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The Singing Pond
Nov. 29th, 2005 09:07 amThe first morning at Peace Village Science and Spirituality Retreat I remember overhearing a few of the others exclaiming something about their morning walk over...bits and pieces..."...and the Frequency changed! from different areas...startling...beautiful...so strange".
Later in the afternoon I found out just what they meant.
We had a break of a few hours in between workshop sessions and I took the opportunity to take a solo walk around the grounds and get some fresh (albeit brrrcold) air. I went straight for the pond and took a nice walk around it, sitting in various spots to see everything from a different perspective. *breathe*
When I was at the far side, 2 others reached the pond and were talking. One took a chunk of ice and threw it across the pond. My jaw dropped in amazement as the most ethereal and bizarre MUSICAL sound was emitted, increasing in pitch as the ice skimmed gracefully all the way across the frozen surface. After a moment of awed silence I laughed and they did as well. "You heard it over there?" one called. "I certainly did," I yelled, laughing still "That's inSANE!". One of them, Amanda, went to the other side of the pond and threw another piece of ice in the opposite direction. The sound appeared perfectly again, this time decreasing in pitch as it coasted along. (!)I was utterly fascinated and in a state of wonder and awe.
Amanda has experience with bioacoustics in her field and was just as flabbergasted. It became a sort of mission for her to figure out the mystery...layers of ice, air pockets, depth of water...she was obsessed the rest of the weekend. Tried other ponds on the grounds...nothing. Everyone at the retreat experienced it before the end of the weekend and just the mention of it brought on that feeling of amazement.
Later on when envisioning how a virtual peace village should be created on SecondLife, I knew that this Singing Pond phenomena will have to be scripted in somehow. The funny thing is that anyone happening upon it in the virtual world will have a hard time believing it exists in RealLife! But isn't that part of the mystery and wonder now with hybrid spaces... the blurring of real and virtual.:) All is loops, my friend. Truly there will be a time/place 'soon' where we realize we are not sure which pond actually came first...;)
Later in the afternoon I found out just what they meant.
We had a break of a few hours in between workshop sessions and I took the opportunity to take a solo walk around the grounds and get some fresh (albeit brrrcold) air. I went straight for the pond and took a nice walk around it, sitting in various spots to see everything from a different perspective. *breathe*
When I was at the far side, 2 others reached the pond and were talking. One took a chunk of ice and threw it across the pond. My jaw dropped in amazement as the most ethereal and bizarre MUSICAL sound was emitted, increasing in pitch as the ice skimmed gracefully all the way across the frozen surface. After a moment of awed silence I laughed and they did as well. "You heard it over there?" one called. "I certainly did," I yelled, laughing still "That's inSANE!". One of them, Amanda, went to the other side of the pond and threw another piece of ice in the opposite direction. The sound appeared perfectly again, this time decreasing in pitch as it coasted along. (!)I was utterly fascinated and in a state of wonder and awe.
Amanda has experience with bioacoustics in her field and was just as flabbergasted. It became a sort of mission for her to figure out the mystery...layers of ice, air pockets, depth of water...she was obsessed the rest of the weekend. Tried other ponds on the grounds...nothing. Everyone at the retreat experienced it before the end of the weekend and just the mention of it brought on that feeling of amazement.
Later on when envisioning how a virtual peace village should be created on SecondLife, I knew that this Singing Pond phenomena will have to be scripted in somehow. The funny thing is that anyone happening upon it in the virtual world will have a hard time believing it exists in RealLife! But isn't that part of the mystery and wonder now with hybrid spaces... the blurring of real and virtual.:) All is loops, my friend. Truly there will be a time/place 'soon' where we realize we are not sure which pond actually came first...;)
