Fantasies are fun. They're a big part of being human. Fictional books, movies, dreams, music, paintings -- all these and so much more is founded on imagining an alternative reality to that which surrounds us now.
Other animals may also fantasize (our dog seems to have "cat/squirrel chase dreams" where she makes excited noises and moves her paws), but we humans are the top fantasizers on our planet.
Problems arise, though, when fantasies are mistaken for reality. Or, taken too seriously.
Recently my wife and I were transfixed by the Netflix film, "Homecoming," which shows Beyonce's astounding performances at Coachella in 2018. I wrote a post about the film on my HinesSight blog.
There were many shots of extremely enthusiastic young people in the front rows nearest to the stage.
Black girls seemed to be the most energized and awestruck by Beyonce and her hugely talented crew of dancers, musicians, and singers. It isn't an exaggeration to say they were in a state of ecstasy, watching the Homecoming performances.
Yet likely every person in the vast audience knew it was a performance. I say "likely" only because psychedelics like LSD can temporarily alter someone's perceptions to such an extent, a musical extravaganza could be viewed as an alternative reality.
Leaving aside that possibility, though, the two-hour show crafted by Beyonce and her artistic directors would have been recognized as a performance even as audience members were whole-heartedly embracing the sights and sounds of Homecoming.
There really isn't much of a difference between the artistry of the Coachella performances of Homecoming and the fantasies conjured up by the world's religions, mystical paths, and supernatural fables. All were created by humans to entertain, inspire, and captivate.
However, religiosity is a strange mixture of fantasy and delusion.
Meaning, true believers forget that much of what they're embracing has minimal or no connection with reality. They mistake concepts and abstractions -- God, soul, spirit, heaven, Devil, and such -- for something substantively real.
A Pearls Before Swine comic from March 18, 2019 captured this phenomenon nicely.
Self-delusiontopia is where religious believers spend a lot of time.
I know, because I used to make that place a frequent home. Sure, mostly I was in contact with reality, or I wouldn't have been able to work at a job, raise a child, play tennis, drive my car, and do all of the other things that require a close connection to how things actually are, as opposed to how we fantasize them to be.
Non-religious fantasies also can be powerful, of course. Here's an excerpt from an article in the September 3, 2018 issue of The New Yorker, "Bad Bargain: Nicki Minaj and the power of fans."
In 2014, Billboard launched the "Fan Army Face-Off," a bracket-style online vote that pitted pop stars' fans against one another. The crowd-sourcing exercise was not exactly original, but its language -- which set fan bases up in imaginary battles -- encapsulated the increasingly combative state of pop-music fandom.
Some fan-group monikers have become household names: Beyonce has the Beyhive, Justin Bieber has Beliebers, Rihanna has a Navy, Selena Gomez has Selenators, Taylor Swift has Swifties.
Unlike, say, the way Deadheads followed their band from city to city, this modern style of adoration takes place chiefly online, where it is driven not only by jubilation but by fierce defensiveness. Followers pounce on anyone -- big, small, notorious, anonymous -- who criticizes their idols.
There is a dark, obsessive energy to such devotion; fittingly, these crusaders are now often referred to as "stans" -- a reference to a song by Eminem, from 2000, which tells the story of a fictional fan named Stan who writes increasingly unhinged letters to the rapper before driving his car into a river.
Reading this, naturally I was reminded of the decidedly weird phenomenon of the religious believers who likewise obsessively defend their chosen faith or guru (often Gurinder Singh Dhillon) in comments on this blog.
I've been surprised at why someone would spend so much time and energy reading posts on a Church of the Churchless blog, given that they are clearly in the "churched" camp.
The New Yorker article gave me a new perspective on this. These are fans of a particular religion who are so immersed in their fantasy life that they can't stand any reality-based criticism of their idols.
Weird? Yes. But equally weird is freaking out when someone criticizes Nicki Minaj or Beyonce. People are simply weird -- though obsessive "fandom" is especially intense in the religious sphere.
"Thanks Anon for the video, you know Ishwarji initiated me into this path. I want the path to be true, have so many doubts. I wish the truth that I am seeking will be revealed to me." - From Seeker (see above)
People desperately want to believe their path is true, simply because they want to be SAVED!
"Saved" means different things to different people. A christian wants a place in heaven. A RSSB follower wants to have inner darshan and reach the heights of the inner regions to Sach Khand.
Any vision, any hint of a dream is taken to be confirmation that the path is true - because they desperately want it to be true.
It is an illusion based on fear. Nobody wants to die - so why not believe that "I will survive?"
