A question was asked recently: “Hi..why does feeling peaceful feel unnatural and pain spiritual”
Here’s a portion of the reply: Continue reading
I’m Not The Vehicle
During Life
When visiting with a friend while incarnated it is easy, normal, and natural for them to think of me as this human biological machine. Mostly that is what they see, hear, touch, smell, etc. Continue reading
Cognitive Mindful Meditation
Preface
In a recent online workshop as part of a larger topic, E.J. Gold mentioned that there are many different types of meditation. This should not have come as a surprise. When presented with the notion, it is obviously true. Of course there are many different types of meditation. Thing is, until this invisible elephant is brought to light it is all too easy to fall into the trap of treating all meditation as the same.
Well, of course they are not.
Different meditation forms can have different methods – obvious enough.
And, different meditation forms can have different goals and results – hmmm, now this is interesting to mull over once or twice.
Contrary to what this foreword may be suggesting, this article is not about the variety of meditation types. Nor is it about different possible goals and results.
I just thought it would be useful for the reader to be notified that not all meditation is the same and that, in fact, different forms of meditation can have quite different goals and aims.
This article will address one specific form of meditation – Cognitive Mindful Meditation. Continue reading
What is RL?
RL in virtual parlance typically means “Real Life.” Nothing surprising about that.
Thing is, we carry a persistent assumption that real life is more “real” than virtual or pretend. Here’s an experiment that calls this into question on a biochemical basis: Effects of gendered behavior on testosterone in women and men (PNAS abstract). (Randy Dotinga’s summary from full article here.)
The study appears in the Oct. 26 2015 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Van Anders et al noted: The varying differences between average male testosterone levels in men versus average levels of testosterone levels in women got me interested in whether there was some social influence on the variability.
In the new study, 41 trained actors (male and female) performed monologues in which they wielded power by firing a subordinate. On one occasion, they were told to do so in a stereotypically male way (more dominating). On another day, they were instructed to do the firing in a stereotypically feminine way (“trying to be nice,” van Anders said, “and feeling unsure about what you’re doing”).
Testosterone levels were measured before and after the performances using saliva samples.
Both kinds of strategies boosted testosterone levels in men and women — the boost in testosterone levels was more pronounced in the women. But for both sexes, performing in stereotypical male or female ways didn’t seem to matter. What did seem to matter was performing the monologues acting in a manner wielding power. Continue reading
Gateway and Tipping Point Actions
For the most part, wherever you are, you were somewhere else before that. And, you can bet that sooner or later you will be somewhere other than were you are now.
In order to get the beginnings of a handle on gateway and tipping-point actions let’s use the following example: While making your way through an otherwise ordinary day you suddenly find yourself sitting on the couch with spoon in one hand and an empty container of Ben & Jerry’s in the other.
Surprise!
In spite of the fact that these types of moments might seem to sneak up on us, they don’t actually ambush us the way it seems. Continue reading
Wandering Mind Is Not A Happy Mind
In 2010 psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert (Harvard University) published a paper in Science magazine called: A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind
The abstract of the article is: “We developed a smartphone technology to sample people’s ongoing thoughts, feelings, and actions and found (i) that people are thinking about what is not happening almost as often as they are thinking about what is and (ii) found that doing so typically makes them unhappy.” If you’d like to read the full article check it out on ScienceMag.org. You’ll need to register — but it’s free. Continue reading
Substance in our Life
“What once motivated me seems to have fallen away.”
The substance of our life that gives it meaning is false. The imperatives that drive you forward are imposed from your environment — in one way or another. This provides a false substance. “I’m driven therefor I am.”
There are occasions when this false substance may fall away. This can be as a result of accident, illness, shocks, or special forms of self work. At first glance we might interpret this as a lack of substance. Continue reading
Alan Alda Helps Scientists Get Their Mojo
In his 2012 Wired article “Cultivating Genius” Jonah Lehrer speculates that the key to cultivating genius is the presence of meta-ideas that create a breeding ground. (See article here)
The meta-ideas discussed in the article are:
- Human mixing: diversity, and open immigration.
- Education: open, experimental, and universal.
- Support from risk-taking backers.
As usual the key to solving the problem is not to meet it head on. Instead of direct attack on the problem, zig when zag seems indicated. Or zag when zig seems indicated. This is not an effort at being a contrarian. Rather an acceptance of the truism that some problems are better handled by inspiration rather than perspiration. Continue reading
Good To Know
Here’s a few tidbits, gaggle of truisms that you might find useful.
The 80/20 rule.
The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. (Check out the wikipedia article for more background).
Basically this means 80% of the audience opinion will come from 20% of the lecture. 20% of the comedy set jokes will generate 80% of the laughter.
So does this mean that we could perhaps drop 80% of what we do and trim our efforts down to the 20% that “get the job done”? Maybe…, but it is not certain. Some times the 80% is part of the process.
Many songs are 80% silence and 20% notes. What if we removed the silence and trimmed the song down to just the notes?
I suspect that in many situations a little “trim” is in order. But, let’s not be too quick to judge what is the 20% and what is the 80%.
Parkinson’s Law.
Parkinson’s law is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. (wikipedia) Or, in other words, you can probably get the job done faster than you think. E.J. Gold refers to this as the busy desk syndrome. Meaning if you want to get something done fast put it on the desk of someone that is busy. A busy person has great throughput. A non-busy person might look like they would have more time available to do your task. But, Parkinson’s Law tells us that however few tasks they currently have the work they do for those tasks has expanded to fill available time. Continue reading
The Royal Oops
Artemis has come up with a method of jamming 35 times more data density into cell phone networks. You can view a video demonstration about is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxNntxVWC1g
Here’s a couple of possible viewer comments:
- Wow, that’s amazing.
- Holy Sh-t, wifi hubs popping up everywhere … densely modulated RF all over all over the place … f**k it, I’m going to the woods
I agree with both sentiments.
Growing up with an over-active imagination fueled by a hefty diet of 1950s black and white scifi films I know what can go wrong when scientists get uber enthusiastic. Continue reading