Paris In The Autumn Light

Paris in the fall of 1971 in typical Paris lighting... that lighting that captured the imagination of the impressionists' artists in various seasons. It was always the lighting in and around Paris that excited their imagination. This was the path leading away from the Louvre headed toward Place de la Concorde. Picture was taken on a trip with a friend when we stayed on the Left Bank in a tiny little hotel with a lovely courtyard housing the only shower in the hotel. We walked everywhere and spent days on end at the Louvre, eating the most wonderful omelets, and sitting in the sidewalk cafes, watching all of Paris go by.

A Sunny, Summer Afternoon

On a sunny, summer afternoon in 1952, probably a Sunday, family
members and neighbors had dropped by to spend some time catching up

on the latest family and neighborhood happenings. It is possible that some
of the family had come from a good distance and everyone had gathered to visit.

Television was still very new in 1952 and was not available on the weekends

and folks' lives had not yet become filled with the influence of TV on the

imagination. It was a time when spending time was more than just hanging

out. In the words of our cousin, Shawn, "It was a time to be."

A Country Place

These pictures taken of my grandparents' farm in the Fall of 2006 show the wonderful Fall colors that were a part of growing up, as I remember them as a child in Tennessee. The house and pond are much like they were many years ago; the house being somewhat the worse from the wear for its having been a rental property for many years. It is now being restored. The main feature of the house is its stone chimney, the stones probably collected from the creek and branches nearby and hand chisled by an unknown artisan. As a child I mowed this lawn with a push mower, together, with the help of my brother, he on one side of the handles and I on the other.

THE PLASMA UNIVERSE THEORY continued...

Inquiry into the Plasma Universe Theory on internet sites has produced
some interesting reading. From my early years I have never ceased to be
especially interested in art and science, and most always the interest
in science has been tuned in some way toward new theories and discoveries
in physics, expecially, in the 1960s when I became interested in quantum
physics. Might have become a scientist, except I was always hard put to
know in which was of the most interest - science or art - so became neither
scientist nor artist. All aptitude and interest testing to which I was ever
subjected positioned me both equally in the 95 percentile. Even more than
25 years later in newer testing environments, the tests revealed the same
95 percentile range. In a different world I might have been able to have
found a way to combine the two into some singular accomplishment. For
me that world awaits, still.

A summary of the theory found at: The Electric Sky
http://tinyurl.com/2hpdbm

"A complete summary of all the aspects of the Electric Cosmos
is too extensive to fit into a single web page. In fact, this entire
web site, with all its pages, is only a cursory introduction to the
vast implications of these ideas. Therefore, this summary page
can only list a few of the points that should be remembered by
anyone who is trying to learn about the view of the Universe that
is emerging.

The entire cosmos is permeated with plasma. In some regions
(within a galaxy, within a solar system) the plasma is denser than
it is in others. In some cases the plasma is visible, in some, not.
But everywhere our spacecraft have gone - they have found it.

The electrical properties of plasma vastly outweigh its mechanical
(gravitational) properties.

There is nothing mysterious about magnetic fields. They do
not "get tangled up", "break", "merge", or "reconnect". They require
electric currents in order to exist.

The relative distances between even the most densely packed stars
are vast in comparison to the stars' diameters.

The homopolar motor - generator shape seems to be ubiquitous.
Stars, pulsars, and galaxies are organized in this morphology.

The z-pinch effect that occurs in Birkeland currents
(electrical currents that flow through plasmas) is responsible for the
accretion of stars, planets, and galaxies.

It is highly likely that the solar system started out as a collinear
array of "Herbig - Haro" type objects formed by a z-pinch."

WELL, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?

The Plasma Universe Theory .....sounds interesting....
Hannes Alfven (1908 - 1995) explains:
"...if there was no Big Bang, how -and when- did the universe begin?
"There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely,
for an infinite time," Alfvén explained. "It is only myth that attempts to
say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years
ago. "Since religion intrinsically rejects empirical methods, there should never
be any attempt to reconcile scientific theories with religion he said. An infinitely
old universe, always evolving, may not, he admitted, be compatible with the
Book of Genesis. However, religions such as Buddhism get along without having
any explicit creation mythology and are in no way contradicted by a universe
without a beginning or end. Creatio ex nihilo, even as religious doctrine, only
dates to around AD 200" he noted. The key is not to confuse myth and empirical
results, or religion and science."
Alfvén admitted that his plasma universe theory may take a long time to penetrate
the popular consciousness. "After all," he asserted to a group of physicists,

