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David Cornberg

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born march 11, 1944 eugene oregon...attended santa monica high school, stanford university, ucla and university of oregon taking a ba in philosophy, an ma in education and a phd in education...have taught at several universities, published five books of poetry, collaborator on five other books in various subjects, painted, showed and sold abstracts and landscapes for many years, lived in taipei, taiwan for fifteen years with my wife, lynn, and daughter, kaiyuh and now live in fairbanks, alaska

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Papers by David Cornberg

Explorations in Space

I have realized that my exposition in my earlier paper, "Fluctuations in Space", also available o... more I have realized that my exposition in my earlier paper, "Fluctuations in Space", also available on this site, was neither as clear nor as specific as it could have been. In the revised edition of that paper, below, I remedy the limitations of the earlier paper with more specific and detailed examples.

Fluctuations In Space

Welcome, all, to another adventure in physics. Dedication: To the artist Spellman Evans Downer's... more Welcome, all, to another adventure in physics.

Dedication: To the artist Spellman Evans Downer's now long-deceased dog named "Space"

Space is a necessary condition for the existence of any thing. It is a necessary condition because any existing thing is finite. Since it is finite, it must have observable boundaries or limits. Since it has observable boundaries or limits, it must be distinct from other observable existing things. If it is so distinct, then there must be something between it and other existing things that is not an existing thing with observable boundaries or limits. What is in between is space.

Semaphor: A meeting of metaphor and semiosis on the streets of Taipei

Semiotica, 1996

Semiotics uses the concept of textuality to extend its analysis from natural language to cultural... more Semiotics uses the concept of textuality to extend its analysis from natural language to cultural phenomena. Textual analysis allows a phenomenon-a gesture, a billboard, a doorway-to be approached as an act and event of communication. Semiotics delimits phenomena as wholes defined in terms of three topical restrictions: (1) a text must be bounded or 'fixed', framed apart as distinct from the nontext; (2) a text must be a means for the conscious transmission of a message, rather than an accidental occurrence; (3) a text must be understandable, permitting interpretation and an adequate reception of the message.

Coherence and divergence : a study of moral education in contemporary, urban Taiwan

University Microfilms International eBooks, 1992

To Learn, To Die/To Teach, To Kill: The Role of the Teacher in Contemporary Taiwan ESL Classrooms

This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classro... more This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms in Taiwan. Key figures in this exploration are Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. The paper explains how the power of the student meets the power of the teachers. Students' power flows through their freedom and responsibility to accept or reject the teacher's content, style, and person. The more students accept, the more students learn. The more students learn, the more they'consent to die in transformations mediated by the teacher. Teachers' power flows through their ability to kill the illusional student composed of ignorance, bad habits, inattention, lack of self-control, and lack of discipline constituted by prior experiences. Teachers' caederic powers depend entirely on the extent to which they have committed the necessary killings in their own lives. Such dyings and killings are presented in terms of the compulsory, the customary, and the authentic. The paper concludes that contemporary.Taiwan ESL classrooms are sites where learning as dying and teaching as killing are necessary, possible, and desirable. The paper lays out the dynamic of this "edudrama" with the help of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. (Contains 10 references.

Connection, Disconnection and Unconnection

A start to this reflection is the fact that "connection" derives from a Latin word that means bin... more A start to this reflection is the fact that "connection" derives from a Latin word that means binding together and close union (OED, Compact Edition, p838). Disconnection, with the usual negative meaning of the prefix "Dis", then can be understood as unbinding, separation and distant difference. What then is unconnection? This reflection was originally stimulated by my reading an article on academia.edu by a long-time Australian educator and writer who emphasized connection as a critical component of contemporary education. As a long-time international educator and writer, as well as a student of diverse disciplines, I understand that education now takes place in many different kinds of settings. Archeologists have also shown repeatedly that groups of human beings lived and learned in many different settings with no knowledge of most of the other groups and no need of any kind of product from other groups in order to survive and thrive in their specific environments. I suggest that this kind of noninterdepence for satisfactory, successful survival be considered unconnection.

Power Languages: The Effects of Internationalization on Taiwan Language Use

This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over... more This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over 12 years. The observations focused on the usage of several languages, including English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, and Japanese. The paper introduces a distinction between the possessive power of language and the productive power of language. With this distinction as a lens, changes in language use in Taiwan are then linked to internationalization as a reorganization of traditional values around possession and production. This reorganization signifies realignments of power in the usages of languages whose individual histories in Taiwan join to create new linguistic phenomena that put the language situation in Taiwan at the forefront of global cultural change. With the increasing speed and flexibility of multilingualism within a society whose boundaries become more permeable, more Taiwanese find themselves gaining identities as citizens not just of Taiwan or of East Asia but also of a ...

