More 370 year old wisdom

More 370 year old wisdom

Here are some more quotes from 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom':

1. Do not explain too much

Most people do not esteem what they understand and venerate what
they do not see. To be valued thing should cost dear; what is not
understood becomes overrated. You have to appear wiser and more
prudent than is than is required by the people you are dealing with
if you want to give a high opinion of yourself. Yet in this there
should be moderation an no excess. And though with sensible people
common sense holds its own, with most people a little elaboration
is necessary. Give them no time for criticizing - occupy them with
discerning your meaning. Many praise a thing without being able to
tell why, if asked.

2. The wise do at once what the fool does later

Both do the same thing - the only difference lies in the time they
do it: the one at the right time, the other at the wrong. Who
starts out with his mind topsy-turvy will so continue till the end.
He catches by the foot what he ought to knock on the head, he turns
right into left, and in all his acts is immature. There is only one
way to turn him in the right direction, and that is to force him to
do what he might have done of his own accord. The wise man, on the
other hand, sees at once what must be done sooner or later, so he
does it willingly and gains honor thereby.

3. Make use of the novelty of your position.

For people are valued while they are new. Novelty pleases all
because it is uncommon, taste is refreshed, and a brand new
mediocrity is thought more of than accustomed excellence. Ability
wears away by use and becomes old. However, know that the glory of
novelty is short-lived. After four days respect is gone.
Accordingly, learn to utilize the first fruits of appreciation, and
seize during the rapid passage of applause all that can be put to
use. For once the heat of novelty is over, the passion cools and
the appreciation of novelty is exchanged for distaste at the
customary. Believe that everything has a season, which soon passes.

4. In every occupation, if you know little, stick to the safe path.

If you are not respected as subtle, you will be regarded as sure.
On the other hand, someone well trained can plunge in and act as he
pleases. To know little and yet seek danger is no different than to
seek ruin. Follow the right hand, for what has gone before can be
followed after. Let those with little knowledge keep to the king's
highway, and in every case, knowing or unknowing, security is
shrewder than uniqueness.

5. Do not respond to those who contradict you.

You have to distinguish whether the contradiction comes from
cunning or from vulgarity. It is not always obstinacy, but may be
artfulness. Notice this, for in the first case one may get into
difficulties, in the other into danger. Caution is never more
needed than against spies. There is no such countercheck to the
picklock of the mind as to leave the key of caution in the inside
lock of the door.

6. Nothing depreciates a person more than to show he is just like
anyone else.

The day he is seen to be all too human he ceases to be thought
divine. Frivolity is the exact opposite of reputation. And as the
reserved are held to be more than men, so the frivolous are held to
be less. No failing causes such failure of respect. For frivolity
is the exact opposite of solid seriousness. A person of levity
cannot be a person of weight even when he is old, and age should
oblige him to be prudent. Although this blemish is so common it is
none the less despised.

The history of magic and the mind

The history of magic and the mind

Magic is undoubtedly an ancient art. The earliest reported magic trick (the ‘cup and balls’ trick) is almost 5,000 years old (2,700 BC) by Dedi in ancient Egypt. The same trick was performed over 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome.

The cup and ball trick has been used for centuries since by street hustlers to con people out of money. In fact, throughout time magic has often been used to trick people into believing that the magician held some other kind of ‘power’, such as great gambling skill, the ability to make mechanical objects that are ‘alive’, or the possession of almost miraculous skills at lock-picking, psychic abilities or psychological ‘mind-reading’.

Another example of an ancient magic trick is the ‘Indian rope trick’. This trick has been reported to be performed in India for hundreds of years. The trick is performed outside. The magician throws a rope up into the air. The rope surprising stays standing up, reaching up into the air. The Magician’s boy assistant then climbs up the rope and apparently disappears into thin air at the top. The magician then climbs up the rope and also disappears. The audience hear them argue, then the limbs of the boy all fall down to the ground. The magician comes back down, places the boy’s limbs into a basket, and the live boy climbs back out.

