Carl-Richard

What does that look like?

"Alien insanity"? LOL

Mindfulness, Self-determination theory, developmental psychology, systems thinking and holism (as a part of community psychology), trauma psychology (CPTSD, etc.).

People find religion meaningful for the same reason why you find holiday dinners meaningful, or going to the movies, or the bar, or a party, or the beach, or the mountains, or a wedding, or a funeral: things you do routinely that have a structure to them, that you do with your friends and family, that create a sense of cohesion and connection on multiple levels (socially, spiritually, self-actualization, etc.).

When Curt asks about how he learned to communicate the way he does, he does have a surprisingly deliberate and methodical approach to maximizing how he is being understood, which was insightful. Then also, when he asked whether he does any prepping or psyching up before he goes on stage, he said "absolutely zero, it's like being in my living room, and it has always been like that". That shows how being grandiose and overconfident can actually be a positive thing when being a teacher, as you'll have less self-doubt, anxiety and other things that may make you stumble in your speech or subtract from the teaching in other ways. In fact, I think the narcissistically prone person is actually the best fit for the type of superficial, one-way, lecture type of teaching that is normal in our society, because they will study the best techniques for getting a positive response from their audience (because that is a lot of what they care about), to such an extent that it selects for a highly simplified and easily digestible format, which creates a perfect fit with that teaching format. And I can't stop myself from saying something about his MBTI type (he's an ENFJ), in that his highly methodical approach struck me as a very alien way of thinking for me as an INFP (very Fe focused, very "they" focused), and it also seems to be consistent with his strong allegiance to the "old mainstream" in science, as well as "Normal science" (coined by Thomas Kuhn), a.k.a. the highly loyal to in-group and cynical to out-group, almost dogmatic, "intra-paradigmatic" science. It all seems to go together nicely: the "just shut up and calculate" mentality, or like Neil puts it: "I just want to do the measurements and find the next planet — that's it", has a nice simplicity to it, just like his "I just want to teach easily digestible pop science to kids" mentality.

Schizophrenia develops due to a confluence of environmental and genetic factors. Psychedelics may serve as an environmental stressor that can trigger the development of schizophrenia, but that doesn't mean that everybody who does psychedelics will develop schizophrenia. If that was the case, Leo would be schizophrenic by now, but he is not. People with schizophrenia (the psychiatric diagnosis) have severe problems with logical thinking and general daily functioning. You can also talk about schizophrenia as a dispositional trait (not the psychiatric diagnosis), where you have varying degrees of schizophrenic-like traits, but not necessarily severe problems with daily functioning, and this relates to the autism-psychosis spectrum in the paper that I linked in the previous post.

"Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain". Bernard Crespi, Christopher Badcock. Behavioral and brain sciences 31(3), 241-261, 2008. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=no&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=autism+psychosis+spectrum&oq=autism-psychosis#d=gs_qabs&t=1689416439830&u=%23p%3DURfcprLvG-QJ

Stomach issues can have a profound effect on your consciousness. Get some rest, let your hair grow out, get into your usual routines and things will get better.

Reminds me of one of my childhood friends who used to say all since middle school "I'm going to be an engineer", and I was like "how can you be so sure?". Well, he is an engineer today. Apparently, some people are simple like that.

I want to hear your explanations for why you think exercise increases health and longevity. Have you actually thought about that? I'm not interested in statements like "exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by x percent". I'm interested in very foundational mechanical explanations; for example, why does exercise reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease; the mechanism behind it. And I believe there is a general explanation that applies to virtually all examples of exercise and bodily functioning, so maybe try to find that. I'd like to hear you guys' explanations first, and then I'll present my explanation

That's a brilliant way to put it. I've never been able to put it into words like that, the seeming contradiction between being awake but still being here as a human, experiencing things and acting like a human. I thought about it as I was going to sleep, here in my dream as a human, about to enter another dream realm ?

The ignore function does that.

Fun fact: he coined the term "the Hard problem of consciousness" back in the 90s.

This problem is ubiquitous, even in academia. It's so often the case that you'll get different people using the same words for completely different things, especially the word "consciousness". It will probably always be this way to some degree, and the only way you can truly communicate across perspectives is by having in-depth conversations where all terms are investigated and acknowledged for what they are pointing to. There are many attempts at making meta-theoretical syntheses or summaries of many different perspectives everywhere. David Chalmers is a good example in metaphysics and ontology. Ken Wilber is a good example in Western and Eastern psychology. Ramaji wrote a book called "1000" that synthesizes different non-dual traditions. There is a lot out there, but they're also just their own perspectives, just one step up, so you'll always be stuck with different interpretations, and you'll always have the same problem of communicating beyond explicit terms. The next best thing is to study different approaches and develop your own internal understanding of what is out there, and then you can try to inch other people towards that, despite working with imperfect tools. That applies to all of spiritual teaching anyway: language is always an imperfect tool for communicating the Absolute.

Non-duality is the wave realizing it's the ocean. Solipsism is the wave thinking it's the only thing that exists; that there is actually no ocean, only the wave. But of course, people will disagree about what these words even mean, so it seems kind of pointless to even provide your five cents on the issue. Unless people can become better at formalizing all different perspectives under a shared umbrella with neat conceptual distinctions and giving each concept its own proper term (which is technically impossible, as some of the perspectives are too vague or internally inconsistent to be captured in this way), we'll have people talking past each other like this.

Over-arching principles like balance, moderation, listening to your body and just common sense (and basic health knowledge about essential vitamins and minerals, proteins/fat/carbs) go a long way. What you eat in particular is about the details. But the details aren't irrelevant for health. They're just less crucial, and there are better and worse answers for that.

I do 15 minutes of sauna at the end of my gym sessions, so 3.5 times a week, and it really puts the cherry on top.

