Space Lizard

The endgame of covid was always that it's endemic. Fortunately omicron seems relatively harmless, comparable to a flu. Might as well get it over with. It's nice to see authorities finally facing reality and getting over their hubris that we could eliminate this virus. It made a lot of money for Big Pharma and gave a lot of power to bureaucrats, but it didn't do a thing to stop covid from becoming endemic.

Modern civilization couldn't exist without sociopaths, if not psychopaths. Normal, well adjusted people aren't good at running giant governments, corporations, militaries and technology systems--it requires sociopathic people who can think abstractly on a large scale, and not be too emotional, personal or tribal. I'd guess that modern civilization was mostly built by sociopaths.

I used to do kundalini style yoga, and it did seem to unleash some powerful energies in my life that led me into a pretty insane place and almost destroyed me. I'm not sure it was worth it, but it was interesting. So I agree that it's nothing to mess around with. What are you trying to achieve? Are you a monkey playing with matches just to see what happens? Maybe there is a guru somewhere who can keep you from going off the deep end? I don't know, I don't do it any more because I realized that I had no good reason for it, any more than I have a good reason to play with matches in a fireworks factory.

Yeah, letting them go sounds good. Ever read Gurdjieff? His whole message was that people are asleep and need to wake up, and the way he taught that was to have people do difficult physical activities, like complicated dances, to get them out of their monkey minds and into their bodies. Osho borrowed some of Gurdjieff's ideas for his "active meditation". I would suggest getting into your body, not just sitting in your head with your thoughts.

Why do you want to be more conscious of your thoughts and feelings? Seems backward to me. I used to meditate to get away from wallowing in my thoughts and feelings, but now I find physical activities like walking or bicycling work even better.

The one thing DC "Deep Staters" are good at is not letting a crisis go to waste. When they see an opportunity to expand their power through fear propaganda, they take it. The post-9/11 "War on Terror" was a case in point--mostly fabricated hysteria that funneled massive amounts of power and money into their hands, which they never relinquished. They tried similar things vis-a-vis Trump and Russia for four years, promoting outright fabrications 24/7 in the media, but it wasn't very effective. Of course covid has been their main fear-power project for two years running, but it's running out of steam. And now they're trying to make this Jan 6 thing a domestic 9/11 -- i.e., media-fabricated hysteria as a pretext to grab more power. I know a lot of people on the right have wised up to this game, but I'm not sure about our "liberal" friends, who seem to lap up the media fear propaganda worse than the Fox News folks these days.

I am confused by Leo's simultaneous image as an enlightened guru of non-dualism and a proponent of pick up artistry. Although it does seem like a perfect set up for an Osho-style cult leader. Now he just needs a physical location where he can bring all the "hotties" together for "enlightenment".

Yeah, I totally agree. I’m not just bored of grand narratives, I’m actively hostile to them. A grand narrative is inevitably used to seek grand power. In the West we’ve lived under a series of grand narratives and associated empires for thousands of years—Logos/Philosophy, God/Christianity, Progress/Science—to the point that we’ve forgotten how to live without them. The white man's sickness is empire and ideology; he forgot how to just be, without imposing himself on the world. That's why I think postmodernism, which rejects all grand narratives, is a step in the right direction for Westerners, even though it's associated with a lot of things I don't care for. Why not? What’s so great about highways, or so bad about autonomous communities and worshipping trees?

What is modern democracy without mass media propaganda? Read Edward Bernays' book "Propaganda" to see how the two go together. I'm all for democracy meaning decentralized rule, where local communities decide their own fate, but that's not how modern democracies operate. What we have are centralized systems of propaganda, money and law, dominated by oligarchs. When you hear elites promoting "democracy", what they really mean is: "spreading our centralized systems of propaganda, finance and law into your community or country so we have de facto control". And leaders who oppose this are called "dictators" and "populists", for the crime of not wanting their money, media, culture, etc. dominated by foreign oligarchs. Once you understand this, all the elite rhetoric we hear about democracy looks very different. The last thing these people want is for local populations to control their own destinies. You think George Soros wants democracy if it means people reject his globalist ideology? It's all about centralized power and control, imo; democracy is just a ruse for the rubes.

This test is silly. All it's testing is whether your self-image is psychopathic, it says nothing about how you actually are.

Love. It's so alien and terrifying.

Is it hard to get out of your head and into your body? How about walking, bicycling, running, swimming, yoga, manual labor, sports? For me, a natural geek, this is the most important thing I ever learned. Get out of your head and into your body as much as possible; your body is wise, your mind is crazy!

You sound like a victim of mass media propaganda and hysteria. Haven't you noticed that every week they are hyping up some new threat to keep you tuned in? That's how they operate; it's all about keeping you in constant fear--the real epidemic of our society. Don't be a sucker. Here's a challenge for you: turn off all mass media for a month and see if you feel like you've missed out on anything. I did that 13 years ago and haven't missed it for a second. It's like breaking a toxic drug habit. Seriously, try it.

I see a lot of this “all is one” nondualism around these days, like it’s trendy, and I’m puzzled by it. My question is very simple: what's the upshot of nondualism? How does believing that "all is one" change anything about your reality? Monotheists tell us that eternity in heaven/hell are consequences of belief/non-belief in God; what are some consequences of belief/disbelief in “all is one”? I.e., how is this anything other than mental masturbation? (Note that I’m not trying to start a “nonduality war”; I’m genuinely curious and don’t have a position on the matter.)

OK well it all sounds rather delusional to me, like believing you're gonna spend eternity with angels in heaven, but whatever floats your boat. What if I'm looking for an absolute meaning that I didn't create? Am I shit out of luck?

@Sempiternity Yeah but those are just, like, your opinions man--just thoughts bouncing around in your head. I can believe I'm Superman, but that doesn't give me the ability to fly. I'm asking about actual differences in your reality. Show me how your life is concretely different since you starting believing or perceiving these things.

That sounds like the metaphysical analogue of over-socialization. When you're afraid to voice your own opinions because you're so concerned about social approval, that's over-socialization. When you're afraid to say anything because you're so concerned about the universe's approval, that's "over-metaphysicalization". Maybe this is the downside of "all is one" spirituality: if everything is connected, everything you do is potentially bad, and you can end up in a state of total paralysis. I don't see how you can go through life without a sense of individuality and metaphysical separation; it seems totally impractical.

People who have a talent for writing, and like to show it off at forums.

Like I said I don't really have a position on the matter. Common sense tells me that all is not one, and it's impractical to believe otherwise, but I don't feel strongly about it. I am just curious why it's so important to some people. But if you think it's a pointless conversation, that's fine. You're probably right.

OK replace the world "believing" with "perceiving". What are some consequences of perceiving the reality of "all is one", vs. not perceiving it? (Yes these are just words, but we're at an internet forum so words are all we got...)

My thought is that if you're looking for some deep emotional connection to other people, online forums are a poor medium. These places favor the cerebral, the autistic, sociopaths, clever writers and trolls. That's been the case with every internet forum I've ever spent time at, and I've been around a while. Spend more time talking to people in the real world. It's not this forum, it's all forums.

Here's a variant on Rogan's meme that's more apropos to this forum:

How do you know you aren't mind-controlled by a giant purple aardvaark from Pluto? Seems about as useful of a thing to worry about.

Ah, well how would it matter? Why mindf*ck yourself about it?

LOL, what does that mean?