Asceticism and Indulgence : Balance of Balance - Harmony

In all things we must strive for balance, including balance itself.

Asceticism has been a tradition of truly holy men down through the ages and with very good reasons.

First it shows that their path is not one of attempted exploitation. Once who strives to have little is not trying to get something from you in doing so.

Secondly it is to show that happiness comes from within and not from the outside.

Third it is a practice of overcoming the animal we are at our core. Our most basic instincts are the ones that can cause the most pain and suffering to ourselves and those around us. Not only through passionate action but also through fearful inaction.

The only thing which separates us from other animals is our enlarged prefrontal cortex. This is the area of the brain that provides executive function. We are able to put off immediate gratification for greater reward. We can choose the two in the bush over the bird in the hand. The practice of self denial has been proven to increase the size and efficacy of the PFC. In other words, it would seem that self denial makes us more human. It expands our consciousness in a certain way. But perhaps it should be seen as an effect that shifts our balance in a certain way that made us different.

Even this important practice can be taken too far. If we put off all gratification we deny the beauty and gifts of life. Just as our body must eventually have food or die, our mind/spirit must also feed. Perhaps when taken too far we become robotic and unfeeling. Additionally the attempt to deny too much too quickly can actually have an opposite effect on our consciousness.

For instance, because the PFC is new in evolutionary terms it is the first area of the brain that begins to be cannibalized wen there are not enough fats in our diet. When we starve ourselves we create stress hormones which alter our neurochemistry. This can lead to strenthening our negative survival instincts such as extreme selfishness. 

The desire to nurture, to love and to be loved are animal drives. The feelings of triumph and exhileration are animal feelings. Charity and altruism are all seen in the animal kingdom. All the nobility of the human spirit and all we venerate in ourselves is intricately tied with basic animal instincts. Survival and reproduction.

True balance as seen in all of nature and the universe is not a drab grey haze of uniformity. It is a wave. It has highs and lows. There are extreme’s but those extremes fit with and compliment the whole. This is the menaing of harmony when spoken of as a broader concept. A great symphony is made of waves. It is made of highs and lows but we can still sense the balance. It is the reason why you can predict what is coming in a song you’ve never heard, because you know there must be a closing to an opening. You have a need for a low to balance the high. You also have a need for the song to return to the center and for it to return to the start in some way.

So though we should practice self denial, we should also practice well planned and reasoned indulgence: Indulgence in the gifts given to us by nature. Occasionally in things such as food. But regularly in companionship.

Though it should be obvious that Song and Dance are some of the most powerful expressions of joy that humans have and should be encouraged and shared communally, another one of the greatest gifts given to us by god/the universe is sexual pleasure. Western culture has developed an unnatural fear and loathing that has warped and perverted their minds. This sickness seems to express itself as the voracious and insatiable desire of the west for power and money. It was almost certainly partially developed as a mechanism to increase breeding. While this sounds counter intuitive we must look at the effect not the supposed conscious intent. Firstly, there have been numerous psychological studies that have shown that forbidding certain thoughts causes obsession with them. Such that the subjects not only thought of the forbidden thing more frequently during the test period than the controls did, but once they were allowed, they engaged in the thought process far more and for far longer than the controls. This could lead to increased breeding with both allowed and non allowed partners. Needless to say this could be a very effective survival strategy for a species and we find that those religions which have these beliefs have no shortage of large families.

With advancements in birth control and safe sex practices there is little to no reason not to indulge in this natural gift of life; especially with well established partners. In addition to this being a viable avenue for enjoying life without cost of life, limb or resources, it can also be a source of commmunal bonding as well as ascetic practice. There are few indulgences so perfect.

The unnatural state of western views of sex are very rapidly being exposed by science. Where it was once assumed that no animals had sex for fun and that many animals mated for life, we now find that most of the birds that appear to mate for life only do so for companionship but still engage in extra-couple pairing very frequently and the most intelligent animals on the planet (other than humans), dolphins, regularly engage in playful sex as a communal bonding ritual.

We also find that while we are told our closest evolutionary relative is the chimpanzee, we instead find that the bonobo has some specific genetic similarities to us that chimps do not have and are almost certainly a closer relative to us than the chimp. While visually distinguished from chimps by their human-like long hair on top, they are more well known for their extreme sexuality. All issues of strife within a group are dealt with via sexuality instead of violence. While those in captivity do copulate more frequently than in the wild, those in the wild are still engage in sex acts too frequently in a single day to warrant counting.

Because of the release of oxytocin during sexual acts, it is theorized that the behavior developed because of its ability to diffuse group tension and increase social bonding. In humans this type of behavior is found in many indiginous peoples throughout the world. The samoan people, for instance, kept nothing concerning the basic human facts of copulation, birth, bodily functions, or death hidden before Christianity swept over their culture and stomped out their shameless identity.

Though there are reproductive imperitives and instincts that make men naturally more predisposed to lattempt to impregnate as many females as possible and women more inclined to want withold sexuality more to get the most viable offspring for the gigantic investment of a possible child, there are still cultures today in which men have numerous wives and women have numerous husbands.

There have been scientific findings that roughly an orgasm a day can add many years to your life. Additionally, other studies of logevity have found links between prolonged breeding age of animals and lifespan. This makes sense in evolutionary terms because creating viable offspring is the primary goal of genes. There is no need for a an animal beyond breeding except in care of the young.

In tantric sexual practice, prolonging and even denying orgasm are a practice of achieving a higher consciousness. In practice, prolonging the time to reach orgasm such that the goal is to achieve simultaneous orgasm can lead to a great deal of self-discipline. It is self-denial that leads to greater reward. Additionally it can cause the couple to focus on the enjoyable nature of the act itself even though the orgasm is far more rewarding as well. It can become a microcosm of how life should be lived and how a relationship should be conducted. Mutual concern, care, and performance must be balanced with personal enjoyment and relaxation. Impatience can destroy the experience, lack of focus can lead to frustration. Lies lead to failure and dissatisfaction. To be able to perfectly coordinate each must be able to arouse themselves to the point of extreme temptation but be able to hold back indefinately. To pursue a goal but enjoy the process of reaching it enough to let things progress naturally. To see the enjoyment of another as one’s own enjoyment.

It is a unhealthy perversion of god’s gifts and unthankful to view sexuality as anything other than a beautiful, natural and joyous part of the human experience. Every single adult does it and as often as possible and they always have or you wouldn’ be here. Why on earth should we hide something as necessary as eating or sleeping, as innocent as a mother breastfeeding a child and as beautiful as life itself?

