lloydbaker

Yes, what we often "take" for external reality is our perception and ideas of external reality. We have direct contact with our perceptions, feeling, etc., not external reality Of external reality we can only have theories, expressed in mathematics, etc. So, Gurdjieff's All and Everything can refer exclusively to our perceptual world and still cover near infinite ground. He seems very interested in deep levels of consciousness not normally accessible to waking consciousness that "think" exclusively in symbols, allegories, narratives, etc. I get the impression while reading "All and Everything" that he is often "talking to" my solar plexus, not me, not my conscious mind I am used to using. At one point at the beginning of the book he talks about someone walking on his hands. . . to me clearly a reference to the solar plexus "mind" to which the legs are arms, the intestines, the convolutions of its brain, the genitals, its nose, anus its mouth, etc.

My reading of Gurdjeff indicates Gurdjieff wrote psychological allegories in All and Everything, not esoteric science about external reality.

I'm interested from a primarily Jungian perspective.

That x follows y does not prove y caused x. Seismic activity is not a constant over time in any case. Energy is too important to flesh and blood people to yell stop every time someone fears something.

I know it's irritating for me to pick at the TAO and Buddhism while, at the same time, admitting my exposure to it has been sporadic and non-systematic. However, your sentence embodies my basic objection: the idea that one can get in contact with the universe via stilling meditation. Contact with the nature and laws of consciousness, YES! But, it would seem to me theories of the univese come only from interpretation of the senses, hopefully with the help of the scientific method.

Joe Blast: Are you the JBG Serene mentioned? I attempted to point-out the "powers that be" who use vast monetary resources to DETERMINE the consensus on global warming and many other issues. Isn't it obvious that Goldman Sachs and their front man Gore are trying to set-up a carbon credits market that will profit themselve immensely at the expense of a more and more energy deprived population? Also, the incredible "tolerance" for Islam, the most primitive anti-liberal religion on the planet, amounts to butt-kissing for Saudi PetroDollars. See Rockefeller, Soros, Norquist, Bloomberg, Carter and many many others.

Again, who is JMG? Can I suggest abbreviations that block the flow of a thread be avoided? I can't know for sure what you are talking about if I don't know who JMG is.

More likely than false flag, the Boston massacre is blowback. The US is in bed with Saudi Arabia re: Big Oil. The US used Jihadist/Muslim Brotherhood in co-operation with Saudi Arabia in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Chechen for geopolitical purposes. The strategy continued and continues in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. The FBI has the impossible task of determining which Jihadists are useful in toppling various regimes and which are crossing the line to attack US/Saudi interests!

Well, I certainly wouldn't rule-out in advance that conforming to the TAO is abolutism. Natural harmony is a very very very big assumption. . . Looking at "natural history", I'd say that nature tends toward a bloody equilibrium which lasts only until the next big disruptive change. . . then chaos and carnage and movement to a new equilibrium. Humanity is part of nature and are a factor in destroying one equilibrium and moving toward another. I don't see any reason to think humanity should passively conform to nature. I ordered the 2 books you mentioned so I might know better what Taoists are trying to do. On the other hand, I have had a program of self observation for many years which might be considered a form of meditation. . .

All you have to do is read David Rockefeller's AutoBio where he basically confirms his role and the role of others in similar positions in setting the agenda for the world. Sure, he doesn't confirm the more wacko theorists, just the basics: The Trilateral Commission he founded with Zbig, the CFR, the Bilderbergers, the UN, etc. I generally don't even use the word conspiracy; ruling class influence is more appropriate. All you need to do is google around the Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund sites to see what they promote. Recently, someone leaked a Rockefeller Bros. Fund power point presentation which showed how they co-ordinated wide-spread environmentalist oppostion to the Keystone Pipeline. A few years ago, the Rockefellers formed a stockholders bloc to restrain Exxon from finding too much oil, insisting on green energy projects. Soros also has a far flung array of Foundations pushing similar causes. Both have been PetroDollar recyclers and thus part of the Saudi/OPEC/Big Oil camarilla. I'm just urging people keep their eyes open for this sort of information, not allowing the shrillness of some theorists to blind them to easily confirmable aspects. If I was to set out to prove my contentions based on decades of studying and thinking, I wouldn't do it here. I'd write a book or www site or something. I just put forth my ideas. Treat them as a hypothesis in your mind to check against information as you move forward in life. Check some of the sources I mention. Even precise scientific experiments don't "prove" precise scientific theories. They just provide another instance of conformity of observation to theory, or not. Overall worldviews are always far from "proveable." I never text in all capitals, but just as sometimes I raise my voice for emphasis when speaking, I capitalize certain phrasing when texting or blogging for emphasis.

