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by American Dream » Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:35 pm
undead wrote:AA and NA are state-supported and mandated religion.
by Hammer of Los » Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:36 am
by American Dream » Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:40 am
by American Dream » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:28 pm
Psychosis is a mental condition in which the individual is attached to one state of consciousness which by itself is necessarily limited and only partially represents the reality of their world or 'map'... the map is not the territory (Korzybski)... ‘truth’... The psychotic individual is ‘prisoner of their own mind’ - they are unwittingly but totally trapped by a continuous fantasy dialogue with themselves. This egocentric dialogue produces a perceptual-cognitive mental process which dichotomizes and distorts reality and creates the all-consuming illusion of that distorted reality. The distorted reality is a function of the distortion in perception. their perception of reality is 'suboptimal'. The individual's 'reality' is their perception of reality i.e. their worldview or ‘paradigm’. Different paradigms represent different perceptions of reality.
Different psychoses represent different forms of egocentric dialogue. For the individual with irrational fears... reality is perceived and understood in terms of a cognitive process which is trapped in those fears. This might be expressed as the active clinging to an outmoded view of reality developed in childhood and inappropriately transferred to the adult environment i.e. 'transference'. The psychosis often goes unrecognized until the individual accepts the personal challenge for self-examination in the form of observation and reflection i.e. contemplation or ‘meditation’. (Ram Dass Journey of Awakening: a Meditator's Guidebook. New York: Doubleday, l978)
Immature conscience is source of human wickedness or 'evil'. The mature conscience is the biological mechanism for preservation of personality integrity required for adaptation to changing social conditions i.e.'adaptability'. Human adaptabilty depends on the guiding values of rational conscience which enables the organism to solve the problems of human existence. One of the most difficult problems is deciding the extent of one’s responsibilities. Immaturity of conscience can result in behaviour for which the individual finds it too painful to decide on the extent of their responsibility and so will avoid it altogether. And they will perceive freedom as painful since that implies responsibility as well. The inability to accept the responsibility of freedom leads to the incapacity for creative and adaptive decision-making... to the decline in self-reliance... to the predominance of negative emotions such as fear and hatred. As a result the individual resorts to methods of power politics and control – methods which violate the rights of others. The controlling behaviour of the immature conscience results in the destructiveness of human wickedness or ‘evil’. Evil is a product of education which inhibits spiritual growth of ego transcendance or 'self-transcendance'.
‘psychopathy'...derived from the Greek ‘psych’ for ‘soul’ and ‘pathos’ for ‘suffering’. Psychopathy is psychological ill health also known as ‘antisocial personality disorder’... dissocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder.. a mental condition which is characterised by undeveloped ‘immature’ conscience or ‘lack of conscience’ and so the inability to relate to the humanity of others i.e. ‘empathy’. The psychopath is a pathologically egocentric prisoner of their own mind… totally trapped by a continuous ‘fantasy’ dialogue with themselves… distorting reality and creating an all-consuming illusion of that distorted reality. They have high verbal intelligence but no ‘emotional intelligence’ and consequently no insight which explains their callousness and poor judgement. Their emotions are superficial and shallow, they are unable to love and they do not experience remorse or shame because they do not feel responsible for their actions. They have no concern for the feelings of other people or even of their own. They don't understand the impact of their antisocial behaviour on other people and this has to be explained to them.. They have a distorted sense of the potential consequences of their actions, not only for others, but also for themselves. Their ‘friends’ are people who protect them from the consequences of their own antisocial attitudes. They are pathological liars and will blame others for their own failings. They are insincere but with superficial charm they watch and mimic other people and manipulate their emotions in order to control them and use them for their own selfish needs. They show poor impulse control and a low tolerance for frustration and aggression generally unresponsive no life plan. incurable also untreatable. impulsively violent ... shallow friendships Their stories are characteristically shallow with respect to their emotional aspect… they have difficulty describing or explaining their own feelings.
The mental condition of psychopathy originates in the inhibition of development of moral consciousness or ‘conscience' as a result of a childhood characterised by emotional impoverishment caused by parental indifference. In the absence of unconditional love, when a child’s normal feelings are not acknowledged... if they are intimidated by brutality and isolated by overprotection and possessiveness, their self-esteem is undermined and they perceive their environment as a threat to their growth and happiness. Basic fear and anxiety is instilled and this inhibits the normal progression of instinctive strivings for growth i.e. ‘moral development’ as the development of rational conscience. Rational or ‘mature’ conscience is required for preservation of personality integration during the process of adaptation to changing social conditions.