This is a perfect example of indulgence that is obviously harmonious with nature.

Gnosticism

The pursuit of knowledge on its own for knowledge sake is an error. There is infinite knowledge to be obtained because there is infinite possibility and creativity. There is infinite falsehood. Knowledge is only useful in how it relates to reality and how it relates to other pieces of the picture.

Where most intelligent people put an emphasis on the aquisition of knowledge, it is not the knowledge itself that is most valuable but the way in which knowledge connects to everything else. The way it supports other sets of knowledge. The way in which it answers the infinite loop question of “why?”.

The connections cannot exist without the knowledge so the pursuit of knowledge in a certain way takes precedence, but the eventual goal of all knowledge is to build a single internally consistent model of reality. This is only done through the connections and relationships of the knowledge. Reality always proves itself to be internally consistent and it has only been by using this fact about reality that we have been able to predict the future. It is understanding.

Understanding is the process of matching the model of reality in your mind to the actual way in which the world works. If we assume that there is a god or that the universe is god then we can assume the creation or the manifestation of god matches the will of god. In SGMS the universe is an entity which is a mind so by pursuing understanding we are in fact attempting to make ourselves a more accurate representation/reflection of god. We become more like those things we venerate if our veneration is sincere.

Love itself is a process of coming together in unity. Love is trust. Trust is also a form of belief. The pursuit of the knowledge of the nature of the universe and god is a form of creating trust and belief that is sound. It is a devout spirituality. Not simply swallowing whatever garbage a charlatan has to sell, or granting texts validity simply because of their age or popularity.  In Christian tradition it is important to “Love” god, but the common definition of love is far too narrow. True love is a transformation of the concept of self. By seeking the answers the universe has to give for ourselves and bending our self to fit the answers instead of bending the answers to fit our self, we truly “Love” god.

Sacred texts and traditions be damned. If there is truth to be found, it is written into reality where no man can alter it and deceive you.

This is the way in which the pursuit of knowledge and understanding is a process of enlightenment and spiritual progression. By making what is inside match the outside instead of making the outside match our inside.

Religion and Science

Religion and Science have been at war for centuries and they both need to admit thier flaws and see the strengths and values of the other. Whether it’s witch trials slaughtering alchemists and astrologers, or gattling guns literally killing the samurai culture (religion) there have been heavy hits from both sides and an understanding must be arrived at so that the two can exist in harmony.

Religion was the first memetic child of nature. Superstition grew out of searching for a pattern of success. Simple reward pathways grew by associating events by simple time correlation alone. Go to a casino and watch the old ladies tap out little tunes or rub the screen in circles. Wearing their “lucky” shoes they are using the oldest prediction device: If it happened like this before then it will again.

All animals have religion. It is how everything works to them. It is the way that experience can cause a species to adapt to environmental change the maximum amount in the shortest time. It is how experience can still shape a species outside of pure genetics. Perhaps even as a trial period before inegration into instinct. It is a form of shared memory. The story of the “one-hundreth monkey effect” is a good example of religious exchange of information. A few of the monkeys on a certain island they were being studied on began to wash the sweet potatoes they were being given as food before eating them. Though the behavior likely started with a single monkey, there was a threshold at which the behavior suddenly became ubiquitous in not only the island groups but those on nearby landmasses as well. This shows a predeliction in the animals to absorb behaviors from others and repeat them without previous personal correlation between events setting up a dopamine pathway. Instead it is simply known that something must be done.

Religion is the first method of sharing experience between organisms and therefore allowing a more complex picture of reality to begin to be built. Most religious beliefs are simply codes of conduct that may have granted some survival advantage such as not eating pork, but in the process of building these correlations there were hits and misses. Vestigial organs perhaps? Some things were simply the equivelent of an old lady noticing that a few times she wore her blue shoes, the slot machine payed out, so obviously the universe wants her to wear blue shoes because she’s been rewarded for it. And she never wins when she brings her black purse so obviously that purse offended god. Regardless of its flaws, religion has helped animals and continues to help humans in a variety of ways.

By being able to simply believe what others believe, a single subject can draw upon the experiences of thousands or even millions of other individuals. And not just the individuals currently alive, but ones that had experiences thousands of years ago. The wealth of trial-and-error-built knowledge passed down in a religious manner is absolutely ciritical to humans now. Whether it is to “bundle up or catch your death of cold” or “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, we need to be able to trust and integrate information we have never experienced. Imagine if you questioned every experiment. Doubted every single fossil finding and biological discovery. Disbelieved every map. Eventually you could disbelieve every single human experience other than you own and therefore never have enough time in your life to make a new discovery because you’d be too busy working out what’s already been explored to ever build upon the older knowledge. You could hardly accomplish anything at all.

Religious belief comes from an area of the mind that deals in complexity and probability. The emotional mind. It collects information and grows knowledge, but just as pruning and predation are necessary to keep a species strong, so too must useless behaviors be eliminated lest they waste precious resources of time and effort. So the yin of emotion must have the yang of logic as a balancing partner. Logic is, at it’s core, the ability to recognize paradox. Because there are certain truths about reality which can be used to find useless data, logic can always perform the first step in elimination of waste: finding it. Two opposing things cannot be true simultaneously. With the yin/yang concept we know of duality, shared aspects, and alternation of context based truths but there is still a large difference between this and paradoxical information. Unfortunately this check can only be made on very simple data. Simple data is often temporary data.

Out of logic came Science; the unexpected/unwanted love child of belief and logic it therefore had something to prove. It was born rebellious and contrary. (that was the core of its nature, to find flaw) It sought to tear down all that its parents had created and built it anew. It was disrespectful and unappreciative of the good work done for countless centures before. All it did was harp on the failures and point out the embarassing errors. All the while not realizing how much it was just like its parent.. in good ways and in bad ones.

Yes it made sweeping positive seeming changes but without enough respect for its forbears it acted in hubris and the arrogance led to overestimation of its ability and has now led to the suffering and near extinction of its charges. It may have even brought itself and its parents total destruction in its haste. The suffering it thought could banished with its inventions and technology only became new ways of suffering.

It is only when both the growth of belief and the strength of logic are in balance that we are granted understanding which is the goal of science. Science is not only knowledge but knowlege which can fit with all other knowledge. It is the desire to hold it all in one place and check it against itself. No new probable inferences can be made with pure logic. Only what is perfectly known without doubt can be dealt with. But nothing is truly without doubt so the probability handling of emotions must give logic something to work with. But without the pruning of logic there are endless possibilites and therefore endless “probable” leaps of faith which can grow branches that cannot bear fruit.

