Brit Girls - Fat

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

Similar with motorcycle riding, moments when you're a motorcycling god, in total sync with the bike and the surroundings.......

That's the way I felt about it 50 years ago, now  whilst getting in to it again for the anniversary it doesn't quite hackle.

[the village idiot]

4 minutes ago, matelot said:

Sorry, but I've never really went in for these academic arguments...

 

Does knowledge of determinism and fatalism help when it comes to paying your mortgage?

 

Dont get me wrong. I think things like testerone levels and upbringing influence decision making, however this discussion is really just mumbo jumbo Imho.

The sense of self, and by extension free will are incredibly strong illusions, constantly being reinforced every waking moment.

 

It is almost impossible for us to see through them to how concious experience actually manifests itself by just thinking about it. Thinking tends to reinforce the sense of there being an 'I'.

 

One technique you can use is meditation. There is a common misconception that meditation is a practice for calming the mind. It does generally have this effect, but the primary motivation is to pay very close attention to how thoughts arise in conciousness. 

 

After a while - quite a long while usually- you begin to realise that thoughts just arise in conciousness unthought. There is no thinker of these thoughts. The sense of there being an 'I' somewhere inside your head drops away and you are left with just the contents of conciousness.

 

This sensation quickly gets corrupted as the constructed 'Self' muscles itself back in and you are back riding the rollercoaster of your unbidden thoughts (the state we are in 99.9% of the time)

 

It's well worth taking a bit of time to observe your thoughts for a while if you can. As Sam Harris puts it, it is as though you have been kidnapped by the most boring person on earth. You have the same conversations with yourself over and over again. Imagine what it would be like if you vocalised all your thoughts, you would appear to be completely insane. I think we probably are unless we can peek through the illusion of the Self.

 

[WesD]

1 hour ago, the village idiot said:

You certainly can help it if you open your mind to let other ideas trickle in to the back room.

 

People often mistake determinism (the absense of free will) with fatalism (nothing can be changed).

This is not the case. Our brains and their outputs are constantly changing due to new inputs.

So the new inputs are steering us into making decisions based on experience and rational thinking and because of new inputs and life generally happening we are constantly making choices to navigate what is in front of us rather than having the free will to do anything based on nothing. 

 

 

That is probably the strangest thing I have ever typed!

[Rough Hewn]

Fascinating thread hijack guys.
Totally disagree on the illusion of consciousness though.
To be conscious means to be "aware".
Our "consciousness" is very different to other animals.
When snowboarding etc in the "zone" you brain is only conscious of your physical surroundings.
This is like an animal brain.
Human brains are very different.
Self reflection, pre meditated planning, cognitive thought processes, the concept of self, etc is more of an example of "higher" consciousness.
Hence we have a judicial system based on personal responsibility.

[Rough Hewn]

So start being a bit more responsible with your posts eh matelot?

[the village idiot]

3 minutes ago, WesD said:

So the new inputs are steering us into making decisions based on experience and rational thinking and because of new inputs and life generally happening we are constantly making choices to navigate what is in front of us rather than having the free will to do anything based on nothing. 

 

 

That is probably the strangest thing I have ever typed!

 That's a damn fine effort. 

 

Personally I'd put it more like this:

The new inputs, along with old inputs are steering us into particular behavioural patterns. We generally act out the excretions of our brains and our brains concoct a narrative which fools us into thinking that it was our brilliant idea in the first place. Each 'blind' behavioural pattern and it's results feeds back into the computer and can affect the subsequent commands.

 

It is worth pointing out that this sense of Self develops for a reason (we don't have it as babies). It is (or certainly was) advantageous to our survival to percieve that we are the authors of our own actions. Evolution has dictated that it is the state we are meant to be in. We now realise we have the option to see through this conditioned illusion if we are at all interested in doing so. It turns out to be a remarkably pleasant place in which to dwell.

[Mark Bolam]

I’ve got my own views on fat lasses, and God knows I’ve tried to improve a few of their lives over the years, but this thread has become a bit more than that.

VI that state you mentioned pages ago when snowboarding on fresh powder?

I get that, I totally get it.

[Joe Newton]

8 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I’ve got my own views on fat lasses, and God knows I’ve tried to improve a few of their lives over the years, but this thread has become a bit more than that.

VI that state you mentioned pages ago when snowboarding on fresh powder?

I get that, I totally get it.

I think the closest I get to that is tree work. Objective. That's all.

 

Maybe smokes and coffee are on my list too, but then I really didn't make a conscious decision to do either, did I?

[the village idiot]

6 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I’ve got my own views on fat lasses, and God knows I’ve tried to improve a few of their lives over the years, but this thread has become a bit more than that.

VI that state you mentioned pages ago when snowboarding on fresh powder?

I get that, I totally get it.

That's very cool. You have experienced the feeling of being free of the illusion of self, and perhaps you can appreciate how hard it is to put that feeling into words in a way that makes any kind of sense.

 

That experience is available to all. It is cunningly hidden right at the surface. You just have to get out of your own way to get there! Unfortunately this is not as easy as it should be.

[felixthelogchopper]

51 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

So start being a bit more responsible with your posts eh matelot?

Is this what the Americans call an intervention?