Life’s Answers are in your Spam Folder
I was reading a Christian book recently loaned to me by a very devout friend (long story, but basically it made me feel totally Ned Flanders and put me off Christianity for the foreseeable future) in which the hero had his questions about life answered by thinking of a question in his mind and then dipping into the Bible at a random page to see the answer. He believed this was a method of prayer, whereby God answered his questions.
I have come across this phenomena many times. You put out a question to the Cosmos in your mind, and then pick up any book or magazine and open it at random, and what you see is the answer to your question. Supposedly.
A long time friend (a devout monk) uses this as a method of prayer. He says this works in other areas too. The cosmos speaks to us all the time, you just have to look around you and recognise the signs.
My mother in law (a spiritualist and powerful clairvoyant) calls it “Signs from Spirit” and won’t make any daily decision, no matter how small, without “asking Spirit for a Sign”.
No doubt by now you’ll all be thinking I’m surrounded by religious lunatics, and you’d be right about that. It’s a miracle I’m still sane really (no comments, thank you Rich)
An article I was reading last week called it an “Olive moment” where the author concerned did an experiment and thought up a question about something really silly, say about marinating olives. Sure enough, everywhere she looked for a couple of days afterwards there were signs of olives….in magazines, posters, on TV. from people in the street….bizarre connections for which she had no explanation.
So is this a sign from the cosmos, God or just plain junk ? Does your mind create the reality around it ? Are the so-called signs actually created by the subconscious mind, i.e. do we create our own reality ? Or does the subconscious merely recognise and latch onto any meaning, however slight, in the vast jumble of rubbish around us.
Basically, is this a load of garbage, or does the garbage around us contain actual answer to our subconscious questions ? Sort of like a study-aid or therapy session to assist with our problems.
Anyway, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own. The burning question in my life at the moment is: “Should I quit chartered accountancy and do something else with my life ? What is best for my career, and what would make me happiest ? O.K. these are actually three questions, but part of the same problem, and the theory should work as well for three as it would for one.
In case you are wondering why I want to quit being a chartered accountant, let’s just say I am jaded and disillusioned with the profession, plus the constant continuing professional development studying is a nightmare, plus my heart’s not in it at all. This is an understatement. Don’t get me started. On the other hand, quitting a profession like this means throwing away 8 years of studying to get qualified, plus all the sweat, blood and tears contained therein. Plus being an accountant is a handy method of getting an alternative job, should I ever have to get one. Equal arguments for and against.
Anyway, having laid out my question/dilemma/random thought to the Great Beyond in some detail, back to the experiment.
O.K. Let’s pick something daft to look in for the answer. Something very random, like my Spam folder in Outlook, where all the maybe-spam garbage emails automatically go for later checking, in case there is something relevant in there that was wrongly tagged as spam. And let’s be even more specific, as I have no intention if reading thousands of spam messages. Let’s only look for the answers to my life’s dilemma in the Subject Lines of the spam messages. And let’s just look at 8 hours worth of spam, and strictly consider every message in reverse order, no cheating. Can’t get more of a challenge really.
So Far, discounting Chinese spam which I can’t read anyway, I have:
IT. Trial
New News
My dear
Stop being Unhappy
Pursue college study while you work
Enjoy the new
Have you ever wished to have
You crave to shoot like a film star
Equal numbers boys
Feel strong
Panel Saw
Hmm. Not sure about the panel saw bit, but as for the rest, pretty damn accurate wouldn’t you say ? Indeed I am conducting a sort of I.T. Trial, and, actually I crave to shoot like Bianca Beauchamp rather than a film star. “Equal numbers boys” it’s a 50:50 choice about quitting accountancy and studying something else while I work.
So that’s no answer at all really, but it’s certainly bizarre that my current situation should be reflected in such a narrow test. And I didn’t miss any messages out, I swear.
Does the Cosmos speak? Or does the subconscious interpret meaning in garbage however random ?
From this rambling, I conclude that I got up waaay too early this morning (another bout of insomnia) and that I really should keep my night-time ramblings to myself….