As science begins to mature and gain confidence, it will no longer need to immediately throw away all old knowledge before it has even explored it. It will see its reliance upon flawed human perceptions, fashions, pride and popularity contests. It will recognize its ability to make large errors and take it in stride because it will know its own strength: Self-examination. It is finally beginning to see the remarkable ways in which religion had truly banished suffering. From herbal remedies to meditation and acupuncture, science has been eating the crow of its foolish arrogance. Unfortunately religion uses failures as a way to try to discredit science as a retaliation for past affronts. Both sides have got to take some hits to pride and stop the fight.

Neuroscience is a path of reconciliation, through respect, that science has embarked upon. Perhaps by recognizing the many valuable things brought to the table by religion and by also recognizing its own failings science will now lay the groundwork for both entities to see the strengths and weaknesses in themselves.

When the two trust eachother enough to become one entity because they understand their unity of purpose, mankind will find a new kind of peace and power to overcome suffering and devision.

Salvia Divinorum Ceremony

Salvia is a sacrement used for battling demons.

We do not advise any illegal behavior for obvious reasons. Usage of hallucinogens must be undertaken very seriously with an understanding of set and setting principles. Proper study beforehand and usage of safety precautions are critical components to self improvement via subtances.

In scientific terms salvia simply is the opposite of cocaine and has precisely the opposite long term effects neurochemically in the brain. The need for more and general disquiet illicited in the cocaine user(and any other adictive substance) is a symptom of receptor densities in certain areas of the brain being changed over the long term. Just as cocaine is pleasant over the short term and unpleasant over long term, so salvia is unpleasant in the short term and pleasant in the long term.

While there are a variety of changes throughout the brain that occur in addiction and salvia shows curative results in all of them, dopamine is the primary receptor that is altered in these areas and the NAcc is the primary area of concern. In this area ten days after the use of salvia, the NAcc has been shown to increase dopamine receptor density as much as 65% which is in direct opposition to the long term effects of addictive drugs. In addition there is a significant upregulation in mu-opiod sensitivity following salvia use showing it has great potential for chronic pain treatment.

Beyond the technical aspect of neurochemical alteration etc, the study of psychology has shown that cognitive therapy, IE ordering of thoughts, in addition to chemical therapy far outweighs the use of either therapy alone. So back to demons…

In SGMS we treat concepts as entites. While a very small concept/entity may be no more a thinking being than a virus, the benfit of seeing it as a simple living organism within the mind as a virus is very useful. The more complex the concept, the more complex the mental organism. This is the essense of magic, but that is a subject for a different article.

The Ceremony:

Demons take root and control us through our fears. Others spread these demons to us sometimes by accident but many times on purpose to gain control over us. Battling demons and facing fears is one and the same. By recognizing a demon and calling it by it’s true name(understanding the cause) you gain control over it instead of it over you.

Before the use of this sacrement, one must prepare the mind for battle. Some small meditation beforehand is needed. During this time one should look inward and try to identify worries, concerns, anxieties and other aspects of fear. Do you fear being alone, becoming sick, being hated, being abandoned, becoming homeless, losing loved ones, or even dying itself? Once you have identified the most powerful target fear, you must then try to figure out a way in which you will be okay, you will prevail, you will overcome it. The knowledge of the solution is usually not enough to battle a demon, that is where the sacrement is a gift for us to use. To turn knowledge of a solution to belief in it.

For instance even someone sick and in pain, abandoned by friends and family might realize that not every possible action has ever been taken. There are always positive consequences unforseen. That having nothing left to lose leaves one with nothing to fear. That humans can get over even the very worst situations. That even quadraplegics have roughly the same happiness as most people after the shock wears off. That the worst that can happen, death, will simply be an end to suffering. That there are endless adventures/possibilites waiting regardless of the dire nature of the current situation. That the one and only constant is change.

Your solutions need not be extremely complex, but simply an understanding that you can bear it, overcome it. That you can continue, prevail and live. Is all that is necessary to have on hand.

During the actual use of salvia, which peaks typically for only a few minutes, this is the time to specifically NOT think of the solution but to instead think of the problem. Let it rage inside your mind for the moment. Let the pain and fear overcome you for that time. Let it rage and pour itself out. Let self pity and doubt spring fully into your consciousness. Allow the tears to come. Let your fears do their very worst. Allow it to all to boil to the surface to be purged. “you’ll never be loved, you’ll always be alone, be hated, be afraid” Dwell for a moment on all the very worst things that could happen. Experience them in that moment. Loss of freedom, of power, of love, of friendship. Let it all come right to the front of your mind. It is very important to SUPPRESS the thoughts of the solution during this time. Once you have faced the storm, and allowed the fear to take hold and win for this moment, then they are naked before you. The demons having spent thier strength have no more power over you because you have shown yourself you can take it.

Once you begin to feel the effects of the salvia wearing off and the anxiety and tightness in your chest begin to unravel, only then should you begin to think on the solutions. On the brightness of the future. Your ability to adapt. Your thankfulness for what you have now. Your ability to focus on and appreciate life regardless of the situation. Begin to think on even the unlikely but possible sucesses. The positive aspects of losses.

In this way you will face and conquer your fears. You will know they have no power over you. You will begin to forget them as they lose relevance in your life. You will see how powerless and useless they are and begin to lose them entirely.

Completely aside from established therapies, the cognitive science reasoning/mechanism for this ceremoney is twofold. Firstly, salvia is proven to be aversive and cause conditioned place aversion. This means that it becomes less likely for a person to have a desire to do certain things. Less likely for those neurons to fire. Thinking about your problems is not something you want always going on in the background but attempting to avoid thinking about them doesn’t work. Secondly it is also established through a number of studies that trying to Not think of something makes it more difficult to not think of it. And especially once allowed after attempting to supress a thought, the thought becomes all the more preeminant. This is the reasoning to suppress thoughts of the solution for a time.

This ceremony needs to be performed at least bi-weekly. Increase of dosage is preferred but can be so onerous that smaller doses can be used to assure regular repeating of the ceremony. Larger doses are desired because large quantities of kappa opioid receptors is a sign of sickness int he brain and one of the goals of salvia use is downregulation of kappa opioid receptors. More frequent smaller doses can be used but there is occasionally the effect of desensitization and upregulation in some neuochemicals which is certainly not desired. Larger weekly or biweekly doses are the most preferred but each individual must pay close attention to their emotional state.

The combination of proper cognition and neurochemical tuning makes this ceremony the single most effective and important element of our religion.

