recency bias

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by running

it could be that during energetic development one may be clearing through things from many life times. for me that was the case.

it could be helpful i have found for me anyways. to observe more than judge. so things come and go without to many hang ups.

our minds are not equipped imo to begin to understand various cultures going back for who knows how long. WE SUFFER FROM RECENCY BIAS. our viewpoint is based from our current time and present culture.

these are just my sharing of observations and opinions during my kundalini awakening. which for me included sifting through things that are not current. but date back in time.

For myself. It’s been current family, time and culture, generational, lifetimes, all life, who reflect what supports me to open. Add to that society, teachers and all those who conditioned my mind. It’s a massive infiltration. Then periods of unknown origin. Those were the ones my awareness learned, I don’t need to know but ride it out..

I don’t subscribe now. I listen to myself..

[running]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Ever since I was recently diagnosed as being schizophrenic and had that label attached (which also has a hard time sticking) it has led me to question social biases as a whole..

Is it that the prevailing medical and psychiatric thought gives absolutely no credence to Spiritual experiences whatsoever?

I read a very interesting article on "hearing voices" and according to that study, what the voices say, is wholly dependent upon the culture one is raised into. Some hear voices telling them to kill themselves...I hear voices telling me how to harness quantum fluctuations to build free energy devices..

https://news.stanford.edu/2014/07/16...hrmann-071614/

Many of the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia could equally apply to those who consider themselves to be "spiritual"...do you receive messages from beyond your own mind? Do you find significance in routine occurrences? Do you believe you create your own reality? Do you think there is an intelligencia behind the government plotting to control the world? Do you believe that your are Divine? Do you have "magical thinking? answer "yes" to any one of those and you are "schizophrenic".

I mean, there are almost 1.5 billion people in India who believe in stuff that those in Western society would classify as being "delusional" ..is the entire population of India schizophrenic?

At least one thing...now I have the label, I need to go and see another doctor to get a prescription for antipsychotics and to undergo treatment to try and stop all my spirituality...and I am willing to give it a go for one reason only..because if all of this still persists even when I am taking the drugs, I will know that it is not caused by "schizophrenia" and if somehow, my love for the Divine goes away, I will also understand that it was never there to begin with.

I do believe that in everybody's life and on their chosen path of Spiritual growth, there comes a time not to let anybody else's biases affect you...and if you are labeled as "delusional" or even "insane" for doing so, then guess what? That is STILL another bias...it is a bias against not being biased!...until you realise, in the end, that you just can't win.

It is also a message for me to go more deeply and regularly into meditation, because there also comes a time when the external world has nothing left to offer anymore (as if it EVER did).

The whole issue is that my mind CAN understand various cultures going back for the past 10,000 years or so and the only "bias" I hold towards recent events, is that I am able to make various comparisons when they are in no way even comparable...it is why people have "recency bias" because anything that is prior to living memory, is so foreign and alien to them so as to have never existed...call it a form of "selective attention" or "selective memory" and this is more at the level of the subconscious or unconscious mind, so that people have absolutely no conscious control over what they can recall...but there are a very small minority of us who can.

The Khmer culture was totally wiped out in one generation! The fastest way to change a culture, is to change the spoken and written language, so nobody can read any of the ancient books and inscriptions anymore. Anybody who spoke the old language or kept up with the traditional ways was immediately put to death and now, nobody knows what the temple inscriptions say, except for some linguistics professors at the University...nobody knows the ancient arts and crafts..the Khmer Rouge wiped out about 70% of the population...mostly, those over 20... those who would be able to remember stuff from the past.

In the modern era, dictators are not quite as ruthless as Phol Pot was...but the brainwashing is more subtle, insidious and systemic.

Also, in this "post truth era", a lot of skepticism is about on the actual validity of historical texts and documents..nobody trusts anybody or anything anymore, so "live for today" is the motto...and that also fits in very well with the "Spiritual crowd" and their whole "Power of Now" philosophy..is this very moment "recent" enough for you?

