Thanks EVILFORCE for going through the trouble to be articulate, precise and unambiguous.
I understand you as perfectly as my widdle head will allow.
As Danny Haszard is fond of saying: We are all entitled to our own opinions; but, not our own facts.
If you see in me a reluctance to grant others their own facts; you are certainly right about that.
You see, there is only ONE universe. (The word Uni- is a dead giveaway:)
I divide people's thinking into a valid (historically and philsophically) dichotomy of Rational and Mystical.
Now, it would appear you are saying I should not close my mind to the possibility that the MYSTICAL has equal validity to the RATIONAL and dismiss it peremptorily.
But, I see nothing in the history of man's ideas to suggest anything mystical produced a valid idea or a boon to mankind.
Humans learn through their senses. What they learn is about what exists in the very real world at large. That makes learning by sensory input practical since we live on a real planet and have real obstacles to face in daily life.
The boosts to society and humanity have always (you are invited to give me any exceptions I've missed) come from rational men who discovered how actual things really work.
Knowing the way things work is a huge advantage over mere superstitious guesses, appeals to gods or demons, magic, etc.
At the very practical level of day to day existence we are in a mode of SURVIVAL. It is cushioned in America and there are many safety nets; but, the struggle is real.
But, you get a job and career from practical education; not mysticism. You get medical knowledge from scientific scrutiny of cause and effect; not mysticism. You get technology from rules of engineering and math; not mysticism. Blah blah blah; not blah blah.
Having said all that I recognize how very very strong the desire is for people to want things easier than that. Peering inside yourself is more economical than four years in college. Viewing the mundane workaday world as a mere plane of existence is more poetic. But, the only knowledge you get from turning inside is make-believe and impractical.
Great Spiritual Leaders such as Dali Lama have, as far as I'm aware, never done a days work in their lives. They live off the dazzle in the eyes of the true believer.
Deepak Chopra and other gurus write best-selling books that have about as much practical content as Joe Rutherford's. It is brain masturbation and not much else. I've challenged people to quote one paragraph from just one Spiritual Adept that made any practical sense at all. The words they use are floating on ethereal non-contexts and actually say nothing comprehensible.
Mystics abuse language like a child molester feels up children. Words are stretched to mean ill-defined inferences. Words like "energy" and "vibrations" and such mean nothing because they mean everything. If this sounds like petty fault-finding I assure you I'm serious.
Crackpot science, food faddism and pure bullshit stem from mystical thinking.
I work with a guy who has a MacroBiotic diet. He looks like an Aushwitz victim. I asked him for a cookbook so I could try his diet to see how it tastes (out of curiousity). He asked me a very strange question.
Mark: "Do you have gas stove or an electric stove?"
You see, he thinks the electric stove is totally ineffective because the "energy" waves disturb the nutrition!!!! Madness!
People who have gone mad over diets and vitamins and meditations are making a totem out of eating, health and relaxation.
I think the craving for ritual is so needy and compulsive they just can't help it. But, I won't generalize about EVERYbody. Just the people I've encountered.
Anyway....you get the idea. I think mysticism is turning off your rational mind like unlocking the door of your house. Whatever gets inside can do you harm when you don't use caution.
I think I'm on safer ground asking for pure definitions of words used to exchange information from one mind to another rather than relying on an elastic "intuitive" mush that might mean something or it might not.
We always demand precision in life when things matter to us: our paycheck, the bill that comes in the mail, the cost of gasoline, taxes, etc. We don't use mushy language or vague inferences when it comes to the money out of our pocket, do we? No! Yet, we tolerate real imprecision and even amorphous plasticity when it comes to what fuels our brain and informs our intellect.
Why?
Makes no sense to me. And making sense is having a grasp of WHAT IS.
Let the Mystic assert whatever he or she wants to assert and claim "it is true for me". Yeah, well, I've got an invisible unicorn in my closet and when he takes a dump it smells like springtime in the Rockies. At least it is true for me.
T.
