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unwelcome-ozian · 2 years

Note

what are signs programming was done by the government vs a cult? and would governments try and pin the programming on a cult? sorry i cant think of how to phrase this properly. i recently recovered memories which make me suspect we were programmed by the government but i also have memories which implicate a specific "religious"/hate group cult.couldnt figure out if this is something they might do or not. im from the uk.

Cults tend to be religious/spiritual or political in their beliefs. Cult/high control groups are closed and their methods of indoctrination typically rely on the following tactics:

Behaviour Control

1. Regulate individual’s physical reality

2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates

3. When, how and with whom the member has sex

4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles

5. Regulate diet - food and drink, hunger and/or fasting

6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep

7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence

8. Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time

9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet

10. Permission required for major decisions

11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors

12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviours, both positive and negative

13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think

14. Impose rigid rules and regulations

15. Instil dependency and obedience

16. Threaten harm to family and friends

17. Force individual to rape or be raped

18. Instil dependency and obedience

19. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment

Information Control1. Deception:

a. Deliberately withhold information

b. Distort information to make it more acceptable

c. Systematically lie to the cult member

2. Minimise or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:

a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media

b.Critical information

c. Former members

d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate

e. Control through cell phone with texting, calls, internet tracking

3. Compartmentalise information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible

b.Control information at different levels and missions within group

c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when

4. Encourage spying on other members

a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member

b.Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership

c. Ensure that individual behaviour is monitored by group

5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:

a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media

b.Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession

a. Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries

b. Withholding forgiveness or absolution

c. Manipulation of memory, possible false memories

Thought Control1. Require members to internalise the group’s doctrine as truth

a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality

b. Instil black and white thinking

c. Decide between good vs. evil

d. Organise people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

2.Change person’s name and identity

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words

4. Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts

5. Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member

6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created

7. Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:

a. Denial, rationalisation, justification, wishful thinking

b. Chanting

c. Meditating

d. Praying

e. Speaking in tongues

f. Singing or humming

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism

9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed

10. Labelling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful

Emotional Control1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish

2. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as

a. Identity guilt

b. You are not living up to your potential

c. Your family is deficient

d. Your past is suspect

e. Your affiliations are unwise

f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish

g. Social guilt

h. Historical guilt

5. Instil fear, such as fear of:

a. Thinking independently

b. The outside world

c. Enemies

d. Losing one’s salvation

e. Leaving or being shunned by the group

f. Other’s disapproval

6. Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment and then declaring you are horrible sinner

7. Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the

leader’s authority

a. No happiness or fulfilment possible outside of the group

b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents,

suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc.

c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family

d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual,

worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll

e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family

BITE Model

Government programing a member of the family is usually employed by a government agency.

Involves extreme, controlled torture to create DID.

A script is used to map the system.

The parts in the system are assigned specific roles.

Programs are placed in the system to ensure compliance with the programming.

Programming occurs in a controlled environment, is measured and results with an intended outcome.

Completed under multiple doctor’s care, in a clinical environment.

Yes, the belief system of the home environment has a role in programming.

#answers to questions #cult programming #cult indoctrination #TBMC #government mind control

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kikikid1412 · 3 years

Note

so I don't actually know how long ago you posted it but you posted the thing about how not all religious are cults and not all cults are religious and it really helped me feel better because there were a lot of people saying religion is a cult and I was feeling pretty crappy about it and your information made me feel better I don't know I just wanted to say thank you and have a good day (:

No problem! Honestly, like, conflating the two as the same thing is dangerous because it makes it hard for people to recognize an actual cult when there is one. As many people know, cults can be religious, and some may even use common religions as a guise, but like.. Religions as a whole are not a cult and the belief that cults and religions are the same thing is damaging, normalizes cults, and just demonizes religions that may be marginalized already. Plus it doesn't take into account all of the cults that aren't religious-based at all.

I know some people in the notes of the post mentioned something called the BITE model which is helpful for telling the difference of whenever you're in a normal group (religious or not) or in a cult. I wasn't aware of this chart when I first made the post or I would've added it onto it. But since the topic is being brought up, might as well post it now.

But anyway, if your group, whenever it be a church, Discord server, workplace, volunteer group, or any kind of group you might be in matches these descriptions a little too well, you might wanna get out of there. (Hope you don't mind I added the extra info for my followers, Anon <3) Image description under the cut

[Image description: A four-square chart showing The BITE Model. It is titled "BITE Model of Mind Control: From Combating Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan"

The first square is titled "Behavior Control". It reads the following;

"Instill dependence and obedience Modify your behavior with rewards and punishments Dictate where and with whom you live Restrict or control your sexuality Control your clothing and hairstyle Regulate what and how much you eat and drink Deprive you of 7-9 hours of sleep each night Exploit you financially Restrict your leisure time and activities Require you to seek permission for major decisions Require you to spend major time on group indoctrination and rituals, including self-indoctrination on the internet"

The second square is titled "Information Control". It reads the following;

"Deliberately withhold and distort information Forbid you from communicating with ex-members and critics Restrict access to non-cult sources of information Compartmentalize information into insider vs. outsider doctrine Generate and use propaganda extensively Use information gained in confession sessions against you Gaslight to make you doubt your own memory Require you to report your thoughts, feelings, and activities to superiors Encourage you to spy and report on others' "misconduct" often using a buddy system Use "Big Brother" surveillance methods"

The third square is titled "Thought Control". It reads the following;

"Teach you to internalize group doctrine as "Truth" ("sacred science") Instill Black vs. White, Us vs. Them, and Good vs. Evil thinking Change your identity, possibly even your name Use loaded language and cliches to stop critical/complex thought thought Induce hypnotic trance or states to indoctrinate Teach thought-stopping techniques to prevent critical thoughts and reality-testing Allow only positive thoughts Use excessive meditation, singing, prayer, and chanting to block thoughts Reject rational analysis, critical thinking, and constructive criticism"

The fourth square is titled "Emotional Control". It reads the following;

"Instill irrational fears of questioning or leaving the group (phobia indoctrination) Make you feel special and elitist ("love bombing") Promote feelings of guilt, shame, and unworthiness Elicit extreme emotional highs and lows Label someone as evil, worldly, sinful, or wrong Teach emotion-stopping techniques to prevent anger or homesickness Threaten and harass your friends and family Shun you if you disobey or disbelieve Teach you there is no happiness or fulfillment outside the group"

End image description.]

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feste-the-jester · 4 years

Text

Do you know what’s fun?

Picking the blog of someone you don’t like, and seeing how far you can twist things to make it fit the BITE model -criteria to identify a cult. GREAT fun. All you need is a bit of creativity and a total disregard for accuracy. Don’t believe me? Let’s have a try and see how we do! The Bite model can be found here, with many thanks to the Fool for bringing it to my attention.

I. Behavior control:

6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep.

The Fool lives in Australia and most of his readers are in a different time zone. This means that every time he starts publishing numerous posts about the latest drama, his followers are likely to get absorbed in it, depriving themselves of sleep and becoming more susceptible to his interpretation of things.

9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet.

Each time the Fool decides on a new “sin”/aberrant behavior that the “enemy” is guilty of, he will publish many posts repeating the same assertion. Frequent repetition of the core message is a well known indoctrination technique. Many of the Fool’s followers are likely spending an inordinate amount of time on his blog, judging by the speed and frequency that “likes” from the same people appear.

10. Permission required for major decisions.

The Fool often receives and publishes asks, asking him for permission to create a blog similar to his, asking if it’s ok to follow or interact with Simon Alkenmayer, whether they or their friends are safe etc.

11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors.

Readers inform the Fool of what is happening on Simon and Kristina’s blog, report (often mistakenly, rarely, if ever, corrected) what Simon has said or done, both on tumblr and on other social media, such as Twitter. They also contact the Fool to report on their own thoughts and reactions to Simon.

12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative.

Readers who agree with the Fool and mirror his opinions are rewarded with sympathy (for their negative experience) and by having their intellect and critical thinking skills praised. Anyone who disagrees is deemed to be naive, immature, indoctrinated by Simon, incapable of logic etc. Indeed, the whole continued existence of the Fool’s blog is arguably a form of punishment for Simon “threatening him” with legal action back when the blog was first created. This communicates to members what kind of retribution they may expect if they cross the leader’s boundaries.

13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think.

Any reports confirming the Fool’s assertions about Simon are immediately welcomed, believed, and adopted into the canon. Dissenting voices are “sent by Simon”, “haven’t read or understood the Fool’s arguments” or have been “manipulated.” The Fool does not acknowledge that it is possible for an intelligent, reasonable and objective adult to read his arguments and disagree with him.

14. Impose rigid rules and regulations.

Such as not answering asks that are not formatted to his liking, and he “can’t be bothered to read”.

16. Threaten harm to family and friends.

The Fool will publicly assert that he has never threatened anyone. However he has gone out of his way to connect Kristina to Simon, who is portrayed as “the enemy”. Several people, including this Jester, have been warned by friends to be careful of attracting the Fool’s and followers’ ire.

18. Instill dependency and obedience.

Readers expect the Fool to tell them which of Simon’s behaviors are problematic. Anyone who disagrees is likely to be accused of the same. (“If you think this isn’t racist, then you are also racist” etc.)

II. Information control:

1. Deception:

a. Deliberately withhold information.

Such as selective quoting, neglecting to withdraw statements that have been proven wrong, and not acknowledging any outside posts that don’t fit with the narrative.

b. Distort information to make it more acceptable.

Such as selective quoting, ignoring context and applying his own interpretation to things said by the “outsiders”.

c. Systematically lie to the cult members.

For example repeating that Kristina accused him of physically setting a fire on her drive.

2. Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:

a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media.

Frequent repetition of how “unreadable” Simon’s books are, or how “long and ranting” his posts are can be seen as discouraging his followers from accessing them and forming their own opinion.

b. Critical information.

Any posts sharing positive experiences involving Simon are either ignored or discounted.

d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate.

Every time one of the Fool’s theories on Simon’s misdeeds is disproven, the Fool quickly moves on to a new accusation, keeping his followers from going back and reconsidering his previous posts.

4. Encourage spying on other members

b. Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership.

The Fool often receives and publishes third party reports on Simon’s posts and behavior, inside and outside of tumblr. These are not fact-checked, but are welcomed and encouraged.

c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group.

The Fool often receives and publishes third party reports on Simon’s posts and behavior, inside and outside of tumblr. These are not fact-checked, but are welcomed and encouraged.

5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:

b. Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources.

The Fool will often misquote Simon, and those misquotes will go on to be repeated with frequency by him and his followers.

III. Thought control:

1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth.

a. Adopting the group's ‘map of reality’ as reality

If you don’t believe the Fool to be right, you are illogical, brainwashed or “reaching.” Frequent use of phrases such as “Obviously,” “We all know” etc reinforces this.

Everyone the Fool interacts with must acknowledge that what he is doing is critique, despite all evidence to the contrary.

b. Instill black and white thinking

Simon is “a bad person.” Everything he does must be seen and interpreted through this lense, which is reinforced frequently. The Fool often writes or publishes that Simon is “a bad person,” “a garbage person”, “an asshole” and similar descriptors.

c. Decide between good vs. evil

The Fool gets to determine what is good and what is evil. Simon is evil, and must be called out at every opportunity. The Fool and his followers are good, so any slurs, lies or offensive statements they make are excused and covered up.

d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

The Fool’s followers are intelligent, “have brains” and would never endanger anyone. The Fool trusts them to handle things appropriately. Simon’s followers are simple, impressionable, a mob. The Fool does not trust them to report their own experience, and their judgement is compromised by definition.

2. Change person’s name and identity.

The Fool calls Simon “Si”, “Krimon” and “Kristina”. Anonymous visitors to his ask box are encouraged to choose a “code name” to protect them from the evil Simon.

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words.

Using loaded terms such as “misappropriation”, “grooming” to describe Simon’s actions and descriptions such as “critique” for his own writing help the Fool elicit the reaction he wants from his followers.

6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created.

For example an influx of Anonymous asks that somehow suddenly realised years later that Simon behaved badly towards them, even if they didn’t think that way back then.

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.

The Fool has blocked people for disagreeing with him. He frequently shuts down polite questions and uses sarcasm to avoid answering. Despite not affording Simon the same luxury, the Fool expects his readers to “take his word about what he meant” with a post, even if the messenger is politely explaining how it came across.

9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed.

For example saying that he will “not publish any asks defending antisemitism. Even if that’s not what you think you are doing.” In effect, if you disagree with the Fool’s interpretation of Simon’s behavior as antisemitic, then you are defending antisemitism. No dissent allowed.

10. Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful.

No one possibly believes Simon is an actual monster, and if they do, they are unable of critical thought.

11. Instill new “map of reality”.

Commenting on someone’s art, mocking them, calling them names, is “literary critique”. Attempts to answer to accusations are “rants”. Asking someone if the possibility of legal consequences bothers them is “threatening” and “becoming irrationally angry”. And so on...

IV. Emotional control:

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.

Simon’s feelings are not even real, according to the Fool. Simon could not possibly be affected by the Fool’s actions. He is not real and has no feelings. Instead, he is only capable of “ranting”, “manipulating” and “doing things for attention”. Any concerns brought to the Fool about how his actions are affecting Simon, are answered with “You need to remember he’s not a real person”.

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault.

If Simon or his readers are upset, it’s their fault for looking at the blog. If anyone’s reputation is damaged as a result of claims the Fool makes about them, it’s on them. The Fool is free to make any comments he sees fit, with no consequences.

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as

b. You are not living up to your potential

Being part of Simon’s group means you are allowing yourself to be manipulated and brainwashed. You can not reach your full potential unless you renounce Simon.

c. Your family is deficient

Your “found family” of gentle readers is deficient.

d. Your past is suspect

Your past experiences are not proof of anything. Bad things may have been happening in Simon’s space, and you may have been part of them.

e. Your affiliations are unwise

You are choosing to affiliate yourself with someone bad. And you are unable to tell he is lying to you.

f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish

If you share your thoughts, feelings or actions to defend Simon, it doesn’t prove anything, and by defending him you are harming others.

5. Instill fear, such as fear of:

b. The outside world

c. Enemies

The Fool makes sure to repeat often enough that readers might be targeted by Simon and his followers. He curates that expectation and then reinforces it by publishing Anons who agree.

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority.

Not so much fears of leaving the Fool’s group, as much as cultivating fears of leaving/going against Simon’s group. The Fool’s group is presented as a safe haven.

d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll.

Those who don’t embrace the Fool’s blog and choose to remain with Simon are weak-minded, brainwashed, unable to reason, or bad by association. There can be no legitimate reason to like Simon.

e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family.

No explicit threats are made, but seeing the treatment of Kristina Meister is implicitly threatening.