It is why nobody gives a damn about the past and the future anymore.

on my journey when the kundalini started there was a girl i used to date that began calling my mom to get my phone number. she moved away to finish up her school in harvard to become a psychologist. she got a hold of me and i took a trip back east to help her back west.

this was when the bliss was still coming and going. i sat with her on a pier looking at the water. i said, "wow, every time i look at the water it fills me with joy." over time i kept talking about how this joy kept hitting me. im pretty sure i scared her away with my coments. lol

long story short. psychologists aren't equipped to understand such thiings. and as she told me most get into it because they have problems. trying to figure themselves out. she was and i believe still is a good person. but not all are. my current girlfriend's step dad is a psychologist. to this day she is still trying to recover from his abuse.

later during my awakening process and more in the context of why i started this thread. clearing through all kinds of heavy stuff. my stuff was or seemed like trying to survive. keep from being killed. slavery. locked up in a cage. fighting for some kind of freedom. tortuous things it seemed. things that are far removed from what i experience today. but now i know why i have access to a strong adrenaline when i need it. for me it was easier to be the observer in much of this. rather than try to make sense of everything.

i once saw my heaven for a lack of a better word. it was greek. my soul see's that philosophy and freedom as a memory of a wonderful thing. so we have different ancient memories of good things. that may be opposites.

[running]

Originally Posted by Shivani Devi

Yes, I understand....what I don't get, is how does one know or can tell if a master is "genuine" or "real"?

I can see a deeper meaning and wisdom behind texts like the Vedas and the Puranas, and I also attach the label of being "religious" and subscribing to Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), because following a certain Sampradaya (school of thought) is less airy-fairy than just saying that one is "spiritual" even though, with religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, it is really six of one and half a dozen of another.

There are quite a few masters in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition...but none in Australia..and I don't really know if one can get the same benefits online..say, over Skype than actually being in their physical presence...how does the energy transference actually work over the internets anyway?

However, I am digressing from the main topic to reply to you.

I understand that many base their perceptions and judgments on THIS incarnation only, even if they believe in past lives.

For example, I have had a few tell me that a Caucasian Female from Australia cannot be a Hindu because I don't have brown skin and I was not born into a Hindu family...I just don't remember what happened when I WAS and I died to now be reborn as a Caucasian in a Christian country...and when we speak of the Atman, what has ANY of that gotta do with the price of fish (or tofu)?

If someone who is a Hindu says that I am not, my immediate response to that now is, "well then...if I am not a Hindu, then neither are YOU".

i spent a couple months with a guru in the states. three weeks in india at an ashram. many trips to another in the states for a few years. all were real. how to tell? their presence brings one into of brings one deeper into the bliss and silence.

by the way they all had human qualities just like everybody. you cant judge a book by the cover. thats what i found.

[running]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

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More than a ‘master’ it is the pupil who needs to become open & receptive. The Universe provides us with visible & invisible masters as in facilitators but in most cases we tend to self block the inward transmission by doubt or fear.

***

i agree

the student has to be open to the energy as the master has to have the goods.

[running]

Originally Posted by JustBe

For myself. It’s been current family, time and culture, generational, lifetimes, all life, who reflect what supports me to open. Add to that society, teachers and all those who conditioned my mind. It’s a massive infiltration. Then periods of unknown origin. Those were the ones my awareness learned, I don’t need to know but ride it out..

I don’t subscribe now. I listen to myself..

thank u for sharing

[running]

Originally Posted by sentient

My present time-frame brings (mainly) 2 - very different living cultures into view to witness/experience.

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thank you for sharing. you wish to elaborate? if you want to.

[sentient]

Originally Posted by running

thank you for sharing. you wish to elaborate? if you want to.

Since ‘Oztraya’ does have 2 distinctively different cultures, hence also 2 laws ….
I feel like I am walking the no-mans-land-in-between the two i.e. have affinities to both 'worlds’.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QbC7F_IOU...nciliation.JPG

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[running]

Originally Posted by sentient

Since ‘Oztraya’ does have 2 distinctively different cultures, hence also 2 laws ….
I feel like I am walking the no-mans-land-in-between the two i.e. have affinities to both 'worlds’.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QbC7F_IOU...nciliation.JPG

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thank you very much for sharing the picture. very cool!