Immaterialism 2

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(cont......)

PF,

It’s easy to say that I’m not God.  It’s less easy to say that all of us are not.  

In order to eliminate one of us from that possibility, you have to eliminate all of us.  

You are saying that there is nothing of God in any of us.

Very good, PF, you will get along wonderfully with the scientific establishment...... with the secular establishment. You are a thoroughly modern individual.

But, guess what, PF, you might be wrong. Has that slight possibility never occurred to you?

We are at Open Minds to entertain possibilities. Evidently you are not. So, then, what are you doing here? Are you here as part of some rear guard...... in defense of close minds? Shame on you.... shame on your obstructionist agenda. Why don’t you move along...... with the rest? Stop wasting your time and our time.

Thank you.



(cont.......)

dan wrote:PF,

It’s easy to say that I’m not God.  It’s less easy to say that all of us are not.  

In order to eliminate one of us from that possibility, you have to eliminate all of us.  

You are saying that there is nothing of God in any of us.  

Dan,
Can you clarify if there are levels of being God?  For instance, you have a close relationship with Foot who has provided you a level of awareness and "truth" beyond that of most of us.

Additionally, you referred to your education as having progressed passed "kindergarten", implying that most of us aren't as intelligent as you.  Indeed I would fully submit that I am not even close.  Does that make you more of God than I?  If so, can you elaborate on either the feeling or experience, of what that higher attainment is like?

If not, then are we at a disadvantage to find our inner deity b/c we have not been briefed and or made it past kindergarten as far as intelligence?

I'm being absolutely serious with these questions.  I hope it doesn't come off as sarcastic.  I'm truly interested in the idea that we are all God playing hide and seek and your continuous reference to it tells me it's fundamental, so clarifying in any way you can would be appreciated.

Thank you, 99, for the clarification.  

AP, Buddy B, ingratiates himself into a situation.... sews seeds of discord..... burning whatever bridges he can.  He sifts through the wreckage to see if there are any shiny pieces he can keep..... and moves on.  I think he may be running out of targets in the ufo field.  He ends up just damaging himself.  It is a shame to be so destructive.  It may be an essential part of life.   He’s just trying to be the best possible AP.  


cw,

Personalism recognizes only only one level of being, which is Personhood.  All other existence is relative to persons.  

Existence, literally, is to stand out.  Persons are the only beings capable of standing out...... from anything else.... from nature.  That is because, very simply, we are the only beings who carry our own identity.  

We are the only beings capable of identifying anything.  

Cannot a predator indentify its prey.....?  

Yes and no.  A predator can catch its prey.... for sure.  It distinguishes between prey and non-prey.  

A computer can do that.  A computer can recognize faces.  

What is going on?  Where lies the difference?  

Computer scientists can’t see any difference, and shouldn’t they know?  

Animals recognize pain.  They do better than that...... they feel pain.... we feel pain.  Again, what’s the difference?  

hobbit sees no difference.  


4:50........

We can dream about animals.  Animals can dream about us.  

We can imagine a world.  An animal can imagine its territory.  

A bird can migrate halfway around the world.  

We can imagine coherence.  We can imagine stories.  We can tell ourselves a story about anything.  That’s what we do when we recognize something.  

Do animals imagine stories?  Can a person without language imagine a story?  



(cont......)

Sure seems that way Dan. Very sad.

------------------------
Watch your back.

dan wrote:

Animals recognize pain.  They do better than that...... they feel pain.... we feel pain.  Again, what’s the difference?  
(cont......)

Choice
Free will
?

cw,

I don’t believe that we have free will, not if this is the best possible world.  

What we have is the freedom to imagine the worst possible world, and we often do.  

We imagine situations being different...... all the time.  

Animals......?  That’s where I become skeptical.  

A dog, outside on a cold night, can imagine being in the warm house.  

It certainly can remember being so, and act upon that memory.  

A mouse imagines predators around every corner.  

Maybe.  

