One Cʘsmos: Message from the Supreme Epopt of Upper Tonga

Friday, December 28, 2012

Message from the Supreme Epopt of Upper Tonga

It has come to our attention that a commenter requests an open thread. The Cosmocrats of the Luminous Aeon have seen fit to authorize the request.

De nada. You are welcome.

38 comments:

vanderleun said...: The first thing to do now is for everyone to shut up.; 12/28/2012 05:54:00 PM
julie said...: Two day delivery! Bob, you're as fast as Amazon Prime.; 12/28/2012 06:29:00 PM
julie said...: re. the Sean Penn link from the previous thread, I was going to try to parse his sentences but then remembered that word salad can't be made to make sense...; 12/28/2012 06:39:00 PM
JP said...: Thanks, Bob!

Your're the best open thread supplier in the business.

Everybody ready to go over the Fiscal Cliff?

Whee!!!!!!!!!; 12/28/2012 06:45:00 PM
JP said...: Anybody read "The Master and His Emissary - The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World" by Iain McGilchrist.

It seems like something that Ray, our former materialists commenteer, would read, but it also seems, at first glance, to have some useful components (to me).

Anybody read it and/or have thoughts, good or bad?; 12/28/2012 06:55:00 PM
Anna said...: A housekeeping question -- What happened to the Coon Store? I found it to be immensely valuable.; 12/29/2012 01:13:00 AM
ge said...: http://www.iainmcgilchrist.com/
one can read the intro here

i always thought uncle bubba had good points re the brain-EW culture differences
:)

asymmetry makes the world go round after all, a splitting of One into unequal halves; 12/29/2012 05:51:00 AM
JP said...: I have a question about dreams.

Why don't mirrors work in dreams?

Van, any thoughts?; 12/29/2012 06:28:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: Anna:

Some time ago there was a dispute between Amazon and the State of California that resulted in Amazon severing relations with associates located in California. Then, when they reinstated us, I put up the sacred Ferris Wheels of Knowledge and Music. It would take awhile to restock the whole Coon Store, but maybe someday....; 12/29/2012 08:44:00 AM
Van Harvey said...: JP, I never noticed a problem with mirrors in dreams... but on reflection, I'd guess it's because you look into a mirror to see your reflection.... which is what the entire experience of the dream already is.; 12/29/2012 04:13:00 PM
ge said...: speaking of dreams
i feel still pretty adolescent spiritually when i think how duped & lost i get in my dreams, never realizing they're but dreams... they say that post-mortem handling the bardo weirdness is correlated w/ dream-piercing....on the positive side, i cant complain re the richness and surreal cinemaic fun & games & flying around & refreshing jampackedness compared to my day-to-day, they pack; 12/29/2012 05:56:00 PM
Magnus Itland said...: In Shintoism, the traditional Japanese religion, it is said that gods reside within mirrors. Meanwhile in Buddhism, it is believed that our dreams can give us a hint of where we are going to spend our afterlife if we pass away at this time. That dreams will become as the world, and the world as a dream. I would not know, I have no memories of an afterlife (or before-life). The Bible seems to sort dreams into two categories, those that are sent as messages, and those that are just forgettable. When people have an important dream, they tend to know that it was just that. This is also my experience, although that is a very small data point compared to the traditions of the world's classical faiths.; 12/30/2012 05:41:00 AM
James said...: The Master and His Emissary is a great book. It is a purely secular approach to explaining why the modern world has gone off the rails. It's good for what it is. Of course a religious approach is much easier for the average person to wrap their heads around and ends up explaining more. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all the Raccoons.; 12/30/2012 08:21:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: That does look interesting, and worthy of bobtizing in the Oly Spirit, i.e., blogging over. Thanks for the tip!; 12/30/2012 08:52:00 AM
JP said...: "Meanwhile in Buddhism, it is believed that our dreams can give us a hint of where we are going to spend our afterlife if we pass away at this time."

Looks like I'll be spending my afterlife in my college dorm then.; 12/30/2012 10:11:00 AM
JP said...: "When people have an important dream, they tend to know that it was just that. This is also my experience, although that is a very small data point compared to the traditions of the world's classical faiths."

Yeah.

My last lucid dreaming experiment, while a failure as actually achieving lucid dreaming apparently gave me the ability to have uncontrolled precognitive dreams.

Which was what I was trying to do with the mirrors in the first place.

Apparently, I need to be emotionally attached to whatever it is I'm dreaming about for it to work.

