Can You Swim..?

[Lady L]

You'd be surprised at the amount of adults I run across that can't swim...:p

( not blacks either :D ) It's summertime so I thought I'd ask...So can ya..?

:ftitanic:

[Loki]

Yes I can, but rarely get the opportunity to indulge these days. :)

[Tabiti]

I can't. Even my swimming trainer left me as hopeless case :D
I know most styles and movements, just water scares me and can't make me relax enough.

[Atlas]

Of course I can, learned it in young age in school, and I go to the swimming pool once or twice a week.

Funny thing when I was in the army, the instructors called the blacks who doesn't know how to swim "the rocks"... :p

[Skandi]

Yes but I learnt as an adult, and I have several friends who can't.

[Phlegethon]

Fortunately I learned how to swim at an pre-school age, but to be honest I only really mastered breaststroke to a competitive level on long distances. I never got into exotic styles like butterfly (called dolphin here), finswimming, corkscrew swimming, oarstroke and such. For some reason I have motoric issues with front crawl.

Due to lack of swimming halls in my area my last swimming ability test was in the army - fully dressed with 50 pounds of equipment and carrying a gun over my head. It went better than I expected.

Actually the inability of millions of Germans to swim has raised a red flag around here. One reason is that swimming is no longer taught school and muslimas usually can opt out anyway. Anyther factor is the very high entrance fee to the few swimming halls and the short time frames they are open to the public - due to the training hours of the many swimming, diving, and water ball clubs.

[Vulpix]

Oh yeah I can. Learnt to as a very small kid.

[Psychonaut]

Due to lack of swimming halls in my area my last swimming ability test was in the army - fully dressed with 50 pounds of equipment and carrying a gun over my head. It went better than I expected.

:thumbs up

My unit does these things every few months. They'll blind fold us and push us off of a diving board into the water while we're wearing all of our gear and holding a rifle. Good times. :D

[Tabiti]

Blame my father, he almost drowned me few times (+1 or two times it was done by myself trying to learn) when learning me swimming...

[Electronic God-Man]

Yes, I can swim. I took lessons when I was young.

I remember my maternal grandmother was horrified to even go near the water. My brother and I managed to get her to walk into the kiddie end of the public swimming pool. I can't remember, but either her or one of her friends had nearly drowned when they were young.

[Osweo]

Aye, reasonably well. I've swam across sizeable lakes. I'm not fast though. I hate swimming indoors though, and far prefer the sea or lakes and rivers. And naked, naturally. :P

I learnt when I was about eight or so, on holiday in Portugal where we stayed in a villa with a pool. I'd had lessons at school, but they weren't much use - just a kind of way of filling out the 'activities' offered, messing about with floats and never really getting to try the real thing.

Never really had any problems, except in the Air Cadets when we did 'Adventure Training' up in the wilds of Cumberland. We swam across Brotherswater, and a lot of us got cramp halfway! We just lay on our backs for a bit to recover, and then carried on.

Being rather shortsighted, it's a bit annoying that I can't wear my glasses swimming. I go into a kind of blurry pastel world of my own, oblivious to who's around me. :D

[Phlegethon]

You'd be surprised at the amount of adults I run across that can't swim...:p

If you run across them how can you know they can't swim?

Is that you?

http://www.allthesea.com/img/deep-sea-diving-02.jpg

[Lady L]

If you run across them how can you know they can't swim?

Is that you?

http://www.allthesea.com/img/deep-sea-diving-02.jpg

Haha You are one of the funniest people I have run across...;):D

If thats me I'm not aware....:coffee:

[The Lawspeaker]

Every Dutchman knows how to swim. At least my generation and the one of my father- and grandfather did because swimming lessons were mandatory. Although when I was around the age that I would gotten those mandatory swimming lessons they were cut short because of cutbacks by the government and I only got my "A Diploma" years later- at 17.

http://www.zwemschool.net/diploma.JPG

But even without a "Diploma" I knew how to save myself. I am considering to go for "B" and "C" one day. I think that swimming lessons should be compulsory again- this country is so full of water that if you don't know how to swim you might find yourself in trouble one day !

[Treffie]

Yes. Learned as a kid and joined a swimming club which was brilliant. When I was 12, I moved up to competition level and managed to qualify for the selection process to represent Wales for the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in 1986 aged 15, but there were so many much stronger swimmers than myself, I failed to qualify. :( To train for a swimming competition is a real killer - had to swim up to 25 miles per week, and getting up at 4.30 in the morning wasn't my thing either!

Still swimming quite a bit these days - up to 3 miles per week when I get the chance and I'm surprised that I'm not going bald with all the chlorine in the water and for the length of time that I've been swimming. :thumb001:

[Phlegethon]

this country is so full of water that if you don't know how to swim you might find yourself in trouble one day !

My thoughts exactly. One day the Netherlands will be given back to the Sea. Beforehand we should thoroughly select who will get swimming lessons and who won't. ;)

[The Lawspeaker]

My thoughts exactly. One day the Netherlands will be given back to the Sea. Beforehand we should thoroughly select who will get swimming lessons and who won't. ;)

;) Hehehe nice try, oosterbuur.
No- this country- like parts of Northern Germany, would be in a pretty perilous state if it wasn't for the dikes. We will need some places for excess storage too so we will get even more water.
If a child or adult would go swim there and get in trouble- there isn't always someone to help them out.

