Culture is your 'operating system'

[sk0pe]

Hallucinegenics are a bit different in my opinion. They alter reality in such an intense way that should not be ignored or lumped together with alchohol etc.

Exactly.

Umm, you realize culture is dynamic and always changing? Culture works fine, and is simply the product of common goals and interests in humanity. It then is passed on because of how people learn, but changes constantly with developments in the world and notions of what is what. Just look at each decade in US history.

Culture is working fine?
I would say a culture where buisness and transport is completely reliant on a natural resource that is not everlasting is not the most intelligent culture.

I would say a culture where we still kill other human beings is not a functioning culture.

I would say a culture where success is defined as having lots of money and a big house to keep your never ending pile of stuff in is not an intelligent culture.

I would say a culture where we cut down the very rainforests that give us oxygen and remove the Co2 from the air is not an intelligent culture

we are overconsuming the resources that our species needs to continue thriving. In consequence, it will become impossible to support (ie., provide with food, water, warmth, shelter, education, healthcare and recreation) the predicted population of 9.5 billion people in 2050, two-thirds of whom will be living in cities that are dependent on vast areas of land outside the cities to provide their citizens with vital resources for their survival and health.Another consequence is that other species - animals and plants - are being driven to extinction at the greatest rate in human history.

This is your culture that is working ?

The thing is, the earth doesn't care, we don't need to save earth we need to save humanity from itself. The earth will still be longggggg long time after we are gone, just like all the species who came before us.
The earth shakes them off like fleas, it regenerates, by it's very nature it's a self correcting system.

The earth has been here 5 billion years approx, man no more than 100,000 200,000, we will not be able to destroy the earth, but we could destroy the amount of time that we have here before she shakes us off...

 

[Azuremen]

Apparently you don't know what the word culture means, having gone and confused it with civilization and society. You may also want to reconsider how you present your points, as you just seem to change them whenever anyone points out a flaw in them, or is confused because what you write and what you mean are apparently different things.

Perhaps your problem with oral and written language is your failure to properly use it, thus leading you to feel it is inadequate.

 

[Mike Rotch]

Cut out the reference to taking chemicals, you should know AUP.

This thread is turning into a meandering gibberish that has no coherence and doesnt seem to stick to one concept for more than 3 posts.

 

[sk0pe]

Cut out the reference to taking chemicals, you should know AUP.

We have a drugs thread that talks about this, but fair enough i take your point.

Azuremen - Apparently you don't know what the word culture means, having gone and confused it with civilization and society

Apparently i'm not the one confused.

Culture refers to the following Ways of Life, including but not limited to:

- Language : the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of expression.
-Arts & Sciences : the most advanced and refined forms of human expression.
-thought : the ways in which people perceive, interpret, and understand the world around them.
-Spirituality : the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-being of human beings, expressed through language and actions.
-Social activity : the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a variety of festivities and life-celebrating events.
-Interaction : the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions.
All of the above collectively define the meaning of Culture.

Perhaps your problem with oral and written language is your failure to properly use it, thus leading you to feel it is inadequate.

Maybe your problem is your don't understand language or it's origins, or appreciate the fact that we are more genetically hardwired to receive american standard sign language than we are speech, hence why babies can learn a proportion of sign language before they can utter a word.
Open your mind for 9mins, who knows if you listen you might actually learn something.


"Octopi offer an interesting metaphoric example"

 

[Azuremen]

We have a drugs thread that talks about this, but fair enough i take your point.



Apparently i'm not the one confused.

Culture refers to the following Ways of Life, including but not limited to:

- Language : the oldest human institution and the most sophisticated medium of expression.
-Arts & Sciences : the most advanced and refined forms of human expression.
-thought : the ways in which people perceive, interpret, and understand the world around them.
-Spirituality : the value system transmitted through generations for the inner well-being of human beings, expressed through language and actions.
-Social activity : the shared pursuits within a cultural community, demonstrated in a variety of festivities and life-celebrating events.
-Interaction : the social aspects of human contact, including the give-and-take of socialization, negotiation, protocol, and conventions.
All of the above collectively define the meaning of Culture.

Which in no way mentions technology or resource usage, which is about all you discussed.

Maybe your problem is your don't understand language or it's origins, or appreciate the fact that we are more genetically hardwired to receive american standard sign language than we are speech, hence why babies can learn a proportion of sign language before they can utter a word.
Open your mind for 9mins, who knows if you listen you might actually learn something.

More Terrance Videos.

"Octopi offer an interesting metaphoric example"

While we are initially hardwired to express ourselves with gestures, oral language developed for a reason, and that is you can easily express vastly more complicated concepts with words than with gestures. It also makes it much easier to convey and preserve ideas.

And on learning, perhaps you should consider looking into other sources. Otherwise it isn't really learning, but rather repeating what you've heard from teacher.

 

[sk0pe]

And on learning, perhaps you should consider looking into other sources. Otherwise it isn't really learning, but rather repeating what you've heard from teacher.

I do, i look into many philosophers for many different aspects of life.

Terrence Mckenna however interests me with his views particuarly on language and culture specifically..

