posted February 08, 2011 09:29 PM            

It would be wonderful if those here on LL could become interested, spread the word or, even better, join!

posted February 10, 2011 11:17 AM            

“Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions, it is walled and roofed with them”
~Aldous Huxley

posted February 11, 2011 07:32 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by iQ:
Allie is a genuine human being and a genuine psychic. She must be feeling the actual negativity as well and hence has chosen to act.

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Yup, as far as I have seen she's very good at what she does.

quote:

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Originally posted by LEXX:
If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, run for your life.
~Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

“Hell isn't merely paved with good intentions, it is walled and roofed with them”
~Aldous Huxley

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posted February 18, 2011 07:42 AM            

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For example;
Caring, loving, well intentioned folks pray for "Betty" to be free of her pain.
Well Betty dies and all who prayed cry;
"Oh why did she die? We prayed so hard for her to be free of her pain.
Why oh why did dear Betty die instead?"
Well well well.....
like I said, the universe or whatever...takes most often the easiest route...
Betty is indeed free of her pain!
She died!
Prayers answered!

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As in the story "The Lathe Of Heaven"

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George Orr begins attending therapy sessions with an ambitious psychiatrist and sleep researcher named William Haber. Orr claims that he has the power to dream "effectively" and Haber, gradually coming to believe it, seeks to use George's power to change the world. His experiments with a biofeedback/EEG machine, nicknamed the Augmentor, enhance Orr's abilities and produce a series of increasingly intolerable alternate worlds, based on an assortment of utopian (and dystopian) premises familiar from other science fiction works:

* When Haber directs George to dream a world without racism, the skin of everyone on the planet becomes a uniform light gray.
* An attempt to solve the problem of overpopulation proves disastrous when George dreams a devastating plague which wipes out much of humanity and gives the current world a population of one billion rather than seven billion.
* George attempts to dream into existence "peace on Earth" – resulting in an alien invasion of the Moon which unites all the nations of Earth against the threat.

Each effective dream gives Haber more wealth and status, until late in the book where he is effectively ruler of the world. Orr's economic status also improves, but he is unhappy with Haber's meddling and just wants to let things be. Increasingly frightened by Haber's lust for power and delusions of Godhood, Orr seeks out a lawyer named Heather to represent him against Haber. Heather is present at one therapeutic session, and comes to understand George's situation. He falls in love with Heather, and even marries her in one reality; however, he is unsuccessful in getting out of therapy.

George tells Heather that the "real world" had been destroyed in a nuclear war in April 1998. George dreamed it back into existence as he lay dying in the ruins. He doubts the reality of what now exists, hence his fear of Haber's efforts to improve it.
Portland and Mount Hood play a central role in the setting of the novel

Heather has seen one change of reality and has a multiple memory – remembering that her pilot husband either died early in the Middle East War or else died just before the truce that ended the war in the face of the alien threat. She tries to help George but also tries to improve the world, saying that the aliens should no longer be on the Moon. George dreams this, but the result is that they have invaded the Earth instead. In the resultant fighting, Mount Hood is bombed and the dormant volcano starts to erupt again.

They go back to Haber, who has George dream another dream in which the aliens are actually peaceful. For a time there is stability, but Haber goes on changing things. His suggestion that George dream away racism results in everyone becoming gray; Heather, whose parents were of different races, never existed in this new reality. George manages to dream up a gray version of her, married to him and with a less prickly personality. Mount Hood continues to erupt and he fears the world is losing coherence.

Orr has a conversation with one of the aliens, suddenly comes to understand his situation, and thereby gains the courage to stand up to Haber. Haber, frustrated with Orr's resistance, uses what he has learned from studying George's brain during his sessions of hypnosis and controlled dreaming, and decides to take on effective dreaming himself. Haber's first effective dream represents a significant break with the realities created by Orr, and threatens to destroy reality altogether. Orr is able to shut off the Augmentor – even as coherent existence is dissolving into undifferentiated chaos – reaching the "off" switch through pure force of will. The world is saved, but random bits of the various recent realities are now jumbled together. Haber's mind is left broken. Heather, presumably her original self, exists, though with only a slight memory of George.

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