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December 19, 2011

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I have a theory about this: the feeling that things are illusory is a side-effect of the various perceptual and cognitive feedback loops in our brain. In other words, we can feel, at some non-conscious level, that by the time we perceive something, some time has passed and processing has occurred.

Hence, along with the experience, comes a feeling that it's not quite right.

And then we just project this and expand upon it and, viola, Maya!

I have never fealt at ease with Plato and his Cave Allegory, and I later came to find he was himself influenced by Eastern philosophy with its assumptions about Maya, and I further found out that this concept bascially stems from patriarchal thinking, because you find the roots of meaning by unconvering the meanings of the terms they wrote--such as 'Maya', and maya is connected with the feminine, and shot through Eastern mystical theology, and Plato, etc is this disdain for nature and the body which is considered to be connected with the 'secuctive feminine' and a trap. A trap for the male 'hero' who is seeking escape into his bream of everlasting bliss and so on.
However, I do feel that nature can be seen different by different people and moods. For example, two children---one from a time when there wasn't all of this gadgetry, computer games, all the vast sttimulation avalable and pushed on the kids now, and a child from a time when they would play and use their imagination more. Put them both in the countryside. How do their perceptions and feelings compare if we could look through each others eyes and feel through their senses. I am betting the computer kid would be bored, and the landscape would look dull and flat, whilst for the other kid--far more exciting and full of possibilities.
Another example, taking psychedelics in the countryside and all of a sudden you are in a garden of eden, everything is alive and full of spirits. This experience integrated opens you up to a fuller experience of nature. This is what happened to me when I was 15!

Technically, nothing is flawed or "fucked-up" until compared with or measured by what-should-be.

cc, true, and our emotions are a pretty good indication of how that comparison is being carried out by our brains. How many people go through life without ever feeling irritation, anxiety, worry, fear, hatred, frustration, or other emotions which say (or scream) "something is wrong!"

Would we want it any other way? I sure wouldn't. A tsunami drowns tens of thousands of people. A young child is born horribly deformed. A war kills countless innocent victims. Our heart goes out to these people. We feel deeply human. If we didn't, we'd be robots.

Yes, this world is fucked-up. But it's the only world we have, so in that sense there's no comparison possible with what-should-be.

Our emotions though... they make the comparison naturally for us.

Nothing in itself is "wrong", but in terms of what we want and don't want for ourselves as individuals and as a species, there's more than enough to get upset about.

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