TimStr

A big part of my social circles worldview is steeped with post-modernism. And this especially come to light when I talk about Truth to them. Basically, their main argument is: All I have is a perspective, all other people have is a perspective. That means that there are only different perspectives out there and therefore, there is no absolute truth / absolute truth cannot be known. When asserting that there is such a thing as Absolute Truth they tend to fall into a pre-trans fallacy: "Oh, you're argumenting for Absolute Truth, therefore you are not acknowledging different perspectives. Another person has another perspective, ‘truth‘ can be entirely different." Essentially putting me into a (pre-)modernist camp while I am arguing from a post-postmodernist perspective. They try to discredit Absolute Truth based on relativism. How would you argue against that? How to make them construct aware of their post-modernism? And how would you actually open those peoples minds up to the possibility that absolute truth is out there? I guess the only get them "convinced" is for them to have a direct experience of truth. But how can they even have that, when their worldview doen't hold such a thing possible?

Studying the social behaviours of felines is so fascinating!! It's really giving you a good contrast to what makes up the human mind. I love looking at these: I really love the elegancy with which the serval calmly deescalates the tension, even though he could easily tear the dog into pieces. Look at his body language and facial expression. Here is another one I like: (Note: I advise against keeping big felines as pets, they are not meant to live that way. As far as I know those in the videos were rescued as babys and raised in captivity.)

I don't nessecarily want them to just find Absolute Truth, thats nothing I can affect in any way. There was another response by @UnbornTao earlier that relates to this same point, but that got deleted. I don't demand of people, that they just get Absolute Truth, that would essentially require them to get enlightened. I just want to guide to a less sloppy epistemic position. I want them to consider that there could be such a thing as absolute truth. At least open them to that possibility instead of ruling out the existence of truth in the first place. But I see where you guys are pointing to. I cannot convince anybody, even if I want to.

I guess, you're right. That's not what I am meaning to do, though. I want to open them up to the possibility, that their relativism and is backwards and incoherent.

This is an intresting example. Pattern is a type of qualia, that seems to be on a level, thats neither just subjective nor objective.

I see this so much... But many people base a whole bunch of their social justice warrior type of behaviours on that. Trying to make room in society to "take queer/bipoc/non-western... perspective into account". Usually, this becomes really toxic when you add a bunch of group bias on top, or when you get hardcore rightwing / conservatives to parrot this argument for their own case. If I would bluntly tell them, that another perspective has never been poven, all of those people would laugh at me or worse... Solopsism clearly cuts through the chase here, but it's hard to argue for with people that are not truly open. How would go about opening peoples minds to that, when they just seem to be locked into their paradigm.

Yeah, get it. So this seems to be the typical fallacy of the postmodern worldview. To put it in my own words: Postmodernism claims, that everything is a relative perspective. Yet it holds this very claim as true / epistemically given and not a perspective. It misses, that relativity is just a relative perspective, too, and in that way overlooks the possibility of the absolute. Yeah, thats what I usually do in most normal conversations. However. at times, I want to make an argument, that requires me to leave that frame and whenever I trie to do that, they usually discredit me arguing in some way with relativity. Besides that, I also want to see this more clearly within my own mind, too.

Also had the same problem with OneNote 3 years ago. As a preamble: Get a software that you want to interact with on a daily basis and stick to it for at least 1-2 years (the longer the more you will get out of it). What you choose is actually not as important as sticking to it for a while. The software will not vastly improve your productivity or note taking skills (despite what influencers might tell you). But constantly switching or just not using it will cripple them in the long run. In regards of the specific app: This is a higly personal choice, as there are many different styles of note taking. Here is a good take on that by Tiargo Forte, using the gardner, the librarian and the architect as note taking archetypes. (Don't fall for his building a second brain scheme though): Here is a extremely comprehensive overview of most softwares out there. Give yourself a week or so to try a bunch of them and then pick one: For me, as I am more of a "gardener note taker", the best option is Logseq. I was also using Obsidian in the past but found myself constantly abandoning it. Logseq is a little bit more unpolished/techy but gets work done way faster for me, than Obsidian, as everything is chronological by design. What I also like about both these softwares is that they store your notes as a collection of markdown text files on your computer. This essentially means, that the software doesn't lock your notes in, like Onenote does, but you can access those notes at any time as files using any basic text editor. If you end up going with Obsidian, you might wanna check out this Onenote to Obsidian migration tool: https://help.obsidian.md/import/onenote If you like the simplicity of OneNote, you might like something simple like Trillium, Notesnook or Evernote. People mentioned Notion. It is cloud based by default, which is a big red flag for me! You're personal knowledge is too important to not have a copy on your own machine.