In dealing effectively with the psychopathic personality one must understand that they still suffer from the pain which they endured as children when they were treated as objects to be owned rather than persons to be set free for growth. They continue to feel the need to have their feelings acknowledged while at the same time repressing those same feelings. They experience inner conflict and as a result they don’t recognise the feelings of others. They don’t understand why their lack of feeling has the detrimental effect which it does. This personality type has a problem which they can’t and won’t deal with so they project it onto others. People who comply unwittingly with their demands follow a dangerous course. By internalising other people’s projections, one creates real problems for oneself. Projection is a protective mechanism which the disordered personality uses in order to protect their integrity which is damaged as a result of failure to develop moral consciousness or ‘conscience’… so ‘without conscience’. .
misperceptions result from the so-called ‘perception problem’ of the psychopathic personality. .. The antisocial personality type goes through life trapped in the same irrational fears which they experienced in their childhood growing up of spiritually as well as materially poor dysfunctional family in which the father as the authority figure denies the mother’s individuality. Unconditional love… mature responsibility… universal love for people as fellow human beings… all these things are not understood because they are not experienced. Parents’ possessive ‘love’ replaces the unconditional love required for security and proper growth. The children who grow up in this spiritually impoverished environment in which they are treated as property and obliged to meet parental demands for compensation for their own childhood deprivations… they suppress their feelings to dull the pain of indifferent parenting… they are inclined to arrest their own development in favor of holding onto the security which they desperately need. Proper growth and development of conscience is almost impossible. If material poverty is perceived as contributing to their own spiritual impoverishment then they disguise their own personal suffering in the form of negative disdainful attitudes which they subconsciously project onto others. They learn to hide behind a ‘persona’ which they create for themselves. They actively cling to a view of reality or ‘fantasy’ which they inappropriately transfer to their adult environment even though it becomes outmoded. If their adult environment includes family with children they continue to live in their illusory world of fantasy and will attempt to mold the new family according to the ‘fantasy’ family which they imagined in their own childhood. The mother of the family becomes the mother of the childhood fantasy family but at the same time is perceived as the disappointing mother experienced in the childhood of reality. The person compensates for the absence of validation during their own impoverished childhood by validating themselves and continually strive for validation in the form of material success and monetary gain. Attitudes towards money and material status override validation of human sensitivities and human values which become degraded. Such attitudes can be overwhelming if they coincide with similar attitudes in the society in which one lives. Growing up in this kind of family situation is fraught with obstacles and requires constant vigilance. For these reasons it is essential to have an understanding of one’s family background in order to understand the emotional forces which impact one’s own life and then put those forces into the right perspective. These should be properly identified and analysed in order to protect oneself from the detrimental effects to one’s life, liberty and happiness.
...in the early part of the 20th century the term for psychopathy was ‘moral insanity’
Hervey Cleckley (1903-1984) wrote one of the first definitive studies of psychopathy, the classic entitled Mask of Sanity first published in 1941. The 5th edition was published in1988. The book is out of print but can be accessed on the internet. It is still the most useful source of knowledge of the subject. It is easy to read and very interesting. More recent studies have been done by Dr. Robert Hare of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He wrote Without Conscience which was published in 1997.
Psychopaths are "intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they cold-bloodedly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret."(Hare, R. D. Without Conscience 1997).
Malignant egophrenia or 'narcissism' ...traumatized soul ... the person reacts sadistically to others who mirror back his guilt and don’t support and enable his narcissism...
