Natasha Tori Maru

I like to have my brain pulverized even when it feels bad Growing pains

Authenticity. I find it ill-defined. The word is tossed about flippantly. EVERYWHERE. It is spoken about on these forums frequently. What is Authenticity (in the romantic sense, and interpersonally)? Do you think it is overrated/underrated? Only appropriate at certain times or phases of connection? I find it paradoxical. Authenticity requires enough self-awareness to distinguish your genuine values from the forces acting on you (incentive structures). I think it is about congruence. Congruence between what is actually going on inside you, how you live, make choices and relate to the world. So for me it's being able to accurately know what I experience, owning it completely and acting in accordance with it as the situation deeps appropriate. I feel like it needs these clauses because it gets muddled up with just "expressing" without censure. Authenticity IS NOT just expressing the contents of your mind. "I say what I feel", "I refuse to change for anyone", "I do what feels natural", "I am brutally honest" or "I don't care what anyone thinks, this is who I am" - all of these are not it in my definition. Philosophy wise I don't think to be authentic we require a true fixed self. Values change. We change. What is authentic will change. Existentially I see it creeping toward "am I taking ownership of the fact I am choosing?" My closest definition: Authenticity is the constant, background practice of shrinking the space between what I experience and what I understand myself to currently value. What I claim to be, and how I actually behave... while remaining willing to amend my understanding of me. Would love everyone's thoughts around this loaded topic as it applies to dating, courtship, romance, relationships, attraction etc.

Feels. Fuck. Hate looking at my old posts. I was apparently unknowingly committing to documenting every stage of my development by contributing here

@Lucasxp64 Reality is usually more complex and nuanced than it seems. A simple explanation feels so lovely and neat. Very appealing. But usually to access that simplicity we need to compress and fill the gaps with "belief".

Grateful I think storytelling lets us form images and metaphor - which can help us recognise a pattern where a similar mechanism is present. We see the links - which can make it clearer than simply analysing

This?

@StaraX If effort isn't a guarantee, what is its actual causal contribution?

How good are they? When the forest temple mix drops HNNNNGGGGG Then when the stone tower temple transitions, HAS MEEEEE *dances*

Hahaha - it's the Zen hot pan shit. Stop holding the hot pan, it's burning you! Stop pretending it isn't. Allow and fully feel the pain without any conceptual overlay between your hand and pure pain "Why is this happening to me? I want this to stop." Feel the raw signal - drop pan. We fear the feeling or emotion, causing it to prolong, linger and entail suffering. Pain is the raw nerve signal. Suffering occurs when the mind writhes, fights, interprets and contracts around the signal. It is our relationship to the thoughts, emotions and feelings we need to just... stop

There's a big difference between people claiming theft of legitimate original work, and from people overestimating the originality or genius of their work.

Ocarina of Time is my top favourite - we cannot forget the Z-targeting mechanic was introduced with that game. Sticky targeting didn't exist prior to Ocarina (if I am not mistaken). I loved Majora's Mask also. Ocarina and Majora are quite dark - but many good fairytales are. Majora's Mask was difficult to get into, but as an adult replaying it I loved it even more! Very dark, melancholy and disturbing. The music from both of these games was hands down some of the best from legacy eras. I often listen to mixes on youtube

Re: the first few pages regarding LLM's not having a world model - wouldn't robotics begin to work on this problem? AI in robots learning via the robotic body navigating the real world is essentially giving it the training data it needs to fill this gap? Dunno, just brainstorming - I might not understand some things correctly.

Do I need to add @CARDOZZO to the naughty bin also, now? He gets some throat punches for being extra 😈

@Juan Honestly I would be all over this shit if it were on the switch. I cannot justify buying the switch II for just this game, as tempting as it may be. Nintendo are one of the only gaming companies I still semi-trust! I am excited to see this though! Will you get it?

