Aether

i'd say considering that the topic of the soul is so vast it might be an idea to start a new topic for alternate realities the last i read of superstring theory i didnt like it and i dont really agree with your paticular alternate reality theory with ghosts etc. but i'd say that every sperm and egg is a potential different reality. wether they manifest somewhere else or not is another thing. after a first draft of this reply and pontificating on a lot of points im just going to leave off and address a direct comment to me science has explained it as much as it can. these are only descriptions of what is happening not really explanations or definitions . like electromagnetism they cant explain it, only describe its properties. charge is the word we use to define an amount of power. read anything on electricity and it mentions charge.what is charge?.it exists in the opposed atoms that make up electric currents ,so electricity is a product of 2 charges, and these two atomic powers make a third power, but what is charge/power itself?? motion?vibration?but still what causes it in the first place? lets look at what they use to describe electricity. the atom. what makes up the atom ? science says sub atomic particles, neutrons, quarks, leptons, gluons, photons etc. and then of course the now popular search for the higgs boson particle to confirm their new subatomic model theories. say they find the higgs boson. then what? it will enable us to no doubt to understand a little bit more of the universe WE inhabit and build some more advanced stuff, which is all very nice, but then dont you want to know what the higgs boson is made of? whats inside that? then whats inside that which is inside that?? then how does that relate to dark matter and dark energy etc etc. im sure you get my point. do i need to understand how light works to see? or how sound works to hear?? no. i just can. it's not blind faith if its experienced. i experience it everday. when over the course of thousands of years certain humans have experienced esp, telepathy, claravoiyance, astral travel etc.how can you deny they exsist? just because a physicist hasnt written an equation to explain it or built a machine to measure it, doesnt mean it doesnt exsist?? this applys especially to the soul. over the years ive come to find that the more you look at stuff you should realize, that theres always a deeper level when it comes to science and always a higher level when it comes to spirituality.

Ok after ediing my first post i'll just say what youre asking for is impossible... thats a big thing to ask for a non spiritual arguement to what the soul may be??? im not someone whos against people believing in what they want to believe in, but to me aetheism is stupid. theres youre arguement. look around you, the divine is everywhere. Ryuki pretty much summed it up in his non scientific part, and thats the thing,you can only dicuss this in terms of spitritual as youre talking of spirit. there are only two things that actually exsist in the universe - consciousness and energy. wavicles and dual particle pairs support all this. this is the reason science will never know it all, you can not quantify consciousness , soul or spirit. or even energy ...you can say everything is electricity, but electricity cant be broken down or described anymore than saying its power or energy. but just think about that, what is electricity? what is inside electricity? what powers this energy. we will never know. if scientists cant fully explain energy something tangible as such, how will they ever explain consciousness?? our physical bodies are energy at a state that seems solid- our brains are the computer that runs the body through the central nervous system and houses our consciousness. switch off communication from the consciousness and the body will live as a vegetable or just die. reverse the situation and its not the same, consciousness will live on. the ghost in the shell. depending how you think or what you believe ,you hit some semantics (my pet hate - the fact nothings clearly defined in stuff like this) the soul is that ghost that inhibits the body and will live on (forever????) where as the spirit is the life force, or the 'spark' that drives you . you get that from your parents, an original energy combined of both parents, that keeps you going until you die. i think we are a mix of our superconsciousness- that of the soul that inhibits the physical the souls energy body the energy/ spark/spirit given to us by our parents the DNA of our ancestors the influence of the planets and galactic alignments we were born and concieved under our conscious self- the sum of the total of our experiences now in this life its us. every living thing observes and experiences, we are all one consciounsess experiencing itself subjectively. we are 'everything and nothing', the ego is the only thing that stops us being one, but also allows us to experience ourself. the UNI verse.

i obviously agree with ryukis comments on naruto even if anything could approach naruto id be surprised, but for me personally it cant be beat. every aspect of it rules from character design to the music. i think i said before pirates dont - forgive the pun- float my boat. what can beat quirky cool dressed ninjas?? theres other stuff in naruto like in dbz that loosley relates to real martial arts aswell which i like. i think im resigned to the fact i'll never see one piece due to the amount of eps there is, but i'll look forward to your opinion on it if you stick with it ryuki.

