Category Archives: INSIDE THE BOOK

Inside the book, Vermeer: Portraits of A Lifetime. Analysis of all the paintings of Johannes Vermeer. The book reveals for the first time that the women featured in the paintings of Johannes Vermeer were members of his own family, his daughters, his wife and mother-in-law, Maria Thins.

SHE FELL FROM A STAR

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“SHE FELL FROM A STAR

                “Come out, come out, wherever you are and meet the young lady who fell from a star … “–Glinda sings to the Munchkins in ‘The Wizard of Oz’

                False information, less diplomatically stated, could be called lies. Sometimes lies are unintentional. Sometimes lies are intentional. Regardless, false is false, and we need to inspect all the information we receive to ensure that it is not false.

               One way to know if information is false is to determine whether the information helps us achieve a workable solution or does it lead toward continued mystery.

               Such scrutiny may seem obvious, but few people critically examine information they receive. Whether the information has to do with the meaning of life or how to bake a better chocolate chip cookie, it is wise to put the information to the test before using it to develop any theories or before taking action based upon it.

  
             Logically, before we go skipping down the Yellow Brick Road into the unknown, a few simple precautions might prove useful.

               Precaution 1: Does the information contain actual statistics or documented evidence or is it just a broad, sweeping generalized statement?

               The morning newspaper headlines have propagandized a recent political effort to take guns away from the citizens with broad, general statements like: “Street gangs are sweeping the country! The youth of America are all killing each other with illegal handguns!”

               Of course, no violent deaths are acceptable. But, when was the last time you personally observed a street gang shoot-out? Check out the facts: In 1990 there were 971 black youths and 942 white youths under the age of 18 who were victims of homicide in the United States. Hardly an epidemic compared to a total of 9,923 total people killed with handguns in the same year.

               By contrast, 12,400 people were killed by accidental falls. So, why don’t the newspapers have headlines about “The Terrible Tragedy of Gravity”?

               More than 28,642 people committed suicide in 1990 and 69,225 died of pneumonia or flu. Cigarette smoking was a major killer with 78,380 deaths from emphysema. Meanwhile, in a real, honest-to-god-epidemic, 476,927 people died of cancer! How much effort is being made by the propaganda machines of big government to prevent smoking which is one of the principle causes of cancer?

               False information is also spread simply by failing to include all of the correct information or including too much information.

               Precaution 2: Does the information help your survival? Is it destructive? Is it just plain upsetting?

               Asking the news media to report “the truth” is like asking a fly crawling on a cow pie for an accurate description of the cow. The kind of information we receive from the morning news on television or in newspapers or ‘Time’ magazine is, factually, very often highly spin-doctored, altered and misinterpreted. The so-called “news” is nothing more than a very tiny slice of the most shocking, disastrous, upsetting, tragic, gruesome, inhumane events which these sources painstakingly cut from the relatively large and lovely pie of life. This “news” is gathered from isolated sources, at great expense and selectively edited using the most sensationally colored prose imaginable. Yet the mainstream media news neglect to report the fact that billions of people and billions of other life forms on this planet are enjoying happy lives–no thanks to them! 

               Does reading or hearing about every single psychopathic rape/murder/theft/mayhem/disaster that occurs anywhere on the entire planet really improve the quality of your life or happiness? Or is this information you can more happily live without?”

— Excerpt from THE OZ FACTORS, by Lawrence R. Spencer

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THE MORTALITY MECHANIC

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“Be wary, those who would be The Creators of a Universe, of the two primordial curses:

Power Unopposed and Intelligence Unapplied.

I am not The One.  I am not The Creator.

Yet, I am holy and sacrosanct.  I am more important and more powerful than The Gods.

               Why? You say that I am. 

I control your existence.

               Why? Because I promised you relief from eternal boredom, from the perpetual responsibility of  self-amusement.  Therefore, you follow my instruction without question.

               Why? Because you claim you cannot bear to endure Eternity as The One.

Give me your trust and praise. Submit yourself to pain, anguish, amnesia and mystery.            

               Why? Because you choose Not To Be.

Your stupidity is its own reward and punishment.  Your decadence ensures your slavery.  Mortality is the key to your prison.”

__________________________________________

from the “Salutation” of the forthcoming book by Lawrence R. Spencer, “The Mortality Mechanic”.  

Copyright © by Lawrence R. Spencer. 2012.  All Right Reserved.

WE’RE ALL MAD HERE

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WE'RE ALL MAD HERE

“As for myself, I believe that what is true for you is true for you, although no other person may agree upon your belief. Regardless, a truth for you, may not be true for others. Is that not a fundamentally sound assumption?”, I asked.

“I suppose you are right Mr. Holmes. It is difficult, if not impossible, to stay apace of your ability to remain logical in the face of a situation which is so absurdly enigmatic. You are proposing that the philosophical paradigm of reality should be considered of equal importance with fiction. How can you ever solve a criminal case, your occupation, if every piece of hard evidence could be a contrivance of imagination on the part of the investigator or of the criminal?”, said Mr. Dodgson.

