Session 20 June 2009

Yossarian said:
The only thing I question about the prayer, and only because I don't understand it, is the word "Holy." What is the meaning of holy in the context of this prayer? The C's have said not to deify them (6th density), so what is it about the Universe (7th destiny?) that is "holy"?

You may want to understand the use of "holy" in light of:

[quote author=Laura]So, over time, I asked the Universe to help me "translate" the Lord's Prayer into something that would be Universal in every respect, and you have the result.

Finally, one thing that was uppermost in my mind was this: "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all else will be added unto you."

If you understand the "kingdom of heaven" as knowledge/awareness/being then you will see that the prayer deals with exactly that.

Seeking knowledge of all creation is learning to express the Universe in it's aspect of knowledge and when you do that, you are expressing unlimited potential.
[/quote]
 
Yossarian said:
The only thing I question about the prayer, and only because I don't understand it, is the word "Holy." What is the meaning of holy in the context of this prayer? The C's have said not to deify them (6th density), so what is it about the Universe (7th destiny?) that is "holy"?

Notice what is "holy" - AWARENESS. The awareness in all creation, i.e. the "Holy Spirit" - Shekina, the feminine aspect of gnosis...

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hālig; akin to Old English hāl whole — more at whole.

Why would you think that this term implied any deification of the Cs??? I'm just trying to understand how you read things and come up with things that are never intended or implied in a text. Do you do this often or have you observed yourself doing it by comparing your reading comprehension to that of others via networking?
 
Laura said:
Notice what is "holy" - AWARENESS. The awareness in all creation, i.e. the "Holy Spirit" - Shekina, the feminine aspect of gnosis...

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hālig; akin to Old English hāl whole — more at whole.

Aha! Now I get it. I disliked the word "holy" also, but only because I've been brainwashed by Catholicism for so long to believe the word exists ONLY for "church stuff."
 
Laura said:
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English hālig; akin to Old English hāl whole — more at whole.
That's funny... in English you have "soul" and "sole" which creates a connection between spirit and the foot, and in Swedish you have "häl"=heel, and "hel"=whole which is sort of similar.
 
Yeah the word "holy", like divine, is used so much in a religious context towards something stupid that people worship or idolize (a god, book, statue, some person/prophet, whatever) that I too have developed a sort of instant aversion to that word. I think the problem is the constant misuse of that word and calling things "holy" that are anything but. The word itself is not bad or meaningless or stupid by any means, however. To call something holy does not mean to deify it (it often does only because the word is used together with things people deify and worship). Something that's holy is something that has great respect and importance. I'd even say reverence, or something that is venerated - but those words too have a religious connotation of worship and idolization that they do not need to have.

And thinking about it, if there is anything at all in the universe that could possibly be called holy, I'd say it is the universe itself and the all-encompassing awareness therein. Will it be offended if you don't call it holy? Of course not, unlike in a religion where a god "demands" worship and being called "holy" and all those words of veneration to appease his godly self-importance and avoid his wrath, this prayer is as much for you as it is for the universe. Remember the law of 3 - there is good/right, there is wrong/evil, and there is the context that determines which is which. Calling the universal awareness holy means acknowleding the objective reality to your own mind, emotions, and soul. It helps you have the right (objective) perspective. It helps to remember that although we must choose which face of God to serve, we must not judge any aspect as "bad" or "wrong" just because it is not what we would prefer to experience. And again, if there is anything worthy of the utmost awe, wonder, respect, and love - it is the infinite consciousness in all of creation. And we love it by moving closer to it with faith in ourselves and it through learning/growing in awareness to the best of our ability. And maybe using the word holy actually helps us develop this faith in the universe that allows us to grow, it just serves as a reminder. If we cannot put away our prejudice and just trust the universe to do exactly what needs to be done, if we don't have faith in our own interaction with it and our own potential to grow infinitely if we just have faith, then maybe the problem is exactly that we're not grokking the "holy" nature of the universe, we're vastly underestimating the universe and our own potential within it.

And if we're still wondering what is "holy" about it, then maybe it would help to ask -- what is not?
 
Yossarian said:
The only thing I question about the prayer, and only because I don't understand it, is the word "Holy." What is the meaning of holy in the context of this prayer? The C's have said not to deify them (6th density), so what is it about the Universe (7th destiny?) that is "holy"?


fwiw, I thought it indicates reverence, i.e, profound respect, and not deification.
 
