While sitting in the waiting room they had a single TV with CNN on and the room was otherwise silent. Everyone was glued to CNN's gold line commercials, antidepressant commercials and Wolf Blitzer was talking to a bunch of people I didn't know about terrorism, diseases, political and economic turmoil, etc. It felt creepy.

I went in because I have tinnitus and a bit of "snow vision" and thought it might also be related to my odd psychological change. Once I got in to see the doctor I told him that I felt I was going crazy and explained the situation. I shit you not, he told me "I think you're the only person who has come in here today that has it bang on the money. It's all one big commercial selling greed and fear, and that's all it is."

We had a good talk, turns out I likely just need to oil up my ears some more. He suggested I stop making judgments on those who do not understand it, which seems to be the cause of some recent psychological distress.

But, I still want people to get the idea, naturally. So I decided instead to create a series of videos. Not directly related to the first paragraph of this post. I clipped together a short video today from a mix of genres with no commentary. I am interested in any opinions of how well the concept is received from the clips provided. I plan on making some more, eventually with commentary. This was conceived of and pieced together in only a day (and it's the only video I've ever made like this).

If you're interested, let me know what you think It's only about 12 minutes long.

Part 1: http://www.vimeo.com/8289764
Part 2: http://www.vimeo.com/8289878

Sorry about the volume changes in the audio between clips, I need to adjust it.

At first, I was fucking amazed you have a doctor. That would be sweet. Then, he turned out to be smoking the same shit you are...

I have yet to watch the videos.

** EDIT **

You may or may not have your parts backwards.

I was shocked by what he said -- he was in a suit and had a gold cross 'round his neck. Caught me off guard, but as he said prejudice in that sense is what made reality difficult to deal with in the first place!

No, but the order, length and content of the clips may seem arbitrary.

I agree. Seeing people behave and react like drones is very disconcerting.

It's even more disconcerting when you're in the middle of 1984 by George Orwell.

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

I've now watched the first video. Pleasant only because of the George Carlin clip. The actual video is pretty much what I would expect to come out of a pothead. There was no point and no message. You could have at least began with a subject and ended with a conclusion. Instead, it's just a set of mildly, at best, related video clips mashed together at random. Worshiping the Sun is as ridiculous as worshiping any deity. As George Carlin pointed out, it's great material for making fun of those who worship deities, though. I don't care about the details, but I seem to recall you speaking of Sol (which I understand to be a representation of the Sun) as if it were the universe's true deity.

The thing that makes me think you've lost your mind is your conspiracy theory talk. I can't recall the name of the Armageddon you believe in (I think it starts with s?), but that in particular makes me think you're off your rocker. I've been called crazy for years though; probably longer than you, so who knows. At the very least, I know what it's like to question your sanity.

Your doctor sounds as crazy as you do. I think there's merit to questioning popular media and popular belief, but there's such a thing as taking it too far. Conspiracy is too far.

Ah, it was just the UI of the site. It had video 2 above video 1 and emphasized video 2, so naturally I assumed it was video 2 playing, whereas in fact it was video 1 playing. My Their mistake.

As for the universe, as Bill Maher put it, I don't know. It's OK to not know.

My intention was to have the viewer form their own message from the concepts in the clips. The clips are unrelated on purpose and have no guiding commentary on purpose. George Carlin, one of the biggest "pot heads" by the way, explains the concept from his perspective which is one that I share. However, he discounts religions -- for good reason -- but I believe that religions were an important process in evolution (though many religions have been overthrown and no longer evolve but are instead intelligently designed).

You've chosen to relate it with a deity -- and the universe -- which is interesting. I do not relate it in that way. To me it is the object which has the largest influence on our planet, but is only present and visible half the time (though in the night it is reflected from the moon). I believe there are unknown forces at work in the influence which it has, and that our ability to experience here is directly related to the sun.. but that's just me.

Indeed, it is. I would stop blaming "conspiracies" or whatever it is you're talking about. There is no conspiracy, it doesn't work that way. It is more of an organic, natural system.

Order of upload, reverse chronological.

One of the more creepy things I experienced was at a shopping store. Just randomly, in the clothes department, a salesman set up a box and started demonstrating how "incredible" this set of knives was.

My initial reaction was "oh, geez... gotta get out of here". But then I saw like 10-20 people walk up like it was some kind of magic show, so I wanted to see how the audience reacted. The guy went on with the usual mantra "easy to use" "only $39.99" "comes with a free something-er-rather if you buy now" "this offer only for a limited time". It just sounded like white noise to me.

Then he finished his last bit saying "I can take your payments here right now". And I swear, pretty much everybody bought the knife.

Who goes to the clothing section to get a FUCKING KINFE?

It was disgusting.

Wow. That reminds me of when my folks bought new windows. They got scammed by the guy but were unaware of it -- he did stuff like "called his manager" to "try and get a lower price" and acted sincere. Then he said they couldn't wait to decide on it, and had to act immediately to get the price his manager "approved". They were ripped off and paid double what they should have for a poorly done job.

You can't blame them, though. It's a form of sickness. Richard Dawkins has an awesome special called "Nice guys finish first" where he talks about cheats, suckers, and what he calls "grudgers".

I'm not completely against drug use. I think it can have harmful effects and that its use should be considered a serious matter, but it can also result in unique and interesting works. Drugs do alter your mind, however, and if you're constantly on them then you're unlikely to be thinking clearly. For the most part, I think it's humorous to attribute your seemingly irrational claims to drug use, but it's possible that you're either brilliant or crazy (or both). Or that I am.

Can you summarize your rationale without requiring further reading? I'm just curious. It seems every time you address it you point to work that I'm supposed to do to understand you. I'm just curious if you can give me enough on your own to consider what you're saying, instead of disregarding it as it seems everybody here has.

Then what are you rambling about popular religions and popular media? It all comes across as conspiracy theories that you're labeling "not conspiracies".

I'm not saying you're crazy. I can't possibly know if you are. However, if you truly went to this doctor for a professional opinion on the matter, might I suggest a second opinion? I just think it would be interesting to see what the results are. Perhaps go to a psychologist that is more likely to know about "crazy" than a medicinal doctor. Maybe go to an American doctor, just to be safe.

Personally, I would like to be examined by a qualified psychologist. I just don't expect to find any nearby and can't see myself being able to afford anything anyway.

I've noticed trends like this in the majority of people I've met, but it seems impossible to derive any kind of justifiable conclusions from it.

I hope you realize all doctors are specialists. Somebody who knows something about ears knows nothing about you being crazy.

Ya, if I were you I'd see a pyschiatrist... I had some pretty insane theories too before I knew what was wrong with me (could be similar to what you're experiencing), and some of them turned pretty harmful to me... wish I would have been diagnosed sooner. I was around 23 when I was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

I would not describe my claims as irrational, though many people who do not like the view presented by religions may relate it to religions and then say it is irrational by that relationship. I am brilliant, but that has little to do with it. However, I will admit that I am not a very disciplined person, which does come across in my writings and in how I express my thoughts and ideas.

Doubt it. I came to this rationale by doing a lot of reading on a lot of controversial topics. In reading those topics and relating my post-marijuana experience with the figures who studied them I started to see something forming together and it became clear why much of it is controversial, including the use of drugs.

Some knowledge has the potential for being quite dangerous, and typically the stuff that is controversial falls into that category. Carl Jung researched a lot of interesting aspects of psychology. When he started writing about the psychological effects of kundalini yoga, aions, symbols and so forth and how they effect "reality" when combined with ideas like interconnected psyche and shared consciousness he was then labeled controversial. Before that he was just brilliant. These give rational explanation -- though complex -- for a lot of stuff that people perceive as "paranormal", "mysterious", "religious hokum" or "pseudoscience" such as psychics, spirituality, precognition, and even the placebo effect.

I am uninterested in placing blame, which is what conspiracy theories are mostly for. Simply being aware of what is going on is all I'm doing. I stated a fact about what was on the television and what the response was of the people around me.

I say that television has changed and that it is now a non-stop commercial. There is no content of any interest, but people haven't caught on to that yet. Who is to blame is irrelevant -- you don't need to know who to blame. All you need to do is turn it off.

Why not? I do. If you start calling me normal somebody might catch on!

Although your medical advice is appreciated, I don't think that is necessary. I went to the doctor for an unrelated reason, but while waiting in the waiting room and experiencing my "crazy" again, I brought it up to him. He assured me that what I was referring to was in fact the opposite of "crazy"...

I really was kind of hoping I had psychological problems It would have been easier.. but I guess life is never easy.

Eek! Chemical lobotomy!

What I've been experiencing is quite similar to schizophrenia, but with one major exception. Schizophrenia is "seeing patterns where patterns do not exist" whereas I see patterns that very few people have become aware of. If I were schizophrenic it would be odd, because a lot of people tend to agree with me.

Yeah, it's so easy when the most important part of your body (your brain) doesn't work right.

No, that's not what I said. It would be easier to have a treatable mental condition than it would be for this to be a reality that we need to deal with and solve.

I'm not convinced that is not that case.

You're suggesting that what people are doing in the first paragraph of the OP is considered normal and should be what everyone strives towards?

I think it would be interesting to meet you in person. As long as we're in a brightly lit place with a crowd...

They were bored and had to wait there anyway. Might as well kill the time somehow, because staring at the wall isn't much fun and talking to strangers in a medical office is even more creepy.

Especially if Derezo is there smoking a joint for the sun-god.

I met 23yrold3yrold at Tim Hortons when he was in this area of the country

Trent: That is also true, but that doesn't explain why it is considered acceptable behavior. We're a species which is advanced enough to know that exposing yourself to that and/or accepting it as reality is very unhealthy and psychologically damaging. We also know that it creates depression, which sells depression medication, and creates fear, which raises the price of gold, so the motives of the business designing the programming is quite clear.

Intelligent design and evolution are both real, don't fall for that "you can only believe in one thing" Red VS Blue bull shit. The TV is intelligently designed, but we have evolved

I dunno. If the doctor actually cared he'd remove the TV. I've personally not seen a TV in a doctors office (unless you count the dentist )... People are perfectly capable of watching that drivel and not letting it soak into their brain. Most people realize they're being tricked by the TV... it's common sense nowadays. But they put enough meat in there to make it somewhat entertaining (though CNN? No thanks!)

