Where does thought come from: anatomy, processes in the brain, perception of the surrounding world and interpretation of data by the brain. Where do feelings come from? Where do feelings about the world around us come from?
George Berkeley (1685–1753) . The English philosophical and church figure George Berkeley was born into a family of small-landed nobles in Ireland, studied at Holy Trinity College in Dublin, where from 1707 he taught theology and ancient languages. In 1710, he published his main work, “A Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge,” and received the position of professor. In 1728, he made a trip to America with the goal of creating an educational institution that would train missionaries from local residents. The venture ended in failure due to lack of subsidies. Upon his return to England, Berkeley was elevated to the rank of bishop in Cloyne in Ireland, where he would live for almost two decades. Berkeley will die in Oxford, where he will move on the occasion of his second son entering the local university.
Even in his youth, Berkeley declared the task of his whole life to refute atheism and materialism. For these purposes, he uses the provisions formulated by medieval nominalism in the person of William of Occam and the empirical philosophy of the New Age, mainly in the interpretation of John Locke.
In the spirit of nominalism, Berkeley denies the real existence of universals, or the general, recognizing the existence in the world of only individual objects and phenomena. In his opinion, behind such general abstract concepts as “movement in general,” “extension in general,” “space and time,” “number” there is no reality, since they are impossible to imagine. But on the other hand, one can imagine, and therefore admit, the existence of extended objects, their movement, the specific space and time in which they exist. Thus, the possibility of being, according to Berkeley, is determined by the possibility of representation.
However, later, relying on the arguments of empirical philosophy, Berkeley questions the existence of individual objects themselves. He uses the skepticism of Locke, who divided the perceived qualities of things into primary and secondary. For the latter, primary qualities exist in reality as they are perceived. Secondary ones are an inadequate reflection of primary qualities by our sensations. Berkeley criticizes this division. He, in fact, reduces all qualities to secondary ones, depriving them, unlike Locke, of an objective basis. He believes that a person does not know those objects or phenomena that supposedly cause sensations in his senses. He knows only sensations and nothing more. Therefore, he can talk about the existence of only sensations.
So, no material objects, much less any material substance, which is a kind of universals, exist, but there is only my consciousness and the ideas perceived by it, that is, sensations and their combinations. The world is only a collection of my ideas, and exists only in my imagination. Such views in philosophy are called subjective idealism. But Berkeley cannot and does not strive to adhere exclusively to this line. He is a priest. And his position as a zealot of the faith leaves an imprint on his views. Moreover, there are problems that turn out to be extremely difficult to solve within the framework of the concept proposed by Berkeley. This concerns, first of all, the question of why people have the same ideas, which are “stable, regular and orderly.” Berkeley argues that these ideas are given to us by God. And that is why objects that we stop perceiving do not disappear. After all, they continue to exist in the consciousness of God.
However, by admitting the existence of God independent of our perception, Berkeley goes beyond the framework of subjective idealism and takes the position of objective idealism.
David Hume (1711–1776) . The line of subjective idealism in English philosophy of the 18th century was continued by David Hume. He was born in Edinburgh in Scotland into the family of a poor nobleman. Despite financial difficulties, he managed to study first at the University of Edinburgh, then, after an unsuccessful attempt to engage in commercial activities, in France at the aristocratic educational institution of La Flèche (Descartes' alma mater), where he stayed for three years. At this time, he wrote his main philosophical work, “Treatise on Human Nature,” which, however, went unnoticed. But his next work, “Moral and Political Experiments,” brought fame to its author. Since 1746, Hume has been in diplomatic work. In 1769, he resigned and, having left for his homeland, Scotland, was engaged in educational activities there.
Like Berkeley, Hume recognizes sensations as the only source of our knowledge. But he refuses to address the question of where sensations come from. Locke believed that they were caused by the influence of the real external world; Berkeley believed that they were caused by God. According to Hume, this question is in principle unsolvable. Since everything we know is given to us in sensations, we cannot know what lies behind them. In Hume's interpretation, sensations from a source of knowledge turn into a screen standing between me and what is outside of me.
Sensations, emotions, moral and aesthetic experiences, that is, what Hume calls “impressions,” as well as “ideas” copied from them: concepts, images of memory and imagination, constitute the content of the human mind. Ideas are formed through association (connection, unification) of impressions. Hume distinguishes three types of associations: by similarity (when we see someone, we remember people similar to this person), by contiguity (when the thought of an object “transfers us to what is adjacent to it”) and by causality. investigative dependence (when, having met a son, “we remember his deceased father as a “cause”).