My worst fear when I was a child was not drowning in the sea (for some weird reason, even though I was living less then 2 times away from it and it could storm severely) but falling in a canal (especially at night). I still avoid walking directly next to canals at night for some reason.

http://cdn.fotocommunity.com/photos/15656945.jpg
Stuff like this for instance-- I love canals and water but I can't look at this picture without some "cold hand touching my throat" LOL

[Phlegethon]

Boo!

http://www.mynetcologne.de/~nc-waltergu4/wal_film/sonst/Der_Schrecken_vom_Amazonas02.jpg

[The Lawspeaker]

Boo!

http://www.mynetcologne.de/%7Enc-waltergu4/wal_film/sonst/Der_Schrecken_vom_Amazonas02.jpg


No- my fear was of falling into a canal (and most certainly in those days they weren't clean !) and drowning or getting dirty water in my lungs.

[Aemma]

Yep. Took lessons as a kid. My mom couldn't swim but my dad could. We had a river-front cottage when I was a young child and during my later childhood, we had a pool in the backyard at home. My hubby's family's cottage is lakeside. Water is everywhere in my part of Canada and has factored into my idea of a pleasurable summer since dot. My city has two main rivers that run through it, not including the Rideau Canal. I think I would seriously go crazy to not be within a short distance from water, no matter the size of said body of water. I've even been known to jump into kiddie pools during our hot sultry summers. I LOVE WATER!!! Must be in the blood. :frog0000: ;)

[Frigga]

Yes, I can swim! :D

I learnt how when I was about 5, and took swimming lessons until I was about 11 in the summertime.

[Lars]

Jup. One of my spare time activities, I had as a kid, was swimming. It was on my school schedule for two whole years aswell.
I have no idea how many Danes who cannot swim, but I’d be stupid not to have learnt it, because you cannot be further away than 52 kilometres from water. :D
I learnt it from a very early age and baby swimming is very popular to do.

[Osweo]

My mom couldn't swim
My Mam's better than your Mom...
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/754/img047.jpg
:p

[Birka]

Yes, learned as a young kid, our local town gave swimming lessons to all the kids at a local lake. I actually did a triathlon about 15 years ago and swam a fairly fast 1/2 mile leg, before the run and bike. In high school days, my cousin and myself used to swim across a small lake and back, probably over 1 mile each way. Swimming is one of the best workouts there is.


Hey, this was my 500th post!

[Cato]

Owing to an incident in my teens, in which I nearly drowned, I have been deathly afraid of swimming ever since. I'm a true, bonafide landlubber.

[Ladejarlen]

Yes, we learned in school:)

[Jägerstaffel]

http://aejmc.org/talk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/phelps.jpg

Even better than this guy.

I swim at least once a week when the weather permits.

[jerney]

Yeah I can, but I didn't learn until I was 8 or so. I was really fearful of the water because I fell into a pool at the age of two and was resuscitated after I was found motionless at the bottom. I don't mind pools and will go into the ocean as long I can stand with my head above water, but I'm still terrified of deep waters like rivers and lakes and refuse to swim in them.

[SwordoftheVistula]

I learned when I was real young. Since adulthood, I only go swimming maybe once/year

[Sally]

Yes, I know how to swim. In fact, I'm more comfortable in the water than out of it. I used to swim a lot as a child, and my family always joked that I was really a mermaid. My blonde hair used to turn green from the chlorine in the pool, adding an air of authenticity to their claims. ;)

http://i43.tinypic.com/11l7q6d.jpg

[Sol Invictus]

We do routine water safety training at my school so yes I swim well and I enjoy it. Keeps me from keeling over after all my smoking. :rolleyes:

[Elveon]

Yes I can! As often as possible, when my agenda allows it, I go to the swimming pool (at least three times per week) and I like it; I swim like a fish:D...My other sport is boxing:thumb001:, and I like it too,I only practice two times a week because I lack of time:(

[Phlegethon]

My blonde hair used to turn green from the chlorine in the pool,

Mine too. Look:

http://maskworld.scene7.com/is/image/maskworld/105156-joker-maske-mask-batman?$fullsize$

[Absinthe]

I was taught how to swim when I was a pre-schooler, a skill like that comes in handy in a country like Greece :D

For the adults that can't swim, I can totally justify that if they live in a mainland province and do not visit the sea often (or not at all). :)

[Sally]

Mine too. Look:

http://maskworld.scene7.com/is/image/maskworld/105156-joker-maske-mask-batman?$fullsize$

Well, mine wasn't quite so Jokeresque. I did have to use a special shampoo, though, to remove the taint that looked like moldy seaweed. ;)

[Útrám]

It's an Island nation, the economy is dependant on aquaculture and fishing, swimming pools are very popular and cost next to nothing; naturally almost everyone can swim. Every single elementary class has swimming lessons in it's curriculum. It's a naturally demanded skill among us island apes.

[Amarantine]

Yes. But don't like to torture myself with some sportish styles, usually use just "female-frog" style and when I'm outside of coastal area (and other swimmers) I just relaxing and watching the sky or close my eyes and listen waves and gulls.

[HawkR]

Yes, but I can't dive, even though I'm learning it atm. I know the so-called butterfly (I think at least) and the olympic style:P Otherwise I'm training myself on diving as mentioned, and some navy-seals consept, pretending to have both hands and legs tied up.

[Amarantine]

Yes, but I can't dive, even though I'm learning it atm. I know the so-called butterfly (I think at least) and the olympic style:P Otherwise I'm training myself on diving as mentioned, and some navy-seals consept, pretending to have both hands and legs tied up.

diving is not my choice really, usually here everyone makes jokes on my account, becouse of it.

[Lady L]

Well, it seems pretty much all of us but 1 so far will not sink if we get thrown in :p I learned to swim at a cousin's pool, I started going there at about 8 years old. I went very often and even my mom would take me and Lyfing swimming there when we were 11 and 12 :D I bet we were cute then too! Of course at that time we were more like best friends ( ever seen that movie My Girl ) ;)

Anyway, I knew how to swim for a good while before I would go off to the deep end to really try :D ( I was about 9 ) I had went to my cousin's pool and this time my Aunt took me and I had the courage to go to the deep end and swim and I did it! I remember coming home so excited to tell my mom because she had been trying to get me in the deep end for a while! She was a little sad she missed my first swim in the deep end! :D

I can't see under water when I open my eyes, its all just a blur, so I don't do that. I also don't like swimming under water ( which I'm best at ) without goggles :p I know, how silly I must look :D So I only do that when there aren't to many people around. :D

Our pool just opened yesterday and the kids are still away so I'm waiting on them to go..but last summer we spent so much time there my son was swimming very well in the deep. So I can say he learned to swim at the age of 6. And, Rachel well she has to have her little floaties and is a little iffy on it all still but she has become pretty safe and stable in the shallow end of the pool. :)

I can't dive or anything fancy, my mom could dive beautifully, she tried to teach me but I just don't like the idea of my head hitting the water first. :D So I'm a just jump in type of gal :D

Believe it or not I only swam in the lake two years ago with Lyfing, we didn't live here and it was hot, so we swam off a boat dock and the next time we went back there was a no swimming sign :D I don't swim in the ocean either, its just to big and I feel it might swallow me. :p I will walk into it a bit though...

:)

[Phlegethon]

Oh, I can dive faster than most folks can swim. Also was able to stay under water for slightly over 2 minutes as a teenager. Probably had to do with me not being a smoker. My lung volume is still pretty good, what everyone who gets shouted down by me can testify. ;)

[Svarog]

yeah, learned as very young, have a small pool in the back yard when i was a kid, 10x2 maybe, for a kid it is like an ocean, i am a terrible one tho

[Phlegethon]

Terrible swimmer or terrible kid? ;)

[Svarog]

unfortunately - both

[Phlegethon]

Thought so.

[Barreldriver]

I can swim, and I can go for a decent amount of time swimming under water, the deepest I've gotten was 12 ft., that was the bottom of the pool before it was bulldozed in. Basically I'd swim to the bottom, and chill for however long my lungs would allow, and swim around like a cat fish. :P

[Inese]

Yes i can swim i learned swimming at swimming bath and later in Baltic sea ----- my town was not far away from the Baltic sea and we often drove there in summer to bath and have fun!!!:thumbs up Water is always a little cold but we are Nordic we get over it lol! :D ^_^

[Allenson]

Sure, I can swim. I had to save my own life once by swimming. :cool:


Aye, reasonably well. I've swam across sizeable lakes. I'm not fast though. I hate swimming indoors though, and far prefer the sea or lakes and rivers.


Yep, lakes are far better than pools in my opinion. There's a large lake not far from the family home & the township has a public beach--which was a frequent hangout for us kids in the summer.

Here it is:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2842893721_90d5cc6677_b.jpg


Nothing like a dip on a hot summer's day! :)

[Psychonaut]

Yep, lakes are far better than pools in my opinion.

Lakes are nice for boating, but swimming in 'em creeps me the Hell out. I don't know why, but I've got a mild phobia of swimming in any kind of water where I can't see the bottom, especially murky water. I've probably just read way too much of Lovecraft's work, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something in the depths of the lake that's gonna get me.

[Skandi]

Interesting posts, I hate swimming pools, They stink and are full of people, but I love swimming in the sea or rivers.

[Lady L]

Well, it seems pretty much all of us but 1 so far will not sink if we get thrown in :p I learned to swim at a cousin's pool, I started going there at about 8 years old. I went very often and even my mom would take me and Lyfing swimming there when we were 11 and 12 :D I bet we were cute then too! Of course at that time we were more like best friends ( ever seen that movie My Girl ) ;)

Anyway, I knew how to swim for a good while before I would go off to the deep end to really try :D ( I was about 9 ) I had went to my cousin's pool and this time my Aunt took me and I had the courage to go to the deep end and swim and I did it! I remember coming home so excited to tell my mom because she had been trying to get me in the deep end for a while! She was a little sad she missed my first swim in the deep end! :D

I can't see under water when I open my eyes, its all just a blur, so I don't do that. I also don't like swimming under water ( which I'm best at ) without goggles :p I know, how silly I must look :D So I only do that when there aren't to many people around. :D

Our pool just opened yesterday and the kids are still away so I'm waiting on them to go..but last summer we spent so much time there my son was swimming very well in the deep. So I can say he learned to swim at the age of 6. And, Rachel well she has to have her little floaties and is a little iffy on it all still but she has become pretty safe and stable in the shallow end of the pool. :)

I can't dive or anything fancy, my mom could dive beautifully, she tried to teach me but I just don't like the idea of my head hitting the water first. :D So I'm a just jump in type of gal :D

Believe it or not I only swam in the lake two years ago with Lyfing, we didn't live here and it was hot, so we swam off a boat dock and the next time we went back there was a no swimming sign :D I don't swim in the ocean either, its just to big and I feel it might swallow me. :p I will walk into it a bit though...

