The unknown

Humankind has acquired a lot of knowledge; science has made fabulous progress in the last 400 years. However, most of what there is to know is still unknown. For example, are there tons of universes out there, or is this one the only one? How did life come to be? What is matter really? What do the electrons and quarks consist of? What is dark matter and dark energy? What does a thought consist of? What does consciousness consist of? There are endless amounts of questions that we need answers to.

So, we have the part of the world that we know of and the gigantic part that we don't know anything about.

The unknown part of the world is a mystery to us, and we can't do anything but speculate about it. Here, we are all on equal footing: scientists and spiritual teachers, philosophers, and laypeople.

We don't know if life and suffering have a purpose, we don't know if the universe has a purpose, and we don't know if a God is hiding somewhere. We don't know how things really are.

We are like sailors in a small, rickety boat, in a heavy fog and uncharted waters.

"I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me."

― Richard Feynman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvle4tfIelM  

Synchronicity

Synchronicities appear in different ways. One example is when you, for some reason, come to think of an old classmate you haven't met since high school thirty years ago, and then you suddenly bump into him in the afternoon.

Another example is when someone has a weird dream about a relative and later gets to know that he died in a car accident that particular night.

You can also wonder about a word or a concept you have never understood. Then suddenly, you find the answer in a stupid magazine you would never ordinarily open. You found the magazine on the bus, on the empty seat next to you, on your way home.

I think that the Santorini synchronicity was an exceptional kind of synchronicity. We did not know each other before, but we were connected through Isla Mujeres and Monica. Maybe also in some other mysterious way. But we were not supposed to get married and have a life together. Perhaps the purpose of that meeting was simply to open our eyes to the mystical dimension of life.

That meeting proved to me that there is a mystical dimension in the world. However, I am not at all interested in New Age stuff and YouTube spirituality. And I am not interested in religion. I am a die-hard skeptic. How can it be that almost all spirituality seems so silly and simplistic? (Not all.)

I am scientific-minded, but science dismisses spirituality as woo-woo. When Galileo offered the Inquisition authorities to have a look at the moon through his telescope, they refused to look. They were not interested; they knew he was wrong beforehand. Science today is like the 17th-century Catholic church.

Emergent properties

Looking for the meaning of life among electrons and protons is hopeless. You won't find it there. It's like looking for gold in the potato field. Nor will you find it in chromosomes or among nerve cells. Physicists and biologists have looked deeply into this, and they see no evidence for meaning in nature. So they claim that there is no meaning in life, really, because, ultimately, the world is nothing but atoms and molecules.

However, meaning, right and wrong, justice and evil exist among human beings on the human level.

You are not just your atoms and molecules.

Armageddon

World defense spending exceeds more than $2 trillion annually. But that is not enough; now, it is an extensive military rearmament that has the highest priority. The whole world is gearing up. The United States and England are investing heavily in developing new nuclear weapons. Russia and China naturally do not want to be left behind. Germany has decided to invest 100 billion euros in addition to the previous defense budget. All countries feel threatened, and all have legitimate security interests. The situation is beginning to resemble the arms race before the WWI. The fight against climate change is a low priority.

Only the military and their aides can present their views in the established media. Journalists and politicians listen and nod to them in concern. Now it's serious; now we must stand united. Now, it is not appropriate to question and problematize. Diplomacy and negotiations are out of the question.

This is madness. We must create a worldwide peace movement that begins to fight for disarmament. We need new agreements that limit the number of nuclear weapons. This is currently more important than the fight against climate change. If we fail, we will soon have no planet to try to save.

Don't be an idiot.

You can be fooled by religious or political leaders, self-help gurus, con artists, romance scammers, crypto coin investors, and telemarketers. Many people try to trick you; you are not even safe in your own home, and you can not even trust yourself. This is ridiculous. One part of your mind deceives you, and another part warns you about self-deceptions.

The masters of duplicity must be the politicians. Look at how impeccable they are, how well-meaning and well-groomed. The brutal war against civilians in that other country is, in fact, self-defense and a fight for a noble cause.

Spin doctors spin stories. They know what they are doing; they have studied the subject for years at top universities. And there is no way to judge whether the information you receive is accurate or disinformation. Both mainstream media and alternative media produce tons of bullshit.

So, what can we do? My advice is: Stop trusting politicians and religious leaders; stop trusting information from all media outlets. Maybe they have it right; perhaps they are just spinning a story. You don't know. Don't trust anybody, not even yourself. And, of course, don't trust me. You may eventually find the truth about a particular event or a subject, but it can take many years.

If you are not able to question beliefs, ideas, opinions, and facts, your own or those of others, you are doomed to get fooled. Fooled by yourself or someone else.

Communism

No sane person can call himself a communist these days after all the horrors that have been committed in the name of communism, but how is it that Christians still can call themselves Christians without shame? Christianity also has a terrible history: the Crusades, the Inquisition courts and witch trials, the oppression of women and children, and the staunch support of war-crazed kings and presidents. Every Sunday, the slave drivers in the American South went to church and sang hymns. "Si-i-lent night, ho-o-ly night."

The true self

If you have lost touch with your conscience, you have lost touch with your true self.

Psychopaths are not troubled by conscience; they don't even know what it is. Narcissists don't care or explain it away. Neurotics feel remorse, guilt, and shame, even for negligible offenses.