The magic hour is a term referring to the twilight period that can be experienced for about several tens of minutes after sunset or before sunrise. During this time, the light from the sun, which is the source of light, is redder and paler than during the day, and the hue is soft and warm, shining golden, and there are no shadows, creating a fantastic atmosphere.
The unique and sophisticated images taken during this magic hour not only exude a fantastical atmosphere, but can also sometimes evoke senses of sentimental, emotional, mysterious, reflective, nostalgic, melancholic or even eerie feelings.
This time period, when the sun begins to set and it gets dark, is also called twilight, and the unique atmosphere of this twilight period is said to affect people’s emotions and cognition, and the changes in emotions and the environment also affect their psychological state.
This is because the change in the surrounding environment caused by the dimming of light sources at dusk promotes a calmness state and encourages introverted thinking, and the reduction in light intensity increases the secretion of melatonin, which leads to a feeling of relaxation and preparation for sleep.
It is said that the twilight environment can be utilized to bring about positive psychological effects in daily life, because consciously utilizing the unique beauty and tranquility of twilight can deepen self-reflection, lead to peace of mind, and become a valuable resource that enriches emotions and creativity.
In contrast, it is known that human biorhythms slow down at twilight, and therefore it is said that better results can be expected by taking advantage of this decrease in judgment to convince or persuade others, which is called the twilight effect.
It is well known that Hitler actively made use of this twilight effect, and it is said that he was very particular about giving his speeches at dusk to make it easier to psychologically manipulate the masses. Furthermore, it is said that Hitler took advantage of this twilight effect and, in order to mind control the masses, used psychological manipulation techniques such as condensing his policies into simple, one-phrase slogans or repeatedly appealing to the same theme from different angles and phrases, in order to brainwash the masses, increasing their dependence on the dictator and leading them to absolute obedience.
I have written in some detail on this subject several times in the past from the perspective of the components of the universe and rhetorical techniques, so please read those as well.
Let’s go back to the topic of twilight.
At the beginning of The Pillow Book (枕草子, Makura no soushi, 1001), Sei Shonagon (清少納言, c966~1017 or 1025) senses quaintness, charm, and nostalgia in the fleeting scenes of each season.
It is unfortunate that the resonance and rhythm of the words in the original text cannot be conveyed, but for now, let’s try translating the scene of Sei Shonagon’s favorite season that appears at the beginning of “The Pillow Book.”
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In spring, it is dawn time. The surroundings gradually lighten, and the sky just above the mountains becomes slightly brighter. The sight of thin, pale purple clouds drifting by is also very beautiful.
In summer, it is night. Of course, it’s nice when the moon is out, but even on a dark night, it’s nice to see lots of fireflies flying around. It’s also nice to see just one or two of them glowing faintly. Rain is also nice.
In autumn, it is dusk (twilight) time. When the setting sun shines bright red and is about to sink behind the mountain ridges, even the sight of the crows hurrying back to their roosts, three or four, two or three, in their own way, is deeply moving. What’s more, it’s quaint when you can see a line of geese flying by, looking small in the distance. After the sun has completely set, the sounds of the wind and the insects playing in various ways are beyond words.
In winter, it is early in the morning. Not only is there snow falling, but there’s also a pure white frost, and even if there isn’t, it’s a freezing cold morning, and the rush to start a fire and carry charcoal from room to room is a typical winter morning. As the cold gradually eases in the afternoon, the charcoal in the brazier is covered in white ash, giving the feeling of a lack of criticality.
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Sei Shonagon also seems to have felt sentimental, nostalgic and melancholic impressions and emotional sensations when she was struck by the crimson-hued twilight scenes, especially in the autumn. The atmosphere, scenes, color contrasts, and emotions depicted in this passage could also be said to represent the Japanese landscape of the heart that recalls the changing of the seasons.
In fact, reminiscence and nostalgia are healthy human mental activities that are a source of peace of mind.
However, the word nostalgia was originally coined in 1688 by a doctor named Johannes Hofer to describe the high fevers and other illnesses of unknown origin suffered by Swiss mercenaries who had left their homeland. He came to regard nostalgia as a kind of illness after seeing the mercenaries longing for their homeland, crying hysterically, and suffering from symptoms such as anxiety, palpitations, loss of appetite, and insomnia.
In the 1900s, psychoanalysts began to interpret sentimentality and longing for the past as a form of melancholia, and nostalgia continued to be used in a negative sense until the 1970s.
It is said that a turning point in the understanding of nostalgia came in 1979, when American sociologist Fred Davis realized that the word nostalgia evoked positive images such as warmth, the good old days, and childhood.
It is said that feeling nostalgia can increase self-esteem and at the same time increase intimacy with others. This is because nostalgia forms part of one’s identity, and sharing that identity strengthens one’s connection with others.