This site provokes that fear and the believer wants to attack because deep down all he has is a belief and he doesnt want anyone to question that belief.
A bit like when you have an unresolved issue and "don't want to talk about it" because talking means you have to address the thing you are running away from.
There is comfort in numbers - so people hang around people of the same faith so they can get comfort and convince themselves that "We can't ALL be wrong" but they CAN all be wrong. Comfort in numbers is itself a delusion
Posted by: Osho Robbins | May 29, 2019 at 10:29 PM
One person's fantasy is another's experience.
All invention and discovery are mental events, through the filter of mind, visual construction, symbolic construction. The witness of an amazing new rythym, a line of dialogue, an equation, or the behavior of a beam of light all arrive through mind.
Our perception of reality is through that filter.
There is not a single thought or witnessed event that has not been reconstructed by mind.
Therefore, we are subject to the limitations and flaws of mind.
And mind is greatly influenced by biochemistry and our conditioning.
What we attend to is artificially emphasized, and mind adds meaning and justification to it.
We desire. We have emotions. These alter both attention and perception.
The very sense of touch, the actual neurons within our skin alter and change when we believe we are being touched by a friend vs a foe.
Our thoughts, our focus, such as in meditation, alters our biochemistry, even our DNA.
The mind alters the body and what the body reports and vice versa.
Yet as flawed as it is, this is our instrument to understand reality. And it is amazing to watch it in action.
It's good to get to know it better. To watch our thoughts, not with any filter, but as an anthropologist, an open minded observer.
We can learn to practice objectivity even in this most subjective realm.
That may not be 'out of body' but it is definitely stepping outside of our steam of thinking to a degree. Just as reflection on yesterday's events gives us a greater degree of objectivity, a little binocular vision, instead of the one dimensional perspective.
We can increase our awareness, our consciousness to some degree, and our objectivity thereby, just by taking a different role, questioning, not to judge, but to understand this amazing machine.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 30, 2019 at 04:20 AM
This is not a fantasy, this real (from Business Today article this morning):
Fortis-Religare Fraud Case: Former REL Chairman Sunil Godhwani held at IGI Airport
The Economic Offences Wing officials took former Religare Chairman Sunil Godhwani into custody as Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) had issued a lookout notice against him in the Fortis-Religare fraud case.
https://www.businesstoday.in/current/corporate/fortis-religare-fraud-case-former-rel-chairman-sunil-godhwani-held-at-igi-airport-sfio/story/352213.html
Shit just got real.
Posted by: Amar | May 30, 2019 at 08:57 AM
Religious fantasies are far more palatable than fantasies about unachievable goals involving human nature. Attempting to find salvation or thinking you might be able to leave your body and astral project are at least things we can't disprove. It's just weird experiments that are in the domain of philosophy and wankerism.
Thinking mankind will ever attain perpetual peaceful coexistence between tribes or insane things like "equality" is grotesquely stupid and more delusional because there is so much evidence pointing to its impossibility.
People praying looks far more normal than John Lennon probably on cocaine with his psycho wife saying "war is over."
Posted by: Jesse | May 30, 2019 at 11:35 AM
"People desperately want to believe their path is true, simply because they want to be SAVED!"
Not true, I do not feel that way. I want the path to be true because I have invested so much of my time (physically/mentally) in it that I cannot see it go like this. Having said that, I do have a skeptic mind for which I am grateful. I am very skeptic related to Sant Mat. Sometimes I feel it is all B.S.
I am just a confused person lying somewhere between religious beliefs & atheism.
Posted by: seeker | May 30, 2019 at 01:13 PM
Hi seeker I hear your point but my question for you is how will you know it’s real? What are you looking for? Inner experiences will convince your mind of that? How did your Master Mr Puri know it was real?
Posted by: Anon | May 30, 2019 at 03:05 PM
If you experience bliss, if you experience moments of extreme happiness, in this world or in your meditation, there is your proof.
But what is it proof of?
There is the problem. It is only proof that you are capable of such experience. That such things are, under the right conditions, part of you.
And so long as people have such experiences, which can be labelled, but never actually explained, they will continue to believe that there is something more.
It may be in some cases people believe out of fear.
But it is most certainly the case that many believe because their experiences lead them believe, and they are doing their best to try to understand what may be beyond human conception.
So long as such experiences continue, you will have people believing in subjective experience as supreme, whether they label that spirituality or any such term that is beyond labels that cannot actually communicate the richness of that experience.