See? Of course all this is just an exercise -a thought experiment. But it’s about as well-argued as the Fool’s original analysis. (Which is to say, neither deserves to be taken seriously.)

#simon alkenmayer #simon alkenmayer is dead #feste the jester #cw cult #Feste BITEs back

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heartate-a · 4 years

Text

the nature of ahri. // part one.

my ahri is very much going to focus more on the darker aspects of her character and lore. she absolutely was a killer, let’s not forget that. whatever her origins were, whether you believe she’s just a vastaya and nothing more, or a fox who ate the organs of humans and lived so long she became human - like, she was a killer, although it was not out of any malicious or sadistic nature and more so for her survival and the nurturing of the magic that was beginning to course within her.

i really enjoy part of the old lore, where she found her beginnings as a simple fox and grew into a beautiful woman. i will run with that to the extent that perhaps her line of vastaya was another shapeshifting line, specifically that of nine - tailed foxes. her lore changed to where she was simply a vastaya who was lost, abandoned maybe, and all she had left of them was a stone. i like to think that since she was young, it may have felt safer to take on the form of a fox and live more with nature rather than as a girl, hence why she stuck with the pack of icefoxes referenced in her wiki.

she hunted other animals at first, beasts. she was always possessed of this innate and powerful magic, which she used to aid her in her hunts. although she had not yet developed a true sense of empathy as she does now in present days, she was still not a hunter of malice and did not intentionally seek to inflict pain upon her prey. she used her charm in its physical, magical manifestations to soothe them like a tranquilizer to make sure that they felt no pain in their death and as she ate.

ahri is almost vampiric in this nature. the passive of her orb of deception allows her to life steal and restore her missing health in game, and realistically, this is a restoration of energy, a way to recharge energy and chase away any fatigue and aids in healing her wounds. ahri feeds on both the life energy itself of her prey as well as the physical meat of their bones. the life energy that she feeds on nurtures her magic and gives her physical and magical strength, but of course, she needs real sustenance.

she tries to not waste anything when she feasts, even prior to the development of further complex empathy, and this is an important thing to note later for the hunter that she encounters.

when ahri ran into humans for the first time, she studied them out of curiosity. she recognized that they were more similar to her than the foxes were that she lived with, because she was more human than anything else despite the fox vastayan blood in her. she didn’t know any other vastayans or humans ---- she had been abandoned. all she knew was the life she led with those foxes of the wild and the magic that rested within the marrow of her bones, that trailed fire in her veins.

she met the hunter at this point, a man shot with an arrow left for dead in the cold, wintry snow. ahri didn’t approach him with any need or desire to feed ---- she did not mean to consume the essence of his life. it came of a primal instinct, an instinct rooted more deeply than simply just something she just did or something that she felt that she needed to do. she felt it awaken her magic, strengthen it.

just as it was when she fed upon the essence of beasts, she felt the rush of the man’s emotions, his memories, everything that he felt. she felt his pain, of the wound from the arrow that had stricken him, of the loss of the life he was leaving behind. like with her animal prey, she soothed him, and this time instilled within him dreams and memories of better days and numbed his physical pain as well as his mental anguish.

with each time she fed, she became almost exceedingly overwhelmed with their feelings, all of the memories from the entirety of their lives. all of their guilt, all of their pain, all of the happiness in their lives. and each time she fed, she gained a little bit more humanity. she became more human. she was euphoric in the bliss of feeling. every time she fed off of a human being’s life essence, she grew stronger, more human, and she still soothed them into the arms of death.

at first, it began with the wounded soldiers she found straggling along the way as she ventured further into the world. then, it continued on with those weak and frail, the ones whose lives clung to nothing else, the ones who were ready to move on. but all of these people would not sustain her. they were too weak, the essence of their lives was not enough. she needed more. with each life she consumed, she felt her power grow. in a desire to nurture and grow the magic bubbling inside of her, she hungered for more, she sought out more.

ahri does not simply just deliberately kill anyone. those mentioned before were more or less mercy killings, killings out of need, really. the more she learned, both of the world and of her own emotions and of the emotions of others, the more her vision of the world shifted, and the more her beliefs, feelings, wants, and needs shifted. she began to intentionally seek out those who she thought were corrupt, evil, dangers to the world. as shown in a short story, ahri exhibits a bias against noxians, but a few bad eggs shouldn’t speak for the whole of the nation. my ahri will learn the truth of noxus. yes, there does exist evil amongst everyone, but she learns that noxus’s reputation is undeserved ( this is me inserting my noxus stan heart lol ). she is not for or against any one nation, but she does have love for ionia above all, for it and its creatures and woods are her home.

but anyways, she’s killed as a means to punish others she considers corrupt. in eating their life essence, she, naturally, was able to experience their life and their emotions too. it’s more so everything they are thinking and feeling in the present, and if they happen to dredge up things from the past on their own and were thinking of it moments prior to their death or as they are dying, they are things that ahri will become privy too.

even from people such as this, she has things to learn from. she learns that some people are truly evil, and others are not quite so evil so much as they felt they had no choice but to act in the manner they did due to a corrupt authority figure or other person in their life commanding them to act. people who surface as truly corrupt and evil, ahri toys with them, sometimes even torments them if she felt they truly deserved it. it’s something she enjoyed doing.

as time passed, the more humanity she gained from each little bit of life essence she consumed, the more she began to think on things and question what it was that she was doing. getting to this point is a gradual process and something i probably won’t discuss in this particular post, but i will refer back here in the future.

ahri’s reformation is tied heavily to her falling in love with that human man, a painter, a wonderful artist who drew vivid colors into her life and plunged her into emotions she had never thought herself capable of feeling or receiving. she accidentally consumed his life and in her anguish, she journeyed to a garden to forget it all.

there’s so much more to this that i would love to discuss, and i haven’t even begun to mention vladimir’s role in her story, because he becomes intertwined in all of this too.

anyway, the point is, ahri’s past is dark, the nature of her character is darker beyond the surface, and this is something i would love to explore, whether it’s where your characters meet her prior to her full reformation, if she even began to reform at all at that point, and come to know her afterward, or even if they only meet her afterward and learn of her past. ahri starts to change in part due to her loneliness and at the horror of hearing the stories of the terrible, vicious fox who devoured the hearts of runeterra’s people. she did not want anyone to fear her. she abhorred this feeling of loneliness and wants desperately for companionship.

#hc.#verse. → canon.#long post -#this only took so long bc ive been playing league and then adding to it in between walking back to lane or being dead #KJBDFGDFG

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roseapprentice · 6 years

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some thoughts about shame

In my mind, shame is the emotional manifestation of the belief "I am worthless.”

It's often hard to distinguish it from guilt, which is the emotional manifestation of the belief, "I have done something awful.” (And yes, I stole this contrast from Brene Brown’s Ted Talk.) Guilt is occasionally, fleetingly, quite useful. So, more rarely, is embarrassment.

Instilling shame is not useful, though it is sometimes the unavoidable side effect of communicating a necessary truth. If you tell someone they’ve hurt you, they may feel worthless as a result. It doesn’t mean telling them about your pain is wrong or unnecessary, or that it’s an innately shaming act.

And it’s occasionally useful to feel shame, because feeling a feeling in a conscious and deliberate way can be the alternative to internalizing the belief under the feeling.

Shame can be a side effect of good things. It’s not a good thing in itself. I am strongly of the opinion that it is never useful to convince a person that they are worthless. At its very best, shame is a waste product to be drained out of our psyches.

Shame backfires as a method of social reform because it distracts from the problems that are solvable. If you persuade a sexist man that he is worthless, then you persuade him that the work of improving his behavior will accomplish little.

The MythBusters have established that you can polish a turd, but they haven’t established that a turd is worth polishing. It doesn’t really work to convince someone they’re a piece of shit and then hand them a buffing wheel.

You might argue that privileged people should care about how their behaviors impact other people, not just their own self-image or feelings.

Yes, they should. Most of them do. Most of us are privileged in some way, and most of us care how our actions impact other people.

But no matter how selfless you are, it's hard to find the willpower to change for other people’s sake if there’s no hope of liking yourself afterward.

You can deal with the world in terms of what it should be, what should motivate people, and beat your head against a brick wall. Or you can deal with the world in terms of what it is, and plant a seed inside the brick wall to gradually shatter it from the inside.

When we change ourselves, it's because we have an image of who we would like to become.

In the narrowest sense, it's not ourselves that we change. It's not our experience of consciousness, and it's not the flavor of our souls. It's our beliefs and our behaviors. These things are very much part of us, but they’re peripheral enough that we can examine and alter them.

You can inspire people to change by valuing their personhood, and suggesting or demanding that they re-examine how they behave and think.

And the few people who truly can’t be inspired to change? Who are so far beyond our reach that we can’t even touch them with a well-crafted vision of who they can become and how they might get there? Those people are usually incapable of feeling measurable shame anyway.

In general, people can imagine believing new things, and people can imagine taking new actions. Once we’ve imagined something, we can look for opportunities to make it real. We don't break habits by just swearing them off or feeling bad about ourselves. We break habits by replacing them with new habits.

Shame as a method of social reform ties into the assumption that you can change the world for the better without first imagining a better world.

That has never been possible.

We would like it to be possible, because it hurts to imagine a better world. Nothing rubs salt in our wounds like dreaming up a world that doesn't stab us.

It's easy to think about what should be for the split second it takes to be angry about how the world is. It is viciously painful to think about what could be for the minutes or hours that it takes to form a coherent ambition about what we will make the world into.

For me, one of my ambitions is that we will make a world where people don’t bother to shame each other.

#rose posted this #rose has opinions sometimes #shame #politics

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beautyofendlessforms · 5 years

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Ramble about the current mess in brazillian politics, evangelical take over and the crazy flat-earthers...

To begin with, I don’t think most people in charge believe flat earth and other such nonsense ideas, they are just manipulating the population. Perhaps some of them like Damares Alves are truly faithful to their beliefs, but most of them don’t care about it at all, they’re just going in that direction as that benefits them immensely.

The fact is that Bolsonaro owes a lot the evangelical community and mainly the pastors who campaigned for him, such as Silas Malafaia and Edir Macedo, so he’s allied and attuned his discourse, now its time to satisfy their whims. Whats better than putting someone like Damares there, who is an artifact from the middle ages and a highly controversial figure which does two things at the same time:

She satisfy evangelicals and caters to their interests

She also serves as a smokescreen as her shocking ideas keeps us busy

While we’re busy and shocked by her medieval declarations, the Bolso government can advance on the matters of true importance such as selling the entire state and enslaving the population by taking away their rights one by one. Soon there will be nothing left while we’re worried by those declarations, which are horrifying nonetheless but I don’t thing these are the true goal of the new system.

All is about money and control, so if the evangelical narrative serves it well, they adopted it. That’s why people like me have been warning others about the dangers of this new theology of prosperity which took over, because:

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.— Voltaire

In fact, evangelicals have been rising to positions of power in the last few decades and their population had increased immensely, while the catholic population is dying out as we speak.

Evangelicals have been successfully integrated in br politics a long time ago and they managed to form a political block called the Evangelic congressional bloc which has started roughly in 2002 elections and has grown expressively both in size and influence since them.

Catholics were once in power and had great influence, as my grandparents told me how the population used to look up and ask the priest what politics to vote for, etc.. but this has largely fallen out of fashion and the catholic population became increasingly secular, and usually more tame as they rarely take the bible as law nowadays (at least for what I know of).

While these people are in decline, the evangelical movements have attracted more and more people and they have fundamentalist facets, they mostly follow the doctrine of prosperity so this ideology served perfectly in the new ultra-capitalist paradigm.

This all brought a change in the scenario and prepared the population for what is happening right now, this wasn’t a sudden change. The traps were already settled and the population was becoming increasingly fundamentalist in the past few years and I started noticing it clearly on my own life as they started demeaning more and more power and control over laws, schools, etc..

So, imo even if most people in this new government never wanted a religious take over, personally, they owe these people. This is coming one way or another.

The fact that brazil has become a right wing ultra capitalist country is not what worries me the most, its the way they glued those ideals to conservative morals and that worked to well… exactly because it goes very well with the predominant ideology I mentioned (prosperity theology), it just works wonders.

The fact that this is all happening reflects the nature of brazillian population and its ignorance, also this place has historically a very bad educational system which affected the capacity of decision and rational thinking of the population. The groundwork was mostly done by an insufficient educational system and pastors in the last decade have absorbed most of the population under the wings.

However not only evangelicals have been following these ideas, and recently a nice portion of the catholics have joined in this holy crusade, and they openly say science is not necessary, they laugh at intellectuality.

This haunts me every single minute of my life.

This kind of thinking is dragging us to all the problems we have right now but especially the denial of global warming among other problems.

All of those ideas had some root planted here but now they are mainstream and even criticizing them leads to stares and questions. This wouldn’t be possible if the groundwork wasn’t there already. If these ideas had no acceptance in the population they wouldn’t be used as bait like now, the population has to be extremely ignorant and deeply problematic for something like this to word. I doubt such thing would happen somewhere else or on a country which has a good basis of education.

This is why whats happening here is so much more scary than what is going in most right wing governments, its resembling more a theocratic new order. Its not fair to compare what happened here to Trump imo, while there are certainly similarities, this movement took us to a direction which has far darker implications. We are literally tearing apart all that happened in the last century and reversing back to a colonial state, both on the way the state is functioning but also on mindset.

I used to say we were turning back to the dictatorship era (1964) but now you can clearly see facets of far older eras, some say we’re close now to 1930′s but I see the way the clergy and fear of science is taking over reminiscent of the pre-Renascence era. The major proof of this is that we’re right now undermining the very basis of the age of reason, all that scientists and philosophers and thinkers in general have worked so hard to achieve, to free us from ignorance, its all being treated like shit and undermined.

Enlightenment values are being attacked from all sides.

The foundation of modern values is being systematically undermined in a way that no one takes it seriously anymore, womens issues are moaning, racism doesn’t exist, science and arts need surveillance under the clergy,

They did this successfully with undermining human rights, them they proceed to attack the basis of the law/rights system and now they attacking even science and empiricism and I wonder what will be left after that…

“This Brazil, stitched from a patchwork of dogmas, might be a fascinating topic of study if it didn’t put the whole planet at risk. Ideological discourse serves to instil the notion of destiny and to ensure cohesion within a population frightened about everything it might lose, from salaries and jobs to symbolic positions in the realms of race, gender, and sexual orientation. When Bolsonaro says he’s going to “free Brazil from political correctness”, he’s pledging to break both the “chains” that force people to respect minorities and those that curtail devastation of the Amazon forest…..

