2008.06.12 13:00 - Dreams and Whirlwinds

At 1 am SLT in the afternoon, Storm was the main guardian that day. He sent me the following log with his comments.

Storm was at the tea house. Or trying to be…

Fael Illyar: Hi Storm
Adams Rubble: Hello Storm
Moon Fargis: hiya storm
Storm Nordwind: Hi everyone
Storm Nordwind: I need to relog - nothing rezzing

Seconds later, a safe materialisation. Once again we decided to keep chatting on the benches outside the tea house. This kind of a mixed blessing depending on your ‘point of view’. We can accommodate more people and random visitors can wander in and find out about Play as Being. We can also enjoy the sunshine. But also it allows for playful mischief - see later! Our first topic was about chat logging, something all guardians have had to grapple with.

Fael Illyar: wb Storm :)
Adams Rubble: I wanted to ask you, when you copy the local chat, how do you get rid of the times on the left
Storm Nordwind: Thank you. Things are rezzing this time
Storm Nordwind: It’s very easy!
Storm Nordwind: You set your preferences to record conversations in a file instead
Adams Rubble: Oh
Storm Nordwind: and you can choose whether or not to have the timestamps
Adams Rubble: thanks
Storm Nordwind: as a config item
Fael Illyar logs everything all the time anyway. With timestamps.
Storm Nordwind: If you go to the Communications tab of your preference screen (ctrl-P) you will see all the options
Adams Rubble: I see. Just check “log chat”?
Storm Nordwind: Yes.
Adams Rubble: and makes a file on the path?
Fael Illyar: my text editor supports rectangular block selection so as the final step of log editing, I remove them :)
Storm Nordwind: And if you want timestamps you’ll have to put those in by checking another box
Storm Nordwind: Yes
Storm Nordwind: called Chat
Storm Nordwind: Be careful - it can get VERY big
Fael Illyar: chat.txt to be accurate but the extension is usually hidden.
Adams Rubble: That’s neat. I wanted to save Pema’s conversation this morning
Storm Nordwind: yes
Adams Rubble: I did but it had all the times
Storm Nordwind: It won’t do it retrospectively
Storm Nordwind: OK
Adams Rubble: so you have to set it at the start
Fael Illyar: my chat.txt seems to be 14 megabytes :)
Storm Nordwind: yes
Adams Rubble: :)
Storm Nordwind: I have a whole set now with dates
Storm Nordwind: I keep archiving them
Fael Illyar: I’ve got timestamps there so it’s pretty easy to find something if I know when it happened
Adams Rubble: I have to leave in about 20 minutes and I will just slip away
Storm Nordwind: No problem.
Fael Illyar: no goodbyes again? :P
Adams Rubble: OK
Storm Nordwind smiles

I mentioned the Adams’s blog which had been unexpectedly seen by some of the guardians.

Storm Nordwind: By the way - I know it was unintended for anyone to read your blog Adams, but I thought it wonderful!
Adams Rubble: Thanks, it was very nice what you said
Adams Rubble: It made me feel much better
Storm Nordwind: I am so pleased
Fael Illyar: Yes, I just have to admire how much you manage to write about them usually :)
Adams Rubble: Thanks :) I feel a little laid bare
Fael Illyar: And it’s often meaningful too :)
Storm Nordwind: We are privileged to see the intimacy. I am sorry to have mentioned it if it makes you feel uncomfortable
Adams Rubble: No, it is OK. Thanks :)
Adams Rubble: I need to do much more listening now though
Adams Rubble: I have so much to learn
Storm Nordwind: And it helped me too. I had had a hiatus for a week while ill. Now I got started again!
Fael Illyar: Hi Quilty
Adams Rubble: That is terrific

Quilty arrived and joined us. We went through some introductions.

Storm Nordwind: Welcome Quilty
Moon Fargis: hello quilty
Quilty Bookmite: Hi. Thank you
Adams Rubble: hello Quilty
Storm Nordwind: Please excuse my ignorance Quilty - have you been to these gatherings before?
Adams Rubble: just want to add that I know I am among friends
Quilty Bookmite: Just once, yesterday.
Storm Nordwind: Yes you certainly are Adams
Storm Nordwind: Ah good!
Storm Nordwind: That means I can dispense with all the intro stuff! :)
Storm Nordwind is lazy whenever possible
Quilty Bookmite: Certainly.
Fael Illyar: Yes, lazy is natural :)
Storm Nordwind: Laziness is the thief of time
Fael Illyar: Depends on exactly what kind of laziness we are talking about :)
Storm Nordwind: Ah yes. It does. There is the busy-ness that so many people do to hide their lack of meaningful action!
Storm Nordwind: lazy from that is OK!