A dog is alert for its owner to come home at dinner time.  

Can a dog imagine its owner not coming home?  That might be something different.  Again, I’m doubtful.  

We can imagine gods of all sorts..... and the lack thereof.  

We can imagine a Source...... and a return, there to.  

Closely related to imagination is our nearly unlimited capacity for memory.  

This is what existence is all about.  It must include an awareness of non-existence.  

A dog may be aware of the non-return of its owner.  Maybe.  It has a memory of its owner.  Yes, but that is of a different order of ontology, if you will.  Animals are simply not ontologists, in the way that everyone of us is.  

So what?  

The world can be in our consciousness, the way we could never exist in the consciousness of animals.  This is an essential difference between sentience and sapience.  

I’m saying that that level of consciousness is essential to existence.  

This is the essence of existence.  This is the necessary and sufficient condition for existence.  This is what personalism is all about.  

We think we can imagine a world without consciousness, just as we imagine our universe before life.  That’s practically all that cosmologists do.

Does that mean that to be is not the same as to be perceived, as Berkeley would have us believe?  

It has been said that persons are rational animals.  It might be more to the point to say that we are ontological animals.  

And then what of any alleged supreme being......?  

I have...... we have no need of that hypothesis, if for no other reason than it is logically inconceivable.   We can imagine omnipotence and omniscience.   Nietzsche claimed to conceive of Superman.  

Mathematicians can work with higher orders of infinity.  

But is there, or could there be, a higher order of ontology?

Sure. Many suppose there are other dimensions of being. We take all of that in stride.

Might there not be a level of existence beyond persons, as persons may be beyond animals?

What about the alleged existence of the Hive....? What about the alleged existence of the Queen bee?

People are a taken aback by the humanity of her alleged highness, although she is not particularly partial to us, humans.

Kashmir can be a human and cheetah, at the same time. Neither allude to another order of thought or existence.

The Princess may not be a real princess, but she is a real intuition pump, and I will so testify.


(cont......)

dan wrote:cw,

Mathematicians can work with higher orders of infinity.  

(cont......)

Dan,
Can you expound on this comment at all?

cw,

You can read about higher orders of infinity in Wikipedia....... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity#Cardinality_of_the_continuum .  This is but one example.  


8:20........

The Hive, if it exists, exists beyond space and time.  

We exist beyond space and time in altered states.  

Aliyah describes entering into multiple times and places..... all at once.  

Even I will admit that this is difficult to imagine.  But, then again, often, in our memories, we come very near to juxtaposing times and places.  

In a monistic world, every event is a microcosm of every other event, just as we are of each other.  The Hive and mind are both infinite dimensional.  Every event may have an infinity of facets, of which, in a normal state, we only have a very limited perception.  

Our imaginations can fill in the facets.  Poets and artists have a better clue of this.

Joe and Kevin are in the process of making presentations on their experiments, separately.  One is more focused on the anomalous phenomena than the other.  I may have limited access to Kevin’s report.  

Is Kevin my consolation prize for Sunspot?  In NM, there was ‘criminal’ behavior of a (very?) unspecified sort.  The Federales were reluctant to move in.  Ron’s boys had no such qualms.  There was never a question of due process.  If you are at all concerned with due process, the foot is not the one to call.  

Stories will come out.  The real one......?  Forget it.  There are sanctions.... etc.  Your guess is as good as mine.  We carry on.   A shot may have been fired across someone’s bow..... a heads up.  


10:50........

On occasion, I’ve suggested that we are to our brain cells, as God is to us.  We are to the Monad..... in similar fashion.  

Surely, that would be an ontological leap of the first water.  Would not the Monad be a super person, if any person at all?  

The j-man is meant to be the corrective, in that regard.  Another corrective is that I don’t believe in actual brain cells, just as I don’t believe in ‘actual’ atoms.  

Persons are the ‘measure’ of atoms and of God..... and of the Monad.

