Tag: Taboo

two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

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We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year

Running over the same old ground, what have we found?

Pink Floyd

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The {western} world lacks courage to even begin to question the way it “lives”. It is largely comfortable, though bored. It is comfortably numb. It goes through the motions of life; it exists as opposed to lives. Life is repetitive. There is not enough entertainment generated by {AI} algorithm on Netflix and the like. Net-fix can be had from the data pushers at around ten euros a month. There is a repetitive mediocrity similar to the 1970s middle of the road, which at least gave painful birth to punk. The world is in a “safe” doldrum numbed by the opiates of social media and endless trite imagery. It slices itself with plastic surgery, fills itself with chemicals and scars with tattoo. Allegedly mental health is in decline. The notion of being offended and entitled is pervasive. Complaint is all around us. And all we hear about these days upon the high altar is “deal” none of which are permanent, nor worth the paper upon which they are written. The insidious mantra percolates. A deal is professed as the answer.

The fear of being cancelled is a new 21st century one. Incorrect usage of Newspeak has the baying mob of vigilante thought police at the door. A polished glossy fake mediocrity is the ticket to fame and fortune. We have grey as a pervasive life tone. Table turning, upsetting the apple cart or boat rocking, are taboo. Against this the quasi-fascist nationalist right wing grows more vocal and separative.

Remember folks we tried nationalist fascism last century and it did not go so well…

People who are generally comfortable are very risk averse. They fear missing out on the latest trend or fad. They dread being shunned by whichever tribe they imagine a belonging to. It seems human folly is more addictive than ever. They will not twist; they stick with the cards they have. Because the erroneous notions of guarantee and proof beforehand, have taken hold. No bodhisattva has ever given a Tripadvisor five star rating for their journey. Click on to the next web page. There is no proof it will work. There are no “reliable” ratings.

I’ll speculate that humanity is indeed lost and directionless. While comfortable there is no compulsion to do anything whatsoever. We can sit on the sofa with our home delivered food clicking through hundreds of channels of shit on the TV and internet. Maybe we find something that piques our interest for the first series. We watch the second series knowing well that it will not be as good. Like a coke-head, the subsequent lines do not give the same hit. The novelty has worn off.

So what do we do? Maybe a little more retail therapy? Perhaps some more inane social media posts? Or we can eat drink and shag ourselves stupid. The NHS will clear up the mess…

———-

We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year

Running over the same old ground, what have we found?

Pink Floyd

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Mainstream Thinking – They

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Many find some comfort if their thinking and opinion is shared with others. What the peer group believes and what “they” say can have a very strong influence on individuals. If someone is in a position of authority or power others take on board whatever it is they say no matter how well considered that might be. These days being adamant can be mistaken for being accurate. There are many who are dogmatically insistent. People can gob-off without thinking about consequences.

If you are a big cheese or have power by association you are given air time and taken more seriously. Your words may become gospel.

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It can be important to some to be seen as “right” and to “win” an apparent argument. They can get quite heated.

I have less of a need to agree and comply with mainstream thinking. Technically as a quasi-hermit I do not have a peer group. I do not have to worry about getting cancelled nor about career progression. I have often considered the so called wisdom of the omniscient “they” as flawed.

There is an experiment currently underway in the USA on the propagation of adamant opinion. It will confer quantifiable outcomes.

In principle free speech is a freedom of the democratic “west”. In practice social factors mean that this is not the case. You can lose your job for saying nigger or commenting on the right for Palestinians not to be starved and slaughtered. You can be arrested for calling out murderous bullies. People in frocks and with penises are no longer allowed into ladies toilets. There are many taboos which may not be strictly against the letter of the law, others have been legislated against. Freedom is curtailed. We cannot have anarchy…old chap…

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Peer pressure, the whims of the herd and hive, forbid certain ways of being, of thinking and certain elements of speech. I am not surprised if I am avantgarde and not immersed fully in the norms. I have always had an entrepreneurial orientation. I do things people have not done before. I get balls rolling and break new ground. Whoopee…That is past history and probably over for this lifetime.

