1<2020-02-16> Robert Allan Monroe's "Journeys out of the body"

  • Concordance of terms
    • Monroe's Second Body = pure consciousness?
    • Monroe's Second State = Campbell's Non Physical Matter Reality?
    • Monroe's Locale 1 = astral plane?
    • Locale 2
    • Locale 3 feels too good?
    • TODO: Compare with bardo thodol, Buddhist/Hindu realms of heavens and hells, other eschatology, etc.
      • Hypothesis: The boundary between two adjacent realms is fuzzy and not crisp, like the boundary between troposphere and stratosphere. Sorites paradox.
    • Chapter 16
      • Condition A
        • Monroe's "fixative" = "mantra"
      • Monroe's Condition C = Patanjali's pratyahara
        • Thus pratyahara happens when one stays awake at the edge between awake and asleep. The key is to stay awake in this almost-asleep state.
        • Yoga practitioners can sleep while sitting!?
      • Condition D = Condition C but in a fresh state instead of a tired state
  • Compare Monroe's exercises with this writing http://hermeticlessons.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-wmt-astral-plane-ii.html

2<2020-02-16> "The bardo guidebook"

  • p. 153:
    • "The deceased person can instantly travel anywhere except for two places."
    • "We arrive at a new place, simultaneously with the intention to be there."

3<2020-02-16> On meditation

  • Stage 1: gain the ability to fix your attention on a thought of your choice for a few minutes, with eyes closed, while not moving any muscles, and letting but not following every other thought that arises.
  • Stage 2: gain the ability to quiet the mind by using Stage 1 to fix your attention on a mantra as a crutch. A mantra is a simple repetitive thought that "flushes out" ("drowns out") other thoughts. A mantra can be visual, aural, kinesthetic, or a combination of them. A mantra is a temporary crutch for quieting the mind.
  • Stage 3: discard the mantra from Stage 2, and be able to quiet the mind at will whenever you want, be it with eyes open or closed, be it in a noisy environment or a quiet one.

4<2020-02-09> Tom Campbell's "My Big TOE" trilogy

  • I have read the book, but I understood little of it.
    • I think people should skip the book, and visit the wiki and forum instead.
    • I think Tom Campbell should release one version of his TOE for people who are not afraid of math.
      • Reverse the explanation. Start from PMR, then NPMR, then OS, etc.
      • Use math.
  • Tom Campbell's unique perspective is that he is familiar with both physics and out-of-body experiences.
  • Read Ben Iscatus's 2009 review.
  • Watch the London lecture and read the slides.
    • 5:39: How to meditate:
      • Meditation technique is highly individual.
      • A mantra can be anything you invent.
      • The purpose of a mantra is to drive other thoughts away.
      • If you have become able to control your mind at will without the mantra, you can throw away the mantra.
  • Reading time estimate:
    • 820 pages * 40 lines per page * 16 words per line ~ 524,800 words
    • / 100 words per minute ~ 5,248 minutes ~ 87 hours
    • / 4 hours per day ~ 22 days
    • It will probably take a month to read the entire trilogy. That book is crazy long; it could use fewer words.
  • Terminology
    • TOE = Theory Of Everything
    • MBT = My Big TOE
    • VR = Virtual Reality
    • PMR = Physical Matter Reality
    • NPMR = Non Physical Matter Reality
    • AUO = Absolute Unbounded Oneness
    • TBC = The Big Computer
    • AUM = Absolute Unbounded Manifold
    • Reality Cell
  • He gives his book on Google Books.
  • Redditor opinions.
  • Tom Campbell's Center for the Unification of Science And Consciousness (CUSAC)
  • My questions
    • If we are in a virtual reality or a video game, what is the scoring system?
    • What if someone finds a programming error in the simulation and exploits it to crash the simulation?
  • The logical next step is perhaps to show that this theory subsumes 21st century physics, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
  • Tom might have misunderstood Wheeler's delayed choice quantum experiment?

5<2020-02-16> Experiment idea: Testing mediums with fictional characters

  • Hypothesis: Fictional characters are thought-forms.
  • Hypothesis: If mediums can communicate with fictional characters, then mediums can communicate with thought-forms, and there may be something common between spirits and thought-forms.
  • Perhaps we are also thought-forms; perhaps everything is a thought-form.
  • Perhaps intrusive thoughts have spiritual causes?

6<2020-02-16> Melvin Morse's research

7<2020-02-16> Remote viewing, spiritual sight, seeing without eyes, etc.

8<2020-02-16> Meditation

  • Tom Campbell has a meditation meta-technique (technique for generating meditation techniques).
  • Melvin Morse has some ideas about meditation.

9<2020-02-16> Against MUFON

10<2020-02-16> Consciousnes & Contact Research Institute (CCRI) upcoming book "A greater reality"

  • which is expected to be published in September of 2020.
  • I feel there are too many institutes.

11<2020-02-08> Yogani's Advanced Yoga Practices

  • Clear concrete instructions?
  • reviews
  • "Samyama–Cultivating Stillness in Action, Siddhis and Miracles"

12<2020-02-10> On pratyahara

  • How do we pratyahara (sense-withdrawal) our hearing without earlids!?
  • How do we pratyahara in noisy environments?
  • Hypothesis: inner senses and outer senses
  • Hypothesis: it is not withdrawing attention from outer senses, but shifting attention to inner senses?
  • Hypothesis: when we look outward, we see what our outward eyes see; when we look inward, we see what our inward eyes see, that is, our imagination.
  • It is easy to imagine visual blackness.
  • What is the aural analog to visual blackness? White noise?
  • Can we hear silence?
  • Sometimes my hearing dominates my sight. Does that my mantra should be aural instead of visual?

13<2020-02-08> Richard Bartlett's Matrix Energetics

  • Invent the verb "two-point".
  • How do you "two-point"?
  • Does it work?
  • How?
  • Return path:
  • If Bartlett's Matrix Energetics does work, wouldn't Desda Zuckerman's effort be in vain?
    • Desda Zuckerman published her 2012 book "Your Sacred Anatomy: An Owner's Guide To The Human Energy Structure". Is "spiritual anatomy"4 a theory of psychic functioning? It looks scientific: she did some tests, standardizations, and replications. It started from her observations.
    • Its thickness is quite intimidating; it took her decades to write, but I think it can be slimmed down, or perhaps split into a few books, each with narrower focus.
    • She uses the scientific method: observe, hypothesize, experiment. But the subject is her inner experience; how do we directly experience the inner experience of others?
  • Is it related to Marina Jacobi's "The Harmonic Reactor"?

14<2020-02-08> Are these the keys?

  • be, just be
  • let go, let go of expectations, let go of everything
  • silence, total inner stillness
    • pratyahara; ignoring the material senses?

15<2020-02-09> Barušs & Mossbridge 2017 "Transcendent Mind"

  • [1]
  • ch. 1 problems with materialism
    • p. 9 Cheshire Cat experiment [6]5
    • p. 10 if we accelerate through free space, time slows down and particles show up
    • p. 24 boggle threshold; sociology of science; we have too few scientists and too many scientismists
    • p. 35 remote viewing
    • p. 48 information-access view, telepathy and clairvoyance
    • p. 69 entropy
  • p. 89 Botkin EMDR
  • p. 92 survival hypothesis vs super-psi hypothesis, in mediumship
  • p. 95 how discarnate people might try to convince incarnate people that discarnate people are alive; drop-in communicators
  • p. 96 pestering
  • p. 100 there are bad discarnate entities
  • p. 101 "there are already lots of cases in which people have ended up in serious trouble by stumbling into various practices for which they were not prepared"
  • p. 103 mind separate from brain: minds in compromised brains, in non-functional brains, and without brains; materially-impossible mentation (MIM)
  • p. 116 ITC (instrumental trans-communication)
  • p. 117 PBC (pre-birth communication)
  • Géza Maróczy discarnate chess grandmaster
  • p. 120, Frederic Myers channeled by Geraldine Cummins?
  • p. 127 micropsychokinesis
  • p. 135 poltergeist; recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis; person-centered, place-centered
  • p. 139 thought-form realization
  • p. 140 macropsychokinesis
  • p. 162 meditation