The Monad is supposed to be more real than we are. We are the illusion of the Monad, as atoms are the illusion of us.

Have I got myself boxed in?


(cont.......)

dan wrote:
Have I got myself boxed in?  

(cont.......)

That's where I always end up.... boxed in. Is that not the natural answer... that there is no answer? That when we die and 'wake up' as God, we can still ask ourselves, is there another God higher than us? To do that infinitely is only logical, correct? Are we not infinite spirals of this logic? Or is there a way out of the box?

Dan, does this make any sense?

dan wrote:PF,

It’s easy to say that I’m not God.  It’s less easy to say that all of us are not.  

In order to eliminate one of us from that possibility, you have to eliminate all of us.  

You are saying that there is nothing of God in any of us.

Very good, PF, you will get along wonderfully with the scientific establishment...... with the secular establishment.  You are a thoroughly modern individual.  

But, guess what, PF, you might be wrong.  Has that slight possibility never occurred to you?  

We are at Open Minds to entertain possibilities.  Evidently you are not.  So, then, what are you doing here?  Are you here as part of some rear guard...... in defense of close minds?  Shame on you.... shame on your obstructionist agenda.  Why don’t you move along...... with the rest?  Stop wasting your time and our time.  

Thank you.  

(cont.......)

Are you asking me to leave, Dan?

As for questions of who is or is not God, what the nature of God may or may not be, and how many angels may dance upon the head of a pin, I claim ignorance. But I ask you, Dan, are such questions formed to have real answers? And of those answers offered, do they have congruent meaning?

cw,

No natural answer........?  

Natural....... to whom?  

I claim there is only one answer for all beings who are able to comprehend..... to all sapient beings.  

There is only one coherent answer......

That we are here for a reason...... a reason that we are able to comprehend.  

This is a form of gnosticism...... the only coherent form, I contend.

The only reasonable answer is that we are here as an essential part of the best possible world.  

Can you come up with any more reasonable answer, cw?  

Has anyone, ever?


PF,

If you are a reasonable person, you might be interested in knowing if there might be a reason for your existence.  

If you are that person person, stick around.  

If not...... move along.  You might want to start a new thread on OM..... The joys of not having to think..... of knowing nothing.  

Just a suggestion, PF.  


Back to Sunspot........

As it stands, Ron wishes to ascribe a crucial role to me, in the closure of the Sunspot portal...... which, as of now, is the most reasonable explanation for the Sunspot incident.  

If I am to piece things together, this was an unauthorized portal opening...... an ‘illegal’ opening.  But there is no law on the books concerning the operation of such a ‘pirate’ portal.  That’s why Ron had to get involved..... to keep things off the books.  

To my understanding, only the Princess has the authority to open portals..... for purposes of Disclosure.  Sunspot was in her blind spot..... like we were being blindsided.  

I seem to be a de facto member of her portal committee.  

Nevertheless, we cannot just ignore Sunspot.  Someone was sending someone else a message.  Maybe I was inadvertently sending a message to Ron and the Princess....... come on, folks, time’s a wasting.  Let’s get with the Disclosure program, Princess.  

In point of fact, they are getting with the Program.  I may be the main one who is foot dragging..... nothing like playing both sides of Disclosure Avenue.

Kevin is waiting upon me to fund an encapsulation program for his Disclosure document.  There was concern that AP might try to horn in, and then sidetrack Disclosure.  

It is slightly ironic that AP is the one who alerted me to Sunspot.  It’s just that AP is dead set against the BPWH.  He is dead set against our personal relationship with God......bless his heart.  


10:30........

This is something that many modern minded folks, including Buddy, fail to grasp.......

Our personal relationship with God.  

When we’re flying in plane, we are comforted to know that we have a personal relationship with the one who is in charge of the plane.  

This is the reason why no one is talking about autonomous airliners, although they make much more sense than autonomous vehicles, which every one is talking about.  

In point of fact, you would be probably be safer in such an airliner.  

What is going on?  

It’s similar to Disclosure.  Wouldn’t we like to know who is in charge?  I would, and I don’t think I’m that unusual.  Do you?  

But, when I tell Ron that I would like to be able to talk to whoever is in charge of Disclosure, he says that I’ll just have to talk to myself.

So be it.  So what?  

That and $4.75.......

Disclosure is not going to be imposed upon us.  Disclosure will be from us, by us and for us.  That is why the President cannot be in charge of Disclosure.  That is why the Pope cannot be in charge of Disclosure.  

But, somebody has to be in charge, for the same reason there has to be a Captain of a ship.  Oh, captain, my captain.......?

Why me, Lord.........

There likely is a list.  I was on a list.  The list has been around for quite a while, and my number finally came up.  

And, furthermore, along with smitty, we also got chicken little..... we also got a MoAPS.  

Love me, love my MoAPS.  Try explaining that to AP.  

So, nothing to fear about smitty...... if chicken little is all wet, I’ll be the least of your worries.  

Just think of Disclosure as a ship...... and I’m a captain who loves nothing more that to hang out in the Disclosure Cafe, on Deck 6.  What better place is there for me to be, I ask you?  At the White House?  I don’t think so.  You might ask Ron about that option.  


11:20.......

So, Disclosure is both natural and personal...... kinda like death.  

But, fear not........

Disclosure is just our Retirement Party.  

What we have to look forward to are our Golden Years.  

How many ‘golden’ years do we get.......?  

Hey, just as many as we want...... say, a thousand years, but that’s just a suggestion.  

When our time is up, we are going to get the ride of our lives...... right into Eternity.  

And, if you like this show so much, you get to go around again.  

How many times.....?  ... just as many times as you like.  Evidently, a lot of folks enjoy the ride.  Can we blame them?  

These are some of the fringe benefits of a small world..... ‘benes’, we call them.  

Yes, I understand that many of you had been looking forward to taking a joy ride on a flying carpet around a much bigger world.  Well, we have an amusement park constructed, with just you in mind.  We call it the Hive, and the tickets are free.  

In fact, the Princess is handing them out, as I speak....... first come, first serve...... hurry, hurry..... I believe that Kevin was among the very first customers. He got in on the ground floor, so to speak. His preliminary report has already been written. I can hardly wait to see it. I just have to pay for its proper ‘encapsulation’...... loose lips..... you know......


Any other questions......?  



(cont......)

Yes, Disclosure is a ship where I’m the alleged captain.  

Disclosure is also a Donkey.  Sunspot is the stick, and I’m the carrot....... hee haw.

I just had a talk with the Disclosure donkey...... does it look like I care, the donkey wants to know.

dan wrote:
Back to Sunspot........

As it stands, Ron wishes to ascribe a crucial role to me, in the closure of the Sunspot portal...... which, as of now, is the most reasonable explanation for the Sunspot incident.  

If I am to piece things together, this was an unauthorized portal opening...... an ‘illegal’ opening.  But there is no law on the books concerning the operation of such a ‘pirate’ portal.  That’s why Ron had to get involved..... to keep things off the books.  

To my understanding, only the Princess has the authority to open portals..... for purposes of Disclosure.  Sunspot was in her blind spot..... like we were being blindsided.  

I seem to be a de facto member of her portal committee.  

Nevertheless, we cannot just ignore Sunspot.  Someone was sending someone else a message.  Maybe I was inadvertently sending a message to Ron and the Princess....... come on, folks, time’s a wasting.  Let’s get with the Disclosure program, Princess.  

In point of fact, they are getting with the Program.  I may be the main one who is foot dragging..... nothing like playing both sides of Disclosure Avenue.

Kevin is waiting upon me to fund an encapsulation program for his Disclosure document.  There was concern that AP might try to horn in, and then sidetrack Disclosure.  