Hume's main focus is on associations based on cause and effect. He questions the reality of this type of connection and tries to figure out where the idea of it comes from. In his opinion, we often encounter a certain order of phenomena following each other in space and time. Moreover, as a rule, similar objects or phenomena are usually followed by similar objects and phenomena, or, as Hume says: “Objects that have similarities are always connected with similar ones.” So, if object “A” is often followed by object “B”, then object “A*” (similar to object A) is usually followed by object “B*” (similar to object B). The habit of this kind of sequence forces us, when we see object “A” or objects similar to it, to expect object “B” or, accordingly, similar to it. And since our expectations often come true, we begin to mistake simple following for a cause-and-effect relationship. So, habit, expectation and belief that it will always be this way, because it was so before, gives us the idea of the real existence of causality. In fact, as Hume believes, “all phenomena seem to be completely separate and isolated from each other,” and “after this” does not at all mean “because of this.”
All of the above suggests that Hume created a philosophical concept that flawlessly pursues the line of subjective idealism and skepticism, asserting the impossibility of obtaining reliable knowledge by empirical methods and thereby clearing the way for new thinking.
A large place in the philosophy and epistemology of modern times is occupied by logical-gnoseological teachings of idealistic empiricism by D. Berkeley and D. Hume.
Epistemology, or the doctrine of knowledge- this is a branch of philosophy that studies the possibilities of human knowledge of the world, the structure of cognitive activity, forms of knowledge in its relation to reality, criteria for the truth and reliability of knowledge, its nature and boundaries.
Berkeley
The founder of the frank subjective-idealistic tendency in understanding logical thinking and issues of epistemology of the New Age was George Berkeley (1685-1753).
In the fight against materialism, Berkeley tries to rely on some ambiguous provisions of Locke's sensualism, as well as on the phenomenalist understanding of sensory experience.
Berkeley tried to prove that existence as such and existence in perception are identical. The main thesis of his subjective idealism is “to exist means to be perceived. According to Berkeley, the direct object of our knowledge is not an external object, but only our sensations and ideas.
Berkeley's philosophical teaching (his main works are “A Treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge” (1710), “Three Conversations between Hylas and Philonus” (1713), “Aleifron or the Petty Philosopher” (1732), “Seiris or the Chain of Philosophical Reflections and Research...” (1744) is imbued with the desire to refute materialism and provide a justification for religion.
Berkeley tried to explain the essence of the cognitive process as knowledge of one’s own sensations; the knowing subject deals not with external objects, but with sensations, which actually constitute these objects themselves. According to Berkeley, things or individual objects are nothing more than a modification of our consciousness. Berkeley, using Locke's doctrine of the subjectivity of “secondary qualities,” declares all qualities of things, both primary and secondary, to be phenomena of consciousness.
All things and all their qualities are only a combination of different sensations or a collection of ideas.
According to Berkeley there are three criteria of reality. First criterion- This is the very possibility of sensations or sensory perception. Second criterion– varying degrees of “reality” of ideas. Berkeley's ideas can be clear and stable or weak and unstable. The first ideas are the product of a spirit more powerful and wiser than human spirits. The former ideas have more reality than the latter, they are “more orderly and distinct.” Third criterion of reality- this is the perception of the same phenomena by different people at the same time, and not by one person.
As P.D. notes Shashkevich “... none of the criteria for the reality of ideas recommended by Berkeley is reliable precisely because all of them do not take us out of the sphere of consciousness, i.e. have a subjective idealistic meaning.”
Berkeley, answering the question of where all our ideas come from and what determines them, denies the objective existence of the external world and points to God as the root cause of human ideas and consciousness. In this case, Berkeley moves to the position of objective idealism. As a result, Berkeley’s world is the product of a single supreme cause.
This solution to the question regarding the source of nature and sensible ideas leads Berkeley to the idealistic concept of abstract thinking. Berkeley, as the founder of idealistic nominalism, rejects Locke's theory of thinking, believing that our mind is generally incapable of forming abstract ideas or general concepts. He creates his own theory of representative thinking, where a general concept replaces a word - a sign, a symbol.
Berkeley's subjective idealistic teaching found its continuation in the works of D. Hume. Using many of the provisions of his predecessor, he gave them an agnostic coloring.