Tim Hortons, those are huge in Canada. You're takin me back to when I went through there.

Wait, what? What is your affiliation with Canada Mr. Oates?

I toured through there three times. I believe... 1998, 2001, and 2002. Every two blocks there's another Tim Hortons. It was along the bottom east side at Niagara Falls.

No, it's a government run health care system here and they turn a profit by having CNN displayed in the waiting room by mandate. That's just the way it is, don't spin it into a conspiracy theory please.

It's so common that when you mention it people say you're babbling about conspiracy theories, heh.

It is naive to think people can not let it soak into their brain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTepA-WV_oE

Repeat after me: "Every time you read it or say it you make another copy in your brain."

Too big, if you ask me.
Reminds me of our beer store.. it's called "The Beer Store".

It's designed that way, intelligently.

Can you say where that region is (or PM it)?

/rant
Tim Hortens is one corporate machine I refuse to support (unless the soda/juice vending machines outside of work are off and I have no choice... ). Actually, I don't so much care about their corporate status, but 9 times out of 10, they give me a cup with coffee or Iced Cappuccino dripping down the side. "Even McDonald's"^[1] has the common fucking courtesy to wipe the cup before handing it to me. If I wanted to have beverage all over my hands I'd hold them out and let you poor it in directly (sparing the tree required to make the cup). Fuck Tim Horten's.

It's not that big of a loss though because I don't like coffee anyway. I also question the affects it has on the population. It seems the majority can't function without it. When I found that my "friends" and particularly She began drinking it like grown ups it alarmed me. I couldn't believe how strongly they took to it. It definitely seems like an addictive drug and I wonder just how much impact it has on human consciousness. I can't stand the taste and never really noticed any kind of boost from it at all. I generally buy an extra large cup on the work mornings when I'm overly tired or hungover, but I never notice any positive affects at all. So I wonder why so many people think so highly of it. Even if it does help them to become more alert, at what cost?

I'm a computer programmer. I'm supposed to be drowsy until around noon and then I slowly begin to ramp up.

Fear raises the price of gold? That's the kind of crazy jumps you make that sound crazy.

Take it back! We will not tolerate this blasphemy!

mmmm... I won't go that far.

his nostril breathing is distracting.

I just Googled and watched it. Good stuff

And in the time I did that, you guys posted 14 more posts

Derezo, I'm still a little confused. If I read right, then your 'problem' is nothing more than you having gained some insight into what causes a subject to be controversial. Is that not just a case of being perceptive? Where does even the thought that you might be crazy enter into it?

Wait; I'm one of the personalities? O_o

I wouldn't go that far either, but they really do it.

I think he meant that you diagnosed him.

^ I love this concept. The idea that one of the regulars on Allegro.cc could be a multiple personality of another just seems so...creative? That may or may not be because I'm crazy. AFAIK, though, I'm not a multiple personality.

I take it from this and your beer store comment that you live in Ontario? Man, that is one HELL of a place to live, if you ask a small town boy from New Brunswick. I can understand why you think everything is screwed up because that whole place is just filled with bizarre. But then again I wasn't exactly sober most of the time I was there nor did I have any idea of my mental illness, so I got really paranoid and had some really strange ideas run through my mind. In fact I can't get them out of my mind .

Why did this thread's activity stop? This is keeping me distracted...

That's what I believe, but others seem to differ. The response I get when these ideas are expressed is that I'm crazy. It immediately brings up talk about conspiracy theories, which people lump together with schizophrenia-esque illnesses. Yeah, there's corruption folks, but not everything is as simple as a "conspiracy theory"! Those things are not truly related to what I'm saying, but rather how people perceive these types of ideas (and due to the true nature of the idea, it makes a lot of sense that explaining the cause of a mind virus would cause the mind virus to become defensive).

I put all of the patterns together myself with no guidance (other than the people in the documentaries). When so many people say it's crazy, I started thinking I might be wrong.. but because of how intense it has become, I figured if it is wrong, there might be a problem with me as opposed to a problem with the way my peers perceive reality. The idea that it might be a problem with me came from the fact that this perception appeared in a moment, as if a blood vessel had burst in my brain and it happened while I was watching a David Attenborough documentary about plants. It was kind of like an "out of body experience", but I remained in my chair

Now that I know I am not mentally crazy though, crazy still seems to be a useful title. People who don't get me can just shrug me off as "crazy", which is better than aggression, but as the doctor demonstrated people who get it will know you're not crazy.

Besides, I also think grape and blueberry jam is crazy. Crazy awesome

After I watched Hi-Jacking Humanity I realized something was wrong with them. It's the only source most people here are capable of thinking about for coffee anymore because the mental association is so strong.

I do think coffee can be used effectively to do a number of things, but you're right. When people get as addicted to it as many people are, it becomes a problem. They say things like "I can't go without my coffee!" which seems an odd mantra to tell yourself... You can not continue your journey without a drug? Hmm...

That being said, I do drink coffee, and I do drink it more than I would like... but it's just always available to me. My folks go through about 4 pots per day.

Dez was writing his long post.

It sounds like the doctor you went to see isn't qualified to diagnose whether you're crazy or not. You don't have to go see a specialist for a second opinion, but please don't take this one doctor's opinion as absolute reality, especially on a discipline for which he probably hasn't studied in depth.

That's not a long post...

He can't, I tried. If you pressure him for details he'll run around in circles and start saying you're deliberately trying to misunderstand him.

No kidding.
I swear you can give directions to anywhere in Hamilton as "go straight, turn left at the Tim Hortons, straight on, left at the Church, past the Tim Hortons, then turn right at the second Tim Hortons". I haven't tried their coffee (or "coffee" as I've heard some people call it) since I don't drink coffee, but I did make the mistake of trying their muffins twice (they're far, far too sweet). Oh, and I still want to try if it's possible to melt one of their doughnuts and fry something in it.

That's nothing. I've seen a Starbucks inside a Starbucks' restroom.

I can't even stand coffee. There was a short period of time where I'd drink it occasionally, primary from Tim Horten's (there's one right beside where I j0rb); but it didn't take long for me to stop. I never enjoyed the taste and never really noticed any positive affects.

I have been known to be "addicted" to pop/soda so in terms of caffeine I've in the past gotten a lot from that. I have pretty much slowed down my pop intake though due to its negative side effects. It had gotten to a point where after drinking Coca-Cola (the most satisfying beverage for my addiction) all night, I could spit out chunks of a black substance that I would describe as "soot"-like. With no other explanation that I can think of, it appears to have been the root cause in wearing down the enamel on my teeth. I still occasionally drink it out of habit. I try to substitute juice or bottled water when possible, but they're more expensive and not as readily available. At home, I've pretty much converted over to beer, which is potentially just as harmful, if not more, but it has other properties which are helpful for other reasons.

I'm quite certain none of the folks here are qualified. Even if they were, forum posts are no substitution for a visit to their office.
Although he is a GP, he confirmed that he knew exactly what I was talking about through his use of language and he provided references. He used specific wording.

Deliberate or not, you were misunderstanding me. You still do, and you will likely continue to tell me and others what I do in the way you did just now unless you have a paradigm shift. In the thread you're talking about, which has not been referenced in this one other than by you, your requests were insurmountable. It was as if you expected me to copy/paste entire wikipedia pages, books, and videos on subjects you didn't even care to know about. It seems you are unhappy with the relationships I place between science and religion, and there is nothing I can do about that because you express it in passive-agressive comments like these.

I'm terribly sorry I can't explain the entire universe for you in a paragraph, which seems to be what you expect given that's what it seems you think I'm trying to explain. Thanks for watching.

True, it's no bampost. But it's long by my standards... I mean... my writing standards.

I'm qualified.

You are Master Leverton certified crazy.

w00t!

What is everyone's obsession with caffeine? Coffee tastes awful. Soda tastes good, but does nothing for me aside from the flavor, caffeine has no effect on me. I'm not addicted to it, I don't need it, nothing.

Unless you are a machine, I wouldn't be so sure that it has no effect. Caffeine has a pretty solid history of causing effects in humans.

You sound like you're in denial. Nobody said you were addicted to it.

What effect is it supposed to have? I feel no different after having it, and I can go for weeks without having any with no ill effect either.

Just look at his photo... he definitely is affected by caffeine.

It is a psychoactive stimulant. You may not notice the effects, I often don't either. The effects are still there though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine

That's something everyone who takes caffeine could notice immediately, right? The reference is pretty interesting, too.

After reading that I think I want to post it above the coffee maker...

[edit]
Maybe video isn't my forte yet. How about a nice little mix of music?

Sol Invictus....

I noticed the effects of coffee at the morning. Haven't drinked it for months though. I just used it sometimes when I was really asleep and needed to pretend a little "active" at some moments. But for keeping myself awake, sometimes I found that working efficiently is all I need for keeping myself awake. It's the inspiration and dedication that keeps pushing you forward. Things like caffeine have an artificial effect, which might have pretty similar results, but it'll last only for a time, and you can't justify your success to yourself, but to coffee

Indeed.

Today I burnt Season 3 of Dora the Explorer for my niece today and was watching it with her, having never really seen a full episode before. That show has interesting stuff in it. One of the episodes that is on there is all about "waking up the Sun", and she's watching it now (on the day of the sol invictus festival). For those who do not believe in a collective consciousness, this is random chance. I don't think it's so simple.

On Friday a friend was talking to me about the Mayans drinking poisoned water in a movie. Today my mom says "I just saw on TV a show about how the Mayans all died off because their leader poisoned their water supply" after I had been reading about Kukulcan's white skin and "blue eyes", which seemed an odd thing for the Mexica cultures to pay worship. Did they know the East was coming, and so sacrificed themselves? They were big on suicide, it was the "ultimate form of death" in their culture, similar to the Japanese.

I believe in what Richard Dawkins says, but I think it still applies to religions. However, some religions are designed, while others evolved, and he doesn't really seem to notice that aspect because he focuses so much on Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The three biggest religions, and also the most corrupt. So even though I believe in Richard Dawkins, I still belive in stuff like this:

Afterall, the clock and the calendar used were all perpetuated by the church and are based on seemingly arbitrary information of no importance to anyone who uses it... but cultures like the Mayans, Native Americans, Australian aboriginals, etc all used astronomical events to measure time -- the moon and the stars.
The lights in the darkness.

Anyone else seeing a pattern here? Or am I still schizo?

Where do you think we get our day, month, and year from?

Incidentally, the Chinese word for 'week' is 星期, or 'star period'. A plausible theory for our seven-day weeks is that there are seven objects in the sky that are visible to the naked eye and move relative to the stars: the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Reference

Sorry, I think I missed the thrust of your post. It's interesting reading but I couldn't see what conclusion you were getting at.

By the way, resistance is futile.

Am I the only one who finds Dora to be absolutely neurotic?

Very likely.

Wednesday in French is Mercredi (compare with Mercury)

Friday is Vendredi (Venus)

Satuday (Saturn) is Samedi (Saturn)

Tuesday - Mardi - (Mars)

Monday (Mon -> moon) is Lundi (compared with lune which means moon in French).

Thursday - Jeudi - Jupiter

Sunday - sun - dimanche in French (which leaves me wondering).

The months and years are abstracted away from the original moon calendar, but unlike the cycles of the moon they have been molested over the centuries (by Catholic priests, no less! ). The names are often misleading, or even inappropriate and unimportant. September represents the 9th month, but as everyone should be aware simply from the form of the word it represents the number 7. August is named after a king/emperor/leader guy, as is July. These things are of negative consequence, even if only slight.

The months are unequal and misaligned, most unlike the cycles of the moon, and the patterns seem arbitrary. 30 days has September, April, June and November? All the rest have 31? ..except February, the retarded one?

The number used for the year is based on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, though we know it's a little off, and why try to make everyone on the planet base their time on that one guy? Was it something they think he spread in his teachings, like giving gifts and putting up trees on his birthday, or having the magic rabbit hide his eggs?
They patch it up with leap years on a regular basis, changing the pattern again.. but the year itself does not change, only our perception of it.

So, could anyone correct me and tell me why it makes sense to use it, other than "because everyone else does"?

Indeed. The 13-moon calendar also uses 7 consecutive days and some of the old Mayan calendars used markers of 7 as well (in conjunction with other markers). I don't have a problem with that so much, they are repetitive and cyclical with a beginning and an end which remains constant, and as you said they're based on astrological bodies.

"The hands of the clock,
They hold back the time.
Without the clock,
There's no reason why."

Why?

It doesn't take a great deal of mental capacity to learn that September is the ninth month, especially as we don't use 'sept-' for much else. If September having been displaced from its position as the seventh month were a problem, I'm sure we wouldn't have done it. People seem to have more trouble learning when to use apostrophes, eh Matthew? Is it logical that the possessive "its", "theirs", etc. have no apostrophe while "one's", "Bob's", etc. have one?

I think having names for the months gives them a feeling of colour that you otherwise wouldn't get. It also inspires curiosity: you might wonder where the names come from and look up some history, which can be an awesome activity. With the right attitude, these things can be very positive.

(In various Asian countries, the months are called 1月, 2月, 3月, 4月, 5月, 6月, 7月, 8月, 9月, 10月, 11月 and 12月, where 月 also means moon. Of course, they more than make up for this by having all those exciting characters.)

No, I think that is the only reason, although plenty of people will feel attached to the current names and would object to a change for sentimental reasons. Have you ever had people argue another reason?

It strikes me that you're identifying what you see as imperfections in the way the world has developed, and then you're expressing it as a problem and hoping people will agree and maybe share your pain. Nothing you said is untrue, but I think you might be developing a destructive attitude that won't ultimately serve to help you or anyone else.

My theory is that September is seventh month after the start of the Muslim year. (February 9 AFAIK).

These things don't hold any great significance.

My theory is that March used to be the first month of the year.

I've done the maths now and I see your logic is sounder than mine. Still I could say that I thought since the Muslim's had something to do with it they inevitably miscounted, but I didn't mean it like that.

Another thought though : Jesus was ressurected in March, so perhaps they used to count from Easter ?

Wasn't it April? There's a reason April 1st was turned into "April Fools day" oh so long ago.

Of course not -- we made it this far. I did say it was slight (in an edit).

Dumping the calendar is not destructive behaviour, and there is a culture and following behind it with support materials for doing so. It's not much of a requirement these days to follow it with automatic payments, automatic deposits, automatic withdrawals.. what do you need to follow the Gregorian calendar for other than financial purposes?

I'm fine with naming them, and the 13-moon calendar does name the moons -- and the years. The names change every year, and they work on a big cycle which eventually loops around again.
The names on this one make no sense to me, even given their history

I was curious, but then once I found out it was a bit of a let down. It's named after a guy who claims to be the voice of God on earth, it's months have been edited and don't make as much sense as they might have at some point in the past before some redesigns.

I don't think that truly helps.
Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
Positive thinking without action about a negative influence can be self destructive, even if only slight.

Though you'll find lots of positive thinking in that pseudoscience humdrum called The Secret

After reading the OP... I get it, and to be honest I think you're all a bit crazy.

But Derezo, your obsession with this idea along with the other symptoms you described in the original post are all probably caused by your previous, or current use of marijuana. You've described the symptoms of some habitual pot smokers that I've known in the past and now your going through the OCD phase.

Just learn to let it go and focus on the more important things in your life.

Where's the negative influence? I can see it exhibits one in your mind, but where is it for everyone else?

I can see Derezo's view. The whole time thing sucks as it is. It's confusing and consequently a cause of mental problems for everyone.

I think they should abolish Christmas too because it's too repetitive.

How about people who hear voices?

And I remember reading that February is the shortest month because the Romans considered it unlucky, so clipped it to reduce the period for good luck to return. Myself, I consider high heating bills to be unlucky.

I'll give you that I became aware of this as well, and it's why I quit the stuff and decided to be more careful with it, and treat it with more respect than I had been. I was using 1-2 times per day at one point, which was excessive. I used for less than a year though.

Indeed I spent too much time looking into this stuff and learning about it, but there's no letting it go now. I have absorbed far too much knowledge about this stuff. I am focusing on more important things, but I haven't thrown my ideas out to a group like this before and really wanted to dump my thoughts out somewhere Lucky you guys!

It is a difficult topic, which is why this calendar has stuck around for so long. The work of Richard Dawkins goes into great detail about memes, contagious ideas, and such. Other figures like Daniel Dennett talk about it as well from another perspective, even if he does breath heavily They were not the first -- Carl Jung, Sigmond Freud, John Locke -- and they will not be the last.
The ideas heard, said and saw influence the mind and can affect the decisions of the host. No matter how slight, they can make an impact. On some people they make no impact, zen masters for example. On others they make a massive impact, toddlers for example. If you think it's 9, but you're saying it's 7, there will be something in your mind that is incorrect. If you notice it, fine. No big deal. You can correct it because you are aware of it. If you do not notice it, it can be abused. This idea is typically applied to things like marketing. Obama makes a lot of people think of pepsi. Why? Then why the Pepsi logo change when he's in office? A little more curvy. Hmm.

When that type of problem is spread throughout the masses it can be abused using coordinated, calculated, broadcast methods. This sounds like a conspiracy theory, but forget that. Conspiracy theories never end, there's one for everything. It is irrelevant to understanding what the true problem is. If everyone thinks it's August, that pattern inside your mind can be abused if you don't recognize what that pattern is. Each word and each letter in every language has a multitude of associations with it. Your brain makes patterns out of these associations and that's pretty much how we think and it affects how we form ideas. That's why mind games like this actually work on a lot of people.

So, in short, this calendar is keeping everyone on the same non-sense based on the birth of a man revered by many as personified God, but who was brutally crucified. This idea is perpetuated and each time the year increments a new number is jammed in our minds. The calendar was made by a man who's role involves holding the presumed savior on a stick and assumes himself as king of the Sun (note the crown) and the voice of God on Earth.

It's a mind infection, and it's going to get worse before it gets better

Take on a new hobby... or finish a project you've already started. That should distract you long enough for the long-term effects to wear off. The Tinnitus may take much longer to wear off for some and any sinus problems may be permanent...

[edit] seriously though. Don't think so deeply about all that stuff. 99% of the time it's a waste of time...

Tinnitus is not from the pot
It's been around for a lot, lot longer.

It doesn't take a lot of time anymore to think about this stuff. Everything I post is almost entirely original ideas formed from what I've learned. It's even in the music I listen to. There are more like me where I come from.

I decided to get a job doing physical labour. Start tomorrow.

Yes, and they are called pot heads.

Right, I think I understand what you're saying.

Do you have an example of a marketing person taking advantage of the "something in your mind that is incorrect" issue you raise with the Gregorian calendar?

The Pepsi company have decided to play on someone else's popularity by mimicking their logo. Where's the pre-existing "something in your mind that is incorrect" that made this possible? Is it not simply a marketing device that exists all by itself? How is this justification for disliking the Gregorian calendar?

See the spoiler for my answer. For those who are interested in trying the game, please try the game out before you open the spoiler.

Where's the association in this game? Where's its negative side?

Why are you focusing on generally harmless imperfections in the Gregorian calendar (and similar accidents of history) just because they might be abused for marketing reasons, while there are many, many marketing ploys out there that are quite deliberate and don't rely on such accidents at all? If you're going to worry yourself with something so grand and difficult to control, why don't you instead simply focus on the fact that some people are driven to take advantage of everyone's weaknesses in the first place?

It's too bad pot is known to permanently damage user's brains.

Derezo, perhaps what you really want is just to raise awareness of how the mind works - you'd like to live in a world where everyone naturally notices these mind tricks and can defend themselves?

I wonder if the world would be a better place that way, or not ...

Care to provide a link? I'm sick of being told by my pot-smoking friends that smoking (weed) isn't bad for you. I try to tell them that any smoke being inhaled into the lungs is bad, but they refuse to believe it without concrete evidence that pot is bad...

It seems it's disputed. But this is how new areas of research go. half of the papers claim on side, half the other, till eventually one side wins out.

At any rate, here's the long term effects.

