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Politics for the non-conservative...
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faceless
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Post by faceless »

Colston wrote:
major.tom wrote:
Mandy wrote:I like Diane in that she was amusing (irrespective if she really believed what she was saying, or kidding)
Hmmm. I never considered that she might just be putting on an act. If this is the case, she plays the role to perfection -- she comes across as a genuine nutter.

Granted some levity is welcome, but it strikes me as a somewhat unkind sort of humour, finding amusement in someone who appears to be ill.
Why are people who believe things that are out of the mainstream scientific paradigm ill? I know George struggles to accept such things and with this inability to open his mind results to mockery... but do we all?
I don't think she's ill at all - in my experience of Buddhism she understands things quite well.
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Colston
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Post by Colston »

faceless wrote:
Colston wrote:
major.tom wrote:
Mandy wrote:I like Diane in that she was amusing (irrespective if she really believed what she was saying, or kidding)
Hmmm. I never considered that she might just be putting on an act. If this is the case, she plays the role to perfection -- she comes across as a genuine nutter.

Granted some levity is welcome, but it strikes me as a somewhat unkind sort of humour, finding amusement in someone who appears to be ill.
Why are people who believe things that are out of the mainstream scientific paradigm ill? I know George struggles to accept such things and with this inability to open his mind results to mockery... but do we all?
I don't think she's ill at all - in my experience of Buddhism she understands things quite well.
There is a fabulous book about a woman from the UK who became a Buddhist...

Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman's Quest for Enlightenment

Synopsis
This is the story of Tenzin Palmo, an Englishwoman, the daughter of a fishmonger from London's East End, who spent 12 years alone in a cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas and became a world-renowned spiritual leader and champion of the right of women to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Diane Perry grew up in London's East End. At the age of 18 however, she read a book on Buddhism and realised that this might fill a long-sensed void in her life. In 1963, at the age of 20, she went to India, where she eventually entered a monastery. Being the only woman amongst hundreds of monks, she began her battle against the prejudice that has excluded women from enlightenment for thousands of years. In 1976, she secluded herself in a remote cave 13,000 feet up in the Himalayas, where she stayed for 12 years between the ages of 33 and 45. In this mountain hideaway, she faced unimaginable cold, wild animals, floods, snow and rockfalls, grew her own food and slept in a traditional wooden meditation box, three feet square - she never lay down. In 1988, she emerged from the cave with a determination to build a convent in northern India to revive the Togdenma lineage, a long-forgotten female spiritual elite.
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major.tom
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Post by major.tom »

Colston wrote:Why are people who believe things that are out of the mainstream scientific paradigm ill? I know George struggles to accept such things and with this inability to open his mind results to mockery... but do we all?
I don't know about "mainstream" science, but I come from a science background, and much of what she says sound like troubled ramblings.

- she thinks she's the re-incarnation of Jean d'Arc. That's well and good and doesn't bother me in the least (nor do I discount it outright, in which case I'm more open-minded than some). But she uses her identification with royalty to argue that those of royal blood are somehow better-suited to solving problems. If history has taught us anything, there's nothing in our genes that makes any group of people superior to another.

- she seems to say that her religion (ie. yogic flying) can somehow solve man-made problems. If it helps her, that's also fine and good. But that's not a solution to the real world. And no amount of her (or her friends) meditating will stop bad stuff from happening.
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Post by nekokate »

major.tom wrote:
Colston wrote:Why are people who believe things that are out of the mainstream scientific paradigm ill? I know George struggles to accept such things and with this inability to open his mind results to mockery... but do we all?
I don't know about "mainstream" science, but I come from a science background, and much of what she says sound like troubled ramblings.

- she thinks she's the re-incarnation of Jean d'Arc. That's well and good and doesn't bother me in the least (nor do I discount it outright, in which case I'm more open-minded than some). But she uses her identification with royalty to argue that those of royal blood are somehow better-suited to solving problems. If history has taught us anything, there's nothing in our genes that makes any group of people superior to another.