projecting the darker intentions or 'shadow'... 'the lie' ('devil' means ‘liar'). The person is unwilling and afraid to consciously feel and experience their own guilt and shame. In order to hide from their shadow they split it off and project it onto the outside world. Projecting the shadow is lying to others as well as lying to themselves . disassociation from oneself is self-deception.... self delusion... the person deludes themselves into believing their own lies They hide their own lie from themselves thus further feeding the sense of guilt and creating the process which they are hiding from.. This process of splitting-off from guilt develops a momentum and a sovereignty of its own and the person is taken over in the process... they are manipulated, victimized and possessed by the darker forces which they themselves set in motion through their refusal to reflect on their feelings of guilt and then experience them consciously. Fighting against their own shadow is a losing battle. The person gets caught up in a self-created and self-creating self-reinforcing feedback loop that is ‘closed’... it is insular and not open to any feedback from the ‘real’ world an infinite regression as the endless wheel of cyclic, problematic, involuted spiral.. a crazy-making double-bind with no 'exit strategy'... this is acted out in the outside world. The person is so dissociated from their shadow that they split off from it and project it onto others and then try to destroy the dis-owned shadow. the person becomes possessed by the very thing they are trying to destroy, thereby perpetuating a never-ending cycle of violence. This inability to experience their guilt sets in motion a self-perpetuating cycle of denial, cover-up and projecting the shadow, all of which are based on a lie.
by American Dream » Thu Nov 24, 2011 10:12 am
by undead » Thu Nov 24, 2011 11:47 am
Yanis Varoufakis wrote:I recall, not so many years ago, that upon returning to Greece from Australia, I would try to treat my jetlag, in the morning’s wee hours, by watching Telecity, Mr Karatzaferis’ appalling TV station. It was hilarious. To this day I cannot forget a program in which some crazed rightwinger unfolded a magnificent argument which, I must admit, I had not seen coming.
He started by declaring that, though a devout Orthodox Christian, he now believed in Darwin. This captured my attention and thus I watched on. He went on and on about how the fossil record makes it clear that prior Christian objections to Darwinism could not be sustained. Though he did look and rave like a loony, he sounded eminently reasonable. Until at some point he asked: “But is there any evidence that we Greeks, the chosen people who shone a bright light upon civilisation, have evolved from apes? Is this possible, I ask you? Of course it is not!” At that point I was all ears and eyes. “What could he possibly have up his sleeve?”, I wondered.
My incredulity was deepened when the presenter began showing aerial photographs from a mountain near Athens, claiming that they revealed the existence of ancient routes, caves and tunnels. After all the evidence had been laid bare, the masterstroke came: For it was ‘clear’ to him that the puzzle had been solved: Greeks were, unlike the rest of humanity (that had indeed descended from the apes), the descendants of an Über Race of extraterrestrials. I rest my case.
by compared2what? » Thu Nov 24, 2011 2:39 pm
undead wrote:AA and NA are state-supported and mandated religion.
by undead » Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:11 pm
by compared2what? » Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:47 pm
undead wrote:C2W,
The part that I disagree with on a philosophical level is the idea that people can't change -
by undead » Thu Nov 24, 2011 4:05 pm
compared2what wrote:That said, it's a virtue that people are free to leave if they don't like being there.
by compared2what? » Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
undead wrote:compared2what wrote:That said, it's a virtue that people are free to leave if they don't like being there.
Except when they are forced by a judge or some other authority to attend. This is extra bad for everyone because the people who are forced to go there will often tempt others to go get high if they don't have any interest in recovery. Unfortunately it seems that a lot of time all the mandatory attendees get stuck together (especially in juvenile "rehabilitation" and detention) and it becomes a place to meet other drug addicts and make connections.
by undead » Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:57 pm
by undead » Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:11 pm
Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, born on 21 July 1921 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is a Zulu Sangoma (traditional healer) and High Sanusi. He is well known and respected for his work in nature conservation, and as an author of ground breaking books on African mythology and spiritual beliefs. Some of his work has led to him being seen as an outcast by fellow Sangoma’s or traditional healers, and even the larger African community in South Africa.
Credo Mutwa wrote:One ’Suderlandia plant’ is capable of treating 10 people, and we need plantations of this plant. And I say that this plant should not be the plaything of greedy businessmen. It should not be the plaything of thieving pharmaceutical organizations that steal Africa’s treasures and lock them up in computers and call them their intellectual property. I say this that this plant belongs to all the humankind, and that the greedy organizations leave it alone. We do not need a disease like Aids to reduce the population of the world.