strange ginger upset your stomach, its supposed to be good for digestion... my grandad actually chews (probably 1.5 cm) chunks of raw ginger for health i also hate mint type teas they are '' ick''

i dont drink normal tea or coffee (or have butter on any bread- ever ) . in fact ive never had coffee in my life and never intend to. i used to drink bog standard teabag tea ,but never loved it. now here are my usual tipples if i ever indulge in hot beverages jasmine - its subtle but nice and fragrant nettle - tastes like grass but apparently good for the spleen dandelion - also tastes like grass but apparently good for the kidneys honey and lemon ginseng

yeah the whole saiyaman saga was not really the best thing ever but deffinately some classic fights along the way. amongst others picollo vs android 17 always sticks in my mind and i love stuff like when tienshinhan keeps blasting cell with his tri blasts to prevent him from escaping, its not massively epic, but it was just the heart Tien had to keep going, knowing cell could potentially just get out and kill him afterwards. stuff like that makes DB for me... anyway i started watching yu yu hakusho im only half way through it and am enjoying it even though it is a kind of DBZ rip off its still quite good and done in its own unique way. despite my bad exprience with the english dub to keep me going not watching naruto i decided to try bleach... im not decided on it yet im not that many eps into it... and as for one piece i just dont know - pirates just dont grab me, but maybe im just dismissing it because i dont want to have to download nearly 500 episodes

you may not need your dog to die to appreciate hes alive,however some people would, and which everway you look at it, you need a dog in the first place!!. i get your point but i actually meant, that one thing defines another. i think again youre excpecting too much from dbz. the majority of the fights are souless and just about who has the most power. theres no where near as much character development or emotion involved in them as for example -of course- naruto... all you need to know is goku is a magnet for bad dudes and that to get to him they dont care about earthlings dieing so the only one who can save earth is goku. thats it no more no less. its actually funny to think that the strongest humans are actully yamcha and krillin. saying goku doesnt care about the earth isnt true. he sees himself as an honorary human. he let vegeta and picollo live not because he wanted to keep them alive as playthings for his fighting amusement he did it because hes goku. goku wouldnt hurt a fly. unless it hurt something else, his friends or his family. he didnt need to kill them because he had already beat them, and i think somehow sensed they werent totally evil. he even tried to not kill freeza by his own hand , until he was pushed to land a fatal attack. no denying gokus selfish with his thirst for fighting, but i dont think he would do it at the expense of peoples lives. to be brutually honest DBZ peaks at the cell games saga. i dont like the whole buu saga as much as the rest but its still cool, it is what it is.

you need sadness to experience joy and bleakness to observe the light... the situation just adds to the evilness of Buu and the significance of Goku and the z fighters needing to win!!

maybe its how its recorded ? i dare say recording in the 80's wasnt as goosd as now, the new stuff does sound very -like the anime looks - crisp... i can hear the instruments clearly and it sounds very clear, very orchestral and live to me.. dont get me wrong i think the new sore in itself is good, but for me it just doesnt gel with the anime, i guess ive just got the old score ingrained in my brain

sacrilegious talk missing episodes?? better music in kai??? i dont think so i dont have anything against kai, i havent even watched it properly yet, but i just think there was a medium beteween the 2 (z and kai) that could have been met but wasnt. Kai music sounds like last night at the proms!! its too grand and orchestral for me, the orignal music is best- so there ... i like a crisp picture but prefer the feel of the original animation with something like this series... actually this makes way for a new debate @ http://www.japan-legend.com/forum/index.php/topic/5751-old-cell-anime-vs-cg-enhanced-anime/ and another thing i thought kai was going to be 100 eps long its on ep 94 and its towards the end of the cell saga??? how is that going to be all of Z??? comparison of the releazses of dbz

that cgi footage is horrible. the character designs suck. they look too 'real' as if they cgi ied a live action effort, whats the point??? if its cgi they have freedom to expand on the designs and the arrogance of lion was too cheesy. bah .

Naruto- generally speaking i dont mind naruto / shippuden filler BUT naruto filler in Shippuden is a bit too far. DRAGONBALL - oh my dream came true .... upon investigating aquiring Dragonball z in japanese with eng subs (because a good portion of the discs i have are trashed )i found out that it is currently being rereleased in the 'dragon box'in untouched frame format in original japanese with english subs AND with ORIGINAL JAPANESE SOUNDTRACK with english DUB... at last!!! no disrespect to the people that scored it for english transmission, but it was crap compared to the japanese score... this is a big deal because all other releases have been cak, the stupidist of which was the 'dragonball z remastered' where they had the genius idea of cropping the original 4:3 frame to 16:9 by simply chopping characters head and feet off!!!!! . (i think this may also have had my dream audio mix but with a destroyed picture whats the point??) it been released up to ep 168 so far but only thing is all files i find are mkv and i wont bore you again with my predicament with mkv, and to buy on region 1 dvd a volume with about 40 eps are £30-£40 / $30-$40 -kind of annoying when they cost the same in dollars so the exchange rate doesnt work out at all in my favour im stuck as to wether bother to get these... i dont have money to burn and ive seen the series at least 5 times, but at the same time it is one of my favourite anime ever ...

im sure you all know, but i think the fillers have ended... ive only just watched the end of the pain arc the other day ... only words i have for naruto sage mode + naruto / kyubi v pain is holy s**T / freakin awesome -on a par with killer bee v sasuke...dope. having watched the pain arc, all ive got between me n real story line are the by all accounts 20 odd crap fillers . oh well, looks like i wont be seeing any real naruto for a few months same as everyone else has had to wait... i could skip them all and catch up, but i know i'd regret it.