Quilty described his immediate surroundings in real life: a room full of child’s toys. That became the trigger for a brief but interesting discussion on whether people are born with their good, bad or neutral qualities and what good and bad was in the first place.

Quilty Bookmite: I sit here in RL surrounded by childrens toys that need tidying away.
Storm Nordwind: That is very nice!
Quilty Bookmite: And shows just how lazy I am!
Storm Nordwind: perhaps you could play a little before tidying them?
Storm Nordwind: och no!
Adams Rubble: no :)
Quilty Bookmite: I get plenty of opportunity to play with them when my daughter is awake.
Adams Rubble: shows there are children
Quilty Bookmite: And children are exhausting.
Storm Nordwind: growing up can be overrated
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: :)
Fael Illyar: Well, at least some ways of growing up :)
Adams Rubble: :)
Fael Illyar: The way I see it, there is growing up that’s good and other growing up that’s not :P
Storm Nordwind: Tell us about which is which Fael
Fael Illyar: Ok lets see… losing the ability to play would be not good :)
Storm Nordwind: agreed
Adams Rubble: losing tantrums is good
Fael Illyar: learning to respect others would be good
Storm Nordwind: If you never had tantrums then that’s not a problem. But sure.
Adams Rubble: and to play nicely
Storm Nordwind: I don’t think that’s part of growing up
Storm Nordwind: I think people are born with that negativity in them and they merely express it childish ways.
Storm Nordwind: When they grow up they express the same negativity in other ways.
Fael Illyar: born with negativity? you mean it’s not learned?
Storm Nordwind: yes, that’s exactly what I mean.
Storm Nordwind: Although it is learned but in a deep past.
Adams Rubble: I think learning to play nicely is learned but most people do it at an early age. Some never do
Storm Nordwind: In my view, all virtuous action is learned. But you can still be born knowing it. Just my world view.
Adams Rubble: hmmm
Fael Illyar: There should be some altruistic behaviour that’s genetic.
Fael Illyar: I doubt we humans could survive otherwise.
Storm Nordwind: That is true from a Darwinian sense,
Storm Nordwind: But I was looking from a cosmological sense.
Adams Rubble: I don’t think I agree
Fael Illyar: There certainly is some selfishness that’s natural to humans but …
Adams Rubble: We learn that it is in our best interest to get along
Fael Illyar: We’re also very social, that couldn’t work without some genetic predisposition I think.
Storm Nordwind: I have to say I used to agree with you Adams
Storm Nordwind: My view has changed over the years
Storm Nordwind: I used to have a completely relativistic view of good and bad
Storm Nordwind: I used to say that good was simply what promoted survival of a group
Storm Nordwind: And was relative to that group
Storm Nordwind: But then that was before I developed as a Buddhist and a clairvoyant
Fael Illyar: Hi Spock
Storm Nordwind: That has informed me otherwise

Spock joined us, and Adams got ready to go.

Storm Nordwind: Hi Spock
Spock Yuitza: Hi everybody
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately I have to go but I think children learn to get along partly from the example of their parents or guardians. Role models are important.
Fael Illyar: Bye Adams :)
Storm Nordwind: Exactly so.
Storm Nordwind: Examples are vital.
Storm Nordwind: You can help your children modify what they already are.
Quilty Bookmite: I would certainly agree with that. Unfortunately, the parents aren’t the only influence as the child gets older.
Storm Nordwind reflects on the television, now absent from his house
Adams Rubble: There is the issue of reincarnation of course, that we grow through a series of lives but I have not seen that in children. They still seem to have to learn.
Adams Rubble: seriously bye all. take good care :)

Quilty reflected briefly on his own child raising experiences.

