Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Thoughts

Where are the thoughts coming from? From the brain, of course. Ok, but how do they get in there?

You didn't learn how to talk by yourself. You didn't invent the words; you learned them from people around you.

So, first you have to learn how to talk. As a four year old, you could probably talk quite well. Most likely you were talking too much and people around you told you, or begged you, to shut up, at least while you were eating. Maybe they told you that all your questions were driving them crazy.

Ever since then you have been talking, constantly, asking questions, coming up with answers, inventing stories and explanations. And if you don't happen to have anyone to talk to, you talk to yourself, in your fantasy, in your head.

Then, in school, they taught you how to read and write and about proper thinking. And from friends and peers, books and films, you learned how to think in improper ways.

My point is, what is going on in your head has its origins, not from you but from outside of you.

In any case, when a thought pops up in your head, where does it come from? Do you invent it? No, thoughts just come, don't they? From out of the blue.

Somehow, the electrochemical activity in your brain create questions and explanations from the words you have learned. You are like a saxophonist who has learned a number of notes and a number of melodies, and then, at some point, begin to invent his or her own melodies?

Imagine that you could see the electrochemical activities in your brain, enlarged on a computer screen. What would you see? Actors, like holographic images? Would you hear voices?

Imagine that you could follow exactly how the thoughts were formed.

I have absolutely no idea of why I write this. And, is it really me who is writing? If so, what is this I really made of?

The idea that you are alone in there, inside your head, in your brain, is ridiculous.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Hardwired ideas

It's usually pointless to discuss life with a jehovah's witness, or a mormon, or a salafist muslim. They already have it all figured out. They know it all. They are deaf to what you are saying. The same goes for Donald Trump supporters, neoliberals, hard line socialists, materialists, idealists, nihilists, go getters...

It's very difficult to change ideas, beliefs and opinions. We are very reluctant to change our ways. We get hardwired. We get stuck in ruts.

It's very difficult to change the mind - but it is possible. Sometimes religious people leave their religious cult and sometimes people even change their political views. Alcoholics can stop drinking and some careerists can suddenly leave the rat race. Strangely enough, after a big change, it seems just natural.

The process often begins with feelings of unease, doubt and questioning. Which implies that unease and doubt sometimes are useful and wholesome, and should not be treated as symptoms of something that is wrong and should be medicated. And a questioning mind can sometimes be very helpful.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

The transcendental reality

Dogs can hear sounds we can't hear and perceive scents we can't perceive. Butterflies and bees can see colours we can't see.

Our eminent scientists have constructed powerful instruments that enhance our senses enormously. However, the main part of the reality is still unknown to us. We call that unknown part of the reality the transcendental reality.

The transcendental reality is of course a mystery to us, and because we do not know anything about it we have to resort to fantasies. We create amazing fantasies about multiple universes, vibrating strings, a reality with no colors, no sounds and no scents; or realms were gods, angels and spiritual beings reside.

Many people are deeply convinced that they know what is going on in the transcendental world. But there is no consensus. In fact, different groups are seriously at loggerheads with each other because of their different beliefs, and followers of different religions or different religious groups can even start killing each other in order to to prove their point. Sometimes, they declare war to fight lies and heresies.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

What is a question and what is it made of?

What is the mind? What is it made of and where is it located?

You can't open up the skull of someone and find the mind in there somewhere.
Nor can you find the soul, the psyche, the ego or the true self.

The mind is not a thing. Water is not a thing either, but the mind is not like water. The mind is not like a river or a streem. Nor is the mind like air. Water and air consist of something.

The brain is not like a book, the mind is not like the text and the soul is not the gist of it. The mind is constantly changing. A book doesn't change from one day to the next.

The mind is not like a reflection in a pond. A reflection does not exist unless someone is there who notice it.

The mind is not like a magnetic field. A magnetic field can not influence it's own magnetic field. Maybe the mind is like a number of magnetic fields that are affecting each other. Who knows!

The truth is that no one knows what the mind is. There are many hypotheses and many suggestions on definitions, but there is no consensus. Maybe the mind consists of something but no one knows of what it consists of.

Why do you read this? What is reading this?
Why did it come here?

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Agnosticism

27% of the material world is made up of dark matter. The existence of dark matter is accepted by most astronomers today but they have no idea of what this strange stuff actually is. That's why they use the word dark. They could have said mysterious matter, weird matter or unknown matter, but they prefer the word dark. They understand that it must be there when they observe how the galaxies revolve and expansion of the universe but they don't understand what it is.

Ordinary matter and ordinary energy, the stuff that physicists can detect with their powerful high tech instruments, constitute less than 5% of the universe.

*

The being that you believe is you and your consciousness, is only the tip of an iceberg. The main part of you is hidden. Freud called that part the unconscious.

You do not know who you are. You do not know what life is all about, really. The main part of you is a mystery. The main part of the world is a mystery.

The world we live in, the world we can see and touch, hear and smell, is just a tiny fraction of it all.

When you think that you understand what life is all about and when you think that you are realistic, then you are deluded.



Sunday, November 13, 2016

Democracy?

In the latest US presidential election the americans could choose between a neoliberal candidate and a neofascist. 46% of the americans who were entitled to vote didn't bother about it.

Next year it's presidential election in France and the people of France will also get a chance to choose between neoliberalism and neofascism. It's no longer unlikely that Marine Le Pen will become France's next president.

Both social democratic and liberal parties here in Europe have a neoliberal political agenda and the neofascist parties are getting stronger and stronger. The left wing is very small and powerless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Dark thoughts

The end days are imminent. We are now waiting for the closing scene of this long running, idiotic and gory splatter movie. There is no hope for humankind. All political ideologies and all religions have been disastrous.

Endless wars, exploitation of people and nature, greed, rapacity, bigotry, pollution, superstition - endless bullshit.

Do you still believe that we can change our ways? Do you still believe that we will somehow wake up from our trance states. I don't.

Humanity will die out just like millions and millions of other species in the evolution.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Nihilism

I have now come to the conclusion that life has no ultimate meaning, if you don't invent a meaning for yourself, or adopt someone else's meaning of life.

Life is purposeless. We will all die, sooner or later; we will not end up in heaven or hell and we will not reincarnate. There is no afterlife, I believe. This is it.

I don't mind if you believe that Jesus will save you, or Allah or Krishna, I don't mind if you believe in spirits or angels. I don't mind if you're into quantum physics or how to make more money. I don't care if you're interested in yoga, group sex or golf.

I don't mind if you try to distract yourself with alcohol and drugs, or spend as much time as you can by watching stupid stuff on TV or on the internet. This has also been my way of trying to cope.

I don't mind if you invent a meaning of life. I can understand your reasons for this. But to me has life no particular meaning or purpose.

I'm not depressed. On the contrary. I'm sometimes quite happy. But I just can't see any particular meaning behind the events.

Life here on this planet is filled to the brim with suffering, war, exploitation and idiocy. Nevertheless, sometimes many of us can have some fun.

Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism

Sunday, October 30, 2016

The killer ape theory

-People have been fighting barbaric and cruel wars since the beginning of history. Is this fact not evidence enough that we are bellicose by nature? Don't critizise people who go to war, to kill, rape and destroy. They simply do what they are created to do. We follow orders, also from completely mad men, because it's written in our genetic code to follow orders from strong leaders.

-Even if belicosity is in our DNA, shouldn't we try to overcome this flaw, just like when we try to find cures to inborn diseases, or give eyeglasses to our children if they are nearsighted? 

Moreover, archaeologists and anthropologists are not in agreement on the claim that humans always have been at war with each other. Many of them can show evidence that warfare began when we became farmers and permanent residents. They claim that states and warfare did not exist 20 000 years ago. Our actions and our way of being is much more influenced by culture than by nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_ape_theory

http://www.fifthestate.org/archive/381-summer-fall-2009/killer-ape-theory-disproved/

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/new-study-of-prehistoric-skeletons-undermines-claim-that-war-has-deep-evolutionary-roots/

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/survey-of-earliest-human-settlements-undermines-claim-that-war-has-deep-evolutionary-roots/


Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Scientific woo-woo

Materialism, the doctrine that nothing exists except matter and its movements, is nowadays an outdated worldview. If we don't really know what matter is, then materialism makes no sense. Matter consists of vibrating, mysterious something. Matter is mysterious stuff that has been made tangible.

The word materialism can also mean to consider material possessions as more important than spiritual values. However, what is a spiritual value?

