201–210 of 223 posts
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We've just discovered that most of the world is made of "dark" matter of unknown origin. Clearly, what we know is just a thin layer of reality. And even about this thin layer we know very little.
Yes there are clearly real magic questions like why are we, where are we etc but not if we have a soul
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What is "materiality"? Electrons guided by magnetic field that form one universal wave function? In that case even the hardcore materialists are fundamentally in agreement with mysticism.
No they aren't, despite the superficial similarity, and I think you know it. At best you haven't actually thought about the difference between a measurable field defined by math and a mystical "field" ultimately defined by feelings.
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No they aren't, despite the superficial similarity, and I think you know it. At best you haven't actually thought about the difference between a measurable field defined by math and a mystical "field" ultimately defined by feelings.
"Mysticism" is a belief that everything and everyone are different manifestations of the one (law, origin, something that's beyond words and imagination). Science is a belief that there is one universal law of nature and that everything is its different manifestations.
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"Mysticism" is a belief that everything and everyone are different manifestations of the one (law, origin, something that's beyond words and imagination). Science is a belief that there is one universal law of nature and that everything is its different manifestations.
> superficial similarity
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I used to do this a lot as a kid. Ascribing high meaning to tiny things like words or patterns. Some of it was just plain magical thinking. Later I learned it's called the "Hindsight Bias" usually mixed in with a little grandiosity and juvenile narcissism. I never understood why no-one could see my genius! Being a teenager is so cringey in retrospect... Although, as a buddhist I like to think of the meaning of life a…
Yeah, I was just having fun with it. I was reared in a spiritualistic environment, so I kinda know the lingo. So help me if I actually believed those words I wrote :)
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I had open heart surgery once, and was given a lot of drugs. It was extremely intense and strange, and I felt like I was at the edge of discovering something immensely important. In retrospect I believe I learned nothing.
I think I posted it on here before but I recall a story of someone who said they would speak to God on LSD and that everything was profound. So one time they decided to ask "God" what the meaning of life was and they would write it down to study the next day. The next day all that was written down was "Walls". It felt profound but meant nothing. That is unless walls is the answer and it is just too blunt for us to un…
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> However, anyone who has done respectable doses of psychedelics probably agrees with me that there’s a bit more to dreams, NDE and afterlife than “random” neurological firings. On what is this reasoning based? Do you have any idea of what “random neurological firings” can actually do? Particularly considering that you are not in a situation to understand what is happening when your own brain does its thing, so how c…
> But it’s not magical either. What is the meaning of magical in this context though?
Similarly, I think a lot of skeptics will be surprised when they're dying and realize that the pop culture tropes are fairly accurate. Memories being replayed in vivid detail, a light at the end of a tunnel, etc. Where do you think these ideas are coming from if not first-hand experience?