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"We create who we are through the
truths we choose. Our choice of the
truths we live by has reality creating
power." -
Charles
Eisenstein
"What we are today
comes from our thoughts of
yesterday, and our
present thoughts build our life of
tomorrow: our life is the
creation of our mind. If a man speaks or acts with an
impure
mind, suffering will follow him as the wheel of the cart
follows the beast that draws the cart. If a man speaks or acts with a pure
mind, joy
follows him as his own shadow."- Dhammapada
The experience
that will reveal the most knowledge is of the
self interacting with the
reality of the Earth.
"You have a duty to perform. Do anything else, do any
number of things, occupy your time fully, and yet, if you do not do this task,
all your time will be wasted." - Rumi
"Learn something new or undertake
a challenge every day." - Mehmet Oz
"Every action of the hand and
eye sculpts the soul." - Arthur
Zajonc
I am standing here and
you are standing here and we are talking.
I am standing here and you are standing there and
we are talking on a land or
air phone line.
Written
word is based on speech and came into being after
speech. The
written word can
come in the form of
newspapers,
magazines, books, internet and/or anywhere there is a
flat surface that symbols can be drawn or
mounted on.
The written
word typically is based on
speech or writing patterns that prevailed at the
time. These speech or
writing patterns may appear odd to a
reader that has not been exposed to a
variety of
patterns of speech.
All spoken word
evolves over time. "The
word, made to pass from one thing to another, is,
in fact, by nature transferable and free. It can
therefore be extended, not only from one perceived thing to another, but even
from a perceived thing to a recollection of that thing, from the precise
recollection to a more fleeting image, and
finally from an image fleeting, though still
pictured, to the picturing of the act by which the image is pictured, that is to say, to the
idea." - Henri Bergson
Only through the written word can a
society be considered to have a
history. This is especially
true with the recent abandonment of the
verbal art of storytelling in the industrialized
countries.
"Images today are the daily nutrient of our
sensory experience, our thought processes, our
feelings, and our
ideology. When we say image," the word
immediately breaks up into its different meanings: verbal
images (why shouldnt they be considered
images as well as the ones I
see?); mental images, which can exist only when I am using
language to
think; and images that feed the imagination or are produced by it, and are
therefore inseparable from it."- Jacques Ellul
One type of
visual imagery is the
images that are conveyed to
us through a two
dimensional process such as a
photographs, oil/acrylic/pastel
art painting, a televison screen, a
billboard, a
movie theater screen.
Of the
five previously mentioned two dimensional
imaging processes only one has been with
humanity for thousands of years, the art painting on rocks, skins, cloth, etcetera.
The
development of paper and the printing
press made bill posting possible in
Europe after about 1500. Lithography, a printing method
developed in the 19th century, expanded
the creative possibilities of
advertising design. Posting "bills" on wooden boards in the late
19th century led to the birth of the term "billboard."
Billboards have been with
humanity for slightly over a
hundred and fifty years
George Eastman invented
flexible photographic film in 1884. Thomas Edison patented the
motion picture camera in 1887.
In 1945 there were fewer than 7,000
working televison sets in
America and only nine stations on the
air; three in New York, two each in Chicago and
Los Angeles, and one each in Philadelphia and Schenectady, N.Y.
"Modern communication systems like video are not
constrained to linguistic patterns per se, but can instead juxtapose action and
meaning. This is post-linguistic rather than non-linguistic because the
technology and behaviors necessary to construct these communications depend on
linguistics and textuality. The propaganda of the deed is most commonly
pictured as terrorism, but can mean any dramatic or awe-inspiring action
designed as communication. In the past, the actions only affected those who
were physically present. If those not present were affected it was via a
retelling or textualizing. Today's media environment, in which events and
actions are filmed, associated with various emotional markers through
juxtaposition, and shown directly to many people repeatedly, has widened the
impact of these types of communication." - Edward Wilson & Wes Unruh
These last decades
have caused a radical reformulation of thought
in individuals exposed to this
visual imagery and
has profoundly affected their perception of
reality and what is real."When prefabricated
images accompany our stories (in the form of
storybooks and television) the image-forming capacity never gets a chance to
fully develop, and we are rendered incapable of conceiving anything other than
the life that is presented us." -
Charles
Eisenstein
"No ordinary person could ever have withstood such a
colonization of human consciousness as the American people have seen.
Consciousness being simply awareness, there was no surviving the onslaught. The
tsunami of false possibilities and pseudo choices constituted entire
constellations in the psyche, of goods, and images of goods. Corporate industry
and its products are not culture, despite all the new definitions of culture
bourgeois academia and the marketplace come up with on behalf of the
corporations that fund both of them." - Joe Bageant
What is a
thought? Is it a verbal
word? When I sit here
and type I think
the words that I want
to type as I type them by verbally saying them to
myself. I do not see
a parade of alphabetic symbols in
my mind.
I do hear
myself talking to myself in my
mind. When doing this in reverse what
I do is see the
symbols and verbalize them in
my mind. Once they
have been verbalized in the mind several
things can
happen. Nothing
happens; these
words did not
speak to me, they are just words.
Or something can
happen.
What is happening? Probably one of two
things or a combination thereof;
First, the words
I read
are describing some thing and
I can therefore visualize it in my
mind. I
feel a
presence of place.
I feel as if
I have been transported to
another time or another place in my mind. The
presence of place that
I feel
within my mind is very, very
similar to a memory.
Second, rather than
feeling a
presence of place
I instead feel an emotion. I react
emotionally to the image that the symbols written on
the page are attempting to paint in my
mind's eye. This
emotional reaction was stirred up in
my mind'seye because I could
relate it to an actual memory that
I carry in my
mind. Although you
feel the emotion you may not be able to identify the
emotion's basis.
When that emotion
occurs a flow of information has been pumped
through your mind as you try to figure out on a
subconscious level how this new
information effects you.
In
reality I sit in a
chair and look at a series of symbols on a page.
If those symbols can create the images in
my mind's
eye, as was their intention, then
I am where ever the imagery brought about by the
symbols has taken me, I am no longer in
that chair. Consciously
I sit here in the chair but
subconsciously I live
within the image. If the symbols
have been carefully conceived and if they can convey the
image they were meant to convey then at
times my
consciousness can be carried into that
image. I am excercising the
hermeneutic passions by
empathetically entering into a
text.
Any intelligent
reader who
reads carefully for pleasure should
have an image of the state of
consciousness the above set of
symbols were meant to convey. The
image in your mind's
eye in all likely hood will be very similar to
the image I intended
to convey. But it can never be exactly the same.
We have
experience that coincides as you and I have spent time
together but we look out of different
eyes. Your experience may be similar to mine but it is
likely that although some images are the same,
many, many, many more images will be different.
Culture, social,
and life experiences make us inherently different and make the
images we
form in our individual minds
different.
As there are many differences between
us it may be easier to convey
image and emotion
in carefully composed written
word than there would be with
me standing there and talking to you.
I
can do this but unfortunately I can only do it
with my mind/spirit/soul since it is the only one in
my possession. However I can examine my
conclusions in light of the secondary
knowledge that I
have gleaned from men or
women who have
lived before me and who so studiously recorded their take on this
whole situation of
living life on Earth.
Emotions and their
accompanying thoughts are hard to
understand in many situations.
I really do not have
to tell you what thought is as you already
know that or you could not be looking at
these symbols written on this computer screen and wondering -
just what is his point and if he has one is he ever going to get there.
Thoughts are
peripheral to survival and for an
animal to survive
they must be able to choose as the mouse chooses
which direction to go in a maze.
We
therefore know that higher
animals possess emotion and thought.
Any one who owns a
cat or dog
knows this to be
true.
What triggers emotion?
When I was young, about fourteen,
there was a period of time when
I tried to compartmentalize my
mind, to build a wall between
my conscious
self and my
subconscious emotional self.
{"Man has built in himself
images as a fence of security -
religious, political, personal.
These manifest as symbols,
ideas, beliefs. The burden of these
images dominates man's
thinking, his relationships and his daily
life. These images
are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of
life is shaped by the concepts already established in his
mind."- J. Krishnamurti
"In times of
conflict the ego utilizes both offensive and defensive tactics to protect
itself, to safeguard its belief system, and to defend its identity." - Vincent
Cole}
The
Vietnam War was in full swing and
young men I
knew were being drafted and sent away to
die in the jungles of
southeast Asia.
As well the reality of
the toxic effects of
pollution was dawning upon the
American consciousness.
Many
days I could
hardly breath as asthmatic attacks captured my lungs when the
smog was so thick you could cut it with a butter
knife.
I did not want to
feel empathy
towards living things.
I did not want
to believe that men could act in such
evil ways while proclaiming their
righteousness .
The
wall I built did not have a foundation in
reality. My compartmentalization was faulty.
The
wall crumbled. This compartmentalization of
reality was not based on actual
reality but a mispreceived
reality.
I
became very disoriented and confused.
My subconscious
mind was unable to be neatly
compartmentalized into a
rational part and an
emotional part that were both based within
reality.
I
had to acknowledge my emotion, even
emotion based on mispreception, let it flow
through me and work
to understand the basis of
those emotions.
These
individuals are detached from
reality because they have detached themselves
from the true nature of their own emotions.
I
would guess that most of these people do not
even realize that they have done this to
themselves as it is an acceptable
way to
live in America, totally detached from
reality.
One
thing I do
understand about these
people is that their rejection of
reality has made them extremely
unhappy.
Watching people
throughout my life
I have seen that most people will avoid unpleasant
thoughts if there is any
way they possibly can.
Socrates called
intuition a little voice in his
head which told him not to do some particular
thing.
Later men have titled
this conscience.
People cut
themselves off from emotion because they have
been trained since early childhood in our modern industrial-corporate-mass
media-dominated culture to
control their emotions and to build a
compartmentalizing wall. Pink Floyd did a
whole album, The Wall on this
mental wall, between the
subconscious and the
conscious.
With the advent of our modern
industrial-corporate-mass media-dominated culture this
walled fortress of compartmentalized
rationality, which allows us to
cooperate with
other humans has been built upon a
faulty foundation based on misperceived reality.
Mankind has readily
adapted to verbal communication and if
you speak the same
language then
complex concepts can be transferred between
individuals. It must be noted that
although humans may
speak the same
language they will have differing
images and concepts for the words that are spoken and the
images and concepts they are trying to convey can not be
conveyed as intended perfectly. Prior
knowledge and differing
experiences of the
individual make it
impossible for two
people to hold
absolutely the same
image in reality.
Therefore the image that is held in the
mind of an individual can never be transferred
perfectly to
another mind. The new image
formed must, by definition, be
corrupt.
"When we are first exposed to
an environment in which a language
is being spoken, it is as if certain parameters in that built-in program are
then fixed, and the program then runs upon the raw vocabulary, grammar, and
syntax of the language that we hear. The
scope, and level of sophistication, that will result from this process will
vary from person to person and will be very sensitive to slight variations in
experience." - John D. Barrow
With
the written word as
well there can never be a perfectly matching
image. As previously stated prior
experience requires that the
perfect image can
not be conveyed through any form of
communication including the
written word.
Throughout history
men have tried to control the written
word which means they have tried to
control thought. People
have been murdered, excommunicated, driven out of their homes and
driven from their country because the
words they spoke or wrote were anti-thesis to the
men in control
of their society.
America was the
first country on Earth to allow
free speech, but
even in America recently
men have still been killed and maimed for the thoughts and images
they held in their minds that they attempted to
express to the
public.
