Mr Walker Posted October 12, 2021 #351 Share Posted October 12, 2021 (edited) 43 minutes ago, eight bits said: And yet, when you were sober and you saw a door appear up in the night sky above, you took that as entirely real. The issue is not whether you can suppress thoughts, but whether you reliably discern what is real from what is not. As you say (but apparently don't entirely realize what you're saying), three year olds can suppress conscious thoughts. BFD. As to discernment, probably you do well enough with the day-to-day stuff. e.g. you look both ways before crossing unguarded railroad tracks. (Well, you've been known to claim that one time God himself revealed an oncoming train to you, but that's a different problem). What I expressed doubt about is whether you are more reliable than anybody else who claims to have met their god. Based on your performance with flying doors mistaken for real ones, and other examples too numerous to recite, I'm thinking no. It was real The whole experience was real. How do I know ? Because my dogs had observed it and were barking up at it madly, which is what brought me out to shut them up. I don't attach any religious /spiritual experience to that physical experience but it was an unexplained and apparently almost unique phenomena, given that i cant find any other similar accounts, I apparently suppress all internal visual images while I am awke ie hallucinations. I simply NEVER see anything in my mind while awake Unless under strong medication. Yes I can be fooled by fleeting glimpses of something but given a few seconds for analysis i can almost always work out what I am seeing and what is causing it what puzzles me is why everyone else cannot (according to those who doubt human accuracy of vision and analysis) I dont see unreal things, while awake and not on opioids, but I might be fooled momentarily to misinterpret something More likely I will not make a judgement but analyse, observe, mentally record and consider what it is I am seeing (all of which takes from fractions of a second to a few seconds of time) I am unusual but not unique On large scale testing of several hundred people (in professional settings) I am one of two or three who can observe and memorise accurately things flashed for a fraction of a second and pick errors etc in them. I was trained since infancy in observation and memory/recall. It is that training and practice which give me better skills than most. I could once see and remember an entire page of text in the time it took most people to read one world Ie I saw and mentally read/ recorded in my mind 400 words or so as one image Some professionals say that is impossible but its not, and its not even hard, given practice from a young age Today my normal recreational reading seed is around 600 words per minute but if I concentrate i can double or triple that without serious loss of comprehension/recall Thats because reading is one skill, Memorising what you read is a different one. You may not believe any of this, but it is why i can observe, analyse, and interpret the environment so quickly and accurately (unless of course i am not concentrating or my mind is elsewhere) You make your own interpretations/judgements based on what you believe is possible, and then base your conclusions on them. The door wasn't flying. It wasn't solid. it was a very bright hole in the night sky about 24 times bigger than the full moon and shaped like a door. it was stationary about 30-40 degrees above the horizon, to the south west of our farm .Through it you could see intense light sharply defined by the four edges of the "door" It was like looking through a hole/ open doorway in the night sky, to an environment of intense light The light didn't shine out through the hole in the sky but appeared behind. within it Then it began to move towards me, increasing in size from my perspective, until it filled my whole frame of vision, and passed through me, causing my body to tingle The dogs had seen it first and were barking at it when i went outside They kept barking more intensely as it approached, and then stopped once it disappeared They could all see it Ps this is not the only unexplained phenomena we have seen at our remote farm house surrounded by open paddocks and no light contamination. We have observed a few unusual phenomena, including some witnessed by others from many miles away As long as you can't believe these things are possible, you are forced to question my judgement . Edited October 12, 2021 by Mr Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 12, 2021 #352 Share Posted October 12, 2021 (edited) 5 hours ago, jmccr8 said: Hi Walker Old friend You are making it tempting to come out to play. What is real to you unfortunately because they are not in the 10% income that you have claimed in the past will not be held as one of the parameters in this discussion. Reality is that you are making payments on a mor5tgage and have a claimed income of less than 40k annually with no investments and have said that at time the generousity of you community helped pull you through bad times. I don't need a recount what I need is for you to accept that this is a part of how I see you based on your claims and there is nothing you can say unless you can produce documentation that says otherwise. Whether you believe it or not I am a generous man so will not