Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 August 22

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August 22

Tripping in my sleep

When I was about to fall asleep, I felt as thought I tripped on something despite laying down on my bed. I even felt a hard surface below my feet. What is that? TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 15:09, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure, although it reminds me of Exploding head syndrome.

Probably a type of hypnic jerk (but enough about me).  Card Zero  (talk) 15:41, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

That's exactly what it is. Unlike other people, I often seek these out, because if I can facilitate a hypnic jerk, it somehow allows me to enter a deeper state of sleep. Obviously, this is not for everyone, as most people are fearful and anxious when it comes to the feeling and try to avoid it. But I think, in my case, it helps me enter into deeper, more restful sleep states. Viriditas (talk) 20:23, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

See also Hypnagogia. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:59, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

And a subset of the above, the Night hag phenomenon, something I've experienced a few times, where it seems as if something is sitting on your chest and strangling you. Fortunately, I knew about it before experiencing it, so didn't think it was really supernatural once I'd woken, and recognised it immediately on further occurrances.

I've also repeatly felt as if someone was sitting on the bed next to me, even bouncing up and down on one occasion, the feeling of my air mattress deflating (it hadn't), and cats jumping onto the bed and laying down against me – a regular actual experience in a previous house, but here occuring in a house with none. The mind and body can do funny things! I like to think of them as free entertainment. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.209.45 (talk) 18:05, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

Electoral College faithless electors law

Hello. If you go to the U.S. Electoral College faithless elector page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faithless_elector), you can see that Texas is also colored light green. The light green stands, for if I am not mistaken, the invalidity of the vote without a possible fine. But it is my understanding that Texas does not (at least not yet) have a law on possible faithless electors, but I could be wrong. Who's right? Thank you very much. 5.94.86.20 (talk) 15:33, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

This Texas state law was passed on June 18 2023 and made effective immediately. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 14:35, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Is there any (institutionalized) religion, teaching that a material statue is literally a god, and not only represents a (spiritual) god?

HOTmag (talk) 23:55, 22 August 2024 (UTC)

There are too many qualifiers there for this question to have any well-defined answer rather than just a conversation starter:

• institutionalized
• teaching
• material
• statue
• literally (not representationally)
• spiritual
• god

At its core, your question seems to be interested in the most direct ways that established religious systems have attempted to bridge the material–spiritual divide, right?Remsense ‥ 论 01:13, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

I think the Statue of Marduk would qualify, apart from being over 2000 years in the past.  Card Zero  (talk) 03:25, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

In Chinese folk religion, the City God is sometimes seen to be the actual statue enshrined in his yamen. --49.255.185.235 (talk) 04:31, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Correct. This is limited to "folk" religion, which I doubt would be considered religion in other countries. It would be considered folklore. It is not limited to cities. In rural areas, it is common to have a statue on the corner of a lot that is considered a "god" that looks over the lot. I seriously doubt anyone truly believes that a little statue is casting magic over the land in exchange for gifts. But, it is common and if you don't do it, you are weird. 75.136.148.8 (talk) 14:27, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Arguable Shinto does with certain natural objects or phenomena being kami EvergreenFir (talk) 04:47, 23 August 2024 (UTC)

Tokorozawa Doll Memorial Celebration: It describes how a shinto temple offers the Ningyo Kuyosai ceremony to dispose of used dolls, traditional Japanese or Disney: To the left is a makeshift counter and there you can any hand in any doll you want. The dolls will be noted and you will receive a paper slip containing the name of your doll. The soul of the doll thus is transferred to the paper slip which you can place into a wooden box at the pyre. Burning the slip with your doll's name on it will do the same service as ceremonially burning the doll itself.[...] while all the Hello Kitty, Teddy Bear, Snoopy and so on will get unceremoniously dumped into a Tokorozawa city garbage container out of sight. It doesn't matter. By now, the paper slip has taken over the soul of the doll. It will go into the fire and the soul of the doll will thus go to heaven no matter its origin.

