[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I have has some experiences like this but with a close genetic relative.
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
Cool - does it ever happen out of meditation? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I have has some experiences like this but with a close genetic relative.
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
Wow, Ann - What a beautiful explanation of riding a horse! Probably everyone who has ever done so, can relate to what you have written - I sometimes try to imagine my paternal grandfather's experience, who relied on true 'horsepower' for much of his life, and didn't see a car until he was almost fifty years old. A world of horses. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. No big prompting needed to get me to talk about animals so I will def get back to you on this. But, I am literally out the door to go ride in a clinic with a really good coach who has flown in for the weekend. I will report back after my ride... Want to hear more about your animal experiences as well. Later. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
Hey, thanks Curtis. Ever since I viewed that video about Anna Breytenbach that Ann posted I've tried my hand communicating with the doggies next store,and our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family. I cannot report much in the way of results, but it has opened a channel for me, that heretofore, I had not really thought much about. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
--In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Hey, thanks Curtis. Ever since I viewed that video about Anna Breytenbach that Ann posted I've tried my hand communicating with the doggies next store,and our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family. I cannot report much in the way of results, but it has opened a channel for me, that heretofore, I had not really thought much about. C: Some kitties have a wild gene that makes them spooky for life. I usually make friends the old fashioned way with food. Is your cat friendly with the person who feeds it? You can make yourself the source of food by doling out the food whenever you are home. Cats are opportunists which is why we have any association with basically a wild animal. Whenever you see your cat, try and establish eye contact and blink or look away. That is cat for "everything is cool." Do you have a chase toy like a feather on a string with a stick for you to hold and fling the thing around? If a cat associates you with their continual martial arts training that can build a bond. But as I said in the beginning, some cats are just on flight or flight (I intended it that way!) You only win them over in inches. But even an inch into another creature's world can feel good sometimes. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
That's cool Curtis. Yes, of course the cat likes my wife who is the provider of food. And I will sometimes insist on petting it, and then it can't resist the scratching under the chin, and will even start purring, but then it forgets that episode in a matter of minutes. I just feel cheated, because they are always a few minutes when I want to sit and watch some TV with a kitty on my lap, but he's chillin in some other corner of the house. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : --In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Hey, thanks Curtis. Ever since I viewed that video about Anna Breytenbach that Ann posted I've tried my hand communicating with the doggies next store,and our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family. I cannot report much in the way of results, but it has opened a channel for me, that heretofore, I had not really thought much about. C: Some kitties have a wild gene that makes them spooky for life. I usually make friends the old fashioned way with food. Is your cat friendly with the person who feeds it? You can make yourself the source of food by doling out the food whenever you are home. Cats are opportunists which is why we have any association with basically a wild animal. Whenever you see your cat, try and establish eye contact and blink or look away. That is cat for "everything is cool." Do you have a chase toy like a feather on a string with a stick for you to hold and fling the thing around? If a cat associates you with their continual martial arts training that can build a bond. But as I said in the beginning, some cats are just on flight or flight (I intended it that way!) You only win them over in inches. But even an inch into another creature's world can feel good sometimes. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : That's cool Curtis. Yes, of course the cat likes my wife who is the provider of food. And I will sometimes insist on petting it, and then it can't resist the scratching under the chin, and will even start purring, but then it forgets that episode in a matter of minutes. I just feel cheated, because they are always a few minutes when I want to sit and watch some TV with a kitty on my lap, but he's chillin in some other corner of the house. In my experience cats are still wild animals. They like certain comforts and so avail themselves of those things when readily accessible and when not too inconvenient. I never owned a cat except when I adopted a couple of brother kittens for a barn I owned. They were both feral and the SPCA wanted to put them down rather than adopt them out to an 'outside/outdoor' home. I sent a friend back in and had her embellish the truth about where the two kittens were going so that I could bring them to the farm. It worked, we adopted these two brothers who I named "Dylan" and "Thomas" and they lived happily ever after eating organic cat food, seeing the vet regularly and even when Dylan got his tail mysteriously broken I spent the $600 to have it amputated and tended to (it broke right at the base of the poor guy's spine). But to be perfectly honest with you, I am not a cat fan. They live a little bit too much in their own world to be as accessible as I would like them to be in order to be able to consider them an actual "pet". They can be unpredictable, cold, distant and unavailable just when you were hoping for a little lovin'. They are amazing creatures and very beautiful in their form and their agility. They are so wonderfully creepy sometimes too when they hop sideways all arched up and stiff-legged. So I get where you're coming from, Steve. Having a cat that won't trust and really love you after ten years is pushing the definition of "pet" past the point of no return.
