Recently I have been feeling harassed by someone and yesterday during "peace negotiations" with them I realised why they were behaving how they were, and I took a fresh look at myself and saw that I also do a similar thing - it helped me to understand many things about my life. I'll try to explain what I realised and what that meant to me. Perhaps this insight might be of some use to you if adapted to your life...

Firstly, I'll describe how they were behaving, at least according to my perceptions. Have you ever known someone who came to look at you through shit-coloured glasses and assume that was the real you? And then tried to “help you” by seducing you and others to see you in that shitty way? And they did all this in the name of Love? And they misunderstood your attempts to clarify things as defensiveness? And they remain staunchly self-righteous – believing themselves to be a beacon of loving kindness?

I realised that I also do this to others by looking at aspects of society (such as propaganda, entrenched confusions, self-reinforcing closed loops of hidden assumptions, outmoded paradigms, etc) through shit-coloured glasses and stating my views rather harshly at times. I do this out of love for the victims of illusion and its resulting suffering, the oppressed, the deceived and the exploited. I also do it out of love for truth, reality, decency, honour, peace and health. However this is only one view and most people see things differently, for instance those seeking comfortable illusions or distractions, those seeking power and dominance, those seeking mayhem and chaos, etc. It is a subtle trap to fall into one-sidedness and to denigrate the ways of others. Even if one knows that those ways are destructive and dangerous it is not productive to denigrate them. Even if those following those ways (e.g. authoritarians, mass media, materialists, egotists, fanatics, etc) routinely denigrate other ways.

As part of a propaganda campaign it is standard practice to spread a one-sided view and to denigrate other views, however this is really a form of cultural violence, and violence begets violence. If one truly believes that it is truth that will set us free, then one must accept all ways no matter how abhorrent they may appear. One should not condone them, but one shouldn't react with hatred towards them. Instead accept them as part of what is and find ways to help the whole situation evolve towards a healthier state. Rather than focus on attacking the negatives one can focus on nurturing the positives.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I should never warn people of dangers. That would be irresponsible, it just means that there are times, places and ways of doing this. I must also learn to accept that many people will blindly wander into suffering and despair and there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about it. Making regular snide remarks and disparaging comments about these destructive paths is not going to turn anyone away from them, it will only make people bitter towards me and more entrenched in their ways, whilst at the same time corrupting my expressions and obstructing my communications with others.

Overcoming negative reactions is not easy though, there are subtle mind-games that must be overcome. I have found that in myself some of these are related to the activities of the shadow, that part of ourselves that we habitually deny even exists. That is what this article is about...  More >

Personality

In general a personality can be described as an integrated set of modes of behaviour through which a system interacts with an environment. Each system has a range of potential behaviours and a set of stimuli / response associations. A stream of particular behaviours arises in response to a stream of events, which are part of an experiential interaction with some environment. Within this stream of behaviours and associations there are patterns and this set of patterns can collectively be called the generalised personality of the system. Different 'modes' of behaviour correspond to different sub-personalities.

Ego

The ego is a point of identification. It is a simulacrum of the system symbolically represented within a complex system's stream of consciousness. It functions as a point of self-reference and self-control.

Ego + Personality

Some comments inspired by two fascinating essays written by David Chalmers, The Puzzle of Conscious Experience and Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness.

The “hard problem of consciousness” is the issue of why is it that we experience anything at all, or why is it that there is something that it is like to be something? The reason why this problem is intractable to empirical science is because in its philosophical foundations empiricism takes the contents of experience (phenomena) to be the foundation of its ontology, upon which all its later knowledge depends.

However it is impossible to use the contents of experience to construct a theory of experience because, in a causal sense, experience precedes the contents of experience. Empirical science studies phenomena, their perceivable attributes, behaviours and functional relationships hence it can explain much of the functional aspects of consciousness such as how do we integrate information from many sources into a coherent knowledge base or how can we verbalise our internal states (the easy problems of consciousness) but it cannot explain experience itself (the hard problem).