"most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe."
The group, at first incredulous, quickly nods in agreement as Alfvén continueed,
"every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at
all on astronomy."
Anthony L. Peratt, 'Dean of the Plasma Dissidents', The World and I, May 1988, pp. 190-197.


snip

"The elements are eternal..." Doctrine and Covenants 93:33

"There is no such thing as immaterial matter...." D and C 131:7-8

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.." Genesis 1:1
To create means to organize materials to develop order and give form, to make, to build, to rearrange….

Thus the true translation of Genesis 1:1 is: "In the beginning God organized the heaven and the earth..."
"intelligence or the light of truth was not created or made, neither,
indeed can be..." D and C 93:29
"truth has no end.." D and C 88:66
"...Endless is God's name.." D and C 19:10, Moses 1:3
"The glory of God is intelligence..." D and C 93:36
"...all spirit is matter, but....more fine or pure and can only be discerned
by purer eyes. We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall
see that all is matter."   D and C131:8
"all things were created first spiritual, second temporal..the Lord's works have not
end and neither beginning.." D and C 29:32-33
"...this life is the time to prepare for endless state after....." Alma 12:24

TRAVEL TIMES



This collage of snapshots is the whole and sole efforts of
pictures of me taken in the heyday of 1968 - 1977 travel times.
Yellow was my favorite color in those days.

Pictures 1, 2   deplaning in Mexico City.
Pictures 3,4   dinner at the Villa Fontana in Mexico City
Pictures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9   in Athens
Picture 10   enroute to Tiberias in background on Lake Gennereth
Picture 11   Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem...new meaning of footstool
Picture 12   just before departure for Vienna at Christmas 1969.
Picture 13   Caesarea at the Roman Aquaduct
Pictures 14, 15    Acre, the Arab Old Sector
Pictures 16   Ayelet Hahashar kibbutz in Northern Israel
Pictures 17   on Mt. Carmel overlooking Haifa
Picture 18   Upper Galilee with Hula Valley in background
Picture 19   Jerusalem, Old City
Pictures 20, 21 Tel Aviv from Joppa
Picture 22    at Shavei Zion on northern Israel coast.
Picture 23, 24    Acre  by sea
Pictures 25   Capernaum ruins of 2nd century synagogue
Pictures 26   Kfar Blum kibbutz northern Israel near Lebanese border
Picture 27   with Liz at JFK before departure for London and Beirut 1972
Picture 28, 29 ruins of ancient Byblos a Jebusite city, north of Beirut.
Picture 30   At a dinner in Beirut escorted by Lebanon's Minister of Finance.
Picture 31   Helsinki February 1977
Picture 32   Moscow with Kremlin in the background
Picture 34   Catherine Palace gate with double headed eagle at Pushkin
Picture 35   Pushkin just outside of Leningrad

KARL POPPER
Karl Popper exerted profound influence upon the thought of modern
science and the various philosophical questions posed by
scientific intrusion into a world heretofore not prepared for the
questions that challenged the most profound beliefs of inquiry into
the origins of things.

"Sir Karl Raimund Popper rose... to become one of the most influential
theorists and leading philosophers and commanded international audiences
and conversation with him was....a myriad of philosophical problems.
His intense desire to tear away at the veneer of falsity in pursuit of the truth
lead him to contribute to a field of thought encompassing (among others)
political theory, quantum mechanics, logic, scientific method and
evolutionary theory. Popper challenged some of the ruling orthodoxies
of philosophy: logical positivism, Marxism, determinism and linguistic
philosophy. He argued that there are no subject matters but only problems
and our desire to solve them. He said hat scientific theories
cannot be verified but only tentatively refuted, and that the best
philosophy is about profound problems, not word meanings...
Through his ideas Popper promoted a critical ethos, a world in
which the give and take of debate is highly esteemed
in the precept that we are all infinitely ignorant, that we differ only in
the little bits of knowledge that we do have, and that with some
co-operative effort we may get nearer to the truth.

