Harper's: Reality (After Trump)

[gulliver]

A presidential election is, of course, about many things, but the most recent one took on an added dimension as a referendum on reality. For sixteen days in November, we waited to find out what kind of world we would be living in for the next four years: a fact-based reality, or one propped up by fictions. The former won out, largely thanks to dedicated civil servants and principled judges who insisted on doing their jobs—i.e., complying with and enforcing the rule of law. The barrier was tested and it held. Just barely.

That’s how it looks from this side of things, anyway. In the other realm, even Trump-appointed judges were part of a Democratic conspiracy to steal the election. The barrier held on that side, too, and it is made of a wondrous material—durable and flexible, impervious to evidence. Appeals to logic or data do not weaken its integrity. Just the opposite—attacks serve to make it stronger.

This psychological barrier has a solidity to it that springs from something deeper than reason. It comes from our love of a good story. At a fundamental level, we want to believe that the world we live in has meaning. Seen through this lens, the resistance of this competing narrative to being punctured by any number of facts is an asset, not a liability. For our fellow Americans are engaged not in governance or political campaigning or even ideological warfare, but in something else entirely: fiction writing.

I am not qualified to catalogue the absurdities we have normalized over the past four years—people much smarter and more informed than me have done so already, in these pages and elsewhere—and anyway to even begin such a list we would need a lot more space. What I can say is this: Donald Trump and his enablers in politics and the media have demonstrated considerable skill at worldbuilding.

...

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/02/life-after-trump/#reality-charles-yu

This is a really short, really on point essay, imo.

[Karadeniz]

1. As one who knows by experience, the problem is soul v. brain, the generators of mind. If one hasn't

Had the experience, one probably won't believe that. Brain, being biological, is only interested in self preservation. Unfortunately, that motivation also accounts for a host of self serving qualities: greed, distrust or dislike of otherness, sadism, apathy towards the welfare of others, fear, abuse, etc. Soul is social since all souls are related. Soul contains its source's qualities: generosity, empathy, goodness, kindness, etc.

You will find very, very intelligent people who have mean qualities. Their souls are undeveloped. You'll find those who are a bit slow, but unfailingly kind, happy. There is quite a bit of research to support the reality that the mind is not confined to the brain and that mind exists after physical death.

Sorry to offend some of you.

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. For many, many years I have believed in

reincarnation of some sort. The older I get, the more I think it might be that we are reborn into another plane or dimension.

[Karadeniz]

3. Have I got the book/s for you!!!

Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation, by Ian Stevenson, MD. Actually, there are many more..he researched cases for decades...
but this is a good intro. You can read his bio online. The reason the title says "suggestive" is that he published in the scientific community.

Many lives, many masters, by Brian L. Weiss, MD.
I'm currently reading this to my beautician and she loves it...and it keeps us from killing each other over politics! This man's credentials
Are impeccable... Psychiatrist, chief psychiatrist at a Miami hospital, quite the pharmacologist.

These are for reincarnation only.

Your innate belief in reincarnation speaks, to me, of a soul large enough to influence Mind, which means getting past the physical, materialistic brain.

Now for more good news. Jesus taught reincarnation. Don't throw pearls (of wisdom) before swine (unclean flesh, pure body not influenced by spiritual wisdom). So, A pig, hog, swine represents the human body. Looking at porcine appearances...

Prodigal Son. The son leaves his father with an inheritance = the soul, which comes from the Source, leaves that world with its divine nature. Blah blah... After descending all the upper levels of the spiritual system, the son/soul works with pigs/human bodies. One soul, lots of human bodies. Reincarnation. Once the son/soul comes to understand that the ways and world of the Source/father are far and away preferable to human bodies and the physical world, it can make its way back. The soul's starting point as an offspring of the Source is its Alpha point. When, millenia later, it rejoins the Source, that is its Omega. And I'm saying too much! There's another multiple pig episode that is solved by reincarnation.

Enjoy the books...I think you'll like having proof of your belief!!!

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Thanks so much!!

[Karadeniz]

5. No problem! I think societies everywhere would benefit by understanding what I call the God System.

Kind of hard to hate Iranians when "you" may have lived there three generations ago.... and that you may have Iranian great grandchildren! Also, when people believe in soul values, that should help reduce rampant materialism.