Which afterlife would you prefer?

That makes sense. I regularly make break thoughs in all the arts and sciences. Not being a specialist, I usually only conceive the concept, unable to follow through with the details, and wait a few years for someone else to show up with the project completed. But yeah, I attribute it to applying ideas from one realm to others. I've had a business name for 16 years to cover such work, Conceptual Design Synthesis.

I remember when I was younger coming up with theories that I couldn't quantify or describe properly, but where I could hold the concept in my head. Years later I learned that many of them were widely accepted modern theories and that someone out there *had* been able to describe them One day I hope to describe my own theories before anyone else gets there first.

I'll stayed glued for papers like: "The role of trans-national butterfly migrations in the evolution of bacteria based colored face-painting muds." You're probably aware that plenty of marketing, backstabbing, discreditation, and such goes on behind such papers. The big trick is to get a book published which makes you a common name. Oh, theres showing up on Nova or something too. After your desires and belief in yourself (and talent), it comes down to who you know.

I spread my ideas on radio station the way I comment on SC, but i still don't have the clout I'd have as a featured lecturer. It seems the criteria to land an interview is to write a book. It's taken years for me to get an abstract idea of what I'm trying to do, and what it takes. Your industry will be somewhat different, but you should start being mindful of what really works, not just what the official path is.

I seem to be quite a good networker - I'm not sure how as it doesn't really sit with my personality. I'm not one of the pushy ones who throw themselves at anyone who seems useful, but I seem to get to know the right people all the same, just through doing things I'm interested in.

I do see the relevance of being a "name". Richard Dawkins is the first port of call whenever anyone wants a comment on evolution or atheism even though Mark Ridley is probably the scientists' choice. Dawkins is a brilliant man, but he seems very good at marketing himself which has made him into a household name. Would anyone know who Stephen Hawking was if he weren't "that guy in the wheelchair"? Again, a brilliant mind, but is he really *the* top mind in his field? I was actually thinking about it today. The people with the bad science seem to be really good at getting publicity and the scientists keep their mouths shut even though some of them are surely media savvy. Our current problem with the MMR vaccination might have been preventable if proper scientists had pushed their agenda into the papers rather than passively letting the media ignore them. There are ways to get your agenda in the press, even when that isn't the story that the papers most want to write about.

I don't like the pushy type. Good networking is just good friendly respectful communication based on recognizing mutual goals. It does'nt help to have a cure for cancer and not tell anyone who can do something about it. Sometimes all the other person wants is to feel good about helping someone else. Hawking even made it onto a wild Simpsons episode. From what little I've heard of the guy, he seems fairly brilliant. My step-brother was a big fan of his. He has a triple masters in math, comp. sci., & astrophysics. He writes the software for the major observatory equipment. Alas he too, like Hawking, ended up with his spine fusing. I wonder if there's something metaphysical to that besides just parallel identity.

There's no denying he's brilliant, but there are other amazing physicists too that don't get any press outside of the physics universe.

The sames probably true in every field. When i became a guitar virtuoso, I thought, with the limited set of famous composers and pop stars that i was one of a select few, but listening to occlectic radio and, moreover, just meeting people in public, I find gifted virtuosos are really a dime a dozen, and it dawned on me that the ancient model of musicians in every family made more sense than the superstar model.

It's a bit like the question 'Out of 230 Million people, are Bush and Kerry really the best we have for the job?'.

I've been writing bumper stickers:
"Don't take drugs; believe Bush !"
"Find Bush"
and my latest,
"230 MILLION other people for president".

If Bush and Kerry are really the cream of the crop, then God help America - a simple blessing ain't enough!

They just don't seem to go into politics anymore.

No, I think that's true. And if they do, they get trampled by the others.

Just want to worship God forever. Just want to be a power source.

> My idea is that we'll go through all the options available eventually
> anyhow.
Would you feel this way if God were more personal in nature,
Like if god were a limitless all knowing, all present, all powerful, being who created you, and wanted to have a personal relationship with you, but created you with the ability to choose what you wanted.

My connection with God is immensely personal in nature, commenting over my shoulder on ethics, buying decisions, etc. I also have a fairly customized universe. If I want the first ball game I watch to be a preposterously unlikely winning streak of several games to win the series and beat an 86 year old curse, I get it. I live in a rather virtual reality. My needs are fairly humble. I don't drive a car though i was a show car restorationist for a decade and owned plenty of exotics. Basically people give me things, and I give them them things. On occasion I might decide I need a particular model of programmable calculator, and the thrift store which never has calculators has one waiting for me the next afternoon for $5 instead of $95. More importantly are the social and spiritual experiences. When I write a presidential platform, I meet a presidential candidate's campaign manager interested in my material. When I'm ready for time-travel or telekenesis, or some grand public heart event, some taste of that comes my way.

