goldisheavy

I'm not buying it. I think many ancient people thought the Earth was round. I think the flat earth was a local affliction in some cultures, but not a universal one.

Right. The degree of sincerity is always important. Not every materialist is as committed to that worldview as every other. For some people the belief in the material nature of phenomena is backed by many interdependent beliefs that are also strong, deep and sincere in their own right. For other people, that network of supporting beliefs is smaller and shallower. But if materialism is only a pretense, then a person is not a true materialist in the first place. It's true for me because it's my belief and it's not likely going to change either. Nor do I want to change it. It's also going to be true for a lot of people because the people I meet here are not too far off my intent, because all meetings represents coincidences of intent, remember? People can't practice qi-gong if they don't believe in it. For many people qi-gong is just crazy juju and they won't even get the slightest motivation to even try practicing it. I can't see you having any problems. I think it's mostly your insecurity speaking just now. You're just as mind-driven as anyone. If that's the intent, then eventually yes. Observe and you'll see. Yes, it's one of the ways. It doesn't depend because by definition we assume that the horse is more alive, and thus more precious than the carriage. If you think the carriage is more alive and more precious then you simply change how I will phrase my point without actually changing the heart of my point. The heart of my point is that something is more alive than something else. Something leads. Something else follows. That which leads is more powerful, more alive, and more precious. Don't get lost in words. Look only into the heart of the meaning.

Yes. It's normal not to know something. The answer is to investigate. I suggest the best way to investigate the influence of intent is via lucid dreaming. Not only will you very likely learn something interesting and surprising, but lucid dreaming is fun in its own right. It's that simple. Of course people hate when things are simple. They look for complexities. Just keep in mind beliefs can be profoundly deep and silent. By "silent" I mean we don't necessarily express everything we actually believe in. If you accept these small but very significant provisos then yes it's that simple. OK, then all that time spent fiddling with meridians has shifted your perspective on neurology. Your beliefs are now somewhat different than before you started your meridian practice. What I mean is that for change to have effect it has to be a sincere one. People think that if one day they wake up and repeat "gravity is not real" three times, it will remove the law of gravity. Obviously that kind of exercise and approach is pretentious and will accomplish nothing whatsoever, except possibly frustration and disappointment. If you repeat "gravity is not real" three times with a degree of sincerity, then you'll produce a very very very very small change in your experience of gravity, and possibly in your experience of society experiencing gravity. Why only such a tiny change? It's because gravity is a huge and deep pattern that's hard to reverse even in dreams (try it during lucid dreaming; try it 10 times and I think you'll experience some success but also a number of failures -- that's what happened when I tried it anyway). But there are many more superficial patterns that are more accessible. You believe in reckoning and convenience then. Seeing your beliefs is like seeing your nose. It's very hard without a mirror. Sometimes the only way to know what you believe is to get strongly tested in a desperate situation. Until such time you may only guess what your beliefs are, or you may assume you have no beliefs. Chairs stick to the floor. If you sit on a chair, you don't drop through it. Objects in space appear in a consistent and stable fashion. Changes happen according to laws of physics. Etc. I was and to an extent still am one of them (habits die hard). I know from personal experience.

I think it will spread, but although I think I am ultimately an optimist in this regard, I just can't see the change being rapid. I also think there will be a lot more bad before good.