ask you to make your support for financial claims available to me after all these year of talking wit you as there are so many points of confusion that you protote at times. You my sincere doubts, you talk too much for most of the people I deal with, those of us that rule the world just want to hear department break downs and standings of current acquisitions so all I need to know is base point what is your belief period. Yes in your world not mine, big difference there. I don't find it amusing that people that drive by people they think are **** are worse than they are. everyone is a sinner bud and if I wanted to own you I would control your vices one way or another that is how recruitment works and you will have to understand that exists on every socially perceived level of human exchanges. No matter what crime free hick town you live in that a spray painted a wall and 4 parking tickets with drug addicts and dealers with murderers that don't break the law un ique but actually should be considered a social model for global peace and prosperity. Look I am going to be fair and say I only want 60% from what's generated in my domain. If You ask me to help you develop other geographical opportunities is a different contract based on considerations of participation Why would you ask this is a discrete conversation? I don't care how big your dick isn't and you know that I have said all I will say about my past because we are not the subject of this thread. You are the one who continues to assume my life has bee safe and unchallenged Thats untrue Until you realise that you will never understand me and its you who for some reason seems to feel threatened or challenged by me . No you couldn't control me No one ever has unless i choose to be "controlled "as in a partnership with a loved one to be honest i cant really understand what you are saying here I don't find it amusing that people that drive by people they think are **** are worse than they are. everyone is a sinner bud and if I wanted to own you I would control your vices one way or another that is how recruitment works and you will have to understand that exists on every socially perceived level of human exchanges. No matter what crime free hick town you live in that a spray painted a wall and 4 parking tickets with drug addicts and dealers with murderers that don't break the law un ique but actually should be considered a social model for global peace and prosperity. Look I am going to be fair and say I only want 60% from what's generated in my domain. I dont see anyone as sinners, but we are all less than perfect and less than we could be . Its quite easy not to be controlled but it means not wanting or needing the things which allow others to control you Those things can be physical but are more likely to be emotional /psychological. Recognise them and not be driven by them, and there are no levers to control you with . The rest doesn't make sense to me. We are not defined by where we live, but whom we chose to be, wherever we live Finally i asked those questions because the y are all experiences from my own life, despite living in a small town or on our own farm. We CHOSE to involve ourselves with people who needed help, and thus expose ourselves to those experiences and risks We minimised the risks as much as possible, but you cant help others in real need without getting your hands dirty, and sometimes bloody. ps in the past i think you did some mathematics on my income and how much i could afford to give away. I have nothing to prove We have gone from assets of over a million and an income of $150000 or so, down to assets of less than a quarter million and an income soon to be around $40000 a year We can still live comfortably, but cant afford to help others much financially, which is a shame, so instead I contribute to my community in other ways. Edited October 12, 2021 by Mr Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sherapy Posted October 12, 2021 #353 Share Posted October 12, 2021 (edited) 12 hours ago, Mr Walker said: Yes and here you are speaking of people medically and clinically diagnosed with cognitive impairment due to dementia Alzheimer's etc I had a decade of 24/7 lived experience caring for such people It is fair enough for you to treat them as you do, because they have been professionally diagnosed and their condition is known Ps you seem to have a good theoretical understanding However I would still find some difficulty with your practical application eg how do YOU decide if a faith is providing benefits, such as comfort and peace, or dong harm. Given your own experiences there would be a danger of bias How about a person like my brother in law, who had diabetes and was told he needed daily transfusions for kidney failure He was a believer, and simply decided not to be treated due to the time and travel involved and after discussion with his wife allowed him self to die when he was ready to He died peacefully and happy without worries or anxieties or fear Would you have tried to tell him that he was not going to heaven, because it did not exist, and should thus try to prolong his life on earth for as long as possible? In a case, not unlike your brother-in-law one would set up an appointment with a psychologist one that specializes in end of life such as Hospice. First of all a person must have a terminal diagnosis this means they are expected to die within a year, they must also be evaluated mentally by a doctor and there cannot be any coercion on anyone’s part.