Comments on: THOMAS SULLIVAN: XANADU AND WALLS OF MIST http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/ Just another Storytellers Unplugged weblog Thu, 24 May 2012 04:59:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-364 Thomas Sullivan Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:44:53 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-364 Very close to "Eureka!" in the bath tub, Bri. Add Sullivan to the Archimedes-Hodge tradition. Showers are catharsis for me. Not sure whether that's the ex-swimmer or just baptismal purification. Even have my sound soother set for "waterfall," when I need to block out competing sounds. Maybe you've exposed something even more germinal. Water, white noise, snow -- all of these elements kind of clear the board for me. Like "tabula rasa" -- blank slate -- they wipe away what was and thus create a new one for new thoughts and ideas. A vacuum, if you will, to be filled. Thanks for that culminating revelation. -- Sully Very close to “Eureka!” in the bath tub, Bri. Add Sullivan to the Archimedes-Hodge tradition. Showers are catharsis for me. Not sure whether that’s the ex-swimmer or just baptismal purification. Even have my sound soother set for “waterfall,” when I need to block out competing sounds. Maybe you’ve exposed something even more germinal. Water, white noise, snow — all of these elements kind of clear the board for me. Like “tabula rasa” — blank slate — they wipe away what was and thus create a new one for new thoughts and ideas. A vacuum, if you will, to be filled. Thanks for that culminating revelation.

– Sully

]]> By: Brian Hodge http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-363 Brian Hodge Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:32:39 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-363 Another one for your growing canon, Sully. I did an installment several months ago on the subconscious, and making active demands on it — an ever-so-slightly more forceful variation on asking questions, I suppose — so this one was like mother’s milk to me. But there was one part of the alchemical stew that I realize I didn’t even consider: what you call giving it a vacuum. After a little pondering, I believe my most reliable vacuum has to be the shower. I like long showers. The sound of the exhaust fan is hypnotic and soothing to me, which must be why I insist on turning it on, because it doesn’t seem to do a damn thing about the steam. And another bolt from the blue found me there just 2 or 3 days ago. But it’s not just nature that abhors a vacuum. So does the age in which we live. It just pushes SO FREAKIN’ MUCH at us as ready-made caulking to fill it. You have me looking at me iPod in a whole new light today, I tells ya… Another one for your growing canon, Sully. I did an installment several months ago on the subconscious, and making active demands on it — an ever-so-slightly more forceful variation on asking questions, I suppose — so this one was like mother’s milk to me.

But there was one part of the alchemical stew that I realize I didn’t even consider: what you call giving it a vacuum.

After a little pondering, I believe my most reliable vacuum has to be the shower. I like long showers. The sound of the exhaust fan is hypnotic and soothing to me, which must be why I insist on turning it on, because it doesn’t seem to do a damn thing about the steam. And another bolt from the blue found me there just 2 or 3 days ago.

But it’s not just nature that abhors a vacuum. So does the age in which we live. It just pushes SO FREAKIN’ MUCH at us as ready-made caulking to fill it. You have me looking at me iPod in a whole new light today, I tells ya…

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-362 Thomas Sullivan Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:02:56 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-362 Shakespeare nailed it, yea verily. A prescribed life is sleep. Guess I could 'fess up to spending most my waking hours trying to make dreams reality. -- Sully Shakespeare nailed it, yea verily. A prescribed life is sleep. Guess I could ‘fess up to spending most my waking hours trying to make dreams reality.

– Sully

]]> By: Janet Berliner http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-361 Janet Berliner Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:11:11 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-361 'Tis said that when Shakespeare had Prospero say, " We are such stuff/As dreams are made on;/and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep" ("The Tempest"), he was thinking of life as the dream and death as real life. Mary Shelley dreamed of Frankenstein before creating him on paper. --Janet ‘Tis said that when Shakespeare had Prospero say, ” We are such stuff/As dreams are made on;/and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep” (“The Tempest”), he was thinking of life as the dream and death as real life.

Mary Shelley dreamed of Frankenstein before creating him on paper.

–Janet

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-360 Thomas Sullivan Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:56:35 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-360 I like the serial-parallel distinction you make, Anne. And the soul weighing in as advisor works for me too. Kind of the "what if" factor, only in my case I'm certain that it brings an emotional clarity that cuts past the practical considerations of life. In that sense, I dream what are "truths" to me. Truths about myself, about what is essential to me. I guess I have to add that I'm at base a romantic idealist, and so those truths reflect that priority. Ah, me, only in dreams... Wasn't that a Roy Orbison song? -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) I like the serial-parallel distinction you make, Anne. And the soul weighing in as advisor works for me too. Kind of the “what if” factor, only in my case I’m certain that it brings an emotional clarity that cuts past the practical considerations of life. In that sense, I dream what are “truths” to me. Truths about myself, about what is essential to me. I guess I have to add that I’m at base a romantic idealist, and so those truths reflect that priority. Ah, me, only in dreams…
Wasn’t that a Roy Orbison song?

