When I was very young I would make up stories instead of saying "I don't know" because I had correctly observed that the adults would get angry when I said "I don't know". At some point I got tired of spinning yarns because they'd get mad about that as well. Finding out that it was a lot more amusing for myself to say "I don't know" or "I don't care" worked much better. I can lie with a straight face if it suits me but for the most part "I don't know" is my go to when I don't know
I guess I was lucky in that regard. My parents tried to raise me to be a critical thinker, and to be a critical thinker, you have to admit when you don't know. They are atheists who were both raised in religious households, and they wanted their children to be comfortable with not knowing so we wouldn't end up joining whatever predatory cults in order to get answers.
Ah, well my parents were deeply religious. Funny thing about that they have both been deeply reading the Bible in their old age and are asking troubling questions about what they have always believed. I’m past all that already
Yeah I was never there in the first place. Since I was never indoctrinated, I never had the sacred glasses on when reading the bible and I just saw it as another book. I feel sorry for your parents. They have invested a significant amount of time, energy, and money into their religion, only to find out near the end of their lives that they've been following a lie.
In fairness to his parents, no one knows what will happen when we die. To say that they are following a lie without the knowledge to be able to say that with certainty is a bit unreasonable. I am not religious, and I am the first to say, I have no idea what happens when we die, and I don't need to know. When I get there, I will find out. However, there is just as much of a chance for utter blackness and the end of our energy as there is for the God that they believe in to be waiting. We simply do not and cannot know.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the possibility of there being a god is wrong, I'm saying that the bible is wrong. Those are two separate things. After all the events in the bible of talking animals, world wide floods, virgin births, people being turned into pillars of salt, and people rising from the dead, I think it's pretty reasonable for me to put the bible in the same category as greek mythology.
Well, the bible comes from a long set of documents originally written in Hebrew. To say that they are "wrong" is to come to the rather dramatic idea that for some reason hundreds and hundreds of cultures in the past just made up the information. There are many, many other historical documents that were not included in the bible. The larger set of documents includes a lot more information.
It is ironic that you are calling out people that believe in the bible as emotional thinkers. But you have nothing but your own emotional preference to state that it is not true.
That's difficult for someone to experience in old age.
There was a guy who did a lot of research into the bible, used to be a theological teacher at the Vatican, and he decided that the Old Testament is not about god but about extra terrestrials. That the whole thing is about different Extra Terrestrial groups fighting for territory and followers amongst each other.
Which is why the old testament has statements about Yahweh breathing fire, having a huge wingspan, and disappearing virgins and things. There are also numerous veiled statements against Yahweh by Jesus in the New Testament.
The guys name is Paul Wallis if you wanted to check it out.
hey. As always, well written and calming post: Thanks.
Can you remember if the adults were already mad? Before their various questions and inquires, were they already mad?
For abusers, children's reply is never good enough. Abusers aren't actually trying.
Think about your own self: Can you imagine talking to a child? Maybe a friend's kid or something? And you get angry or mad? LOL. Because they told you "I don't know"!!
Might as well get mad at my dog. Or the little toad that hopped on by in the rain!!
"... pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame." -Uncle Iroh, 'Avatar the Last Airbender'
This is the quote that came to my mind while reading this article. I know you can't feel shame or pride but those are the emotions associated driving this behaviour. Humility is not exactly something that is easy to learn. Hell look at history and all the peoples who believed they were the original people, or the chosen people, or the most advanced people, and look at all the ideologies used to justify those beliefs.
I feel like the whole, "I can't be wrong" phenomenon is a form of pride. It can also be due to fear of the unknown but that's my secondary hypothesis.
No, I was not able to process what those two comments were talking about. If I were to recall them from my memory it would be like describing a dream. What is this person talking about?
I wonder if it is pride, or fear. It is one thing to believe that they cannot be wrong because they are somehow better, but is quite another to believe that being wrong will result in being removed from the group that lends to their survival overall. I wonder how much is the current, "Me me me," mentality mixed with the ancient, "Please don't abandon me", mentality that is hardwired into the brain.
I think it might be both. People are proud of the groups they're a part of. Being a part of their group makes them special. They don't want to be kicked out because not only will they lose means of survival, but they'll also lose that special status. It's narcissism on a societal level, and it has been happening since the dawn of man. The we is me.
Athena, I just got blocked of liking the comment just below. Likely some limit of daily or total reading the article and comments.