Without the world’s biggest tropical forest, there is no way to control global warming. If Bolsonaro’s messianic capitalism is not stopped, life on this planet will be much worse for everyone. For a contingent of neo-Pentecostal evangelicals, this may be welcomed as an apocalypse preceding the final salvation of “true believers”. For most of humanity, it will bring nothing but horror and suffering – perpetuated by the stupidity of a species with delusions of grandeur. “

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/10/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-minorities-rainforest

This is one of the best texts I recently found which sums up the feeling. The feeling that we are being dragged to the mud by other people’s beliefs, its horrifying. I don’t want to be part of this new future.

The summed up version is: I don’t think the governments goal is flat earth and taking Darwin out of schools, its actually something related to the resources found there. They don’t give a damn about the whole evangelical narrative, but since it this goes well with their plans, why not?

However we have some very good texts pointing to the opposite, that this was all planned.. such as:

“What he calls Communism are values such as human rights, the importance of science, or freedom of speech. Bolsonaro’s fight is not against marxist thought; it is against Enlightenment values.

One of the main arenas where the fight against takes place is academia and schools, where Bolsonarista thought hopes to replace the current curriculum with a far-right approved version. Under the pretense of impartiality, Bolsonaro’s followers are trying to police students and professors. Through a campaign of paranoia, everything can become subversive or biased. Calls for more racial justice in a deeply racist country become “moaning” and “an attempt to divide the nation”. History lessons on the dictatorship become “leftist brainwashing”. Sex education and anti-homophobic bullying lectures should be banned from classrooms, as being in contact with such themes might give students strange ideas.

Scientific evidence on global warming is classified as globalist dogma.The main problem for Brazil is that Bolsonaro has every chance of winning this battle. The average Brazilian person does not read more than one book a year; they believe WhatsApp chains to be as truthful as newspapers, and the public school education is at a constant crisis. Brazilians have no regard for their history, and they were deliberately kept ignorant for years.”

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2018/11/brazil-bolsonaro-s-fight-not-against-marxism-against-enlightenment-values

TL;DR: This is all a backstage so the true plan can unfold:

Either way we’re damned. I see a clear picture forming in the horizon and its not something I want to be a part of.

#brazil #bolsonaro #evangelicals #just a long text I wrote some time ago

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bardiccircle · 3 years

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Resh Chapter One Self-Exegesis

Over the past two weeks, we have gone through the first chapter of Resh, so here is a reposting of the updated chapter with the full analysis, for anyone who would like to revisit or catch up, beneath the “Keep reading” link.

Chapter One

1. You are not your body. The body is solely manifest. It is easy to consider the separation of the flesh, but less so for what is part of the flesh.

2. Memory is stored in the brain, therefore it and its offshoots are merely physical. Experience, which becomes the perspective and belief which influences behaviour, is a trapping of the manifest form. As is personality, which is wired into the brain in ways best understood via examples of those who have had their personality affected by brain damage.

3. Tempting as it is to identify with the flesh, it is moreso for thought. The connection between the flesh and thought is, for our purposes, moot.

4. You are not your thought. Thought is ephemeral, observable, dismissible, malleable. Thought feels less than manifest, or otherwise separated, due to its distinction from the external; it is a product of manifest.

5. Of all that can be said when the elements of manifest are, ostensibly, stripped away, the simplest agreement is that awareness remains.

6. Awareness is localized biomechanically, at the very least. Cognition and self-awareness is a biomechanically sourced aspect of awareness and often, due to the bias of human perspective, generally conflated with awareness. Awareness, in terms of our discussion, is best understood as synonymous with the semi-metaphysical consideration of the cosmic wavelength in a manifest form.

7. The manifest in which awareness finds itself is cast a role by circumstance. The realization of this role is contextual. Beyond fate, the behaviour of this role is open to interpretation like that of any actor.

8. From this basis, for any given aspect of life, springs the dynamic of the truth and the lie. This dynamic may be viewed in a general sense of over-arching themes or specific to the situation. All is perspective, derived from experience, determining how clearly one approaches an aspect of life.

9. From lies spring need, as misapprehension and acts thereof cause harm. Psychological need is the change necessary to stop hurting oneself, while moral need is external.. Knowledge of the lie and resulting needs is only the first step, as it is a practice to overcome ingrained behaviour.

10. Desire is distinct from truth; it is an aspect of manifest.

11. True will is distinct from, but in line with, truth. It is the manifest of higher direction.

12. The manifest is impermanent. This is a natural and joyous thing. It is a dialogue between manifest imperfection and perfect potential.

13. While localized in manifest awareness plays its part in the grand story. This world is distinct, but not lesser.

Verse One

You are not your body. The body is solely manifest. It is easy to consider the separation of the flesh, but less so for what is part of the flesh.

The first striking element of this verse is the use of the word ‘you’. This seems to demand some sort of definition of ‘you’ or the self, but as we see in later verses the function of ‘you’ here is to be a stand in for the consideration of self as layers are stripped away to see what remains. The importance does not lie in defining ‘you’, but the continued consideration of what ‘you’ is and what previously assumed elements may be stripped away.

Saying “You are not your body” may seem nonsensical to the average person. It is the most tangible part of the self; I can see my hands working in tandem with my desire to type this out, and any effect on the body feels deeply personal. Yet it is merely a tool. Humans tend to identify with the tools directly under our control, especially when said control becomes so instinctive to solely feel as part of the will. In this way, we do not say “His car nearly hit my car” but “He nearly hit me”. Likewise as we do not become one with the car when we are in the driver’s seat, we are not our bodies.

Any part of this flesh may be removed, as long as life is sustained, without becoming less of ourselves. This becomes more complicated in considering the brain in this way; as it is discussed specifically in the next verse the topic of the brain as part of the body will be left for that later discussion.It may be helpful to regard the brain as a special case, for the sake of concentrating discussion. This is not to say the brain is apart from the body, but simply to make clear the structure of this discussion to avoid confusion as it will be discussed tomorrow.

The word ‘solely’ implies a separation between the body and anything which is not manifest, so what is manifest? Manifest is the physical, the actualized plane. Typically this is attached to the idea of the traditional five senses. I can see the pen next to my laptop. I picked up said pen and felt its weight and the texture of its plastic. It rattled when I set it down. There is not much to report in terms of taste and smell, beyond the slight reflection on where a philosophy degree has gotten me.While we could delve into ideas on empiricism, that would be wasting energy on a tangent. Our focus is on interrogating what is outside that initial ‘you’ as parts are stripped away.

Specifying the separation of the body does not imply that it is any less important, as alluded to in further verses. To continue the car metaphor, while it is not part of us we still look after it as it plays an important part in our lives (not to imply everyone owns a car; regardless most will understand the comparison). While keeping it fueled and maintained is the baseline for it working, cleaning your car and making it nice to be in will improve quality of life. Now consider your body in the same way, except you spend every* moment of your life in it! Your body being solely manifest means that who you are is not tied to the physical form you occupy. It can, however, be an excellent medium for self expression.

“It is easy to consider the separation of the flesh” as it can be boiled down into a simple thought experiment. If you lost a limb, you would still be you. Certainly, you would be affected by it as it would be a significant change requiring adjustment, but you would still be you. If your car broke down on the side of the road, it would represent a drastic shift in your day-to-day, but eventually walking would be the new normal. If the hands I use for typing were to disappear, the means by which I put out my ideas may change but eventually I would adjust to speech-to-text or dictation and from the audience stand-point there would be no change. This part is an invitation to do the work, to sit down and consider your relationship to your body, with the encouragement that it is not an insurmountable task.

“[B]ut less so for what is part of the flesh.” And here we return to why the brain may be considered a special case: it is so central to our manifest form that even its consideration as such requires separate deliberation of its connection to the manifest and what may lie beyond.

*Debatable in a way unimportant to the discussion

Verse Two

Memory is stored in the brain, therefore it and its offshoots are merely physical. Experience, which becomes the perspective and belief which influences behaviour, is a trapping of the manifest form. As is personality, which is wired into the brain in ways best understood via examples of those who have had their personality affected by brain damage.

Here we begin our conversation of the brain and what elements can be considered to be “of the flesh” (Resh.1.1). The elements mentioned are memory, experience, perspective, belief, and personality; these can be simplified into memory, stored in the hippocampus, and personality, located in the frontal lobe. This simplification is avoided in the text as it may cause confusion to not specify the “offshoots” of memory.

Memory represents not only the raw data of our lives, but the events which impressed certain ideas upon us. The main semantic difference between memory and experience is internalization; there is a distinction, however slight, between remembering that 2+2=4 versus having experience adding numbers together. To clarify, experience is not just familiarity with a given action, such as addition, but the happenings which affect our approach to the world. The experience of being taken hunting and finding it distressing can be the formative moment someone stops eating meat.

Experience “becomes the perspective and belief which influences behaviour” through the previously stated internalization. If someone has the experience of growing up in a household which instills fundamentalist religious beliefs, this will not only affect their beliefs but their perspective on the world. Likewise, the experience of growing up in poverty will not only affect one’s perspective of socioeconomic issues, but their beliefs as well. Note, previously and going forward, that the examples put forth are simplifications to demonstrate the underlying mechanics.

Belief and perspective are intimately connected; perspective is how one sees the world while belief is the manifestation of said perspective into convictions. Belief is subject to more doubt and consideration while perspective tends to be more passive. The active shift in either will, inevitably, change the other if one does not revert to one’s previous perspective or belief. Belief and perspective influence behaviour as this internal approach to the world becomes externalized. To continue the above example, someone with a fundamentalist belief or perspective is more likely to behave in a likewise manner. If your experience of the LGBTQ+ community was through strawmen arguments and a homophobic environment, you will likely behave homophobically.

It is not mentioned in the text, as it does not contribute to the paring away of what is not ‘you’, but it is worth mentioning that perspective and belief can also be affected by behaviour. This is due to cognitive dissonance and its solution, when thought conforms to action.

Personality’s place in the brain is “best understood via examples of those who have had their personality affected by brain damage” due to the neurological complexity of said placement. The most well-known example of this would be the case of Phineas Gage, a milquetoast railway foreman who, after having an iron rod go clear through his skull, experienced an extreme change in his personality. That said, all we can really account for is a change in behaviour; naturally this demands an investigation into personality and what makes it distinct from behaviour.

While there are multiple definitions of personality, the simplest one attuned to our purposes is “the complex of characteristics that distinguishes an individual or a nation or group; especially: the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics” (“Personality.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/personality. Accessed 10 Aug. 2021.). We have gone over the manifest aspects which lead to behaviour and, assuming behavioural characteristics to simply be the trend of behaviour, we are therefore left with emotional characteristics to discuss.

Emotional characteristics, if contrasted by behavioural characteristics, would be the trend of emotional states. If we look at the main psychological theories for emotion, we can see that they are typically explained in terms of the body, the brain, or cognition. Two of those three can be placed in the same category of the flesh, easily cordoned off into manifest as explained in this, and our previous, discussion, and, as explored in further verses, “[y]ou are not your thought[s]” (Resh.1.4). This is not to say emotions are not valid, in the same way as the body they are precious in their place, but they are not you. You are not anger. You are not sadness. You are not even joy. These are ephemeral aspects of our manifest existence. Ergo, you are not your emotional characteristics.

If we are not our emotional characteristics nor behavioural characteristics, it follows that we are not our personalities. It might feel upsetting to be told that, as we are conditioned to equate value and attachment. Personality is the expression of your manifest, it’s what other people see and is an aspect of how unique you are in manifest. The shock of considering this separation may feel constricting, but once you’re comfortable with the idea it can be freeing as it changes nothing but the weight of manifest.

Verse Three

Tempting as it is to identify with the flesh, it is moreso for thought. The connection between the flesh and thought is, for our purposes, moot.

The primary aspect we should investigate in this verse is the temptation of identification. We have already covered the identification with the physical in depth in the examination of Resh.1.1, so we will leave it at a brief overview: the body is our tool for acting in and interacting with manifest, and being the primary outlet for our will it is evolutionarily convenient to be tied to it as, prior to cognition, seeing the flesh as self is the basis for instinctive preservation of the flesh.

The temptation to identify with thought is, happily, more straightforward. Being ostensibly separate from manifest, thought feels more intimately tied to the self as an expression of the self to the self. There is no posturing, no affect from outside observation, so there is a sense of purity with thought. Of any quality beyond the flesh, it is the most easily observable, but as we will discuss tomorrow, that doesn’t make it you.

The “purposes” referenced would be the removal of all layers of manifest existence from our conception of self to see what is left. “The connection between the flesh and thought is” moot not only because it can be discussed endlessly, but because the result of said discussion either way would be irrelevant. Whether thought is purely neurological or something else, tomorrows discussion explores why, either way, “[y]ou are not your thought” (Resh.1.4).

Verse Four

You are not your thought. Thought is ephemeral, observable, dismissible, malleable. Thought feels less than manifest, or otherwise separated, due to its distinction from the external; it is a product of manifest.

You can observe yourself having a thought. Sometimes you’ll have a thought and be horrified by it as you assume it is reflective of who you are, but the more reasonable explanation is that the thought is not you but a manifestation. Whether it is sourced from the manifest or something higher, it is still not you. As we discussed specifically yesterday, and is implied by today’s verse, it is the most easily observable quality beyond flesh. Thinking about how to discuss this, I’m drawing both from my experience with philosophy and my memory of previous thoughts exploring the topic; I can observe my perceptions on thought more directly through thought as opposed to said perceptions latent state within my hippocampus.

In regards to the source of thought we enter the realm of speculation; all of this is meant to kick start consideration rather than deliver any misguided sense of truth, so let’s speculate. Sourced from manifest, we can subdivide into intentional and unintentional thought. Intentional thought would be drawing from raw data for consideration, whether it is working on a doctoral thesis or something as mundane as deciding what you will have for lunch; it is the purposeful manifestation of said raw data for observation and manipulation. Unintentional, or intrusive, thought is harder to pin down. It could be sourced from something as simple as the neurological need for stimulation, such as a daydream, or more complex such as l'appel du vide, such as the impulse to toss your phone over a bridge either making the fear of doing so accidentally controllable or as some sort of warning regarding the risk. Seen as sourced from something beyond manifest, that would typically be called inspiration or even divine inspiration.

In any case, thought can be seen as “a product of manifest” as it is a form of manifestation, albeit more ephemeral than the flesh.

Verse Five

Of all that can be said when the elements of manifest are, ostensibly, stripped away, the simplest agreement is that awareness remains.

We are aware of our bodies in the same way we are aware of our thoughts, but typically this awareness is filtered through thought as that is, as previously stated, the most easily observable thing beyond the flesh. As the stripping away of “elements of manifest” were covered in previous discussions and “awareness” will be discussed in the next verse, that leaves us with one word jutting out: ostensibly.

There is always room for further examination and conclusions. To say anything is the definite truth is the path to stagnation and dogmatism, themes which are covered in further chapters. “Ostensibly” is a reminder to keep looking, that all of this is food for thought. The path to the greatest understanding is an open mind and “[c]onsidering that you may be wrong” (Resh.3.9).

