The gumboot chiton, also known as the giant pacific chiton, is the largest of the chitons, growing to 13 inches. It is found along the shores of the northern Pacific Ocean from Central California and southwest to Japan. It inhabits the lower intertidal and subtidal zones of rocky coastlines. The name gumboot chiton derives from a resemblance to part of a rubber Wellington boot. These boots were previously known as gumboots.

Chitons are mollusks which have eight armored plates running in a flexible line down their back. Unlike most chitons, the gumboot’s valves are completely hidden by its leathery upper skin, which is usually reddish brown in color or occasionally orange. The gumboot can live for 20 years. It has few natural predators, the most common being the lurid rocksnail.

The gumboot chiton’s underside is orange or yellow and consists mostly of a large foot similar to that of other mollusks like snails or slugs, with gills found in grooves running along the outer edge of the foot. It is found clinging to rocks, moving slowly in search of its diet of algae, scraped off of rocks with its rasp-like retractable radula, covered with rows of magnetite tipped teeth. It also eats other marine vegetation such as sea lettuce and giant kelp. A nocturnal creature, the gumboot generally feeds at night and often remains in a hiding place during the day, although on foggy days it may be found exposed in tide pools or on rocks.

Its flesh is edible, and has been used as a food source by Native Americans, as well as by Russian settlers in Southeast Alaska. However, it is not generally considered palatable, with a texture described as extremely tough and rubbery. The writers of Between Pacific Tides further detail the culinary drawbacks of the gumboot: “After one experiment the writers decided to reserve the animals for times of famine. One tough, paper thin steak was all that could be obtained from a large chiton, and it radiated such a penetrating fishy odor that it was discarded before it reached the frying pan.”

The gumboot chiton’s bony armoring plates, called butterfly shells due to their shape, can sometimes be found washed up on beaches, as can whole chitons. The gumboot keeps a weaker grip on the rocks that make up its home than most chitons do, and therefore it is not unusual for them to be knocked loose in heavy waves.

A Fata Morgana is an optical phenomenon which results from a temperature inversion with warmer air above cooler air. The illusions that are created by Fata Morgana show alternations of compressed and stretched image zones. 

Fata Morgana can be observed from any altitude within the Earth’s atmosphere including airplanes and mountain tops. For Fata Morgana to be observed, temperature inversions have to be strong enough that the light ray curvature within the inversion is stronger than the curve of the Earth. The rays will bend and create arcs. 

In calm weather, the undisturbed interface between warm air over cold dense air near the surface of the ground may act as a refracting lens, producing inverted and erect images. Fata Morgana is the most common in polar regions, especially over large sheets of ice with a uniform low temperature. While in polar regions Fata Morgana is observed on cold days, in deserts and over the oceans and lakes Fata Morgana is observed on hot days.

Sixteen images of the mirage of Farallon Islands, which cannot be seen from the sea level at all under normal conditions because they are located below the horizon, were photographed one hour apart on the same day. The first fourteen frames have elements of Fata Morgana displaying the alternations of compressed and stretched zones. The last two frames were photographed before sunset. The air was cooler while the ocean was a little bit warmer, which made temperature inversion lower. The mirage was still present, but it was not as complex as few hours before sunset, and corresponded not to Fata Morgana, but rather to a different effect called superior mirage display.

Fata Morgana is still playing jokes with unexperienced observers. It is sometimes mistaken for a UFO and can display objects that are located below astronomical horizon as hovering in the sky. Fata Morgana might also magnify these objects and make them look completely unrecognizable.

A psychomanteum is a mirrored room specially set up to communicate with the spiritual realm. Reflective objects or surfaces, such as blood or water, were considered a conduit to the spiritual world in ancient times.

Sometimes described as an apparition booth, the psychomanteum dates back to ancient Greece, where a person would gaze into a still pool of water. This silent and steady gazing into a reflective pool would produce apparitions or visions. In 1958, the Classical Greek archaeologist Sotiris Dakaris found accommodation near the Dodona oracle spoken of by Homer and Herodotus, where supplicants would wait their turn at the oracle in complete darkness. An extensive maze led to a long central apparition hallway where the experience took place. There Dakaris found the remnants of a bronze cauldron ringed with a banister which made it appear that the people who were seeing the apparitions would be gazing at the cauldron.

The room is set up to optimize psychological effects such as trance. Its key features are low light or near darkness, flickering light, and a mirror. The dimness represents a form of visual sensory deprivation, a condition helpful to trance induction, the undifferentiated color without horizon producing the Ganzfeld effect, a state of apparent blindness. The Ganzfeld experiment replicates the conditions of a psychomanteum where a state of trance may be induced by a uniform field of vision. In the way of strobe or flashing light, stimulus is provided by indirect, moving light in the psychomanteum. Flickering candles or a lamp are sometimes recommended to induce hallucination. It is supposed the indeterminate depth of the mirror’s darkness allows the eyes to relax and become unfocussed, a state that reduces alertness.

Dr Raymond Moody, author of the 1981 book about near death experiences Life After Life, included the psychomanteum in his research in trials of 300 subjects which he recorded in his 1993 book, Reunions. Moody viewed the room as a therapeutic tool to heal grief and bring insight.

Recapitulation is a term coined by Carlos Castaneda in his book, The Eagle’s Gift, published in 1982. In the book, Florinda, one of don Juan’s associates, teaches Castaneda about the process and purpose of recapitulation. She explains that recapitulation consists of recollecting one’s life down to the most insignificant detail and that when a recapitulation was complete, one no longer abided by the limitations of their person. She further explained that in the process of recapitulation one recounts all the feelings they invested in whatever memory they were reviewing.

Florinda told Castaneda that recapitulation often began with a list of items to be recalled. One then proceeded to work through the list one item at a time staying with the item until all of the emotions around the event had been felt. The recapitulation was done with the breath. While recalling the event, one inhaled slowly, moved their head from the right shoulder to the left. The next breath moved from left to right and was an exhalation. The purpose of the breath was to restore energy. When breathing from right to left one would “pick up the filaments they left behind” and when breathing from left to right they would “eject filaments left in them by other luminous bodies involved in the event being recollected.”

Following Castaneda’s introduction of the term recapitulation, Victor Sanchez, author of The Toltec Path of Recapitulation: Healing Your Past to Free Your Soul, published in 2001, also wrote about a technique by the same name. For Sanchez, recapitulation is a procedure of self healing. It is done by reliving the events on one’s past. The damage is caused by repetitive emotional conflicts. When these conflicts persist they drain one’s vital energy. Sanchez says he developed and adapted techniques of recapitulation described in his book from procedures he learned from his time with the Wirrarika people, whom he calls the surviving Toltecs.

Lujan Matus, author of The Art of Stalking Parallel Perception, regards the traditional method of recapitulation as being too rigid whereby it can actually hinder the practitioners ability to establish a direct connection with spirit. He takes an alternative approach to the recapitulation technique which is less structured and more spontaneous in its application.

According to Kristopher Raphael, author of The Mastery of Awareness, Seeing Through the Eyes of a Jaguar, published in 2003, emotional charges blind one from perceiving reality as it truly is. Recapitulation is used to discharge one’s emotions so that they do not react and one can perceive clearly.

The God’s Eye, or Ojo de Dios, is a ritual tool, magical object and cultural symbol evoking the weaving motif and its spiritual associations. For the Huichol peoples of northwestern Mexico, The God’s Eye is symbolic of the power of seeing and understanding that which is unknown and unknowable. The four points represent the elemental processes earth, fire, air, and water.

It is a simple or complex weaving made across two or more sticks. When a child is born, the central eye is woven by the father, then one eye is added for every year of the child’s life until the child reaches the age of five. Original Huichol God’s Eyes are extremely rare. There are many that are being made for the tourist market, but they do not carry the same traditional and spiritual significance.

Hung in a child’s hair or on the walls of homes, the main purpose is to ensure children a long and healthy life. The Huichol believe the design of the eye has the power to heal and to protect. It is often used in ceremonies and prayer. The colors used have different meanings. Red symbolizes life itself. Yellow represents the sun, moon and stars. Blue denotes sky and water. Brown stands for soil. Green describes vegetation, and black characterizes death.

The God’s Eye may also be understood as a shield which we interpret as a metaphorical protective device shielding against temptations or distractions along the spiritual path. It is also referred to as a mirror with two faces. Often both sides are covered with yarn designs and the hole in the middle of some is considered a mirror or often a small glass mirror is evident. The center is the magical portal through which humanity and deity perceive each other.

An example of Christian acculturation is evidenced on a craft website for Christians and envisions the God’s Eye as devotional process art. The binding of the God’s Eye is the physical process of a spiritual binding or covenant, expressing a prayer that the eye of God will watch the binder and grant health, fortune, and longevity. The God’s Eye becomes a physical representation of the process of prayer. The craft instructions on the website close with Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

The Exciting Scout Craft Website is another example of how this spiritual ritual tool has been respectfully acculturated, given a life and attributed meaning as process art and a teaching tool for Scouts because they are easily and readily constructed.

Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers. Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither sounds of a language nor to words and phrases, but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.

In English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, “woman, without her man, is nothing,” and “woman: without her, man is nothing,” have greatly different meanings, as do “eats shoots and leaves” and “eats, shoots and leaves.”

The rules of punctuation vary with language, location and time, and are constantly evolving. Certain aspects of punctuation are stylistic and are thus the author or editor’s choice. Tachygraphic language forms, such as those used in online chat and text messages, may have wildly different rules.

The earliest writing had no capitalization, no spaces and no punctuation marks. This worked as long as the subject matter was restricted to a limited range of topics. Expanding the use of writing to more abstract concepts required some way to disambiguate meanings. Until the 18th century, punctuation was principally an aid to reading aloud. After that time its development was as a mechanism for ensuring that the text made sense when read silently.

Punctuation developed dramatically when large numbers of copies of the Christian Bible started to be produced. These were designed to be read aloud and the copyists began to introduce a range of marks to aid the reader, including indentation, various punctuation marks and an early version of initial capitals. St Jerome and his colleagues, who produced the Vulgate translation of the Bible into Latin, developed an early system. This was considerably improved on by Alcuin. The marks included the forward slash and dots in different locations. The dots were centered in the line, raised or in groups.

The use of punctuation was not standardized until after the invention of printing. Credit for introducing a standard system is generally given to Aldus Manutius and his grandson. They popularized the practice of ending sentences with the colon or full stop, invented the semicolon, made occasional use of parentheses and created the modern comma by lowering the virgule.

The standards and limitations of evolving technologies have exercised further pragmatic influences. For example, minimisation of punctuation in typewritten matter became economically desirable in the 1960s and 1970s for the many users of carbon film ribbons, since a period or comma consumed the same length of expensive non reusable ribbon as did a capital letter.

Although texts in the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages were often left unpunctuated until the modern era, there has been evidence of punctuation usage in ancient China since the 3rd century BC. In unpunctuated texts, the grammatical structure of sentences in classical writing is inferred from context. Most punctuation marks in modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean have similar functions to their English counterparts, however, they often look different and have different customary rules. 

Mistletoe is the common name for a group of parasitic plants that grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub. Mistletoe has sometimes been nicknamed the vampire plant because it can probe beneath tree bark to drain water and minerals, enabling it to survive during a drought. It is a poisonous plant that causes acute gatrointestinal problems including stomach pain and diarrhea along with low pulse.

Mistletoe bears fruit at the time of the Winter Solstice and may have been used in solstitial rites in Druidic Britain as a symbol of immortality. In Celtic mythology and in druid rituals, it was considered a remedy for barrenness in animals and an antidote to poison, although the fruits of many mistletoe are actually poisonous if ingested as they contain viscotoxins.