‘Diabetes isn’t terminal, and not to mention euthanasia has to be legal. I assume he had type 2 while this is serious as long as one follows the things prescribed they can live as long as anyone without the condition. In the US to date caregivers, therapists hear it all and a person preferring to die over driving for treatment is most likely depressed, isolated, lost touch with reality doctors, therapists and CG’s are adept at pointing their patient in the right direction, most of the time everything works out fine. It sounds to me that your brother was depressed, it was a cry for help gone unheeded and he didn’t get the right support from his wife. I would have strongly encouraged him and his wife to get evaluated mentally that they both felt hopeless ( depression) and concluded death was the only option and the wife agreed that a drive was to much to handle and sought no other recourse is a huge red flag. The wife could have said let’s explore our options first as I am not ready to lose you quite yet and we will go from there. It would have been a demonstration of sound mind in other words, the capacity to make quality decisions. I think it is a tragedy, it would not have been necessary to go after him for his beliefs, it would just be noted by the professional and they would use validation techniques, meaning get into their perspective and use their belief to be proactive. ‘’Validation therapy is used all the time in these cases. Where was his family in all this, or hers? Edited October 12, 2021 by Sherapy 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramelin Posted October 12, 2021 #354 Share Posted October 12, 2021 On 10/11/2021 at 2:30 AM, Mr Walker said: Imagination is an advanced cognitive process, as is abstract thought. Both require sophisticated /advanced language skills (thought is an unspoken language of the mind) Please show me a link to a paper where this is proven. You claim a lot, but posting links to support your claims is not one of your assets. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight bits Posted October 12, 2021 #355 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Imagination and abstract thought; needing no natural language at all. Bull's Head Pablo Picasso 1942 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlookerofmayhem Posted October 12, 2021 #356 Share Posted October 12, 2021 1 hour ago, eight bits said: Imagination and abstract thought; needing no natural language at all. Bull's Head Pablo Picasso 1942 First thing I though of : BullSeat! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docyabut2 Posted October 12, 2021 #357 Share Posted October 12, 2021 Heaven and Hell? , even the Pope said it was a state of mind.I do believe Earth is the hell and Heaven was painted over it.:) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 12, 2021 #358 Share Posted October 12, 2021 7 hours ago, Sherapy said: In a case, not unlike your brother-in-law one would set up an appointment with a psychologist one that specializes in end of life such as Hospice. First of all a person must have a terminal diagnosis this means they are expected to die within a year, they must also be evaluated mentally by a doctor and there cannot be any coercion on anyone’s part.‘Diabetes isn’t terminal, and not to mention euthanasia has to be legal. I assume he had type 2 while this is serious as long as one follows the things prescribed they can live as long as anyone without the condition. In the US to date caregivers, therapists hear it all and a person preferring to die over driving for treatment is most likely depressed, isolated, lost touch with reality doctors, therapists and CG’s are adept at pointing their patient in the right direction, most of the time everything works out fine. It sounds to me that your brother was depressed, it was a cry for help gone unheeded and he didn’t get the right support from his wife. I would have strongly encouraged him and his wife to get evaluated mentally that they both felt hopeless ( depression) and concluded death was the only option and the wife agreed that a drive was to much to handle and sought no other recourse is a huge red flag. The wife could have said let’s explore our options first as I am not ready to lose you quite yet and we will go from there. It would have been a demonstration of sound mind in other words, the capacity to make quality decisions. I think it is a tragedy, it would not have been necessary to go after him for his beliefs, it would just be noted by the professional and they would use validation techniques, meaning get into their perspective and use their belief to be proactive. ‘’Validation therapy is used all the time in these cases. Where was his family in all this, or hers? He died peacefully at home with no need for hospitalisation or medical care There was no question of any form of euthanasia Hhe just died when his body was ready to. Thus there was no need for any psychological evaluation People here, at least, have a right to die naturally, without medical intervention to prolong or extend their lives Diabetes CAN be terminal form complications like kidney failure . and no he wasn't depressed or fearful or anxious indeed he was his usual happy self but