16<2020-02-09> Claimed alien science transmissions

  • Marina Jacobi's "The Harmonic Reactor", via The Moore Show
  • Convergent teachings?
    • <2020-02-01> Marina Jacobi in "The Harmonic Reactor" p. 5: "Act at your highest excitement with love every second without expectations of what the outcome will be. […]"
    • Bashar also teaches that.
  • Speculations
    • If alien implants are true, then Jesus might have been implanted into Mary's womb by aliens.
  • Essassani?
  • Elan's "Your power on a plate"
  • <2020-01-21> On looking for extra-terrestrial intelligences
    • I think it is ironic that to find aliens we must go inwards, not outwards like the SETI project. Of course SETI finds nothing; it assumes that a 200-year old physical model is reality; its engineering may be new, but it ignores 200 years of recent science; it is looking at the wrong place, like looking for fish in in the sky! The spiritual researchers have found the aliens, and they do not use your 19th-century electromagnetic radiation; they manipulate spacetime! The SETI project is a misguided waste of effort and should be aborted right now, and all its funding should be given to spiritual/consciousness researchers, such as the FREE foundation! It's too late to have reservations about contacting aliens; the aliens themselves are contacting us!
  • The Urantia Book contains some scientific predictions? https://truthbook.com/urantia/science-studies/science-content-of-the-urantia-book

17<2020-02-09> Mike Sententia's "ethereal software"

18<2020-02-09> Mediumship or channeling

19<2020-02-08> Hypotheses about the properties of consciousness

  • Consciousness can be directed, restricted, expanded.
  • Attention is the vector (the direction and magnitude) of consciousness.
  • Attention is a subset of all sensory inputs.
  • We retain everything inside our attention and we delete everything outside it.
  • Attention is a filter between the senses and the processor.
  • Attention can be directed (inward/outward/mixed), split, resized.
  • Consciousness = attention?
  • In pratyahara, sensory inputs do not register? Unaware of our surroundings?

20<2020-02-11> Did the Soviets really?

20.1<2020-02-11> Really???

20.2<2019-11-04> On psi research around the world

21<2020-02-21> On spiritual traps (spiritual bypass)

From Jack Kornfield:

[…] My detachment had been a withdrawal from the pain and conflict into a protective shell. It was more like indifference. In Buddhist psychology indifference is called the “near enemy” to true openness and equanimity, a misguided imitation. […]

What is the difference between equanimity and apathy?

equanimity = treating all feelings equally calmly

apathy = not feeling anything at all; emotional numbness

An equanimous person feels feelings but does not identify with those feelings.

An apathetic person feels nothing.

The ego can make you think that you have killed it. The symptoms are good feelings that are seemingly real but actually fake.

Thus, seek direct experience, not intellect.

22<2020-02-21> Adult learning, and self-sabotaging due to the fear of shame

When teaching adults, the teacher must clearly state that mistakes are appreciated, and shame must not be feared.

Adults fear shame. Children do not.

Adults do not fear failure. They fear shame.

Adults can learn faster than children do, but adults cripple themselves by fearing mistakes.

Adults are smarter than children, in the sense that adults have more background knowledge that can be used to learn new things faster, but at the same time adults are more stupid than children, because adults cripple themselves by their unnecessary fear of shame of making mistakes.

Adults are smarter than children because adults can think more, but adults are more stupid than children because adults think too much unnecessary thoughts.

Children think too little; adults think too much. Children don't think what they should think. Adults think what they don't need to think.

Children fear too little; adults fear too much.

23<2019-12-20> Universal love is the only way out

In a capitalist society, companies enslave workers.

In a communist society, the state enslaves workers.7

In an anarchistic society, powerful people enslave workers.

Thus, in all societies of various ideologies and systems, the powerful entities enslave the powerless entities. All societies are suffering from centralization of power. On the other hand, if power is not centralized, then anyone can take matters into their own hands.

The only way out of slavery is that every human must see others as he sees himself. If he can see others as he sees himself, he will treat others as he treats himself, and he will love others as he loves himself. Nothing outside humans is going to erase slavery. No system is going to erase slavery. No law is going to erase slavery. Even after all work has been relegated to machines, slavery will continue to exist as long as a human does not see others as he sees himself.

If all humans have universal love, then anarchy is the best society: they will not do evil even if there are no laws.

If every human loves others as he loves himself, he will not hurt others as he will not hurt himself; he will not steal from others as he does not steal from himself; he will not kill others as he will not kill himself.

Universal love is required for anarchy to work.

If we have universal love, then anarchy is the best society.

The thing that we must fix is not countries or companies.

We ourselves are what we must fix.

24<2019-12-20> You know you are in the wrong field if your colleague's success angers you

Consider the police.

Do you get angry if your friend gets promoted?

Does someone have to get worse in order for you to get better?

Are you sure you want to be in that world?

25<2020-02-21> Psychology, play, play fighting, and fairness

26<2020-02-21> Tower of interpreters?

John Sturdy Ph.D. thesis, tower of interpreters http://www.cb1.com/~john/thesis/thesis.html

27Hypotheses about spirits

27.1<2020-02-09> Hypotheses about the properties of spirits

  • Consciousness is more fundamental than matter.
    • Terminal lucidity suggests consciousness-first brain-second.
  • Spirits have identity, personality, memory, agency, free will.
    • The evidence is drop-in communicators
  • Spirits are somehow able to manipulate candle flames? How?
  • Spirits have memory. They remember the context in a conversation. They remember past conservations.
    • We can ask spirits to remember a phrase and recite it later.
  • But how can they have memory or state if their time is non-linear? Do they have time?
  • EVP is an electronic phenomenon, not an electroacoustic phenomenon.
    • Spirits begin answering when the asker begins reading, not after the asker finishes reading.
    • Spirits communicate with thoughts. The question is thought before it is said.
    • Does EVP require microphones? Experiment: Use Audacity to record noise without microphones plugged in. Invite spirits. Are there sounds?
    • Spirits manipulate electricity directly.
    • Question: Do spirits prefer to manipulate analog or digital data? Which is easier for them?
    • Hypothesis:
      • Spirits manipulate the analog electrical signal that is the input of the sound chip's ADC.
      Does the waveform show up when you are recording, or after you stop recording? If the former, then this. If the latter, then spirits manipulate the bits in RAM or hard disk.
      • Spirits do not manipulate the charge of the DRAM capacitors.
      • Spirits do not manipulate the magnetic field on hard disk surfaces.
      • Spirits do not manipulate the bits in SSDs (solid-state drives)? How do SSDs store data?
    • Uday from South Australia claims "Messages can be recorded directly in computer with and without any injection of white noise. There is no need for any microphone at all for EVP recording."
  • Must we use our native language for spirit communication, even if we are fluent in our second language?
  • Spirits can direct/manipulate animals to send messages. http://www.groundedpsychic.com/post/2019/01/04/animal-signs-sent-from-your-loved-ones

27.2<2020-02-09> Gary Schwartz and spirit communication technologies

Gary Schwartz has done lots of experiments about spirits, afterlife, and healing.

The papers are on his website.

Plant leaves emit photons? [4]

Gary wrote/co-wrote some books such as and the 2014 book "Afterlife Communication: 16 Proven Methods, 85 True Accounts", Schwartz 2011 [13], Schwartz & Simon 2002 [15], and Schwartz 2007 [12].

There are also some videos of him on YouTube.

(via soulproof.com on <2019-12-11>)

Discarnate scientists/researchers, and cooperating with discarnate beings in scientific experiments:

Interesting: Google search result for "discarnate scientist" and "discarnate scientists" (both with quotes, for exact match).

We have found that the afterlife exists. Now it is time to find out how to communicate with discarnate beings more efficiently.

Channelers can cooperate with people (spirits) in the afterlife for scientific research.

We can ask discarnate beings to do some experiments and report the results to us. Is it linguistically correct to say that a discarnate being is the living remnant of a dead people?

If life does not require a body, what is life?

But first we have to know how to communicate with discarnate beings.

Perhaps "death" should be redefined to "disembodiment". Instead of saying "he died", we say "he shed his body".

27.3<2020-02-09> LDS hypothesis of pre-mortal memories

The hypothesis:

  • Our spirit knows everything.
  • We want to test ourselves, or God wants to test us?
  • We adopt a physical body and God conceals our memories.

