Just returned from my morning walk … experienced an epiphany … a bit early since the Feast of the Epiphany is tomorrow.
I’m a theist and have consistently understood/expressed my unusual experience(s) of the past 25 years in religious/spiritual terms. While I remain a theist … this morning I came to see these same unusual experience(s) nested in the realm of science … the very recently discovered science … the science of neurons, neuron pathways, neuron circuitry and neuron plasticity … NP&C. A convergence of science and religion/spirituality.
Yesterday, in this thread I wrote … “neurons slip off the rails so to speak”.
Today, my thinking has matured some … neurons don’t slip off the rails … rather an individual’s mind NP&C ruptures … the image of a train wreck comes to mind … an extension of my “slip off the rails” metaphor.
Mags … if you are reading this … I’m reminded of the picture you posted of an old rusted, delapidated, non functional train … attempting to explain your personal experience with a NP&C rupture.
The event referred to above as a rupture is universally known … witnessed by the emergence and proliferation of psychology, psychiatry and mind altering chemicals in the past century, as remedies for ruptures within the human mind … remedies for abrupt disturbances of well established individual NP&C.
Biblical narratives that conform to known science are much more credible. For example, the Biblical Narrative of John the Baptist. The story implies that John abandoned his former community … comfort zone … and adopted an extremely harsh lifestyle in the desert. This story fits with a NP&C rupture. Abandoning one’s former ECO system is required in order for the new and emerging NP&C to take hold and grow. Remaining in the former ECO system the new and emerging NP&C would almost certainly snap back to the former state. As a matter of fact psychologists and psychiatrists attempt to facilitate this “snap back” action.
My personal experience confirms this fact … until today I explained the above science as temptation. I now realize there is no such thing as temptation … only NP&C’s competing within a single mind.
Another interesting aspect of the Biblical Narrative of John the Baptist is that once a new NP&C has taken root in a small community of minds … aka … the Essenes … it can not be snuffed out by man. In their attempts to snuff it out they killed John … later killed Jesus … later killed the followers of Jesus. After a couple hundred years of killing they turned to a new strategy … put your arms around your enemy … embrace them and manipulate/exploit this new NP&C for your personal agenda. Almost two thousand years later this strategy no longer works so well … what is the alternative?
Back to NP&C and rupture.
As mentioned above … NP&C ruptures have occurred across time and space since the beginning of time … ergo … a natural phenomenon.
OTH begs the question … can a NP&C rupture be precipitated by man?
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In the case of an individual? … absolutely … countless examples throughout human history.
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In the case of a group of people? … absolutely … mob psychology/behavior. Riot psychology/behavior is simply mob psychology/behavior on a larger scale.
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On a massive scale? … we are about to find out. The current obsession with AI and robotics can only be explained by an anticipated or planned … which one is irrelevant … massive disruption of humanity’s NP&C’s.