--Error (talk) 00:22, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

May I ask what doll heaven is like? Viriditas (talk) 00:32, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

100% Chucky-free. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:51, 30 August 2024 (UTC)

Yes, likely quite a few. See animism. For example, the extant Jewish, Christian, and Islamic proscriptions against idols are popularly believed to be based on their reactionary attitudes to pluralistic religious beliefs, in particular, to animist, pagan belief systems, where the idols, symbols, and in many cases plants and even animals take on literal god-like manifestations. You could start by looking at Hawaiian religion as one of many examples. See aumakua. Viriditas (talk) 00:20, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

Not objecting, but I notice terms like "takes on physical forms", "spirit vehicles", and "manifest". What I mean is, unsurprisingly, no religion seems to have gods that can be destroyed by destroying the god-object.  Card Zero  (talk) 03:54, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

"Destroyed for who?", I suppose would be an operative question. In a sense, the "institutionalized" and "materially-contingent" criteria are at odds with one another—the point of corporations (in the broadest sense) is that they're immortal—it doesn't make organizational sense to treat your god–statue the same way once you've got a church to run and a career to build, so to speak. Dunno if that makes sense. Remsense ‥ 论 04:16, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

For art, any art, to be strictly representational is very unusual in the history of cultures of the world, and it is a comparatively recent and long evolution in (some, mainstream) European art. So your premise, that a statue of a god should by default be expected to solely be a representation of a god, would seem silly on its face to just about everyone in the world for most of history. (Japan as mentioned has a lot of good examples since it's so common in Western media -- other art beyond crafts that are strongly non-representational include suiseki and kabuki.) SamuelRiv (talk) 15:12, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

The film Land of the Pharaohs (1955) imagines ancient Egyptian religion where "There's a marvelous moment when the dead are being taken away from battle in their coffins, and someone says, "Let us hear the gods of Egypt speak." The camera pans over to one of the statues of the gods, and it talks. That's it-the statue talks!" - Martin Scorsese Philvoids (talk) 12:05, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

You neglected to mention the film was made by Howard Hawks, one of the greatest film directors of all time, and whose style was light years ahead of its time and is still relevant today. Whenever I see the name Howard Hawks, I imagine myself doing a deep Japanese bow. It's been 47 years since Hawks died and people like myself still revere him, that's how influential he was. Viriditas (talk) 20:53, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

The first sentence of the first reference I gave says who directed Land of the Pharoahs. Philvoids (talk) 13:40, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Not sure if serious, my dude. I was only joking. Viriditas (talk) 00:21, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

This might become an issue if the statue was constructed out of sacramental bread. Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:51, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

In fact I'm not sure why sacramental bread is not Jesus-shaped, since it is supposed to be literally his body. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:06, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

I know you're joking of course—I think the different ways denominations understand what transpires in the Eucharist to be a great microcosm of the whole history: maybe I'm too undiscerning, but I feel equally receptive to the Catholic "well-defined Aristotelian mystery", the Lutheran "don't ask us how but we believe him when he says it", to the Orthodox "something definite happens but we're not sure what Greek word to use for it" to the Calvinist "definitely just a metaphor" Remsense ‥ 论 09:19, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

There's an extended discussion over at origin of the Eucharist, which I find to be well written and informative. But to save you some trouble: nobody anywhere can make sense of the how and why of sacramental bread as it's deemed a mystery. Viriditas (talk) 09:19, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

"He was talking on the phone, seated at his rather motley-looking desk, filled with family portraits (including me, at the precise moment of receiving a consecrated host with the expression of an expectant cannibal on my face) … " (Pablo Tusset, The Best Thing That Can Happen to a Croissant). -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:09, 31 August 2024 (UTC)

I would that I could see that photograph; I've always wondered about the appearance of the facial expression of an expectant cannibal.  --Lambiam 22:03, 1 September 2024 (UTC)

Not forgetting the Anglicans; "Here's what it says in the Bible, make of it what you will". Alansplodge (talk) 14:48, 3 September 2024 (UTC)

"'Twas God the word that spake it,

He took the bread and brake it;

And what the word did make it;

That I believe, and take it."

As a very wise politician once said. DuncanHill (talk) 22:31, 3 September 2024 (UTC)