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Discover the art of asking deeper questions to enrich your life and enhance your experiences.

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สำรวจคำถามที่ลึกซึ้งยิ่งขึ้น

S̄ảrwc khảt̄hām thī̀ lụk sụ̂ng yìng k̄hụ̂n

ค้นพบศิลปะแห่งการตั้งคำถามที่ลึกซึ้งยิ่งขึ้น เพื่อเสริมสร้างชีวิตและเพิ่มพูนประสบการณ์ของคุณ

Kĥn phb ṣ̄ilpa h̄æ̀ng kār tậng khảt̄hām thī̀ lụk sụ̂ng yìng k̄hụ̂n pheụ̄̀x s̄erim s̄r̂āng chīwit læa pheìmphūn pras̄bkārṇ̒ k̄hxng khuṇ

Reader forum and discussion

With the permission of readers, their comments, questions and guest blogs will be posted here. There is also an easily accessible open discussion forum on the Facebook page for this project: www.facebook.com/kurius11/

Socrates is a classic example of someone who used questions to strive for wisdom.

These images and other images on this website are original creations from ideas of Shawn Thompson. The images are a type of question in themselves requiring interpretation. You do that to expand yourself.

กระดานสนทนาและการอภิปรายของผู้อ่าน

ภาพเหล่านี้และภาพอื่นๆ ในเว็บไซต์นี้เป็นผลงานสร้างสรรค์ดั้งเดิมจากแนวคิดของ Shawn Thompson ภาพเหล่านี้ถือเป็นคำถามประเภทหนึ่งที่ต้องมีการตีความ คุณทำแบบนั้นเพื่อขยายขอบเขตของตัวเอง

Kradān s̄nthnā læa kār xp̣hiprāy k̄hxng p̄hū̂ x̀ān

p̣hāph h̄el̀ā nī̂ læa p̣hā phxụ̄̀n«nı wĕbsịt̒ nī̂ pĕn p̄hl ngān s̄r̂āngs̄rrkh̒ dậngdeim cāk næwkhid k̄hxng Shawn Thompson p̣hāph h̄el̀ā nī̂ t̄hụ̄x pĕn khảt̄hām prap̣heth h̄nụ̀ng thī̀ t̂xng mī kār tīkhwām khuṇ thả bæb nận pheụ̄̀x k̄hyāy k̄hxbk̄het k̄hxng tạw xeng

Images for you to interpret

The images are a type of visual question that transcend words and requires your interpretation. After you have interpreted an image, ask yourself, What would be a totally different interpretation? Ask yourself, why am I interpreting this image this specific way? Ask yourself, What am I not seeing? All images are original from concepts of Shawn Thompson -- Click image to open larger

Blueprint of Michelangelo

What do you do with the images?

The author of the website won't interpret the images for you, to avoid interfering with your personal process of thought, discovery and meditation. It's suggested that you keep a diary or journal to make notes of your interpretations. Then ask yourself why you made that interpretation and are there alternate interpretations. Then maybe continue the same process with other images and ideas that you encounter. Writing your answers is an important step you don't want to skip. It also allows you to see how your ideas progress and what you learn from that progress. The eventual book by Shawn Thompson will do this in book form. You are testing the process.

A Thai translation is provided beside this.

คุณทำอะไรกับรูปภาพเหล่านี้

ผู้เขียนเว็บไซต์จะไม่ตีความรูปภาพแทนคุณ เพื่อหลีกเลี่ยงการแทรกแซงกระบวนการคิด การค้นพบ และการทำสมาธิส่วนตัวของคุณ ขอแนะนำให้คุณจดบันทึกการตีความของคุณไว้ แล้วถามตัวเองว่าทำไมคุณถึงตีความแบบนั้น และมีการตีความอื่นๆ อีกหรือไม่ จากนั้นอาจดำเนินการแบบเดียวกันกับรูปภาพและแนวคิดอื่นๆ ที่คุณพบเห็น การเขียนคำตอบของคุณเป็นขั้นตอนสำคัญที่คุณไม่ควรละเลย นอกจากนี้ยังช่วยให้คุณเห็นความคืบหน้าของแนวคิดของคุณและสิ่งที่คุณเรียนรู้จากความคืบหน้านั้น หนังสือของ Shawn Thompson ที่จะออกจำหน่ายในเร็วๆ นี้จะนำเสนอในรูปแบบหนังสือ คุณกำลังทดสอบกระบวนการนี้อยู่

