Laura said:
WIN 52 said:
He is turning 33 in May and has 2 girls and a boy.
I think the Cs were likely on the money when they suggested that those who really buy into the flat earth business are Organic Portals - souls that have just recently graduated from 2D; due to the 2D perception of that reality, they are unable yet to conceptualize 3D or abstractions such as imagining the globe as round, because it is so large and appears flat locally. They have problems with issues of scale and estimation of distance and time.
I remember once while living in shared accommodations, one of the other renters had a cat. An 'indoor' cat. -Meaning the creature had never been outside before.
On a particularly nice day, we thought it might be a good idea to take the animal up to the roof. There was a little garden up there, and nowhere for her to escape to.
She was a bit confused when she was picked up and taken from the apartment and walked up the building stair well. -Like, "I don't know what my stupid humans are up to, but whatever. We'll see where this-WHOA!!!!"
I think it was the endless sky that was too much for her. -Which seemed odd, given that she'd seen it many times from the window.
The poor thing flattened to the ground, wet herself and shivered in a worrying kind of way. She was immobilized by panic. We tried to assure her, but after a minute or so, made no progress. She was in such distress that we returned her to the apartment.
And that was how a small cat mind/soul dealt with a big head-on encounter with Greater Reality.
Perhaps if we'd forced her to stay on the rooftop for a day or so, she would have managed to acclimatize, but had she been given the choice I doubt she would have opted to tough out such a distressing experience.
Now, not all 'indoor' cats are like this.
Years later, my neighboring apartment (ground floor) got a new tenant who moved in with a de-clawed cat, an animal which had been born indoors and had grown up indoors. His favorite spot was the window. You could almost
feel the craving the animal had for the outdoors when you'd walk past the window and see him craning his neck for a better view.
Over the course of the Summer, I was in a position to observe the evolution of his thinking and behavior. One time, after weeks of his being pressed up against the glass, (particularly fascinated by the 'outdoor' cats who would pass him by), he managed to sneak out while I was in the driveway.
He was clearly terrified but had initiated the exploration on his own. He stood just outside the door, half frozen with wide eyes, and made no effort to resist when I picked him up and brought him back to his owner.
The next time, a few days later, he made it all the way to the garden. He was still very nervous, but not locked up by his fear, and again didn't resist when I brought him back inside. -He was just kind of thoughtfully resigned, if one can say that about a cat.
Then he got the hang of it. He managed to out-maneuver his owner's will and the various barriers preventing his escape, and he became an established indoor/outdoor cat. You'd see him exploring the garden and bushes, and he'd even visit the other tenants. He came to visit me in my apartment sometimes, and instead of returning him home, I'd let him leave on his own, or kick him out when I needed to go and lock the place up. He had an interesting life for the next month or so and really seemed to be growing into himself; he was much more now than the tentative animal always peering out of the window.
Then he was gone.
The sad end of this little story is that he was found dead in the street. The complexities of cars and roads at the far end of our yard had done him in.
Now...
This left me thoughtful for a long time after.
Some semi-related observations:
1. Forcing revelation upon a little soul before it asks or is ready is probably a great way to bias them against revelation in general. I can't imagine that first cat wouldn't have suffered some kind of PTSD style trauma regarding the very idea of 'outdoors'. She lived for many years -inside- after her frightening rooftop experience.
2. I really admired that second cat, and though I'm sad he died, I still think he was brave and wonderful and I wouldn't have changed anything about his learning curve, -except to have perhaps had somebody around to help him work out cars and roads without it being fatal. Even then, the way cats are wrt territories and their internal programming, -and being declawed, (thanks to the medical industry) any number of other dangers in the outdoor world would probably have ended his life early.
3. My own way of dealing, my own comforting "Flat Earth" theory is that souls reincarnate and get to try again despite all the horrible things which can happen to cause suffering and premature death.
Luckily, the evidence for reincarnation leans towards its being so without the need for "Thick, light obstructing air" and the Sun being only 3000 miles away.
