liminal_luke

A few potential pitfalls of psychotherapy... Individual psychotherapy can tend to decontextualize problems that are better seen through the lens of the larger society, rather than problems of an individual. Poverty, sexism, racism -- many of the difficulties people face are rooted in systemic, cultural issues. As individuals we have to figure out how to best deal within our individual circumstances and psychotherapy can help with that. But there´s so much we miss as a larger culture when these problems are stripped from their broader contexts. Individual psychotherapy can overemphasize personal happiness as the goal of life. I´m not sure that seeking happiness directly is the best way to find it. Often, happiness comes as a "side effect" of the other meaningful things we do in life. For some, building character and living a life of integrity according to one´s values is more important than happiness. Individual therapy -- and especially the culture around therapy -- can encourage an unhealthy preoccupation with the self. Everybody has a diagnosis, we´re all traumatized. While it can be useful to recognize our issues and confront life´s hardships, sometimes it really is better just to get on with things.

It´s impossible to say that psychotherapy is "bad" or "good" because so much depends on the quality of the relationship between the client and therapist. Psychotherapy has been helpful for a lot of people but it´s not always helpful.

I thought this was fascinating.

Thanks @old3bob. Glad to hear your point of view.

Did you learn any lessons from military service that you feel have been useful in civilian life? What do people who haven´t served tend to get wrong about the military? Any advice for us non-veterans?

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I also miss Brian. Joeblast too, some of his more exotic beliefs notwithstanding. Hard to believe, but this little forum once enjoyed a golden age of Science, not that I understood it.

Before enlightenment, mountains are mountains. During enlightenment, mountains are clouds, vapor, vibration, and illusion. After enlightenment, mountains are mountains again, but now they giggle. -- from a substack called The Unmind Project

When I was first exposed to AI I thought I wouldn´t use it at all, but now I use it all the time. Love it for cooking questions. But what scares me is how so many people are turning to AI in situations where they´d be better off relating to a human being. I don´t want AI to be my doctor, my therapist, my friend, or my lover.

Personally, I´ve never found chia or flax useful for sexual energy work. Sessame oil is nice though, perhaps with a few drops of sandalwood essential oil for an exotic, esoteric touch. Different strokes...

I don´t know. It looked to me like it was melted under a broiler in an oven but I suppose there´s more than one way to melt one´s cheese. Never mind me, today I´m operating with half a cauliflower.

Looks delicious. I´m of the opinion that anything topped with broiled cheese is delicious -- but that´s not an unpopular opinion.

Maybe the beauty of having all these "brains" is that we can change what we think without staying strictly in our head. There´s a gut-brain axis? Good! Let me change my thoughts by eating differently. Movement works too as well as various cultivation practices. Getting the right kind of sunshine can have a profound effect on the kind of thoughts associated with a bad mood. It´s often easier to change thoughts indirectly -- by working with the systems that effect the various brains -- than trying to strongarm thoughts on a cognitive level.

In her youth, Zazen sometimes gets up and walks around. By the time Zazen is in her 80s she still walks just fine, thank you; but, especially after prolonged sitting, she can be a bit wobbly for a few steps until she gets going.

I´m interested in lonliness, connection, and intimacy. Here´s a Substack post I came across that puts these subjects into the context of spiritual awakening in a way that might be useful for some Bums. The Loneliness of Awakening: From Isolation to Divine Intimacy

They are few and far between, but a few nutrition scientists are conducting studies that confirm my beliefs about what is good to eat. These folks are OK! It´s the other ones I can´t take.

Good to hear from you, Earl Gray. I still remember some details from the Akasic reading you give me several years back which I found very helpful. It sounds like you are doing well. So glad. (Incidently, you are not the only neurodivergent Bum that has gotten into repeated skirmishes with the mod team. I suspect this happens a lot. Leadership here seems to value people who can easily let things go and happily disengage. I´m no expert, but believe that this kind of easy-going attitude is not associated with neurodivergence.)

Systems are like recipes. Two people may think they are following Julia Child´s beef bourguignon instructions and yet their dishes don´t come out the same. There´s inevitably a dialectic, a subtle tension, between the approach of a given teacher and a given student; the crosscurrents that ripple out from this tension are, as they say, "a feature, not a bug." Ultimately, we´re all following our own path.

Cool cats rarely follow rules, or get good grades in public schools. They cultivate an air of mystery, not for them the one two three. So Apech´s drinking wine in Portugal, and not concerned with us at all. Let alone the great cat Bastet, who surely deserves her own sonnet. meow

Not my brother, a friend. And in reality he´s a sweet guy and I don´t wish him any harm. Just someone who got caught up, as so many of us do, in a particular mind loop. For brother Apech He´s a cool white cat, who knows where it´s at. He´s done lots of Egyptian study, I´m lucky he´s my buddy.

Science is fascinating, so I can´t fault those who make it´s study their life´s work, though there are certainly ethical landmines to be navigated -- and some navigate them with more humility and grace than others. But I like to think there´s a special place in some unfathomable lower realm for those who know nothing of science themselves but proudly declare "I believe in science" in an attempt to coerce relatives and friends to make a given behavioral choice. Not that I´m bitter or anything.

Sorry to hear about your loss, Steve. Take care...

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