mat422 alpha journal

[Jay]

I thought that they debunked that water experiment, because the creator couldn't reproduce the same results. And nobody else could either...

Also miracles are proposed as an spontaneous act of God. I don't think that manifestations could be called spontaneous, although the outcome could differ from what the manifestor originally had in mind.

From my research and the occasional conversations I have with my dean who is a yoga enthusiast, the more I discover about becoming (emotionally) healthy, aware and unlimiting oneself is that it all leads down to the same techniques that are used in yoga, but just are called or done a bit differently. So far Buddhism and Yoga are the most prominent leading threads in where it seems that most (useful) things to do and to think already are present in those teachings.

From what I've experienced so far is that humans aren't brutal, they're just selfish beings and can be aggressive in nature, trying to get their needs met even if it would hurt others, or be at the expense of others, because they know or hope that there won't be any (direct) consequences. I believe that the more scarcity minded a person is, the more he or she will display such behavior. Through meditation I've come to understand that a concept such as altruism is a lie, we only do things for others if we benefit or expect a benefit from it for ourselves, even if we are not consciously aware what those benefits exactly are.

[Spiral]

I don't know if they did, Jay. Do you know for sure? I'd like to find out.

[Jay]

I know it's Wikipedia, but that's the most factual oriented article I could find from a short search. Look under the header of 'Criticism'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto

[mat422]

Yeah spiral, there are millions of techniques out there and while I haven't done yoga meditation specifically, I've learned to just breathe, relax my mind and allow everything to be without judgement. I think the key is simplicity and for me nothing is more simplistic than getting in tune with your body and mind without techniques. The key to letting go is acceptance and I think a lot of techniques neglect that. They treat the emotions as the enemy and something you have to get rid of. The law of conservation of energy states "energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another". If we think about emotions in our body as energy then it would make sense that we can't get rid of this energy, only transmute it through the power of acceptance.

Jay what you said makes a lot of sense. Perhaps I've lived in such a dark place for most of my life it's hard to see human nature in a better light. Not necessarily people intentionally hurting others, but more of a byproduct of a damaged mindset. What I've always wondered is why some have that ability to change while others are always stuck in their ways. Altruism is also a subject that could be debated till death, but I do believe being altruistic is more about helping another person because you want to help that person. I guess the benefit you expect could be that person becoming happier which in turn makes you happy. But I feel that those that help others are altruistic. But I guess it all depends on your definition of altruism. Doing something without expecting anything is damn near impossible.

I feel my next level is to forgive those that live in that scarcity mindset. I will continue meditation in order to cultivate that internal peace and serenity. I think I've been focused on the negative for too long.

[Jay]

On the subject of altruism and selfishness I noticed that people are essentially decision making machines. And when someone has to choose between him/herself or to someone else, they will always choose themselves because 'what's in it for them' if they would choose the other over their own? Well, there are reasons, but in most cases it all boils down to obligation, guilt, shame, thinking you're low self value and thinking not being deserving of it, keeping the peace, or wanting to receive external approval etc. i.e. the stuff that we're conditioned with and which are essentially just emotions/ideas that limit us in choosing ourselves over others, and getting our needs met.

Something I also thought was funny is that we also help others when we can identify with them (we put value towards that we can identify with), because we believe that when we help others we also help ourselves in the process. When there is nothing of common interests to detect between people, they simply won't care because people essentially only seek themselves in everything, and the more they see of themselves in something the more they like it (for example; customizing your game characters, like-able every man movie characters, music, art to name a few), if there is nothing of ourselves in them we simply dislike and disgard it as having no value.

Interestingly though, if we hate something or someone we actually still put value towards it. We still put a lot of energy towards it, and actually care about it, though we would not want to admit such a thing to ourselves.

Also helping others make us seem wise and interesting, and make us more important and what's even more important is being of more value. But it has to be authentic, if you try to come across as valuable, when you're really not, people will see right through that and resent you for it, unless you're a good bullsh*tter. And when people think you're more valuable, you put yourself in the position that when you were gone the quality of the others would significantly decrease. So they'll treat you better, because they don't want to lose that value. But if you can't keep up the same amount of value, people will value you less. That's also one of the reasons people hurt, undermine or sabotage other people, because they want to get an advantage over them, value wise.

Also on the subject of family, we feel more obliged to help our family out than the next best friend, simply because we want to give our blood line the best opportunity to get its sh*t together, and pro-create and multiply as much as possible, to make it stronger because we would have more chance of survival and people supporting the same blood line and the same interests or beliefs.

I could go on and on about this, but I recommend reading upon narcissism and universal or psychological egoism, because this will give you a good idea how people essentially are, and when you can accept that you won't be as distraught when you do notice that some douchebag has once aggressively decided to choose himself over you. And you just see that person as a healthy human being just doing what's in its nature, and you don't care because that is as it is, and it will never change (unless evolution would change it's whole model).

Like I said, the more aggressive (instead of assertive) a person is, the more scarcity minded he/she is. They're just out there to fill their lacks, have their needs met and get the best opportunity of survival for themselves and their offspring, and some people have a lot of lacks and will stop at nothing to get them filled.

