What a great day we’ve had today! This morning after breakfast, Arleen and I, to Rune’s dismay, scrambles up a mountain of rocks. I proved his prediction wrong when I didn’t limp back with a broken hip. Then we went to Antelope Canyon, a place that is supposedly on the bucket list of many people. Here are some pics.

Then I took Arleen to the campground swimming pool. 

In a little bit, we’ll go to Horseshoe Bend. Here’s that that looks like: 

After that, we’ll go to a restaurant called Into the Grand where a Navajo dance and music celebration follows. 

Interesting thing happened this morning. I woke up, looked to my left, and found a see-through version of Robert sitting on the bed right next to me. I pinched myself to verify that I was, indeed, awake and I clearly was! I waved at him and he waved back. I reached to touch his arm, and my hand went right through it. After a while, he disappeared.. Robert told me, earlier, that he often astral travels, and I thought this is what had happened. I texted him to say that I saw him, and he relayed the entire experience to me in accurate detail, including the fact that we waved at each other. He said that Erik was with him, but unfortunately, I didn’t notice. 🙂 Maybe next time.

Annika had her first Anatomy class today. Her cadaver is a male, and their first task was to strip him of his skin. Gross. I warned her not to look at his penis because she is far to young and innocent. I doubt she listened.  

Here’s the third in our Tech Zombie series. Remember to check out medium, Michelle St. Clair, HERE!

Erik (M): There was a nuclear type of engine system in the crashed UFO that they tried to reverse engineer. Well, they took it in the wrong direction and weaponized it as opposed to …and they even did that wrong. It has caused an increase in us being watched from the outside. From the extra-terrestrials.

A lot of the technologies that we have now, not just the nuclear but the fiber optics, things like that, all that comes from reverse engineering. Problem is that humans are not at the mental level to be able to really comprehend…

Elisa: And do it responsibly. Probably.

Erik (M): And do it responsibly for one. And to do it …even correctly. They don’t even know what they’re looking at.

Elisa: So what is the right direction that technology should go into?

Erik (M): Well there’s lots of right directions.

Elisa: Well, tell me a few.

Erik (M): He doesn’t want to down the internet because it does connect people across large distances.

Elisa: Yeah, I’m not going to go back to the Encyclopedia Britannica I’ll tell you that! There’s no way!

Erik (M): We actually save a lot of trees with the internet.

Elisa: Well, that’s true. And stamps. Sorry Post office!

Erik (M): It’s been taken to a level of greed

Elisa: What do you mean?

Erik (M): People have definitely capitalized on it to the extent of it… (Michelle says he’s going all over the place with it here.) People have capitalized on it, like some of the newer power sources because they enjoy that capital. They don’t really allow for more green options. Green options are actually outlawed in many places. Its unbelievable how interconnected everything is in respect to that.

Elisa: Oh yeah. Well why would it be outlawed? Green options for what?

Erik (M): Green options for like water collection, solar power, wind power, things like that. They don’t want you to do that. Power companies don’t want you to do that and everybody gets a piece of the power company. There’s actually las legislated in some places that you can’t put up a windmill or you can’t use solar power on your house.

Elisa: Well, I don’t know that I’m that keen on wind energy because I went to watch some bat emergence event, where these bats come out at a certain time from this old railroad tunnel, and the docent said that bats are super important because if they didn’t kill, like, 40 moths or whatever, each one of them every night, then we would not have very many crops. We wouldn’t be able to grow crops. The pests, the insects would just destroy everything. And these windmills, what happens is that the bats get near the tip and it creates a vortex, a vacuum, and they explode. And birds die, bats die. It kills so many winged animals every day. So…anyway. That’s just my thing about wind.

Erik (M): It’s because they look like a giant propeller. There are ways and humans will figure it out.

Elisa: They need to encase it in a cage or something.

Erik (M): They can be encased in a cage and instead of it being this one giant propeller, you can have smaller propellers down a column, have that encased and that will still… it looks like a corkscrew.

Elisa: Hmm. Good idea. Ok. Go on. What other good directions? What other right directions can we take technology in? Or should we be taking them in?

Erik (M): Mom, there’s just too many. That would be a whole ‘nuther…

Elisa: Ok. Give me 5. Give me 3. Give me 3.

Erik (M): Electricity can obviously go, or partial electricity can go solar. There are ways that hydroelectricity can be generated if they were to create the technology to through… let’s say city water lines.

Elisa: Oh! Wow!

Erik (M): Instead of damning up rivers.

Elisa: Yeah!

Erik (M): With the amount of water people use in the city or suburb, or whatever you want to call it, if they could affix a way to collect hydropower from the water traveling through those pipes…

Elisa: I bet they could! Yeah!

Erik (M): That’s something that can be done.

Elisa: And would be done cheaply. Alright. That’s good. Anything, the right technology, our cell phones and Facebooking, and all this kind of stuff. Being addicted to the computer, is there any right direction that we could take that?

Erik (M): That’s going to have to come from the person themselves. And just be responsible.

Elisa: Yeah.

Erik (M): Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to force people to put their phones away, or you’re not going to be able to force people to turn off their tv’s. All he can do is beg people to realize how much it’s cutting them off from other people in the world.

Elisa: So tell me, what a responsible…first of all, tell me is it a physical addiction, psychological addiction, or what? You said it was an addiction.

Erik (M): It’s more of a psychological addiction.

Elisa: Ok well, what is a responsible…what can we do to stop using technology, to stop being tech zombies, to use technology responsibly? And don’t tell me to just close down my computer and put away my cell phone for several months.

Erik (M): No you don’t have to do it for several months, just don’t make it a major part of your day.

Elisa: OK. Can you give us some outlines? Give us some concrete outlines we should follow?

Erik (M): Well, you guys do it there at home Mom. You put the phones away at home at dinner time. Spend time with your family. Turn off the TV, turn off the cell phone, turn off the computer, go outside or sit and talk with a friend where there’s no electronics on. Not a good idea to have TV’s in the bedroom either.

Elisa: Oh no. Nu-uh, no. That can cause all sorts of sleep problems.

Erik (M): Oh yeah! Absolutely. Minimize the use of electronics as much as possible. Obviously it’s there for a reason, a good reason, just don’t be dependent on it.

Elisa: So what do you think is a normal amount of responsible amount of time every day to engage in technology? The phone, the computer, the TV…

Erik (M): It’s going to vary from person to person. Everybody’s life is different.

Elisa: Well, give me a range. Outside of work, we can talk about that later, but outside of work, when you get home.

Erik (M): 30 minutes to an hour.

Elisa: A day? Wow.

Erik (M): A day.

Elisa: Oh my God. (Makes a choking sound with her hand to her throat.)

Michelle: It really makes you think about how disconnected we are.

Elisa: I know! It gave me butterflies in my stomach. I don’t know if I can do that. Ya know? But all the time you…

Erik (M): Exactly! It kills creativity. It kills actual imagination because everything is being done for you, TV shows you’re watching, or the games you’re playing. It just dumbs people down.

Elisa: Ya! So talk to each other, call your Grandma, read a book, things like that instead. Use your brain.

Erik (M): Use your brain.

Elisa: Ok. Go outside.

Erik (M): And learn to use resources other than the phone. Even if it means going… (Michelle adds “you don’t want to do Encyclopedia Britannica”), learn to use sources that are not necessarily electronic.

Elisa: Yeah. Good luck. Go to the library, look up stuff.

Erik (M): Go to the library. Go to…

Elisa: I’m not going to do that Erik. I’m gonna Google, go to Google University to find out things. As long as the information is cited, intuitively seems right, that what I’m gonna do. But maybe that’s what my hour is, not 30 minutes, an hour…but anyway…What about work? Some people have to be, most people have to be probably, have to be on the computer for work.

Michelle: I know.

Erik (M): Well, that’s your livelihood. That’s your income. That’s understandable, as long as you’re not working 18 hours a day.

Elisa: Yeah. So THIS does not count as my hour. My hour today, that’s not it.

Erik (M): No. Mom, you and Michelle are working right now so you’re all good.