Every Thing Has a Personality

Every thing has a personality, because every thing exhibits multiple qualities or characteristics. 

We understand a thing by grouping its individual characteristics into a unified body of meaning. Within the moment, people simply don't have the ability to consider all of the separate characteristics they observe a thing possessing.  Instead, people experience the thing's many characteristics as a single body of meaning.  People experience the depth and complexity of a thing's body of meaning as expressing a vague sense of character or personality.

Totemism is a wonderful example of a culture's collective experience of personality expressing itself through the living and non-living things, which compose its environment.  Naming one's automobile and being afraid of the dark are two other examples of this amazing phenomena.

From Book Seven: On The Nature Of People, Reasons Why People Get Married

Money, looks, loneliness, status, having children, fun, sex, the company (reducing loneliness), spite, low self-esteem, control, maid service,  a sense of simpatico, to be taken care of, lower cost health insurance, convenience, to escape someone (usually only on tv), to save someone (usually only on tv), for information, because they are drunk, because your parents desire it, love, because it’s what people do.

On Magnetics

There is a kind of force in the world that is known as "Magnetism."  Magnetism is an invisible force that causes an object to be attractive to some objects and repulsive to other ones.

Magnets are Magnetic things that express Magnetic force upon other Magnetic Materials.  All magnets have Magnetic Fields, which is the area within which the Magnetic Force expresses itself.  The Attractive Force of a magnet expresses the ability to pull other magnets and objects, that are composed of magnetic material, toward it.  The Repulsive Force of a magnet may be observed in a Magnet's ability to push other magnets away from it.

Every magnet has two poles, which are named "North" and "South."  If two magnets are within magnetic range of each other, they are attractive to the other if their two nearest poles are different (one being North and the other South).  Conversely, if two magnets are within magnetic range of one another, they will be repulsive if positioned so that their two nearest poles are the same (either North North or South South). 

It is like Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt if they were magnets.  At one time, Brad Pitt's Northern Pole was positioned so as to be nearest Jennifer Aniston's South Pole and they were very attractive to one another.  Their magnetic chemistry was said to be attractive enough that everyone thought it would be lasting.  However, when Angelina came into contact with Brad (while they were making a movie together), the magnetic force of her Southern Pole became quite attractive to Brad's Northern Pole.  The magnetic force of her Southern Pole was strong enough, in fact, to shift the position of Brad's Northern Pole toward her.  As a result of this position shift, Brad's Southern Pole became nearest to Jennifer's Southern Pole and they immediately became repulsive to one another.  This is an excellent example of the Attractive verses Repulsive nature, which is displayed as Magnetic Force. 

From: Book 7, On The Nature Of People; Ways That People Kill Each Other , Methods Used For Unauthorized (non state-sanctioned), Killings:

Hanging, Guillotining, Poison In Liquid Forms, Poisoned Gases, Electrocution, Drowning, Various Methods Of Depriving Victims of Oxygen, Dropping Heavy Objects On Victims (pianos, anvils, loose parts of buildings), By Crashing Things (cars, boats, trains, airplanes, blimps), Bombings, Cannonballs, Flack, Garroting, Strangulation, Knife Wounds, Bullets, Keelhauling, Time Bombs, Freezing, Boiling, Crushing, Scaring (with the result of heart attack), Chopping Or Cutting Up The Victim, Draw And Quartering, starving, Burning, Cement Shoes, Pummeling, Pushing Victims Into The Paths Of (usually) Fast Moving Things, and Pushing People Over The Edges Of High Places.

On P-Theory

P-Theory[1] is a scientific method for examining and cataloging all phenomena as they appear in the world.

 

P-Theory involves the very careful and minute examination of phenomena.  It takes nothing for granted and does not rely or build upon the research of others.  P-Theory is open to any and all subjects without prejudice.  With the aim of finding out new facts, subjects of inquiry are thoroughly investigated, no matter how absurd they may seem.

 

P-Theory is not about creating or devoting oneself to a set of beliefs.  It has nothing to do with wishing that particular events, conditions or objects were true.  It is not about having faith in a set of events, conditions or objects.  P-Theory is not concerned with finding out the truth of things.  P-Theory is the use of scientific experimentation for the gathering and cataloging of facts as regards the nature of things.  P-Theory relies on facts because facts are undisputable.

 

P-Theory is a practice for opening one’s mind to the world.  As people move through life, they naturally develop ways of thinking that severely limit their experience of it.  It is like the child who put a box over his head and let it remain there for the rest of his life.  Though an amazing world of events, conditions and objects played itself out all around him in every moment, life for him was limited to the inner world of the box.  We separate ourselves from life in the same way, though not perhaps to such an extreme degree.