increasingly tired He didnt want transfusions or dialysis. it is your bias /judgment which sees a need to fight for life and to take efforts to extend it Indeed a new book by experts claims that depression along with many other natural conditions such as aging has been medicalised for profit of big pharma He believed in heaven and that he would have a new body So, who has a right, and on what basis to tell a person he should not die happily and naturally when his body wears out ? No one, really. This argument is often put forward not for the benefit of the patient but for that of the heath professionals and others who profit from the effort required to preserve and extend life Personally i disagreed with him and would have had the treatment (about 5 hours a day for 3 days a week in a hospital 30 miles from his home ) but I understood and accepted his pov He was my brother in law and his wife was with him caring and supporting him The y had been married for over 60 years. Like my wife and her other sister the y had not been able to have children due to Rubella as teenagers, which might have contributed to his readiness to die. He had no children or grandchildren to worry about leaving All his own family had already died, but he was closely supported by his in laws It is quite weird that many modern people think that accepting death is unnatural, where as it is actually very natural and lol, no one would ever have convinced him to change his mind. We did discuss options with him, as did his GPs, but he was the most stubborn and firm minded person that i know. He had no fear of death at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 13, 2021 #359 Share Posted October 13, 2021 5 hours ago, eight bits said: Imagination and abstract thought; needing no natural language at all. Bull's Head Pablo Picasso 1942 I dont accept this. imagination (such as constructing alternate scenarios, futures or pasts) and abstract thought such as symbolism are byproducts of quite sophisticated language capabilities. Explain how it can be otherwise. Picasso designed that figure through sophisticated language of the mind. You and I interpret and appreciate it only through sophisticated language of the mind Show me examples of such art by other animals, which are not inherent /intrinsic, or based on biological drivers. Show me an animal which could recognise it as a bull's head and appreciate it's beauty craftsmanship and symbolism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 13, 2021 #360 Share Posted October 13, 2021 7 hours ago, Abramelin said: Please show me a link to a paper where this is proven. You claim a lot, but posting links to support your claims is not one of your assets. This has been known for decades. I guess i learned it a t uni in the 70s, during psychology and human cognition language classes eg Piagets explanation Abstract reasoning is a cognitive mechanism for reaching logical conclusions in the absence of physical data, concrete phenomena, or specific instances. ... This process is a cognitive transcending of lower-level knowledge to form a new construction, or what Jean Piaget dubbed reflective abstraction. http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/developmental-psychology/cognitive-development/abstract-reasoning/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sherapy Posted October 13, 2021 #361 Share Posted October 13, 2021 23 minutes ago, Mr Walker said: He died peacefully at home with no need for hospitalisation or medical care There was no question of any form of euthanasia Hhe just died when his body was ready to. Thus there was no need for any psychological evaluation People here, at least, have a right to die naturally, without medical intervention to prolong or extend their lives Diabetes CAN be terminal form complications like kidney failure . and no he wasn't depressed or fearful or anxious indeed he was his usual happy self but increasingly tired He didnt want transfusions or dialysis. it is your bias /judgment which sees a need to fight for life and to take efforts to extend it Indeed a new book by experts claims that depression along with many other natural conditions such as aging has been medicalised for profit of big pharma He believed in heaven and that he would have a new body So, who has a right, and on what basis to tell a person he should not die happily and naturally when his body wears out ? No one, really. This argument is often put forward not for the benefit of the patient but for that of the heath professionals and others who profit from the effort required to preserve and extend life Personally i disagreed with him and would have had the treatment (about 5 hours a day for 3 days a week in a hospital 30 miles from his home ) but I understood and accepted his pov He was my brother in law and his wife was with him caring and supporting him The y had been married for over 60 years. Like my wife and her other sister the y had not been able to have children due to Rubella as teenagers, which might have contributed to his readiness to die. He had no children or grandchildren to worry about leaving All his own family had already died, but he was closely supported by his in laws It is quite weird that many modern people think that accepting death is unnatural, where as it is actually very natural and lol, no one would ever have convinced him to change