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Ah, misheard words. As an indigenous English speaker you don't really know this pain. I would definitely run in panic if I assumed I would be greeted and treated by a cheeraptor.

Sadly, that's what happened with all my office chairs -- each new one eliminated its predecessor. There's never been enough room for two office chairs. My only redemption lies in the fact that nearly thirty years ago I gave an old office chair to a friend who needed one, and that old chair was already a very old chair when I got it from a thrift store -- but built like a tank, they don't make them like that anymore, haven't in ages. Recently that friend mentioned to me he still has it. To be honest, I miss that chair... have missed it through a succession of uncomfortable and/or flimsy and/or ugly Johnny-come-latelies that followed. I misunderstood it back then, back when I was one of the people who believe that "new" means "better." But now I know. The staying power of authenticity...

After having learned that altough Nigerians are the most genetically propense population to develop Alzheimers disease and however don't get it much due to having a traditional diet very rich in fiber my curiosity increased regarding African diets. Don't watch this if you're fasting...or trying to.

Forty-five years after the publication of The Way of the Shaman, I'm feeling compelled to revisit Michael Harner's work.

I posted it before but it goes well here ; Intense ' therapeutic massage ' ; Me; '' Owwwww .... Jeeeze ! ....... MY GOD! < deep breathing > ... '' Masseur ; .... well, I could give you a panther massage if you like ?'' '' Eh ? That doesnt sound very good .'' '' What ? Why not ?'' '' Sounds a bit scratchy and bitey .'' '' What are you talking about ? '' '' What ? You gonna get a panther in here to walk on my back ?'' Her ; '' Pamper massage , I said ! ''

You are that guy that had to go for counselling because you saw hidden meanings in everything ...... got to the councilors , saw ' Dr , Brown , Psycho the rapist ' sign on the door and took off !

I always assumed that the basis of chiropractic therapy was to shout ‘cheer up’ in a very loud voice until the patient runs out of the room in panic. Cheer-up-practy!

never thought this post would also have so many legs or words like "syncategorematic" which I'm still not all that clear about even after looking it up... ;-)

You take a leap of faith assuming that Laitg himself has the capabilities he claims. Put a claim to the test, the classic is ‘appear in my lounge room’ for people who claim special talents. But other tests might be better. Why would anyone just believe a claim without it being substantiated, unless you’re buying a bridge for sale?

Surely some Daoists can do metaphysical work

The problem is Lairg, you expect others have the same capabilities as you. You ask things of others like "see where the white light goes" or "go back on the timeline" not realising that just because you can do these meta-physical experiments doesn't mean everyone else can, so your method becomes less like a helpful person saying things and more like a guy just saying odd things.

I will try to help here ... he is saying 'truth' ( alone ) is syncategorematic . :)

Some how this chair got into my Chiropractors treatment room as a 'waiting for her' chair . You wait in the waiting room, then its your turn , you get to the treatment room and then you have to wait there ???? Most chairs have the cross pieces for the back rest , flat side facing your back . Not this one , it had the edges sticking out and the pieces attached as if they were shelves ... totally the opposite of every chair I have ever sat on, The edges dug into your spine and the gaps between vertebrae . I asked where it came from and she said they were spare chairs from her house ... so, they were non indigenous migrants to he treatment room . I explained my dislike of them and the reasons and ... fer gawds sake ! ... in a chiro treatment room of all places ! She said I was the only one that seems to think that . WTF ? after a few other incidents like that , I stopped going . Now go to an osteopath ... he has sensible chairs in the waiting room ... when you do get to go into the treatment room , thats when the treatment starts ( not have to wait there as well ) Why ... wait here ... now come in.. but wait there ? What ?

Down here in Oz we have certain unique dynamics that can assure 'indigenous ' , like, it is pretty certain now and backed up by a lot of research that the indigenous Australian Aboriginal can be certainly termed indigenous as they were the first people here . That's a rare (supported ) claim . The confusion rises with the idea of modern indigenous ; what is accepted as indigenous here : It relies on 3 things ; Proved descent, self identification and community recognition . problematic ; due to lost and stolen generations , some may look obviously Aboriginal but not know ancestry . There is also the issue of % of ancestry ... it doesnt apply ! One ancestor ( going back to whenever ) is sufficient to claim indigeneity. Self identification ... curious , I just need to declare I think I am . It also means no one can say you are , if you dont agree . And community battles or fights or rival claims can make the leaders of a community 'not recognize' (or not issue a certificate of recognition ) to others . So, with myself as an example ; I cant prove descent * , I did not in the past, but am moving towards identifying as indigenous ( due to above * and also the following ) many times Indigenous community have insisted I am Aboriginal , BUT they were not the people that I might have descended from and with the other group, that generation of elders has gone now ( that insisted I was Aboriginal ) and the new people cant seem to recognize it or even are aware of my past work with the old elders . * as far as I can track ; paternal Grandfather came out from England expecting promised land of milk and honey ... not so . Ended up as a cane cutter in Queensland , then went out west to do remote mining . Somehow ended up with some woman and 3 kids ( not sure if they all had the same mother ) . Looking at history .... what were women doing out there ? A great shortage of women for the miners . Chances are she was indigenous . But that was all covered up . Grandfather came to Sydney with three kids and a relative of his had an in law that felt sorry fo them and stepped in to help . This was the woman I thought was my paternal grandmother (until I was in my 30s ! ) It would be funny if it turned out she came from .... https://www.victoriadaly.nt.gov.au/timber-creek/#:~:text=The first inhabitants were the Ngaliwurra and,of whom still live in Timber Creek. [ I did not know of these people when I chose this name ,,,, its a pun in local language about a goanna lizard (gungali ) and the main myth of this valley (Nungli ) ] I still have trouble with it as I still 'visually identify ' people ... nowadays this is a big no-no ; In Australia , there is no "blood quantum" or minimum percentage required to be recognized as Indigenous. The legal and community standard does not measure "how much" descent you have (e.g., 1/4 or 1/16); rather, it focuses on the fact of descent from the inhabitants of Australia prior to European settlement Which means some dude white as snow might be considered , but some guy 'black as' that could not get the records or community acceptance might not be One reason I dont pursue the claim ; all sorts of people are doing it to get special benefits reserved for the indigenous . I have never had to suffer any thing or need that as the system never assumed I was indigenous . The other reason is .... 'special' types of Aboriginals instantly recognize me as 'one' . The ones that do not .... seem to have lost something ( by that I mean they seem more 'westernized' and less 'magical' ) .