The Failure of Civilization

[Prerequisites: Evolutionary game theory]

The primary point of failure in society seems to be the elimination of the success of the altruism model. Altruism exists as a mechanism of group competition. What goes around comes around. By helping a group you typically help yourself. Unfortunately this concept only really works in small populations. Selfishness and selflessness work in a continuum in nature and by creating such obsurdly large groups we destroy balance mechanisms. Just as selfish damaging acts rise in proportion to the level of anonymity (The internetnet is prime example) because of the impossibility or at least reduction of punishment, so too does the level of altruism plummet with anonymity because of the reduction of positive feedback. Positive acts get lost in the ocean of people just as surely as the negative ones do. The very basis of learning is reward and any basic psychological study shows reward to be the greater motivator over punishment.

[Basic assumptions: Selfishness is yin, strength, competition, representing the necessary pruning of death, while selflessness is yang, creation, cooperation, growth and variation of life.]

It’s not only a basic tit for tat between participating individuals so that a single individual can act altruistically and expect that others will eventually treat them the same. There instead seems to be a general setpoint that all humans carry as their assessment of the dominant strategy. In a smaller population the waves that are inevitable between the dominant strategies happen very quickly and in a way in which a single individual can provide enough altruism to start the wave of growth over again. But in a large enough population the waves can become so large that the civilization destroys itself during the selfish/competition phase before the next wave of altruism/cooperation can be reached. Acts of kindness are lost in an ocean of exploitation such that even individuals too far balanced towards cooperation (martyrs) who might otherwise begin the next wave, cannot have the effect of their natural purpose.

The only way in which a civilization might overcome this inherent weakness would be to purposely integrate the waves of dominant strategy seen in nature; to break the larger group into many tightly-knit, interreliant groups; or preferrably both.

SGMS’s Big TOE

That’s Theory Of Everything to those counting.

This TOE encompasses not just an explanation of physical phenomena but provides a physical model for the spirit world and consciousness. This is the only TOE I know of that does that and it’s certainly the only one that really has zero hocus pocus.

If you listen closely enough you’ll hear the echoes of the commonalities of every ancient philosophy and religion. From the concept of Anima and Gaia, to the gods and goddesses of greek/roman mythology. From Taoism and the balance of chaos and order to clips of the vedas. It is also very strongly in line with many Pythagorean truths.

The largest problem most will have with the theory is the starting point: Aether. We have developed very little in the area of physics in the past one-hundred years in contrast with the previous years. When considering all we understand of physics, what has been developed in the field during the relativity era is a tiny rider on top of what came before. During those years when most of electromagnetic theory was developed, Aether was a forgone conclusion, no scientist in their right mind would ever suppose that a wave can exist without a medium.

A wave is not a physical thing. It is the changing property of something else. It is a concept and does not actually exist per se. Just like temperature does not exist and sound does not exist except as concepts used to describe an amount of heat energy and a measure of perturbations of air. A wave is simply a description of the way kinetic energy is passed between particles of a substance. IE Concentration and rarefaction or squishing and stretching of a substance as it seeks equilibrium. It is particle motion. This is why, once they discovered that light was a wave, scientists knew there had to be a substance carrying the wave or there would be nothing to experience the wave. Any other assumption is utterly without example, basis or explanation and completely irrational and unscientific in the extreme. It is pure faith without reason. Most people do not know the extreme controversy around relativity that raged for over fifty years was only ended when universities started firing those who did not conform.

Here’s the important part though: E=MC2 is correct. Most of relativity is actually correct and was mostly an agglomeration of all the previous science into a single work. The matter and energy equivalence was actually worked out by a number of scientists before Einstein. Almost all the calculations in relativity were created by someone else. Poincare, Lorentz, Maxwell and many more. Einstein simply eliminated Aether, used all these other theories and slapped his name on it. He didn’t even cite the original contributors and scientific process was well establish by that time so it was considered plagiarism not to have done so. But this isn’t a lesson on history…

So what does all this mean? Simple, there is a black thread of faith and irrationality that has crept into physics and is woven so tightly in it that it’s nearly impossible to dig out. A great deal of physics is correct but all the magical multi-dimensional spooky effects are all artifacts of this thread. I’ve searched for magic my entire life and when I was more a faith-based person I loved that science had these fascinating possibilities. I was crushed to learn that it was all part of the same single mistake. I was devastated to learn that there was no scientific evidence for anything supernatural at all. Not even a little. No time travel, no spooky entanglement. No strings. No observer-based control of the universe. Imagine my existential angst!
Further info at www.anti-relativity.com

Now that I’ve gotten you over the biggest hump I’m going to have to speed things up… a lot.

What we have is a substance that all things are made of called aether. It is the densest substance in the universe. All matter is made up of rarefied aether. What this means is that what we think of as super denseand heavy objects are actually exactly the opposite when contrasted with the substance they are made from. Basically bubbles but far more complex. The reason they are not crushed is because of the kinetic energy stored in them primarily in the form of rotation. Each atom is a complex toroid-like structure. A donut-shaped vortex. The centrifugal force of the particle rotation offsets the exterior pressure such that a vacuum or near vacuum of aether is created. What this means is that matter and energy are one thing and there is only one kind of energy and that is kinetic energy.

The best analogy is to think of a tornado. The rotation causes the air in the center to become so rarefied that a near vacuum can occur but the rarefaction is not localized only to the center, it extends out away from the vortex in a gradient. So when you see a tornado you think of the funnel cloud itself but the tornado exists in a much larger area. The thing you see is only a border condition dealing with the amount of vacuum created. Because of this fact, tornados are drawn to eachotherand will actually merge. This is because of buoyancy and can only be explained well by a picture. This is the same effect that causes gravity.

Magnetism and Electricity are another form of variations of aether density. Though I have not yet worked out which is rarity and which is density and I believe it may be more complex than that. It may instead have more to do with a configuration of alternating areas of density and rarefaction.

Going back to atomic structure and toroidal vortices, there is another component that must be understood to tie together this model. Vortices give off waves as they transfer energy to the ambient medium and waves pump vortices as they transfer their straight-line motion into circular motion. A standing wave in a medium is accompanied by alternating vortices in that medium. They exist together because of the “gearing” effect that is present in fluids. This gearing effect can be seen in the necessity of a vortex being created as water flows down a tube. The rotation reduces the overall friction allowing the water to flow faster and more smoothly.

So in effect, wave particle duality is simply an interchange of states not a simultaneous description. Particles are vortices, vortices are circular waves.

