Between Nothing and Something

Physics tells us that everything can be categorized into one of the following types of matter;

Solids
Liquids
Gases

Of course, this is an oversimplification of human experience and reality. Since science still seems to be accepted as the main way of perceiving "reality", at least in the West, then it may be useful to point out that we may need to consider a fourth category of substance.

This substance could be called an "in between substance", a substance that lies between nothing and something, existence and non-existence.

Examples of this substance include the following;

thought
mind
personality
soul
emotions
spiritual experience
neutrinos
"dark matter"
the Internet (?)
"atmospheres" and "sensing"
body awareness
spatial awareness
healing
homeopathy
intuition
consciousness

Many of these substances (or states) we know exist, however we cannot say what they are or what they are comprised of. From a scientific point of view, they cannot be measured nor can they be proved to exist, however it is obvious that some of these substances do exist.

Considering these substances or states may help us to turn our attention towards them and, therefore we can better comprehend them. However, it may be useful to accept that, using established methods of comprehending ourselves and our world, we cannot understand them any better than we do. In this case we may have to adapt our methods of understanding "reality" to accept the existence of this "substance". However, not being able to explain the constitution of something does not mean it is not existent.

Interestingly, even though science has difficulty with these ideas/phenomena and, therefore rejects them, the layman readily accepts many of these experiences. Many people have a strong understanding of emotions in themselves and they are able to accurately read them in other people, yet they have no scientific training. Nor do they have difficulty with the idea that emotions exist, even though scientifically, they are essentially immeasurable and defy scientific scrutiny regarding their constitution.

People commonly and automatically use intuition, hunches and sense "atmospheres". People readily accept and practice religious and spiritual experiences. Of course, science cannot cope with such abstract phenomena; scientific method would reject these experiences as non-existent.

The occurrence of "in between states, or substances" is nothing new. Historically people have been aware of this and nothingness (including pointlessness) and "in between states" are common occurrences and themes in our Postmodern times. Indeed science its self, has come across similar states of matter, for example; neutrinos (that are both existent and non existent) and dark matter (also known as anti matter) that astrophysicists believe fills much of the universe.

In fact laymen (I use the term "layman" to refer to scientific laymen, in this essay) have a better conception of an "in between substance" than scientists. It is non-scientists that are turning to acupuncture, homeopathy and other "scientifically unprovable" types of health treatments, due to the failure of scientifically-based, allopathic medicine. Medical science is very slowly catching up with the more broad-minded attitudes of the general public. The general public are also taking practical steps to find solutions to Postmodern problems, such as increased immigration and increasing multi-culturalism, etc. Scientists seem to spend much time creating irrelevant, time consuming research and trying to convince us that phenomena is verifiable by scientific method. By this time, the general public have already found solutions.

The imaginative arts have shown curiosity towards nothingness, the limits of scientific method and the existence of "in between substances" for decades. Unfortunately, arts practitioners have often been labelled as incomprehensible by non-artists and completely ignored by academic and scientific disciplines.

Multiculturalism is having a more profound effect upon Western culture than many of us expected. In fact the influence of people from different cultures is turning established, Western thought upside down. This is a period of transition that can be difficult to adjust to. However, people from other cultures bring new experiences and perceptions to Western life. Multiculturalism is one factor of many that is causing people to perceive "reality" or "realities" differently. It is evident that people from non-Western cultures can have very different approaches to comprehending ourselves and our world.

Returning to the imaginative arts, I believe it is important to point out that they allow free thought, therefore arts practitioners can consider subjects such as "in between substances", the limitations of scientific inquiry, etc. without fear of ridicule. In doing so, the imaginative arts have brought comprehension and clarity to these subjects that, from an intellectual point-of-view, would not even have been considered.

Therefore, academic and scientific subjects need to apply more free-thinking, more creativity to their method and subject-matter. By doing this we can begin to approach less tangible subject- matter from more practical perspectives. Artistic (creative) thought should be applied to academic and scientific thought.

vespers 37...(fill-in-the-blanks attitude)

consciousness flutters to quiet
a small guide is seen floating upwards
now the gesture bird enlists space
a new pantheon is born, sofia

plans blend
the little Dracula paws the night scene attentively
inside the mind a window
into a honey & ivory pandemonium
just beyond the light, glass borders
onto puddles of hyperborean cold
intelligence evaporates with wince

tarnished postmodern mysteries on shelves
(shelf life of occupation polishes perception)
Hopi clay statues victimized

'when I close my eyes'
I see the shades of previous pasts with
some specific spirit
stuck deep into the Scythian night clay
powdery wings close ranks yes
yes, statues in search of continental thieves
in eternal groves where victim texts divide

to sleep appears unrushed
but continental interpreters in tails do sleep

room of text elastic as all summer
e-merging

Vespers (37)

consciousness flutters to quiet

*

now the gesture bird enlists space

*

plans blend

*

inside the mind a window

*

just beyond the light, glass borders

*

intelligence evaporates with wince

*

shelf life of occupation polishes perception

*

'when I close my eyes'

*

some specific spirit

*

powdery wings close ranks yes

*

to sleep appears unrushed

*

room of text elastic as all summer

Fire and Water

Thank you to the glamorous Miss Boux for allowing me to use her photograph in this image.