Absolutely. Same, I’m not looking for absolute truth, but I am interested in exploring my inner potential in both mind and subtle energy body. In the absence of direct perception dreams are my best way of doing that.

I got lost even in my own family tree when my cousin sent it to me... and it's only a thousand years old. I keep telling myself I will study it in depth someday... As for the Mormon genealogy, I dunno... they even wrote their own bible placing Jesus square in America, so what's to stop them from writing "alternative" genealogical databases? Then again, their bible was dictated by God if I remember correctly, so what's to stop Him from dictating a genealogical database too while at it?..

What made me seriously think about it was once listening to this englishman born and bread in England but with a Russian mother speaking of his experience while visiting Russia. He never felt identified with English culture but while in Russia altough sometimes feeling literally smashed by the cold he felt simultaneouslly extremelly happy to be amongst his people, those who really understood him 🙂

My cousin has compiled the family tree (on my father's side through which we are cousins). That project of his spanned years. It so happened that he used to have access to a very complete and detailed genealogical database of his country that is classified, which made it possible for him to dig up information a regular genealogy buff would never find. He was able to trace our fist known progenitors to the 11th century Sweden. From there, three streams of ancestors eventually dispersed over three continents. Some converged centuries later, some left their places of origin forever -- e.g. there was no one left in Sweden since the 14th century. But now a distant relative is in Sweden all over again, his parents migrated there, he was born there... I wonder if he qualifies as indigenous now?..

I am wondering where the horse got them cool sneakers for his front feet from .

Hi Tommy, I would say whatever "knowledge" I might have, is built with bricks of silence. So, empty space indeed. Some basic intellectual understanding of core teachings of the Buddha has been helpful. But, in the end, our karma is unwound through silent practice, in my case, looking at the question "What am I?" You have described a very pernicious trick the ego does. The idea of a self, the ego, has only two jobs. 1. To try and be happy in a world where lasting happiness is impossible. 2. To not die. In order to accomplish 2, it will stop at nothing. That's why we have to let go of absolutely everything. Nothing remains, our true nature shines brightly. Or something like that. I don't know. Practice and see what happens. And, when something unshakeable appears, help others to see that too. We all "know" more than we think. Every human being on this planet has innate Buddha Nature. Yet, most of us, including me, are trapped in mind prison created by thoughts. Thanks for your kind reply. _/|\_

What if there is no Absolute that an embodied human can ever partake in? I suspect the “Absolute” Is a philosophers dream, embodied reality is a far more complex issue. In embodied reality it’s likely impossible to simply not worry and be happy, anyway it would be fundamentally immoral to take this attitude in some situations.

There is an interesting hypothesis of consciousness being rooted in quantum states in intra-neuronal microtubules. This is a collaboration between an anesthesiologist, Stuart Hameroff, and physicist, Roger Penrose. There are plenty of valid criticisms but it's an interesting line of inquiry. https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2025/1/niaf011/8127081?login=false https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1571064513001188?via%3Dihub

The smallest unit of whatever . meaning changes in usage and context 3 things actually ( Law of Threes ) ; the very big (astrophysics ) , the very small ( quantum physics ... hence the above definition ) and the ;middle world' - where we live ( physics ) in the higher and lower, variations of the laws that apply to the middle are observable . Because logic was developed in the middle world . But only when observed through certain 'measuring devices' ... not observing via human consciousness .... there is your hint . To make t simple ( although a bad and wrong example, it is just to get the idea across ; if you look at everything with rose tinted glasses ..... It is basically about 'non local consciousness ' . Materialistic model is consciousness is generated by brain ... brain dead - consciousnesses gone . Non local 'scientific model' - parts of the brain act as receivers for non localized and generated consciousness , other parts of the brain generate lower types of consciousnesses - hence when we die , some aspects of 'self' are gone but other aspects of consciousness continue . In the pure non-local scientific view .. all of consciousness is received by the brain and does not generate it .... that seems to suggest all consciousness might survive non brain function . All models are not fully understood and seem to contain 'problems' . The 'four forces' are of physics .... if you have read my paper on 3:4 theory (number theory ) 1 would be electro-magnetism ( where all these strange quarky things reside .. we are not sure what it actually is but it splits into two ... just like the Dao ... + and - (poles) or strong and weak forces strong holds thing together , unlike gravity , in a 'stretchy way ' ( meaning the further apart , the stronger it gets ) weak force allows particles to decay or change their nature . [ Like entropy and negentropy being the 'states' or results of the mechanisms , while positive and weak forces are the physical mechanisms ] all three in interaction produce * 4. gravity .... which is considered a weaker force than the others . * this idea of the three producing the forth is affirmed by my number theory and was considered wacky . I floated it years back in talks on neo-hermetics . of course not many were interested or could follow, I remember Brian was up for it and found my observations interesting ( when we discussing the mathematical formula for the ' Theory of everything '..... but now science has moved on ! - see below ;