nice. i spy a dinobot and prime's back!!!!!! with a sword or axe??? better be an energy axe

just a side note that when Anime was new to us westerners it was also known as Japanimation...which kind of speaks for itself... yet again its semantics...to anyone outside Japan you say anime and they know what you mean Anime is all things, all genres and animated cartoons seem predominantly somewhat restricted in the genres they present...which is largely down to culture and the producers making the shows. i think this is another factor of what sets apart anime from animated cartoons. I think reimagining's are fine if they exceed the original in some way or can hold there own as a stand alone creation (i watched the A-team movie the other day and was pleasantly surprised that it didnt 100% suck), but otherwise they seem to be cash ins and a nod to the fact that no one can really create anything original and cool anymore- it seems entertainment peaked in the 80's!

in all honesty i cant say it is anime... its not a japanese concept or creation, nor aimed primarily at japanese people or the japanese market... it looks like anime and is animated in a japanese studio but i still wouldnt say it was actually anime in the true sense of the word... say if the simpsons had been animated in japan in a manga style and not korea in the (modified) matt groening style for the past 26 years - would that make it anime???

i think this post is more about your offense of americans using the anime style for their evil marketing purposes yeah the thread titles misleading -its not as if its like the japanese ironman reboot or anything and i totally agree its not anime, but thats a very purist attitude dude to say you have no interest just because a cartoon isnt made in japan... however those character designs look freakin amazing!!!! i cant wait to see it just for some eye candy -although i really do hope it isnt 'kiddiefied' and we get some decent action and stories out of it...it might be just possible as they are surely aware that there is a good following of 20-30 somethings interested in this... if they got a good balance they'll have a hit

this shows me you didnt even need any help on making the right decision BK. you're a good dude.

oh man... move to the UK - our age policy is 16 so you can avoid prison!! but seriously, personally when i was younger i would have gone for no.3..... if its more just lust then its probably not worth the gamble. if it were for lust and i got caught i'd regret it, if it was for true feelings then i wouldnt care of the consequences. 2 does seem the most sensible but how long could you go on like that??i dont think it would be being true to your feelings as if you wanna do it, you wanna do it and it could harm the realtionship. 1 is the sensible option but it really depends how much you care for her and value her friendship only you know the maturity of this girl (and yourself) heres some things to consider: is she a young 16 or an old 16? are you taking her virginity? how does she feel about 'it'? how long have you known her? do you care for her romantically or is it just lust? what about her family? -she might not rat on you for doing it but what if they ever found out in the next 2 years? is it worth it? ethically a 22yrold girl dating a 17 year old guy - i say lucky guy. obviously any older person with a minor (below 16) is wrong. i would call a radical difference in age 10 - 20 years, anything between 1-5 isnt much difference, 5-10 is still ok i think because the age gap isnt so much the problem it just comes down to maturity and outlook on life compatibility. Due to the obvious lust we all have within us at some level, if i was in the mood to indulge in horizontally dancing with a girl i probably would do so with any girl i found attractive aged 18 and upwards- within reason, but relationship wise i really dont think i could connect with someone that young for a serious relationship unless they were mature for their age. as you grow up, it seems you can forget that you are growing up! its ok to have fun with people of any age but what about the rest of life? i dont think that age gaps really matter where love or lust is involved. its just a shame in your case that you have the law to consider.

so over a year and no news? is all hope dead for any new figures ?

oh well, thems the breaks. Dragonball (Z) never really was about character development except for piccollo and vegeta in some kind of small way. it really is just all about fighting, fighting , FIGHTING!!!! this is why i said to me now naruto is better than DB, the fights are awesome aswell as everything else. unfortunately i think it just comes down to that DB is dated and the fights were never as intricate as some other anime. however i still think its cool

now i wouldnt say they're 'really good' or they're 'takaya style' but heres some attempts of mine @ http://www.japan-legend.com/forum/index.php/topic/5463-guyver-pic-movie-guyver/

good call

Great stuff Ryuki - Thanks!! hmmm...yes he doesnt have one but i wonder what colour the Guvyver 3 would be???.... maybe black - like Agitos heart ???

i still wish they would have just reanimated DB Kai. they more or less reanimated it anyway from the old cells just for 16x9 and they obviously tweeked the colour.. why?? some of that old stuff is done by different anime studios and its so blatant in parts, they should have redone it all in the opening credits style with the original music and just used the old dialogue. did anyone see that DBZ special a couple of years back? it looked sweeet, slightly crap story but it looked awesome. i hope if they did pick up guyver again they didnt reanimate from the beginning, it would be like the manga all over again -gets picked up by one company rerelesed then another company releases it n we get no further in the story. the tv series was cool because it redid the oavs and got further in the plot, so any new guyver anime really needs to start where the tv series left off. i neeeeed to see the XD animated!!!!!!!