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[1] P Theory = Pliny Theory.  In brief, a most splendid method of scientific inquiry by which the researcher takes nothing for granted in his/her dogged examination, recording and setting forth of proven facts concerning the nature of the world.  The aim of P Theory is to inspire a unified experience of being within the researcher through an opening of the mind to nature.

The World Is A Very Fluid Place

The world is a very fluid place.  It is composed of things having extremely temporary lives.  For example, when enough Copper molecules come together in one place, a chunk of Copper is born.  Yet even in the moment of its birth, the molecules making up that chunk of Copper continue to follow the flowing current of life.  The fluid nature of the world causes even the most solid of substances to lose bits of itself to the swirling, and before we know it, our newly born piece of Copper has been transformed[1] into a different substance altogether.  Thus, the life of a chunk of Copper has been spun in and out of existence.  All things exhibit this fluid quality of being.

 

If a person wants to understand the world, the five senses must be sharpened to the extent that things may be studied within the very limited sequence of moments allowed to them.   The sacred practice of science is executed with the knowledge that the lives of things are most brief and ephemeral. Transformation is inevitable!

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[1] Transformation = the process of things reincarnating into things.

The World Is A Sparkling Place

People tend to forget about the sparkling quality of existence.  This is not simply a bad habit.  In any one moment, the human brain tends to limit our conception of the world to the small spaces within which we find ourselves.  As far as our conception of the world goes, it is as though, having entered a room, the world outside ceases to exist.  Those wishing to open up their minds to the world may find it helpful to consider all the things that are happening within the moment.

 

Consider for a moment, all of the birds that are chirping and all the fires that are burning in the world right now.  There are people walking around and people who are eating and fighting and snoring and walking on tip-toe and climbing on things and cutting and digging and running and biting and hearing things and breathing in and breathing out.  There are people who are talking to each other and picking things up and tasting delicious and also horrible things.  There are many, many fish swimming and looking for food and hunting and hiding and escaping and breathing water.  Insects are rubbing their legs and hopping and chewing on leaves and flying and glowing and blinking and making cocoons and listening through antennae vibrating.  They are getting caught in traps and being snatched by bats and birds and frogs and nets and they are being electrocuted by bug zappers.  There are flies buzzing around and papers being burned.  Feathers are floating to the ground and sharks are circling their prey.  Petals are falling off of flowers, snails are being eaten, lions are roaring, hearts are beating, books are being thrown out, children are being bullied and unattended and praised and lost and frightened and lied to and taught English.  Someone’s sister is eating noodles and blades of grass are being crushed underfoot.  Weeds are being picked and stars are being seen as twinkling and the moon is rising and setting and noses are running and beer is being poured.  Puppies are being born and kites are flying and radios are being turned on and off and are being tuned and broken and listened to and paintings are being looked at and videos are being watched and people are typing.  Water is flowing and dripping and wearing things down and overflowing the tops of things.  Water is getting muddy and it is evaporating and it’s falling in drops and freezing and drowning things.  Machines are twirling and containing explosions and pushing and pulling things.  Factories are producing new things and stores are staying open late and people are going home and people are reading and playing tennis and there are very many more things that are happening within this single instant, right now.

 

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to list all of the things that are happening in this moment.    The above list adequately proves two things beyond doubt.  The first is that the world is a sparkling place; a place of incredible activity and variation.   The second is that, should one open his/her mind to it, this sparkling quality of existence causes the mind itself to sparkle!

Welcome!

Most gentle and lovely reader, with this first post I begin what I hope will be a journey of shared discovery and collaboration with you.  We are members, after all, of a grand and most ancient community of experimental researchers, archivists and collectors of facts, and our duty is clear.  

 

Here you will find selected writings and illustrations from my work: "On The Nature Of Things," a series of books based upon those produced by that splendid ancestor of mine, Gaius Plinius Secundus, also known as “Pliny the Elder.”  Pliny was born about 23 AD and died while investigating to close the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on August 23, 79 AD.  Though an aggressive spirit of scientific inquiry (and the gasses emitted by Vesuvius), resulted in his untimely death, Pliny’s legacy lives on in the writing, illustration and visitor comments you shall find here.  Let the death of this great man be a warning to you, for the sweet scent of blossoming insight is often quite fatal.

 

The world is a truly amazing place!  It is awe-inspiring in its sublime beauty and terrible ugliness.  It is a sloppy mess of sensations and information, a thing in continual transformation; bringing uncountable forms into being, while in the same instant, mercilessly pulling them apart again.

 

Though we understand the absurd contradiction in harassing the mind with the pursuit of meaning, we also know that finding meaning in absurdity is perhaps its most sacred function.  May the Great Spirit Of Things bless this endeavor and bring it to fruition for us all!