Hume
The main place in the philosophy of David Hume (1711-1776) occupies his theory of knowledge. In the process of its creation, Hume proceeds, on the one hand, from Locke’s epistemology, and on the other, from Berkeley’s subjective-idealistic teaching. Hume rejects Locke's materialism and uses the idealistic elements of his theory of knowledge. Rejecting Berkeley's religious dogmatism, Hume agrees with his subjective idealism.
Hume creates a special epistemological system in which Berkeley's subjective idealism, processed in the right direction, is combined with agnosticism.
Agnosticism , in fact, - This a more intellectually honest form of atheism. The difference is that atheists claim that God does not exist
In 1739-40. Hume publishes his main work "Treatise on Human Nature"", whose first book, “On Cognition,” was devoted to issues of epistemology; he also developed this topic in “A Study on Human Cognition” (1748), etc.
D. Hume builds his theory of knowledge on the analysis of the relationship between various elements of human cognition “one of the features of Hume’s teaching was that he made psychological analysis the method of his theory of knowledge.”
Hume considers the elements of human cognition to be impressions and ideas, which he unites under the general term “perceptions.” “Perceptions” are any content of consciousness regardless of its source.
Hume establishes patterns of causal connections between impressions and ideas: “Our ideas are caused by impressions, and not vice versa.” Establishing a causal relationship between “perceptions,” Hume constantly refers to experience, everyday life, and the data of physiology and psychology of perceptions. However, in Hume the world of knowledge is depicted only as a manifestation of a certain immanent consciousness that connects principles or associating qualities of perceived objects. The philosopher's knowledge itself is narrowed to simple operations of combining impressions and ideas. Hume explores associative connections and divides them into three types: associations by similarity, by contiguity in space and time, and by the order of cause-and-effect relationships.
Associated with the phenomenalistic understanding of mental processes is Hume’s concept of the formation of general abstract ideas, which, following the example of Locke, he divides into ideas of modes, relations and substances. However, speaking about the nature of abstract ideas, Hume completely switches to the position of a representative theory.
There are many diverse individual things and processes around us. Spinoza calls them modes. But modes are not identical to each individual thing. Spinoza defined them as "states" dependent on the world's substantial whole
David Hume creates his own concept of causality, which occupies a central place in his epistemology. Causality according to Hume is a special type of relationship that can be constructed by the mind without direct reliance on the senses. Hume denies the possibility of the emergence of the concepts of cause and effect from the natural interaction of objects; he also denies the possibility of a priori derivation of the concept of causality through logical analysis. Hume believes that we have no right to deduce an effect from a cause due to the fact that the effect is absolutely unlike the cause. Hume concludes that if we connect something with a causal connection, then it must concern only our impressions, and not external objects.
Thus, Hume denies not only the objective nature of causality, but also sets as his main goal the destruction of the theoretical foundation on which the entire materialist doctrine of causality rests and thus tries to justify his agnosticism.
Hume defends the point of view of consistent agnosticism, since he essentially rejects the idea of the existence of external objects and completely denies the objective significance of human perceptions.
Around 1707-1708, young George Berkeley wrote “Philosophical Notes / Commonplace Book, consisting of 2 notebooks: “A” and “B”. The central idea here - on the basis of which the provisions of Berkeley's philosophical worldview will later unfold - is the principle of “esse est percipi”: “To exist is to be perceived.”
1. All meaningful words are used to represent ideas.
2. All knowledge is carried out around our ideas.
3. All ideas come either from the outside world or from within.
4. If they come from the outside, then it means from the sense organs, and then they are called sensations.
5. If they arise from within, they represent the actions of the mind and are called thoughts.
6. A person deprived of senses cannot have any sensations.
7. One who is deprived of thinking cannot have any thoughts.
8. All our ideas are either sensations or thoughts, according to paragraphs. 3-5.
9. None of our ideas can be found in something that is simultaneously devoid of both thinking and feeling (pl. 6-8).
10. The simple passive receiving or arising of an idea is called perception.
11. Every thing that receives or has an idea, whether it is passive in the influence exerted, must in any case perceive (clause 10).
12. All ideas are either simple ideas or made up of simple ideas.
13. A thing similar to any other thing must be consistent with it by one or more simple ideas.
14. Every thing like a simple idea must either be another simple idea of the same kind, or contain in itself a simple idea of the same kind.
15. In one incapable of perceiving things, there can be nothing that resembles an idea (pp. 11-14).
16. Two things cannot be called similar or dissimilar until they are compared.
17. Comparing means seeing two things together and noting where they agree and where they differ.
18. The mind cannot compare anything other than its own ideas.
19. Nothing like an idea can exist in any thing incapable of perception (paragraphs 11 - 18).
So: if words are to be given any meaning, they must serve ideas. And all our ideas are sensations or influences of the mind on sensations: “All ideas are either simple ideas or created from simple ideas.” Therefore: it is necessary to rely on sensations.”
Giovanni Reale and Dario Antiseri, Western Philosophy from Origins to the Present Day, Volume 3, Modern Times, St. Petersburg, Petropolis, 1996, p. 350-351.
"Only Truth will set you free."
Everyone desires freedom, and the path to it is shown. First Truth, then freedom.
What is Truth and what freedom does it give? Let's try to understand this issue.
Are we able to perceive the Truth?
We have vision. And it seems that all people have the same vision. But if you look into this issue, this is far from true. There are people who see very poorly or do not see at all. There are people for whom the world is black and white or for whom a few colors have fallen out of it. And there are people, especially artists, who distinguish thousands of shades and are able to capture even the harmony of combinations of different colors and lines. There are even people who see what is invisible to others. For example, the phenomenon of worlds of other dimensions. Those. their eyes are especially delicate.
We have a rumor. Everyone knows that there are people with an ear for music, as well as those who do not. Those. The distinction between sounds and their harmony is not inherent to everyone. There are people who are hard of hearing and have difficulty hearing. And there are people with sensitive ears who hear very well and even over long distances. There is also the phenomenon of clairaudience, and it sometimes breaks through in moments of stress, in emergency situations or during the transition to sleep. But you know that the spectrum of sounds audible to humans is very narrow. In fact, there are many more sounds, we are just not able to hear them.
Plato argued that there is a symphony of spheres. Space sounds, and some people are able to hear it. The great yogi of Tibet, Milarepa, also heard the sound of the symphony of the cosmos. Those. this ability can be developed.
We have a sense of smell. This is the oldest of the senses. He is given a separate section of the brain. During the time of the Great Mongols, it was customary not to greet each other, but to sniff each other. They developed their sense of smell so much that by smell they could understand a person’s mood, his tendency to be cunning and even his intentions. The amazing sense of animal sense that dog breeders use is also known.
High in the mountains, you can sometimes discern subtle aromas that cannot be inherent in this desert place. Most likely, the human being at high altitudes becomes so refined that the sense of smell begins to perceive the odors of worlds of other dimensions.
We have tactile sensations - skin perception. Some people develop this ability so much that they can run their hand along a person’s body and tell which organ is sick. Even more trained people don’t even need to move their hands, it’s enough to just feel the person.
All these tools of perception can be developed almost infinitely. For example, Beethoven wrote music while deaf. I personally know a man who was blind from birth, who learned to see no worse than a sighted person and was perfectly oriented in the mountains. When we talked, he looked past me. When I asked him what was the matter, he replied: “I am blind, but I see everything.”
We have a mind. The gradations of its development are enormous. There are people who are very stupid, practically devoid of intelligence. And there are very smart people with enormous speed of thinking, capable of instantly understanding even complex situations. There are people who are unable to understand even basic things, and they make the same mistakes. Those. unable to mentally connect their actions and their consequences. The opposite of them are people who are able to observe the laws of the universe. They even create algorithms for using these laws and teach others to do so. This is how science is created, this is how achievements in sports grow, this is how technologies are created in all areas, in fact, this is how civilization grows.
We have intuition. People have developed not only in observing what is happening and analyzing the past, people constantly use intuition. Although they don't even know how it works. But they sense the future. There are even special people - futurologists who tell people about the future.
For example, Jules Verne. He predicted many technical solutions and, in general, the outline of the direction of civilization, when what he described seemed completely impossible. He simply predicted many things. There are many known prophecies of Edgar Cayce, the most powerful futurologist in America. For example, he predicted not only the collapse of the USSR, but also the year of the collapse. It is known that Stalin predicted the fate of the Soviet Union after his death. Fidel Castro said:
“The states will only begin to negotiate with us when the president of America is black and the pope is Latino.”
That's exactly what happened.
Thus, even the properties of human consciousness can be trained.
We influence the world around us.
