Likewise, I encountered the same thing (just about) everywhere else I looked online!
Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
I've had "Here Comes the Brides" tv series on my DVD to-get list for some time now. A couple months ago, I saw Season 1 (w/ 6 discs) listed on Amazon.com for (approx.) 25.00-30.00 used or 30.00-45.00 new -- pretty much usual, to be expected prices in other words. Yet just yesterday when I was going to finally go order it -- lo and behold..!
Likewise, I encountered the same thing (just about) everywhere else I looked online!
Another strange occurence was my trying to search for "Random Dice Roller 3.0;" that I have on my old XP laptop. There are about some 10 to 15 sites which list it as one of their downloads. It has, for a number of years, been and is in fact one of the best, if not THE best, dice rolling programs there is, and which also happens to be freeware. Well, when I searched, to my great surprise I could find it no where to be had! Yet even more strangely encounterd this notice; purporting to be from its designer:
My response:
"Don't give up hope Mark! You're not alone!"
I then went back to my old XP laptop, with some inconvenience (that I won't go into), and salvaged my earlier copy. If then you are one such who may be interested in still obtaining RDR 3.0, you can download it now from gunjones.com here.
Sometimes they do feel remorse. Yet so rarely that it would be highly unusual for such momentary misgivings to make any decisive difference. One way, however, they have of unburdening their conscience is by occasionally throwing their victim a bone. In my case, perhaps also as a form of bragging as well, they furnish me hints as to the explanation behind their method. Now I am still to this day subject to dream productions -- that is to say dreams, as it were, projected into one's sleeping consciousness. Without going into the particulars of how they imparted it, there is a way they intimated to me as to how these dream productions are done and carried out. As I have related previously, a dream production is much like someone else's movie in which you seem to interact and make choices and have reactions of your own -- but which latter are not really (at least usually or necessarily) your own choices and reactions, but rather choices and reactions the person projecting the dream would have you make and have. Apparently the latter, say a given sorcerer-mind controller, has a mirror of sorts by which your visual thoughts while sleeping (i.e., thoughts that take on visual form) can be reflected onto some sort of mirror. The same mirror then can be projected back into and overlaid onto your sleeping consciousness. But the secondary reflection can somehow be transmuted and modified; so that what is reflected back is your own thoughts but your own thoughts as seen through his creative filter or filtering of them; in which latter process they can be manipulated, added to, and altered by him; yet leading you to believe (depending on how irrational or unthinking you are) that they are still your thoughts.
This is not to say that is all there is too it to the process. There are other methods available, including using "demons," in the attempt to control and manage one's feelings and thoughts, and their your sleeping consciousness. Yet the above at any rate is a lead to one aspect to their dream production method that is worth considering.
If by chance are one who thinks of Cotton Mather as some stodgy, cruel, and dogmatic Minister, think again. In truth, he was an exceedingly careful, erudite, hard working, and prolific scholar, author, and accomplished scientist with a lively and (even as read today) often funny sense of humor (see "A General Introduction to his Magnalia, p. 25/p. 62 of the .pdf.) His Magnalia Christi Americana (i.e., “The Great Works of Christ in America,” 1702), a history of God's (Puritan-Protestant) people in New England and a milestone in early American literature, is a pleasantly rich and variegated work that could be likened it to a treasure trove; filled with poetry, frequent classical and medieval references, Latin and Greek quotations, as well as anecdotal foreign and domestic history -- you get a Harvard education just reading it.
For the same (at least vol. 1) at Google books, see:
Another preternatural morality play worth watching (though something very different and whether for this time of year may be open to question) is this 1979 BBC rendering of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's short story "Schalken the Painter" -- a tale of money, sex, ghosts, and death; and which might aptly have been subtitled "The allegorical story of a (lost) generation." It's quite literally artful and subtley done (except for the graphic ending which is less effective than Le Fanu's more suggestive original), and will all the more unnerve you if you think and follow closely quite what's going on. Not for the sqeamish and viewer discretion is advised. Despite this, most of the production some will feel moves along rather slowly; so if you want to save time, you can easily skip part 1 (of 5) and start with part 2 at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPLLTrYmaEk&feature=endscreen&NR=1
["A Ghost Story for Christmas: Schalcken the Painter (2/5)"]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPLLTrYmaEk
For part 1, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CE7WeWgMoI
Now here's a movie (if you haven't seen it before) you definitely won't want to miss -- "Dead Men Walk" (1943), at 1 hour 3 mins., with George Zucco and Dwight Frye; directed by Sam Newfield, of the Buster Crabbe/Al St. John westerns fame (the latter actually makes a cameo appearance here.) WARNING! Annoying and unnecessary commercials (I recommend turning down off YT volume when the yellow dots are reached.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIVlDW-n608&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1
Flesh dies. But the Spirit, although perhaps to some extent concealed from and or gone unrecognized by most of us, is perpetual and immortal.
1. In the records of the twelve tribes of Israel was Joachim, a man rich exceedingly; and he brought his offerings double, saying: There shall be of my superabundance to all the people, and there shall be the offering for my forgiveness to the Lord for a propitiation for me. For the great day of the Lord was at hand, and the sons of Israel were bringing their offerings. And there stood over against him Rubim, saying: It is not meet for you first to bring your offerings, because you have not made seed in Israel. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and went away to the registers of the twelve tribes of the people, saying: I shall see the registers of the twelve tribes of Israel, as to whether I alone have not made seed in Israel. And he searched, and found that all the righteous had raised up seed in Israel. And he called to mind the patriarch Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac. And Joachim was exceedingly grieved, and did not come into the presence of his wife; but he retired to the desert, and there pitched his tent, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying in himself: I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink.
