "one".

Morpheus
Morpheus was a God of dreams in Greek mythology. He was one of the sons of Hypnos, the God of sleep. He took human form and appeared to people in their sleep. To be "in the arms of Morpheus" means to be asleep, and the drug morphine is named after him. This name is very apt since Morpheus believees he would be able to defeat the machines one day or the other.

Oracle
Oracle, in the ancient Greek world, was a shrine where people consulted special priests or priestesses. These priests and priestesses were believed to have the power to reveal the will of the gods and to foretell the future. The word oracle also refers to the priest or priestess and to the message or prophecy.

Zion
'Zion' is the city in which the anomalies from the matrix live. It is the only place not under the control of the machines.I suppose the word 'Zion' is related to 'Scion' as in 'The Priory of Scion'. The priory of scion was a secret society in the past. Its mission was "to safeguard not just the treasure of the Crusades, but to preserve the Grail.."

The other names that are of historical importance are:

*Merovingian- An old French dynasty (The Merovingian speaks French) who claimed they descended from the line of Jesus Christ.

*Persephone- A beautiful goddess in Greek and Roman mythology.(a fitting name for Monica Bellucci!!)

*Niobe- A Greek goddess who wanted to be adored for being a mother.

*Nebuchadnezzar- A king mentioned in the bible who is haunted by bad dreams.

The other day, I asked my fellow members of a community called 'Crazy theories' about what God is. The feedback I got was really interesting. Here they are...

Abinand:
what is God? 4/23/2005 7:19 AM
why do we people personify god? why do we believe that God is a "him"? I believe that God is an energy like kinetic or potential energy. Like other forms of energy, God can also be harnessed. we call the harnessing of energy as prayer. Do you agree?

Sav
4/24/2005 5:20 AM
here's what i think...... there had to be some way of refering to god.... so ppl just gave him a form... and being the egotistical race that humans are... they gave him a human form..... and since men have had more power for most of history, and are physiologically the stronger sex..... god was given the form of a male human.....
thats why he's called HE
(tho if you think of the qualities typically asociated with god... compassion, love, mercy, pity, peace...... it wud be more fitting to call him a SHE........ just my 2 cents! im not being a feminist here)

C.J.
4/25/2005 8:44 AM
I guess calling God a She or He would be unfair. Can't call God an It because that implies inanimate objects or animals according to the proper English grammar rules (that I was taught anyway; can be debated). How about a mixture of She, He and It? Umm... SHIt?!
"...and God said unto thee that those who believe in SHIt shall find themselves in heaven."
Not that I have anything against God but frankly, debating about what gender to assign to God sounds rather futile because God's supposed to be one of a kind. Besides, we bend so many rules of English language in our daily usage, why not invent a distinctive 3rd person (?!) singular for God? Preferably other than SHIt, which does in a way say A LOT more than the literal meaning of the word. God's not a person hence emphasis is on the "limitations of human languages". I guess it would be a different category altogether.
Consider it a "thinking outside of the box" exercise. You have my suggestion. That is if you can get past the literal meaning.

C.J.
4/25/2005 10:25 PM
To answer the real question, I somewhat agree with that idea. Praying could be harnessing the energy that is God. But my version is a little more detailed/specific in a sense cuz I think that "thinking is praying"... Why? Well, that depends entirely on whether anyone wants to know or not.

Sav
5/7/2005 9:47 AM
okay lets for just a min agree that god is in fact some sort of energy (tho im not sure i totally agree with it)
i dont think praying is a way of harnessig it... i think its just a way of accepting the energy and recognising that its something greater than us... (which is just a nice way of saying praying is a way of kissing up to what we think is the ultimate power)
thinking is praying.... NO i dont think so. praying may consist of a little amount of thinking (and even that is debatable) but the two are essentially different things!
as for energy egtting exhausted.... well according to the laws of physics (which i tend to believe more than the laws of religion) the total amount of energy in the universe remains constant!! its never exhausted!!

C.J.
Think about it... 5/11/2005 3:25 AM
A lot of things I've said before already, like in the original "What is God?" thread and so on. Without repeating and going into too much detail again, I'll just touch on some things:

1) God as "The Idea" and not "just an idea". (This actually relates to Plato's Theory of Forms and there's much available in regards to that on the net and in books). You may take God as The Perfect Idea or The Idea of Perfection. God does not have a form because that would impart limitations and thus imperfection.