It is just as ignorant to label something we ourselves have not experienced as it is to try to create an explanation for what we have experienced which is really beyond anyone else's capacity to understand without that experience.
Whether we label it or others label it, the problem is in the effort to objectify what is subjective.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 30, 2019 at 03:26 PM
Hi seeker I hear your point but my question for you is how will you know it’s real? What are you looking for? Inner experiences will convince your mind of that? How did your Master Mr Puri know it was real?
Ishwar Puri relates an interesting anecdote. On fellowship at Harvard during
the 60's, he discussed drugs, OBE's, and meditation with T. Leary and R.Alpert
(two psych prof's later expelled for LSD experiments).
The two prof's both concluded so-called inner experiences during meditation
were unreal... just the result of auto-suggestion. Ishwar responded to the effect
they might well be correct... but, regardless, those same experiences are
repeatable, drug-free, and, by the way, I'm happy 24x7 but you guys are on
Prozac.
Maybe, Ishwar was exaggerating a bit about 24x7 but his point was who gives a
rip about what's real if it makes you happy. (Of course, the side effects shouldn't
exact a stiff price in the end either. Ya know, the kinda stuff that's illegal, immoral,
or fattening.)
Posted by: Dungeness | May 30, 2019 at 04:27 PM
Dungeness I love this”I’m happy and your on Prozac.” Love it more because it’s so relatable to me. I feel this way most of the time. I’m walking around happy and content while almost everyone else around me seem to be quite messed up(for the lack of better word). When I hear what people tell me The things that are going on in their lives, I really think “wow you really go through all this?” I feel that path and the vows have in a strong way sheltered me from all the mess around. For that I am eternally grateful. 🥰
Posted by: Anon | May 30, 2019 at 05:19 PM
"Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn't take you inside the house. "
Shams I Tabriz
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 30, 2019 at 10:12 PM
I feel that path and the vows have in a strong way sheltered me from all the mess around. For that I am eternally grateful.
Anon, I know how ya feel. I shutter at my pre-mindfulness existence.
Posted by: Dungeness | May 31, 2019 at 04:09 AM
Anon, have you ever thought, that we have a mind because of our physical brain? All the experiences we have outside or inside is the result of our physical brain. What happens during death? Loss of electrical signals in the brain, heart stops functioning. If there is no time and space beyond mind then we simply do not exist as individuals, we just cease to exist and rest in peace always. This is what Faqir Chand tried to explain that we are just a bubble, that never existed before and will never exist again.
Probably only experiences will make me believe who I am. Like how we wake up from sleep we do not need any proof from someone that we existed before sleep. If there is life after death then we might experience that then or while living if any such thing exists or just cease to exist. I will wait and continue to seek the ultimate truth. One thing is for sure I will never have blind faith no matter what. I just can't. I believe what I see.
Posted by: seeker | May 31, 2019 at 04:14 AM
Hi Seeker
A physical brain is just one element of the entire creation. That is a fact.
It is made of the creation, and it is not independent in any way. It is linked intimately and in ways we are still discovering and do not completely understand. How can birds judge the seasons using quantum fluctuations of sunlight which they might be able to detect in their retina?
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/birds-quantum-entanglement/
Our experience is linked to the brain, but our brain is linked to the entire creation. Does our experience end when the brain dies? Or is this simply the end of the experiences generated by the brain?
We know that the brain is a filter of experience. A brain with no sensory input has no experiences to report, except its own functioning.
But do we cease to experience?
In meditation when areas of the brain are shut down, a different experience arises. It's almost as if all this sensory experience is noise, and when we lower the volume we see something we didn't see before, and understand more. But where is that coming from?
What else could it be but other parts of the brain we don't fully understand yet?
Consider that what makes you independent from the rest of creation is an arrangement of energy and matter which our brains conceptualize as distinct. But from a physics perspective we are just energy configurations in the same pool of energy.
So you can say it's all physical brain, but to be objective you would have to add "and we do not yet fully understand all that is within the brain, nor all the connections of the brain to the rest of creation. '
What you think is your laptop may just be a wifi terminal. What you think is your hard drive might be backing up to the cloud in ways you have no idea. And downloading information from the cloud through channels we don't fully understand yet.
And when you log in to your own cloud drive account from another computer, looking at your old files, it might appear as if you were back on your own machine, even though that machine broke long ago.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 31, 2019 at 07:35 AM
Let me add one more thought to this.
Brian Ji likes to say that religious revelations about this physical world are notoriously wrong. And there is a mountain of evidence to support that.
But there are accounts written by some mystics or documented by their followers of physical truths that science has confirmed, and in some cases only recently.
