234 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2024
    1. This theoretical description of reality should be contrasted with the usual view of reality as being quantum, creating a fallacy of misplaced concreteness.

      for - reality as quantum - fallacy of misplaced concreteness - Frederico Faggin

    1. Now we understand why there has to be an inner reality which is made of qualia and an outer reality which is made a lot of symbols, shareable symbols, what we call matter.

      for - unpack - key insight - with the postulate of consciousness as the foundation, it makes sense that this is - an inner reality made of qualia - and an outer reality made of shareable symbols we call matter - Federico Faggin - question - about Federico Faggin's ideas - in what way is matter a symbol? - adjacency - poverty mentality - I am the universe who wants to know itself question - in what way is matter a symbol? - Matter is a symbol in the sense that it - we describe reality using language, both - ordinary words as well as - mathematics - It is those symbolic descriptions that DIRECT US to jump from one phenomena to another related phenomena. - After all, WHO is the knower of the symbolic descriptions? - WHAT is it that knows? Is it not, as FF points out, the universe itself - as expressed uniquely through all the MEs of the world, that knows? - Hence, the true nature of all authentic spiritual practices is that - the reality outside of us is intrinsically the same as - the reality within us - our lebenswelt of qualia

    2. it has to be taken as a postulate

      for - answer - It has to be taken as a postulate - Federico Faggin - to question - how can we test that consciousness is the foundation of reality?

    3. you've mentioned the word theory a lot of times. How can we test this?

      for - question - how do you test the theory that consciousness is the foundation of reality? ( to Federico Faggin)

  2. Aug 2024
    1. 1:04:00 What a beautiful story about how Dr. Ali Mattu started to realise his social anxiety was bullshit. Even the cool guy was doubting himself after his talk. This didn't matchup with Ali his perception of the situation (Ali thought he was swagger).

    1. reality lies behind the multiplicity and diversity of appearances and is concealed by them

      for - quotation - Rupert Spira - reality lies behind the multiplicity and diversity of appearances and is concealed by them

      quotation - Rupert Spira - reality lies behind the multiplicity and diversity of appearances and is concealed by them - A subset of this claim is that the same universal consciousness is in the multiplicity and diversity of appearances of human INTERbeCOMings

    2. the ultimate reality of the universe never appears as an object

      for - nonduality - ultimate reality - cannot be objectified - Rupert Spira

      nonduality - ultimate reality - cannot be objectified - Rupert Spira - This is echoed in many spiritual practices. - For example, the cliche "those who know do not (cannot) speak about it" - To explore this further, - An object is inherently a part of something bigger - It is known that ordinary people have great difficulty appreciating hyperobjects such as climate change because - they are already far beyond our evolutionary sensing equipment - Ultimate reality, being the mother of all objects and hyperobjects is going to be even more subtle

    1. There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia. Freedom toand freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you arebeing given freedom from. Don't underrate it

      This is ironic and very important. Freedom to and freedom from -- playing with language, a form of manipulation. Gilead is more than for its birth rate purposes... A form of gaslighting.

      Shows the role of language in perception, in reality, and yet also shows that there is a limit that the mindset can do for you. It is still suffering, without duty.

    1. self-sufficient, pre-given referent. Both the Freudian andthe Lacanian unconscious, as it were, put external reality outof play.

      Even though Lacan objects and states that the unconscious is made of a chain of signifiers (language), he actually in some sense agrees with Freud in the sense that language is not connected to reality. It constructs reality.

    2. language and the thing about which itspeaks

      Language shapes the world experience or reality because of our signifiers that create distinctions (the other/ the symbolic) and in turn we are shaped by our world experience (truth), and therefore shaped by language and the symbolic in itself.

    3. Lacan’s terms, these distinctions come to us from the order ofsignifiers, and they must therefore be understood as an activelystructuring principle.

      Distinctions between subjects is purely a matter of language, when discernible things are usually gradual and not ordered. This connects to Hume's bundle theory where the human mind chooses where the boundary lies between continuity and discontinuity even when all should be gradually discontinuous -- the continuity is simply an illusion, a phantasy.

    4. we will never find anything morethan gradual differences. Yet we are not a bit “man” and a bit“woman” (or vice versa), but either “man” or “woman”—we areone or the other. This absolute difference does not exist in (lived)reality, which knows only gradual distinctions.

      This is an example of how language or symbolic signifiers alter the lived experience more than the lived experience does simply to the real. Does this mean that as one grows up and is exposed to more of the symbolic world and language, one is indulged more in the phantasy and is further from accessing the "real"?

    5. hat clearly cannot bedirectly derived from the facts of experience.

      Language shapes the experience of reality in a way that simply experiencing cannot. Like performativity. Is there a signifier that articulates this way of experience? this is created in the symbolic order, rather than any other.

    6. it is a question of whether there is a signifier inthe symbolic system that articulates this connection.

      The concept of fatherhood relies directly on the notion and connection between procreation and fatherhood which is passed through language, which articulates it.

    7. For Freud, this means that language does notyet function as language in the proper sense here: the uncon-scious does not know language, and nor therefore does it knowthe test of reality.

      Language = reality even for freud

    1. Consciousness is the perfect instrument to explore the inner reality which is exactly what we have been done all our lives when we think and when we understand the meaning and so on we are actually doing that in that Quantum reality we are not doing that in the brain

      for - consciousness - takes place in quantum reality

    2. in your book one of the quotes was Free Will is the ultimate cause of reality

      for - quote - free will is the ultimate cause of reality - Frederico Faggin

    1. Anglophonic monoculture which renders certain dimensions of life invisible and therefore impossible to address
      • for
      • English language - makes invisible salient aspects off reality vital for rapid whole system change
  3. Jul 2024
    1. Companies that exploit our gameplaying compulsion will have an edge over those who don’t, so every company that wishes to compete must gamify in ever more addictive ways, even though in the long term this harms everyone. As such, gamification is not just a fad; it’s the fate of a digital capitalist society. Anything that can be turned into a game sooner or later will be. And the games won’t just be confined to our phones — “extended reality” eyewear like Meta Quest and Apple Vision, once they become normalized, will make playing even harder to avoid.
    1. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." - Albert Einstein
    2. Seeing things for what it is. That's intelligence.
  4. Jun 2024
    1. while concepts help us understand reality, they aren’t reality itself

      "The map is not the territory."

    2. To boost its search engine rankings, Thai Food Near Me, a New York City restaurant, is named after a search term commonly used by potential customers. It’s a data layer on top of reality. And the problems get worse when the relative importance of the data and reality flip. Is it more important to make a restaurant’s food taste better, or just more Instagrammable? People are already working to exploit the data structures and algorithms that govern our world. Amazon drivers hang smartphones in trees to trick the system. Songwriters put their catchy choruses near the beginning to exploit Spotify’s algorithms. And podcasters deliberately mispronounce words because people comment with corrections and those comments count as “engagement” to the algorithms.These hacks are fundamentally about the breakdown of “the system.” (We’re not suggesting that there’s a single system that governs society but rather a mess of systems that interact and overlap in our lives and are more or less relevant in particular contexts.)
  5. Apr 2024
    1. [Steve Jobs]: If you sort of dig beneath the surface,one of the real successes of the Lisa programwas creating an environment where all these crazy people that could reallybe very, very successful.And I guess that's one of the things that Apple's done best.

      appreciate the framing of technologists at the early Apple Inc. as "these crazy people".

  6. Mar 2024
    1. The wine she drinks is made ofgrapes.

      As opposed to Jesus's blood? Does this imply she is a fake? And that she wears a facade?

    2. Her eye must be fed, and what delight shall she haveto look on the devil?

      Why is the Moor considered the devil? Because of his skin color? And what does skin color have to do with all of it again?

  7. Feb 2024
    1. bringing to light our inner diversity could be as transformational for society as recognition of our externally visible diversity has been

      for - BEing journey - quote - Anil Seth - neuroscience - neuroscience - perception - neuroscience - constructed reality

      quote - Anil Seth - bringing to light our inner diversity - could be as transformational for society - as recognition of our externally visible diversity has been

    1. For example, an HS event closely followed by heavy rainfall caused the deaths of more than 500,000 livestock and over $1.2 billion in economic losses

      for - epiphany - money is the only lens that business sees reality through

      epiphany - money is the only lens that business sees reality through - Just hit me how economics is the dominant and only metric that seems to matter to much of the business community - even in most research papers, we have to keep translating environmental into economic, as if the only people that matter are business people - it is indicative that we DO NOT KNOW HOW TO INTRINSICALLY VALUE NATURE

  8. Jan 2024
    1. For when my outward action doth demonstrateThe native act and figure of my heartIn compliment extern, ’tis not long afterBut I will wear my heart upon my sleeveFor daws to peck at. I am not what I am

      His duplicity is so extreme that he simply cannot define himself as he says "I am not what I am". It is ironic because his hate for Cassio is the same as what he is -- a dishonest witch who pretends to be righteous man. Does this indicate he hates himself as well?

    2. Whip me such honest knaves. Others there areWho, trimmed in forms and visages of duty,Keep yet their hearts attending on themselvesAnd, throwing but shows of service on their lords,Do well thrive by them. And when they have lined theircoats,Do themselves homage.

      The true colors of Iago, ironically just like what he hated Cassio for, the sly and two-faced witchery

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  9. Dec 2023
  10. Sep 2023
    1. 08:00 his sword technique was adaptable, mendable, consistent with the complex nature of reality, that changes constantly, not resisting change but adapting self to it

      • see zk on how a more dynamic approach to productivity and systems can help us reflect reality more closely, ever changing
    1. naming (interpretation) as reducing reality (harder with people than nature, people labeling themselves), perceive it/be aware "mental abstractions is not life"

      • reference earlier note on filtered reality
    1. Movies as portraying limited existence, but sometimes “signs” of consciousness

      • In my opinion, well made movies, show a lot of signs of consciousness. See, for example, LOTR, with the rhoririm charge where there is a collective consciousness forming, or the scene in which Shanks stops Akainu.
    1. Historically, answers to this question have fallen between two extremes. On the one hand is the skepticism of the 18th-century empiricist David Hume, who held that the ultimate reality given in experience is the moment-by-moment flow of events in the consciousness of each individual. That concept compresses all of reality into a solipsistic specious present—the momentary sense experience of one isolated percipient.
  11. Aug 2023
    1. (~10:00) "The context determines the meaning of the content."

