[melanie]

Originally Posted by not2too In the period that Einstein was active as a professor, one of his students came to him and said: "The questions of this year's exam are the same as last years!" "True," Einstein said, "but this year all answers are different.

Great Quote not2too,

This arising IS-ness ...... IS the ONE Question to all our Answers


love melanie.

[Profpat]

When Einstein died and went to heaven, God called him over to the table and said:

" So Albert on this next toss what are my odds of crapping out "

[not2too]

But seriously folks...The Cosmic Joke is being cracked by the Cosmic Jokester all the time...everywhere we look...if we know what to look at. (Maybe that's why Taoist and Zen masters point so much...just smiling and not saying a word.)

For example, the delightful (usually) and mysterious phenomenon of synchronicity, identified and named by Carl Jung, may be defined as(excerpted from Wikipedia) the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally un-related. In order to be synchronous, the events must be related to one another conceptually, and the chance that they would occur together by random chance must be very small. I have experienced many of these connections at various points over the years (often, at times when I am reading about synchronicity or the Trickster) and am always left with the feeling that the Old Cosmic Prankster has just done it again…to remind me of what's going on.

In a well known example, Jung claims that in 1805, the French writer Émile Deschamps was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Forgebeau. Ten years later, the writer encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant, and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Forgebeau. Many years later, in 1832, Émile Deschamps was at a diner, and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Forgebeau was missing to make the setting complete - and in the same instant, the now senile de Forgebeau entered the room.

One of Jung's favourite quotes on synchronicity was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards".

Another well known synchronicity, the Pauli effect, is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the apparently mysterious failure of technical equipment in the presence of certain people, particularly theoretical physicists. It is named after the Austrian theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli

An incident occurred in a physics laboratory at the University of Göttingen. An expensive measuring device, for no apparent reason, suddenly stopped working. Obviously, the head of the research group concluded, they had fallen victim to the Pauli effect; but, as someone countered, Pauli was on his way to Zurich, so that was not possible. When this story was related to Pauli, though, Pauli recalled that at that moment he had indeed been in Göttingen — waiting for a connection at the train station.

Pauli, who in his professional life was severely critical of confirmation bias (often used to "explain" synchronicity), lent his scientific credibility to support the theory, coauthoring a paper with Jung on the subject. Some of the evidence that Pauli cited was that ideas which occurred in his dreams would have synchronous analogs in later correspondence with distant collaborators.

Terence McKenna used the term 'Cosmic giggle' to mean "a randomly roving zone of synchronicity and statistical anomaly. Should you be caught up in it, it will turn reality on its head. It is objective and subjective, simultaneously 'really there' and yet somehow is sustained by imagination and expectation...."

Further,
not2too

[not2too]

A good reference for all of this (and also fun to read) is Wes "Scoop" Nisker's, CRAZY WISDOM.
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Craz.../dp/1580083463

"Crazy Wisdom will serve as the missing link between sit-down meditation and stand-up comedy."
PAUL KRASSNER

"Ah, the foolishness of the real! This is good medicine."
GARY SNYDER

From CRAZY WISDOM:
"Recent discoveries in science reveal worlds so enormous and so tiny and so strange that they must be the great cosmic joke of some Creator who doubles over with laughter every time a scientist discovers another bizarre twist to the reality puzzle."

"Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it."
JANE WAGNER

"We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?"
NIELS BOHR to WOLFGANG PAULI

[not2too]

Knowing I'm interested in cosmic jokes, a friend sent me these. Enjoy...

Q. What's red... and at the same time invisible?
A. No tomatoes.

Q. What do you get when you cross a Zen Buddhist with a Druid?
A. Someone who worships a tree that isn't there.

The devil and God are walking down the street together and a peice of paper rolls near them. God picks it up and reads the piece of paper which says "religion". The devil looks at God and says I'll organize that for you.

Six wise, blind elephants were discussing what humans were like. Failing to agree, they decided to determine what humans were like by direct experience.
The first wise, blind elephant felt the human, and declared, "Humans are flat."
The other wise, blind elephants, after similarly feeling the human, agreed.

not2too

[mkirkpatrick]

Thats a good one not2too,reminds me of the firstjoke i heard years ago,what's black and white and read all over,a newspaper of course!


regards michael.

[Profpat]

That's really bad Michael. I thought it was an embarresed zebra.

[mkirkpatrick]

Originally Posted by Profpat That's really bad Michael. I thought it was an embarresed zebra.

Theres worse,but i won't tell the one about a young lady who fell asleep one night
outside a certain place,and woke up in the morning with a heavy dew on her!


regards michael

[not2too]

There are worse...

A penguin with heat rash!

[mkirkpatrick]

What does an eskimo use to bind things together,why iglue of course!


regards michael.