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02-10-2016 Mindfulness meditation can help depression, too. It changes the brain after only 8 weeks.Here's a free class http://palousemindfulness.com/ |
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03-10-2016
Glad you've found something that helps, Brian! Did you feel depression-free within 8 weeks? Anything you'd like to share regarding this method? |
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18-10-2016 Well, I don’t want to discourage anyone from practicing mindfulness who thinks that it is contributing to his well-being. It has become very fashionable to propagate it as something that is unquestionable good for one’s mental health. But that might be a dangerous delusion. I see it not only as not working well (in the long term) but also as something potentially dangerous for some: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/25/mental-health-meditation . All of that is not surprising, of course. Meditation (including mindfulness) along with other exercises, is practiced in eastern cultures and religious contexts, not with the goal to make one feel good (though that might happen from time to time to) or overcoming depression, but to overcome Maya, to become spiritually enlightened (or as I call it: mental suicide). And this is not always nice, good and fluffy. Instead it can be quite the opposite. A long period of a kind of existential depression is considered as relatively typical and normal, by some. So if someone is practicing to lift up one’s depression, things might just get worse. Really worse. As many of eastern practices became quite popular in recent years, practiced, propagated and thought by idiots who don’t know what they are doing, I predict a kind of epidemic of mental health issues which is related to such practices.I was regular meditator some years ago, and became a real wacko, worse than any acid-head: I became a kind of a Voidist! So let this be a warning to all of you! See, I don’t understand these western metaphysical theories, nether idealism nor materialism. Not that they are totally wrong. But consciousness as well as matter along with energy, space and time are just cheap, lower grade emergent properties of the void. Disharmonies, violent disturbances, painful knots in the great wave function, which, at its core is also empty, that underlies our reality. Be silent, empty your mind, be still … and may hear the universe crying! It’s the void, the great space-less and timeless abyss that underlies our hole reality. You might reject this as the musings and speculations of madman. No...our reality is real, solid, stable, understandable (at least in principle), things go their ways in an orderly fashion, you insist? Well, how can I reply to that. Our minds, along with cognitive structures, trough which we structure and perceive the world, are the product evolution and natural selection, right? What if our so called physical reality as it is, would just too disturbing for our poor little minds? Everyone who could perceive it at it is, would immediately be driven into insanity…surely evolution would have selected out such individuals. So what we've got are minds and cognitive structures that just allow us navigate our everyday world via crude and simplistic mental representations that are not tooo disturbing to us. Objects, cause and effect … things make sense to us. So we are gifted with the feeling of understanding, though the cognition through which we think we understand, only provides us absurdly crude abstractions, serving only the selfish interests of the organism: to predict and control. There a many who are convinced that reality as we perceive it, is pretty much as it is. The problem: We don't see what we don't see. Unable to perceive anything our biological programming doesn't allow us to see. Nature is very economical, so everything which doesn't serve the purpose of survival, eg. something that would just threaten our mental stability, gets thrown out of our cognitive system. But of course, evolution is messy and not everyone is that lucky: Some sufferers of mental illnesses and so called neurological 'disorders' report weird disturbances of self and reality, disordered perceptions of time and space. Thank god we have experts who assure us things are just fine, everything is okay, and label such individuals, to our satisfaction and reassurance, as schizophrenics and psychotics. These people have just damaged brains, they say, and we are eager to believe them. Sure they are disturbed…but not something that isn’t real, but by things that very real, all too real... And I think that also meditation may be able to break up these cognitive safety zones. If you are lucky you are able to deal with that..if not..well… let's hope you have a good mental hospital nearby. Soo… ladies and gentleman, dear pessimists, neurotic basement-dwellers and cat ladies… reality is not only bad and holds a lot of great sufferings for us. It’s also disturbingly weird, a chaotic turbulent cosmic madhouse. So good night, and sleep well…. |
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18-10-2016 Btw, Irina, sorry if I clutter your comment section with my crap that has nothing to do with the OT. Sometimes I just got carried away without noticing, when I just want to answer with one or two sentences. Sorry |
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19-10-2016
I especially value your long comments, my lazy ass can't find inspiration to write as I have before, thankfully, you can fill the void at least from the comments ection :P |
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19-10-2016 irina,i have been checking your website regularly for a long time now. i rarely reach out through the internet, but i cannot ignore the fact that there are many points of convergence: books you read, philosophy, some history across the border. i realize that you probably get a lot of e-mails & requests, but decided to leave a short message nevertheless. i imagine that you can see my e-mail address so... i will leave it at that. in the meantime thank you for putting your thoughts out there. i enjoyed getting to know you. hg ps. just a note - i am a female possibly around your age (?), so no romantic interest there. just thought i should throw it in knowing how internet works. |