Heh; you see NLP techniques friggin' everywhere once you learn it yourself. Advertisers are shameless.

Anyway, you're still nuts, Derezo.

EDIT: Just Googled the Pepsi logo since I didn't know it changed. Um, this has what to do with Obama? It's just a dumb change, I don't get it ...

Every time you see a comma or an apostrophe, you think of me.

Every time I see you I wonder why you're so mean looking and have a band-aid on your face.

It's common knowledge that Mars used to be the first month. And what comes to the length of the months, It was a trickier thing. They first had some regular pattern (31, 30, 31, 30 etc). Since February was the last month, it got the left over days. July had 31 days and August had 30 days. July refers to Julius Caesar while August refers to Caesar Augustus (Luke 2:1). Augustus of course changed the calendar so that his month would have 31 days, too.

"Have you noticed they changed the Pepsi logo? Why on Earth did they do that?"
"I blame Obama."

<edit />

He's so mean looking because he has a band-aid on his face!

Derezo, I think your wonderful x

No, and that's not what I'm suggesting. I said the idea of "mind infections" are typically associated with marketing. If you have ads blasted at you all day about how Pepsi makes you young, Pepsi quenches your thirst, Pepsi makes you young, Pepsi quenches your thirst then when you think of being young, and many women do, you may think of Pepsi. When you are thirsty, you may think of Pepsi. Marketing just works.
Repeat after me: Every time you hear it or say it you make another copy in your brain.

Now, that in itself is not related to the Gregorian calendar. The gregorian calendar messes with your perception of time. You think it is Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009. In reality, Tuesday doesn't exist. December doesn't exist. 2009 does not exist. It's just a number, but many believe two thousand and nine is a year. They are fictional things designed by humanity with no concrete, real meaning. However, there are associations in your mind to each of those things. Is Tuesday the second day? Or is it the third? Or is it just a day of "twos"? I use to think of pancakes, but I was raised Catholic.

These things are entirely fictional and designed much like a literary work. To attach yourself to them on a daily basis, and for billions of others to follow suit, does what an earlier quote mentioned -- it enslaves you in the matrix. The matrix of this fictional reality. It sounds absolutely ridiculous, and I do not deny that, but as I've said before, that doesn't discredit it. Maybe someone should make a movie on it or something

The associations are formed from the math questions. There are more like these. You can watch the others that make you think of different things if you like (probably in the related videos section). Being aware of it often changes the outcome, and so does saying the numbers out loud. There is no negative side to that game. It's an example of how it works. I thought of a blue drill, but the one I saw had a blue background

Marketing is not the reason for this at all. "This idea is typically applied to things like marketing." meant the idea of things you see/hear/say/use affect your decision making. I am suggesting that thinking the problems in the calendar are generally harmless may be naive. This is something that seems to be related to stopping the old age "witches", who were often just people who based their actions on intuition. They became declared witches because, well, they could basically see the future (but that sounds silly, and it doesn't work how that sounds. No time paradoxes, the future surely doesn't exist yet). This is the quote:

Exactly Every time I see people employing them for personal gain it's just creepy now. NLP isn't the only form of neurological programming we undergo, though. The calendar is a neurological programming tool for a different region, and I'm going to bet it's a region affected by marijuana, just because it seems like a good wager to make, and I'll follow that with a bet that it's in the area which manages your perception of time.

I didn't get it either. Image not by me, relationship also not found by me, and I found this image on the first google image search results page:
{"name":"obama_pepsi.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/c\/4c4e02f138d2c5084904c999bed4b11b.jpg","w":350,"h":238,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/c\/4c4e02f138d2c5084904c999bed4b11b"}
ChristianAndAmerican.com -- probably not pot heads, if that what you're worried about
At first glance, the logos are very similar but flipped.

I read about this on the back cover of Eating the Dinosaur, a very good book. Then immediately noticed that a friend of mine switched from Coke to Pepsi after years of being a vocal coke fan I gave him the book

Yeah. You're so lucky to have that brilliant undamaged brain of yours that flows so much loving content into threads. I don't know how you think up all these things so quickly. Amazing.

Almost all claims are disputed because of a lack of study. The studies available don't correlate with each other when it comes to brain damage, psychosis, and permanent effects (sans memory). Indeed it does cause much damage in adolescents, and it's been known to do that for centuries. It also causes problems if you use it on a regular basis for years, as pretty much all studies in the area have shown. However, it does not kill brain cells, prevent brain growth, or modify the growth of normal brain cells in adult brains that have fully developed when used occasionally. In fact, there is evidence that it grows new cells, not to mention it's anti-cancer properties. What you do on pot is extremely important in how it affects your brain. Reading and watching documentaries or working and accomplishing tasks is much different than, say, watching Spongebob. It's easy to fall back on the "oh you're just a pot head" thing, instead of quoting what I say and proving otherwise, but.. hey. That's fine. This stuff just isn't for you, and I'm OK with that. Then I'm not sure, you have a proponent of marijuana in your very signature. Every single post you've ever made quotes a pot head, but then you come to my thread and spill garbage about it. Very peculiar.

I'm not advocating that everyone go smoke pot, though George Carlin has been known to in his very well done, insightful and hilarious comedy routines. That's not my decision to make for you at all... and drink all the Pepsi you want to.

Hurray!

Anyone notice all the time travel movies, TV shows, and such that have popped up in the last 5 years? Anyone seen Primer? Anyone seen Primer.... on weeeed
(don't do it. hurts)

Did you ever look at the back of a dollar bill....on weeeeeed

Derezo, what happens when everybody believes the same crazy stuff you do? Do you then switch directions and become normal again so that you aren't following groupthink?

Do you have evidence to back that up? Why is my explanation not sufficient to explain the phenomenon?

Looks to me as if you're trying to create an association between the Gregorian calendar and the Matrix. The first is an albeit arbitrary standard that nearly everyone in the world follows, creating an efficient means to communicate and boosting productivity. The second is an extremely negative image most of us are familiar with because of the success of the film it came from. I'd like to suggest that you yourself are using mind games to manipulate people into disliking the calendar, and you're doing this because you, for reasons that are personal and perfectly acceptable, don't like it. If your association works, then every time someone sees a date on TV, in a newspaper, on a shop's seasonal opening hours or anywhere else, that person will be reminded that they live in the 'Matrix' - a horrible, soulless system they have no control over. What should they then do? Shirk the calendar, harm productivity, lose their jobs, lose their income, lose their friends, feel powerless to do anything about it?

(In reality, very few people will let this happen. At worst, they'll notice the very beginnings of such a thing, rationalise it back to what you said, and stop taking you seriously, hence the 'crazy' accusations. People are actually more aware of the world around them than you give credit for. They just don't bother thinking about stuff like this unless it becomes a problem.)

If you are using these mind games deliberately, then you are a sly old fox but you can't fool me, wink.

If you did it by accident, then perhaps you should cut the world a little slack and accept that, while I'm sure advertisers do study this and consciously use it for their own gain, it's actually something we all do naturally, usually for good causes, and it's much more important that people merely have good intentions, as I said before?

Incidentally, I'm fairly sure most people, no matter how common or chavvy, dislike adverts. On that point, you're preaching to the converted.

I bet Dr. House could diagnose you with a really obscure kind of tumor... Its probably causing this crazy talk.

But seriously, judging by your avatar, I think we have at least half a year left with Derezo before he goes berserk. So enjoy him while he lasts.

What the hell does the Pepsi logo have to do with Obama's logo? The only similarity is the colors, vaguely, and the fact that it's a circle (which was Pepsi's idea first).

Its the same thing as with the Marlboro cigarette boxes, people find what they want to find, associate all kinds of things to other things... Two KKK members holding a flag, black man hanging, white man standing, all kinds of crazy shit.

Now, what is really interesting is the Super Nintendo and Windows 7 logos. Look:

{"name":"600048","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/3\/6\/367a1b7695dbd55c7330af43fc014423.png","w":313,"h":240,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/3\/6\/367a1b7695dbd55c7330af43fc014423"}

They look very similar. Oh, BTW, took me 3 seconds to find this out. Conspiracy theorists would have a brawl if they would see this.

Another point on the Pepsi thing by the way - no one would respond to the advertising tactics if they fundamentally didn't like Pepsi, would they? The net effect of the similarity is that more people are doing something they enjoy. It's not so immoral after all.

Derezo, there's also evidence that heavy pot use shrinks certain parts of the brain causing permanent damage. You can do a dozen searches on the subject and get an equal number of conflicting studies. The results will probably remain the same until the people conducting the studies stop showing the same symptoms as the main study group...

Shrinking? I think Bruce Ben Kenobi made Derezo's brain explode.

His must have been laced with something

I don't know, but I'd love to find out! I'm pretty sure once everyone is aware of this stuff we'll have real progress, because it will all be eliminated. No more officials, no more lies and deception, harmony with nature, and time will be different. Don't get me wrong though, I don't think that this will happen without billions of people dying. The infection that's causing this crap is designed to be suicidal. It's the cheats and the suckers again, the cheats will cause their own demise.

I've never truly been "normal". I've always felt something was seriously wrong here, I just never knew what it was. It just happened that when I got into marijuana, a possible answer came into my awareness through experiences. Apparently you all think I just got brain damage, and it's a nice cover, but doesn't prove it wrong at all, even if it is true and my brain is 98% tumor. Afterall, Einstein's brain was unique in that the area responsible for mathematics had overtaken an area responsible for language. Does that mean his thoughts were wrong because they were formed with a brain that was different? How does your pot head / brain damage theory disprove these ideas?

Your explanation is that everyone is uncreative and thinks of the same tool every time because of common thought? How is that any better of an explanation?
There are hundreds of these little tests, like I said. You can find them all over the Internet. There's also stuff like the spinning girl -- is she spinning left or right? Ahh! -- or other illusions. These things work because of the way that our brains work, and there is plenty of evidence for that. It's not unexplainable. Videos like this one, or this one tell us a lot about how these things work. It's more complicated than "everyone thinks the same, so that's why it works". People do think differently. Saying that everyone just picks the color red for hammers or .. actually, I'm not sure what you're even suggesting. Why is even the color of the hammer specifically disproportionate in choice?
It's not "red hammer or X, or Y, or Z." It's 98% red hammer, 2% unknown. (though 48% of statistics are made up on the spot)

I'm not sure which part is considered crazy or why. I'd love to be shown what is wrong and why. Opinions are nice, but there's nothing to back that up.
Is it that the king of Catholics doesn't wear a sun crown, or that he doesn't hold a dead savior on a stick in front of the masses, as depicted in the photo evidence? Or do you mean "that's normal", and thinking of it as inappropriate is considered "crazy" just because "he's the pope"?

