Alysia

I was going to tease you about your fish story! but I decided it was a good idea. Phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny...or is it ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny...it works either way, no?...so maybe rebirthing ones self really should involve recapitulating phylogeny too...to touch that sense of oneness with all life. Or maybe rain that laughs is the fish equivalent of laughing gas for us, and the fish got a good dose.

I always was intrigued by RAM's story of being in the different animals' bodies...

(that frog tongue would come in handy in mosquito season.)

oh heck, Alysia, you made me think of one of my favorite songs, by Dave Carter, who is now singing on the other side (hope he doesn't mind being in a topic about reptilians) here are the words

http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/dave-carter-and-tracy-grammer/gentle-arms-of-...

Sometimes I get tears in my eyes about the "This is my home" part

In the ideas of evolutionary theory, phylogeny is the evolutionary history, the geneology of a species (as in "man evolved from apes" kind of thing, or we have common ancestors with dogs.This sets the creationists on edge, but personally sometimes I think it raises our level of dignity to think we had common ancestors with dogs, given some of the human behavior that exists). Ontogeny the study of embryotic development. The development from fertilized egg to complete baby is well-studied and the process is divided into stages and each stage has a name.

The embryonic development of all vertebrates shows remarkable similarities. If you look at the development of many different species after fertilization of the egg, you see that the embryos go through analagous physical forms to reach their final form. There are differences, so it is more symbolic to say "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" than it is 100% literal. The 100% literal level would mean that the human embryo, in its journey to babyhood, would go through (recaps) all the same stages as the embryos of the "lower" animals from which we evolved our physical form, just adding on the stages that make us human at the end. This idea hasn't withstood the test of time, but the phrase has been passed on. Besides,there are alot of similarities.

In looking at Kimball's Biology Pages, I see that at the embryonic stage of development known as the pharyngula, all embryos have a series of paired branchial grooves (whatever that is! you'd need a picture to define that). The branchial grooves are matched on the inside by a series of paired gill pouches.So at this point, we vertebrates are the same. In fishes, the pouches and grooves eventually meet and form the gill slits, which allow water to pass from the pharynx over the gills and out the body. In other vertebrates, the grooves and pouches disappear. In humans, the chief trace of their existence is the eustachian tube and auditory canal which (interrupted only by the eardrum) connect the pharynx with the outside of the head.So here we diverge.

These days, alot of comparisons of this type are done comparing the DNA from different species to see how similar or different a particular molecule may be between two species. This is used to gauge when they diverged on an evolutionary scale. For instance, Cytochrome c, which is involved in respiration, is found in the mitochondria of every aerobic eukaryote — animal, plant, and protist. The amino acid sequences of many of these have been determined, and comparing them shows that they are related.

I like the idea that there might be something in conciousness that also "evolves" from one-celled organisms to us, so I like the idea of experiencing crawling out of the ocean and proclaiming "this is my home" ! Wonder what we can learn from that?

Humor...I don't think anyone has a definitive model of why we laugh. That's one of those things where the best rule is "Just do it!" That's pretty good, to get some laughs going with a JW. But some people just have a deeper appreciation of the better things in life, like laughing. Speaking of good lyrics, I bought a compilation of "Hello Mudda" Allen Sherman's work to share with my son a while back. Damn, he was good at being funny. Yeah, that rolling on the floor level of laughter is fun. Why is there so much tension in the world? How can we get George and Osama laughing so hard they roll on the floor? I wonder if reptilians have a sense of humor? Are all their jokes tongue in cheek? 

I saw David Icke's books in a book store, and just wasn't drawn to them.  Going by the info shared, I guess I didn't miss out on anything. This fearmonger business is contrary to my experience. Not to say that I've experienced everything.

Lately I don't even want to buy books, because I prefer to rely on inner guidance, and I don't want to use my time trying to figure out whether a particular writer or source is for real.

I did buy several Bruce Moen books lately, because I felt inwardly drawn to them. I also just recently ordered a Rosalind Mcknight (spelling?) book.

Some of Bruce's experiences match my own. For example, occasionally I'll click out. This isn't just a matter of falling asleep.

Man, I hope it's significantly easier to figure things out when you aren't involved with a body, because I find it really annoying to not know how things work.