Verse Six

Awareness is localized biomechanically, at the very least. Cognition and self-awareness is a biomechanically sourced aspect of awareness and often, due to the bias of human perspective, generally conflated with awareness. Awareness, in terms of our discussion, is best understood as synonymous with the semi-metaphysical consideration of the cosmic wavelength in a manifest form.

“Biomechanically” points to the idea that the flesh, our consideration of life, if an organic equivalent to the machines we build. The most important part of this comparison is that our limits are determined by our physical form. We can’t know if said awareness only exists in living forms, but in any case the experience of any other organism would differ based on the physical form. “You are not your body” (Resh.1.1), ergo that which is left when all else is “stripped away” (Resh.1.5) is dependent in its manifestation on the physical form through which it is manifested.

It is implied, by “[a]wareness is localized” (Resh.1.6), that awareness both exists without manifest and is not divided up by manifestation. I think of it like a box of Lego: the parts you bring out to play with are still part of the larger unit, metaphysically speaking, but at the moment they happen to be acting as a rocket ship or whatever else is built. When playtime is over, the rocket ship is disassembled and returned to the larger unit of Lego. Here, the distinction between the physical and metaphysical must be noted. The physical blocks would be the atoms making up our universe, never created nor destroyed, being rearranged into a separate form. The metaphysical idea of the box of Lego would be awareness, existing throughout the physical universe with no change outside of manifest; removing Lego bricks from the box makes them no less part of the box. If it helps to think linguistically, consider the difference between playing with Lego and putting up the Lego. During playtime, there’s a divide between the pieces you’re working with and the box of parts you can pull from; when told to put up your Lego, the blocks and box become a unit as returning the box to its place is just as much a part of the action as returning the pieces to the box.

In the line between manifest and deity, “[c]ognition and self-awareness” could be seen as somewhat beyond manifest. As has been previously laid out, such things are “a product of manifest”. They are heavily dependent on the physical form we occupy, as they typically deal with ourselves in manifest and likewise relation to the external. “[T]he bias of human perspective” comes from the fact that, as our conscious experience is centred in our manifest form, we tend to view things from the manifest form usually convenient for day to day purposes. It is easiest, when viewing things from a solely manifest perspective, to “conflate [these] with awareness generally”.

To say awareness is “the semi-metaphysical consideration of the cosmic wavelength in a manifest form” seems to be an obscurum per obscurius, so let’s work through it. At the centre of this is the phrase “cosmic wavelength”, which we have discussed previously; there’s a whole chapter dedicated to it here if you want to read ahead. Simply, it is awareness viewed from a top-down perspective rather than bottom-up. This is in the verse as “consideration ... in a manifest form”, as opposed to considering awareness beyond the manifest form; they are the same. “Semi-metaphysical” is a modifier for the consideration, “semi” as awareness is a consideration semantically connected to the manifest, as that is implicitly the angle from which we are viewing it.

Finally, the idea of “awareness” should be clarified. From the manifest perspective, it is quite straightforward. You are aware of your body. You are aware of your thought. The one addendum is the metaphysical aspect uniting this facet of you with the rest of creation.

Verse Seven

The manifest in which awareness finds itself is cast a role by circumstance. The realization of this role is contextual. Beyond fate, the behaviour of this role is open to interpretation like that of any actor.

From the previous verses and their self-exegesis we can tell what “[t]he manifest in which awareness finds itself” is, so what role is it cast by circumstances?

We are born into certain circumstances, shaping the memories and experiences which will inform our interaction with the world. In terms of story, which will be interrogated in later entries, we play a character in manifest. We have aptitudes, hopes, dreams, fears, faults and more, all accruing onto us from birth. This is not predestination, it is likelihood. That is why it is beyond fate: where we are born, as to whom, affects who we are and how our lives may unfold

As much as our circumstances may shape the character we play, the way it is realized in behaviour is relative to the context. The way you act with friends differs from how you are with family; your personality at the pub versus the office will likely differ equally so. This may not be conscious, and most likely is not, and may be slight, but as humans we naturally adapt to our environment, including social ones.

This may feel as if we are simply blowing where the wind takes us, and for some that may be the case. Plenty of people fall into a certain role, end up playing a certain character, and forget that’s all it is: a role, a character, a game. This doesn’t just apply to office drones unquestioningly committing their lives to a 5x5 cubicle, but their CEOs so unflinchingly locked into the idea of growth that they will watch the Earth burn if it means the numbers continue to rise. That is the true death: stagnation.

Yet we, at our core, are awareness. The role may be out of our hands, but the interpretation of said role is within our grasp. The power is in the interpretation and reinterpretation, without an implication that it must result in change. The difference is between said office drone remaining in the job because they’re there and it is what they think is expected of them by society, versus someone working the same job knowing they have, every day, chosen to remain there.

Verse Eight

From this basis, for any given aspect of life, springs the dynamic of the truth and the lie. This dynamic may be viewed in a general sense of over-arching themes or specific to the situation. All is perspective, derived from experience, determining how clearly one approaches an aspect of life.

“This basis” would be the background aspects of the characters we play, as previously discussed, which influences our actions going forward. In storytelling theory this is called the ghost and is typically a specific event due to the directed nature of the characters in our stories. We are more complex as the medium in which we are expressed, manifest, is infinitely more complex than the mediums in which we express ourselves. In any given situation we draw from numerous past experiences to understand our current one.

The truth and lie are also storytelling terms and, in stories, simplified from how we can see it in our own lives. The lie would be the perspective in life which causes harm, while the truth is its opposite. If you are not taking care of yourself because you think you do not deserve it, the lie would be needing to earn said care. Its opposite, the truth, would therefore be that, by virtue of your humanity, you deserve to be happy.

The distinction between viewing said dynamic in specific or general would be the scope of perspective.There might an overarching perspective causing you pain, or it may be specific to certain problems. Often it is both as the long-term patterns of our lives influence it moment to moment. “All is perspective, derived from experience,” as discussed in earlier verses. It is first and foremost a matter of disentangling what perspectives keep us from “clearly [approaching] an aspect of life”.

Verse Nine

From lies spring need, as misapprehension and acts thereof cause harm. Psychological need is the change necessary to stop hurting oneself, while moral need is external.. Knowledge of the lie and resulting needs is only the first step, as it is a practice to overcome ingrained behaviour.

Needs are, as well, an aspect of storytelling theory. Most conflicts, in positive arcs, are driven both by a character’s lie and the needs it causes. When we base our actions off a false understanding, it can cause us to hurt ourselves and others even as we think we are doing the right thing. This is where needs come in, as they are a more actualized form of the lie.

In the example from yesterday, we determined that in the case of not taking care of yourself because you do not think you deserve it, the lie would be the conception that you must earn said care. Let us put it in terms of need to demonstrate the mechanics of it and what changes must occur to stop causing harm. The psychological need would be rekindling a sense of self-love, while the moral need would be viewing such care as a right rather than a privilege. In this way we both improve our own situation while mitigating how that worldview may negatively impact others.

This may seem like a simple solution, but the lie is sourced in numerous experiences and reinforced by behavioural pattern. This is why it is “a practice”, as acting in line with the lie feels like a natural behaviour, while acting in line with the truth, and therefore the needs, requires conscious effort.

Verse Ten

Desire is distinct from truth; it is an aspect of manifest.

This is our final term from storytelling theory, at least as far as character elements are concerned. Desire, or want, is the surface level direction that gives stories their shape. The desire of the main character of Tootsie is to be a working actor, while his needs centre around seeing women as human. Need and want tend to oppose each other in stories as it is a reliable source of tension and conflict. It is a bit more complicated in life, as desire may be an outgrowth of need or wholly unrelated. It is important to keep in mind it is “distinct from truth” so we may prioritize our needs when the choice arises.

All of this is “of manifest”, so why specify? Like any aspect of manifest, desire is worthwhile in its own right but ultimately temporary. This is a reminder not to place too much weight on desire, just as we should not do so with manifest.

Verse Eleven

True will is distinct from, but in line with, truth. It is the manifest of higher direction.

The first word to clarify is “will”, as it is not a call to do whatever you want. True will can be seen as a higher purpose, or in a secular sense the path which best highlights your aptitude to bring fulfillment. We will discuss it in more depth later, but for now know it is not a fixed variable. Think of True Will as the current in the river of life: you are being led in a general direction with various streams to choose, and the only wrong answer is to fight the current.

True Will doesn’t defy Truth, but they are not intrinsically related. We will get into the details at a later date, but, suffice to say, if you were to view Truth as an ideal of manifest, you can see True Will as the manifestation of the ideal.

Verse Twelve

The manifest is impermanent. This is a natural and joyous thing. It is a dialogue between manifest imperfection and perfect potential.

Death is a difficult subject to broach, as the loss of the manifest is permanent and a balance must be struck between the acceptance of the rhythms of life and the glorification of its loss. We are all familiar with why death is terrifying, why it has the stature of the worst possible outcome in any given situation, ergo this verse seeks to challenge that view to expand our consideration. However, the obvious must be stressed: death is not something to strive for, nor is the preventable loss of life ever acceptable. This verse is regarding mortality, death in the form of the inevitable.

How can we tell it is about mortality rather than death, and what is the distinction? Death is an event in specific, while mortality is conceptual. “The manifest [being] impermanent” is the core concept being explored, not the way that impermanence plays out. Mourn the loss of life and defend both your existence and that of others, but it is pointless to curse the fact of mortality.

Some may argue that we only accept death as natural because we have no choice, comparing it to Stockholm Syndrome. I am using the word ‘death’ in the previous sentence as that is how it is phrased in the video I am referencing, and it is worthwhile to dig into the negative correlations with the word ‘death’. Death is an emotionally charged word, and rightfully so given all the pain it causes. Yet, curing death would not cure mortality. The human body is fragile, so unless the body can be surpassed there would still be death by accident. But even in that scenario, there are multiple cosmological theories pointing to the universe being finite. Maybe we finally escape death by living beyond manifest, but the fact cannot be changed that “[t]he manifest is impermanent”.

We can see this naturalness in the inevitable, immutable nature of this impermanence, but from a human perspective it is hard to see the joy. This joy comes from the “dialogue between manifest imperfection and perfect potential”, so let us dig into that phrase. The word “dialogue” suggests that it is an equal exchange, taking away the value judgement we typically place on the ideas of perfection and imperfection; to fully understand this dialogue we must understand the component parts. We have previously covered what manifest is, and in the future will interrogate why its imperfection should be celebrated. “[P]erfect potential” would be that which manifest springs from, the creative ideal which plays out in manifest; keep in mind that without manifestation, that which is all would be indistinguishable from that which is naught. Said “dialogue” would be that “perfect potential” localizing in manifest, playing out its role, then the role ending when the manifest likewise reaches its conclusion. Consider the salmon, which makes its way down a treacherous stream to the ocean, only to return in spawning season to mate and die. The joy in this impermanence is the potential it fosters, the inevitability of change, as the earth is passed from one generation to the next, as things break apart and force us to rebuild them stronger.

Verse Thirteen

While localized in manifest awareness plays its part in the grand story. This world is distinct, but not lesser.

The localization of manifest is covered in Resh.1.6, so let us start with the concept of “the grand story”. “From a universal perspective, the long term paths and workings of the stars are as compelling as individuals find human-centred stories” (Yodheh.4.1), or, simply put, the universe’s thirst for change is comparable to that which drives stories. “[T]he grand story” is, therefore, the myriad ways the universe unfolds. This does not mean our human stories are insignificant, but that the distinction between the life of a human and the life of a star is, metaphysically speaking, only a matter of scale.

“This world is distinct” from that of all that lies beyond the manifest, which will be explored in future chapters. It is “not lesser” for the reasons explored in yesterday’s verse: the imperfection of manifest allows pure creation to be dynamic, it gives distinctions which allow for stories and change to play out.

#philosophy #magick #occult #metaphysics #epistemology #individual #individualism #individuality #the self #the ego #thelema #bundle theory #the bardic circle #death #mortality

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dfroza · 3 years

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we don’t need to pretend with Love

because Love sees us as we truly are.

Light knows our True nature and desires to transform (renew) the mind with its sacred truth, and that there would be a metamorphosis of heart in the True illumination of the Son.

and sharing the message of grace takes bravery because there is a force in this world that opposes it. but the message cannot be imprisoned, just as Paul reveals in his writing:

“My imprisonment has instilled courage in most of our brothers and sisters, so they are trusting God more and have been even more daring as they speak the good news without fear.”

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 1st chapter of the Letter of Philippians:

Paul and Timothy, slaves of Jesus the Anointed One, greet you, our friends in Philippi—those set apart by Jesus the Anointed—and we greet the elders and deacons who serve with you. Grace and peace be with you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus the Anointed.

Whenever you cross my mind, I thank my God for you and for the gift of knowing you. My spirit is lightened with joy whenever I pray for you (and I do constantly) because you have partnered with me to spread the gospel since the first day I preached to you.

I am confident that the Creator, who has begun such a great work among you, will not stop in mid-design but will keep perfecting you until the day Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, returns to redeem the world. It is only right that I should feel such admiration for you all—you hold me close to your hearts. And, since we are partners in this great work of grace, you have never failed to stand with me as I have defended and stood firm for the gospel—even from this prison cell. Before God I want you to know how much I long to see you and love you with the affection of the Anointed One, Jesus.

Here’s what I pray for you:

Father, may their love grow more and more in wisdom and insight— so they will be able to examine and determine the best from everything else. And on the day of the Anointed One, the day of His judgment, let them stand pure and blameless, filled with the fruit of righteousness that ripens through Jesus the Anointed.

All this I pray, with a view to God’s ultimate praise and glory.

I have good news, brothers and sisters; and I want to share it. Believe it or not, my imprisonment has actually helped spread the good news to new places and populations. Word has spread through the ranks of the imperial guard and to everyone else around me that I am in prison because of my faith in the Anointed One. My imprisonment has instilled courage in most of our brothers and sisters, so they are trusting God more and have been even more daring as they speak the good news without fear.

I am well aware that some people out there are preaching the message of the Anointed One because of jealousies and rivalries. Their motives aren’t pure. They’re driven by selfish ambitions and personal agendas, hoping somehow to add to my pain here in prison. And I also know there are others who are preaching the Anointed from true goodness, motivated by love. They wish me the best because they know I’m here in prison in defense of the gospel.

