Tuesday, March 9, 2010

she who sleeps under the diet

a subject of more than one manga storyline (which has probably since become an anime), is the sleeping psychic underneath the diet building.

i believe this derives from shinto shrine maidens beliefs when the shrine maidens went out to fight oni (japanese demons, which are a bit different than the western idea of demons). some even enslaved oni in service to their family. the anime zenki is about this (and zenki used to be the name of one of my computers).

the sleeping woman underneath the diet building had a young appearance, but she was not young. she had been there an improbable amount of time and she secretly guided the fate of japan. she always had personal attendents and, iirc, they dedicated their lives to her for a certain period of time. there was no leaving for the attendants.

getting to the sleeping woman and asking her questions was a major plot point... especially since the diet often did not want to listen to her if her words were contrary to what they themselves always wanted to do.

i suppose this is a rather ancient idea... but it's interesting one... especially since it did not seem that she could ever leave the diet building. so, i wonder... how did she get there in the first place? did she appear from thin air at the base of japanese power?

shintoism is only possible to practice in japan and if you're japanese. not that i was really thinking about converting. hehe but, that's an interesting idea similar to druidism.... otherwise there seems to be quite a bit of difference between the two. especially since i'm pretty sure you have to be a man to be a druid.

oddly, i know less of druidism than shintoism. but then again, blame anime. (and the fact that druidism is a mystery religion.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I love this kinda stuff. I was not familiar with this. I kow a LOT about mythology of the west, but not so much the East (I have books on it, but I haven't read them yet). I wonder if this is the origin of Ringu? A psychic (not quite a woman in the novel) gone bad?

What is a diet building?

I bet this myth, and others like it, derive from the earliest, most primative symbol of the feminine (Dan Brown has it wrong): the Cave. The mysterious woman in the Earth from whom power flows is a pretty common archetype throughout mythology. The Lady of the Lake and your Diet Woman seem to fit the bill, as does Calypso, certain depictions of Artemis, and Persephone from Greek tradition. A sort of modified Earth goddess, but with emphasis on martial prowess instead of fertility...

shampoo said...

the diet building is the like the parliament in japan.

i think the japanese either accept psychic phenonomen, or at least, accept it in their entertainment without having to go through the skeptic song and dance (i mean in entertainment, i don't know about irl).

their shrine maidens, i believe, are sometimes psychics. shinto temples usually have charms and rituals associated with them. i don't know quite how seriously this is taken by the average person in japan. i know a lot of them do it, but do they really expect anything to happen? that i don't know..

good point about the lady in the lake, etc. it probably does derive from such an idea.

Anonymous said...

the strange thing is, i have been interested in and researching paranormal and occult phenomena for 25 years and i have met 2, maybe 3, people in that whole time who did not accpet such things as reality on some level. not to my crazy ass level, i suppose, but on some level. it seems that only hollywood, the craziest place on God's grand earth, where every other fool is neck deep into scientology, kabbala, and the oto, believes that people don't believe in paranormal phenomenon. perhaps the japanese are simply more honest and open about such things. their media certainly seems to be.

psychic phenomena has been recorded by scientists all over the world, utilized successfully by law enforcement, and cultivated by both the military and intel communities. while it is not understood, it is real.

i myself have met a number of people irl that manifest psychic abilities. at least one has abilities that are very significant- she has an ability to intuit truths and information. it's really quite amazing.

as a funny aside: stephen king maintains that planes fly only because the psychic vibes of the terrfied passengers keep them aloft. carshes occur when everyone aboard is perfectly confident it cannot fail. lol

ironically- it is wednesday and the new season of ghost hunters starts tonight! destination truth starts next week! great shows!

Anonymous said...

also, back onto the diet woman- in a way that can only be described as uniquely japanese, she not resembles the empoerwing feminine, but since she lies beneath the perlimentary building, the patron goddess as well. sort of like how athene was supposed to hang out at the parthenon in athens.

oh- and i thought of anouther empowering feminine gone wrong besides ringu- grendel's mother! (not angelina jolie, though she'd probably adopt grendel, rename him oxy, and send him to a french boarding school...)

Anonymous said...

wow...
my spellin wint plum ta hell in thoes postes.
9.9
a typist, i am not. my apologies.

shampoo said...

there are things in this world we don't understand. what they are.. i don't know...

maybe one day, we will have the answers. i think it is certainly possible there is a scientific explanation for all of it.

one thing i think is interesting about "ghost hunters" is they've proven how much electricity affects us. most of the odd feelings people have come back to electricity. it's kind of amazing that we put that stuff in every place without once stopping to think that, while convenient and definitely worth the trouble, it might make us feel different.

there aren't many places like this, but if you can find a dwelling that has NEVER had electricity and is not near electrical lines, it "feels" different. it needs to be someplace people have lived, but it's o.k. if it hasn't been occupied for a while (although, it can't be abandoned). there are places that have been intentionally preserved, so i've visited those places. i didn't think much about why it felt different at the time, but i'm pretty sure it just comes down to electricity.

Anonymous said...

another strange feeling place is a place that thrived on electricity that no longer has any running through it- like an abandoned school or hospital. really, the electricity thing is obvious when you think about it. i mean, our brains and nervous systems are pretty much run on electricity.

the thing that makes me freak out is how sounds outside of our ability to register have a big impact on us. that is wild.
once on gh, jason and grant went into this haunted hotel room where guests complained of feelings of paranoia and creepiness. they discovered a ceiling fan (!) that was on, but not working. they turned it off and, without telling her what they had done, invited kris into the room, where she spent an hour being bored. then, she left the room, they turned the fan back on, and sent her back in- again, she had no idea they had done this. the second time, almost immediately she felt like she wasn't alone. the room felt creepy, occupied to her. it was fascinating- i mean, a stupid fan!

the best thing about gh is the attempt they make to remain dispassionate and skeptical. to use science to study it instead of mediums and psychics. this is the only way the field will ever gain relevance.

of course, i believe in psychic phenomena, but it has been my experience that true sensitives would rather spend an hour in a room with a naked rush limbaugh dropping oxycontin than get within a thousand yards of a truly haunted location.

shampoo said...

i remember the ceiling fan one.. i think it's pretty interesting that they've proven in a lot of cases that yes, people are having strange experiences, but there's actually something mundane at work.

i think the kind of places you're talking about (had electricity and now don't) affect a lot of people as there are lot of "urban exploration" sites where people look at abandoned and (not so abandoned)locations.

Anonymous said...

Of course, they have also encountered phenomena for which there is no explaination.