:)

Thanks for thanking me FS :) :D ;) I'm sure Lyfing will too once he has time. :wink

[Äike]

I can swim, I don't know anyone who couldn't.

[Lady L]

I can swim, I don't know anyone who couldn't.

You must not know anyone black :laugh:

[Phlegethon]

I doubt there are a lot of them in Estonia, with the exception of the staff of the corps diplomatique. And I guess most of them can swim.

[Lady L]

I doubt there are a lot of them in Estonia, with the exception of the staff of the corps diplomatique. And I guess most of them can swim.

Yea I doubt many are in Estonia too...that's why it was a joke ... (laugh here)

:LOL:

[Aemma]

Lakes are nice for boating, but swimming in 'em creeps me the Hell out. I don't know why, but I've got a mild phobia of swimming in any kind of water where I can't see the bottom, especially murky water. I've probably just read way too much of Lovecraft's work, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something in the depths of the lake that's gonna get me.

:D I can understand that. Our lake at the cottage is clear but you can't see the bottom. It's funny. At the beginning of every season, those of us that like to swim (the majority of us) all go down to the end of the dock and just look down into the water. :D We all have a bit of trepidation..never know if some minnow or sunfish wants a piece of us after a long winter. ;) But what we usually do, kids and adults alike, is line up side-by-side count to three and jump in! Most of us do! There's always the odd one that chickens out. ;)

I love our lake...it's the best place in the world to swim. It's small and spring-fed and no motor boats are allowed (longstanding code agreed to by fellow cottagers). During our hot sultry dog-days of summer, the lake's water temperature becomes so ambient that it feels like you're floating in bath water. During those hot days, you find the cool water pockets; during cooler days, you look for the hot ones. :) I'm at my happiest and most peaceful floating on my back and looking up into the big blue sky, seeing the tips of pine trees swaying in the breeze, hearing muffled echoes of laughter and splashes occurring above water. Sheer bliss. :)

Our lake is also the gathering area for us women to tread water and catch up: me, my sister in-law and my nieces. My son and nephews, and grand-nephews of course come to bother us, but it's all part of the fun. Tolleson and his brother are generally too chicken most days to come into the lake. :P I guess they had their fill when they were kids. Tolleson's parents don't swim. But there we, the women, are just a-bobbing in the water watching the resident loon family (no, not us but the actual fowl!) dive-swim-fish on by and chatting about our lives and what-not. :) A gathering of mermaids. :)

Sheer heaven on earth, this lake is magical I tell ya. :)

[Lyfing]

I'm a pretty good swimmer. When I was a boy my Momma took me to the lake a lot. I would always wear my shoes, and look at the sticks at the bottom to make sure they weren't snakes. To this day I look at the ground out in the woods and the sticks look like snakes..:lightbul:

...


Certain imprints impressed upon the nervous system in the
plastic period between birth and maturity are the source of many
of the most widely known images of myth. Necessarily the same
for all mankind, they have been variously organized in the differing
traditions, but everywhere function as potent energy releasers and
directors.

The first indelible imprints are those of the moment of birth
itself. The congestion of blood and sense of suffocation experienced
by the infant before its lungs commence to operate give rise to a
brief seizure of terror, the physical effects of which (caught breath,
circulatory congestion, dizziness, or even blackout) tend to recur,
more or less strongly, whenever there is an abrupt moment of
fright. So that-the birth trauma, as an archetype of transformation,
floods with considerable emotional effect the brief moment of loss
of security and threat of death that accompanies any crisis of
radical change. In the imagery of mythology and religion this birth
(or more often rebirth) theme is extremely prominent; in fact,
every threshold passage not only this from the darkness of the
womb to the light of the sun, but also those from childhood to
adult life and from the light of the world to whatever mystery of
darkness may lie beyond the portal of death is comparable to a
birth and has been ritually represented, practically everywhere,
through an imagery of re-entry into the womb. This is one of those
mythological universals that surely merit interpretation, rather
from a psychological than from an ethnological point of view.

The water image in mythology is intimately associated with this
motif, and the goddesses, mermaids, witches, and sirens that often
appear as guardians or manifestations of water (wells, water
courses, youth-renewing caldrons), Ladies of the Lake and other
water nixies, may represent either its life-threatening or its life-
furthering aspect.

The Late Classical story of Actaeon, for example, as rendered
in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 10 tells of a hunter, a vigorous youth in
the prime of his young manhood, who, when stalking deer with his
dogs, chanced upon a stream that he followed to its source, where
he broke upon the goddess Diana bathing, surrounded by a galaxy
of naked nymphs. And the youth, not spiritually prepared for such
a supernormal image, had only the normal look in his eye; where-
upon the goddess, perceiving this, sent forth her power and trans-
formed him into a stag, which his own dogs then immediately
scented, pursued, and tore to bits.

On the simple level of a typical Freudian reading, this mythical
episode represents the prurient anxiety of a small boy discovering
Mother; but according to a more sophisticated, "sublimated" vein
of reference, more appropriate to the post-Alexandrian atmosphere
of Ovid's elegant art, Diana was a manifestation of that goddess-
mother of the world whom we have already met as Queen Isis, and
who, as she herself has told us, was known to the cultures of the
Mediterranean under many names. The case, surely, is that of an
upddhi: an inferior object (mother image) serving as symbol of a
superior (the mystery of life). Meditating, we may emphasize the
superior, in which case we are performing what in India is termed
sampad upasana, "accomplished, or perfected, meditation"; or
we may emphasize the inferior, which is termed adhyasa upasana,
"superimposed, or false, meditation." The first elevates to the
supernormal; the second leaves one about as Actaeon: to be
psychoanalyzed, finally, to bits and returned to the womb.