So what do we do then? Listen. What matters is that in every way, regardless of the motives—whether pure or shady—the great story of the Anointed is a cause for joy. I will continue to rejoice because I know that through your encouragement and prayers and through the help of the Spirit of Jesus the Anointed, I will soon be released from this dark place. I don’t expect that dishonor and shame will plague me in any way, but I do hope that I will continue to be able to speak freely and courageously about Jesus, and that now and forever the Anointed One will be glorified and placed above all else through this body of mine—whether I live or die. For my life is about the Anointed and Him alone. And my death, when that comes, will mean great gain for me. So, if it’s His will that I go on serving here, my work will be fruitful for the message. I honestly wouldn’t know how or what to choose; I would be hard-pressed to decide. I lean toward leaving this world to be with the Anointed One because I can only think that would be much better. To stay in this body of flesh—even with all its pains and weaknesses—would best serve your needs. Now that I think of it, I am sure of this: I would prefer to remain to share in the progress and joy of your growing belief. When I return to you, we will celebrate Jesus the Anointed even more.

So here is what I want you to do: conduct yourselves as true and worthy citizens of the Anointed’s gospel, so that whether I make it or don’t make it to see you, I will at least hear that you continue to stand, united in one spirit, single-minded in purpose as you struggle together for the faith in the gospel. Don’t be paralyzed in any way by what your opponents are doing. Your steadfast faith in the face of opposition is a sign that they are doomed and that you have been graced with God’s salvation. And now, you have been given the privilege of not only believing in Jesus the Anointed, our Liberating King, but being chosen to suffer for Him as well. You have seen me suffer for Him. Since I’ve been away, you’ve heard of the other agonizing conflicts I’ve had to face. Now you know firsthand the pains of this battle.

The Letter of Philippians, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 11th chapter of the book of Jeremiah that pronounces Judgment for idolatry:

The word of the Eternal came to Jeremiah.

Eternal One: Tell the people of Judah, and specifically those who live in Jerusalem, to hear the terms of our covenant. Tell them this is what the Eternal, the God of Israel, has to say: “Cursed is anyone who ignores the terms of this covenant. All of this was laid out for your ancestors long ago when I first delivered them from slavery, rescued them from the fire of Egypt. I told them, ‘Hear My voice, and do all that I command you. This way you will be My people, and I will be your God.’ I wanted nothing more than to keep My promise and to bless your ancestors with a land flowing with milk and honey—the land of promise on which you stand today.”

Jeremiah: Yes, O Eternal One! Let it be.

Eternal One (to Jeremiah): Now it is time to announce My message in the villages of Judah and on the streets of My city, Jerusalem. I want them to hear this: “Listen to the words of this covenant, and start doing what it says. I sternly warned your ancestors when I rescued them from Egypt, and I’ve repeated that warning many times, even today, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do as I say.’ But they didn’t listen, and they didn’t obey Me. Instead, they deliberately chased their own dark desires, ignoring Me at every turn. So I enforced the terms of our covenant, including the curses that came from refusing to do that which I had commanded them.”

The people of Jerusalem and all of Judah conspire against Me. They have gone back to the sins of their ancestors, who long ago ignored My words. They have chased after other gods and worshiped them. Do you not see how both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors? This is why I, the Eternal, declare that I will bring disaster upon these rebellious people. And they will not escape what awaits them. They will beg for My help, but I won’t listen to them. Let the citizens of Judah and Jerusalem run to their precious gods for help. Let them burn incense and pray to their detestable images when trouble comes. Those impotent idols will not be able to save them, no matter how many they have to choose from! For you have as many gods as there are towns, people of Judah—as many altars to burn incense to Baal as there are streets in Jerusalem. Don’t pray for these people, Jeremiah. Don’t bother making any pleas for them, for that time has passed. I will not listen when they call out to Me in their time of trouble.

What right does My beloved have coming into My temple, having done such vile things with so many? Do you really think that animal sacrifice is going to make this all go away? Will you then be able to rejoice? The Eternal once proclaimed you a lush olive tree, full of beautiful fruit. But all that has changed. With the roar of a violent storm, He will now strike that tree—leaving it battered, broken, and burned. Now the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has decreed disaster against you, the same tree He planted—all because of the evil done by the people of Israel and Judah, all because they provoked Me by worshiping and sacrificing to Baal.

Jeremiah: The Eternal revealed to me the plans of my enemies.

Then You showed me what they wanted to do.

I was like an unsuspecting lamb led to its slaughter.

I had no idea they were plotting against me. They were saying,

“Let’s cut down that lush olive tree and destroy all its beautiful fruit.

Let’s cut him off from the land of the living.

Let’s make sure no one even remembers his name.”

But You, Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, You who judge fairly,

You know the heart and the mind.

Let me see Your vengeance exacted against them;

I am entrusting my cause, my future to You.

This is what the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, has to say regarding your men back in Anathoth who are threatening your life and saying, “You will die by our hands if you do not stop prophesying in the name of the Eternal.”

Eternal One: Look, I will soon punish them! The young men will die in battle; their sons and daughters will starve during a famine. In the end, no one from Anathoth who schemes against you will remain, for I will bring disaster upon these schemers when the year of their reckoning arrives.

The Book of Jeremiah, Chapter 11 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for Tuesday, August 24 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about turning the heart to our Creator:

Heaven and earth touch in innumerable ways. Every day we are given opportunity to turn to God and find life. The sages have said that the sun is red in the morning because it passes by the roses of the garden of Eden, and at sunset because it passes by the gate of Hell (Bava Batra 84a). The tender mercies of the Lord are renewed every morning, and for that reason we should turn to God when we first open our eyes to the light of the new day and say: "Modeh ani lefanekha, Adonai" (מודה אני לפניך יהוה), "thank you, O Lord, for another opportunity to reach out to you for life." [Hebrew for Christians]

8.20.21 • Facebook

and another about responding:

The sages affirm, "This world is like a corridor before the World to Come; prepare yourself in the corridor, that you may enter into the hall" (Avot 4:21), which implies that the great commandment is always "seek Me and live" (Amos 5:4). "Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near" (Isa. 55:6). “Where can God be found?” asks the Kotzker rebbe, “but where one lets Him in...” God sometimes “hides” from us so that we are given the opportunity to seek Him with all our hearts.

God’s Spirit is always calling for us to return to Him, to “seek God and live...” What is holding your heart back? In Hebrew the word teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה) means an "answer" to a shelah (שְׁאֵלָה), or a question. It is a response to the call of God... The One who ransomed us from death and offers us life in abundance stands at the door knocking, waiting for us to respond to His call (Rev. 3:20). During this Season of Teshuvah, may we hear the Voice of Him who invites the brokenhearted to join him: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). ברוך אתה יהוה המנחם - "Blessed are you LORD the Comforter." [Hebrew for Christians]

8.24.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

August 24, 2021

Our Rock of Salvation

“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

Here in the song of Moses, which God instructed him to write for the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land (note Deuteronomy 31:19), is the first of at least 40 references in the Bible to God as the Rock. There are four others just in this song. In verse 15, He is the “Rock of [Israel’s] salvation.” In verse 18, He is “the Rock that begat thee.” See also verses 30 and 31.

Note some of the other wonderful metaphors picturing God as our great foundation stone. He is “my strong rock” in Psalm 31:2 and “the rock that is higher than I” in Psalm 61:2. In Psalm 62:7, He is “the rock of my strength” and “the rock of my refuge” in Psalm 94:22. Isaiah calls Him “a great rock in a weary land” and “the rock whence ye are hewn” (Isaiah 32:2; 51:1).

During the wilderness wanderings, the Israelites were supplied continually with water from the rock, and the apostle Paul tells us “that spiritual Rock that followed them...was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). And, of course, Christ told His disciples that Peter’s confession of Himself as the “Son of the living God” was the Rock upon which He would build His church (Matthew 16:16, 18).

But to unbelievers He is “the stone which the builders rejected” (Matthew 21:42), “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word” (1 Peter 2:8). “Therefore,” said Jesus, “whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). HMM

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capamerica081-blog · 6 years

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Insight In Sci-Fi (1)

Hey all!

This is my first ever blog post and I'll be honest, I really don't know exactly what I'm doing. I figured I'd give it a whirl and let come what may.

I'll preface by saying I grew up a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Stargate, and have since included both Marvel and DC comics into my sphere of interests. And of course, the thing that drew me in as a kid was the fantastic visuals of all of these worlds. From lightsabers to Borg cubes to city ships, I snorted it all like a cocaine addict. However, as I've gotten older, I've come to realize that a lot of the genius behind some of these works was in the subtle moral lessons that were instilled in me. Although I credit my parents with giving me a good upbringing and teaching me good morals, it was these sci-fi stories I loved so much that helped solidify moral compass. So I may digress in some of my future posts, but for this one I want to talk about a single Star Trek episode and the moral dilemma presented in it.

I was about 10 when I started watching and collecting Star Trek Voyager on DVD. My dad and I would watch an episode a day after school, which is kinda how we would bond. My mom, on the other hand, really couldn't care less about anything to do with science fiction. Nevertheless, she loved me and wanted to try to share my interests, so one night she agreed to watch an episode with me. I chose one I figured she would like: Distant Origin, Season 3, Episode 23. It wasn't violent, had a fascinating story, and didn't require any previous knowledge of the show. For those of you who haven't seen it, I'll give a quick recap:

Voyager encounters a super advanced race called the Voth. These reptiles are more advanced than any other race they've encountered, and have created a "Doctrine" that highlights their supremacy across history. Then one Voth archaeologist finds evidence that despite what "Doctrine" states, it turns out that the Voth are from a distant planet, and that they have genetic similarities to humans. Long story short, they're dinosaurs that escaped Earth and evolved in space. Boom. But when the archaeologist tries to tell his people, the political leaders give him an ultimatum: shut up and stop your research or we kill the humans. He decides to stop his research.

So like I said, good episode and worth the watch, but what threw me for a loop was what happened after my mom and I finished the episode. She looked at me and asked, "So do you think he was right to do what he did?"

REALLY, MOM?! YOU'RE GOING TO GIVE ME PHILOSOPHY HOMEWORK ON A STAR TREK EPISODE AT 10 YEARS OLD?!?!

I don't remember what answer I gave her then, but I've spent years pondering that question, and once I became more aware of politics and the world at large I realized what moral issue the episode was tackling. Evolution, climate change, basically all science that is so radical in its implications that it affects political decisions. You see, it didnt matter whether the Voth political leadership believed the archaeologist's solid evidence, and as a kid I didnt understand that. I thought they were just being, and I quote, "meany butts". If the origin of the species really was different from "Doctrine" stated it to mean, that would mean that everything about "Doctrine" was open to reexamination, including the right of the powerful to be in positions of power.

The issue with having a written history that doubles as a rule book for society is that our knowledge of history is imperfect. The uncovering of history is through archaeology, archaeology is a science, and the basic tenet of science is the acceptance and comfortability that we dont know everything. So, if your rules for society are based on a history set in stone, eventually new evidence will spring up that challenges that history, and then the rules that are tied to that history are going to be questioned as well. And if those rules say that "So-and-so's family is to rule over the land" then that family is in danger of losing their power.

Here in the real world, these are heavily prescient issues. Evolution vs. Creationism being the most poignant. Although scientific evidence throughout the last 150 years shows evolution to be an active and essential part of biology, there are those who dispute it as an "unproven theory" and that religious doctrine (yes, I'm deliberately highlighting the similarities) is the truth. Dont get me wrong, I'm not anti-religion, I think that it serves as a valuable community and overall spouts powerful beliefs about how we should live our day to day lives. But for leaders to stick to the history presented in it as literalism, even after being confronted with factual evidence that suggests otherwise can be dangerous for society.

So to bring it back, I'll say this. Yes, Mom, I do believe that the archaeologist was right to bury his research to save 150 people, but only because it was just him. Had he been leading a movement, the issue would've been different, but hey, I didnt write the episode.

Anyways, that's my take on that. I'll go ahead and post on something different next time! If you all have suggestions of another topic I can ramble on, please let me know. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts!

🖖

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mayacatmaster · 5 years

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Everyone tells you what to do and what's good for you.

They don't want you to find your own answers.

They want you to believe theirs. — Socrates

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Nobody, no teacher, no guru, no saviour, no philosopher, can teach you what order is; in denying totally all authority, you are free from fear, and therefore you can find out. ~Krishnamurti

*** *** *** Maybe someone said: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But question is make sure you can don’t kill by those poison or virus??? *** ****** *** Because…: School doesn’t test your intelligence. It tests your memory. *** *** *** It’s so empowering to say ‘ This isn’t serving me’ and walking away in peace, or don’t pick up anything them throw down front your mind, if don’t serve you. *** *** *** So…: What is poison or virus? Anything which is preach or teach you blind-obey and kiss any kind of dark-tyrant-ruler’s-ass is poison or virus. It’s poison your soul, your heart and your mind-body. *** *** *** Mirror, mirror on the wall who are the most obedient sheep of us all??? *** *** *** When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful. *** *** *** *** *** In other words, you have to have your own personal experience. “Words”(any kind of books) really do not teach. (It’s odd we offer so many, isn’t it?) “Words”(any kind of books) do not teach, it’s life experience that teaches. ~AH *** *** *** My friends, …: In this world, something you will never true understanding it, until the same challenge, same situation happen on you and you must face it, deal with it. *** *** *** So...if what you said useful and benefit for you, keep it. If you can make sure your advices or your post….: Can help yourself get rid of bad-belief-pattern-Vicious-circle, Can help yourself get rid of bad-bitter-life-fruits, Can help yourself make your beautiful-dream-come-true, Can help yourself make your beautiful-life-fruits-come-true, keep it for yourself. *** *** *** But if you want give your advices or your post for another, … make sure you can walking in their shoes, make sure you can practice your post living in the same challenge-condition or test-situation, and Can help another get rid of bad-belief-pattern-Vicious-circle, Can help another get rid of bad-bitter-life-fruits, Can help another beautiful-dream-come-true, Can help another beautiful-life-fruits-come-true,...^^ *** *** ***

After “Italians”(Chinese’s really, really great teachers/gurus/saints) give advice they always throw their hands up and say "but what the hell do I know?"

Just in case their advice destroys your entire life.

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Don't feed your babies the same lies you ate."Unlock Their Brains To The Truth, So They Never Repeat The Lies Of Yesterday"......Instill Right Knowledge!

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Only a fool learns from his own mistakes.

The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. ～Otto von Bismarck

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A Donkey Carrying A Pile Of Holy Books Is Still A Donkey. ~Zen Proverbs

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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read oi write, but those who cannot unlearn the many lies that they have been conditioned to believe, and seek out the hidden knowledge that they have been conditioned to reject.

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"THE Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living. " ~Socrates

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Word Not Really Teach, What ‘so Call’ Holy Books, Great Saints, Gurus Also Not Really Teach, Life Itself Really Teach.

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What We Learn From Books/Teach/Preach Not Equal To Understand, Insight, And Wisdom.

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So…:Knowing Is Not Enough: We Must Apply.

Willing Is Not Enough; We Must Do.

~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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Apply, Do Not Enough, We Must Check It Result Or Life Fruits Is Sweet Or Bitter.

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Temporary Result Or Life Fruits Is Sweet Is Not Enough, We Must Check It Result From Mankind Long Term History, See It Is Sweet Or Good Enough.

