i received a long awaited letter from an old friend martin von donaldson in berlin, he was writing to tell me he had heard 'adventures' and really liked it but that the songs were to long.
i concur although at the time it seemed reasonable.
it was good to read his letter, hand written from another time. old martin does not even have an e mail address so it's hard to keep in contact. i occasionally write to him but rarely do i hear back.

on a sad note vale loius' father.
i never met him but can tell loius has a lot of respect for his dad.
it's awkward to know how to respond to some ones death, so many things to consider. i want to empathize with the loss but also share enthusiasm for the transition. either way if i say to much i would offend some one. plus i don't really know how to deal with the fact my father will die at some point in time. it's an awful thing that no one is really prepared for yet it's natural. all i know is death is not the end.

bruce hoods book continues to stimulate and he describes death in this wonderfully scientific way describing it as a continuous stage of life as energy converts but all the way through never acknowledging the idea that there is purpose to this law of physics.
later in the book he describes the way the tibetan monks choose the next dali lama, letting the child choose items that the old dali lama treasured, he describes an experiment where children are asked about a cardigan worn by a well loved and respected tv personality who was an all round good guy, however i think the experiment would have been more conclusive if they had been asked to choose between fred wests cardigan and this saintly tv figure. this would show if children are able to 'feel' the energy from the good or evil cardigan. they would have to be authentic though, although i guess as a control one could use fakes. either way i'm still impressed by the book although a bit confused by what exactly the super-sense is. to me consciousness is a collection of sensory and super sensory input, instinct and intuition are all part of the same thing. information that we process using our minds and brains. sure some people use belief indiscriminately to the point of stupidity. but that's the difference between a meme and a spiritual connection. the meme demands expansion, the spiritual idea is quite content to just be.