However, empirical science is not the whole of science. There are rationalist methods which, as quantum physics shows, can be very accurate (quantum physics is by far the most accurate science ever developed and it has rationalist rather than empiricist foundations). Rationalist approaches must eventually connect with, and be verified by their correspondence with the objects of experience, however these are not their starting point. They take a rational theoretical model as their ontological foundation and only when this foundation later connects with experience are they considered to be verified. It is conceivable that a rationalist theory could overcome the limitations of empiricism and provide a scientific explanation of conscious experience.  More >

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There are ancient roots to the use of observation and rational thinking to understand the world but here I am addressing the issue of modern 'empiricism'.

Also see these articles on naïve realism,   Scientistic Heresy,   Reclaiming Genuine Religion for Humanity and Thoughts on the Outline of a Unified Science.  More >

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General systems are naïve realist and it takes a high level sentient awareness to overcome this.

The table below describes the ramifications of naïve realism and unified realism as evolutionary forces. Each row of the table follows on from the preceding row, thus evolving toward the bottom of the table. We see that naïve realism produces successive levels of illusion which build up through meta-system transitions into higher level systems, which are driven by conflict and fear. Whilst unified realism remains firmly connected to reality thus there is no proliferation of illusion and the situation remains unified and at peace.

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The following table maps out the ramifications of naïve and unified realism in different contexts. Each row can be read as:

“In the context of ________ naïve realism leads toward ________ whilst unified realism leads toward ________.”

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I have been thinking a lot about Naïve Realism lately. It is a profoundly important concept to understand if people wish to safe-guard both their individual and collective sanity.

It came to my notice that the Wikipedia article on Naïve Realism was only a few paragraphs long, not referenced, quite biased and VERY misleading. So I rewrote the article using many quotes from philosophical and scientific sources with full references to map out the progression of our understanding of what it is and how it applies to our lives, the world and everything that we experience.

The new article is posted below but it will keep evolving (wikipedia version).

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This is a very simple and very brief distillation of some very profound ideas. If you think about it the profundity will grow exponentially :)

Check it out... Three Metaphysical Perspectives.

Did you know we all have blind spots! See for yourself. Just cover one eye and stare at the central smiley, but observe all three, then slowly move your face closer to the screen.

                                  :)                                                                      :)                                                                     :)

At a certain distance (about 15cm) the left eye cannot see the left smiley and the right eye cannot see the right smiley.

These are localised points of blindness and their dimensions are apparent if you rotate your head.

These blind spots occur because at the point where the optic nerve attaches to the retina there are no retinal receptors.

This means that there are holes in our visual perception. But these holes don't show up in our experience! This is an important fact. Think about it!  More >

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Commonsense, Fascist Regimes and the Ego

Whilst talking about commonsense realism and truly overcoming it, are two very different things it is still very useful to talk about something when there is extreme misunderstanding about it.

To give an example - talking about the dangers of smoking and actually quitting are two very different things however if a person believed that smoking was totally natural and normal and there was no reason to quit then first they need to overcome that illusion before they have any chance of actually quitting and becoming healthy. Talk can be a vital preliminary to actually doing.

So I'll clarify commonsense realism a little more by talking about commonsense in general. Commonsense is just a blanket term for whatever unquestioned belief system is dominant at the present time.

At various times it has been commonsense to keep slaves or to beat children or to oppress women or to carry a sword or to wear high heels or to smoke cigarettes. Commonsense is a collective trance that changes over time according to its own dynamic.

Furthermore, civilisation is a communal understanding and commonsense is the foundation of that understanding. It is a subtle dogma that maintains a regime. See The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis and Collective Meditation to Counter the Collective Ego.

Every regime has its dogma which is a set of beliefs that are protected from reason by a culture of denial. The nature of a regime is determined by the nature of its commonsense.  More >

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Psychological Manipulation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. Throughout the 20'th century vast resources and great minds were employed in the research and development of psychological manipulation. For example, the CIA's program of research in behavioural modification called MKULTRA [FR, FR]; it was a top secret project and little is known of its real depth and scope but some indication of the nature of this project can be seen from this archive of almost 20,000 pages of declassified documents [FR], also see these other archives [FR] and here is some information on Russian efforts [FR]. Such projects were a major initiative throughout the 20'th century because the technology became available and the motivation was irresistible. When the minds of the masses are ideologically placed in the centre of power, research into the technology of mass manipulation became critical and enormous effort was expended in perfecting the science of manipulation. With trillions of dollars of vested interests and the power of vast nation states dependent on the minds of the population through their spending and voting choices, a means had to be found to control the minds of the population, this is simple pragmatism and market forces. The motivation is obvious, who would let their corporate empire and imperial aspirations be left to the whim of the masses? Especially when it is certain that competitors will be vying for control; every sensible power broker had to get involved or otherwise be left behind. It essentially became an arms race in psychological weapons that can be used against the population.

A degree of social conditioning is vital and leads to social cohesion but when it ceases to serve society and starts to dominate and manipulate society it starts to destroy society and to erode the very foundations of our civilisation.  More >

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A Psychological Perspective on Civilisation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. As background to this essay see the related essays on Psychological Manipulation and the The Man Machine - Organisms to Organisation.

The process of constructing energised thought forms is the creation of conditioned stimuli or symbols that arouse an inner response. It is a cultural memetic technology that is the core technology with which civilisation has been built. A system of coordinated symbols, in the old language, is called an egregore and in the new language, it may be called a paradigm. Once conditioning has been imprinted in a population it provides hooks in people's minds by which influence can be exerted, either by the people themselves or by external power structures. It unleashes and harnesses the power of the subconscious mind, thus it is a very powerful technology.

Once these hooks are in place they can be subtly manipulated and turned to different purposes. For example, the rhetoric of "freedom and liberty" may have been imprinted to encourage people toward personal freedom and liberty but once this becomes a conditioned stimulus and it becomes a strong egregore/paradigm it can be gradually distorted. This may take place within the context of an authoritarian discourse so that it implies collective freedom and liberty through greater strength, 'security' and authority for the governmental system, which in turn promises to provide personal freedom and liberty, but in order to do so it must impose measures that ultimately destroy people's freedom and liberty.  More >

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Commonsense realism is a profoundly important concept that impacts on all subjects. It is central to The Scientific Case Against Materialism and The Mystic Meaning of Original Sin is essentially that "Commonsense realism IS the original sin". It is the root cause of all delusion (which is the real meaning of 'sin'), the first of which is the ego, which then forms the centre of a whole world of delusion (maya or samsara). Without understanding commonsense realism we cannot truly understand the ego (see these articles for a systemic perspective on the ego).

In each moment of awareness commonsense realism blinds us to reality and causes us to dwell in a fantasy land that is constructed from false beliefs within our own minds that we unquestioning mistake for the external objective world. With our thoughts we construct a subjective experiential world with the ego as the main fictional character at its centre and commonsense realism causes us to confuse this as being the objective reality. I have discussed commonsense realism in the above articles but I'll go into more detail about it and its relation to the ego here.  More >

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The Mystic Meaning of Original Sin

This was inspired by comments from Astrid. She associated it with selfishness and greed; the need to take from the world. I agree but the original sin, I think, can be clearly identified, let me explain...

Firstly regarding sin, in all the mystic traditions that I have studied my understanding of the concept of 'sin' is that it is associated with illusion and delusion, which causes us to get out of synch with the harmony of the cosmic symphony. This then gives rise to acts that are out of harmony with the whole and creates dysfunction and suffering that spreads like ripples through the interconnected system. The act isn't the sin, it's the delusion that is. It is only in mystic traditions that were corrupted for political / authoritarian purposes that this meaning was twisted to mean certain actions that were prohibited by the set of rules imposed by the authoritarian structure.

As for original sin, I agree, it doesn't mean "in far distant time", it means the originating illusion as in the root cause of illusion. This operates in each moment of awareness. As each impression is interpreted by the subconscious it becomes distorted by false beliefs and agendas. This distorted impression is then experienced by the conscious mind which is oblivious to the fact that it is experiencing a subjective impression and it assumes that it is experiencing "the world" as it is "out there".

It is this last step, called commonsense realism or naive realism that is the root cause of all further delusions. NAIVE REALISM IS ORIGINAL SIN. Even with a mind free of other false beliefs this last step soon fills the mind full of false beliefs. It is the cause of our "fall from grace".

In reality: “That which permeates all, which nothing transcends and which, like the universal space around us, fills everything completely from within and without, that Supreme non-dual Brahman – that thou art.” (Sankaracharya)  More >