Khuṇ thả xarị kạb rūpp̣hāph h̄el̀ā nī̂

p̄hū̂ k̄heīyn wĕbsịt̒ ca mị̀ tīkhwām rūpp̣hāph thænkhuṇ pheụ̄̀x h̄līk leī̀yng kār thærksæng krabwnkār khid kār kĥn phb læa kār thả s̄māṭhi s̄̀wn tạw k̄hxng khuṇ k̄hx næanả h̄ı̂ khuṇ cd bạnthụk kār tīkhwām k̄hxng khuṇ wị̂ læ̂w t̄hām tạw xeng ẁā thảmị khuṇ t̄hụng tīkhwām bæb nận læa mī kār tī khwām xụ̄̀n«xīk h̄rụ̄x mị̀ cāk nận xāc dảnein kār bæb deīywkạn kạb rūpp̣hāph læa næw khid xụ̄̀n«thī̀ khuṇ phbh̄ĕn kār k̄heīyn khả txb k̄hxng khuṇ pĕn k̄hận txn s̄ảkhạỵ thī̀ khuṇ mị̀ khwr laley nxkcāk nī̂ yạng ch̀wy h̄ı̂ khuṇ h̄ĕn khwām khụ̄b h̄n̂ā k̄hxng næwkhid k̄hxng khuṇ læa s̄ìng thī̀ khuṇ reīyn rū̂ cāk khwām khụ̄b h̄n̂ā nận h̄nạngs̄ụ̄x k̄hxng Shawn Thompson thī̀ ca xxk cảh̄ǹāy nı rĕw«nī̂ ca nả s̄enx nı rūp bæb h̄nạngs̄ụ̄x khuṇ kảlạng thds̄xb krabwnkār nī̂ xyū̀

ภาพให้คุณตีความ

P̣hāph h̄ı̂ khuṇ tīkhwām

ภาพเป็นคำถามทางภาพประเภทหนึ่งที่อยู่เหนือคำพูดและต้องการการตีความของคุณ หลังจากที่คุณตีความภาพแล้ว ถามตัวเองว่า การตีความที่แตกต่างไปจากเดิมอย่างสิ้นเชิงคืออะไร ถามตัวเองว่า ทำไมฉันถึงตีความภาพนี้ในลักษณะเฉพาะเจาะจง ถามตัวเองว่า ฉันมองไม่เห็นอะไร รูปภาพทั้งหมดเป็นแนวคิดดั้งเดิมของ Shawn Thompson -- คลิกที่รูปภาพเพื่อดูภาพที่ขยายใหญ่ขึ้น

P̣hāph pĕn khảt̄hām thāng p̣hāph prap̣heth h̄nụ̀ng thī̀ xyū̀ h̄enụ̄x khả phūd læa t̂xngkār kār tīkhwām k̄hxng khuṇ h̄lạng cāk thī̀ khuṇ tīkhwām p̣hāph læ̂w t̄hām tạw xeng ẁā kār tīkhwām thī̀ tæk t̀āng pị cāk deim xỳāng s̄în cheing khụ̄x xarị t̄hām tạw xeng ẁā thảmị c̄hạn t̄hụng tīkhwām p̣hāph nī̂ nı lạks̄ʹṇa c̄hephāa ceāacng t̄hām tạw xeng ẁā c̄hạn mxng mị̀ h̄ĕn xarị rūpp̣hāph thậngh̄md pĕn næwkhid dậngdeim k̄hxng Shawn Thompson -- khlik thī̀ rūpp̣hāph pheụ̄̀x dū p̣hāph thī̀ k̄hyāy h̄ıỵ̀ k̄hụ̂n

