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Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Importance of What Has Come Before

This excellent, if lengthy, article from the BBC details the restoration of what remains of the ancient art of Bamiyan.

In 2001, the Taleban destroyed the ancient Buddha statues which had guarded the Silk Road and its travelers since Roman Times. Lucky for the rest of us, much of the art inside the caves surrounding what remains still exists and a team of artists and historians from around the world are attempting to restore them.

The interesting thing (aside from the fact that they have discovered the paints used contain oils, which means the technique did not originate in Europe during the Renaissance) is that they are basing much of their work on a guidebook to Afghanistan, written by one Nancy Dupree, a world traveler.

I often bring you stories which are, at best, tangentially-related to the Unknown. I have said time and again that the intention of The OddBlog is to be an actual resource - not a guide - to the paranormal. Since the very definition of what we are dealing with here is beyond our ken, we truly do not know what is, or will become, applicable to the research.

Yes, many of the stories are here just for amusement, but even in these we are given some insight into such fields as Psychology and Sociology... and, too often, the effects of drugs/alcohol on the human mind. All of these disciplines are very close to the fields of Parapsychology, Ufology, and Cryptozoology - the three, major fields to which this department is dedicated - and you really never know when something you absorbed (read, saw, heard, experienced, et.al.) will be that bridging point that will lead you to conclusion(s) - or at least bring you closer.

Let me illustrate this - brilliantly, in my estimation - with a reminder of this little gem:

If there are any regular readers still around from last summer, they may recall when TAPS investigated the Hellfire Caves and caught an EVP they could not identify. Serendipitously, I had been reading a rather old library book entitled A Dictionary of Ghost Lore, in which an entry for "bogies" appeared. I believe I identified what was said in the EVP caught specifically based on that entry! This led to a revived discussion of ghastly categorizations - something I consider extremely important for the Parapsychological discipline for obvious reasons.

I am excited that our little pixel-park is finally starting to receive a little more attention as late and would love if more of you would comment with your own thoughts on the subjects - and I do not mean to belittle your intelligence by beating a dead horse - but The OddBlog was always developed to be a full-fledged resource for researchers of the paranormal and the Unknown, and while we stray from the topics somewhat frequently, this is part of the reason I work on the tags so often.

So any suggestions, additions, or anything else anyone has to offer are always welcome and greatly appreciated. No matter how "outlandish" it may seem, no matter how "outdated," you never know when that information may become crucial, nor why.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

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