It is slightly ironic that AP is the one who alerted me to Sunspot.  It’s just that AP is dead set against the BPWH.  He is dead set against our personal relationship with God......bless his heart.  

dan - rumor has it that several earth based sun observatories all went offline around the same time. perhaps this isn't a portal event at all, but instead a coordinated effort to have us all not see something on or near the sun? the subject observatory being one of the few that broadcasts a view of the sun live in real time, so a more urgent target for those wishing to conceal. if there is something to see, i suppose we'll see it soon enough. after all, this is the best possible world isn't it?

jofo,

As long as we agree that this is the BPW, many possibilities arise.  

Tell us, what would you suggest there be, near the Sun?


Someone has suggested that we take a look at Stranger Things..... there might be some parallels.  


Conversation with the disclosure donkey........

It was suggested that donkeys tend to be very intelligent...... more intelligent that horses and humans, and that’s what makes them so stubborn, when it comes to taking directions from humans.

Humans often don’t even know what’s good for them...... so donkeys do a lot of hoof dragging, when under their instructions.  

Donkeys have a very good memory..... extending back at least twenty five years.  

I asked if donkeys can see the future.  

I asked if there were any deadlines, relative to Disclosure.  

I did not get a clear answer.  That’s about as far as the conversation went.  

Any suggestions for future conversations?
............


I think I can answer one of my own questions........

Of course, there are retirement guidelines, but for the purposes of the present discussion, the main issue is the planning of the retirement party.  We don’t want to schedule the retirement until we have planned the party.  We don’t need to know the individual place settings, but it would be nice to know the entertainment options, for instance, and how many are to be invited to the event itself.  

What sort of event will it be?  Will Kevin be invited to make his own presentation?  Will Joe?  Should there be somebody from Suspot?  


Oh, and, by the way, this particular donkey happens to be smart as whip...... just sayin’.....

In this regard, I would point out that ufologists have always wanted Disclosure to happen yesterday.  

Why did it not happen yesterday?  If you want it to happen tomorrow, I think the donkey will want to know why it didn’t already happen.  

Of course, you can blame the delay on the Coverup.  But that is not a complete answer.  We can think of many ways that Disclosure might have been delayed.  

The real question is not ‘how’, but ‘why’.

For some of you, that might be a trick question.  


5:30........

A post by hobbit on the other thread led me to the following Ted talk by Jim Holt, on my favorite subject....... https://www.ted.com/talks/jim_holt_why_does_the_universe_exist?language=en

It only has two million views. It was given in 2014.



(cont......)

Some of the things you're saying right now are really resonating for me Dan.

For what it's worth

Thank you

I could retire tomorrow, and it might eventually turn out to be a small world after all.  

If that were to transpire, then Disclosure has already happened.  

Will everyone be disappointed?  Almost...... but no one will ever figure out, convincingly, how it could have been done any better.  That’s as near as we’ll come to the BPW.  It’s nothing to write home about, but we will be able to talk about it.  

Maybe I’ll get to talk about it on Grant’s show next month.  

And AP may turn out to have been an instigator.  Buddy claimed a bird name the other day, something innocuous like sparrow.  I think he might need two names....... canary and mothmann.  


12:45.............

At the end of the day, only consciousness will matter.   Consciousness suffers paradigms and gestalts...... only the gestalts will matter.  We’re not too sure who is in the details.  In the End, all of us will turn out to have a finger in every pie.  


I was also talking to Doug...... he might be working on a musical production.  

What’s the bottom line, Doug wanted to know..........

I’m sticking with identity.  

We are the measurers and namers.   Is it all semantics?  Maybe it is.  

Animals get by just fine, and they don’t have to go around naming stuff.  Schrödinger’s cat.......?  Maybe not so much.

The only real phenomenon is an observed phenomenon......says John Wheeler.  

And how many angels can dance on the head of an observation....?

Maybe seven billion of us.  

Why is there something rather than nothing?  We think we know nothing, but what is something?  It’s not so easy to say.  

