Smells and Bells

In The Spell of the Sensuous, Abrams discusses the role of nature and how different indigenous groups establish their relationship with nature. Abrams begins the section "Of Tongues in Trees" by quoting Socrates. Socrates held the claim that trees have nothing to teach. We all know how much of a bold statement this was, and obviously Socrates couldn't have been more wrong.  Abrams writes,  "In indigenous, oral cultures, nature itself is articulate; it speaks. The human voice in an oral culture is always to some extent participant with the voices of wolves, wind, and waves". This quote is really insightful and paints a strong mental image directly linking everything together. Abrams goes on to elaborate,  "There is no element of the landscape that is definitively void of expressive resonance and power: any movement may be a gesture, any sound may be a voice, a meaningful utterance".  Although Abrams does a successful job at explaining what he me...

What are the limits of human consciousness? How do our sensations compose the reality in which we live?  Throughout the discussion of  'the sixth sense' I began trying to wrap my mind our my own brain and why in my dreams I can predict the future. Is that a sense at all? Or just precognition? I believe that to an extent it is a sense, to sense what will happen. For me, my dreams (not every dream) is characterized by deja vu to the point where if I have a dream that is realistic in design I begin to question if it is a premonition or just a dream. That is how often it occurs. What could be the reasoning of these experiences? One thought I had was that maybe these dreams are collections of past experiences, but that was proved wrong with the following experience: I had a dream where I was somewhere completely different and new. Somewhere I've never been before. I was with my father, whom I am not with too often. I was hearing noises that aren't too common in my ...

When strange experiences happen to us, often times we question the meaning of them. Naturally, I think that this a is a normal response. It seems to me that the paranormal, when asked about, is a very common experience that a lot of human ’s share. However, I believe people for their own particular reasons choose to interpret theses paranormal experiences in their own way. For people who are religious, it might seem like a sign or a message. The same could be said about people who consider themselves to be spiritual. Another response could be that a person could think their paranormal experience is a coincidence and move on. http://thespiritualpsychic.com/how-mediums-communicate-with-spirits/ The greatest connection to the paranormal that I have observed and heard about is through people ’ s dream. When we dream most anything is possible. Dreams allow us to travel and experience other worlds that seem limitless. I remember when I was little, I would have a reoccurring dream t...