San Diego, land of weird religions ...

For some reason, San Diego seems to draw out the weird religions in people. I'm going to start a series of posts about Unarius, the Self-Realization Fellowship, Scientology, Theosophical Society, etc.

Let's start with Unarius. I remember seeing Ruth Norman on her public access show when I growing up. She seemed mostly like a daffy old lady having some fun. I didn't realize until recently how seriously some people take the whole "Space Brothers" thing. It's an odd mismatch with El Cajon, which many regard as a smoggy place to drive through when to the mountains or desert. From mundane places come odd things, I guess.

The official website

Unarius profile

Hangin' in D.C.

I'm vacation right now, traveling from San Diego to D.C.. then to Montreal and Quebec. I'll be posting photos here and at SmugMug

Dr. Ramachandran on the BBC

One of my favorite reading subjects is science, especially neurology. It all started with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Dr Sacks. In a similar vein is Dr. Ramachandran, who works here in San Diego at UCSD. He had the honor of giving the first Reith lecture in 2003. He covers synesthesia, Capgras delusion, art, philosophy, and other interesting subjects in the five parts. I love his style.

2003
Reith lecture on BBC

What's with the name ?

What's in a name ? Well, Monkeys with Missiles means that humans aren't all that, never mind the bag of chips. We're animals, distinguished from our "lesser" primates cousins by very little. It seems to be a matter of quantity and not quality. They've got sticks for poking into ant hills, we've got flame-throwers ...