That being said, It's basically useless and only covers the next day.; 12/30/2012 10:15:00 AM
ge said...: with teeth
only a mother or comedy writer could love----but a
grin that'd sell zillions of albums; 12/30/2012 05:13:00 PM
EbonyRaptor said...: I'm about 1/3 of the way through Giussani's "At the Origin of the Christian Claim" - a good follow on to the "Religious Sense".

Giussani emphasizes the way our trust in Jesus grows through our experience with Him. He brings out the richness and depth of Gospel accounts where otherwise they were vaguely noticed. He clarifies answers to questions that were only partially in focus.

Thanks for turning me on to Luigi, Bob.

Happy New Year everyone.; 12/31/2012 02:06:00 PM
ge said...: Doctors: Clinton blood clot between brain and skull, in exact area where 'Benghazi', 'terrorist' and 'security' memories are stored; 12/31/2012 04:24:00 PM
julie said...: The future of Obama care?

Also, who in their right mind would want that guy deciding their death care options?; 1/01/2013 06:54:00 AM
JP said...: "The future of Obama care?

Also, who in their right mind would want that guy deciding their death care options?"

Wow.

Just wow.

They are completely clueless.; 1/02/2013 07:39:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: Hey, brother James is right. This book, The Master and His Emissary, is great (so far, anyway). Much in it that will need to be taken into consideration, i.e., synthesized into the Higher Union.; 1/03/2013 02:06:00 PM
Rick said...: I've been trying to get both my hemispheres on the same page since I don't know when.
Hopeless!; 1/03/2013 03:02:00 PM
Rick said...: OT, but..

Bob remember that "problem child" who shows up in One Flew Over...
Well, he makes an appearance in "Harvey" too.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.; 1/03/2013 03:25:00 PM
ge said...: Review
of TM&HE

"This is a very remarkable book. It is not (as some reviewers seem to think) just one more glorification of feeling at the expense of thought. Rather, it points out the complexity, the divided nature of thought itself and asks about its connection with the structure of the brain.

McGilchrist, who is both an experienced psychiatrist and a shrewd philo–sopher, looks at the relation between our two brain-hemispheres in a new light, not just as an interesting neurological problem but as a crucial shaping factor in our culture. He questions the accepted doctrine that the left hemisphere (Left henceforward) is necessarily dominant, the practical partner, while the right more or less sits around writing poetry. He points out that this "left-hemisphere chauvinism" cannot be correct because it is always Right's business to envisage what is going on as a whole, while Left provides precision on particular issues. Moreover, it is Right that is responsible for surveying the whole scene and channelling incoming data, so it is more directly in touch with the world. This means that Right usually knows what Left is doing, but Left may know nothing about concerns outside its own enclave and may even refuse to admit their existence.

Thus patients with right-brain strokes – but not with left-brain ones – tend to deny flatly that there is anything wrong with them. And even over language, which is Left's speciality, Right is not helpless. It usually has quite adequate understanding of what is said, but Left (on its own) misses many crucial aspects of linguistic meaning. It cannot, for instance, grasp metaphors, jokes or unspoken implications, all of which are Right's business. In fact, in today's parlance, Left is decidedly autistic. And, since Left's characteristics are increasingly encouraged in our culture, this (he suggests) is something that really calls for our attention.

The book's title comes from the legend of a wise ruler whose domains grew so large that he had to train emissaries to visit them instead of going himself. One of these, however, grew so cocky that he thought he was wiser than his master, and eventually deposed him. And this, says McGilchrist, is what the Left hemisphere tends to do. In fact, the balance between these two halves is, like so many things in evolution, a somewhat rough, practical arrangement, quite capable of going wrong. The bifurcation seems to have become necessary in the first place because these two main functions – comprehensiveness and precision – are both necessary, but are too distinct to be combined. The normal sequence, then, is that the comprehensive partner first sees the whole prospect – picks out something that needs investigating – and hands it over to the specialist, who processes it. Thus the thrush's Left is called in to deal with the snail-shell; the banker's Left calculates the percentage. But, once those pieces of work are done, it is necessary for the wider vision to take over again and decide what to do next..."; 1/03/2013 04:29:00 PM
Gagdad Bob said...: The whole thing is very intriguing. Topdown and rightleft thinker that I am, I I tend to think of it in terms of what sort of neurology would be necessary for a person to incarnate in it, and it would clearly require right and left brain complementarity, as well as the intersubjectivity highlighted in my book.; 1/03/2013 04:49:00 PM
Gagdad Bob said...: In other words, bicamerality is a function of person-ality. Animals further down the evolutionary scale, which also manifest bilateral hemispheres, would represent more distant echoes of the archetype.; 1/03/2013 04:53:00 PM
Rick said...: Is this not also the "expanse" made "in the midst of the waters" spoken of "in the beginning"? Got the whole/ball really rolling, so to speak...; 1/03/2013 05:47:00 PM
Gagdad Bob said...: Good point -- the space that is opened up by the intersection of horizontal (left) and vertical (right).; 1/03/2013 06:26:00 PM
ge said...: The Next Novel I Shall Read
por la gracia de dios
The Vorrh; 1/04/2013 04:42:00 AM
Dougman said...: Open Thread you say?
Hmmm,what to opine upon?

