Resonance is a phenomenon in which the strength/energy of a wave becomes larger because a small amount of input at the right time and place. Once you have reached a certain age you will usually have noticed that everything seems to work in trends and waves. Things tend to cycle up or cycle down. This is seen in the phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. (paraphrasing the bible) To he who has much, much will be added, but to he who has little, that which he has will be taken away. It’s just the way things work in reality if we do not attempt to interact with trends and alter their course.
Resonance can be seen in a child’s swing. When you give a little push at the right time they go higher and higher. There is another playground toy that demonstrates it even better. I’m not talking about the see-saw but it’s a type of two seated swing called a “glider” in which two children sit facing each other and taking turns pushing on leg pedals to cause the swing to move back and forth. This swing best demonstrates the principle of altruistic resonance.
If one person just rides, the swing does not go as high for either rider. If one decides they want to go forward before the other is done and push when they should wait, the swing does not go as high or can even be slowed to a stop. But if both of the riders work together and stay in tune, there is no limit to the heights they can achieve other than the limit of the swing itself.
Everything from the happiness of a couple to the prosperity of a group is subject to this principle. It requires patience, temporary self-sacrifice, and contentedness with whatever comes. Each must pull his own weight and be ready to give back. If one decides to break the agreement and take when they should give or hold when they should release, the system fails. It’s true that the one will have more than the other by only taking. They will have all of what could be shared but they do not understand that what is shared is less. If they only remained content with half then the resonance would make their half grow and grow and sometimes it becomes larger than all of what was before.
The first problem that most people face is that in an altruistic resonance, one must freely give away what is already had. One must take from their own pool of happiness to give it to another such that they may be temporarily lessened. They must judge their own need as less than an other’s need but be confident that they will eventually receive in return what was given or more.
The second problem that most face is the fact that effort must consistently be put in to one’s self and to others. There must be a constant effort in appreciation of all that is around you. Happiness comes from wanting what you have instead of getting what you want and often happiness is lost attempting to achieve more. Usually happiness evades best those who chase it hardest. Appreciation and satisfaction come from dwelling on the current good. More happiness results from attempting to make others happy who follow the same principle.
The third problem is habituation. When people are in a habit of giving to you, you may begin to believe that the gifts are small, expected or even a sort of payment. You must always be aware of the difficulty of conscious choice to let go of ones own happiness for another. You must always be thankful for every small act of kindness. Every small sacrifice. You must reward goodness. Expectation of the return lessens it.
The fourth problem is the overestimation of personal contribution. We each tend to look into another’s contributions and begin to compare them to our own. We do not realize that what is a small gift from us may be a large gift from another and vice versa. We must always be aware of how few people are really willing to cooperate. Every person who does cooperate must be valued highly. By rewarding them for doing right, you are teaching them them to repeat the behavior and benefiting yourself in the end.
The fifth and worst problem is the fear of being unappreciated. We all instinctively know that people value that which is rare and devalue that which is easily gained. This leads us to hold back and not give when we should. We begin to do that which we fear and become the thing we are trying to avoid. We must instead be confident that sometimes experiencing losses is a price we must pay to achieve a community. We must see that it often happens to the best of us. We must be confident that exploiters will either eventually be healed of their fear of explotation, or we will separate from them when it is necessary.
When others continually withhold, only continue giving until your giving takes so much from you that it reduces your ability to give with others. Only through the willigness to forgive and give even when we are not receiving can we heal the wounds to the system. When the truly evil come in and hurt and do damage, even those who are good and well meaning may become more closed. Once they are closed off they begin to receive without giving back. They do no realize this is the same as taking. They do not know they are exploiting a system of goodness.
If we do not follow a model of forgiving and giving even when nothing is received in return, altruism disappears. Each passing on the sickness and strengthening it. Because hurt and misunderstanding always happens there is a resonance that can begin for it as well. Self centeredness and protection and closing off. A resonance of exploitation and revenge. Someone must start the altruism over again. Someone must forgive. Someone must be willing to take the abuse for a time. To be the bigger man.
