> Hi,
>
> "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org> inquires about:
> > The problem for sciencists, such as yourself, seems to be
> > to come up with valid explaination for /why/ things which
> > can be explained in more plausible ways are forever interpreted
> > in a mystical manner by human beings.
>
> I read somewhere, a while back, about a pagan sort of experience. The
> author claimed that one a regualar basis, he would have experiences that he
> *describes* as being possessed by the Gods. A friend of his, a pych.
> major, explained to him how his sub-conscious was behaving and causing him
> to feel this. He responded, I think *brilliantly*, with something like the
> following: (I think it's important to note that people around him can *see*
> the change in him when possessed -- and it's always benefitial)
>
> You have described my experience. Correctly, even. So while you
> understand it, I'm betting that you can't DO IT. The reason that I
> intrepret my experiences with the Gods my way, is that it HELPS ME to
> control it.
>
> (man, I can't say it nearly as well as he did!)
>
> Anyway, the point is that while the language of science can explain or
> describe, it can't be USED by the person involved. It simply lacks the
> "evokative" power of a mythology.
>
> ERiC
>
I recognize the quotation from
http://earthspace.net/~esr/writings/dancing.html
which I *highly* recommend to anyone who didn't read it the first time
someone pointed to it on this list.
--Eva,
who is suddenly engaged to be married this September