LOL- Now: Chronic Boredom.
I generally do not know how to react when someone says "I am so bored".
In the sense of "whose fault is that?" or "what does that have to do with me?" Take care of it yourself, silly person.
IF you do write about this, could you provide how it is that a person of any brain type could experience this?
It seems it is common for some people to state:
"I am so bored"
To me, RED FLAG a warning to stay away from this person.
The last thing I want is someone thinking they are not responsible for their own selves. And worse: Thinking I might have some role to play in them not experiencing boredom.
I would say there might be even genuine conviction that "I can figure it out like when I look at math equation" and I that can be bolstered by fear of unknown. We want to be sure we can explain things, we can provide working model that gets us through things, even if it shouldn't be perfect, but at least good enough to not sink.
Also Dunning-Kruger effect is a thing.
And then there is special category of events that falls under comforting, we do not know how to fix the situation so we look for something that maybe could make it hurt less.
By the way I was to a lecture where there was postulated that part of resistance to challenging new information comes from the fact that it costs brain more energy to restructure itself than to stick to already formed routes.
I often tried to tell people an opinion I have, that answering a question factually when you don't know the answer, especially if you KNOW you don't know, is a form of lying. But most people do not agree with me. They think as long as they believed it was most likely and they tried their best to help you, it's not lying. I say that's wrong.
You can remind these people of the relatively trivial example of someone who has been asked for directions just making something up to cover their embarrassment at not really knowing. It's hard to argue that inconveniencing the asker just to protect a flimsy ego is at all legitimate. In higher stakes situations, it's even worse.
It's human nature to want to have an opinion, help out, predict etc but there are so many verbal ways of flagging all degrees of uncertainty and being as tentative as necessary.
It is a form of misleading another if it is not predicated with a statement that makes it clear that is is supposition on their part, not a factual response. I have seen people extrapolate information correctly based on context, but I have seen just as many make an incorrect assumption and present it as fact.
WoW!!! TY- So cool vid!! Couldn't believe it, like a gag reel that went on and on!! I'm laughing so hard!! By Expression "I don't know" likely thanks up more film time, than other expression in that series!! Rock on! TY for fun laugh
You are more tolerant than I. I don't think I even got halfway through those two gigantic run-on sentence comments you cited before I just gave up. I would have reported them for being poorly written. Most probably, I would have used the term "word salad" in my report. I might also have characterized it explicitly as disinformation about people with psychopathy. But all that said, I most probably would have treated the comments as harassment and blocked and muted the person. I run a pretty tight ship in my comment sections, and I admit to being proud of that :P
I did end up blocking her, which is what prompted her apparent need to disparage me and/or my writing to anyone she possibly could. What that accomplished, I have no idea.
I am also rather liberal blocker. I simply have no time for the ranting of another. Concise questions? Sure. Insults that are shrouded in the idea of conversation? Not too likely, but maybe. Outright beginning the comment with, "You're wrong because stereotype!" Very high likely hood of blocking. Straight fantasy or intended insult without an argument. Reported, deleted, and blocked.
Is amazing how I lost at a job interview because I didn't use those words "I don't know" when I did know but misunderstood he question and gave the wrong answer that should have been factually correct and it was but I missed an inversion in the question (no, it wasn't a trick... my ears were not attuned to a heavy British accent.). So I learned something and did not get that job.
It would be nice, especially for psychology, if we were able to communicate, quantify, and Make statistical studies of introspective data. I wrote a sci-fi short on how that might happen. It still would not solve the faintness of the feelings I do experience or the attraction to/bonding with others that I don't experience. (despite those lacks, I was married for a while, but my partner chose drinking over family. I was bonded because I chose to act bonded, and I am happy with my job of single-parenting).
There is a time when the beliefs and structure of axiomatic notions can be important regardless of the correspondence of those beliefs and notions to objective reality (and I don't know if I have a firm grasp on objective reality myself). That is when I have a subject who wants to change in some way he/she regards as a self-improvement. Then I enter his/her world and phrase suggestions in his/her terms. The results seem to speak for themselves, where it is possible to assess those results in terms of changed behavior.