The point of forgetting is that, if we truly come from God, then, even without memory, we will return to God?

https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/47632/can-the-human-spirit-remember-anything-without-a-physical-body-lds-perspective

  • Peruvian whistling vessels
  • Reports, stories, accounts, narratives, anecdotal evidence
    • [5]: Davids et al. 2016's account of Forrest J Ackerman

28<2020-02-09> Jenn's TSFLAD

29<2020-02-10> Some people whose motives are probably not money

  • These people give things that took a lot of their effort to make, so their motive is probably not money:
    • Tom Campbell puts his trilogy on Google Books.
    • Marina Jacobi puts her books on her website.

30Theoretical-physics speculations

30.1<2020-02-09> When we become aware of something, we collapse a wave function?

Wave function collapse is the transition from unawareness to awareness?

30.2<2020-02-09> There is only one photon?

From relativity, we know length contraction and time dilation. If we cannot know who is moving, how do we know who has slower time?

Light does not experience spacetime. Light does not experience anything. From the point of view of a photon, nothing exists other than itself. All photons have the same experience. Thus there is exactly one photon in the Universe?

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe

30.3<2020-02-09> Vibration more fundamental than time?

Usually, to know whether something is vibrating, we have to watch the motion of that thing through time. In this view, time is more fundamental than vibration.

But there is the unusual reverse idea that vibration creates time. In this view, it is presumed that things vibrate, and it is assumed that the time perceived by that thing is related to its vibration frequency. In this view, vibration is more fundamental than time.

Hypothesis: felt time is vibration period.

How can we hear a sound without time?

Suppose that vibration is fundamental.

The old view: We know that something is vibrating because we see its moving through spacetime.

We know time passes because we perceive change around us. Even if we deprive our sensors, we still know time passes because we perceive our heartbeats and internal bodily changes. If we don't perceive anything, not even our body, then time won't exist. If we are pure awareness that is aware of only our own existence and nothing else, not even time, then time does not exist.

We do not know the passage of time. We only infer the passage of time from our perception of the changes around us.

We do not experience time directly.

The passage of time is an illusion created by the ordering of our perceptions.

Why and how do we order our perceptions? How can we order our perceptions without time?

But time feels so real! How do we see what is behind this veil of illusion? By null-domain meditation?

If time is an illusion, then what is real?

30.4<2020-02-09> Language issue: Vibration of what?

31<2020-02-09> Cheung & Mossbridge 2018 "The Premonition Code"

  • [3]
  • can train oneself on https://thepremonitioncode.com/
  • Cheung & Mossbridge 2018 [3] (p. 174) claims that vitamin B6 enhances dream clarity compared to placebo.
  • Since when is "precognition" a synonym for "remote viewing"?
  • p. 183 IARPA superforecasters
  • p. 184 time travel
  • p. 188 IONS specialties
  • p. 195 Mobius Consensus Protocol; Schwartz, S A, Opening to the infinite: The art and science of nonlocal awareness, Langley, WA, Nemoseen Media, 2007.
  • S.A.Schwartz 2050 project
  • remote viewing evidence
    • Schwartz, S, “Through Time and Space: The Evidence for Remote Viewing”, in Broderick, D and Groetzel, B (eds), The Evidence for Psi, McFarland, New York, 2014.
  • <2020-02-01> https://thepremonitioncode.com/research/:
    • "electrons tunnel through measurable distances instantaneously (faster than the speed of light)"?
    • "People can use their dreams to tap into the personal problems of others"?

32Is this wisdom?

32.1<2020-02-08> Compassion precludes hatred

We hate people because we don't know that they are suffering.

If I know that people misbehave because they are suffering, how can I hate them?

Knowing the suffering of others turns your hatred into compassion.

I hated my neighbor for her incompetence, but then I found out that her husband died rather young from cancer, she had hyperthyroidism, and she had been shitting 5 times a day everyday. I couldn't keep hating her after I knew her suffering.

I hated Donald Trump, Anies Baswedan, and other politicians, but they may be suffering from loneliness. If I find out what they are suffering from, I'm sure I won't be able to keep hating them.

The saddest people are those hurting themselves: the people who desire to get more than enough. Greedy people suffer like people whose thirst cannot be quenched by any amount of water. They are suffering, and, the saddest thing is that they don't know that they are causing their own suffering.

How do we sympathize without condescension?

Everyone suffers. Rich people, poor people, all suffer. Satan suffers. The Devil suffers. Does God suffer?

Compassion does not mean letting bad things be.

"Compassion" means "suffering together" (feeling the suffering of others).

There are people who do evil because they want to, not because they have to? In what sense are they suffering?

If I am grateful for my body / happy with my body, in what sense am I suffering?

If I am happy with the entirety of my material existence, in what sense am I suffering?

It seems that the material world is a system designed to perpetuate suffering.

If we know everyone's suffering, we cannot hate anyone.

The reason behind all evil deed is that the evil doer is suffering.

However, compassion only prevents hatred, and does not encourage love.

How do we love others unconditionally without resorting to the compassion crutch?

Compassion may be an useful intermediate stage.

hatred -> compassion -> love?

When I have compassion, I stop hating people, but I don't start loving them.

Perhaps the only way to love people is to just be and do not overintellectualize.

32.2<2020-02-08> How to let go?

Every time we poop, we let go of our poop.

Every time we breathe out, we let go of our breath.

Every time we poop or breathe out, we don't make a big deal of them.

Every time we poop, we feel joy and release.

We should let go of everything in the same way we let go our poop?

32.3<2020-02-08> Perhaps esoteric science was hidden because …

Perhaps esoteric science was hidden because mixing it with egoism caused great destruction. The most powerful people on Earth abuse their power for their own gains. Greater power to those people means greater destruction to humanity.

33<2020-02-08> Consciousness, mind, and spirit

Consciousness witnesses, observes, knows.

Mind throws/projects habitual thoughts onto consciousness.

Mind generates thoughts. Consciousness detects thoughts.

Or… there need be no separation between the three?

34Subclasses of non-local perception?

  • NLP = Non-Local Perception
    • What is the difference with "remote perception"?
    • Other names: Anomalous Cognition, ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception).
    • NLP includes remote viewing, precognition, premonition, scopaesthesia, channeling, mediumship, clear perceptions (clairvoyance/clearseeing, etc.), akashic records reading, etc.

  • Table?

    Subclasses of non-local perception
    phenomenon PSAS PSAT tgt.
    precognition near future undet.
    remote viewing any any predet.
    retrocognition near past undet.
    clairvoyance any any any
    • Legend:
      • PSAT = percipient supposed actual time; the point of time in which the percipient is supposed to actually happen
      • PSAS = percipient supposed actual space
        • near = near to where the perceiver is when the percipient actually happens
      • any = unknown limitation
      • tgt. = target
      • undet. = undetermined
      • predet. = predetermined
  • [3] p. 171 on the difference between remote viewing and precognition: ?

35This is probably not wisdom?

35.1Why are we so angry?

35.2Fear explains everything?

There are only two ways to make people do something:

  • Make them want it.
  • Make them fear the consequences of not doing it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_appeal

35.2.1Explaining love/attachment as fear of loss…

35.2.2Intrinsic motivation to do X is fear of the consequences of not doing X.

35.2.3To want X is to fear not getting X.

35.2.4We eat because we fear death. We eat because we fear regretting not tasting the delicious-looking food.

35.2.5It is the terrorists/extremists who are afraid of us, in the same way a cornered rat biting us is afraid of us?

35.2.6Emotion hypothesis: Everything is fear

Attractive emotion. Fear is a repulsive emotion.

Emotion axis: low/high energy, repulsive/attractive toward the cause

Hate is fear of proximity.

Desire is fear of loss.

Love is fear of loss.

Boredom is fear of repetition.

Indecisiveness is fear of regret.

Hunger and thirst are fear of death.

Joy is fear of fear.

35.3<2019-11-28> Why does darkness inconvenience us?

Street lights went out. I feel somewhat uneasy; I had to consciously calm myself, although there is nothing unusual. Why does darkness inconvenience us?

36On contact modalities

36.1Terminology

  • SPM = Single-Pointed Meditation
  • UAP = Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon
  • CE = Contact Experience / Close Encounter

36.2Observations to be explained

  • Schild et al. 2018 [9]: comprehensive contactee surveys
  • SPM and CE distort the experiencer's time perception in the opposite way.
    • After SPM, one is surprised that much time has passed.
    • After CE, one is surprised that little time has passed.
  • Most meditators and contactees become less egoistical and more loving.
  • Spirits can emit photons.
    • Why are they seen in photos but unseen by the naked eye? Is the eye not more sensitive than the camera? Or is it about the frequency?
    • What is the frequency of the photons?
    • What is the intensity of the light?
  • Anomalous perception
    • Channelers (mediums) say things they supposedly cannot know.
    • Precognition
    • Telepathy (thought transference)
  • Non-local perceptions
    • Remote viewing

36.3Hypothesized explanations

  • (Insufficient observations?)
  • Concepts:
    • perceived speed of time
    • aperture of focus
    • amount of consciousness
    • big aperture = low focus = low consciousness?
  • Hypothesis: The perceived speed of time is inversely related to the amount of consciousness.
    • Predictions:
      • We feel time passing faster when we sleep.
      • We feel time passing slower when we are hyperfocused (e.g. on pain).
      • The perceived speed of time is inversely proportional to the amount of new information?
      • Null-meditation (not focusing on anything) decreases consciousness?
      • Single-pointedness meditation (focusing on something) increases consciousness?
      • In both cases of meditation, one becomes unaware of his body.
      • UAP encounter increases consciousness (makes one hyperaware).
      • Consciousness is the speed of time?
  • Hypothesis: The material body interferes with consciousness.
    • The material body does not generate consciousness.
    • Explains: Perception without material senses.
  • Hypothesis: Poltergeists are the victim's own unconscious psychokinesis; ghosts are earthbound human spirits?
    • Poltergeists haunt people; ghosts haunt places?
      • Poltergeists follow people; ghosts stay at places?
      • A poltergeist doesn't change victim?

36.4Details of observations

36.4.1Distorted time perception, meditation, and aliens

  • SPM: Sadhguru did not realize that he had been sitting for some days. (But what type of meditation did Sadhguru do?)
  • CE: Some people felt that they spent days in "matrix" reality, but when they came back, their friends said that only a few minutes had passed. (But how the hell do they know how many days they spent in "matrix" reality, if there are no watch and no sunrise/sunset?)
  • missing time and missing distance8
  • Mainstream neuroscience observations
    • <2020-01-21> https://www.huffpost.com/entry/slow-down-time_n_3567218
      • "By paying attention and actively noticing new things, we can slow time down."
      • <2020-01-21> David Eagleman
        • "different types of sensory information (auditory, tactile, visual, etc.) are processed at different speeds by different neural architectures"9
      • Burkhard Bilger? "Time can warp when our brain receives much more or less input than usual in a three-second span. (For example, time slows down when you are about to crash your car, but you can easily lose a whole day watching things on YouTube.)"
      • Habituation promotes ignorance, automates processing, and decreases consciousness? Surprise/error minimization? Energy-based learning?
    • <2020-01-21> https://buffer.com/resources/the-science-of-time-perception-how-to-make-your-days-longer
      • "When familiar information is processed, this doesn’t take much time at all. New information, however, is a bit slower and makes time feel elongated."
    • Information/sensory overload in Asperger/autistic people?

36.4.2Perception without material senses

  • People born blind can see during near-death experiences.
    • People can see without brains/eyes.
      • People born blind can see during NDE.10
        • If so, then it should apply to all senses. People born deaf should be able to hear after they die.
        • Grof & Grof excerpt.11
        • If blind people can do that, then myopia should be a trivial obstacle.
        • Seeing without eyes is not crazy if you already know remote viewing.
        • Google search: blind people can see after they die.
  • Veridical OBEs (out-of-body experiences).

36.4.3Properties of spirits

  • Understand main sources
    • Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC)
    • Accounts of discarnates via translator mediums
  • Spiritual photonics
    • Spirits can show themselves as orbs in camera photos. [8]
    • Spirits can increase photon detection rate in a photomultiplier (sensitive apparatus that can detect single photons). (Schwartz)
  • We have misunderstood death. We should call it "shedding" instead. It is not the end. Dead people simply shed their bodies. They still exist, but our brains/bodies interfere with communication.
  • Schwartz 2016 [14]
  • photomultiplier [13] [11]
  • experiments [10]
  • He coined the term "postmaterial person".
  • The SoulPhone, devices for spirit communication: Gary E. Schwartz et al. at The SoulPhone Foundation
  • The SoulPhone: "An Evidence-Based Technology for 'Spirit' Communication"
  • Sonia Rinaldi; more than 30 years of research, as of 2019; ITC, electronic voice phenomenon (EVP), etc.
    • Why does ITC seem to be particularly big in Brazil?
  • via Affirmations, New Thought, and Beyond with Darryl Robert Schoon
    • Is "A course in miracles" a curriculum?
    • "Right use of will"?
  • Julie Beischel (Windbridge)
  • Dean Radin & Helané Wahbeh (IONS), etc.
  • Windbridge Institute and Windbridge Research Center are two different things.

37High-strangeness events while meditating

38<2020-02-08> On the reality of mental phenomena

38.1Feeling and energy?

  • We can feel heat. Therefore we can feel at least some forms of energy. But we don't feel the energy? We feel the microscopic motion of things?
  • Hypothesis: Feeling is energy as perceived by a conscious entity?
  • Find out how to define and measure spiritual energy.
  • Speculations
    • \( E = m c^2 = n h f \).
      • Thus \( n f = m c^2 / h \).
      • (Numbers calculated with Google search.)

      • Why is this constant so big?

        \[\begin{align*} c^2 / h &= (299,792,458 ~ m/s)^2 / (6.62607004 \times 10^{-34} m^2 ~ kg / s) \\ &= 1.35639251 \times 10^{50} ~ kg^{-1} ~ s^{-1} \end{align*} \]
      • Electron rest mass \( 9.10938356 \times 10^{-31} ~ kg \)?
      • 1 kg matter rest energy (?) ≈ \( 10^{50} \) Hz photon frequency (!)
      • 1 electron at rest ≈ a photon whose frequency is \( 1.23558997 \times 10^{20} ~ Hz \) and energy is \( 8.18710565 × 10^{-14} ~ J \) (\( 510,998.946 ~ eV \))?
      • Strange: a photon's energy does not depend on its velocity!
        • It seems that a wave's frequency and its velocity are not independent properties?

38.2Thought, imagination, effort

  • Thought/imagination is a potential, an alternate reality?
  • Effort translates thought/imagination into actuality, reality?
  • Pure thought + pure emotion + pure matter + … = human?
  • What is it like to be a thought?
  • What is it like to be an emotion?

38.3Imagination is as real as perception?

Imagining a thing excites the same neurons as perceiving that thing. Therefore if we have a very good mental model, we should be able to perform experiments in our imagination and translate the results to the real world.

Imagine that an intelligent machine existed, and then work our way back. Invent a story about how we would get there.

38.4<2020-02-08> If our imagination is real

Our imagination is real. Our words are real. Our thoughts are real.

We should be very careful with our imagination, as careful as we are with reality.

Thinking immoral things is immoral.

Jokingly saying immoral things is immoral.

Hypothesis: imagination and reality are the same thing.

38.5<2020-02-09> On the random thoughts that arise when we meditate

Where do they come from? How do they arise?

38.6<2020-01-01> Imagination is real?

Imagination is undoubtedly real, at least subjectively. We do not doubt that our imagination exists. It is just that we don't know how to mix our imagination and reality; we don't know how to embody our imagination.

Effort is the progress of embodying an imagination? We embody imagination by giving energy to it?

What is subjectively real? Everything you "see" is, by definition, subjectively real. This includes perception, hallucination, dream.

38.7<2020-01-01> Hypothesis: We are God's imaginations

How do we test this hypothesis?

God is to us as we are to our imaginary friends.

Our imaginary friends are our imaginations as we are God's imaginations.

We imagine our imaginary friends into existence as God imagines us into existence.

Our imaginary friends believe that they are real, as we believe that we are real.

What is real to us is God's imagination.

What is it like, to see from God's point of view?

38.8<2020-01-01> On nested imaginations

If we can imagine talking with our imaginary friends, then our imaginary friends can imagine talking with us.

We can imagine that our imaginary friends are imagining something.

God can imagine us imagining God.

Like a dream in a dream, like "Inception".