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And Check It From Our Life Long Term Growth And Long Term Development, See It Is Sweet Or Good Enough.

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THE Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living. " ~Socrates

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Your Duty Lies In Practice, Continuous Practice Of Self-Inquiry. ~Ramana Maharshi

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. . . there are no short cuts to knowledge, to wisdom, to understanding – these must be lived, must be experienced by each and every soul. #EdgarCayce reading 830-2

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Otherwise..…:

I Spent The First 2/3 Of My Life Acquiring Stuff That Doesn't Matter Only

So That I Can Spend My Last 1/3 Getting Rid Of It.

What A Stupid Game Of Consumerism We Americans Play.

~Linda Morman Stichtenoth

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A big part of becoming an adult is unlearning a lot of the shit you were taught... by people who didn't know what they were doing either...

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To thine own self be true and thou wilt not be false to anyone.

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People not Addicted To Alcohol Or Drugs, They Are Addicted To Those Disconnect Given Rules, use different name, fight each other.

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What fascinates me is that hardly anyone is wondering what we're actually doing on this planet. Most accepted the work-eat-entertainment-sleep-kiss dark tyrant ruler’s-ass cycle as life and have no desire for a deeper understanding of our purpose in this universe.

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Connection Doesn't Care About The Laws Of The Land. Your Soul Will Be Pulled To The Place It Belongs.

*** *** *** Just because you see peoples eye's open doesn't mean they and the awake. Most are walking around existing in a comatose sheepish mind state and the sad part is... they don’t even know it….. It is the responsible thing to every awakened to help others remember to Remember. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Via and thanks “Mina Milos”: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. ~Qscar Wilde *** *** *** Surely, first is do by yourself, from yourself...Otherwise….: Your whole idea about yourself and your world is borrowed. Borrowed from those who have no idea of who they are themselves. Borrowed from those who can’t alignment with their “Source”(True Self; Tao) and as an alignment-deliberate-creator. Borrowed from those who can’t Mirror the most simplest “Cosmic Principle”(Tao; Source; Ma at; Brahma) in every area /topic and as an alignment-deliberate-creator. *** *** *** Mindset. It's all about mindset. From the moment you wake up, to the moment you rest your head at night. Everything is up to you. Your emotions, your thoughts, your perceptions, your reactions. Every moment. *** *** *** Looking For Truth? Observe People's Habitual Behavior Patterns/Cycles. The Truth Is In Their Patterns And Cycles. Not So Much Their Words. *** *** *** The Mind Is A Powerful Force. It Can Enslave Us Or Empower Us. It Can Plunge Us Into The Depths Of Misery Or Take Us To The Heights Of Ecstasy. Learn To Use The Power Wisely. *** *** ***

AWAKE IN AN ASLEEP WORLD

As you awaken you'll realize everyone who is asleep is feeding themselves

bullshit, they have no awareness of their actions and how their own mind

is making them live a robotic life.

Just remind yourself that everyone awakens

at their own pace and you just have to keep doing your own soul work.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Via and thanks “Mina Milos”:

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

TOO EASILY AFFECTED BY LIFE?

Are you too easily affected by life?.

If you are that is often an indication to bring your awareness, energy and point of focus inwards, instead of placing it outside of yourself. Ground yourself in the present moment and begin to respond to life from that place of peace. Until you ground yourself you'll continue to unconsciously absorb and hold onto the emotions of the people that you're around (which will take you off course and away from your inner peace). You've got to learn to take responsibility for determining and maintaining your own peace and perspective.

*** *** ***

If you do not do your own thinking, the newspapers, the neighbors, and the “mass mind”(religion/moral/political-education-country-family-belief-system) will do your thinking for you. Take charge of your own mind and do not

permit others to govern it for you. "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." ( Joshua 24: 15) ~Dr. Joseph Murphy

*** *** ***

Don't Let Them Fool You

Or Even Try To School You, Oh No

We've Got A Mind Of Our Own. ~Bob Marley

*** *** ***

So…:

When you're on a traditional spiritual path and your homies are not but you still ride for them because you understand duality. *** *** *** 黑貓白貓會抓老鼠就是好貓，生命的成長與發展是絕對的硬道理，不能夠盲信權威搞本土價值的教條主義，實踐是檢驗真理的唯一準則！ *** *** *** Drugs are valuable and important in their ability to cure. *** *** *** Teach/preach are valuable and important in their ability to help one heart as an alignment-deliberate-creator. *** *** *** Information are valuable and important in that they may begin to apply in our life. *** *** *** Can’t really apply for our life then help us as an alignment-deliberate-creator, just like the mule carries a bunch of books, but it's not really useful and beneficial. *** *** *** So, no matter of what area/topic…: When you deep af in a conversation with someone and listen their preach/teach 30y and completely forget what they were talking about because just can’t as an alignment-deliberate-creator…..><!!! *** *** *** It matters less what others may be saying, or what the so-called teachers of your times may be espousing as truth. Your own experience is the highest truth, for you. And it is this reality that, ideally, serves as your lamplight in the uncharted territory of these times. Each of you is a master in your own right. Each of you has sufficient life experience to serve as a point for what is so, for you. Conditioned deference to the leadership of others over the input of one s own experience can only inhibit the pace at which you travel on your journey. For, your life is a testimonial to your own choices and the insights you are able to clean from them. The habit of looking to others for a nod of approval does not serve to reinforce your autonomy as a self-realized being. It reflects and fosters dependency. There is but one truth on which you can depend, no matter what - your own. ~Rasha Via and thanks “Quantum Island”: *** *** *** When you truly don't care what anyone thinks of you, you have reached a dangerously awesome level of freedom....!!! *** *** *** When shoes fit, forget foot; when girdle fit, forget waist: when methods fit, forget minds; that shows the "Suitability"(alignment with "Source) of the heart (for the question). ~Zhuangzi *** *** *** Those in alignment Follow the order of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos), they Follow the way of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos), they Follow the timing of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos) and they Follow the design of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos). They are calm; They are clear; They are real. Having arrived at the "Root"(Tao；True Self；Brahman), They are never confused by the branches. *** *** *** The "Source"(Tao; Maat；Logos) has always been same, in ancient and modern, in east and west, in any time-space. *** *** *** The rightness of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos) is "No Artificial-Rightness", but itself can be everyone's rightness. The order of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos) is "No Artificial-Order", but itself can be everyone's order. The law of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos) is "No Artificial-Law", but itself can be everyone's law. The goodness of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos) is "No Artificial-Goodness", but itself can be everyone's goodness. *** *** *** The goodness of "Source"(Tao；True Self；Logos), can help you watching & witness your own 3D-life-movie, regard it as other people's 3D-life-movie, can help you watching & witness your own self, regard it as other people's self, can help you get rid of painful, get sweet fruits, realized "True Self"(Tao；Brahman). *** *** *** Too often~~~! People get caught up in how things "should be"(what parents, teachers, priests, kings, holy books said:"you should be~~~~!"), and forget to live their lives, and forget their "True Self"(Tao；God). *** *** *** Too often~~~! Everyone tells you what to do and what's good for you. They don't want you go find your own answers. They want you to believe theirs. ~Socrates *** *** *** But,~~~! If you live for people's acceptance, you will die from their rejection. *** *** ***

If outside validation

is your only source of nourishment,

you will hunger for the rest of your life.

*** *** *** You can't organize the world, and you can't organize your home. You just got to get into alignment with who you are. You can't organize the mind, and you can't organize your heart. You just got to get into alignment with your “Source”(Tao; True Self) and as an alignment-deliberate-creator. Mirror the most simplest “Cosmic Principle”(Tao; Source; Ma at; Brahma) in every area *** *** *** You will not find yourself by running from teacher to teacher, from book to book. You will not meet yourself through following any particular specialized method of meditation. Only by looking quietly within the self that you know can your own reality be experienced, with those connections that exist between the present or immediate self and the inner identity that is. multidimensional." ~Seth (Jane Roberts) *** *** *** For Whom Are You Read All These Books? You Are Formless, You Are Ultimate Truth. And all these preach/teach can help you as alignment-deliberate-creator? Can them Mirror the most simplest “Cosmic Principle”(Tao; Source; Ma at; Brahma) in every area ??? *** *** *** I am that principle which was not affected when the universe was dissolved so many times. ~Nisargadatta" Maharaj *** *** *** So many eons and dissolutions have come by, but I remain untouched by them I know no addition or subtraction." ~Nisargadatta" Maharaj *** *** *** Health, wealth, beauty, and genius are--- not created; they are only manifested by the arrangement of your mind-that is, by your concept of yourself and world, and your concept of yourself and world is all that you accept and consent to as true. *** *** *** Be careful of your moods and feelings, for there is an unbroken connection between your feelings and your visible world. ~Neville Goddard *** *** *** Our minds are conditioned —that is an obvious fact —conditioned by a particular culture or society, influenced by various impressions, by the strains and stresses of relationships, by economic, climatic, educational factors, by religious conformity and so on. Our minds are trained to accept fear and to escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: can the mind, so heavily burdened, resolve completely, not only its conditioning, but also its fears? Because it is fear that makes us accept conditioning. ~J. Krishnamurti *** *** *** Socrate's Way： Mirror the most simplest “Cosmic Principle”(Tao; Source; Ma at; Brahma) in every area/topic. *** *** *** 當其它人盲目追隨"真理"（君王以己出經式的欺德）之刻，記住，萬物皆虛妄！當其它人被"道德和法律"（君王以己出經式的欺德）束縛之刻，記住，萬事皆允可！道生法；道生智，悟性歸於大道！ *** *** *** The art of knowing is knowing what to ignore. *** *** *** There's an air of confidence in your inner spirit that hasn't been there in a while. You're starting to gain momentum in the right direction and it's fueling your fire for more. You've had glimpses of what an ideal life is like, and you're believing now more than ever before. You're challenging yourself. You're depending on outside forces less. You're seeing your true potential for what it is and you're unwavering in your commitment to living a better life. If you think about it, you manifesting a capable you was the best thing you could ask for. *** *** *** The more clarity you feel, the more love you feel , the more happy you feel, the more wonderful you feel, the more in harmony you are with who you are. That's where your power is. Your power is in your HAPPY! ~Abraham Hicks *** *** *** That which is your Source is fully aware of you right now, and feels unspeakable appreciation for who-you-are. Your life is supposed to feel good to you, and you are meant to feel happiness in your life – and you are meant to satisfy your dreams. ~ Abraham-Hick *** *** *** Step2: Master of self-conversation or Master of self-enquiry *** *** *** A sheep spends its whole life fearing wolves but eventually gets eaten by the shepherd. *** *** *** Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others. ～Otto von Bismarck 愚者以身試驗，智者以史為鑑！ ~俾斯麥 *** *** *** Between the heart and "Tao"(True Self；God) ； between the man and "God"(True Self；Tao)； between the I am this or I am that~~~ and "Brahman"(True Self；Tao)~~~!； *** *** *** Watching & witness your owns 3D-life-movie, regard it as other people's 3D-life-movie. 觀察研究&見證觀照汝生命「三D立體全像電影」，將之當成事不關己，與己無關之路人甲之人生流動電影！； Watching & witness your owns self, regard it as other people's self. 觀察研究&見證觀照汝所成為之人，將之當成事不關己，與己無關之路人甲！； Watching & witness your owns beliefs, regard it as other people's beliefs and doubt & question it. 觀察研究&見證觀照汝內心所抱持之信仰觀點我見常見，將之當成事不關己，與己無關之路人甲內心所抱持之信仰觀點我見常見！ *** 並且「照之於"天"(大道；Maat；Logos)」地予以客觀超然質疑檢驗，探詢考察之~~~~！； *** *** *** Personal empowerment means deconditioning yourself from the values and the programs of the society and putting your own values and programs in place. ~Terence McKenna *** *** *** Seek not the approval of anyone! Seek the connection with your Own Inner Being, and let the presence or the absence of your Inner Being be your guiding star. And you will always be in the right place, under any and all conditions.- Abraham *** *** *** 明白「古今"道"(Maat；Logos；真正自己；上主)唯一，對談吐所謀！」，「正者，事之根也！」，「抱道執度，執道循理必從"本"(生命本源；大道；上主；真正自己)始！」，故「對自己說真理，行真理，留心事物自然本性，明白盲信是神性的疾病！」，「以誠實與永恒生命真理侍奉汝心內在"上主"(生命本源；大道；真正自己)，盡矣！」； *** *** *** "Look at Nature. Nature is a textbook from which we must learn. Each object in it is a page of that book. Each and every object in Nature teaches us something. Renunciation and selflessness are the greatest lessons that we can learn from Nature." -Amma *** *** *** '' The Life is like a film show that I enjoy at My own cost. I am the sole producer of this ever - changing and never ending film called universe, wherein I become you in your awake dream state in order to awaken you to the Real Awake State.'' ------ Avatar Meher Baba. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Via and thanks “Abers' Page” *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** You have within you an Inner Being that's lived thousands of lifetimes, who's come to a place of knowing, and that is present or absent within your every experience based upon what you are thinking or your perception of it. And so if you find someone and that one is evoking within you a sense of love, a sense of passion, a sense of wanting, and you are evoking it in the other, we say enjoy the connectedness that your Inner Being is applauding, for that's what passion is, that's what that feeling of exuberance is, that's what that is all about, that is your Inner Being jumping up and down saying YES this is appropriate Unto This Moment! And go forth into your relationships not from a guarded, protective stance, and not from the stance that the rule is inappropriate and I must find the approval of society in order to feel good. Seek not the approval of society. Nor the approval of your mother. Nor the approval of Abraham. Seek not the approval of anyone! Seek the connection with your Own Inner Being, and let the presence or the absence of your Inner Being be your guiding star. And you will always be in the right place, under any and all conditions. -Abraham *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Don’t take a poll on anything that the world believes. Because the world is confused. Instead, let your life show you what you want. Get a bead on it. Focus on it. Feel the energy that creates worlds, Coursing through you. And watch the results of your focused power. ~ Abraham-Hicks ~ *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Via and thanks “Veronica Deshler”: *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** What is combine Ying/Yang both side? Be silence-witness-mirror-heart and can …: Never be bullied into silence or accept anyone's definition of you or your Life. Define yourself. *** *** *** You don't have to win the battle of Good and Evil. There is no contest against Evil, because there is no Evil, there's just disconnected from Good. That's all there is! ~Abraham *** *** *** You just need don’t use any kind of “name”(religion; moral; political; education; family-belief-system) kiss dark tyrant ruler’s ass and get stuck the work-eat-entertainment-sleep-kiss-dark-tyrant-ass cycle as your life. *** *** *** When you want stuff and you can't figure out how to get it to come, that's why you don't feel worthy. You think somebody's depriving you of it. And when you find out it's you, then the subject of worthiness goes away, and the subject of sloppy thinking is what's on the table, and now you can do something about it, you see! ~Abraham *** *** *** You're not here for the relationship with others. You're here for the relationship with Source. And from that relationship with Source, all kinds of meaningful other things will happen. Joy first. And then, anything else you have time for ALL. ~Abraham *** *** *** You have guidance that is letting you know exactly where to go, but if you ignore your guidance, which is to say, if you ignore caring about how you feel, then you're ignoring your guidance. Anyone who spends anytime with their attention other than how they feel and improving that feeling, has set their guidance aside and is using all kind of uncontrollably things and wondering why life is hard! ~Abraham *** *** *** Rather than trying to monitor your thoughts, we encourage that you simply pay attention to how you are feeling. For if you should choose a thought that is not in harmony with the way that broader, older, wiser, loving Inner Being part of you sees it, you will feel the discord; and then you can easily redirect your thought to something that feels better and, therefore, serves you better. ~Abraham *** *** *** I am black/white hole; Yin/Yang; fire/water; science/religion; outer/inner world….Both side. *** *** ***

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unwelcome-ozian · 5 years

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I was wondering if you could point me to any resources on programming within jehovah's witnesses? Or if you know anything that was in connection or opposition to the Jehovah's witnesses to do with blood moons, child sexual abuse, torture (electric and waterboarding). Location is Derbyshire/Staffordshire, England, 2000-2007.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses use cult methodologies within their teachings, and are considered a cult by many.

