Instructor: Rainsong
Date: February 20, 2010
<Rainsong> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
<Rowan> Hi Rainsong!
<Jael> Hello 🙂
<Rainsong> Welcome to another seminar here at the social club.
<Rowan> (again. I am a tiiiinsy bit hyper tonight.)
<Rainsong> Usual disclaimers apply, but considering who’s in here, I’m not going to bother explaining ’em.
<Rainsong> http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_17_2_mousseau.pdf
* Rowan makes a sad face. PDF viewer is being broken.
<Rainsong> The above link goes to a pdf of the paper for discussion next week. It’s an interesting piece about the situation in France, concerning parapsychology re science vs pseudoscience
<Rainsong> It’s a proper journal paper, but not a difficult read.
* Rowan nods.
<Rainsong> http://get.adobe.com/reader/
<Rowan> Rainsong: I have Adobe, in fact. The entire suite. It just doesn’t want to run right now.
* Rowan grumbles and opens it with acrobat professional instead of reader.
<Rowan> The two do not play well together, as far as I can tell.
<Rainsong> I’ve found the same thing, actually. One or the other; not both.
<Rainsong> But, other PDF writers I’ve used don’t interfere with either. Go figure.
<Rowan> Very strange. I have it open in Acrobat Pro now, but am being typically annoyed at both Preview and Acrobat Reader for not wanting to work,
<Rowan> s/,/./g
<Rainsong> Unfortunate.
<Rainsong> As to tonight’s topic….
<Rainsong> I am considering a discussion of preliminary “pre-telepathy” exercises.
<Rainsong> Does anyone have any questions about other topics which they would want covered instead?
<thais> that sounds interesting.
<Rowan> That sounds very interesting, actually. Any exercises that additionally help with control on that sort of thing would be neat too.
<Caendaer> Sounds good to me.
<Jael> I’m game for anything 🙂
<Rainsong> Alright then, that’s what we’ll run with.
<Rainsong> First:
<Rainsong> “Subvocalization”
<Rainsong> There is nothing inherently psionic about subvocalization. It simply refers to “talking in your head”
<Rainsong> Go back and read the above sentence, slowly and clearly enough that you can “hear” the words in your imagination.
<Rainsong> Basically, doing exactly what a speed-reading course would tell you not to. 🙂
<Rainsong> It takes some practice, to make the imaginary voice neice and clear.
<Rainsong> The practice is worth it, though, if you have any interest in telepathy
<Rainsong> It can be practiced without a partner, and yet improves your Sending skill.
* Rowan nods.
<thais> interesting.
<Rainsong> Anything you can read, recite, or sing will do: news, textbook, blogs, poetry, song lyrics, comics, covers of magazines and tabloids in line at the grocery store, pamphlets in line at the bank or post office, and so on
<Rainsong> Any questions or comments at this point?
<Caendaer> Nope
<Rowan> It sounds like it’s also overall good for just developing more focus. (Which is something I know I need to work on. :D)
<Rainsong> It is indeed good for focus. You’ll find that most exercises along these lines are good for focus.
<Rainsong> The song lyrics may be “sung”, rather than recited, of course.
<Caendaer> I’ve been doing it for music as I walk down the street due to lack of mp3 player at the moment.
<Rainsong> If you want a bit more of a challenge, “sing” a duet with yourself: sing or hum one part in your head and the other part aloud. Start with easy things such as “Row Row Row your Boat” in a round, because it is much more difficult than it sounds.
<Rainsong> Caendaer: good plan
<Rowan> Rainsong: I am definitely going to try the singing along with myself bit.
<Rowan> And yeah. I need to work on focus badly. It helps me avoid times I lose it entirely and then break things or get overwhelmed.
<Rowan> The more I work on focus, the more it lasts and the more I keep calm in situations that I’m not necessarily working on focus, and then the better I am at not getting overwhelmed by little things.
