Continuing our series exploring the vampire, the ever-popular figure and symbol against which we can define our own humanity. Looking today at the myriad of religious, social and political associations around blood and the body in the Age of Enlightenment. As our views of our interior world changed, own body and how it functioned, they interacted with our view of our exterior world of society and faith. All of which fed into the enduring symbols of the body and blood at the centre of the Vampire canon.
In coming weeks we will take a detailed look at the vampire in literature, before moving on to talk about more modern vampire 'panics' and vampires on film.
Continuing out series exploring the vampire, the ever-popular figure and symbol against which we can define our own humanity. Looking today at some of the most famous and influential historic 'vampire' cases and panics, as well as the discourse and reporting surrounding them. These cases would form the foundation of the evolving vampire myth, and continue to this day to serve as the most cohesive origin for the figure.
In coming weeks we will talk in more detail around the body and blood in metaphor and how it reflects our changing view of ourselves and our world. After this we will take a detailed look at the vampire in literature, before moving on to talk about more modern vampire 'panics' and vampires on film.
Back with a new series exploring the vampire, the ever-popular figure and symbol against which we can define our own humanity. We will be beginning by attempting to find the origin of the word 'vampire' as well as exploring some of the folklore that melded with and was absorbed into the figure of the modern vampire.
In the coming weeks we will take a deeper look at some historical 'real' vampire cases and panics, as well as exploring blood and the body and how our changing attitudes to and knowledge of them influence how we view ourselves and the world. Much much more to come beyond that.
Starting a new series on AI or Artificial Intelligence by beginning to question how we measure for 'human level' or general Artificial Intelligence. Does simply 'talking' or responding like a human imply understanding and therefore machine intelligence? Exploring some of the 'classical' AI theories which seek to answer how we would practically measure this.
Is understanding even necessary for intelligence?
We will be continuing to explore other 'tests' for human-level AI, before looking at other theories around machine intelligence and the different ways it can be achieved.
What may change in the future around how we measure or define intelligence?
Concluding our series discussing the phenomenon of Reality Shifting, a practice part spirituality, part supernatural, and rising to prominence in the perfect storm of covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns and the rise of TikTok. We have discussed whether we can see it as a response or an answer to a world in the midst of a global pandemic, a form of expression for (predominantly) school age adolescents dealing with a world eerily depopulated, socially and physically isolating, and in need of a comforting, safe, and nostalgic mental escape. But we have also discussed the potentially damaging effects the trend can have on those practicing it. Which leads to the question many people ask, is this a form of spirituality or faith and to be treated as such? Would this count as New Religious Movement? Or are we dealing with the extreme end of this spectrum, could Reality Shifting potentially be a cult?
Returning (hopefully) next week with a new topic. Thank you for your patience when it comes to my near glacial uploads.
Continuing our discussion (still) on the phenomenon of Reality Shifting with a question of where it falls on the spectrum between 'normal' imaginative escape, and something more damaging. Exploring a related (and seemingly overlapping) phenomenon that surged in severity during covid, maladaptive daydreaming, and questioning once again the long term effects of the global pandemic.
Exploring a few more recent case studies investigating the conflagration between acquired tics and tremors and a voracious consumption of 'shifting' and backrooms content. Continued next week with the penultimate episode.
Continuing our discussion on the phenomenon of Reality Shifting by exploring some of the potential psychological underpinnings of an emergent practice. Can we view Reality Shifting as an evolved form of Tulpamancy and explore it from the same psychological standpoint? Are there certain traits that make one more susceptible to a belief in 'shifting', such as hypnotizability or one's level of immersion. Did the covid-19 pandemic create a specific psychological situation that lead many to a belief in 'shifting' as a form of escape, or as a way of recapturing a lost sense of normality?
Continuing our discussion on the phenomenon of Reality Shifting by looking at some of the ‘symptoms’ that may indicate being close to, or achieving a shift, as well as a deeper look at ‘scripting’ for shifting. What are the kinds of thing people desire to ‘script’ for in their Desired Reality, ie: what kind of control do people wish to have over their new reality in order to hopefully shield themselves from trauma?
Deeping our discussion on the satanic witch panic by exploring a few influential European witch trials. Witch trials from their inception have a startling level of uniformity, aspects of even the earliest organised trials would be echoed in later ones, across Europe and beyond. At the same time, responses to the trials, both good and bad influenced the shape of them as they were happening...
We will be continuing next week with the case of the American witch trials, before moving to some modern approaches to the witch and looking at some of the achievements of modern witches, retaking this potent symbol for good.
Continuing our series on witchcraft by exploring the transformation which took the idea of the 'witch', a magical practitioner with varying cultural contexts and qualities, and turned it into an archetype of a person capable of being hunted...
Where the Witch Trials inevitable, or part of a process by which a demographic is intentionally marginalised and demonised? Let's find out...
Next week we will be exploring the trials themselves in more detail, so we hope you'll stick around for that.
Continuing our series on witchcraft, by taking a deeper look at what social and literary ideas merged to form the idea of the 'witch'.
We also begin to answer the question of why the idea of the witch came into being at this time, if, as some believe, it is a reflection of an innate archetype or a reaction to Christianity in general.
Next we will be exploring what specific legal and political forces combined to create not only the idea of the 'witch', but the urgent need to eradicate them...