      Thus reframing is very powerful as you recontextualize the past, and therefore see it in a whole new light; the meaning of the past changed.

      By asking what you have learned from the past, you become anti-fragile and flexible, as you turn the past into something useful; an asset.

      "The past happens for us, not to us."

      "How you frame the past influences your expectations for the future."

      "You can't disconnect your view of the future from your experience in the present."

      "You can't have meaning in the present without hope & purpose in the future."

    2. One of the powerful things about journaling is that you can control the past; reframe it. What is the meaning of the past gets determined by both the present and the future.

      Hardy recommends to often (even daily) reflect on the past and notice how different you are now compared to then. What you have achieved, what is possible now that was not possible then, etc.

      What did I learn today?

    3. (~4:00) We interpret reality in a (cognitive) schema. Reality exists only in the mind. We cannot view reality objectively because it is intertwined with perception and cognition (see also John Boyd's OODA loop).

      Sidenote; because of this, time is also holistic; in our schema, the past, present, and future are basically all-existent at once.

    1. I do want to point out one more really significant implication here which is how it affects our experience of time
      • for: the lack project, sense of lack, the reality project, sense of self, sense of self and lack, poverty mentality, sense of time, living in the future, living in the present, human DOing, human BEing
      • key insight
        • we construct different types of experiences of time, depending on the degree of sense of lack we experience
        • it means the difference between
          • living in the present
          • living in the future
      • paraphrase
        • it's the nature of lack projects insofar as we become preoccupied with them
        • that they tend to be future oriented naturally
        • I mean the whole idea of a lack project or a reality project is right here right now is not good enough
          • because I feel this sense of inadequacy this sense of lack
          • but in the future when I have what I think I need
            • when I'm rich enough or
            • when I'm famous enough or
            • my body is perfect enough or whatever
          • when I have all this then everything will be okay
          • and what of course that does is that future orientation traps Us in linear time in a way that tends to devalue the way we experience the world and ourselves in the world right here and now
          • it treats the now as a means to some better ends
          • Now isn't good enough
            • but when I have what I think I need everything is going to be just great
        • So many of the spiritual Traditions taught
        • especially the mystics and the Zen Masters
        • they end up talking about what is sometimes called
          • the Eternal now
          • or the Eternal present - a different way of experiencing the now
        • As long as the present is a means to some better end
          • this future when I'm gonna be okay
        • then the present is experienced as
          • a series of Nows that fall away
          • as we reach for that future
        • but if we're not actually needing to get somewhere that's better in the future
        • it's possible to experience the here and now
          • as lacking nothing and myself in the here and now
          • as lacking nothing
      • it's possible to experience the present as something that doesn't arise and doesn't fall away
    2. sense of self is a construct a psychological and social construct it's something it's not something that 00:06:42 infants are born with it's actually something that develops as we grow up our caregivers look into our eyes give us a name that we learned to identify with and also basically we learn to see 00:06:59 ourselves as they see us we inte
      • for: self, constructing reality, constructed self, constructed reality, constructing the sense of self, self and other, nonduality, duality, insecurable, comment, question

      • paraphrase

        • sense of self is a construct
        • a psychological and social construct
        • it's not something that infants are born with
          • it's actually something that develops as we grow up
        • our caregivers look into our eyes
          • give us a name that we learned to identify with and
          • also basically we learn to see ourselves as they see us
            • we internalize that which is why we are so preoccupied with what other people think about
          • we learned to use language in certain ways
            • mine
            • you
            • yours
            • his
            • hers and so forth
          • that's all very essential to it
        • so we could say that the sense of self is being a construct
        • it's composed of mostly habitual ways of
          • thinking
          • feeling
          • acting
          • reacting
          • remembering
          • planning and
          • tending
        • it's the way that these mostly habitual processes work together re-enforce each other
        • but does that give us insight into what the fundamental problem is?
      • I think it does and here's what it is as I understand it
        • because the sense of self is a construct
          • because it doesn't refer it
          • doesn't depend on it
          • doesn't point back to a real self that has any self-reality or or self-identity
      • this sense of self by virtue of its lack of essence is inherently uncomfortable

        • we can say it's basically inherently insecure
        • in fact it's not only insecure but it's insecurable
      • comment

      • question
        • I agree with David's analysis but also have a question for him:
          • what about the biological, evolutionary definition of the self of a living organism. Is there a contradiction here?
          • reference
            • Major Evolutionary Transitions occur when a group of individuated living organisms achieve greater fitness by mutualism and begin to reproduce together as a new unit
              • How do we harmonize the claim of a psychologically constructed self with this evolutionary formation of new biological SELF units through MET?
    1. Horror films are always shot in the dark, in the forest, at night, in the depths of the sea, the blackness of space. And the reason is because dying was easy during evolution. If you weren't sure that was a predator, it was too late. Your brain evolved to predict. 00:02:42 And if you couldn't predict, you died. And the way your brain predicts is by encoding the bias and assumptions that were useful in the past. But those assumptions just don't stay inside your brain. You project them out into the world. There is no bird there. You're projecting the meaning onto the screen.
      • for: meaningverse, constructed reality
  12. Apr 2023
  13. Mar 2023
    1. Virtual and Mixed Reality (VMR)

      I like this term better. I always mention VR but I try to say Virtual Reality Technology so I can be inclusive of Augmented Reality as a well, but I find "Mixed Reality" more inclusive as non-VR users can understand from the word alone.

    1. it is a mental construct

      Good explanation of what self-consciousness attempts to do:

      Self-consciousness is not something obviously "self-existing" it is a fiction, - it is ungrounded because it is - a mental construct.

      Rather than being selfsufficient, - consciousness is like the surface of the sea: dependent on unknown depths ("conditions," as the Buddha called them) that it cannot grasp - because it is a manifestation of them.

      The problem arises because this conditioned, and therefore unstable, consciousness wants to - ground itself, to make itself real.

      But to real-ize itself is to objectify itself - meaning to grasp itself, since an object is that-which-is-grasped.

      The ego-self is this continuing attempt to objectify oneself by grasping oneself, something we can no more do than a hand can grasp itself.

    2. repressed intuition "returns to consciousness in distorted form" as the symbolic ways we compulsively try to ground ourselves and make ourselves real in the world: such as power, fame, and of course money.

      //* Loy is stating... - Those engaging compulsively in money, fame, power, materialism - are actually deeply repressing - the fact that the ego-self, and therefore self-consciousness is a construction - To continually reify the ego-self, we engage in these activities - and of course, this is fueling the polycrisis we now find ourselves in

    3. The Buddhist doctrine of no-self implies that our fundamental repression is not sex (as Freud thought), nor even death (as existential psychologists think), but the intuition that the ego-self does not exist, that our self consciousness is a mental construction.

      // SELF CONSCIOUSNESS IS A MENTAL CONSTRUCTION

    1. Although Virgil, MM and others like them certainly possess a rudimentary form of vision, decades of visual deprivation may never be completely redeemable. The human brain has an amazing capacity for plasticity, but there are some things that it cannot do. MM will likely never see the way that we see.

      // Gradients of perceptual experiences of reality - The sense impaired teach us something fundamental about human nature. - The majority of non-sense-impaired people create the cultural norms of reality - but this reality can be very different for the sense impaired - Our reality is, to a large extent constructed from by our brain and depends on critical sensory inputs - But what is the brain itself, this magical organ that makes sense of reality? - The answer is going to vary depending on the subject experiencing it as well

    2. MM's visual capacities continue to improve, but he also remains somewhat uncomfortable with his new sense. As a blind person, MM became extremely proficient at skiing, with the help of a guide to give him oral directions. After his eyesight was restored, skiing frightened him. The trees, snow, slopes, people -- everything whizzed by him, chaotic and uninterpretable. After much practice, he is now a moderate sighted skiier -- but when he really wants to go fast and feel confident, he closes his eyes.

      // In Other Words - when sensory organs fail while we are young - we may construct different interpretations, and therefor experiences of our perceived realities - and adapt to them effortlessly. - If not for social stigma from the normative population, they would not know the difference - once we've adapted to sensory abnormalities, - a return to the normative way of experiencing reality via some medical intervention - that corrects a deficient sensory modality - is not guarantied to create the normative perceptual experience ordinary people have

    3. There is a window of opportunity in youth, often called a critical period, during which the brain can best form neural connections that correspond both to retinal images and to practical experience. During the critical period for the visual cortex, normal visual input is required to wire everything correctly. If input is missing during this period, the brain's links will probably not be built correctly. In fact, brain tissue ordinarily used in visual processing might even be taken over by other systems, perhaps tactile or olfactory systems. Some of MM's visual abilities lend further support to the theory that he missed a critical period of visual development. He is quite good at visual tasks that involve motion. Tasks that stumped him at first often became solvable if motion was incorporated into them. He became able to detect the circular patterns in random noise if the patterns were moving. And he began to see the "square with lines" as a cube if the lines moved, and the cube appeared to be rotating. At the end of their evaluations, the researchers saw some patterns emerging in MM's visual abilities and deficiencies. His ability to detect and identify simple form, color, and motion is essentially normal. His ability to detect and identify complex, three-dimensional forms, objects, and faces is severely impaired. The researchers have a tentative explanation for these variations in visual skill. Motion processing develops very early in infancy compared with form processing. By the time MM lost his eyesight in the accident, the motion centers in his brain were probably nearly complete. So when he regained some eyesight in his forties, those connections in the brain were ready to go. The parts of the brain that process complex shapes, however, do not develop until later in childhood, so MM's brain likely missed its chance to establish those particular brain connections. The authors also propose that our brains may retain the ability to modify and refine complex form identifications throughout life, not just throughout childhood. New objects and faces are continually encountered throughout life, and our visual processing centers must be able to adapt and learn to see new shapes and forms. MM's brain never had the chance to learn.