Summer Day, Alaska Range, 1986

Utter Stillness and Natural Mind

In this paper, I share a comparison between utter stillness, from neidan (eg. Lu K'uan Yu [Charle... more In this paper, I share a comparison between utter stillness, from neidan (eg. Lu K'uan Yu [Charles Luk], Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality, Weiser Books, p20), and natural mind, from dzog pa chen po (eg. Khenchen Thrangpu, Tilopa's Wisdom: His Life and Teachings on the Ganges Mahamudra, Snow Lion Press). The two books just cited are only two of many available on both neidan and dzogchen. "Immortality" in the title of the first book is not my primary concern. For one thing, the dates of historically well-attested neidan masters all have both birth and death dates so immortality in neidan clearly does not refer to the body. Rather, there seems to be a quiet belief in a very subtle something that inhabits a living human body and then moves on at the death of the body. My use of neidan is concerned with health and longevity, leaving immortality to take care of itself.

Disposability: A Semiotic Account of Freeflow Ethics

One needs to study what kind of body the current society needs." Michel Foucault (58) "Music used... more One needs to study what kind of body the current society needs." Michel Foucault (58) "Music used to be a collectible, now it's a disposable." Ron Stone (Levy 7) "One bulldozer can do the work of ten men." Victoria Pauli (Jacinto 2) We begin our account of disposability with a look through the eyes of nature. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes and forest fires destroy human beings, human artifacts, domestic and wild animals, domestic and wild plants, rocks, soils and insects. Nature is indifferent. This indifference signifies the identity in the register of physical elements of all existing things in the physical universe. All existing things, whether as refined as a cut diamond and an opera singer or as rough as cold lava and arctic ice, are composed of a limited number of different elements. Existence in turn signifies a register of impermanence or transience. As far as we know, no existing thing lasts forever. As far as we know, not even the basic elements of the physical universe last forever because we do not know if the physical universe lasts forever. Our known physical universe could conceivably become the material for the creation of another universe with different basic elements.

Power Languages: The Effects of Internationalization on Taiwan Language Use

This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over... more This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over 12 years. The observations focused on the usage of several languages, including English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, and Japanese. The paper introduces a distinction between the possessive power of language and the productive power of language. With this distinction as a lens, changes in language use in Taiwan are then linked to internationalization as a reorganization of traditional values around possession and production. This reorganization signifies realignments of power in the usages of languages whose individual histories in Taiwan join to create new linguistic phenomena that put the language situation in Taiwan at the forefront of global cultural change. With the increasing speed and flexibility of multilingualism within a society whose boundaries become more permeable, more Taiwanese find themselves gaining identities as citizens not just of Taiwan or of East Asia but also of a global civilization. The implications of this phenomenon for English teaching in Taiwan are explored, raising some critical questions for the field of English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan in the 21st century. (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. cv)

To Learn, To Die/To Teach, To Kill: The Role of the Teacher in Contemporary Taiwan ESL Classrooms

This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classro... more This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms in Taiwan. Key figures in this exploration are Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. The paper explains how the power of the student meets the power of the teachers. Students' power flows through their freedom and responsibility to accept or reject the teacher's content, style, and person. The more students accept, the more students learn. The more students learn, the more they'consent to die in transformations mediated by the teacher. Teachers' power flows through their ability to kill the illusional student composed of ignorance, bad habits, inattention, lack of self-control, and lack of discipline constituted by prior experiences. Teachers' caederic powers depend entirely on the extent to which they have committed the necessary killings in their own lives. Such dyings and killings are presented in terms of the compulsory, the customary, and the authentic. The paper concludes that contemporary.Taiwan ESL classrooms are sites where learning as dying and teaching as killing are necessary, possible, and desirable. The paper lays out the dynamic of this "edudrama" with the help of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. (Contains 10 references.

The Insertion of Language: A Study of Relationships between Early Exposure to English and Later Achievement in Learning English as a Second Language

This study examined first exposures to oral and written English from ages 1-16 years, surveying 2... more This study examined first exposures to oral and written English from ages 1-16 years, surveying 212 Ming Chuan University (Taiwan) students. The survey asked about the language spoken at home; age at and context of hearing, reading, writing, and speaking the first English word; experiences with conversations in English; and problems learning English. Data analysis found only a slight difference between the later English achievement of students who heard their first English word at the age of 6 years or younger and those who heard their first English word at the age of 12 years or older. These results suggest the existence of compulsory and customary patterns across all kinds of English learning situations in Taiwan. These patterns are largely non-idiomatic and replete with many common errors in using prepositions, articles, verb tenses, and pronouns. They resist teaching efforts aimed at promoting idiomatic English. In speech especially, the compulsory and customary tend to overwhelm the possibility of authentic dialogue in which idiomatic English could be learned. Two appendixes present the survey and the first English words remembered by respondents, listed in order of frequency. (Contains 18 tables.) (SM)

Predation: An Old Connection Between Religion and Science

an apocryphal story about thales is that, around 500 bc in miletus, greece, he bought all the ava... more an apocryphal story about thales is that, around 500 bc in miletus, greece, he bought all the available olive presses before olive harvesting and made much money from the oil his presses produced after harvest…thales is usually considered the first, or one of the first, of the pre-socratic greek philosophers among whose downstream progeny was aristotle who is often considered one of the first western european thinkers to move intellectual attention from mythopoetic narrative to observation of nature… long after thales, and after cuneiform started recording the counting of grain quantities into mesopotamian storage, christianity claimed ownership of all of nature in the name of its own deity which excluded, both violently and non-violently, all other claims to such ownership while at the same time demonizing nature, and especially its human female form, as the source of all evil…it would be fair to assert that, judging from the concentration of physical sciences, with all their extensions, in western europe and the us, where scientists have been declaring for centuries that they know the nature of reality and that their methods of knowing are the only ones that can and do give accurate information about nature and to note that this kind of assertion, with its rigidly exclusive claim, carries forward the voices of homer, of both old and new testaments, of the greek philosophers, and of the mediaeval theologians such as ockham and aquinas who gave a clear position to reject for thinkers such as roger bacon, francis bacon and rene descartes… my wife, lynn and i, watched the documentary "The Dalai Lama: Scientist," the other night (september 2020)…buddhism begins with suffering and offers many ways to relieve oneself of the conditions that bring suffering including following recommendations of the current dalai lama such as the one, when asked about celibacy, to the effect that if one has a choice, the better alternative is celibacy… well…all living things continue their existence by some kind of reproduction…from the standpoint of this fact of nature and life, buddhism turns people away from nature and life…or, to put the

Upsidedown, Insideout and Backwards: A Reflection on the Current Science of Consciousness

The position I am taking is that the current science of consciousness, especially as practiced in... more The position I am taking is that the current science of consciousness, especially as practiced in research done in the US and the UK, is upsidedown, insideout and backwards. Elucidation of that cluster of adjectives will flow from a reflection on that current science and research. I. Responses to Current Claims. After reading and then re-reading the chapter "The Neuroscience: Your Brain on Psychedelics" in Michael Pollan"s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, I watched a youtube video that he references in a footnote on p324 of his book (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2VzRMevUXg). The video opens with a presentation by Alison Gopnik, "a developmental psychologist and philosopher" at UC Berkeley, according to Pollan. Gopnik shares research on her speciality area which is the consciousness of children. At the end of her presentation, she addresses the audience with several remarks and images. Gopnik suggests that we think of child consciousness as the R & D (Research and Development) phase of human growth and of adult consciousness as the production and marketing phase. She does not mention consumption in either of these suggestions but she asks, early in her talk, what, from the standpoint of biological evolution, could be the reason for the human species having the longest maturation period of any known species, where maturation refers to the period from conception to the ability of the human individual to provide more sustenance, nourishment and support to other members of the human species than the individual consumes. I listened carefully for her to answer this question but she didn't. Living in Fairbanks, Alaska and spending much time in the wilderness

the ethic of the tantric practice of non-duality

i feel that i am a thousand light years away from the civilization in which i am composing this p... more i feel that i am a thousand light years away from the civilization in which i am composing this paper…my writing has become more and more personal and less and less related to the registers of generalization that make one person's view look, read and sound like the universe's very own view of itself…the way i live my practice is the ethic of the tantric practice of non-duality, which is more or less the topic of this paper… if categoryless dissolution through non-duality can even be designated as a topic… i have lost the categories of existence and behavior that i used to have in my intense involvement in my civilization…i feel that the afflictions i have lost are neither right nor wrong…they are verbal categories and psychophysical fixations that contain and wield judgments dividing the mind into opposing positions…the afflictions, such as hatred,

