Perception - Interpretation

I've always been fascinated with how an individual perceives (takes in) information and then interprets the info (or data before it is converted into information really).

 Here is a joke once used by Dr. Greg Bahnsen that kinda illustrates this quite well (I think)

It's about a man who believed he was dead. His friends figured he'd have to be psychotic to believe that he was dead when he was so obviously alive. So they brought him to a psychologist.

The psychologist asked this man if he thought dead men bled. The man said "no."

So the psychologist jabbed the man with a needle when he wasn't looking. The man saw blood oozing out of his skin.

The psychologist said, "See? You're bleeding." The man looked at his skin and turned white, and said, "Oh my, dead men do bleed!"

 I guess we see what we want to see, right? How a person interprets one thing may not be how others see it.  So if we don't communicate what we understand or thinks of the world or a situation - others cannot confirm if they also see the same.  This can lead to huge misunderstandings ...

A joke

Late at night this guy runs into a pub and demands a glass of water from the landlord. The guy drinks it in one gulp then asks for a second glass. Six pints later, and he has recovered enough to speak. "Thanks," he croaks. "That's one hell of a thirst you've got," says the landlord.

The guy says: "Any man would be as bad if they'd just had sex with the woman in my car. She's insatiable. She wants me to go right back out there and do it all again, but I can't." "Where's your car?" the landlord asks. "At the roadside," the guy gasps.

"Tell you what," says the landlord, "you watch the bar for me while I nip out and take your place." "Be my guest," the guy says. So the landlord goes outside and gets in the car. It's totally dark, so the woman doesn't realize she's with a different man. And they get right down to it, humping away.

Five minutes later there's a knock on the window. It's a cop, and he shines his flashlight on the naked couple. "What's going on here?" he asks. "It's all right, officer," explains the landlord, "She's my wife." The officer replies apologetically, "Oh, sorry sir, I didn't realize."
Looking at the woman, the landlord says, "Neither did I till you switched on that damned light."

a short one

Next dream ..
This is a short one .. and it involves an accident. I was on my way home driving towards my home .. and I was changing lanes .. and as I moved to my right into the middle lane (or second lane to turn right at the coming traffic light ahead) – I noticed in my rear view mirror a car coming up at speed .. so I step up my speed and as I look ahead I noticed the car infront slowed down considerably .. so to avoid hitting it, i swerve back to the left .. and think wow i am really lucky there is no car coming on my left or the left lane or I would have been hit.

But just as that moment I notice the car losing control and it starts to spin .. for a moment I think the car is going to flip and roll. But it doesn’t. In a surreal manner it just turns / spins very slowly and starts to move to the extreme left. All this while the location – the road and everything is familiar .. and I know exactly where it is .. but now .. as with most dreams .. i seem to have been transported to some other place .. and as my car moves to the left turning round and round .. i see a truck coming towards me .. and I think it might hit me .. so I reach out to press the hazard light in hope the truck will spot me and do what he can to avoid hitting me. The car comes to a stop .. the truck doesn’t hit me .. and I wake up ..

What do they all mean ... ???

Another strange dream

These are from last night (or early this morning). Can't recall all the minor details .. but I wanna just record down some things perhaps in point form in case I wish to return to this point at a later date to examine/re-examine them. So anyway .... the dream:

I was living in some house in something like a farm area .. I don't know why since the house does not resemble any I have ever been in (and I have been in a lot of houses/apartments etc). But at any rate ... I am starting off here sort of in the middle of the dream already cos I can't remember all the lead up to it (even when I woke up from the dream to write all these down).

So at this point in the dream .. I was in a house in some estate (this is a Western estate as opposed to a Malaysian "rubber" estate type if you guys are trying to visualize this). At this point - I have in my mind (in the dream) an image of some evil creature we need to eliminate. It is kinda small .. troll like .. something you would have seen in a movie or something - but I am not very good at describing it right this moment .. except that it is small, troll-like, with sharp ears .. and I think even sharp teeth .. yaya something like the green goblin I suppose. Ok anyway .. this creature has two helpers I guess .. and he has possessed them or somehow controls them .. they are humans. But they function along with the goblin to kill anyone who expresses any indication of aggression or anger.

