THE DAILY GRAIL

When I conceived Beyond the Blog, the idea was to fill up the pages, above, with lots and lots of essays on loads and loads of subjects. It was to be a blog full of information and thoughts.
That reason is still uppermost in my mind, and I cannot ever see me moving away from this primary role. But then I began to include my Tony On current affairs posts; and now, a further idea, an actual ‘blog’ with my Diary of a Writer.
I’ve got a lot of building up to do on this yet, and I intend maybe three posts a week. But what do I write about? Well, I guess I’ll decide each time I come to write a post. That way I’ll keep it fresh; and if I don’t know what’s coming, hopefully there’ll be a few surprises for the reader, too.

The Daily Grail

One decision I made, though, was to feature some of the sites I really like. And I guess the first one to write about is The Daily Grail.
What can one say about this hallowed corner of cyberspace? Well, each week day you can log on for links to the latest off-beat and alternative news and ideas. That alone can keep you busy for a long time.
Of course, some will annoy you, or put ideas in the head, so as a user, the comments is a must. This isn’t a site where you place a comment and that’s it. For often it turns into the most intense debate I’ve yet found on the net. And make sure you know what you’re talking about, ‘cos there’s no prisoners taken here.
As a user you can even have your own blog, each post displayed on the right sidebar for people to comment on. Here, you can link to things you find of interest … and then defend your corner as the debate begins …
From the paranormal to the environment, from UFOs to sorting out the world, if you’re a writer and a thinker, and your ideas are a little on the alternative, give The Daily Grail a go. It’s infectious.
Sample debate, when it really gets going.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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TONY ON NASA AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: The NASA fiasco – it’s been going on for some time … PLUS … Kids and the net; It’s that Diana thing again … and again, and again …
READ THE ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST … from a real voice of Britain and the world.

NASA IN A MESS

Allegations have been made that NASA astronauts have been flying while drunk. Coming in the wake of many other discrepancies, it seems the glory days of NASA are over, the astronauts no longer the great heroes they were once thought.
What could be behind this declining culture in the US space program? The obvious answer is low morale. Rather than spearheading the new frontier of exploration, they are being turned into orbital workmen, whilst machines go out into space.
It was never meant to be like this. The history of human exploration has been a proud affair, with many explorers being household names, but now it is grinding to a halt. And the reason why is this:
Exploration has always been fuelled by trade and backed by business. NASA is government funded, and they have always slowed exploration down. Maybe it is time for big business to realize its historic responsibility, stop fuelling a society on trivia, and get on with the project it is their historic duty to follow.
When this project begins, the astronauts will be too busy to get drunk – and proud.

© Anthony North, July 2007

CHILDREN OF THE WORLD?

A new study has advised that children in the UK will sit in front of a TV or computer screen for 7 hours a day when not at school. Dairy Farmers of Britain carried out the survey to show how our young are becoming disconnected from ‘outdoors’ …
… read more …

WAS HENRI PAUL DRUNK?

The Diana conspiracies are in the news again – this time concerning whether Lord Stevens has added to the problems. The ex-Met Commissioner chaired the recent inquiry into Diana’s death …
… read more …

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Inde-Pol

SOUL AND STONE

Our soul is portrayed in stone. Throughout history man has endeavoured to understand his place in the universe by relating himself to forces beyond his control. Trapped in his individual needs and wants, he realised his puny existence is nothing without a cause to allow him to work together with other individuals to create a society and a culture.
Armed with his togetherness, man has forever felt bigger than himself. And nothing is bigger than a building. Hence, when a building is erected to signify his urges, it is more than the plan of the architect; more than the materials used; more than the sum of its parts.

EARLY ARCHITECTURE

A building is an amalgam of his hopes and fears; his idea of the past; a representation of the present; a form of security for the future. It is his existence, and that of the greater force, enshrined, he hopes, for all time.
In this way our soul is portrayed in stone. In prehistory it is remembered in pyramids and henges - plans of the known universe, burial chambers for men who will become gods, observatories to understand the sun and tell man when to plant his grain.
Later, with the advent of Christianity, or Islam, or Judaism, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Sikhism, our soul was our temple, our church, our mosque. A church is not simply a building, but a representation of Christ on the Cross.
And when we walk within, we walk into the body of Christ. But more than this, in the Cathedral, God was supreme in the city. Man was telling fellow man, this is our salvation; this is the force that will keep us safe.

