confident enough to own my hippie bullshit

[enth]

This radical idea has already occurred to others, but yeah, it totally seems like there are times when reality is trying to find new situations to put you in, so you can learn to handle situations you were not at all curious about in the first place. Doesn't it? Like, here, you thought you'd had a grasp on things, but let's see if you can deal with

Comments

[amphitrite8]

I should meditate more often, feel more connected with my self, listen in and hear what I need to focus on....

sorry hippie rumble jumble...

yeah, things get easier with experience.

*hugz* Jack <3 <3 <3

[glowing_fish]

Me and the COOL HIPSTER KIDS in Portland might have to have a board of inquiry to make sure you are not drifting into some type of incorrect, and more importantly, TACKY, belief systems.

[enth]

i urge you and your "hip" friends to get in touch with your spiritual sides. pray for me, matthew glowing fish.

[glowing_fish]

I will add you to the list!

[dymaxion]

Don't make me lend you a book on Zen. ;-)

[glitterus]

As you know I kind of read up on these things. There are some theories floating around right now that I have not yet fully investigated that basically purport that "magical thinking" may be one of the factors for our success as the hilariously manic human apes that we are. One theory I love (so far) in particular suggests that practices like prayer and superstition allowed us to succeed despite failure or undesirable outcomes. Most animals when they take an action that results in a non-beneficial or even painful event, will no longer take those actions, however humans are able to take actions that either provide no immediate feedback or initially painful feedback with the "hope" of success despite it being counter intuitive. Magical thinking is very much centered around costly and counter intuitive actions and perspectives. (There are many interesting problems with this theory that are hard to investigate because psychology is not a hard science and cognitive science is pretty dang meta

[enth]

Thank you! I keep trying. And trying not to be a dick when I do ok or defeatist when not. Shit, who even knows.

From my POV it's like -- and we may have had this conversation already -- what you're looking for is more marketing than anything else. That is, how to sell the most radical parts of the athiest/non-religious community (i.e. the ones who buy books and otherwise explore their, um, disbelief) the idea that there are techniques that have traditionally belonged to religion that can nonetheless be useful to them, personally. Meditation especially has already gotten some traction, but figuring out how to so much as talk about prayer without a higher power for context is, yeah, difficult.

Part of me wants magical thinking to be epiphenomenal rather than meaningful, though :-/ A justification mechanism rather than something that is workable as a legitimate tool, maybe? The boundary between what is inherently built into our brains and what we do with that consciously and unconsciously is so ill understood though, who even knows?

[suxdonut]

i prayed when i was a kid and beleived in jebus, and when i became more agnostic i just opened it up to, basically, whoevers listening including myself. playing the odds, you might say, but hey, just putting my questions and earnest wishes out there.