Originally the term spirit meant an "animating or vital principle in man and animals". (What the spirit factually is can be seen when you look at a corpse; the difference between a living wacky person and the same person when he is dead.) The Latin word spiritus is related to spirare, to breathe.

In a Biblical context the term means to be driven by the Holy Spirit.

(I have always felt that I've been driven by many different kinds of spirits, stupid spirits, crazy spirits, lazy spirits, evil spirits.)

Nowadays have spirituality and religion been separated. Spirituality has become more focused on the search for the true self, the soul, without following the rules and regulations laid out by churches or religious institutions. Religious people follow prescribed teachings. Spiritual people invent their own religions and belief systems.

What is the true self? If it's not your body and not your mind (Spirit?) with its ego, beliefs, stories, opinions, values, memories, plans, misunderstandings, follies and ideas, what is it? Which part of you is reincarnating? (or going to heaven?)

When someone has a near-death experience and observes himself or herself on an operating table, who is this someone? Is this the true self, the soul, or is this an illusion?

Nobody knows nothing about these things, though they may be deeply convinced that they do. All people are speculating their heads off. We are all out there, I believe. We are all space cowboys.

But I am not an agnostic. A label is just a label, a word, and I have nowadays stopped labeling myself.

All explanations, materialistic, scientific, spiritual, religious and ideological, are woo-woo to me. If the scientists only would speak about what they had evidence for I would be on their side, but they don't. They talk about multiple universes, the probability that there are life on other planets, that no part of you lives on after death, that life is essentially meaningless, that synchronistic phenomenons are delusions...

What is matter, really? What does it consist of? What is energy? What is dark matter? What is conciousness? What is a dream? Are there more universes than this? What is light? What is an electrone? Etcetera, etcetera.

Nobody knows.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Thought habits

Events get caught in the brain in the form of memories. Connections are formed between neurons. When a memory has been stored in long-term memory it is very difficult to get rid of. You can forget about what happened but the memory is still there somewhere and can resurface whenever, maybe even decades later.

In the same way, beliefs, ideas and quirks get wired into the brain fabric. Once you have become convinced of something, it is very difficult to change that conviction.

Somehow you may have got the idea that you are stupid, or that nothing really matters in life except money. Maybe you still believe in evil spirits.

All habits are difficult to change: thought habits, smoking habits, eating habits...   It is also difficult to change hard wired political opinions and religious ideas. However, it is possible.

Heavy smokers can give up smoking and alcoholics can give up drinking.

It is possible to leave a religious sect or abandon a political ideology.

It is possible to disentangle oneself from thought patterns.




Saturday, September 17, 2016

Psychotherapy

Psychologists have developed methods to help people with low self-esteem,
depression, anxiety and phobias.
How come they have never developed methods to treat greed, complacency,
hypocrisy and career obsession?

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Get real?

“Only the now is real”, is a popular slogan. However, slogans are mental creations. The Now is also a mental construct, just like memories and plans for the future. What you can see with your own two eyes are images that are created in your visual center and the sounds you hear are created in your auditory center.

Right-wingers, left-wingers, religious people and atheists have completely different ideas about what it means to be realistic. Not even the best scientists in the world can agree on how reality really works. How can this be? They have fantastic instruments. How come they arrive at different conclusions? Well, conclusions are also made of mental stuff, like dreams and fantasies.

Is this world made of matter, spirit or energy? What is matter, really? What is spirit made of? What is energy? We're all in the dark.

Relativism is also an outdated worldview, like materialism and idealism. We're all lost. We're lost in space. No one knows for sure why we are here. How ridiculous to argue about things that we don't know anything about. We're like drunks, quarreling about whether Einstein was right or wrong about time.

So, stop arguing. Give up the fight. Stop defending your worldview. Ignore worldviews altogether. It's time to wake up now!




Sunday, August 21, 2016

Rationalizations

Some people are very intelligent. They get good grades in school.
Eventually they become phDs and start to write books.
Their way of thinking is based on logic and reason
and they come up with very intelligent explanations.

The problem is that they also explain things that they don't have a clue about.
They find rational and intelligent explanations also to incomprehensible events.
They should limit their explanations to what they have evidence for, I think.

Why do you feel that you have to, at any price,
come up with a rational and intelligent explanation,
also to aphenomenon that you have no experience of?
Are you afraid that your rational world would fall apart if you can't find
a logical explanation to the inexplicable?