I am told that this disease was created specifically to destroy Africa and I now believe this. After more than five years of dealing with this disease. And I say this. I will not allow Africa, a misunderstood and misrepresented nation, a misunderstood and misrepresented continent, to perish, to suit the designs of conspirators. I say that Africa must live, I say that India must live, China must live, and even the United States must live. There is hope, a little ray of hope, a green ray of hope, emanating from South Africa, and I call on all human fellow human beings to make it larger, to spread hope throughout the world.
by American Dream » Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:05 am
http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/08/davi ... -part-one-–-in-which-dave-gets-high-in-his-squat/
LONDON - DAVID SHAYLER, RELUCTANT MESSIAH (PART ONE)
This is David M. Shayler. The one not on the cross. Shayler used to run the Libya desk of Security Services. He was a spook back then. But his fortunes have since declined. These days he's just the son of God. The revelation that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One, J*h*v*h, was, he says, one that caused him to literally fall to his knees, overwhelming him with bliss that was “beyond any sexual or physical experience.” As you might imagine. In many ways he's a reluctant deity. “I never chose to be the Messiah,” he insists. “It's quite an embarrassing thing, actually. I kept asking myself, why me? But I can't ignore the signs...”
The signs – a typical conspiracist's stew of Kaballah, Biblical end-times, and stuff he's copped from Dan Brown novels – will be naggingly familiar to anyone who's ever opened The Bible Code, a David Icke book, or any one of dozens of green-inked pamphlets of its ilk. Shayler's currently sitting inside a squat in Abinger, Surrey. He lives here these days, smoking dope and trading rants with his teenage squat buddies. Beyond this psychedelic threshold however, he's a fast-rising figure in the world of paranoid saviors, and he's been inducted into David Icke's pentagram of acquaintance. “I think of him as John the Baptist to my Jesus Christ.” But there's a certain niggling rivalry in there too. “I think a lot of what David says has value. But he concentrates too much on the negative. He can tell you what's wrong with the world. He can't tell you much about how to put it right.” And you also diverge on the key policy area of a super race of lizards who run the world? “Yes. But I definitely believe in the Zionist conspiracy.”
From what he goes on to describe, the Zionist conspiracy sounds very serious indeed – the world turned chessboard by a cabal of sinister oligarchs, who cause wars and rattle their sabres for capitalism while keeping the populace in check with bread, circuses, and the need to make regular mortgage payments.
A pop psychologist might argue that Shayler's interest in otherworldy conspiracies was piqued after he became the center of a real-life one. In 1997, he blew the whistle on MI5's investigations into key Labour figures like Peter Mandelson – bunging a lot of secret service files to the Mail on Sunday in exchange for a £40,000 check, before fleeing to France. Certain to be arrested if he returned, it was from Paris that he made his famous appearance on Have I Got News For You, playing "live" on Paul Merton's team while encased in a television screen that the crew had hooked up via the satellite feed. (“It was one of my proudest moments. Even if they tried to trip me up by putting me on a two-second delay so I couldn't follow everything.”) Halfway through, Merton turned him off.
A few weeks later, Shayler was arrested. He spent four months in a French jail while they decided what to do with him. And another six in Belmarsh once they did. After he'd paid his debt to society, Shayler gradually disappeared further down the rabbit hole of conspiracy, while at the same time maneuvering his fleeting celebrity into a slightly less-fleeting celebrity. He had a regular column with Punch Magazine and he got invited to a lot of parties as a schleb attendee (“I remember standing at a urinal and Mike Nolan from Bucks Fizz saying to me, 'You're that guy from MI6, aren't you?'”). He made enough cash out of writing assignments and appearances to put himself up in a tidy art deco pad just off Baker Street. In 2003, he skittered across our screens once again with his opposition to Iraq and the "9/11 Truth" campaign – debating head-to-head with Christopher Hitchens on a no-planes platform. And in 2007, he became the Messiah. So it goes.
He has a talent for finding his way back into the public eye, does David M. "God" Shayler. So when he turned up in Abinger Hammer the other week, living as a woman in an anarchist squat under the name Dolores Kane, it seemed almost a logical progression.
“The Messiah is a tranny,” he instructs us, from the comfort of a cushion in his squatly home, surrounded by a coterie of baked bros and bro-ettes. “That's God's greatest joke – remember that the Divine has a truly great sense of humour. The prophecies say that the Messiah is both male and female in form. Therefore, in line with the prophecies, I choose to be both man and woman. You see, Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary are actually both the same person.”