I'd love to hear about your mind game theory. Where was there a mind game? And if you're aware of the mind game, why not prove it wrong by solving it and winning the game?

The film does discuss things of this nature, but The Matrix in The Matrix is not The Matrix of reality (AFAIK) -- even if a Near Earth Object saving the day is in music prior to the movie and popular legends about "Nibiru", "Planet X", or the "repeating catastrophic disaster" theories... it's not what I'm proposing. I'm proposing the calendar causes us to be locked into a certain mindset, and have seen nothing to disprove that or even anyone saying that is incorrect. In fact, I would say that it is absolutely crazy to think that the calendar used does not alter reality -- whether this calendar or another calendar. If we all switched to the old 360 day jewish calendar we would see massive changes in psychology just the same.

Awareness of it and the adoption of a new system solves the problem. You don't immediately leave the matrix just by seeing a 13 moon calendar, just like you don't enter the Matrix just by seeing a Gregorian calendar. It's a mindset that's been developed over time and can be cured and an immunity can be built up, but it's something you have to want to do.. and I'm not even saying that you should do it. I'm saying that I feel I am just aware of it.

I think that it's akin to the story of the boiling frog. If you drop a frog in boiling water, it will hop out immediately. However, if you put the frog in warm water and slowly bring it to a boil, he won't realize the water is getting hotter and will die. This is a problem, but once it becomes a problem large enough for everyone to recognize (which I would say that it's showing promise of reaching that point with the year 2000 and 2012 nonsense), it will be too late for most.

I can provide little proof for this that I have readily available... I'm not going to upload an audio book, or copy out some of the books that I have. If you do think I'm wrong you should be able to tell me why you think that, rather than just asking for more proof, saying I'm playing mind games, calling the idea crazy, or whatever other nonsense. If I told you that wood was really made up of crystallized meth, you might quote "no it's not, wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of trees (and other woody plants)." and provide a link to wikipedia... but then, that's easy and what I'm talking about isn't so easy to grasp.

This becomes like describing a color, or a flavour, or another experience. I'm glad it's not so easily disproven though Nobody here has ever said "no, that's incorrect. Joe said that over here and they proved him wrong over here by showing that the calendar was a collaborative work mostly based on astronomy and that's why there are the 12 zodiac signs and 12 months. There's also this study which shows most people are immune to thoughts", or some other kind of proof that exists. Instead I get "You're just a crazy pot head!"

Which is why I'm fine with that response. It just seems to me that it's a cop out, and little else, which is acceptable for showing that it is a difficult problem. These words and these ideas are not seen as incorrect, but they are seen as crazy (by those who think they're crazy, of course).

I need a spiritual guru, not a psychiatrist (though a good psychologist might be able to help )

I dislike the common cold, but I can still catch it.

Derezo, you need to stop believing in fairy tales. The reality sounds more like The Brothers Grimm stories. Most people are just too stupid to even understand the concepts of what you are presenting here so it's just not possible.

I must have missed the 'theory' in the volumes of all this jibber-jabber. Yes, the subconscious mind operates on pattern recognition, big f**king shock. The calendar doesn't "enslave" anyone; you can go invent your own calendar for all the effect it has on your life. Maybe I should make a one-day calendar so every day is my birthday and I can live into the quintuple-digits. Whoopie.

Fun example: I hypnotize someone into being completely happy and satisfied doing what I tell them for the rest of their lives. Would require the occasional reinforcement, but I could do it. Now you try to sell them on this "real progress" of yours as an improvement, that she has a problem you need to "eliminate".

Today is Muyday

I haven't read The Brothers Grimm stories in many years, but this isn't so much a fairy tale, or a belief. It's an observation and an idea, of course based on many other observations and ideas. I think there will be an event in our near future that everyone will cause everyone to say "We can't allow this to happen again."
And everything will change.

Indeed

That's more less what we're currently in

She may very well not have a problem, and nor do most of you or even me right now. It's where this is heading, in a visible trend, that is the problem. Just take a look at the Canadian and American governments. They do not work properly, and are headed in a very bad direction.

^ This.

Yes, I was kind of hoping you'd pick up on that. Now finish the paragraph.

I edited it in
There is no problem for her that she is aware of. The problem is that she's been hypnotized, but if you tell her she's been hypnotized and she is unaware of that, she will get angry. She will find you to be insane. "What!? Hypnotized!? You're smoking the pot!"

The goals of the hypnotist are her problem, but the hypnotist made her happy. Of course, the hypnotist isn't interested in her happiness. He just wants his money for his services. If he's a good hypnotist, he'll also own the money to begin with and work it into how he has her do things so that she really isn't getting anything at all and is fully supported by the hypnotist in all aspects, even outside of the hypnosis sessions.

But hey, at least she's happy.. until the hypnotist decides he doesn't need her anymore. Takes away her money and replaces her with a machine he had her build.

Sorry.. what were we talking about again?

Can I turn your hypnotist story into a movie?

Assume she's aware.

Nah, I love doing "happy-place" age regression hypnosis, fun as hell and educational for them, no charge. It takes like 15 minutes and usually gets a very emotional reaction. I do it for the same reasons I make video games; to share a cool experience with someone. I have yet to have someone cry and hug me and tell me they'll never forget me over a video game I made, but it's probably just a matter of time. Just because someone is speaking "hypnotically" doesn't instantly mean their motives are bad. If a person knows how to communicate effectively and doesn't on purpose, they aren't being good, they're just being stupid.

Now, hypnotizing the same person over and over is no fun, because I've gotten all the experience I can from them and they've become so conditioned that it's too easy. Now say they enjoy it so much they just want to stay in a blissful peaceful state, and they're willing to do my chores or something if every time they obey my suggestions they feel really good. Explain how this, in and of itself, is bad. Yes, advertisers and mass-media talk to us in subliminal ways, but that's how most communication is done anyway. And if you know anything about how the subconscious processes info, you know it ignores negatives, so trying to get people to not think like this is a losing battle. Teach people how to manage their lives properly (ie: make a positive change), and what the commercials say won't matter anymore.

Guy has a hypnotism interest that kicks up every few years, finally does something about it and gets some training and certification? Is this going to be one of those straight-to-video dealies? I'm not going to be played by Kirk Cameron, am I?

I have a solution to it all. I call it, "Fight Club."

I didn't know you were a hypnotist. I was turning it into a metaphor.

You're right, it doesn't. The opposite is also true. It doesn't instantly mean their motives are good either. There are groups from both sides. There are folks like David Allen, Stephen Covey and Anthony Robbins who seem genuine and are very good. However, there are folks like Barack Obama and Glenn Beck that I can't be so sure about their good intentions, yet they have a larger audience. The things they say are hypnotic, and you can easily tell from the chanting in Obama's campaigns. "Yes we can! Yes we can!" (creepy)
Yes we can... what?
Not to mention the FOX News rallies and insane Glenn Beck support.

I think hypnotism, when it's called hypnotism and the person being hypnotized is aware that it is hypnotism, is fantastic. It's something I was very interested in for a while. However, that interest turned dark when I realized it was everywhere and that people were falling for it, especially people very close to me.

I don't find that is true, and I have people around me who are examples of this. When people say things like "I can't", which is a negative, it gets ingrained in their mind that they cannot do those things. "I can't go without my coffee. I can't stop smoking. I can't find a job.", etc. These things are hypnotic in a sense as well. If you repeat them as mantras, you continually make copies in your mind and, if it becomes severe enough, you will believe them to a point where you consider it useless to even try to do those things... because you cannot do them. If it's really bad, and someone tries to tell you otherwise, you may get upset and angry at them even though they're offering sound advice. They know that you really can find a job, even though you're claiming you cannot.

As I mentioned, the scenario you explained is not bad. It is good, and that is proper usage of NLP, really. What I don't agree with is that mass-media talk is how communication is done. We don't have intro animations when we talk to each other, we don't have musical scores inducing the emotion of fear, and we don't speak to each other with the tones and wording used. It's designed as one big advertisement, and a fair portion of what they're selling is lies, fear, and greed. I'm not saying that every single person who watches it is affected by it at the highest level, but I am saying that it is ridiculous that we allow this to continue. Other than the guy selling it, who really wants it? It's just a bunch of hypnotic garbage, but we're not told it's hypnotic ahead of time of course.

True. A lot of what I'm saying is "big picture" stuff and not personal. I do believe the if we all were trained to make positive change everything that I'm talking about would eventually just go away because it would be ineffective... but I don't think that it's going to be easy with all the shit out there trying to pull people in the opposite direction.

Chirst! How do you type so FAST!

This chant reflected the idea "Yes we can actually do something about the system that controls us instead of feeling powerless".

Ironic. It's a cycle mang.

Tsk. Someone's not reading my Facebook updates.

Neither is true, honestly. It's like saying "Someone who reads isn't bad. Sometimes, the opposite is true." It's a non-point. You might as well just say "Some people are bad", but don't expect awards for your insight.

Dwelling on it constantly makes it conscious too, and you can't tell me there aren't positive suggestions mixed in ("I need my coffee", "I need my cigarette", etc). This is why people use reverse psychology, or advise that you don't speak in negatives to children (ever tell a kid "Don't touch that!", only to have them touch it two seconds later and then tell you "I dunno ..." when you ask why they did it?)

Even when talking to someone face to face, a good 80% of your communication is subconscious. Don't hate the media guys just because they know how to do their jobs. What they're saying might be bad, taken on a case-by-case basis. How they're saying it ... well, if they didn't sell their message they way they do, they wouldn't be doing their jobs.

I started using computers when I was very young?