"Popper regarded his solutions to the problems of induction and the demarcation
of science from pseudo- science as his greatest contributions.... Popper's work
is important not just to those who agree with his new bold solutions, but to
everyone who recognizes the importance of the problems that Popper discovered,
analysed and reformulated in a way that allows a solution. ...

"To take just three examples, the problems of verisimilitude, of probability
(a life-long love of his), and of the relationship between the mind and body
will never look the same now that Popper has made important progress in charting
the intricate structure of these problems and in offering at least partial solutions.
Yet there are books on the mind/body problem, for instance, that simply do not
mention Popper's work (for more on this attempted "refutation by neglect", seethe introductory reading list....)"


Thus, only in the asking of right questions can solutions to
a problem be found.

LIFE'S MEANING

John A. Widtsoe
Press of Zion's Printing and Publishing Company, Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, USA

MAN: A PRODUCT OF PURPOSE
Why am I here? Is the inward cry of every thinking person. Without a sufficient reply, life remains empty and desolate. Along with that question are two of equal value. Whence did I come? Where shall I go? If these three questions are answered satisfactorily, intelligent direction is given to all human actions. Intelligent people require an objective to make life worth while. Our advancing knowledge declares that intelligence and purpose are found in the whole of the universe; therefore, there must be a purpose in man's appearance on earth. What is that purpose?

MAN IS ETERNAL
Life's meaning can best be unraveled by searching man's inmost nature. In that pursuit, the most fundamental discovery is the eternal existence of man -- that man lived before he came upon earth. In that pre-existent life he thought, acted and progressed, even as, in a different degree and under a different environment, he does upon earth. "Man was in the beginning with God;" and that beginning reaches into the measureless past, beyond human comprehension. This is not a new doctrine, but one beyond human comprehension. This is not a new doctrine, but one that has been forgotten in the centuries of man-made religions.

EVIDENCES OF PRE-EXISTENCE
Every person has the feeling that he has lived in a life before this. At times the memory of that life seems very near. This universal feeling cannot be laid aside as idle imagination.

Poets of many lands, have written, with clear vision, of the pre-existent life, its beauty and joy. Philosophers, among them great ones, like Plato, have convinced themselves by processes of reason, that man had a pre-existent life. Scientists who have proved the universe to be eternal, indestructible and everlasting, have refused to deny man, the head of creation, the quality of eternal existence to make him inferior to things solely material, such as wood and stone. Prophets, inspired by the Lord, have proclaimed the pre-existence of man, as in the cry of Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?"Modern revelation teaches definitely that man had a pre-existent life. The pre-existence of man is an assured fact.

THE PLAN OF SALVATION
In the pre-existent, spiritual estate, all mankind were begotten spirit children of the Lord. We were a vast spiritual family. Thus comes the true Fatherhood of the Lord. Fatherlike, our Creator in that long-past day provided for our welfare. His plan for the development or education of His spirit children is the plan of salvation, known as the Gospel. As we increased in power and understanding we approached, that is we earned, the right of another profitable experience, another school - the earth experience, an earth-school. The plan provided that the eternal spirits, having gained the experience of the spirit world and spiritual conditions, might, if they so desired, be clothed upon with mortal bodies and taught the lessons furnished by earthly or material conditions. Then, provided with the learning and power of this twofold experience, they would return to the spirit world to continue there the progressive labors of eternity. The plan of salvation is a plan of education of eternal spirits for everlasting, eternally progressive life.

The plan of salvation involves three estates of man: First, of the pre-existent spirit world; second, of the earth, and third, of life hereafter - the three representing ascending, increasing periods of eternal progressive existence. The plan of salvation is intended for the whole family of spirits, not for a few of them. Its purpose will not be completed until the whole human family has yielded obedience to the plan, on earth or in the hereafter. Therefore, every man must help his brother. To assist weak man in this work and to make possible the eternal association of the spirit with the earth-won body, Jesus, the first begotten of the Father, was appointed as Leader, Director and Savior of mankind.

FREE AGENCY AND PROGRESSION
The plan of human salvation was formulated by the Lord, but it is not compulsory upon eternal man. Salvation here or hereafter is not forced upon man. In every person inheres the right of free agency, the right to accept or reject whatever is offered, to act for oneself in all matters. This quality is sacred before the Lord. Taught we may be, by Divinity itself, but we must upon our own volition, accept or reject that which is given us.

