One to three percent of the population are thought to be sociopaths. There are degrees of this. Psycopaths are the extreme end of the spectrum, sociopaths are milder and generally fit in with the 'normals' much more easily. A general characteristic is a lack of empathy and aggressive goal setting behaviour, but such people have the ability to mimic normal emotions without actually feeling them. They can also stare you down with an unrelenting gaze.
---In [email protected], <s3raphita@...> wrote : Re "It certainly does not seem inconceivable that Maharishi was a sociopath": Sure. It's not inconceivable, but "sociopath" seems a rather strong label. Bit of a puffed-up egotist maybe? If we are talking rates of mental illness then the West leads the world. Disorders like schizophrenia and chronic depression, although common amongst us, were until recently extremely rare in the Third World. (On a more mundane level, Maharishi's astonishment that westerners used sleeping pills is revealing.) Mental disorders are now not so rare - precisely because the "underdeveloped" world has been following our lead as regards consumerism, individualism, reliance on modern technology, etc. The resulting alienation is now impacting on the psychological health of people trying to cope with radical and sudden shifts away from traditional patterns of social cohesion. I suspect that Indians (MMY included) have been far less likely to suffer from mental pathologies. Sure, they have no shortage of undesirable traits, including extremely disturbing attitudes to the freedom of women (MMY included) but they are less susceptible to mental imbalance as they still retain, at least to a larger extent than us, traditional societal norms. ---In [email protected], <anartaxius@...> wrote : In the past day or so there have been 30 posts to FFL and 8 to the Peak. Since I am on both forums, I redid my email, sorting them into FFL and Peak folders, and one particular poster also on both goes directly to the trash, so these figures here represent everyone else. The intellects here are much more likely to jump on inconsistencies and sloppy thinking here. There have been a few conversations of note on the peak, but mostly it is kind of tepid with a halo of woo fluff. Without a challenge the mind gets soft. Right now there seems to be a conversation about Vernon Katz's new volume. While here I can wonder what percent of my DNA matched that of Australopithecus Afarensis, or whether Buddha would have liked coffee if he had had access to it. Here you can say what you really think. For example, watching Maharishi on tapes some 35 years ago, I was watching him pounding a flower against his face chuckling to himself and I was really thinking, is this guy some kind of saint or a daemon, it was like there was this experience of a dark thread running through that session. I have lately been reading a bit about sociopaths, and it certainly does not seem inconceivable that Maharishi was a sociopath considering the way he dealt with people and because of his incredible focus on getting what he wanted. There are certain features of sociopathy and states developed via meditation that cross over, and 'bad' socipathic traits might get enhanced by practice. From: "TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife]" <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2015 9:09 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Meet the Ancestor! From: salyavin808 <[email protected]> ---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote : LOL. I was going to make the same comment. :-) I just took my first ever look at the Peak, it's a bit too anodyne for my taste but I totally get why they didn't like hanging around with us! I'm almost embarrassed at having actual opinions about things. At least now you understand the irony I've been pointing out about The_Leak since its inception. People like Ann, Steve (seventhray), and Buck *claim* that they're there on The_Leak because it's higher vibe and they prefer that. But at the same time they make a surprising number of posts *about* FFL. And *in* those posts they make it clear that they still come to FFL and *read every word of every post made by the people they hated while they were here* -- you, me, and Michael. What's up with that, eh? The_Leak is "higher vibe," but they can't get their rocks off without slumming at FFL? Meanwhile, while claiming "28 members," the 107 posts made on The_Leak in the last week were primarily made by 5 people, with another 4 contributing one each. Compare and contrast to contentious and "abyss-mal" Fairfield Life, which during its last full week contained 321 posts, made by 18 people, with another 8 contributing one post each. (And in fact -- and to counter your assertion that they "don't like hanging around with us" -- three of The_Leak members posted more *here* on FFL than they did there.) I stand by my original predictions -- I don't see The_Leak surviving. I see it headed for the same fate as the similarly anodyne BATGAP messages forum, which still nominally has 116 members, but which had ZERO posts last week. Statistics don't lie -- there simply is no lasting market for namby-pamby. What's going to be fascinating is how Jimbo is going to try to spin things when The_Leak fails and he comes back here seeking his attention fix. Now THAT is going to be entertaining. :-)