Some of the methods are love bombing new members, financial control, if a member leaves they are shunned, and members can’t question authority.

If someone’s entire family are members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses this makes leaving a monumental undertaking.

The methods of control used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other cult groups follow the BITE model (Steven Hassan.)

Behavior Control

1. Regulate individual’s physical reality2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates3. When, how and with whom the member has sex4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles5. Regulate diet - food and drink, hunger and/or fasting6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence8. Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination including the Internet10. Permission required for major decisions11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think14. Impose rigid rules and regulations15. Instill dependency and obedience16. Threaten harm to family and friends17. Force individual to rape or be raped18. Instill dependency and obedience19. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment

Information Control1. Deception:

a. Deliberately withhold information

b. Distort information to make it more acceptable

c. Systematically lie to the cult member

2. Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:

a. Internet, TV, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media

b.Critical information

c. Former members

d. Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate

e. Control through cell phone with texting, calls, internet tracking

3. Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

a. Ensure that information is not freely accessible

b.Control information at different levels and missions within group

c. Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when

4. Encourage spying on other members

a. Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member

b.Report deviant thoughts, feelings and actions to leadership

c. Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by group

5. Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:

a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies and other media

b.Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession

a. Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries

b. Withholding forgiveness or absolution

c. Manipulation of memory, possible false memories

Thought Control1. Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth

a. Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality

b. Instill black and white thinking

c. Decide between good vs. evil

d. Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)

2.Change person’s name and identity

3. Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words

4. Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts

5. Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking and even to age regress the member

6. Memories are manipulated and false memories are created

7. Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:

a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking

b. Chanting

c. Meditating

d. Praying

e. Speaking in tongues

f. Singing or humming

8. Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism

9. Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed

10. Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil, or not useful

Emotional Control1. Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish

2. Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt

3. Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault

4. Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as

a. Identity guilt

b. You are not living up to your potential

c. Your family is deficient

d. Your past is suspect

e. Your affiliations are unwise

f. Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish

g. Social guilt

h. Historical guilt

5. Instill fear, such as fear of:

a. Thinking independently

b. The outside world

c. Enemies

d. Losing one’s salvation

e. Leaving or being shunned by the group

f. Other’s disapproval

6. Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment and then declaring you are horrible sinner

7. Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins

8. Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority

a. No happiness or fulfillment possible outside of the group

b. Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc.

c. Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family

d. Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly, brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock and roll

e. Threats of harm to ex-member and family

#cults #mind control and cults #jehovah witness #BITE Model #answer to questions

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thetruthseekerway · 6 years

Text

Does Ramadan Have Any Impact on Us?

New Post has been published on http://www.truth-seeker.info/oasis-of-faith/ramadan-impact-us/

Does Ramadan Have Any Impact on Us?

By Truth Seeker Staff

With Ramadan upon us, many of our homes naturally infused with the excitement and anticipation of this month of fasting, Tarawih prayers, night vigils, reciting the Qur’an and connecting with family and friends.

Khutbahs (sermons) abound with instructions on how to make the most of this month of mercy and how to make its benefits long-lasting. But how real are the effects of a month of abstaining daily from food and drink, additional prayer, and giving charity to us as individuals?

The editors of Al-Jumu`ah magazine wanted to know how Muslims in America evaluated their Ramadan experience.

Does Ramadan accomplish what it should for us personally? Does it make us more worshipful, improve our characters, and train us for the year ahead? Also, how do newly married couples feel about the restraints Ramadan imposes on them?

To this end, we surveyed men and women asking them to self-evaluate their Ramadan program. Having spent the last two Ramadans overwhelmed by natural life changes, I instinctively believed people would have felt a kind of lag in the recent Ramadans that have passed—too many Iftars, not enough time for prayer and reading Qur’an, little concentration in our prayer. And dare I say, even missing a few tarawih prayers…?

Ramadan’s Long-Lasting Effects

To my pleasant surprise, the Muslims we interviewed were highly positive about their Ramadan routines. Fully 88 percent of the people we surveyed said they had special programs they implemented during this month. Aspects of their routine included reading Qur’an (across the board, this was a daily goal), attending all of the tarawih prayers, Dhikr, performing extra prayers, not overeating, Qiyam, and, as one of our answerers straightforwardly told us, sin analysis.

Of that group, nearly 100 percent of them said they felt their Ramadan programs were effective in bringing about positive change to their worship habits and character beyond the month of Ramadan. How heartening is that?

“During the month, I get out of work at 3 p.m., giving me time to do all the above… which is a reminder to me of how busy I have become in worldly matters and not taking time out for myself or my spirituality.

“After the month is over, I am reminded of these things, and it stays with me, or sometimes afterward. For example, after last Ramadan, I was reminded how little of the Qur’an I have memorized and that I need to get closer to the Qur’an. Since then, I have slowly been trying to memorize the 30th juz’ and have succeeded,” one answerer told us.

This detailed response is quite similar to how others replied: “For me, it’s very helpful because, throughout the entire month, my number one goal is to collect as many “hasanat” as possible. That should be the case throughout the year, but during this month I’m consciously tracing all the opportunities for potential thawab. So for one month, that’s my ultimate goal and anything else that I want to do, like study or work or socialize, I can make time for later.”

Ramadan as a Marriage Foundation

A little more than 35 percent of the people surveyed were newly married just shortly before Ramadan. Of these, nearly 70 percent were happy to have been married so close to the month.

I was surprised by people’s positive responses to the long-lasting effects of their Ramadan routines, I was stunned by the cheerful attitude of our respondents about this aspect. I, too, was married shortly before Ramadan, and my husband and I found it quite difficult. Our focus had to be away from getting to know each other leisurely and enjoying “non-worshipful” activities together, and much more toward fasting, reading Qur’an, performing tarawih and so forth.

Suffice it to say, we were a little disappointed by the shift in focus. But the surveyed were far happier with their first Ramadan as newlyweds. One articulate respondent said: “Ramadan was only a few weeks after our wedding. It didn’t pose that great a challenge. On the contrary, it was nice to have that experience so early on, as our marriage should be based on pleasing Allah and coming closer to Him together…it gave us that opportunity to help each other do that by praying more together and reading books, etc., together because it’s a time when you don’t feel like your pressuring `religiosity’ on someone (as during this time it’s something that everyone wants to do), whereas otherwise, a newly married couple might feel wary to do things like that so early on together and want to focus their marriage on `enjoying’ their time together. Obviously, this is important, but for a strong marriage it needs to be more than that.”

One respondent summed it up as a great opportunity, as both spouses stopped smoking in Ramadan together.

Other Opinions

The small percentage of people that felt more could come out of Ramadan are not to be ignored. Some felt, “The month of Ramadan is fine but after[wards] everything goes back to normal again.”

I think many of us can relate to that. When our families and communities are all partaking in focused `ibadah (and it’s only for one month), it’s much easier to keep up the rhythm and commitment to be worshipful.

But when those special routines come to an abrupt end, it’s harder to continue on that path. As one of our respondents advised, it’s really about how much you put into the month. The more you put in, the more “focused [you are] on realizing that it’s a means of bringing [you] closer to Allah,” the more likely it is that Ramadan will bring long-lasting benefits to your spiritual life.

Others, primarily women, said they felt that if they had someone to watch their kids, they could focus more on tarawih prayer. They also believed that Mosque etiquette and socialization needed to be worked on. “[Get] the women to stop talking during tarawih. If you are there to socialize, then don’t come!” Furthermore, “start a culture of more worship and less iftars during Ramadan…, for some reason, during the month of more worship, we create more social obligations of dinners and reciprocal dinners we need to attend!”

Survey Implications

I am aware that our survey does not include all the diverse voices in the American Muslim community, nor is its sample sufficient to be statistically significant. But it was a detailed-response survey, and for so many of our respondents to express their positive attitudes about, not its significance, but the impact of Ramadan on them and their own experience of it is a cause to be grateful to Allah, the only One who guides and sets hearts aright. For truly the month of the Qur’an, as it is also called, is supposed to be a kind of boot-camp, a focused and all-out 30-day (or 29) break from normal life, filled with `ibadah and good works, so that we build the spiritual muscle to be the worshipful creatures we were created to be during the marathon race of the rest of the year.

For this percentage of people surveyed to feel so upbeat about their Ramadan schedules should encourage us to utilize the month in much the same way. Mosques and community centers take note: Overwhelmingly, respondents felt their Ramadan programs were directly tied to connecting with the community, going to the Mosque, and being around family and friends that were also on a similar, vigorous worship program.

Here is my word of advice:

Many of us here in America express an attitude about Ramadan, almost with pride, that we are a people that remain economically and academically “productive” in Ramadan. In fact, many of us say we believe that we increase our “productivity,” and work more in Ramadan, while our fasting and prayer at night don’t slow our wear down, they don’t make us produce less, or affect our academic studies. Nor do they affect the amount of money we earn.

This attitude grows out of a false materialistic view. Ramadan teaches us that there are transcendent values that are worth taking a break from our yearly routines for, and those are more profound, deeper and more meaningful than material values.

In fact, our respondents, who felt a meaningful success in Ramadan, reflected this in our survey. More than 75 percent of them mentioned the time they took off or away from work to concentrate on the spiritual goals they set out for themselves as being key in their spiritual success.

In Ramadan, we refrain from food and drink and sexual pleasure in the day and strive to worship longer and harder at night. This can potentially reduce our GPAs, our productivity at work, or cause us to take days off because of the fatigue we experience from our daily spiritual exertions. But the right attitude toward Ramadan tells us that that’s okay.

It’s not a constant mode of life, our Ramadan routines. It’s one month out of the year. Furthermore, we use this one month out of 12 to build certain characteristics in ourselves at precisely the expense of material acquisition. We endeavor to build taqwa, resolve, and psychological discipline.

We want to instill in ourselves, in the long run, the spirit of sacrifice. We desire to train ourselves in the virtues of resilience and heartiness. So, the message here is not fast and amp up your worship schedule without it taking a toll on your worldly pursuits, but take a break from the latter and focus on the former. It’s not only all right to do it, it’s what you must do to make Ramadan most effective.

Our fasting is meant to affect us, to deplete us in a worldly sense, so as to replenish us in faith and the fear of Allah Almighty. We fast out of a belief in the Afterlife, putting our Hereafter deliberately and squarely out in front of our pursuit of the world and our misguided attempts to consume it, which is exactly as it should always be. But the heavy spiritual disciplines of Ramadan—and they should be arduous amount to a regime that does, indeed, have a major physical effect on us, and thus should it be.

Now Ramadan is before you. Make it count. Make it last!

———–

Taken with slight editorial modifications from islamweb.net.

#Allah #Does Ramadan Have Any Impact on Us?#Faith #fasting #Featured #health #Islam #Muslims #piety #qiyam #sawm #taqwa #tarawih prayer

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lylelarge53170-blog · 7 years

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Optimism Synonyms, Positive Outlook Antonyms

When it comes to preparing for a new career, it is very important to not only check out the present, but additionally the past. A current glance at the web page reveals a mix of soft and also hard information, with Bill Nye's new program is opionated, unapologetic and exactly just what we require" along with Preconception against undocumented immigrant harms everybody seeking a far better life in the US ", Just what Serena Williams contacted her baby on Instagram and also why it matters," and Things obtain heated up as New Orleans takes apart Confederate monuments" As a check of Upworthy headlines nowadays suggests, its version of positive outlook does not seem to have actually wandered off much from its founders' origins in liberal politics. If you cherished this article and you also would like to collect more info concerning for beginners i implore you to visit the site. Once you get to that place a few times, and identify that it will certainly not last permanently, and that there is a substantial feeling of relief that originates from letting go of that discomfort, you feel a lot more protected in contact the discomfort, also creating a place and also time to do that, so the sorrow and also mourning enter into your life, rather than every one of your life. At the beginning of October, we laid out the optimist's situation for purchasing and also holding Facebook supply" and also for a $141 billion evaluation on the firm, predicated on two key developments that happened in the other day's profits report: acceleration in Facebook's standard display screen advertisement service, whose growth had been slowing, and a real mobile advertisement service. Another paradox sometimes related to positive outlook is that the only point an optimist could not view as favorable is a pessimist. In her book" 9 Things Effective Individuals Do In Different Ways," Heidi Give Halvorson, a social psycho therapist and associate supervisor of the Inspiration Scientific Research Facility at Columbia University notes the difference in between reasonable optimists, like Buffett, and impractical optimists. In individuals with head as well as neck cancer, the much more optimistic reported a better quality of life despite the stage of the problem. Positive outlook could go southern and also develop into aggravation, anxiety, or rage when the fact of my life does not compare to the emphasize reels I see around me on social media-- especially if I'm battling in a location where it seems like everyone around me is doing incredible. It's rejuvenating to see positive commercials, swimming in the swimming pool of adverse conditioned ad market. Positive outlook is not regarding denial of current truth; it has to do with the resiliency to climb to life's difficulties with belief, hope, and also courage. The significance of optimism is staying clear of the descending spiral right into adverse ideas and also sensations. You're meant to rejoice, and to show it. Whereas in east Oriental cultures, as lead researcher Jiah Yoo put it, people generally watch favorable feelings as having dark sides - they are fleeting, might draw in unnecessary focus from others, and also can be a distraction from concentrating on crucial jobs". Guide Pinker was there to plug, The Better Angels of Our Nature: a History of Violence as well as Humanity, has actually considering that turned into one of the two scriptures (the other being Richard Dawkins's The God Misconception) of the scientistic belief and of science-based neo-optimism. Healthy and balanced optimism is about assessing where you are, reflecting on sensible remedies that really feel deliberate and also purposeful, and routing you towards your wanted result. Have you ever wondered why some people really feel down and also beat when faced with difficult situations, while others really feel tested as well as enthusiastic? The program, called the Penn Resiliency Program (PRP), runs under the idea that instilling optimism in young people may serve to shield them from establishing depressive signs and symptoms in the future as sort of a psychological immunization". Stiffler: On the M&A side we assist both exclusive equity and business strategics between market room buy and sell actually pretty much any kind of company from an industry perspective but the big three where we invest a lot of our time would certainly be producing & distribution, medical care as well as advanced. Past subjective wellness, this study likewise made the factor that optimists experienced greater increases in their socials media throughout the initial term of college compared to did pessimists. As soon as full belief, and also not simply positive self talk, has actually settled, individuals could see their very own lives change in incredible methods. People around you do not mind functioning with or linking with you if you are a positive and also positive person. Also if you don't buy into that glowing photo, there are lesser futures that might still include 10s of billions of dollars to Facebook's market cap.