Unfortunately, we must have smaller communities that interact with smaller groups of people or the cycle of altruism becomes nearly impossible to restart. Every kindness is overshadowed by thousands of evil deeds. There is too much anonymity to be able to punish the exploiters and takers. There is too large of a pool of people for our good deeds to reflect back to us. Our decisions on how to treat people in small ways is not a conscious thing but an unconscious one that comes from experience. It is very difficult to nearly impossible to control even when we know about it. Each of us is only human and we cannot hold up the entire planet’s hurt and mistrust alone. We need to be rewarded for good. We need to some reassurance that we will not always be diminished in our interactions. The calculating mammal underneath us all must know that it isn’t hopeless and pointless to give.
Evolutionary game theory has proven this out. When there is little or no likelyhood that an interaction will be repeated with an individual the dominant strategy is to always defect. It is only in a closed system that altruism pays off.
When our society is too self-centered we must isolate and rebuild our trust. We must interact with those who can trust. Only those who are not constantly being hurt can trust. In today’s society it’s become more and more difficult to do. We watch the television and see that good guys are crushed and destroyed. We’re all connected daily through twitter and facebook. the pain is passed around on a moment by moment basis. At work we are assaulted with constant attack.
This is the purpose of church: To isolate and rebuild trust in a community. For everyone to agree to forgive and treat each other with trust and openness. For everyone to expose weakness and know they will not be attacked in their weak spots but instead find someone wiling to help them tend their wounds. To create a safe place. To have a specific day on a regular basis where you do your best to give to others and they are all doing the same. This is why churches encourage dissociating with outsiders. So that the altruism doesn’t leak out of the group through contact with exploiters.
Altruism is a method of group competition so we must therefore have a group and it must be fairly small. We need a tribe. Otherwise exploitation and evil truly are the winning strategy. We are not well adapted to being a hive. Revenge and witholding will always return and begin to rot away at community. There is no such thing as maintaining a complex system. it is always getting better or getting worse. Cycling up or down.
When people work together, one and one makes three. What we have gets bigger each time I give to you and you give to me.
Altruistic resonance is a powerful but fragile thing.
I was raised an extremely devout Protestant. My mother was Scandinavian so we were therefore Calvinist. I was told bible stories from a very young age and nearly every aspect of life was related to religion in some way. Though I regularly had problems with the logical problems in modern Christianity, I typically believed it was somehow my own error in understanding or lack of knowledge. I was devout to the tips of my toes. I prayed for and about everything. I was “continually” in prayer. The thing I wanted most in life was to be special in the eyes of God. To be used as a tool for God’s glory. I prayed continually to be used as a powerful tool for him. My guilty pleasure was that I secretly hoped and believed I might one day be one of his greatest servants but felt wrong for my arrogance.
I memorized a great deal of the bible and read it quite regularly. Even though my parents had ceased attending church by my early adolescence I continued to attend regularly. This included Sunday and Wednesday nights. Even into adulthood I regularly attended church if not quite as frequently. I was an avid evangelist and regularly “witnessed” to friends. I even developed some of my own strategies for showing the error of “evilution” and some very potent demonstrations of the concept of eternity when making an emotional appeal in regards to the importance of one’s eternal soul. I truly had not the slightest beginning of doubt in my mind that Jesus was God and to not believe that meant eternity in hell, but to believe meant eternity of bliss. (Just writing these words down now and seeing the clearly designed persuasion tactics of extreme fear/reward make it seem so absurd that I once was incapable of seeing the con)
Unfortunately for the religious aspect of my person I was also extremely drawn to and fascinated by science and logic. I was passionate about it and tried to fit the bible with science. “The heavens declare the glory of God” I felt that science was the study of god’s creation and therefore a manner of learning more about God’s will. I felt that science would be a way to prove the validity of the bible. That is to say, I viewed science through the eyeglass of the bible. There was one concept that was the very underpinning of my family’s faith and that was the inerrancy of the bible as the “inspired” word of god. The concept was that God spoke through certain authors almost as though he took them over as they wrote. The bible was the word of the almighty creator of the universe and was perfect and complete. I understand now why they cling so strongly to this belief and never ever examine it …because it’s the road out of self-delusion.