38.9Algebra of thoughts and feelings

  • If one can think \(x\) and one can think \(y\), then one can think \(x+y\) (both of them together).
  • If one can feel \(x\) and one can feel \(y\), then one can feel \(x+y\) (both of them together).
  • Thoughts can superpose. Waves can superpose. Forces can superpose.

39<2020-02-08> On meditation

39.1Hypothesis: Determining meditation correctness

We know we are focused at a single point if we become aware that it is all we are aware of, and we become unaware of everything else, including our own internal bodily sensations.

39.2Idea: Measuring the depth of meditation

The depth of meditation can be subjectively measured by the rate of internal distraction (number of internal distractions per unit time). For example, a newbie meditator may be distracted 20 times per minute, and an expert meditator may be distracted 1 time per 15 minutes. One internal distraction is one time realizing that one has been distracted. External distraction does not always translate to internal distraction. For example, when someone talks to me while I am reading an article, I may fail to respond to the other person.

The depth of meditation can be objectively measured by frequency analysis of brain waves?

40Past interests

40.1Donald Hoffman's book "The case against reality"

Most of it [7] (except the math) is obvious to me because I have already believed what the book tries to accomplish.

Where is the details of the mathematics of "conscious agent theory"?

(via ZDoggMD on <2019-12-11>)

40.2Meditation, and advanced meditation?

Set a timer for 20 seconds. Count how many times you realize that you lost focus.

Repeat.

Increase the timer to 30 seconds.

Increase to a minute.

And so on.

We can test: autonomous breathing rate below 9 per minute (6 2/3 second per autonomous breath; a breath is an inhalation-exhalation pair), Sadhguru: If your breath drops down, you'll evolve into perceiving higher things! Shinzen Young once told a story about Master Wuguang whose pulse is so weak that his doctor said "You're not alive!" [16].

Cyclist idle breathing rate? They don't experience psychic because they are not silent?

Toward enlightenment:

Padmasambhava's pointing-out instructions

Ramana Maharshi's teaching is mostly in silence. You sit near him, you let yourself be absolutely still, and you get something? How does that work, and why?

40.2.1Enligtenment language trap

If you read a lot, you will not be enlightened; you will only be an expert at speaking like an enlightened person. The text is to guide a practice, not to be read, not to be intellectualized. The language is a limitation; language cannot transmit experience.

I fell to the trap of intellectualizing enlightenment; I tried to understand it, that is to create a mental model of it, not to know it, that is to directly experience it. I was just feeding my monkey mind with words. That realization enlightened me about enlightenment, but it did not enlighten me.

To learn to emote without language, watch silent movies. But aren't body languages language?

To enlighten is to shine light upon, to dispel darkness, to dispel ignorance, to make someone see. To be enlightened is to know. To know what? Everything.

40.2.2To be enlightened is to be able to consciously leave the body (to bodily die just by will)

Conflicting details about Ramakrishna Paramahansa:

Which one is correct? None of them?

40.3Urge surfing

I got this via Nir Eyal on Video Advice, but you should not watch that information-sparse clickbait-titled overlong video; you should read Dartmouth–Hitchcock 3-page document instead.

It's interesting, although nothing new to Buddhists, because urge surfing is a special case of mindfulness.

40.4Systems not goals

40.5Other people's esoteric sciences

Rudolf Steiner's book "An outline of esoteric science"?

esoteric science? occult experiments? http://www.kheper.net/essays/Esoteric_Science.html

Should all scientists meditate, so that they directly know?

40.6<2020-02-09> Marwaha & May 2017 Star Gate summary

40.7Abilities?

  • Focus on spiritual/consciousness development, not psychic abilities / reality "glitches"?
  • Patanjali's yoga sutras, siddhis.
  • Meditate; see meditate.html?
  • Do not run away from uncomfortable emotions, but meditate on them, and you will find their root cause. For example: sometimes envy, lust, and sloth arise in me. Note the language: "I envy" vs "envy arises in me".
    • In meditation, we ask the question, and then we quiet our mind and wait for the answer. The answers do not have to come in a language. Some memories may arise.
  • Thoughts and feeling are the language of spirits? But the brain interferes with its habits, its programming, its memories?
    • Spiritual signals are much weaker than material signals; we must be very quiet and sensitive.
      • Why do spirits seem so weak? Or are they actually strong? Because E = mc2: a piece of matter is a lot of congealed energy? If spirits gain more energy, they congeal into matter?

40.8Post-materialism for the 21st century

(There is no need to argue further? Enough people are leaving materialism?)

  • Science is stuck, after two centuries of running away from having to deal with consciousness.
  • To progress, science must deal with consciousness.
  • Scientists who want progress will leave materialism on their own.
  • What we need is a safe space for fringe science.
  • All mainstream science was once fringe science.
  • There should be no taboo in science.
  • There should be no taboo object of study.

Curriculum:

  • Understand the difference between science and Scientism.
    • Scientism is a religion like Christianity, Islam, etc. Dogmatic.
    • There are no fixed beliefs in science (except perhaps that we know that we do not know). On the other hand, Scientism adherents have fixed beliefs in mainstream science.
  • Understand the difference between skeptics and pseudoskeptics.
  • Understand that materialism has advanced us greatly but it can help us no further.

Science can and should be used to investigate afterlife, spirituality, religion, and paranormal phenomena.

We are doing science wrong. Science should advance faster than one funeral at a time. Funding should be more random.

Why do we strive to study things as far as the moon, if we have never even studied things as near as our own minds?

Esoteric and exoteric science should be merged into a more complete science.

Practice is important. Avoid getting so immersed in trying to read all esoteric literatures that you forget to practice anything. Choose one that resonates with you, and practice it. For me, it's scientific esotericism.

40.9<2020-02-08> Hypotheses about pendulums

41Basic definitions

"Esoteric" means "inner".

"Exoteric" means "outer".

They have nothing to do with secrecy or obfuscation.

Esoteric science is the study of the mind. Of course one can experiment with one's own mind using the scientific method. The problem is everyone's mind is different, so there are as many theories as there are people.

Exoteric science is what most people mean when they say "science" in 2019.

"Normal" means "common".

"Paranormal" means "beside normal". It means happenings not yet explainable by our common mental model. What we call "paranormal" is normal to people who experience it daily. Thus normality is relative.

The prefix "para-" means "beside", such as in chemistry, the word "paragraph" ("beside-writing"), and the word "parallel" ("beside one another").

"Occult" means "hidden". Or does it mean "concealed (intentionally hidden)"?

TODO: Define.

mystic, mysticism

magic (magick)

catapathic vs apophatic

An entity is something that has an identity.

41.1Understanding is reasonably accurate modeling

To understand something is to have a reasonably accurate model of it.

X understands Y iff X has a reasonably accurate model of Y.

41.2Mind, brain, self, soul, spirit

Minds contain thoughts and feelings, as implied by our saying "What is in your mind?" Synonyms: Latin mens, Greek nous. "Mental" is the adjective that means "related to the mind".

Brains contain brain matter.

Soul. Greek psyche.

"Spirit" means breath. "Spirit" may also mean idea, essence, intention, or meaning, such as in "spirit of the law", as opposed to "letter of the law", which is the mere appearance. Greek pneuma.

41.3Consciousness

Consciousness is the ability to ken. For more explanation, see file:conscious.html.

Is there any meaningful difference between subconscious and unconscious?

If Consciousness = ability to know (introspectability?) then Subconsciousness = reduced ability to know, and Unconsciousness = inability to know, lack of ability to know.

Cognition and recognition

cogito comes from from con- (from cum-, with) and agito (agere, to do) <2019-11-05> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cogito#Latin

Cognizance, cogitate

Cogito = I think

X recognizes Y iff X cognizes that X cognizes Y.

For example, we see a photo of a distant acquaintance that we last met 40 years ago. We immediately cognize this person, in the sense that we immediately feel that we know this person (we have seen this person somewhere before); but for a moment we strive to think who this person is and where we met this person: it takes us some time to recognize this person.

42What?

42.1An analogy of consciousness: a person in a stream full of fish

How accurate is this analogy?

My consciousness, my awareness, my perception of what I think is the present, my existence, is like trying to catch as many fish as possible in a rapid stream of water full of fish swimming along in the current. There are so many fish that my conscious mind does not see. When I silence my mind, it is as if I let the fish swim, not catch them, not interfere with their natural trajectories.

The fish in my hand is my conscious mind.

The fish I glimpse in my peripheral vision is my subconscious mind.

The fish swimming under the water is my unconscious mind.

42.2What do others say about consciousness?

TODO summarize:

  • Vsauce video "What is consciousness?"12
  • 2009, "How to define consciousness—and how not to define consciousness", pdf

43On minds and thoughts

What is the relationship between mind and thought? Which are correct?

  • Thoughts appear in minds?
  • Thoughts enters minds?
  • Minds create/generate thoughts?
  • Minds receive/transmit thoughts?

My mind thinks. I do not think. So what do I do then? I merely exist. How do I know I exist? Thought is not required. But how can I know I exist if I cannot feel anything? Without language, I can still know I exist; I will merely be unable to tell others.

Attention. Focus.

Intention.

Expectation.

43.1Our surface experience of our minds

Mind is what contains thoughts. Mind is what thinks thoughts?

The meaning of X for an agent A is A's mind's interpretation of X.

The meaning of X for us is our mind's interpretation of X.

Undefined terms: to feel, to think, to experience, to remember, to recall.

A feeling is what is felt.

A thought is what is thought.

To infer is to reason according to a formal system. Inference is formal/syntactic manipulation, a strict adherence to some inference rules. It does not involve semantics/meaning.

There are at least two kinds of thinking:

  • thinking without language, such as imagining the a visual object or a sound; imagining something
  • thinking with language, commentary, labeling, inference

Imagination.

To infer is not to assume.

Memory.

Undefined terms: time, past, present, future?

When a thought is bothering you, you can't erase it by trying not to think it; you can only bury it with another thought or by not trying to thinking anything.

43.2Knowing our minds more deeply

file:meditate.html

43.3Enligtenment? Ego death?

Horgan 201713:

And if you really experience nothing, how can you remember the experience? How do you emerge from this state of oblivion back into ordinary consciousness?

Does this ego-death attainment procedure work? (From Google search "how to ego death without drugs".)

Possibly enlightenment?14 Note that the subjects themselves do not label the experience as "enlightenment", but apparently all of them at least experience temporary ego death.

Sometimes I imagine something so fun that I lost sense of time (1–2 hours had passed, whereas I think it was only 15–30 minutes). Is that ego death? But I don't feel extreme bliss.

Enlightenment?15

Remote viewing is similar to automatic writing/drawing in that both of them use the subconscious. How do we distinguish these cases?

  1. The viewer's consciousness goes to the target.
  2. The viewer and the target communicate by telepathy.
  3. The viewer reads some Akashic records about the target.
  4. The viewer is let know by a spirit/disembodied consciousness.

What is the evidence for auras? What does Kirlian photography actually capture? Biofield evidence?16

What is the evidence for chakras?

Why does all psychic development book boil down to deep meditation and visualization? If they work, how do they work?

I am reading David DeBold's "Miracle mastery" book? There seem to be other readers too.

What are Paramahansa Yogananda's "scientific techniques for attaining direct personal experience of God"17?

Is the goal of null-domain meditation (empty-mind meditation) ego death?

Does an enlightened man know that he is enlightened? To be enlightened is to know reality directly without the material senses?

If an enlightened person cannot be disturbed18, then what is the difference between enlightenment and apathy?

Some of the quickly visible effects of meditation are reduced stress and increased ability to maintain focus.

Is meditation about focus, about relaxation, or about quieting the mind?

Read Quora psychics-related topic, and perhaps Reddit, but Quora is more structured (question-answer).

Is Patanjali right? Did he know what he was talking about?

Does myopia hamper aura-seeing? Do we use eyes to see aura? If not, then myopia should not hamper aura-seeing.

(On telekinesis and the conservation of energy.) Where does the energy come from? Does the practitioner become tired? Is energy conserved?

A plan of the table of contents:

  • Evolution of the brain. What questions about the brain can evolution answer? Why do brain parts specialize into functional areas? Speculations on the non-uniformity of the brain. Encephalization quotient? Why have humans built more variety of tools than elephants have?
  • Dissociative identity disorder. Kastrup's hypothesis of individual consciousness as dissociation of cosmic consciousness. Is there an identity dissociation that is not a disorder?
  • Disembodied consciousness, mediumship, life after death, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, shared death experiences, anomalous cognition.
  • Remote viewing, energy works, psychic abilities/functioning, paranormal phenomena, poltergeist vs haunting.
  • What can cybernetics tell us about the brain? Good regulator theorem?
  • Memory. Hypothesis: Temporal ordering enhances recall. Perception of time. file:question.html
  • Borderline crackpot territory.
    • Quantum-physical hypotheses of the workings of the brain, consciousness, whatever.
    • Religion as technology for communicating with God. Jesus as a democratization of the access to God (from select shamans then to everyone now)?
  • I have some unanswered questions.
  • Energy is the ability to do work. Power is the rate of energy transfer. (If you wish to detour to politics, see On political power.)
  • Everyone should develop psychic abilities?
  • Philosophy should use simple language.
  • Religion is a technology for communicating with God?
  • On anomalies
  • There is enough paranormal evidence. We need a theory.

What?

Precognition indicates consciousness? Animals precognize. Human consciousness can interfere in consciousness experiments.19

Perhaps we prayed because it will rain; perhaps the future affects the past.

I declare <2019-11-25> as my day one of consciousness experiments. By then I had been meditating lightly for a few days.

43.4My personal discoveries

I think these will apply to you too.

43.4.1How to anger me

How to surprise me: Violate my guesses.

How to anger me: Violate my expectations.

How to arouse resentment in me: Violate my expectations, and give me no control to change it.

<2019-11-28>

Especially good at angering me are shitty computer systems. My shitty bank's shitty website. Gojek's shitty behavior (giving drivers 2 km away).

When I'm angry, cussing helps diffuse the urge to destroy things.

43.4.2How to scare me

How to make me fear: Put me in a dark outdoor place with no street lights.

Why is that? How was I conditioned to fear that?

44What

44.1On beginner resources for psychic power, spiritual journey, etc.

Robert Bruce advises astral travel beginners: As one is about to leave the body, one must stay calm and focused, and not get excited.

44.2Esoteric science going mainstream?

Is Krippner et al. 2019 a sign that remote viewing is going mainstream?

44.3<2019-11-27> On refusing reincarnation

bhagavad gita https://asitis.com/15

Krishna meditation, 6:13-14, dhyana yoga https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/

The light at the end of the tunnel is the birth canal? What theory is this? https://www.quora.com/What-if-you-dont-want-to-be-reincarnated

Is life a gift, a trap, a prison, a test, or what? Is it what you make of it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/spirituality/top/?t=all

45Editor: Move these things somewhere else?

45.1What psychology?

45.2Artificial?

We say that something is "artificial" iff it is highly unlikely to exist without being created by a human. We say that something is "natural" iff it is not artificial. But, if artificial urea and natural urea are exactly the same thing with the same properties, why do we bother?

Why do we assume that some things will not come into existence if there are no humans to create it?

Is it possible that somewhere out there in the vast outer space, there is a jet aircraft formed spontaneously by natural processes such as explosion of stars?

Is it possible that there is a teapot-shaped space rock formed by natural processes?

Why are most objects in outer space relatively simple compared to artificial objects? Or are things not as simple as they seem?

45.3Using analytic philosophy to clarify and navigate social relationships

45.3.1Friendship

  1. What is a friend?

    Your friends are those who sacrifice for you. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the friendship. How do we measure a sacrifice?

  2. How do we measure friendship?

    In theory, we define \(F(A,B)\) (the friendship measure from A to B) as how much sacrifice that A is willing to make for B.

    (Is the direction correct? Is that backwards?)

    Thus measuring friendship boils down to valuating sacrifices.

    \(F(A,B)\) can be approximated by an equivalent amount of money.

    How do we measure friendship in practice?

    Foot-in-the-door: let A ask B to make bigger and bigger sacrifices until B refuses. Then we have found \(F(A,B)\).

    Door-in-the-face: let A ask B to make a sacrifice so big that B refuses, and then let A ask B to make smaller and smaller sacrifices until B accepts. Then we have found \(F(A,B)\).

