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Ant22 said:
Laura said:
Q: (L) One thing I noticed about this last little set of books that I ended up on by following my nose... It was like following bread crumbs. I ended up with this Samenow, and then the Developmental Trauma book. It seems to me that these two approaches, which pretty much focus on making the changes in the now and not so much focusing on what's wrong, are probably the most practical expressions of what we have been calling The Work - as in Gurdjieffian stuff – that we’ve ever encountered. It's like we've gone through book after book after book, each one adding a bit to the picture. But this has brought it down to such a simple, practical level that almost nobody can miss it. My feeling is that something very profound is going to come out of this particular little experiment that we're doing.
A: Indeed. All in your group should read these books in order to jump start the necessary processes for achieving receivership capability. Those who have been blocked up to the present will find unblocking therein if they are able to receive.
I'm sorry if I'm nosy but I'm really intrigued by the "following bread crumbs" reference. If it's OK to ask, how specifically did this process happen?
It's rather odd. As most of you know, I've been loading my brain to write "The Secret History of God", sort of to be my magnum opus. That meant a LOT of reading of history, religious studies, historical religious studies, etc. So, I was reading a book of biblical studies and one of the authors mentioned and quoted a book about the psychology of religion. I noted it down and soon had it and started reading. It was all about evolutionary psychology and how the human religious impulse was nothing more than this combination of brain dynamics that had evolved for other reasons, the main one being the "Agency Detector Device". That is, if a creature is in the jungle and hears a noise, it has to be able to make a quick decision about it: is it a predator or rustling leaves? Making the wrong decision means you get eaten and don't breed. So, detecting "agency" in things was highly developed, even over-developed.
I'm making this really short, and there is a lot more, but basically, the theory is that humans use the ADD to invent religions. When things happen in the world they attribute causal agency. They went overboard with it etc.
Of course, I realized as I was reading this rather simplistic explanation for why people all over the world invent religions that there was way more to the problem than just that. There are, in fact, bush tribes that do NOT attribute agency to thunder and lightning and so forth. (See Mary Douglas et al.)
I went in several directions from there, making note of books that were cited that I would get and read. I mean, this was like hundreds of books going into anthropology, sociology, psychology, cognitive studies, evolutionary psychology, etc. Out of all of this mess, I've recommended those books I thought were majorly interesting and helpful to the average person. MOST of what I read I wouldn't recommend to anybody. I may read an entire book for just one or two bits of data that are useful to me.
Anyway, Ark had recently taken off on his indepth study of parapsychology and PK and so forth, and I thought I would tell him what some of these evolutionary psychologists were saying about consciousness and religion. We discussed it and then he handed me the Paul Davies conference proceedings about the mind and information. Again, this book is useful in part, only, and I posted those chapters that were most useful. Much of the book was grindingly dull.
Along the way, I wanted the most up to date info about the brain as a machine, so to say, and the best place to find that is in studies of abnormal brains; along the way they will tell you what is normal. (Nobody writes books about normal brains.) Out of that selection came Raine, Ressler, Samenow... And it was in Raine that I read about the neurofeedback.
I wanted to know more about neurofeedback in general, so a few books on that topic and then, amazon suggested "Healing Developmental Trauma" because I had purchased a book about neurofeedback and developmental trauma.
Normally, I will read along for quite awhile and just share a tidbit of interest here and there; I probably read 50 to 100 books before I recommend one; but this last bit of intensive reading had yielded up quite a few that I think are essential to anyone who seeks personal or esoteric development.
I should also mention that the above bibilical studies that led me to evolutionary psychology and information theory to developmental trauma and neurofeedback, ALSO started a parallel track by referencing Collingwood. And this came after the whole period focused on Pauline studies and Stoicism.
Anyway, the bottom line is: I went from the Secret History of God to neurofeedback and PK by a very circuitous route.
I was curious about the 'behind the scenes process' that led to those book recommendations but I certainly didn't realise the amount of work and time involved! I must admit the above post was a bit shocking to read: here I am reading one life changing book after another whilst in fact I am receiving the end result of tons of hard work basically served on a tray. . 