The story I wrote is available here: Yeah, what I know about bonding for real, I got from watching the behavior of wolves and tundra swans in the far north, so it may have serious flaws, but if you want to flame it, I probably deserve to be flamed for writing about something I will NEVER know at a feeling level. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A9cdSsCFYK4XpnwstB0-zndt2Rk1xHLqEfKqKDGUh9Q/edit?usp=sharing
Masterful job, Athena. As much as I am capable of love, I love to read your posts
Writing is as much an exploration of ideas as it is a convenance of those idea to others. Writing something that isn't necessarily based in facts isn't so much the issue. Rewriting the world to conform to those ideas, on the other hand, is where the problem can arise.
Yes, this infuriates me as well. It is one of the unusual benefits of low status that people don't expect you to know things.
But, one thing I find annoying, at least I used to until I achieved the level of solitude I now enjoy. Is that people assumed my emotions and sometimes this had very toxic effects. I remember someone I went to great lengths to explain my emotions to. That I would not be able to express nice cookie cutter expressions like the person wanted, my emotions are hard to access, I tend to start to understand how I feel about someone after meeting them no less than a year after meeting them, when the dreams and meditations start to seep through. Before that they are pieces on a chess board. I have a literal mental health condition I have been hospitalised for.
Then they assumed my emotions again exactly as they had before. I got angry, or more correctly, I more strongly stated my case that it was not useful the person keep doing this; it is annoying dealing with someone with all the empathy of a reptile who keeps telling you your emotions, and then the person got very, very upset. This lead into very distressing areas for the individual, I have no problem cutting people off. The experience encouraged me to further refine the "protocols" in a sense I use to keep people at arms length and knowing when to withdraw from them.
The thing is, like you indicate, reality does not bend to anothers will no matter how insistent they are. No matter how arrogantly they believe they are right. To use a religious analogy. Every Pharisee arrogantly believed they were right. If the behaviour of todays religious community was anything to go by, those pharisees genuinely believed they were right it was not an act. With the railing against reality comes consequence.
There's somewhat of an irony of you being one of the most lucid and relatable bloggers. I have seen a few blogs where the blog owner gets emotional or irrational in a way and things get really confusing.
Oh I started reading it. And I realized that I have actually read this one before. So I'm watching a documentary on this twin flames. Cold and it reminds me an awful lot like a cold called the group, which was a program for kids who are troubled like in the drugs and stuff and illegal activity, and the purpose of it was to keep them from getting in trouble but. It was wrong like a pyramid scheme
I would guess it is one of the two docs on the Twin Flame Universe, which is what the second post will be about. I watched both miniseries about it, and am interested in exploring the mentality of those attracted to a cult like this. It would be very easy to disregard the participants experience because to me it is quite silly, but obviously that isn't the case for them, so I am doing my best to understand the thought process.
I look forward to reading it! You might check out an author named Stephen Hassan. He developed the BITE model for determining whether an organization is a cult or not. I also used to follow The Telltale Atheist on YouTube who did videos on cults. He was very knowledgeable. I know that belief is like a drug. People say that they are in love with God and I believe that. I think it's a major dopamine hit. Religious behavior is sort of habitual too, so that's another thought. Given that, and the premise of being a Love Guru might make it very seductive. I've never seen the documentary , I'm just watching a video by a YouTuber named Sherrilyn Dale. Hope that helps!
Her video is what made me aware of the TwIn Flames Universe. Prior to that, all my awareness of the twin flames notion came from what I saw on Quora. It was baffling to me to see how detached people were from what they were doing to another person despite clear communication that their attention was unwanted.
I will check out the author and channel you suggested. Being in love with God is an idea that hadn't occurred to me. Fascinating concept, and one I have no understanding of the experience, let alone the draw.
I "used to" stalk people on Facebook well by "stalk" I mean follow obsessively. I never went out of my way to see them in person, never had the resources to do so. I eventually messed up by telling a random stranger about problems with my obsession and they sort of made my life hell for years. That's really where my gangstalking paranoia comes from.
Today, I have friends and a better understanding. I follow The Thinking Ape on YouTube who reminds me that relationships are transactional. I don't get anything out of obsessive stalking (I'm only telling you this because, it's my experience and it feels mildly conflicting but alright to share) anymore and I've compartmentalized and confronted my inner self (shadow) many times, continuously, psychoanalyzed ("Unf__k Your Brain", last book plug I swear) ad nauseum. The imagination is a powerful tool and it doesn't serve me to make others afraid of me. Simple.
As annoying as they they be, the ignorant know-it-alls and self-serving tricksters and people who generally seem to be antithetical to proper communication and consistently try to bend reality to suit their misguided feelings and selfish agendas - may actually have a valuable role in the larger picture, by exherting evolutionary pressure.