Another important evidence that brings things to light is the spontaneous formations of vortex crystalline structures observed in plasmas. This bears import wrt the basic crystalline structure of solids. What happens is that when vortices are created in a non-neutral plasma, they eventually arrange themselves into well known crystalline configurations including a central vortex with a single vortex circling it.

Particles are not simple toroids but are in fact complex structures of multiple vortices. They are also simultaneously standing waves. To go further the next understanding necessary is cymatics. It is the study of mechanical waves(sound) on fluids or other flowing substances.  Though many videos are available, very few show the internal vortices present in the extremely regular structures created. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCXZF3NiPIk at 1:10 there is a good capture of some of the internal rotations. This image is a representation of the structure of an atom. You will notice the areas and shape of rotation exactly match the “electron distribution” map well known in quantum physics. Most orbitals are likely transitional states as the standing wave transitions between states but the 3d orbital in particular is easily made out in the previous video. Notice the infinity symbol shape actually matches particle motion.

More complex particles which are of a higher frequency will have more internal vortices. These internal vortices are electrons.

The music of the spheres is revealed in the fact that cymatics depends upon not only frequency but the perfect combination of frequency and amplitude to achieve a stable structure. It is also very dependant upon the reactivity of the substance.

A standing wave in the center of a fluid must necessarily create a toroidal vortex to allow particles to gear past eachother as the flows go in and out from the center. This causes symmetrical patterns to arise which are dependant upon the number of standing waves present within the vortex IE the frequency. The amplitude of those waves must be in proper relation to the size of the toroid.

The combination of thesecomplex flows and proper combination of wave height (amplitude) to vortex height gives rise to an infinite flywheel device that is managed by the ambient pressure of aether upon the whole structure. Only waves which are the right amplitude and harmonic can remain in the structure, any other wave will eventually be ejected from the structure. (Taking up and giving off electrons)It seems there may be a one-to-one relationship of standing waves and internal vortices. From this beginning explanation, a creative mind can see how all of quantum physics takes on new meaning.

The periodic nature of all atoms and the harmonics associated now make perfect sense and give rise to a reason why these base eight relationships exist in atomic structure. The diatonic scale. Everything falls perfectly into place. No magic, no hocus pocus or mumbo-jumbo. (did you know dark matter was invented to “fix” why relativity cannot explain the rotation of galaxies and has never been detected in any other way than simply assumed to be there?)

So now we’ve fixed physics and all the magic is gone. How on earth could this give rise to spirituality???

We must first break down our assumptions about consciousness and what can contain it and what can have experience. We’ve probed the brain in so many ways that all the mysteries are very quickly disappearing. There is a machine that after being given three calibration nouns can guess what noun you are thinking with ~80% accuracy. They have implanted brains with chips that have allowed quadriplegics to control a cursor on a computer screen with thought alone. They’ve taught monkeys to control prosthetic arms with thought alone after some minor implants. Stimulate the correct part of someones brain and they will cry laugh or physically attack you. It’s been done.

A single ant from a colony of army ants will endlessly circle a table when alone, but ant colonies perform the most efficient form of resource exploration and discovery as a group. Exploring fifteen(if I remember correctly) degree increment spokes on an exploration pattern that eventually covers a large circular shape and then upon completion move to a semi-random location at a proper distance from the previous location to begin again. Some have seen the ants pour into obstacles such as small streams and walk across on the dead entangled bodies but then go up into trees to cut leaves to use as boats when confronted with a larger river. Collective intelligence.

We are made up of individual neurons and the loss of a great deal of them does not interrupt our sense of self. We are not a single neuron but something that only exists as a collection and relationships between the collection. Furthermore and more importantly, the firing of neurons is a process of alternating between chemical and electrical signals and these happen in a loop formation between the thalamus and cortex.

We are a loop of electrochemical energy. That loop driven and directed by the shape of the connection of the neurons and upon passing changes the shape of the connection. Just as a river moves a stone so does the stone move the river.

The best explanation of our experience is to simply say we are energy in a loop and the configuration of that energy and the complexity of it gives rise to experience. Experience seems to be an electrical phenomenon. Given the previous explanation of what matter is, everything is an electrical phenomenon. That is to say, aether in motion is experience. If we are complex loops of aether then couldn’t any loop of aether have some sort of experience somewhat similar to our own. Could we not see the magnetosphere of the earth as thalamo-cortical loops? The same true of the sun? And of the other gods such as Jupiter?

If we have not begun to properly detect aether because of our ignorance of it, could there not be free-standing smaller loops that do not have the energy and compactness of a single atom (and yes every atom might be a mind) that we would not be able to detect other than via electromagnetic fluctuations but may have experience and though just as we do?

In addition when a tree grows it is influenced by the way the wind hits it, the way the water flows near it and every event is captured in its growth pattern. As it moves water and sap through itself in yearly cycles does it not pass electromagnetic substances through a specific pattern? How is this not equivelent to memory? The tree grew the way it wanted to grow. What it wanted was dictated by experience and genetics. How are you different?

This is all very metaphysical but at the same time explained in a very mechanistic physical way. Given a more accurate view of physics and an improved view of human experience given to us by modern biology (which has no magical theories in it) we can see that the idea that “everything is mind” may have some roots in concrete fact.

What I’m saying is that everything is one thing. Everything interacts via touch and mechanics. Everything is so complex it seems random but it is in fact the butterfly effect from a level even smaller than we can yet probe. That every mind is made of many smaller minds. That everything is intricately connected and interrelated. I’m saying “as above so below”

There is no magic; nothing that cannot be explained. The unexplained simply hasn’t been properly understood yet (or recently anyway) Nothing happens without a reason. Even though existing as a spirit might be possible it con only be so if there exists somewhere somehow an explanation that works with the rest of reality. Everything works.

Phew! That’s the shortest answer I can give to the meaning structure of life the universe and everything in a single sitting. I’m sure I can do it better given some time though!

More Frequency

I’ve been writing many blogs and pages in the background and not putting out content frequently. The subjects I want to cover are usually so large that nothing short of a hundred and fifty page dissertation with illustrations and extensivee referencing will do. But with that attitude I end up waiting till I have the time and energy to tackle the monsters so they never get done.

What I intend to do is to try to cover some topics in ultra brief explanations which will end up sounding completely unfounded. I will then have a catalog of topics that I can later explain in detail with pie charts, graphs, power-point presentations and all manner of other paraphernalia. So please excuse the brevity and complexity of some of my upcoming blog posts. I Will eventually create a page that will explain the evidence and the path of reasoning required to arrive at my theories and hypothesees.

IF [Annotated]

The poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling may be the most concise guide to honor and virtue ever written. It has inspired me from childhood and most closely matches the code I try to live my life by. In some parts the meaning may not be immediately apparent and given that much of my authoring is meant for my son, I’ve decided to clarify

1) If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

When things go wrong, people become short-sighted and look for someone to blame. If you are a leader or teacher, you are the first target. There is no consideration that things always go wrong, there is just a desire to feel like everything is resolved and that everything will be okay. Identifying the problem is the shortest route to resolution. The shortcut to identifing the problem is blame. Blame is way to offload panic. Don’t let panic and blame infect you and blur your path when it might only be a temporary thing. Remember that factual evidence is all that matters not the excitement or urgency surrounding it. A long-term view and consideration of a situation will lead to the truth. Planning and action cannot be based upon emotion. Fear will lead to animalistic short-sighted behavior.

2) If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,

It takes a powerful man to deny the beliefs of thousands of millions and stand alone against their doubt ridicule and sometimes hatred. Only those who can look at the masses and know that he is still in the right because he holds to evidence and personal experience over the opinions of people who can never discover or invent. Only a trust in yourself will make you your own man and without that trust you will never be able to depart from the herd. Without that departure from the herd you cannot be a trailblazer and a true leader. At the same time it is important to note that there is likely some reason why so many people believe something and while it is typically just because of the sheer weight of numbers, on a rare occasion there is something of value to be had from the crowd. However, for the most part, it is helpful to assume that the truthfulnes of a concept is inversely proportionate to the number of people who subscribe to it.

3) If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Patience is still an important virtue. The ability to put off instant gratification is a measure of consciousness and potency of an individual. Those who are impatient are little more than animals.

4) Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

When those around you are not playing by the rules but are pulling out all the stops to bury you socially, it may seem fair and in your best interest to commit to the fight as wholly as they do or find yourself ousted from your social group. It is however a marring of your honor. To lie, without life and death consequances is the very path of evil that divides people and destroys trust and love. It is better to suffer the consequences and suffer socially then to ever give away a single inch of your honor. If they need to lie, they have proven their lesser nature already. In the end, what is important is how you see yourself and what you know about yourself will previal. Lying is the heart of evil and fear.

5) Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

Hatred is arrogance. To not see that the people who hate you have reasons why they are so full of fear and hate is to once again losing that honorable part of you which separates you from the mindless masses. Forgiveness is a critical part of enlightenment. The ability to know that if you were in their shoes, not only would you do as them, you’d BE them. Stop believing you are some perfect magical being who deserves all the good you have and is the author of all your own good attributes. Your situation in life was handed to you by existence. Everything from your genetics to your nutrition has made you into what you are and given you the capabilities you have. If your neurochemistry was altered slightly, you would be full of rage as well. It’s been done in the lab and it’s being done every day to everyone you know. Alterations which are not the choice of the individual but of the environement. Forgive them for they know not what they do…

6) And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

Though you may be capable of immense self control far beyond those around you, when you believe in yourself and realise you ability was granted to you, you don’t have a need to shove it in people’s faces. While you cannot allow others’ feelings and fears to hold you back from doing what is right, niether should you flaunt your greater abilities and cause others to doubt themselves if there is no need to do so. When nothing but your opinion of yourself matters, you can allow others to feel that they can bring themselves up without showing them a great gulf between you. Do not discourage those who were less fortunate. Encourage them and show them the similarities between you so that they can believe that they can better themselves.

7) If you can dream–and not make dreams your master,

Imagination is the halmark of a true leader and inventor. To dream of better days for all is a admirable trait, but to hold too tightly on to over-idealized concepts is to invite disaster. When dreams are your master, you can no longer find the joy of the present and the appreciation of what currently is. To lose the value of the present hoping for better is a horrific loss; it is the loss of living and life itself. When dreaming of better be sure it is tempered with a satisfaction and thankfulness for the present.

If you can think–and not make thoughts your aim;

There is a purpose to thought. The eventual outcome of thought should be action. If you only think of solutions but never put forward the effort to implement them, the thought is wasted. If you realize your errors but never implement a plan to help yourself overcome your short-comings, you have done nothing but decreased your faith in yourself. If you think of a thousand inventions but never implement one, what good have you done? Possibilities are infinite, but solutions are finite because our current context - the way things are right now - is also finite.

9) If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

Each time we meet triumph or disaster, our perception of which is which is based upon a very tiny perspective. We cannot know the untold happiness that may come about because of a ‘disaster’, and we cannot know the pain that may be in store because of a ‘triumph’. A million dollar jackpot could separate you from your family and the failure of an endeavor can open up doors of opportunity to a much brighter future. The world is ever changing and we must remember that “This too shall pass” so that we remain on an even keel with a positive attitude of thankfulness for whatever currently is.

10) If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

You cannot stop speaking simply because you know that you will be misunderstood and misrepresented. If you have wisdom to impart, you must do so even with the knowledge that it may be used for evil ends. It is not your responsibility to control that which is beyond you. Instead you must hold to your principles and do what you can to make life better for everyone. You must find peace in your attempt at good even when you must sometimes face that your intent was stripped and replaced by a more sinister purpose. Do the best you can and then find peace in the attempt. Learn what you can when things go awry but do not give in to discouragement.

11) Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

Attachment to the things you’ve accomplished and worked many long years for is natural. We try to prevent the loss of even the smallest things we do: “Hey, I just cleaned that up!”. We must, however, know that most of what we do will be utterly washed away moments after it is accomplished. This idea can make us feel helpless and small. It can be the very stongest of discouragement if it is allowed. We must find peace in the fact that everything we do does last, but simply not in the form we originally intended or attempted. You cannot help but leave your mark, whether it be good or bad. You must find satisfaction that what you have done has served its purpose and that you can do it all again or better yet: choose to do it slightly different with the knowledge of what brought down your first works. When discouraged by the loss of our works, we must be able to look closer to ourselves at the things that matter, such as loved-ones, and be reminded of what is truly valuable. We can find peace in the temporary nature of our accomplishments when we see that everything in the world is temporary on one scale or another. All we truly have is right now and allowing what is past to deny us the joy of future or present accomplishments is a shame indeed. Though what you’ve done may not seem to last, it has written an indelible mark on history regardless how small it may seem to you. And it will again.