พิมพ์เขียวของไมเคิลแองเจโล ศิลปิน

Phimph̒ k̄heīyw k̄hxng mịkheil xæng celo ṣ̄ilpin

Blogs -- under construction

บล็อก -- อยู่ระหว่างการก่อสร้าง

Bl̆xk -- xyū̀ rah̄ẁāng kār k̀xs̄r̂āng

About the author

Hi. My name is Shawn Thompson. I'm a retired university professor, a book author and a traveller. I've published six books of non-fiction, numerous magazine articles and was an online columnist for Psychology Today magazine. This website is a work-in-progress of what will be my seventh book. As a writer, I have been curious about the similarities and differences in points of view between different groups of people on our planet. We are all individuals and yet we are all members of a series of larger and larger groups. Thus, we think both as individuals and as members of groups. Sometimes we don't understand how others think and feel. Sometimes we don't even understand our own thoughts and feelings. We can ignore that and just stumble forward or we can be curious and seek to understand and empathize better with others. We can do that if we cultivate our curiosity and learn to ask deeper, more probing questions. It's a kind of self-therapy. When I followed my own thread of curiosity, I interviewed people in river cultures, prisoners in penitentiaries and spent time with intelligent species trying to understand them. I learned that the better and more original the questions, the better and more original the answers. But not everything had an answer. That's the dilemma of Socrates in ancient Athens. Some things we just don't know, even if we try to convince ourselves that we do. I think that we need to expand our minds about what we don't know and also recognize the limitations of what we can know. How do we do that?

In terms of work experience, in addition to being a freelance writer, I've worked for over a total of 40 years as a journalist and university teacher. My publications in books and numerous magazines articles come not from my own knowledge, but from being able to interview diverse types of people from politicians, to scientists, to lawyers, to federal prisoners, in locations from Europe to Southeast Asia. I've trekked through jungles, been chased by wild pygmy elephants in northern Borneo, and slept inside the Jakarta zoo. I've sailed on a navy submarine to interview submariners. I tracked down a fugitive from the police to a villa in the Dominican Republic, to do an interview. I was an expert witness in a trial in Buenos Aires to help the judge rule whether an orangutan, as an intelligent creature, should be kept in captivity in a zoo. The judge decided that it shouldn't and the orangutan was freed and sent to a sanctuary in Florida. I've been a consultant on wildlife documentaries. Combine all that with teaching in a university for 25 years where academics can seem like a strange, isolated tribe in their own remote mental jungle and I've been exposed to a diversity of points of view over my 70-something years. In the terms of the visionary poet and artist William Blake, who I studied years ago as a university student, I've been a "mental traveller." We are all mental travellers wherever we are, if we can open ourselves to new experiences, new points of view. We can ask ourselves, Are we willing to do that?

So, what's the connection to this website? From my lifelong experience as an interviewer, I have now turned from developing my own skills in being curious, in asking questions and interpreting others, to wanting to help others do that better. I want to introduce ideas about how to enrich our lives by how we deepen our curiosity and formulate more original, more authentic, more creative questions. You can join me in this. On this website and on my Facebook page on the same topic, I will try to guide you in deepening your ability to ask questions. The images on this website are original creations from my ideas, as a work-in-progress of my next book. I am inviting you to join this venture and to interact with me and others. The images are a type of question in themselves requiring your interpretation. The process of interpretation is then an experience of curiosity and questioning. By experimenting by posting images for interpretation before the book is published, I can write a better book. In a sense, this website is a way to test the ideas of the book and to interview others in the process. The images on the website are part of an interview and a session on interpretation to deepen our understanding. All this is being done in public. My name is posted. I am not hiding in anonymity and secrecy behind a digital wall. My email is on this website. I can do Zoom consultations with anyone writing for a good cause to help people and wildlife. I will engage as much as possible in the time I have. What do you think?

Shawn Thompson, some years ago, with a friend.

Three of Shawn Thompson's non-fiction books. If you click on the images, they will open into a larger view.

Magazine cover article about legal rights for intelligent species

Older, greyer, but still curious

As a magazine columnist: