--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain <no_reply@...> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@ wrote: > > > > > when people didn't respond to his announced enlight- > > enmentitudeness the way he wanted them to. > > As elaborated in an adjacent post, the 10,000 Q&A at the mic between MMY and those on the course were often about experiences. I never saw a big reaction from MMY. No "hot damn! thats IT! You GOT it bro!! High five!" > > One got guidance, but not ego boosting (which is a step in the counter direction). Sometimes there was ego busting. > > The / a lesson from witnessing this huge Q&A parade was that: > > 1) experiences were natural, they were not something to make a big fuss about, no special status was given, everything from normalization to peak experiences were part of the whole, no need to make a big fuss about the whole. > > 2) even the most detailed clear experiences were basically classified as "hmm, something good is happening, but that's not IT." That is, what many self-diagnosed, and perhaps self-confirmed to be higher states were not. It produced a certain healthy rational skepticism about self-confirmed claims of higher states. > > 3) one generally didn't talk about their experiences outside of the Q&A with MMY. Progress was being made was the only important thing. No need to talk about it or broadcast it. > > 4) Sort of like "the first rule of enlightenment club is there is no enlightenment club". > Good points, but there seems to be a pretty big reconstructionist movement here. I enjoy your posts because you acknowledge both sides of the issue. I've got to say that Barry pushes, I mean really pushes, "the this guy was an average Joe", no more enlightened than the baker down the street POV. If I understand what Barry often says, (and I'm sure I don't), he pretty much debunks the whole notion of higher states of conscioussness. Curtis too seems to be in this camp. Pretty much it can be chalked up to random brain activity, that we humans like to chalk up to something special. I guess since we can't prove it in an objective way, it's all subjective speculation.
Me (as Barry would say). I got too much wonder going on to buy into that.
