the Ancient Mysteries

This may sound ridiculous, but I am ten pages away from finishing The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and I am having a religious awakening.

Disclaimer: One of the most frustrating parts of reading Dan Brown is I never know what is actual truth and what is suspense or drama created as part of his story. I know Robert Langdon is a fictional Harvard  professor, but that's about it.

The story, about the Ancient Mysteries, propagates that man has the potential to unlock hidden parts of himself (the brain/mind) to become more Godlike, and that God is not a separate entity from man, but that a God-force is inside all of us. It is this latent force or power that we must seize, and by doing so, become the most whole and pure versions of ourselves that anyone has ever been.

Christianity, or more specifically, the Holy Bible of Christianity, is said to hold the Ancient Mysteries woven deep within the lessons we Christians learn from about the age of three. The Bible says that God is within all of us, that Jesus' love is in all of our hearts where'er we go (if you want a quote), and yet many (myself included) believe or just find it easier to picture a physical form of God and Jesus as separate entities. Because Jesus is depicted as the Son of God, we imagine him not to be the same as God, but made in God's own image, to be God on Earth. That implies that God has an image of some kind. But this is not true. If the ancestors of all of us had written down something other than what is inscribed in the pages of the Holy Bible, none of us would have a clue what we were supposed to believe as practicing Christians. [[History class disclaimer about Jesus being a real man.]] A governing, loving, moral and spiritual force that has created the entire world and all of its creatures is a difficult concept to grasp. If we remove God from the theory of creation/evolution, we are left with the lessons taught from the Bible, the way to live our lives, through sacrifice and hard work. Prayer.

Prayer has now begun to take on a different meaning to me as well. This relates back to The Lost Symbol in a second way. The character Katherine Solomon invents a branch of science called Noetics, which is the theory that thoughts have mass, and can affect the physical world. Yes, thoughts, in our head, that only we can see. From all previous interpretations of the Bible, one would believe that prayer is the conference with God, in gratitude, in troubling times, seeking His help or forgiveness. Through the lens of Noetics, I believe that prayers made to God are actually made to ourselves: the spiritual "God" inside all of us. These prayers can be answered. Our thoughts have the power to affect those events for which we pray, if they are focused and strong enough, or repeated enough times. It may not take effect as immediately as society has trained us to expect things, but in time, what we pray for becomes absolute. The prayers we make to God in gratitude and humility, we are acknowledging our selves, thanking ourselves and apologizing to ourselves. It is only by forgiveness of ourselves that we can ever earn forgiveness from God... See where I'm going here?

The last part of Noetic Science is the groundbreaking claim that Katherine Solomon was about to make: that the human soul has a measurable mass. Does this mean that the soul is made of the same matter that a thought is made of? How did this character measure thought in the first place? The method suggested in the book for measuring the mass of a soul was a sound one, but a thought's measurement would not work the same way. The human brain has so many thoughts moving about at once, layers upon layers - conscious and subconscious.. Does a memory constitute a thought as well? Or is it just what is at the top level of consciousness, new ideas, instant feeds (Twitter, anyone?) that counts as a thought? Memories are a record of our lives stored deep within the folds of our minds. They can be recalled again and again at will, so do they count as a thought?
Back to the soul. I have always wondered how to qualitatively measure a soul. Personality, interests, culture, race, ancestry... All plausible candidates. The Lost Symbol makes no suggestions for this, nor as to whether the soul will exist in only one body, ascending to a state of wholeness, "at-one-ment", freedom and peace, or move to a different body after the death of its current one, such as many Aryan religions state. The two different theories are only answered in the religion you were raised with. Noetics have not confirmed either or. Who is even to say that Noetic Science is a real practice?

The movie Matilda, based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, says: "It is said that humans use only a tiny portion of our brains." I fully believe that, as there is scientific evidence supporting it. Whatever force or power that created humans, be it God or some other mystery of science and faith, I know he/she/it must have a purpose for the brain power left in storage. If the Ancient Mysteries propagate discovering the key to realizing and using all of that power, then I have to say I am a firm believer in the Ancient Mysteries.

the Guggenheim People

[08:04:12]  

• I followed this guy with a camera and turquoise shorts all the way up the spiral.
• This reeeeeally tall kid in a shirt the same color as mine kept cropping up.
• I wanted to take a photo of this teenage Asian couple, but the guard told me not to... even though I was clearly not pointing it at any art. They are on the top level of the spiral, leaning out at the void and into eachother, talking and people watching. The girl's skin is lighter than the boy's, and whenever I passed them they were walking hand in hand, but the delicate old-fashioned way, not intertwined.
• There was this perfect girl who reminded me of Annie Clark (Fiona).. olive skin (or perfectly tanned) medium brown hair in a ponytail, eyes blue as forgetmenots (in the words of Wendy Darling)
• I ran into this girl with dreads and I watched her look at the painting in front of her. She looked so awesome.
• There's this photographer whose name i'll have to figure out, who takes these glorious photos of just people. Young kids to young thirties aged people, singularly, on the beach, at the park, in a chair... I loved that artist. SO much.

The best part about being here is that everyone is so different and unique; each their own piece of artwork to interpret and enjoy. And everyone is soooo ridiculously attractive. The art is all good too but this spiral design is obnoxious to travel through. But it makes for great people watching.