Recent researchers have claimed that the whole story may be a myth. But others have claimed it was a genuine trick, and have explained it by the idea that the magician hypnotised all the audience at once, and performed the trick at dusk, with the low sun in the eyes, near a tree with low-hanging branches, which could have held the top of the rope up.

A lot of ancient magic came out of tricks used to cheat people at gambling. Playing cards have long been used in magic tricks. Although their exact origin is a mystery, it’s widely believed that playing cards were invented in China, where they may have originally been a form of money. They would have been both the tools of gambling and the prize to be won. They then arrived in Europe, via Egypt, around the late 13^th Century. The four suits of this pack were different to the ones we have today, they were polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. The modern design originated in France in 1480.

During the sixteenth Century onwards, magic techniques began to be used to trick people into believing that amazing mechanical beings had been created. The most famous of these was the Mechanical Chess playing Turk. This was a ‘clockwork’ life-sized figure dressed in Eastern costume seated at a very large box with a chess board and pieces on top of it. When it was first publicly displayed in 1770, in the imperial court of Vienna, people were shocked and amazed. The ‘clockwork’ man could move his arms and play chess against a Human opponent. So well, in fact, that he could play it to world-class standards. The mechanical Turk was taken all over the world and played before large audiences, it even played against Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. Of course, the Turk was really an elaborate trick, a real man was cleverly hidden inside the box, and controlled the mechanical arms.

It was, however, only in the 19^th Century that magic really took off. The inventor of the magic stage show, in the modern sense, was a French clockmaker called Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (1805-1871), who opened a theatre in which he would display mechanical animals he had created that appeared to be alive. A similar magic theatre, called the ‘Egyptian Hall’ was opened in London soon afterwards. Then came possibly the best known magician of all time, the escapologist Harry Houdini (1874-1926). Whilst Houdini had a range of genuine skills, such as lock-picking, that helped his performances, they were undoubtedly also employing magic techniques for their effects.

The best modern example of the use of magic tricks to fool the public into believing that the performer has some amazing skill is mentalism. Mentalism is the branch of magic in which the performer appears to have mind-reading skills. Sometimes, however, they act like they are not a magician but are genuine mind-readers, using advanced psychological, or even psychic techniques. There are some genuine psychological techniques that can be used to apparently read what a person is thinking of, or to subtlety make them choose one particular option from a list and then pretend that you can read their mind and guess which they picked. However, mentalists often embellish these techniques with props and tricks from traditional magic in order to appear more mentally skilled than they really are.

Of course, you could argue that by hiding the ‘magic’ nature of such performances, greater levels of wonder and amazement are provoked in the audience, and hence more fun is had. Yet I believe even if a performer takes that route, they should eventually ‘come clean’ and reveal to the audience if not exactly how the trick was done, but that at least it was a trick. Whilst we should admire the ingenuity and skill of magicians who put on honestly described performances, I believe we should remain alert to those who claim additional powers when in fact they are just using the traditional effects of trickery.

Links:

Free e-book: “The Miracle Mongers, an Exposé by Harry Houdini”: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/435

Article on the mechanical turk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_Turk

370 year old self-improvement advice

370 year old self-improvement advice

Balthasar Gracian (1601-1658) was a Spanish Jesuit who wrote a book of 300 maxims in 1637 called ‘The Art of Worldly Wisdom’. The book was quickly translated from Spanish into eight other languages and eventually became an international hit.

Here are nine of them.

Know your strongest quality

Know your pre-eminent gift – cultivate it and it will assist the rest. Everyone would have excelled in something if he had known his strong point. Notice in what quality you surpass and take charge of that. In some people judgement excels, in others valor. Most do violence to their natural aptitude and thus attain superiority in nothing. Time enlightens us too late of what was first only a flattering of the passions.

Do not always be joking

Wisdom is shown in serious matters, and is more appreciated than mere wit. He that is always ready for jests is never ready for serious things. Jokers resemble liars in that people never believe either, always expecting a lie in one, a joke in the other. One never knows when you speak with judgement, which is the same as if you had none. A continual jest soon loses all zest. Many get the reputation for being witty but thereby lose the credit of being sensible. Jest has its little hour, seriousness should have all the rest.