Yes, but 'something' wasn't defined in the chant. Do something.. but what? Wouldn't it be wiser to include the action in your mantra?

Something like "We can win! We can win!" would make more sense, or "No taxation without representation! No taxation without representation!"

There was a list of things! It filled up a whole speech!

Anyway. Here's a real pepsi logo:
{"name":"dlb-pepsibloat.jpg","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/e\/ee7cd81803ba0a13bdd62540bb531f17.jpg","w":550,"h":388,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/e\/e\/ee7cd81803ba0a13bdd62540bb531f17"}

[edit]
"I have a dream..."
"That's a dumb thing to say! What was your dream!? Goh! That's senseless mind control!"

That is awesome.

Heh, sorry, I've been a bit overwhelmed by facebook lately. Not sure how to tell it to just.. "BLOCK ALL APPLICATIONS". I go on and everyone's giving tokens and killing vampires and saving superheroes and giving away virtual prizes and.. ugh. Who has time for all of that!?
..but I guess who has time to type all of this?

I think people do use hypnosis for good, and for bad, which is what I was saying. It seemed like you were defending it saying that it is good, and I don't disagree with that, I'm just saying it can also be bad. It is a non-point really, it is just obvious that there are good and bad sides to all things and the things involved are more less irrelevant. There are good officials and bad officials, but an official is not good nor bad, just like hypnosis is not good or bad. Without definition, hypnosis just 'is', just like officials just are.. but I propose that mass-media hypnosis is bad.

I don't hate the media guys just because they know how to do their jobs. I hate the media guys because they do their jobs, and their jobs are bad and I disagree with what they stand for. The terror, greed and fear they're selling is unhealthy mind cancer from my perspective, with little positive benefit for those who view it.

It's profitable, and that's as much the fault of the buyers as the sellers. if they didn't do it, they'd go out of business, honestly. Remember the quote about the universe and human stupidity? If you got in a tizzy over everything stupid people fell for, you'd never get out of bed in the morning.

Indeed. That is probably where my problem lies.

Time to do space mushrooms!

I swear though, sometimes I feel like a strange force is moving me around by popping into my reality in specific ways. It's as if I am consciously experiencing the shaping of reality at times, but that is about as far out pot head sounding as you can get... I assure you I am sober It's incredibly difficult to describe, but I attribute it in part to being away from media for so long. Things began to happen in very peculiar ways, a huge number of "coincidences" come and go. It has gone so far as to turn my thoughts into realities as if I am thinking up the future. It sounds crazy as it comes, but it's really happening and kinda creeping me out now that I'm not on drugs anymore.....

Oh come on lets just do the fight club idea... We'll bring world peace through underground fights and blowing up credit buildings... I'll call Brad

Ring ring...
"Hello."
"Hey Brad, It's me.  We're going live and making it real."
"What?  Who the fuck is this?"
"Come on Brad it's me."
"Is this the asshole that knocked me off my motorcycle?  I'm going kick your ass!"
"Uh... Uh....."
"I am going to..." Click

Ok... I think we're on our own... We'll have to do it without Brad.

Who's in?

I guess I've already said enough to make the web spiders suspicious, so what the hell.

LETS BLOW UP CREDIT BUILDINGS!

Hey wait... I'm getting a call... It's Brad

"Hey Brad what's up?"
"You dumb ass mother fucker! Yeah I know who you are now! You wrecked my bike and
 now I'm coming down there to kick your fucking ass.  I'm going..."
"Yeah!  Yes!"
"... beat your fucking brains in! Do you"
"Alright... I'll let everyone know."
"... hear me? Do you hear me!?!?  I'm gonna fuck you up..."
"Yes! Awesome! Be there at 8pm ok..." Click

Ok... I think Brad is in too...

Pot does that to you? That's really freightening! Quit pot totally and get away from that existentialist bullshit. What on Earth would Tuesday have to be to exist to you, more than it is already now? Is an apple on your table the only level of existence that you can accept? Or do you even doubt that?

<edit />

search_and_replace(this, "accept", "understand");

I can't seem to think of a way to say that positively. Anyone?

So you have a problem with popular media, etc., but you don't have a problem with Facebook? Now I know you're a fraud. Facebook is the biggest spam engine on the planet right now. Almost everyone trusts it and have no idea just how accessible their information is. Facebook applications routinely SPEAK FOR USERS. <so-and-so> sent you X! Respond back with a Y! Meanwhile, <so-and-so> only "installed" some application that took it upon itself to spam every friend <so-and-so> has in <so-and-so>'s name. I think I've installed one third party Facebook application when I first started using it. I immediately identified how STUPID they were and never again installed one. I also quickly identified that it wasn't friends sending me things at all, but third party applications claiming to be acting on the behalf of friends when in reality they aren't.

I'm not sure what that was all about, but I liked it. Well done.

Get your hand(s) away from X ?

Humans were created by nature... By a natural process. So by being a product of nature they are natural. All products of humans are also natural.

So, Tuesday and December are natural, because they were created by a being that was created by nature and is natural.

Hah.

I don't think that's quite the same. Also, it still sounds negative to me.

Huh? Didn't I say I had a problem with facebook?
I even said I couldn't find the "BLOCK ALL APPLICATIONS" button, but you quoted that and responded about applications speaking for you. Why do you think I want to block them? Ahhh!

You apparently totally misunderstand the difference between reality and fiction. Fiction is just thought up and written down, reality exists. An apple is in reality, a Tuesday is fictional, even if it is fiction that almost all humans are aware of. If an alien came down to Earth and wiped out all of civilization, all of the technologies and calendars and fictional things, then Tuesday's gone. Gone, gone, gone... never to be heard of again. The apple still exists.

The only reality of time is the position of the entity telling the time relative to it's surroundings -- the Earth, Sun, Moon and Stars.

And that's right, I said almost all humans are aware of Tuesday. Many groups do not have the same 7 days. I'm not being existential, because Tuesday really doesn't exist for some people. It's just an idea... but thanks for playing the Pot card again just because you don't get it.

So, I read your post where you went on jammering about time... What is your point? What does 2009 mean? It means 2009 years passed since Jesus kicked the bucket on the cross. Why do we need this? Ummm... Let me guess... So we can tell when certain events and things happened and are going to happen?

So I know when I scheduled to meet with the hooker? You said it yourself, most humans know its a man-made thing. So I ask you... Why was there a need to point this out?

So, if I ask such a person what day it is... How will they respond? They can think its just an idea and it doesn't exist (which most people realize), but they follow this idea like everyone else.

If they dont, how do they schedule coffee with friends?

Oh... _{Right, they don't have any friends do they?}

The expression can be negative as long as individual words aren't negations. It's why when you tell someone "Don't think about itching" over and over, they start itching. Conscious mind accepts it, because it seems smart. Subconscious discards the "don't", assumes everything else is okay since the conscious approved it, and away they scratch.

Pretty sure we started counting from his birth, not his death. Just saying ...

Didn't you hear? Every year is one day, and every day is Birthday. It just passed legislation, though I understand it's being appealed by Pradeepto and the Mad Hatter ...

And yet Herod died in 4 B.C.? hmmmm. Those superstitious twits couldn't count any better than they could come up with reasonable beliefs.

Like I said in my last post, 2009 is a fictional representation of time. 2009 doesn't truly exist as time, it is only an aspect of the Gregorian calendar (and related calendars) which dates it as such. The point is that it was designed, and I think it was designed to serve a purpose further than simply telling when certain events and things happened. It was designed from a fictional idea and became a very contagious one indeed.
We don't need this at all. We can come up with any fiction we choose. However, I would like to use something that instead makes sense, such as the Moon and the stars to tell time. You can figure out what the moon/star time is from the Gregorian calendar, but the terms, order and numbering systems used in the Gregorian calendar are what most people are familiar with. They are not familiar with the real earth/star/moon time, but with the (mostly) nonrepresentational fiction instead.

I'm only spreading awareness of this idea and looking for criticism. I'm getting lots of the same bad criticism that has nothing to do with the idea itself, which is sort of good -- it proves nothing. I'm not suggesting we all switch to some other calendar tomorrow. I think the idea will become more popular in the near future, though.

Under a new calendar we would still say that Jesus was born 2004 years ago, but we would would not say that it is 2004.

Near is a very, very subjective term indeed. I bet youll be full of worms before we see any change in the calendars we use or in the way we tell time.

I bet there were thousands of people like you, all wanting the same thing, but never getting it.

I wonder why... Hmm...

Jim: Hey John, when can we have coffee?
John: I dunno, does "Full moon and Jupiter visible, Mars only partially" sound good to you?
Jim: Ok

What makes sense is different from a person to person. For some people it makes sense throwing people like you in a padded room, doesn't really mean it makes sense now does it? I bet you would agree.

This reminds me of the man and the alien that meet in The Martian Chronicles and they can't tell which one's from the future and which one's from the past. We kind of need a standard for these things and there's nothing particularly wrong with the one in play.

And Jesus dies 33 years AD (After Death). Good thing these people weren't programmers or they'd still be arguing what day was when, huh?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini

Yeah, I looked it up too, I wanted to be a smart-ass also but just figured "After Death" makes more sense than "In the year of our Lord"...

EDIT:
Damn, just thought of something, he didnt actually die in the year 0... So yeah, "After Death" is very very wrong.

That page also disproves his previous post too, so I don't know why he brought it up in the first place. More fuel for my apathy. Thanks for the link anyway though.

I disagree
We'll see by 2013 though. I'm wagering that 2012 will be year 2000++, but this time with real things going on due to the proliferation of the idea by mass media. They even made a blockbuster movie about this one entitled "2012".

Interesting. The year 2001 was truly the completion of 2000 years of the calendar. Interesting play of events.

I'm thinking 2012 is when a bunch of the Mayan "spirits" come back, and 2001 was when the spirit of Jesus came back. The turn of the bak tun ushered in a forced economy reset and huge celebrations, as if to say the souls were of a new source.

Okay, but why?

Changing the calendar year will not avert any potentially pending apocalypse. We won't be sliding into the earthquake chasms crying, "Oh, if only we'd listened to Derezo and changed what day it was! Woe and misery!" Honestly, people have been bemoaning the endtimes every other year for a while now. This won't be any more accurate than the other hundred.