his mind. We did discuss options with him, as did his GPs, but he was the most stubborn and firm minded person that i know. He had no fear of death at all. I do not glean that your brother in law was at peace it sounds like he was afraid, paranoid about medicine and isolated himself. Interesting, my understanding from your posts is that the accommodations and health care system are outstanding in your country. The death experience in his case is one of the hardest, liver failure is horribly painful for the person. I am saddened he had to suffer uthere is always better options for a person. Here we look for ways to deal with the fear of doctors. I had a client who was operating on a religious delusion that all doctors are crooks, I found a doctor that takes any patient whether they can pay or not. Fast forward, the family is doing well. Problem solved. I would have used validation techniques with your Brother-in-law, he was scared to the point of paranoia, sounds like fundamentalist mind set. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight bits Posted October 13, 2021 #362 Share Posted October 13, 2021 7 hours ago, Mr Walker said: I dont accept this. Then don't. You do not know Picasso's thought process and you surely do not speak for him. Similarly, you do not know what your dogs were barking at that night, and you don't speak for them, either. Bully for you if you rely only on words as the vehicle and the representation of your own personal conscious mental deliberation. It does not follow that other people similarly limit themselves. Your personal habits of thought aren't "necessary" to accomplish feats of imagination or abstraction. 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 13, 2021 #363 Share Posted October 13, 2021 8 hours ago, Sherapy said: I do not glean that your brother in law was at peace it sounds like he was afraid, paranoid about medicine and isolated himself. Interesting, my understanding from your posts is that the accommodations and health care system are outstanding in your country. The death experience in his case is one of the hardest, liver failure is horribly painful for the person. I am saddened he had to suffer uthere is always better options for a person. Here we look for ways to deal with the fear of doctors. I had a client who was operating on a religious delusion that all doctors are crooks, I found a doctor that takes any patient whether they can pay or not. Fast forward, the family is doing well. Problem solved. I would have used validation techniques with your Brother-in-law, he was scared to the point of paranoia, sounds like fundamentalist mind set. You are a hoot. You have once again imposed your own fears beliefs etc onto another person believe as you must but you see for many humans belief removes all those fears and anxieties about death Others, who are not even believers also can perceive death as natural and inevitable and not worry about it I dont think you can "get" people who are not afraid lonely depressed or anxious about life or approaching death he was not isolated He was not afraid. He logically weighed up the time and effort it would take to have dialysis every week against the quality of life it would give him and decided it wasn't worth it. If anything perhaps he was just too lazy to be bothered to make the effort required When you have no fear of death it is not so necessary to take extreme measures to prolong life. He never suffered. There was no pain and no fear. He wasn't afraid of doctors Again those a re things you see in yourself or perhaps in other people you deal with. and lol no he wasn't a fundamentalist. He didn't attend church or observe any religious practices. He just didn't fear death (I do think he believed in an after life, although we never really spoke of it ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Walker Posted October 13, 2021 #364 Share Posted October 13, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, eight bits said: Then don't. You do not know Picasso's thought process and you surely do not speak for him. Similarly, you do not know what your dogs were barking at that night, and you don't speak for them, either. Bully for you if you rely only on words as the vehicle and the representation of your own personal conscious mental deliberation. It does not follow that other people similarly limit themselves. Your personal habits of thought aren't "necessary" to accomplish feats of imagination or abstraction. I do, however, know the nature of human thought/ cognition and language (both oral and mental) I know how and why Picasso was able to produce this work, and how and why other humans can respond to it in a variety of ways I know why other earth animals cannot do either. I do know he couldn't have produced it, and we couldn't appreciate or understand it, without sophisticated inner language of the mind. and yes I know what the dogs were barking at. Your failure to accept this goes to a wider failure of acceptance of anything unexplained You know dogs and thus you would be able to tell when they were barking at different things, like a person, another animal, or something unusual, or indeed a t the full moon When 4 dogs are all staring intensely in the direction of a big bright light in the night sky, with hackles raised; and barking intensely and non stop, then you "know" they are barking