<Rainsong> Carrying a tune deliberately in your head, even without the second part can be harder than it seems like it should be, but it’s excellent practice in concentration, subvocalization, and visualization
<Rainsong> *nods* Having a good handle on “focus” certainly can make a huge difference
<Rainsong> (If you are ambitious, try singing a duet while accompanying yourself with a guitar, harp, piano, or the like…)
<Rowan> Focus has been (no pun intended) my primary focus for quite a while now. What I’ve accomplished has helped, but I still haven’t really gotten to where I know I need to be in terms of it.
<Rainsong> Fair enough….there are lots of ways to work on it.
<Rainsong> Such as our next bit: colouring.
<Rainsong> Yes, with crayons and a colouring book such as are sold for use by small children….or print-offs of line drawings from the Internet
<Rowan> 😀
<Rowan> I recently got a thomas the tank engine colouring book that has lots of detail in it.
<Rowan> and markers that go with it. 😀
<Rainsong> Ideally, take a look at the picture first, then close your eyes and picture the image as clearly as you can…
<Rainsong> Next stage: imagine it coloured.
<Rainsong> _Then_ actually colour it.
* Rowan nods.
<Rainsong> Colouring by itself is also good for calming the mind
<Rainsong> Simiar in some respects to both of the already-mentioned activities, vivid imagination of movie or book scenes is useful….both for visualization purposes, in as many senses as you can manage, and for pulling up “faked” emotions…
<Rainsong> …useful for Sending empathic data, and for adding oomph to other Sending
<Rainsong> Questions so far?
<Rowan> None from me.
<Caendaer> Nope
<Rainsong> For Empathic Sending purposes, it is useful to have a set of “Favourite Emotional Scenes” from books and movies on hand, to be able to pull up an appropriate one at any time
<Rainsong> Keep the emotion separate from your real state of mind, most of the time. It works just as well for Sending purposes, and doesn’t require so much switching around, for example when playing Sending games at the Guild
<Rainsong> By contrast, if you are using faked emotions for biofeedback purposes, you actually want to feel them
<Rainsong> Questions? Commentary?
<Caendaer> Don’t think so.
<Rainsong> In the “Slightly more ambitious” category…
<Rainsong> (but only slightly)
<Rainsong> Go back to your colouring book page, and after visualizing it a bit, imagine drawing and colouring it on the wall or other flat surface….“see” it as clearly as you can, while “drawing”
<Rainsong> Even add a bit of oomph to the activity
<Rainsong> With some practice, this can become a game for more than one person: one person makes an imaginary drawing on an agreed surface, and the other player/s describe what they see
* Rowan nodnods.
<Jael> Sounds fun
<Caendaer> Cool.
<Rainsong> Can also put these imaginary drawings (of, say, gargoyles and undead) on your house Shields at Halloween, for cheap and cheerful decoration….
<Rowan> Hee.
<Rainsong> Questions and Commentary? (If not, we’ll be calling it a night)
<Rowan> No questions. Thank you. These are all really neat. 🙂
<Rainsong> 🙂
<Caendaer> Don’t think so, good stuff ^_^
<Jael> I don’t have any that I’m remembering now
<Jael> thanks 🙂
<Rainsong> Thanks for participating, all
<Rainsong> Remember, next week is a discussion of a paper:
<Rowan> Jael: You have the advantage of being able to ask if you remember later, though. 😛
<Rainsong> http://www.scientificexploration.org/journal/jse_17_2_mousseau.pdf
<Caendaer> That makes Jael a cheater 😀
<Jael> heh… true, though now with the decent forums, you can too 🙂
<Rowan> Just a little bit. 😛 True.
<Rainsong> If you have specific topics you’d like covered (or if you have questions when I’m not online), tuck them into the forum. 🙂
<Rowan> 😀
<Rainsong> Thanks, everyone. Have a great evening.
<Rowan> You too. 🙂
<Caendaer> Thanks Rainsong ^_^
<Jael> you too