Other benefits include:
1) acting as a way to reduce psychological stress. For example, when faced with a difficult situation, recalling happy memories from the past can help ease present stress and maintain emotional balance.
2) strengthening connections with others, because nostalgia allows us to reaffirm shared history and values.
3) selectively reconstructing positive memories from the past, which creates psychological resources to deal with current difficulties.
Nostalgia may also play an important role in the sustainability of positive relationships between humans and between humans and nature, as when properly harnessed, it may contribute to richer and deeper bonds in these relationships and to psychological and environmental well-being. Furthermore, nostalgia not only helps us recover from sadness and loneliness from the past and present, but it is also said to build immunity and resistance to misfortune that may occur in the future.
This may be why, as we get older, our recent memories become vague, but we can still recall memories from long ago with clarity.
In any case, the positive recollections and nostalgia that reside in people’s latent memories can be shared regardless of whether they are Eastern or Western or of any age, and they should also contribute to a sense of self-affirmation as Earthlings.
Now, the reason why I started writing with this topic is because this blog marks its 60th installment, and this is because, which corresponds to the so-called Kanreki (還暦, 60th birthday), when in human age terms the zodiac calendar completes one cycle and returns to its original state.
The custom of Kanreki was apparently introduced to Japan during the Nara period (710~794), and initially it was a celebratory event held among aristocrats to celebrate not only 60 years old, but also other round numbers such as 40 or 50. During the Edo period (1603~1868), the custom of Kanreki spread among the common people, and it is said that the red chanchanko (sleeveless jacket) worn for babies began to be worn to celebrate the 60th birthday.
In Japan, Kanreki is simply a celebration of longevity, but in the West, turning 50 is described as being “over the hill,” giving the impression that a person’s life begins to slide downwards in every direction from this age onwards.
In fact, Carl Jung (1875-1961) likened life to the movement of the sun in a day, divided it into four periods, and defined the period from age 40 onwards (currently probably around 50) as the “afternoon of life.” It is true that perhaps beyond this age of noon, some may feel as if the afternoon of life feels like it is gradually inclining and descending toward the end, like the fading light and warmth of the sun.
However, Jung saw the afternoon of life not as a time to embrace the inevitable decline of body, mind, and connections, but as a time of learning and awareness of what can be done to continually live a quality, purposeful life, and a gradual refinement of our essence. Furthermore, Jung’s view of death was not one of extinction but of a continuation of the soul’s journey, and death was not the end of things.
The afternoon of life, that is, the transition from twilight to sunset, means approaching a person’s physical end. But as Jung points out, in the afternoon of life, by pursuing purpose or mission with passion and dedication, one can carve out a path to self-actualization and personal fulfillment, and it may eventually lead to discovering the meaning of life.
There is a passage in Plato’s Phaedo in which Socrates (BC 470~399) attempts a rational argument for the immortality of the soul.
1. The Cyclical Argument, or Opposites Argument
Opposites are in a relationship where one generates the other, and life and death are in a similar relationship. Therefore, as something related to the generation of the two, the soul continues to exist after death.
2. The Recollection Argument
People can reach the truth of things they do not know, and feel the equality or lack of things, because the memory of true existence (form) sleeps within the soul and recalls it. Therefore, the soul exists before birth.
3. The Affinity Argument
Things have “self-identical or non-composite forms that can only be grasped by thought” and “non-self-identical or composite concrete objects that can be grasped by the senses,” with the soul being the former and the body being the latter. Therefore, the soul continues to exist without being decomposed.
4. In opposition to the idea of life is the idea of death. The soul, which accepts the idea of life, never accepts the idea of death, which is in opposition to life. That is, since the soul has life as its attribute, it does not accept the nature of death, and is therefore immortal and eternal.
It may seem like magic using words, but the essence of the soul seems to be life (to live). In order to escape the fear of extinction through death, which is always alongside life in our daily lives, Plato may have preached the immortality of the soul in Phaedo and even asserted its transmigration. Therefore, as Jung pointed out, it can be said that living the afternoon of life to the fullest is essential to being prepared to accept death.
Next, in terms of the positioning of death, let us consider the religious concept of “death as an insertion” and the Indian philosophical concept of “death as the continuation of life.”
“Death as an insertion” starts from the fear-based awareness that humans cannot escape death, and this awareness and questioning are being tackled by people who are currently alive. Death as something that takes away irreplaceable lives, or the questions and conflicts people have about why death is an inevitable event, have been pursued from various angles since ancient times.
One of these is the episode of the Lost Paradise, which is described in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. As a result of committing the sin of eating the fruit forbidden by God, man’s one and only precious life was cut short as punishment, and death has been considered an inevitable fate ever since.