                                                     ***

Other people are not as clever. They did not get good grades in school
and their explanations are usually unintelligent and irrational.
They have to invent gods or spirits to explain what they can't understand.
Allah, an angel or Jesus Christ intervened in the events, they say.

Why do you feel that you have to explain synchronicities?
Why do you feel that you have to explain consciousness?
Is the brain a receiver of cosmic consciousness
or is it a computer that manufactures thoughts and a sense of self?
Are synchronicities delusions or are they strange messages from somewhere?

Why is it so hard for you to say 'I don't know' or ' life is really a mystery?

Friday, August 19, 2016

How are we to live?


Many physicists, just  to mention a few of them: Stephen Hawking,
Brian Greene, Leonard Susskind and Neil deGrasse Tyson,
believe that this universe is not the only one.

The question is, what difference does it make to you, in your life,
if there are innumerable universes out there, or if this one is the only one?

What difference does it make to you if there is a God somewhere
or if God is just a fantasy figure?

What difference does it make to you, in your everyday life,
if a part of you lives on after death, or if no part of does?

Would these different beliefs change anything in your way of life?

Things that are important in our daily lives, are what is important, I think,
not what is going on in other universes or what is happening to us after death.

How are we to live?

Are greed, vengefulness, self deception and lies useful strategies?

Is it important to get rich, no matter how?

Is 'survival of the richest' a fundamental natural law?

It seems to me that physicists, religious and spiritual people
as well as militant atheists
care too much about matters that are not of vital importance.

Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett never confront
the irrational ideas and beliefs behind Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism.
They devote their lives to debunk religious nutcases.


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

The search for serenity


Accept the things you can't change,
change the faults and failings that is possible to change
and try to find out, seriously, what is changeable and what is not.

It's possible to stop smoking.
It's not easy but it is possible.
Many nicotine addicts have managed to give up smoking.

Even many heroin addicts have been able to stop taking drugs.

It's possible to stop lying to oneself.
It's possible to stop making a pig of oneself.
It's possible to get off the bandwagon and ignore the rat race.

It's possible to leave a religious faith, a religious sect,
a confession, a worldview or a political platform,
without adopting another belief system or mind set.

But it is not possible to change the past.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Thin places

I heard about the "thin places" on the radio and then I read about such places on the Internet.

“There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted.”

Interesting! However, I don't think that a thin place is a geographical place. I think it is a short sequence of your life. You get a glimpse of something. You can not spend the rest of your life there. You have to continue your journey. You have to live your life here, on this side.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Tribalism

Humans are pack animals.
We feel lost and bewildered without a group and a leader.
We've been put together in this way by the biological and social evolution.

Someone has to tell us how to think and what to do.
Someone has to tell us what is right and what is wrong.

A strong political leader can lead his troop straight to hell if he feels like it
and the troop is so grateful that someone shows them the way.
Soldiers follow orders.
Spiritual seekers love to sit at the feet of a guru and listen devoutly at drivel.
The great majority, those with a more formal religious orientation,
goes to a Church, a mosque or a synagogue to listen to their particular truths.
A famous pop star can make a large audience hysterical.
A skilful hypnotist can make you think you are Napoleon.

We need good role models, they say.
But who is a good role model?
Bill Cosby? Mother Teresa?
How can we know beforehand that we're not hoodwinked?

However, free will, pioneering, wakefulness and questioning
are also in our being
but these traits are heavily suppressed by the majority rule.

It is possible to break the spell of biological and social conditioning
if you put your back into it
but you will not gain anything from this effort.
On the contrary, you will become outcast and despised.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Stop bothering about the climate change


Why did the Roman empire fall?
Was it because of the moral and cultural decay, the corrupt emperors, 
the plague, the civil wars, the rise of Christianity, 
the division of the empire
or was it because of the increasing attacks by barbarians?

Why did the Mayan civilization collapse?
and The Harappan, The Minoan, The Mycenaean,
The Ancient Egyptian, The  Babylonian...

Why do civilizations collapse?
Is every civilization destined to fall?

Maybe it is inevitable that also this our global civilization will crumble.
Maybe this is a natural process.
If this is so, maybe we should stop bothering about the climate change.

Do what you want.
Skip all your environmental concerns.
You can continue to drive your petrol consuming car without bad concience.

If you feel like it, if it makes you feel better,
you can of course adopt a more environmental friendly life style.
but it will not make any difference for our planet
because only a very small minority will follow your example.

Exploit poor people and nature in order to become rich.
Hide your selfishness behind charity.
Do whatever you can to get more money.
Or, if it makes you feel better,
repent, sell what you have and give to the poor.

Do what you want.
Embrace whatever  belief system that makes you happy.
Don't question yourself. Or, if you feel like it,
start questioning your self.

Do what you want.
'Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.'

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Stop picking on Trump

There are millions and millions of assholes here on this planet.
Donald Trump is not the only one.

It's not only politicians who are dishonest
and it's not only on Wall Street where you can find crooks.
There are wolves in sheep's clothing everywhere.

Decent people are not always decent
and benevolent people are not always benevolent.

I'm not always truthful and kind.
How about you?

If you start to examine your mind you would probably become horrified.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Difficult questions

What do you refuse to realize?
What do you refuse to let go of?
What do you refuse to change?

What is your problem?
Are you drinking too much?
Have you got into your head that you are a loser?
Do you believe that life is utterly meaningless?
Do you refuse to understand why she left you?

What is your problem?
Have you somehow ended up in a religious cult?
Do you believe that greed is our true nature?
Are you possessed by unhelpful spiritual beliefs?
Do you believe in astrology?
Do you believe in evil spirits?
Have you thrown a spanner in your works
Have you been bewitched by hateful political ideas?

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Change

-How can you expect to change other people
and how can you expect to change the world,
when you can't even change yourself?
You refuse to let go of your misconceptions.
You are like a dog with a bone.

-You're wrong. We change whether we like it or not.
Life is change. Evolution is change.
The universe is in constant flux.
Your idea that you can't change is an idea that is changable.

I don't have the same political views I had when I was younger.
I don't see the world in the same way as I did a just few years ago.
Racism and slavery are no longer widely accepted.

Friday, July 1, 2016

The missing part

There is a part of your mind that is not stupid, selfish, self-righteous, 
touchy, vengeful, hypocritical...

Have you forgot about this part? 
Has this part of you been silenced and suppressed?


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The truth

My fantasies are better than your.
That's why we don't get along.
My God is better than your God.
Your God is a delusion.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Honesty

Some people call themselves Christians, they can even go to church on sundays, but they refuse to turn the other cheek and they lay up treasures for themselves in tax havens.

Dishonest people can denounce dishonesty and hypocrites can critizise hypocrisy.

Some invent that they have met aliens from outer space, others pretend that they are optimistic about the future of mankind.

Also I lie daily. However, sometimes I don't. I believe that all people are tricksters that occasionally tell the truth.

How do you find out if someone is sincere? What method do you use? And how do you find out if you're lying to yourself?

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

I feel lonely

I've lost friends who became alcoholics or drug addicts
and I've lost friends who became religious.
Some got lost in New Age nonsense, others in the rat race.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Self confidence

Self confidence is dangerous.
People with low self confidence and low self esteem don't start wars.  

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Don't trust yourself

The spell is broken when you begin to question your own beliefs.
Questioning others' beliefs do not lead to anywhere.
(If this questioning does not make you question your own beliefs).

Friday, January 8, 2016

Christianity and slavery

During the 1700s, slavery and the slave trade began to be questioned.
A new kind of Christian ethics and morals emerged.
Nothing i written in stone.



 When the British parliament voted to abolish slavery in the colonies in 1833, the Bench of Bishops voted against — as they did on almost all reform bills. To get the bill through, Parliament voted to compensate slave owners (There was no compensation for the slaves themselves). The Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 provided for £20 million to be paid to West Indian plantation slave owners in compensation for the loss of their 'property'. The Anglican Church received £8,823 for the loss of slave labour on its Codrington plantation in the West Indies.
Individual Anglican Churchmen had to be compensated separately. Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter, and three business associates received nearly £13,000.

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/gaa_slavery.htm

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/09/religion.world


Monday, January 4, 2016

Calm down

You don't have to realize yourself.
You don't have to be someone, achieve something, become something.
You don't have to be fabulous, happy, serene, radiant, loving, successful...
These are all neurotic commandments from the self improvement industry.
It's not a crime to be tired or displeased.
You have the right to be, simply what you are, for the time being.