The first real blow to my unshakable faith happened in early adulthood because my cousin who was like a brother to me died very suddenly in an accident. He died a non-christian and I had to face that according to my faith he was going to be tortured forever by my loving god. I knew him personally as someone who meant well by everyone and was a kind and just person. I felt that he was simply misled and misinformed but now he was being tortured at my very moment of contemplation and would be forever. I was taught my entire life that we had no right to judge god and that he was so far above us that we were mere specks of dust without importance, so I didn’t judge god as wrong but instead feared him even more.  “The fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge”
Instead I realized that I had not done enough to assure that I understood everything properly. I began to realize that my devotion to my faith and my piety were second rate at best. When a simple misinformedness can result in torture without end you better put some effort in. You better know for sure.I realized that I had too much faith that I was right. I didn’t doubt god for one moment. I knew he was there watching me and I realized that I was wasting time doing anything other than figuring out eternity. I didn’t have faith in god, I had faith in my correctness! With all the denominations and sects, there’s certainly the possibility that I was in the wrong one. We all know of those televangelists misleading people. Why did I believe my set of beliefs about Jesus? What if smoking cigarettes could send you to hell? What if simply believing in Jesus was not what Jesus required and those who taught me were misled and therefore misled me? “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Jesus’s words)
I knew that people of other religions were certainly more devout than I. I knew they were doing what they were misled into believing was what god wanted. There are people spending their entire lives in monasteries. There are people who pray all day once a week. There are those that give up all worldy possessions. There are those that martyr themselves. They perform more rituals and in general try harder to please god than I did. God is a bigger part of their life. They read scriptures all day trying to figure out what god wants of them. They spend their lives trying to please god. And when they die they’ll go directly to hell and be tortured forever for doing it the wrong way.
I redoubled my efforts. (I was scared shitless because I was a TRUE believer) I dove into the bible searching for understanding. I prayed for forgiveness from god that I examine everything about my beliefs in my pursuit of pleasing him. I began to understand that those people were misled. Everyone who was going to hell forever believed with all  that they were doing it the right way and the truth was that they weren’t examining their sources well enough. Their faith wasn’t in god but in the correctness of their pastor, family and self. Their sin was arrogance in one way, or just plain gullibility in another. It lead’s people to giving their money away to con men and their souls to charlatan’s and televangelists. Either way it’s obvious that lack of examining your own beliefs is what’s leading millions of (possibly) smarter and (certainly) more devout people into an eternity of torture.
Finally I accepted that god must know my sincerity and my soul wrenching trepidation that I was doing Him wrong. He would understand my doubt in everything I was ever taught. He would want me to examine everything because there must be a way to the truth for all of us who are misled. He would want me to ask about the credibility of my sources or he would be requiring me to believe any huckster or charlatan who might lead me to destruction. He would want me to examine the scripture because there are so many scriptures out there.
Once I put real effort into understanding historical origins and influences on the bible, that’s when I finally began to understand. When I began to recognize that my holy scripture came from a group of people who used religion for money and power and that they were people who burned you at the stake for being able to read. …that they were the most avid book burners in the world. That they tortured people for simply believing slightly differently.  That the first council of Nicea was headed by a pagan, Constantine and all that political posturing and power grabbing was what the history of my source was. Then I was really distraught!
What had they hidden? What had they destroyed? What were the beliefs of the christians from that era? What did the christians from Jesus’s era do? My eternal soul depends on this and Satan may have hidden it all away from me. We may all be going to hell! Maybe there literally is only 144,000 slots available in heaven and I’m certainly not getting a seat!!!
