Spiritual connection to land

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Possibly, but no other places have been evocative like that for me. And it's not about areas where specific ancestors lived. I've been to those particular towns/villages, and they do not stand out in particular in my mind.

In other words, it's the aesthetics. When I say ancestors I'm referring to your ancestral group. If I dropped you in New Zealand and told you, "Creoda, this land is where your ancestors once walked," you're not looking at towns and villages but rather the land itself. You'd feel a spiritual connection to your Irish ancestors because of the aesthetics but you're not in Ireland. You're in New Zealand.

If it were simply that, I don't think they'd consider it remarkable. What they were talking about was some weird melancholic force or something that overcame them while there. As an aside, my mother said she felt that at Culloden (despite having no Scottish link), but contrastingly at the site of the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire, in the Wars of the Roses which she's always been fascinated by, she felt nothing. Then years later it was discovered that the traditionally thought site was wrong, and the actual battlefield was some distance away.

I suspect it has to do with the drama. Scots have strong emotions over the battle of Culloden. It's central to their history. There is far more to be upset with the battle of Culloden and what came afterward than with a dynastic feud. There are a number of factors that could have touched her heart.
Who was she with? Was there a guide who really put the battle in perspective? I worked at a Scottish restaurant and know how Scots can be about their conflicts with the English. This may have influenced your mother. An assumption of mine, of course. I obviously don't know your mother. Maybe the three of us can get on skype. That would be cool.

Not really, I never said I necessarily believed in it as a paranormal thing. Nor am I religious or care about ghost/demon stories. Just thought it was an interesting topic.

You're showing a tendency towards mysticism just by seriously considering a spiritual connection to land based on ethnicity. What is more likely is that it's is an emotional attachment to what you associate with the land.

You can have an Irish-American who has never been to Ireland arrive and say, "I feel a special connection" while she is there but it's because she's associating it with who she is and who she is good, obviously. If she was adopted and told all her life she was German, then that connection wouldn't be there because she doesn't associate it with herself... or maybe she does because she likes the aesthetics. Ireland is a beautiful country after all.

[Universe]

100% agree! I love commieblocks, always been fascinated with them and wan ted to live in them

[Grace O'Malley]

Two differing ways to relate to the land:

I know if my daughter was lost in the bush I would be very grateful if there was an Aboriginal tracker. They are still used in searching for people here.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-abor...7-deeb48b79ec8

This one is more recent.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/...c0e4bb9b7ae106

[Petalpusher]

Many people say commie blocks are ugly, but I like them. Wouldn't call it a "spiritual connection" though.
Places like this have their own, unique character and look interesting to me.

I think commieblocks are underrated.

It looks exactly like the immigrants suburban ghettos in Paris (and elsewhere). I guess it makes sense since wannabe commies also made them here.


I think everybody believes he has a spirtual connection to where he grew up, it's a deep instinct, like if you lock a cat in a place and feed it for a couple of weeks, it will think it's his home forever. Humans just mythify these instincts with words.

[Creoda]

I think everybody believes he has a spirtual connection to where he grew up, it's a deep instinct, like if you lock a cat in a place and feed it for a couple of weeks, it will think it's his home forever. Humans just mythify these instincts with words.

Not me. That's the opposite of what I'm saying in the OP.

I don't think the idea of ancestral memory is something that can be lightly dismissed.

Neuroscientific research on mice suggests that some experiences can influence subsequent generations. In a 2013 study,[3][4] mice trained to fear a specific smell passed on their trained aversion to their descendants, which were then extremely sensitive and fearful of the same smell, even though they had never encountered it, nor been trained to fear it.

Changes in brain structure were also found. The researchers concluded that "[t]he experiences of a parent, even before conceiving, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations".[5]

[Petalpusher]

Not me. That's the opposite of what I'm saying in the OP.

I don't think the idea of ancestral memory is something that can be lightly dismissed.

It's another thing altogether where your ancestral home might be, i was only refering to where people actually grew up and the emotional attachement to it, we all feel that. In my case it's an unremarkable location and yet it's a very powerful when i come back there.

It's clear that some memories and behaviors are inherited, like many things newborns can do without prior knowledge about them, even things with deep social implications about gender, race, etc...to the extent of feeling where your ancestors lived hundreds of years ago, im not sure, other than whishful thinking in the new world.

[Ajeje Brazorf]

I don't think the idea of ancestral memory is something that can be lightly dismissed.

It may make sense if you apply it to phobia of spiders, snakes or heights, but I don't think you can apply genetic memory to a "spiritual" attachment to an area. Personally I feel a "connection" (not spiritual though) in the city where I grew up and spent my childhood. In the city of my mother or father I feel like an alien, the landscape is different, the dialect and accent are different, the people are different.

[Gallop]

In the lightyears of the void of space perhaps that would be true. In this planet full of life though, by comparison, it's quite the opposite.

Full of carnivorous life.

[KirillMazur]

100% agree! I love commieblocks, always been fascinated with them and wan ted to live in them

Interesting thread.
I consider territories with Stalinist buildings to be "native".
Well-planned quarters, lots of greenery, space, there are some "architectural excesses", fountains sometimes. 100% brick buildings, no panels. Excellent quality overall, they are still worth buying.
But the most important thing is that not only 1% of the elite could live in these houses, but skilled workers, engineers, artists and the military. Money did not decide anything - only services for the country.
My native city of Sevastopol is in this style (it was rebuilt after the war according to a single plan).

But I'm talking about Moscow here.

The area of Peschanye (Sandy) streets (1948-55) in Moscow.

Spoiler!

Constructivist residential quarters (1920-30s) in the Presnensky district of Moscow ("Nizhniya Presnya" or "Novie Doma") . In the actual state.

Spoiler!

[KirillMazur]

^^^

Many people say commie blocks are ugly, but I like them. Wouldn't call it a "spiritual connection" though.
Places like this have their own, unique character and look interesting to me.

I think commieblocks are underrated.

Yards in the area of the Oktyabrskoe Pole.

Spoiler!

There are more modern successful examples in my opinion - brick houses for small and medium and medium-high nomenclature (1970-1991). As elsewhere in the USSR, the residents of these houses were generously diluted with artists, military and engineering personnel.

Spoiler!

I also don’t like the quarters of panel houses from the times of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, but it’s worth noting that although the houses themselves are morally outdated and don’t look very good, at least competent quarterly design was applied there - the right amount of infrastructure, social facilities, green areas, free space and roads there present in the right amount.