Renew your brilliance

This is the privilege of the phoenix. Ability grows old, and with it fame. The staleness of custom weakens admiration, and a mediocrity that is new often eclipses the highest excellence grown old. Try therefore to be born again in valor, in genius, in fortune in everything. Display startling novelty – rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that your loss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins you applause in the new.

Double your resources

You thereby double your life. One must not depend on one thing or trust to only one resource, however pre-eminent. Everything should be kept double, especially the causes of success, of favour, or of esteem. The moon’s mutability transcends everything and gives a limit to all existence, especially of things dependent on human will – the most brittle of all things. To guard against this inconstancy should be the sage’s care, and for this the chief rule of life is to keep a double store of good and useful qualities. Thus as nature gives us in duplicate the most important of our limbs and those most exposed to risk, so art should deal with the qualities on which we depend for success.

Plan out your life wisely

Not as chance will have it, but with prudence and foresight. Without amusements it is wearisome, like a long journey where there are no inns – manifold knowledge gives manifold pleasure. The first day’s journey of a noble life should be passed in conversing with the dead: we live to know and to know ourselves, hence true books make us truly human. The second day should be spent with the living, seeing and noticing all the good in the world. Everything is not to be found in a single country. The Universal Father has divided his gifts and at times has given the richest dowry to the ugliest. The third day is entirely for oneself. The greatest happiness is to be a philosopher.

Never let things be seen half finished

They can only be enjoyed when complete. All beginnings are misshapen, and this deformity sticks in the imagination. The recollection of having seen a thing imperfect disturbs our enjoyment of it when completed. To swallow something great at one gulp may disturb the judgement of the separate parts, but satisfies the taste. Before a thing is manifest, it is nothing, and while it is in process of being it is still nothing. To see the tastiest dishes prepared arouses disgust rather than appetite. Let each great master take care not to let his work be seen in its embryonic stages – they might take this lesson from Mother Nature, who never brings the child to the light until it is fit to be seen.

Never begin life with what should end it

Many take their amusement at the beginning, putting off anxiety to the end; but the essential should come first and accessories afterwards if there is room. Others wish to triumph before they have fought. Others again begin with learning things of little consequence and leave studies that would bring them dame and gain to the end of life. Another is just about to make his fortune when he disappears from the scene. Method is essential for knowledge and life.

Set difficult tasks for those under you

Many have proved themselves able at once when they had to deal with a difficulty, just as fear of drowning makes a person into a swimmer. In this way, many have discovered their own courage, knowledge, or tact, which but for the opportunity would have been forever buried beneath their lack of initiative. Dangerous situations are the occasions to create a name for oneself, and if a noble mind sees honor at stake, he will do the work of thousands.

Never contend with someone who has nothing to lose

By doing so you enter into an unequal conflict. The other enters without anxiety – having lost everything, including shame, he has no further loss to fear. He therefore resorts to all kinds of insolence. One should never expose a valuable reputation to so terrible a risk, least of all what has cost years to gain and may be lost in a moment – a single slight may wipe out much sweat. A person of honor and responsibility has a reputation, because he has much to lose. He balances his own and the other’s reputation. He only enters into the contest with the greatest caution, and then goes to work with such circumspection that he gives prudence the opportunity to retire in time and bring his reputation under cover. For even by victory he cannot gain what he has lost by exposing himself to the chances of loss.

For more lost arts of the mind, please read my book: http://www.LostArtsOfTheMind.com/book.htm

The PaKua

This is a PaKua, a sort of ancient 'compass' device used in Feng Shui to work out the correct way to place things based on an individual's birth details.



For more information, check out: 26 Feng Shui secrets

Scientists report unusual experiences

Interesting website in which scientists can post details of 'transcendent' experiences that they have had:

http://www.issc-taste.org/main/introduction.shtml

The Phaistos Disc

The Phaistos Disc

Interesting article on the enigmatic Phaistos Disc

http://www.philipcoppens.com/phaistos.html

Ancient Pyramids in Europe?