12) If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;

While this is a second exhortion against attachement, it is also an exhortion to steer clear of fearful protectiveness of your current position that comes with attachement. To remember that most of what you have is by chance more than by plan anyway, it is merely a ‘winning’. As we have more to lose we many times draw in and avoid risk and thereby avoid opportunity. He doesn’t mean that you should be utterly reckless but that perhaps your protectiveness makes you perceive things as too risky when they are not. The greater the risk the greater the reward. Losing is simply a part of how the game of life works. Once you are at peace with this, it doesn’t upset you. If you allow loss in a game of random chance to keep you from trying again, then you have truly lost.

13) If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

It is always darkest before the dawn. So many times, if we had simply gone a little further, tried a little harder, held on just a little longer, we would have made it out the other side. In the game of life, you’ve never lost until the moment you have given up. Each failure along the road is one more step in the race you do not have to make again. Each hardship we have overcome is one more plateau before the summit. To strive is to live and to give up is to die. Find satisfaction in striving itself because even though the road may go backward a long way for a while and you may feel you’ve lost ground, it’s still the road you have to travel and so therefore each step that seems to take you backwards is, in fact, still a step forward on the path that leads to success.

14) If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings–nor lose the common touch,

To be able to help those at the bottom better themselves and to help temper the actions of those on top, you must be able to hold your core and see all sides. When resources are scarce, it seems appealing to exploit others or otherwise compromise principles for survival but to do so is to lose part of oneself. When resources come so easily to hand, it can be hard to forgive those less priveledged for their improper actions, but to do so is to forget your own fallibility. It is a trap that will lead you down another path of exploitation and evil: seeing those less fortunate as deserving their difficult lot in life, and seeing yourself as deserving your good fortune. To forget your good fortune and believe instead that you earned it is the worst of mankind’s flaws.

15) If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

A properly humble spirit allows us to see others foibles in a less intentional light. When we realize that we all have misunderstandings and make improper assumptions and we are all nothing more than little meat machines bumping into each other, it’s difficult to be ‘hurt’ when someone, even a close friend, becomes misled. After all, it could be us that was misled.

16) If all men count with you, but none too much,

We consider the feelings and thoughts of others and base our actions upon them as is correct in a honerable person. But when a person’s feeling and thoughts matters too much we give up our personal volition. We can unwittingly become a slave to their minds and actions. When executing the golden rule we must also be mindful whether or not others are playing by the same rules. We must require the same courtesies of them that we provide to others. Our determination of truth must still come from a scientific perspective, not a socially upheld notion.

17) If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Every moment of your life is ticking away. When we waste that life on feeling bad for ourselves, or angry at others, we’ve lost the joy of life. When we instead turn our attention to accomplishing those things which will bring us and others joy, we can feel a sense of accomplishment and have a knowledge of and pride in our own contribution, regardless of how it all pans out and regardless of anyone else’s perceptions. The more time we spend mourning what was or could have been, the less time we have in making what will be… better. Sieze not only the day, but the exhilaration of each moment.

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And–which is more–you’ll be a Man, my son!

In these principles, most of the joy of life will present itself to you and the pride in yourself and the honor you uphold will give you a life worthy of remembering on your death bed. A life without regret. By changing yourself you change the world. That is what it means to truly be a leader; A man.

–Rudyard Kipling

Order and Chaos: A Homocentric Fallacy

The concept of a balance between order and chaos has been around for quite some time and has indeed served a useful purpose. Like all models of reality we construct to help us understand the world around us, even a flawed model can serve a purpose for a while but we must eventually refine our models to more precisely match reality if we hope to understand reality properly and continue our journey of discovery and development.

The idea of order and chaos is basically a representation of predictability and unpredictability with a touch of magical thinking. If we can easily predict it, it is orderly. If it is unpredictable, it is chaotic. While this might have been some of the impetus behind these magical labels, it is not an accurate description of the inner workings of the balance between order and chaos.

In chaos theory, the path a drop of water takes is described as chaotic. This leaves the mechanism of the motion in a magical state. It is a religious label rather than a description of the event. The truth of the matter is that there are so many factors involved in the resolution of the path of a single drop of water that it is very unpredictable. This lack of predictability is only because of the lack of knowledge of the observer.

These magical explanations of phenomena have existed throughout the history of mankind. Once it was the god of fire that makes water boil and demons that make people crazy and the world was held up by atlas or a turtle. Now, because of the lack of understanding of electrons we have a model which predicts via probability but instead of understanding that it is a model we believe that electrons magically appear in a  single place when our holy minds observe them.

Order and chaos are better represented by the (still homocentric) terms simplicity and complexity. Or perhaps uniformity and differentiation. Over time it can be thought of as stasis and change. In every explanation of this concept we must understand our bias. In  the terms simplicity and complexity there is an inferred reference. Zoom in on a single portion of a complex system and it seems simple. Zoom out from a simple system and the way it interacts and interconnects with the rest of reality makes it complex. The same is true with uniformity and differentiation. There is an inferred reference of human perspective. Even when considering a time perspective there is the assumption that a picosecond isn’t a near eternity though there may exist a perspective in which it actually is a near eternity.

Do not limit your mind with homocentric arrogance. Do not give credence to any magical explanation.

When you understand that there is a mechanism to everything and that the whole of existence is comprehensible you can be comfortable with your temporary ignorance. Do not let your fear of innocent ignorance cause you to grasp a magical explanation as anything more than a temporary placeholder for future understanding. There is nothing in existence that cannot eventually be explained. All that we have explained does not even touch upon all that exists.

In a desert we can see that the balance is toward simplicity. In a rainforest we can see the balance is toward complexity. We can also see that logic and efficiency are balanced toward simplicity while reason and creativity are balanced toward complexity.

The understanding of the balance of simplicity and complexity can be seen throughout all of nature and the use of this concept in science will help humanity to advance in understanding, but we cannot advance until we eliminate magical thinking which causes us to stop looking deeper into complexity.

Probability Preference and Exception Handling

In our minds we store a vast array of probabilities. It is more likely when you hear a noise overhead that it is an airplane causing an air disturbance rather than an asteroid. Both are within the realm of possibility. One is usually our automatic choice because of probability.

Probability is context based. Take one of us back in time to a point at which an asteroid is actually plummeting through the atmosphere and me may never even look up because latent inhibition has made us determine that information is useless when because of a change of circumstances, our context fails us. It causes us to incorrectly calculate probability.

Furthermore, it seems that when trying to determine a cause of an event or to predict a course of events that there can be many possibilities that fit but we typically show preference to what we believe to be probable based upon our personal context.