They force reasonable people - whom I define as the type who cares more about understanding the truth than owning it - to work around and through them, in pursuit of a clearer understanding of reality.
I argue the unreasonable types can be thus regarded as a handicap to humanity, but it's worthwhile to note that handicaps can also be valuable strategies when it comes to training and/or ramping skills.
Also, a glance at history shows these phenomena here described are seemingly timeless.
We have to thank these types for creating the mind-boggling friction, the presence of which necessitated massive breakthroughs such as the scientific revolution (which nowadays may well need a reboot, when we look at the replication crisis. Simply put, it appears as nowadays it's economy that holds hostage genuine scientific progress, in ways that draw many parallels to how religious institutions used to.... almost as if genuine scientific progress somehow posed a threat to the self-serving sovereignity of the powers that be.)
On that note Athena, why not give us an article on the replication crisis? I feel it could help shed further light on the issues here being scrutizined.
When I was very young I would make up stories instead of saying "I don't know" because I had correctly observed that the adults would get angry when I said "I don't know". At some point I got tired of spinning yarns because they'd get mad about that as well. Finding out that it was a lot more amusing for myself to say "I don't know" or "I don't care" worked much better. I can lie with a straight face if it suits me but for the most part "I don't know" is my go to when I don't know
Exactly. I find it rather presumptuous when people simply insist that I be all knowing. I don't know what I don't know.
I guess I was lucky in that regard. My parents tried to raise me to be a critical thinker, and to be a critical thinker, you have to admit when you don't know. They are atheists who were both raised in religious households, and they wanted their children to be comfortable with not knowing so we wouldn't end up joining whatever predatory cults in order to get answers.
Ah, well my parents were deeply religious. Funny thing about that they have both been deeply reading the Bible in their old age and are asking troubling questions about what they have always believed. I’m past all that already
Yeah I was never there in the first place. Since I was never indoctrinated, I never had the sacred glasses on when reading the bible and I just saw it as another book. I feel sorry for your parents. They have invested a significant amount of time, energy, and money into their religion, only to find out near the end of their lives that they've been following a lie.
In fairness to his parents, no one knows what will happen when we die. To say that they are following a lie without the knowledge to be able to say that with certainty is a bit unreasonable. I am not religious, and I am the first to say, I have no idea what happens when we die, and I don't need to know. When I get there, I will find out. However, there is just as much of a chance for utter blackness and the end of our energy as there is for the God that they believe in to be waiting. We simply do not and cannot know.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the possibility of there being a god is wrong, I'm saying that the bible is wrong. Those are two separate things. After all the events in the bible of talking animals, world wide floods, virgin births, people being turned into pillars of salt, and people rising from the dead, I think it's pretty reasonable for me to put the bible in the same category as greek mythology.
Well, the bible comes from a long set of documents originally written in Hebrew. To say that they are "wrong" is to come to the rather dramatic idea that for some reason hundreds and hundreds of cultures in the past just made up the information. There are many, many other historical documents that were not included in the bible. The larger set of documents includes a lot more information.
It is ironic that you are calling out people that believe in the bible as emotional thinkers. But you have nothing but your own emotional preference to state that it is not true.
Athena, thanks for speaking to that issue, of the parents.
Imagine looking at the children's photo of "Noah's Ark" and thinking: "Yep that is how it happened. Two Giraffes! One for every species."
I took it as a positive: questioning their beliefs, not as a lie, but to check themselves. This seems to me very admirable in all of us.
"I don't know"- Let this serve us well!!
That's difficult for someone to experience in old age.
There was a guy who did a lot of research into the bible, used to be a theological teacher at the Vatican, and he decided that the Old Testament is not about god but about extra terrestrials. That the whole thing is about different Extra Terrestrial groups fighting for territory and followers amongst each other.
Which is why the old testament has statements about Yahweh breathing fire, having a huge wingspan, and disappearing virgins and things. There are also numerous veiled statements against Yahweh by Jesus in the New Testament.
The guys name is Paul Wallis if you wanted to check it out.
Uh, my parents have been watching a ton of Ancient Aliens these days
hey. As always, well written and calming post: Thanks.
Can you remember if the adults were already mad? Before their various questions and inquires, were they already mad?
For abusers, children's reply is never good enough. Abusers aren't actually trying.
