Apparition of Jack

Article suggesting a historical link between ancient Christianity and the Eastern traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. https://www.bibhudevmisra.com/2017/11/yoga-mudras-in-orthodox-christian-art.html

In light of Leo's most recent blog video, I've decided to start a thread focused on breaking down the simplistic, rosy narratives of history and science that we've been spoon-fed by education / society since we were children. This thread is about exposing just how much more inter-connected, crazy, cool, cosmic and also disturbing out collective human history and understanding of the universe has been, and how so much of our current understanding of reality / our place in the world is based on lies and half-truths. NOTE: This thread is NOT a place to push unsubstantiated conspiracy theories / racist nonsense. In accordance with the guidelines of this sub-forum, everything posted here must be high-quality, well-researched, and should help raise the level of consciousness / development, not lower it. Also keep in mind that we can never have a full picture of the past, not even close, so the information presented here will still only be a fraction of the totality of human history. Still, there's a lot more we can know about our past than we currently accept, and that's what this thread is all about! I'll start the thread with some example links to get the ball rolling. 1. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/origin-bleeding-heart-liberal Think your conservative grandpa came up with the phrase "bleeding-heart liberal" to refer to tree-hugging hippies? Think again! This phrase was deliberately invoked in the 1930s as a mark against people who advocated for penalties against lynchings of black Americans, of all things. Our popular social ideas often have very specific origins for very specific purposes, and aren't just catchy memes that "started somewhere." What other catchy phrases have less-than-rosy origins? 2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/06/20/stonehenge-builders-used-pythagoras-theorem-2000-years-greek/ Think maths and geometry were invented by a bunch of Greek thinkers 2500 years ago? Turns out, this isn't the case. The ancient Celts of England new about Pythagorean theory 2000 years before the Greeks ever rose to prominence - something mainstream science and history so far hasn't accepted. What else does our current narrative of the ancient world get wrong? 3, https://newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/news/yes-world-there-were-horses-in-native-culture-before-the-settlers-came-JGqPrqLmZk-3ka-IBqNWiQ/ https://imageproxy.themaven.net/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.saymedia-content.com%2F.image%2FMTY1MjEzMzM3OTM4ODk2NDU3%2F11.png?w=930&q=30&h=680&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&fp-z=1&fp-debug=false Turns out, the Native American warrior riding on horseback has been a staple of Native culture for thousands of years, and wasn't a result of Europeans introducing horses to the Americas. Why would this fact have been ignored or denied by Western history up until now? What does this say about the nature of academia and the cultural interests that support it? _______________________ That does me for now, but I'll posting more articles in the future. Looking forward to see what others can come up with!

It's a complicated topic. I, for one, think there's a role in censorship and regulation on the internet moving forward. Places like 4chan, 8chan are, in my view, more or less criminal enterprises with the amount of sheer illegal and life-threatening stuff being discussed there. I have known about the threat these websites have posted for years, and yet it's taken over 100 deaths for society to collectively realise just how dangerous they are. And it's not like these are particularly inaccessible places either, literally anyone with the internet can get there through a single URL. On the other hand, I understand that you can't force people to give up ideas, and in fact simply debating them and exposing them to other perspectives is sometimes all that's needed to turn someone from a neo-Nazi into a regular citizen. The question is, always, what decisions will help raise consciousness, and what will help lower it? I think there's a good argument to be made that we need effective internet moderation to stop people being trapped in low-consciousness cesspits that turns normal people into murderers and Ideologues. I can't say this for certain, but I'm seeing little downsides to this, outside of vague notions of it being a "slippery slope." EDIT: I just wish to clarify these are my own personal thoughts and I admit they could be clouded by bias. I have not studied the issue deeply enough, it's just the conclusion I have come to based on my own observations and my own experiences with dangerous ideas being put online. I cannot speak in depth about what the ramifications of my ideas would be, since I'd have to study them more first.

I wouldn't say it's a secret (those are some major news sources you provided), it's just not high enough on people's information priorities. Make of that what you will, but in this particular case, I don't see any sort of media conspiracy going on.

@outlandish Sure, obviously I don't think you need to be into New Age healing stuff in order to be solidly grown. However, I will say that I feel like being interested in these things is a good indicator that a person is truly in Green, rather than just teetering within it. Honestly, I don't think the metaphysical aspects of SD development can be stated enough. Even though there's a lot of quakery and half-baked ideas in the stage Green New Age / hippie movements, the idea that reality is fundamental composed of energy, motion, vibrations, emotions, etc. is, believe it or not, still more accurate / more holistic than the stage Orange idea that it's all just reducible matter. I know it's anecdotal evidence, but just in my own life I've been able to seriously embody the social / environmental / political aspects of Green much stronger after I accepted the validity of the metaphysical aspects of Green. I mean, think about any stage Turquoise figures. Sadhguru, the Dalai Lama, Yoda, etc. All of these figures would affirm the efficacy of alternative healing, even if they would hold more nuanced positions on these than most stage Green people do. I don't think someone can truly reach the tops of the spiral whilst still holding onto the idea that alternate healing / astrology / etc. is just "kinda nice but not that important", or so on.

