On Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 5:28:57 AM UTC-7 John Clark wrote:
On Fri, Mar 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM Alan Grayson <[email protected]> wrote: *>>>You may not have the slightest doubt that something is true, but that doesn't mean it is true, people have been known to be wrong about things that they were absolutely certain about, in fact such a thing is very common. I'm sure the 911 hijackers were absolutely certain they would be rewarded in the afterlife for crashing their airliner into the world trade center, but that does not prove they're cavorting with 77 virgins in heaven right now. * *>> It was discovered in the ancient world several millennia ago by Hindu gurus and Yoga adepts. It qualifies to be called Occult or Hidden knowledge, and is essentially unknown to modern scientists and philosophers.* *>> Why and how was that knowledge hidden, and why was it hidden so ineptly that Hindu gurus and Yogas were able to find it? And if it was known to modern scientists and philosophers then what observations or experimental outcomes would they be able to predict that currently they cannot?* *> Your problem is two-fold. First, that you haven't experienced it.* *It's true I've never had a mystical experience, but if I ever do have one I intend to keep my mouth shut about it. Perhaps by direct experience I really have found something new about the world, but because direct experience is subjective it can not be communicated, although that hasn't stopped self described mystics from writing millions of words of turgid prose in an attempt to do just that. * *And there is another possibility, perhaps I didn't have a mystical experience at all, maybe I just had indigestion.* *I agree with Ebenezer Scrooge when he said to the ghost in "A Christmas Carol": * *“You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you" * * > And second, that you are unable to imagine its appearance. Otherwise, you're entitled to speak authoritatively about it. AG * *I have no doubt that if I took LSD then I would have a very weird subjective experience, but it wouldn't express any universal truth about the world other than the fact that some chemicals can alter brain chemistry, and I already knew that. * *Change the brain and the mind changes. Change the mind and the brain changes. That hypothesis is testable and it passes all tests with flying colors. The mind-body "problem" is no deeper than the difference between "is" and "does". That is a race car, what it does is go fast. That is a brain, what it does is mind. * *> And the White Light is unknown to you. AG* *Isaac Newton made the quality of White Light known to the entire world nearly 400 years ago, by contrast the occult, gurus and religion have never revealed one bit of new knowledge about anything to anyone. This is the 21st century and we're about to enter the Singularity, it's time to set aside childish things. * *John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* *In Act 1 Scene 5 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet <https://nosweatshakespeare.com/hamlet-play/>, Hamlet says to his friend:**“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” AG* eb -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/18eff94f-e21c-45a9-a35e-1e357188e361n%40googlegroups.com.