Richard has been on a bender of finishing off loads of photos this week, so we have many to show you. So here is a picture of gorgeous Cheeky Lee. You deserve a beautiful naked woman after reading this.
I have come across this phenomena many times. You put out a question to the Cosmos in your mind, and then pick up any book or magazine and open it at random, and what you see is the answer to your question. Supposedly.
A long time friend (a devout monk) uses this as a method of prayer. He says this works in other areas too. The cosmos speaks to us all the time, you just have to look around you and recognise the signs.
My mother in law (a spiritualist and powerful clairvoyant) calls it “Signs from Spirit” and won’t make any daily decision, no matter how small, without “asking Spirit for a Sign”.
No doubt by now you’ll all be thinking I’m surrounded by religious lunatics, and you’d be right about that. It’s a miracle I’m still sane really (no comments, thank you Rich)
An article I was reading last week called it an “Olive moment” where the author concerned did an experiment and thought up a question about something really silly, say about marinating olives. Sure enough, everywhere she looked for a couple of days afterwards there were signs of olives….in magazines, posters, on TV. from people in the street….bizarre connections for which she had no explanation.
So is this a sign from the cosmos, God or just plain junk ? Does your mind create the reality around it ? Are the so-called signs actually created by the subconscious mind, i.e. do we create our own reality ? Or does the subconscious merely recognise and latch onto any meaning, however slight, in the vast jumble of rubbish around us.
Basically, is this a load of garbage, or does the garbage around us contain actual answer to our subconscious questions ? Sort of like a study-aid or therapy session to assist with our problems.
Anyway, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own. The burning question in my life at the moment is: “Should I quit chartered accountancy and do something else with my life ? What is best for my career, and what would make me happiest ? O.K. these are actually three questions, but part of the same problem, and the theory should work as well for three as it would for one.
In case you are wondering why I want to quit being a chartered accountant, let’s just say I am jaded and disillusioned with the profession, plus the constant continuing professional development studying is a nightmare, plus my heart’s not in it at all. This is an understatement. Don’t get me started. On the other hand, quitting a profession like this means throwing away 8 years of studying to get qualified, plus all the sweat, blood and tears contained therein. Plus being an accountant is a handy method of getting an alternative job, should I ever have to get one. Equal arguments for and against.
Anyway, having laid out my question/dilemma/random thought to the Great Beyond in some detail, back to the experiment.
O.K. Let’s pick something daft to look in for the answer. Something very random, like my Spam folder in Outlook, where all the maybe-spam garbage emails automatically go for later checking, in case there is something relevant in there that was wrongly tagged as spam. And let’s be even more specific, as I have no intention if reading thousands of spam messages. Let’s only look for the answers to my life’s dilemma in the Subject Lines of the spam messages. And let’s just look at 8 hours worth of spam, and strictly consider every message in reverse order, no cheating. Can’t get more of a challenge really.
So Far, discounting Chinese spam which I can’t read anyway, I have:
IT. Trial
New News
My dear
Stop being Unhappy
Pursue college study while you work
Enjoy the new
Have you ever wished to have
You crave to shoot like a film star
Equal numbers boys
Feel strong
Panel Saw
Hmm. Not sure about the panel saw bit, but as for the rest, pretty damn accurate wouldn’t you say ? Indeed I am conducting a sort of I.T. Trial, and, actually I crave to shoot like Bianca Beauchamp rather than a film star. “Equal numbers boys” it’s a 50:50 choice about quitting accountancy and studying something else while I work.
So that’s no answer at all really, but it’s certainly bizarre that my current situation should be reflected in such a narrow test. And I didn’t miss any messages out, I swear.
Does the Cosmos speak? Or does the subconscious interpret meaning in garbage however random ?
From this rambling, I conclude that I got up waaay too early this morning (another bout of insomnia) and that I really should keep my night-time ramblings to myself….
Richard has been on a bender of finishing off loads of photos this week, so we have many to show you. So here is a picture of gorgeous Cheeky Lee. You deserve a beautiful naked woman after reading this.
posted by Lin at 8:05 AM
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