You never know who is reading what you publish on this internet thingy. There is always a mild risk of things getting propagated, of people cutting and pasting, using things well out of context. The amount of cut and paste text on things alleging to be spiritual is large. This is a non sequitur. If someone is trying to promote a “spiritual” way of living they probably did not ought to nick stuff, rob it. But hey it is on the internet so it is free, fair game.

I personally am now finding the suggestions of algorithms on some internet platforms very boring and difficult to get past. The use of search engines gets a bigger and bigger waste of time day by day.

I do not type “please show me some paid for advertising or promotion”.

We are, because of these omniscient algorithms, presented with an ever shrinking pool of information and knowledge, suitable for the statistically significant click-sumption as measured by the lowest common denominator of the average “they”. It is yawn-some and sucks the will to live out of life. Before long we will be cloned by Facebook and X into a mind-numbing blob. A blob which does not think nor offend, which lacks any originality. A blob which is adamant of opinion and that arrived at by algorithmic consensus.

The wisdom of they will be monosyllabic and conveyed solely by emoji…

Mainstream thinking will be blob. The future is blob. Long live blob.

Evil and Exorcism – Quantum Exorcism

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

Last night we watched the film “The Rite” starring Anthony Hopkins {even though he was not the main character}. In the film a young man, reluctantly training to be a priest, encounters the phenomenon of exorcism via the seasoned exorcist Hopkins, and the trainee ultimately performs his first full blown exorcism of a demon which identifies as Baal which had possessed Hopkins. There was not much in the way of special effects and it was not a CGI tour de force. I suspect with Hopkins it could be done as a radio play, like Under Milkwood. The human mind could conjure some scary stuff, in the wee small hours. His voice is evocative.

Needless to say, there were a few noises in the {our} house here during and after the film. These could have been demons but were most probably the stray cats. Notably stray cats also featured in the film.

The crux of the film, in the denouement, is that the trainee exorcist priest accepts the reality of the devil the demon which by “quantum entanglement” proves the reality of God. One implies the other. Once the protagonist has acknowledged both he can call, now in full faith, on God to evict the demonic tenant.

Developing this tenuous theme further, good and evil exist as a quantum superposition state in each of us. It is by our actions that we resolve the superposition state and are then either mostly evil in orientation or mostly good. Schrödinger’s cat is either a bad feline or a good one. We look, we test, we observe and the good/evil wavefunction is resolved.

A residue of good exists {perhaps} in an evil person and vice versa. Nobody exists as a 100% pure good eigenstate; nobody is 100% impure evil. The coefficients can very over time.

If we do not believe in good or evil the wavefunction {and the cat} do not and cannot exist.

I’ll postulate that the best trick evil has ever managed is to render the entire subject or evil largely taboo in modern society. Few say that some of the alleged content of “Only Fans” is wicked or evil. We could say humanity has been hoodwinked to lower our standards.

Evil has done a “good job”, a phrase that certain American political figures are keen on.

The film suggests that modern psychological intervention may help those “possessed”. It does not mention some of the barbaric horrors which the psyche-profession has enacted over the decades and centuries upon the so-called insane. Bad things have been done in the name of “science” as well as in the name of “religion”.

This crux of accepting, acknowledging without drama perhaps, the notion and influence of evil is a game changer. Whilst one imagines that evil does not exist, one is free to indulge in self-centred and gratuitous pass times. The norm is never questioned and the evil “demon-adviser” on the shoulder says “go on, everyone is doing it. You would not want to miss out, would you?”

A little more clarity, where one sniffs the sulphur in the air and notes, if only as a hypothesis, evil; can change orientation. This, if only for as long as it takes to succumb to temptation. Noting might be seen as a first step in acknowledging the influence of evil.

The film suggests that the “demon” “evil” had been stalking the trainee from his young days as a child, subsequent to the death of his mother in the Adams Family profession of undertaker.

Temptation need not be entirely salacious. It can be as simple as taking a short cut, cutting corners, being economical with the truth, bullshitting. The notion of getting something for free or at a reduced price is a cornerstone of temptation. Talking bad of, belittling, slagging off; are not exactly luminous beacons.

I’ll wager that no human being alive has never succumbed to some temptation or other.