With enough research you begin to find out that even Peter and Paul were at odds over what was the proper way to worship. Paul actually came to a city Peter had just evangelized and told them they had been misled by him! There was a rivalry and disagreement already within the very people who walked with him. Peter was teaching a more Judaic version that Paul. But then I find out that Paul never even met Jesus! Then I find out that Paul is the one who brought in all the gentiles and that the other disciples disagreed with him early on about the very inclusion of gentiles at all. They guy who never even saw what Jesus looked like but is some tax collecting dickweed that claims to have had a big vision is also the only original source that says I can ever get to heaven.
Eventually I became so depressed that I just kinda stopped looking at it and hoped I wasn’t going to hell but was pretty sure there was a really big chance of it. (with good reason given how many denominations there are in protestantism alone) I still had science to help me figure out what god wanted of me though because the heavens were supposed to declare the glory of god. The creation is the one thing that nobody can mess with. It’s the one way god could leave a message for us that wouldn’t be screwed over by the time we heard it. So I went back to my passionate scientific study for a number of years. At the same time I was learning computer programming.
Once I began to understand computers which were like magic to me before, I began to realize there was nothing I couldn’t figure out. Then I gained an interest in the special theory of relativity. I had always been a big science fiction buff and loved all the stories of interdimensional travel and time travel. I was the biggest Star Trek buff. I loved Sliders.  I heard all these terms and wanted to know how it worked. It seemed science had started to understand some of the magic of God’s universe. I began to see however that the one thing that made all the magical stuff possible was erroneous and led to logical fallacies. All the rest of science worked like a perfect clockwork mechanism except this one thing. I was so disappointed to find out that all that cool sci-fi stuff didn’t work like that.
I researched it and spent around a year delving deeply into all the history and understanding all the experiments. How could so many people be so wrong? They’ll all be so thrilled to finally see how something went wrong. It’s science after all and the fist rule of science is skepticism. Finally I started regularly showing people how, where, when and why it went wrong. It was really an understandable set of unfortunate circumstances but then I learned that I was not the first person to understand the problem but one of many thousands. Then I began to encounter a type of hatred coming from those whose beliefs I questioned. They ridiculed anyone who believed differently. In the 70’s anyone who continued to speak out against relativity in the academic community lost their career they had worked ther lives for.
I tied to talk directly with people who seemed reasonable and showed them the historical evidence that was irrfutable. I showed them specific items that Einstein himself pointed out would invalidate his theory. Time and again it was like beating my head against a brick wall. No amount of evidence mattered to these people.
Then I realized I was one of them.
I realized that they couldn’t let go of a belief structure that was the underpinning of most of reality for them. They couldn’t count as false something that they spent their lives studying and something they based their very self worth upon. Nobody really can without paying a gigantic price. A price to heavy for most to bear. One too devastating to even approach.
That’ when I became interested in the mind. How and why we believe what we do and why it’s so hard to change. Sometimes the truth doesn’t just set you free, it devastatingly cripples you such that your ability to survive is impacted. Your confidence and social standing could be stripped from you. For some, it’s evolutionarily safer to deny a paradigm shift and fight against it. Therefore those who can better delude themselves against large shifts have developed a survival advantage. But in this process we begin to see the reason and necessity of death. Sometimes a program just can’t be updated without destroying it.
Since that time I’ve begun to understand that many ancient writings have truths in them that are worthy of respect, but that each of us is responsible to figure it out ourselves. I know for sure that I no longer have all the answers, so I think I may have made a little progress in my pilgrimage.
As a wave travels through a medium it creates a local vortex. As a vortex travels through a medium it creates a wave. A vortex can be pumped (sped up) by a wave. As a vortex degrades it gives off waves. There is no more simple and important priciple in physics. A particle is a vortex. It is one of the axioms of the SGMS TOE.