2. And his wife Anna mourned in two mournings, and lamented in two lamentations, saying: I shall bewail my widowhood; I shall bewail my childlessness. And the great day of the Lord was at hand; and Judith her maid-servant said: How long do you humiliate your soul? Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand, and it is unlawful for you to mourn. But take this head-band, which the woman that made it gave to me; for it is not proper that I should wear it, because I am a maid-servant, and it has a royal appearance. And Anna said: Depart from me; for I have not done such things, and the Lord has brought me very low. I fear that some wicked person has given it to you, and you have come to make me a sharer in your sin. And Judith said: Why should I curse you, seeing that the Lord has shut your womb, so as not to give you fruit in Israel? And Anna was grieved exceedingly, and put off her garments of mourning, and cleaned her head, and put on her wedding garments, and about the ninth hour went down to the garden to walk. And she saw a laurel, and sat under it, and prayed to the Lord, saying: O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You blessed the womb of Sarah, and gave her a son Isaac.
3. And gazing towards the heaven, she saw a sparrow's nest in the laurel, [Tobit 2:10] and made a lamentation in herself, saying: Alas! Who begot me? And what womb produced me? Because I have become a curse in the presence of the sons of Israel, and I have been reproached, and they have driven me in derision out of the temple of the Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the fowls of the heaven, because even the fowls of the heaven are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like the beasts of the earth, because even the beasts of the earth are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like these waters, because even these waters are productive before You, O Lord. Alas! To what have I been likened? I am not like this earth, because even the earth brings forth its fruits in season, and blesses You, O Lord.
4. And, behold, an angel of the Lord stood by, saying: Anna, Anna, the Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth; and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world. And Anna said: As the Lord my God lives, if I beget either male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things all the days of its life. [1 Samuel 1:11] And, behold, two angels came, saying to her: Behold, Joachim your husband is coming with his flocks. For an angel of the Lord went down to him, saying: Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God has heard your prayer. Go down hence; for, behold, your wife Anna shall conceive. And Joachim went down and called his shepherds, saying: Bring me hither ten she-lambs without spot or blemish, and they shall be for the Lord my God; and bring me twelve tender calves, and they shall be for the priests and the elders; and a hundred goats for all the people. And, behold, Joachim came with his flocks; and Anna stood by the gate, and saw Joachim coming, and she ran and hung upon his neck, saying: Now I know that the Lord God has blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer a widow, and I the childless shall conceive. And Joachim rested the first day in his house.
5. And on the following day he brought his offerings, saying in himself: If the Lord God has been rendered gracious to me, the plate on the priest's forehead will make it manifest to me. And Joachim brought his offerings, and observed attentively the priest's plate when he went up to the altar of the Lord, and he saw no sin in himself. And Joachim said: Now I know that the Lord has been gracious unto me, and has remitted all my sins. And he went down from the temple of the Lord justified, and departed to his own house. And her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? And she said: A girl. And said Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and called her name Mary.
6. And the child grew strong day by day; and when she was six months old, her mother set her on the ground to try whether she could stand, and she walked seven steps and came into her bosom; and she snatched her up, saying: As the Lord my God lives, you shall not walk on this earth until I bring you into the temple of the Lord. And she made a sanctuary in her bed-chamber, and allowed nothing common or unclean to pass through her. And she called the undefiled daughters of the Hebrews, and they led her astray. And when she was a year old, Joachim made a great feast, and invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel. And Joachim brought the child to the priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God of our fathers, bless this child, and give her an everlasting name to be named in all generations. And all the people said: So be it, so be it, amen. And he brought her to the chief priests; and they blessed her, saying: O God most high, look upon this child, and bless her with the utmost blessing, which shall be for ever. And her mother snatched her up, and took her into the sanctuary of her bed-chamber, and gave her the breast. And Anna made a song to the Lord God, saying: I will sing a song to the Lord my God, for He has looked upon me, and has taken away the reproach of mine enemies; and the Lord has given the fruit of His righteousness, singular in its kind, and richly endowed before Him. Who will tell the sons of Rubim that Anna gives suck? Hear, hear, you twelve tribes of Israel, that Anna gives suck. And she laid her to rest in the bed-chamber of her sanctuary, and went out and ministered unto them. And when the supper was ended, they went down rejoicing, and glorifying the God of Israel.
7. And her months were added to the child. And the child was two years old, and Joachim said: Let us take her up to the temple of the Lord, that we may pay the vow that we have vowed, lest perchance the Lord send to us, and our offering be not received. And Anna said: Let us wait for the third year, in order that the child may not seek for father or mother. And Joachim said: So let us wait. And the child was three years old, and Joachim said: Invite the daughters of the Hebrews that are undefiled, and let them take each a lamp, and let them stand with the lamps burning, that the child may not turn back, and her heart be captivated from the temple of the Lord. And they did so until they went up into the temple of the Lord. And the priest received her, and kissed her, and blessed her, saying: The Lord has magnified your name in all generations. In you, on the last of the days, the Lord will manifest His redemption to the sons of Israel. And he set her down upon the third step of the altar, and the Lord God sent grace upon her; and she danced with her feet, and all the house of Israel loved her...
~
The Protoevangelium of James (apocrypha, c. 150 A.D.)
