(Yestervid) March 19, 2021. Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s anarcho-syndicalist peasant scene is one of the funniest parts of the film. In it, two peasants claim that they’re living in an autonomous collective, a small self-governed society that doesn’t answer to a higher power, such as a lord, a king or a government. It seems like it’s a crazy idea and just part of the zany humour of the film. But how accurate is this scene? Could a society like this have existed back in the middle ages, and how would it work? It was a question recently posed on Reddit, and there were some truly fascinating answers. Let’s look into it.

Cloaking is used in war and hunting.

They barely escaped to tell the tale, though this video is of Montgomery Woods just for atmosphere. Reddit is filled with wild stories, and this one is one of them.

A group of hikers in San Bernardino National Forest [just east of Los Angeles County] went off trail during a hike when the leader of their group thought she heard a woman calling out in distress (though none of the other hikers did).

They quickly became disoriented, losing track of where they were, as well as experiencing dizziness and other strange sensations. 

Hopelessly lost as night set in, one hiker was shocked to discover some "thing" climbing in the tree above her head. It was shaped like a human but was oddly transparent, like “heat waves on a pavement.”

They watched it for several minutes before noticing that all other sounds in the forest had stopped. When it began climbing again, they decided to get out of there. They were shocked to discover they were right back on the trail within minutes!

Do not go into this house.

Read all the gory details below. Was it a rakshasa, alien, skinwalker, woodland monster, shapeshifter, yaksha, djinn? Bigfoot (Sasquatch or the Native American soul-stealing beast "Tahquitz")? Some kind of weird forest spirit?

Or is it possible that what we think of as these disparate sorts of experiences are, in fact, the same thing after all? Maybe UFOs aren’t from outer space but from some sort advanced or supernatural terrestrial [or subterranean] group.

Perhaps the reason that both UFOs and Bigfoot-like creatures [are often sighted together and] are so difficult to both spot and photograph is because they, too, have these invisibility or cloaking capabilities.

Maybe the strange things that folks find in the woods, the creatures no one has seen and the voices [like the many inexplicable "Sierra Sounds" recordings of Sasquatches] that no one should respond to, are all part of this same, massive unknown. Source

BMW5058 (Reddit, Mandela Effect Group 2016); Pat Macpherson, DS (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Harvest moon, orange due to greater Rayleigh scattering close to horizon (Roadcrusher/Wiki)

Moon, Venus, Pleiades (Dennis Schoenfelder, CO earthsky.org)

I am just an average person and only know basic things about the moon that I have learned in school or have seen on TV....

I work outside and love watching the sky. I also go outside every night and observe. I have been noticing the moon acting very different from what I remember. The moon usually follows a predictable path across the sky above my yard. It is usually located in a couple different areas. I can usually find it pretty quickly because of this.

After watching it for many years, I notice its usual locations. However, for the last year or so I have noticed the moon winding up in different areas and following a different path. It seems out of rhythm or something. It is like there is no rhyme or reason for where it is located every night.

Also, I have noticed the moon is out all day a lot more. I remember being able to see it during the day every once in a while, but now there are periods where it is out all day for many days in a row. I know it’s out all day because I work outside and see it from 7:00 am to the night for many days in a row. I don’t remember it being out all day as often as it has been in the last year or so.

Lunar phases do not predict position in the sky?

Not only does the moon seem closer and more clear to the naked eye, but I feel the shadows on the moon are different. I swear I remember the shadows looking like the side view of a human head when I was younger. I thought that was why they said there was a "man in the moon."

One could see the shadow that looked like a man’s head from the side. One could see the nose and lips. Now, the shadows are different. I don’t see the head anymore, and I only see the bunny ear shadows....

The reason I have felt the need to bring up the moon is because I have not seen the moon in almost two weeks, which is strange. I have never noticed the moon not being visible from my yard for this long.

I know there are nights we don’t see the moon because of where it is in its orbit or it being a new moon, but it’s usually not for this long. The moon could be below the tree line in my yard, which is possible but not normal. I’m not saying the moon vanished, just that it has not been visible from my yard, which is strange.

The moon has been off to me, and I don’t know if I am losing my mind or something is going on. I’m wondering if anyone else is noticing anything strange about the moon. More

Comments

Be a space archeologist or astronomer (TED).

(Lobster_conspiracy) Have you actually measured and recorded (written down) your observations? Saying that you remember the moon being like this or like that is not worth anything. Whenever you have the opportunity to view the moon, record the time, the compass-direction of the moon, the estimated angle in the sky, the phase, the size, and anything else you notice. (Much of this can done easily with a GPS/compass equipped camera found in any modern smartphone). This is the basis of the scientific method.

(Fexmeif) The moon is out during the day, all day, for about a quarter of the time, it has always been like that. We have the misconception that the moon shows up at night, but that's only because during the day it's not as visible. (Because of the Sun itself and because it's on the "new moon" phase).

Religious Uses of Social Media
Laura Busch

There are a number of Buddhist uses of social media that fit within the contemplative/monastic traditions. Probably the most famous is the work at Zen Mountain Monastery, which hosts its own communications center: dharma.net.