Finding Chaga: A Reflection on Unity, Oneness and Stress

The thesis of this paper is that the human experience of unity is an event in a human being, both... more The thesis of this paper is that the human experience of unity is an event in a human being, both evolved in the species and cultivated in the individual, that activates combinations of different types of energy, including the serotonin-1a and-2a receptor systems, to reduce the experience of difference to an experience of unity in order to decrease stress. The experience of unity, in any of its many types, such as cultivated by ancient technologies of drumming, dancing and chanting or breathing and concentration, induced by psychedelic substances both natural and artificial, and induced by combinations of electromagnetic feedback with EFT, protects the living organism from the adverse effects of stress. However, the experience of unity is not necessarily a source of knowledge about anything, it is not a union with the universe, and it is not evidence for the existence of any named or unnamed entities in any particular philosophy, religion, science, practice or cult. It is an adaptation of the human species to the stresses involved in being so physically vulnerable to many kinds of danger and so dependent on direct contact with all elements of the biosphere for its survival including many other human beings. The negative development of this natural capacity, however, has come with the alienation of humans from the lifeways of nomadic hunters, fishers and gatherers and the encapsulation of most living human beings in socioeconomic systems that cut them off from nature and thus from their own natures. This long-intensified and-elaborated alienation has produced many versions of the monoontic project with its dogmatic dualisms, such as divine/human, human/nature, mind/ body, mind/matter, spirit/matter, etc., that are poor representations of natural experience but powerful supporters of the manipulation of the many by the few. In the pre-sedentary natural state, human experience is rhythms of change and transformation with no fixations on names, numbers, or entities of any kind. I have this kind of experience in the Interior Alaska wilderness when I receive guidance from the forest to find chaga, which I use as a tea. However, I am fortunate that my little area of wilderness is far from any kind of agricultural or industrial civilization and that I am, therefore, free of

Why Quantum Entanglement Does Not Explain Psi.pdf

This brief critique clearly and cleanly separates quantum entanglement from psi. Quantum entangl... more This brief critique clearly and cleanly separates quantum entanglement from psi. Quantum entanglement refers to a phenomenon found and studied in the context of the Standard Model of quantum mechanics as presented, for example, by Gell-Mann in The Quark and the Jaguar. Psi refers to the entire range of known psychic/paranormal phenomena and especially those detailed in Radin’s Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. Since I have experienced many psi phenomena from early childhood I agree with Radin that psi phenomena exist. Since i have studied physics since the 60’s I concur with the current consensus that quantum entanglement is a feature of the micro-physical world even though the exact, observable, physical process remains, in some ways, unknown. The basic thesis of this critique is that quantum mechanics deals with electromagnetic phenomena, which may or may not include quantum gravity, while psi phenomena occur in ways that cannot be completely understood by either electromagnetic theory or electrical theory. Quantum entanglement is, as far as is now known, an electromagnetic phenomenon. Two of its key features, the simultaneity of distant entanglement and the occurrence of it in non-experimentally controlled nature, are still controversial. More importantly, since many psi experiments are conducted with shielding between psi senders and receivers, electromagnetism cannot be the sole carrier, support or physical basis of psi. Since there are no electrical circuit connections between senders and receivers in psi experiments, electricity cannot be the carrier, support or physical basis of psi. Finally, psi phenomena such as remote viewing, in which there is one mind and a location somewhere on the earth’s surface, involve only one mind and thus require explanation that neither electromagnetism, in macro- or microphysics, nor electricity can provide.

A Reflection on the Origin of and Aversion to Difference and Diversity….pdf

This brief paper explores the origin of and aversion to difference and diversity. It starts with ... more This brief paper explores the origin of and aversion to difference and diversity. It starts with the etymological information that the Latin roots of the words difference and diversity both have prefixes that mean away from in Latin while the word difference roots in a verb that means to carry or bear and the word diversity roots in a word that means to turn. More literally translated from Latin, the English word difference means carrying away from and the English word diversity means the quality of turning away from. The verbal root of the words aversion and diversity is the same Latin verb that means to turn.

Explorations in Space

I have realized that my exposition in my earlier paper, "Fluctuations in Space", also available o... more I have realized that my exposition in my earlier paper, "Fluctuations in Space", also available on this site, was neither as clear nor as specific as it could have been. In the revised edition of that paper, below, I remedy the limitations of the earlier paper with more specific and detailed examples.

Fluctuations In Space

Welcome, all, to another adventure in physics. Dedication: To the artist Spellman Evans Downer's... more Welcome, all, to another adventure in physics.

Dedication: To the artist Spellman Evans Downer's now long-deceased dog named "Space"

Space is a necessary condition for the existence of any thing. It is a necessary condition because any existing thing is finite. Since it is finite, it must have observable boundaries or limits. Since it has observable boundaries or limits, it must be distinct from other observable existing things. If it is so distinct, then there must be something between it and other existing things that is not an existing thing with observable boundaries or limits. What is in between is space.

