And What Are They Not? Open letter to Russell Brand, regarding a video (linked below) titled, Dualism vs Monism EXPLAINED! Russell, who the hell are you interviewing?! The guy is clearly talking out of his ass. (Sorry for my directness and occasional bluntness. I was heavily influenced by Chomsky, Trungpa
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Writings of J. Todd Ring: Science, mysticism and enlightenment: or, the use and abuse of language
Will the real new age please stand up? “Castaneda’s popularity made him the subject of a TIME magazine cover story, published on 5th March 1973 (Vol. 101 No. 10). In her article “Don Juan and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, TIME correspondent Sandra Burton described Castaneda as “an enigma wrapped in a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Create Good Thought Loops for Critical Thinking
How we engage the world around literally shapes how our brains work; therefore changing how we interact with reality can alter how we think. As humans we create pathways in our brains both physically and mentally which gives us our heuristic approach to the world around us. We can alter
Continue readingcartoon life: His mind has always been free
So many of the images I’ve seen about the death of Stephen Hawking are basically about the wheelchair, and how now his body is free. I think it’s a bit of low hanging fruit really, compassionate, easy to grasp, literal, christian imagery. I think they all miss a deeper point,
Continue readingPostArctica: Dissolving Clouds
Came across this and began to wonder… If I could do it too… So today I dissolved some clouds using only the powers of my mind. It took longer than I thought it would.
Continue readingLeDaro: Stephen Harper, Primer Minister of Canada has lost his mind
If you find it please return it to 24 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Canada.
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought
I am currently reading Philosophy in the Flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Authored by Cognitive Scientists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, this book asks 1) What do major lines of Western philosophical thought assume about the mind? 2) What has cognitive science learned about the
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Don’t We All Hear Voices? A Mindfulness-Informed View of Schizophrenia and the “Normal” Mind
The hallmark of schizophrenia is perceiving things that are not there. Auditory hallucinations, including “hearing voices”, is particularly common. What if this clinically distinguishing feature of schizophrenia differs from the cognitively distinguishing feature? What if, cognitively speaking, what distinguishes schizophrenia is not the presence of voices, but rather how one
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Is belief in God a choice?
The following satirical video, “Gay Scientists Isolate Christian Gene”, pokes fun at the concept of a “gay gene” and religious opposition to homosexuality. The proportion of people who believe that homosexuality is chosen is decreasing. That’s not to imply that homosexuality is the phenotype expressed by a “gay gene”. Just
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: This New Year’s, Resolve to Stop Chasing Happiness
Many wisdom traditions encourage a path or process orientation rather than a destination or product orientation to living well. Happiness makes for a poor goal. It’s not particularly well-defined. What is happiness? How much happiness is enough to be happy with – to not eventually be let down by? The
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