TheAlchemist

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Posts posted by TheAlchemist

  1. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    Find the gold in the mud through inner alchemy. The state of meaninglessness is a unique state of consciousness just like a state of ecstatic union is. Many millions have visited that state, but not that many have found something truly valuable in the midst of that. It's a paradoxical thing. Failing fully or losing all hope is the last thing we want to do, but often spiritual gold is found where we least want to look. Lovingly embracing the beast inside while it is screaming is what slowly starts diluting and transmuting that which fuels the ego backlash. I sense that you already intuit this based on a few things you said in you post. 

  2. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    There is a potential problem with SD where it can feed into the (especially western) tendency to want to place humans on a hierarchy, which can be used to justify various forms of inequality and oppression/domination. I don't see this necessarily as an inherent quality of the model itself, but I see some real dangers in how it could be interpreted to feed into various ideologies. I think there is value in spiral dynamics and it shouldn't be demonized or dismissed outright, mostly the problems come when people start confusing the map for the territory. Even if someone says they are yellow/turquoise does not mean that they are in any way immune to this problem.

    I also wonder, what is truly gained with the spiral dynamics model that can't be achieved through a non-hierarchical model like the Scwartz model of basic values?

    Theory_of_Basic_Human_Values_Graphic.jpg

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_basic_human_values

     

    Here is also a nuanced discussion on the potential shadow sides of stage theories like spiral dynamics:

    Ps. I am not anti-spiral dynamics, I just want to bring another perspective to this discussion, which I haven't seen much on this forum. The point is not to say that spiral dynamics is bad or should be dismissed, but to poke at the model from many perspectives to see if it truly is the best way towards what we see as valuable in understanding reality.

     

  7. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    These communes would require some form of centralized power or ability to use force to keep bad actors in check. But of course, a egalitarian and pacifist community is extremely allergic to such things, and for good reason. I think careful experimentation is needed with that, maybe some novel way of managing power can be discovered that isn't just a bringing back of old systems. But of course, such experiments could be quite dangerous as we have seen with all the cults... 

  8. Posted

    1 hour ago, StarStruck said:

    The real problem is that they want to eat the cake and have it too. 

    The deal for men is becoming a bad deal more and more. And the group of men feminists are willing to date smaller and smaller as they lose their fertility.

    Couple of times I said they should be realistic and base their relationships on truth and I got viciously attacked by them for trying to pull down their standards. 

    In their eyes only females can have standards. We men can’t have standards because if we do we are attacked and shamed. Well fuck them. Literally. 

    compare-small-angle.gif

  11. Posted

    9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

    An important part of Game B is having a large base of material success for everyone, so that no one feels like a cornered rat desperate to survive. All of human history so far has been the building up of that material base. We still have a ways to go.

    Cornered rats cannot do Game B. So if you want Game B, figure out how to uncorner as many rats as possible. Preaching fancy philosophy does not uncorner a rat.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut_(economic_model)

    Doughnut_(economic_model).jpg

  13. Posted

    I found this short segment from Sapolsky very enlightening. Testosterone, dopamine and oxytocin strongly affect human behavior, but we often over simplify their effects, and this results in skewed understanding of what "human nature" is, for example. 

    I could have posted this in the society section, as it is super relevant for that as well. But as it is essentially about the human body, I decided to post it here.

     

  14. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    4 hours ago, StarStruck said:

    I noticed this in women. When they are in danger they can become extreme  emotional and irrational. It is not related to their ethnicity and this thread is not aimed at an ethnicity. I have seen this with behavior with countless other conflicts. If it is up to these type of women the world would be in WW3. Leadership requires stoicism which is not natural to females. It can be learned but it goes against their nature. 

    Men are generally highly emotional and often less mature emotionally than women. Men being violent and killing each other in rage because they can't deal with their emotions is a story as old as man. Male based leadership also tends to result in hierarchies that ultimately feed status competition, inequality and violence.

    For a nuanced look at the structures of Patriarchy vs. Matriarchy, the limitations of both and their benefits, I highly recommend this video. 

     

  16. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    I would be seriously impressed if I saw an Israeli or pro-Israel person make a serious effort at empathizing with the average palestinian perspective and what their emotions and underlying human needs might be. I imagine that would be extremely difficult to do in a heated moment like this, but I don't think it's impossible. 

    The same applies to someone from Palestine of course. I would be seriously impressed if anyone can put effort into seeing the emotions and underlying needs of the average Israeli person and how what is happening is a strategy at play which attempts to meet those human needs. 

     

     

     

  18. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    19 minutes ago, Ulax said:

    @Tobia My issue is that victims have a need for justice to be served, which I'd argue generally means seeing punishment of the perpetrator. If that need isn't met, then the victim suffers, or the victim will take it upon themselves to find justice. If either of these occur there are negative consequences for society.