Well, I guess meditation will help. Consistent daily meditation on a semi-empty stomach, when you're at peak energy levels in your day, for at least 1 hour, seated with eyes closed, using one technique only. Committing to that level of strictness will also prevent overthinking ("I don't think I'm meditating enough, or using the right technique, or doing it for long enough, etc."). Also, generally committing to things like daily habits or long-term goals will prevent overthinking, because overthinking feeds on uncertainty, and committing to things makes things more certain. And when you're committed to doing things, thoughts like "life is difficult" lose their relevance, because you'll be doing things anyway, despite how hard they may be. And what things should you commit to? Well, things that you find meaningful in some way. For example, daily habits structure your life and create order and direction, which helps you to pursue whatever is meaningful to you. Or a long-term goal that you find inherently rewarding in some way, which speaks to your strengths in some way, and which will support you financially and help your community in some way, is also something you'll find meaningful. And when you have committed and you feel some resistance or want to give up, remind yourself that the commitment itself (regardless of what it is) is a source of meaning, which is like honey to your mental state, and by virtue of that fact alone, you'll be compelled to have faith in your commitment. And the particular commitment you've chosen is again meaningful, but you're just overthinking in that moment, and you know that if the commitment is truly meaningful, your overthinking has no real ground and can be discarded more easily. So meaning feeds into meaning.

Start by reclaiming your mind. Spirituality is filled with a lot of dogmatic fear around rationality and clear thinking. Logic is not your enemy, conceptual knowledge is not your enemy, clear and precise language is not your enemy. You merely transcend these things at some point, but you have to be clear on what this transcendence really means, and what is clear is that rationality and clear thinking do not stop being important for survival.

No. Communication implies duality; me and you. No. If you're going to communicate, don't intentionally make it harder for yourself. Communication is already hard enough as it is. And when you're talking about the Absolute, even though that itself is a performative contradiction (as you can't actually talk about the Absolute), try to keep the amount of performative contradictions to a minimum by using clear distinctions, unless you're trying to be cute or making a point. For example, instead of saying "there is no me or you, we don't exist, nobody is saying anything", say "the personal self is an illusion, the transpersonal Self is what is truly real". There — you've introduced a clear distinction between two concepts which avoids performative contradictions. There is no communication without making distinctions, and better distinctions means better communication.

You're certainly not a member of the homo genus.

Give me an example of overthinking.

I think you're the closest to my explanation. @NoSelfSelf @Michael569 The type of rigorous empirical approach you guys are presenting is generally much more useful than whatever my explanation is (e.g. for finding specific health interventions), but I just think it's interesting and reassuring to have a highly generalized birds-eye view of it: Everything in life is technically a form of stress. All the processes in your body; your lungs breathing air, your heart contracting 100,000 times a day, your muscles contracting, even when doing normal things like walking, sitting, standing, even when resting; are forms of stress. It's just relatively unnoticeable, and you tend to only see the effects over long periods of time, namely through age-related damage and diseases. So about that: how does exercise reduce age-related damage and diseases (and thus increase health and longevity)? Well, it's a bit counterintuitive at first (maybe not for you health-aware guys), but exercise is also a form of stress, just in a different way than the stress mentioned above (if you're exercising correctly, of course). Exercise is essentially elevated stress in manageable doses over manageable spans of time, in a way that allows for rest, adaptation and growth. When your heart is pumping really fast, or you're breathing very heavily, or your muscles are under a lot of strain, this will cause these systems to adapt to this stress, for the mere reason that you evolved to adapt to changes in the environment. This means that the systems will become stronger and more able to tackle the chronic stress of everyday life: of pumping your blood, of moving your limbs, of maintaining your posture, etc. So the reason exercise causes a reduction in age-related damage and diseases, is that you're training your body to handle the various sources of stress in everyday life that cause these things in the first place. It applies to everything: from performing daily activities, to the functioning of organs at rest, and down to the molecular level. It can help to imagine some real-life situations to understand how everyday activities are a source of stress: imagine being in an accident where you have to sit in a wheelchair for several months before you can walk again. When you try to start walking again, what used to be seemingly effortless has suddenly become extremely hard and taxing on your body. Taking a few steps suddenly becomes incredibly stressful, and you have to keep exposing yourself to that stress before you can return to your normal state where walking is effortless again. It's of course not completely effortless, as it's still a form of stress, but it's relatively unnoticeable. This applies to everything: when you exercise correctly, with optimal challenge and optimal rest, life becomes effortless. So it's not that all stress is bad, but it's that unmanageable and chronic stress is bad. And because everything in the body is interconnected, your whole body will benefit from one part becoming stronger, especially for very central structures like the cardiovascular system (as almost everything in our body is connected with blood vessels). But also things like strengthening your muscles will help with tackling the stress associated with things like walking, sitting and standing, which again will impact your entire body in some way. So yeah, that's basically it: life is stressful, and exercise makes you more able to handle that stress, reducing the damage and risk for diseases that you accumulate over time as you age.

If it's more potent, is sex then healthier than exercise? Certainly, there must be more to the health and longevity-inducing effects of exercise than just endorphins (I know I'm asking stupid questions, but I'm trying to prod you towards my explanation :D). Is a standardized correlaton coefficient of 0.070 not weak? ? Sure, that is certainly true during the exercise itself, but how does this translate to a general health/longevity effect?

How does it release tension and stress? (which physiological mechanisms are involved?) Ah, mindfulness and physical activity. I wrote a bachelor thesis about that . I did find a very weak but statistically significant correlation between mindfulness and exercise frequency in a sample of 545 participants using questionnaires in a cross-sectional design, so the science could be on your side How does it increase blood flow, elasticity of blood vessels and oxygenation?