Carl-Richard

I do too. Alright, so if enlightened humans exist here in physical form, they presumably also have a brain, and this brain looks like something. Now, it just so happens that a part of the brain called the Default Mode Network works as a good indicator for whether a person is enlightened or not. This shouldn't be a hugely problematic issue. It's just like looking at other behaviors we think are correlated with enlightenment. For example, how enlightened you are correlates with how many Rolls Royces you have

Are there enlightened people or not?

Scientists know very well how to control for these things. Still, I said "generally". I'm not referring to any specific study. Maybe she could've had a PhD in mathematics if she wasn't small. You don't know that

Nope. You don't have to think that the brain comes first in order to talk about the brain. Notice how I'm using the word "correlation", not "causation".

It changes your environment too, your local community, your society

Unless you want to say there are no enlightened people, these people have a brain, and their brains do look a certain way. You can test how their brain is different by performing experiments such as those presented in the video, and you'll end up with findings such as the persistent deactivation of the DMN being a neural correlate of enlightenment.

Different evolutionary niches produce different levels and types of intelligences. But also, brain size generally correlates with intelligence, even within our own species. Yeah, and how few neurons can you have before you become functionally retarded? How small can an individual neuron be before complicated things like ion channels (which certainly can't be infinitely small in order to work) take up too much space relative to other structures? What if the genes that code for small size also make you more prone to certain diseases or other unwanted things? It's not easy to play God when your creation is a super complex system.

What — you're just gonna ban insects, birds, everything that isn't human, from interacting with humans? That is probably practically impossible unless you want us to live in Matrix pods or caves underground. Besides, dominating the entire Earth this way takes more resources than whatever we got going on now, so if your concern is reducing resource expenditure or environmental disaster, maybe leave the bugs alone.

The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a known neural correlate for mystical experiences (a.k.a. "awakening"), and "enlightenment" (or persistent non-dual awareness) correlates with a persistent deactivation of the DMN when the subject is not doing anything (there is a graph in the video). The DMN is associated with the feeling of self, self-referential thinking, etc.

Shrink ourselves so that we'll get predated on by ravens, seagulls and yellow jackets ? I think if you take an existing creature and reduce its size, it will be less intelligent. But that doesn't mean you can't have a different creature of a smaller size which is more intelligent.

Yep. Awakening literally changes your brain.

It's normal religious- sorry, "spiritual" behavior.

In hindsight, I learned everything I needed to know about Tate from his appearance on The Ultimate Traveller back in 2010. Spoiler: he manipulated one of the contestants to make her believe that he had lost all his money in order to make her stop begging for a loan.

Yeah but forreal doe, what did you not understand?

What did you not understand about what I said? I can clarify.

I think this is pretty accurate. But even though you could choose to stare at a teapot until the end of time, when you're incarnated as a human being, you'll still be compelled to engage in certain different behaviors at different times. That is the nature of physical existence. So meanwhile the level of "addiction" (and side effects like boredom, discomfort, etc.) certainly diminishes, you'll always be moving. You could say spirituality is about optimizing that movement.

Heart rate and metabolism drops when meditating.

Some few things that came to mind: Emotional regulation: are you able to experience an emotion and then return to a normal level of activation by yourself over a short period of time, or are you like a baby that needs external help? Emotional awareness: are you able to identify that you're having an emotional response at all? Emotional diversity: do you experience a wide range of emotions? Many men experience something called emotional colorblindness: they only experience or express their emotions as one emotion (anger). Emotional insight: are you able to identify the influences (internal and external) behind the emotion you're experiencing and how they feed into the emotion? Emotional oversight: are you able to understand the role that different aspects of your life has on your emotions (e.g. friends, family, health, life purpose, etc.), and are you acting on that understanding?

It's more an explanation than a prescription.

People who are prone to certain illnesses tend to get the illness through some kind of stressful influence (a.k.a. the diathesis-stress model of illness), e.g. traumatic events, poor socioeconomic situation, drugs, environmental toxins, etc. Doing things that are generally healthy will build resilience to that stress and decrease the likelihood of the illness developing or worsening.

So many people come to spirituality looking for an easy way out, wanting to be "saved". Counterintuitively, it's about facing the truly hard work, taking full responsibility for what is and not looking away from it. And through that work, that is where you'll lose yourself.

I recently tried to list my top 3 favorite bands. They have to be bands I've listened to all of their songs at least once, listened to regularly over the years, and of course they have to readily pop into my mind when I think about the question. For now, it's Opeth, Cynic and Tool. If I had to pick one album from one of them to bring to a deserted island, it would probably be "Kindly Bent to Free Us" by Cynic (which is actually what my profile picture is based on now that I think about it, the album cover). I don't know if my musical experience is just extremely limited or something, but I've always found Cynic to be completely unique, especially their later albums. I can't really place it anywhere or pin it down to any specific set of influences. It's just there, as it self, speaking to me at a very deep level.

Be an example of what you want her to be, and over time, she might directly ask you what's up.

Or just practice playing the game and you'll get used to dying that way.