Think John F.
Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, George Wallace and Larry
Flint.
As the wise Chinese
curse states, may you live in
interesting times' or possibly it should be
written may you live in times of
change and upheaval'.
We now live
in times of change and upheaval.
Now we have a major
disconnect.
Man has walked
down this road away from nature at an ever
increasing pace since the advent of the use of visual imagery for
communication.
This storage is a natural function and everyone at sometime or
another will
think back on a conversation and ponder the
meaning of the message that was
conveyed.
At the
time this message
may not have sunk in' but now the message
has become clear and easy to
see.
The unclear
message has just now become
clear because there was a hole in
one's knowledge that needed to be filled
before the message became applicable to the
listener.
This same thing is
true with the written word.
Vision
is an image in one's mind which looks forward in time to a point in which an
imagined
thing becomes
knowledge of it's
existence in reality.
Vision has also been called foresight, prescience, presentiment and precognition. In
the past individuals that used foresight to foretell
events or predict the future were called soothsayers,
seers,
oracles or
prophets.
If you trust
your intuition and use it to help make
decisions then you are in touch with your
subconscious.
If neither of the previously mentioned is
true for you then you have shut out your
subconscious and I truly doubt that you are a
happy individual.
As well you have
allowed yourself to become totally
spitually corrupt.
If you have dreams and
trust your subconscious intuition then at least you are not totally
spitually corrupt.
When I look at
America today it appears to me that many, many
individuals in positions of
power, in the media and
those I see at the
mall or walking downtown streets have none to very little
power of judgement, discernment and wisdom .
"Human beings are what they understand themselves
to be; they are composed entirely of beliefs
about themselves and about the
world in which they inhabit." - Michael Oakeshott
In The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in
America Daniel Boorstin stated that
Americans increasingly
live in a "world where fantasy is
more real than reality," and he warned, "We risk being the first people in
history to have been able to make our
illusions so vivid, so persuasive, so
'realistic' that we can live in
them."
See
Epictetus
See
William of Ockham |
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This web site is not a commercial web site and
is presented for educational purposes only.
This website defines a new religious
ideology to which its author adheres. The author feels that the falsification
of reality outside personal experience has created a populace unable to discern
propaganda from reality and that this has been done purposefully by an
international corporate cartel through their agents who wish to foist a corrupt
version of reality on the human race. Religious intolerance occurs when any
group refuses to tolerate religious practices, religious beliefs or persons due
to their religious ideology. This web site marks the founding of the religion
aptly named The Truth of the Way of Life - a rational religion based on reason
which requires no leap of faith, accepts no tithes, has no supreme leader, no
church buildings and in which each and every individual is encouraged to
develop a personal relation with God through the pursuit of the knowledge of
reality in the hope of curing the spiritual corruption that has enveloped the
human spirit. The tenets of The Truth of the Way of Life are spelled out in
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their religious beliefs in America is considered a hate
crime.
This web site in no way condones violence. To the contrary
the intent here is to reduce the violence that is already occurring due to the
international corporate cartels desire to control the human race. The
international corporate cartel already controls the world central banking
system, mass media worldwide, the industrial military entertainment complex of
America and is responsible for the collapse of morals, the elevation of
self-centered behavior and the destruction of global ecosystems. Civilization
is based on cooperation. Cooperation does not occur at the point of a
gun.
American social mores and values have declined precipitously over
the last century as the corrupt international cartel has garnered more and more
power. This power rests in the ability to deceive the populace in general
through mass media by pressing emotional buttons which have been preprogrammed
into the population through prior mass media psychological operations. The
results have been the destruction of the family and the destruction of social
structures that do not adhere to the corrupt international elites vision of a
perfect world. Through distraction and coercion the direction of thought of the
bulk of the population has been directed toward solutions proposed by the
corrupt international elite that further consolidates their power and which
further their purposes.
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