New Show: MindMatters (RIP Truth Perspective)

Here’s a recent review study on NDEs.

Near-death experiences (NDEs) including out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been fascinating phenomena of perception both for affected persons and for communities in science and medicine. Modern progress in the recording of changing brain functions during the time between clinical death and brain death opened the perspective to address and understand the generation of NDEs in brain states of altered consciousness. Changes of consciousness can experimentally be induced in well-controlled clinical or laboratory settings. Reports of the persons having experienced the changes can inform about the similarity of the experiences with those from original NDEs. Thus, we collected neuro-functional models of NDEs including OBEs with experimental backgrounds of drug consumption, epilepsy, brain stimulation, and ischemic stress, and included so far largely unappreciated data from fighter pilot tests under gravitational stress generating cephalic nervous system ischemia. Since we found a large overlap of NDE themes or topics from original NDE reports with those from neuro-functional NDE models, we can state that, collectively, the models offer scientifically appropriate causal explanations for the occurrence of NDEs. The generation of OBEs, one of the NDE themes, can be localized in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) of the brain, a multimodal association area. The evaluated literature suggests that NDEs may emerge as hallucination-like phenomena from a brain in altered states of consciousness (ASCs).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Neuro-functional modeling of near-death experiences in contexts of altered states of consciousness

Near-death experiences (NDEs) including out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been fascinating phenomena of perception both for affected persons and for communities in science and medicine. Modern progress in the recording of changing brain functions during ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Grant was a very interesting guest who we hope to have back on in the not-too-distant-future:

MindMatters: "It Was Always Illegal": Grant Smith on Army Mandates, Resisting the Machine & Exercise for Health​

Grant Smith is a US Army Physical Therapist and author of the "H2F Man" and "Radical American Mind" blogs. He also co-hosts the 5th Gen Leadership and Tonic Seven podcasts. Today we discuss his experiences during plague times - the hypocrisy and delusion he saw in the armed services' policies and actions, and how he successfully resisted the pressures and managed to keep his job - why he joined the Army in the first place, and how he found a place within it that aligned with his values and goals. In the last segment we get into the research and methods of fitness and exercise and Grant shares some central principles to follow in order to optimally train your tissues, whatever your current health status.
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The MindMatters crew had a chance to delve into this wonderful little volume of wisdom that was just full of insights to mull over and reflect on. Enjoy.

MindMatters: Freedom in Tyranny: Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage​


1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, The Gulag Archipelago - there are many great books on 20th-century totalitarianism. But few of them have the power and poetry of Ernst Jünger's 1951 The Forest Passage. Both a man of his time - and ahead of his time - the German-born Jünger was not only a staunch but careful critic of tyranny; he could see through the "soft power" manipulations of much subtler forms of centralized oppression as well. And call it out for exactly what it was.

Given Jünger's broad vision and deep insight, one could be forgiven for thinking that the The Forest Passage was written only yesterday. It is packed with perennial truths that apply to the politics and psychology of Western civilization over the last 100 or so years. Join us this week on MindMatters as we give Ernst Jünger's gem of a book its due, and begin to explore what it means to be, or become, a 'forest rebel'.
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We had the opportunity to speak with author Sandra L. Brown and pick up where we left off in this thread:

MindMatters: Women Who Love Psychopaths - A Retrospective and Introspective with Sandra Brown​


Psychotherapist, educator, researcher, and author of the books Women Who Love Psychopaths, How to Spot a Dangerous Man, and many others, Sandra L. Brown's insights have helped many face - and heal from - the damage inflicted by psychopaths and the personality disordered. Expanding on her work as a therapist and author, Sandra Brown has developed the training for thousands of therapists who now understand, and are better able to treat, cognitive dissonance, PTSD, and the neurocognitive damage to executive brain function that many victims suffer.

Join us this week on MindMatters as we look back at Sandra Brown's influential writings, what she's been working on since the release of her books, and how her views and perspectives since then might affect what she'd focus on if she were writing these books today - more than 18 years later.
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There was, and is, so much to say about this little volume, that the crew got together to discuss it further for this second installment:

MindMatters: The Road Best Traveled: Ernst Jünger's Forest Passage​


What is freedom? Where may it be found and accessed? How does it become actualized from within the individual? And if we are to become free - then what are we to be free from? In this second discussion of Ernst Jünger's seminal book The Forest Passage we follow along with the author's many thoughts on what it means to be free. Concerning political bodies, the media, institutionalized medicine, and organized religion - what, if any, is the most fruitful approach to take in response to their diktats or guidelines? Where does free will, in the truest sense of the term, fit in to our responses? And if we are to face our fears and find a way to resist the tide of totalitarianism how should one approach the possible suffering that will likely be involved?