Semaphor: A meeting of metaphor and semiosis on the streets of Taipei

Semiotica, 1996

Semiotics uses the concept of textuality to extend its analysis from natural language to cultural... more Semiotics uses the concept of textuality to extend its analysis from natural language to cultural phenomena. Textual analysis allows a phenomenon-a gesture, a billboard, a doorway-to be approached as an act and event of communication. Semiotics delimits phenomena as wholes defined in terms of three topical restrictions: (1) a text must be bounded or 'fixed', framed apart as distinct from the nontext; (2) a text must be a means for the conscious transmission of a message, rather than an accidental occurrence; (3) a text must be understandable, permitting interpretation and an adequate reception of the message.

Coherence and divergence : a study of moral education in contemporary, urban Taiwan

University Microfilms International eBooks, 1992

To Learn, To Die/To Teach, To Kill: The Role of the Teacher in Contemporary Taiwan ESL Classrooms

This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classro... more This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms in Taiwan. Key figures in this exploration are Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. The paper explains how the power of the student meets the power of the teachers. Students' power flows through their freedom and responsibility to accept or reject the teacher's content, style, and person. The more students accept, the more students learn. The more students learn, the more they'consent to die in transformations mediated by the teacher. Teachers' power flows through their ability to kill the illusional student composed of ignorance, bad habits, inattention, lack of self-control, and lack of discipline constituted by prior experiences. Teachers' caederic powers depend entirely on the extent to which they have committed the necessary killings in their own lives. Such dyings and killings are presented in terms of the compulsory, the customary, and the authentic. The paper concludes that contemporary.Taiwan ESL classrooms are sites where learning as dying and teaching as killing are necessary, possible, and desirable. The paper lays out the dynamic of this "edudrama" with the help of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. (Contains 10 references.

Connection, Disconnection and Unconnection

A start to this reflection is the fact that "connection" derives from a Latin word that means bin... more A start to this reflection is the fact that "connection" derives from a Latin word that means binding together and close union (OED, Compact Edition, p838). Disconnection, with the usual negative meaning of the prefix "Dis", then can be understood as unbinding, separation and distant difference. What then is unconnection? This reflection was originally stimulated by my reading an article on academia.edu by a long-time Australian educator and writer who emphasized connection as a critical component of contemporary education. As a long-time international educator and writer, as well as a student of diverse disciplines, I understand that education now takes place in many different kinds of settings. Archeologists have also shown repeatedly that groups of human beings lived and learned in many different settings with no knowledge of most of the other groups and no need of any kind of product from other groups in order to survive and thrive in their specific environments. I suggest that this kind of noninterdepence for satisfactory, successful survival be considered unconnection.

Power Languages: The Effects of Internationalization on Taiwan Language Use

This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over... more This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over 12 years. The observations focused on the usage of several languages, including English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, and Japanese. The paper introduces a distinction between the possessive power of language and the productive power of language. With this distinction as a lens, changes in language use in Taiwan are then linked to internationalization as a reorganization of traditional values around possession and production. This reorganization signifies realignments of power in the usages of languages whose individual histories in Taiwan join to create new linguistic phenomena that put the language situation in Taiwan at the forefront of global cultural change. With the increasing speed and flexibility of multilingualism within a society whose boundaries become more permeable, more Taiwanese find themselves gaining identities as citizens not just of Taiwan or of East Asia but also of a ...

Summer Day, Alaska Range, 1986

Utter Stillness and Natural Mind

In this paper, I share a comparison between utter stillness, from neidan (eg. Lu K'uan Yu [Charle... more In this paper, I share a comparison between utter stillness, from neidan (eg. Lu K'uan Yu [Charles Luk], Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality, Weiser Books, p20), and natural mind, from dzog pa chen po (eg. Khenchen Thrangpu, Tilopa's Wisdom: His Life and Teachings on the Ganges Mahamudra, Snow Lion Press). The two books just cited are only two of many available on both neidan and dzogchen. "Immortality" in the title of the first book is not my primary concern. For one thing, the dates of historically well-attested neidan masters all have both birth and death dates so immortality in neidan clearly does not refer to the body. Rather, there seems to be a quiet belief in a very subtle something that inhabits a living human body and then moves on at the death of the body. My use of neidan is concerned with health and longevity, leaving immortality to take care of itself.