      // summary - MM could perform better if motion was involved - It is known that motion processing develops very early in infancy, whilst form processing occurs much later - the researchers hypothesized that when MM had his accident, he had already experienced enough motion processing to be familiar with it, but had not had any opportunity to perform form processing yet. - He missed the early opportunity and other brain functions took over those plastic areas, crowding out the normally reserved functional development

      //

    4. his problems didn't seem to be vision deficiencies so much as visual interpretation deficiencies. And deficiencies of this sort lie not with the retina's ability to perceive light and color, but with the brain's ability to process the retina's signals correctly. We usually do not think of the above problems as involving interpretation, because we have performed these interpretations so many times, and from such a young age. But since MM lost his sight at an early stage of development, since he had no visual input into his brain after age three, the researchers suspect that the visual centers in his brain did not develop normally -- and now, they likely never will.

      // Interpretation, rather than sensory deficiency - paraphrase - summary - This loss of normative vision is due not to anything physiological, - but to the way the brain has been starved of real-life training experiences since childhood - the early years of our childhood are critical - to train the brain how to interpret the sensory signals - in order to form the normative perceptions we experience as adults

      //

    5. Scientists and surgeons are slowly learning how to remove constraints on the eye's ability to see; unleashing the brain's ability to see is another story.

      // The brain plays a critical role in sight, without it, we can't see. There's more to it than the eye sees!

    6. constructing our perceptual reality

  14. Jan 2023
    1. the lack of external input—of content to consume—is terrifying to people, to the extent that singular artifacts of media aren't sufficient. you need multiple inputs at once, to hedge against the possibility that one of them will fail to hold your attention and force you to sit in the quiet of your own mind.

      Overwhelming the senses, numbing thought -- antithetical to meditation, blocking thought rather than releasing it, detachment from reality and immersion in the created world, embracing overwhelm instead of deep experience

    2. i like them because they're time without my phone, time to properly and intentionally inhabit my body, time to experience time.

      This is probably precisely why I dislike baths. Aside from growing up during a drought.

  15. Oct 2022
    1. what yogachara does through its detailed analysis of the nature of consciousness through its detailed analysis of the three natures that all phenomena enjoy and through its 00:34:28 detailed analysis of the three respects in which things are natureless gives us a nice analysis of how it is that we come to represent what is in fact dependently originated as um as 00:34:42 independent and intrinsically real and how it is that we come to see our mediated access to the world as immediate

      Yogachara explains how we mistakenly construct dependently originating reality as independently and intrinsically existing, and how we take the mediated, constructed reality for the immediate reality.

    2. this is not to say that our inner life has some kind of a second grade um existence conventional reality is not 00:25:14 second level reality um because as the guardian and chandra kirti also emphasized we must remember that conventional reality dependent 00:25:26 origination is exactly the same as emptiness which is ultimate reality the only kind of reality anything that we ever encounter is going to have is conventional reality so when i'm talking 00:25:38 here about cognitive illusion i'm not arguing that the existence of our interstates um is illusory i'm arguing that the illusion is that we have immediate access to them as they are and 00:25:51 that their mode of existence um is um intrinsic existence so this allows us to understand the majority analysis of the most fundamental cognitive illusion 00:26:04 of all the illusion of the immediacy of our knowledge of our own minds and the givenness of our own interstates and processes our direct knowledge of them as the kinds of things they are independent of 00:26:18 any concepts that's the illusion that wittgenstein quine and sellers each in there worked so hard in the 20th century to diagnose and to cure but we can put this just as easily and maybe more 00:26:31 easily in the terms of second century indian madhyamaka the fundamental cognitive illusion is to take our mental states to exist intrinsically rather than conventionally and to take our knowledge of them to be 00:26:45 immediate independent of conventions this illusion is pervasive it is instinctive and it is profoundly self-alienating because it obscures the deeply conventional character of our own 00:26:57 existence and of our self-knowledge and this illusion is what according to buddhist philosophers lies at the root of our grasping of our attraction and diversion and hence at the root of the 00:27:09 pervasive suffering of existence

      This fundamental illusion of immediacy lay at the root of our ignorance in the world. We mistaken our mental states to exist intrinsically instead of conventionally. We don't think they depend on language, but they do, in a very deep way.

      From a Deep Humanity perspective, even our instantly arisen mental states are part of the symbolosphere..mediated by the years of language conditioning of our culture.

      !- critical insight of : Buddhist philosophy - we take our mental states to exist intrinsically rather than conventionally - this illusion is pervasive, instinctive and profoundly self-alienating and lay at the root of all suffering Our language symbols are our model through which we interpret reality. We inhabit the symbolosphere but we mistaken it for intrinsic reality.

  16. Aug 2022
    1. Dr Dan Goyal. (2022, March 15). What’s been happening This Week in Covid? The schism between reality and policy grew even wider this week... Omicron B.2 sent cases soaring and stock markets sinking! #TheWeekInCovid [Tweet]. @danielgoyal. https://twitter.com/danielgoyal/status/1503699425427968001

  17. www.janeausten.pludhlab.org www.janeausten.pludhlab.org
    1. it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber: it is selfishness and impatience rather than generosity and fortitude, that one hears of

      I feel like Mrs Smith would enjoy reality TV

  18. Jul 2022
  19. bafybeicyqgzvzf7g3zprvxebvbh6b4zpti5i2m2flbh4eavtpugiffo5re.ipfs.dweb.link bafybeicyqgzvzf7g3zprvxebvbh6b4zpti5i2m2flbh4eavtpugiffo5re.ipfs.dweb.link
    1. From my own perspective, the conclusion is important that human structural development issubject to a categorical double bond: On the one hand, a person’s lifeworld is his or her ownsubjective construction. On the other hand, this construction is not arbitrary. In spite of allsubjectivity – because of the human’s structural coupling to its environment, this constructionis influenced and limited by the framework of this very environment (Kraus, 2013, p. 65ff.).

      !- in other words : lifeworld and life conditions, constructed and discoverable reality * We construct our lifeworld with our umwelt * https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FG_0jJfliUvQ%2F&group=world * Each human senses the environment in a way unique to our species * Our personal evolution as an individual also causes us to treat unique aspects of the environment with higher salience than other aspects, forming our unique salience landscape * Yet, structural coupling constrains us to the laws of behavior of the environment * Hence, there is always a constructed part of our experience of reality and a non-constructed, discoverable part consisting of repeatable patterns of nature, culturally consolidated in human laws of nature

    1. these four philosophers in very different ways but 00:18:14 in ways that intersect in very intriguing ways um emphasized that with knowledge sensory knowledge perceptual knowledge isn't the direct access um to sensory properties or descent or 00:18:28 objects around us but rather is always the result of a complex cognitive and perceptual process mediated by our sense organs our sense faculties and our cognitive processes 00:18:41 and just another way to put that this is a way that paul churchill puts this but also um paul fire robin also sellers is that the objects we experience the 00:18:52 world that we inhabit the world in which we find ourselves embedded is not a world that we simply find it's a world that we construct and whose constituents we construct in our central nervous 00:19:06 systems in response to sensory stimulation transduced by neural impulses that is somehow our bodies interact with other bodies in the world um our and through various kinds of 00:19:19 cognitive processes

      These 4 American scientists articulate that we don't simply sense a world out there. Rather, our sensory and cognitive faculties CONSTRUCT what appears to us.

    1. we cannot have a discussion about reality unless it's it's it's it's a discussion there's courses involved 01:35:20 but all the discussions i didn't know about reality um as far as i know happened um through sounds or writing in which atoms were 01:35:32 moving so we cannot have a discussion without atoms right um and so on i could i could so then atoms are fundamental no uh 01:35:44 the fact that something is it's it's part of our discussion about this doesn't mean that uh it's primary with respect to the rest i think we have to take this that's my that's my own personal um 01:35:56 view of that so of course we talk about uh from today from within our consciousness of course and of course we have information about reality from within our senses and of course we talk in 01:36:08 english we talk in tibetan we talk in pali but that's not because english tibetan empire consciousness or atoms are a necessary starting point for understanding the rest i think it's uh 01:36:20 that's exactly the uh the the uh what i read in a gardener's uh uh uh chapter about the self um 01:36:33 it's uh we recognize his dependence uh of of i i would i would say levels of the pieces of the story one respect to the other one 01:36:45 and uh uh but also at a clear at a clear logical analysis this is what nagajuna does none of this stands up as primary with 01:36:57 respect to the other that's my reading uh professor halcyas georgios my dear friend and colleague um i agree with you when we talk about reality we are we are talking not about 01:37:13 reality uh we're talking about reality it's not reality and that is not the reality of the uh of nagarjuna nevertheless it's very useful because 01:37:35 without this conventional reality of words and concepts that are correct in understanding nagarjuna without that it's very difficult for us to have that experience that non-conceptual experience of reality so you know 01:37:49 there's a kind of a metaphor that's used is you you know you take a boat and you cross the river and then uh you leave the boat or the other analogy is you you're out in the forest and it gets cold and you 01:38:02 take two sticks and you rub them together and with a friction you get fire and the fire then burns the sticks so the sticks are conceptuality as was the boat that got you across the 01:38:14 river not any conceptuality but very clear understanding of nagarjuna and of course the buddha his discussion on on the buddhist wisdom

      The answer to the question given does not feel satisfactory. The question appears to be a variant of the "If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear". Does reality have an objective, autonomous existence? In other words, the question asks: does objective reality exist?

    2. i think we must bear in mind that any any sort of verbalization about reality um is dependent on consciousness it's not possible to have a discussion about what is real 01:33:02 and not have consciousness in the discussion uh especially when we are to verbalize it i mean of course any reality that is independent of consciousness is not dependent on consciousness 01:33:15 is beyond verbalization and i think the buddhist position is very clear on that and i think arjuna if i read him correctly it's very clear that the when it comes to the ultimate reality to um 01:33:28 it's something that actually we cannot talk about and basically all discussion all this course is very much uh within the level of conventional the conventional real 01:33:42 uh so this is a very interesting i think um a point that i wanted to make that i think i can also raise it as a point for the two of you to respond uh from your respective uh 01:33:54 perspectives um because if consciousness from my understanding is primary to this discussion of what is real uh and if consciousness does not inherently exist 01:34:07 right well at least i mean barry also talked about the different kinds of minds um then how does all this discussion about 01:34:20 what is real what kind of claims can we ultimately make about what is reality now i think i have a feeling that carlos comes from a different perspective 01:34:31 then barry in answering that question so i'd like to really point to this question about can we make any claims about reality and if so based on what 01:34:44 from your respective disciplines so that's my um my question and comments

      The question raised here is how can we talk about ultimate reality unless consciousness is involved? All discussions about ultimate reality must, as Nagarjuna pointes out must take place within conventional reality.

