Fleeting moments, Modern wonders, and Cow fairies

 “The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.” – Terry Pratchett

Totality buzz

What about those 4 minutes of eclipse totality is so special that people will plan for decades and travel the world to chase an encounter? More than words can say. Here is one attempt. “There is something about witnessing history with other people—a sort of existential affirmation that indeed, I am real and I am experiencing this event because all around me, other people are seeing or hearing or touching and tasting the same thing I am.” Continued: Scientific American.

AI, Robotics, and Consciousness

• Test drive Synthetic memories. According to this author, “This concept draws parallels to the movie “Blade Runner,” (based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick) where replicants were implanted with memories to provide emotional grounding.” Source.
• What is a synthetic memory? “A Synthetic Memory is a digitally reconstructed representation of a personal memory created with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GEN-AI) technologies. It recreates a past visual experience that might have faded, changed, or been forgotten over time.” Interesting Website: Link.
• The future is trending. Envision next level hiking. Hypershell is a One-horsepower AI exoskeleton. Definitely puts more oomph in the walk. Check out the nifty YouTube demo.
• Consciousness: American neurophysiologist “Christof Koch argued in Scientific American that if lumps of matter can form into human bodies and become conscious, there’s no reason that groups of elementary particles couldn’t either.” Source.
• Bots are evolving. “Figure recently demoed an update to its robot’s brain with a vision-language model (VLM), trained by OpenAI, which means it can now understand speech, execute verbal commands, and even explain why it is doing what it is doing.” Source.
• Magic bullet. Meta researchers believe AI needs a body to become intelligent. Read the hows and whys here: Link.
• I side with Consciousness Researcher Tom Butler who offers a counter to that theory: Consider the Avatar.
  
  “Presumably, all humans are an avatar for an immortal self. My objective is to suggest details about the avatar relationship and to show that the model does not preclude other species from being avatars.
  
  “Considering how we think transform Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) are formed, I will suggest the possibility that an electronic device might also serve as an avatar. I explore the implications of personage without human instincts.” Etheric Studies Link.

Updating the knowns

• Ancient Civilizations 1: Graham Hancock on Facebook: “You read it first here. Advance view of a major update concerning Gobekli Tepe that I will be adding to a new edition of my 2015 book Magicians of the Gods. Enjoy!” Gobekli Tepe: Gradual evolution? Or transfer of technology? Or both? Link.
• Ancient Civilizations 2: “The world the Maya made has been shrouded by jungle for centuries. Now, a tool called lidar is revealing its staggering scale and sophistication.” Source.
• Astronomy: World’s top cosmologists reflect. “We are, in cosmology, using a model that was first formulated in 1922,” he said. “We have great data, but the theoretical basis is past its sell-by date.” Source.
• Seeking Nessie: “As well as looking for budding monster hunters to be involved in the search, taking place Thursday 30th May to Sunday 2nd June, this year we are asking for experts to help. This includes scientists and universities, as well as pioneers of exploration NASA to provide equipment and expertise in the search.” Lochness.com

Kinship with all life

• New Tech for Smart Birds. Findings from a recent study provide a framework researchers can use to design bird-friendly tablets, Link. Researchers tracked birds who interacted with a touch screen for up to 30 minutes a day for three months. Source.
  
  
• Fish assist. Eco Brilliant! “An online underwater livestream lets worldwide volunteers ring a “fish doorbell” to help fish fulfill their reproductive missions.” Source.
  
  
• Life saver. Work continues on “the world’s largest wildlife crossing” in Los Angeles county. Completion in 2025. Source.
  
  
• “Could robotic dolphins help marine parks become more humane spaces where people can learn about and connect with nature?” View the video. An amazing project. Source.
  
  
• Psychic Parrot: Rupert Sheldrake offers this demonstration of an experiment conducted with a wonderfully verbal parrot who described what the person was looking at on a card in another room.

Dreaming up

Dreamed I was listening to my podcasts. I heard a cow in the background, birds in another, and was delighted because it gave the recording a unique spin. Authentic. Nature.

The thing I am left with is how very reassuring and natural it felt during the dream to hear that cow mooing in the background. Just once. Providing a special meaning for me that I can’t explain. Made perfect sense in the dream.

Later in the day I find a synchronicity in my blog feed. A post on Faery cattle. Magical. Known for their knack for appearing in times of need. British Fairies Blog.