What is it for something to exist?  To exist, you have to stand out from something else.  An object needs a subject.  

I met Geoffrey Chew..... way back.  He invented bootstrap theory. It comes out of quantum theory, and it tells you that everything is made from everything else...... you can see it with the simplest Feynman diagram, depending on which way you hold it...... S(scattering)-matrix theory, as it is also known.  

That’s what the world is....... a subject-object bootstrap.  Where everything is both subject and object.  We are the simplest possible bootstrap, which also happens to be the best possible bootstrap.  

This is also the geocentric Anthropic Principle..... aka. small world hypothesis.  This is the only hypothesis which will make a lick of sense, in the end.  It will take a while to catch on.  That catching on is also the WoM/MoAPS..... word of mouth Disclosure..... no (sleeping) dogs allowed.  

All we have to understand is that an observer is an essential feature of any bootstrap.  People wonder who created the Creator.  It’s the same bootstrap...... just seen from the other end, but there is no end, just an eschaton...... where subject and object switch roles, historically speaking.  

Yes, sports fans, Creator/Creation turns out to be a Möbius strip.  The Hive is on the other side, until it’s on our side..... just ask the Queen mother about portal entanglement.  Ask Bohr about his explicate/implicate order.  Ask about the Ouroboros. We are all one thing...... folded in upon itself.  

This is just self contained pantheism = small world (personal) panentheism.  It is not rocket science.  It’s not easy for folks with big heads to walk through this portal..... this eye of a needle.  

If you’re head is too full of facts...... there are two things you can do......

1)  you can empty your head with meditation..... and/or...

2)  you can turn your facts into Coherence (CohTT).  

Either way, you end up in the same place.  


2:20........

When you run your head into a brick wall, you’re liable to get a bump on your head.  That’s a sure sign that your head is too full of facts.  

You can meditate for five minutes, and walk through the wall..... I’ve seen it in the movies..... you are a virtuoso meditator.... or you are a visitor..... no difference.  

Me?  Hey, don’t worry.  As Ron says, I could talk my way through any wall.  Actually, I just reason why the wall is there, and deal with it accordingly...... kinda like the Disclosure wall..... just ask smelly.  


Astronomy is very beautiful, elaborate theory of how Atlas holds up the sky.   Atlas holds up the sky, and we hold down the Earth...... or is it vice versa?  Ultimately, it’s all cycles within cycles.  Ask the folks at Sunspot.  Was it child pornography..... or something else?  Sex makes the world go around, they say.  




(cont.......)

no one believes the sunspot event was child porn related, do they?

do you believe that Dan?

do you think it is possible that multiple solar observatories all went down coincidentally?

the probability would be extraordinarily low, don't you think?

i'm no conspiracy theorist but one can't ignore the math, the pragmatics.

any form of disclosure is a portal event, dont you agree?

when i first joined this forum i asked a question; what is the purpose of a portal?

if not a metaphor for experience that results in a self-truth, then what?

still trying to figure that one out...

or it could be due to this...

“The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a storm watch for a G2-level solar storm on Sept. 11.” Six more solar cameras were shut down across the world, in places including Australia, Spain, Chile, two in Hawaii, and one in Pennsylvania."

however, the best source i know for observing sun events is at suspicousobservers.com

i listen to their 5min news update on space weather almost daily, an awesome source of sun centric information

they make no mention of solar flares that are a threat to earth during the period of the sunspot closure

jofo,

I ask the Princess almost every day what a portal is.  She ought to know.... Kevin ought to know.  Kevin has written a lengthy paper about it.  He’s supposed to send it to me..... encapsulated.  

I remain convinced, however, that we won’t understand portals until we understand how/why we might be living in one.  I think I might understand the big question, but, still, I cannot answer your smaller question.  

It has something to do with entanglement.  I would not be able to think such thoughts if the Princess and Foot were not holding my hand, which is just a form of entanglement.  