    Those results may differ, but \(F(A,B)\) should lie somewhere between those two points. We can also average them, take the maximum, take the minimum, use interval arithmetics, or describe the result using a statistical distribution, for example.

  3. Properties of friendship

    Friendship is circumstantial: \(F(A,B)\) changes over time.

    Friendship is usually asymmetric: \(F(A,B) \neq F(B,A)\).

  4. Questions

    What is self-friendship? What is \(F(A,A)\)? How much is one willing to sacrifice for oneself? Does this question even make sense?

  5. Links

45.3.2Defining "boss"

  • What is a boss?

    1. X is a boss of Y iff X can affect Y's salary, even if X does it indirectly.
    2. X is a strong boss of Y iff X has the authority to change Y's salary.
    3. X is a weak boss of Y iff X is a boss, but not a strong boss, of Y.

  • Example:

    • Everyone who can fire you is your strong boss.
    • Everyone who can get you fired (complain to someone who can fire you) is your weak boss.
  • The stronger a boss is, the more seriously you should treat him/her.
  • Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

  1. Another definition, based on fear: X is a boss of Y if Y fears X.

45.3.3Happiness

Happiness = Reality - Expectation.

To be more happy, raise reality, lower expectation, or do both.

Pain also reduces happiness.

Money cannot buy happiness, but it can buys things that will make you happier.

Money helps, but after you have enough to make your life comfortable, adding money doesn't add happiness.

45.4Blog about biology, health, and beauty

45.4.1<2019-08-17> On myopia

I hypothesize that myopia has lower prevalency in the population of drivers because drivers refocus their eyes a lot.

black-on-white promotes myopia, white-on-black inhibits myopia? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x

https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/24589/how-does-the-eye-know-whether-to-focus-further-out-or-nearer-in-order-to-bring-a

https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/105433/can-you-tell-from-a-blurry-photo-if-focus-was-too-close-or-too-far

Hypothesis: The brain uses the chromatic aberration of the eye lens in order to detect whether the focus is too near or too far. Green fringing means that the focus is too ??? Purple fringing means that the focus is too ??? https://photographylife.com/what-is-chromatic-aberration https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_confusion

45.4.2Appeal-to-evolution weakens the theory that irregular eating causes gastritis

<2019-08-17>

The appeal-to-evolution is this argument: If a trait would hamper the survival of a species, then that species would not have evolved that trait.

It is a heuristic. It is not always correct. For example, it cannot explain peacock tails. However, it seems reasonable in absence of other information.

The appeal-to-evolution weakens the theory that irregular eating causes gastritis as follows.

Perhaps the very early hunter-gatherer humans ate irregularly; they were always a few days away from starvation, they did not have a secure food supply, they depend very much on their surroundings. Having gastritis due to irregular eating would hamper their survival. Therefore they probably evolved such that irregular eating does not cause gastritis.

45.4.3Others' articles about gastritis

"Coadaptation of Helicobacter pylori and humans: ancient history, modern implications"20

"The Iceman had a tummy bug"21

1998 "Helicobacter pylori in vivo causes structural changes in the adherent gastric mucus layer but barrier thickness is not compromised"22

45.4.4On atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis? https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/11/mystery-arteries-harden-cracked-scientists-calcium-deposits

45.4.5On gut microbiome?

https://www.prebiotin.com/prebiotin-academy/what-are-prebiotics/dietary-fiber/

https://medium.com/boosted/intermittent-fasting-your-thyroid-and-your-immune-system-ec8f5f02d997 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224414002386 https://mennohenselmans.com/protein-is-not-more-satiating-than-carbs-and-fats/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8695595/ https://www.shape.com/latest-news-trends/go-veggie-gain-weight-heres-why-it-can-happen https://www.livestrong.com/article/1011649-6-reasons-people-gain-weight-after-going-vegetarian/ https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/becoming-vegetarian-tips https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4564526/ https://selfhacked.com/blog/how-your-gut-microbiota-can-make-you-fat-or-thin/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30336163 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6036887/

45.4.6On the science of diets

Conservation of mass.

Body mass is gained by food and drinks, and lost by exhalation and excretion.

The question is the composition of those mass.

If I weigh 70 kg and both my legs weigh 20 kg, then a squat consumes at least 50 kg * 10 m/s2 * 0.5 m = 200 J = 0.0478 kcal. That's a tiny amount relative to the calories in the food we eat! We can easily eat 300 kcal in one meal. Thus, if the human body were 100% efficient, I would have to squat 6,276 times to burn that one meal!

Thus the biggest energy consumer is the basal metabolic processes.

The proximal cause is the combination of nutrition and hormones. Hormones are affected by nutrition, activity, and genetics.

45.4.7A clean eating protocol

Combine nutrition science and psychology.

For two weeks.

Pay attention to gut microbiome.

No sugar; no condiments bought from supermarket because they all have sugar. No flour. No carb. No food that is processed more than one step from its original form. No refined foods. No extracts. Sugar is not OK because it is concentrated sugarcane plant extract. Cooked meat is very OK, but sausage is not. White rice is not OK. Green vegetables OK.

Anytime you're hungry, just eat; there is no time restriction; the only restriction is that you eat real fat/protein.

Everytime you eat, you must send a photograph of what you eat to me. It is not for approval, but for commentary, and for psychology, for accountability, so that you feel that you are doing it for me, so that you don't prematurely abandon your effort.

You can drink anything as long it has no sugar in it. Just drink plain water. Drinks from the supermarket are not OK; they all have sugar.

45.4.8<2019-08-20> ? On skin-wrapping for skin-tightening, occlusion cuff training, and blood flow restriction training

Do they work? How do they work? What is the science?

45.4.9<2019-10-28> Urban planning should include nutrient cycle.

45.5On living on Earth

45.5.1On living sanely, peacefully, and sustainably

45.5.2Why do I wear long hair?

  • To repel close-minded people.
  • To know when I have lost in life, when I can no longer do things as I wish, be it due to biological, political, or economical reasons.

45.5.3The importance of monuments and folklores, especially at disaster sites

To pass on the knowledge to future generations, so that we do not forget, so that we do not waste lives.23

Monuments, folklores, and histories are trans-generational memory. It is what enables the human race to advance: Because humans can build on their predecessors' work and do not repeat everything that their predecessors did.

45.5.4A rather dystopian prophecy: three groups of people

In the future, society will split into three groups:

  1. The masters: The people who program the system (tell the system what to do). Governments, computer programmers, wealthy people.
  2. The slaves: The people who are programmed by the system (are told to do what to do by the system). Citizens, online taxi drivers, workers.
  3. The outcasts: The people who refuse to participate in the system.

The system consists of people, computers, other machines, and weapons.

45.5.5<2019-07-06> Friendship is fluid and circumstantial

At 10 years old, we are friends because we are in the same class, and we don't have better things to do. Simple physical proximity. But we stop being friends as soon as we graduate out of school.

At 20 years old, we are friends because we are in the same company. We stop being friends as soon as we resign.

At 30 years, we are friends because we share a goal or hobby or problem, because we care about a common thing. We stop being friends as soon as our problem is solved.

45.5.6<2019-07-06> Two approaches to living: here-first and there-first

There are two approaches to living:

  • There-first: Start with what you want, and find what you should have: Find what things have to exist in order to satisfy the goal.
  • Here-first: Start with what you have, and find what you should want: Find what can be done with what already exists.

45.5.7<2019-11-27> On alternative societies

Gather the people tired of the rat race.

There is no point in working beyond what is necessary for sustenance.

46My life lessons?

This lessons only apply to me. This is my self-discovery.

46.1On procrastination

I had a habit of delaying important-but-unpleasant things. I had a habit of avoiding them, running away from them. I had an escapism problem.

A concrete example: I got a new phone, but I was too lazy to port my old SIM card due to different form factors; so I got a family member's unused SIM card. Thus I used my old phone much less frequently. Then I forget to pay the phone company which then killed my old number. I had to tell my contacts that I changed my phone number. I had to go to the bank to update my account. Much hassle.

Some delayed problems begat bigger problems. I never thought about that.

I hated the phone company, so I blamed the phone company.

I hated going to the bank.

But then I thought, perhaps it was the Universe's way of telling me that that habit was bad for me.

Perhaps I could meditate while waiting at the bank.