When people say that it's wrong to be selfish, they're basically denying their own human nature. Although constant aggressiveness will eventually get you nowhere (it's quick fix), assertiveness is the way to go in the long run. Also when you notice that you invest more into a person than they're investing you, means simply that you're more prone on choosing others over yourself, or that you put less value on your services than that they do.

[mat422]

Yeah that does make sense. I read somewhere that we make most our decisions based on emotions and then rationalize those decisions with our logical minds. I guess that goes along with evolution and the reptillian part of the brain that seeks the pleasure or avoids pain. It's human nature like you said to be selfish because it was necessary at one time in order to survive and still is necessary today. I guess when looking upon human nature and what it actually is, you want to say there is more to people than selfish desires, but it's who we are.

[mat422]

So I started reading this book Taoist Yoga

I've still got a long way to finishing it and it is a very thorough practice outlined in the book. Anyway I put it aside for a while and just decided to try deep breathing meditation. Prior to this I had always meditated through breathe awareness, I never tried to consciously control my breathing. The deep breathing helped me go deeper than I have before and really brought up stagnant emotions that needed to be released. After I was done I felt really good and euphoric for a couple of minutes.

Eventually I want to get to the point of being able to do deep breathing without conscious interference, however I feel I have a very very bad habit of shallow breathing. Seeing as how the diaphragm is a muscle I believe I have to exercise it more as it is not trained to taking these deep breaths. In the mean time I'm going to try to make it a habit to breathe deeply.

[Spiral]

It takes some serious effort dude. When I start to fall into sleep I revert to shallow breathing. Deep breathing has helped me fall asleep so much faster but getting to that point where deep breathing is subconscious is a tough task and takes much patience and practice. I had it for a little bit last week when I was speaking loudly and slowly.. which helped me kind of keep a nice pattern of breathing. I've gotten the low to middle breathing almost subconciously (still don't achieve it while sleeping).. but the low-middle-high breathing is on another level.

[Shannon]

On the subject of "debunking" things... skepticism and criticism can be taken to the degree, rather easily, of acting as anti-manifestors and energy manipulation disruption systems. It seems to boil down to person A trying to manipulate energy to demonstrate to person B, who manipulates energy with skepticism (negative energy) which disrupts person A. The whole thing is a "I can't handle this being real right now, so I'm going to prevent you from doing it, and then I can deny it is real."

Therefore... be skeptical of skeptics. Question even them.

[mat422]

I get what you mean Shannon. There are individuals out there who seek to disprove most things instead of taking a neutral viewpoint. They begin with the assumption that it doesn't work. I try to keep an open mind, but I've always had a desire for figuring out how things work. To me understanding how something works is what makes it real. Without solid evidence I find it hard to believe. Of course this might be what holds me back the most, I'm unwilling to accept things unless I can see proof. Sometimes there isn't enough substantial proof, but at the same time you can't dismiss it all the way.

I often wonder what reality is actually made up of. Why things are the way they are and what is possible. We have these limits in our minds, but can those limits be broken? I can't really put into words how I feel about it. It's more like not knowing of other things out there and feeling like sometimes maybe we make up these things as a way to make ourselves seem more important than we actually are.

Man, thinking about that stuff always turns my world upside down for a brief period of time. Reality is weird when you think about it, so is existence.

[Shannon]

Matt... you have no idea. What we think of as "all that is", and "normal" and "reasonable" is laughable compared to what really is. It's a little like reading a book so intently that you forget about the real world around you and only see what is in the book. I think in the next 50 to 100 years, though, the human race is in for quite an eye-opening experience of the way things really are. Some of what I have been discovering lately is so hard to grasp that it boggles my mind. I'm pretty open minded, too. Some astounding things are coming.

[mat422]

Matt... you have no idea. What we think of as "all that is", and "normal" and "reasonable" is laughable compared to what really is. It's a little like reading a book so intently that you forget about the real world around you and only see what is in the book. I think in the next 50 to 100 years, though, the human race is in for quite an eye-opening experience of the way things really are. Some of what I have been discovering lately is so hard to grasp that it boggles my mind. I'm pretty open minded, too. Some astounding things are coming.

I would like to hear of these things you have discovered. I'm starting to question things a lot more and willing to take my ego out of the equation instead of pretending that I know how the world works. I want to experience events that change my perception, but I feel I have a deeply held subconscious belief that acts as a block for these manifestations. I think I internalize these beliefs and then go "this is reality". When the truth is I still have no idea what reality actually is.

[Shannon]

I cannot tell you what reality is. You have to discover that for yourself. As for what I am discovering... imagine how mind boggling powered and controlled aerial human flight would seem to someone from a thousand years ago, and you have the level of disconnect between "what actually is", and what we currently think "is". For me to try to be more specific, therefore, would invite ridicule, which I can do without, thanks.

But you should be seeing quite a bit of amazing stuff discovered in just the next 10 years... so get ready.

[Spiral]

Can you fly Shannon?