“Even a man who is pure in heart

And says his prayers by night

May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

And the autumn moon is bright”

Among Europe’s most popular legends are the Strigoi, known as the tortured souls that rise from the dead with the ability to transform themselves into animals, drain energy from their victims and make themselves invisible. Some scholars argue that they can be living beings with supernatural instincts instilled with the power to move objects, control the passage of time and possess special insight to foretell the future.

There are many stories about what lurks in the forests of Europe where the Strigoi dwell as human sized predatory creatures with unusual speed. A ripe subject for literature, cinema and television. They tell the common tale of chronic dissatisfaction with life, cursed while trapped within a fear of change. The only other way to attain immortality is by seeing though the illusion of life’s addiction and ascend, aware only of movement since direction is subjective. But even to do that, one still has to suffer as does the tortured souls most feared in myths in an ironic twist of fate.

Although he never refers to the undead, Woody Allen has included some witty dialogue about chronic dissatisfaction in his 2008 film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, “Life is short, life is dull and full of pain and this is a chance for something special.” Some of the directors words also seem to explain why love stories between humans and the Strigoi are so compelling, “Only unfulfilled love can be romantic,”  as images of Edward and Bella, Angel and Buffy are evoked.

Most of the claims about the Strigoi have been dismissed as hallucinations, fables usually attributed to a curse using breadcrumbs to lure an audience as a common ploy of witches who live in candy houses somewhere in the woods of the Carpathian mountains where beasts prey upon lost souls who only know what they don’t want, effectively becoming yet another victim of chronic dissatisfaction.

Sixty years earlier the film Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) took a comical look at the undead. A respected horror film that is considered by the American Film Institute (AFI) among the top 100 films of American cinema. The plot is set in Florida and surrounds four different kind of Strigoi as Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster are smuggled out of eastern Europe as wax dummies pursued by the man who turns into the werewolf while the invisible man makes a cameo appearance at the end of the film. Even though he cannot be seen a voice is heard, “allow me to introduce myself, I’m the invisible man.”

Although none of them appear in a Woody Allen film, all of them were effected by chronic dissatisfaction and madness.

Around the time of Socrates a lesser known philosopher wrote, “perspective is the ability to visualize two points on any horizontal line with a third point elevated in the distance allowing parallel lines to be drawn intersecting at the ‘vanishing point’ beyond which nothing is seen.”

An example of this occurs when vision is focused on a point along the horizon driving an automobile on a flat desert highway with cactus and sand on either side. Then, its noticed that the road in the distance disappears and becomes a dot. If the path has been traveled before, familiarity with what one expects to find is reinforced with confidence about what still lies hidden as memory saturates the event.

Artists of all sorts such as painters, sculpture’s and architects write using perspective in various ways to stimulate imagination  suggesting, “what lies beyond can be perceived with a little bit of flexibility surrounded by rational thought reflecting that which  is not visible,” recognizing it as a place where the hypothetical becomes tangible.

If the gaze is fixed and the horizon moves, a cause could be myodeopsia, a condition characterized by the appearance of spider’s web thread like spots moving as the field of vision shifts. Floaters as they are known in ophthalmology are small pieces of hardening vitreous structures that break off within the eye and move freely in the fluid causing shadows to be cast on the retina.

Even though they are common and considered more an  annoyance than anything seriously wrong with one’s visual capabilities, an exam by an ophthalmologist once a year is advisable.

Floaters are often a result of aging, a corneal abrasion or an infection. Some think they are  optical illusions  which are perceptual effects that arise from interpretations of an image by the brain rather then an entoptic phenomenon. Others may consider them a figment of science fiction but only those who have them know for sure.

According to Japanese myth “good fortune follows a child conceived under the fiery plasma emanating from the Earth’s magnetosphere.” On the other hand western scientists and theologians might argue that it is not possible to know the precise correlation between “expelling billions of electrons funnelling to and from a pole,” and mitosis, immersed in a field of magnetically charged particles under the Aurora Borealis.

A peaceful place, calm and harmonious, where the energy of the planet is as vibrant and subtle as the stars flickering  through the  aqua red  sky of the northern lights, an ideal place to think about philosophy, religion or contemplate the breath of Japanese myth and the Ho Ho Ho of Old St. Nick.