With the heart of a poet, and the mind of a realist, Ernst Jünger has given us much to ponder as we reflect on what he means by becoming a 'forest rebel'. Join us this week on MindMatters as we delve further into his world view, and a road from which we may find a path to the future.
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Thanks for the new show, but some reason I couldn’t listen from my podcast today. So I had to listened from here. Hope everything goes well with your projects.
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I'm pretty sure we never had so much to think about and comment on from such a small book before.

MindMatters: The Unbroken Individual Is the True Source of Moral Responsibility​

This week on MindMatters we take a third and final look at the prescient and resounding thoughts of Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage and reflect on what it means - in the philosophical and practical sense - to be a forest walker, or forest rebel. For our previous episodes on the book see:
How one resists and chooses to respond to totalitarianism is at least as crucial as making the choice itself. But what are some of the many considerations involved? What inner resources does one draw upon and where might one find the light that helps to make the best of all choices? What does one fall back on when many of the institutions that are meant to morally support a society have been effectively gutted, or done away with completely? What is the responsibility of an unbroken and 'concrete individual' to step in and rectify institutional failure to some degree? And where does the power of the spoken or written word fit into this complex equation?
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For those of us who may have thought Paul Babiak and Robert Hare (co-authors of Snakes in Suits) were the only ones taking a serious look at psychopathy in the workplace, have a listen to our interview with Dr. Clive Boddy:

MindMatters: Unmasking Psychopaths and Narcissists in Business and Politics - with Dr. Clive Boddy​

Clive Boddy is Associate Professor of Management at Anglia Ruskin University, a leading researcher in the field of corporate psychopathy, and author of the book 'A Climate Of Fear: Stone Cold Psychopaths At Work'. Today on MindMatters, we interview Clive about his research, why psychopaths do not make good leaders (despite claims to the contrary), how they contribute to employee job satisfaction, and how toxic leadership intersects with incompetent leadership. Once a taboo subject, corporate psychopathy has gained widespread acknowledgment in the last decade or so. But another related subject is only now breaking through academia and public consciousness: political psychopathy. Clive discusses his own work in that field as well, with comments on screening politicians for psychopathy. We even talk about Star Wars.
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Thanks for the talk guys.

With much discussion related to workplaces (different levels, recruiting, assessing), including Robert Hare's work, here is Robert's shorter talk on the subject of corporations:


Part of what was discussed in the show was in how to change corporate structures (even social structures) - and where to even begin? Clive, and rightly so, brought up the best attributes being that of nurturing and care. This is natural, and years ago would agree, yet in a woke-ish word, in a covid world, in a AGW world, what passed for nurturing and care seems to also have found and followed incredibly damaging views/actions. In someways, it might be argued that these attributes were weaponized (think of the Behavioral Insights Groups who manipulated - like BIT). If so, perhaps it is more that a hysterical overly narcissistic society was conditioned to take up the façade of nurture/care, and 'act' unto its name while doing the opposite. If again so, much might be based on exploiting nurture/care in Health, workplaces and government - reduce carbon, while 'keeping you safe' from viruses to racisms (and even Putin), and look where things are now. Perhaps a better attribute would simply be people with discernment, looking right and left and allowing views to be discussed.

Not to be overly pessimistic that change could not suddenly take place in the corporate world (probably needing a strong desired push through HR and the end of unfettered monopolies), given our times, these would be slow changes that might take decades to accomplish, starting first with the education system that would need to be reinvigorated with competence and curriculum, including a broader view of psychopathy - a population forewarned/forearmed.

A cavate to change, is how would it look in a world that is slipping to AI? Would Hare say of AI what he says of corporations and psychopathy (what Robert says of the latter is "that to a very large extent, I would imagine")? I don't know.
 
Inspired by the Mindmatters' review of Ernst Junger’s The Forest Passage I decided to read it, and I felt like the message was both very simple but at the same time complex, like each statement was a self-similar fractal. The chief villain in the treatise is the automatism and bureaucratization of state control over the lives of individuals. The book starts off with the overt sentiment that elections are not the place where freedom is found – that participation in elections even to give a resounding “No” to the “Yes” of mass media-driven public opinion and the interests behind it in its own way legitimizes the process of "democracy". In reality the deeper implication is that there is no saying “No” to more government intervention and power over people’s lives.

The only way to say “No” in such a way that the power of the state is undermined instead of transformed is to become what Junger calls a “Forest Rebel.” The Forest Rebel’s place is in the Forest Passage, which is a timeless space where a person can reconnect with their own essence and capacity for freedom of decision and sovereignty. In addition to the Forest Passage the idea of a ship approaching catastrophe is used as a metaphor for the state and its increasing automatism and its inducement of people to increasingly mechanical and fear-based manifestations of life, disconnecting people from their essence and their actual capacity to choose a different life.

To Junger a Forest Rebel has to operate in both worlds, both as a member on this ship and as one in the Forest Passage.

Section 33 stuck out for me:

Can the being in man be destroyed? The views differ on this question, not only of confessions but also of religions—it is a question that only faith can answer. Whether this being is conceived as salvation, as the soul, or man’s eternal cosmic homeland-—it will always be evident that the attacks on it must originate from the darkest abyss. Even in today’s world, where the prevailing ideas barely grasp the surface of the process, it is sensed that offensives are underway with other objectives than mere dispossession or liquidation. The charge of “soul murder” is born from intuitions like these.

An expression like this could only be coined by an already enfeebled spirit. Anyone with a concept of immortality and the orders based on immortality must find the expression objectionable. Where there is immortality, indeed, where only the belief in it is present, there points may be assumed where violence or any other earthly force cannot reach or damage man, let alone destroy him. The forest is a sanctuary.

The panic so widely observable today is the expression of an emaciated spirit, of a passive nihilism that provokes its active counterpart. Of course, no one is easier to terrorize than the person who believes that everything is over when his fleeting phenomenon is extinguished. The new slaveholders have realized this, and this explains the importance for them of materialistic theories, which serve to shatter the old order during the insurrection and to perpetuate the reign of terror afterwards. No bastion is to be left standing where a man may feel unassailable and therefore unafraid.

To oppose this, it is essential to know that every man is immortal and that there is eternal life in him, an unexplored and yet inhabited land, which, though he himself may deny its existence, no timely power can ever take from him. For many, indeed for most, the access to this life will resemble a well into which rubble and rubbish have been thrown for centuries. Yet, if someone manages to clear it out, they will not only rediscover the spring but also the old images. Man is infinitely wealthier than he suspects. It is a wealth that no one can steal from him, and in the course of time it wells up, again and again, above all when pain has dredged out the depths.

This is what man really wants to know. Here is the germ of his temporal anxiety, the cause of his thirst, which grows in the desert— this desert that is time. The more time dilates, the more conscious and compelling but also empty it becomes in its tiniest fractions, the more will burn the thirst for orders that transcend time.

Man thus dying of thirst looks quite correctly to the theologian to alleviate his suffering, to alleviate it according to the original theological model of the staff striking water from the rock. If today we observe the spirit turning to philosophers for answers to this supreme question and contenting itself with increasingly discounted interpretations of the world, this is not a sign that the foundations have changed but rather that the intermediaries are no longer called behind the curtain. In such circumstances science is a better option, because some of the rubble blocking the approaches is also formed by the grand old words, which first became conventions, then annoyances, and in the end are simply boring.

The words move with the ship; the home of the Word is the forest. The Word lies beneath the words like a gold base coat on an early painting. When the Word no longer animates the words, a horrible silence spreads under their deluge—at first in the temples, which are transformed into pretentious tombs, then in the forecourts.

A very significant event here is philosophy’s turn from knowledge to language; it brings the spirit back into close contact with a primal phenomenon. This is more important than any physical discovery. The thinker enters a field in which an alliance is finally possible again with the theologian, and with the poet.
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The summary given in the book itself is as follows.

SUMMARY
(1) The questions put to us are simplified and made more incisive.
(2) They drive us to an either-or decision, as revealed in elections.
(3) The freedom to say no is systematically excluded.
(4) This is intended to demonstrate the superiority of the questioner, and (5) it turns a nay into a venture that only one in a hundred will dare.
(6) The arena for this venture is strategically ill-chosen.
(7) This is no objection to its ethical significance.
(8) The forest passage is freedom’s new answer.
(9) Free men are powerful, even in tiny minorities.
(10) Our present epoch is poor in great men, but it brings figures to the light.
(11) The danger leads to the formation of small elites.
(12) The figures of the Worker and the Unknown Soldier are joined by a third, the Forest Rebel.
(13) Fear (14) can be conquered by the individual, (15) once he realizes his power.
(16) The forest passage, as free action in the face of catastrophe, (17) is independent of the foreground political technicalities and their groupings.
(18) It does not contradict the development, (19) but brings freedom into it through the decisions of the individual.
(20) In the forest passage there is a meeting of man with himself in his undivided and indestructible substance. (21) This meeting banishes the fear of death.
(22) Even the churches can only lend a hand here, (23) since man stands alone in his choices.
(24) The theologian may be able to make his situation clear to him (25) but cannot deliver him from it.
(26) The forest rebel crosses the null-meridian under his own power.
(27) In the questions of healthcare, (28) law, (29) and arms, he takes his own sovereign decisions.
(30) Morally, too, he does not act according to any doctrine (31) and reserves the right to judge the law for himself. He takes no part in the cult of crime.
(32) He decides what to consider property and how he will defend. At (33) He is aware of the inviolable depths (34) from which the Word rises up to constantly fulfill the world. Here lies the task of being “here and now.”
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I feel like the kind of man Junger describes is very rare in this world. I see some people around there, who became more like public figures since the Covid madness took over for a few years and who stood up to tyranny. Reading this book I felt challenged in some ways, not unlike with some of the sentiments which came up in the Shouldn't we be fighting this? thread, like maybe I myself didn't stand up enough to the tyrannical measures there. More fundamentally though the forest passage is about seeing ourselves as immortal in spite of all that fear tries to make us believe about reality, and that the invisible world is our ultimate sanctuary, where we have power to venture as far or as little away from that space, deciding from a place of sovereignty what hills are worth dying on, and so on.

Thanks for the recommendation MindMatters.
 
In this latest show we got to discuss wokism (and much more really) - but with a guest who comes at this subject from a much more clinical pov:

MindMatters: Cold-blooded Kindess: The Longhouse Mentality and Psychopathology - with Dr. J.D. Haltigan​


J.D. Haltigan is a developmental and evolutionary psychologist who writes the Multilevel Mailer on Substack. His research and writing focuses on psychopathology, social media-induced mental illness in the young, and the psychological phenomena underlying Woke ideology and the culture wars. Lately he has been writing about the negative effects of traits like compassion and empathy when not balanced and held in check by trait systematization. J.D. has also written a review of Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology tying its insight to our current sociopolitical situation.

How does a doctor of Developmental and Evolutionary Psychopathology see psychopathology at play within academia - from the inside out as it were? Gender ideology, race differences, the censorship complex, emotional dysregulation, leftwing authoritarianism, 'vulnerable narcissism', the weaponization of compassion, etc. - there is a whole slew of prominent features and developments in academia (and Western society as a whole) that, to the classically trained academic of psychopathology, are hard to ignore. And ignore it he doesn't - even if it means taking a step back and away from some of the institutions he would normally be working within.

This week on MindMatters J.D. Haltigan, PhD, gives us his unique perspective on what's wrong with the woke and culturally Marxist mindset so prevalent today in many of the West's top schools. And using his background and research, delves into such questions as how pathology has become something of an evolutionary strategy, how the most prominent traits of men and women have been skewed and weaponized, and just where political ponerology fits in with all that we're seeing.
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Caught the show guys, and thanks.

From the shows description, JD "delves into such questions as how pathology has become something of an evolutionary strategy, how the most prominent traits of men and women have been skewed and weaponized, and just where political ponerology fits in with all that we're seeing."

From a standpoint of knowing what was before (never perfect), and also dependent upon what one may have experienced, and for those who take things now as normal - or who did not ever see what once was, there were some tough nuances here to look at, and daresay to speak upon. This is problematic as it brings out many possible slurs if one was to do so in the main. For instance, JD brings up the trait of neuroticism that can be more gender prominent and once could be dealt with on an individual basis (or kept in check by society at large), and now on a macro level it has seen exponential growth and is deeply intrenched in institutions and at big corporate workplaces near you. Moreover, what have been the consequences of a more, as said, macro neuroticism upon just policy and law, are simply chilling to consider, and yet it is not now something to consider at all, as it has been made a reality and people are living with the consequences each day.

Unfortunately (unless there is some leap of social awareness), knowing how it happened, who helped it happen along with the incremental steps of it happening within society, will not change it. With evermore divisions and hysteria of genders (and pseudo genders +), and a generally neutered (excuse the expression) society, don't see it changing anytime soon. Young generations will not know any different, and the old dry tinder folks, well people know how society now treats them.
 
Ennio said:
Grant was a very interesting guest who we hope to have back on in the not-too-distant-future:

MindMatters: "It Was Always Illegal": Grant Smith on Army Mandates, Resisting the Machine & Exercise for Health​

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Couple notes:
The One-Point-Focus meditation:
lilies said:
described in Dr. Rick Strassman's book, The Spirit Molecule:
pg. 26:
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Also helps me with pull-up reps of my full body weight [dunno, how much I weigh.. :( must be around 90kg/198pounds]. I do 50 via 5x10, ~2 minutes in between. These were the most mentally painful / torturous for me. But since I'm doing my version of the The One-Point-Focus meditation,
it helps:
1. a lot pulling me clean through the mental anguish.
2. Increased concentration considerably helps with muscle control
3. Time-binding greatly reduced or negated entirely: this is a great surprise as it ~90% almost completely eliminates those verrrrrrrrrRRrrryy SloooOoooooowwwwllllyyyy crawling seconds during mentally painful physical exercises.
4. to Develop Mind-Muscle!

Also my new changed state 3. greatly helps with chores and with waiting anywhere. I simply fall into same meditative state and can 'negate how the passing of Linear Time feels'. NO more torturous enduring of Linear Time, as seconds slowly pass by in Time-torturous waiting in line in waiting rooms or chores activities. I call this state of 'Entering The Long Moment'. Probably the beginning stages of perceiving the Expanded Present.

4. I noticed on many occasions, that I developed Mind-Muscle Fatique when I did those Winter / Summer weather modifications - that I reported about (check my content/posts in the Weather Thread "making rain"). After a couple days of intensely concentrating on this 'Mental Imaging' of direct weather modification I couldn't do it, because I clearly developed Mind-Muscle Failure.
Same as it is named in the science of physical exercises.

So I think in 4thD, MENTAL CARDIO will be a deciding factor between life & death for a 4th Density Hunter Gatherer. Regards Combat Ability and need for rest / regen the mental-fatique / rest the mind-muscle for recovery.
Because I think you obviously will fight with your mind a lot more in 4thD: a 3rdD hunter gatherer needed more physical athleticism and the ratio in 4thD will be at least 50% Mind-Muscle-Cardio and only 50% Physical Cardio, I think.

So I think this kind of Mind-Muscle-"bodybuilding" meditation directly prepares, trains you for keeping yourself alive in the 4th Density Jungle of the future.
 
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Guys, thanks once again for another awesome interview with Alan Francis.


Every time you have Alan on the show, the gestalt of the discussion is truly profound. You all work together very, very well. Alan really does seem to incorporate a broad range of other knowledge into his understanding as well - is it just me, or did his discussion about Sophia / Wisdom hint he's been been reading Versluis / Böhme? And @Approaching Infinity, I really liked the relation you drew between Gurdjieff's "Deputy Steward / Steward" and McGilchrist's "Emissary". The personality as a left-hemisphere construct makes a lot of sense! The association with the thyroid was also interesting, and immediately had me wondering about the pituitary's role, as well.

I also need to make a small celebration - I finally caught up on all the MindMatters episodes!!! 🎉🎊 For the last few years, I've continuously been up to a dozen or so episodes behind at any time, and have only skipped forward to watching the latest one if I've considered it crucially important. Otherwise, MindMatters has been a beloved travelling companion - I've listened to various episodes while driving long distances all around Australia. Now that I've caught up though, I'll try to add a little bit more commentary to the conversation 'of the moment'. :-D

Again, thanks heaps guys, you've really created something very special with this podcast! ❤️
 
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