The plan of salvation provides for the progression, the unending education and increasing happiness, of eternal man. Nothing in the universe stands still. There was no standing still in the pre-existent state, there can be none in the life to come. Every man, by the exercise of his free agency progresses towards more abundant life, or retrogrades towards darkness and death. The plan of salvation provides the way by which man may help himself, through obedience to eternal law, to win the power and joy of eternal life.

THE BUSINESS OF EARTH
Man comes upon earth because he has earned the right to be born and has accepted the plan of salvation. He comes as to a school, to become acquainted with the material world and to learn how to master it. He comes in forgetfulness of his pre-existent joys and subject to the rough forces of the material world, including death, the temporary separation of body and spirit. Every honest task of this earth, in the kitchen, shop, farm or office, every toil and struggle, contributes to the earthly education of man and has a spiritual equivalent.

Man is so placed on earth that his free agency, the tempering, upbuilding power within him, may have the fullest exercise for expression.

Man is not left alone on earth. The Lord from the beginning has taught him such eternal principles of life as are needed. These are known in their entirety as the Gospel. They were taught to the first man; they have been taught again to others as men have departed from them or adulterated them. The earth program is under constant divine supervision.

It is not intended that man on earth should suffer because of bodily needs. "Man is that he might have joy." The earth with its fulness is ample to supply all of humanity's needs. It is expected that he will use his powers to provide against his spiritual and bodily requirements. The Gospel, in its fulness, teaches how this may be done. Poverty and riches are not necessary to please the Lord. Properly directed efforts for happiness in the physical, economic, social or spiritual realms of life develop man and give him the most valuable results of earth life. Man is placed on earth to win true and complete happiness.

LIFE HEREAFTER
Man is deathless. Birth is not his beginning and death is not his end. He passes from earth into the world of spirit; he recovers his body, purified and eternally useful, through the resurrection made possible by Jesus Christ, the key figure of the plan of salvation; and he continues eternally, actively, in the work of progression in knowledge, power and wisdom. He retains his power of thought, learning and action, of faith, repentance, obedience and free agency. Family relationships continue in that new world. Father, mother, children and friends maintain their devotions to each other. Over all is the presence of the Eternal Father. It is an active, progressing estate.

GRADED SALVATION
Salvation is the reward or gift to the free agent who has used his will in harmony with the code of divine requirements for eternal progress. But all men do not use their wills for righteousness to the same degree. Then, will everyone be saved alike? No, that would be neither logical nor just. Each person will receive a degree of salvation proportioned to his righteous work. "In my Father's house are many mansions." No one, unless it be the impossible few, will fail of salvation. All will receive some degree of salvation, and the great punishment of those who have done evil will be that they have failed to achieve all that was within their possibilities. Yet, the mercy of God, which magnifies our small righteous endeavors into glorious rewards, will not forget the meanest sinner. Man can think, act, reject and accept, repent and seek forgiveness on that other side as here. He can make up for his failures, since his natural power of free agency remains undisturbed throughout all time. Hence the door of progression is not closed against him throughout the eternities. Nevertheless, by his misdeeds he travels onward in the rear when he might have been near the head of the army of the Lord. None of us in that great coming day shall be fully happy unless all are moving towards the greatest possible joy, that is, have accepted the laws of the Lord.

THE MEANING OF LIFE
Thus, in terms of eternal progressive existence, the meaning of life is explained.
Life on earth, a chapter of our eternal progression, is given us for a two-fold purpose:

1. To prepare us for further progression and development.
2. To enable us to assist our fellow men to secure the same needed preparation.

For these purposes we strive to conquer the forces of earth, our unseemly appetites and every progress-retarding temptation. For these purposes we cherish love and beauty and all the virtues. For these purposes we meet the trials of life gladly and give glory to the Lord. Those who understand life's meaning strive boldly, happily, for progress, knowing full well that the experiences of earth will be transmuted into precious eternal realities.

THE REVELATION OF THESE DAYS
This larger conception of the origin, destiny and meaning of human life, known since the beginning of time, was lost during the centuries of man's departure from the true doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were restored again, by revelation, in this day through the Prophet Joseph Smith, who became the organizer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This later day life-philosophy is marvelous in its comprehensiveness and completeness, in its power to satisfy the righteous desires of man. Will you investigate it?

John A. Widtsoe
Centennial Series No. 7