An old Christian tradition said that mistletoe was once a tree and furnished the wood of the Cross. After the Crucifixion, the plant shriveled and became dwarfed to a parasitic vine. In Romanian traditions, mistletoe is considered a source of good fortune. The medical and the supposed magical properties of the plant are still used, especially in rural areas.

Mistletoe leaves and young twigs are used by herbalists, and it is popular in Europe, especially in Germany, for treating circulatory and respiratory system problems, and cancer. Mistletoe is being studied as a potential treatment for tumors. Although such use is not yet permitted in the U.S., mistletoe is prescribed in Europe.

The sticky juice of mistletoe berries was used as adhesive to trap small animals or birds. In South Africa it is called Bird Lime. A handful of ripe fruits are chewed until sticky, and the mass is then rubbed between the palms of the hands to form long extremely sticky strands which are then coiled around small thin tree branches where birds perch. When a bird lands on this it gets stuck to the branch and is then easy to catch by hand.

Mistletoe is commonly used as a Christmas decoration. According to custom, the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and its removal as the last of Christmas greens at Candlemas. It may remain hanging through the year, often to preserve the house from lightning or fire, until it is replaced the following Christmas Eve. The appearance and nature of the fruit’s content is very suggestive of human semen and this has strengthened its pagan connections.

According to a custom of Christmas cheer, any two people who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. The custom is Scandinavian in origin. A popular Christmas song’s first line is, “I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, underneath the mistletoe last night.”

A ganzfeld experiment is a technique used in the field of parapsychology to test individuals for extra sensory perception. It uses homogeneous and unpatterned sensory stimulation to produce an effect similar to sensory deprivation. The deprivation of patterned sensory input is said to be conducive to inwardly generated impressions. The technique was devised by Wolfgang Metzger in the 1930s as part of his investigation into the gestalt theory.

The ganzfeld experiments are among the most recent in parapsychology for testing the existence of and affecting factors of telepathy, which is defined in parapsychology as the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the thoughts, feelings or activity of another person. In the early 1970s, Charles Honorton had been investigating ESP and dreams at the Maimonides Medical Center but became frustrated at the cumbersome nature of the process.

Since the first full experiment was published by Charles Honorton and Sharon Harper in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1974, the ganzfeld has remained a mainstay of parapsychological research.

In a typical ganzfeld experiment, a receiver is left in a room relaxing in a comfortable chair with halved ping pong balls over the eyes, having a red light shone on them. The receiver also wears a set of headphones through which white or pink noise is played. The receiver is in this state of mild sensory deprivation for half an hour. During this time a sender observes a randomly chosen target and tries to mentally send this information to the receiver. The receiver speaks out loud during the thirty minutes, describing what he or she can see. This is recorded by the experimenter either by recording onto tape or by taking notes, and is used to help the receiver during the judging procedure.

In the judging procedure, the receiver is taken out of the ganzfeld state and given a set of possible targets, from which they must decide which one most resembled the images they witnessed. Most commonly there are three decoys along with a copy of the target itself, giving an expected overall hit rate of 25% over several dozens of trials.

Between 1974 and 2004, 88 ganzfeld experiments were done, reporting 1,008 hits in 3,145 tests. In 1982, Charles Honorton presented a paper at the annual convention of the Parapsychological Association which summarized the results of the ganzfeld experiments up to that date, and concluded that they represented sufficient evidence to demonstrate the existence of psi. Ray Hyman, a skeptical psychologist, disagreed. The two men later independently analyzed the same studies, and both presented analyses of them in 1985. Honorton thought that the data at that time indicated the existence of psi, and Hyman did not.

Parapsychologists such as Dean Radin and Daryl J. Bem say that ganzfeld experiments have yielded results that deviate from randomness to a significant degree, and that these results present some of the strongest quantifiable evidence for telepathy to date. Critics such as Susan Blackmore and Ray Hyman say that the results are inconclusive, and call for further study before such results can be scientifically accepted.