Spiritual Influences

[Pyromancer]

Another thing that Thich Nhat Hạnh said, “The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy”, kind of knocked me on my ass. I know I've been guilty many times of the "If only" mentality. I'd be happy, if only...

I've also read some of John Cabot Zinn's stuff on mindfulness and Be Here Now by Ram Dass.

IDK...all of it...something to aspire to...

[Virge]

I can't believe you guys have been talking about spirituality and not mentioned all the great things done by Katie Perry and Beyonce.

[East]

I can't believe you guys have been talking about spirituality and not mentioned all the great things done by Katie Perry and Beyonce.

LOL...yeah...I can't imagine why they haven't been mentioned yet

[TwisttheLeaf]

I don't have anytthing to add, I just wanted to plop down a post of appreciation. I've enjoyed the discussion between [MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION] and [MENTION=12444]Bowyn Aerrow[/MENTION]

[meridannight]

LSD is an interesting side road here, as it demonstrates that chemical influences in the brain can trigger the sense of greater or higher spiritual awareness. Things like fasting, isolation, meditative trance induced states can also produce changes in the brain chemistry and wave forms to bring about the experiences that we relate to the label of 'spiritual experience'.

These have been studied by science and things like chemical changes and brain wave changes do take place in the brain through the sheer intent of a trained individual. One can 'think' ones own brain into odd patterns and change the chemistry to produce effects which are not the common everyday experience of being awake.

Science has yet to say exactly why it is the schizophrenic has such a 'faith based' experience and expression of the illness. Science has yet to fully satisfy the spiritual connection that LSD provides. They know something is going on chemically but what exactly - they don't know. They also don't know the primary causes of epilepsy. They can see it happening in EEG's, yet they cannot find an organic or physical cause in most cases.

So yes, it is possible that human beings come equipped with 'other' brain function which allows for connection with the spiritual realm. Perhaps we all have epilepsy to one degree or another, just some of us have it a lot more and it becomes a problem. Perhaps we are all schizophrenics, just some of us get stuck in that mode and can't escape.

the spiritual has to do with the emotional need of the individual. it's an emotional need that manifests in odd beliefs. some people have this need, others don't. but the spirituality is in the individual, not in the outside world.

your first part of the post describes the basic idea behind what's going on in schizophrenia. it's in the brain chemistry, it's only the individual that interprets it as ''spiritual''. it's not a physical characteristic of the external world/environment. it's an internal characteristic of the brain. and then in the second part you imply as if there might be some actual ''spiritual realm'' in existence that the schizophrenics can tap into. the two parts are incompatible with each other.

i don't know if schizophrenia has been 100% explained by science, i am not that up to date on this subject, but science has explained a lot of what's going on in the schizophrenic brain. it's all in the physiology and brain function, which might be due to genetic or environmental factors, or both. there's no need to invoke some mysterious ''spiritual realm'' to explain it.

schizophrenia neurological basis

[MikeW]

I'm going to insert a video I watched recently into this conversation. … I'd like to see the conversation continue.

I'm not saying I "agree" with this video or "believe" what it has to say, but I do find it interesting… especially where it uses the analogy of the way Faraday's research was regarded as "suspect" in the early 1800s but now has become not only a major part of our daily lives but has helped reshape our understanding of what "materiality" is. The suggest is, we don't really understand "consciousness" -- and (from my own observations) I do agree with this.




Comments welcome.

[MikeW]

Ah… the above reminded me of another little video (a bit longer than above) I quite like. I don't know how many, if any, of you have heard of the ethnobotenist, Terrance McKenna. He's a man of my psychedelic generation and I regard him as one of the geniuses of the past century. (I say this knowing full well many of his ideas are beyond controversial. However, having once spent a long weekend with the man, I'm convinced he was a genius and only slightly insane.) He once said something to the effect, "If human evolution isn't about the evolution of consciousness, then what is it about?" I suspect this talk was recorded in the mid 1990s…

[ShiftyNJ]

I'm pretty grounded in my Christianity although I take GREAT liberty with doctrine, which is sort of encouraged in my denomination. I just finished reading a book which talked about something called "polydoxy" in which you look at all faiths with openness, and extract meaning where you will, but accept their validity for others, vs. the "one true church" type fundamentalist/denominational mindset. I really like that idea, although I think it will take some work to get there.