Quilty Bookmite: However, I would also say that raising a child well doesn’t guarantee a well balanced child.
Storm Nordwind: They have to relearn to express things they already are, as well as new stuff.
Quilty Bookmite: bye Adams.
Storm Nordwind: That was starting to be interesting
Quilty Bookmite: I see in my own daughter a character that we didn’t put there. She is her own person.
Storm Nordwind: Hope we can continue with Adams sometime soon
Fael Illyar: Yes, it’s unfortunate Adams had to go.
Storm Nordwind: I have seen that in my four children too

As one overlapping conversation drew to a closer another started up. Fael now reintroduced a topic I’d mentioned earlier - clairvoyance - and how it might relate to something else widely regarded as telepathy.

Fael Illyar: clairvoyant … what does that mean, exactly?
Quilty Bookmite: It is lovely to see. Probably because I was close to her I could see her character at an early age.
Storm Nordwind: It means different things to different people, Fael. I can only tell you what it means to me
Fael Illyar: well, that’s what I was asking for :)
Storm Nordwind: It is lovely Quilty. Parents can be very fortunate
Storm Nordwind: To answer Fael’s question…
Storm Nordwind: for me that means the ability to communicate with beings that most people cannot see or hear most of the time
Quilty Bookmite: What beings are they?
Fael Illyar: can you communicate with other people from distance?
Storm Nordwind: It varies Quilty
Storm Nordwind: Mostly deities, if I have a choice (which I mostly do)
Storm Nordwind: And fael, you mean telepathy
Storm Nordwind: I have experimented with that
Storm Nordwind: And it does work
Storm Nordwind: I do not know as a scientist HOW it works, but it does
Storm Nordwind: But - let’s just say - it’s easier to pick up a phone!
Storm Nordwind smiles
Fael Illyar: probably, yes :)

After my pragmatic assertion, Moon wanted some clarification on telepathy.

Moon Fargis: storm: explain a bit pleasE:)
Storm Nordwind: about what in particular Moon?
Moon Fargis: how does it work ?
Storm Nordwind: I don’t know how it works
Storm Nordwind: It is possible to put yourself in a state where two people can share thoughts
Storm Nordwind: predictably and reliably
Moon Fargis: ahhyes
Storm Nordwind: The receptive state is very like zazen
Moon Fargis: 2 leafes speaking with each other trougth the tree
Storm Nordwind: the transmitting state is rather different
Moon Fargis: how is the transmitting state?
Storm Nordwind: That is one model Moon. I cannot say whether it is accurate
Storm Nordwind: The transmitting state is more like tranquil abiding
Storm Nordwind: Single pointed concentration
Moon Fargis: ahhyes
Storm Nordwind: It is easy to set up experiments to do this
Storm Nordwind: I did them nearly 20 years ago
Quilty Bookmite: Do you think that clairvoyance is useful?
Storm Nordwind: very useful

Quilty raised a very understandable question. I recognised it as being similar to a common objection often encountered when I’ve discussed these things in the past with Christians.

Quilty Bookmite: Can you be sure that the beings you are talking to have benevolent intentions?
Quilty Bookmite: Not all beings do, after all.
Storm Nordwind: Indeed.
Storm Nordwind: Not all SL avatars have benevolent intentions either
Storm Nordwind: You can train to discriminate
Quilty Bookmite: Very true.
Storm Nordwind: In the same way as you do physically

While we were talking of what to most people are uncommon experiences, Fael mentioned her dreams. And sadly Quilty had to leave us. Still he was quickly replaced by Rajah.

Fael Illyar: I remembered a dream I saw a … I think 2 days ago. I somehow had a dream of talking with Storm through SL. I don’t remember what it was though.
Storm Nordwind: My sympathies are with you Fael if you are dreaming of me! ;)
Quilty Bookmite: I must go. Sorry. RL calls.
Storm Nordwind: Please come again soon!
Moon Fargis: see you quilty
Quilty Bookmite: I will. thanks.
Storm Nordwind: Rajah. Welcome!
Rajah Yalin: hi
Storm Nordwind: Remind me to sort your land afterwards Rajah
Rajah Yalin: okay
Fael Illyar: I no longer remember what it was about but it somehow etched itself into my memory
Rajah Yalin: sort the land afterwards, lol
Fael Illyar: something about meditation, zen, perhaps something else out of ordinary topic too I think.
Storm Nordwind: Well meditation is a big part of both our lives
Fael Illyar: Well, hasn’t been long for me but it’s become one, yes
Storm Nordwind: Perhaps a further memory will trigger when you need it to Fael
Fael Illyar: could be. One reason I remember it was that I realized it was a dream at one point.
Storm Nordwind: And therefore a lucid dream?
Fael Illyar: Yes, sort of
Fael Illyar: I mostly remember trying to read text, that tends to be hard during lucid dreams for me. I was succeeding this time though.
Storm Nordwind nods
Storm Nordwind: yes
Fael Illyar: I’ve been getting better at it lately. :)
Storm Nordwind: Do you use any deliberate triggers?
Fael Illyar: no, if I have lucid dreams, it’s pretty much accidental.
Fael Illyar: those are usually the only dreams I remember, even right after waking up
Storm Nordwind: I see. I have known people train themselves to have lucid dreams.