“Quite the contrary”, I said. “But rather than keeping to my methods alone, let me ask you what meaning you attribute to the following passage in your book”, I said, turning to the page which described in the encounter between Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

“Let me read your own words to you.”

“…she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she

thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she

felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

Sherlock-Holmes-My-Life_cover300‘Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know

whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.

‘Come, it’s pleased so far,’ thought Alice, and she went on. ‘Would you

tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where–‘ said Alice.

‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.

‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long

enough.’

Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question.

‘What sort of people live about here?’

‘In THAT direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives

a Hatter: and in THAT direction,’ waving the other paw, ‘lives a March

Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.’

‘But I don’t want to go among mad people,’ Alice remarked.

‘Oh, you can’t help that,’ said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad.

You’re mad.’

‘How do you know I’m mad?’ said Alice.

‘You must be,’ said the Cat, ‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’

Alice didn’t think that proved it at all; however, she went on ‘And how

do you know that you’re mad?'”

“So, Mr. Dodgson, let me pose the same question to you that young Alice asked of the chimerical cat in your own story: how do you know whether you are mad or not mad? How would you satisfy yourself that I am not mad? How do we know that everyone is mad or not mad?”, I said, rising from my chair to place the manuscript upon the sideboard.

I refilled my pipe once again, in anticipation of the protracted debate that was sure to follow on the heels of these profoundly, absurd, yet existential queries and arguments.”

____________________

— Excerpt from the book SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE by Lawrence R. Spencer

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TECHNICAL POTENTIAL

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AMNESIASupport independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

“Can you imagine how much progress could have been made on Earth if people like Johannes Gutenberg [i] (Footnote), Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, [ii] (Footnote) Nicola Tesla, Jonas Salk, [iii] (Footnote) and Richard Trevithick, [iv] (Footnote) and many thousands of similar geniuses and inventors were living today?

 Image what technical accomplishments might have been developed if men like these never died? What if they were never given amnesia and made to forget everything they knew? What if they continued to learn and work forever?

 What level of technology and civilization could be attained if Immortal Spiritual Beings like these were allowed to continue to create — in the same place and at the same time — for billions or trillions of years?”  — Airl, Pilot-Officer-Engineer of  The Domain

[i] “…Johannes Gutenberg…”

 “Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. 1400 – February 3, 1468) was a German goldsmith and printer, who is credited with inventing movable type printing in Europe (c. 1439) and mechanical printing globally. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line bible, has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality.

Although Gutenberg was financially unsuccessful in his lifetime, the printing technologies spread quickly, and news and books began to travel across Europe much faster than before. It fed the growing Renaissance, and since it greatly facilitated scientific publishing, it was a major catalyst for the later scientific revolution. Gutenberg is thought to have said: “Give me 26 soldiers of lead and I shall conquer the world.”

Printing was also a factor in the Reformation: Martin Luther found that the 95 Theses, which he posted on the door of his church, were printed and circulated widely; subsequently he also issued broadsheets outlining his anti-indulgences position (ironically, indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed). The broadsheet evolved into newspapers and defined the mass media we know today.”

— Reference: Wikipedia.org

[ii] “…George Washington Carver…”  

 “George Washington Carver (July 12, 1864 – January 5, 1943) was an American botanical researcher and agronomy educator who worked in agricultural extension at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, teaching former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency.

George Washington Carver reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more uses for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. Among the listed items that he suggested to southern farmers to help them economically were adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder and wood stain. Three patents (one for cosmetics, and two for paints and stains) were issued to George Washington Carver in the years 1925 to 1927; however, they were not commercially successful in the end. Aside from these patents and some recipes for food, he left no formulas or procedures for making his products. He did not keep a laboratory notebook.

Carver’s most important accomplishments were in areas other than industrial products from peanuts, including agricultural extension education, improvement of racial relations, mentoring children, poetry, painting, religion, advocacy of sustainable agriculture and appreciation of plants and nature. He served as a valuable role model for African-Americans and an example of the importance of hard work, a positive attitude and a good education. His humility, humanitarianism, good nature, frugality and lack of economic materialism have also been widely admired.

One of his most important roles was that the fame of his achievements and many talents undermined the widespread stereotype of the time that the black race was intellectually inferior to the white race. In 1941, “Time” magazine dubbed him a “Black Leonardo”.

— Reference: Wikipedia.org

[iii] “…Jonas Salk…”

 “Jonas Edward Salk (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) was an American biologist and physician best known for the research and development of the first effective polio vaccine.

 While being interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on “See It Now” in 1955, Salk was asked: “Who owns the patent on this vaccine?” Surprised by the question’s assumption of the requirement of a profit-motive for his creation, he responded: “There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”

— Reference: Wikipedia.org

 [iv] “…Richard Trevithick…”

  Richard Trevithick (born April 13, 1771 in Cornwall – died April 22, 1833 in Kent) was an English inventor, mining engineer and builder of the first working railway steam locomotive.”

— Reference: Wikipedia.org

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. — Reference: Wikipedia.org  (Tesla is an Officer of The Domain also, according to these Top Secret interviews)