at it It is true that all my language of the mind is verbal BUT that doesn't mean I cant appreciate other forms However, images unaccompanied by words are not abstract. The y may be symbolic as in dreams but unless you can verbalise the nature of the symbolism, they are not communicating anything, either to you or to anyone else Music may make you feel a certain way, but unless you can understand how and why, you cant communicate with it . Again I ask you to explain to me, how you can use imagination, or construct abstract thoughts, without words How do you do this, Abstract reasoning is a cognitive mechanism for reaching logical conclusions in the absence of physical data, concrete phenomena, or specific instances. . without any language of the mind ? Picasso could not have made that object without sophisticated language of the mind Humans never began making any such objects (like fertility figures, or cave paintings, or grave items) until AFTER they evolved more sophisticated language skills than those required for simple tool making and use. Thus we have a few animals today which make and use tools but none who spontaneously demonstrate abstract/ symbolic; art, music painting sculpture etc. ie they are not programmed /evolved to do things like decorate a bower or sing a song Edited October 13, 2021 by Mr Walker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight bits Posted October 13, 2021 #365 Share Posted October 13, 2021 6 minutes ago, Mr Walker said: Abstract reasoning is a cognitive mechanism for reaching logical conclusions in the absence of physical data, concrete phenomena, or specific instances. . Piaget's statement is not legislative, nor was his purpose in writing on that occasion to offer himself as a law giver. Many native speakers would allow classical induction to serve as an example of abstract reasoning. Classical induction requires the presence of specific instances, from which some generalization about them emerges, often subject to constraint-based reasoning, which is a form of logical reasoning. Conclude: While Piaget's formulation was adequate for the immediate purpose of communicating his interpretation of his experiments which involved a distinctive subset of human thinkers, it doesn't cover all occasions of reasoning which are fairly described as abstract. Nor is there any particular reason to think that it would or should. Google wasn't your friend this time. 20 minutes ago, Mr Walker said: How do you do this, You are the original claimant, the burden to substantiate your teaching is yours, not mine for questioning you. 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightly Posted October 13, 2021 #366 Share Posted October 13, 2021 2 hours ago, Mr Walker said: Music may make you feel a certain way, but unless you can understand how and why, you cant communicate with it . Again I ask you to explain to me, how you can use imagination, or construct abstract thoughts, without words How do you do this, i'll not attempt to explain How ...but I have always been able to use imagination ,and construct abstract thoughts ,such as Music, or Art, or design other things in my mind...without using words . And I don't need to understand how or why ,to very effectively communicate with music. If I add words I can make people cry 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sherapy Posted October 13, 2021 #367 Share Posted October 13, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, Mr Walker said: You are a hoot. You have once again imposed your own fears beliefs etc onto another person believe as you must but you see for many humans belief removes all those fears and anxieties about death Others, who are not even believers also can perceive death as natural and inevitable and not worry about it I dont think you can "get" people who are not afraid lonely depressed or anxious about life or approaching death he was not isolated He was not afraid. He logically weighed up the time and effort it would take to have dialysis every week against the quality of life it would give him and decided it wasn't worth it. If anything perhaps he was just too lazy to be bothered to make the effort required When you have no fear of death it is not so necessary to take extreme measures to prolong life. He never suffered. There was no pain and no fear. He wasn't afraid of doctors Again those a re things you see in yourself or perhaps in other people you deal with. and lol no he wasn't a fundamentalist. He didn't attend church or observe any religious practices. He just didn't fear death (I do think he believed in an after life, although we never really spoke of it ) MW you quoted “He believed in heaven and that he would have a new body” this more than substantiates an inference that he was operating from a fundamentalist mindset operating on delusion. While it is moot now, but to not want to take a drive 30 minutes away 3 times a week and choose to die instead would be a red flag for depression, regardless, he should have been evaluated. That is how it is done in real time, no one takes the word of a brother in law, they have a doctor determine if the person is of sound mind. I have worked with many folks who were terminal, meaning there was nothing more medical science could do for them, and have been inspired by how they dealt with the ending, and was honored to be a small part, FYI