In the corner of the room, a young boy with a miniscule head is lolling on a cushion as he tunes into Shayler's latest rant. He chucks back that tiny head and explodes with giggles. Everyone stops to look at him. He keeps on laughing, hysterically, stuck in a feedback loop. He's unendingly tickled by something. “Too much acid?” someone asks. Yes, it's that kind of party. A spliff goes round. Shayler puffs, puffs, passes, and rants on. He's much more lucid than a potted biography would suggest. His intellect remains sharp. It's only his judgment that's warped beneath the years. One minute he'll be discussing The League Of Gentlemen – how they're “the finest comedy actors of their generation,” analyzing in clever detail the ways in which original radio show was more macabre than the eventual TV series. The next, he's plonked himself back onto his divine hobby horse and you're up to your tits in obscure pagan symbology.
On 19 January this year, at around 11 AM, he walked into Number One Court at the Old Bailey and told the judge and assembled courtiers that he was the son of God. This was, he says, the beginning of his proper mission, the seminal moment when human justice – an eye for an eye – was replaced by his own mantra: love one another. He's big on love. The judge apparently took his wig in his hands and fled. Shayler was bundled out by bailiffs. But despite both the prominence of the setting and Shayler's own fame, the event went entirely unreported. He was simply Crazy Number 19 for that week, shoveled unrecognized out onto Fleet Street. He didn't even get a chance to mention the end of the world (it's on 23 December 2012, trivia fans).
But since he was "rediscovered" a month ago by an enterprising local newspaper reporter, business is picking up. He's had calls from the Independent, the Mail, even a few TV production companies sniffing round. (“The best offer I've had so far was from National Geographic TV, actually.”) David Icke has turned his spectral world view into a millionaire lifestyle, so why shouldn't Shayler? Especially now that his last few shekels have finally run out. With all the money finally gone, David met his fellow squatters – mainly in their teens and twenties – at a free rave earlier this year near Guilford. He'd just come back from a stint in Amsterdam and was staying with a friend up near there. They began life squatting another farm, Tyting, before the council moved in to evict them. They got hold of a list from the council showing which properties weren't paying tax and found the place they currently reside in. “We didn't even have to break anything – we just got in through an open window,” a boy with hair matted thick like matzo bread says. “At Tyting we set up an organic farm. We were teaching people about how to grow more of their food locally.”
Bob Marley blares from a nearby stereo. Bob Marley. As we puff-puff-pass, a girl with dyed pinkish hair sits cross-legged on a pillow, dabbing watercolors into abstract hippie pictures in her journal. What does she think of her mate Dave's whole Messiah thing? “Well,” she ponders, “I can't prove that he's not the Messiah. I mean, if David says that he is, then I have to believe that he is until I have evidence that he isn't. Everyone's just here to do their own thing, you know? No one's judging anyone.” Bob. Marley. Plays. On.
“I mean, I am God in man. I'm fallible,” David shrugs. “I've made mistakes. I admit, I get it wrong sometimes. I'm learning here as much as anyone else.” What does he have to say to people who think he's schizophrenic? “Well, I would say that the signs of schizophrenia and the signs of a religious awakening are ultimately indistinguishable from each other. I could be wrong. But obviously that would contradict all the signs.” Before he can elaborate, a ghostly voice comes from the celing. “This is God talking toooo yooouuuu.” I look up. Two squatters have clambered into the rafters. They giggle. The boy with the tiny head hoses himself. Shayler puffs on, unperturbed.
After two hours my dictaphone is brimming with Revelations symbology. The rain is chucking it down in Abinger as we make plans for the last train home. David Shayler is a lovely madman. The comparison he makes with Icke is pretty instructive. Despite whatever similar force has possessed them both, David Icke seems crippled by his paranoia, but Shayler seems to be genuinely happy-go-lucky. As we depart, he has a final watchword. “You know, I have a feeling you may have been a Greek philosopher in a past life, Gavin. You should definitely research it.”
Which one? Plato? “No.” Aristotle? “No.” Epicurius? “Yes,” he glints, “definitely Epicurius! Definitely. That's incredible. How did you know?”
Lucky guess?
GAVIN HAYNES
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