Ancient Pyramids in Europe
Bosnian Town Hopes to Cash in on Claims It Hosts Europe's Only Ancient Pyramid

By AIDA CERKEZ-ROBINSON

VISOKO, Bosnia-Herzegovina Apr 11, 2006 (AP)— Restaurants serving meals in triangle-shaped plates. Artisans crafting wooden key-chains in the shape of pyramids. Shopkeepers hawking T-shirts saying "I have a pyramid in my backyard."

Pyramid-mania has taken hold of this small Bosnian town as residents seek to cash in on claims by an archaeologist that it may host Europe's only ancient pyramid.

"Our expectation are high. This could be our oil well," Vehab Halilovic, who has started carving pyramids on wooden souvenirs like flutes and pipes.

No pyramids are known in Europe, and there are no records of any ancient civilization on the continent ever attempting to build one.

However, Bosnian archaeologist Semir Osmanagic who has spent the last 15 years studying the pyramids of Latin America claimed last year that there is evidence of one here in his Balkan homeland and conducted some research on the site.

He plans to carry out new excavations this week on a hill overlooking Visoko that may definitively prove or disprove his theory. Osmanagic says the hill has four perfectly shaped slopes pointing toward the cardinal points, a flat top and an entrance complex.

Under layers of dirt, Osmanagic found a paved entrance plateau, underground tunnels and stone blocks.

Osmanagic believes the hill was shaped by the Illyrian people, who inhabited the Balkan peninsula long before Slavic tribes conquered it around A.D. 600. Little is known about the Illyrians, but Osmanagic thinks they were more sophisticated than many experts have suggested.

Halilovic, who has been making wooden souvenirs for 30 years, says his last big windfall came during the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo when he sold souvenirs with Olympic motifs.

After the 1992-95 Bosnian war, he started making souvenirs for NATO peacekeepers. As Bosnia stabilized, the number of soldiers decreased and Halilovic's market shrank.

Then came the pyramid theory.

"We are people who adapt fast," he said, after testing a few tones on a new flute.

Another resident, Esef Fatic opened a souvenir shop two weeks ago and sells pyramids made of clay and wood and slippers displaying a pyramid.

"We already have buyers. Business is better since this pyramid story started. If scientists really confirm our hill is a pyramid, this place will become alive. People will come from all over the world," he said.

One local hotel called Hollywood has changed its name to Motel Bosnian Sun Pyramid.

Its Web site boasts: "While enjoying your meal in our restaurant placed on the 6th floor, you have the opportunity to also enjoy a magnificent view of the Sun Pyramid. You too can be part of the mystery and the miracle occurring in our area."

Satellite images show two more pyramid-shaped hills with 45-degree angled slopes, indicating three possible pyramids around Visoko which were quickly named the pyramids of the Sun, Moon and Dragon.

The possibility that the hills are not ancient pyramids is not even considered in Visoko.

"The question whether there is a pyramid or not is not being asked," Senad Hodovic, director of the local museum. "People here believe there is one, are excited about it."

(Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1832548 )

The Ascent of Mind

'The Ascent of Mind' by William Calvin is now available for free online:

http://williamcalvin.com/bk5/bk5.htm

Wealthy Mozart?

Mozart had a few extra pennies tucked away...

Vienna - For centuries, historians have portrayed Mozart as a poor man, but new documents suggest that the composer wasn't nearly as hard-up for cash as many believed.

Scholars who combed through Austrian archives for an exhibition on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's later years in Vienna found evidence that he was solidly upper-crust and lived the good life.

Although letters show that Mozart repeatedly borrowed money from friends to pay for his travels and his social obligations, and that his family was forced to move at least 11 times, documents on display at Vienna's prestigious Musikverein museum reveal that he earned about 10 000 florins a year - roughly $4 000 in today's terms.

That would have placed him in the top five percent of wage-earners in late 18th-century Vienna, say experts, who were unable to prove lingering suspicions that gambling debts took a big bite out of Mozart's earnings.

The exhibition, which runs until June 30, is part of a year of special events in Austria celebrating the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth in Salzburg on January 27, 1756.

Mozart lived in Vienna from 1784-87, at the height of his brief but prolific music career. Among the works he composed in the Austrian capital was The Marriage of Figaro. - Sapa-AP