I've already mentioned some of the things I find wrong with it. That's just the tip of the ice berg I'm sure. I just wrote that up on the spot

Nope. It wont. Changing the way we perceive time only changes our perception of time and absolutely nothing else, except for that which is affected by our perception of time.

People have talked about the end times for many centuries, not just the last few decades. It just seems to have increased in the rate it reoccurs (like a lot of other things) around the 80's.

I sure hope not, because I haven't told you to do anything.

There is no spoon.

There is no self.

The person you call Master Leverton is under a constant change.

The apple rots.

Woah, this weed is fantastic.

Sadly that doesn't work. The moon, jupiter and mars are fiction. So are numbers, so you can't even say "fourth planet from the star".

I mean according to Derezo you can't even name anything, or put a number to anything because they are human concepts, and thus fiction.

I'm glad you quoted something from me to support your jamming of words into my mouth

No they're not.

None of that is actually "wrong", though. I'll grant you that it's arbitrary and no better than any other system you could write up on a napkin over lunch, but it's no worse either. This is one of those funny situations where "because everyone else does" is a perfectly sound reason. I could understand if you were petitioning to make counting in base 12 instead of 10 or something, but this is just silly buggery ...

The names are.

Sorry, but naming the 9th month 7 is wrong.

Yes, but they represent real things. Not true of 2009. You have to tell a story to tell what 2009 is. You can point at the moon. Point me to a 2009?

I want a revised system for telling time and dates on my desk till next Monday, Mr. Derezo!

And NO, you CANT number the pages! Why? Because 1 + 1 = 2 is a purely fictional human concept!

HOP TO IT!

No you don't... Everybody understands it. And even if someone doesnt.

What does 2009 mean? 2009 means 2009 years passed since a guy got poked in the hands and feet. Simple.

I'd suggest the 13-moon calendar

Names are arbitrary. I remind myself of that every time I look at an anime title (Bubblegum Crisis? Pumpkin Scissors? Bleach?)

I remind myself by saying a word out loud many times very fast... It becomes weird and meaningless after a while.

I disagree very much. Ever hear the story of the girl named Temptress?

Freakonomics was an interesting read. Names are not arbitrary, and there is no proof of that. There is meaning to names.

Words and names don't exist and shouldn't even be uttered.

We should use sign language, because at least our finger bones will be here for a long time.

I don't agree, ML.

But I do, ML.

Yeah, ML is right.

/raises a middle bone

/me points to the current revolution of the earth around the sun.

Isn't a month the time it takes for the moon to revolve around the Earth? A day is the time it takes for our planet to spin around its axis.

So, Derezo wants the moon and the stars to tell us the time. Wait... Aren't we already doing this?

Damn, don't have time for this anymore, before I continue thinking basing time on rotations and movements of stellar bodies is a good idea I'm going to get stoned and drunk to see if I can see from Derezo's POV then.

See you later! ( much later)

If we do change the way we tell time, basing it on the relationships between astronomical bodies in our solar system would be stupid. If anything, we should move to some kind of sensible constant of time that makes sense anywhere in the universe^[1]. I would like to measure time precisely and be able to express that. I don't know if we have instruments that are precise enough for this yet though.

The problem is, without identifying a starting point for time (which may well be impossible or might not even exist), we need an arbitrary reference point to work from. The believed birth date of Jesus of Nazareth is a stupid reference point, but a reference point nonetheless. I see no reason to change the way we measure and map time unless we come up with a precise and unambiguous system.

A system of time based on the relationships between astronomical bodies in our current solar system is just as stupid as what we have now (though to some extent, it is what we have now).

No. There are 13 moons per annum, but the Gregorian calendar has only 12 months.

Not with the Gregorian calendar.

I think something more personal makes the most sense. Measuring time from Alpha Centauri isn't going to benefit us unless we're there. Using just our solar system isn't going to give us all of the information. We can use the positions of the outer stars as well, they also change over time.

Time is change, so we would just want to measure that change using the constants available. Simple as that. The whole idea here is that the Gregorian calendar only does that to a minor degree, it adds in all this other arbitrary made up stuff.

Its all relative.

No really it is. Time for you is relative to the speed you happen to be traveling at.

I've been wondering how much faster time is going at the edge of the universe vs. the center. Or even just comparing near the center of our galaxy, to the very edge of it.

I've also been wondering, just what speed are we moving at right now, and how much does it change over time? We move around on the surface of this planet, the crust moves, the planet spins, the planet rotates around the sun, the solar system spins around the galactic core, the galaxy orbits around the common shared center of mass of our local group, and the local group orbits around a shared point with other groups and so on till everything is orbiting the shared center of mass of the universe (And who knows what it might be doing), and everything is flying away from everything else... How much does our "time" change?

Maybe an astrophysicist can answer

I know that's what science believes, and to some degree has "proven", but I don't yet understand it and refuse to accept it as absolute fact. I don't see what relationship the rate of change in spacial position has to the change in "time". It doesn't seem there would be a direct relationship between them. To me, it seems more likely that the means by which we measure time (i.e., the rate of change in things we believe to be constant) are altered by the rate of change in spacial position. Of course, we've had this discussion before and according to you I lost, but I digress.

Who's to say there is an edge to the universe? Why would time differ there?

The edge itself isn't special, its the speed you'd be traveling just by being with the objects out there. Ever been on a merrygoround? You travel faster on the outside than the inside regardless the speed the entire thing is spinning.

I think for you to really understand how motion has an effect on time, you'd have to actually read and understand Einstein's works. I understand the basics, or how its explained to children and laypersons, but I haven't read the actual papers. The whole thing started with Einstein's ideas, and those have been shown to be accurate over time. Now I suppose its possible its due to speed/motion causing the clock to somehow act differently. You'd think the scientists would have tested for that though.

Actually, that's the first post TF has made in one of these threads that makes sense and is on topic!

Time is change, really. That's all it is. Without change, there is no time. As TF mentioned, things traveling at different speeds experience time (change) at a different rate.

Really? I thought it was neither

Not to say I lied though, I do occasionally think about it.

Sure! It's on the current topic of time, and it does explain a portion of how it really works. The day I had my mind blow up I also watched a video about the same thing you described: We spin, we spin around the sun, sun spins around galaxy (maybe also a star cluster in galaxy), galaxy spins around galaxy cluster, galaxy cluster spins around cluster of galaxy clusters, etc Works that way from the biggest bodies to the smallest electron with increasing complexity from the smallest to the largest.

SCIENCE!

well technically IIRC the galaxies and the local groups all orbit (mostly) empty space, which just happens to be the common center of mass of the entire group. You can see the same thing with the earth and the moon, or the earth and the sun, the earth doesn't really orbit the sun, they both orbit their own combined center of mass. It just happens that the sun is so much more massive than the earth that it only moves a tiny bit.

Someone please tell me if that's inaccurate

If you get too technical it becomes meaningless

The Earth is in the orbit of the Sun. If you look at the Earth/Moon relationship you can notice that as the mass of the moon orbits the Earth they pull on each other. The oceans are pulled towards the moon, and the moon has been locked into the same position by the force of gravity acting on it from the Earth, which stopped it from spinning billions of years ago.
This same "pulling" effect happens with the other large bodies, and the Earth and Sun pull on each other as well, but to a different degree than that of the Earth and Moon.

There's a really good TV series called "The Universe" which talks about a lot of the theories behind this stuff.

Sure, but how do you know you'd be spinning on the edge of the universe? You don't even know where the edge of the universe is!

!^[1]

I use that as my text message alert tone.

That would make an awesome one. I've wanted to use the MGS codec ring for my ringtone for the longest time. Of course, my functional cell phone is a PoS that has nowhere near support for this and my Neo FreeRunner is still not really working fully (though it's now running Android).

I'm of the opposite mind. I find it meaningless if you don't get technical. Too many times has a subject been explained to me in a way that was not only inaccurate, but sometimes absurdly incorrect because they couldn't think of a better way to explain it in class.

It has NO meaning if its wrong. And most simplifications ARE that. Wrong.

Except it isn't locked. Its moving away a few cm every year.

I think that is pretty constant.

Of course.

That is far too simple of a statement. Non-technical is not synonymous with wrong.

By "locked" I meant in the non-technical, simple or "casual" sense that the moon no longer spins at a rate that is noticeable or of major significance. It faces the same general direction for thousands of years whereas billions of years ago we assume it did not.

Technical is good if you're writing a paper, overkill if you're trying to convey an idea about a broader subject unrelated to the technicalities. I was conveying the idea that the Earth's gravity pulls on the Moon, very little wrong about it, though there are more technical details to it.

I want to move to the Microsoft calender. It's now 33 STGW on that calendar (Bill started it, STGW stands for "Since The Great Wedgie")

So time doesn't exist for blind people who can't check their position?

Since blind people can't enjoy the visual goodness of Allegro 5, time weighs very heavily on their hands. And determining time by position is exemplified every time George Jetson arrives at the office after the boss arrives. "Jeeetttssonn!!!! Youurrrrrr fiiirrreeed!"

Derezo, I don't believe that people are so much taking exception to your ideas so much as they are taking exception to how you are presenting your ideas. Most conspiracy theorists don't propose crazy ideas because they really believe them, but because of the attention they receive by proposing them. Your language and attitude suggests that you believe you are a genius or visionary for your work when most of the ideas and conclusions you have brought forth have no substance. On the few occasions where you are presenting something agreeable it has generally been common knowledge or a tidy fact that really has no weight in your larger argument.

Also, lets not jump to assumptions from a single talk with your doctor. If I walked into my doctors office and complained that all HMOs are scams and they are ripping people off they WILL agree with me. They know the biz and understand my frustration, BUT that doesn't mean that he also agrees that the Gregorian calendar is a trap to enslave humanity in a marketing scam. Ya know? What exactly did this doctor presumably agree to in this talk?

Don't turn the world into something more complicated than it already is. The world is full of "little" evils. Not some large scale conspiracy that has a master plan. Its all one guy making one wrong choice times 13 billion. There is no matrix and there is no illuminati. Just a bunch of dumb asses making mistakes every day. These wrong doing "marketing" people you speak of are just regular folks like you and I trying to cut their chunk out of the pie. Sure their methods may be disagreeable to you but answer me this. With your vision of the way the world should be, how far would you go to make it right?