MODERN ARCHITECTURE

During the Enlightenment, a new force came along to usurp God. This was reason. In the great 18th century philosophers, man’s mind began to understand the world through science, and in allowing us understanding ourselves, what need did we have for this God? Better, we thought, to devise our own laws, our own ways - and our own problems.
Soon, our genius brought on the Industrial Revolution, and the new building was the factory, standing tall above all the rest, dwarfing the churches with their stacks. Man’s soul had become choked in smog.
We have advanced from those industrial times - we think.

ARCHITECTURE WITH PURPOSE

Eventually we cleaned up the smog and our ingenuity advanced. God was in severe decline but man still needed to portray his soul in stone. Man, even western, atheist, material man, still needed to see his soul about him. And God was replaced by manna itself.
Capitalist liberal democracy was the buzz word. This infused man with purpose in a way Christianity had never done. For this offered personal fulfillment in the now rather than a disciplined wait for the hereafter.
And the bank became supreme; the trade centre the tallest structure in town. This was the new soul, the new ethos, the new credo. So that when two planes smashed the global soul to rubble, we knew a clash was coming that would define a new soul - and a new world.
Whatever that new world becomes, you can guarantee it will be expressed in stone.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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MERMAIDS

Residents of the Hebridean island of Benbecula were gathering seaweed one day in 1830 when they saw a woman-like creature playing near the sea. Attempting to catch it, a boy threw a stone which struck it.
A dead body was found a couple of days later resembling a well-fed child with developed breasts and long hair. But most puzzling was its salmon-like lower body. Drawing a large crowd, the creature was buried in a long forgotten grave.

MYTHS OF FISH PEOPLE

The above is a classic mermaid encounter – a sighting or story related to a half human, half fish entity. How long such sightings have been made is impossible to tell, but they are popular in mythology.
The Babylonians had the fish-tailed God, Oannes, who lived in the sea but came ashore to teach mankind. His wife, Damkina, had several fish-tailed children.
The Greeks had a variation in the half-woman, half-bird Siren who’s song used to lure seamen to disaster. Ulysses escaped the Siren by putting wax in his companion’s ears and lashing himself to his boat mast.

HISTORIC SIGHTINGS

The navigator Henry Hudson documented a sighting of a mermaid in 1608 by two of his seamen near an island off the northern coast of Russia. The size of a fully developed human, it again had long hair and a tail like a porpoise.
Often, people who disappeared near the sea were said to be victims of the mermaid. Typical was Cornish chorister Matthew Trewhella, who was said to have been lured into the sea, fell in love and had several children to a mermaid.

RATIONAL THEORIES

Such sightings aside, what are we to make of the mermaid phenomenon? Most logical people deny their existence. Rather, sightings are misidentifications of sea cows - the manatees and dugong - which can hold themselves vertically, and suckle their young on clearly visible breasts.
The skin complaint, ichthyosis could also be to blame in the past, creating black fish-like scales on the body. In 1694 the ten year old Italian boy, Peter Consiglio, was displayed in London. He was totally covered in fish-like scales.
Skeletons of supposed mermaids were often put on show in the 19th century. Naturalist Frank Buckland observed one which turned out to be the skull, torso and arms of a monkey fastened to the headless body of a large fish.
One theory supposed to give credence to the mermaid is the idea of Elaine Morgan, who argued mankind developed from an ape-like aquatic animal. Is the mermaid an offshoot of this evolutionary chain?

PSYCHOLOGY

The writer Dorothy Dinnerstein hinted that mermaids and other human/animal hybrids such as the minotaur, were actually distant memories of our evolutionary past. It was a recognition that we are different, yet similar to our animal ancestors.
Some researchers argue the mermaid has a more likely explanation in the psychology of early sailors. As ancient myths show, mermaids and Sirens lured sailors to their doom. Sea journeys in those days took a long time, and without women aboard ship, sexual urges would be strong.
Could mermaids therefore be nothing more than hallucinations based on sexual urges? Possibly, but sightings by people such as Christopher Columbus suggest not. He commented on how absolutely ugly they were.

A MOMENT OF CRISIS

A ballad by Sir Patrick Spens highlights the oft mentioned fact that mermaids often spoke to doomed ships, advising of disaster. Such ideas suggest the mermaid is a harbinger of doom. But why did it become so?
Perhaps a hint can be given by many mentions of mermaids trying to save drowning men, but accidentally drowning them instead. Indeed, Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’ advised that they didn’t realize that men cannot breath underwater.
If we relate such information to real life situations, we can imagine a man drowning. In his frenzy he visualizes a woman – the thing he misses so much - attempting to save him. But the task is too much for she isn’t really there – she cannot really help. So disillusion with the vision turns her from a saviour to a killer.
Of course, many men survived a near drowning, and would recall this strange hallucination at the point of death – a hallucination not seen today because sailors are not away from women for so long. And as the tales were recalled and transmitted, the mermaid takes on a life of its own within culture.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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HOW I BECAME A WRITER

If I did, of course. I guess that’s up to you to decide, dear reader.
Where did it all begin? Well, as a kid I was good at English Literature. I don’t know why – maybe it was just natural. Maybe that’s how it has to be with a writer. But after school, life took over and it never entered my head for … years.
Not until I was 27, infact. In that fateful year I came down with chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS. Suddenly my fast lifestyle turned upside down and I was left with a very different life. But a life has to be filled.