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I gotta say that the wild gene or not makes all the difference. I chose two purebred cats, a Bengal and and Abyssinian who came home with me at 6 weeks. They lived with me as my constant companions at home for 20 and 19 years. When you get a cat who is bred into a loving family who socializes them after birth to love humans, you can enter into feline intelligence, and it is a wonderland. Without the prefontal cortex restraints on their emotional lives, they can focus a love beam on you that is heart melting and powerful. My kitties lived to please me and learned many tricks. But what always amazed visitors the most was the stream of communication through their eyes. Constantly monitoring me as I was them. It was the opposite of cold and distant, I never saw that behavior from them. They came when I called them every time. It was high bandwidth flow and I miss it dearly. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : That's cool Curtis. Yes, of course the cat likes my wife who is the provider of food. And I will sometimes insist on petting it, and then it can't resist the scratching under the chin, and will even start purring, but then it forgets that episode in a matter of minutes. I just feel cheated, because they are always a few minutes when I want to sit and watch some TV with a kitty on my lap, but he's chillin in some other corner of the house. In my experience cats are still wild animals. They like certain comforts and so avail themselves of those things when readily accessible and when not too inconvenient. I never owned a cat except when I adopted a couple of brother kittens for a barn I owned. They were both feral and the SPCA wanted to put them down rather than adopt them out to an 'outside/outdoor' home. I sent a friend back in and had her embellish the truth about where the two kittens were going so that I could bring them to the farm. It worked, we adopted these two brothers who I named "Dylan" and "Thomas" and they lived happily ever after eating organic cat food, seeing the vet regularly and even when Dylan got his tail mysteriously broken I spent the $600 to have it amputated and tended to (it broke right at the base of the poor guy's spine). But to be perfectly honest with you, I am not a cat fan. They live a little bit too much in their own world to be as accessible as I would like them to be in order to be able to consider them an actual "pet". They can be unpredictable, cold, distant and unavailable just when you were hoping for a little lovin'. They are amazing creatures and very beautiful in their form and their agility. They are so wonderfully creepy sometimes too when they hop sideways all arched up and stiff-legged. So I get where you're coming from, Steve. Having a cat that won't trust and really love you after ten years is pushing the definition of "pet" past the point of no return.
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? This is not hard to do, my safety depends upon it. When you are intimately connected to a horse's body (as a good rider inevitably is) then you have access to many things. First, without getting too complicated here, you have a literal feel of the horses mouth and lips in both hands, you ass is sitting on its back which is where all the movement happens, and your legs are embracing his lungs and heart area. With this kind of touching you'd have to be an insensitive cretin not to have some idea what is going on in the actual brain of the horse. (Unfortunately, the horse world is filled with insensitive cretins but that is another story.) Basically horses can be a little like cats. One minute they are calm and sedate and the next moment they are running sideways down the arena. They can appear aloof and untouched by your presence and at other times can't get in your pocket fast enough. There is a whole lot of wild still in there as well. And they are total pushovers for the hand that feeds them but only if you have the actual bucket in your hand at the time - otherwise you're just another schlep. But then there are those times when you can be convinced that the horse is actually glad to see you, just you with no bucket. But, I digress. So, basically when you're all in touch with the horse, in that saddle and riding along asking him to do all sorts of natural and unnatural things and he is happy to do so that is because you are asking for the right thing at the right moment and then allowing it to happen. In order to know what to ask and when to ask and how to ask and then when to stop asking means you have to know the mind of the horse to a certain extent. You have to know what he knows, you have to know if you prepared him in the moments before asking and then you have to know how much to ask and when it is too much or not enough and then you have to figure out if his resistance is mental or physical. There are so many calculations