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General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
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People who model their life after some book
    #1577872 -

I noticed that many people have read some book which has had a profound impact on their life. They constantly quote or reference the book as if it contained some universal truths.
I'm a fairly well red man and enjoy taking on some heavier reading from time to time yet i have never read a book that has had any major effect on my life. A girlfriend of mine constantly lives by a book called the ninth insight which i have also read. The book is good but its hardly a life changing experience.

Most things you read in books related to spirituality and psychology deal with pretty basic things and contain allot of obvious facts yet when some people read it its like they think they have just read the word of god.
I dont have to read things in a book in order to understand that I'm doing the "right" thing.
I fear people are to easily persuaded by the words of others. Question everything.








"Behold for i send you out as sheep among the Wolf's"



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We're the lowest of the low, the scum of the fucking earth!

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1577877 -

i think it's a matter of affection.
we sometimes cling to groupings of words and the ideas they represent as much as we may cling to someone we love very much.
maybe someone reads something so mind blowing they just become enamoured of it and would rather not move on to the next thing right away, revelling in the glory of their new found shiny golden nugget of ego stimulating intillectual yumminess.

Edited by Clean (05/26/03 06:36 AM)

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1577880 -

Yea i know what you mean
I've always had this certain view about those psychology / spiritual books... I guess you could say I don't believe in them.. I mean there are many functional things they can teach you, and its always good to understand other people's outlooks on life
but as far as basing your life on the practices in them, that is outrageous to me... they always just remain one (or a few) persons' perspectives, and should be looked at as so, i think

then again some books dont try and teach you anything, but point you towards something bigger to figure out for yourself... but i guess any form of art does... blah

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Grav]
    #1577883 -

haha.. yes, everyone's always after those golden nuggets

this makes me feel good. i want more

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1577887 -

This phenomenon is predicated on three erroneous beliefs by the reader:

1. I am helpless and / or ignorant.

2. Others (experts) have the "answers".

3. Getting a book published makes one an "expert".

Now before I get bashed, let me put in a caveat. We can definitely learn from books written by people who have gained experience such as in fields ranging from cooking to carpentry to engineering.

However, many pop-psychology, self-help and New Age books make statements AS IF they were facts with no backing evidence. Things such as "You are exactly where you are supposed to be." (then why the need to read your book other than to help on your yacht payment? "The Universe is safe and loving." Uh-huh. Repeat that when your wife is dying of breast cancer or your kid is shot in a drive-by. "

There are five, no seven, no thirteen chakras say different "experts." Gary Zhukov, a physicist and popular "spiritual" author says that there are five and that they are unseen and unmeasurable, but yet he knows what they are and how many. How does he know? BECAUSE HE WROTE THE GODDAMN BOOK is how he knows. Can you say "circular reasoning"?

Chopra writes of "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" yet looks all of his 50+ years and will die in 10 to 30 years while his books sell to those hopeful people looking for an "out" even after his passing; so strong is our need to believe.


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The proof is in the pudding.

Edited by Swami (05/26/03 07:02 AM)

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Swami]
    #1577892 -

Quote:
Chopra writes of "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" yet looks all of his 50+ years and will die in 10 to 30 years while his books sell to those hopeful people looking for an "out" even after his passing; so strong is our need to believe.


haha so true


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We're the lowest of the low, the scum of the fucking earth!

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Swami]
    #1577896 -

I like the "Be happy with who you are, Take your life back" type self-help books, and the picture on the cover is a closeup of the female author buried in makeup and wearing revealing garments...

conscious thought: I should be spiritually happy
subliminal message: I will look like her

$$$

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Grav]
    #1577901 -

How about the "I Survived Cancer" type books? Here the author was one of the lucky 3% to have experienced spontaneous remission from a deadly cancer while doing nothing special and then attributing her recovery to some affirmations and spiritual techniques.


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The proof is in the pudding.

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1578118 -

I agree with much that has been said as I too find it strange that people believe so deeply in what they read. The problem with most readers is that he/she does not realize that an author is a person with an opinion, even if it sounds like it is the most basic truths of life, it is still only one opinion. Maybe the problem is that everyone is looking for an easy path in life, meaning no one wishes to explore all (or at least try to) the knowledge around us and make their own unique conclusions. I guess it is easier to take the words of another as truth rather then to find your own truth.


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"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer, the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear, permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path."

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1578180 -

Quote:
I noticed that many people have read some book which has had a profound impact on their life. They constantly quote or reference the book as if it contained some universal truths.



I don't think frequent quoting from a particular book necessarily makes a person weak-minded, nor is it evidence that they've been somehow brainwashed. I know you didn't use those terms but other replies have alluded to this 'phenomenon.'