This question has plagued me since I first contemplated physics. Now, as I build a model of physics it is necessary to explain this phenomenon. After putting some thought into it and saying a little prayer to the universe I think I may have the answer.
To start let us think about a simple two dimensional vortex in water. Though it is not a real entity but a formation of particle motion in the medium we still think of it as an entity. If you are aware of my model of physics, complex vortices are the basis of particles. For better visualization, however, we’ll just pretend to play around in a pool of water. We are all aware that a vortex may remain stationary, or may move through the water. Vortices may even (sort of) bounce off each other. They appear to behave much like a particle and as such they appear to have inertia. We usually only apply the idea of inertia to something with mass and in this case we are applying it not to something massive, but something quite the opposite: a hole.
A ball, when bounced against a wall, stores energy in its deformation and then releases it allowing the energy to to continue in a new direction. I believe that in a vortex something somewhat similar is happening in the process of continuing its motion. Unfortunately, even though this is the closest analogy I can think of, it is very inaccurate. We must eventually think of waves inside the perimeter of the vortex but let us first think of a single particle of water caught in a vortex and the path that it takes when that vortex is in motion. Let us place that particle at the head of the vortex in the direction the vortex is travelling. The particle will be forced closer to the center of the vortex and as such will gain speed like an ice skater bringing in their limbs. This will cause it to then shoot out in a wider arc in the rear and then because it is farther from the center than the norm it will begin to slow down and fall back toward the the center resulting in an inch-worm movement of the particle. A sort of bouncing motion. The vortex itself may look like an elipsis (planetary orbits) with the small side in the direction of travel. The actual water particle motion relative to the medium will be very different. It will instead trace out a “spirograph-like” pattern as it rocks backward slightly and then arcs out forward to repeat the process. This pattern is seen in very earliest images of quark motion in atom smashing experiments. Instead of a single particle of water it could be seen as a wave on the inner surface of the vortex. Each time the wave passes near the front the particles are closer to the center of the vortex than a circular norm and therefore are in a higher energy state. They carve out a path in the direction of the forward motion. They are the forward stroke of a wave.
This deformation of the vortex becomes a semi-permanent feature of it and the very shape of the vortex to causes it to move in a particular direction. IE: The amount of energy in the vortex itself (vorticity) may remain a constant while the shape and distribution of energy determines the path. The deformation of the vortex may be a form of energy storage like compression of a “perfect” rubber ball.
This seems to explain the effect of a vortex in motion or stationary resisting a change to it state of motion. Any change must re-configure the energy distribution of the vortex.
While this must also be applied to more complex vortices and will surely require more detail, this seems to be an adequate framework for a first explanation of an exact mechanism for an as-yet unexplained “force”.
Background: It is very important to place these interviews in context. I was asked to provide some information that might help average guys make their way in the world and improve their love-life. Though this was my first interview and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, I hope this sharing of my experiences helps others on their journey. Though I’m sure it’s unavoidable I want to try my best to keep the truth I’ve spoken from being twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools.
It’s important to note that I came from a background of being hyper-nerdy. I was such an outcast during childhood and adolescence that in fourth grade I was never called by my name by other children, just “different”. I had almost or precisely zero friends and I very likely walked a little funny. I just couldn’t handle any social situation because I was unaware of how the social hierarchy game worked. How people get pushed around and passed over. I was so unaware of how the game was played (a game natural and unconscious to most) that I allowed verbal abuse etc. Eventually along a number of years I started to figure it out.
In the IT and programming business you meet a lot of socially-inept (read as innocent and loving) people. Unfortunately while working in that business, I saw how the most brilliant and hard working people shared that same passed-over, marginalized fate. The innovators and creators in a business usually made the least and were quickly gotten rid of. The biggest contributors were the least appreciated. It’s because self-doubt is required to build knowledge (and be intelligent) but in the the social arena self-doubt is an admission of lesser value.