- she seems to say that her religion (ie. yogic flying) can somehow solve man-made problems. If it helps her, that's also fine and good. But that's not a solution to the real world. And no amount of her (or her friends) meditating will stop bad stuff from happening.
Can't you just accept she's nuts? Are we living in such a liberal society that even when someone sits in the lotus position, leaps around on their flanks and claims to be the reincarnation Joan of Arc it's not sufficient evidence that they're... well, mad?
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Post by Colston »

nekokate wrote:
major.tom wrote:
Colston wrote:Why are people who believe things that are out of the mainstream scientific paradigm ill? I know George struggles to accept such things and with this inability to open his mind results to mockery... but do we all?
I don't know about "mainstream" science, but I come from a science background, and much of what she says sound like troubled ramblings.

- she thinks she's the re-incarnation of Jean d'Arc. That's well and good and doesn't bother me in the least (nor do I discount it outright, in which case I'm more open-minded than some). But she uses her identification with royalty to argue that those of royal blood are somehow better-suited to solving problems. If history has taught us anything, there's nothing in our genes that makes any group of people superior to another.

- she seems to say that her religion (ie. yogic flying) can somehow solve man-made problems. If it helps her, that's also fine and good. But that's not a solution to the real world. And no amount of her (or her friends) meditating will stop bad stuff from happening.
Can't you just accept she's nuts? Are we living in such a liberal society that even when someone sits in the lotus position, leaps around on their flanks and claims to be the reincarnation Joan of Arc it's not sufficient evidence that they're... well, mad?
There is absolutely no evidence against the influence of meditation as a dynamic in the world psyche...

I think sometimes that when history reflects back on our time it might well be seen as Dark Ages II - The Scientific Era...

A synthesis of both spiritual and scientific thinking will lift us out of our ignorance and transform mankind into what we have always been able to be... not in our lifetimes though.

Which is a shame.
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Post by faceless »

Here's Diane on Christmas Day last year

https://www.sendspace.com/file/bmy967
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Colston
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Post by Colston »

faceless wrote:Here's Diane on Christmas Day last year

https://www.sendspace.com/file/bmy967



:thumbs:
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Post by faceless »

Here's her opinion on 9/11

https://www.sendspace.com/file/v8tru9
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Colston
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Post by Colston »

I'll listen tomorrow. My daughter is asleep and she is very scary when I wake her up...
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Post by luke »

Colston wrote:A synthesis of both spiritual and scientific thinking will lift us out of our ignorance and transform mankind into what we have always been able to be... not in our lifetimes though.
maybe thats what the mayans were on about leading up to 2012 ... the awakening the human mind and transformation of consciousness ...

i had some incredible weed once and i'm sure i was nearly there :lol:
Last edited by luke on Sun May 20, 2007 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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faceless
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Post by faceless »

no worries - I'd been meaning to clip these bits out before now anyway... here's one more. Her opinion on Barak Obama from February this year

https://www.sendspace.com/file/p5qnzw
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major.tom
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Post by major.tom »

nekokate wrote:Can't you just accept she's nuts? Are we living in such a liberal society that even when someone sits in the lotus position, leaps around on their flanks and claims to be the reincarnation Joan of Arc it's not sufficient evidence that they're... well, mad?
Yes, I don't blame her -- I think she's ill.

The post to which you're replying was in response to Colston questioning our willingness to describe those who challenge the "mainstream scientific paradigm" as ill.
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Post by major.tom »

Colston wrote:There is absolutely no evidence against the influence of meditation as a dynamic in the world psyche...
Is there any evidence FOR it?

Just because I can't dis-prove it, doesn't mean it must be so.
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Colston
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Post by Colston »

major.tom wrote:
Colston wrote:There is absolutely no evidence against the influence of meditation as a dynamic in the world psyche...
Is there any evidence FOR it?

Just because I can't dis-prove it, doesn't mean it must be so.
Again I agree... but it doesn't mean it ain't... unless you are Karl Popper!
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major.tom
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Post by major.tom »

Thanks alot. Now I have to go find out who Karl Popper is... :D
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