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: Anne http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-359 Anne Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:47:26 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-359 Hi Sully: If I didn't believe that life is less coincidence and more about connecting to your awaken awareness, I'd say this is amazing I'm reading a thought provoking book about dreaming. Truth is that I picked it up because the title The History of Last Night's Dream by Rodger kamenetz, piqued at a long standing curiousity. My dreams have not only been colorful, but meaningful; and that is an understatement. I can't claim to dream the future - it is more like my dreams make me aware of simply pieces of information, such as, what I to do to make Word do the Mail Merge correctly. At other times, it magically puts the pieces together about one of my students to allow me to try and help them. Sometimes it helps me heal my psyche and understand directions or journeys. Not to leave out, some damn good ideas that have shown up. Mostly it is just the ideas arrive after sleep, other times the dreams stay in technicolor movies. My hunch is dreams have a plethora of answers that my finite mind can't seem to hold together except occasionally when I'm ready or willing. Perhaps dreaming can be likened to parallel programming that accesses an unconscious knowledge . For practical purposes we are programmed to serial programming which allows us to think in the present and have memories and dreams as connections to the past and future. However, that connection is limited for many reasons. The dream coupled with our imagination and desire to create or connect the fragments of truths turns on the parallel port. Hence, we get inspired. We spiral inward to look at what we already know if we could parallel think consciously. Believing that I am mind, body and soul. I suspect that the soul helps the mind and body to see what it is not usually tuned to. The soul probably leaves the beauty of inspiration - A touch of the Devine. Hi Sully:

If I didn’t believe that life is less coincidence and more about connecting to your awaken awareness, I’d say this is amazing I’m reading a thought provoking book about dreaming.

Truth is that I picked it up because the title The History of Last Night’s Dream by Rodger kamenetz, piqued at a long standing curiousity. My dreams have not only been colorful, but meaningful; and that is an understatement.

I can’t claim to dream the future – it is more like my dreams make me aware of simply pieces of information, such as, what I to do to make Word do the Mail Merge correctly. At other times, it magically puts the pieces together about one of my students to allow me to try and help them. Sometimes it helps me heal my psyche and understand directions or journeys. Not to leave out, some damn good ideas that have shown up. Mostly it is just the ideas arrive after sleep, other times the dreams stay in technicolor movies.

My hunch is dreams have a plethora of answers that my finite mind can’t seem to hold together except occasionally when I’m ready or willing.

Perhaps dreaming can be likened to parallel programming that accesses an unconscious knowledge . For practical purposes we are programmed to serial programming which allows us to think in the present and have memories and dreams as connections to the past and future. However, that connection is limited for many reasons. The dream coupled with our imagination and desire to create or connect the fragments of truths turns on the parallel port.

Hence, we get inspired. We spiral inward to look at what we already know if we could parallel think consciously. Believing that I am mind, body and soul. I suspect that the soul helps the mind and body to see what it is not usually tuned to. The soul probably leaves the beauty of inspiration – A touch of the Devine.

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-358 Thomas Sullivan Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:26:08 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-358 Thanks for that illuminating sidebar, Eric. You offer a new dimension of proof. I've never been able to draw a correlation between the amount of dreaming and any externals. But then, that may be because I seem always to dream. I'd always heard that you dream less as you grow older, but that hasn't been the case, as far as I can tell. -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) Thanks for that illuminating sidebar, Eric. You offer a new dimension of proof. I’ve never been able to draw a correlation between the amount of dreaming and any externals. But then, that may be because I seem always to dream. I’d always heard that you dream less as you grow older, but that hasn’t been the case, as far as I can tell.

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: Thomas Sullivan http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-357 Thomas Sullivan Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:22:38 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-357 Avian dream girls, indeed, Davey. Could write a whole other column on that part of my dream. Or still another topic: how one can know the bottom line of their own soul and their bedrock feelings through dreams. Somehow you seem to me to be a perfect candidate for exploring the dream-cretivity link. Take that as a compliment, please. Your waking visions are as fluid and ranging as the best of dreams. -- Sully (Thomas Sullivan) Avian dream girls, indeed, Davey. Could write a whole other column on that part of my dream. Or still another topic: how one can know the bottom line of their own soul and their bedrock feelings through dreams. Somehow you seem to me to be a perfect candidate for exploring the dream-cretivity link. Take that as a compliment, please. Your waking visions are as fluid and ranging as the best of dreams.

– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)

]]> By: eric wilson http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-356 eric wilson Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:14:44 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-356 When I haven't written for a while, I start dreaming more, as though my brain needs some creative outlet. My imagination demands release. Once I'm deep deep into the writing, again I start dreaming more, triggered by the overload of creativity. When I haven’t written for a while, I start dreaming more, as though my brain needs some creative outlet. My imagination demands release. Once I’m deep deep into the writing, again I start dreaming more, triggered by the overload of creativity.

]]> By: Dave Wilson http://storytellersunplugged.com/thomassullivan/2008/02/16/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist/comment-page-1/#comment-355 Dave Wilson Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:13:30 +0000 http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-xanadu-and-walls-of-mist#comment-355 I'm fascinated by the concept of dreams controlled to purpose, the period of half-wakefulness where you know you are dreaming, and can bend things a little, warp them to your best use...and yes, very much like the feeling when fully immersed in writing... Once again, Sully, I've awakened to a wonderful start to my day by sifting through your words... Here's to avian dream girls and the promise of something to fill the vacuum. -DNW <a href="http://www.macabreink.com" rel="nofollow">Macabre Ink </a> I’m fascinated by the concept of dreams controlled to purpose, the period of half-wakefulness where you know you are dreaming, and can bend things a little, warp them to your best use…and yes, very much like the feeling when fully immersed in writing…

Once again, Sully, I’ve awakened to a wonderful start to my day by sifting through your words…

Here’s to avian dream girls and the promise of something to fill the vacuum.

-DNW
Macabre Ink

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