2) If worship/prayer has one function other than some unnecessary physical exercise and repeating the same old prayers and giving us something "constructive" to do, it is that it REMINDS us of God. If you're "thinking" of God, you're not committing sins and being generally stupid (or so you could assume). I'm not trying to deter anyone from praying/worshipping but only highlighting the "main reason" as far as my humble intelligence permits.

3) Now then, if God is The Idea and worshipping/praying "reminds" us of God too, then to think of God is to pray. Gives "idealism" a whole new twist, doesn't it?

4) I realize I said "thinking is praying" and not "thinking about God is praying" but again refering to Plato's Theory of Forms, when God is The Perfect Idea and The First Idea, then all ideas are derived from God because God is derived from nothing (and thus "Hinduism says God is Nothing"; quoting my best buddy Rahul). So even thinking about things in general is paying tribute to (or giving credit to) the source of all ideas: God. Another interesting tidbit: Happy people do not think! Yes or no?

Sidenote: The debate about whether God came first or humans is just like the age-old debate about the chicken and the egg. Do you really wanna get into that? Well then... my votes are reserved for God and the chicken.

5) Therefore, thinking is praying and thinking can make the most out of an idea or The Idea. The more you think, the more you understand and the more you understand, the more... okay, shit! I'm at a loss for words here. No, I wasn't gonna say "the more money you make". What I was about to say doesn't exactly matter to that many people. Oh well... *sigh*

There's a whole lot more I could say still but I'm gonna leave it at this for now. It's a lot like a neverending story. Trust me. Goes on and on.
Oh, and if I may recommend a book: The Silva's Mind Control Method. The Silva Method. That'll tell you a lot about the power of ideas.
To me, the Mind and the Soul and the Conscience are the same thing. Not a body part but something that makes us more than the sum of our (body) parts. From that perspective, God as The Perfect Idea is also The Perfect/Greatest Soul. In that, I'm equating the mental and the spiritual. *sigh* I realize that a whole lot of what I've said may not make sense. In which case, I'm just another idiot rambling. So be it. Oh, well!

Sav
5/11/2005 6:40 PM
hinduism says God is nothing??
oh and you might want to verify some things before you blindly repeat them!
thinking of God is NOT praying.... praying is when you try to communicate with a greater power (this included kings back in the early days)

Ali
5/11/2005 8:44 PM
giving a specific word a fixed unversal meaning would go on to say, in my humble opinion, that human language as a mode of communication, is perfect. which i'm sure u all would agree to, is not.

poets and writers use differnt words in differnt contexts. praying for some people would mean communicating with a higher athaurity (who take a litteral meaning of the word), for others would mean say, ... hmm... asking for God's grace (in any possible form). and Gods' grace could mean alota things too, his guidance, forgiveness, strenght to do right or even could be used to define "harnessing" Gods' power.

C.J. does have some good thoughts here. whn ur thinking of God ur not doing nething wrong that you couldve been doing. thats good in a way.

u know, the thing about hinduism saying "God is nothing", one of my friends said the same thing to me. but considering the fact that there are so many differnt sects in hinduism (the same way we have in islam and christianity), saying that C.J. should reconfirm his data would be asking too much of him now wouldnt it. he couldnt be expected to go to a devoted follower of each hindu sect and prepare a statistical report on what each sect believes in and what they dont believe in.

Sarosh:
5/12/2005 9:29 AM
I dont know where to start as we have confused the scientific beliefs with absoluteness of the highest truth quite a big deal.
First of all, when we talk about energy in physical meanings, we dont talk about "different energies" but "different forms of energy". Taking this belief of science, of course you want to say that any other energy can be transformed into God or God can be transformed into any of those. At least I dont pray such a God.
My God is not energy but the Creator of Energy, and this is the first display of His being God, because in our physical world we believe that energy cant be created or destroyed but only transformed from one form to the other and hence we use the term "produce" with energy instead of "create". But my God is the one Who created it (Khaaliq) and who can destroy it (Moákhir).
Secondly, my God can't be harnessed with prayers; my God has established values and applies those values to make the things happen instead of going with whome has prayed the most; NO, my God is not that helpless in front of prayers. When I pray I ask Him for something, and He Only gives me what I deserve, and Yes He Gives me what I want when its a matter of choice.
The last but not the least; My God can't be surrounded in words, or HE wouldn't be My God.