Here are five of them.
Pythagoras' students reported that Pythagoras claimed that the planets circled the sun, and not in a circle, but in an ellipse, and further that the planets themselves were elliptical, not perfectly round.
Two thousand years later Science has proven this is fact.
Socrates claimed to have had a vision of the earth from space and reported that earth is round. Nearly two thousand years later science has proven this is true.
Einstein imagined himself riding on a beam of light and saw things about the behavior of light which he himself proved mathematically to be true, and which science has since verified.
Mystics from the east claimed this world is one planet in a creation of millions of worlds.
Again, a couple thousand years later astrophysics has proven this is true.
Finally, my favorite, Eastern mystics claimed thousands of years ago that this physical creation is mostly empty space and merely a projection.
In the last century sub atomic physics has proven that this entire physical creation is mostly empty space, and one popular theory is that it was projected from a single explosion, where all matter once was in a single piece of nearly infinitesimal size, but nearly infinite mass.
Now, unfortunately, these visions were all subjective.
If you ask the sparrow how it knows the seasons have changed it won't be able to explain quantum entanglement. It can only experience it however the senses and mind conceptualize it.
But we are all connected, and those subjective experiences, at least for a few, can be refined and then very accurately understood.
They still remain subjective visions, intuitive urges, and can't compete with science.
But they are proof that we are connected to the creation in far more ways than we understand. And further, we can help refine our own subjective, internal experience, so that we can understand more about the workings of the mind and its connections to the rest of this mostly empty space field of energy we live in and are made from.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 31, 2019 at 08:11 AM
if we see our whole life thus far in the hindsight its not more than a dream, a fantasy that may be ordinary or special with those supernatural experiences included if any. So to say the whole life was a mere fantasy - pleasing or otherwise. religious or otherwise,.. finally.
Even ordinarily our lives are nearing its elimination each passing day or moment with a scary or surprise element yet to be discovered by most of us at the end moment. The only possible or nearest explanation that thoroughly defines the life and consciousness in nutshell is in religion and mysticism which therefore is revered and believed even though results may not be encouraging or forthright for many of us.
Yet the fantasy world of believers finds support from those who have gained access or sufficient experiences as real than purely on the spiritual profile of the Mystics who they got initiated from.
Science does explain the phenomenon as they exist including dreams and brains' extraordinary functions but again it also has to depend on certain assumptions with interpolations and extrapolations wherever needed than exact, thus, leaving space for doubts and arguments.
Regards
Posted by: Meditator | May 31, 2019 at 10:11 AM
Spence, maybe those mystic visions you mentioned were real, but we have to look at them in the context of hundreds of other theories that were wrong. If you took all of the ideas about the world presented by mystics you might find a few that seemingly align with modern science, but you'll find many more that don't.
Posted by: Jesse | May 31, 2019 at 03:36 PM
Hi Jesse
You wrote
"Spence, maybe those mystic visions you mentioned were real, but we have to look at them in the context of hundreds of other theories that were wrong."
No, logically that isn't so. Every human being is right about some things and wrong about others. The clarity and reliability of their experience and their ability to understand it objectively, their capacity through any means of gaining understanding and objectivity, including their education all helps explain when we are right and when we are wrong.
My point is only that we don't know the whole picture. A good scientist would not say otherwise.
But prejudice can blind us as readily as desire can both give us insight and illusion.
Introspection, effort to understand ourselves objectively, helps keep this instrument of understanding clean. And that includes reality testing all the time.
When we do that we may find, as Einstein did, that a vision may be am incredible truth. How can the imagination accurately replicate riding on a beam of light, and watching time warp in the process? The mind is informed by something we can't always identify that is in fact truthful.
Happens all the time. That we make mistakes is completely understandable. That is the rule. But that some famous visions that cannot reasonably be explained by conventional means are factually true should not trigger prejudices so that we dismiss what we cannot understand.
We can just say, "yes, that is truth. No, I have no idea how that truth came to me.." Just as Einstein did b when he encouraged scientists to engage in such thought experiments within. All great discoveries and inventions come from that place and none other.
We can be as humbled by a truthful vision as we are by a wonderful fantasy. We can honor both without trying to package or label it.
Reality testing continuously helps us hone that subjective and flawed instrument through which we understand reality.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | May 31, 2019 at 06:36 PM
That makes zero sense at all, Spence. I don't even know what you're trying to say.
