Change

If you experience a mystic synchronicity or some kind of spontaneous telepathic phenomenon you will probably become greatly surprised. It will make you wonder about the nature of reality. You may ponder over this for years. However, nothing much in your everyday life will change. Your bad habits and endless daily chores will continue. A fundamental life-changing experience requires something much stronger. You have to hit rock bottom, I suppose. You have to face death.

Pessimism

The world has always been a mess: horrific wars, slavery, poverty, diseases, pain, religious oppression, psychopathic kings, emperors, warlords, and presidents...

Well, there have also been small patches of peace, love, and optimism here and there, at times, for a lucky few, but the overall situation has always been horrible.

Pantheism

Everything is real, everything exists in this universe: atoms and electrons, galaxies and stars, fantasies and dreams, delusions and lies, consciousness and ego, deceit and deceptions, love and fear, cats and dogs, viruses and bacteria, escapes and sin, synchronicities, and NDEs...

You select which subjects you find interesting, like a kid in a toy store.

Here's the rub

Trump is not the problem, the problem is all those people who vote for him.

Duarte in the Philippines, Bolsonaro in Brazil, and Orbán in Hungary, just to mention a few other obnoxious heads of state, they are also elected. Millions of Germans adored Hitler.

Ordinary people create serious problems in the world.

Folly

3000 years ago people believed that the earth is flat. 400 years ago were people afraid of witches, ghosts, and trolls. 70 years ago were Germans convinced that they belonged to a superior race...

Today people still believe that fantasies are real, it's just new fantasies, other fantasies. We are still deluded idiots. The mainstream media's as well as the internet is flooded with hogwash. We are drowning in crap.

How about you? Are you also deeply convinced about things that will be considered idiocy 50 years from now? Or maybe next week? What do you think?

Is the mind real?

Is mathematics invented or discovered?

Is meaning invented or discovered?

Is God invented or discovered?

Is the true self invented or discovered?

Are the spiritual entities, angels, and demigods invented or discovered?

Are electrons and quarks invented or discovered?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Q6SWcTA9w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujvS2K06dg4

Narcissism

I love myself, says the narcissist. He looks at himself in the mirror and affirms: I love myself. I love myself.

Self-help books and internet gurus teach the importance of loving oneself. You must not question yourself, you must not criticize yourself. No matter what you have done, you must love yourself. You must believe in yourself. You must trust yourself. You must have self-confidence and self-esteem. You must love yourself.

Idealism

If you write something in the sand, on a beach, it says something there only if someone reads what you have written. It's just sand if no one reads it. Natural scientists examine the sand with their hyper-advanced instruments, they can explain what it consists of, how it originated, and what its properties are. They don't care about what you have written. Only the sand is worth studying for them. They have a materialistic worldview.

Humanists don't care much about the sand. They find sand uninteresting. It's just sand. They are more interested in what someone has written there and why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhrHf-SnVEw

NDE

A Near-Death-Experience is a Near-Death-Experience. It is not an experience of death. Resuscitation is not the same as resurrection. Strange phenomena can occur under extreme stress. You can get mystical insights. You don't get mystical insights in common everyday life. You don't get mystical insights by reading books or listening to spiritual teachers.

What do you think?

Are ghosts, spirits and angels also made up of atoms and molecules, or, do they consist of some other form of matter? What do you think? Are they immaterial? Are they made of imagination or illusions? 

What is an illusion made of? Electromagnetic waves in brain tissue? Fiering neurons?

What is the difference between an illusion and a perception, from a neurological point of view?

Your eyes can detect photons, light, but what is a photon, really? Is it a particle or a wave? 

At this moment you are possessed by a spirit. Is it a decent spirit, a horny spirit, or an evil spirit? Is it a resentful spirit, a jealous spirit, a sad spirit, a bored spirit, or a cheerful spirit? Where does this spirit come from? How long has it been with you, or in you? Is it a frequent visitor?

Who, or what, are you, that is possessed by this particular spirit? Are you, as well as your memories, illusions, imaginations, and perceptions made of brain activity?

Is your brain a kind of receiver or is it producing consciousness?

What will happen to you when you die and your brain is decomposing? Will you end up somewhere else? What do you think? Or, will consciousness continue in other brains? Just because your radio is broken it doesn't mean that all radio transmissions stop.

What will the world look like if all life forms die out in an idiotic nuclear war? Will the broadcasting companies also disappear? Will the whole universe become just a huge empty nothingness with a few electrons and quarks bumbling around here and there?

Dark matter

You consist of matter: meat, lard and bones, electrons, and quarks. This stuff constitutes about 15% of you. The rest is what the physicists call dark matter. It is some kind of matter, they know that it is there, but they don't know what it is. 85% of you, is a complete mystery.

