What is it? In order to understand my view of spirituality, one must accept the idea that we as humans have evolved, and all our biological functions are in some way related to our self-survival as a species. Our sense of smell is used to find good food. It alerts us if food is rancid. We've developed a taste aversion to things that make us sick. We see movement easily. This helps us to see predators and prey. Most of all, we developed the ability to recognize patterns. It started with being able to see the cycle of the seasons. When the suns sets earlier, we need to gear up for winter. When the days get longer, we need to start to plant crops in the rainy season. We see the revolution of days and nights. The revolution of months and years. The ability to recognize patterns extends into our own lives. We look at our past. We analyze what worked and what didn't. We use this information as the basis of future decisions. This is the method of procedure for the Scientific Method as well as Manufacturing's DMAIC. It is what Ralph Waldo Emerson said in The American Scholar when he said that truth is taking in the world around us, brooding upon it, and then exporting it in our daily actions and content.* Feelings of spirit are deeply rooted in this idea of truth. I subscribe to the belief that feelings of spirit are heavily influenced by the chemicals in our brains, most importantly those of the Tryptamine family. DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) being the main gateway of public introduction as per "The Spirit Molecule" Netflix documentary. Feelings of this drug seem to always include a sense that the past, present and future are exactly the way they are supposed to be. (See Alpha and Omega). So in the context of humans being able to feel these spiritual feelings, why would we have evolved this ability? It seems that every ability and characteristic can be traced back to some survival mechanism that at some point helped us to rule the roost of all living creatures. So why the ability to feel spiritual feelings? I argue that in the face of serious crisis, this spiritual molecule gives the human a divine purpose for which to fight. It has been proven that when humans are on the brink of physical exhaustion, they feel an influx of DMT and spiritual experiences in their brain. This is why fasting has become a method of attaining spiritual connection. Both Mohammed, Mormons and Jesus used fasting as way to connect spiritually with God. By depriving the body of physical nourishment, the body thinks it is in a life crisis. At these times the body produces DMT in an effort to give the body encouragement to fight and continue forward in existence. In these moments the human starts to have mental revelations. His connection to truth becomes a spiritual one. He feels his existence in the past is justified because of who he is today. He feels that who he is today is a beautiful thing, and that the future holds great results if he can just fight through the crisis. This DMT spiritual experience is enough to get him to give that last bit of effort. To have faith, so that his immune system remains active. He arises from the fight or flight sympathetic response that he is currently in to a state of achievement. By coming out of this sympathetic response he is able to use his ability of pattern recognition not only for temporary needs such as finding food and fleeing from danger, but he is allowed the ability to use his pattern recognition capabilities to determine his future. He enters a deep reflection of everything that he is (life flashes before his eyes), and then with a mind of essentialism focuses on the few things that will most greatly influence his future. This is the essence of spiritualism. It is using the ability to recognize patterns for long term goals. Goals that extend from before we even existed to goals that extend well beyond our own lifetime. Often they are enveloped in Hivemind attitudes that altruistically help all of humankind. They are ideas that seek to not only help oneself, but the whole of humanity. * "The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. it came into him, life; it went out from him, truth. it came to him, short-lived actions; it went out from him, immortal thoughts. it came to him, business; it went from him, poetry. it was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. it can stand, and it can go. it now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The american Scholar
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Abstract:
Background: Throughout the rock of ages band members and crowd members have pursued the art of "Head Banging." The Rock and Music culture have a reputation for drug use and there may be a physiological DMT (N,N-Dimethyltyptamine) connection. Head banging has also been sighted among young children who seek self soothing. It appears the users of "Head Banging," both children and bandrockers, are using the method to achieve a sense of Nirvana. As seen in "DMT - The Spirit Molecule" documentary, all spiritual desires and life-goals seem connected to this molecule. Objective: The purpose of the this study is to determine if "Head Banging" affects chemical balances in the brain. It could influence DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) creation, acceptance and/or dispersion through already present DMT-inducing drugs. Design: Because there is present an available social group of "Head Bangers," we will first seek to validate our claims that "Head Banging" does provide some sort of stimuli though a prospective observational study. We will then extract blood samples from 3,590,612 valid points in the brain's main blood streams at a rate of 8,389,234,123.83 /ms to determine changes in levels of DMT in the blood stream. Setting and subjects: Because it is the year 2048 and there has been a resurgence of spiritual models as predicted by a Silicon Valley Model analysis the world accepts that we are on a new paradigm shift affectionately named the Age of Aquarius. The Water-Bearers have come and brought a new mindset that counters the previous one of a pursuit of perfection. They said in the past that one could be made "Perfect though Christ," but we have adopted a more wabi-sabi type perspective. Where we find beauty in flaws and imperfection, because they represent humanity. We pursued the de-humanification of the world through computerization of all aspects of our lives. And then we realized that to be human, was to have flaws. We are seeing a brief resurgence of a throwback to humanism before we ultimately upload all our logic and "human" idealogies into a vault of memory for the eons. By headbanging are band members and crowd members helping to disperse drug s inside the blood in their brains? Answer-ish: If so, it would be a good reason to keep banging Haha!!! So I have been doing NaNoWriMo, which is National Novel Writing Month. And the goal is to write approximately 2,000 words a day each day of November and by the end you will have a 50,000 word novel (90 pages or so). It is mostly a way to force people to get their first novel out of the way. Its like how they say the first song is always the hardest song to write. People are often so terrified of making a mistake that they prolong finishing the simple task that is their dream. People are daunted by the task of forcing every single bit of their ideology into their first creating that they limit themselves. They don't want to produce any content that isn't perfect. They don't want to disfigure their image. What most people don't realize is that by not producing any content at all, they are disfiguring their image and even worse, they are not acting upon their core dreams and desires.