• I found out that beards cloud my perception of age. This guy who works at the museum complimented my hair, and I would have just said thank you, but then he used the word "dope" so I sort of smiled and looked back at him. He could have been my age or a couple years older. I forget that I now fit into the 20-year-old category more than the 17-year-olds-with-no-facial-hair category. Just because I feel like I haven't physically aged in, well, ages.

Future plans

[08:01:12] Why do some people know exactly what they want from their future while others are content to let life unfold without direction? 

I talked to my friend today, who told me about all these things he wants for himself in the future. Aside from financial security and a home which I consider to be normal, he said he wants a boat so he can go fishing all the time, season tickets for his favorite football team, and he wants to be able to follow one of his favorite rock groups in concert. Accompanying the good home, I assume he also wants a wife at some point. It seems like a good life, if he could achieve everything he wants.
Making all those plans seems crazy because if you don't make enough money to support them, you feel let down because you haven't achieved your goals. But also, at least during the points in your life when you have little money to spare, you will have something concrete to work towards.
I haven't met someone who has a plan for themselves later in life like that in a long time. College has changed a lot of people's perspectives on their futures, and what they can hold. 

When I picture the future, I often see this metaphoric ladder or timeline of myself in my twenties. I'm usually in a city somewhere, dressed in business casual wearing a ponytail, and climbing the ladder towards my next birthday. But I never know what I actually end up doing. I don't see myself having an apartment, or a home, or staying with my parents. I don't see myself in a relationship. I don't see myself in any sort of job or career setting. I don't see any of the friends I have now. I just can't see any of it.
Being able to picture yourself being successful is a big part of actually becoming successful or having a plan. This definitely means I don't have a plan, but I could probably still be successful. I just have to find something that I want to do. 

The Format Segues into fun.

[07:31:12] I wrote down the lyrics to Be Calm in sentence form instead of stanza form. This is a morose song. It reads like a letter to someone in a mental hospital, from someone in a mental hospital across the street. A note between friends rather than lovers. The narrator has moved recently and is disturbed by his surroundings, to a point that it agitates his already existing anxiety and depression.
There is a specific line that goes "after all, you lost your band, you left your mom." It occurred to me that this was either Nate referring in third person to himself or there was someone else in the picture whom I wasn't aware of.

I hopped on Google and entered "why did The Format break up?" I came across a blog entry that linked me to another blog entry written by the previous manager of The Format. This was by far the best blog entry I have ever read. [I'll link it later]
The manager talked about Nate and Sam, who were apparently the only people fronting the band; they had other "extra" musicians while on tour, just like fun. does. The way he talked about them made me want to cry. Imagery of two disheveled best friends from Arizona smoking ciggs and holding hands for dear life came to mind.
Even though they probably weren't ever holding hands, it thrilled me to think they were the type to do so... The name Sam made me think of Frodo and Sam from Lord of the Rings... And in thinking this, I came to realize that Nate was probably writing this letter that turned into Be Calm to Sam.
I immediately turned back to my notebook and read over the lyrics again; very possible. They were both most likely experiencing separation anxiety after the breakup, which is why the words can apply to both the narrator and the subject.

I haven't been this into a band since you-know-who, and Nate's biography on wikipedia reads probably much like Ryan Ross's does. The difference being that I was present for Ryan Ross's early music career and ditched when he began his next one, and I know virtually nothing about Nate's early years in The Format - only his successes with fun. The Format seems to me like it was sort of disturbed, going by the video for Dog Problems. And those lyrics served to point me in the direction of my Be Calm revelation as well.. The song that has the happiest tune hides the most gloom.

Continuing to Blog

I don't know how many of you were planning on keeping these blogs since Carveth's class is over, but I have decided to. I really enjoyed reading all of your takes on social media and hope to connect again, be it through a website or in person. This continuation of my blogging will be for personal use, to further my writing skills and my analyzing skills. If you don't wish to get updates from me, simply unfollow. If you find you like what you read, I encourage you to read more and share! :)

first post

Hello fellow COMM 100 classmates, I have three words for you today: Facebook relationship statuses.
In my opinion, the relationship status feature on Facebook is over used and makes things way more complicated than they should ever be in real life. One example of this is the status "It's Complicated." Every friend on your Facebook doesn't need to know if you have a complicated relationship with someone. Having that on your profile gives off a bad connotation to people who read it, as if teenagers in high school don't have to deal with the fishbowl effect enough. My biggest issue is that people these days do not regard relationships as highly unless they are "Facebook official." Once upon a time, the only people who needed to know if a relationship was real were the two people involved in it. Sure, they would tell their close friends and family if they wished, but they didn't need a happy pink heart declaring their commitment for each other on a public website to validate their love. Now, I am not saying couples don't have the right to post their relationships on their profiles. If you want to tell your Facebook friends, go for it. I am just pointing out that when something that personal is out in the open like that it makes it okay for other people to get involved. Everyone comments on the changed status when you get together, and then again if or when you break up. The most crushing thing that I have noticed is that often a couple will break up, and one of the two (usually the person who initiated the breakup) will rush to their computer to take down the relationship status. I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to worry about when I am freshly dumped is everyone asking if I'm okay... on my Facebook profile where everyone can see.
"That's all I got to say about that."