Most high-end Green thinkers (both young and old) will have shades of Yellow, in my estimation. Even Bernie Sanders - a very healthy Green candidate - obviously has some of the meta-cognitive and self-critical elements that characterise Yellow thought, which he uses to great effect. The thing that prevents them from fully leaving Green and embracing Yellow is their lack of serious inquiry into epistemology, metaphysics, ontology, and so on. Most high-end Green thinkers in the West will still usually subscribe to a materialist metaphysics, either consciously or unconsciously, for instance. Don't mistake this for thinking that they're metaphysically "inferior" to Blue however; a subscription to empiricist scientism is still closer to the truth than the shallow "fire and brimstone" monotheism that characterises Blue.

@Jez Just from my own perspective, I'd feel much better about myself working in the renewable energy sector than working FIFO work, even if the pay was worse and there was more stress. Just the fact that I'd see myself as part of the solution and not part of the problem would be very consciously rewarding.

This ties in nicely with another concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_wei

It sounds like you're trying to use "non-dual peace" as a form of spiritual bypass (check it out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_bypass.) You crave the calmness and peace you feel when meditating, listening to spiritual lectures, etc. only because the rest of your life causes you so much stress. . If you want to truly feel at peace at all times, you're going to have to really shift your life so that you can maximise your ability to Self-Actualise and come into contact with God / Infinite Consciousness / Universal Love. This is why Self-Mastery and Life Purpose are so important - you need to work hard at setting up the foundations of your life before you even think about coming into the states of consciousness that will allow you to feel that sort of endless calm / security. Look up Leo's stuff on Life Purpose and discovering your values. Don't get reckless with your education, but at the same time don't tell yourself your locked into whatever trajectory you're on now just because "I might as well stick with it." You can get very smart about your direction in life, if you know what you're doing, and you can find all sorts of amazing careers / courses / hobbies / motivations that fulfil you and meet your survival needs whilst also allowing you to Self-Actualise and bring consciousness into the world.

As far as meeting our immediate energy needs, I don't see a reason why humanity can't just use wind + solar + geothermal + hydroelectric etc. to replace fossil fuels. We have all the technology and resources to meet our global energy needs a hundred times over with these alone, no unstable fission reactors needed. The only thing that's missing right now is the motivation/consciousness to get there. With that being said, something in my gut tells me that fusion energy will very interesting to research regardless, so long as its done responsibly and consciously. I imagine any long-term colonisation of space will require us to harness some form of nuclear fusion, for instance. We could use it to power continent-sized supercomputers to create the most accurate models of society, materialist physics, and so on. It's the literally the power of the Sun, which could be harnessed for tremendous good if done right.

@sirweddings Don't get caught in the trap of assuming that because you've started to question the assumptions of knowledge, you've somehow cracked the unknown secrets of the universe that have been oppressed for centuries. It is good that you don't blindly accept everything you're presented with, but there's also the huge danger of going too far in the opposite direction and assuming any mainstream information must be false simply due to the fact it's mainstream. You're not aiming to find so that you can stick it to the man, you're aiming to find the truth because it's the truth, no matter how it's presented to you (which includes both mainstream and alternative narratives). In this case, the most obvious answer is that the earth is a sphere. Now, that's not to say mainstream science can't be wrong about other things - like how it denies that fluoride has a destructive effect on the human mind - but to then use examples like this as an excuse to dismiss all science in any form would be foolish. You need to keep a critical mind even about keeping a critical mind, that's how powerful assumptions can be! If you want more information on this, Leo has dozens of videos that dive into the nature of knowledge, evidence, cultural ideas, and so on.

@zeroISinfinity I like it!

I'm curious, do you think if - by some miracle - Donald Trump started to self-actualize, he would have a sudden, massive energy break down and effectively cease to stop functioning for at least a few months, as all the devilry he's committed in his life is suddenly opened up to his conscious awareness?

Good to hear you managed to get out of a toxic situation with your family man. I dunno how open you are to the idea, but now that you're away from their controlling influence, maybe you could start doing some compassion practices directed towards them? It might seem pointless or whatever but you might find that cultivating forgiveness and compassion for people who hurt you, even if you do already love them, will help you grow more and learn from their mistakes (as well as your own in the future.) Maybe this idea won't resonate with you but my gut told me to suggest it. Other than that, don't give up dude, take each day as it comes, be grateful for all the little things you have, always ask for help when you need it, look after your girlfriend, eat healthy, you know all the usual advice stuff You've got a good heart despite all you've been through, and you've got your whole life ahead of you to grow and bring peace to this world. Namaste.

@sirweddings Instead of asking yourself "Is the world flat or spherical?", why not ask yourself "Why is this question so important to me?"

I think Leo's rhetoric makes it seem like Green is more prevalent in parts of the West than it is in reality. Yes, there are parts of Canada, the US, Europe, etc. that have shades of Green, and if you find the right towns/suburbs/etc. you can be around mostly Green people, but for the most part the modern West is still deeply Orange. Think about how few people take reiki healing or sound therapy seriously for instance - these things work, yet ask your average Western person on the street if they've considered going to them for their ailments (my guess would be less than 10%.) You'd mostly likely get a lot of skeptical responses, or even outright dismissal ("I don't care about that hippy nonsense.") And even the ones who have tried would probably have a very Orange attitude towards them ("Yeah they totally helped my body, just such a good feeling of relaxation, it helps me stress less at work, LOL".) I think your best bet is to assume wherever you're going is going to be mostly Orange, and just live your life in such a way that you help it transition to Green. It will still take time for the West to reach a "true" Green level, but there are inklings of it happening as we speak, and I imagine over the coming decades the increasingly-obvious contradictions of materialism (philosophical and consumerist) and increasingly-untenable Blue/Orange social mindset in the face of demographic changes will push us towards true Green naturally.

@cypres Don't quote me on this, but I think I remember reading that Ted was a very smart college student in some sort of STEM program who was abducted and given all sorts of powerful hallucinogens by the CIA as part of MKULTRA, which fucked him up bad. Had this never happened, the odds of him becoming an anti-industrial terrorist would've been significantly smaller.

Billionaires and millionaires for the most part already don't actually produce the things we buy, they just control the means of distribution, and as a result are able to fuck us in the ass by suffocating any real alternatives to their business models. As a result taxing them more actually barely has an impact on the cost to produce goods, so from a market market POV doing so causes very little reason to jack up prices. From a billionaire's ego POV though, they can threaten to price-gauge you because they want to continue to earn relentless profits, but then you can just pass legislation to prevent such toxic practices.

Billionaires and multi-national corporations? Also you could put taxes on luxury goods like sports cars, French wine, yachts, etc.

If the devil is the ego, then anyone who worships ego is a Satanist. Note how that includes people from all walks of life - celebrities, politicians, business people, farmers, workers, even "holy men." Also, the dark arts only have as much power as you give them. Notice how your ego is afraid of symbols of the devil? That's the devil being afraid of representations of itself! How silly is that!

Government doesn't exist in a vacuum. Government exists as the manifestation of the political and social ideas of the people within a country. Who knows. Maybe a future president or senator watched that video.

Who says it won't?

From what I've gathered in my investigations into this, is that materialist scientists are almost always projecting their own latent social/emotional views onto any sort study that seeks to understand sociology, human dynamics, etc. from a "biological" point of view. I'll try to explain - why would someone promote science that says the world/society is just a series of inter-related material processes populated by beings that have to live a brutal, cut-throat existence just to survive in this cold, uncaring world? Because they themselves, in their emotional core, feel this way about reality! They feel like they're lost, distressed animals in a brutal, Darwinian nightmare that is only made somewhat bearable by advanced technology and that gives them some respite until their inevitable annihilation. If you've grown up in a capitalist, materialist world that values money and technology above all else, if you've been actively told that spirituality and mystical states of consciousness are the purview of the deluded (or even worse, the "savage"), if you've been told that no one fundamentally cares for you except out the vague "goodness" of complex society, then of course you're going to promote science that reinforces these ideas! The idea that Love is THE fundamental, animating force of existence is completely alien to these people, because they have been conditioned in such a world that has utterly crushed and denied such a possibility. Anyway. That was my rant. Maybe someone could take something away from it.

This already exists. It's called the market and entrepreneurship. The problem isn't the lack of people wanting to / being able to become great business managers. Give the people the right resources and a million new businesses will pop up tomorrow. The problem is a vampiric market that heavily discourages new start-ups and small/medium businesses to the advantage of already-bloated multinationals. By using government programs to reduce the leeching affect giant corporations have over markets, we can create a truly thriving civil economy.

@Zizzero I shouldn't have made the post the way I did. I was dealing with some unrelated personal anger last night, and I knew immediately after posting it I would come across as aggressive. I decided to leave it up however since I figure it's better to try and own up to my mistakes than pretend like they never happened. My point - that I should've made better - was that it only seemed like Trump was speaking things "like they are" because the people who felt this way already agreed with him. You said Trump won because he didn't talk down to people and didn't question people's ability to think for themselves, but this was only true if you supported him to begin with. Underneath the assumption that Trump "said it like is it" was a whole load of other assumptions about power, race, etc. EDIT: For the record, I understand the point you're trying to make. Yes, a lot of people who voted for him did feel like he was just being a straight-talking, no-nonsense man of the people. Of course, this just said more about the state of the collective American psyche, rather than anything to do with how truthful or relatable Trump himself was.