Who is JMG? I said a lot of environmentalists don't have a sense of humor. I should have continued: "a lot" of environmentalists are absolutists. However, I would point-out that anyone who believes in living in harmony with the earth, actually is buying into absolutist environmentalism. The idea of pre-arranged natural harmony with which to conform is unproven absolutism. To continue to survive without a drastic die-off, humanity must continue to plow ahead changing the environment, taking into account as best possible cause and effect.

All sentences imply something is. All thought are the thinker's theory about what is. Constantly repeating that anything I say is my theory just as anything anyone else says is their theory is silly. You seem to be using absurd rhetorical devices to disparage others. Peer review is not a valid concern as it only a manifestation of "collective authority." Gallileo got some bad peer reviews, for example.

A lot of absolutist environmentalists don't have a sense of humor. . . They don't get Limbaugh humor either. EVIRONMENTALISTS ARE ABSOLUTIST! No one is allowed to joke about absolute truth. Wacko is not a serious "condemnation". . . get real! The fact is, it is the global warming propagandists that are taking their precarious theories of a very complex reality as absolute truth and pressing government to act on it! To make it worse, government action in this area is and would drastically decrease the amount of energy available for human needs. Nearly all human needs require energy input. Reducing the amount of energy available to humanity in the absence of ready alternatives means inconvenience to some, squallor or death to others. All based on ABSOLUTIST thinking. Those of us who know climate is too complex to be caused by a single variable are the ones who are not ABSOLUTISTS! A giant, tilted rotating, variable solid/water/biological surface, out of round sphere with a multi-gas atmosphere, an internal heat source, magnetic poles, and exposure to varying radiation and sub-atomic particles from the sun is a very difficult heat transfer problem! No attempt has yet been made to model it including all the relevant variables. By the way, climate itself is actually CONVECTION, a form of heat transfer. So, to the extent one factor tends to increase the temperature, climate (convection heat transfer) is affected. Good luck with your super computer and the 100 differential equations. No models to date predict the actual minute changes in average temperature. . . where's the hockey stick predicted early on, for instance?

Nonsense. There was no personal attack. . . "Environmentalist wacko" is a joking term of endearment. I argued with her about global warming years ago. Check you own rants if you want to see over the top mindless attacks. Hopefully Witch(?) will drop by some time and add her opinion to the thread. Uh, that is how threads work. Someone does not have to be on site to talk about them.

Zane is an environmentalist wacko. I argued with her about this years ago. You have to look at the winning side; the Establishment side. The big Rockefeller/Big Oil/Saudi-Soros/OPEC forces patronize and fund the UN which is behind the global warming propaganda. Global warming concerns reduce exploration and drilling by govt regulation and, thereby, raise the price of oil: THE WHOLE POINT! Simple application of supply and demand. The Koch Bros. and other sponsor research attempting to disprove the ESTABLISHMENT propaganda. Climatologists are NOT PART OF A CONSPIRACY. They are just like lawyers and experts giving testimony in court: BOUGHT AND PAID FOR. . . The leaked email in the UK showed what the scumbag climatologists are doing. . . FAKING DATA! for their UN masters! Reducing the amount of energy available to the world is MURDER!