Think about your own self: Can you imagine talking to a child? Maybe a friend's kid or something? And you get angry or mad? LOL. Because they told you "I don't know"!!
Might as well get mad at my dog. Or the little toad that hopped on by in the rain!!
Thanks again!
"... pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame." -Uncle Iroh, 'Avatar the Last Airbender'
This is the quote that came to my mind while reading this article. I know you can't feel shame or pride but those are the emotions associated driving this behaviour. Humility is not exactly something that is easy to learn. Hell look at history and all the peoples who believed they were the original people, or the chosen people, or the most advanced people, and look at all the ideologies used to justify those beliefs.
I feel like the whole, "I can't be wrong" phenomenon is a form of pride. It can also be due to fear of the unknown but that's my secondary hypothesis.
No, I was not able to process what those two comments were talking about. If I were to recall them from my memory it would be like describing a dream. What is this person talking about?
I wonder if it is pride, or fear. It is one thing to believe that they cannot be wrong because they are somehow better, but is quite another to believe that being wrong will result in being removed from the group that lends to their survival overall. I wonder how much is the current, "Me me me," mentality mixed with the ancient, "Please don't abandon me", mentality that is hardwired into the brain.
I think it might be both. People are proud of the groups they're a part of. Being a part of their group makes them special. They don't want to be kicked out because not only will they lose means of survival, but they'll also lose that special status. It's narcissism on a societal level, and it has been happening since the dawn of man. The we is me.
Can you please write an article on how you cope with chronic boredom as a psychopath?
I can do that
Athena, I just got blocked of liking the comment just below. Likely some limit of daily or total reading the article and comments.
LOL- Now: Chronic Boredom.
I generally do not know how to react when someone says "I am so bored".
In the sense of "whose fault is that?" or "what does that have to do with me?" Take care of it yourself, silly person.
IF you do write about this, could you provide how it is that a person of any brain type could experience this?
It seems it is common for some people to state:
"I am so bored"
To me, RED FLAG a warning to stay away from this person.
The last thing I want is someone thinking they are not responsible for their own selves. And worse: Thinking I might have some role to play in them not experiencing boredom.
Nothing is in that for me.
Which comment?
the one from Zepiroth, just below: Jan 11 "Thank you so much..."
Name of your substack comes up with this message:
You are blocked from liking this comment
Thank you so much, I look forward to reading it!
I would say there might be even genuine conviction that "I can figure it out like when I look at math equation" and I that can be bolstered by fear of unknown. We want to be sure we can explain things, we can provide working model that gets us through things, even if it shouldn't be perfect, but at least good enough to not sink.
Also Dunning-Kruger effect is a thing.
And then there is special category of events that falls under comforting, we do not know how to fix the situation so we look for something that maybe could make it hurt less.
By the way I was to a lecture where there was postulated that part of resistance to challenging new information comes from the fact that it costs brain more energy to restructure itself than to stick to already formed routes.
That is an interesting hypothesis. I wonder if that is a fair bit of it as well
I often tried to tell people an opinion I have, that answering a question factually when you don't know the answer, especially if you KNOW you don't know, is a form of lying. But most people do not agree with me. They think as long as they believed it was most likely and they tried their best to help you, it's not lying. I say that's wrong.
You can remind these people of the relatively trivial example of someone who has been asked for directions just making something up to cover their embarrassment at not really knowing. It's hard to argue that inconveniencing the asker just to protect a flimsy ego is at all legitimate. In higher stakes situations, it's even worse.
It's human nature to want to have an opinion, help out, predict etc but there are so many verbal ways of flagging all degrees of uncertainty and being as tentative as necessary.
It is a form of misleading another if it is not predicated with a statement that makes it clear that is is supposition on their part, not a factual response. I have seen people extrapolate information correctly based on context, but I have seen just as many make an incorrect assumption and present it as fact.
https://vimeo.com/901786615
Password: Athena
;-)
WoW!!! TY- So cool vid!! Couldn't believe it, like a gag reel that went on and on!! I'm laughing so hard!! By Expression "I don't know" likely thanks up more film time, than other expression in that series!! Rock on! TY for fun laugh
You are more tolerant than I. I don't think I even got halfway through those two gigantic run-on sentence comments you cited before I just gave up. I would have reported them for being poorly written. Most probably, I would have used the term "word salad" in my report. I might also have characterized it explicitly as disinformation about people with psychopathy. But all that said, I most probably would have treated the comments as harassment and blocked and muted the person. I run a pretty tight ship in my comment sections, and I admit to being proud of that :P
I did end up blocking her, which is what prompted her apparent need to disparage me and/or my writing to anyone she possibly could. What that accomplished, I have no idea.