I figure I'l continue on this way in other forms for eternity, so I figure I'll get around to everything I can imagine, subjectively, if not objectively. The recombinant DNA model of physical-matter infinity, and it's repurcussions/implications on all possibilities eventually happening is more of a line I pass on to those of a scientific aetheist bent.

I've been preaching on SC about intersecting virtual personal universes and conversation with God since the day I got here (SC). Type 'logos' or 'spanda karikas' into SC's search engine and you'll see what I mean. I'm surprised you've missed that.

>
> I've been preaching on SC about intersecting virtual personal universes
> and conversation with God since the day I got here (SC). Type 'logos'
> or 'spanda karikas' into SC's search engine and you'll see what I
> mean. I'm surprised you've missed that.

i THINK your persona; connection to God should be more Bibical and less philosophical.
IMHO

It's neither philosophical nor biblical, it's experiential. I don't read read about and hypothesize about color, I see it and experience it. The same is true of my connection with God. I use the bible mostly as a language documentation to those whom speak that language to illustrate some of what I experience in their language. The philosophy I do use is a touch more like psychology and scientific hypothesis (like imagining what color would appear like if we had orange, infra-red, and gamma ray cones as well as RGB cones in our eyes.).; I see what God does, but even after 16 years of conversation, still have to figure out my own whys or borrow those from Hindu texts. The bible doesn't really address the nature of cosmology nor it's motive, so even strict biblical christians would have to get philosphical if they wanted answers to those questions.

It's one thing to read a book on amusement parks,and quite another to experience them yourself.

I believe in Heaven. Basically if you do more good than Evil, and believe in the Right thing, you will end up there, hope to see you there

I chose a fresh reincarnation with recollections of prior lives- not so much because I believe in it, but because it just somehow sounds so very different and interesting.

Reincarnation with recollection of past lives, in heaven experiencing eternal joy and no subject matter or heavenly existence with the ability to summon any thing or event through dreams, keeping the same mind and emotional choices. Any of these choices for me would be ideal.

i have no clue

Some other sort of Afterlife, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

I have taught several people how to use, construct, and fix computers, and there is one problem I always run into. Computers are a completely man-made universe that is not at all intuitive. Any one who begins to learn about them starts from 0.

Some people do seem to take to them better than others though.

The simple act of learning is easier for some due to their attitude, but their knowledge is ultimately non-existent. Some do pick up some facets of the subject through exposure, but it is something you have to learn from the ground up.

I didn't know which one to choose, but my 12 year old son has chosen * A heaven in which one is instantly granted any thing or event they can dream up, but keeps the same mind and emotional choices they have now.

If God would be happy with any of the choices, I guess this would be ok for me too. However, I don't think I'd want to have the things I want now so I think I'd go for * A fresh reincarnation with recollections of prior lives.

You realize the complication with those choices is that our happiness is still contingent upon our own dark and light creativity. Wish fullfillment is far from a guarantee of bliss. Freewill/ego and heavenly bliss really aren't compatable. I've experienced heaven on earth, and it involves losing all ego, abiding in the heart, needing nothing, serving the positive flow. I've also had (far more of) the wish fullfillment scenario, and it's just basically a more intense level of the same old personal karma, full of joys and terrors.

I created this survey to help people realize that their abstract afterlife desires come down to the state of their personal consciousness and that no magical change of afterlife scenery will change things.

Are you a photographer?

Sorry it's taken me sooo long to reply. I dable in photography, just an amature. Darkroomdanny is from a Scissor Sisters song (I was into them last year, bit overplayed now though!) My old drum teacher was called Danny around the same time, last year so it's been my tag eversince.

I've been a photographer since I was young, bellows, multiple exposures, panoramas, stereo photography, etc. I was big on low-light, no-flash, and could hold a camera steady at 1/15 with a medium focal length. and then, in photshop, I can take a photo that looks shot through swamp water and get it crystal clear, or suggestive of ancient natives or psychic space-aliens.

My cameras were stolen, but fortunately I'll be getting a digital for my b-day. I guess that means I'll have to learn a whole bunch of new tricks like multiple exposure averaging and noise filter techniques.