      Perhaps a shorter question is this: Does objective reality exist?

    3. i was particularly struck by the fact that barry didn't say the mind is this this and that okay barry said well the mind is many things 01:19:18 uh look there's this and this this and this and there's a sort of layers also in some sense in which we can talk about it or or have some understanding partial media 01:19:30 understanding about it some wisdom about it and this layering i find it it's uh absolutely brilliant from my perspective 01:19:43 uh because it it dissolves the wrong question which is what is the mind period what is the thing which is the mind here is the thing which is mine uh let's just 01:19:55 define it characterize it and understand what it is that's a wrong that's a wrong way of thinking about it it's when we say when we think about our mind of course we think something you you unite somehow 01:20:09 it's the set of processes that happen into me and it's about my thinking my emotions but it's not one thing it's a complicated layer there's many layers of discussion possible about 01:20:21 that i don't want to enter into the specific but i found this fascinating and let me go to time immediately because uh it's it's deeply related i got the book of time which is a um 01:20:34 the audio of time in which i carlo this carlo is very timely because we're also kind of running low on time absolutely absolutely 01:20:46 and and and in the book i sort of uh try to collect everything we have learned about time from science from special activity from generative statistical mechanics from other pieces and and what we 01:21:00 tentatively uh learn about time with quantum gravity which is my uh specific field once again you have to sort of uh put your hands on the notion of time and the main message of the book 01:21:12 in fact the single message of the book is that the question of what is time is a wrong question because when we think about time we think about the single thing okay we think we have a totally clear idea about time time is a single thing 01:21:25 that flows from the past to the future and the past influence the president the president of the future in the present this is how things are the reality of the present entire universe is a real state in that and we learn from science that this way 01:21:37 of viewing times is wrong it's factually wrong okay it's not true that uh we all proceed in in in together from 01:21:48 moment a to moment b and the amount lapse amount of time lapses between a and b is the same for everybody and so on and forth because we learned from from experiences especially activity generativity statistical mechanics and 01:22:01 other things so the way to think about time is that it's a very layered thing but with this thing we call time is made by layers um conceptually and when we look at larger 01:22:14 domain the one of our usual experience some layers are lost so uh some aspects some some properties of what we call time are only good 01:22:25 uh are only appropriate for describing the temporal experience we have if we don't move too fast it doesn't look too uh to to to too far away if you don't look at the atoms too in detail as a single 01:22:38 degrees of freedom and so on so forth so the notion of time opens up in a in a in a set of layers which are become increasingly 01:22:53 uh general only if you go down to the bottom level um some aspect of time like the universality of time uh uh only makes sense if if we don't go too 01:23:06 fast velocities for instance um so this is a similarity and that's why the the opening up of what the mind is into layers seems to be uh 01:23:19 the right direction to go right when if if i ask uh does a cat has a mind or does a fly has a mind it seems to me that the only answer is uh to get out of the idea that the 01:23:31 answer is either yes or no i mean i i suppose that certainly a cat has a certain you know a sleepy feeling in the morning and the moment of 01:23:43 joy when he sees his fellow cats but i suppose a cat doesn't go through a complicated intellectual game of trying to understanding what is reality and debating about that so there is some aspect in common uh either not break up 01:23:56 this this notion in in pieces once again uh i mean the the topic is what is real uh 01:24:08 if we start by saying time is real it's a beautiful chapter why you cannot say that time is an intrinsic existence uh we just get it wrong if we think well then atoms are real or the mind is real 01:24:21 all these answers we got it wrong we can say that things are real in a uh in a conventional sense within a context within a within a um 01:24:37 and and then we when we try to realize what you mean by uh something is real this is certainly real in a conventional sense but we realize that um reality the reality of this object 01:24:49 itself it gets sort of broken up into interdependence between this object and else and its different layers 01:25:02 and and that's the reality that as a scientist i can deal with not the ultimate reality the the conventional reality of course conventional reality is real as uh perry 01:25:15 was saying this is not a negation of reality uh it's a it's a it it's a freedom from the idea of the ultimate reality uh 01:25:27 the ultimate uh sort of intrinsic inherent reality being there on which in terms of which building progress

      Carlo resonates with Barry's layered explanation of mind from the Buddhist perspective. The mind is not some simplistic entity. Carlo wrote a book on time and he applied this same layered thinking. Time is different in different circumstances. It acts one way at the quantum level, another at the microscopic, another at our human level, and another at the galactic level.

      In a sense, we tend to make the same type of category errors whether it is our experience of time, space or experience in general. We overgeneralize from an anthropomorphic perspective. A large part of Jay L. Garfield's argument of cognitive illusions and immediacy of experience rests on this fact.

      https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FHRuOEfnqV6g%2F&group=world

      Opaque mechanisms operate in both our sense organs and our mental machinery to give us this illusory feeling of immediacy of the sensed or cognized object.

      Uexkull's umwelt experiments on the snail as explained by Cummins are consistent with Carlo's perspective on time.

      https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FG_0jJfliUvQ%2F&group=world

    1. he's built a little toy he's built a treadmill for a snail isn't that wonderful he's a genuine scientist he's doing lots and lots of experiments with 00:11:27 animals they're very creative experiments in this case he's built a treadmill for a snail so the snail is held by a vice on a rotating ball and the snail is then um approached by 00:11:40 the investigator who chucks it under the chin like this and if you chuck the snail under the chin like this the snail will recoil not surprising i 00:11:52 would recall it as well but as you speed up the frequency of these chucks under the chin at about five hertz once you pass a frequency of about five chucks per second 00:12:05 the snail's behavior changes remarkably instead of being perturbed and trying to withdraw it tries to crawl onto onto something the qualitative nature of what's happening 00:12:18 to the snail has changed for the snail and its response or it's it's um sense making is altered and it's tried it perceives seems to perceive now a constant surface onto which it might 00:12:32 crawl now that might seem strange to you but i'll remind you that if we flash a light for you five times a second you'll see a light flashing and if we speed up the interval 00:12:44 then we shorten the interval between flashes to make them faster there comes a critical point at about 20 site flashes per second where you no longer perceive individual flashes but you 00:12:54 perceive a continuous light something like this underlies the magic that happens with moving pictures as well where you know that the action you see in the cinema is a bunch of projected still pictures 00:13:09 but they um have this character of continuous movement for you likewise in sound if we play that for you you hear a bunch of disconnected claps but if we shorten the 00:13:22 interval between the claps and speed it up there comes a point at which it changes into a continuous low pitch and that happens again about 20 hertz at about 20 cycles per second now for this snail 00:13:35 that border is at a different place it's at about five cycles per second what this shows is quite profound remember kant's synthetic a prioris 00:13:46 time for this snail is different than time for you the time that arises as a function of the body of the snail has this border at about five hertz where you have one at about 20 hertz 00:14:01 his basic insight is that worlds arise for snails that are not commensurable with worlds that arise for humans with which are not commensurable with worlds that arise for earthworms 00:14:15 the notion of an umvelt we get to determine a minute is used to describe this bodily specific arising of a world together with time and space 00:14:28 now i said it's rather weird to think of time being fundamentally different for an animal of a different constitution but i'll remind you that we can use our cinematic tricks to make ourselves aware of our own 00:14:41 limitations on the left there through high-speed photography we managed to make perceptible an event which we cannot otherwise see the event that you see there with the splash is 00:14:53 perfectly real but we can only make it manifest through high-speed photography similarly whoops there are processes going on around us 00:15:05 that we do not perceive and we can use time-lapse photography to make those to speed them up so that they become perceptible to us something like the blooming of a flower or the battles intricate battles fought 00:15:16 between brambles and hedges these make us aware that we perceive time as unfolding at a rate dictated by our own metabolism and bodily processes so this idea that time and space 00:15:32 are considered very different from count but very much tied now to the body this is quite radical

      Here, the speaker, Fred Cummins, introduces us tto the synthetic apriori concepts of time explored by Uexkull.in his clever snail experiment.

      By holding the snail in place on a rotating vertical wheel and stimulating the neck of the snail by touch, by speeding up the frequency of touching the snail to about 5 Hz, Uexkull was able to produce a different behavior in the snail. The snail was no longer withdrawing its neck into its shell, but tries to walk instead.

      Cummins compares this unique sensing of time unique to the snail with that of humans. We perceive individual sounds and individual images as distinct as long as they occur at a frequency below approximately 20 Hz. When the frequency rises above this, we perceive it as continuous. This is how we digitize audio (moving sounds) as well as video (moving pictures), creating the illusion of continuous motion.

      So we, in effect CONSTRUCT the sense of time and motion. Jay Garfield talks about how we also construct aspects of reality such as color: https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2FHRuOEfnqV6g%2F&group=world

      Color and time are constructed based on the organisms specific perceptual structures. The snail constructs time differently than a human does.

  20. Jun 2022
    1. Augmented Reality can break down communication barriers – and help us better understand each other by making language visible. Google shows a preview of AR glasses yesterday that can translate speech in real-time. Although it's only a concept at the moment, the promise is incredible and underlines how #augmentedreality will increasingly & positively impact our daily lives.

    1. You ask me who you are; To tell a story you can live your life by; A tail that has some point; That you can see; So that you no longer; Have to feel so pointless; Because what you see is what you get; If you don’t get the meaning of my silence; Because you ain’t seen nothing yet

      Who are you? To answer is to commit to one facet of a multi-faceted jewel better to stay silent and experience the richness and fullness of reality there the answer already manifests

  21. May 2022
    1. Humanity’s COG is assessed as its deep frames, prevalent and dominant worldviews that influence governance decisions across the public and private sectors (figure 3). Simply put, CEC presents a new type of threat—a Frankenstein-like killing and destruction phenomenon—that humanity struggles to conceive or perceive.

      It would benefit the description by including the umwelt in the perception lens and cognitive biases and cognitive constructions in the cognitive lens.

  22. Apr 2022
    1. It is notinsignificant either that among the illustrations of the Roland Barthes par RolandBarthes there are a series of facsimile reproductions of the author’s handwriting,analogic reproductions of linguistic graphemes, pieces of writing silenced,abstracted from the universe of discourse by their photographic reproduction. Inparticular, as we have seen, the three index cards are reproduced not for the sakeof their content, not for their signified, but for a reality-effect value for which ourexpanding taste, says Barthes, encompasses the fashion of diaries, of testimonials,of historical documents, and, most of all, the massive development of photogra-

      phy. In that sense, the reproduction of these three slips ironically resonates, if on a different scale, with the world tour of the mask of Tutankhamen. It refers, if not to the magic silence of a relic, at least to the ghostly parergonal quality of what French language calls a reliquat.

      Hollier argues that Barthes' reproduced cards are not only completely divorced from their original context and use, but that they are reproduced for the sheen of reality and artistic fashion they convey to the reader. So much thought, value, and culture is lost in the worship of these items in this setting compared to their original context.

      This is closely linked to the same sort of context collapse highlighted by the photo of Chief William Berens seated beside the living stones of his elders in Tim Ingold's Why Anthropology Matters. There we only appreciate the sense of antiquity, curiosity, and exoticness of an elder of a culture that is not ours. These rocks, by very direct analogy, are the index cards of the zettelkasten of an oral culture.

      Black and white photo of a man in Western dress (pants, white shirt, and vest) sits on a rock with a forrest in the background. Beside him are several large round, but generally otherwise unremarkable rocks. Chief William Berens seated beside the living stones of his elders; a picture taken by A. Irving Hallowell in 1930, between Grand Rapids and Pikangikum, Ontario, Canada. (American Philosophical Society)

    1. ReconfigBehSci [@i]. (2021, November 27). @STWorg @PhilippMSchmid @CorneliaBetsch this clip got me too- for non-German speakers. She is asked whether she is ‘concerned’. Her response: Of course I’m concerned, I’m double vexed, I’m waiting for my booster vaccination, my husband died of Covid, I was in hospital, now I’m avoiding my grand children [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1464660287739596802

    1. ReconfigBehSci on Twitter: ‘@STWorg @PhilippMSchmid @CorneliaBetsch and every now and then we have to watch a clip like this to be reminded what all of this is really about. This pain and suffering is happening in one of the richest countries in the world at a time in the pandemic when we know exactly what to do to avoid it’ / Twitter. (n.d.). Retrieved 22 April 2022, from https://twitter.com/SciBeh/status/1464662622440144896

  23. Mar 2022
    1. The idea that Russia has a particular responsibility for the Russian communities outside Russia became a core part of the identity of Moscow’s foreign policy elite in the early 1990s and has been a key driver in the evolution of Russia’s approach to its neighbourhood.

      The alleged rationale for invading Ukraine is not new. What's different now is the complete lack of popular support combined with unrelenting violence -- disregarding reality.

    1. Each highlighted statement expresses political talking points aligned to induce trump-like support.

      Trump introduced new marketing and strategy, formulated using concepts and metrics mastered by Reality TV and Hollywood and then paired with advertising propaganda and "selling" techniques to create a "Brand". This is after-all Donald Trump, this is what he does, has done and is the only way he has found to make money. Trump built the "brand" (just barely) while teetering on self destruction.

      His charismatic persona became "the glue" that allowed creative narratives to stick to certain types of people in-spite of risk. Trump learned OTJ how to capture a specific type of audience.

      The mistake people make about Trump is assuming his audience to be "Joe Six-Pack", redneck's with limited education! This assumption does not have merit on its own.<br /> * There is a common "follower" theme among his audience that is exploited by those who: * Bought the "licensing rights" to the master-class Trump "how-to" course.

  24. Feb 2022
    1. Coming from a functional programming background, I feel there is a profound distinction between function and method. Mainly methods have side effects, and that functions should be pure thus giving a rather nice property of referential transparency
    2. I agree it might be nice if "function" and "method" meant what you wanted them to, but your definitions do not reflect some very common uses of those terms.
  25. Jan 2022
  26. Dec 2021
    1. Some people have found success with a crowd-funded Patreon-kind of funding model. Even though ostensibly making is showbusiness now,

      Starting with reality television, everything seems to have become entertainment. Social media has accelerated this.

      The idea that "making is showbusiness" is an interesting label for this.

      We also have "manufacturing"; when will we have digufacturing?

  27. Nov 2021
  28. Oct 2021
    1. When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers.… The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly.

      On the Homebrewed Christianity podcast, Tripp Fuller quotes Process and Reality by Alfred North Whitehead in a conversation with Brian McLaren (22:20).

      When the Western world accepted Christianity, Caesar conquered; and the received text of Western theology was edited by his lawyers. The code of Justinian and the theology of Justinian are two volumes expressing one movement of the human spirit. The brief Galilean vision of humility flickered throughout the ages, uncertainly. In the official formulation of the religion it has assumed the trivial form of the mere attribution to the Jews that they cherished a misconception about their Messiah. But the deeper idolatry, of the fashioning of God in the image of the Egyptian, Persian, and Roman imperial rulers, was retained. The Church gave unto God the attributes which belonged exclusively to Caesar.

      Whitehead, Alfred North. Process and Reality (Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28) (p. 342). Free Press. Kindle Edition.

  29. Sep 2021
    1. His questioning of the scientific orthodoxy was the expression of a rare and maverick intelligence. He shows us that the nature of reality is infinite and believed in a “hidden” regime of reality – the Quantum Potential – that underlies all of creation and which will remain beyond scientific endeavor, an idea echoed by many mystical traditions.

      “We are all participants and observers in the emergence of a reality…the Observer is the Observed. Bohm shows us that we are all co-producers of a possible future in which personal and global transformation is possible.”

  30. Aug 2021
  31. Jul 2021
    1. as a more experienced user I know one can navigate much more quickly using a terminal than using the hunt and peck style of most file system GUIs

      As an experienced user, this claim strikes me as false.

      I often start in a graphical file manager (nothing special, Nautilus on my system, or any conventional file explorer elsewhere), then use "Open in Terminal" from the context menu, precisely because of how much more efficient desktop file browsers are for navigating directory hierarchies in comparison.

      NB: use of a graphical file browser doesn't automatically preclude keyboard-based navigation.

  32. Jun 2021
    1. I could see them--that they were advancing in life, and I was still in the same spot. So I asked my mom if I could get a job, and that's when she broke it down to me that I wasn't even from here. And that was right there like a slap in the face.

      Time in US - immigration status - being secretive - lost opportunities

  33. Apr 2021
  34. Mar 2021
    1. <img alt="" class="fj et ep iu w" src="https://via.hypothes.is/im_/https://miro.medium.com/max/7116/1*VE2_0XWErGKsDxXk5ItdMw.png" width="3558" height="1992" srcset="https://via.hypothes.is/https://miro.medium.com/max/552/1*VE2_0XWErGKsDxXk5ItdMw.png 276w, https://via.hypothes.is/https://miro.medium.com/max/1104/1*VE2_0XWErGKsDxXk5ItdMw.png 552w, https://via.hypothes.is/https://miro.medium.com/max/1280/1*VE2_0XWErGKsDxXk5ItdMw.png 640w, https://via.hypothes.is/https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*VE2_0XWErGKsDxXk5ItdMw.png 700w" sizes="700px" role="presentation"/>A screengrab from Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision film, via Nick Foster’s Future Mundane

      It dawns on me that these sort of virtual reality-type images that have been around for ages aren't too dissimilar to how I see the world with various mnemonic techniques. They're also the closes way of potentially helping modern first world Western cultures better understand how many indigenous societies have seen the world in the past.

    1. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. ‘Follow the Link Https://T.Co/YSCE9FC88K to Watch a Recording of the Recent Seminar by @JohnSMcConnell, Editor of @TheLancetInfDis -- “#COVID-19: Reality and Misinformation”’. Tweet. @TheLancetInfDis (blog), 2 November 2020. https://twitter.com/TheLancetInfDis/status/1323319489753206786.

  35. Feb 2021
  36. Nov 2020
    1. I can’t see a single invisible hair-pin.

      Isn't...isn't that the point of an invisible hair-pin? That you don't see it? Or is it one of those things you pretend not to see out of politeness and habit? Like a denial of reality that everyone agrees upon, and for once the fake reality is real?

  37. Oct 2020
    1. But she had already forgotten Hennie. I was forgotten, too. She was trying to remember something... She was miles away.

      This drives home the surrealist tone of the entire story. Reality is warped in this space and Mansfield emphasizes the connection between physical distance and emotional distance here with "remember" and "miles away". It's reminiscent of Alice at Mad Hatter's tea party - the whole affair is chaotic, and it is difficult to ascertain whether the here and now is real.

    2. I am conten

      I wonder if Laura's amazement at the body and finding beauty in it is meant to show the beauty of death and how it allows an escape from the rigidly socioeconomically divided world of the living, or that's another sign of how disconnected from the lives of these people she and her family are, that she sees the loss of life as some romantic portrait laid out before her and not the reality of the loss his family feels and the economic struggles they'll come to face having lost the head of the household. Maybe it's both? Who knows...

    3. successful party

      What does it mean for a party to be successful in this context? Obviously the party went well, it was enjoyable, but this section implies something more. The way this paragraph is framed it sounds like she means the party was successful at pushing the thought of the man dying out of her head, and that she's still so high off of the party she can't be brought down by any harsh realities of the world. So in that sense, are parties, or at least is this party, meant to be a sort of vaccine against awaking to the harsh reality we live in?

    1. Application of augmented reality technologies for education projects preparation

      This article is on the cutting edge of educational technology. It discusses the potential benefits of augmented or enriched reality in education. While this article focuses on studies conducted using teaching practices in a college classroom with college students, it is reasonable to assume that this technology would have great potential for adult education too. 9/10 extremely exciting and interesting potential future technology for adult education.

  38. Sep 2020
    1. I was… not one of those assigned to watch our chosen one, so I can’t say much about exactly what happened within the walls of that house, but it seems the fight scarred the place in a way far deeper than simple fire. A scar in reality, that I believe has since been compounded by the interferences of other powers.
    2. Regardless, the effect it had on Agnes was unanticipated. As far as we could tell, she had destroyed the place utterly. And yet she remained bound to it, tied to it in some vital way. I knew when Arthur told me she had kept Raymond Fielding’s hand, that he was worried. But none of us could know what you were going to do.
  39. Aug 2020
    1. Imagine a society so fucked up that this couple is kept from ever knowing about each other through systematic campaigns of fear and hatred

      Your assumption falls on its face when you consider that any given society consists of individual drives. When most people agree that men are filthy undesirables unless they redeem themselves in some way, so that opinion becomes sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, you get a society that systematically denies not only their dating struggles, but the most basic human rights concerns, like the right to equal protection under the law, which is crucial to address the female perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence.

    2. Maybe you can point to a mental illness they have

      I'm pretty sure your typical reader considers that an aggravating circumstance.

    3. Now, I know this is a stretch, but imagine for a second

      And the reason you expect your average, feminist brainwashed, reader, to do that?

    4. They want women to deserve to be barred from higher education.

      Wrong. Desperate horny men like you want women at all costs. You pretend not to realize that men opening up their spaces to the opposite sex is the default social dynamic, even though females never reciprocate in kind when it comes to sharing their spaces. Elite schools that only let males to attend is a fickle thing that only survives as long as wise men have enough of a political wherewithal to sustain the safe space. Yes, the conversation that you'll never bring up, is the fact that males need safe spaces to learn and develop too, even more than girls.

    5. convince

      They are quite certain.

    6. I’ve seen whole comedies devoted to how hilarious this is, and it’s kind of like making fun of Holocaust victims for dying so easily.

      People laugh at the pain that victims of Male Genital Mutilation experience, and are a-ok torturing baby dicks with knives. You think they'll care about your attitude to the show?

    7. a 40 year old virgin

      You forgot to use the Male qualifier there.

  40. Jul 2020
    1. Matamala-Gomez. M., Brivio E., Chirico. A., Malighetti. C., Realdon. O., Serino. S., Dakanalis. A., Corno. G., Polli. N., Cacciatore. C., Riva. Giuseppe., Mantovani. F (2020) User Experience and usability of a new virtual reality set-up to treat eating disorders: a pilot study. PsyArXiv Preprints. Retrieved from: https://psyarxiv.com/b38ym/

  41. May 2020
    1. In natural languages, some apparent tautologies may have non-tautological meanings in practice. In English, "it is what it is" is used to mean 'there is no way of changing it'.[1] In Tamil, vantaalum varuvaan literally means 'if he comes, he will come', but really means 'he just may come'.[2]
  42. Apr 2020
    1. the Add functions seem to work generically over various types when looking at the invocations, but are considered to be two entirely distinct functions by the compiler for all intents and purposes
  43. Jan 2020
    1. Ever since Plato, there have been people who worried about whether we can gain access to Reality, or whether the finitude of our cognitive faculties makes such access impossible.

      The question!

    2. We would express our sense of finitude not by comparing our humanity with something nonhuman but by comparing our way of being human with other, better ways that may someday be adopted by our descendants.

      How does getting rid of the Reality-Appearance distinction help us do this?

  44. Dec 2019
  45. Nov 2019
    1. a promising technology for decades that's never truly caught on. That's constantly changing with the current wave of VR products,

      PC magazine is a online compuer magazine, based on popular topics ranging form hackers to smartphones.

      Rating: 9/10

    1. In the text by Jennifer Herseim, virtual reality (VR) is identified as a tool to help with teacher training. Teachers can embark on a learning process in a secure environment with a diverse set of student avatars operated in part, by a real individual. Staff can explore their teaching methods and styles with recorded and measured skills and responses for future review and reflection. Rating 7/10

    1. it’s important to embrace pedagogies that leverage synchronous (live) instruction.

      It is mention in this article that Arizona State University is on the right track regarding superior online services. this article point of view is about the online challenges for colleges and universities, such as, doing live videos, online services and supplying tech devices. this website "EdTech" is a online magazine education technology resource for both K-12 and higher education.

  46. Jul 2019
    1. In Christianity it is expressed as, “I and my Father are one.” That is, I, Awareness, and the ultimate reality of the universe are one and the same reality.
  47. Jun 2019
  48. Apr 2019
    1. Playing games with my brother taught me that connections can be made with another person through virtual reality. Things like cooperation, shared problem-solving, and communication in gaming can strengthen relationships. Most importantly, gaming taught me that no matter the differences between me and another person, we can find common ground through play.
    1. Virtual reality meets this bar when it comes to one-on-one conversations: when we analyzed the EEG results of participants who chatted in virtual reality, we found that on average they were within the optimal range of cognitive effort. To put it another way, participants in virtual reality were neither bored nor overstimulated. They were also in the ideal zone for remembering and processing information.
    1. But augmented reality, as the name suggests, is about augmenting or adding to reality reality. You might be looking at your cat or up your street, but there could be digital characters and content overlaid on them.
  49. Mar 2019
    1. Towards a Mobile Augmented Reality Prototype for Corporate Training: A New Perspective

      Research Article. I found this article especially interesting because it promotes the use of mobile devices for online learning. This focuses on corporate training, but it is easy to see how it could be applied across areas and fields. There is a specific focus on the use of virtual and real objects during education experiences to create experience-based learning outcomes. Rating 4/10

    1. Application  of  Virtual  and  Augmented  Reality  tothe  Field  of  Adult  Education

      Research Article from the Adult Education Research Conference. This article examines the history of VR as a tool to train military personnel, and medical professionals and how future directions of VR could be used for other adult education situations especially due to their low risk learning environment. The authors examine how VR could also be used in gaming, arts, entertainment, marketing and business fields. This is important because VR environments also allow students to exploring changing technology and practice self-learning. Rating 6/10

  50. Feb 2019
  51. Jan 2019
    1. egime of the real i

      The "regime of the real" makes me to believe that we are seized and dictated by reality. Because we each have our "own reality"in a sense, are we each under different rule or dictatorship?

  52. Nov 2018
    1. Learning needs analysis of collaborative e-classes in semi-formal settings: The REVIT exampl

      This article explores the importance of analysis of instructional design which seems to be often downplayed particularly in distance learning. ADDIE, REVIT have been considered when evaluating whether the training was meaningful or not and from that a central report was extracted and may prove useful in the development of similar e-learning situations for adult learning.

      RATING: 4/5 (rating based upon a score system 1 to 5, 1= lowest 5=highest in terms of content, veracity, easiness of use etc.)

    1. Designing for virtual reality and the impact on education | Alex Faaborg | TEDxCincinnati

      This video includes Alex Faaborg on Tedx Talks sharing how VR virtual reality can positively impact education. The introduction of google cardboard is reviewed along with design techniques.

    1. How Technology can Shape Adult Education

      The author provides a brief overview of methods that technology can be used in adult education. Specifically, gamification and virtual reality are described to be ways to make adult education fun and interactive. Rating: 4/5

  53. Oct 2018
    1. reflexivity has subversive effects

      (read whole sentence)

      Ex) Matrix, Inception, Shutter Island

      These examples all do exactly what the author describes: confuses and entangles the boundaries we impose on the world in order to make sense of that world.

      On a similar note, we often like to separate the "maker" from what is being "created" rather than "entangling the generator of the system with the system..." For example, a movie producer is generally not an actor in a movie. An artist does not typically draw himself. However, we do have a form of creation, writing, in which authors are constantly writing about themselves.

      Reverting back to Hayle's definition: Reflexivity is the movement whereby that which has been used to generate a system is made, through a changed perspective, to become part of the system it generates.

      This definition could imply that writing about oneself is subversive, because upon being read, one person's perspective has the capability to influence another, becoming a part of another person's mind, or system.

  54. Sep 2018
    1. Becoming posthuman means exceeding the limitations that define the less desirable aspects of the “human condition.” Posthuman beings would no longer suffer from disease, aging, and inevitable death (but they are likely to face other challenges). They would have vastly greater physical capability and freedom of form

      Posthuman beings contradict the human conditions that apply to my life, and every living being for that matter: immortality is non-existent. The passage alludes that the posthuman evolution will oppose the current human condition, and humanity will be redefine its physical form. A reformation in the modern humans understanding of scarcity is entirely different than that of the posthuman. With increased control over the posthumans physical capability are differing in juxtaposition to the human condition in the twenty first century: Prompting our modern society with the question of whether the human condition makes significant biological changes. The change from the former to the latter intertwines technological advancements with physical capabilities, although to what end? The human condition will be a backbone to the technology that manages the posthumans interpretation of reality.

  55. Aug 2018
    1. Finally, Thorseth points out that Kant’s notion ofreflective judgment is ofpossiblejudgments, in con-trast with actual judgments – where the former referto something virtual in the sense of what ispossiblefor human beings to imagine. For Thorseth, the well-known virtual world of Second Life stands as anexample of a virtual reality in which a key conditionof reflective/possible judgment is met – namely, thatwe are able to avoid the illusion that our purely pri-vate and personal conditions somehow constitute anobjective context or reality
  56. Oct 2017
    1. In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

      It is interesting that the speaker gives us a graphic image of the sound of death using the language "guttering," "choking," and "drowning," yet it is in contrast to a dream-like state. This creates slight confusion as to whether we are now in the speaker's dream or his reality. This could be a futile attempt in showing how easy it is to have the lines of reality and fantasy cross; making the soldier a prisoner to war and "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori."

    2. The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

      We come back to this Latin phrase, “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” yet again. After being exposed to the imagery of the cruelties produced by chemical warfare, the soldiers are forever altered like the state of being “drunk” or in "An ecstasy" with now having to constantly live in the aftermath of war. The allusion of this phrase creates a shattering of one owns belief and alters the idea of what it means to be patriotic; just as the gas alters the mental capacity of the individual fighting for their country.

      To quote W.B. Yeats), a poet during the 1920's post-war Europe, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" Our perception of war is forever changed through the lens and perspective of those used as human sacrifice.

    3. Drunk with fatigue

      War is not only difficult on the physical aspect of an individual; it is just as difficult on the emotional and mental capacity of a human. It is factual that WWI culminated an astronomical amount of casualties, destruction, and disablement. This reference to being “drunk” may help guide us into the notion that soldiers are not able to differentiate between fantasy and reality under the duress of mentioned “fatigue.” We can understand that the state of "drunk" alters your reality and can have dangerous repercussions; in this sense, the loss of one's mind or life. In the prior lines we have loss of physical functionalities of the human body with words such as “limped on,” “lame,” and “blind,” which coincides with the premature aging or physical deterioration of the soldiers.

