22 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2026
    1. [rant] As a side note, I'm wondering if this is an example of how the internet, social media, and self-publishing has contorted our designation of authoritative sources.For example, the only person I consider to be an authority on typewriters in this forum is Tom (thetypewriterman). He is the only one here (to my knowledge) who has actually been trained as a typewriter technician and has worked in the trade - long before the current crop of self-made authorities 'discovered' typewriters. Tom was actually repairing machines while some of us were still using them for school or work prior to the introduction of the personal computer.The majority of our forum members might be very experienced, some are self-learned shade tree mechanics, but to my archaic way of thinking this doesn't make someone an authority on the subject.I apologize for this obvious and distracting tangent. This is a sensitive subject for me because my own trade has been overrun by internet created, so-called experts who lack any formal training or professional experience. I throw up in mouth a little when I read, or hear the word influencer; the digital generation allows itself to be lead by those who talk the loudest, run the fanciest websites, or have the greater number of social media followers. No one seems to care if those influencers have any credentials that would validate their public opinions.These observations are not meant to slight dragon typer. I don't know who the OP's authority is, nor do I need to; however, I did cringe at the "typewriter god" description and have to wonder if this god is someone who actually worked in the typewriter industry, or is just an enthusiast like most of us here who became an influencer by way of self-promotion. [/rant]

      via Uwe at https://typewriter.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=3521

      Amen

  2. Jan 2026
    1. The kings had, however, begun to realizeits potential for extending communication, in an almost magical way,beyond what could be accomplished with the spoken word. Writingcould perpetually and eternally address an audience on a king’sbehalf; the words were always there, even when the king was notthinking about them. Given that the population was almost entirelyilliterate, such an audience was mostly made up of gods. Thestatuette of the king’s personal god (or sometimes of the kinghimself), inscribed with the same text as the tablet, could thereforepray continuously in a way that a real person could not.

      Is there stronger evidence that this form of permanent writing to an audience of gods was being done? Sources?

  3. Dec 2025
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  7. May 2024
    1. Enthusiasm – In enthusiasm – or possession – God is understood to be outside, other than or beyond the believer. A sacred power, being or will enters the body or mind of an individual and possesses it. A person capable of being possessed is sometimes called a medium. The deity, spirit or power uses such a person to communicate to the immanent world

      Enthusiasm as a possession by a god. The human functions as the medium for communication (for the god wants to communicate something).

    2. Many religious and mystical traditions see religious experiences (particularly the knowledge which comes with them) as revelations caused by divine agency rather than ordinary natural processes. They are considered real encounters with God or gods, or real contact with higher-order realities of which humans are not ordinarily aware.[5

      Religious experience as a revelation. As coming into contact with god(s) or other supernatural beings.

  8. Apr 2024
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  11. Feb 2021
    1. A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

      The Prince of Peace, also known as Jesus or Jeshua or simply J calls YOU! To join his Holy Crusade in undoing your ego!

      I need devoted teachers who share my aim of healing the mind. T-4.1.13

      Once you have developed a thought system of any kind, you live by it and teach it. Your capacity for allegiance to a thought system may be misplaced, but it is still a form of faith and can be redirected. T-6.in.2

      You have been called, together with your brother, to the most holy function this world contains. T-18.1.13

  12. Oct 2020
    1. He took three paces—with the fourth he reached his goal,       

      Interesting depiction of the actual size of gods here. If Poseidon was this large, how large would other gods appear such as Zeus? Or even Cronus, as literature suggests he too has a physical form. Would gods be able to show their true form to humans? Or is this why Zeus often appears as other beings when interacting with mortals.

  13. Jun 2020
  14. Sep 2018
    1. His righteous Altar, bowing lowly downTo bestial Gods; for which thir heads as low [ 435 ]Bow'd down in Battel, sunk before the SpearOf despicable foes. With these in troopCame Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'dAstarte, Queen of Heav'n, with crescent Horns;

      And I suspect this is when the evil of the fallen angels began to make them less like angels and more like monsters.

  15. Sep 2013
    1. Indeed, who can fail to abhor, yes to contemn, those teachers, in the first place, who devote themselves to disputation,(2) since they pretend to search for truth, but straightway at the beginning of their professions attempt to deceive us with lies?(3) For I think it is manifest to all that foreknowledge of future events is not vouchsafed to our human nature, but that we are so far removed from this prescience(4) that Homer, who has been conceded the highest reputation for wisdom, has pictured even the gods as at times debating among themselves about the future(5) --not that he knew their minds but that he desired to show us that for mankind this power lies in the realms of the impossible.

      I think this is saying that teachers who debate or discuss are regarded with disgust because while they act like they are searching for truth the are really deceiving because no one can predict the future.

      Homer's texts were used as educational material at the time and was considered a reliable source of information. The gods could not predict the future and there was the Fates.