most folks have no belief in god or heaven etc at this point. If one is hanging their hat on a belief to get them thru it is a fear bandaid, I have seen endings like this too. I will not comment other than to say don’t try this at home. Edited October 13, 2021 by Sherapy 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pettytalk Posted October 13, 2021 #368 Share Posted October 13, 2021 Addressing the topic, rather than anyone and their inputs here, Heaven and Hell are abstract concepts which vary a great deal with the definitions we assign to these 2 "ideas" of supposed physical, or non-physical places. Abstract concepts, of necessity, are grasped with our minds, therefore have to be mental experiences, as far as we can tell for right now. If heaven and hell do really exist as part of reality, for the general population of those who give these Places some credence, we must also consent that they are not part of this physical world, as far as the general consensus, which this consensus is that we'll experience one or the other (or both) only after physical death. It's not difficult to imagine that a similar state of mind, in some form or other, of what we imagine heaven and hell to be can be present in our physical world. Surely our physical experiences of pains/sufferings and pleasure/happiness can be short-term, and in lesser degrees, a representation as to things to come. One thing is certain, whether one be a skeptic or a believer of such places, and that's we all experience some form of the idea we have formed of heaven and hell right here and now. Whether there is still greater pain and suffering, or greater pleasure and happiness to be had after physical death, is something that we cannot, with certainty, know while we still live. Although we have had, through history, supposed messengers from that afterlife, we cannot be certain, as their reports are such that there is no consistency in them, which compels the rational persons to have doubt, or even complete disbelief in such stories brought to us. For those tending to lien towards a belief of these two places, one thing is almost certain, which is that the concepts of heaven and hell believed by the Christian religion, and other similar religious concepts, is not a true representation of these two places. For one, the idea of eternal suffering, or pleasure, being assigned as punishment or reward to human beings solely for what has been done in one physical human life is ridiculous. I mean, what is an average human life span(say an average of 100 years) compared to eternity? One drop of water in an ocean is not even close to representing the ratio of what 100 years is to eternity. In my belief of there being something still after our physical death, I tend to lien towards a Socratic representation of the afterlife, with its very brief details of hell, and an even much less detailed heaven. Taking the liberty to quote a little from book 10 of Plato's Republic, which leads into the Myth of Er (the messenger from that other world). These, then, are the prizes and rewards and gifts which are bestowed upon the just by gods and men in this present life, in addition to the other good things which justice of herself provides. Yes, he said; and they are fair and lasting. And yet, I said, all these are as nothing, either in number or greatness in comparison with those other recompenses which await both just and unjust after death. And you ought to hear them, and then both just and unjust will have received from us a full payment of the debt which the argument owes to them. Speak, he said; there are few things which I would more gladly hear. SOCRATES: Well, I said, I will tell you a tale; not one of the tales which Odysseus tells to the hero Alcinous, yet this too is a tale of a hero, Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth. He was slain in battle, and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world. He said that when his soul left the body the body he went on a journey with a great company, and that they came to a mysterious place at which there were two openings in the earth; they were near together, and over against them were two other openings in the heaven above. In the intermediate space there were judges seated, who commanded the just, after they had given judgment on them and had bound their sentences in front of them, to ascend by the heavenly way on the right hand; and in like manner the unjust were bidden by them to descend by the lower way on the left hand; these also bore the symbols of their deeds, but fastened on their backs. He drew near, and they told him that he was to be the messenger who would carry the report of the other world to men, and they bade him hear and see all that was to be heard and seen in that place. Then he beheld and saw on one side the souls departing at either opening of heaven and earth when sentence had been given on them; and at the two other openings other souls, some ascending out of the earth dusty and worn with travel, some descending out of heaven clean and bright. And arriving ever and anon they seemed to have come from a long journey, and they went forth with gladness into the meadow, where they encamped as at a festival; and those who knew one another embraced and conversed, the souls which came from earth curiously enquiring about the things above, and the souls which came