At her greatest temple city in Asia Minor, at Ephesus (where, in
A.D. 431, the Virgin Mary would be declared to have been truly
"the Godbearer"), the great goddess, the mother of all things, was
represented as Artemis (Diana) with a multitude of breasts. In-
numerable figurines, furthermore, of naked goddesses (or rather,
in the spirit of her own perfected teaching, we should say, of the
Naked Goddess) have been found throughout the excavated ruins
of the ancient world. As Heinrich Zimmer observed in his com-
mentary on a Hindu version of her story:

If one inquires to know her ultimate origin, the oldest textual
remains and images can carry us back only so far, and permit
us to say: "Thus she appeared in those early times; so-and-so
she may have been named; and in such-and-such a manner
she seems to have been revered." But with that we have come
to the end of what can be said; with that we have come to the
primitive problem of her comprehension and being. She is the
primum mobile, the first beginning, the material matrix out of
which all comes forth. To question beyond her into her ante-
cedents and origin, is not to understand her, is indeed to mis-
understand and underestimate, in fact to insult her. And any-
one attempting such a thing well might suffer the calamity that
befell that smart young adept who undertook to unveil the
veiled image of the Goddess in the ancient Egyptian temple of
Sais, and whose tongue was paralysed forever by the shock
of what he saw. According to the Greek tradition the Goddess
has declared of herself: oiiScts tyw irlirXov dmAc, "no one has
lifted my veil." It is a question not exactly of the veil, but of
the garment that covers her female nakedness the veil is a
later misinterpretation for the sake of decency. The meaning
is: I am the Mother without a spouse, the Original Mother;
all are my children, and therefore none has ever dared to
approach me; the impudent one who should attempt it shames
the Mother and that is the reason for the curse. 11

In the tale of Actaeon we have this same religious themo
rendered in a comparable image. "And though Diana would fain
have had her arrow ready," Ovid tells us, "what she had she took
up, the water, and flung it into the young man's face. And as she
poured the avenging drops upon his hair, she spoke these words,
foreboding his coming doom: 'Now you are free to tell that you
have seen me unrobed if you can tell.' " 12

The water is the vehicle of the power of the goddess; but
equally, it is she who personifies the mystery of the waters of birth
and dissolution whether of the individual or of the universe. For
in the vein of myth the elemental mode of representation may
alternate with that of personification. At the opening of the Book
of Genesis is it not written, for example, that "the Spirit [or wind]
of God was moving over the face of the waters"? Water and wind,
matter and spirit, life and its generator: these pairs of opposites are
fused in the experience of life; and their world-creating juncture
may be represented elementally, as in this opening of the Bible,
or on the other hand, as in the art of the Tantric Buddhism, in the
image of a divine male and female in sexual embrace. The
mystery of the origin of the "great universe" or macrocosm is
read in terms of the procreation of the "little universe," the micro-
cosm; and the amniotic fluid is then precisely comparable to the
water that in many mythologies, as well as in the pre-Socratic
philosophy of the Greek sage Thales of Miletus (c. 640-546 B.C.),
represents the elementary substance of all things.

This manner of homologizing the personal and the universal,
which is a basic method of mythological discourse, has made it
possible for Freudian psychoanalysts, whose training in the lan-
guage of symbols has been derived from a study primarily of
neurotics, to translate the whole cultural inheritance of mankind
back into nursery rhymes. But the problem of the neurotic is,
precisely, that instead of accomplishing the passage of the difficult
threshold of puberty, dying as infant to be reborn as adult, he has
remained with a significant fraction of his personality structure
fixed in the condition of dependency. Rejecting emotionally the
reorganization of his childhood imprints through the myths and
rites of a maturely functioning community, he can read the picture
language of his civilization only in terms of the infantile source^ of
its developed and manipulated figures; whereas in the mythology
and rites these have been applied to a cultural and simultaneously
metaphysical context of allusions. Freud theoretically devaluated
such culturally and philosophically inspired repatternings, terming'
them mere "secondary elaborations" which is perhaps appro-
priate when the case in question is the nightmare of some forty-
year-old sub-adolescent, weeping on a couch. But in the reading
of myth such a reductive method commits us to the monotony of
identifying in every symbolic system only the infantile sources of
its elements, neglecting as merely secondary the historical problem
of their reorganization: pretty much as though an architect, view-
ing the structures of Rome, Istanbul, Mohenjo-Daro, and New
York, were to content himself with the observation that all are of
brick. In the present chapter we are examining bricks. Hereafter we
may take bricks for granted and concern ourselves with their em-
ployment. For, as a Jungian friend of mine once epitomized the
problem: "It is the predicament of the neurotic that he translates
everything into the terms of infantile sexuality; but if the doctor
does so too, then where do we get?"

The state of the child in the womb is one of bliss, actionless
bliss, and this state may be compared to the beatitude visualized
for paradise. In the womb, the child is unaware of the alternation
of night and day, or of any of the images of temporality. It should
not be surprising, therefore, if the metaphors used to represent
eternity suggest, to those trained in the symbolism of the infantile
unconscious, retreat to the womb.