    I am certain that victims surely have a need for Justice. I also think its admirable that you show concern for victims of crime and you clearly value justice highly which I respect. 

    That being said, I believe the need for justice there is real, but I don't think punishment or retribution are in themselves needs. They are startegies for meeting the need (justice). I am feeling quite confident about saying that there are ways of meeting the need for justice, without feeding the cycle of pain and hurt. 

    One way, which comes from indigenous Americans that I was quite impressed with when I heard about it, was bringing the victims and the perpetrator together and creating a space where the perpetrator hears what hurt and pain his actions caused in the people who were victims.

    This process can be done with the help of a professional mediator and is continued until the victims feel truly heard and the perpetrator has witnessed the impact of his actions. Then different paths can be navigated there to find peace. It seems that this process often can meet the need for justice in the victims and doesn't further feed the cycle of pain and hurt in society.

  19. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    Reasonings behind putting people in prison

    1) Retribution

    2) Incapacitation

    3) Deterrence

    4) Rehabilitation

    The Finnish system (and Norwegian more so) simply have a different understanding of what Retribution means. 

    In the US and many other countries it seems that retribution means making the criminal suffer as punishment for their wrongdoing. That is seen as a part of Justice.

    Whereas the idea of Justice in these Nordic countries is seen to be mostly independent from whether or not the prisoner is made to suffer or not.  

    Notice how the Christian idea of justice is strongly tied to punishment and suffering. 

  21. Posted · Edited by TheAlchemist

    17 hours ago, Understander said:

    @TheAlchemist I mean that christ is an imagination on top of a more fundamental imagination which is the existence of the devil or demons. They run from the thing that they have to confront and accept, which is not an easy thing to do. The fear of that is what keeps the illusion alive. Actually, the christ is a sneaky imagination who keeps them from realizing that. He is the actual thing to be saved from. if one of them wants to do that, he/she has to cut off or isolate themselves from the environment that feeds that fear (not saying that you should not socialize with christians and not be friends with them).

    So, yes, I agree with you.

    That's very insightful. I have also thought about this, how fundamentalist evangelical Christianity is as much, if not more about belief in Satan/Devil/demons, as it is about belief in God. 

    Yes, I think the fear of "Satan" (all that is labelled evil and utterly undesirable) is what causes the person to abandon connection to themselves and that results in a sort of surrendering of the ego to a belief system such as Christianity. Jesus and the whole Christian myth serves as a sort of lifeboat, and "rescues" one from that deep fear of Satan.

    Interestingly, I think that shift into a deep belief in Jesus can in some cases be the result of becoming more conscious and aware. I mean this in the case where the belief isn't just blindly adopted as a result of indoctrination, but when the belief comes as a result of some internal crisis. The person has a serious face-off with the falsehood, the evil and the ugliness of the world, all of which was previously not acknowledged or was denied.

    Then in this epic moment, if the suitable language for that exists, all that which is undesirable is perceived to be "Satan" and Jesus and the whole story associated with that appears as a sort of lifeline from that utter horror.

    It kind of works; it provides many with peace and respite, but ultimately it is still conditional, and now the thing that is feared even more than "Satan" is the loss of the new found faith. 

     

     

  22. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Understander said:

    @TheAlchemist

    Christians ...

    want to be saved by Christ, but forgetting the devil will save them.

    You mean that the devil will "save" them because the idea of the devil is what keeps the duality alive as it symbolizes that which is denied, repressed and cut off from love?

    If that's not what you mean, can you expand on what you're referring to with that?

  23. Posted

    8 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    @TheAlchemist When I send one of my demons after you, you will not escape so easy ;)

    :) Honestly, I realized I haven't fully trancended this fear at the deepest levels and this idea of evil that is talked about in the bible is still operating somewhere in the background. Uncovering layers that run very very deep. It's very tough overcoming the childhood religious indoctrination. Especially in altered states where those themes seem to often come to the surface. 

  24. Posted

    22 hours ago, BlackPhil said:

    For anyone who has experienced astral projections. Or sleep paralysis demons. There is a reason you can only call them away with the name of Jesus Christ. Not any other prophet or religious figure.

    Christ is god.

    I once did an experiment and let a sleep paralysis "demon" kill me. I decided I will not give into fear and I will see through this illusion. It was very difficult, my heart was beating like crazy, but I let the being approach my paralyzed body and it stabbed me right in the middle of the chest with a huge knife. I let it kill me.

    Guess what happened?

    Everything vanished. The being which you might call a "demon" vanished and I was floating in empty formless nothingness. From this empty formlessness, I imagined my way into a dream, and happily dreamt my way through the night after that.

    That experience dropped a lot of fear in my psyche towards these "demons" and now I can even have compassion for these imagined beings in some ways. They are symbolic representations of something very deep in the psyche. Likely something that has been banished from love and rejected.