right temporal lobers.com

i have recently begun reading a book about the physiology of spirituality. the book is fascinating.
it turns out that the right temporal lobe is the part of our brain which controls spiritual feelings. if a person prays or is having a spiritual phenomenon that is the part of the brain which becomes active. conversely, if this part of the brain is activated one will have a spiritual experience. it can be as mild as a pleasant feeling or as remarkable as leaving one's body, seeing seeing spiritual beings, conversing with god, or some sort of higher being, and seeing people who have died.
this could be a blow to spiritual phenomenon. making it appear it is merely an interesting side effect of our physical make-up, however, i think this need not necessarily be the case.
if spiritual phenomenon is true, it makes sense a person may need to have a part of their brain which is able to process the information, and now we have found it.
perhaps when this part of the brain is activated it allows a person to experience genuine parts of reality that are other wise hidden from our view.
it is now known there are aspects of reality we are not able to experience with our sense, such as electromagnetic waves outside of the visible spectrum, sounds that are of a pitch too high or too low for us to comprehend. and things much more exotic, like dark matter.
so it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to assume there is much that could be around us our sense cannot detect and has yet to be detected by machines.
perhaps when certain parts of our brain are activated it allows our senses to experience these things otherwise unavailable to us.
if this is so, it also has implication for certain drugs and mental illness.
those who have experienced hallucinogenic drugs (which i LOVE and think are so AWESOME!) knows that profound, even life changing spiritual experiences can happen. amazing things are felt and seen. could it be possible that these are actual elements of reality that the drugs are opening up the mind to experience? shamans and native people who consider certain drugs sacred would probably think so.
the same could be said of certain mental illness. a person's chemicals become unbalanced and it allows them to experience parts of reality in ways they do not normally. but often unpleasantly, uncontrolled.

if anyone is interested. i update more often in diaryland.

sevenflowers.diaryland.com
i have been trying to post mirror postings here and in blogger but don't always keep up with it.
also, don't forget to check out my flickr account which i update regularly, that is, if you are interested in flickr accounts.

flickrchrisalmond.bam.BAM!

story

about five minutes ago i hear a big pick up truck pulling up outside.
my cabin property is down a very long driveway, maybe about a football feilds length. i never hear anyone drive down it except my landlord so i stepped outside to see what was up.
some guy gets out of the truck. he is middle aged. has his shirt unbuttoned. seems like the sort of guy you would see in a commercial or tv show watching football and drinking a beer.
he walks up to me in a kind of matter of fact way that made me scared. like he was going to punch me in the face. i was going to step back in my cabin but decided not to, since my sense of reason told me it was very very unlikely a stranger would drive up to my cabin and punch me in the face.

he introduced himself as living on the property next door.
next door is a weird place. there is a small canyon between the two properties where a stream runs into the sound. the canyon is maybe... thirty feet deep, with very gradual walls one could easily walk down.
that property has always been a mystery. there are several trailers and a big tent. like a circus size tent, but in army green. sometimes there music is so loud it sounds as if it is in my cabin. they listen to things from phish to pearl jam to classic rock.

he tells me his name. he seems kind of drunk.
he says he and peter my landlord used to be friends, but are not anymore, but it does not affect him and i.
he points to a shovel in the ground about ten feet away from my cabin and says that is the property line.

he points to a tree by the shovel and says 'see that tree? i could go take a shit on that tree if i wanted to.'
i laugh and say 'okay'
he says 'but i won't. i am a regular guy' (but i think you can judge for yourself that he is not)
i say: have there been any problems? is everything okay?
he says 'yeah, everything is fine. i just wanted to see who peter is living with. if you ever have any problems with me, just come over and tell me.'
me: 'okay. so nothing is wrong?'
him: no, just come to meet the new neighbor. you can come visit anytime.

then he starts to walk away and says: peter (my landlord) should be raped in prison.
he is about thirty feet away now so i shout 'WHY?!'
he then picks something up off peter's porch. i could tell what, but it was maybe a sprinkler and smashes it on a rock'
again i shout, 'WHY SHOULD HE BE RAPED?!'
he just says 'and i have a lot of friends in prison'
then gets in his truck and drives off.
all in all a pretty funny situation.
and my landlord seems to be becoming a worse and worse person the more i hear about him, although he has always been very nice to me.