Unfortunately, busy professionals are often unable to travel to the Arctic regions to find the northern lights to breed a child of good fortune. For them, a unique solution has been devised to bring the lights to their location by thinkgeek.com called the Aurora Projector. “This unique object uses three colored LED’s and a frosted lenses to simulate the ice of the northern region that is now melting due to global warming from the products of the industrial revolution,  to project twisting swirling misty lights on your wall or ceiling. Four triple-a batteries power it for up to 20 hours to avoid any interruptions in a thoughtful conception. The controls are simple to master - On, Off, and  a Timer  which  shuts it off after 30, 60, 90 and  120 minutes, especially thoughtful  for those who are in the geriatric age range. Plus, the lamp is hinged, so if you are concerned about straining your neck muscles or pinching the wrong nerve to stare at the light show on the ceiling, you can tilt it vertically, and project the pretty colorful lights on the wall instead. The size of the contraption: H13 x W18.5 x D11 cm. The 4 AA batteries it takes to run this thing are not included and it doesn’t appear to have any plug in components.”

Now for the right yen and $39.00 you too can conceive a child of good fortune that will make parenting as easy as baking a souffle.

It was the ancient ones who first recognized the nature of cycles,  passing down the knowledge, gifted in written text and oral traditions to the chosen of each generation to keep records of what was meant. The task for them was to create an atmosphere where harmony exists without interfering with choice.

The ancient ones were aware that cosmic forces are immense and subtle, remaining invisible until sensitivity to them is developed much as knowledge is often hidden among the clutter of pointless facts noticed before a truth is revealed.  On the other hand they contended that “nothing is useless as long as its appropriately prioritized.” An approach no different than subjecting students to a multiple choice test who are given more information then they need to choose the correct answer, a way of encouraging the development of  knowledge by also sharpening the ability to use a sound process of elimination (guessing).

Who the ancient ones were is less important than what they said about the universe describing it as “a lot of space with ‘things’ suspended within, in constant motion  as everything moves in relation to their previous position and/or mutual gravitational effects on each other.” They were aware of the closest and farthest currents although they attracted less attention by being silent and occasionally leaving inspiring hints along the way, sometimes misinterpreted, becoming the basis for cults.

According to them, the universe could be interpreted as a conduit for the cosmic pulse, while the veil is defined as “anything that is not known,” frequently misunderstood as a symbol for whatever prevents revelation, neglecting to consider its dual purpose as a protection from the knowledge one is not ready to receive. They indicated, “the ability to verify existence or calculate cycles is not necessary to understand the imperceptible.”  Only a rudimentary comprehension of mathematics is important as one silently listens to the cosmic breadth and reads the poetry of light, sound and motion.

Fragments of fable and myth  have been passed down revealing some things about the first ancient one, said to have been born in a small town in the Himalayan Mountains.  Originally the youth, like the other men of the village, was a peaceful farmer. However, an elder villager held in great respect somehow gained certain  knowledge which he shared with the one who later became the first of the ancients. Both began exploring the secrets of the universe learning how to harness cosmic energy for their own uses, although their motives were quite different. While the elder focused on  building a vast empire, the youth wished to use it for the benefit of his fellow villagers. A great struggle ensued between the two, symbolic of the battle between selfishness and selflessness, as  the legacy of the ancient ones remains a contemporary theme about power.

Another reminder of cycles are found in  remnants of The Mayan civilization, which constructed the most mathematically accurate calender ever devised, informed with future astronomical events which influenced their culture along with paganism and human sacrifice. Survival they realized depended on planting crops at the right time and understanding the forces that effected their growth much of which involved cycles of climatic regularity and change. They found ways to ensure a continuation of their society until they vanished, leaving only mystery and myth for scientists to fathom, although their calender and some written hieroglyphs remain.

The Mayan calender calculates the end of one cycle and the beginning of another at 11:11 am GMT on December 21, 2012.  All they contended was that the transformation from one to another would be characterized by “great changes,” as the Sun and its planets approach the center of the galaxy, an event that occurs once in twenty eight thousand years.

What happens after this date is unwritten suggesting that it must be left to those who are now alive to determine the shape and intensity of the change.

Suppose it were possible to make scrambled eggs without beating them first - perhaps a trivial concern - but when was the last time you cracked an egg without paying attention to what you were doing? It doesn’t really matter where the egg is struck, as long as it contains no shell.