Knowledge Quest

The first glimmer of my new life came when it was clear no one had the faintest idea why I was ill. I didn’t like mysteries just standing there, waiting for attention, so I began to research the subject.
I never found an answer, but I found out an important fact – which was ‘facts’ rarely exist. Indeed, not only this, but most experts hadn’t a clue what they were talking about.
This arrogant, egoistic conclusion led to me having a thirst for knowledge – basically, I wanted to know everything, and see just how bad our state of supposed knowledge is. And well, once you realize a thing like that, writing is the obvious way of getting your thoughts out.

The Observer

That was the first clue to how I became a writer …
… if, of course, I did …
But it suddenly dawned on me that I’d done quite a lot in my life, and there were great experiences to fall back on, for the good or bad. And in realizing I could analyse my life, I also realized that, perhaps, I could analyse others.
And in such a way I became an observer. Infact, it was just too easy, ‘cos half the time I wasn’t capable of actually experiencing life to the full, anyway.
And observe, I did. Everything. And then I learnt to turn it around in my head, and I ended up producing, not just essays, but stories …
So that’s how I became a writer.
If, of course, I did.

© Anthony North, July 2007

Writing Blog

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SCIENCE AND NEUROSIS

The public believe that science is absolutely true in the ideas it offers. Scientists know this to be untrue – science can only give a probability of correctness – but in the main they are happy to allow this public misconception to remain. But are scientists now beginning to believe their own publicity?
Science has been in a constant battle with ideas that cannot be proved. Such ideas usually surround the paranormal and spirituality, best expressed in the modern world with New Age and alternative ideas. Indeed, they are becoming so influential nowadays scientists descend to mockery and other ‘debating’ forms to ridicule such stances.

MEDIA INFLUENCE

A side effect of this assault is that scientists adopt a far more fundamental stance to their own ideas than is permissible. And fuelled by beliefs in their own publicity, the scientific picture is distorted.
This process is helped by a media that swallows practically every report, survey and finding they make. In medical matters, for instance, hardly a day goes by without new advice from a scientific survey that does not deserve the media coverage it gets.
The result is the idea, among many scientists, that their work is above the norm. In terms of sociology, scientists are taking over the role once reserved for gods in Classical times, with ‘cults’ making decrees and defining the morality and action of a society.

A MATERIAL WORLD

The end product of this process is a society that is becoming increasingly more material in its lifestyles, spirituality seen as either crack pot or an alternative lifestyle used simply to ease the stresses of material living.
The idea of devotion to a deity is replaced by a self-centredness in all things spiritual, spirituality being a form of self-satisfaction.
As well as having an adverse effect on society, this mentality is dangerous for science itself. There has always been an idea that scientists tend to be eccentric and single-minded. This is an inevitability of working in the abstract. And intriguingly, the mentality has echoes in cultism proper.

ARE SCIENTISTS GURUS?

The defining psychology of a cult guru is an eccentric single-mindedness leading to an absolute belief in his rightness. Many psychologists have realized this link between the spiritual and scientific mind for some time. Living in a world of concepts will inevitability make the person blinkered to normal life, and eventually totally convinced of his rightness.
The divide between the guru and scientist has traditionally come from a peer group within science constantly questioning the scientist and his findings. Such questioning does not occur in cults, with the guru becoming so convinced of his ‘truth’ that a form of neurosis can occur if he is challenged. But with science now believing its own publicity, can we really be sure the sceptical peer group still does its job?
If we can doubt this, then there is little difference between the guru and scientist. And the mockery and ridicule they now vent upon any form of spirituality hints that the processes of neurosis are beginning to infect the scientific world.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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TONY ON FLOODS AND OTHER NEWS

THOUGHTS FROM A COMMON MAN
News and comment LATEST: UK floods – natural or unnatural disaster? … PLUS … What happened to aircraft carriers? Cameron! Get your act together.
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FLOODS, BIGNESS AND EFFICIENCY

The Great Flood is well under way in the UK. Many counties, cities and towns in the south west, and other areas, have been deluged as rivers break their banks. A natural disaster …
No, hang on a minute. It MAY be a natural disaster in part. Unless man-made climate change is behind it - and we accept that flood plains will revert to flood plains. But now there are some 300,000 people without water supplies, whilst sewage infested water swirls around them.