Quote:
I'm a fairly well red man and enjoy taking on some heavier reading from time to time yet i have never read a book that has had any major effect on my life.



I think you are an anomaly in that sense. You've honestly never read a book that has prompted you to re-examine any aspect of your personality or your life? Am I correct in taking this to mean you read purely for the temporary entertainment books can provide?

Quote:
Most things you read in books related to spirituality and psychology deal with pretty basic things and contain allot of obvious facts



I disagree. There are millions of books related to spirituality and psychology, written by different people with different motives, qualifications, experiences and attitudes. I'm sure every individual would find some of them to be full of wisdom, and others to be pure quackery.

Quote:
yet when some people read it its like they think they have just read the word of god.


To me that just sounds like a condescending way of describing someone who has been inspired by a book. A person's enthusiasm about a particular book may seem over the top, but it isn't because they've been brainwashed, or that they're so ignorant that 'obvious facts' are new to them.

Quote:
I fear people are to easily persuaded by the words of others. Question everything.



Persuaded to do what? To send their paycheques to a cult leader with all the answers, or to view the world in a way they may not have thought of?



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Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man.  For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire.  Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

:heartpump:

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: WhiskeyClone]
    #1578188 -

Spirituality for Dummies

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: infidelGOD]
    #1578192 -

seen on a shelf in Wal-mart: The Celestine Prophecy

I laughed so hard people were looking at me like I was crazy

the MASSES are enlightened and I am crazy.

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1579558 -

George W. Bush molded his presidency from the book 1984.

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: ]
    #1579573 -

Ive modeled my life on the manual for Final Fantasy 6


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enjoy the entertaining indentity i have constructed for you while you can.

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: infidelGOD]
    #1579824 -

Quote:
seen on a shelf in Wal-mart: The Celestine Prophecy

I laughed so hard people were looking at me like I was crazy

the MASSES are enlightened and I am crazy.



that's a good book. so are the 3 in my sig.

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1579968 -

i don't think patterning one's life/self from a book(or better yet, many different books) is any different fundamentally than an aspiring  musician doing the same thing with one particular musican of group of musicians, it's kind of nice to get a feel/taste of life and maybe even some attendant wis-dumb from those that have gone B4 and who perhaps have something positive to offer in the way of advice and inspiration to fellow travellers on the path....

You take what has come B4 and hopefully add some of your own goals/dreams/aspirations/life experience and come up with something that is uniquely(sp?) your own, then you pass THAT down and maybe, just maybe the world of the future is just that much better for you having lived and learned :smile:

 


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"Being crazier than a shithouse rat is not sufficient grounds for banishment"


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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Scarfmeister]
    #1580404 -


People who model their life after some book = Dumb.  :tongue:

Only mindless fools follow someone elses' ideals on how you should live. I see these people on tv and shit ontop of their soapbox telling people how to live their lives and I can plainly see ::squeegee sound:: with my squeegeed 3rd eye, that it's BRAINWASHING people, and the fools are there nodding while the author is preaching their ideals and shit and all I can think of is how fucking stupid you would have to be to follow a fucking self-help author. It's discusting, really.

I feel sorry for the weak-minded, but hey........what can I do?  :crazy:


--------------------
What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know,
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection,
Is it all you want it to be?


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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: atomikfunksoldier]
    #1580426 -


Ive modeled my life on the manual for Final Fantasy 6

Great manual! I loved it. Great game too. FF6 is probably my favorite FF game, second only the first Final Fantasy. Good memories. Great times. Classic.

I wouldn't model my life around it, and frankly, I don't see how someone can- but the Atma sword fucking kicks ass! And danm that one pink dude! I hate that guy. He always sneezes on me!


--------------------
What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know,
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection,
Is it all you want it to be?


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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Murex]
    #1580448 -

Sure alot of people cling to dogma - it's true believer syndrome.

there's a clear distinction between true believers and just reading a really good fucking book that more people ought to read.

True, outward appearances are similar in both cases, and it's nearly impossible to articulate a standard by which to judge worthwhile books....

what I'm trying to say is that if you haven't found books that have impacted your life, then you really aren't in the know. there are alot of really good books.


--------------------
The ultimate meaning of our being can only be fulfilled in the paradoxical leap beyond the tragic-demonic frustration. It is a leap from our side, but it is the self-surrendering presence of the Ground of Being from the other side.
- Paul Tillich

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Re: People who model their life after some book [Re: Malachi]
    #1580474 -

not that I condone book burning but someday I'd love to take a match to the new age section of my local bookstore.

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