The fear of the dark, which is so strong in children, has been
said to be a function of their fear of returning to the womb: the
fear that their recently achieved daylight consciousness and not
yet secure individuality should be reabsorbed. In archaic art, the
labyrinth home of the child-consuming Minotaur was repre-
sented in the figure of a spiral. The spiral also appears spon-
taneously in certain stages of meditation, as well as to people going
to sleep under ether. It is a prominent device, furthermore, at the
silent entrances and within the dark passages of the ancient Irish
kingly burial mound of New Grange. These facts suggest that a
constellation of images denoting the plunge and dissolution of
consciousness in the darkness of non-being must have been em-
ployed intentionally, from an early date, to represent the analogy
of threshold rites to the mystery of the entry of the child into the
womb for birth. And this suggestion is reinforced by the further
fact that the paleolithic caves of southern France and northern
Spain, which are now dated by most authorities circa 30,000-
10,000 B.C., were certainly sanctuaries not only of hunting magic
but also of the male puberty rites. A terrific sense of claustrophobia,
and simultaneously of release from every context of the world
above, assails the mind impounded in those more than absolutely
dark abysses, where darkness no longer is an absence of light but
an experienced force. And when a light is flashed to reveal the
beautifully painted bulls and mammoths, flocks of reindeer, trotting
ponies, woolly rhinos, and dancing shamans of those caves, the
images smite the mind as indelible imprints. It is obvious that the
idea of death-and-rebirth, rebirth through ritual and with a fresh
organization of profoundly impressed sign stimuli, is an extremely
ancient one in the history of culture, and that everything was done,
even in the period of the paleolithic caves, to inspire in the
youngsters being symbolically killed a reactivation of their child-
hood fear of the dark. The psychological value of such a "shock
treatment" for the shattering of a no longer wanted personality
structure appears to have been methodically utilized in a time-
tested pedagogical crisis of brainwashing and simultaneous re-
conditioning of the IRMs, for the conversion of babes into men,
dependable hunters, and courageous defenders of the tribe.

The concept of the earth as both bearing and nourishing mother
has been extremely prominent in the mythologies both of hunting
societies and of planters. According to the imagery of the hunters,
it is from her womb that the game animals derive, and one dis-
covers their timeless archetypes in the underworld, or dancing
ground, of the rites of initiation those archetypes of which the
flocks on earth are but temporal manifestations sent for the
nourishment of man. Comparably, according to the planters, it is
in the mother's body that the grain is sown: the plowing of the
earth is a begetting and the growth of the grain a birth. Further-
more, the idea of the earth as mother and of burial as a re-entry
into the womb for rebirth appears to have recommended itself to
at least some of the communities of mankind at an extremely early
date. The earliest unmistakable evidences of ritual and therewith of
mythological thought yet found have been the grave burials of
Homo neanderthalensis, a remote predecessor of our own species,
whose period is perhaps to be dated as early as 200,000-75,000
B.C. 13 Neanderthal skeletons have been found interred with supplies
(suggesting the idea of another life), accompanied by animal
sacrifice (wild ox, bison, and wild goat), with attention to an east-
west axis (the path of the sun, which is reborn from the same
earth in which the dead are placed) , in flexed position (as though
within the womb), or in a sleeping posture in one case with a
pillow of chips of flint. 14 Sleep and death, awakening and resur-
rection, the grave as a return to the mother for rebirth; but whether
Homo neanderthalensis thought the next awakening would be
here again or in some world to come (or even both together) we
do not know.

So much, then, for the imagery of birth.

Primitive Mythology, by Joseph Campbell pages 62-67

...


40. The Langobardi, by contrast, are distinguished by the fewness of their numbers. Ringed round as they are by many mighty peoples, they find safety, not in obsequiousness but in battle and its perils. After them come the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suarini and Nuitones behind their ramparts of rivers and woods. There is nothing particularly noteworthy about these people in detail, but they are distinguished by a common worship of Nerthus, or Mother Earth. They believe that she interests herself in human affairs and rides through their peoples. In an island of Ocean stands a sacred grove, and in the grove stands a car draped with a cloth which none but the priest may touch. The priest can feel the presence of the goddess in this holy of holies, and attends her, in deepest reverence, as her car is drawn by kine. Then follow days of rejoicing and merry-making in every place that she honours with her advent and stay. No one goes to war, no one takes up arms; every object of iron is locked away; then, and then only, are peace and quiet known and prized, until the goddess is again restored to her temple by the priest, when she has had her fill of the society of men. After that, the car, the cloth and, believe it if you will, the goddess herself are washed clean in a secluded lake. This service is performed by slaves who are immediately afterwards drowned in the lake. Thus mystery begets terror and a pious reluctance to ask what that sight can be which is allowed only to dying eyes.

Germania, chapter 40

Hail Frigga..!!

Later,
-Lyfing

[Tony]

Interesting posts, I hate swimming pools, They stink and are full of people,
Stink?I love that strong chlorine perfume , reminds me when as a kid I attended swimming pools , it was funny.
But I really learned to swim with my dad , he used the same tactics for biking , up in the sea he told me "now swim , don't be scared , move you arms and I will hold you by the feet" , I begun to swim and did it for a lot before noticing he wasn't holding me at all ;)

I don't like competitive swimming thou , I prefer to swim in the long distance , I can do miles with no difficulty at all , I feel very serene and tranquil in the water even if , I admit , sometimes I feel the same fear as Psychonaut , it's a bit disturbing not being able to see in the underwater , sometimes I image there's an octopus or a giant squid down there :rolleyes:

[Allenson]

Lakes are nice for boating, but swimming in 'em creeps me the Hell out. I don't know why, but I've got a mild phobia of swimming in any kind of water where I can't see the bottom, especially murky water. I've probably just read way too much of Lovecraft's work, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something in the depths of the lake that's gonna get me.