Every now and then a double yolk appears and those become unusual events, especially when children are looking on, eagerly absorbing everything with awe struck attentiveness. To them it’s a magical event and how they interpret what they see can shape their personality and define the approach they will take to life. This may sound like a hefty claim, but each time an egg is successfully transformed into an omelet, it builds confidence, a celebration when it enhances the ability to focus, especially for children and multi-taskers who revel in cracking two, in both hands at the same time.

Creating a batter in a bowl is a rote expenditure of energy. Another approach would be to open the eggs directly into the heated pan, then using a fork, mixing the yolks and the whites together when they are in the process of solidifying, creating a unique variation of color and texture, as a small amount of milk or cream for the aristocrats is added with salt and pepper. This encourages risk-taking, an absorbing adventure each and every time the task is undertaken. Most important is not having to scrape them from the pan. An assurance of an experienced knowing hand, especially when one of the kids asks: “Why are some eggs white, and some brown?” Then a learner-ed parent can respond with a smile, “They can also be green.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_shells

In Hinduism, Avatar is a  Sanskrit word referring to the conscious descent of a deity from heaven to earth often translated into English as “incarnation,” but a  more appropriate term is “manifestation.” Its meaning is the basis of James Cameron’s visual epic that took fourteen years to complete depicting native life of Pandora, a planet that takes several years to reach in suspended animation. The film is an artistically stunning adventure in 3D worth seeing  even if the story, written in two weeks, is a bit derivative with a  screenplay that borrows heavily from some of the directors previous work and brings to mind too many similarities to Dances With Wolves.

The military look of the film is so reminiscent of  Aliens that it distracted me from  becoming immersed in the film. Aliens is the 1986 classic that Cameron directed about the bugs that gestate in the chest of its living host and have acid for blood. As in Aliens, the company or corporation features prominently as the prime antagonist of evil instigating  the invasion force that plans to drain Pandora’s natural resources for the benefit of Earth. Our planet is now an ecologically depleted waste land, a victim of economic greed that Weavers character, Dr. Grace Augustine, a Bio-Anthropologist opposes as passionately as she did as Ellen Ripley in Aliens.

The feel of the film’s technology including a cargo loader machine similar to the one Ripley uses to defeat the queen bug at the end of Aliens is featured in facsimile in a major battle scene at the end of Avatar. This similarity is an annoying element of this new film which was written, directed and produced by Cameron with a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Although the 3D nature of the films construction is groundbreaking, the plot is predictable and the characters are too two dimensional drawing  heavily from other science fiction/ fantasy films. The premise that all living things emanate a common energy also known as “the force”  fills everything in the universe is perhaps a reference to the  Star Wars universe , not that there is anything wrong with imitation, but even the forests of Pandora,  a magical place  with luminescent creatures and large revered trees  evokes the image of Lothlorien the mystical home  of the elves of Middle Earth. Add to all this the notion of cloning a personal avatar and a neural link, then  Alien Resurrection and The Matrix comes  to mind. But despite all its flaws, Avatar is worth seeing if only to make one realize that Star Trek (2009) is a much better film.

Usually, the laws of the universe are defined by some sort of relationship between chaos and order in an identifiable pattern, noticed over a period of time, predictable when and if the ability to co-measure allows for seeing events relative to the actual state of conditions contrary to collective delusion.

The ability to redefine the unknown instilled with focused direction is obvious when a learned lesson encourages a different course then habitual action, however it’s of no value unless understanding the impact is remembered, allowing the acceptance of responsibility, especially when anticipated reactions are as palpable as those that are not, including the ones that result in unexpected pain - a positive way to look at mistakes empowering self-confidence and suggesting the path of wisdom is revealed more as a function of the struggle then it is of the outcome.

If things that occur exist on both a microscopic and macroscopic level, then it is possible to infer the likelihood of events that appear unseen somewhere out there - a nebulous thought - cosmically inspired by the notion that what is too vast or minute to observe is simply an extension of what is.

All bets are off when vision is clouded by haze, fog or a mirage of subjective beliefs difficult to pierce. Hopefully spiral motion is a result of observation, although   distinguishing it from horizontal linear movement depends on the ability to see the larger scheme than the moment that surrounds the present. Perhaps a bird’s eye view will reveal everything as The Point, laying on an arc somewhere part of the circumference of an infinite circle where the dot is the point.

