Category Archives: Illusion of the Separate Self and Free Will

Radical Non-Duality: In a Nutshell

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

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The Post-Game Show

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

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

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What If We’d Never Imagined Our Selves?

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

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Politically Agnostic

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

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

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

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

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The Things That We Call Love

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

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