    4. Dulce et Decorum Est

      This title was written in Latin and originally comes from the Roman poet Horace ode (III.2.13) which translates to “sweet and fitting it is to die for one’s country.” Horace’s ode paints patriotism and nationalism in a positive light as opposed to Owen’s bitter and stark realization of the cost of patriotism; paid for at the expense of the physical and mental deterioration of the soldier’s body during the First World War. As Harold Bloom suggest, Owen’s aim was “to attack the concept that sacrifice is sacred; he hoped to destroy the glamorized decency of war.” It is important to keep the title in mind in regards to what it means in the connotation of sweet verses sickly.

  57. Aug 2017
  58. Jun 2017
  59. May 2017
    1. On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of congresspeople announced the formation of the Reality Caucus, with the intention of working with companies and monitoring issues that arise, but any concrete legislation is a long ways away.

      A reality caucus. i love it!

  60. Feb 2017
    1. The first step in testing claims of conspiracy is to establish precisely what is being claimed

      "Accordingly, in all tongues, perhaps without exception, the ordinary terms, which are considered as literally expressive of the latter [material subjects], are also used promiscuously to denote the former [spiritual subjects]." - Campbell

  61. Dec 2016
    1. The problem, then, is that people are involved with their thoughts and not with life. This creates a very great gulf in your experience.
    2. when you say, "I create my reality," what you are saying is that you are creating an interpretation of what you can experience. If you can only experience this much of life, and it is all your interpretation, then you see your range of perception is very limited. But your Knowledge, which you carry within yourself, is capable of opening your perception completely. Without so much incessant thinking, wondering, asking, pondering, manipulating, planning and scheming, and so forth, the greater part of your mind, your Knowledge, can begin to show you things. It is not difficult to have direct experience. You simply must not be doing anything else.
    3. The fact is you only create interpretations of reality. A better interpretation may be more pleasant temporarily, but you are still disassociated from yourself and life. It is this disassociation that must be bridged. Life is happening all around you, an incredible panorama. But you cannot experience it. Your Teachers are with you, helping you in amazing ways, but you do not know that they are there. There are genuine relationships waiting for you in life, waiting for you to be ready and desirous of them, but you must have the capability and the desire.
    4. you can sit and be totally involved with your own mind and be totally uninvolved with everything around you, unaware of forces that are influencing you-forces that are helpful for you and forces that are not helpful for you. This is a profound disadvantage! This is why people are having problems. There is not a problem with reality, but there is a great problem with interpretation and self-absorption. At the very beginning of true learning, then, each person must become aware of their self-absorption-how much they are involved with their own mind and how little they are involved in life. Often it can seem very upsetting or disappointing and even insulting when you find out that you are actually experiencing very little of life and thinking a great deal.
    5. When we speak of perception, we are speaking of your interpretation of the reality that you can experience. What you experience is interpretive. It is very rare that people have a direct experience of anything! Direct experience means that you are experiencing a reality that is beyond your interpretation. A very rare and great experience this is. It could be the common denominator of your experience, but in fact it is quite rare and phenomenal because 99.9% of your experience is interpretation of the reality that you can experience. When I say "the reality that you can experience," I mean that you can only experience a little bit of reality because of your limited capacity and range of perception. So, it is not merely the interpretation of reality at large; it is interpretation of the reality that you can experience.
  62. Oct 2016
    1. I worry that the industry has no idea how much research already goes on, or how vital it is to fund.

      Maybe my fears are unfounded, but the stakes are high. Startups are the very tip of the iceberg, floating by virtue of work that was done by other people long ago. If people forget we need to fund research now, we’re going to feel it decades later and not know why. Imagine where we’d be without the government-funded research of the 60s!

      -- Vi Hart

      eleVR is a research team that experiments with immersive media, particularly virtual and augmented reality.

      They are NOT a startup.

  63. Sep 2016
  64. Jul 2016
  65. May 2016
    1. You likewise possibly now can understand how in your Dream you became more and moreengrossed in and attached to this false Earth state, through first eating of this fruit and learning toknow Good and Evil, and after learning of the new and enticing world thus opened up to you,dying to the knowledge of the Reality back of it all; and how and why it was You learned thatYou were naked -- both the thinking and the feeling parts of You; and also why you grew afraidand tried to hide from Me, thus creating in your consciousness the sense of separation from Me
    2. saw You in perfect expression, even as I see You now -- the Real You, an Attribute of My Self-- perfect.For in Reality You are an Angel of Light, one of My Thought Rays, an Attribute of My Being,ensouled in Earth conditions, with no other purpose (which is no purpose at all, but a necessity ofMy Being) but the final complete expression of My Idea.

      "the Real You, an Attribute of My Self-- perfect.For in Reality You are an Angel of Light, one of My Thought Rays, an Attribute of My Being,ensouled in Earth conditions, with no other purpose (which is no purpose at all, but a necessity of My Being) but the final complete expression of My Idea."

    3. Expressing what?What else could I express, if I AM All that Is, but My Self?You cannot yet see or comprehend when I inspire you with an Idea.Therefore, if I AM All there is, that Idea, which is direct from Me, must be part of or a phase ofMy Self in Being or Expression.Any Idea, once born within the realm of My Mind, as has been shown, immediately becomes aReality, for in the Eternality of My Being Time is not. With you, however, an Idea first createsDesire, a desire to express that Idea; then Desire compels Thinking, Thinking causes Action, andAction produces Results -- the Idea in actual outer manifestation.In Reality I have no Desire, for I AM All Things, and All Things are of Me. I need only to thinkand Speak the Word to produce results

      God is the very substance of all things............. expressing the very essence of substance........... all expression can only be God..........

    4. In the beginning, at the dawn of a new Cosmic Day, when the Word consciousness was justawakening and the stillness of Cosmic Night yet prevailed, I The THINKER, conceived MyIdea.This My Idea of My Self in manifestation in a new condition, called Earth expression, I sawcompletely pictured in the mirror of My Omniscient Mind. In this mirror I saw the real Earthshining forth brilliantly in the Cosmos, -- a perfect Sphere, where all the Infinite phases,attributes and powers of My Divine Nature were finding perfect expression through the mediumof Angels of Light, living Messengers of My Will, My Word in the Flesh, even as It is in theCelestial World of the Eternal.I saw My Self manifesting outwardly as Nature, and My Life as the vivifying and evolvingPrinciple back of all Manifestation. I saw Love, the Divine Creative Power, as the animating andvitalizing Force back of all Life, and My Desire to give perfect expression to that Love as thePotential and Real Cause and Reason of the birth of My Idea.All this I saw mirrored in My All-seeing and All-knowing Mind, which could see and reflectonly the Soul of things or their Reality. Therefore this that I saw pictured in My Mind was theReal Earth, in fact, its beginning, its conception into Cosmic being

      Gods inspiration .................

    5. Therefore you can change them by the same process, if they do not please you; you can makethem whatever you will, by thinking them so. Can you not?But how can one do real thinking, conscious thinking, so as to bring about this change? You ask.First know that I, your Real Self, purposely brought to your attention these things which now aredispleasing and which cause you to think them as being what they now seem to be to you. I, andI alone, AM thus preparing your human mind so that, when you turn within to Me in abidingFaith and Trust, I can enable you to see and bring into outer manifestation the Reality of thesethings which now seem so unsatisfactory.For I bring to you everything that, by its outer seeming, can attract or lure your human mindonward in its Earthly search, in order to teach you of the illusoriness of all outer appearance ofmaterial things to the human mind, and of the fallibility of all human understanding; so that youwill turn finally within to Me and My Wisdom, as the One and Only Interpreter and Guide.When you have turned thus within to Me, I will open your eyes and cause you to see that theonly way you can ever bring about this change in thinking, is by first changing your attitudetoward all these things you now think are not what they ought to be.That is, if they are unsatisfactory or obnoxious to you and affect you so as to cause youdiscomfort of body or disturbance of mind, --why, stop thinking that they can so affect or disturbyou

      If I become conscious, change my thinking my experience will be different.

      The first step is to be conscious my my Real/True Self...

      "I, and I alone, AM thus preparing your human mind so that, when you turn within to Me in abiding Faith and Trust, I can enable you to see and bring into outer manifestation the Reality of these things which now seem so unsatisfactory".

      "For I bring to you everything that, by its outer seeming, can attract or lure your human mind onward in its Earthly search, in order to teach you of the illusoriness of all outer appearance of material things to the human mind, and of the fallibility of all human understanding; so that you will turn finally within to Me and My Wisdom, as the One and Only Interpreter and Guide."

      And when I do turn to my True Self/God and learn that the only way I can change my thinking is by first changing my attitude towards all things....

      If something disturbs me than stop thinking they have the power to do so...

    6. You, as one of the cells of My Body, have a consciousness that is My Consciousness, anintelligence that is My Intelligence, even a will that is My Will. You have none of these foryourself or of yourself. They are all Mine and for My use only.Now, My consciousness and My Intelligence and My Will are wholly Impersonal, and thereforeare common with you and with all the cells of My Body, even as they are common with all thecells of your body.I AM the directing Intelligence of All, the animating Spirit, the Life, the Consciousness of allmatter, of all Substance. If you can see it, You, the Real you, the Impersonal you, are in all andare one with all, are in Me and are one with Me; just as I AM in you and in all, and thereby amexpressing My Reality through you and through all.This will, which you call your will, is likewise no more yours personally than is thisconsciousness and this intelligence of your mind and of the cells of your body yours.It is but that small portion of My Will which I permit the personal you to use. Just as fast as youawaken to recognition of a certain power or faculty within you and begin consciously to use it,do I allow you that much more of My Infinite Power

      The I Am, the God in me is the one directing all Life

    7. 9Is there nothing, then, but this great I? Am I to be permitted no individuality for myself? I hearyou ask.No, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is not a part of Me, controlled and ruled eternallyby Me, the One Infinite Reality.As for your so-called individuality, that is nothing but your personality still seeking to maintain aseparate existence.Soon you shall know there is no individuality apart from My Individuality, and all personalityshall fade away into My Divine Impersonality.Yes, and you shall soon reach that state of awakening where you will get a glimpse of MyImpersonality, and you will then desire no individuality, no separation for yourself; for you willsee that is but one more illusion of the personality

      God is all there is.

  66. Jan 2016
    1. So, you must arrive at a conviction, and a willingness to commit to that conviction, which allows you to abandon reason for the apparently unreasonable. It is because what we are doing at this moment, you and I, does not compute with your preexisting conditioning that it seems unreasonable and impractical, and will seem so if you do not stay in touch with the unjustifiable claim that I am making—that you and I are together, actively and consciously together, to the degree that you are Hearing me, in the Fourth dimension, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the middle of Reality, and that it is only by means of this connection and your embrace of the ability to conceive of your being Here with me that you can break through your “amnesia.”
    2. It is not pleasant to sacrifice your illusions. And again, this is why it is imperative for you to connect with me frequently, if not absolutely constantly, so as to have the opportunity to stand in the presence of your Sanity, your unflawed experience of what is Really going on, because you will be able to catch the feel of Joy which will further illuminate You to you as Who You truly Are, and thus promote greater willingness to release, without reason or thought, the fantasy you.
    3. In your connecting with me—and now, by virtue of connecting with me and having an experience of the fact that you must be with me where I am in order to do so—this is the essential step in terms of your release from the dream, the personal sense of self and the distorted perception of Reality which is inseparable from it.
    4. As I have already said, do not try to determine what is real and what is illusion at the level of dream. You must understand that it is your willingness to pay attention to me, to my presence outside of the dream—and therefore your presence outside of the dream—which is the only thing that will bring you to a point of being able to distinguish what is Real. And, of course, there will not be anything remaining appearing to be unreal, so no distinction between the two will have to be made. We are talking about clarity, here, in which there is no confusion, no distorted perception.
  67. christmind.info christmind.info
    1. The whole false fantastic sense of self has arisen out of an attempt to understand who is asking the question. Indeed, through an analysis of the questions, one could come to the conclusion that the questioner is fearful, jealous, confident, expectant. But that is like trying to see something through a mirror around and corner which allows you to see something that you cannot otherwise see directly. The sense of the questioner which is gathered from the nature of the questions is necessarily absolutely illusory. This, now, is a new way to describe what has been called “The Fall”—the means by which one experiences ignorance of Reality.
    2. Now, I encourage you to pay more attention when you are doing the private conversations, because when you are doing them, you are also experiencing this fulfillment, this congruence. But you have not gleaned from it its full benefit because you have not been aware of the fact that it has been you standing as the Door, and as the Door, being the presence of the Voice for Truth which constitutes your real conscious experience of Being. You have seen it as a pleasant side-effect, you might say, of something else1 which is Real that is going on, rather than the realness of You.

      I relate to this when working with clients, being present with them supports me to be at the Door, being the presence of the Voice for Truth... consciously Being......

    3. I point this out to you so that you might understand that this graduation is not really a movement into unfamiliar territory, but a shift of perception about what is already known. A redefinition, as it were. A slipping of the identification tag from the sidekick to the Real One.

      Reideintifying self in 3d to Self in 4d.

    4. Now, this graduation is constituted of a commitment to Reality and an abandonment of the illusory sense of self; a commitment to Knowing, which it now will be much easier for you to make since I am making it clear to you that you are not listening to something other than your Self, and therefore there is not a listener of dubious integrity. The presence of the experience of Knowing is truly an experience of Self, and not of someone else who is Valuable. Why, indeed, would you continue to make an investment of trust and commitment in something that is Real and thus apparently borrow some value which never truly becomes yours, and therefore leaves you in your illusory sense of incompetence and limitation?

      "The presence of the experience of Knowing is truly an experience of Self, and not of someone else who is Valuable."

    1. As I have said before, the only thing going on is Reality, and the only thing confronting you is Reality, and everything that you experience has Meaning in terms of what it Really is. But the definitions you give to it in order to secure your ignorance of its Real meaning causes it to appear to be unlike Reality. And, likewise, it causes your unreal perception of it to seem to be real, and worthy of your continued honoring.

      Reality is the only thing going on yet "the definitions you give to it in order to secure your ignorance of its Real meaning causes it to appear to be unlike Reality."

    2. What is significant here, and what has been significant about the past nine years is that you have engaged in Listening. You have not engaged in as much dialoguing as would have been helpful, but by virtue of your willingness to allow me to address others, you have put yourself in the position of relating to “the Real world,” to Reality. You are now able to consider looking at the fact that Reality is where you Are, and that you are different from the perceptions you have held so dear about yourself called the ego, the sidekick, “bumbling Paul,”—a personal, private sense of self that has very little to do with Reality. You are able to embrace that concept, which is actually the Fact, without significant fear—reluctance maybe, resistance, yes, but with little fear, and now with some active curiosity.

      A personal, private sense of self has very little to do with Reality.

    3. Therefore, the more consistently you dialogue with me, the more consistently you are letting in the possibility of an experience of Reality different from what you have decided reality is going to be for you. And that is the beginning of Sanity, of waking up! Your practice of Listening is your practice of coming out from seclusion in your own private, tiny sense of self and world.

      Your practice of Listening is your practice of coming out from seclusion in your own private, tiny sense of self and world.

    4. As I said earlier, our dialoguing like this does constitute your connection with Reality, with Sanity, and you are now beginning to grasp why it is that the one who is dreaming must reach out, and why one’s Guide cannot enforce his or her presence upon the one guided. The one being guided has been engaging in the denial of Reality, the effective blocking of It, and that resistance cannot be penetrated. It isn’t actually a shell, but an insistence upon ignoring. And no one can penetrate an act of ignoring—you could say, an act of ignorance.

      I need to reach out to my guide because I have been in denial of Reality and blocking it, I have been insisting on ignoring it.

    5. Again I am going to reiterate: Avoid thinking! If you want to have the stimulation of insight, don’t think. Listen! And listen to me. Then the amplifications which you expect to arrive at through thinking, but will not, will be present in the nature of the dialogue, the connection. Then the specifics that you would hope to arrive at through thinking will come as Knowing, and further substantiate the shift of weight of emphasis of attention to you, and thus disengage you further from the distorted self-perception that you have thought was really you. Again: If you want to understand, don’t think. Listen. Dialogue. Actively speak with me. Actively be with me. This is another way of saying, actively let me in, because to the degree that you let me in, you let yourself into your right Mind, and your full Sanity, and your full embrace of what is Really going on—Reality, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Movement of Creation, the experience of unity, integrity.

      "Don't think, communicate with inner guidance,LISTEN, in this way Real Knowing can occur as it cannot come from the thinking mind.

    6. You are right. You are still not getting it. But, I will tell you something: What you mean is, you are not getting an intellectual grasp of it. But, to the degree that you continue to talk [with me], whether you are intellectually getting it or not, you again are being the willingness and the invitation to experiencing yourself in your right Mind by operating, even in this limited fashion, as you in your right Mind. You, as your ego, cannot talk to me at all. It is You, in your real Being, who is talking with me and hearing me. And so you are substantiating your Sanity, your Wholeness, the Reality of You, whether you are “getting it” or not, whether you are allowing a Conversation with Raj to occur or not.

      Paul is not 'getting it' in his thinking mind and Raj shares that that this does not matter, it is the willingness and the invitation to experience yourself in right Mind that is important.

      By offering willingness to Be in right Mind even if the mind doesn't get it leads to the wholeness of Reality of Self....

    7. You see, from the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, from the ego’s vantage point, all you ever experience is a sense of what is going on, and that is a far cry from the experience of what is going on. A sense of what is going on is a conceptualization, rather than a direct experience. If that conceptualization is believed to be an experience, then misunderstanding is the result. But it is always a misunderstanding of something Real, as I have said before. I have also said before that you will not understand your way into the Kingdom of Heaven, because the fantasy partner, since it has no actual existence, has no means of understanding the Reality which it is the active denial of.

      I do not know what is going on if I am focussed in 3d, just some concept of it.... and if this concept is believed a misunderstanding occurs. the ego cannot understand what is Real because it is the active denial of it...

    8. You see, from the three-dimensional-only frame of reference, from the ego’s vantage point, all you ever experience is a sense of what is going on, and that is a far cry from the experience of what is going on. A sense of what is going on is a conceptualization, rather than a direct experience. If that conceptualization is believed to be an experience, then misunderstanding is the result. But it is always a misunderstanding of something Real, as I have said before. I have also said before that you will not understand your way into the Kingdom of Heaven, because the fantasy partner, since it has no actual existence, has no means of understanding the Reality which it is the active denial of.

      Direct experience is the only way to understand what is Real....

    9. You are intelligence, and I am intelligence, and our experience of each other will be one of intelligence and Meaning. But that does not mean that it will be one of understanding, as you conceive that word to be. It will be an experience of Knowing, which you are already familiar with. When we are conversing, when we are connecting, the experience will be ultimately intelligent. But just because it is intelligent doesn’t mean you need to engage the attempt to understand it, because, Paul, you are not going to use it—the understanding—for the purpose of improving your ability to deny Reality. In other words, you will not be using it to improve the capacities of the sidekick, the fantasy partner, that you have thought was you. This is a fine point of distinction, here, but it is one that you are grasping experientially, which allows you to more easily give permission to indulge in letting yourself into an experience which your personal sense of self can only conceive of as fantasy. So, you see, it could seem as though I am giving you something to think about. Just abide with it. Just be with it, without thinking. But do not be with it to the exclusion of continuing to dialogue with me.
    1. Would you not be in your right Mind? Would you not choose to move beyond even the happy dream? The happy dream is a stepping-stone, not a place to settle into. The happy dream is insubstantial—dreamlike because it still isn’t Reality. But, it does promote the dissolving of denser illusion which seems so real. And, as I said, the stepping-stone begins to crumble, and you must make the final leap across the little gap that is no gap at all. The issue here is not money or schedule or any other obligation to the human condition. The issue is Listening permanently—committing to me rather than your fantasy sidekick, your imaginary self. In this act, you must necessarily come into the full conscious awareness as my brother—the real You that You Are.

      Commitment to listening consciously to my Self, my Being.. not the ego self....

      The final step across the gap.... to move beyond the 'happy dream'....

    1. Our relationship is a unity, and our conversation, our experience of each other, is communion. That is taking things further than you can grasp at the moment. For the time being, the key point is that our conversations demonstrate for you the fact that you are with me from my point of view, which means from the Father’s point of view, rather than my being with you from your level of perception. I have not come to where you are in belief. I am speaking to you where we are in Reality. Therefore, again, our communication is a demonstration of the Fact of where you Are.

      The conversations prove to Paul that he is actually in 4d.