I don't believe in yesterday
Yesterday was the "National Day of Prayer."
In acknowledgment of the occasion, I quote here from my favorite scientist/atheist's weblog, Pharyngula.
I can scarcely believe my country is officially pandering to such willful stupidity — elevating evangelical kooks to positions of prestige, trumpeting the virtues of sectarian religion, and actually crediting the successes of America to the fact that a subset of deluded, demented fools sit on their asses and beg an invisible man to protect us and help us kill people in foreign countries. What a waste, and what an encouragement of further waste.
I feel like just declaring this the official National Day of Derangement and writing it all off, maybe spit in the soup of people who say grace, or flip off any group I catch trying to do a collective exercise in ritual invocation of nonexistent beings, but the Minnesota Atheists have a more productive idea: they are calling this a National Day of Reason and are setting up to demonstrate in the Minnesota capitol in St Paul today. They actually have a prime position, and all the legislators leaving their workplace to join in the National Day of Inanity will have to troop by them. In my dreams, these politicians would feel a little sense of shame at the foolishness of the official events, but in reality, I'm sure they won't.>
just a clot of nirvana
I got linked to this from a newsletter I get, and I'm sharing it here because it is a description, by a brain scientist, of the kind of experience she had that others might attribute to sensing "god."
Still others, back in the days of "dropping acid," often described something similar.
And others, yet, tried to achieve it through Transcendental Meditation.
It's not in the mind; it's in the brain.
Listen in as brain scientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor tells of the spiritual experience she had during her own stroke. This euphoric experience transcends all formal religions and has been pointed to by quantum physics for years. Watch the video.
from here:
....she was conscious as she lost the left half of her brain. She remembers the day clearly, when she eventually curled up into a ball and expected to die. "I was shocked when I awoke later," said Taylor,... [snip] "I couldn't talk. I couldn't understand language. I lost all recollection of my life and lost all perception of my physical presence -- I was at one with the universe.
equal opportunity irreverence
one weird morning
My cat is throwing up on my mother's rug while she's in the bathroom having a dementia meltdown.
My brother is yelling at me because I took his clothes out of the dryer (and put them in a laundry basket) so that I could put my mother's clothes (that I gathered and spot sprayed and washed) in the dryer.
I finally get my mother settled in her recliner to watch the Catholic mass on EWTN. The priest is already in the middle of his sermon, disparaging global warming because of something to do with God putting the sun up there for us.
While I make my mother lunch, I am half listening to what the priest is saying, and it sure sounds like unrealistic nonsense to me -- admonitions to live by the Church's rules, a disempowering assertion of who's the real boss of you.
I can't see how any of that sermonizing can be of much help to anyone searching for guidance in how to give personal meaning to the actual time he/she spends on this planet.
What I believe is that where psychology and spirituality (not religion) overlap , it is at that broad intersection where one can discover one's own power as an individual living in this place at this time. I am not using the word "spirituality" in any theistic sense, but rather in the sense of our animating energy, whatever it is that inspires us, awes us, puts a fire in our bellies. One's own "spirit." "Soul."
The shaman of ancient cultures knew how to create that intersection. I think that the best of today's therapists understand how to do that for today's seekers.
poor Tom
Tom Cruise has taken a lot of criticism from a lot of fronts. And now there's a video of him extolling Scientology viralling around the internet. (There's no such word as "viralling" but I think it captures the spiraling viral video phenomenon.)
It seems to me that Cruise is, indeed, the poster boy for how Scientology works when it's successful. He's confident in himself and his decisions -- enough to carry on his purposeful life despite harsh criticisms. He feels a sense of humanitarian responsibility and he acts on that sense. He's learned to be a positive thinker and the kind of person who actually practices what he preaches. His energy is focused, his goals ambitious, and he has a support system that really does provide philosophical as well as practical support.
Hmm. What would happen if all "religions," all philosophies, were able to provide that kind of practical and motivating support?
I don't think that you have to be a Scientologist to achieve those senses of confidence, caring, and contribution. But it's hard figuring it all out by yourself, hard keeping motivated, hard remaining positive in a negative environment.
Scientology seems like the ultimate support system for individuals serious about attaining their dreams. Unlike many other spiritual approaches, it seems to prod you to get off your duff and DO. Not just contemplate, but ACT. And, more importantly, it gives you the psychological tools to enable you to move ahead in your chosen life's path.
As a young man, my father read Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking." and Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Throughout his life, he made good use of what he learned from those books.
From what I've read about Scientology, it seems to build on the techniques put forth in those two books, and it puts its own spin on the process of self-actualization.
There are many successful members of Scientology, and many of those are from the fields of the performing arts, which are very competitive and stressful.
I imagine that Scientology's "can do" philosophy has helped them persevere in their chosen careers, helped them to overcome obstacles to success. No wonder that so many of them have found a psychological and "spiritual" home in Scientology.
My Dad had Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie and his Polish Catholic parish. Together, they worked for him.
Tom Cruise has Scientology.
Hey, it works for him.