Ancient people, leaving their caves, influenced it with a digging stick and a stone ax). The ancient Egyptians, in some incredible way, made pyramids, built dams, and traveled around the world. The Greeks were surprised at their technology, to which the Egyptians answered:
“You Greeks are like children. You can’t even imagine what we own.”
The ancient Hindus created flying machines (vimanas) and could even penetrate interstellar space. Thousands of years ago, they described the structure of the solar system in such detail that our modern science is catching up with “discoveries”, revealing what has already been discovered for a long time.
In the region of Pakistan, desert areas covered with glass have been discovered. A detailed study showed that this is not a meteorite or combustion of gases. The cause of these glass fields is a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere. Those. man-made impact on nature. Interestingly, this nuclear explosion is described in the Vedas. He destroyed a huge enemy army. Oh, these wars...
Thus, human impact on nature is also progressing. We influence with the help of various tools, but we can also influence with the help of consciousness. For example, one of my friends, after some training, learned to move wooden shavings across water with his eyes. I managed to cure various illnesses of friends simply by the power of concentration. There are also known experiments on human exposure to freezing water. The snowflake figures became beautiful or ugly, depending on the mood of the person in whose presence they froze. Mozart's music significantly increases the milk yield of cows - and this is also the impact of humans on nature.
Power of love
Thought and feelings. What power do they have? Huge!
One pharmaceutical company tested drugs on animals. And suddenly the experiments began to fail. The rabbits were divided into three groups. The first group was given a normal dose of the drug, the second was given a dummy, and the third was given a lethal dose of the drug. So in the third group the rabbits stopped dying. The dose was increased. But there were still no deaths. They began to find out what was going on. It turned out that the laboratory hired a student who every day many times took rabbits of death row prisoners out of their cages, kissed them on the nose, stroked them and loved them in every possible way. This was the only change in technology. Those. the only reason for their survival. Of course, it was not the physical stroking of the rabbit's fur that expelled toxins from their bodies, but the power of love from a sincere heart that neutralized the poisons.
The power of thought
In one school, a young mathematics teacher was hired and given two classes - strong and weak. Due to her inexperience, she got confused and began to treat the strong as weak, and the weak as strong. At the end of the first quarter, the weak became stronger, and the strong became weaker. And the classes leveled off in their performance. This is how the Pygmalion effect was discovered. Since then, thousands of experiments have been carried out, and each time the result is the same: the power of thought changes a person. This is widely used in high performance sports: the coach needs to believe in his players.
Moreover, it has been revealed that there are people with more pronounced power of thought. They can make another person feel like a nonentity or, conversely, a hero, without even coming into contact with him.
This ability is consciously developed by coaches of the West and gurus of the East. All other methods being equal, the power of the Teacher's thought is decisive, if it exists.
Thus, a person’s perception, comprehension, and impact on the world around him - all this can be trained and grow almost indefinitely.
But what does Truth have to do with it?
Plato
One person asked Plato:
- Tell me, do you know the Truth?
- Yes I know.
-Can you show it to me?
- I can’t do it for you.
- But why?
- To see the Truth, you need to develop the organs of perception of the Truth.
As we see, this too can be trained if you know how.
Apparently, all the Teachers of antiquity trained the ability to see the Truth in their students.
One Teacher of Truth was asked:
- Tell me, if your student misses the goal (sins) in comprehending Gnosis, but commits metanoia (a change of mind, realizes his mistake), will you not turn away from him?
- I won’t turn away.
- What if he sins seven times a day and repents?
“And seventy-seven times a day I won’t turn away.”
Thus answered the Teacher, who said:
“Only the comprehension of Gnosis (Truth) will make you free (allow you to achieve liberation)”
Thus spoke the man whom the disciples called Rabbi Yeshua. The world calls him Jesus Christ. I have given a more accurate translation of his words.
Compare this with the words of another Master, Shakyamuni Gautama Buddha:
“The fire of knowledge burns all actions on the plane of illusion. Therefore, those who have cognized and liberated themselves are called Fires.”
“The purpose of existence is liberation from the shackles of illusion by destroying ignorance with Knowledge.”
Don't find anything in common?
Thus, famous and unknown Teachers of antiquity knew the Truth. How did this knowledge help them?
Plato trained a galaxy of excellent students, and over time they took a dominant position in Athens, which led to the heyday of Ancient Greece.