So in the dream I remember thinking to myself .. they are mighty dangerous to be set loose on our soil as many people would die (hmmm but now to think of it - maybe that wont be so bad, huh? we can set them loose in the some legislative assembly somewhere so they can eliminate those ignorant pigs and dogs who are always vulgar and rude and agressive - woops .. I digress. I wonder if I could end up in jail for sedition or something. Who knows in this age and time in our country). (Oh my gosh .. I just realized - they would have killed me for those words I just expressed above since they are so laced with anger, resentment blah blah blah). Anyway .. ok ok I'll get back to the story ....

Well in the dream because I had considered them dangerous .. we had somehow captured them and had them locked up. I don't know who the "we" are .. or how we captured them .. just that we did. And now .. they have escaped.

I am like in the back of the house .. and I know they have broken out of the house (presumably they were locked up in the back) and now I had to block the door where they exited. Since they busted the lock, all I could do was to find objects to block that path.

Then I recall my eldest brother going to his room - which strangely was here in the back part of the house. Anyway, I thot that would not be safe so I suggested to him that since we can't really lock up the back part now that the back door is busted that he might want to consider moving to the upstairs of our house instead. He agreed with no fuss .. and started to move towards the inner part of the house. And then I wondered "hmm .. he is moving so slow and may have difficulty getting to the upstairs. We are all in danger if he takes too long cos no telling if the goblin and his gang will be back anytime soon."

The scene now changes to the outside of the house .. it is evening time and we just had a recent downpour (this incidentally matches the real condition in my area recently as we have been having rain for the past days). So here I am .. walking around the outside of the house. And this is where I can tell we live in some farm or estate because you can see a large wide piece of land .. with a house .. and fences and a barn nearby etc .. you know, just like you would see ... mmm maybe like in Smallville? oh well anyway .. I noticed that our poles holding up the wires/rope to put out clothes to be dried has fallen down. I am not sure if this was the work of the goblin as he made his escape or as a result of the rain .. but anyway .. the poles are down and the laundry on the ground.

I move over to pick up the laundry .. and we have two dogs around .. tho now I can only remember how one of them looks like. And as I move towards the laundry on the ground .. this one dog, a big brown, shaggy dog - which was asleep - leaps up and comes toward me. I shout at it "whoa!" and he immediately stops. He recognizes me .. and now trotters over to me. I thot to myself .. "wow, this is a good dog. He will attack enemies and protect us."

I bend over to pick up the laundry .. I remember them now to be a brown towel, and a bed sheet. I pick them up and move back towards the house. At this point one of the dog runs off towards the barn .. and the brown dog follows me. He seems to wanna play and is tugging at the sheet. I am thinking while this is a nice dog .. he is kinda smelly at the moment because of his hair and the dampness in the air due to the rain-storm. So I am trying to usher him away .. but he refuses and follows me anyway .. into the house. I thought to myself again .. I need to get the dog out of the house before I close up and seal the exit. So I drop the laundry inside and lead the door back out of the house .. thinking I will take him to the other dog and hope to distract him while I run back into the house.

So he follows me. I round the corner of the house looking out for the other dog .. but do not see him. But Brown dog gets distracted for a moment (with what I don't recall) and I think to myself .. this is the time for me to make a break. So I run off .. round the corner again .. and I bump into this old couple. Now in the dream I know them to be my grandparents .. but of course they do not look like my real-life grandparents. Well, I never knew either of my grand fathers since they were both gone when I was born. But I did know my paternal grand mother, and this is not her. Nor is she my maternal grandmother whom I have only seen in photos.

I stop to chat with the old couple. Grandpa says to me .. "he is a good watch dog. He might be useful to you to have in the house." Grandma, on the other hand says "when you serve the host (she means the "eucharist") later on ., be sure to put some on the table (i.e., the altar). I asked her why, and she answers "because the goblin (of course she didn't refer to him as a goblin .. it's just the name I am using now) is afraid of it." She goes on to to explain to me that the goblin likes to lie on the table and although I can't see him, he is there. So putting a host on the table will drive him away. And I think to myself "I must remember this .. to put a piece of the eucharist on the altar later .. apparently i was going to be attending some camping trip where I will be presenting the hosts to participants. I think this is a reference to my university days when I was in the US.

