Muffled Arguments from Deepak Chopra's Asshole

God, I hope he smothers up there.

I have mixed feelings about HuffPo. I am a little suspicious of Ariana because of her sordid, by which I mean conservative, past. On an earlier incarnation of The Daily Show, with "the Craiggers," I believe, I seem to remember an election-year skit called "Strange Bedfellows" which put Al Franken in bed with Ariana Huffington. Al was, well, Al, and Ariana was, well, evil. But now she is the liberal crusader? I think she's confused.

And then there is the mysterious success of Deepak Chopra, a man of zero talents and therefore negligable, if not outright negative, social value. I see his books in the B&N and think, who are the bozos who read this, and where can I corner them and give them a right talking to?

When these two forces collide, you have a perfect storm of stupid.

Take for instance today's contribution to the detritus pile of Chopra's inexplicable career. It's called "Why the Paranormal is Normal," the title of which would be worth a kick up Deepak's backside if his head weren't already clogging the poop chute.

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Polls routinely show that 75 percent of Americans hold some form of belief in the paranormal such as astrology, telepathy and ghosts. All religions contain beliefs in the supernatural. Is there a link? What's the difference?

Yes. Irrational beliefs arise at the junction of ignorance, wishful thinking, incuriousness, and gullibility. And incuriousness should really be a word.

In general, it's fair to say that the popular belief in the paranormal falls outside the official picture of reality. The official picture is grounded in science, rationalism, and materialism. It takes a definition of "natural," after all, before "supernatural" can exist.

What the fuck does that even mean? Having read ahead, I feel the following guiding statement is worth bearing in mind: "That which is real exists regardless of whether or not I am aware of it, believe in it, or understand it. If it can't potentially be discovered by anyone and independently confirmed by others, it is not real."

God was natural in the medieval world, and thus miracles, healings, apparitions of the Virgin Mary, stigmatics, and so on, were considered natural.

No. This is just...wanktardedly ridonkulous. If they were "natural" or quotidian, they wouldn't be miracles, now, would they?

At the moment, it doesn't matter how many people believe in the supernatural. Until the official picture changes, astrology is bogus, astronomy is legitimate.

No. Until astrology allows us to predict ANYTHING it purports to it is bogus. Bogus and improbable and goofy.

Ghosts are bogus, apparitions of the Virgin Mary are -- well, that's the rub. Religious people are allowed to cling to a different model of reality, tolerated by the official gatekeepers but not believed in. This gives rise to the curious phenomenon of religious scientists, who manage to hold on to two totally conflicting worldviews at the same time.

I can safely say that apparitions of the Virgin are completely bogus. For instance, today I was working in the library and I was looking at some fake woord paneling. I wondered whether or not I could find the Blessed Virgin in there somewhere. And all I needed was to see an almond-shaped symmetrical knot in the grain and HOLY SHIT IT WAS THE VIRGIN!!! Please.

Any of us can hold conflicting viewpoints at the same time -- it's called compartmentalization.

George Orwell called it "doublethink." I am not entirely convinced, Tupac, that you have even one viewpoint. But please, I digress.

If the various compartments are tight enough and separated by thick walls, a whole range of phenomena can be believed in without making them consistent. I can imagine a cell biologist who is Catholic, has seen a UFO, reads the astrology column in the newspaper, and hopes to go to Heaven when he dies.

I can imagine a paper airplane filled with ants smoking reefer and playing bocce ball.

It would be far better, however, to promote a consistent worldview, one that allows the walls to come down so that official reality might open up to unofficial reality.
There are not ranks of reality, you really rank...I can't think of a word right now, but it would have been nasty. Oh yesssss. Naaaaaasty.

And vice versa, since popular belief in certain kinds of totally unproven folk cures, for example, can do harm, just as the official insistence on pharmaceuticals and surgery does its own brand of harm at times.

What in the name of Shatner's trousers are you talking about? Of course, vetted pharmaceuticals and surgery have fairly predictable outcomes, moreso than untested woo folk remedies. You are comparing apples and...tumors.

The only consistent worldview that I've ever discovered places all phenomena, natural and supernatural, on the ground of consciousness. The noted Australian neurologist Sir John Eccles pointed out a truth that materialists, including both scientists and ordinary people, don't remotely grasp. There is no sight or sound 'out there' in the world, Eccles declared, no touch or taste, no beauty or ugliness, no sensation of light or objects. All these things are created in subjectivity, which is to say, they exist only in consciousness.

Woah. Could I buy some pot from you?

The fact that your hand seems solid is an illusion.

Dude! Dude! You are blowing my fucking mind! Wait, so like, what if our world is like an atom in the finger of like a giant being, and like an atom on my finger is a tiny little world? Oh, man, that's trippy! Let's get a pizza.

A neutrino passes through the entire Earth without encountering an obstacle. Every atom in your hand is 99.9999% empty space. Measured in proportion, the distance between the electrons and nucleus of an atom is greater than the distance between the Earth and the sun.

DON'T TOUCH ME!! I'M REALLY FREAKING OUT HERE! Gotta get out of these clothes. They are so tight. They are suffocating! Oh, help me get them off, DON'T TOUCH ME!!

At the next level of reality, atoms disappear into energy waves and then into pure potential, the ghostly state of so-called virtual reality. Only perception makes a hand solid. and perceptions are interlinked to create the world you and I inhabit, so that color, light, sound, smell, solidity, etc. all fit together.

I can't order a pizza, dude. If I call..they'll know, man, they'll just fucking KNOW!

In my view, paranormal events are neither fringe nor unreal. They are simply things not yet admitted into consciousness by our official belief system.

Where'd I put that gun? That's right. I hid it in the baby's crib. BRB

Reality has this curious habit of keeping certain things under wraps until the human mind is willing to look at them, and then all at once they appear, changing the world when they do. Germs and gravity were once waiting in the wings but now stand center stage.

Because remember when we were all floating around until Newton noticed that if things could, like, drop, stuff'd be like so much easier?

In ancient India, astrology was center stage and now has retreated again, for the coming and going of phenomena works both ways.

Which of course is why they call it coming and going. God, it's like a Beckett play, but weird.

Even so, consciousness never retreats.

Sometimes, intelligence fails to emerge.

In the darkest ages, people know that they are aware, and from that basic premise they create a personal reality, and when enough individuals agree, then collective reality comes about.

You could just as well be describing mass hysteria or delusion. So, like the National Socialist reality was just a valid alternative, ding-dong? How many people is enough for a reality to appear? God, your version of reality is so dilute that it's like homeopathic reality.

Trying to base common reality sheerly on material objects has been wildly successful in the West, but that means little about ultimate reality, which transcends individuals and groups.

"...I say this with all the of the authority of someone capable of asserting things."

In the ultimate reality there is only pure consciousness, which can be conceived of as the modeling clay or box of paints that Nature provides, adding the simple instruction: Use as you please.

"...Or not. Whatever."

Fail. Mr. Chopra, see me after class.

HJ