Laura said:
Woodsman said:
Laura said:
[. . .]
Please, read it line by line and think about it from every angle, every aspect. Try to think about some part of your existence that it does NOT cover. I don't think you will find any.

Found one. --It's the fact that it appears to be pretty much perfect and complete, but that I didn't make the journey myself. --Well, I read how you got there, but reading and experiencing are two very different things.

Keep in mind that I hadn't made the journey either when I began using this prayer back in the 80s. The only thing that was different then was the second line was slightly different. And, as the Cs said, it was powerful.

This thought occurred to me after I posted. "Laura had to evolve this from something utterly new as well, and made her journey through that. Why not do the same? Especially as it comes with a seal of approval from the C's, whom you trust?"

Then I thought, "Ooooh. Hold on, mister! I see what's happening here. --I remember reading a story about a fellow who wanted to learn energetic healing techniques from a master living deep in China. At the end of every week, the student, (a young doctor) would leave the modern hospital where he was training to make a long train ride deep into the country side and then hike up an actual mountain to visit the master. He would stay there for as long as he was able before having to return to his studies at the hospital. Well, one day, one of the other apprentices handed him a broom and showed him where the place needed sweeping. All of the apprentices took these kinds of duties for granted and did them without complaint. The young doctor, however, turned his nose up at the apprentice and said, "I only take instruction from the Master" (or something to that effect.)

The master looked at him, "Oh ho! Is that so?" --And he was promptly disciplined. I think he had to spend the next few weeks for the duration of his visits locked in a little box with a few air holes drilled in the sides, doing nothing while all the other apprentices took lessons from the master. "You are too arrogant. You think that because you come from wealth and because you are studying Western medicine that you are more special than the others here. Such an attitude will prevent you from learning, and so you will stay in that box until your ego has been starved down a few sizes."

--That is. . , "Why do I so easily accept direction from the C's but I get pensive when Laura brings something to forum? What's up with that, mister?"

I've felt this before, and I've rationalized it as, "Well, because Laura is a human and she has all the human frailties that the rest of us have. She works hard and she's very productive and her heart is obviously aimed in the right direction, though, but, and yet. . . (etc.)."

One of the things Gurdjieff regularly noted was that students have the greatest trouble getting over the requirement to submit to the teacher. I totally get that! I really don't like submitting. It's a paradox! --I understand the argument that trust must be placed in a teacher in order to advance, but. . , humans! --My primary issue being that to submit to another human means to take on and accept without question all of that person's foibles and flaws; to justify and rationalize those foibles. --And the greatest fear of all is that the whole thing is an elaborate trick designed to win followers for personal gain and that I will be a dupe. --I've met a number of flawed teachers, who have had things to say which really opened my eyes, and I've seen them stumble and in some cases crash. And whenever life puts me into a position of leadership in one capacity or another, I get cranky, feeling pensive and caged, knowing that it's just a matter of time before I screw up and that everybody will jump on me, or worse, that they will NOT jump on me, allowing us to collectively spiral down toward an oblivion of wishful thinking. No thank-you!

Leading is really, really hard to do, and so I avoid it like crazy. But we still benefit from people willing to go forth and wave a flag for the tribe to follow. Anybody who is willing to take on that mantle --and who also is willing to work on his or herself in an open, honest way-- who has somehow managed to walk that tightrope of being able to lead while accepting criticism. . , well that is a major rarity which should be respected, even knowing that the leadership is simply never going to be 100% spotless. Despite the co-linear organization here, I do get the strong feeling that you are the driving force behind everything. I would NOT want your job, but somebody has to sit in that chair. And that being said. . .

I'm going to put my ego in a box and work with that prayer of yours. I've done enough reading and personal experimenting to trust the C's as a source, and I've done enough reading and experimenting over the years to trust your interpretations and thoughts, --though I do find your perspective and ways of managing data to be very awkward at times when I try to run it through the avenues of my brain. (Which is probably why it is proves powerful; it's uncomfortable. Friction and all that.) --And moreover, I trust myself to stop and ask questions when I simply don't get what's going on rather than follow blindly. And to be honest about my own reactions when it comes to the crunch.

--As for specific wordings in the prayer itself. . , (others mentioned the word 'holy' as causing some hang-ups, and that was specifically one of mine as well.) --I would suggest that this is largely due to definitions. Gurdjieff explained how two people could argue indefinitely simply because they had different understandings of the words they were using. This is clear to anybody who has fallen into the traps of email communication. The technique Gurdjieff pointed out was to build up a common language from ground zero specifically designed to deal with matters of spirituality.

Still. . , a word like 'Holy', for me anyway, brings up thoughts of campy church decor and 80's televangelists, and I simply recoil. I need to do a LOT of re-wiring to make a word like 'Holy' fit, and it would be easier to just write in a new word. But perhaps the friction of making that word fit as it is intended is a valuable part of the work and the journey. That's how I'll look at it anyway.

Cheers and thanks again!
 
PepperFritz said:
Woodsman said:
But in end, building my own understanding of the universe is, I think, very important. It might even be the MOST important thing. --If we were all meant to share an identical perspective and experience of the world, then why are there so many different people?

You seem to be suggesting that there is no such thing as Objective Reality, that with Knowledge and "the Work" we can all come to perceive and experience in the same way. You seem to be suggesting that there can only be the Subjective Reality of each individual.

No such thing as Objective reality. . ? Hm. No, I wouldn't tick that off as 'true' on any survey. But I can bend my perspective around enough to see how you could get that from my words. One of those "Definitions not being in sync" moments perhaps?

I'm still working through the various reading materials again, so it's probable that I'm stating this awkwardly, but I will nonetheless try to elaborate. . .

I see that there is very definitely a "real" reality within which everybody exists. Until we reach 7th Density, (which I will call, 'God'), we will not be able to perceive that reality fully and completely. Until then our experience of reality is fragmented, like a zillion lady bugs flung across creation. Assuming that each Lady Bug can obtain an Objective view of reality through an application of Knowledge and Work, until each lady bug is reunited with every other lady bug at 7th Density, that perspective will by physical necessity of having to occupy discreet locations, remain subjective to a degree. It's perhaps a lot easier to be more objective when the body is gone and souls are no longer fixed to physical perspectives.

But my thinking is that this is all by design. On purpose. God is spread far and wide so as to experience reality from all those countless points of view. Like a bottle of soda shaken, all the bubbles zoom around and experience whatever bubbles experience before merging and eventually reuniting with the Grand Bubble at the top of the bottle. --I don't know why this would be, or even if this is really the intention of God. Who's to say? But that's my working theory at the moment.

What is yours?
 
I’ve been experimenting with the Prayer of the Soul, and I’d like to share some observations.

My initial reaction to the Prayer of the Soul was an immediate ‘Yes!’ Then I found that saying the Prayer of the Soul makes me very aware of my resistance to it (predator's mind). But, once I begin the prayer, it has such a strong ‘force’ that I am carried into it.

The Prayer of the Soul compels contemplation, at least for me. Perhaps ‘compels’ is the wrong word for this. It is more that something in my being resonates with the prayer, a part that usually only speaks in a whisper, but reciting the prayer is like throwing this part a lifeline. Indeed, when I first read it, I felt like a man who had been wandering in a desert for several days without water, and then comes across a beautiful oasis.

When I sit quietly and say the prayer, I find that it is difficult to say it unconsciously. It seems to attract awareness to itself. It’s like taking the red pill! Saying the prayer, I enter an altered state, which is similar to the state engendered when I practice Qi Gong or Tai Chi. However, I wonder if, given that our normal daily consciousness is an altered state in relation to our essence, then perhaps the ‘prayer state’ is closer to essence.

In the past I’ve tried the Lord’s Prayer which for me lacked this kind of power. It seems to me that this is how the Lord’s Prayer should be.

This is an extraordinary and beautiful creation. Thank you so much for this gift, Laura.
 
obyvatel said:
I found myself erroneously replacing the word "True" with "All" in
That I may know and love
The Holiness of True Existence
...
I caught myself replacing the word "carried" by "cradled" in
Oh Divine Cosmic Mind
Holy Awareness in All Creation
Carried in the heart

This appears to be a completely natural tendency when we already have familiar patterns in place.
I recognized "all existence" and "cradled in the heart" instantly from having been exposed to them many times in the past.

This is simply why Laura asks that we go thru the prayer line by line and examine each word/phrase as necessary. It may help to try to say each word consciously with as much 'heart' as possible even when it is completely grooved in as is.

It's a learning opportunity for each of us to uncover pre-existing wiring as well.

-fwiw
 
Woodsman said:
--As for specific wordings in the prayer itself. . , (others mentioned the word 'holy' as causing some hang-ups, and that was specifically one of mine as well.) --I would suggest that this is largely due to definitions. Gurdjieff explained how two people could argue indefinitely simply because they had different understandings of the words they were using. This is clear to anybody who has fallen into the traps of email communication. The technique Gurdjieff pointed out was to build up a common language from ground zero specifically designed to deal with matters of spirituality.

Still. . , a word like 'Holy', for me anyway, brings up thoughts of campy church decor and 80's televangelists, and I simply recoil. I need to do a LOT of re-wiring to make a word like 'Holy' fit, and it would be easier to just write in a new word. But perhaps the friction of making that word fit as it is intended is a valuable part of the work and the journey. That's how I'll look at it anyway.

Maybe what we need to do is take our language back from pathologicals who have twisted and distorted just about everything in our reality so that we have knee-jerk reactions to what should be good and clean, and embrace that which is dirty and corrupt...???

The thing is, when you start rewiring, you really do have to observe and think about literally everything you think do and say and ask: is that authentic? Is it a programmed reaction? Do I ditch it? Do I clean it up and retain it?

And so on.
 
Woodsman said:
One of the things Gurdjieff regularly noted was that students have the greatest trouble getting over the requirement to submit to the teacher. I totally get that! I really don't like submitting. It's a paradox! --I understand the argument that trust must be placed in a teacher in order to advance, but. . , humans!

Try to look deeper than the surface for a moment. Think about the difficulty involved in using any language to communicate that which we are not normally used to comprehending. Some of G's struggles with students can not be seen just by reading the text. The requirement to submit to a teacher is the same as the requirement to submit the false personality to lessons or to direct one's own eyesight to see what is in front of him without distorting it...there is no difference. It's not the easy way for sure. Humility and independent self-control are not mutually exclusive - they are the same. The distinction appears to be false from every angle that I can see.


Woodsman said:
Still. . , a word like 'Holy', for me anyway, brings up thoughts of campy church decor and 80's televangelists, and I simply recoil. I need to do a LOT of re-wiring to make a word like 'Holy' fit, and it would be easier to just write in a new word. But perhaps the friction of making that word fit as it is intended is a valuable part of the work and the journey. That's how I'll look at it anyway.

The idea of "making a word fit" is useless. Do you start a journey up a mountain from the middle or at the bottom? Discover your own referents for that word or any word...release any emotional force that holds false patterns in place if need be and then rewire. At every opportunity, try to have a good laugh at yourself. What is there but lessons?

--fwiw
 
Thinking about the prayer lead to some thoughts. What came to mind is the first part of the prayer in a way describes centers/chakras and that what might be missing is a representation of the moving center, yet doesn’t see to fit since the moving center is a lower center and comparing parts of the prayer to what the C’s said about centers and chakras (below). This seems to fit better:

Higher Emotional – ‘Carried in the heart’
Higher Intellectual – ‘Ruler of the mind’
Union of the heart and intellectual higher centers – ‘Savior of the Soul’
13 July 2002 […]
Q: Does the recharging of the souled being come from a similar pool, only maybe the "human" pool?

A: No - it recharges from the so-called sexual center which is a higher center of creative energy. During sleep, the emotional center, not being blocked by the lower intellectual cener and the moving center, transduces the energy from the sexual center. It is also the time during which the higher emotional and intellectual centers can rest from the "drain" of the lower centers' interaction with those pesky organic portals so much loved by the lower centers. This respite alone is sufficient to make a difference. But, more than that, the energy of the sexual center is also more available to the other higher centers.

Q: (L) Well, the next logical question was: where does the so-called "sexual center" get ITS energy?

A: The sexual center is in direct contact with 7th density in its "feminine" creative thought of "Thou, I Love." The "outbreath" of "God" in the relief of constriction. Pulsation. Unstable Gravity Waves.

Q: Do the "centers" as described by Mouravieff relate at all to the idea of "chakras?"

A: Quite closely. In an individual of the organic variety, the so-called higher chakras are "produced in effect" by stealing that energy from souled beings. This is what gives them the ability to emulate souled beings. The souled being is, in effect, perceiving a mirror of their own soul when they ascribe "soul qualities" to such beings.

Q: Is this a correspondence that starts at the basal chakra which relates to the sexual center as described by Mouravieff?

A: No. The "sexual center" corresponds to the solar plexus.
Lower moving center - basal chakra
Lower emotional - sexual chakra
Lower intellectual - throat chakra
Higher emotional - heart chakra
Higher intellectual - crown chakra

Q: (L) What about the so-called seventh, or "third eye" chakra?

A: Seer. The union of the heart and intellectual higher centers.


[Laura's note: This would "close the circuit" in the "shepherd's crook"
configuration.]
Thinking about the prayer and possible relation to centers also made me think about the sexual center, what it would represent? I thought of it as being a source from the universe of some kind and remembered the C’s said something about it quoted in the ‘Organic Portals: The Other Race’ topic –
“The sexual center is in direct contact with 7th density in its "feminine" creative thought of "Thou, I Love." The "outbreath" of "God" in the relief of constriction. Pulsation. Unstable Gravity Waves.”
and that the second part of the prayer:
Clear my eyes
That I may See
Clear my ears
That I may hear
Cleanse my heart
That I may know and love
might describe aid in ‘cleaning the machine’. And that when you ‘clean the machine’ in some way, like ‘the work’ or breathing exercises with the prayer, a person balances the three lower centers. After balancing the lower centers and then connect to higher centers, the flow from the sexual center works through the ‘machine’ of the balanced lower centers that are connected to the higher centers (or absorbed – I’ll have to go back and read I think one of the ‘Gnosis’ books) and what it seems to be is that a person becomes a part of the universal flow in a way and the creative side of the universe when they unite “the heart and intellectual higher centers” and “close the circuit”. Like a loop of universal energy flowing in through the sexual center and out the higher centers. Not sure if it could be described as a positive feedback loop, yet seems to be so when a person passes on ‘observation’ or networks and becomes more knowledgable the better the machine works. That this balancing of centers and connection with the ‘universe’ might allow those that are connected in such a way to communicate with each other and experience the universe/reality as objectively as a group and individual can. That this might be what connecting the centers might be - connecting through the flow of “Holy Awareness in All Creation.”
The sexual center is in direct contact with 7th density in its "feminine" creative thought of "Thou, I Love." The "outbreath" of "God" in the relief of constriction.
[…]During sleep, the emotional center, not being blocked by the lower intellectual cener and the moving center, transduces the energy from the sexual center.
Another thought is what the effect of the breathing exercise combined with reciting the "The Prayer of the Soul" in the mind might have. The moving center is engaged and focused and the intellectual center is also engage and focused which could lead to allowing “emotional center to tranduce(s) the energy from the sexual center (“The "outbreath" of "God" in the relief of constriction.”) which aids in breaking down the blocks that the C’s talked about.
 
Woodsman said:
Until we reach 7th Density, (which I will call, 'God'), we will not be able to perceive that reality fully and completely. Until then our experience of reality is fragmented, like a zillion lady bugs flung across creation. Assuming that each Lady Bug can obtain an Objective view of reality through an application of Knowledge and Work, until each lady bug is reunited with every other lady bug at 7th Density, that perspective will by physical necessity of having to occupy discreet locations, remain subjective to a degree. It's perhaps a lot easier to be more objective when the body is gone and souls are no longer fixed to physical perspectives....

I think your "working theory" is a little off. You seem to saying that each person has a finite ability to perceive Objective Truth, and that it is only when a group of like-minded people come together and put their bits of Objective Truth together that one can get a glimpse of Objective Truth. But that is not my understanding of the working theory and method of this group.

The premise of Laura's work, the QFS, and this forum is that via a sincere and open request for help from the universe, consistent application of "the Work", and active, ongoing networking, each individual can increasingly peel away their subjectivity (i.e. reduce the "noise") and begin to perceive objective reality more and more accurately (i.e. receive a clearer "signal"). The fact that we can never be 100% free of subjectivity while 3rd-density STS beings does not mean that we should not and/or cannot strive to obtain the most objective Knowledge and Data that we can.

I think I can safely say that Laura has been actively "working" at shedding the Subjective and honing in on the Objective for much longer than any of us here. In fact, she has dedicated her life to it. Therefore, it would seem to be a given that her objective perception is dramatically sharper than most of ours on any given day of the week. So, given the choice between an intentionally Objective prayer crafted by someone of her experience/perception/skills, and one of my own "devising", why would I not take advantage of the superior gift that has been offered to me? Wouldn't her prayer (confirmed by the C's as "powerful") be a far more effective tool? It is, after all, designed to amplify our ability to perceive the Objective, not reflect our current subjectively flawed "version" of it....
 
PepperFritz said:
I think I can safely say that Laura has been actively "working" at shedding the Subjective and honing in on the Objective for much longer than any of us here. In fact, she has dedicated her life to it. Therefore, it would seem to be a given that her objective perception is dramatically sharper than most of ours on any given day of the week. So, given the choice between an intentionally Objective prayer crafted by someone of her experience/perception/skills, and one of my own "devising", why would I not take advantage of the superior gift that has been offered to me? Wouldn't her prayer (confirmed by the C's as "powerful") be a far more effective tool? It is, after all, designed to amplify our ability to perceive the Objective, not reflect our current subjectively flawed "version" of it....

It is true that I have, as the Cs described it, " literally turned the world upside down in search of the greatest truths for all of humanity, much to her potential peril" but I also STILL rely on my network for feedback. I am pretty convinced that, even if I act as a sort of "Big Sister" and "trail blazer," I don't have the whole banana without help. Any person who gets to the point that they think they have it all sussed out and don't need honest mirroring from others to prevent falling into the pit of hubris will, most definitely, fall into that pit!

Human beings were only able to evolve because of social ties. Trusting others seems to be an evolutionary strategy that served us well for a long time. In that evolutionary struggle, man was opposed to a "natural enemy," the environment and all it contained. All he had was his bigger brain to compensate for his smaller strength and speed; and, of course, his network.

Nowadays, we are no longer opposed to the natural world out there as the sparring partner, we are opposed to a culture that has been slowly infiltrated and taken over by pathologicals. At the same time, this outer world that has been shaped by pathology, also represents a certain pathological state within normal humans - their lack of ability to see pathology in individuals that look like themselves - an intra-species predator. Humanity's failure to perceive this, to adapt, means that our inner world, taken into us from the outside by means of identification, has become an "independent power" which, in its turn, by means of projection, is our own creation. After all, it is normal humans, not pathologicals, who have the real power to "create reality" as a group. Pathologicals only influence us - mostly women - to believe certain things are the norm, and we then act as they pull our strings.

This outer reality which has such a powerful influence on the formation of our character and the focusing of our creativity, has become a power itself and we are being challenged to become "new beings" that can evolutionarily adapt to this changing situation. Either we become fully pathological, in which case there will be no stress (the STS route), or we return to our roots taking with us the knowledge of the new "opponent" that will enable us to rebuild our social bonds and structures and survive through the massive changes that are ahead of us.

Because, realistically, even if no cataclysmic scenario of any external kind manifests, anybody with two neurons firing can see that we are most definitely heading straight into a "clash of civilizations" though it is not at all what is being touted. It is a clash of normal humans with pathologicals and right now, they have all the assets (which they have by trickery, cunning, cheating). Even the mildest scenario of the future is not pleasant to contemplate: Climate Change and its effects on humanity. It's not a pretty picture.

This principle that the inner world is taken in from the outside by means of identification, and then, in its turn, by way of projection, alters the external world so that it corresponds to the inner world even more closely, requires some serious thought. Basically, we have to bootstrap ourselves out of here by reverseing the process: we must create an inner world in the face of the opposition of the outer world, that then becomes strong enough, EN MASSE, to change the outer world.

The creative individual must be able to create and develop his standards beyond the identifications of the external pathological world. This means, in the simplest of terms, connecting with the higher self so that this part consciously guides and rules the creative will even in terms of the personality. The important factor here is that groups of individuals must get from here to there - here being the false personality created in us by the pathological external world, there being the merging with the higher self - by consciously choosing those factors that he will identify with.

This must be a group effort.

But, as we have seen in this thread - and elsewhere - language is all-important to that process. (Keeping in mind also that language is used to "create" the reality and control us.)