Rabbi Yeshua created a powerful community. At the time of his passing, there were about 70 disciples who were baptized in the Holy Spirit and knew the Truth. These disciples passed on the Holy Spirit and Truth through the chain of succession, so that a hundred years after the passing of the Teacher, the communities were numerous and an amazing, beautiful, harmonious atmosphere reigned in them - the Kingdom of God, which attracted more and more people to the community. Truth and the Holy Spirit were so important to the first Christians that even under pain of death they did not renounce their faith.
During the life of the Buddha, almost all of India converted to Buddhism. The doctrine of karma and reincarnation convinced people not to commit crimes. As a result, there were no more criminals, and prisons were abolished as unnecessary. Civil wars stopped, and an era of prosperity and prosperity began.
Thus, people who knew the Truth significantly influenced the world, making it much better.
Secrets of esotericism on the site
There are people who are ardent skeptics. Or those who believe in God. There is a person who doesn’t care, he doesn’t argue, he doesn’t prove. He has no time - he works, improves himself. What is esotericism? Religion? Faith in God? In people? To the supermind? Or maybe into yourself? Many people don’t think about such things, and when they think about it, they don’t find answers to their questions.
Esotericism is secret knowledge that is not accessible to people ignorant of magic, mysticism, and the occult. At least that's what they used to be. Knowledge and skills that not everyone could have. Only the chosen ones.
After reading various feeds on the Internet, you can only get scattered data and a weak idea of what esotericism is. Only by deciding to change yourself and your life for the better, by gathering strength and taking a course of video seminars designed by specialists so that everything falls into place, can you achieve success.
The concept of esotericism and why you shouldn’t be afraid of it
Esotericism is a huge section of human life, helping to find oneself through knowledge of the world. Studying it is not for everyone. After all, this is not just religion or science. This is the same thread that connects all the nuances and aspects of the ordinary world and the areas of unknown magic that surrounds us.
The very first such secret society was the Pythagorean school. It was divided into ordinary and esoteric. Her secret part took a lifelong oath of non-disclosure of what members of the society were taught. And what knowledge they received there is still unknown to humanity. Now esotericism is not hidden from everyone. There is accessible information presented in video seminars or master classes. Why are people afraid or unwilling to touch the unknown and explore unexplored areas of their own lives?
Let's consider the main criteria of human reluctance:
- Many people do not want to learn a new religion. In fact, esotericism is not only religion, although it is closely related to it. It helps you discover yourself and your own hidden inner potential. Yes, there is religion here - faith in yourself and the world around you.
- Lack of belief in the ability to change your life. Thought is always material. And wishes are always fulfilled. Everything is possible - you just have to believe and go through this difficult path to knowledge.
- Reluctance to gain new knowledge, since there is already success in your personal life. Esotericism makes it possible to gain success not only in one area of human activity. It allows you to balance all the criteria that are extremely important. Achieve what you want and your deepest secrets in every possible way.
- Fearful attitude towards the concept of magic. It is worth noting that the unknown is not only magical. It's just unfamiliar. After completing the seminar, it becomes clear that what seems incredible and impossible is often considered magical.
- Lack of free time. Naturally, it takes time and a lot of time to complete the training. But in the end, the hours spent pay off handsomely. Life balances out, everything falls into place and everything happens in its own moment.
An already established branch, science, like psychology, has long taken into account esoteric opinion. He resorts to her methods. Favors the practice of secret knowledge.
What does esoteric knowledge give?
Why is it believed that esoteric knowledge is not given to everyone? Only a select few? Because not everyone is ready to say goodbye to the old world, three-dimensional space, or the feeling of the precarious stability of their life. Each person is the architect of his own happiness. Those who understand this strive for the best.
What is esotericism - answers to the site
To transform yourself. From the inside. Starting with thoughts. And thoughts are what happens to us. Esoteric practices give people not only knowledge. They help you feel the surrounding space. Start thinking differently than before. Wake up one day and realize what is happening. What you need to do to succeed in your desired industries. Understand that the world is not three-dimensional. It is completely limitless. Consciousness is omnipotent.
Why does a person come to esotericism?
Different roads can lead to one or another knowledge. Events, people, chance? In any case, esotericism appears in a person’s life when it is needed. The reasons may be different:
- Search for new, unprecedented sensations. When it becomes boring, the world loses its attractiveness, those around you do not bring the same joy. Esotericism will help you look at everything in a different light, see something new and believe in a miracle.
- Search for a treatment method. When traditional medicine is powerless. When the pills didn't help. And we are talking not only about habitual illnesses, but also about constant depression, about the disease of life itself, when, no matter how hard a person tries, he cannot achieve his goals. The man turns in desperation. And esotericism, magic, rituals help to heal.
