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Story Lab
Micro: Over-Extension of Ideas/Concepts


1.w Micro: Over-Extension of Ideas/Concepts.

Being a further diatribe of your (some-what less than humbel here) scribe as
to how "wishy-washy" thinking pervades much thinking these days.

As a classically trained scholar and scientist, i can only look (listen)
agog as people dredge up "quantum reality" and dispense it without any
thought to *accuracy*. That is, in the so-called "alternative" or "new-age"
ways of looking at things, people dredge up and spit out drivel without 
so much introspection as one would give to a water bug aglide upon the
marish surface of a pond -- indeed *much less*.

I guess what i am saying (have said from the start) -- we must approach
*all* areas of investigation/activity with the same keen-ness of mind 
that we would approach some horridly complicated maths equation to be
solved. Thus, it is not just enough to say "oh, it's just quantum 
reality and that's that". If there are to be *any* break-throughs in
the new millenium, we must approach at one and the same time with
incisive curiosity, credulity, reductionism, intuition, and such
-- and not use *sloppy* thinking to jump to conclusions.

As Holmes sez to Watson:

Watson: So, you know who did it?

Homes:  Yes, I suspect myself!

Watson: What!??

Homes:  Of jumping to conclusions.

Thus, while bearing an open mind (during the brain-storming/idea-generation
sessions), we must use hard analytical/intuitive skills to examine the
consequence of the various ideas. I think that (as we now live in the
post-9/11 era) it painfully obvious that many areas of investigation
have been glossed over simply because they can be *explained* away. [Note 1]
Such slippery mis-logic (and often dressed up in a v. impressive
white lab-coat) as applied to areas of the paranormal, intution,
tribal, spiritual, etc areas are too numerous to re-count here: On ward!

Brain Storming/Idea Generation

It is a v. important point that while we are trying to create new ideas,
that we *suspend* judgement of the value of ideas being generated until
later. As Dr. Thomas Linehan has pointed out in his metaphor survey class
we use metaphor to reveal aspects of a subject that we wouldn't normally
consider; eg, using gaming as a way to "navigate" the world.

Thus, in creating ideas (forming bridges, triads, analogies, educated guesses,
heuristics, algorithms, etc) and brain storming (wild guessing, stream of
consciousness, dreams recalled, spontaneous thoughts/humor/scenario-acting-out,
etc) we wish to generate a list of things that can then be used to 
create (upon consideration/examination/research/debate) a new set of
*things* that may (hopefully) lead to not only new ways of looking
at things (again with *metaphor*!), but hopefully bringing about new
solutions to old problems and most importantly: Creating new areas of
study/knowledge/etc.

Over-Extension

In this case, i am addressing *sloppy* thinking. It is not enough to just
throw out an phrase (like "quantum reality") and let it go. In many cases
(when we are in the analysis/investigation/reseach mode), we need to 
stay focused and delineate all of the variants of various branches of
a topic, and assign (if you will excuse this impertance) *probabilities*
as to whether something is true -- and to further delineate the restrictions/
expansions as to when these things might be MORE true or LESS true, when
they have global/local applicability, and importantly when they are
being OVER-EXTENDED. (Not that that is necessarily a bad thing during
the brain-storming session, nor even during the analysis/research mode,
but it *does* tend to get tossed about without much DEEP ANALYSIS of
it.

Note also, that i think that at times a certain sort of non-logic is
needed to investigate certain topics; but, then this is exactly what
many would expect me to say ;) being the dadaist that i am. 



And, so without further transcendence, intercession, or revelation...
(please pay as you exit (er, ah) as you return ;).

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The Text

"Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries", by Mircea Eliade (translated by 
Philip Mairet), (Harper-Row, New York, 1957/1961).

Pp.99-122: Symbolisms of Ascension and "Waking Dreams".

NOTE: I have chosen to deal with "waking dreams" (and other forms of
      vision) in the section on 1.v Visions: Past/Present/Future.

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Notes>
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[1] One example is given, how the "scientific community" (ok, it's yet another
    example of a bourgeousie doctor proclaiming science as the be-all and
end-all of knowledge (notice how even science can be used as the "key to
history" [That topic hereThe Doctor as *Scientist*

Preliminary note:  All generalisations are false. 
                   (even if they have a certificate of authenticity from E-Bay!)

Having spent several years as a chemist in training (yes, i once aspired to
be a scientist), i can tell you that for the most part that doctors are
among the most ignorant of people in the so-called "professions". In the
first place, their *practice* means that they have little time to examine
the various minute differences between one patient and the next. For the
most part, their responses are as rote and predicatable as the way that
they passed Organic Chemistry: Memorise and Regurgitate. They are un-able
think logically (there are probably a few exceptions to this, and almost
inevitably those people become bored with medical practice and many of
them end up in medical research (which *is* science at its best). Note
that there really isn't much differenc between a doctor and a plumber
-- naturally the human body (the plumbed hominid) is quite cosiderably more
complicated than a home (the plumbed habitat) -- i couldn't resist ;)

As regards science, the doctor (and i'm not talking about surgeons nor
psychologists/psychiatrists here), has a rote existence which s/he finds
the patients to continually be interrupting with all of their complaints.
The doctor (un-like the healer) listens to the patient's diatribe and
then fills out a prescription and the "deal is done". For the most part,
the process repeats without *any* variation hundreds, indeed thousands
of times.

I must now deal with researchers and technicians. These two classes of
the medical community. These groups are distinguished in two ways: They
are paid less than doctors, and in both cases may become bored with their
job unless they view it as actually helping people. This is especially
true of technicians, since in medical practice the *job* is easily learned
and then becomes rote. The researcher on the other hand (if they see their
role as one of a scientist) will continually be challenged and stimulated
by their work and the work of others in the field; this is true of scientists
in general who (next to artists) seem to be the most satisfied and happy
with their chosen profession. 

Finally let me say this about nurses:  Nurses know and care -- they are
the most intimately and directly invovled with the patient's care, as such
almost without exception have i found them to be not only more sympathetic
but also more directly involved with the patients well-being. Doctors have
little time (after all the country club can't hold their golf reservation
for so long) for the patient. Thus, it is up to the nurse to provide most
of the actual *care* that the patient receives. 

(and with this, the some-what-limitedly learned, and definitely left-leaning
philosopher hobbled down off of his soap-box only to be pummelded by
a number of angry *Doctors*)
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