The first thing that would occur to most people is that you should always prefer the thing which is most likely as the explanation. This is “rules based” logical conservative thinking. There are however circumstances in which the less probable selection may be selected. This is choosing the exception as the truer possibility.

Selection of a lesser probability explanation is usually only done because of extension of a variety of modeled paths. We can think out differing scenarios and see that the more likely first explanation becomes less likely upon further examination. What is the mechanism behind this?

This is how we are capable of figuring out what someone means when they say “nice try” after a failed attempt at something. If your context is that people typically are helpful then you assume this person meant to bolster your confidence. If your context is that people typically ridicule mistakes then you assume they are being sarcastic. Regardless of which is the higher rating of probability in your mind, if you have doubt of your first guess, you then weigh other subtle cues to determine if this is the rule or the exception.

The glance to a buddy could denote a simple regard of secondary opinion or input or it could be looking for a shared hidden laugh. Again a probability is considered and now we have a probability stack.

Additionally there is a small laugh. The laugh could be to convey a feeling of “yeah that would have been hard for me too” or it could be “What a loser”. Another probability calculation.

If we have an understanding of this person’s personality we will lean to a larger and more reliable data set for resolving the probability. If we do not have a data set because this is a new person we may simply use a generalized (context based) template of behavior to resolve the stack of probabilities. This is a process that can allow us to categorize something as part of the exceptions instead of the rule.

Better yet we can leave the decision open until further data arrives. Later on upon seeing another small blunder the same guy says: “Hah, good one Einstein”. Suddenly we’ve used pattern recognition to resolve probability. IE a person who would do X would also do Y. It fits in a larger template of behaviors and we believe our general model of people types is more reliable because it has more data. Though we may have originally assumed the best of them, they actually fit in an exception category.

Had that decisive bit of information not come along, we may have had a string of circumstances which could resolve just as easily in one direction or the other, however, simply the frequency of exceptional occurances alone can alter original decision to categorize this person as an asshole or someone with a bad case of foot-in-mouth. A few more seemingly innocuous quips would certainly lead us to believe the guy was an asshole even though he is smiling and friendly to our face. The number of exceptions required for us to decide is determined by our generalized personality calculator. Further yet we have a general fear/trust calculator that underlies this and both are based on context. A person who expected less of people would decide the person was an ass long before a person who hopes for the best in people.

This ability to select a lower probability explanation is also what we use for self-delusion and social manipulation. When a person is actually jealous or some other vice, they know all the possible reasons for their actions and may simply decide that the most innocuous of the explanations is the correct one. The level to which this is checked against other possibilities can, and usually is, reduced to zero or it is checked against a faulty idealized model of self which immediately returns high probability for something that should have been low.

This is the slippery path of deception that most people follow in their minds and are never aware of it. They simply look back at what they did or said and assume the best possible scenario. That is why someone can can say ‘nice hair’ and mean to criticize but when put on the spot about it they may actually feel like their initial intent was to give a compliment. They will give this deceptive answer with confidence and truly believe it themselves. This could be a mark of a small short term memory and therefore less executive function.  IE these people have less ability to examine their own actions because they’ve forgotten them as they happen. But I think it is also likely that people train themselves to notice the actions of others and remember them but they do not track their own actions in short term memory. They live an unexamined life.

The harm of deception is visited on the individual just as much as those around them. This same lack of examination disables a person from being able to make positive change in their own life. It is simply a self-imposed fear of being ‘bad’ or wrong. Without self examination they cannot forgive themselves of mistakes that everyone makes. Guilt can keep one from viewing the past in a more positive light. They must deny the good in their lives and not take responsibility for the negative parts of their past. They cannot see the mistakes of their past as driven by the circumstance and therefore forgivable.

Obviously we must be able to select lower probability ideas and follow them to further conclusions to be able to deal with exceptions. Unfortunately this same mechanism can be used badly. When it becomes progressively worse, the extension of probability becomes ridiculously tenuous without the person realising it. This usually occurs from poor controls on the updating of models. The exception becomes perceived as the rule.

Poor control over the updating of models is unfounded belief. Belief can come from social proof or it can come from experiential knowledge or a combination of both. Inter-model back-checking and comparison can be the difference between a healthy mind and an insane one. The level to which we question our own accuracy/confidence is equal to the level of assurance we need before updating a model. IE some people only need one good source of information or even one simply highly regarded to update a model. Others may require volumes of personal experience.

Frequency of model updates is another important balance of the mind. Requiring too much proof reduces the number of experimental avenues that can be examined. Requiring too little proof can reduce accuracy. When we consider something to be likely or unlikely we must know without doubt that we are biased. There is always a situation in which the exception becomes the rule.

On the path of enlightenment, self-realization/actualization and self-examination, we all must look at our ideas and concepts honestly. We must determine where those beliefs came from and if they fit with the rest of reality regardless of how favorably we may view them. We must always be aware of how much our ideas come from social proof and how much come from experience. We must try to see the myriad possibilities we consider and determine our biases. We must be aware of our natural tendencies to automatically view ourselves in a light that may be inaccurate. We must consider our own context and the possible and probable flaws it has. You may find that the world has gone better for you than you had believed. And you might have accidentally stepped on toes along the way too. Everyone has.

To become more truthful with ourselves and others we must closely watch our actions with a third party perspective. We must occasionally be skeptical of our own motives and drives and be aware of self-delusion. We need to always know why we assume something to be the rule or the exception. By being more aware of ourselves we avoid doing harm while taking responsibility for our actions. We accept that mistakes deserve to be excused and we then remember that we did it our way. We tried. We then can believe in our place in the world as an effective person. We can expect things to go our way.

We can see the ways in which the everchanging, unpredictable reality got the better of us and how we can accept responsibility for this moment.

Humility and forgiveness go hand in hand with self-examination. You must be able to forgive others to forgive yourself. And while examining oneself it is critical to not put that same microscope upon others. There is one instance where the capacity for self-delusion may be helpful. Believing the best of others. If you can always assume the best then even when others are doing wrong they will try to live up to your positive expectations of them. Why make yourself sad with the knowledge that others are sometimes mean-spirited, abusive and insensitive. You might accidentally do the same thing sometimes. Feel sorry for the fact that anyone who is abusive, feels the pain of it themself about themself. Instead help them believe in their goodness by being oblivious. Be proud of possibly not “getting” abusiveness.

People tend to believe about you what you believe about yourself. Believe that everyone likes you and that nobody thinks badly of you and they will all believe your social proof.

Focus apon the good things that have happened and forget about the bad things. Remember the good experiences and dismiss the bad ones for the exceptions that they probably are!