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POPS"How Grimoires Work"
continues Indeed, they seem so ridiculous that they encourage scorn concerning the whole subject. Is this ridicule valid? i don't think it is.: Perhaps we should look beyond the words and instructions, and see what is really going on in such instruction. And the first point to be raised is the 'leap of faith'. This is an absolute knowing that a belief system is true. It ignores reason, and takes the believer to a oneness with whatever system is being believed in. And often, to ignore the rationality that says it is wrong requires you to accept what to others would be gibberish. Hence, the ridiculousness of it all has rationality. : And this attitude continues into the spells themselves. For in order to carry out such irrational instructions, your beliefs have to be strengthened with every utterance or action. Hence, the very 'stupidity' of it all enhances your confidence that a result can be achieved. Spells are also related to normal life. Most people, when they get up in a mornin
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POPSAncient Egyptian Electricity continues: Another key element for the electro-thesis is actually something that is missing. It's a riddle where schoolbook science is capitulating. Soot. In none of the many thousands of subterranean tombs and pyramid shafts was found a single trace of soot, as we are told by the authors of the electro-thesis, although many of these tombs are full of often colourful paintings. But the primitive light sources the Egyptians knew (candles, oil lamps etc.) are always leaving soot and are using oxygen. So how DID the Egyptians get their light? Some rationalists are arguing with mirrors, but the quality of the copper plates the Egyptians used as mirrors were not good enough for that.
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POPSTeaser Sorry! The article is too long to fairly grab 1000 bytes that do it justice. You'll need to read the whole thing (if you're so inclined). I found it to be entertaining and informative.
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POPSMirrors Don’t Lie.. : -) “When people are made to be self-aware, they are likelier to stop and think about what they are doing,” Dr. Bodenhausen said. “A byproduct of that awareness may be a shift away from acting on autopilot toward more desirable ways of behaving.” Physical self-reflection, in other words, encourages philosophical self-reflection, a crash course in the Socratic notion that you cannot know or appreciate others until you know yourself. "
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POPSAboriginal tattoos reflect art, culture The study and comparison between different art forms, has helped find clues as to the social nature of particular tribes, such as whether they were hunter-gatherers or horticulturalists, and degrees to which tribes interacted, and traded.
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POPSArtifacts and Human History Yet many other unearthed "out-of-place artifacts" create obvious contradictions to the conservative picture of antiquity. They don't fit the established pattern of prehistory, pointing back instead to the existence of advanced civilizations before any of the known ancient cultures came into being.
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POPSThe Press Photographer's Year 2008: Guardian winners Sean Smith winning the multimedia category to add to his successes in the British Press and Royal Television Society journalism awards. Smith's winning entry consisted of stills and video from his time spent with US troops in Baghdad last year. The Press Photographer’s Year, organised in association with the British Press Photographers' Association, is a competition for photographers working around the world