Wow, this site, & particularly this thread, highlights just how far the average city type has come from reality. I wonder if any of them know what is in that packet/tin, they buy at the supermarket?

How I'd love to see a one month survival course at age 21 be a right of passage for all people. Something like the survival course the army put some through at Port Clinton, on the Queensland coast.

So many today could not survive, particularly with their philosophy, if there was not an entire civilisation to support them, & protect them, mostly from themselves.

Just a month on the beach with a rifle, axe, knife & a fishing line would see so many grow up, or die.

Should overcome the population bomb, & the housing crisis, all in one.

Of course that would mean our governments would ultimately run by resourceful practical people. What a change that would be.

It would be a pity to find a bare cupboard in academia, but still a great improvement.

What would the world be like if higher education consisted of real people, teaching real skills, of real use in the world? Yes I know, but even old hasbeens are allowed to dream sometimes.

Hasbeen,

“I wonder if any of them know what is in that packet/tin, they buy at the supermarket?”

Presumably you mean the packet/tin and labelling in supermarkets produced by book learnin’.

The thing about the labels is it can be established what is in the container. That way, people who are discerning with what they eat can choose the product that suits them.

But you are correct in that not everyone does that. More’s the pity.

If the time arrives where we are all on the beach with our book learnin’ produced fishing line, gun and axe, then we will have to adapt. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

And, good luck with your dreams. :)

David

What a complete mystery life must be to you, Yuyutsu. So many claims, so little time to choose.

>>Some of those who claim to know about soul-transmigration acknowledge that... Also, I heard the claim that... Incidentally, the Jewish approach is that...<<

A fair log of claims, that.

It is comforting that you cannot bring yourself to share these particular insights, though

>>Please do not hold me on any of those claims...<<

But surely, this must cause you to wonder, just a little?

>>I have no conscious pre-human memories to either support or refute them<<

Do you suppose that such a lack of awareness is common amongst those recycled souls?

If so, you have to ask yourself what is the point of such a re-appearance - without a memory, what would your re-souled bunch of carrots make of their lot in life?

But if souls do normally have such memories, yours is clearly not of the pre-loved variety, and must be fresh-minted, brand spanking new...

Which raises many further questions, such as how many "new souls" are constructed each day? who produces them and decides how many of each variety there should be? But, most important of all, how was the decision arrived at that Yuyutsu's shiny new soul should find residence in a human being, as opposed to, say, a stalk of broccoli?

I must go, I'm afraid, I have to profoundly apologize to a small, inoffensive leek, whose soul is about to do the whole go-round thing again. No wonder I heard it sigh when I cut its head off.

"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was, 'Oh no, not again'. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now." Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Dear Pericles,

<<Do you suppose that such a lack of awareness is common amongst those recycled souls?>>

Thank God that's the case. We've got enough to do even without worrying about such things.

<<If so, you have to ask yourself what is the point of such a re-appearance - without a memory, what would your re-souled bunch of carrots make of their lot in life?>>

No, I don't HAVE to ask myself anything.

Besides, this question is meaningless: a carrot has no life, it's you and I who live as humans, carrots or whatever.

<<Which raises many further questions,>>

I must admit that I was fascinated by those questions when I was still young and foolish. What a waste of time!

Wonderful, Pericles, but surely we are not meant to burden ourselves with such profound questions as who or what might ensure, for example, that a Muslim soul would not erroneously be recycled into a Christian, Hindu, Hebrew or other faith environment? Or indeed, for shame, into a non-faith environment? (Then again, who's to say some 'mixing it up' might not actually be on the agenda?)

Of course a carrot, broccoli, leek or banana could not be accused of belonging to any particular 'faith' category? No, surely fruit and veg (and meat, milk, insects, etc) would be meant to be free of any imbued or imbedded contamination - lest perchance to induce any subconscious discomfort or ill-ease to any innocent consumer (who would of course have no way of knowing the particular 'inner' leanings of their intended food choice).

It is possible that soul recycling would be precisely along union lines - Christian to this queue, Muslim to that one, and so on down the line. But, naturally, with population increase in various categories, the supply of recyclables would inevitably get stretched from time to time, necessitating the incubation of 'virgin' souls - and the 'registry' of new doctrine categories would be kept pretty busy arranging necessary patents.

Also unfortunately, these days in particular, some recycle bins would be overflowing, with nowhere to go - with even, heaven forbid, some poor souls ending up in 'lost luggage', or, worse still, having to be exiled to the 'badlands', poor devils.

A kaleidoscope of souls - miraculous; only the human mind (and the Creator of course) may be capable of anything as exotic, don't you reckon?

A thought: sterilized, homogenized 'recycling'? Could save a lot of bother? (One for the suggestion box?) But then, variety is the 'spice', is it not? (Life is indeed not meant to be 'easy' - unfortunately.)

To quote the Man in Shack, Saltpetre, "I have no opinion. How can I have?"

But...

"A kaleidoscope of souls - miraculous; only the human mind (and the Creator of course) may be capable of anything as exotic, don't you reckon?" Is an interesting, if not profound, line of thought. Not so much a soupçon of souls as a soup?

Are soulled carrots the key to happiness?

I'm yet to be convinced.