The noble Isen joined us while we continued our dreamy talk. And so often happens when someone newly arrives, someone is reminded of engagements elsewhere.

Storm Nordwind: Hello Isen!
Fael Illyar: Hi Isen
Moon Fargis: hi isen
Isen Enzo: Hello everyone!
Fael Illyar: I did try some lucid dreams intentionally years ago but quickly lost interest for some reason
Spock Yuitza: very late for me, i’m goin in bed. See you
Rajah Yalin: Hi Isen
Storm Nordwind: OK Spock!
Fael Illyar: no interest -> nearly no lucid dreams
Storm Nordwind: Once when i was study such things i kept a dream diary
Storm Nordwind: But I gave that up after a year
Storm Nordwind: It was taking up FAR too much time writing it!
Fael Illyar: :)
Storm Nordwind: Spending half an hour each morning going back and back and back into the dream memories
Fael Illyar: Yes, I can see how that’d take some time
Storm Nordwind: I started out really bad and it would take 15 seconds
Isen Enzo: An exercise in being there then?
Storm Nordwind: Later I could remember everything for hours!
Isen Enzo: oh oh…
Moon Fargis: :)
Isen Enzo: hmmm

Moon had placed a block on the ground and Isen had decided to sit on it in preference to a bench. This turned out to be a brave choice. Moon raised the block in the air twisted it, and Isen, upside down!

Storm Nordwind sees Isen hanging upside-down like a bat
Isen Enzo: yow
Fael Illyar: :)

Moon dropped a rotation script into the hanging block.

Isen Enzo: yoooowwww
Storm Nordwind: and now spinning
Storm Nordwind: I hope you didn’t eat before coming here Isen
Isen Enzo: the wheel of whatever…
Isen Enzo: gaaaahhhh
Storm Nordwind: No Technicolor yawns please
Moon Fargis: ah isen that reminds me o old times:)
Storm Nordwind has to look away
Isen Enzo: there’s room for more…
Moon Fargis: do you dare to enable mouselook isen ?:)
Storm Nordwind: ick!!!
Isen Enzo: Don’t try this at home…
Moon Fargis: hehe
Moon Fargis: haha
Moon Fargis: she gonna exploooode
Storm Nordwind: TAKE COVER!!!!!!!!!!!

A Storm induced whirlwind had materialised around the three dimensional whirling dervish and Fael sat on it like a satellite revolving around a turbulent sun. But time was getting on and we tidied up our toys.

Isen Enzo: Being as play…
Moon Fargis: ok hehe enougth making the garden dirty :)
Isen Enzo: yesh..
Moon Fargis: i have to go now:) soee you later my friends:)
Storm Nordwind: OK Moon
Fael Illyar: Bye Moon :)
Isen Enzo: Bye moon.
Storm Nordwind: We have been going nearly an hour anyway
Isen Enzo: time to go?
Storm Nordwind: Well I do need to sort some things out in Magoja sim to the north
Isen Enzo: oki
Isen Enzo: doki
Storm Nordwind: Rajah as a new house there IIRC
Rajah Yalin: [13:38] Storm Nordwind: Remind me to sort your land afterwards Rajah”
Storm Nordwind: exactly!
Rajah Yalin: lol
Storm Nordwind: hehe
Fael Illyar: Ok, See you later Storm :)
Isen Enzo: Raj- you have a new home?
Storm Nordwind: OK Fael
Rajah Yalin: yup
Storm Nordwind: Let’s go there
Isen Enzo: grats
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Rajah Yalin: Namaste
Storm Nordwind: Bye for now

And we went to formally put in place Rajah’s hermitage in south west Magoja.