Here are a few tipps to at least partly circumvent this as a customer. 1) Avoid costumer loyalty apps! (Ask yourself: "If I get a discount on that app, how is that discount being payed for?" Hint: Its actually being payed for by extracting money from you.) 2) Make your online purchases through a browser like Forefox or Brave instead of an app. Using the browser gives you more control on what data is collected on you. This also works on your phone! 3) Set your browser to delete coockies whenever you close it. Or you can use private mode in your browser. (This makes a huge difference when buying stuff like airplane tickets.) For mobile use there is Firefox Focus that does exactly that on your phone. Firefox Focus also blocks tracking scripts by deafault. (I have blocked almost 35.000 trackers since I started using it 2 years ago.) 4) Use a plugin like NoScript to block tracking in your browser. (This might be a little bit too technical for some of you. And is a little bit of work when you start using it, since you need to unbreak some websites when you first use them. But it gives you granular control over what scripts webites are allowed to run in your browser.) 5) Use a DNS sinkhole like pihole or adguard to filter all your web traffic from trackers. This also gives you the advantage of never being bothered by ads again. (Setting this up is also a bit technical.)

AI powered dynamic pricing is being implemented to extract more money from you. And the way you are being tricked is by exploting a belief that you hold. Notice, that something as simple as a price tag is never really questioned by you. "It's the same price for everyone." is a believe that you probably hold whenever you see a price tag. Notice that this cannot be taken for granted at all. There were times in history before the price tag. Notice how awesome a trustworthy price tag actually is! But now, companies start using AI to adjust the price tag you see in real time according to the data they collect about you. Loyalty program apps are also a part of this. This is a symptom of sourveillance capitalism (a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff). And it will basically turn all consumption and shopping into a game on how companies can extract the most money from you. Be aware that this is allready happening to you and that this will get way worse if no legislation is being put into place. And be aware how this scam is implemented by playing on your subconsciously held believes. One of the most prominent examples is Ticketmaster: Another example is the grocery store Kroger, that used it's loyality program to track users and collect data and create shopper profiles. (Source: Consumer Reports) @Leo Gura I saw on your blog that you are still collecting examples of scams. This one might be worthy of a post.

@Husseinisdoingfine This link is not working for me. I get an age verification prompt but then I links to a "Page not found". Maybe they have taken it down? Did that link ever work for you? If not, then where did you source the document? Either way, they will probably just write it off as misinformation if its not on the DOJs site.

Australia as a country has enourmous problems:

Avoidant people do not actually stop doing the suffering in the way that Ralston proposes. Instead, they continue doing the emotion and bury it with distractions and self-deception. Or projecting it outside into the world or on people so they don't have to take responsibility usually creating more suffering in the process. Stopping suffering is not like this. It actually doesn't even require for the particular emotion to end. You just stop suffering it, by opening up to it, looking into what belief you hold, that causes it and stop believing that. As you do this, the actual emotional sensation in your body stops feeling bad and eventually will transform into something else. You don't try to get rid of the emotion or to make it feel different. Neither do you try to act it out, release it or process it in any way. You just stop doing the shit that makes it come about and it will cease to exist. Doing this is actually not even that hard once you get the jist of it. Did it many times. It's one of the most accessable things that Ralston teaches. Mastering this skill and making it effortless takes consistency, though. And it requires a good ammount of personal responsibility is paramount which is why this way of relating to emotions is just not present in our culture. I think this is the reason he continues to hammer that assertion of "You're doing your suffering, stop doing it."

Japanese work mentality leads to some of the most exceptional products on the world. Insane, artistic kind of quality! In japan there is a word for hard working craftsmen, called "shokunin". They work exceptionally hard to create the best stuff they can. Here are some great examples: https://www.stefanimhoff.de/shokunin/ BUT: Those masters are usually exceptionally stubborn, working only for the sake of elevating their craft and definately not for the money! This is the difference and this is interesting because its a very clear example how hard work leads to completely different results depending on weather it's approached by a conformist mind or by an authentic mind. It's clear to me, that the value of hard work can easily get corrupted by conformity and how this gets exploited by capitalism.

Hating on mondays and looking forward to weekends, that's some conformist shit. Generally, the whole attitude of relating to work in western society in general is full of conformity.

I am backing this! Do not attempt dry fasting!! It's not worth the risk. If you stop giving water to your body you can run into dangerous territory pretty quick! You certainly cannot avoid running into trouble after 3-5 days. The issue is not even so much the lack of water but your bodies reaction when you rehydrate it. Google refeeding syndrome !! It can have deadly side effects. Also, is there a way to keep the ai trolls from polluting this forum with potentially dangerous content like this thread? @Leo Gura

I did 4 Myers-Briggs tests in the past and got 4 different results. Not hugely different but still different types. I also think that the mood and well-being of the moment you take it has a big impact. I would suggest that just like all other typologies you treat it more like something you have put on, like a costume or mask rather than something you are.