Some dude saying in religious poetry "there are infinite planets" while also saying that "the world is rolled out like a carpet" doesn't make him a seer who understood the nature of both physical and metaphysical reality. It just makes him a religious figure who said a lot of shit and some of it sounds "sciency."
Einstein (assuming he wasn't a plagiarist conman as is looking more likely) was a scientist. His imagination was working along with actual knowledge. Comparing that process to some villager banging on a primitive drum with sticks in the forest being mesmerized by how many stars he sees in the sky is an insult to science, regardless of if some smarter person later on uses his nonsensical mystic gibberish as a catalyst for real inquiry into real things.
Posted by: Jesse | May 31, 2019 at 09:58 PM
Perhaps the biggest reason we turn to religions and belief systems that promise or suggest some sort of continuation is the inevitability of death.
What exactly is the problem with death? It is obvious to all that death is inevitable, that it is part of the natural cycle of life. The body at some point, either through getting old, diseased and feeble or through some terrible disease causing a life of suffering can be quite ready to welcome death. Yet this process, this intelligence of the body is usually over-ruled and avoided in favour of hopes of a cure.
Who or what is it that hopes for a cure, that clings to the hope of continuation? It is quite natural for the organism to struggle to stay alive, it is instinctive, but when death is inevitable (for whatever reason) there is still a strong element within us that attempts to deny the unavoidable. Those witnessing the death also hope for a miracle – either medical or divine. Who is the denier, the avoider? If not the body then that leaves only the mental realm to account for this – that means the mind or rather its sub-structure – the self. Again, this is quite natural. The operation of the self is a great survival aid. Through the process of brain-mind-self-memory-thought, the self protective instinct is magnified – and it can and does lead us astray.
It leads us into the complex realm of concepts. Concepts (beliefs, thoughts, ideas and opinions) not being part of the reality that we can touch, see or feel, can be and often are the main sources of the conflicts and sufferings we endure. Yet we do not see this and if we do we ignore it or justify it.
When it comes to the many beliefs that separate us, we have such strong investments in them we would fight, kill and die to defend them. And what are we defending? Simply a series of conditioned thoughts and beliefs that emanate from the uninvited conglomeration of information we call the mind, and as can be see, mind is its contents from which the inevitability of a conceptual self is constructed.
It is this self, this mental construct that feels itself to be the real me that fears criticism, fears being wrong, fears being dismissed – all of which diminishes the egoistic aspect of the self. The final affront to the self is annihilation – death.
The only way it can avoid death lies within its own machinations. Having created the mental construct – my 'self' – it can do no other but to invent a belief system or series of beliefs to pacify or deny the reality of not existing. The body at some point will accept the reality of not being, but the self will employ any means to survive.
Posted by: Turan | June 01, 2019 at 12:02 AM
Jesse you wrote
"Einstein (assuming he wasn't a plagiarist conman as is looking more likely) was a scientist. His imagination was working along with actual knowledge. Comparing that process to some villager banging on a primitive drum with sticks in the forest being mesmerized by how many stars he sees in the sky is an insult to science, regardless of if some smarter person later on uses his nonsensical mystic gibberish as a catalyst for real inquiry into real things."
Clearly you didn't read what I'd written. Pythagoras was a seminal mathematician. Today we still use some of his equations.
Plato invented the process used in every court room to weigh the truth.
Einstein did not have any of the mathematics to work out the gravitational effects of mad on light when he imagined light bending around matter in his high school days.
Your notion that modern scientists use rational thinking alone but no one before reflects a prejudice known as ethnocentricism,
"Ethnocentrism is the act of judging another culture based on preconceptions that are found in the values and standards of one's own culture – especially regarding language, behavior, customs, and religion. These aspects or categories are distinctions that define each ethnicity's unique cultural identity. Wikipedia"
It is a form of prejudice that blinds people to an objective evaluation of the facts.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 01, 2019 at 05:15 AM
Hi Turan
Why would we avoid death, unless it is premature death?
Then we still have work to do.
But having completed our work, death is a welcome freedom.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 01, 2019 at 05:22 AM
Spence, wtf are you even talking about? You mentioned eastern mystics.
How is it ethnocentric to understand that all of the actual discoveries which allowed us to notice occassional vague similarities between intoxicated shamans words and real world events, substances or whatever are the product of scientists? A lot of people say a lot of shit and then science uses its methods to sift through the shit and see what's more real.
Most science I.e. real ideas that require some standard of evidence as opposed to high on drugs guy saying "universe is large" has been "western" for a couple thousand years now, and is quickly being taken over by the Chinese. Prior to this Arabs, Indians and others routinely made significant contributions especially in maths. Not sure why I'm forced to say this other than that you just felt the need to go full CNN and start randomly screaming about racism or some other irrelevant trash.
Posted by: Jesse | June 01, 2019 at 11:48 AM
“Einstein imagined himself riding on a beam of light and saw things about the behavior of light which he himself proved mathematically to be true, and which science has since verified.“
What bullshit. Look-up “thought experiment”. Nothing to do with a mystical vision. He was also no conman - as the conspiracy theorists suggest - he was outright brilliant - not one, not two, but five papers in 1 year at the age of 25 that revolutionized our understanding of the universe. No one in science or history has come even close to such an intellectual tour de force.
“If you ask the sparrow how it knows the seasons have changed it won't be able to explain quantum entanglement.”
More new age bullshit. Quantum entanglement has nothing to do with how a swallow knows that the seasons are changing.
This is what happens when amateurs mix-up their pseudo-scientific ramblings with their own beliefs or mysticism. These things are not linked in any way. And if they are it’s at such a deep level that we are nowhere close to establishing any such link.
Science is limited, but it’s by far the best objective explanation of our physical universe. Mysticism is an interior discipline concerned with the mind, it might be able to reveal even deeper truths about our selves and about consciousness (and possibly a spiritual universe).
But these are two entirely different disciplines. Didn’t some dude already try mix all this up in The Tao of Physics ? It’s just ‘new-age’ crap.
This kind of illogical thinking makes me realize why you are a loyal disciple of the ‘hang-em high’ club Spence. You are quick to jump to conclusive opinions as fact, when they are simply not - you are just ignorant. Therefore, I’ve come to the conclusion GSD must be a good guy.
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 01, 2019 at 11:57 AM
Hi Georgy
You quoted me....
"If you ask the sparrow how it knows the seasons have changed it won't be able to explain quantum entanglement.”
Then you wrote...
" More new age bullshit. Quantum entanglement has nothing to do with how a swallow knows that the seasons are changing."
Georgy, I guess you didn't read my whole post, which included the following link...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/birds-quantum-entanglement/
Yes they do use and perceive quantum entanglement, or so the most recent and popular theory suggests...
But don't let that stop you from the swears. So cool, so cool Georgy!
If you can't swear in the classroom, can't swear at home, can't swear at work, can't even swear riding a motorcycle and a leather jacket, my God what has the world come to!
But here at coc you can let loose.
When knowledge, understand and wisdom are far away, there is always the comfort of a few favorite friends... Your expletives.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 01, 2019 at 12:55 PM
Spence, I like this "Introspection, effort to understand ourselves objectively, helps keep this instrument of understanding clean. And that includes reality testing all the time."
Its a constant practice being the observer, watching thoughts, words, actions, trying not to judge too much, watching self like being a mother watching her child grow with love and attention.
......................
Turan, you say "It is this self, this mental construct that feels itself to be the real me that fears criticism, fears being wrong, fears being dismissed – all of which diminishes the egoistic aspect of the self. The final affront to the self is annihilation – death."
Yes, you are speaking of the ego self and we all have those fears and questions especially when death is becoming closer with age and of course we can't avoid it. For me, my idea of 'self' is the inner being, called soul or spirit, not the mind and ego. Even if this is not the truth it does keep me going and this is an aim which keeps me alert and conscious.
......................
Georgy Porgy, you say, "Mysticism is an interior discipline concerned with the mind, it might be able to reveal even deeper truths about our selves and about consciousness (and possibly a spiritual universe)."
You say, "Science is limited, but it’s by far the best objective explanation of our physical universe."
"But these are two entirely different disciplines."
So whats the big deal? Is 'Science' now the new religion?
Posted by: Jen | June 01, 2019 at 03:19 PM
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
All these aspirations are directed towards ennobling man's life,
lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence
and leading the individual towards freedom.
Albert Einstein
Science without religion is lame,
religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein
If something is in me which can be called religious
then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world
so far as our science can reveal it.
Albert Einstein
Posted by: Jen | June 01, 2019 at 04:37 PM
" More new age [BLEEP]. Quantum entanglement has nothing to do with how a swallow knows that the seasons are changing."
I communicate psychically with birds and they say Georgy's right.
One told me he just "feels it in the bones" when it's time to head on
down south. Another chirped in, "Yeah, that and you start tweetin'
on the hour "Hey, bird-brain, what say, we fly the coop".
Then I always have to remind you, we don't tolerate any kinda bird
disparagement here. And then you say "don't get peck-ish on me
my fine, feathered friend". So, I lose it and squawk back "that's a load
of chickens**t. You oughta be flying the so-called "friendly skies" with
the humans!".