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

Psi

Paranormal phenomena are real. I have had paranormal experiences. And I am not alone. However, people are not always honest. Some people lie about their meetings with spirits, synchronicities, or mystic abilities. There are tons of fantastic stories in circulation about precognitions, synchronicities, telepathy, and near-death-awakenings. Some of them are true, many of them are not. And it is very difficult to prove that someone is bluffing.

Some people lie about their religious faith, others tell fish stories. Trump is posing with the bible in his hand: Look how religious I am.

All people lie, even scientists, police officers, and evangelical preachers. We are also lying to ourselves. We are born into a world of deceit and deception and we have to find ways to survive here. We have been thrown into the water to sink or swim. 

But all people are not lying all the time. Sometimes we are telling the truth. Some fantastic stories are in fact true.

There is no way that you can prove that your story is true or that someone else is bluffing. This is why science and the scientific method evolved. However, scientists deal only with stuff that can be proved, the unprovable things are taken off the table. It makes their job much easier.

This is the reason why there are so many charlatans and bluffers in the realm of religion and spirituality. 

And this is the reason why people who have experienced strange paranormal phenomena don't talk about them with people they don't trust. This is esoteric knowledge. 

A blessing in disguise

To be fooled can be a blessing. A fraud or a betrayal can teach you how your mind works. Smart, stable, and well-educated people can also be deceived by a swindler. No one is safe. A smart, stable, and well-educated know-it-all thinks of himself as smart, stable, and well-educated – until he gets bamboozled by a trickster. His smug self-image collapses. Later, when the dust has settled, he can feel gratitude because the trickster woke him up from his fantasy world.

Toxic Positivity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l19QSxWyaWI

 

We have all been fooled

There are lots of different types of swindlers in this world: Romance scammers, snake oil salesmen, religious and spiritual fraudsters, banksters, investment hustlers...

Some people are narcissists or psychopaths, others are simply ordinary liars or crooks. You have to be wary.

Before you understand that you have been fooled is everything fine and dandy. Then, when you begin to get suspicious, you become worried and anxious. Maybe you will not get your money back. What the hell is this? This can't be true. Finally, when the penny drops, you become depressed. You lose all meaning with life and your trust in human beings.

Well, some people can't stand the pain of being an idiot so they hold on to their illusion; they come up with rationalizations and doggedly deny what is obvious to others. They are holding on to their penny. “Eventually I will get my money, it just takes a little more time and then I get rich.” or, “Someday he will divorce his wife and come back to me.” or, “Hitler tried to save the German race.” or, whatever it is they refuse to accept.

It is painful to wake up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CxcnB16Tyk

Diversity

There are many different kinds of Christianity, many different kinds of Islam, many different kinds of Hinduism. There are many different ideas about God: who he or she is, what he or she wants from you.

What if God doesn't have a gender. What if you are praying to a God that doesn't exist. What if you are praying to someone else's God. What if you are praying to the wrong God. Catholics and Protestants have been fighting gruesome wars over the years because of their different beliefs. Sunni and Shia Muslims are fighting gruesome wars today.

Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and atheists are also fighting each other because of their different ideas about God.

What if there is no God. What if there really is a God somewhere whom no one has discovered yet.

There are also many different kinds of philosophies, many different kinds of meditation, many different kinds of spirituality, many different kinds of liberalism, many different kinds of socialism. There are many different kinds of ideas and beliefs in this world. Not even the scientists are in agreement.

How can you be so deeply convinced that your view is the right view among so many others?

What if you are completely wrong. What if you have misunderstood everything. What if you are desperately clinging to a misconception.

Questions

Are we all nuts in one way or another? What do you think?

Can some misconceptions be helpful and others create misery? Can a self-image, a worldview, a religion, or an ideology be beneficial? Is it possible to see things clearly without distorting lenses? Is it possible to free oneself from delusions?

Can you believe whatever you like as long as you don't create problems for yourself and other people?

Have you ever questioned your own beliefs?

Not on the same page.

You have to find someone who can teach you about life and how you should live it: a Guru, a spiritual teacher, a pastor, a mullah, a life coach, a philosopher, a rock star, a political leader...

Someone must show you the direction. If you don't know your destination, you need someone who can tell you where to go.

It's wonderful to know where to go and how to get there. It's wonderful to sit in an audience and listen to someone who knows the way. It's wonderful to have a leader.

If you listen to another guru he or she will probably point in another direction. There are gurus for all directions, full circle. There are even gurus who tell you to stay where you are. Some believe in the perennial philosophy, others don't; some believe in a true self that you can find, others don't. Some believe in God, others don't.

Belief systems

Gloomy thoughts, grumpy thoughts, nice thoughts, clever thoughts, stupid thoughts, wonderful thoughts...Thoughts are just thoughts. They come and go and they are seldom worth bothering about.

Your philosophy of life, on the other hand, is very important paying attention to. It can ruin your life. It can also ruin other people's life.