How do you know? Are you assuming something? So first, I wouldn't assume that you need something like that. However, the face is the external representation of an internal pattern. So if you have a fluid identity, your face will be more fluid than someone who has a more rigid/stable identity. Are you willing to drift away from the person you believe you are? If this is not a troublesome thought, then you have a better chance. If this kind of thought is troubling, then you may have more challenging time changing something like your face. Remember that your face is an integral part of who you are in the world. (not who you are, but who you are in the world, big difference there) So it's not like changing a car part, unless you do plastic surgery, in which case it's closer to the car part analogy, but still not quite the same. Now an exercise. Every morning or every so often look in the mirror. As you look at your face, try to see it differently. Try to see if your lips are perhaps a tiny bit fatter or thinner than before or if your eyes are a slightly different hue than yesterday. The key here is not to try to change anything! So this exercise is to develop the flexibility of mind and of perception. Can you see that your face is not static? That's the point. So learning to see that your face is not static and learning to enhance the dynamism of the changes without giving specific directions to the mirror is essential. I repeat: do not give your face directions or suggestions on how to change precisely when you look in the mirror, or you risk becoming hideous. The goal is to see the face as something that can change more fluidly than you thought was possible. During the mirror exercise it's important to be free of bias when looking for changes. Then, to accomplish the actual change, internally, you have to become stronger, enjoy life more, become interested in something, do something. This doesn't mean become a busy-body and start running around like a headless chicken, when I talk about doing I am not talking about rote busy-ness, I am talking about meaning! As you enjoy yourself and your life more, send some loving attention to your connection to humanity. As you cherish the humanity, the humanity cherishes you. See it like this in your minds eye. See yourself as a valuable and meaningful person in terms of the broader society. This should not be a mere hope, but you have to see it as already there. You have to judge yourself based on the very best that's in you and let your highest aspirations be your true value. So there is no self-deception and no excessive hoping involved in this process. If you don't have high or beautiful aspirations, then it's time to develop them or look for them. As you reflect in this way, your face will change. It should be obvious that you should maintain a healthy body weight, exercise and sleep properly. Eat healthy. Everything is OK to eat in moderation. Don't get on any fad diet. Just use common sense. So the change comes from the inner contemplation and from the change in your life. The mirror exercise is only to unfreeze the face, to let the face catch up with the different you. Hope this helps.

This assumes: 1. People remember the failure well and don't forget it in 5 years. 2. People's thought processes are not derailed by dogma. If your failure is a result of dogma, and you absolutely refuse to challenge the dogma, then guess what? You will experience a constant stream of failure. Dogma is death. (I mean a hypothetical "you" here, as usual)

No kidding. The Middle East was already pushed to the breaking point (Arab Spring), and many people in fact did not survive. So the prospects of survival are not equally rosy for everyone. I'm guessing you're referring to the humanity as a whole, but then, when taken as a whole, we are an adaptable lot, like roaches. As a species we'll survive, but it may not be pleasant depending on how we decide to roll forward. It's not realistic to expect instant change, imo. All genuine, stable, authentic change is slow. Even if on the surface the change sometimes appears quickly, it's only because internally people have been brooding over the prospects of change for decades prior. I want to give an example what I was talking about. Just yesterday there was a power outage in my city. As a result some shops were out of commission. I was out to get me some soup (I love soup), when the shop I intended to get soup from turned out to be inoperable thanks to an electricity outage. So I got to talk to the employee there. I told him they make great soup. He was happy to hear that. Then I told him I love soup. He said he too loved soup. So then I shared my expert knowledge of where to get good soup in the city. Then as I was talking I said, closely paraphrased, "Well you make great soup and you do a great job here, so I hope they treat you well here. I hope they appreciate you." And here the guy began to stammer. He was saying, "Well.. errmm.. mmm.. uuhhh.. mmm.. rrr... aaa.. oo... errr.. it's OK. Yea, it's OK." It's almost like he stopped talking to me and was trying to convince himself or something. I could tell he was bullshitting me. He couldn't tell the truth straight up. He didn't want to bad mouth his employer, even though his employer was most likely a terrible person. Well, you know what? As sad as it is, if this is how we feel and operate, we kind of deserve to be where we are at, don't we? People are happy to share all the sugary stuff, of course. Not so much problems though. Political correctness and formality often interfere.

That's not a safe bet.

I agree. Sometimes or maybe often the scientists use the "preponderance of evidence" standard (used in civil cases) of judgement rather than the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard (used in criminal cases) (to borrow the terms from the law practice in USA). The "preponderance of evidence" is definitely a much weaker standard of the two. Still, preponderance of evidence while a weaker standard is not nothing. So the scientists are not exactly idiots when they use that standard. Often preponderance of evidence is all you have and instead of simply being modest and saying "we just don't know" they go ahead and come up with 2-5 working theories. Of those 1 theory will be a pet favorite. It's just natural. Also, it's probably a healthy thing to do to keep science moving forward, to keep the scientists motivated and happy. But yes, it's not a perfect process.

Right on Sloppy, I think the original thread starter, bodyoflight, was the only proponent of the topic. So once he was forcefully allowed to take a break from posting, guess what? Yes, the whole thread was effectively over and it just became a natural place to discuss the mindset that underlies the moderation practice. I don't see it as something that ruins the thread. It's just a natural evolution of the thread given what happened. When fish evolve into lizards, are they ruined? No, I don't think so. A lizard is not a ruined fish.

Women have this power too but they don't know how to use it. They are too weak and too brainwashed to transcend their looks for the most part. Once in a while you do meet a woman who is not her looks though. So it is possible, it's just that women don't often know what's involved in this type of manifestation since they are so used to focus on the looks alone and men tend to encourage the hell out of that behavior too. All the powers are available to all the sexes. But people are biased and so they will semi-voluntarily not use all that's available to them. I also say that looks can be altered magically. You can change your face, your eyes, etc. But not everyone will believe that.

Hope just is. Intended outcomes just are. When intention manifests, that's just how it is. Everything just is. Not just your favorite bits.

I don't get it. What do you mean? I think we're emitting too many greenhouse gasses because we simply don't care about the side-effects of what we use and do. We just enjoy it in the moment without thinking of the impact later on. Am I missing something?

Yes, but there is no greater plan. It's happening quasi-spontaneously. To borrow Terrence McKenna's phraseology a bit, this is the natural outcome of our flawed cultural operating system. It's not some plot of an evil genius. No one has that much control. It's all of us together that are doing it, making a giant turd out of our lives by erecting walls of pretense and bullshit all around us. We're all going to be alone if we continue on this path. The first step to break through is to learn to share fearlessly, not just the sugar, but the salt too. Ah, but that takes courage. It's not a safe path. Back into your mental closets now.

I heard the scientists say that we are experiencing an increased weather instability thanks in part to our green house gas emissions. It's not even all that magical, the connection between the tornados and our gasoline/oil-burning lifestyle.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. --Benjamin Franklin

True believer?

I agree. No you can't. Doubts always remain. Scientific theories must be falsifiable but the falsification occurs through a process of consensus of the scientific peers. The falsification is not in some way magical. So it doesn't have some strangely absolute powers. In other words, there is no asymmetry here between proving and falsifying. Both proving and falsifying are non-absolute.

What does this mean? Is the theory so valuable that it doesn't really need evidence, or does it mean that as long as we have one piece of evidence, it's more than enough? It seems you're sort of elevating the value of the theory over the value of the evidence and I am not sure what the implications are. Also, what is the value of the evolution theory to you personally, in your own words?

That's right.

What was my last suspension? I can't remember now. More than a few months, I think. It's pure bullshit. It should have been a week tops, but if I was running the forum, it would have been nothing. But then, if I was running the forum, I wouldn't be going around calling it "my little house." I'd have a bit more respect for people who come here than that. Nor would I have suspended bodyoflight or the taoist dude from Canada with his Fu (I forget his name... something Mak, is it Mak Tin Si? I can't recall now). Anyway, I think for the most part the moderators here are not too bad. I am just concerned with Steve here because I think Steve thinks he's being such a noble guy, but he's actually advocating something that's ignoble in spirit and it's going to backfire (actually it backfires all the time in society already). The only people who should be banned are the ones who try to sell viagra and spam. Suspensions should never be longer than a month, no matter what. Further, you should announce all suspensions publicly. You should announce who got suspended, why, and for how long. I've had people send me private messages asking me if I had disappeared or what happened to me. Instead of making your foul moderation decisions public, you shamefully disappear people like the Chinese government. You should have a forum that's dedicated to announcing suspensions. People should be able to go there and find out the truth, so that people don't have to wonder if someone left of their own will or has been disappeared by the TTB gestapo.