I appreciate the share! Do you know Tim Fletcher? His Youtube videos on shame are fantastic (he also goes into trauma, attachment, co-dependency). very clear and easy to understand. He is a Christian man, so at the end of the talks he links through to the faith - he gives you clear warnings when he starts the Christian segment for those who dislike religion. I don't mind it at all (I am not Christian myself, or religious, for that matter). I love your input - thank you @Salvijus - SO good to see you pop in to this discussion I am also beginning to brainstorm the role of choice in authenticity. This touches on free will and determinism... Never forget!!!!

The zen sting of rebuke!

@AerisVahnEphelia @Carl-Richard @Schizophonia Any more out of you three and I'll be delighted to slap you upside with warning points! Absolute UPSTARTS!

Do we have one? Rolling. Post that shit. Shorts, reels, tick-tock turds. Do your worst short format. Boomer cringe. I love the spittle on the guys mouth 🤮🤢 https://vt.tiktok.com/ZS45V1Enf/

Definitely keep us updated with what you can - big pivot! But I dare say a good fit; you have always come across as passionate around the topic

Parasites? Shit. That's a serious contender for explanation - my sister had parasites and they causes her anxiety and panic attacks of all things (as well as other symptoms).

I checked up on him last week as a result of re-watching the Fake Spirituality vid Leo did (I see the Aubrey Marcus Polyamory thread from last year as sort of inspiration for that video, so it triggered the memory of him). I came to the same conclusion as you. He's very, very ungrounded at the moment - to say the least!

Excuse me, boys. Naughty. Naughty boys. Motherfucking TROUBLE TROUBLE TROUBLE ON THE INTERWEBS. See below markup in green. hErE cOmES tHe FuN POlIcE

@Jordan of the Shire I appreciate these insights. Making me think a lot! I find the concept of properly processing and feeling our emotions, and emotional dysregulation, a big topic that ties in with authenticity. I often hear people "acting on emotion" and claiming it is them "authentically expressing" themselves in the moment. Reacting and expressing without any form of block. But I see their "expressing" the emotion as an form of emotional violence (ie they are having their emotions AT a person, instead of expressing as is). For example: I become angry my colleague didn't do something, and I follow my impulse to be angry. But is this a true manifestation of the emotion or feeling? Is there some addition on top of the emotion, resulting in me having the emotion AT a person (ie blame, judgement, self righteousness)? Properly processed and regulated emotions means we FEEL them acutely - but we aren't so overtaken by them as to feel the need to act them out and express. There is space. I do not speak about repression or bypassing/avoidance. I speak about truly feeling the depth of all spectrums of emotion/feeling, and being able to hold space to respond and not immediately react. It is an interesting thought - Authenticity isn't necessarily acting out whatever state is currently dominant. It may be the capacity to remain in honest contact with your internal experience while allowing how that experience becomes expressed in the world. And that expression is no longer a violent one (directed at someone) when felt in full and authentically.

@Rafael Thundercat Shame is a HUGE topic from my research and personal work. Unlike other emotions, I perceive it operating on multiple psychological levels simultaneously. Which is why it can be so tricky because the source can be different for all of us - and it has a habit of morphing from emotion, to a feeling, to being part of our identity. And it can transition back through all of these forms. To convolute it further - guilt can also be confused for shame and also feed it. The guilt / shame spiral. Shame = "I am wrong". Guilt = "I did wrong". Because shame is about identity "I am" I find it is much harder to work with as a conditioned response. Shame as a feeling: an unpleasant affective state, often involving exposure, contraction, wanting to hide, or wanting to escape someone's attention. Shame as an emotion: a level above feeling, which is the raw emotion and often is about how wrong we feel in relation to some standard. Shame as a part of identity: repeated shame can become an identity. The shame isn't merely an emotion that happens to a person - it is imbedded in their sense of self "I did something shameful > people see me as defective or wrong > I am defective > I am this kind of person who is defective" Emotions can be real without the interpretation being true - which is a core philosophical distinction that can help us assessing our feelings, emotions and beliefs. Shame is often not based on truth.

And it is usually only one half of the story. It isn't genuine as half the persons life (the shit parts) are completely omitted. It's a curated avatar. A simulacrum. I cannot connect.