One could say that some, in lust for power, turn to the dark side. The coefficient of the evil wavefunction is higher. The superposition is skewed to darkness and not light.

If one has largely succumbed to evil then there is little hope of redemption by self. The habit has become entrenched. One needs external assistance to exorcise the evil or re-balance the quantum superposition.

Hence one needs a Hermit-like quantum operator {exorcist} to act upon the evil-good superposition state to change it from one state to another. To lift it up from the low point and to address the uncertainty as to whether good and evil are actually real world things. To rebalance.

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What is your g/e probability?

Are you largely Good or largely Evil?

Are these two variables coupled?

If we are certain in one what limit does that put on the other?

Are you sure?

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Arrogance and Omniscience

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

I’ll speculate the average experience that French people have of British expatriates leaves them with the impression that most cannot be arsed to learn the language or make any attempt to converse therein. Further that “les anglais” are not the sharpest tools in the box. Well over a dozen times now people have asked me if I am English, which is a lazy use of language. I am Welsh.

The lass on the checkout yesterday tried to speak a little English but we were better off in French. Get this a young checkout woman was making a decent effort with customers. More power to her.

I’ll speculate further that people make assumptions, me included.

Because I am generally to be found in partially soiled combat trousers, in relative need of a shave and have not combed my hair for over five years, there is no obvious way of knowing what is under my hood, intellectually speaking. As a consequence, I have been talked down to on a number of occasions and ignored on others. I once offered a prof in Rennes a recent paper on T (4,14) translocations in multiple myeloma written in French by a team of which she was an (attributed) nominal part. She ignored it and swept it to one side. She then laid down the law. This was very rude and showed a marked level of arrogance. She would not have done that to an Imperial College dude in the UK.

In the UK “they” deem the French arrogant which is perhaps the pot calling its mirror the kettle, black.

I have noted that as a general rule of thumb people do not like their omniscience being questioned which suggests a lack of confidence in the accuracy of their projected and professed omniscience and a self-important ideation in which any questions of/on deity are taboo. Omniscience is particularly sacrosanct here, it is embedded in the language, “vous avez raison”, you have reason and are justified.

The internet is littered with “experts” willing to offer and even sell opinion whether reliable or not. The tendency to the exponential growth in professed expertise and dubious qualifications which sound good, gathers momentum. I could buy a fake degree, if I understand it correctly. I could run courses on dreaming and offer certification, for a fee. I do have some kosher qualifications but not in dreaming. I could invent a name “The Pan-Celtic Gorsedd o Breuddwydion”, knock up a web site and hand out certificates. I could develop a syllabus, which might be better than most.

The problem is that the arrogant have next to no idea as to where the known for them ends, they have no notion of just how limited their knowledge is. They do not even acknowledge the unknown exists let alone the unknowable. But that in no way stops them being arrogant. The assumption that they are right is deemed to be a fact, a truism. Being prone to a form of pride-encephalitis their swollen heads refuse to bow in humility. That would mean a loss of face. Bullshitting and winging it are not uncommon.

I know that should I put on a well ironed shirt, my ~£1000 leather jacket, my polished expensive black leather shoes and peer over my rimless spectacles as if I was giving a viva exam, I could adjust perceptions.

But why would I need to dress up to overcome the arrogance and assumptions of others?

Similarly, if I used a 2mm length in the buzz cut and wore a white guru shirt and harem pants, people would interact differently. People do judge books, if they are able to still recognise what one of them is, by their covers.

I have been so very lucky over the years in that so many people have told me stuff, tried to teach me, told me what I am, told me what I am thinking. They have offered me their erudite opinions ever so freely.

I doubt any could actually mange to think what/how I think most of the time which is silent nothing.

Clearly, they know that I need to be educated by them, because I am in dire need of the profound depths of their wisdom and knowledge.

I’ll assume that few have firsthand experience of a creature like me, as I am today, and that if I acted fully authentically, few could hack it.

How on earth do you manage to give someone a heads up about what they are dealing with in a manner which is both clear, palatable and likely to be believed / understood / taken on board?

I have no answer despite many attempts.

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Based on the above am I an arrogant dickhead, what do you reckon?

What does your pure wisdom mind say?

Is The Concept of Evil Taboo?

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

I’ll speculate that the use of the word evil in its sense as an antonym to good has waned. To talk about evil is less common than it once was and that as a concept it is nearly taboo. Human brutality does not require any demonic influence it is bad enough without outside influence. The days when the churches could ensure bums on seat with the spectre of evil are passing.

In this sense it could be argued that evil has won, it is off the agenda and out of the consciousness. By subtlety and subterfuge evil has been redacted. The media when it broaches the subject uses the extremes of CGI to create outlandish portrayals. Whereas evil does not need to cause pustules and scars in those it possesses. They can wear neat uniforms, appear highly organised healthy and yet send millions to die in gas chambers harvesting their dental gold in the process. Evil wears, most often, a human face not a fictional demonic one.

We watched “The Pope’s Exorcist” last night. The film was heavily influenced by Catholicism and the iconography thereof, it even suggested that the Spanish Inquisition was the work of the Devil. Torturing people in God’s name does not resonate with the teaching of Jesus. It is not the work of a lamb. It suggested that evil and the devil, the demons, Satan, cause delusional and abhorrent behaviour in humans.

How simple to pass the buck and avoid responsibility.

I can watch films about exorcism without fear or empathy for the possessed and their family. I do not need to look through my fingers. Yet I can still be surprised by a sudden well scripted twist. I may jump a little but I am not scared nor shitting my pants metaphorically. I was not raised, indoctrinated, in Catholicism therefore its imagery and points of reference do not bind me like they may others. I am reasonably sure that I could attend an exorcism in whatever tradition without being scared witless, nor being overly sceptical.

I am not worried by the concept of devil or demon, yet I accept fully the notion evil as a concept and a force, a driver in the lives of some /many.

The weird thing is those influenced by and enacting evil are the most likely to deny that they are so doing. They are blinded. They have justified their evil thoroughly by the use of rationalisations and even precedent. Precedents are not always exemplar of good, beauty and humanity at its best.

I accept exorcism as a concept in that a being can be helped to drive out the evil influence which it harbours and gives succour to. Evil influence flows into a being, by the path of least resistance. Once it has gotten a foot in the door so to speak and is invited in by the tempted person over the threshold, the thin end of the wedge is driven home and the floodgate of influence can open.

Soon life before the “wise” guidance of evil is forgotten. The sense of cahoots grows. Evil knows well how to fertilise so that its tendrils root and grow. The light from before wanes and there is nothing to compare with any longer.  The contrast between light and dark fades to grey.  It becomes ever easier to succumb and justify each dodgy act. Malicious pleasure starts to seed and germinate. The temptation of power over in whatever flavour grows strong and less satiable.

To the eye of a seer the evil influence can be discerned. In cases of medium to strong influence one can see a dark black ink like tendril above the head of the strongly influenced being. It looks like a drop of ink in water. The darker the ink the stronger the influence. At this stage the evil is not well incorporated and is readily dispersed. Once there is no gap between the tendril and the form, the evil influence is already partially rooted. In some the influence is profound and it is aback the eyes where the seer sees. They have in their beingness an unpleasant vibe, somewhat cloying and suffocating. It is difficult to spend long in such presences without feeling drained.

If someone you know drains you by the simple fact of proximity, then chances are they are influenced by evil. Evil likes to feed.

I can think of more than a handful of people with whom I have had an acquaintance, who could benefit from a prolonged and profound exorcism. But of course, evil would keep them well away from anyone who might lessen its influence.

It is a strange occult fact that evil is always attracted to good. And that good needs encounter with evil in order to learn. Good tends to give the benefit of the doubt which is its Achillies heal and this is something evil learns in the evil 101 class.

It is an interesting metric to watch exorcism films. Where does your empathy lie? What frightens you about the devil taking your soul to toast in the inferno for eternity?

If you are impeccably pure of heart and deed, no such fear would arise.

The Problem of Both And

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

This “problem” can be found on all sides. It stems from the desire to have both one thing and another. It has a root in idealism but also in an unwillingness to choose or decide.