Incidentally, the reality of inevitable death evokes fear because it confronts the instinctive desire for self-preservation; however, when a cultural worldview gives meaning to life and provides values that serve as a standard for self-evaluation, the fear of death is said to be controlled and suppressed by the self-esteem gained by conforming to those values.
In other words, people use two proxy powers to defend against the fear of death, and this is known as terror management theory.
One is the cultural worldview, which presents the permanence of culturally shared concepts that transcend the individual against the oppression of death, showing that the uniqueness of the individual is inherited within society and giving the individual a symbolic sense of immortality. The other is self-esteem, which is the ability to increase one’s own value and overcome the fear of death by recognizing oneself as a socially valuable being.
“Death as the continuation of life” is the concept that life does not end or disappear with death, and is a sense of life and death as going in cycles based on the premise of reincarnation.
The term transmigration (輪廻, rinne) or reincarnation (輪廻転生, rinne tenshou) comes from the Sanskrit word “samsara.”
From around the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, various theories of reincarnation were discussed in the Upanishad philosophy of India. In short, the idea was that after death, a person’s soul would be reincarnated as a bird, animal, plant, or other person depending on their actions during their lifetime (known as karma), and that the way in which they would be reincarnated was based on the idea of retribution, whereby good deeds bring good results and bad deeds bring bad results.
This endless cycle of birth and death is considered to be the suffering of existence, and liberation from this cycle, where one will never be reborn again, is considered the highest ideal; this state is called moksha (解脱, gedatsu) or nirvana （涅槃, nehan).
Below is the farewell poem of the monk Saigyo (1118~1190). The full moon day of the second month of the lunar calendar is the day that Buddha passed away, and Saigyo, who was a monk, also wished to die around the same time, and passed away on the 16th of the second month of the lunar calendar, at the age of 73.
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Nagawakuba hana no shitanite haru shinan sono kisaragi no mochizuki no koro
願わくは花の下にて春死なむその如月の望月のころ
Trans: I wish to die in spring under the cherry blossoms, around the full moon of the second month of the lunar calendar.
—–
At the age of 23, Saigyo became a monk at Shojiji Temple in Kyoto, also known as the flower temple because it is covered with cherry blossoms, and is known as a poet who composed many poems about cherry blossoms.
Cherry blossoms are a symbol of the beauty of spring, but at the same time, because they bloom and then quickly fade, they are often used as a motif to represent the transience of life and glory and the changing of the seasons. Saigyo may have also felt the impermanence (無常, mujo) and reincarnation of life.
As people get older, they think about how they will spend their later years, the twilight of their lives, and wish to pass away as peacefully and quietly as possible, but it is not always possible to do so as they wish.
In recent years, even among commoners who have been fooled by the deceptive media reports spewed out by the rulers to implement their population reduction plans, facts such as excess deaths due to the harmful effects of deadly vaccines have come to light, and it is certain that they are beginning to notice that something unusual is happening in the cycle from life to death.
In addition, euthanasia at the request of doctors who have been given the authority to kill by the rulers has become a social trend, and it seems to be becoming clear that the majority of candidates are not people suffering from incurable diseases, but commoners who are in a socially vulnerable position.
Furthermore, commoners are beginning to realize that not only are lives lost due to fabricated wars or proxy terrorism, but that the sharp increase in casualties from earthquakes, floods, heavy rains, hurricanes, fires, etc. is due to man-made disasters engineered by the rulers.
In any case, the complex cognitive functions of humans enable them to look back on the past, think about the future, and see themselves objectively. Because humans consider the meaning of existence and explore the mysteries of life and death, they have a sense of awe and respect for life, death, nature, and the universe, and while they fear the fragility of their own existence or death as their innate and inevitable fate, they strive to overcome it as long as they are alive.
Historically, the malicious schemes of rulers have failed many times, which means they are not always successful. Therefore, if each commoner becomes aware of their tactics and develops the consciousness to not succumb to them, this will surely eventually lead to defense and deterrence.
Sincerely grateful for your financial support.
Sources and references:
Documentary: First Do No Pharm!
vs.
Remdesivir Papers: Drug Used to Treat Service Members Led to Death
The coronavirus spike protein encoded in mRNA injections leads to autoimmune chaos
New Zealand: New FOI data shows 188% in deaths of children after the rollout of the covid “vaccine”
The Third Atomic Bomb: Self-replicating RNA vaccines
What Is Technocracy? A Scientific Dictatorship Nightmare!
UK Gov’t Announce Plans to Rollout Mandatory Digital ID ‘As a Matter or Urgency’
Euthanasia on demand; doctors licensed to kill
Canada’s state-approved euthanasia programme disproportionately affects poor and disabled people