from heaven about the things beneath. And they told one another of what had happened by the way, those from below weeping and sorrowing at the remembrance of the things which they had endured and seen in their journey beneath the earth (now the journey lasted a thousand years), while those from above were describing heavenly delights and visions of inconceivable beauty. The Story, Glaucon, would take too long to tell; but the sum was this:– He said that for every wrong which they had done to any one they suffered tenfold; or once in a hundred years–such being reckoned to be the length of man’s life, and the penalty being thus paid ten times in a thousand years. If, for example, there were any who had been the cause of many deaths, or had betrayed or enslaved cities or armies, or been guilty of any other evil behaviour, for each and all of their offences they received punishment ten times over, and the rewards of beneficence and justice and holiness were in the same proportion. I need hardly repeat what he said concerning young children dying almost as soon as they were born. Of piety and impiety to gods and parents, and of murderers, there were retributions other and greater far which he described. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Pettytalk Posted October 13, 2021 #369 Share Posted October 13, 2021 P.S. Heaven and Hell are all about Justice. My GOOD guess is that Justice is a little game we are currently playing in this physical existence. It's all about the games we play in eternity. Socrates: "And yet, I said, all these are as nothing, either in number or greatness in comparison with those other recompenses which await both just and unjust after death." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHaYap Posted October 13, 2021 #370 Share Posted October 13, 2021 Oh oh... Quote ~ 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Liquid Gardens Posted October 13, 2021 #371 Share Posted October 13, 2021 16 hours ago, Mr Walker said: Show me an animal which could recognise it as a bull's head and appreciate it's beauty craftsmanship and symbolism. There may be some animals that recognize it as resembling a bull's head, cows for instance may be able to identify that. Almost all animals are able to differentiate between different creatures, kinda necessary for reproduction, although many are not as proficient pattern-recognizers as we are. If a bird sang a song out of 'appreciation' for a beautiful day that makes it feel good, how would you or anyone know? 5 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramelin Posted October 13, 2021 #372 Share Posted October 13, 2021 18 hours ago, Mr Walker said: This has been known for decades. I guess i learned it a t uni in the 70s, during psychology and human cognition language classes eg Piagets explanation Abstract reasoning is a cognitive mechanism for reaching logical conclusions in the absence of physical data, concrete phenomena, or specific instances. ... This process is a cognitive transcending of lower-level knowledge to form a new construction, or what Jean Piaget dubbed reflective abstraction. http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/developmental-psychology/cognitive-development/abstract-reasoning/ I must have missed it, but could you please show me where your claim, "Both require sophisticated /advanced language skills (thought is an unspoken language of the mind) " shows up in your link? Walker, the larger the tomes you post, the more you appear to me as hiding what you really KNOW. But that's just me. And believe me, I have library containing some 3500 books. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Liquid Gardens Posted October 13, 2021 #373 Share Posted October 13, 2021 2 hours ago, Abramelin said: And believe me, I have library containing some 3500 books. "That's nice for you, I had that many books in my library when I was 3 years old." "Oh yea? Well my library has 3500 million books." "I read that many books last week. Anyone can do it, I've been speed reading since I was an infant, and realized how gifted I was when...." (It is Unexplained Mysteries after all, seems like an appropriate place to test my powers of clairvoyance...) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sherapy Posted October 13, 2021 #374 Share Posted October 13, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, Abramelin said: I must have missed it, but could you please show me where your claim, "Both require sophisticated /advanced language skills (thought is an unspoken language of the mind) " shows up in your link? Walker, the larger the tomes you post, the more you appear to me as hiding what you really KNOW. But that's just me. And believe me, I have library containing some 3500 books. I work for a Neurologist who has read some of his posts/claim. I try to maintain fairness on his claims, so I show her and so far her input is there is no indication or evidence of any formal foundation in how the brain works or psychology, or psychiatry, or child abuse or Cognitive Science, research etc. etc. Edited October 13, 2021 by Sherapy 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sherapy Posted October 13, 2021 #375 Share Posted October 13, 2021 7 hours ago, third_eye said: Oh oh... ~ Love this 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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