to make in order to do just one movement that it transcends thinking. You don't have time to think all those things. So then what? It means you feel it. In order to feel it you have to know something about yourself and also something about the horse. And you end up making mistakes all the time. You end up betraying the horse or causing them resentment toward you. You can give them ulcers or hurt their bodies by breaking them - literally. They are very, very delicate. They basically die of only two things - intestinal issues and leg issues. Many of these things are brought about by people's insensitivity and by forcing. When you climb on the back of these animals you have a real responsibility because for as strong and willing and giving as these animals are, all of that can be destroyed by selfishness or greed or ego. I don't think I answered your question after all that. I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? This is not hard to do, my safety depends upon it. When you are intimately connected to a horse's body (as a good rider inevitably is) then you have access to many things. First, without getting too complicated here, you have a literal feel of the horses mouth and lips in both hands, you ass is sitting on its back which is where all the movement happens, and your legs are embracing his lungs and heart area. With this kind of touching you'd have to be an insensitive cretin not to have some idea what is going on in the actual brain of the horse. (Unfortunately, the horse world is filled with insensitive cretins but that is another story.) Basically horses can be a little like cats. One minute they are calm and sedate and the next moment they are running sideways down the arena. They can appear aloof and untouched by your presence and at other times can't get in your pocket fast enough. There is a whole lot of wild still in there as well. And they are total pushovers for the hand that feeds them but only if you have the actual bucket in your hand at the time - otherwise you're just another schlep. But then there are those times when you can be convinced that the horse is actually glad to see you, just you with no bucket. But, I digress. So, basically when you're all in touch with the horse, in that saddle and riding along asking him to do all sorts of natural and unnatural things and he is happy to do so that is because you are asking for the right thing at the right moment and then allowing it to happen. In order to know what to ask and when to ask and how to ask and then when to stop asking means you have to know the mind of the horse to a certain extent. You have to know what he knows, you have to know if you prepared him in the moments before asking and then you have to know how much to ask and when it is too much or not enough and then you have to figure out if his resistance is mental or physical. There are so many calculations to make in order to do just one movement that it transcends thinking. You don't have time to think all those things. So then what? It means you feel it. In order to feel it you have to know something about yourself and also something about the horse. And you end up making mistakes all the time. You end up betraying the horse or causing them resentment toward you. You can give them ulcers or hurt their bodies by breaking them - literally. They are very, very delicate. They basically die of only two things - intestinal issues and leg issues. Many of these things are brought about by people's insensitivity and by forcing. When you climb on the back of these animals you have a real responsibility because for as strong and willing and giving as these animals are, all of that can be destroyed by selfishness or greed or ego. I don't think I answered your question after all that. I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote :
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? Well, it is a man's world out there in the racing circles and you have to carry a certain amount of weight depending upon how the horse is handicapped so the lighter is not the better, you just don't want to weigh more than the horse is slotted to carry, obviously. Women have had a hard time breaking into the bigger more well-known races and tracks although there have been some wonderful women jockeys and they can definitely ride as well as men. You'll see a much more equal distribution of women to men in all the other riding disciplines except bronco busting and bull riding. Women are simply too smart to do that. From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression? Yes, generally if I have to choose between spending an afternoon with a few dogs or horses or spending it with a bunch of people I would say it would be the former. I also prefer long solitary walks in the forest to tripping down to my local mall. But it really depends. I spend enough time here at FFL and there seems to be people (of sorts) here!