So as I have been doing this NaNoWriMo, I have had a hard time actually sticking to a story line. My book is about an island in the pacific that has two opposing tribes. The story takes place during a pre-colonial time period. One tribe is based on reason, logic and human understanding. The other tribe is based on spirit, subconscious and submission to the unknown. A boy struggles finding which tribe to embrace, and in the end is exiled from both tribes. The island is attacked by outside colonizers, and the boy must unite the two differing ideologies to fight against the new threat and in the process learns that a balance of the two forces of Logic & Spirit is the answer. I have got the main plot points down, but I have learned something greater from NaNoWriMo than just how to write a novel. I have learned to use my post-work hours for something meaningful. In the past after I got off work I would have a few beers, consume the internet, maybe watch a movie or play a video game. Occasionally I would read a book or go out and hang out with friends. But I was rarely producing any content. I was just taking inputs. NaNoWriMo has taught me to produce content. To instead do something that gets my ideas and my spirit into a lasting tangible medium. For the record I am counting this blog post as my words for NaNoWriMo, because in my mind I hope that the book I end up writing is a memoir or something of sorts. Which happens more often than not among first year NaNoWriMo's. And it isn't a bad thing. The benefit is that I am actually producing instead of just consuming. Each night this week I have set for myself a simple goal. To preface, I have been struck with a new motivation of life in general, especially in terms of business and entrepreneurship. First I researched the http://www.cs1893.com/ website. It is for Church & State which is a business incubator in downtown Salt Lake. I sent them an email and they responded. So each day this week I have been following this path. One night I created my LinkedIn profile. And tonight I made this website and first blog post. I hope that in the future posting a blog will be a meaningful activity for me when I have run out of other activities to pursue. But I learning this all from NaNoWriMo. Now I am only going to blog candidly and I don't really care. I honestly don't really see many people reading through all of these. I normally write similarly in my own files on my computer, but why not just put it all out there? I have lots of theories that I eventually hope to get down on here. They are almost exhausting to explain because I have explained them so many times to my friends. On of my friends criticized me as being a cosmic mysticist. One who talks of light and truth and oneness but doesn't really come to any real conclusions. I don't know what I am. I am just a man trying to be more than a man. I think I'll just touch up this post with a few remarks. First on journal writing. This is a good thing. When I was mormon, writing in my journal was such a pleasure and it isn't just for posterity or some shit. It is a process for the writer to review his day and thoughts and analyze what went well and why, and what went wrong and why. Then with some effort the writer can make a plan on how to exploit what what he/she did well and to avoid what he/she did wrong and make necessary changes. It is this review that is the basis of human logic and truth. We take inputs, we analyze them and then make future estimates and plans. We do experiments every day in our behavior and interactions with others. We see what worked and what didn't. We see what to repeat and what to avoid. I contend that truth is relative for each human being. There is no universal truth. It depends on the circumstances of each individual, and what works for one in his/her surroundings may not work for another. It is therefore important that one reviews his/her own life. The individual must brood upon the past and see why they are the way they. Then use this information....Sorry my train of thought is lost. I know this is turning into just kind of stream of consciousness type sorta thing and I suggest you stop reading because it will only get less intelligible from here. But I don't like to write to an audience. I like to just write what I am feeling. And in that way I am providing an accurate record of my feelings as well as working through my own problems and not hiding them. Remind me to tell you about Isaac Asimov. I think my mind can be recreated in the future by the sum of all my outputs. Well this blog has been sufficiently derailed. I think I will continue my rantings on a google doc or something so I can at least track my word count and then go to bed. I accomplished my goal today which was to create a website for myself and to register the domain name johnhgrimshaw.com. which wasn't taken already hallelujah. I'm not sure what tomorrow's goal is. Usually by this point I have already found one. But tomorrow is friday so I will probably just drive home, work some in the office and then party with my roommates. Saturday I wanted to go to church and state but the guy said no one will really be there :( I will probably try anyways. I still need to connect with my mission president from when I was a mormon missionary. Maybe I will do that now even though I am kinda drunk. |
AuthorI am just a man trying to be part of mankind. I am also trying to be more than just a man. Archives
February 2015
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