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beyondforks · 7 years

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Book Review: The Alienist by Caleb Carr

The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler #1) by Caleb Carr

Genre: Adult Fiction (Historical Fiction/Mystery) Date Published: October 24, 2006 (first published December 15th 1994) Publisher: Random House

When The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.

The year is 1896. The city is New York. Newspaper reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned by his friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler—a psychologist, or “alienist”—to view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy abandoned on the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. From there the two embark on a revolutionary effort in criminology: creating a psychological profile of the perpetrator based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who will kill again before their hunt is over.

Fast-paced and riveting, infused with historical detail, The Alienist conjures up Gilded Age New York, with its tenements and mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. It is an age in which questioning society’s belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and fatal consequences.

The Alienist is the first book in the Dr. Laszlo Kreizler series by Caleb Carr. I really wanted to read this book before the series started, but too many books, too little time. You now how it goes. Still, I've only seen the first episode, so it all worked out. The premise and the setting made the story very intriguing. Unfortunately, the rest fell pretty flat for me. I'd heard such good things, so I was disappointed when I didn't love it.

It was devoid of emotion... almost like a textbook at times, but with conversations. I would expect that lack of emotion if it had been told from the point of view of the killer, but it wasn't. When it came to the murders, the writing was descriptive and clinical rather than graphic, again, like a textbook. Which is okay. We don't need graphic. And I get it. The story was geared toward the intellect, but the state of the bodies, plus the victims being children, and death is never pretty to begin with. All those things bring out emotions regardless, so the lack of emotion within the story made it all feel very detached and unnatural.

I never felt like I got to know the characters either. I know the basics about them, but we never really get to know them. What I do know of them, wasn't always believable for their time period, and because of these things, I wasn't drawn in or invested in their story. Also, it was a bit predictable. I loved the setting though. It really felt like I'd imagine the late 1800's in New York City to feel like. Sometimes, it didn't feel too different than NYC today.

You may like it though. What do I know? Most who've read it, loved it. So, give the book a try. It was certainly interesting at times!

Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 January 8th, 1919 Theodore is in the ground. The words as I write them make as little sense as did the sight of his coffin descending into a patch of sandy soil near Sagamore Hill, the place he loved more than any other on earth. As I stood there this afternoon, in the cold January wind that blew off Long Island Sound, I thought to myself: Of course it’s a joke. Of course he’ll burst the lid open, blind us all with that ridiculous grin and split our ears with a high-pitched bark of laughter. Then he’ll exclaim that there’s work to do—“action to get!”—and we’ll all be martialed to the task of protecting some obscure species of newt from the ravages of a predatory industrial giant bent on planting a fetid factory on the little amphipian’s breeding ground. I was not alone in such fantasies; everyone at the funeral expected something of the kind, it was plain on their faces. All reports indicate that most of the country and much of the world feel the same way. The notion of Theodore Roosevelt being gone is that—unacceptable. In truth, he’d been fading for longer than anyone wanted to admit, really since his son Quentin was killed in the last days of the Great Butchery. Cecil Spring-Rice once droned, in his best British blend of affection and needling, that Roosevelt was throughout his life “about six”; and Herm Hagedorn noted that after Quentin was shot out of the sky in the summer of 1918 “the boy in Theodore died.” I dined with Laszlo Kreizler at Delmonico’s tonight, and mentioned Hagedorn’s comment to him. For the remaining two courses of my meal I was treated to a long, typically passionate explanation of why Quentin’s death was more than simply heartbreaking for Theodore: he had felt profound guilt, too, guilt at having so instilled his philosophy of “the strenuous life” in all his children that they often placed themselves deliberately in harm’s way, knowing it would delight their beloved father. Grief was almost unbearable to Theodore, I’d always known that; whenever he had to come to grips with the death of someone close, it seemed he might not survive the struggle. But it wasn’t until tonight, while listening to Kreizler, that I understood the extent to which moral uncertainty was also intolerable to the twenty-sixth president, who sometimes seemed to think himself Justice personified. Kreizler . . . He didn’t want to attend the funeral, though Edith Roosevelt would have liked him to. She has always been truly partial to the man she calls “the enigma,” the brilliant doctor whose studies of the human mind have disturbed so many people so profoundly over the last forty years. Kreizler wrote Edith a note explaining that he did not much like the idea of a world without Theodore, and, being as he’s now sixty-four and has spent his life staring ugly realities full in the face, he thinks he’ll just indulge himself and ignore the fact of his friend’s passing. Edith told me today that reading Kreizler’s note moved her to tears, because she realized that Theodore’s boundless affection and enthusiasm—which revolted so many cynics and was, I’m obliged to say in the interests of journalistic integrity, sometimes difficult even for friends to tolerate—had been strong enough to touch a man whose remove from most of human society seemed to almost everyone else unbridgeable. Some of the boys from the Times wanted me to come to a memorial dinner tonight, but a quiet evening with Kreizler seemed much the more appropriate thing. It wasn’t out of nostalgia for any shared boyhood in New York that we raised our glasses, because Laszlo and Theodore didn’t actually meet until Harvard. No, Kreizler and I were fixing our hearts on the spring of 1896—nearly a quarter-century ago!—and on a series of events that still seems too bizarre to have occurred even in this city. By the end of our dessert and Madeira (and how poignant to have a memorial meal in Delmonico’s, good old Del’s, now on its way out like the rest of us, but in those days the bustling scene of some of our most important encounters), the two of us were laughing and shaking our heads, amazed to this day that we were able to get through the ordeal with our skins; and still saddened, as I could see in Kreizler’s face and feel in my own chest, by the thought of those who didn’t. There’s no simple way to describe it. I could say that in retrospect it seems that all three of our lives, and those of many others, led inevitably and fatefully to that one experience; but then I’d be broaching the subject of psychological determinism and questioning man’s free will—reopening, in other words, the philosophical conundrum that wove irrepressibly in and out of the nightmarish proceedings, like the only hummable tune in a difficult opera. Or I could say that, during the course of those months, Roosevelt, Kreizler, and I, assisted by some of the best people I’ve ever known, set out on the trail of a murderous monster and ended up coming face-to-face with a frightened child; but that would be deliberately vague, too full of the “ambiguity” that seems to fascinate current novelists and which has kept me, lately, out of the bookstores and in the picture houses. No, there’s only one way to do it, and that’s to tell the whole thing, going back to that first grisly night and that first butchered body; back even further, in fact, to our days with Professor James at Harvard. Yes, to dredge it all up and put it finally before the public—that’s the way. The public may not like it; in fact, it’s been concern about public reaction that’s forced us to keep our secret for so many years. Even the majority of Theodore’s obituaries made no reference to the event. In listing his achievements as president of the Board of Commissioners of New York City’s Police Department from 1895 to 1897, only the Herald—which goes virtually unread these days—tacked on uncomfortably, “and of course, the solution to the ghastly murders of 1896, which so appalled the city.” Yet Theodore never claimed credit for that solution. True, he had been open-minded enough, despite his own qualms, to put the investigation in the hands of a man who could solve the puzzle. But privately he always acknowledged that man to be Kreizler. He could scarcely have done so publicly. Theodore knew that the American people were not ready to believe him, or even to hear the details of the assertion. I wonder if they are now. Kreizler doubts it. I told him I intended to write the story, and he gave me one of his sardonic chuckles and said that it would only frighten and repel people, nothing more. The country, he declared tonight, really hasn’t changed much since 1896, for all the work of people like Theodore, and Jake Riis and Lincoln Steffens, and the many other men and women of their ilk. We’re all still running, according to Kreizler—in our private moments we Americans are running just as fast and fearfully as we were then, running away from the darkness we know to lie behind so many apparently tranquil household doors, away from the nightmares that continue to be injected into children’s skulls by people whom Nature tells them they should love and trust, running ever faster and in ever greater numbers toward those potions, powders, priests, and philosophies that promise to obliterate such fears and nightmares, and ask in return only slavish devotion. Can he truly be right . . . ? But I wax ambiguous. To the beginning, then! CHAPTER 2 An ungodly pummeling on the door of my grandmother’s house at 19 Washington Square North brought first the maid and then my grandmother herself to the doorways of their bedrooms at two o’clock on the morning of March 3, 1896. I lay in bed in that no-longer-drunk yet not-quite-sober state which is usually softened by sleep, knowing that whoever was at the door probably had business with me rather than my grandmother. I burrowed into my linen-cased pillows, hoping that he’d just give up and go away. “Mrs. Moore!” I heard the maid call. “It’s a fearful racket—shall I answer it, then?” “You shall not,” my grandmother replied, in her well-clipped, stern voice. “Wake my grandson, Harriet. Doubtless he’s forgotten a gambling debt!” I then heard footsteps heading toward my room and decided I’d better get ready. Since the demise of my engagement to Miss Julia Pratt of Washington some two years earlier, I’d been staying with my grandmother, and during that time the old girl had become steadily more skeptical about the ways in which I spent my off-hours. I had repeatedly explained that, as a police reporter for The New York Times, I was required to visit many of the city’s seamier districts and houses and consort with some less than savory characters; but she remembered my youth too well to accept that admittedly strained story. My homecoming deportment on the average evening generally reinforced her suspicion that it was state of mind, not professional obligation, that drew me to the dance halls and gaming tables of the Tenderloin every night; and I realized, having caught the gambling remark just made to Harriet, that it was now crucial to project the image of a sober man with serious concerns. I shot into a black Chinese robe, forced my short hair down on my head, and opened the door loftily just as Harriet reached it. “Ah, Harriet,” I said calmly, one hand inside the robe. “No need for alarm. I was just reviewing some notes for a story, and found I needed some materials from the office. Doubtless that’s the boy with them now.” “John!” my grandmother blared as Harriet nodded in confusion. “Is that you?” “No, Grandmother,” I said, trotting down the thick Persian carpet on the stairs. “It’s Dr. Holmes.” Dr. H. H. Holmes was an unspeakably sadistic murderer and confidence man who was at that moment waiting to be hanged in Philadelphia. The possibility that he might escape before his appointment with the executioner and then journey to New York to do my grandmother in was, for some inexplicable reason, her greatest nightmare. I arrived at the door of her room and gave her a kiss on the cheek, which she accepted without a smile, though it pleased her. “Don’t be insolent, John. It’s your least attractive quality. And don’t think your handsome charms will make me any less irritated.” The pounding on the door started again, followed by a boy’s voice calling my name. My grandmother’s frown deepened. “Who in blazes is that and what in blazes does he want?” “I believe it’s a boy from the office,” I said, maintaining the lie but myself perturbed about the identity of the young man who was taking the front door to such stern task. “The office?” my grandmother said, not believing a word of it. “All right, then, answer it.” I went quickly but cautiously to the bottom of the staircase, where I realized that in fact I knew the voice that was calling for me but couldn’t identify it precisely. Nor was I reassured by the fact that it was a young voice—some of the most vicious thieves and killers I’d encountered in the New York of 1896 were mere striplings. “Mr. Moore!” The young man pleaded again, adding a few healthy kicks to his knocks. “I must talk to Mr. John Schuyler Moore!” I stood on the black and white marble floor of the vestibule. “Who’s there?” I said, one hand on the lock of the door. “It’s me, sir! Stevie, sir!” I breathed a slight sigh of relief and unlocked the heavy wooden portal. Outside, standing in the dim light of an overhead gas lamp—the only one in the house that my grandmother had refused to have replaced with an electric bulb—was Stevie Taggert, “the Stevepipe,” as he was known. In his first eleven years Stevie had risen to become the bane of fifteen police precincts; but he’d then been reformed by, and was now a driver and general errand boy for, the eminent physician and alienist, my good friend Dr. Laszlo Kreizler. Stevie leaned against one of the white columns outside the door and tried to catch his breath—something had clearly terrified the lad. “Stevie!” I said, seeing that his long sheet of straight brown hair was matted with sweat. “What’s happened?” Looking beyond him I saw Kreizler’s small Canadian calash. The cover of the black carriage was folded down, and the rig was drawn by a matching gelding called Frederick. The animal was, like Stevie, bathed in sweat, which steamed in the early March air. “Is Dr. Kreizler with you?” “The doctor says you’re to come with me!” Stevie answered in a rush, his breath back. “Right away!” “But where? It’s two in the morning—” “Right away!” He was obviously in no condition to explain, so I told him to wait while I put on some clothes. As I did so, my grandmother shouted through my bedroom door that whatever “that peculiar Dr. Kreizler” and I were up to at two in the morning she was sure it was not respectable. Ignoring her as best I could, I got back outside, pulling my tweed coat close as I jumped into the carriage. I didn’t even have time to sit before Stevie lashed at Frederick with a long whip. Falling back into the dark maroon leather of the seat, I thought to upbraid the boy, but again the look of fear in his face struck me. I braced myself as the carriage careened at a somewhat alarming pace over the cobblestones of Washington Square. The shaking and jostling eased only marginally as we turned onto the long, wide slabs of Russ pavement on Broadway. We were heading downtown, downtown and east, into that quarter of Manhattan where Laszlo Kreizler plied his trade and where life became, the further one progressed into the area, ever cheaper and more sordid: the Lower East Side.

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Caleb Carr is the critically acclaimed author of The Alienist, The Angel of Darkness, The Lessons of Terror, Killing Time, The Devil Soldier, The Italian Secretary, The Legend of Broken, and Surrender, New York. He has taught military history at Bard College, and worked extensively in film, television, and the theater. His military and political writings have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals, among them The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in upstate New York. To learn more about Caleb Carr and his books, visit him on Goodreads and Random House.

#Book Review #adult fiction #Mystery #the alienist #caleb carr #dr. laszlo kreizler #historical fiction #psychological

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