And that's how it goes.. one day we'll still make it... it's gonna be on a
wing and a prayer though.
Posted by: Dungeness | June 01, 2019 at 06:17 PM
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."
Albert Einstein
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 01, 2019 at 08:20 PM
"Is 'Science' now the new religion?"
Has been for at least a few decades. That's why people say "I believe in science" instead of "I use scientific methods to make accurate predictions."
Posted by: Jesse | June 01, 2019 at 09:03 PM
Is bullshit a swear? I thought it was universally accepted in polite discourse as shorthand for - ‘you are speaking an awful amount of horseshit’.
Quantum entanglement in birds - what a load of baloney - is that better in a US sense? It’s kind of like the ‘scientist’ who wrote the Tao of Physics or those weirdos that get the templeton prize.
Jen: I sure hope science is not the new religion and should never be a religion. Anyway the pinnacle of human achievement is not intellectual or physical but how humane and empathetic you are. Spence’s judgement concerns me - the high priest of GSD judgements lame attempts at science demonstrate to me he’s clearly an ignoramus. A fool. Who talks a lot of bullshit. Sorry just my view.
Yes. This Dungeness is a v sensible character.
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 01, 2019 at 10:45 PM
Yep imagination is key to science, Its typically only religious ignorant types who try paint science otherwise. Needed by theoretical physicists to create their hypotheses, but also experimental physicists to devise experiments that can prove or refute them as scientific theory.
All scientific theories change, as the evidence in support of them changes. Either refined or discarded entirely if evidence suggests otherwise, don’t matter if it’s Einstein or anyone else who proposed it.
Quoting Einstein, or any other scientist or theory, out of context is about as far away from science as you can get - and is taking you towards religion or new age pseudo-science.
The basic test (unlike religion) is NOT who said it, but whether what was said is objectively verifiable.
Just like a court case. Certain people let their emotion get carried away with them and can ‘imagine’ someone to be guilty with very little evidence. This is what kangaroo courts do. Instead, due process like the scientific method, aims to make more rational decisions devoid of imagination by individuals with personal agendas.
Imagine you were on trial for what GSD is being accused of - would you want due process or to be sentenced by the ‘imaginative’ hang-em high nutters on CoC?
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 01, 2019 at 11:48 PM
The all active approach to quantum entanglements programmed into all birds at hatch by Oswald the Androgyne @Hatch. This is the dictact that allows birds to fly south. Birds flew South.
This is why new age religion advises not to eat eggs. We will catch bird flu.
Posted by: Mike England | June 02, 2019 at 02:30 AM
Eyes of migratory birds and quantum entanglement...
http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/action/pia-entanglement.cfm
https://physicsworld.com/a/birds-measure-magnetic-fields-using-long-lived-quantum-coherence/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/birds-quantum-entanglement/
Posted by: anami | June 02, 2019 at 05:12 AM
So quantum entanglement could explain how migratory birds navigate. In my read, the articles don't address detecting the change in seasons.
Posted by: anami | June 02, 2019 at 05:49 AM
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 02, 2019 at 07:30 AM
Hi Anami
Please watch those videos. The earth changes its rotation seasonally, quantum entanglement of sunlight changes, detectable bin the retina of the Robin, which helps them navigate from London to Spain, but only during winter.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 02, 2019 at 07:33 AM
Bullshit I say.
Quantum entanglement occurs at the fundamental level, the spin of quantum particles - and even it is not explainable by modern physicists. This is why it’s called ‘spooky action’ at a distance. Now birds are supposedly using it. Conspiracy theory whacko weirdo central. Free Gurinder!
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 02, 2019 at 07:46 AM
Spence - Okay, on my to-do list...
Georgy P - Science!
Posted by: anami | June 02, 2019 at 11:33 AM
Georgy you really need to do some reading and listening from the scientists who have put forth this theory that much in biology can be explained elegantly through Quantum Mechanics.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_biology
How cascading changes from entanglement and other quantum phenomenon can reach up to the cellular level, actually be perceived and acted upon by biological forms of life is an elegant and wonderfully refreshing branch of science that is finding its legs in new research.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/indeterminate-nature-the-resurgence-of-quantum-biology
Truly miraculous, if by miracle we mean the astounding workings of the physical creation.