He has views and theory's and philosophy's on many other thing's some of which i can relate to , other's not.

Culture , language , psychedelics i can all relate to through direct experience.

Which in no way mentions technology or resource usage, which is about all you discussed.

I said a culture reliant on a non-infinite resource. Or a culture that uses all it's resources. I never mentioned or implied culture was resource's

While we are initially hardwired to express ourselves with gestures, oral language developed for a reason, and that is you can easily express vastly more complicated concepts with words than with gestures. It also makes it much easier to convey and preserve ideas.

Lol, cheers for the heads up, you obviously didn't watch the video, i really suggest if you watch any Terrence Mckenna video you should watch that 1st video on language. It's very interesting if your even an half intelligent person.

 

[HACKr]

I really feel like it's dangerous how much weight you're giving to the thoughts of one person.

Before I say any of the following I'd like you to keep in mind that I've never done any recreational drugs of any sort, and while I'm interested in the idea of them, I have no desire to ever really try them, and I don't advocate it.

I feel it is valid to feel somewhat limited by the, well, systems that shape our thought, interaction and communication. I've always gotten high grades in English, and I've done plenty of writing myself, believe it or not, but I'd say that I do feel language to be a bit limiting. I feel this is due to, not a lack of mastery, but to my brain just acting differently than the 'average' person's. Perhaps I am lacking in that category, which is probably reflected in my posts. I have no problem putting out good writing, though it's usually poetry.

I'm very tired, so if this thread still exists tomorrow I might continue... though maybe not.

 

[PureAwesomeness]

Lol, cheers for the heads up, you obviously didn't watch the video, i really suggest if you watch any Terrence Mckenna video you should watch that 1st video on language. It's very interesting if your even an half intelligent person.

*Groan* I made it through 6 minutes of that drivel before I gave up.

 

[arora]

Yeesh, long winded post incoming I'd rather not explain each of these things other then to say there are parallels in the ideas. Hopefully someone can see why I put it together.

what is needed today is a fundamental, existential experience of the oneness of all living things, of an allencompassing reality. But this happens less and less as the primordial flora and fauna must yield to a dead technological environment. The experience of reality as the ego opposed to the outer world had already begun to form itself during greek antiquity, as I mentioned before. no doubt people at that time already knew the suffering connected with the dualistic consciousness of reality. the greek genius tried to cure this disease by supplementing the objective Apollonian worldview with the Dionysian world of experience in which the split was abolished in ecstatic inebriation. It is remarkable what the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about this in his book „Die Geburt der Tragödie“ (The birth of tragedy): „It is either through the influence of narcotic potions, of which all primitive peoples and races speak in hymns, or through the powerful approach of spring, penetrating with joy all of nature, that those Dionysian stirrings arise, which in their intensification lead the individual to forget himself completely. not only does the bond between man and man beckon to be forged once again by the magic of the Dionysian rite, but alienated, hostile and subjugated nature again celebrates her reconciliation with her
prodigal son, with man.“ So far Nietzsche.

(Albert Hofmann 1988)

Moral questions immediately present themselves as questions whose solution cannot wait for sensible proof. A moral question is a question not of what sensibly exists, but of what is good, or would be good if it did exist. [...] A social organism of any sort whatever, large or small, is what it is because each member proceeds to his own duty with a trust that the other members will simultaneously do theirs. Wherever a desired result is achieved by the co-operation of many independent persons, its existence as a fact is a pure consequence of the precursive faith in one another of those immediately concerned. A government, an army, a commercial system, a ship, a college, an athletic team, all exist on this condition, without which not only is nothing achieved, but nothing is even attempted.

(William James 1896)

John Dewey criticized the dichotomy between means and ends which he saw as responsible for the degradation of our everyday working lives and education, both conceived as merely a means to an end. He stressed the need for meaningful labor and a conception of education that viewed it not as a preparation for life but as life itself.

Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.(old testament prophet)

Romans 8
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

1st Corinthians 12
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

A popular saying in Hinduism "Atman is Brahman!"(I'll let you find that as it's hard to give a good translation) In fact, all living things are Brahman at their innermost core. In addition, instead of ritual sacrifice, intuitive knowledge of the oneness of all things came to be endorsed as the way of contact with divine reality. Also found in the Upanishads is the teaching that the material world (including our conscious personalities) is less than fully real. The word "maya" is used to designate the power by which God, or ultimate reality, brought this less than real world into existence.

(lost the reference site)

Bhagavad-gita 18.61 all living beings, are seated as on a machine made of the material energy


EDIT: I did have an answer to the OP 1st question, no we cannot completely erase and reprogram imo, but we can condition ourselves either for the better or worse over time. Unless you want a lobotomy gone wrong

 

[Scaff]

It's very interesting if your even an half intelligent person.

A public warning for this thread.

This is obviously an emotive subject to discuss, however those who find themselves unable to do so without attacking others and repeatedly ignoring the AUP will find themselves on a holiday from GT Planet.


Scaff

 

[Scaff]

Double post - but keeping moderation and reply separate.