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
When I wrote figuratively: "You can almost sense their [a horse's] sneer" it is probably more accurate to write "They [horses] can smell your fear". I don't know what scientific research has been put into the facts behind common expressions like that but I feel sure horses can pick up on cues given off by our nervousness. It's as if it's beneath their dignity to allow themselves to be mastered by anyone but a natural-born master or mistress. It sounds like you should have been born into the world of the Houyhnhnms described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose calm, rational, utopian society is compared favourably to our dismal lot. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : When I wrote figuratively: "You can almost sense their [a horse's] sneer" it is probably more accurate to write "They [horses] can smell your fear". I don't know what scientific research has been put into the facts behind common expressions like that but I feel sure horses can pick up on cues given off by our nervousness. It's as if it's beneath their dignity to allow themselves to be mastered by anyone but a natural-born master or mistress. Horses can simply see when a person moves in an unnatural way around them. They are honed to recognize strangeness or trepidation. They, like any prey animal, are hard wired to detect fear in another and that makes them fearful, it does not make them aggressive. Dogs would be more likely to start stalking a person that shows fear but horses simply become unsure and when they are in a situation where there are no clear boundaries they want to create them so they start to take over. But it isn't an aggressive or mean-spirited. Horses live in a herd, there is a hierarchy and if you are proving yourself a greenhorn then you're at the bottom of the pack - simple as that! It sounds like you should have been born into the world of the Houyhnhnms described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose calm, rational, utopian society is compared favourably to our dismal lot. Heh. Well, if I believed in reincarnation, and I am pretty sure that I do, then I would hazard to say I was a horse or horses at some point. They are ingrained in me. It doesn't mean I am a great horsewoman, I am not particularly, but I feel them and love them and have tremendous empathy for them in all sorts of ways. I can also reprimand them when I need to - no mood making there - but they are special and iconic for a reason. They represent so much. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
Good points about horses being prey animals and getting skittish around those who don't know what they are doing. I was an excellent and natural horseman when I was really little (7 to 9 years old). Then I grew up, realized what I was doing, and lost my confidence with the horses. Frowny face. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : When I wrote figuratively: "You can almost sense their [a horse's] sneer" it is probably more accurate to write "They [horses] can smell your fear". I don't know what scientific research has been put into the facts behind common expressions like that but I feel sure horses can pick up on cues given off by our nervousness. It's as if it's beneath their dignity to allow themselves to be mastered by anyone but a natural-born master or mistress. Horses can simply see when a person moves in an unnatural way around them. They are honed to recognize strangeness or trepidation. They, like any prey animal, are hard wired to detect fear in another and that makes them fearful, it does not make them aggressive. Dogs would be more likely to start stalking a person that shows fear but horses simply become unsure and when they are in a situation where there are no clear boundaries they want to create them so they start to take over. But it isn't an aggressive or mean-spirited. Horses live in a herd, there is a hierarchy and if you are proving yourself a greenhorn then you're at the bottom of the pack - simple as that! It sounds like you should have been born into the world of the Houyhnhnms described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose calm, rational, utopian society is compared favourably to our dismal lot. Heh. Well, if I believed in reincarnation, and I am pretty sure that I do, then I would hazard to say I was a horse or horses at some point. They are ingrained in me. It doesn't mean I am a great horsewoman, I am not particularly, but I feel them and love them and have tremendous empathy for them in all sorts of ways. I can also reprimand them when I need to - no mood making there - but they are special and iconic for a reason. They represent so much. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Good points about horses being prey animals and getting skittish around those who don't know what they are doing. I was an excellent and natural horseman when I was really little (7 to 9 years old). Then I grew up, realized what I was doing, and lost my confidence with the horses. Frowny face. I guess innocence produces a naturalness that, once you realized horses were dangerous and that you could be hurt around them (or was that it?), the innocence leaves and you realize too much of what could happen and that somehow stilted your behaviour around them. Then, of course, it becomes a vicious circle. Man feels unsure, horses feel unsure around man, horses become suspicious and skittish, man becomes suspicious and skittish and before you know it you buy a dog and forget the horses. LOL ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : When I wrote figuratively: "You can almost sense their [a horse's] sneer" it is probably more accurate to write "They [horses] can smell your fear". I don't know what scientific research has been put into the facts behind common expressions like that but I feel sure horses can pick up on cues given off by our nervousness. It's as if it's beneath their dignity to allow themselves to be mastered by anyone but a natural-born master or mistress. Horses can simply see when a person moves in an unnatural way around them. They are honed to recognize strangeness or trepidation. They, like any prey animal, are hard wired to detect fear in another and that makes them fearful, it does not make them aggressive. Dogs would be more likely to start stalking a person that shows fear but horses simply become unsure and when they are in a situation where there are no clear boundaries they want to create them so they start to take over. But it isn't an aggressive or mean-spirited. Horses live in a herd, there is a hierarchy and if you are proving yourself a greenhorn then you're at the bottom of the pack - simple as that! It sounds like you should have been born into the world of the Houyhnhnms described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose calm, rational, utopian society is compared favourably to our dismal lot. Heh. Well, if I believed in reincarnation, and I am pretty sure that I do, then I would hazard to say I was a horse or horses at some point. They are ingrained in me. It doesn't mean I am a great horsewoman, I am not particularly, but I feel them and love them and have tremendous empathy for them in all sorts of ways. I can also reprimand them when I need to - no mood making there - but they are special and iconic for a reason. They represent so much. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
[FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
Pretty much the way it was - I grew up, and saw how big and strong they were. I have lost that apprehension, but haven't explored riding for a long while at this point. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Good points about horses being prey animals and getting skittish around those who don't know what they are doing. I was an excellent and natural horseman when I was really little (7 to 9 years old). Then I grew up, realized what I was doing, and lost my confidence with the horses. Frowny face. I guess innocence produces a naturalness that, once you realized horses were dangerous and that you could be hurt around them (or was that it?), the innocence leaves and you realize too much of what could happen and that somehow stilted your behaviour around them. Then, of course, it becomes a vicious circle. Man feels unsure, horses feel unsure around man, horses become suspicious and skittish, man becomes suspicious and skittish and before you know it you buy a dog and forget the horses. LOL ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : When I wrote figuratively: "You can almost sense their [a horse's] sneer" it is probably more accurate to write "They [horses] can smell your fear". I don't know what scientific research has been put into the facts behind common expressions like that but I feel sure horses can pick up on cues given off by our nervousness. It's as if it's beneath their dignity to allow themselves to be mastered by anyone but a natural-born master or mistress. Horses can simply see when a person moves in an unnatural way around them. They are honed to recognize strangeness or trepidation. They, like any prey animal, are hard wired to detect fear in another and that makes them fearful, it does not make them aggressive. Dogs would be more likely to start stalking a person that shows fear but horses simply become unsure and when they are in a situation where there are no clear boundaries they want to create them so they start to take over. But it isn't an aggressive or mean-spirited. Horses live in a herd, there is a hierarchy and if you are proving yourself a greenhorn then you're at the bottom of the pack - simple as that! It sounds like you should have been born into the world of the Houyhnhnms described in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose calm, rational, utopian society is compared favourably to our dismal lot. Heh. Well, if I believed in reincarnation, and I am pretty sure that I do, then I would hazard to say I was a horse or horses at some point. They are ingrained in me. It doesn't mean I am a great horsewoman, I am not particularly, but I feel them and love them and have tremendous empathy for them in all sorts of ways. I can also reprimand them when I need to - no mood making there - but they are special and iconic for a reason. They represent so much. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I'm sure horses can tell a novice at first glance. You can almost sense their sneer. My only goes at horse-riding were as an adolescent and the horses always completely ignored my requests and goads. If a horse I was on wanted to stop and munch away at a hedge then that was what it would do. My instructor would have to come to my aid to get the damned beast (sorry - charming animal) keep up with the rest of the riders. BTW, thanks for your amusing story of your short-lived riding career. I can't tell you how many times I have watched people in your situation and completely understand. You either come out of the womb loving it and if you didn't then forget about it. Riding is not really an acquired taste. Horses are also damned scary - they're a lot bigger than you imagine when you watch a cowboy movie and don't suffer fools gladly. Still, astonishingly beautiful and graceful creatures for all that. On a side issue: as race-horse jockeys are specifically chosen because they weigh so little why aren't women (or even girl) riders preferred over men for events where serious amounts of money are changing hands? From your recent posts I get the strong impression you prefer animals to humans! Is that (understandably) a correct impression?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