Disposability: A Semiotic Account of Freeflow Ethics

One needs to study what kind of body the current society needs." Michel Foucault (58) "Music used... more One needs to study what kind of body the current society needs." Michel Foucault (58) "Music used to be a collectible, now it's a disposable." Ron Stone (Levy 7) "One bulldozer can do the work of ten men." Victoria Pauli (Jacinto 2) We begin our account of disposability with a look through the eyes of nature. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes and forest fires destroy human beings, human artifacts, domestic and wild animals, domestic and wild plants, rocks, soils and insects. Nature is indifferent. This indifference signifies the identity in the register of physical elements of all existing things in the physical universe. All existing things, whether as refined as a cut diamond and an opera singer or as rough as cold lava and arctic ice, are composed of a limited number of different elements. Existence in turn signifies a register of impermanence or transience. As far as we know, no existing thing lasts forever. As far as we know, not even the basic elements of the physical universe last forever because we do not know if the physical universe lasts forever. Our known physical universe could conceivably become the material for the creation of another universe with different basic elements.

Power Languages: The Effects of Internationalization on Taiwan Language Use

This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over... more This paper examines data from observations of language use in Taiwan (primarily Taipei) made over 12 years. The observations focused on the usage of several languages, including English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, and Japanese. The paper introduces a distinction between the possessive power of language and the productive power of language. With this distinction as a lens, changes in language use in Taiwan are then linked to internationalization as a reorganization of traditional values around possession and production. This reorganization signifies realignments of power in the usages of languages whose individual histories in Taiwan join to create new linguistic phenomena that put the language situation in Taiwan at the forefront of global cultural change. With the increasing speed and flexibility of multilingualism within a society whose boundaries become more permeable, more Taiwanese find themselves gaining identities as citizens not just of Taiwan or of East Asia but also of a global civilization. The implications of this phenomenon for English teaching in Taiwan are explored, raising some critical questions for the field of English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan in the 21st century. (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. cv)

To Learn, To Die/To Teach, To Kill: The Role of the Teacher in Contemporary Taiwan ESL Classrooms

This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classro... more This paper examines the teacher's role in contemporary English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms in Taiwan. Key figures in this exploration are Confucius, Chuang Tzu, Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. The paper explains how the power of the student meets the power of the teachers. Students' power flows through their freedom and responsibility to accept or reject the teacher's content, style, and person. The more students accept, the more students learn. The more students learn, the more they'consent to die in transformations mediated by the teacher. Teachers' power flows through their ability to kill the illusional student composed of ignorance, bad habits, inattention, lack of self-control, and lack of discipline constituted by prior experiences. Teachers' caederic powers depend entirely on the extent to which they have committed the necessary killings in their own lives. Such dyings and killings are presented in terms of the compulsory, the customary, and the authentic. The paper concludes that contemporary.Taiwan ESL classrooms are sites where learning as dying and teaching as killing are necessary, possible, and desirable. The paper lays out the dynamic of this "edudrama" with the help of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Socrates, and Plato. (Contains 10 references.

The Insertion of Language: A Study of Relationships between Early Exposure to English and Later Achievement in Learning English as a Second Language

This study examined first exposures to oral and written English from ages 1-16 years, surveying 2... more This study examined first exposures to oral and written English from ages 1-16 years, surveying 212 Ming Chuan University (Taiwan) students. The survey asked about the language spoken at home; age at and context of hearing, reading, writing, and speaking the first English word; experiences with conversations in English; and problems learning English. Data analysis found only a slight difference between the later English achievement of students who heard their first English word at the age of 6 years or younger and those who heard their first English word at the age of 12 years or older. These results suggest the existence of compulsory and customary patterns across all kinds of English learning situations in Taiwan. These patterns are largely non-idiomatic and replete with many common errors in using prepositions, articles, verb tenses, and pronouns. They resist teaching efforts aimed at promoting idiomatic English. In speech especially, the compulsory and customary tend to overwhelm the possibility of authentic dialogue in which idiomatic English could be learned. Two appendixes present the survey and the first English words remembered by respondents, listed in order of frequency. (Contains 18 tables.) (SM)

