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 Aldous
enthusiast
 
Registered: 10/19/99
Posts: 980
Loc: inside my skull
Last seen: 1 month, 5 days
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 Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) 
#2877491 - 07/11/04 07:27 AM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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I just finished reading Rational Mysticism by John Horgan. Has anyone read it? This book adresses most questions that keep popping up in this forum in an open-minded and pretty rationalistic way. Pick it up, you'll love it, even if you don't agree with the author's rather unmystical and humanistic conclusion.
From the website:Quote:
To find the ends of enlightenment, he communes with a number of experts, including the theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the brain's "God module" was the focus of a Newsweek cover story; Ken Wilber, the doyen of transpersonal psychology; Alexander Shulgin, the legendary chemist who has synthesized scores of psychedelic drugs and tested them on himself; and Susan Blackmore, a Zen practitioner, psychologist, and parapsychology debunker who teaches at Oxford.
Speaking of Susan Blackmore, this is a question specifically for Swami: I'm surprised you never mentioned her, she seems to be the archetypal New Age debunker. She started out having a massive OBE in college, where she was also involved in the Society for Psychical Research , which tries to examine, understand and prove all kinds of psychic and paranormal phenomena. After years of investigation, she quit and turned into a non-believer, she went from sheep to goat, as Horgan puts it.
So, have you ever heard of her? If not, start to spread her word right now, you should be her number 1 fan.
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 Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Aldous]
#2877680 - 07/11/04 09:32 AM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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Speaking of Susan Blackmore, this is a question specifically for Swami: I'm surprised you never mentioned her, she seems to be the archetypal New Age debunker.
My stance is patterned on my own experience and research not another's.
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The proof is in the pudding.
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kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Swami]
#2877687 - 07/11/04 09:35 AM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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"My stance is patterned on my own experience and research not another's. "
but aren't all ideas borrowed???
but then again its how the ideas are arranged is what you might be speaking of...
hmmmmmmmmm...... 
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Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
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Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: kaiowas]
#2877698 - 07/11/04 09:41 AM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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When someone says "I think mushroom spores are from space," that idea is CLEARLY borrowed whole and lazily from a book.
If that same person sends those spores to the Space Lab for six months and exposes them to extreme radiation and then grows them, the basic idea even though borrowed, has now passed the first test and becomes part of the researcher's own experience.
HUGE difference.
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The proof is in the pudding.
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kaiowas
lest we baguette
Registered: 07/14/03
Posts: 5,501
Loc: oz
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Swami]
#2877709 - 07/11/04 09:45 AM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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rock on swami!
learn something new everyday 
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Annnnnnd I had a light saber and my friend was there and I said "you look like an indian" and he said "you look like satan" and he found a stick and a rock and he named the rock ooga booga and he named the stick Stick and we both thought that was pretty funny. We got eaten alive by mosquitos but didn't notice til the next day. I stepped on some glass while wading in the swamp and cut my foot open, didn't bother me til the next day either....yeah it was a good time, ended the night by buying some liquor for minors and drinking nips and going to he diner and eating chicken fingers, and then I went home and went to bed.
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Jellric
altered statesman
Registered: 11/07/98
Posts: 2,261
Loc: non-local
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Aldous]
#2878131 - 07/11/04 01:10 PM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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She started out having a massive OBE.
Interesting choice of words.
"A 21 year old college student died today after suffering a massive OBE." 
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I AM what Willis was talkin' bout.
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Viaggio
ChemicalConsumer
Registered: 07/05/03
Posts: 1,296
Last seen: 18 years, 25 days
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Swami]
#2878188 - 07/11/04 01:41 PM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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I'll be one of the first to admit that Swami's perspective (along with other rational minded individuals who frequent S&P) influenced my own. I've always been a sort of agnostic, but I never actually evaluated my fluffy "beliefs" until I noticed how some skeptics showed why it's necessary.
I love the title of the book, Rational Mysticism.
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"...yet another in a long series of diversions an attempt to avoid responsibility."
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Aldous
enthusiast
Registered: 10/19/99
Posts: 980
Loc: inside my skull
Last seen: 1 month, 5 days
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Re: Rational Mysticism, anyone? (+ question for Swami) [Re: Jellric]
#2878220 - 07/11/04 02:00 PM (19 years, 9 months ago) |
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Yeah, well hey, English is my third language.
Still, I think the word is appropriate: she went "out of body" for hours and had trouble coming back. In the next few days, she still occasionally found herself outside. And all of this without even trying... eat your heart out, astral projecters on this board...!
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