I am also rather liberal blocker. I simply have no time for the ranting of another. Concise questions? Sure. Insults that are shrouded in the idea of conversation? Not too likely, but maybe. Outright beginning the comment with, "You're wrong because stereotype!" Very high likely hood of blocking. Straight fantasy or intended insult without an argument. Reported, deleted, and blocked.
Is amazing how I lost at a job interview because I didn't use those words "I don't know" when I did know but misunderstood he question and gave the wrong answer that should have been factually correct and it was but I missed an inversion in the question (no, it wasn't a trick... my ears were not attuned to a heavy British accent.). So I learned something and did not get that job.
It would be nice, especially for psychology, if we were able to communicate, quantify, and Make statistical studies of introspective data. I wrote a sci-fi short on how that might happen. It still would not solve the faintness of the feelings I do experience or the attraction to/bonding with others that I don't experience. (despite those lacks, I was married for a while, but my partner chose drinking over family. I was bonded because I chose to act bonded, and I am happy with my job of single-parenting).
There is a time when the beliefs and structure of axiomatic notions can be important regardless of the correspondence of those beliefs and notions to objective reality (and I don't know if I have a firm grasp on objective reality myself). That is when I have a subject who wants to change in some way he/she regards as a self-improvement. Then I enter his/her world and phrase suggestions in his/her terms. The results seem to speak for themselves, where it is possible to assess those results in terms of changed behavior.
The story I wrote is available here: Yeah, what I know about bonding for real, I got from watching the behavior of wolves and tundra swans in the far north, so it may have serious flaws, but if you want to flame it, I probably deserve to be flamed for writing about something I will NEVER know at a feeling level. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A9cdSsCFYK4XpnwstB0-zndt2Rk1xHLqEfKqKDGUh9Q/edit?usp=sharing
Masterful job, Athena. As much as I am capable of love, I love to read your posts
Writing is as much an exploration of ideas as it is a convenance of those idea to others. Writing something that isn't necessarily based in facts isn't so much the issue. Rewriting the world to conform to those ideas, on the other hand, is where the problem can arise.
Yes, this infuriates me as well. It is one of the unusual benefits of low status that people don't expect you to know things.
But, one thing I find annoying, at least I used to until I achieved the level of solitude I now enjoy. Is that people assumed my emotions and sometimes this had very toxic effects. I remember someone I went to great lengths to explain my emotions to. That I would not be able to express nice cookie cutter expressions like the person wanted, my emotions are hard to access, I tend to start to understand how I feel about someone after meeting them no less than a year after meeting them, when the dreams and meditations start to seep through. Before that they are pieces on a chess board. I have a literal mental health condition I have been hospitalised for.
Then they assumed my emotions again exactly as they had before. I got angry, or more correctly, I more strongly stated my case that it was not useful the person keep doing this; it is annoying dealing with someone with all the empathy of a reptile who keeps telling you your emotions, and then the person got very, very upset. This lead into very distressing areas for the individual, I have no problem cutting people off. The experience encouraged me to further refine the "protocols" in a sense I use to keep people at arms length and knowing when to withdraw from them.
The thing is, like you indicate, reality does not bend to anothers will no matter how insistent they are. No matter how arrogantly they believe they are right. To use a religious analogy. Every Pharisee arrogantly believed they were right. If the behaviour of todays religious community was anything to go by, those pharisees genuinely believed they were right it was not an act. With the railing against reality comes consequence.
It's quite annoying when you communicate clearly and concisely but the other person decides to reject reality and substitute it with their own opinion
There's somewhat of an irony of you being one of the most lucid and relatable bloggers. I have seen a few blogs where the blog owner gets emotional or irrational in a way and things get really confusing.
Emotions have very loud voices it seems. People read them and write them into situations without them having a place. It can be troublesome.
Hey Anthena. Can you tell me where your blog post on "Twin Flames" is? I'm just hearing about this and am interested in reading your words about it.
The first one is here:
https://athenawalker.substack.com/p/an-excuse-for-stalking
I am still doing research for part two as I want to understand why the cult/MLM that it is addressing is attractive to people.
