BojackHorseman

Oh no. clickbaity title. Maybe a bit strong. But consider this : if I want to read books for information (stories are another point that could be debated in different terms by opposing it to its other counterparts like movies, comics or whatnot), is there anything wrong in not reading books, and instead, watch videos or read shorter online content about the subject I'm looking for? So far, it has done no harm to me. After all, information is information. This point alone seems fair enough to me to say that we don't need books and it should just be one mean of learning amongst others. If you like the way it feels go for it, if not, books, shouldn't be as sacralized as they are. I might be wrong, but those are just my thoughts. My personal bias tho, is that I'm having more trouble picking up and keep on reading a book regularly (I used to love to before), and focusing on longer content. As most humans do nowadays. But isn't it just evolution if we learn in different ways? Does information need to go through a book?

Just composing (aimed at video games and movies, well I just did a trailer in movies case but anyway) I have absolutely no music theory, I just do everything by ear and play drums, and a but of piano and guitar/bass but I'm really baby level Look if you can find a niche maybe, really avoid super popular stuff like hip hop beats, unless it's your passion Take a look at how new sellers that already did a few sales set up their profile and what prices they're at (don't necessarily go for the lowest of the lowest prices, but keep in mind you can't aim for super high prices when you have no reputation ; just make wahtever cheap work first to gather ratings and contacts, and then go up from here You cna also do unpaid work like Game jams on itch.io if you want to build a portfolio and have no paid work atm For now...honestly I'm expecting full movies in less than 10 years ? At least short movies. And music will certainly get decent too. Most people won't care that there's no heart or personality in it. It's already the case with some human made mainstream products, so... I guess it's still a thing right now yes...might as well set up my page again

In terms of time, what I like in videos is that people I trust have digested a lot of content and took the important points out of whatever sources they learned from. So I don't think a video is always a waste of time. Now about depth...that's probably right. To be honest, and that's entirely a personal problem, maybe my ADHD brain hopping from content to content doesn't need to go that in depth on topics in general. But maybe if I did need to dive deep, online content would make me plateau at some time.

I was litterally in your situation, around the same age. There's not bullshiting this. Honesty. Just say it's your first time. It will feel bad but let it out. At least she'll know. It might surprise her a bit. but if she's a decent person, she'll just help you. And don't stress over the first time. Go slowly. Feel. You will miss things. It's ok. Just feel and share a good vibe.

If drugs gave you panic attacks, then maybe you don't need them. Don't force it. (I would even ask, why do we need those in general, but the general mindset on this forum does not go in this direction, no offense, it's just how things are) There are many opinions about druges and mental disorders, but I think you might want to consider this one. For the people that are happy and reaching awakening through drugs, it's cool. But they can't understand how it would affect some other people with problems they don't have. So don't force it. Work on everything else. There's more than enough work to do for everyone.

So I'm listening at this podcast on satanism, that break stereotypes and details the different forms of satanism And I was like "oh this one sounds good. Maybe I could become part of this church" or whatever. But them I just thought. Why am I even listening to this? Why do I need to bother with such figures to put words on my values and my acts? I'm pretty sure they're just stories now (can't explain why, I just feel it as I'm growing older). Stories are col. I fucking love movies, books, etc. But do I need to subscribe to some sort of larping fan club? Basically...all due respect, cause everyone needs its own path and all of them are valid cause it depends on the individual : I think stories taken seriously about gods and religions are useless. If I want inspiration or a mirror, any type of writing can do. Any movies has as much value than any religion. They're all just humans communicating in the end. On one end I love the surnatural and the idea of discovering mysterious new things, and I fear just become some sort of materialist as thing goes. But is this a bad thing? I think it's just fear that would make me think it's not. All of this supernatural thinking is just a distraction from death. Which I totally fear, I'll admit. My closed ones even more than mine, probably.

Not GOD Gods. The big beaded man, the greek, indian, whatever gods. Often sorta humanoids. Because it's reassuring? Because it's interesting as whatever other made-up fantasy story would be? Do you believe in them, one, another, or all of them? If so, why are you trusting a man or woman far far away in the past that wrote those stories? We can't trust most people nowadays, they can't trust themselves, how was it different in the past? Manipulation and insanity certainly did exist too. How do we have proof the persons did not imagine this, and not have contact themselves with those greater forces? So considering all of this, what are gods for you? Are they something that exist? If not, I guess it's probably just like some magic stuff where some practicionners do know and admit that it's all just stories and fake tools, that help them find guidance in real life and unravel their psychological problems.