So, what is your philosophy of life really like? To find out you have to observe your actions, not your thoughts.

Some people claim that they Christian, but they do not turn the other cheek and they store up treasures on earth.

Others claim that all humans are equal, but they use an indifferent tone of voice when they talk to the plain-looking and uneducated and they talk ingratiatingly to those who are attractive and successful. 

Some advocate the benefits of positive thinking but they depend on antidepressant medications to survive.

What is your actual philosophy of life? What philosophy of life you are living according to?

What comes first? Pleasure? The importance of not being a nobody? To have an identity, a title? To be knowledgeable of something, meditation, sailing, literature?

What ideas do you refuse to give up? What do you refuse to see?

Do you believe that career climbing is important? Do you believe that the rich and strong are blessed? Do you despise yourself? Do you trust yourself? Are honesty, uprightness, and friendliness important to you?

Is it possible, do you think, to give up one's actual philosophy of life and start anew, to be born again, without adopting another belief system?

Do you believe that it is possible to live without a philosophy of life, or do you believe that it is a matter of replacing bad ideas with good ones?

Do you believe that the meaning of life must be created or discovered?

The end of the world

More and more people no longer believe in a future for the human race. We have given up all hope, but we avoid talking about it. This view is taboo.

People die, civilizations collapse and species become extinct. This is how life and evolution works. 99% of all species that have lived on earth have disappeared; all previous civilizations are wiped out. But it is very difficult to digest that life functions in this way. It is unpleasant to think about death, doom, and destruction.

How much time do we have left, 10 years, 30 years, 70 years? The scientists do not agree on when they think we will perish, but most of them agree that we will, if we don't drastically decrease the greenhouse gas emissions within the next few years. But the emissions are increasing. In Asia, they are planning to build tons of new coal power plants. They need cheap energy because the western world continues to locate its industrial production there.

Is it not unwise to think about death and the end of the world? Is it not better to be optimistic and hope that smart engineers will come up with clever solutions so that the world economy can continue to grow unhindered without destroying the climate and the environment?

Yes, it is better to be optimistic: Life becomes much easier. But there are also disadvantages to positive thinking and upbeat delusions. They have an existential cost: you can end up in a fool's paradise. And if you are young and save money in a pension fund, you give your hard-earned money to banksters to play with, but you will never get them back because you will never get a pension. All the banks will be gone when you reach pension age.

There will be no new climate policy here on earth. There are too many people, stinking rich, as well as poor, who are craving money like junkies who are craving a fix.

We who have understood that there is no future for humanity do not bury our heads in the sand. We try to seize the time, we have stopped fussing and fighting with friends and foes, we don't care about goal focusing and career. And strangely enough, we are not the ones who are frustrated and depressed. It is all of you who still think that we have to do something to save the climate who are suffering.

Awakening and selfishness

Think of a selfish middle-aged man. He has read in self-help books and heard on Youtube that happiness is important for health and wellbeing. So he attends a weekend retreat and learns how to meditate, to love himself, and to appreciate the present moment.

However, he doesn't find much happiness and harmony after his exercises. But he doesn't give up. He keeps on trying and trying. He reads more books and listens to gurus and enthusiastic motivational speakers. But nothing is changing in his life. He doesn't experience any happiness.

Some people tell him that he is a selfish asshole behind his smiles, but he thinks for himself that such people are negative and miserable. He is not able to see what a jerk he is and how he has injured so many people with his selfishness. And as long as he refuses to see this he will never heal, he will never have a chance to wake up, he will never experience genuine small scale happiness.

You have to make your way through the swamp to get to the meadows on the other side.

It is painful to wake up

Psychotherapy is of no help to people who suffer from serious self-deceptions. A therapist doesn't tell his client that he is a needy sucker, even if this is his main problem. If his client is a selfish, narcissistic asshole he will not tell her that this is the case. It is pointless. She is not listening. (It is as if a medical doctor doesn't tell his patient that she has diabetes because she doesn't like negative news.) 

A needy sucker has a chance to wake up if he or she gets ditched by a narcissistic asshole, but the narcissistic asshole will never wake up. Narcissists die in their delusions.

Needy suckers ought to be immensely grateful if they have the luck to be connected to a narcissistic asshole. Narcissists serve an important role in life. Without them, suckers would also die in their delusions. Narcissists are doing what nice and understanding therapists don't dare to do.

Defense mechanisms

Spirituality can function as a powerful psychological defense mechanism. If you can't accept how the world works you can invent a spiritual fantasy world, a castle in the air filled with angels, gurus, and life coaches.

Rationalization is also a well-known defense mechanism. The smart-ass delivers clever scientific explanations and philosophical expositions while his spouse is cheating on him.

Denial, delusion, idealization, there are many kinds of defense mechanisms.

We have to protect ourselves. Defense mechanisms help us to cope in this terrible world of war, terror, pain, disease, and falsehood.