Is this a natural disaster?

I find it amazing that the deluging of such a small part of the infra-structure was responsible for this termination of supplies. But then again, maybe not.
Over recent decades, the term ‘efficiency’ has been used to explain the marvelous services we get today. This has been achieved by two simple business ideals. The first is that a few bigger facilities are far more efficient than many smaller ones.
Yes, this is absolutely true, if your main motive for efficiency is profit. But when the slightest problem affects just a few – or even one – of these bigger facilities, the implications are enormous – and hundreds of thousands of people will be without water for maybe two weeks.
Bigger is very rarely better, or more efficient. For as soon as pressure enters the system, it fails. We should wake up to the simple fact that smaller, and more, is the only option to survive such problems – and demand that business allows a touch of inefficiency into the system, so that it can be efficient.

© Anthony North, July 2007

DAVID’S HONEYMOON IS OVER

When David Cameron was first picked to lead the Tory Party, I thought, great! Just what was needed. It had nothing to do with him being a good politician – more with the importance of PR …
… read more …

THE MYTHICAL AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

The building of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers is about to be announced – perhaps. These super-duper ships were first authorized ten years ago, and should have been in service by 2015 …
… read more …

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Inde-Pol

EUROPE GETS ORGANISED

In western continental Europe the main focus of the late Dark Ages was on the Franks, named after their javelin, the ‘franca’, who settled in Gaul (France) in the 4th century.
In 486 their chieftain, Clovis, defeated the Roman governor, creating the Frankish Kingdom between the Loire and Seine, going on to subjugate the upper Rhineland and drive the Visigoths south of the Pyrenees.

THE FRANKS EXPAND

Converted to Christianity, Clovis began the Merovingian Dynasty after his grandfather Merovee. However, a warrior family, they left the running of the kingdom to officials called mayors. In 714 Charles Martel became Mayor.
From the Carolingian family, he led armies against continuing migrations, including halting the Islamic advances into Europe at the Battle of Poitiers in 732. One of Martel’s sons, Pepin, named after his grandfather, deposed the Merovingians, beginning the Carolingian Dynasty.
Extending the Frankish Kingdom into Italy, his eldest son was Charlemagne, who ruled from 771-814. Inflicting further defeats on the Lombards, Saxons and Muslims, he reigned over an empire that included France, northern Spain, much of Germany and large parts of Italy.

BIRTH OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

Charlemagne realised that his empire needed a greater cause and, like Alfred in England, found it in Christianity. Beginning a Carolingian Renaissance, he built grand palaces and churches and promoted Christianity through learning.
Although his empire collapsed after his death, the Treaty of Verdun of 843 splitting the empire between his family, on Christmas Day 800AD the pope crowned him emperor of a Christian empire.
The Church and politics had become one and the same, Christianity being the rockbed of society, thus inaugurating the Medieval world. The empire itself formulated into the Holy Roman Empire, based around the Germanic monarchy , and dictating the politics of Central Europe until the times of Napoleon.

THE NORMANS

Another peoples central to a formulating world were the Normans. Normandy had been conquered by Clovis, but from the 9th century Viking raids began. In 912 the Viking, Rollo, accepted Normandy as a Duchy from the Carolingians to stop them advancing further.
He accepted Christianity but retained his independence. Over a hundreds years later, the half Norman Edward the Confessor, became king of England. Promising William, Duke of Normandy, the throne, when he died in 1066, he named Harold Godwinson as his heir. William invaded, becoming William the Conquerer upon his victory at the Battle of Hastings.

NORMAN CONQUEST

The Norman Conquest of 1066 was celebrated in the Bayeux Tapestry, but was more than a simple battle. The pope had given William his blessing, giving the invasion the authority of God.
Norman aristocracy replaced the Anglo-Saxon, some 5,000 castles were built, a Norman-friendly Archbishop of Canterbury was put in place, state institutions were organized such as the Treasury, King’s Council and Sheriffs to keep the peace.
England was split into Shires, beginning the county system and in 1068, William ordered the Doomsday Book, assessing the full extent of his conquest.