If there was no religion, there would be no
No palestine / Israeli war - As much to do with the occupation and control of land as it is religion now (if not more so)
No hitler - Not even remotely to do with religion
No iraq invasion/disaster - given that Iraq was an almost totally secular country again no
Don't know much about vietnam but i can only asssume religion is involved. - Not even remotely to do with religion
No afghanistan
No Bin laden
No terrorists Actually check how few terrorist organizations are actually religiously based before posting nonsense
No 9/11

Take some of the time you have away from GT Planet to look at the history of the items I have highlighted above, as you understanding of the causes behind them is tenuous to say the least.

Don't simply point to religion as a cause blindly, at the very least be aware of what you are saying and its accuracy. As in failing to do so it makes you attacks on the intelligence of others even more foolhardy.


Scaff

 

[Famine]

"Octopi offer an interesting metaphoric example"

Octopodes. Or octopuses. Octopus is a Greek origin word, not a Latin one (where the plural of -us is -i) - or the singular would be octopes with the plural octopedes...

You wouldn't need a Bachelor's degree in Ecology to know the correct names of animals. Though you'd think it'd help.

 

[MistaX]

Ego death is exactly what you're talking about. It isn't fun. It doesn't "completely erase" everything, as much as it gives you access to a fundamental level of "ego programming". Personality programming, if you will.

And by that I mean, "Do you believe in God?"

Simple question, until you put extreme understanding behind it. It's a fundamental decision that will shape the outcome of the rest of your beliefs, which will adjust the rest of your personality accordingly.
There's also a ton more of questions like that. Moral questions. Questions I can't begin to explain.
That programming will last a few weeks while you're suffering from PTSD wondering what the hell happened to you to begin with.
By no means is it a "fresh start" when you wake up the next day.

Ego death is quite simple really. You believe you're going to die. Instantaneously. Every thought you have, you will believe will kill you. There are three stages, that cycle from one to another, and they are unavoidable.

"Heaven" where you feel pretty awesome about life and everything going on and
"everything will be fine." Equivalent to feeling "white", or "clean" or some other word to describe some arbitrary qualia-arguable conscious state.

"Purgatory" within which you start losing confidence in everything being fine, and you become confused. "Will I be fine?" Feels like flicking a light switch on and off. A rapid flash between white and black.

"Hell" when you've completely lost confidence in the way things are going and you're going to die. Obviously red. Painful. Scary. The first time through the cycle you will have given up, let go, and put your hope and prayers into something to get you out of this alive. I picked God once, and then understood what being a Born Again Christian really meant.

Your emotions are amplified. So when driven into the "oh my god I'm going to die" panic, everything goes a bit bad. For hours. The cycle continues, lesser and weaker each time, but the "hell" stage is obviously the most traumatic throughout the "trip"

You can quote a bunch of philosophers all you want.
Until you go do it, be it on purpose or sheer accident, you don't know what you're talking about.

Throughout the cycles, you are re-programming. Answering moral questions. Having mental discussions about right and wrong, and the repercussions of those decisions.

There's a lot more to it than this, but it starts sounding insane very quickly. There is certainly a reason why everything has added "weight" and "meaning" that gives you access to programming, but that is something I cannot explain using words. I understand it exists. That's all.


The first time this happened was accidental. I learned I can repeat it whenever I want. It took me 4 more times to learn I never want to do it again, ever.

 

[AlexGTV]

I don't know, no matter how much he can speak persuasively and rationally the fact he advocates the consumption of drugs for knowledge makes me not pay attention. Same thing with Castaneda.

 

[Keef]

I don't know, no matter how much he can speak persuasively and rationally the fact he advocates the consumption of drugs for knowledge makes me not pay attention. Same thing with Castaneda.

Yeah, they're labelled as "drugs" for a reason. When consumed, they alter normal bodily function. Therefore, the stuff that happens while you're on drugs - be it a lack of pain from Tylenol or psychedelic mental imagery from LSD - is not normal. They are only the results of a temporary chemical reaction inside your body. Certain drugs that effect your brain certainly can produce reactions that your brain will interpret wildly, but it's still nothing more than a chemical reaction. Believing that a near-harmless reaction like that produced by mushrooms or marijuana can change one's life is a lack of understanding of what is actually going on in the brain. Some drugs can go beyond mind-altering and produce damaging physical effects, like cocaine and heroine.

 

[DKLion3s]

Yeah, they're labelled as "drugs" for a reason. When consumed, they alter normal bodily function. Therefore, the stuff that happens while you're on drugs - be it a lack of pain from Tylenol or psychedelic mental imagery from LSD - is not normal. They are only the results of a temporary chemical reaction inside your body. Certain drugs that effect your brain certainly can produce reactions that your brain will interpret wildly, but it's still nothing more than a chemical reaction. Believing that a near-harmless reaction like that produced by mushrooms or marijuana can change one's life is a lack of understanding of what is actually going on in the brain. Some drugs can go beyond mind-altering and produce damaging physical effects, like cocaine and heroine.

Funny thing is, a dehydrated body (brain) will produce the same effect.


Regards.