Fragments From The Past, Modern Day Observations

I've written on and off throughout the years in both my fishing and poetry blogs about my paranoia with technology. A vast majority of humanity is consumed with the latest tech, this in turn has effected basic human interacting, not only with our piers but the 'living and breathing' world around us. I've always said that a 'mind-split' has occurred, what I mean by this is simple, people are coexisting in a life both on and offline at the same time, it's strangely schizophrenic. Careful observation tells me that many are more bothered about projecting a false version of themselves via social media than actually developing both their spiritual and physical self in the 'real' world. The knock on effect of this is going to be pretty catastrophic when you think about it and I believe it's leading to a metal health crisis far larger than the one we already face. The more I pay attention the more claustrophobic, synthetic and fake everything appears to me - maybe I'm just getting old?

Don't get me wrong, clearly technological breakthroughs have improved certain things but I'm not approaching it from that angle. One of the endearing elements of metal detecting for me are the connections we make, the life we live is simply a series of connections, the human body, especially the skin is literally an antenna which is receiving frequency information from the world around us every waking, and sleeping second. The metal detector is a frequency tool that we use to communicate with the lost world beneath our feet, I believe the frequencies our machines produce aren't generating them out of thin air, they'll simply tuning into the unseen frequencies that exist in the ether already, these frequencies are always there, the metal detector allows us to tune into them. The message we receive through this communication alerts us to a possible fragment of a past life, detecting to me is a somewhat spiritual experience. In many ways it's not about what I find it's about the process I go through to find it.  

I enjoy digging everything including trash, I have no problem with it at all, if you want to find the treasure the trash has to be dug. I've explained my longterm pasture approach here Longterm Pasture Approach. Modern detectors and the mainstream companies have tried to do a great job in convincing people you can know what you're digging before you dig it. In some cases this might be true but the majority of the time it's just not the case. For me metal detecting is a tonal/sensory game, it's not visual, concentrating on a screen creates a disconnect. You're not taking in the nuances within the tones and you're not concentrating on the planet functioning perfectly around you. 

For me this plays into my paranoia of technology taking on the decision making for you. As much as I enjoy using my Equinox 800 a large proportion of its operation didn't gel with me, you can only exist within its digital interface. Dialling it in appeared very limited, I felt I could only 'dial it in' as much as the Minelab engineers allowed me to. As handy as ultra-fast modern tech loaded machines might be in certain hunting situation I still don't think the acute tuning you can do on a high-end analog machine can/has been achieved on a digital platform. Many may argue this point and disagree - which is fine, we're all entitled to voice our opinions.

 My favourite hunting ground is pasture, I love the way all the items underneath its grassy skin are encapsulated in their own soil made tomb waiting for the detectorist to locate them and give it its place in the modern world. Every hole/plug I dig I challenge myself, I perform surgery on the soil, cutting the plug carefully and making sure the temporary wound I make on mother earths surface heals unnoticed by passersbye. It's the detectrists job to connect the past without damaging the future along with the land we have permission to hunt. 

Despite how some self-appointed YouTube gurus might position themselves in the online metal detecting community, detecting isn't a competition, it's not about who finds the most and what machine is best. It's about the individuals journey and enjoyment, the rise of the pseudo YouTube sages desperate for likes and subscribers is just another after effect of technology leaking into the mix. I'm sorry but when I see group hunt videos with people scurrying around shouting "on the hammered" and "on the Roman" I can't help but think this beautiful pass time is being dragged to the base-level - hey .. if they're having a good time then fair play but that approach to the hobby just isn't for me at all.

I understand that some of what I've written above might come across a little hypocritical because here I am using a digital platform to communicate to you and I have both a Twitter and Instagram account for my metal detecting. But none of what I'm doing via these platforms is for an ego trip, I look upon it as providing a panoramic view of metal detecting as a hobby, I certainly don't let the 'anti-social' media consume my life. When I'm in the field, it's the ground beneath my feet, the sky above and the sweet hum of the threshold that matters the most. All my social media posts are simply faint smoke signals to the outside world displaying the beautiful connections to the objects fresh from the ground beneath our feet, dropped by a life that's long gone. 

We Live In A World O Frequency