"our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family" Your cat is obviously the smartest dude in your neighborhood. Everyone else should pay close attention to how this cat comports himself. From: "curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 4:34 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding --In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Hey, thanks Curtis. Ever since I viewed that video about Anna Breytenbach that Ann posted I've tried my hand communicating with the doggies next store,and our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family. I cannot report much in the way of results, but it has opened a channel for me, that heretofore, I had not really thought much about. C: Some kitties have a wild gene that makes them spooky for life. I usually make friends the old fashioned way with food. Is your cat friendly with the person who feeds it? You can make yourself the source of food by doling out the food whenever you are home. Cats are opportunists which is why we have any association with basically a wild animal. Whenever you see your cat, try and establish eye contact and blink or look away. That is cat for "everything is cool." Do you have a chase toy like a feather on a string with a stick for you to hold and fling the thing around? If a cat associates you with their continual martial arts training that can build a bond. But as I said in the beginning, some cats are just on flight or flight (I intended it that way!) You only win them over in inches. But even an inch into another creature's world can feel good sometimes. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that! #yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083 -- #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;font-family:Arial;margin:10px 0;padding:0 10px;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp hr {border:1px solid #d8d8d8;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp #yiv2594609083hd {color:#628c2a;font-size:85%;font-weight:700;line-height:122%;margin:10px 0;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp #yiv2594609083ads {margin-bottom:10px;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp .yiv2594609083ad {padding:0 0;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp .yiv2594609083ad p {margin:0;}#yiv2594609083 #yiv2594609083ygrp-mkp .yiv2594609083ad a {color:#ff;text-decoration:none;}#yiv2594609083 #yi
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding
I see, Michael. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : "our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family" Your cat is obviously the smartest dude in your neighborhood. Everyone else should pay close attention to how this cat comports himself. From: "curtisdeltablues@... [FairfieldLife]" To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2014 4:34 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: mind melding --In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : Hey, thanks Curtis. Ever since I viewed that video about Anna Breytenbach that Ann posted I've tried my hand communicating with the doggies next store,and our cat, who is afraid of me, even after ten years of kindness, and not particularly sociable to anyone in the family. I cannot report much in the way of results, but it has opened a channel for me, that heretofore, I had not really thought much about. C: Some kitties have a wild gene that makes them spooky for life. I usually make friends the old fashioned way with food. Is your cat friendly with the person who feeds it? You can make yourself the source of food by doling out the food whenever you are home. Cats are opportunists which is why we have any association with basically a wild animal. Whenever you see your cat, try and establish eye contact and blink or look away. That is cat for "everything is cool." Do you have a chase toy like a feather on a string with a stick for you to hold and fling the thing around? If a cat associates you with their continual martial arts training that can build a bond. But as I said in the beginning, some cats are just on flight or flight (I intended it that way!) You only win them over in inches. But even an inch into another creature's world can feel good sometimes. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : I am fascinated by animal intelligence and am always curious if I can breach the rapport barrier and connect with their intelligence enough to understand a little bit of what is going on in there. Although I know this may be verging on an idiotic question Ann, I will ask it anyway. Can you describe at all what your impression is of what is going in in a horse's mind enough to describe some qualities of it? I have had profound connections with a squirrel monkey, cats dogs and ferrets. (I am excluding gerbils because the obvious jokes would just write themselves.) In my interactions with them I have come to some conclusions about how they are processing the world differently from each other, and from me. It is all borderline fantasy, but if you interact enough you kind of get a sense, like feeling some object in the dark and drawing conclusions. I hope that serves as a writing prompt because I love when you write about horses here. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote : This is an interesting experience that always happens when I practice TM with my wife. I can feel my nearly pure awareness contact hers, and then the boundary is gone, and it is simply oneness, without boundary or ownership. I always flinch mentally, just as the boundary dissolves. It is as if I am suspended in an empty room, dimly lit by blue lights, and I sense another room, this one also empty, but dimly lit by purple lights. Then, suddenly the divider between the two is gone, and it is one room. This is probably more common that it sounds, especially given Share's experience in the dome ("ovals of light"). I only get this riding my horse! The athletic movement of the horse and finding the way in which my body can work and move with his back is the goal. Couple that with the mental partnership of asking and responding and you can start to appreciate why this sport is so amazing. You take an animal with its own free will, its own ideas and you take its strong body and you sit on that body and communicate through touch what you would like to do and lo and behold, the horse responds and then your responsibility is to find a way to stay out of the horse's way, to integrate yourself with its mind and its physicality in order to become one thing moving as dynamically and effortlessly as possible through space. It really is all that!