Plato And Psychology

[Candid]

Why do I do it?

Because it's annoying being unable to pin down any half-remembered song, or conversation, or whatever.

It's odd but I have a passion for exploring past memories.

Me too. In my declining years I'm (very slowly) writing my autobiography, one chapter per address, of which I've had more than 60, plus travel diaries. I want names of people I've worked with, who my neighbours were, friends and foes, highlights and disasters.

I'm probably on my last address now. What a depressing thought.

Old TV ads, programs and so on.

I look for those half-remembered things, too. They can trigger avalanches of memories.

On the subject of memories, I have a Toby Jug that dates as far back as I can remember. It used to give a tinny rendition of a tune I thought was Brahms' Lullaby, but has since rusted over. I found the Brahms piece on line and it isn't what I recall...
I don't know how to go about identifying a piece of music I can't play to someone!

[Candid]

You are also stuck, along with Candid, in not paying attention to the very real "stuff" happening, even though my many, many, many times of pointing it out happened RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

Quietvoice, I'm fully aware of what's going on around me and around the world. You're making assumptions about two people you don't know. You're also sounding a tad hysterical, as if you want Fulgurator and me to rush into the streets screaming "WAKE UP!" to all and sundry.

I see no point banging on about it on a moribund forum. What purpose does it serve to tell two strangers online that the sky's falling in?

I come here for light relief. H and I are doing what we can for the people we care about. We have no offspring to fear for as the net tightens and, well... they can only kill us once.

Maybe find another topic to post about? Even the tedious dietary stuff would be better than hurling insults here.

[Fulgurator]

Yes, we really ought to be giving psychology a chance. I was on an Asperger's forum once and the last gasps of life on the site consisted of squabbles, political rants and very weird people. One of them seemed to me to be as creepy as potentially dangerous. Something out of Silence Of The Lambs. That forum just died.
Apart from that I've been facing very tough issues lately. No job, very isolated and sometimes very disconnected.

[Candid]

I've been facing very tough issues lately. No job, very isolated and sometimes very disconnected.

Disconnected from what?
I'm truly sorry to hear you're Going Through Something.

[Fulgurator]

Yes, it has been very heavy going for some time. Lots of awareness about myself and circumstances that started to clear up. Being a misfit in a normal family and being expected to fit into a normal school gradually leads to PTSD symptoms. I think in the past I had little self awareness and just blotted lots of things out. It's very much a Carrie White scenario which is why that film made a big impression on me.

[Fulgurator]

I'm OK but it's been a rocky ride.

[Candid]

I'm OK but it's been a rocky ride.

So why've you gone quiet?

[Fulgurator]

Not quiet but exploring hypnosis. Here's something. Very weird. Two songs ran through my mind during hypnosis. (1) Can't Smile Without You, Barry Manilow. (2) Last Christmas, George Michael. They are the same song. I googled both songs the following day and it turned out Barry Manilow had gone to court over this issue that his song had been stolen. The judge threw out the case. This is how the subconscious can influence musicians. George Michael just wrote the song, unaware of how his subconscious had stored the Manilow track at some point. Try playing back Last Christmas on youtube and then hum Can't Smile Without You.
Why I get these weird revelations, I don't know.

[Fulgurator]

I'm also having a struggle to read sections of the Apuleius witchcraft trial in Latin. He's now discussing Astral projection but the use of language would be hard even for a seasoned academic. It's in a hard style to interpret. It was through Apuleius I discovered Zalmoxis, whose followers claimed he was resurrected, centuries before Jesus did the same.

[Fulgurator]

"Zalmoxis (Greek Ζάλμοξις, also known as Salmoxis, Σάλμοξις, Zamolxis, Ζάμολξις, or Samolxis Σάμολξις) * was a semi-mythical social and religious reformer, regarded as the only true God by the Thracian Dacians (also known in the Greek records as Getae Γέται). According to Herodotus (IV. 95 sq.), the Getae, who believed in the immortality of the soul, looked upon death merely as going to Zalmoxis, as they knew the way to become immortals."