We’ll never prove if it was a dope ring or a portal ring on Sacramento peak, but the portal of mystery has been left ajar for us..... quite deliberately, I would say.  And that’s all that really matters, in the End, isn’t it?

That’s exactly what the Princess is able to do for me, personally.  Sacramento is just small potatoes.  I can hug the Princess, but I can’t hug Sacramento..... big difference.  

The Princess is an artist.  She was out painting on her back deck.  Any good painting is a portal..... any good song.  Doug does both.   He is friends with the Princess.  

Portals are personal.... they are private..... and I have loose lips.  That’s a limitation of my job.  

A portal draws us into it...... when we are ready, which is a lot like love.  We can’t storm the gates of heaven.  It will be there when we need it.  This is Disclosure...... sorry.  We know what we need to know..... when we need to.  Is this a question of national security?  No.  It’s global security.  


5:10..........

Trust me, folks, when I say I have a very poor memory.  And I apologize to my philosopher friends for being so forgetful of philosophy.  

I’m blaming it all on the Princess..... the forgetting and the remembering.  When we meet ourselves (again?) we will know ourselves for the first time.  

It was an idea, always on the fringes, until Brentano brought it front and center, well over a century ago.  

It’s what mind is all about.  We are to be.  Mind is to be...about...... something.... anything.... everything.  

Animals think things.  We think about things.  

By the way, I’d stay away from the SEP on intentionality.  It is unduly convoluted, and reminds me why I would never take up philosophy..... a tremendous burden on any mind.  The BPWH is about traveling light.  You can go a lot further, if you pack light.  

And if you look at intentionality the wrong way, it will get you believing in mind as mere representation.  

There is this fork in the road with intentionality........ toward either direct or indirect perception..... it is a crucial distinction.  

I am going to need to resolve this issue in my own mind, before I dive in.  I don’t want to dive into the wrong end.

The idea of intentionality is what naming and measuring are about.

The notion of direct perception seems at odds with the notion of thinking about something...... that would be indirection..... representation.

We may blame intentionality on our separation from nature..... similar to the separation we ascribe to a Creator.  

It’s very true that we destroy the world with our (good?) intentions. Our path to hell is paved, thusly.

The Wiccan’s coven is surely in intentional community, as hobbit might agree, sometimes for opening a portal.  

Animals have colonies.  Is not a bee hive an intentional community?  No more, I would say, than is a city.  

If we perceive directly, we perceive essences, even be they individual essences. We brush away the superficial. Personality traits may, or may not be essential to an individual person. There are degrees, of course.


(cont......)

Ok, let’s try this again........

Allow me please to back off a bit from intentionality, which could be placed along side normativity, as the hallmark of the human mind.  These two topics have been too thoroughly reworked as the hobby horses of philosophers of mind..... ie. they have been analyzed nearly to death.  

Instead, let’s return to the theory of Nothing.......

We have more or less concluded that nothingness and square circles are impossible.  But, wait, what about all that empty space out there?  

Time and space are illusions.  

This is why I put very little stock into the ETH.

Anyway, we don’t need to worry about nothing(ness).

So, goody, we can start worrying about something. smelly knows how much I love to worry.......

What is the minimal something.....?

How about a universe composed of one rock?

Why universe? What’s a universe about, anyway? Why not just a rock? Herein, hangs a tale, I do believe......... the greatest story ever told. You can see why academics might shy away.


(cont.......)

dan wrote:

no (sleeping) dogs allowed.

(cont.......)

Dan,
Who are the "sleeping dogs" that you have to be wary of during disclosure?

cw,

If you don’t know who they are, you’re probably one of them.

By definition, the universe: all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.

This demands explanation in any SWH:

Why universe? What’s a universe about, anyway? Why not just a rock? Herein, hangs a tale, I do believe......... the greatest story ever told. You can see why academics might shy away.

One might, for example, explain the expansion of the universe by analogy to the expanding visual landscape in a video game simulation: it is out there because we are looking in that direction.