Then I move back towards the house (how terrible - I didn't even think to ask the old folks to get in or worry about them. Oh well.) I get back in and just as I closed the door .. old faithful Brown dog is back at the door trying to get in. I bolt the door and he is pawing at it to get in. It is a glass door so I can see him and he can see me.

My mom was at that part of the back cos it looks like there is a stove right next to this back door where I am at now. She sees me struggling with the door and I ask her if I should let the dog in .. but she is thinking about it .. and good old Brown is still trying to push his way in .. and I am afraid the door is going to give .. and since there is no answer from my mom .. and I think this is taking too long .. i decided to open the door and let old Brown in.

And the dream ends there .. I wake up .. grab my notebook and scribble all these down.

Creating Ripples

I wanna start this entry with an event that occured last Friday.  Actually it started on Wed or Thurs of that week when I was watching the Breakfast Show. Yeah these days I have the luxury of watching the Breakfast Show on TV7. Anyway, this particular morning one of the guest on the show was Anne Jones (Datin) - author of several books (The Ripple Effect, Heal Yourself .. to name just a few). Something about what she talked about (i.e., inner healing, healing energies etc.) attracted my attention. And when I saw the list of titles (of her books) shown on TV, I was particularly drawn to the book "The Ripple Effect."  During the Breakfast Show, I learnt that Anne would be giving a brief talk (and doing book signing) at the Curve.  So I decided then that I would really like to go attend this - and surely learn something at the event. And so I did .. went there .. witnessed the event .. briefly chatted with AJ .. and then spent the evening with friends.

When I went there, I know I was drawn to the book "The Ripples Effect."  I wanted to check it out to see if it would be something I wanted to buy. But when I was looking at several of the books authored by AJ, one other book seemed to call out to me even more at that point.  When I picked it up, it turned out to be the only one book in the pile of different titled books which was already signed.  This book is entitled "The Soul Connection."  So naturally I had to get this as well.  Well - this will be a story for another day. For now - I just wanted to make a comment about the Ripple Effect.

Took me days to get started on either of these books.  It was a "I'll start with this one"  and a "Maybe I should start with this other one" and so on .. at any rate, I finally started on TRE (altho I had been carrying the other book with me the past few days.

Although I have only covered the Foreword, Acknowledgment, and the Intro - my mind was already drawn to a possible Ripple Effect. That's what prompted me to write.  In the Intro, Anne described how her earlier work during a workshop in Malaysia led to a workbook she apparently prepared and provided participants in that workshop finding its way back to her (awareness) in England much much later when she met a person there.  She goes on to speak about how a simple smile at someone may help that person feel better .. and how having felt better that person (perhaps without even knowing it) could pass on his/her joy to yet another person to yet another person and so forth.

Just prior to reading these in this book, I had written something (I had read earlier) on my Facebook shoutout. The statement was:

Laugh your heart out - Dance in the rain - Cherish the moment - Ignore the pain - Live, Laugh, and Love. Forgive & Forget (let go). Life is too short to be living in regrets.

This led to a response from Nick, a friend of mine, who wrote:

Syl, i got a bad roster next month, going to Delhi on X'mas. :"( But... i feel great again after seeing your status. thanks.

Interestingly enough - just a little bit earlier I noticed that friend log on (MSN) and also post a message on FB. I thot to myself  "I wonder how he is doing? Hope he is well."  And lo and behold .. just moments later I get a response from my shoutout from Nick. How wonderful - our energies seem to connect so magically on their own.  And as I read the Intro in AJ's book - I thought .. perhaps this too is one of the Ripples . that will continue to be passed on from Nick to his friends and they to their friends and so on.

So - there you go. We never know where the ripples from our actions will lead. Let's make a conscious effort to pass on happiness and any good that we can offer .. that our actions may go on to be of service to someone - who perhaps may even be way across the other side of the globe. (Nick is stationed in HK altho I am not sure where he is right at this moment since he is attached to an airline and is always on the move). You never know .. the ripple may even come back to you when you most need it. :)