Oh I started reading it. And I realized that I have actually read this one before. So I'm watching a documentary on this twin flames. Cold and it reminds me an awful lot like a cold called the group, which was a program for kids who are troubled like in the drugs and stuff and illegal activity, and the purpose of it was to keep them from getting in trouble but. It was wrong like a pyramid scheme
I would guess it is one of the two docs on the Twin Flame Universe, which is what the second post will be about. I watched both miniseries about it, and am interested in exploring the mentality of those attracted to a cult like this. It would be very easy to disregard the participants experience because to me it is quite silly, but obviously that isn't the case for them, so I am doing my best to understand the thought process.
I look forward to reading it! You might check out an author named Stephen Hassan. He developed the BITE model for determining whether an organization is a cult or not. I also used to follow The Telltale Atheist on YouTube who did videos on cults. He was very knowledgeable. I know that belief is like a drug. People say that they are in love with God and I believe that. I think it's a major dopamine hit. Religious behavior is sort of habitual too, so that's another thought. Given that, and the premise of being a Love Guru might make it very seductive. I've never seen the documentary , I'm just watching a video by a YouTuber named Sherrilyn Dale. Hope that helps!
Her video is what made me aware of the TwIn Flames Universe. Prior to that, all my awareness of the twin flames notion came from what I saw on Quora. It was baffling to me to see how detached people were from what they were doing to another person despite clear communication that their attention was unwanted.
I will check out the author and channel you suggested. Being in love with God is an idea that hadn't occurred to me. Fascinating concept, and one I have no understanding of the experience, let alone the draw.
I "used to" stalk people on Facebook well by "stalk" I mean follow obsessively. I never went out of my way to see them in person, never had the resources to do so. I eventually messed up by telling a random stranger about problems with my obsession and they sort of made my life hell for years. That's really where my gangstalking paranoia comes from.
Today, I have friends and a better understanding. I follow The Thinking Ape on YouTube who reminds me that relationships are transactional. I don't get anything out of obsessive stalking (I'm only telling you this because, it's my experience and it feels mildly conflicting but alright to share) anymore and I've compartmentalized and confronted my inner self (shadow) many times, continuously, psychoanalyzed ("Unf__k Your Brain", last book plug I swear) ad nauseum. The imagination is a powerful tool and it doesn't serve me to make others afraid of me. Simple.
As well as "Waking Up" by Sam Harris.
"The Belief Instinct" by Jesse Bering also informed my understanding of the phenomenon. Good luck!
I agree, of you haven't studied something, or experienced something for yourself and don't know, you should just say idk.
It sounds more like her bf could be a sociopath, if what he told her is true at all.
They way they have grouped psychopaths with any condition that has a lack of empathy can be very confusing, even to ppl who have degrees.
They are spoon fed information and do no research on their own.
I sort of doubt he even exists outside of her imagination.
A positive complementary angle:
As annoying as they they be, the ignorant know-it-alls and self-serving tricksters and people who generally seem to be antithetical to proper communication and consistently try to bend reality to suit their misguided feelings and selfish agendas - may actually have a valuable role in the larger picture, by exherting evolutionary pressure.
They force reasonable people - whom I define as the type who cares more about understanding the truth than owning it - to work around and through them, in pursuit of a clearer understanding of reality.
I argue the unreasonable types can be thus regarded as a handicap to humanity, but it's worthwhile to note that handicaps can also be valuable strategies when it comes to training and/or ramping skills.
Also, a glance at history shows these phenomena here described are seemingly timeless.
We have to thank these types for creating the mind-boggling friction, the presence of which necessitated massive breakthroughs such as the scientific revolution (which nowadays may well need a reboot, when we look at the replication crisis. Simply put, it appears as nowadays it's economy that holds hostage genuine scientific progress, in ways that draw many parallels to how religious institutions used to.... almost as if genuine scientific progress somehow posed a threat to the self-serving sovereignity of the powers that be.)
On that note Athena, why not give us an article on the replication crisis? I feel it could help shed further light on the issues here being scrutizined.
That would be interesting, but my post would merely be conjecture as I am not in the research field
Conjecture can be very interesting and valid, just as long as it doesn't color itself as facts.
The replication crisis is worth looking into as a way to connect dots on these maters.
It well could boild down to themes of corruption and hypocrisy.
For what purpose?
It isn't something that I would recommend anyway. It is unlikely to go well