Simon

see what's new

-

Thank you to Miss Boux for allowing me to use her photograph in this image.

Simon

to Sheila...

the smooth outcast

is whispering

head down

the place of truth whispers

about the truth of place

as it sees it

first

make an account of my syllables

all over the story 's whispering modes

: inference :

a blatant blond unison

unisons me

with force

my story is heavily formatting noises

heresy matter

i am

castaway on a much lower place

for ever practising

emblem noises

Vespers (36)

in my head
a dance nobody
does now
matter comes
to life

whisper someone's
sleeping and
has been for hours
the voices have kept
down to a whisper

come morning
we will feel outcast
on account of all the unison
or noise approximating
that

tell me a story
whispers the open
being subsumed
under an emblem heart

some ritual takes the place
of blond and stress free
while other modes
allow in inference
with bells on
one might say

a quiver on her lower lip
and I fill in the blanks
with maybe heresy
or blatant truth
or simply syllables
to hold my place

Vespers (35)

tonight the traffic singsong
breezes by
smooth shine of tires
simple sacrament of small facade
the errand's center obvious
with repetition
shell game juxtaposed with
clear intention
inattention fuels unconscious flow
turned episodes
and miles away
some snow clouds
and grace note clouds
and thread clouds
with a yellowing and pink
with haze of lavender
and gray mix
cat fur beneath the hand
span of attention melted
intuition where shrill thought would be

Seven of December

sunlight sparkles on
the cities
twin

this
thinning daytime
seven of December

two thousand seven
on delayed
arrival

where
lived once
my beloved Tom

Balletics

Thank you to Miss Boux :-) For the use of her photographs in this picture

Simon

he he he, crescent

porn sexual knocks down media emotionally. My manners
like the artists /the people with hypereally sexual minds.
art over laughable selves.

porn for ever.

viewers, naive, porn of porn porn that purport simple skills won
phenomenon: decorative porn via Internet selves.

and complete content is art quasi-spiritual photography of experience- sexual
purpose rather art / virtual attitudes of viewer/audience vs. sexual art experience

i am line.

Ultimately cerebral photographers/digital People are makers
cognitively arousing photography to prepare
porn life and art of porn

they gradually sense art

production/direction,

hypereality photography
editing the surrounding sexual mind

Art and Porn (brief notes)

- Art and Porn
I felt it was time that someone addressed this issue. Pornography is becoming more accessible, more popular. Of course, this is largely due to the Internet and it is gradually having a knock on effect on culture, off line. I believe it is important to distinguish between reality (off line) and on line experience, which is hypereal beyond the extent of the hypereality that we experience in every day life, off line.

Ultimately the Internet will cease to amaze us so much and will become like the car, telephone and television. Important, but part of every day life and, at times rather dull. Bearing this in mind, porn is used by more people than ever. I find the idea of a complete virtual experience of porn, perhaps leading to quasi-spiritual experience via computer interfaces naive, shallow and laughable. Maybe, the most important concern surrounding porn at the moment is in art and photography. When does art become porn?

My opinion is that porn is art. People that create porn use all the skills of film production/direction, photography and photo editing that accepted film makers and photographers/digital artists use. Conceptually, porn equates with other art forms, in the sense that it is an attempt to communicate human experience and elicit a response in the viewer/audience. It could be argued that porn only attempts to arouse sexual feelings in its audience, at the expense of other mental experience. However, I am not won over by this argument. Whereas art can be a cerebral experience, eliciting all manner of emotional, cognitive and spiritual phenomena in viewers, art can also be purely decorative or it may attempt to say something simple and one-dimensional. It seems to me that the current debate over art and porn can only be answered by ourselves. Are we prepared to accept media that conveys sexual content purely for the purposes of arousing sexual feelings in the viewer, as art? This argument is not really about art, it is about our attitudes towards emotions.

finical logic ( LOL)

success is pray
the said successor - prayer

and
all the centers in the preposition writhe
with fever
and little energies explode in quiet black
in vagrant window black sparks
that blindfold

he said that preposition travels down in rainbow fashion- arc-like
a rainbow unexplained
that sudden fever is emerging as distant unsaid ribbons
as cloudpuffs. directional. as ghosts.

futility of better energy in better prepositions
may happen.

a pantomime of fever, i wonder ?

criteria successors
survey free space in dialect
like bats

new patent
rainbow
space

Vespers (34)

intention gathers energy to emerging centers of the self left out
to space. one writhes in being
what one has become. one has bequeathed to the unlikely successors
(whose criterion is to last)
employs a list of fated tools
and documents what happens next.

for now I think
my sleep once watched
differs from its own act.
I am an evidence who has slept poorly
due to travel next in line.

directional futility is better left unsaid.
ribbons confine shared preposition
to unlikelihood.

what kind of window do you think you will miss moist.
oh rainbow ones, she said in dialect.

put simply, no one wants to practice
anything. one wants unexplained success
to fiter down or to to have been perspired
into a consciousness for better
or for worse.

slide into home is not a prayer.
nor is a simulation of the lord.
nor is a pantomime one talks up
to aspire.

the fever one has notice must come back
will aftercare its way to points
just distant from the faintest notion
that made our helping fit the definition of suffice.