Predation: An Old Connection Between Religion and Science

an apocryphal story about thales is that, around 500 bc in miletus, greece, he bought all the ava... more an apocryphal story about thales is that, around 500 bc in miletus, greece, he bought all the available olive presses before olive harvesting and made much money from the oil his presses produced after harvest…thales is usually considered the first, or one of the first, of the pre-socratic greek philosophers among whose downstream progeny was aristotle who is often considered one of the first western european thinkers to move intellectual attention from mythopoetic narrative to observation of nature… long after thales, and after cuneiform started recording the counting of grain quantities into mesopotamian storage, christianity claimed ownership of all of nature in the name of its own deity which excluded, both violently and non-violently, all other claims to such ownership while at the same time demonizing nature, and especially its human female form, as the source of all evil…it would be fair to assert that, judging from the concentration of physical sciences, with all their extensions, in western europe and the us, where scientists have been declaring for centuries that they know the nature of reality and that their methods of knowing are the only ones that can and do give accurate information about nature and to note that this kind of assertion, with its rigidly exclusive claim, carries forward the voices of homer, of both old and new testaments, of the greek philosophers, and of the mediaeval theologians such as ockham and aquinas who gave a clear position to reject for thinkers such as roger bacon, francis bacon and rene descartes… my wife, lynn and i, watched the documentary "The Dalai Lama: Scientist," the other night (september 2020)…buddhism begins with suffering and offers many ways to relieve oneself of the conditions that bring suffering including following recommendations of the current dalai lama such as the one, when asked about celibacy, to the effect that if one has a choice, the better alternative is celibacy… well…all living things continue their existence by some kind of reproduction…from the standpoint of this fact of nature and life, buddhism turns people away from nature and life…or, to put the

Upsidedown, Insideout and Backwards: A Reflection on the Current Science of Consciousness

The position I am taking is that the current science of consciousness, especially as practiced in... more The position I am taking is that the current science of consciousness, especially as practiced in research done in the US and the UK, is upsidedown, insideout and backwards. Elucidation of that cluster of adjectives will flow from a reflection on that current science and research. I. Responses to Current Claims. After reading and then re-reading the chapter "The Neuroscience: Your Brain on Psychedelics" in Michael Pollan"s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, I watched a youtube video that he references in a footnote on p324 of his book (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2VzRMevUXg). The video opens with a presentation by Alison Gopnik, "a developmental psychologist and philosopher" at UC Berkeley, according to Pollan. Gopnik shares research on her speciality area which is the consciousness of children. At the end of her presentation, she addresses the audience with several remarks and images. Gopnik suggests that we think of child consciousness as the R & D (Research and Development) phase of human growth and of adult consciousness as the production and marketing phase. She does not mention consumption in either of these suggestions but she asks, early in her talk, what, from the standpoint of biological evolution, could be the reason for the human species having the longest maturation period of any known species, where maturation refers to the period from conception to the ability of the human individual to provide more sustenance, nourishment and support to other members of the human species than the individual consumes. I listened carefully for her to answer this question but she didn't. Living in Fairbanks, Alaska and spending much time in the wilderness

the ethic of the tantric practice of non-duality

i feel that i am a thousand light years away from the civilization in which i am composing this p... more i feel that i am a thousand light years away from the civilization in which i am composing this paper…my writing has become more and more personal and less and less related to the registers of generalization that make one person's view look, read and sound like the universe's very own view of itself…the way i live my practice is the ethic of the tantric practice of non-duality, which is more or less the topic of this paper… if categoryless dissolution through non-duality can even be designated as a topic… i have lost the categories of existence and behavior that i used to have in my intense involvement in my civilization…i feel that the afflictions i have lost are neither right nor wrong…they are verbal categories and psychophysical fixations that contain and wield judgments dividing the mind into opposing positions…the afflictions, such as hatred,

Finding Chaga: A Reflection on Unity, Oneness and Stress

The thesis of this paper is that the human experience of unity is an event in a human being, both... more The thesis of this paper is that the human experience of unity is an event in a human being, both evolved in the species and cultivated in the individual, that activates combinations of different types of energy, including the serotonin-1a and-2a receptor systems, to reduce the experience of difference to an experience of unity in order to decrease stress. The experience of unity, in any of its many types, such as cultivated by ancient technologies of drumming, dancing and chanting or breathing and concentration, induced by psychedelic substances both natural and artificial, and induced by combinations of electromagnetic feedback with EFT, protects the living organism from the adverse effects of stress. However, the experience of unity is not necessarily a source of knowledge about anything, it is not a union with the universe, and it is not evidence for the existence of any named or unnamed entities in any particular philosophy, religion, science, practice or cult. It is an adaptation of the human species to the stresses involved in being so physically vulnerable to many kinds of danger and so dependent on direct contact with all elements of the biosphere for its survival including many other human beings. The negative development of this natural capacity, however, has come with the alienation of humans from the lifeways of nomadic hunters, fishers and gatherers and the encapsulation of most living human beings in socioeconomic systems that cut them off from nature and thus from their own natures. This long-intensified and-elaborated alienation has produced many versions of the monoontic project with its dogmatic dualisms, such as divine/human, human/nature, mind/ body, mind/matter, spirit/matter, etc., that are poor representations of natural experience but powerful supporters of the manipulation of the many by the few. In the pre-sedentary natural state, human experience is rhythms of change and transformation with no fixations on names, numbers, or entities of any kind. I have this kind of experience in the Interior Alaska wilderness when I receive guidance from the forest to find chaga, which I use as a tea. However, I am fortunate that my little area of wilderness is far from any kind of agricultural or industrial civilization and that I am, therefore, free of