If it were possible to travel to another dimension from the one I am currently in, how similar would my “other” self be, assuming it’s even possible to encounter myself?

There is no guarantee that anyone would look the same wherever “there” is, since events possibly similar or not could happen in a different sequence producing alternate outcomes including changes in a person’s physical appearance. It is possible that any likeness would be so remote as to remove the chance that they would even be recognizable as oneself in an alternate reality. Blue eyes, female and a full head of hair here, brown eyes, male, and bald, over there. Even Enantiomers, known in science as mirror image compounds, have very different chemical properties although they contain the same elements in mirror image positions.

So why bother looking for one’s other self in an alternate reality even if a bridge leading to one were attainable? It is much easier to consider oneself unique, a product of a random genetic selection effected by the environment of the surroundings, generating more causes and effects, redefining self and becoming whatever the accumulation of experiences create.

Individual’s lives, if viewed as alternate realities of each other, are different roles on the stage of existence, varying depending on their random genetic confluence, surrounding environment and personal encounters. Putting oneself in someone else’s shoes and seeing what they see can unfold another reality without ever having to travel to an alternate dimension.

Wrestling with mortality is never easy, part of exploring personal destiny, an empirical approach, shedding identity of what has been learned while retaining memory and self-awareness. It also provides an opportunity to weigh preconceived notions enabling a co-measured response to whatever is encountered. On the other hand, a nihilistic approach is a way to dismiss the whole process by rationalizing that everything simply stops, so why waste time speculating?

The only thing necessary for a spiritual path is recognizing the divine spark individual to all and realizing it’s the same spark. Once that connection is felt, thought elevates, encouraging a balanced respect for oneself and others although it’s almost never effortless - a combination of risk - chance and confidence.

Choices that are based on experience or the lack of it have patterns if only by being interrelated. When something is learned, the cycle spirals rather than move in circles, but that depends on the ability to remember and take the memories wherever the path leads, using familiarity as an advantage, fostering objectivity and balancing emotions or else lessons are forgotten, then one is destined to make the same mistake more than twice.

Inspiration rarely appears without conscious sacrifice, requiring exertion, which is not an easy thing, otherwise one would either be unfocused by the surrounding chaos,  distracted and self-absorbed to preclude noticing, a daunting challenge to developing balance.

Reincarnation is not as consoling a path as western theological thought. The enlightenment it offers is not reassurance of continuity but the realization that the best way to evolve is to learn the lessons life has to teach, transcend this level and go on to the next expression of existence retaining conscious awareness and memory without having to come back to be reborn again, freed from the struggle with the tests imposed by rebirth and living another cycle grappling with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Spirituality creates an opportunity to set lofty goals by recollecting mistakes made in past lives while teaching that reincarnation is a sacrifice, to return to help the rest of humanity evolve off the wheel of karma.

Depending on perspective, the Fringe is determined by where one is located when considering the line of vision, a constantly changing landmark effected by motion, sometimes described in language subjectively.

Defining the center, wherever one begins, marks the notation of an observable fringe, elements contained within the borders described by the circumference of a 360 degree rotation. Things not contained in this area might better be represented as ‘potential fringe,’ since it is beyond the scope of sight and veiled at any given moment as undifferentiated space unless movement is instigated.

The only way to know for sure if the location one occupies is at center or the outer edge depends on distance from the most number of consciousnesses, aware enough to contain similar thought potentials on the same plane, described by infinite motion in any physical direction. If not, then you know for sure that you are on the fringe.

Imagination as thought unleashed penetrates the void to reveal what is formally not perceived, unless blinded by distractions that divert attention from the mark allowing what is there to be invisible, always a danger perhaps revealing a weakness that could influence outlook and decision. A potential mistake or an opportunity to either finally resolve an issue or perpetuate the behavior that leads to the same mistake.

Referring to the fringe has been clouded by the assumption that it’s more associated with uncommon, hence the deviant, or abnormal. That would be correct from a statistical stand point if only life were as easy as simply describing the distance between the most frequently occurring number and self, rather than also connoting qualitative social value often influenced by cultural bias.

Philosophy on the fringe illuminates the observations of existent forms from the unique position one is placed amidst the vast scope of infinity, if objectivity can be maintained. A difficult thought to consider when the universe is viewed as a revolution around ones self.

Perhaps being on the fringe is just another way of going around in circles.