I'm a guitarist, or more like an electric vina celloist. For an overplayed band, I never heard of Scissor Sisters. What genre?

I found this for you. I didn't know where to put it! You can substitue the chicken broth with any other fowl broth but use at least one for flavor. Good luck!!

Creamy ArtichokeSoup
Ingredients
4 medium artichokes
2 cups water
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dry vermouth
1 medium potato, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 pound cooked chicken, cubed
1 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons Locatelli Romano cheese, fresh grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Croutons for garnish
Instructions
Steam the artichokes in the 2 cups of water until tender (about 45 minutes) and reserve the liquid afterwards. Allow the artichokes to cool. Scrape the flesh from the bottom third of each leaf and place in medium soup pot along with the artichoke liquid. Remove fuzzy choke from each artichoke bottom and discard. Coarsely dice the artichoke bottoms and place in the soup pot. Next add the remaining ingredients except the chicken, cream, cheese and croutons. Simmer until the vegetables are very tender and the liquid is reduced by 1/3, about 45 minutes. Next puree the soup in a blender and return to the pot. Add the chicken, cream and the cheese and heat through but don't boil. Serve with croutons on top.

Why not just post the link rather than the whole recipe every time?

That could be useful.
Last october I made a cheese sauce which after four hours of simmering was sticking to the spoon like rough cement, but somewhere around the 5th or 6th hour became smooth as silk. I think their mush have been 30 ingredients in there, mostly hand minced.

Some are basic but I substitute and add and mix and match because it is suppose to be like no other. It is easier for people to tell me what ingredients they like to work with. Everybody's tastes are different

Try a tablespoon of olive oil

I was wondering why Wolfgang was accusing you of being ill. You must have breathed in some second hand troll smoke.

We had several varieties of olive oil in there, pesto, shroom medly, etc etc.
Looks like I never wrote down the recipe, but here are a couple others:

5/29/03
Lemon shrimp soufflé
Shrimp in lemon myrtle, coriander, and italian herbs; onions sautéd in savory balsam and raspberry vinegar; 1/4 kumquat zest; arctic white nectarine jelly; eggs whipped with cream cheese, dash of parmesan, & limoncella, pour into half pitas sponged in scarlet pomegranate vinegar & poppy seeds. Bake at 300 till golden & fluffy.

7/24/02
Intense Italian Pizza
Frozen goat cheese pizza
White asparagus spears
Oil cured black olive shreds
Bottled Grape leaves
Sun-dried tomato pesto
Artichoke antipasto
Fresh basil leaves
Cheese

Well, they both sound yummy...especially the shrimp. you've given me a most marvelous idea...somehow merge both of your recipes. Farfetched? Yes, but that is how I create.

The first recipe is delicate, the latter has several robust savory intense flavors competing (olive/roquefort sort of flavors), any of which would take over the entire first composition.
I suppose you could use the latter flavors in the former format though.

Another one I enjoy making is soufflé hash, a frying pan burbling with tomato syrup base, exotic ingredients, bread doughs, and whole eggs, done right so that the eggs and dough cook in place in the pie wheel, absorbing ingredients (like in the pizza above, or an India mix).

Being in LA, we have nice diverse shops here, like 'All Spice' http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1346/is... which searches the world over for great black cumin, orange chipotle, chai ingredients, anise varieties, all sorts of teas (I have my special recipe made there.), most of the basics, and tons of exotics, though not everything by any means. It's all sold bulk. and he prints labels on-the-fly.

It depends- if I died now, I would choose the life of a ghost, so that I could look after my girlf and communicate with her.
If I died after her, I would want to be with her in whatever sense.
It's hard- not really the sort of thing I've ever thought about, as I don't think there will be any choice.

How about a giant SurveyCentral afterlife?

I think that's what we do already. We could die of a stroke late late one night on SC and never notice that we were stuck here for eternity.

id like to be reincarnated but have memories of my past life so that i will live without fear of dying, knowing that i will live again

I wonder how that would work out...would our consciousness be roaming the SC pathways forever?

I would like to just continue on with my life but not know that I'm dead....so if this happend...then I could actually be dead right now...and I wouldn't even know. Think about that...

Reincarnation exactly as we have it now, that is to say, no knowledge of the previous life. It all relates to Karma.
http://www.edgarcayce.org/about_ec/cayce_on/reinca...

I do not care what anyone else believes. When you die, you will know the truth.

Angel. It would be like watching tv and you could change the channel and stuff.

where jesus is!