Brad

Excellent perspective

Revisado: 05-04-24

Wow. This is among the greatest discoveries of humankind, and yet only a hand full of scientists are trying to work out the implications. It would be a great service if some philosophers could redefine our moral lexicon and if the psychologists could help integrating these ideas into therapeutic modalities.

As Sapolsky pointed out so clearly, the good news herein is far less likely to be “good” to the people in power (especially the ivory towers—the gatekeepers/educators of philosophy). They don’t want to believe they got where they are by pure luck and not by their hard work—only the latter of which deserves adoration, veneration, and deference to their opinions.

To the downtrodden, neurodiverse, to the groups and individuals who have been moralized do death, the message that it’s not our sins or shortcomings of character that have caused this pain is a welcome message. We can doff opinions of the moralizers and stop beating ourselves up. I especially like equating the two ideas: calling someone a witch expresses the same ignorance as saying someone is lazy.

We may find that telling someone with ADHD (who is missing vital connections between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala) that they should use CBT to learn emotional regulation is akin to telling someone with a broken femur to “walk it off.”

It’s amazing how this book answers all of Brian Keating’s “questions.” Almost as if he read it with a mind to ignore anything that didn’t validate his preexisting opinions. Comparing Sapolsky’s “To my great shame…” comment from the book to the similar phrase from that interview, it’s clear that Sapolsky is saying something akin to, ‘Look, I get that the illusion is hard to shake.’ Even with an intellectual understanding of its illusory nature on a level that many of us will never appreciate, he finds himself lured by the siren song of vengeance. Too bad Keating replays this message as he believes it was the gotcha question that devastated Sapolsky’s argument. On the contrary, it was a display of naked ignorance on Keating’s part.

I’ve been on a quest to try understanding Daniel Dennett’s arguments which only seem to elucidate the fact that he never understood the arguments presented here. With his passing, I’m even less likely to ever understand what he was going on about, but I’m okay with that give he didn’t understand Harris or Sapolsky on hard indeterminism.

This is a wonderful book and hopefully the beginning of a movement toward a more humane and rational society.

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You can’t just say it psychosomatic

Revisado: 03-07-23

It’s a tall order to both convince someone that their chronic pain is psychological and make it stop in about 3 hours, after about 10 years of spasms and blinding pain, I’m back in the gym and running again. Dr. Sarno has added quality of life and lifespan I never would have had, and there’s no price for that.

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The Direct Path

Revisado: 04-10-22

I have been listening to this book off and on since 2015–always around the illusion of self and having no head. I felt it was important, though I had no idea why. In 2022, I finally downloaded the Waking Up app. I began to practice in earnest, and a week ago something happened—it was a moment of not practicing, no trying. A brief experience of no “in here,” or “out there.” Having glimpsed it, I can hear others describe it. I can see the source of all suffering. I am overcome with compassion.

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Brilliant. Transformational.

Revisado: 12-15-21

I stumbled onto this by accident, having scoured the internet, insight timer, and finally discovering it on Spotify looking for a guided Premeditatio Malorum. Normally, I wish meditation guides would not introduce their meditation, because when you come back to it the next day, it’s a bit repetitive. With Premeditatio Malorum, however, it’s vital that they be introduced and reintroduced every time. Jon does an excellent job of balancing the ratio of instructional preparation and guiding you through powerful imagery. Hats off to Jon—this is amazing work and utterly transformational. It has made me grateful beyond anything I could have imagined.

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May this review be auspicious

Revisado: 05-05-21

When I first started listening, I was not amused with the professor’s quirky inflections, and what I thought were mispronunciations. Apparently, apostate has two pronunciations! Who knew? As it turns out, I, not the good professor, was wrong. By the time I got to maybe about lecture 10, he started to grow on me and I have to admit, his opening and closing started to cause a smile and chuckle. You can tell he absolutely loves this material.
When the more detailed lectures about the Roman gods started playing, I found myself rewinding and repeating them, as well as conducting external searches for depth and clarification. I was completely unaware how much we know about this rich and absolutely marvelous religion, or how prolific and seamless the Romans were in adapting and integrating other cultures and myths into Roman ones. It’s as if they had the pantheon of modern psychology already completed in their expansive myth.
I can understand why the other myths are not in the lectures the way some of the reviewers wanted them to be. It checks all the boxes, whereas others would only check one or two but not all: it is thoroughly documented, relatively expansive, well advanced and the language is connected to modern English in a way that non-Latin languages are not—so you get a lot of etymology. Probably the most important is the connection with the subtitle: the Roman cultus deorum is one of the most clearly defined transitions from pre-Christian to conversion, besides being so intimately involved in Christianity itself.
Not every lecture is a masterpiece, but this is still my favorite of the many great courses I’ve listened to.

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That Was Easy

Revisado: 06-17-16

Any additional comments?

Why I started this book.
In the comments I read, I was encouraged by the heavy drinkers to pick up this book, because I didn't believe it could work. I had been to AA meetings and being an atheist, I immediately locked up. I would have gone to listen to the stories (like the narrator character in Fight Club), but not to experience change. I'm a sailor, and I developed a very heavy drinking habit, and was able to maintain it without many repercussions at work, because a lot of my bosses have heavy drinking problems. My wife said I needed to do something--and after countless times of shooting back a, "yeah, sure, I'll get on that." I finally realized that I might lose her if I didn't.

My drinking.
I would drink a six pack a night, about once or twice every month (this was meant for nights when I was exercising "control" because there was something important happening the next day): every other day of that month, I drank at least ten beers plus shots of whatever I had in the freezer. I'd finish off a 30 pack on Saturday and Sunday as long as I woke up in time to drink through the morning. I only breaks I took from drinking for the past 10 years where when I had to deploy or when I was too sick for the hair of the dog. I never drank to enjoy a beverage to complement a meal or any hoity toity nonsense like that: I drank to get drunk. And if I ever started drinking and couldn't reach that goal for some reason, I was mad.

What the transition was like.
I listened to the book in the car, washing dishes, etc. I didn't quit drinking when I started it, but I followed the instructions and I never listened while I was drinking. I had a lot of fear at first, but I decided to go to the bar with my wife and I knew my friends were going to have some questions about this, because I quit. Nowadays, I go to the bar to play golden tee golf, and darts, but I haven't had a drink in about three months, and I don't see any reason I'd ever drink again. I have to admit I was nervous to go to a bar and try to avoid drinking, but it's really easy.

Bonus.
I ended up reaping some great unexpected benefits, too. Sure, I feel better and I wake up more excited, but my mood has balanced out a lot. And I have always been someone who has a very uneven mood. I has allowed me to remove delusional beliefs in other areas of my life as well. You don't recognize how brainwashed you are until you start going through it one by one. My recommendation is to keep this self improvement going with a book like miracle morning or practicing mindfulness.

Best wishes.

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esto le resultó útil a 73 personas

Good stuff

Revisado: 04-14-16

You're kind of tricked into learning here, because it's basically a great storyteller. Then at the end, it all gets tied together nicely.

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Follow up to "Willpower"

Revisado: 04-03-16

I read "Willpower" a while back, and though the information was very fun to learn, I had difficulty applying it to the real world. For example, I read that the most successful people don't necessarily have extraordinary willpower, they just organize their day around the idea that it is finite. Good deal...how do they do that? This book is a perfect companion to what seems like useless knowledge--filling in all the blanks and leaving you with a great sense of clarity.
Wish I'd discovered it sooner, but it sounded gimmicky when I heard about it years ago. Better late than never!

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esto le resultó útil a 22 personas