Here is a balanced and cautious take on this newly re-emerging field being pioneered at University of Oxford and other centers of research
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/schroedingers-bacterium-could-be-a-quantum-biology-milestone/?redirect=1
Here scientists at Northwestern University have created entanglement using biological systems...
https://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/2017/12/entangling-biological-systems.html
And here is one of the most dynamic of propanants
https://youtu.be/wwgQVZju1ZM
Astonishing!
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 02, 2019 at 11:57 AM
What we know
is a small island
in a vast ocean
of what we don’t.
We create our own fiction 😇
Posted by: Mike England | June 02, 2019 at 12:56 PM
Fear is the human emotion designed to signal your body to respond to danger with flight or flight response.
By dint: birds only have the flight response. They flew South.
Posted by: Mike England | June 02, 2019 at 12:59 PM
God almighty give me strength, first he was going on about shepherds, now it’s birds using quantum entanglement - wtf next ?! This man needs to be sectioned immediately.
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 02, 2019 at 01:11 PM
Hi Georgy!
You wrote
"God almighty give me strength, first he was going on about shepherds, now it’s birds using quantum entanglement - wtf next ?! This man needs to be sectioned immediately."
You are making a personal statement about something that is a matter of evidence you can read for yourself.
Please try to take an investigative approach.
I recall years ago after attending home satsang and over cookies and tea asking the regional secretary what they thought of the newest theory that all of creation began as a sub atomic particle of infinitesimal size and nearly infinite mass. I asked because it appeared to me that everyone was largely transparent fields of energy, so it made sense. We are all a projection, and the solid appearance of objects merely limitation of our visual cortex. And some mystics also wrote of it. The secretary scoffed and said "how absurd!"
I could only smile. We are all bound into little boxes by our small lives.
But science is one avenue to go outside a little bit and see the bigger picture.
The gift of awe has just the price of being willing to let go of old and false beliefs.
It's a great bargain!
If pascal wagered it was best to believe in God, I would add Brian's Wager, that we are filled with awe and ecstacy upon discovery, and the cost is only our old dogma.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 02, 2019 at 03:57 PM
Of course, he scoffed. Where’s your proof? Just because you believe something to be the truth (or possible), doesn’t make it so.
Just about anything is possible but pointing to articles by others doesn’t make it science or fact either - it makes it a mere hypothesis - a long way from being scientific theory.
Same for Gurinder, you only have your own hypothesis, based on 2nd hand news accounts to go on - the courts will decide based on objective evidence, not you.
Your opinion counts for precisely squat. The regional sec was right to scoff. Isn’t that how you deflate arrogance and sweeping deluded statements? I would just call it what it is - bullshit.
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 02, 2019 at 11:14 PM
Dear Spence
We are all bound into little boxes by our small lives.
But science is one avenue to go outside a little bit and see the bigger picture.
The gift of awe has just the price of being willing to let go of old and false beliefs.
Interesting points you made. If only we could identify our false beliefs.
Posted by: Mike England | June 03, 2019 at 01:19 AM
Science!!!
Posted by: anami | June 03, 2019 at 04:35 AM
Georgy,
Science is a great teacher of facts. The fact that this creation is mostly empty space, that you and I are not much more than a few dollars worth of chemicals, is not an issue for debate so long as you are considering facts. It's established.
The fact that the Dhillon family took fraudulent monies and hasn't repaid is just a matter of hard evidence.
You can ignore what scientists, and auditors, have proven.
You may continue to live in the illusion....
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 03, 2019 at 10:17 AM
You don’t know your science from our elbow - just believing crap posts that you think are scientific. Those in the know realise they are complete bullshit.
At least do some science if you that interested in it, quantum entanglement in birds - fk this fool is clueless.
Or don’t do it if you don’t want to, but for the love of god done spite some mindless pbs pms report that you know nothing about .
Posted by: Georgy Porgy | June 03, 2019 at 11:55 AM
take a break and listen to this
from Nooran Sisters
punjabi - so english speaking people wont understand it
nooran sisters - bulleh shah qwali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nqNX6d7MFg&feature=youtu.be
Posted by: Osho Robbins | June 03, 2019 at 11:56 AM
SCIENCE!!!
Posted by: anami | June 03, 2019 at 12:18 PM
Hi Georgy
I guess you will have to take n up your complaint with those who have published on the research into quantum merchanics (in particular entanglement, superimposition and tunneling), specifically the links I provided to articles from Scientific American, Oxford University and Northwestern University.
You are most welcome b to submit your own links, or provide evidence of your own work in these fields b disputing current theory.
Or you can continue living in illusion.
Posted by: Spence Tepper | June 03, 2019 at 12:25 PM