I vowed to find a way to help those who were intelligent and humble learn to use the social cues of the sharks to help our group get the funding and recognition we deserve. But, of course, to also know how to keep from just switching sides. To teach the sheep/the producers who band together for protection, who are fed upon, to look dangerous to the wolves.
…To be a sheep in wolves clothing
Part 1:
One of the subjects covered here is overconsideration as a cowardly instead of considerate act. A person can perform a single act for two very different reasons. When you do things because you are afriad to make people angry or dislike you, then you are cowardly. If you do something to make their life better it is considerate. If you can’t take the 5-10 seconds required to make sure your order is right before driving away from the drive-thru then it’s pretty certain you are acting on cowardice. You’re being controlled.
This is very much like why a woman doesn’t like flower received from her request but loves them if they are a surprise. The intent: to placate versus enrich. A person will often like someone who will argue with them or offend them and risk being disliked because their intent is revealed as honest. A woman (while angry at first) may feel more loved by the honest and gentle truth that, “yes, that dress does make you look a little heavier, lets try a different dress”. Instead of the constant monotone of “You look great” of a person trying to dishonestly placate. A liar.
Part 2:
In this section I try to explain how to help eliminate guilt so that a person can move forward into change. Unfortunately I forgot to mention why. Guilt inevitably leads to denial. You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to believe exists. How can you admit even more wrong when you already feel you are bad/worthless as it is. Admitting more badness feels unbearable. By separating our “intent” selves from the problematic past actor we can see how we were somewhat innocently screwing up. Once we see how and why we screw up we can work on a plan of action to change. This is very much what paul was talking about in the new testament: Romans 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (sin nature=monkey instincts)
Part 3:
I try to explain how a child feels like a guilty outsider from a lack of forgiveness but get a little derailed apparently. I then try to explain how we may carry out complex behaviors we are unaware of. What I am attempting to communicate is a continuation of the earlier conversation in that by seeing that we have many possibly motivators for our actions we can start to undo our self delusions and look at ourselves objectively. Through this looking glass we can better recognize how instincts and other complex situations might have overwhelmed our conscious mind. We can be on the lookout in the future for similar situations and better control ourself through sidestepping similar situations or by planning to take a different action next time.
Part 4:
After re-watching this I suddenly realized I was teaching another very christian message. Almost an “All have sinned and come short of the glory of god” message about our intrisic nature and how our instincts lead us astray. You’ll find that the removal of guilt granted by forgiveness in christianity I find to be a mechanism for real change. By eliminating guilt we short-circuit a survival mechanism which would lead to more self-centered, bad behavior and more guilt.
Part 5
In this section I try to reveal how fault etc is somewhat of an illusion. Accepting the factual nature of your missteps while understanding the irrelevancy of fault. Seeing mistakes as a step in the right direction when recognized, even though they did harm the lesson ensures a brighter future. Also recognizing that we are all just silly monkeys running into eachother with sharp objects. Unfortunately I must also qualify the section with a further bit of balance. You must be aware that perfect forgiveness is pacifism. Perfect forgiveness is a mistake of balance and is a way of death. We cannot allow others to take everything from us. There are those who will take an unlimited amount from us and while we should not hate them or even judge them, we should avoid them. A very good instance of this is when people look down on you or believe ill of you, if they are a person you respect or love you will think highly of their low opinion. You will believe them. If they cannot stop communicating to you that you are bad or evil in some way after you have given them a chance to cease hurting you, you must defend yourself and the best way is to leave their presence. Otherwise you will allow them to destroy your self image and instill guilt. Instead you must try to keep a friendly and healthy distance.
Jeez, there was even some judge not lest ye be judged in there. I’ll have to attempt to fit more wisdom of other religions in future talks and not focus so strongly on christian lessons alone. Hey, nobody is perfect. 😉
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.Â
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.
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 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.
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 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.