Thing is....if we become useless at some point, then what do we become? One could say AI would find ways to make all the work and makie it so everyone can get a decent living, so we can just chill and do whatever we want? But then, what do humans become? I guess just artists, sportsmen or people chilling. Which doesn't sound bad? Thing is, AI will be used to make more money by people that are "smarter" than most, and they probably won't use it to make people more equal.

I'm pretty sure it would have been beneficial to obsess over safety many times in the past.

I hate to say that but I don't see how it could be otherwise for long. If you're smarter (society smarts, not smart smart), you just control the others and get more energy/money from them. If it's not smart then it's strong. Whatever is used to rule just puts you above other people and you benefit about it so you'll be more rich/have more goods than them. Now maybe we could evolve to a selfless/collective mind...but I don't think that's how humans work. Sometimes we think too highly of ourselves. Who says we have the will and energy to ascend and maintain a mental status where we help each other? Some people don't want to evolve. Those some people will probably always be the norm.

It took me 40 years to realize how much time I spend on screens. I mean, obviously I knew. But I realized, looking from afar, how much of a zombie I look like. Clearly I'm doing things on those screens. Learning, communicating, playing, watching, etc. But I feel like maybe...maybe they might be part of my depression? What do you think about how we use screens? The easy way would be "uuur screens bad nature good", but I think it would be missing the point. Screens and what goes through them are part of life and society. I'm not saying we need them, clearly, you could be an hermit and survive and be happy. But...I don't know, I can't find the right balance for me. I'm just too hooked up on screens. I used to love reading so much....and I still do! Everytime I start I do. But it's so HARD to start. Sorry, not even sure what I'm trying to convey exactly here. Not sure if it's a cry for help (and the only practical answer would probably be "just get disciplined and spend less time on screens, or at least do it to accomplish things"), or an actual debate on how healthy it is to live the way we do with screens.

Yeah I know about most dumphones, I've studied the subject a bit. I was so close to buy one, even an odler looking time with a small sreen and very basic internet and apps you know? But then I wondered...wait, can't you just keep you more convenient phone where tasks are faster, and learn not to be so much on it? (even tho, to be fair, I'm waaay more on PC screens than phones)

I'm not sure humanity is willing to give up its humanity. And...as much as humanity is proud of this, our feelings and all, it is technically...not useful? But then what happens if we disappear into the mind of an absolutely perfect collective IA or whatnot? Is the Earth and humanity then perfect? It hurts my ego just thinking about this. Because it would not be interesting. But at the same time...obviously less destructive for Earth than humans are... AAAaaah so hard to think about this

To add to the original post : sometimes I feel like getting a dumbphone. But at the same time a smartphone offers very useful things. Actually the answer is certainly boringly conventional : as for everything, use in moderation. The problem being, the brain that doesn't want to, and addiction.

Do tell?

Well nowadays it's obviously browsing Internet, watching videos, playing games... Before the Internet it was watching movies, cartoons, TV shows, playing video games on older consoles. (and playing outside more, but obviously I was a kid so that's something to be taken into account)

To me it's pretty obvious that we should shut it down. Why are various experts, even in those beginning stages, telling us it's so dangerous it could destroy humanity? What would they have to gain from saying this? Nothing. I think they can just predict the obvious. A superior form of intelligence will take over us like we did over other species. But why would a superior AI need us? Humans are pretty useless to what we can imagine a perfect AI would be. We have nothing to offer to the deal. Specially if they develop some form of cousciousness by themselves.

Aaand he just dropped another "OG never to been seen again last chance to get" video. He can be smart but it's been months of him doing that I think, it's getting really annoying and I'm so close to unsubscribing. But at the same time I fear I'd be missing whatever he'd be doing if he actually elevate the content a little bit.

Clearly, I'm in the wrong place to ask that. But I trust you, knowing that the general spirit here should try to approach non-duality, not to just be like everyone else out there just defending their team in bad ways. So, yeah. Why use drugs? Why wouldn't you rather learn to use your brain and mind the best you can and transcend things from here? To be totally honest, I am somebody that's very anxious (including medical andxiety, and anything that affects me and that I can't control) and afraid to take drugs since I had the most gigantic, hours long bad trip just smoking pot (I am also undiagnosed but probably something like either and/or bipolar, ADHD, autism, and drugs might affect me in the wrong way even tho cannabis used to be pretty good for me most of the time before that one bad trip. But on the other hand, even without those personal problems, I still believe that drugs should be kind of useless if everything else was done right? Also, how would you know if drugs made you belive things that are actually not "true"? What's the difference with any other drug where people are feeling good and think they see things clearly when thy don't?