Language is another evolutionary thing; you need language to network so we might think that this ability has been wired into us as a consequence of evolutionary pressures and using language in some ways (like telling the truth) was evolutionarily adaptive in our history. But now, language is being used in ways it was not evolved to be used: to conceal truth and to create false images. This is one of the reasons that human beings are so stressed.

As I explained in the audio recording I made over the last couple of days to introduce the teaching of breathing techniques, stress is a worldwide epidemic. The number one disease of adults in the world is depression. Depression is the most extreme form of stress in your nervous system.

But here's the rub: stress response is vital for survival in times of danger. The problem comes when it is turned on too strong, too often.

The very fact that our stress response is doing this tells us that our bodies are telling us something about our world! There is DANGER out there, only it is hiding amongst us in the form of pathologicals! We are constantly in a state of stress because we are in a state of cognitive dissonance. We sense the danger, but we cannot SEE it because we have been programmed NOT to see it by lies and false reality constructs.

Getting back to the language problem: language can shape perception in ways that people are not aware of. Barbara Oakley, in her book "Evil Genes", points out that people who grow up speaking Chinese process mathematics in different areas of the brain than those who grow up speaking English. Both groups use the inferior parietal cortex, but Chinese speakers also use a visual processing areas, while English speakers use a language processing area.

This is important to know because it tells us something about the pathways in the brain that underlie some of the differences between Asians and Westerners in thought patterns. Different languages can cause anatomical differences in our brains. People who speak different languages literally see the world differently from one another.

That is larger scale effect between different languages.

There is a more subtle effect between individuals who speak the same language cause by different understandings of words and meanings. We've seen some examples of this in this very thread.

Language and culture act to structure the neurologically based lens that people use to perceive reality. Within a single language group, differences between people arise from family upbringing, religion, political persuasion, educatioal background, work experience, and so on. These all create different frames of reference.

James Surowiecki's book, The Wisdom of Crowds, suggests that multiple viewpoints from individuals with a wide range of backgrounds, rather than the restricted viewpoints of experts or specialists, are crucial in reaching informed decisions on complex topics. Oakley comments that getting input from a broad variety of people is like getting input from a wide variety of devices such as microscopes, telescopes, litmus paper, tensile testors, ultrasound devices, scales, and so on.

Here, of course, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there". Even if we are agreeing that there is a real reality and it is what it is, no one of us has the all-encompassing way of perceiving that would give us the understanding of EVERY ASPECT of what is out there.

So, in this sense, the network itself is the Teacher.

But in order for a network to go anywhere and not just fall into entropy, there must be a direction and in that sense there must be a vanguard.

Vanguard: Etymology: Middle English vauntgard, from Anglo-French vantgarde, avantgarde, 1 : the troops moving at the head of an army 2 : the forefront of an action or movement.

It is also reflective of true evolutionary social activities that there are some who are trailblazers and others who support and "watch the back" of the trailblazers. Once the trail is blazed, and the destination is reached, the others not only benefit from the struggles of the trailblazer, they also set about organizing the details of the new environment and stabilizing it. So, everyone plays a role and if the network is tight, they all arrive pretty much together.

The bottom line is this: we are all in this mess together and we sink together, or we get our boat to harbor, but somebody's got to be the one who coordinates or we'll just go endlessly in circles, nobody will be bailing, paddling, or evaluating currents and signs to determine direction. I haven't been doing too bad at it, but I can't do it without data and help and there is no way I could gather all the data by myself, so the network is crucial in that respect also!

As I said, we evolved to trust one another - but that was a world where others were trustworthy. We live in a different world now. The cheaters in our world have evolved ways to induce us to trust them, but we can tell by our stress that we are going in the wrong direction, we are in mortal peril. But still, to get anything done at all, we MUST TRUST. And to figure out who to trust, we need to rely, again, on the network of observations from many observers. Again, we are not talking about getting a lot of EMOTIONAL viewpoints, but rather perceptions and assessments of the shared, Primary Reality - what is REAL "out there" and what really seems to work, to explain things, and has internal consistency over time.

Those who are able to accomplish this task of rebuilding social connections based on the new evolutionary standard of accounting for pathology in the equations, will evolve. Those who do not evolve will perish.

That's what I see from where I sit right now. United we stand, divided we fall. All for One and One for All.
 

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