THE COMING WAVE (An interview with Mother Abigail)

Original Work | 7-6-09 | James Oscar

[James Oscar]

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114481

Concurrent threads.

[Jet Jaguar]

Ping

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks for the ping, Jet!

Paging Mother Abigail...

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

[RandallFlagg]

Hmmm.

[Myrddin]

I remember the threads. It was a good excuse to dust off my education in molecular biology, immunology and microbiology. Many others did the same. The SARS and Ebola-like outbreak in Africa certainly captured the attention of many skilled parties. A few appeared to be right in the middle of pertinent research or employed in an epidemiological line of work. Thankfully, the outbreak of the Ebola-like organism seemed to burn out.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[MurrietaMadman]

From little acorns...

Just today I received this email. It’s that concurrent breakout part that grabbed my attention!

Please find enclosed information on our upcoming International Swine Flu Conference in Washington, DC on August 19-21, 2009.

Delegates are coming from US, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.

In addition to insightful presentations and dynamic panel discussions, you can also choose from over 30 concurrent breakout sessions that includes:

Breakout 1 Mass Fatality Management Planning

Breakout 2. Business Continuity Planning

Breakout 3. Continuity of Operations (COOP) and Continuity of Government Planning

Breakout 4. Emergency Management Services

Breakout 5. Law Enforcement Agencies

Breakout 6. First Responders: Fire Department

Breakout 7. First Responders: Public Works

Breakout 8. 911 Call Center Services

Breakout 9. Hospital and Emergency Medical Services

Breakout 10. Workplace Planning

Breakout 11. School/University Pandemic Planning

Breakout 12. Airlines, Travel, Airport, Quarantine and Border Health Services

Breakout 13. Infectious Medical Waste

Breakout 14. Swine Flu: Agriculture Perspective & Interventions

` and many more.

If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact me at 202-536-5000 or email me at

jacksonj@swineflulabs.us

To register for this event simply fill in the attached registration form and fax it back to me at

202-280-1239.

For more information on the event, please visit http://new-fields.com/ISFC

Regards,

Jessica Jackson

Swine Flu Task Force

New-Fields Exhibitions, Inc.

1101 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 6th Floor

Washington, DC 20004

T: (202) 536-5000 F: (202) 280-1239

jacksonj@swineflulabs.us

www.New-Fields.com

[James Oscar]

"In addition to insightful presentations and dynamic panel discussions, you can also choose from over 30 concurrent breakout sessions that includes:"

What an odd choice of words.

[James Oscar]

WHILE THE RAIN IS EASY

Winds are hard
To recreate
Once cast

August 2008

Mother Abigail has a beautiful townhouse near the Governors' mansion in Nevada's capital city - Carson City. But it is her "cabin" at Lake Tahoe that she loves and nurtures. As I drove up to meet her for the first time there on that hot August day last year my thoughts were very scattered. I make my living with words - but I have no background as an interviewer and very little desire to be one. But "follow the story" had me driving up highway 50 with about 10 million other lost souls on that weekend - bumper to bumper.

Science writing is a gentle art. You learn as you write. The terminology, the doctrine and the search are all absorbed like cool water on a hot day. So I felt certain that I would be able to communicate at an educated level - even though I had absolutely no idea what I was looking for. Or so I though....

WORDS ARE THE SYMBOLS OF TRUTH:

In order for me to have this conversation with you (the reader) we have to share certain mindsets and presuppositions that will allow us frame our discussion in common terms. I did not share that Weltanschauung with Mother Abigail at first and because it is central to understanding her - I will attempt to teach you (the way she has taught me) to see things from a slightly different perspective.

[Judith Anne]

Watching the thread with enormous interest. Thank you.

[James Oscar]

THE FINGERPRINTS OF GOD

There is religion and there is science. There is creationism and there is evolution. Seems pretty clear cut to me but, as we often learn in life, the black and white choices can be terribly muddled in the middle.

To MA creation is an ongoing process. She smiles gently at those who argue for or against evolution/creationism. She explains that it is only our poor perceptual abilities that constantly force us into these dichotomous choices.

She explains it to me by using the following example:

Science vs/ God - no matter which side you start from you are destined to meet at a point that is defined by the number 4.66920160910299067185320382. (Sure and "thanks for all the fish".. I laugh to myself)

She relates that a young man named Mitchell Feigenbaum settled that entire question long ago. It seems that Mr. Feigenbaum (using science) discovered the fingerprints of God.

[James Oscar]

You are very welcome. I hope you enjoy.

[James Oscar]

When you search for God you seek perfection and transcendence. In science you search for universal truths. So far so good...

What young Mr. Feigenbaum did was discover that they are the same. Pick your favorite word to describe the results but here is the play by play.

The Feigenbaum Constant was discovered in 1975 by a whiz kid on pocket calculator. In this veil of tears we find two dynamic systems order and chaos - with a whole bunch of stuff in the middle moving between those two systems.

Well it appears (you can check it for yourself) that as any system moves from Order to Chaos there is a rhythm that is both perfect and transcendental. It is called the Feigenbaum Constant. It is so universal and so exact in its expression that it has been called the fingerprints of God.

When you go to explain how such perfection occurs in the movement of fluid in a pipeline, a plague of locusts and every other dynamic system in the universe - you might want to bring a lunch.

See it doesn’t matter. Words will just get in your way. Chaos - MA explains that these mathematical rhythms being found at the edge of chaos simply illustrates how dichotomous our reasoning is. We can’t predict what will happen past a certain number of variables and so we call it Chaos.

She teaches that there are rhythms in the Chaos and it is only our lack of perception that fails us.

[MurrietaMadman]

What an odd choice of words.

Weren't they?

Thanks for keeping track of these events. They were dangerous times for microbiologists as I recall.

[James Oscar]

Using perception she explains evolution.

MA is a very religious woman yet she slips seamlessly back and forth between the two worlds. It has been very hard for me to grasp that continuity. I am a non-religious person and have a bit of a problem following some of the finer points.

However, she explains current human evolution in terms that I follow with ease.

Evolutionary Differentiation In Cognitive Function

"The level of understanding past and present determines the possible level of understanding the future. Non-conscious effects of the past, as produced by classical conditioning, can result in same-level anticipations of future (e.g. Pavlov's dogs salivated before meat powder was present). Conscious awareness of past episodes, however, can result in an awareness of potential future episodes. Mental time travel into the future may be achieved through extrapolation from similar past episodes (prediction by analogy) or, more important for the understanding of humans' extraordinary impact on the world over the last 10,000 years, through the application of semantic knowledge (prediction by theory) about the laws that govern nature."

Thomas Suddendorf
University of Waikato
1994

An examination of the cognitive perception of the human species reveals a wide spectrum of differentiation. Like any biological variation, some changes prove to be beneficial to the individual and others prove damaging or even fatal.

Man has risen to be the dominant species on Earth by natural selection of those individuals with more beneficial cognitive skills.

A careful examination of those perceptual skills which have been most beneficial to mans ascendance reveals:

1. There has been a small amount of advancement in three-dimensional ability. The dexterity necessary to paint on cave walls and fashion stone tools has not, in large measure, been radically improved.

2. Sensory function such as smell, vision and hearing are difficult to quantify, but improvements, if they exist at all, are small. Some might even argue for a diminishing of ability.

3. It is the realm of fourth-dimensional perception where the human species has focused its evolutionary development.

[James Oscar]

I don’t mean to get sidetracked on these issues but it is important that you understand how interlocked all these natural processes are in MA’s world.

When you speak to her you hear a very tidy understanding of our place in time and space.

She does not believe that God/Nature micromanages every aspect of life - but she does firmly adhear to the belief of a predictable future.

MA insists that human development is directional and purpose driven.

Which leads me into the heart of our discussion and brings the circle back to epidemiology.

[Oorang]

DISCLAIMER The following is a summary of conversations that occurred from August 2008 until June of 2009. All the words are mine and mine alone. ...

I'm confused which sometimes is easily done. Where is the "summary of conversations"?

[James Oscar]

August 2008

As we sat in her garden overlooking the most beautiful body of water on earth we chatted about the SARS days and about her current life and what she was working on.

Having long ago retired from the medical profession MA now occupies herself with her gardening in the summer and, of all things, playing video poker in the winter.

I explained that a lot of people were curious about her because of the SARS threads - and she seemed amazed that anyone would care about something so trivial. I tried to explain my work and how important I believe those original treads were to the development of the media. But, I believe to this day, she considers it a bit goofy.

Nice polite chatter - two strangers putting on their best manners. Mine were forced hers were polished and elegant.

When the talk slowed and the sun became a little slanted, I ventured into the realm of H1N1, H5N1, Ebola and AIDS.

I am not certain how many hours passed as I listened to MA. I should have taken notes or recorded the time or something but I just sat there slaked jawed as a yokel seeing his first Unicorn.

Never changing her manor she proceeded to tell a riveting tale of current and future events that left me physically weak and emotionally empty. I don't really remember what I felt except numb. Very numb.

Strangely I wanted to leave. For the moment I had forgotten all the trouble required to get me in that garden and why it was so important to me. I just wanted to leave.

But the sun was fading and the air was getting that alpine nip so when offered a real drink I quickly accepted. I went to the rent-a-car and grabbed my jacket and gathered my soul just a bit.

The problem was that I believed her - every nuance of her reading of events struck me as absolutely accurate. Somewhere in my business brain a little synapse was asking a very important question "how in the hell can you ever tell that story?"

A drink, a cordial goodbye and promise to visit again and I was gone. Now driving down that stupid mountain I reflected on my decision to visit and my absolute certainty that I would return. Then I remembered something I had written two years ago (having called her by her given name all day) - and it was not the night air that sent the chill up my spine

"She signed on as Mother Abigail".