Motherfucking trances

[Enigma]

This happens to me often. I think it might be like a short run program that turns down incoming data streams so that you can focus on internal data processing... or maybe we're all suffering the effects of fluoride in our water.

For many years I was convinced that it was 'in fact' the fluoride in our water until I found an article describing the effects of dihydrogen monoxide.  I am now convinced without a shadow of a doubt that this is the little bugger that may be making our brains soggy and therefore causing trance like symptoms.   

[Chairman Risus]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/book/76.php

[PeregrineBF]

I use 2 forms of meditative trance. One is like what you described, letting me concentrate on my thoughts, or even on not thinking.  The other is a hyperawareness trance, where I notice more and more. It's tiring on the eye muscles especially, since I tend to focus on one thing, store, focus on another, store, etc, and process it all in the background. I use it to develop my photographic memory and for martial arts. The first trance is good for concentration and can be a temporary substitute for rest/sleep (it makes body control easy, I can change my heart/breathing rate and such.)

Also, Buddhism has similar "think-outside-the-box" things, especially in the Zen tradition. "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!"

As for imagination, I'm very, very, very good at the visual stuff. I have very little sense of smell and thus can barely imagine smells/tastes, but I can visualize very complex systems. Up to Five-dimensional constructs projected into 3-space are quite difficult but possible. I can't rotate a hecteract in my head, but I can turn a tesseract or pentaract. Doing anything 5D or above requires a trance, I can't really concentrate on it otherwise. So it is useful for non religious/philosophical things as well.

[Enigma]

Maybe some don't know the story behind dihydrogen monoxide.  A guy put up a story that dihydrogen monoxide is killing people left and right and it started a major panic and so many had to explain to people to calm down and explained that dihydrogen monoxide is just water.  Personally, I see it as one more way to control the world.  Water causes trance and is one more way to kill us while we are driving.   

[Jasper]

Doing anything 5D or above requires a trance, I can't really concentrate on it otherwise. So it is useful for non religious/philosophical things as well.

Like this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dice_analogy-_1_to_5_dimensions.svg

Doesn't seem like it'd need a trance, to me.  Was it something else?

[PeregrineBF]

I said rotate. Not static. It gets quite a bit harder. But yes, that is a penteract.

[Jasper]

Oh, I understood, but when you said 5D I'd imagined something more ineffable than a 3D venn-diagram.

[PeregrineBF]

That is a projection of a 5-dimensional object into 2-dimensional space (your screen.)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PIWjEf-IN4c&feature=related
There's rotations of hyperspheres. The N=4 one is the 5-d sphere.