The water is reasonably clear in the lake I was referring to--on sunny days, one can see the bottom at about twenty feet or so. But still, I know what you mean.

As kids we would of course try to scare each other--swimming under water and grabbing each other's legs, tales of seeing some creature lurking in the weedy depths, etc. :lightbul:

In truth, about the only thing in the lakes around here that could do any damage to a person would be a snapping turtle. They're rather beastly old things.

I've seen big ones before (over two feet long) and just like this dude below, they are all covered in waving algae:

http://www.chelydra.org/swimming_snapping_turtle.jpg



They've got some hefty jaws on them, that's for darn sure:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/63200666_0d882e7f09.jpg

[Allenson]

Here's the latest sighting of Champ--our very own local version of the Loch Ness Monster that supposedly resides in the 107 mile long Lake Champlain in western Vermont/eastern New York state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT49LQMxthg

Speaking of which--I actually went swimming in Loch Ness last fall just to say I'd done it. ;)

[Rainraven]

Sure I can swim, if that's what you want to call it when I put on my bikini and splash about in the shallows ;)

Naaah, I learnt to swim as a kid, I doubt there'd be many kids in New Zealand that can't swim. Most children grow up at beaches, get swimming lessons and it's part of our school curriculum up until the age of 14. In saying that I'm not as strong swimmer as I used to be and I am basically reduced to splashing and the occasional lap or two :D

[Angharad]

I almost drowned when I was two, so my parents made sure that I learned to swim since we lived walking distance from the beach, had a pool and a motor boat.

So, I am a Red Cross certified swimmer.

[Osweo]

Basically I'd swim to the bottom, and chill for however long my lungs would allow, and swim around like a cat fish. :P


I've probably just read way too much of Lovecraft's work, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something in the depths of the lake that's gonna get me.

Am I the first to see the potential link here?

Sod Lovecraft! Even mighty Cthulu knows better than to swim in this bugger's lake:
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=29&pictureid=228:eek::eek::eek:

[Svipdag]

Good question. Maybe, but probably not. I studied swimming at the YMCA in 1951, under a former member of the 1936 Dutch Olympic swimming team. I passed the course with minimal skill and Stefan advised me "Don't fall overboard."

Inasmuch as I was about to go on active duty in the U.S. Navy, this was not exactly comforting. The only time I did any swimming while I was in the Navy was to swim 1/2 mile in circles around a swimming pool, within less than a metre of the edge at all times.

About 10 years later, I swam in the sea at Myrtle Beach, SC . However, when I tried to swim in Lake Norman in NC in 1970, I couldn't do it. I had completely forgotten how. I have heard many times that "You never forget how to swim.":roll eyes Yeah, right.

[Osweo]

Sure I can swim, if that's what you want to call it when I put on my bikini and splash about in the shallows ;)

ahem;

:twwp:

:whistle:

[Black Turlogh]

Aye, it came naturally to me as a boy. I never had to be taught or be given any sort of direction. Just hopped in the water and started swimming like a fish.

[Loxias]

I sure can swim, it's one of my favourite activities/sports. I did a bit of water polo in high school, I wish I could start that again.

[Sabinae]

Yes I can. But I need to train for a couple of weeks to increase resistance and to be able to swim for a longer time. I love the sea and the beach. Whenever I have time, I like going there to clear my mind. The Black Sea shore can get very crowdy in the summer, I appreciate more remote, quiet places.

At four years old, I almost drowned in Slanic's salty, muddy, dark waters. I loved anything liquid(lol-water in any form i mean) even then and i always liked to play in it. But back then I had no idea on how to swim, and I accidentally fell in. I remember the suffocating sensation of the salty water in my throat as I tried to gasp for air. I was trying to get back on surface but I just couldnt, and everything around was dark and my eyes were hurting, I couldnt open them wide, I was just peaking. I was lucky, (like many other times in my life...maybe death is just on my tail)because my grandmother was the only one to notice, and she started screaming... Mom was busy packing cause we were supposed to leave. Everybody was leaving, it was a late afternoon. Nobody was paying attention. It was just grandmother whom started wondering where I went.(May God bless her and keep her sane, healthy and safe, and give her a long life, I love her). So yes, mother jumped in and got me out. I'm a pain.... :P But I love life, so I'm happy I'm still here.

Anyhow, I learned to swim later on. Dad taught me when I was about 7-8 years old, and I learned in the Black Sea waters. It was hard, tiring.... But it was worth it.
I hope to have a home close to some form of water in the future....It just brings me peace. But till then, I will like to travel more... okay..enough ranting... :)

[Grey]

I lived in Galveston as a child. If I grew up not knowing how to swim it would be a miracle.

[Treffie]

Lakes are nice for boating, but swimming in 'em creeps me the Hell out. I don't know why, but I've got a mild phobia of swimming in any kind of water where I can't see the bottom, especially murky water. I've probably just read way too much of Lovecraft's work, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something in the depths of the lake that's gonna get me.