Good news.
I won't be homeless after February 1st.
I also won't be able to stay in my rented house as it's too far away from my job, so weekends will be the only time to spend with the Family. Just until I find work around the little town we'll reside in.

I was asked, "What is the speed of Darkness?"
My reply was that darkness doesn't have to travel, it just resides.

Happy New Year Coons!; 1/04/2013 08:51:00 AM
JP said...: Well, this is neat.

Material with negative temperature.

Meaning a temperature below absolute zero.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130104143516.htm; 1/05/2013 08:10:00 AM
ge said...: a little learning is a dangerous thing?
L-R brain politics

'...While I was traveling the globe, I still thought my core issue was mental health. But, perhaps spurred by that trip to Antarctica, I've come to understand that the two issues of mental health and global health are closely linked -- if not one and the same. Similar processes we use to improve our mental health can help us make better, more responsible decisions as a society -- by focusing on the compassion and integrity of our right brain, rather than the judgment, punishment and deception of our left brain.

To use a powerful metaphor, we have two magnificent information-processing machines inside our heads. Our right mind focuses on our similarities, the present moment, inflection of voice, and the bigger picture of how we are all connected. Because it focuses on our similarities, in my mind she is compassionate, expansive, open, and supportive of others. Juxtaposed to that, our left brain thinks linearly, creates and understands language, defines the boundaries of where we begin and where we end, judges what is right and wrong and is a master of details, details and more details about those details. Because it focuses on our differences and specializes in critical judgment of those unlike ourselves, our left brain character tends to be our source of bigotry, prejudice, and fear or hate of the unfamiliar...
We are an amazing species living in an amazing time. We know more about the human brain and how it works than we ever have before, and for the first time in the history of mankind, we have the ability to consciously direct our own evolution. We know we have the ability to not only experience our biological circuitry, but to observe it, nurture it, and change it. We have the ability to consciously choose who and how we want to be in the world, and we are teaching our children skills about mindfulness, reflection, the value of introversion, vulnerability, and how to respect the environment. At the same time our world has become extremely polarized, not only in our politics, but hate crimes abound; war is ongoing between those who look different, those who believe differently or even those who are different genders. By better understanding what's going on in our brains, we can better understand all of this behavior and what choices we want to make... '; 1/05/2013 10:45:00 PM
julie said...: Dougman - that is good news. I hope everything works out well for you & yours.

ge - she has an interesting perspective, but I wonder sometimes if she hasn't tilted a little too far to the right brain. On the one hand, she's essentially saying "think globally, act locally," but on the other the people who seem to try hardest to live that way manage to do neither.

Also, I'm reminded of a rather grim set of observations I came across last week via Vanderleun about leftist women who decide to ignore the perfectly reasonable fears they should have about traveling to dangerous places...

One other thought: she places all compassion in the right brain and judgement in the left, calling the one truth and the other deception. This seems to me a very foolish and dangerous notion. If the side of global thinking and no boundaries decides something is to be feared, isn't it much more likely to fear without reason or judgement? Can it not be just as deceptive as the left side of the brain, perhaps even more dangerously so?

We have two hemispheres for a reason. To vilify one because the other makes one "feel" so much more pleasant strikes me as both foolish and shortsighted.; 1/06/2013 05:55:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: ge--

I don't think the author of The Master & the Emissary is going in her direction. I hope not, anyway. He's very much against that sort of reduction. I'm only halfway through the book, and the second half is where he discusses the societal implications of all the research, so we'll see. There is no doubt that leftism is rooted in a hypertrophied left brain outlook, since that's where ideology resides. But it can't be that simple.; 1/06/2013 08:09:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: Also, the left relies much more on low-information voters than it does on ideologues, so it's not an issue of right or left brain, but no brain.; 1/06/2013 08:16:00 AM
Gagdad Bob said...: Then again, left-brain mind parasites would explain the liberal war on science.; 1/06/2013 08:46:00 AM
ge said...: 'Blame GW'
Pravda gets it, NYT nyet...; 1/07/2013 04:10:00 AM

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