TOWARDS THE CLASH

The Normans were active elsewhere. The adventurer Robert Guiscard led Norman mercenaries fighting the Muslims well before 1066, forging a Ducky in parts of southern Italy and Sicily in 1059.
From 1154 Norman power was in decline, the French monarchy recovering Normandy in 1204. The now English Normans hungered for revenge for the loss of their homeland, and this was to fuel the myriad wars between England and France in future centuries.
But more important were the Norman clashes with Islam in the Mediterranean. For from these clashes came the urge to retake from Islam the Holy Places of Jerusalem. Islam had arisen into history – as we shall see in the next post in the series.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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CAUGHT IN TWO WORLDS

I’m the ‘two worlds’ man. What I mean is that everything I am is pulled in two directions. This doesn’t mean I’m insane, or anything like that, but my various muses do tend to take me over from time to time.
No. What I mean is that I stride across many worlds, many influences, many ideals. At heart I’m a capitalist, slightly to the right. But I also have a deep social and environmental conscience.
I’m a rationalist. I like science. I like having things explained. But I’m captivated by the spiritual, by the paranormal, by the illogical. I’d class myself as spiritual, but not religious. I’m the ‘two worlds’ man.
I think I reflect how most people feel. There is always the voice in the head saying ‘are you sure you’ve got this right?’ At least, I hope you have. If not, I’m afraid you could just be a fundamentalist, with too great an opinion of yourself and your beliefs.
I’m a Yorkshireman in my fifties, brought up to value tradition, yet my heart tells me I’m an old hippy. I always wear suit and tie (unless the sun shines). I’m from the UK so I always wear suit and tie …
This warns people I’m a traditionalist. Yet I don’t have to dress like I do. Not for my job, not for anything. So in looking like a traditionalist, I’m really a rebel. I’m the ‘two worlds’ man – I think I am because I can.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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CLIMATE CHANGE AND PHENOMENA

We are facing dangers, today, from global warming. This essay is not going to argue whether this is man-made or a natural cycle as such, but is to suggest another avenue of research – into the relationship between climate and paranormal experience.
Many researchers, including myself, have suggested that an environment can have an effect upon the mind. But does the present climate change offer a possibility of testing the hypothesis in action?

GAIA

The idea that the Earth is a form of entity, living in a relationship with its occupants, is older than history. Tribal animism is based around the existence of two worlds – the physical and the spiritual – existing parallel to each other.
The continuance of this idea is represented in mythological goddesses from around the world. Today, Gaia is the most well known, but many symbolize them all in the term, Mother Earth.
In the late 20th century a touch of rationality was given to the subject in Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis where it is argued that the various aspects of the planet seem to co-ordinate themselves, including the biosphere, which includes us.

INTELLIGENCE?

This is not to suggest the existence of intelligence or intentionality in this relationship. But could it be that, through natural processes embodied in the global environment, natural consequences could arise that suggest intentionality?
El Nino is a classic example. A phenomenon of the Pacific Ocean, it seems to regulate global temperatures, as if a kind of pressure valve. Present climate change seems to be causing El Nino more often, suggesting a form of control.
But it is a long way from here to suggesting a linkage with climate change and paranormal experience. Yet there has been research that, if allied to the possibility, could provide indications of such a mechanism.

ELECTROMAGNETISM

As the planet warms up, climate is becoming increasingly erratic. Throughout the world, abnormal weather is being increasingly seen. Yet one consequence of meteorological disturbance is a change in electromagnetism.
This can often be seen in a thunderstorm. And the interesting thing is the lull before the storm can often cause mood changes in the individual. A calmness can come, leading to an almost mystical-like state.
Such states have been associated with paranormal activity, and it is no coincidence that supernatural fiction often associates ghostly visitations with the thunderstorm. Maybe it isn’t just a storytelling device, but a reality.

SPIRITUALITY

Research into the effects of electromagnetism on the brain has been done by Persinger and others, and it seems that it can have an acute effect, causing moods to alter, to hallucinations and mystical states.
Could a global atmosphere, on the change, have a similar effect among a population? For instance, it is interesting to note the rise of New Age spirituality at a time when, unbeknown to us, climate change must have been accelerating?
Looking into history, we can see similar effects. Christianity seemed to rise in the Dark Ages amid a suspected, and prolonged, meteor shower. Occultism arose in the modern world at the time of the mini-ice age in north western Europe.

FIGHTING BACK

Of course, there would be other, social reasons for changes in spirituality within a population, but the possibility of climate having an effect deserves study. For the implications could be profound.
During the present climate change period we have seen a rise in paranormal experience from New Age spirituality, to mystical states, to millions claiming abduction by aliens. Could they all be allied to climate?
If we accept this as a possibility, then like El Nino, planet Earth may well have a pressure valve to infect the possible culprits. For one thing about mystical states is that the experiencer usually becomes a more spiritual, environmentally-friendly individual, at one with himself and his planet.
Maybe planet Earth is fighting back – by changing us, bit by bit, into guardians of the planet rather than its vandals.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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