I think that's the fun part of swimming :)

[Loxias]

A lot of my relatives have that too, like you Psychonaut. And I have it a bit.
But I love swimming in lakes, the water feels really good. One thing I loved was to go on the Annecy lake, rent a paddle-boat, go into the middle of the lake, and swim there.
http://www.hautesavoiephotos.com/p1280/annecy_lac_forclaz_1440.jpg

[Sabinae]

Swimming in the lake is different than swimming in the sea indeed, but I didnt find anything frightening there. I swam in Lake Maggiore, Italy, 2 years ago, and it was mighty fine. It was finer even, because not too many ventured to swim as far as I went, and I loved the "being lonely in the middle of the waters" feeling.
http://www.rescoiattolo.com/images/LagoMaggiore.jpg

[Treffie]

A lot of my relatives have that too, like you Psychonaut. And I have it a bit.
But I love swimming in lakes, the water feels really good. One thing I loved was to go on the Annecy lake, rent a paddle-boat, go into the middle of the lake, and swim there.
http://www.hautesavoiephotos.com/p1280/annecy_lac_forclaz_1440.jpg

Lake Annecy? Been there :thumb001:

[Bard]

Yes I'm able to swim, I live not far from the sea :D by the way the sea here is a bit polluted so I prefer swimming in pools or swimming when I go abroad on holiday (the sea of croatia was beautiful and so the one of elba isle in tuscany)

[Hussar]

I can swim since the age of 6.


And actually i'm a semi-professional diver (until 40 mt. of depth). Potential apneist.

The world under the surface is amazing.

[Bard]

Wtf 40 mt. are a lot!
The deepest I ever went was 10m, I was afraid to break my eardrums by going deeper.

[Liffrea]

Well enough not to drown but I find it boring.

[Germanicus]

At the age of 13 i started training with my county swimming club, when i was 16 i was in the top 3 fastest for breast stroke for under 18 yr old class.
My training was 3 mornings before school and 4 times a week in the evenings, this was curtailed when i started work and left school.


http://i339.photobucket.com/albums/n449/ruffusruffcut/030.jpg

[ikki]

Sure. Taken many medals too :p
Really good at back-crawling... and thats by which i finished the 2km? mastery long one anyway :thumbs up :wink

No problem steering big sailing ships thru storms up the wind either, but damnit... i really dont like swimming in water thats way too deep. Yeah.. cthulhu.. :wink



Blame my father, he almost drowned me few times (+1 or two times it was done by myself trying to learn) when learning me swimming...

Traditional technique, toss the kid in the sea... theyll learn.. all the ancestors did :p
A lot drowned as kids tho, and thats why learning to swim is so important :D
? :D
(never mind that the learning and drowning might have been connected somehow)

[Piparskeggr]

Used to swim a lot when I was younger, even took synchronized swimming classes in high school (nice way to see some of the prettier girls in school ;) )

Did the Mile Swim when I was in Boy Scouts.

[Lutiferre]

I used to swim. Now I most likely can't swim.

But if I had to, I could swim.

[ikki]

Wtf 40 mt. are a lot!
The deepest I ever went was 10m, I was afraid to break my eardrums by going deeper.

Just dived a double length... 50 meters.. really awesome to swim along the bottom of the swimmers run

[Loyalist]

I used to be able to swim, and was completely self-taught. However, I injured my knee a few years ago, and can no longer make the necessary movements with that leg.

[Goidelic]

Speaking of swimming I just swam today, so yes I can swim. :);)

[Doer]

I can swim quite well. I'm prone to swimmer's ear, though. When I was young, I'd get it in the shower. :P

I probably should have competed in high school, but the locker rooms skeeved me out, aside from my having been highly anti-social.

I thought that everyone knew how to swim up until this past year. It seems like a kind of Natural thing to me. I mean, it's not necessary to be a powerhouse and know all of the strokes... but being able to go into water and... not drown... seems like a decent evolutionary/life skill.

[Hussar]

Wtf 40 mt. are a lot!
The deepest I ever went was 10m, I was afraid to break my eardrums by going deeper.



Yes, it's alot. It's the max depth allowed by international standards for sportive purposes.

The conventional limit of diving as sport is 40 mt. (even to protect diving Clubs from the risk of legal consequences in case of incidents).

Of course some divers (if in the military) or professionals biologists durin special researches can go much further.

My instructior reached about 70 mt. of depth. (it's very dangerous).

[Loxias]

I did some scuba diving but never went below 20 meters. My mother went to 30. It does indeed get touchy from that deeper on, you can get depth drunkness (or something like that).

[safinator]

I learnt swimming at age 6.

[morski]

Haha I'm morski:D

[leisitox]

I learnt how to swim like 11 years old. I dont like to swim .
If I had to, I could swim but im too weak and I dont last long :D

[billErobreren]

yeah:ohwell:

[Queen B]

Υes. I grew up next to the sea.

[antonio]

I though myself to swim when I started to feel ashamed about not being able (Spaniards are merciless with others failures) at 11 y.o. Unfortunatelly I passed to be almost ashamed on my bad swimming. :D

[Raskolnikov]

You could probably murder me by tossing me in a river or off a dock.

[Incal]

I was born and lived next to the Pacific (such an ironic name) Ocean's shores my whole life so yeah, I'm good at it.

[Sylvanus]

Yes, we can.

[rhiannon]

Yes. Everyone in my family can swim.

[R4ge]

Of course I can. I'm not black.

[Dead Eye]

I can swim from a A to B but i wouldn't call myself the strongest swimmer.