So many ways to interpret this. It makes me smile. That’s enough.

One more thing – Telepathy

I interviewed Jes Kerzen, Author of ‘A Mind Beyond Words’, Amazon. Like nothing you’ve read or heard about autism.

She writes on Medium: “I’m discovering all I can about autistic spectrum perception, about psychic abilities, about spirituality and about the processes involved in publishing and publicising my first book about all the above."

Her blog includes an entry referencing Carlos Castaneda. Link.

[The story she has to tell about her connection with Asher and how she learned to connect with him telepathically deserves to be amplified to a wider audience. His abilities and what he is exploring beyond our physical world is extraordinary. Please check out her book and her writing.]

Our conversation is here: Wendy's Coffeehouse Link.

“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who are dreamers and those who are being dreamed.” – Alberto Villoldo, Dance of the Four Winds: Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel, Amazon link.

The Horse, the eclipse, and Castaneda

“You say you need help. Help for what? You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.” – Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan, Amazon

The Read

I had intended to show the incredible read I was given during the eclipse. Because my horse — in the vision — is key to responding to world events playing out now. And it is reflected in the 1st card in the read.

Horseman = Herald of Change – Shaman’s Dream Oracle.

And the final card in the read, the overview, is the absolute kicker! I was instructed to pull a middle card – instructed to cut the cards – shuffle and pull the middle card. Turns out that card is in complete sync with the message of the previous post.

 Galactic Mushroom = The Divine Matrix – Shaman’s Dream Oracle, Amazon

As it turns out, I need to table that discussion, and instead offer a helpful resource to address timelines shifting outside and beyond our measures for counting.

There is a *mushroom sync — and it will make perfect sense.

The Recap

Spring is always busy but some of this material and the experiences that serve as catalysts is overwhelming to track. Much too complex to translate or convert into a linear description. I’ll go with what I am focused on in the moment and incorporate another seeker/storyteller who has (obviously) been offered as a resource at the (conveniently) perfect time.

What I am sharing is the result of a spiritually guided prompt that happened after the vision of the horse and a meditation during the eclipse.

The Guidance

Seemingly out of the blue, during meditation [after returning from the short getaway for eclipse excitement], a prompt. A telepathic suggestion. The title drops: Journey to Ixtlan. Nothing further, just the title. I assume this is Castaneda. And it is. Curious.

Okay, I’m game. Wondering at the significance of that specific selection, I expected to find the title in my small collection of Castaneda books. When I realized that book was missing, I asked, “Why I am supposed to read that book?”

The response. “Read the first page. You’ll know.” The first page.

Locating the book at the half-price book store, I open it up to see if I have found the right book and what the first page might reveal. No doubt. It’s the right book.

This is the first page.

Of the few Castaneda books in my collection, I’ve read some – skimmed most.

I wasn’t a fan of Castaneda until I grabbed a new book (at the time) to show my husband, who liked Castaneda, the latest release. As he was still looking at other books, I opened the book to check it out (Magical Passes).

When I opened to the page that explicitly described a metaphysical encounter that I had just experienced, I gained a new appreciation for Castaneda’s work. Maybe he did have something to say to me.

Delving deeper into his background, I became aware of the critics and the controversy. It didn’t change the fact that something he described actually happened in my personal experience of reality.

Only recently did I realize the source of my initial disinterest in Castaneda’s writing. It was exactly as he outlines in the introduction to Journey to Ixtlan.

Referring to the focus of his first two books on the use of *psychotropics [previously mentioned mushroom link], he says his world, through the effects of psychotropics:

“…had been so bizarre and impressive that I was forced to assume such states were the only avenue to communicating and learning what don Juan was attempting to teach me.“

“That assumption was erroneous.”

The drugs are not the focus in Journey to Ixtlan.

My personal experience of incredible events without any mind altering substance made his information less interesting. However, it seems there is a shift in his perspective for book number three.

As the guides have prompted me to explore a new view, I will make time out now for some Castaneda insight.

With the horse vision and the eclipse read on the back burner – I do have one thing to note. There really is an energy shift with an eclipse. When you make time to sense it, the moment reveals itself.

Unfortunately, I know I will forget this wonderful experience at some point – so – I write to remember at such a time that it will be most helpful on my journey. I hope some of this is also helpful to you!

“Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. – Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, Amazon

Note: *Amazon Affiliate links.