XPost: alt.religion.wicca, alt.arts.poetry.comments, alt.magick   
   From: jani@dsl.pipex.com   
      
   "Shez"  wrote in message   
   news:aa1a7SDT+3JCFwJW@oldcity.f2s.com...   
   > In article <38pbtvF5ql0eqU1@individual.net>, Jani    
   > writes   
   >>   
   >>"Shez"  wrote in message   
   >>news:frmLHSBcb2JCFw6f@oldcity.f2s.com...   
   >>> In article , Tom   
   >>>  writes   
   >>>>   
   >>>>"Peter J Ross"  wrote in message   
   >>>>news:slrnd2ch3l.43r.gadfly@nntp.petitmorte.net...   
   >>>>> On Wednesday 02 March, Aunty Kreist wrote in rec.arts.poems:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> > There are also many types of martial arts that manipulate and   
   >>>>> > control   
   >>>>either   
   >>>>> > the body's energies, or the energies around them.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> WTF are "energies", and how they be measured in a laboratory where the   
   >>>>> "energised" person's sleeves are checked for hidden Aces?   
   >>>>   
   >>>>In my experience talking to occultists and newagers, the term "energy"   
   >>>>is   
   >>>>usually equivalent to "feelings".   
   >>>>   
   >>>>Emotions are "energy".  A feeling of warmth is "energy".  A tingling   
   >>>>sensation is "energy".  A feeling that things are going well or badly is   
   >>>>"energy".  Even a memory or an imagining of a feeling is "energy".   
   >>>>   
   >>>>Of course, they tend to get confused about what is an interior feeling   
   >>>>and   
   >>>>what is a perception of an external force, which makes it difficult for   
   >>>>them   
   >>>>to express themselves very clearly about this.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> Why can't people pay   
   >>>>> attention to the real world around them instead of having to invent   
   >>>>> tedious "energies" and such stuff? Is reality really too hard for the   
   >>>>> human mind to accept?   
   >>>>   
   >>>>We don't all have the capacity to conceptualize reality in that much   
   >>>>detail.   
   >>>>Those with less ability or different motivation settle for less precise   
   >>>>explanations.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>I don't think that these occultists and newagers are completely wrong.   
   >>>>It's   
   >>>>just that their explanations are not as precise as those of scientists.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>See Asimov's wonderful essay "The Relativity of Wrong".   
   >>>>   
   >>>>   
   >>> And his wonderful short story Magick inc.   
   >>   
   >>Hon, that was Heinlein ;)   
   >>   
   >>Jani   
   >>   
   >>   
   > Oh so it was, that will teach me, I have been re-reading the   
   > Caves of steel series... after that terrible movie they made...   
   > I don't know why I mix up Heinlein and Assimove... I should know better.   
      
   I've been known to quote Clarke and say it's Asimov, or vice versa ;)   
   Usually get my Heinleins right, though.   
      
   Jani   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)