Category Archives: Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will

Radical Non-Duality: In a Nutshell

Posted on May 6, 2023 by Dave Pollard

Midjourney’s take on cats and peace, because… well, because there’s a cat. My own prompt. Recently, Indrajit Samarajiva wrote a post about the illusion of the self and the absurdity of the ‘self-help’ industry. In it he said: The whole … Continue reading →

Posted in Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will | Leave a comment

The Post-Game Show

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Dave Pollard

This is #17 in a series of month-end reflections on the state of the world, and other things that come to mind, as I walk and hike in my local community.  both images in this post are by Midjourney; my own prompts … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Month-End Reflections, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

How AI Conditioning and Human Conditioning Differ

Posted on April 14, 2023 by Dave Pollard

Midjourney’s take on human ‘conditioning’ John Whiting sent me a note asking whether I thought the way that AI chatbots are conditioned is different from the way humans are conditioned. It hadn’t even occurred to me that the processes might … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

What If We’d Never Imagined Our Selves?

Posted on April 12, 2023 by Dave Pollard

Midjourney’s representation of an infant bonobo “Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

Politically Agnostic

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Dave Pollard

cartoon by the incomparable Michael Leunig For the first time in my life, I can honestly say that, no matter where in the world I lived, I don’t think I would vote in the next election. I have always voted, even … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 6 Comments

Better Than Real

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Dave Pollard

The wounded surgeon plies the steel That questions the distempered part; Beneath the bleeding hands we feel The sharp compassion of the healer’s art Resolving the enigma of the fever chart. Our only health is the disease If we obey … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch, How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will | 2 Comments

No Free Will, No Freedom

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Dave Pollard

Ah, here we go again, down the “free will” rabbit hole. photo by Pavel Danilyuk, for Pexels, CC0 In a recent post, Caitlin Johnstone got to the heart of why we continue to tolerate the massive dysfunction, corruption and inequality … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 12 Comments

You Have My Divided Attention

Posted on January 7, 2023 by Dave Pollard

image from piqsels, CC0 Since I first wrote about Paying Attention to What We Pay Attention To, eighteen months ago, there has been a lot of, well, attention in the media about the business and importance of paying attention. As I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 3 Comments

The Things That We Call Love

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Dave Pollard

I‘ve been using the chart above for many years, and it’s evolved somewhat, but what it’s basically saying is: Everything we call love is a conditioned chemical response to sensory stimuli. Nature, in order to propagate the species effectively, hooks … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

The 40 Missing Minutes

Posted on December 24, 2022 by Dave Pollard

propofol molecular structure, per wikipedia, CC0 Last week I went to the hospital for a colonoscopy. I was given a general anaesthetic called Propofol, a relatively new (1990) drug that has received a lot of publicity, and is in wide-spread … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works, Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will, Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments