Have you ever had the urge to test your ideas? Like visit a "haunted house" or such?
Anyway of your two ideas, aliens actually seem more probable because of the statistical probability they'd be out there given how vast the universe is. Also if they were sufficiently well advanced they could probably travel to our planet in a flash and remain relatively undetected.
The real question is, why have you not thought about Spirits and Aliens? Like say both your ideas are somehow correct, is it only humans that have spirits? What about aliens? What exactly are spirits to begin with?
On June 06 2015 06:30 ninazerg wrote: I'm not a moderator, so I can't really comment on this. There's the website feedback forum and a thread dedicated to discussing bans, so I'd go there.
sh i dont care about the mods, i know you run TL behind the curtains
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: The real question is, why have you not thought about Spirits and Aliens? Like say both your ideas are somehow correct, is it only humans that have spirits? What about aliens? What exactly are spirits to begin with?
Plato, king of European philosophy, wrote very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believed they existed. Here is his clearest work on the topic: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html
Shelly Kagan, contemporary professor, speaks very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believes they don't exist. Here is his first lecture on the topic from his online class, "Death".
The question turns on the issue of the mind. Can we explain the mind without reference to souls? If so, there's no reason to assume there are souls. I don't think that the soul-theory helps to explain anything, so I don't think there is any reason to believe that souls exist. This diminishes not at all our strangeness and creativity and wonder; neither does it fully explain it. It simply accuses "souls" of being ambiguous, unclear, and ultimately unable of expanding our exploration of ourselves. The fog of the occult kills what is otherwise a fascinating conversation.
To me it's like the age of the earth. Some people are stubborn in believing it is young. Fine. But they automatically exclude themselves from the most interesting conversations about the earth. I think souls are the same - you exclude yourself from more difficult, subtle, and interesting conversations if you end dialogue with "and that's because we are magical."
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: The real question is, why have you not thought about Spirits and Aliens? Like say both your ideas are somehow correct, is it only humans that have spirits? What about aliens? What exactly are spirits to begin with?
Plato, king of European philosophy, wrote very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believed they existed. Here is his clearest work on the topic: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html
Shelly Kagan, contemporary professor, speaks very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believes they don't exist. Here is his first lecture on the topic from his online class, "Death".
The question turns on the issue of the mind. Can we explain the mind without reference to souls? If so, there's no reason to assume there are souls. I don't think that the soul-theory helps to explain anything, so I don't think there is any reason to believe that souls exist.
Thanks for posting this. As much as I like the Shelly Kagan lecture I still believe that souls exist.
On June 05 2015 22:56 Endymion wrote: why was fluffy pylon banned =[ 죄송합니다 ㅠ.ㅠ =[
if u read between the lines a little in that post i believe the official TL.Net claim is taht he is the user NeuroticPsychosis who was previously banned. but that is strictly speculation on my part.
On June 05 2015 22:56 Endymion wrote: why was fluffy pylon banned =[ 죄송합니다 ㅠ.ㅠ =[
if u read between the lines a little in that post i believe the official TL.Net claim is taht he is the user NeuroticPsychosis who was previously banned. but that is strictly speculation on my part.
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: The real question is, why have you not thought about Spirits and Aliens? Like say both your ideas are somehow correct, is it only humans that have spirits? What about aliens? What exactly are spirits to begin with?
Plato, king of European philosophy, wrote very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believed they existed. Here is his clearest work on the topic: http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html
Shelly Kagan, contemporary professor, speaks very plainly and understandably on the question of souls. He believes they don't exist. Here is his first lecture on the topic from his online class, "Death".
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: Have you ever had the urge to test your ideas? Like visit a "haunted house" or such?
I've wanted to do this, go visit a 'haunted' house and see if there was anything unusual or worth observing. I doubted I'd find anything, and that turned out to be truer than I originally had thought; there are a distinct lack of haunted houses where I live. You'd think maybe 1 or 2 houses would at least be haunted, but nope.
I watched some paranormal investigation shows on television and on youtube, and all of the 'scary' stuff was just people playing tricks on their own mind. I noticed a trend.
They are always sent to a very old run-down castle, house, or mental institution.
They are always told beforehand horror stories about the location.
They always begin their investigations in total darkness, or near-total darkness.
They often believe evil spirits 'could' exist, giving the power of suggestion more weight.
The old buildings creak a lot. Maybe it's just the producers making noise to create tension.
There is near-silence, which makes every small sound amplified. This, along with the near-to-total darkness can create a sense of panic in the brain.
The 'investigators' are always given pseudo-scientific tools that basically do nothing.
The investigators freak themselves out, and 'sense something was behind them', but find absolutely nothing.
It seems like most of the 'ghosts' are psychological, rather than metaphysical.
What exactly are spirits to begin with?
Who the hell knows? Maybe they're real, maybe they're fake. Based on a pragmatic approach, the more and more we learn about how humans are alive, the less and less likely it seems like spirits are anything other than an explanation for something that was not understood by earlier generations of human beings.
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: Have you ever had the urge to test your ideas? Like visit a "haunted house" or such?
I've wanted to do this, go visit a 'haunted' house and see if there was anything unusual or worth observing. I doubted I'd find anything, and that turned out to be truer than I originally had thought; there are a distinct lack of haunted houses where I live. You'd think maybe 1 or 2 houses would at least be haunted, but nope.
I watched some paranormal investigation shows on television and on youtube, and all of the 'scary' stuff was just people playing tricks on their own mind. I noticed a trend.
They are always sent to a very old run-down castle, house, or mental institution.
They are always told beforehand horror stories about the location.
They always begin their investigations in total darkness, or near-total darkness.
They often believe evil spirits 'could' exist, giving the power of suggestion more weight.
The old buildings creak a lot. Maybe it's just the producers making noise to create tension.
There is near-silence, which makes every small sound amplified. This, along with the near-to-total darkness can create a sense of panic in the brain.
The 'investigators' are always given pseudo-scientific tools that basically do nothing.
The investigators freak themselves out, and 'sense something was behind them', but find absolutely nothing.
It seems like most of the 'ghosts' are psychological, rather than metaphysical.
Who the hell knows? Maybe they're real, maybe they're fake. Based on a pragmatic approach, the more and more we learn about how humans are alive, the less and less likely it seems like spirits are anything other than an explanation for something that was not understood by earlier generations of human beings.
Yeah I've noticed that too. I wish people with more resources would dedicate their time to investigating, people with actual objective thinking and some really good equipment. Unfortunately those are just the sort of people that think its a waste of time.
One more observation, if you've looked at documentaries about hauntings and tormented families you'll notice a trend of paranormal activity not really starting until after a few days or even weeks, depending on the strength of whatever inhabits the place. This unfortunately means that if a location was legit haunted, investigators usually won't notice it because they won't spend more then a week tops at a location and they won't live in a location like a regular family would.
On June 06 2015 17:29 Destructicon wrote: Have you ever had the urge to test your ideas? Like visit a "haunted house" or such?
I've wanted to do this, go visit a 'haunted' house and see if there was anything unusual or worth observing. I doubted I'd find anything, and that turned out to be truer than I originally had thought; there are a distinct lack of haunted houses where I live. You'd think maybe 1 or 2 houses would at least be haunted, but nope.
I watched some paranormal investigation shows on television and on youtube, and all of the 'scary' stuff was just people playing tricks on their own mind. I noticed a trend.
They are always sent to a very old run-down castle, house, or mental institution.
They are always told beforehand horror stories about the location.
They always begin their investigations in total darkness, or near-total darkness.
They often believe evil spirits 'could' exist, giving the power of suggestion more weight.
The old buildings creak a lot. Maybe it's just the producers making noise to create tension.
There is near-silence, which makes every small sound amplified. This, along with the near-to-total darkness can create a sense of panic in the brain.
The 'investigators' are always given pseudo-scientific tools that basically do nothing.
The investigators freak themselves out, and 'sense something was behind them', but find absolutely nothing.
It seems like most of the 'ghosts' are psychological, rather than metaphysical.
What exactly are spirits to begin with?
Who the hell knows? Maybe they're real, maybe they're fake. Based on a pragmatic approach, the more and more we learn about how humans are alive, the less and less likely it seems like spirits are anything other than an explanation for something that was not understood by earlier generations of human beings.
Yeah I've noticed that too. I wish people with more resources would dedicate their time to investigating, people with actual objective thinking and some really good equipment. Unfortunately those are just the sort of people that think its a waste of time.
One more observation, if you've looked at documentaries about hauntings and tormented families you'll notice a trend of paranormal activity not really starting until after a few days or even weeks, depending on the strength of whatever inhabits the place. This unfortunately means that if a location was legit haunted, investigators usually won't notice it because they won't spend more then a week tops at a location and they won't live in a location like a regular family would.
Maybe I could camp out for awhile and live with them. Maybe I'm not investigating paranormal activity at all. Maybe it's all a sham and I'm homeless and my Ghost Hunter Inc., is a fake company!!!
#1 Well if you divide human into body and mind then soul makes sense. If you say clone a person1 into person2, then person1 and person2 should have the same mind and body. But you place person1 into a slave dungeon and person2 onto a paradise island then I would say that their souls are affected differenty by their environment/experience. However you could say that the environment altered their minds.. But if you only take human as a physical form say body then you don't need mind nor soul.
The ants and many animals communicate a lot through pheromones and smells plays a huge role in their life. There are a lot of hard-coded like behaviors or instincts in the animal kingdom - like if you break the pattern they begin from the start again and again. It seems that it is evolutionary. Moreover this is supported by recent studies that suggest that genetic information passed to offspring is also affected by the actions/experience of the parent(e.g. it influences body hormons and stuff that can affect the embryo). There is also some interesting discussion about the 98% unused part of our genome, which is now believed to regulate mutations which play a big role in evolution.
#2 Religion in my opinion always evolved as a mean to improve people lives(either individual or collective).. but as all good things it corrupted overtime and people soon found out that it is an effective way of controlling mind of masses.
It is hard to say how we humans evolved or have been created? I think that we don't understand evolution that deeply. Still it is quite a young discipline and there is much to be learned.
#Conclusion If you would like to try some spiritual experience you may try Salvia divinorum. This is a plant - drug, which is legal in the most part of the world. Why is it legal then? It is very short lasting(~15m hard time, after 60m completely recovered), there is no addiction and no risk of health damage(unless you jump out of window that is - which is unlikely but it is preferable to have other people around).
Salvia divinorum may be smoked or chewed, and the effects are to be hallucinogenic(you actually believe what you experience). They can range from body sensations to strong visual experiences. Although in real time the main effect lasts only up to 15 minutes, you may perceive this period as much longer. The experience may be disturbing at some points and even more if you try to struggle against it. It is also said that it has long lasting anti-depressive effects.
I think religion evolved from the first questions like; What are we? Where did we came from? Where are we going? And then two different types of people set out to answer these questions. The first kind by observing and studying the natural world around them, these became scientists. The second kind decided to answer these questions through introspection and meditation, these people became spiritualists.
Unfortunately religion, instead of staying a means for people to expand their spirituality, to get in touch with their inner selves, became a means for controlling the masses, an abomination. But that's a different topic, and we've probably scared poor nina right now.