I'm not sure it's the same. In the plane example, the goal is the destination. In the case of awakening, it would be more about the travel/changing yourself. Another example could be : if there was a pill to instantly lose weight or get buff, would you rather take it, or do more "natural" work to get results by slowly understanding, changing your habits, etc? I know nothing by the way, I'm really stupid, so don't bother answering if nothing useful would come out of this. I just find it interesting to discuss, sometimes it can be interesting to try a different opinion than the one people are certain of.

I've just read I have no mouth and I must scream (for those interested, it's a dozen pages and can be found online), and I've noticed this pattern of me having a strong attraction but also being terrified in my guts (and I'm having a very hard time feeling fear for stories in general). There are a few other cases like this. One is the scene in the first Matrix movie, where Neo wakes up plugged in and see this dizzying, endless chain off people, and specially how everything you can see is just total dark and cold There also was that one episode in Love death robots, Beyond the aquila rift, where SPOILERS He wakes up in this desolated alien landscape where he endlessly revives horror (another element that triggers my strong fear feelings) END OF SPOILERS I'm not someone that can make analysis easily, therefore I just figured I had to look for more stories like that to figure out patterns and why it seemed so strong to me. It's weird to say, but in those cases and an few others, I feel like I fear those situations so much because they're..."real"? Like they will happend at some point? I also fear, as much as I am attracted to it, the concept of very far futures (like, more than just a few hundred years). Where things could be sooo different. Not sure what to make of all of this haha. But if you have movie/books/comics/games/whatever recommandations, shoot.

I'm self diagnosed for those but sometimes IRL it becomes a burden. I'm too proud (not the right term but can't find another one) to get help (I think a psychiatrist or similar could not tech me anything I don't already know, and I have really good close people I've alredy vented everything I could to), and I feel like medication is cheating (I know it's ridiculous, from a standard standpoint), instead of trying to better myself. I've also often read that meidcation could make things worse. In ltos of cases, it seem? And having medical anxiety, it certainly doesn't reassure me. I would like to believe that if I took back meditation and tried to be more conscious, I could live a better life (even tho I'm functional and masking ok, I still am usually on a waaay higher anxiety level than most people inside, and depression can strike pretty fucking hard, and not go away, no matter how hard I try and sit on it. and it's getting worse and worse, I think?) But the average opinion in society probably says I should? Not sure what to do. Any experiences on medication? And do you think it helps, but becomes a burden once you have to get off it? (or maybe you're supposed to take them your whole life?)

Oh ok. This makes sense. So basically more complex stuff that we may understand later with science, or stuff that the human brain cannot comprehend because...well we're humans and our comprehension is probably limited no matter how hard we try. In that case tho, One could say the "classic" gods and sacred texts are as good as any other fantasy character/story.

Not even to be honest. It was just a tiny bit. It all came from my mind/anxiety for some reason. I was ready to relax, idk what happened. I must admit I'm a bit disapointed (not at you or other people) that it would be required to do psychedelics to reach higher states of consciousness. It's petty because I can't do them myself, probably, so maybe this turned to fear and rationalizing how it's bad. Still, as for everything,I do think it's good to keep an open mind and keep a small share or belief that taking them might not be the best solution/a mistake, but it certainly depends on the individual. I'm also pretty sure some well respected spiritual teachers probably don't do them and they're still probably on a high "level" (whatever that means). You might consider them at a lower level or whatnot, but people like Eckhart, Sadhghuru or Teal Swan probably don't take/advocate them? Please note that I dislike some of their opinion and whatnot (I've actually unsubscribed one and am considering unsubscribing the other, for different reasons tho) I just think they're clearly way higher level than the average human, and if, like I believe (correct me if wrong, they're not using psychs, it shows that you can go quite high without them. Probably higher with. But I wouldn't know that.) Hopefully I don't come off as annoying, I sincerely wish you the best of luck with psychedelics. I was just asking myself all of those questions, not as a way to say y'all wrong. Just out of curiosity.

Sometimes I wonder if overthinking and imagining non proven yet concept is not just escapism, in a way. Why can't we just be satisfied by what we have? Granted, science is evolving and like always, it will Humans are really a tiring species. Are we the only ones like that, thinking that much, creating concepts? Now obviously I'm here so I'm an overthinker. But sometimes, I just try to take a step out and look at this box. What if some people were actually right and all those high-end/enlightenment and whatnot spiritualities were kind of useless, and just a way to pass time like we do with other types of stories we create? Maybe we should just take some parts of it like meditation to calm our body/brain, but maybe the spirit and all, are just ways for us to make ourselves sound special. Why not just be flesh and bones monkeys, just a brain trying to survive and thinking it's something greater than what it is? Looking for greater meanings just cause we need it for some reason? What is the purpose of concepts like "God"? What happens if you don't try to be conscious about whatever it might be and understand it? Isn't this just some reassuring way to make sense of all the chaos and individuality?