Perhaps it would be a good chance to learn equanimity.

The same habit also causes my browser to have hundreds of open tabs. I thought that a link was pointing to an interesting document, so I clicked on it. But I thought that it was unpleasant to actually read the document. I liked imagination and hated reality; I liked to imagine myself understanding the document, but I hated to actually read it.

I know another friend of mine who has the same problem of too many open tabs.

My life would be much easier if I killed the problem while it was small.

Perhaps the dead phone number is to teach me to reach out. So far, people had been reaching out to me, but I had never reached out to them.

46.2<2020-02-09> The root cause of all bodily desire is the fear of bodily death?

We want X because we feel we lack X, because we feel we must have X.

We want X because we believe that we will feel good if we have X.

Or because we believe that we will feel bad if we don't avoid not-X.

To want X is to feel that we must have X.

<2020-02-03>

I have mastered all desires except two:

  • the desire to live in this body, and
  • the desire to imagine beautiful things.

I have not mastered the desire to breathe.

I have not mastered the desire of sexual thoughts.

I want food because I feel hungry because I fear death.

I want sex because I feel lonely because my genes fear death?

47Mess

47.1<2019-11-28> Is psychology science?

There are psychological experiments and theories that try to explain those experiments, but do those theories predict anything?

Is psychology falsifiable?

There are some interesting experiments and applications. Asch conformity experiment, Stanford prison experiment. Using stories to change minds. Hostage negotiation techniques. Pavlovian conditioning, Skinnerian conditioning. Rat heaven experiment. Monkey mother experiment.

But what is the underlying science? Biology, genetics, hormones, epigenetics, neuroscience, and so on.

Psychology can be thought of as applied biology.

Everyone capable of some empathy has an intuitive understanding of basic psychology.

47.2Mind and brain?

<2018-10-03> brain-to-brain interface?

Mind-brain relationship: Gage, Sperry, Libet, corpus callostomy, "thalamic bridge", etc.

Minds and brains interact, but we don't really know how.

47.3<2020-01-01> Idea: A system is an embodied intention

Establish an organization with an intention. People with the same intentions resonate and contribute to the organization. Example: Wikipedia is the embodiment of the intention of creating an encyclopedia (summary of mainstream materials).

To manifest an intention, embody that intention: give that intention a body, create a body with that intention. Establish an organization? Establish a group? Create a system?

Global intention is manifested by resonance among like-minded people.

Two people resonate iff they have the same intention.

47.4Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell - Message To Future Generations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihaB8AFOhZo

48New-Agey stuff?

48.1<2020-02-10> Swedenborg preceded New Age by three centuries?

Jenn TSFLAD: Swedenborg wrote in the 18th century what New Age "gurus" parrot in the 21st century?

48.2Affirmation slippery edge?

How do we think that we deserve wealth without being an affluenza person?

These are different: to think that we deserve wealth, and to think that we don't deserve poverty.

To me, "X deserves Y" means "It is good that X has Y", for whatever definition of "good" you subscribe to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_(philosophy)

48.3<2020-01-01> Questions on manifesting; lower mind vs higher mind

Why can't I just sit down and "will my way" to anything? Why can't I just sit down, totally believe that I have a car, and make a car pop out of nowhere?

Or can I?

Perhaps, deep down, my subconscious disbelief is stronger than my conscious belief? Or perhaps "I" am not what I think I am? When I think "I am willing a car", it is my mind that is willing, not I that is willing.

Idea for some "enlightenment" via writing:

  • I, me, my, myself = what I am; "higher mind"
  • 'I', 'me', 'my', 'myself' = what my mind thinks I am; "lower mind"

I am manifesting, but from 'my' point of view, 'I' am not manifesting, because that is true: it is I, not 'I', who is manifesting. So how can 'I' know myself and what I am thinking? 'I' is mired so deep in its illusion of what 'I' think I am. 'I' have brain, but I don't have brain, so how do I know, and how do I communicate with 'me'? How come that I and 'I' are one but different?

48.4What is a body for?

A spirit can think and feel without body. So what is a body for?

48.5God and us?

  • If God and us are one, then it does not make sense for us to pray to God, in the same way it does not not make sense for us to tell ourselves about ourselves, because we already know ourselves.

49Alternative titles:

  • introspection
  • mind/mental/introspection/personal-psychology experiments
  • unified esoteric-exoteric science
  • inner science; science of the subjective experience

50Contents removed due to source problems

50.1Medhus & Medhus & Butler

  • Medhus & Medhus 2015 [8]: properties of spirits
  • Medhus 2013
  • Infer the properties of spirits from Medhus & Medhus 2015 [8].
    • Spirits can go/be anywhere in a blink just by thinking/willing.
    • Spirits can increase their probability of being perceived by changing their appearance to one that resonates with the recipient.
      • Spirits do everything, including changing their form, by willing/thinking/wanting.
    • A spirit has identity and a sense of self, a boundary, very much as an incarnate knows what is part of his body and what is not. It's just harder for spirits to manipulate materials.
    • He "could split off and be in multiple places at the same time, and it happened naturally, like breathing when I was alive". (p. 55)
    • "The weird thing is that if there were twenty people talking about me, those twenty conversations came right to me all at once, even if they were talking about me to somebody else. Not only did I hear everyone’s inner thoughts but I also felt their emotions"
    • It seems that we can "connect to" or "touch" (send a message to) a spirit just by thinking about it. How does the other direction work? It seems spirit induce/plant thoughts/feelings when our mind is quiet?
  • Reason for removal
    • TSFLAD fears that Jamie Butler may be exploiting Elisa Medhus.
      • Some commenters claim that Butler is a fraud.
      • Apparently Butler jacked up her prices after she rose to fame.
      • It could be that Butler does have the ability but mixes it with some fraud to get more money, as is common with medium claimants.
    • Critical reviews (2013, 2015) cast some doubt on some co-authors and their motives.

50.2Grout 2013

Pam Grout's 2013 book ("[…] Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments […]") gives some spiritual experiments that everyone can do on their own. But there are lots of damning reviews, so I did not read the book. But there are some positive reviews too. I should decide for myself.

51Bibliography

[1] Barušs, I. and Mossbridge, J. 2017. Transcendent mind. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

[2] Campbell, T. et al. 2017. On testing the simulation theory. arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.00058. (2017).

[3] Cheung, T. and Mossbridge, J. 2018. The premonition code: The science of precognition, how sensing the future can change your life. Watkins Media.

[4] Creath, K. and Schwartz, G.E. 2005. What biophoton images of plants can tell us about biofields and healing. Journal of Scientific Exploration. 19, 4 (2005), 531–550.

[5] Davids, P.J. et al. 2016. An atheist in heaven: The ultimate evidence for life after death? Yellow Hat Publishing.

[6] Denkmayr, T. et al. 2014. Observation of a quantum cheshire cat in a matter-wave interferometer experiment. Nature communications. 5, 1 (2014), 1–7.

[7] Hoffman, D. 2019. The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. WW Norton & Company.

[8] Medhus, E. and Medhus, E. 2015. My life after death: A memoir from heaven.

[9] Schild, R. and Klimo, J. 2018. Beyond ufos: The science of consciousness & contact with non human intelligence (volume 1). Experiencer.org via PublishDrive.

[10] Schwartz, G.E. 2012. Consciousness, spirituality, and post-materialist science: An empirical and experiential approach. The Oxford handbook of psychology and spirituality. (2012), 584–597.

[11] Schwartz, G.E. 2010. Possible application of silicon photomultiplier technology to detect the presence of spirit and intention: Three proof-of-concept experiments. EXPLORE. 6, 3 (2010), 166–171.

[12] Schwartz, G.E. 2007. The god experiments: How science is discovering god in everything, including us. Simon; Schuster.

[13] Schwartz, G.E. 2011. The sacred promise: How science is discovering spirit’s collaboration with us in our daily lives. Simon; Schuster.

[14] Schwartz, G.E. 2016. What is the nature of a post-materialist paradigm? Three types of theories. EXPLORE. 12, 2 (2016), 123–127.

[15] Schwartz, G.E. and Simon, W.L. 2002. The afterlife experiments: Breakthrough scientific evidence of life after death. Simon; Schuster.

[16] Young, S. 2016. The science of enlightenment: How meditation works. Sounds True.

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