No I didn't. What makes you think I missed your sarcasm? Neither am I. I think I've presented my point very well. Why beat the dead horse, right? Nope. You also confirmed that when moderators step in when insults appear, that's perfectly appropriate. When you were explaining this position of yours, you made it crystal clear that you don't have any notion of "forgivable amount of insults." There is no such thing for you at least as far as your presented doctrine goes (although I bet you make exceptions from it in real life, it's just too bad you can't be a man enough to dignify those exceptions with a more permanent place in your outlook). Well, you did express your approval of strict moderation. That's power. You cast your voice, however "small" you claim it is, in the direction of intolerance. "I'm just one man" blah blah. Every man is important. What you say matters. That's why I am arguing with you now because your opinion is important. Perhaps if you didn't cast your approval on the acts of the moderators I'd view what you said somewhat differently. I cultivate the mindset of choosing not to offer distortions and lies. I feel sparkly clean 95% of the time. The other 5% I feel dirty and vulgar. I want people to know the truth in every case. I don't want to hide in the closet when I feel wrathful or angry or indignant, or upset. I want to express it. Everything passes though. I don't stay angry. I can't even if I want to. Eventually I get tired or hungry or sleepy, and then eventually something else catches my interest. And I am not vengeful either. And yes, believe it or not, I moderate myself already. I don't censor myself though and I never will. I believe I was suspended on this forum wrongly many times, and for excessive durations too. Frankly, moderators on this forum are dicks sometimes. They only think of themselves when they moderate. They even say, "it's our little home, and we do what we want here." How selfish is that? It's not your little home. It's a neutral meeting place for everyone who shares an interest. If you don't want to respect that, you have no right to pretend to a forum. Shame. And then you, whom I consider rather like a friend, goes ahead and supports these fools with your words. That's disappointing, to say the least. Anyway, there is a limit to what I can do in a given time. I always prevail because I work over periods of thousands and millions of years, but there is only so much I can do in a few years. Also, the naps are important. I love my naps. There is nothing mature about being polite. It's a shame really. Kids have better communication because they say what they feel. Sometimes feelings get hurt, but you always know where you stand, and problems can get solved because nothing is hidden under the hood where it can't be reached. Be honest Steve. Do you think I am advocating that we simply start insulting each other? Tell me. Just be honest. Don't go back and reread my posts. Just tell me your impression. What do you think I want?

That's a kind offer. I appreciate it. Great! That's a relief. No, seriously. I only hope you give a shit about what you think though, otherwise you're going to be a mindless zombie or a crazed dittohead, and that would be tragic, not to mention inconvenient for me personally.

Marble, you don't have to justify yourself like that as far as I am concerned. When I started this thread I had an idea that this thread will serve you and everyone else, and not the other way around. In other words, if you want to veer off a bit, that's perfectly OK as far as I am concerned. When I start threads they are simply departure points for explorations. They aren't rails that I expect people to stick to like good little trains. Maybe you have to apologize to others. But not to me. So I personally would enjoy it better if you said whatever you think was relevant or best even if it meant you had to take the thread into a different/new direction, and if you didn't apologize for it, but just took it for granted. Thanks. We have enough mental prisons as is. The last thing I want is for these threads here to serve as mental prisons and containers. Let's crush all the prison walls, but only after a good nap.

Yes. For example, how do we all end up on this forum? Our intents coincide, right? Why should magic work any differently? The thing is that we often believe that things just don't coincide in a beneficial way very often, or that they do so only randomly. Magicians believe they can encourage, provoke or evoke such coincidences on purpose, willingly. So it's going to matter for you. You believe in neurology very strongly. You can't just pretend your way out of that belief. It doesn't work like that. Belief transformation is the hardest thing there is in this whole world. Going from believing into neurons to believing into infinite mind is a huuuugggeeee change. Huge. It affects almost everything you believe and not just one or two beliefs. If you say something matters, then there is a very good chance it does. My view doesn't contradict the materialist experience. Materialists experience phenomena in a materialistic way and that way of experience is valid for them. Furthermore, they are very much unlikely to see any genuine magic in their lives and most likely any magic materialists encounter is going to be simply fraud and scams. That's the intent (karma) of the materialist manifesting. They get what they believe in and there is no way to pretend out of it. Changing beliefs requires life-long dedication to serious spiritual work replete with logical analysis, experience, or both (preferably). Often a significant belief change can only be precipitated through a cataclysmic event or a near-death experience. Why? Because sometimes nothing less can actually budge the person's worldview. Sometimes logical analysis is sufficient. Sometimes you have to get whacked with lightning on your head, or be in a huge car accident to get a new perspective on life. That's just how it is, in my opinion/experience. So when we talk about beliefs it makes no sense to denigrate them as in, "oh it's just beliefs". It's not "just." Beliefs run deep deep deep. When it comes to our core beliefs we are often willing to die 100 times in a row than to give them up. Still, all beliefs can be changed. But what that means shouldn't be underestimated or slighted. Yes, it works both ways. But if the body controls the mind, that's not a good modality. It's like a horse carriage controlling the horse. Not good. And yes, horse carriage can have an effect on the horse. The link between the horse and the horse carriage goes both ways. But when the horse is in charge that's a virtuous coupling. And when the carriage is in charge of the horse that's a troubled coupling. Both mind and body will affect each other no matter what though. I think most magicians want to rely more on the mind and less on the body because the mind is much more flexible and resourceful than the body. The body is very limited. The mind is limitless. Of course it's better to make your home in the limitless. The mind is the center of power.