Why Quantum Entanglement Does Not Explain Psi.pdf

This brief critique clearly and cleanly separates quantum entanglement from psi. Quantum entangl... more This brief critique clearly and cleanly separates quantum entanglement from psi. Quantum entanglement refers to a phenomenon found and studied in the context of the Standard Model of quantum mechanics as presented, for example, by Gell-Mann in The Quark and the Jaguar. Psi refers to the entire range of known psychic/paranormal phenomena and especially those detailed in Radin’s Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality. Since I have experienced many psi phenomena from early childhood I agree with Radin that psi phenomena exist. Since i have studied physics since the 60’s I concur with the current consensus that quantum entanglement is a feature of the micro-physical world even though the exact, observable, physical process remains, in some ways, unknown. The basic thesis of this critique is that quantum mechanics deals with electromagnetic phenomena, which may or may not include quantum gravity, while psi phenomena occur in ways that cannot be completely understood by either electromagnetic theory or electrical theory. Quantum entanglement is, as far as is now known, an electromagnetic phenomenon. Two of its key features, the simultaneity of distant entanglement and the occurrence of it in non-experimentally controlled nature, are still controversial. More importantly, since many psi experiments are conducted with shielding between psi senders and receivers, electromagnetism cannot be the sole carrier, support or physical basis of psi. Since there are no electrical circuit connections between senders and receivers in psi experiments, electricity cannot be the carrier, support or physical basis of psi. Finally, psi phenomena such as remote viewing, in which there is one mind and a location somewhere on the earth’s surface, involve only one mind and thus require explanation that neither electromagnetism, in macro- or microphysics, nor electricity can provide.

A Reflection on the Origin of and Aversion to Difference and Diversity….pdf

This brief paper explores the origin of and aversion to difference and diversity. It starts with ... more This brief paper explores the origin of and aversion to difference and diversity. It starts with the etymological information that the Latin roots of the words difference and diversity both have prefixes that mean away from in Latin while the word difference roots in a verb that means to carry or bear and the word diversity roots in a word that means to turn. More literally translated from Latin, the English word difference means carrying away from and the English word diversity means the quality of turning away from. The verbal root of the words aversion and diversity is the same Latin verb that means to turn.

The Magic Makers: Islam, Romanian Orthodox Christianity, and Taiwan Buddhism

This paper approaches central questions of theology from the perspective of personal experiences.... more This paper approaches central questions of theology from the perspective of personal experiences. All of the experiences narrated below were my own. They all took place inside the buildings of the three religions named in the title. In all experiences, there were other people in the same rooms in which my experiences took place. I drink no alcohol and, although I have used consciousness altering substances since the 60's, I had ingested no such substances either before or during any of these experiences. I would like to suggest to the reader a suspension of the framework of knowledge and belief and invite the reader to consider these experiences like the good fortune of seeing a colorful bird on a walk in the woods.

In response to Tom Golding's academia.edu discussion paper "In Defense of a Past that Never Began... more In response to Tom Golding's academia.edu discussion paper "In Defense of a Past that Never Began, part 1" I first wrote: Well...I am neither a monotheistic creationist nor a physics big banger...both the contradictions and the lack of empirical evidence leave me unconvinced of either...however, your conclusion, Tom, seems to me to go directly to the point: the word "infinite" in English is a privative term; that is, the prefix denies the stem without suggesting or implying, one way or another, that reality is only finite or only infinite...and, your phrase "never beginning" leaves open the question as to whether our language, with its physical, vocal and grammatical linearity, is even capable of expressing a reality of which our language is not a veridical image...if we then consider the facts that the three thousand or so human languages currently in use all have their own idiomatic ways of expressing time, space and reality and that myriad mathematical formalisms already exist, as attempts to take this issue out of natural language into some kind of formal language that is assumed to give us an accuracy of description that natural language, cannot but contradict each other in numerous ways, perhaps again because, regardless of its symbolic nature, mathematics is still linear...well, then… After a couple of weeks during which I received no response from Tom or anyone else, my quiet, unconscious reflection continued and then one day, in fact the day before the discussion ended, I wrote:

Consciousness, Bei Sein, Parousia, Dao, Dzogcchen: Transparency, Self

Consciousness, Bei Sein, Parousia, Dao, Dzogcchen: Transparency, Self