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22-10-2016 Well, Iriana, I hope that you can find some inspiration to write again – maybe about different topics – if you feel that you have already said everything you wanted to say about Antinatalism and Pessimism. You know, I just like your style . I am especially a lazy-ass during this season. Here it’s always foggy and rainy – I just could sleep the whole day – and I really need to force myself to do ANYTHING. Uugh!About meditation again: The former comment was only half-serious, but now I am dead-serious. I think there is a culture of dishonesty that surrounds the hole mediation-scene. Despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, it’s sold as something that’s good for everyone, will make people feel good and happy..And some mediation propagators and teachers do know that this is actually not case, while other are just in denial about that for whatever reasons. Some say that they just don’t want to be suggestive in a negative way – by talking about possible undesirable side effects. But I don’t buy that at all. They just don’t want to hurt their business or ideology. Hope always was and is a bestseller – especially in the form ultimate solutions. Being honest, pointing out pros and cons in nuanced way, not so much..ultimate salvation fantasies just sell better. Btw, I am not against meditation in general. If someone practices it in sort of psychonautic way, a way of inducing altered states, gaining better insight into the human condition, meta-cognition, or the nature of reality or whatever. But don’t expect that this necessary will make one feel good and permanently happy (at least in the usual way). So it has its place. But as therapeutic tool or to make ones fucked up life work, to bring happiness in one’s life, that’s seriously questionable. I think this current meditation-trend is really worrisome – and people are expecting the wrong thinks from such practices. If you don’t believe me and convince you (what do I know anyway?), maybe an experienced mediation-teacher can: http://www.lorinroche.com/dangers/homeless.html I hope you are relatively well off, Irina, and I hope we can read something from you again. Or you could do new videos if youre too lazy to write...and if you haven't something substantials to say, you can always dance in a bikini (...still waiting for it .. ). Or If want be super provocative you could to an burkini streaptease...ahh yes ,that would be it! Genious! But ok, I better stop now before I get any worse ideas. --- > Edited 22-10-2016 15:34:21 |
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27-10-2016 Irina,I caught lyme disease 2 months ago and was diagnosed. It's a bacteria from a tick. I caught it early so I should be fine with some anti-biotics in a few weeks, I hope. I was so depressed a month ago that I went to a Catholic Church up the street from me because my old college fraternity brother (I never knew him well) was a Priest. We met and talked about life, atheism, politics, etc., for an hour. I was impressed. Long story short, I joined after 10 years as an Atheist. In 30 years, you may see me as the Pope. (JK) )) Hope you are well! |
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28-10-2016
Hey Brian, Sorry you got sick, I know about lyme disease, yep, you should be fine if you treat it early. Jesus! You founf Jesus? Haha))) Well, ok, at least you're not converting to Islam (or as Muslims insist - 'reverting', because we are all Muslim from birth somehow, they claim) I've been religious, years ago, back at school and first year of college, I think. Joining a church is free, that's part of the success, while joining a therapy group isn't, although I'd recommend the latter for trying to tackle depression. Religious answers are full of holes, but sometimes you're ready to accept those because they bring some comfort. Some people seem to be capable of believing for decades though, find it hard to imagine given the problem of evil and all but people are different... Oh well, hope your chirch has good musical repertoir :D some chubby singing black women - they're the best, lol. |
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27-10-2016 @Brian Oh, no, you fell into the trap!I had a friend whose nephew got lyme disease from a tick in Arizona, but I am not sure how he is doing. Recently a woman failed to yield at an intersection and totaled my car, broke my hand, and bruised my spine. Not being able to do much while in pain and with a dysfunctional hand, I spent a lot of time walking to reduce problems from lack of exercise. While rounding a lake, several religious zealots surrounded me and asked what happened to my hand. I told them I had been in a car accident and it had been broken. They asked me, "Are you praising and praying to gawd"? And I asked them why they asked that. They said, "Because you could have been killed, but gawd saved your life!" I told them, "How ridiculous! It is gawd that totaled my car and broke my hand, more likely!" Religion preys on people who are in peril and struggling. The price may seem cheap at the time, but it is your mind, which is too high a price for me to pay. |
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02-11-2016 Spasibo Irina.Last week one of the Deacon's at the Church dropped dead at home with his family. He was 71 and 10 minutes before he died, he randomly said he wanted to pass quickly like his family did. Maybe he's in heaven? Who knows? |
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02-11-2016 Kirk,Were they Mormons? Do you know the denomination? |
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02-11-2016 @Brian I don't think so, but I don't know. There are a lot of evangelical converts from Catholicism here from Mexico, and the conversation was completely in Spanish, as they did not speak English. Why do you ask? This type of thinking pervades most religious people, regardless. |
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04-11-2016 Hi Irina, you are a very interesting person. As a Ukrainian born vegan, may I ask you whether you would be interested to answer these 55 questions (most of them are ethical)?http://fruitarians.net/55-questions |
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05-11-2016
Hi Lena, thanks. But no, I couldn't bring myself to spend so much time, as you see, I'm not even updating my blog that often. What is the main goal of such a lengthy questionnaire and what would you think motivate a person to fill it out? )) |
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05-11-2016 Thanks for considering it Irina, I understand. The main goal is probably to satisfy my curiosity. |
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