@Carl-Richard This question requires way more nuance than a simple yes of no! If you would ask me if psychedelics mindfucked me in ways I couldn't even anticipate and revealed how malluable my experience is and how few things I can take for granted in life, I would say HELL YEAH! If you'd ask me if I undertook tremendous work to change my behavior and my attitude to life as a result of a psychedelic exsperience, I would answer: Maybe some of the times. There were many trips, that despite having them approached as a serious conscious endeavour turned out to be mostly recreationally entertaining and didn't affect some of my deeper inner mechanics in the long run. If you would ask me if psychedelics produced any change in my life by themselves without conscious effort on my end, I would answer: Definately not! After a solid 10 years of regular tripping at least 3 - 25 times each year, I have to admit, that all those trips produced way fewer lasting changes than I was telling myself all along. This became more and more clear especially during the last couple of months. I hate to say it but intense inquiry and meditation retreats and even just deeply educating myself on an intellectual level seem to have produced a lot more lasting changes in my life. The couple of deep trips that shifted a great deal for me were also during intense retreat settings so it's hard for me to seperate out the effect of the psychedelic from the rest. Then again we could talk about weather life changes are even the point of tripping and consciousness work of if it's more about gaining experience or understanding. You asked for the first thing that popped into my head. After 10 years of experience, at this moment, it's a NO. Maybe I change my mind at some point.

It's also an option that they just failed to integrate their experience adequately and therefore didn't get any life changing effects.

@Leo Gura Got it. So the creator of the videos I posted has a pretty comprehensive website linking some gear that still seems to be avaliable: https://sites.google.com/view/mintylovesrue/emesh Besides knockoffs that usually seem to require some fixing to get them to work properly, he seems to be recommending this one: https://sites.google.com/view/mintylovesrue/emesh/mesh-rda-reviews/cthulu-iris#h.oqv98jpf3scm https://www.cthulhumod.com/product/iris-mesh-rda/ I have no personal experience with it. Looks decent though.

@shree This is almost the exact setup I use, except that I prefer a short mouthpiece to ensure that no DMT resublimates in it and I inhale the exact quantity that I put in. So far emesh the cleanest and most effective method for vaping tryptamines that I've come across. @Leo Gura I can recommend. For anyone that doesn't know: The emesh is a stainless steel mesh coil that you place your DMT on. You then heat that coil up and it immediately vaporizes the complete dose. The main benefits are, that once you got the technique down, it is extremely precise regarding dosing and that you inhale only DMT no vape juice. Also it's a lot less harsh to the throat and it doesn't taste like breathing the fumes of burning tires. You could use this gear: - Mesh Coil - Vape Mod - Stainless steel mesh These videos do a great job of explaining the details and the smoking technique:

At this point this thread is almost comical!

Happy to hear that! What I love about them is that he mostly uses archive footage and this makes for a really relateable experience of the specific time, he speaks about.

Sephalopod intelligence is the closest thing to alien intelligence, we have on earth. Here are some of the things that struck me as I was researching about them: They have twice as many neurons as a cat but 2/3 of them are distributed in their 8 arms and only 1/3 in their head. Each of heir arms has basically its own brainstem and sense organs. Their arms can act independantly but also concertated. They can change the color and texture of their skin to match their surrounding within an instant despite their eyes being color blind. They do this with photoreceptors in their skin. They can solve compex problems and mazes, they have memory and the capability of abstract planning and can recognize people. They exhibit play despite being an antisocial and solitairy creature. (Play as a form of learning is usually only found in species that form social relations.) Contemplating this is valuable to realize just how many aspects of our mind and our intelligence we take for granted! Realize how radical this becomes: It's not a given, that your body is one entity. Imagine the possibility of your left arm, just going on, doing its thing for a while, grabbing, managing and learning stuff, while still allowing for your body acting as a whole if one of arms fins some information that would necessitate that. This ability to switch between centralized and decentralized intelligence is something that humans are not good at at all. How would it be to have an octopus awakening and become octopus-god? Realize what aspects and what believes about yourself and your intelligence would need to be dropped? More Resources: My Octopus Teacher (Neflix) Inside the mind of an octopus, interview with Dr. Jennifer Mather (Youtube) Dr. Jennifer Mather about Octopus Intelligence (Youtube)

Wow, I can only try to imagine. I think, this is basically what this guy did: