Life And Culture Are Virtual Realities
A. Relevant definitions of terms:
Real: not artificial or illusory, occurring or existing in actuality as a physical entity, having objective independent existence.
reality: the quality or state of being real, a real event, entity, or state of affairs, the totality of real things and events.
Virtual: being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted, hypothetical thing whose existence is inferred from apparently indirect evidence, existing within a virtual reality.
Virtual Reality: An artifactual environment, image, process or scenario conjured and experienced through sensory or neuronal stimuli and in which one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment.
B. Relevant definitions of Earth life:
Earth Life: 1. a format of temporarily constrained energy, retained in temporary constrained genetic energy packages in forms of genes, genomes and organisms 2. a real virtual affair that pops in and out of existence in its matrix, which is the energy constrained in Earth’s biosphere.
Earth organism: a temporary self-replicable constrained-energy genetic system that supports and maintains Earth’s biosphere by maintenance of genes.
Gene: a primal Earth’s organism. (1st, base, stratum organism)
Genome: a multigenes organism consisting of a cooperative commune of its member genes. (2nd stratum organism)
Cellular organisms: mono- or multi-celled earth organisms. (3rd stratum organism)
C. Relevant comprehensions of culture
- The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.
- The customary beliefs, social forms, set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices
and material traits of a group, and the characteristic features of its everyday existence.
- The totality of ways of the organisms’ dealing with (reaction to, manipulation of, exploitation of) its environment. A biological entity selected for survival of the genome as means of extending its exploitation capabilities of the out-of-cell circumstances, consequent to the earlier evolution and selection of the genome’s organ, its outermost cell membrane, for controlling the inside-of-cell genes’-commune environmental circumstances.
- The ubiqitous biological entity that drives Earth life evolution by imprinting genetics, by continuously modifying genes’ expressions.
D. Comprehension of “spiritual matters”
“Spiritual matters” are virtual reality affairs. They are feasible only for living organisms that have a culture, i.e. that have a pattern of sensings and reactions to the sensings. Genes, and therefore also genomes, are organisms and display virtual reality phenomena, therefore also multicelled organisms,including humans, display such “spiritual” phenomena.
E. Virtual reality and the 21st century world economy collapse
The 21st century world economy collapse is a collapse of a culture, of the 20th century technology culture, of its values and attitudes and ethics and morals. The world’s population is still (Feb 2009) clinging desperately to the collapsed concepts and expectations and makes a huge painful effort to revive the collapsed culture instead of to steadfastly modify it. It is sadly and exasperatingly obvious that the economy collapsed due to adherance to absurd virtual reality concepts and expectations, and that the only hope to survive and overcome the collapse is to understand its nature and to plan and embark on a course to a new, science-based, more rational, virtual reality culture.
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
Life’s Manifest
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/112.page#578
EVOLUTION Beyond Darwin 200
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=405&#entry396201
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/100/122.page#1407
By: Dov Henis
Archive for December, 2009
Life And Culture Are Virtual Realities
December 24th, 2009How Native American Drums Play A Spiritual Role In Indigenous Culture
December 22nd, 2009Native American drums are undeniably the most loved Native American instruments among Native and non Indian people alike. Drums for hundreds of years have always been at the center of Indian lifestyle, forming what is the channel of religion and spirituality as well as special days where a pow wow drum is center stage.
Indian tribes in North America history have all used drums in various ways to interact with a higher power known to most as the Great Spirit. To Native people, Indian drums are much more than just decorations or nice musical instruments. American Indian drums are thought to speak to the drummer. Native drums being made in a circle represent the earth and life. The most identifiable being hoop drums and shaman drums which are Indian hand drums used in many personal healing and religious ceremonies as well as public ceremonies such as a Native American powwow.
The hide of the animal that is stretched over the ring brings with it unique characteristics of the spirit of the animal and brings a sense of life to the drum when played. Many people think of beating a drum to make a sound, but to Native drummers and those involved in modern drumming groups and drum circles, the desire is to draw out the sound. The beating drum is compared to the beating of a human heart and is said to represent the heart beat of the earth which is a belief that is classic Native American. Drums in this way become the channel to connect one’s spirit with that of the earth and the Great Spirit through out the history of American Indians.
Native American Indian drums have a rich culture and because they are so important they are used in not only music but art and dance as well. Decorating a drum becomes a very personal artwork to the owner. The Indian drummer becomes an artist and communicates impressions of his inner feelings and beliefs in his Indian art. Some American Indian tribes use animals to adorn their drums and others use geometric patterns and everything in between. In some Native cultures the drummer will place an item of personal value inside the drum to permanently join himself with his hand drum.
The different Native American images that the artwork on the drums depict is usually painted with natural earth colors taken from nature. Some are dull and others are bright coming from flowers, roots, berries, bark or herbs that are boiled to release their unique earth tones. Other Native American drums are decorated with iron oxide which is a naturally occurring red rock that can be easily crushed. When mixed with water, it produces a rich orange red dye that is much like paint and is indicative if the surrounding hillsides and rock formations like those of the beautiful Arizona red rock canyons. The region of Sedona is thought to be a special place with spiritual power like the energy created by American Indian drums.
The goal of Native American Education except for those Indian boarding schools that have tried to stamp out Native culture has always involved the sharing of beliefs through music, songs, stories and legends. It is in harmony with these methods of learning that the communication and cultural importance has been found in the use of drums. If you are interested in the spiritual aspects of life as pertain to Indian beliefs, you will get a lot out of owning and playing Native American drums.
By: Craig Chambers