At the moment relatively wealthy humanity is accustomed to having multiple up to date electronic devices, frequent new cars, foreign holidays involving air travel and conspicuous consumption which is sometimes diarised for show in social media. Yet in the back of the mind there is the spectre of anthropogenic climate change. There is a weak desire to slow this down. People want both their current way of life and to limit the ravages of global warming. Most approaches to planetary heating back “solutions” which do not significantly impinge on current lifestyle.

This is an obvious fallacy.

But it is one that is not addressed because in affect it is taboo and politically very unpopular. In wanting both and decisive action is delayed and put off. The advocates of striving to limit climate change themselves travel by air. People cross their fingers and hope we can limit climate change without changing our behaviours. The fairy godmother of technology will wave its magical AI wand and ta-da we have a solution for global warming. In the meantime, business green washes to keep the greenbacks rolling.

There is an awful lot of kidding and people are willing to be kidded because their conscience is assuaged by flashy on tone public relations. Look the oil manufacturers and producers are transitioning to green alternatives…😉

“Phew, I can have my holiday in the Maldives after all…”

Elsewhere I have predicted that the impact of climate change needs to get catastrophic before humanity wakes up. By which time it will be very late, perhaps too late.

We saw it coming, we did fuck all.

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“Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospect; it has to be shattered before ascertained.”

Vladimir Nabokov

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Humanity has a monkey with its hand in the cookie jar mentality. Inside the cookie jar are lovely cookies. We put our hand in it to extract the cookie but we cannot pull it out with the whole cookie in hand. The villagers are coming with sticks. We are so tempted by the cookies; we do not want a beating by the villagers. What to do?

This is a catch 22 which stems from greed and desire. In the absence of desire, there is no dilemma. Drop the cookie and get the hell out of Dodge. But it is a lovely cookie with banana and chocolate chips….

I cannot have both the cookie and avoid a beating.

No desire, no greed, no problem. Let go. Do a runner.

Most catch 22s stem from wanting something, some desire or some ambition. They are based on preferred outcome. In the absence of these the dilemma dissolves; it is a figment of mind and emotion.

Humans have a face in a jar problem. Inside the jar is their face, their social self-image, which they are clinging on to. They may want to resolve a relationship or ameliorate it but they are burdened by their face which they hold clenched in their fist. They are unable to shake hands whilst their fist is clenched tight around the mask of face. So, for most of their lives they walk around with their face clenched bare knuckled in fist and never know the freedom of an open palm free of social encumbrance. They may want to save both their face and a relationship. However, this is impossible, humans are stubborn and before long, it is too late.

You can see this human folly all around you.

Life is not a quantum superstition state. Sooner or later the both-and must be measured and collapse into either-or. The coherence of the both-and is finite. Decision is not something people are fond of.

Sometimes nature, the universe, or a planet will make the decision for us…

Wanting both-and is greedy.

LIFE is way bigger than petty human want and desire…

And Now the Darkness Spreads

~ quantumdreamer ~ Leave a comment

The politics of division and separation seem to have won in the USA. This means that for four more years it will be difficult to avoid the sound of Trump’s voice. To my ears his voice and tone is unpleasant.  I had enjoyed the relative respite. That is probably not the worst of it.

At around 5:30 AM this morning I had a dream / vision in which the visual field was slowly filling with very dark ink like substance. What light there was became mostly extinguished. And I knew that the darkness was spreading. The effect was like dropping black ink into water.

If he can remember and act on his rhetoric we are in for a sad time, a dangerous time. Nobody, no Western leader, is speaking out meaningfully about the barbarism in the Middle East, to do so is taboo. The political right will feel emboldened. Already the Trump sycophant-fans and mini-me are hailing the victory. Europe is bracing itself for tariffs. China probably does not care. How will Trump manage rocket man now he is cosying up to Putin? Is he jealous?

People do not understand that he has already lost his battle with power. He is spouting very nasty and evil thoughts. If he indeed pardons the mob, it will set a very dangerous precedent. He is in no way a “light” being.

It is difficult to predict how more power will twist and further drive him into the darkness, the unpleasantness. The next four years could be very retrograde. A climate change denier in charge of the USA will not help planetary warming one bit.

It looks like humanity is heading further down the shitter. The odds of a war against Iran have just shortened.

It feels heavy this morning…