Wednesday 30 December 2009

how loving the creation is loving the creator


by Antony Sammeroff on Wednesday, 30 December 2009 at 20:28 ·

Most religions speak of serving God, but what God is there to speak of serving?
God should he exist is Omnipotent, naturally, and he being Omnipotent what service could a mortal then render unto the divine?
The natural conclusion of both the moral theist and the moral atheist alike then, is that any service worth being rendered is to be rendered unto ones fellow, for no one can do everything for themselves.
If God exists in everything then serving others is serving God,
as to be of service to the Creation is to be of service to the Creator.

And why else should each of us take such joy in our own work being appreciated?
Or should we ever have one, when a kindness is done unto our own child?
Because naturally it follows, that Loving the Creation is Loving the Creator
Loving the Creation is Loving the Creator

Friday 4 December 2009

An Awesome Game conceived of in a most Interesting Dream

I had a dream last night that I was participating in a game. I guess you could say it was a role playing game. The game can take place in any area big enough, in my case it was a few buildings based on some of those of at my old high school and others created entirely by my unconscious like a castle tower. At a stretch you could maybe run it in a flat or house with several rooms, or you could expand it to a whole university campus or something like that if you were brave enough, didn't mind the walking, and wanted to make it a really big game. Naturally in these cases there will be all sorts of people who are "not playing" scattered through the game world, going about their business and most probably absolutely oblivious to what is going on with those participating. That helps add to the atmosphere. The game had a made up name which sounded Spanish, which I guess means the playing area represented the whole of Spain.

The premise of the game is that you and one other player are long lost brothers and need to search the game world for clues as to how to find the other, each of you follows the "treasure hunt" in the reverse order from one another and it's actually sort of a race or competition to see who gets most fastest and figures it out first, at which the time you both succeed when you meet. The clues are generally dispensed by other characters in the game in various locations, although the actions of characters and choices they make throughout the game may affect things such as where these characters will be found, whether they move to other locations or not, and their willingness to help one or each of these two players. 

The default location, order and nature of the clues, as well as the dispositions of those who deliver them, are randomised from game to game by means which were not explained by the dream. N.B. Only one game took place throughout the entire dream and it took hours to play!

The two "main characters" may bump into one another throughout the course of play - but the rub is it if their characters aren't aware that the other is their macguffin "in game" - it doesn't count at all! They may even interact with one another obliviously! (Although in my case we only passed in corridors.) This is supposed to add to the humour an quirkiness of the concept as well as the challenge. 

Towards the end of the dream when it was reaching a climax I remember getting very angry at the other player for watching which direction I went off in after we passed, which I claimed to be "cheating."


When I was explaining what happened in the dream to Suzy I suddenly went "fuck... I know what the dream was about..." ... "It's actually about finding myself, isn't it?"

Stuart Wilde speaks of a mirror world in which the inner you, associated with your feelings, resides. He claims that this in not a figure of speach or a metaphor as he and thousands of others have looked through into this mirror world and seen their authentic selves. This is the imprint of you which supposedly allows you to survive your death and transcend into whatever it is that comes next.

If my interpretation is right and that's what the "long lost brother" in the game represents then the people milling around who "weren't playing" represent those who have no interest in, or don't believe in spirituality. Those who dispensed clues? I don't know, guides or something?... And perhaps at the end, where the other player (whom I recognised as we both set off from one another at the beginning of the game but didn't really seem to know well in person) was watching where I went, it was perhaps because he already knew "in game" that I was who he was looking for, he'd beat me to the punch, but didn't say. In fact I don't remember him saying much if anything...

An Awesome Game conceived of in a most Interesting Dream

I had a dream last night that I was participating in a game. I guess you could say it was a role playing game. The game can take place in any area big enough, in my case it was a few buildings based on some of those of at my old high school and others created entirely by my unconscious like a castle tower. At a stretch you could maybe run it in a flat or house with several rooms, or you could expand it to a whole university campus or something like that if you were brave enough, didn't mind the walking, and wanted to make it a really big game. Natuarally in these cases there will be all sorts of people who are "not playing" scattered through the game world, going about their business and most probably absolutely oblivious to what is going on with those participating. That helps add to the atmosphere. The game had a made up name which sounded spanish, which I guess means the playing area reprisented the whole of Spain.
The premise of the game is that you and one other player are long lost brothers and need to search the game world for clues as to how to find the other, each of you follows the "treasure hunt" in the reverse order from one another and it's actually sort of a race or competition to see who gets most fastest and figures it out first, at which the time you both succeed when you meet. The clues are generally dispensed by other characters in the game in various locations, although the actions of characters and choices they make throughout the game may affect things such as where these characters will be found, whether they move to other locations or not, and their willingness to help one or each of these two players.
The default location, order and nature of the clues, as well as the dispositions of those who deliver them, are randomised from game to game by means which were not explained by the dream. N.B. Only one game took place throughout the entire dream and it took hours to play!
The two "main characters" may bump into one another throughout the course of play - but the rub is it if their characters aren't aware that the other is their macguffin "in game" - it doesn't count at all! They may even interact with one another obliviously! (Although in my case we only passed in corridors.) This is supposed to add to the humour an quirkiness of the concept as well as the challenge.
Towards the end of the dream when it was reaching a climax I remember getting very angry at the other player for watching which direction I went off in after we passed, which I claimed to be "cheating."


When I was explaining what happened in the dream to Suzy I suddenly went "fuck... I know what the dream was about..." ... "It's actually about finding myself, isn't it?"