Esotericism and magic are ancient sciences. This is knowledge accumulated over many years and centuries. This is great wisdom that anyone who really wants it can comprehend. And help yourself overcome difficulties. Free yourself from heaviness and become free. Achieve results and be happy.
It’s easier to say what esotericism is as follows. This is an attempt to explain the complex structure of the visible and invisible world and the processes that take place in these worlds and influence a person, his actions and even fate. Almost everyone has heard about the extraordinary experience of modified consciousness. Most modern commercial practices for achieving financial success, practices for fulfilling human desires or shaping events are built on this principle.
Esoteric practices are aimed at achieving a sustainable expansion of human consciousness, which would allow one to obtain a more perfect worldview. In a narrower, applied sense, all esoteric teachings are aimed at studying the inner world of man, his hidden capabilities and developing specific techniques for self-realization and spiritual development. There are esoteric movements in all world religions, although there are many independent esoteric systems.
There are theoretical worldview systems that consider only the spiritual development of the individual through the accumulation of special knowledge and meditative practices. There are movements aimed at achieving the final result with the help of ceremonies, rituals and other things. These include the occult, which involves the use of magic, appealing to the unrecognized powers of spirits, natural forces and inhabitants of parallel worlds. Representatives of religious systems have an interesting attitude to the question of what esotericism is. For example, there is an opinion that any esoteric practices are prohibited by Christianity, and turning to such knowledge or practices is regarded as a grave sin, for which severe punishments are provided.
But this attitude of the church does not stop those who see esotericism as a means to solve their life problems. This state of affairs, in our opinion, is also due to the fact that the official church imposes a strict ban without explaining the real possibilities of esoteric practices. At the same time, there are a huge number of specific rituals related to the so-called church magic, which are available for review and are widely used. It is useful for a modern person to know the answer to the question: “Esotericism - what is it?”, since this is an opportunity to learn more about one’s internal structure, nature and the world around us. Knowing about esoteric methods of cognition, a person will not be afraid to make mistakes, and problems will not seem to him an insurmountable obstacle to happiness.
It's the same with people. Civilization arises only then and exists only as long as the human population is above a certain critical level.
For example, the degradation of Rome after the plague epidemic that came in parallel with the Huns.
Or popular futuristic scenarios of a post-nuclear future.
The author of the thread seems to believe that the human mind is unique. However, in nature the principle of mediocrity prevails, which states that there is nothing unique. I am ready to agree that it is not easy for a thinking individual who has self-awareness, his own “I,” to imagine that there could be someone else as smart, especially if he is also outwardly different.
Why the hell do we so indiscriminately and groundlessly assume that we are smarter than other creatures??? By the way, in addition to humans, higher primates also have the ability to self-identify, and even more so, elephants and dolphins!
People here are not unique.
Next, intelligence is like IQ, i.e. as the ability to quickly make non-trivial decisions (not to be confused with erudition). So here, too, humans do not always outperform animals in solving problems. And in IQ tests, in particular in the maze test, it loses even to primitive rodents.
I looked quite carefully for the differences between humans and animals in the branch of science. Upon closer inspection, not one was found! Those interested can search in the archive there. Something like “Imaginary differences between humans and animals.” The only difference that gives us a far-fetched reason to naively believe that we are smarter is the presence of civilization. The difference, it should be noted, is not of a biological, but of a social order. So, even in our sociality, we are again not unique. Biologists will call the darkness social animals.
Dear forum users, let’s not attribute to ourselves some kind of imaginary exceptional intelligence just because we use fire, a wheel, a car - after all, you and I didn’t invent them, but we only use what the best of us have invented for millennia. Our dignity lies only in the fact that we have studied the knowledge accumulated by humanity. And any population is capable of accumulating knowledge, even with half the IQ, as long as the population is large enough. Then any new inventions are doomed to be passed on to descendants.
By the way, beavers and badgers spent much less time studying architecture and sapromat, and solve problems more complexly and quickly. The same goes for elephants with road construction. Only modern engineers and surveyors have learned to lay roads through relief terrain as correctly as elephants, only they have been doing this for several tens of thousands of years and, moreover, without any writing or other achievements of civilization.
In short, human intellectual exceptionalism is an overblown myth of pompous anthropocentrists.
In reality, our privilege is not at all in the genius of the brain, but simply in the high population density.