Again, you could be on the path of finding YOUR own enlightenment but the way you are going about it seems more like a play for attention than anything else. I think something happened in your life that has caused you to try and find fantasy in the world. Maybe quitting pot made the world seem lifeless and um-impressive, making you need to create some adventure to spice it up. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but having read the majority of your recent posts you just aren't making any sense anymore.

I am a long time lurker on these boards (since 05!) and you were always one of the more humorous and entertaining personalities... get it together man! Life can suck, but you will find a hell of a lot to appreciate along the way. Real stuff.

Sorry for the rant, I just can't help wondering what happened to you.

^ This.

^ And this.

Steve Allen wins the thread. \o/

** EDIT **

I figured out what happened to Derezo.^[1] He must have FUCKED WITH THE FUCKING WITCH.^[2]

Why would you need to check your position for you to be in a position?

There is no way I would expect anyone here to view the substance of it. What I have posted reference to does not get any feedback whatsoever -- possibly because nobody is viewing much of it. You'll notice that the videos I posted in the first link, and the music compilation later on, all received very few (total: one) posts containing feedback. The same thing happened in the last thread like this. To prove to those who don't know what I'm talking about would need a lot of reading/watching of controversial topics. There's a lot of leg work involved, so to speak. When you get into a lot of the controversial topics there is a sort of trend between them all, and the ways they are criticized. I do believe I have come across something that is in plain view but many seem unaware of, but I am not the only one who has come across this stuff. It's in a lot of music -- and surprise! A lot of musicians are drug users. None of this is new stuff, and in a lot of this I feel like I am stating the obvious from my own perspective. Providing substance to see it is rather difficult, because it's not like the evidence for what I'm suggesting can be presented in a single paragraph. Some of the topics, like NLP or evolution, are very vast and are something you really would need to take a course on to understand completely, though even a simple description here hasn't been provided (or asked for ). Posting on a forum like this results in a lot of people getting defensive in respect to their own beliefs. Really, I'm just looking for someone who gets this outside of the real world, because the people whom I know that get this stuff in the real world are busy with other things, and it'd be nice to find a programmer who thinks like this. That is why I ramble on. There are forums out there dedicated to this stuff, but I don't relate with the way they act and they're mostly concerned with chasing conspiracy theories, which I don't agree with. The best one I've found so far is the world freeman society, which is a bunch of people who get this stuff. As you said, it is much like 13 billion mistakes being made, but there is an underlying cause ("memes") of the types of mistakes we're seeing (in terms of "cheaters").

Don't mix the multiple discussions going on to try and prove something unrelated to either wrong. What you said is obvious, but nobody said anything of the sort. Marketing has nothing to do with the calendar in the sense you're speaking of, and I didn't mix them in that way. It's the underlying principles of modern marketing which show abuse of neuro-linguistic programming. This area of study shows us that things in our environment greatly influence how we perceive reality. If you watch Glenn Beck and believe him, that the sky is falling and Obama is hitler, then your perception of reality will be such that you should fear the coming times and buy gold, or you might just get very depressed about life altogether. What I'm suggesting is that similar principles can be applied to the use of a calendar in the way you perceive time, that is where the Gregorian calendar comes in. Then there is also proof that it's been adulterated, modified, and changed to a point where the names used are meaningless, arbitrary, or misrepresented, the patterns are mildly confusing when they don't need to be (many people need rhymes just to remember how many days months have), and this is how you tell the time. Seems like we could do a lot better to me.

I'm not. I'm just paying more attention to things that people don't normally bother paying attention to. It's not like I've always thought like this.

That's another topic altogether. How the world should be is unclear to me, I just know there are certain things wrong with the way that it is.
I've been learning guitar, and am considering developing documentary-style videos which mix the religions and sciences, but I'm not yet learned enough in those areas to create a product. I do hope I will be, and then I'll need to decide which audience to go after. I may try to enlighten the unenlightened (difficulty++) or just spread awareness of existing stuff.
However, I've been becoming interested in synchronicity lately, and am convinced for myself that it is real. That's what I'm currently reading about. We'll see where that goes. Maybe I'll set up a series of coincidences that lead to world domination.

These things are true, especially of this thread. I would say that I am looking for attention to this idea in this thread, and that is why I created it. What's wrong with that? Is it possible not to be looking for attention when posting videos on the Internet? That is rather obvious from the thread title, and I even said I was looking for feedback - "let me know what you think". You say that like it's not normal, or is something you're not suppose to do. I am drawing attention to this idea, though I care not for the attention to "me", if that's what you mean... but I don't have respect for those who are simply saying "you're a pot head" or suggesting that I should seek mental help because they don't agree with me. You'll notice those people don't say anything about why they think that way, and some are just seeking attention for themselves. The wrong kind of attention, too.

Nope. It's been better all around. It did make me less lazy though, and a lot of the crap that's on my mind is this stuff.

Meh, rant away I know what I am, and I do know that I am speaking in a certain way that people tend to find distasteful -- I am writing as though I am always right. However, this is something that is bothering me a lot. I am looking for proof of the opposite. If it is so crazy, and so wrong, it should be easy to say "Look, over here. You're wrong because ... "

Instead, it's up for debate... and of course, nobody wants to view/read the evidence and remark on it. Possibly because nobody wants this to be true. It adds another difficulty to life, and doesn't make things any easier. People like things that make life easier, not the other way around. If you were to realize it were true, you may want to adopt a new calendar as well. That's something new to learn, and learning is work.

Prove to me there isn't an invisible octopus living in my town. If that's so crazy, it should be easy to disprove.

Sorry, I was using the pronoun their ambiguously. It should have been read as: So time doesn't exist for blind people who can't check the positions of the earth, sun, moon and stars?

Still, just because they can't check their position doesn't mean they aren't in a position relative to the Earth, Sun, Moon and stars. If you mean blindness causes some side effect of superposition, where blind people actually exist everywhere because they are incapable of vision, then maybe time doesn't affect them!

I am doubtful that it is true, though.. and you may have a hard time proving it, like ML with his invisible octopus.

..but you could just close your eyes and prove it to yourself.

I 2nd that! His post was really putting things right.

Of course they are still relative. However, you claimed, and I'll repeat it again here: The only reality of time is the position of the entity telling the time relative to it's surroundings.

This implies that if you can't tell your position relative to something else, time is not real. This is, quite clearly, crap. Time still goes on, even if there is nobody to observe anything.

I'm not sure what you mean. You don't have to "tell" your position to "tell" the time. Time applies no matter where you are, but how time is applied is relative to your position in the universe. The sentence assumed something would be telling the time from the point of reference, given the conversation, but it could easily be simplified to: "The only reality of time is position relative to surroundings." -- I just deleted any context that implied an observer was present.

A rock has no concept of time, as far as we know, and is unaware of time. Time applies to the rock based on it's relative position to it's surroundings just the same, even though the rock cannot tell the time.

What is it you're getting at?

Time goes more slowly in higher gravitational fields. Clocks which are far from massive bodies (or at higher gravitational potentials) run faster, with or without an observer we assume, and clocks close to massive bodies (or at lower gravitational potentials) run slower. This is because gravitational time dilation is manifested in accelerated frames of reference or in the gravitational field of massive objects.

That is completely contrary to the statement of yours that I've quoted twice. Since I don't like repeating myself, I'm not commenting any further. You did actually read the sentence I quoted didn't you?

Yes, and I don't see what you're referring to. "The only reality of time is the position of the entity telling the time relative to it's surroundings."

So we have an observer telling the time. The reality of the time he tells is relative to his surroundings. What's wrong with that? How does it imply that if you can't tell your position relative to something else, time is not real?

Just because you can't tell your position doesn't mean you don't have a position. You're suggesting some sort of nonsense where there is no position involved, and in that sense, you're very right. If you do not have a position, time does not exist -- and neither do you.

I started writing a reply, then gave up. I'm convinced you're beyond the ability to understand simple language anymore.

You never even explained how you think it is with your own words.

You should have been convinced the first time you saw his avatar.

I picked that one 'cause it's the craziest one I have Maybe I'll change it so this opinion of me doesn't drag on so much after this thread (since it really probably will be that simple).

He just thinks I'm crazy. If it's so difficult to answer this, I'm pretty sure he's just dodging:
So we have an observer telling the time. The reality of the time he tells is relative to his surroundings. What's wrong with that? Even if he can't see his surroundings, they still influence his reality of time. His perception of time, on the other hand, may be influenced by something else.

Time doesn't exist, it is a human concept.

Nice one, fighting fire with fire, eh?

I've only modified perception as per the discussion. I'm sure it will prove quite interesting.

Time is the one thing that all of you have way too much of at your free disposal (as becomes obvious in threads like this(well me included as I have had time to read it)).

Time is also the resource that most of you are constantly lacking, that's why nobody here ever finishes any quality games: Back to work slackers!

Nah, I actually didn't read the thread, I rather read Chris Wynoner's religious teachings or piccolos ideas than this. At least piccolo and Chris make me laugh.

This thread makes me cry.

It is a bit bleak. The calendar is only one aspect of this thing. There have been thousands of similar memes which crept into our civilizations and caused all sorts of problems we're mostly unaware of.

Another TED Talk on the subject I came across:
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html

A bit of an eye opener and is best understood after watching some Daniel Dennett or Richard Dawkins.

As she says, there isn't anything we can do about this other than recognize it and become more selective about what we imitate. We're all, more or less, biological machines which replicate ideas and pass them along. Some ideas are bad, and some ideas are good. That's why I said calling these things conspiracy theories doesn't cut it. They might be conspiracy theories, but I'd rather just refer to them as "bad ideas", only because I don't personally like them and believe they are the spawn of darkness

I wouldn't refer to it as a conspiracy if a bunch of people got together and conspired to create a TV series attempting to immunize children from the replication of bad memes. It would be a conspiracy, but moreover it's just a good idea

Conspiracy implies it aims for something harmful or illegal.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=conspiracy

Oh, so it does. Well it would still be just a good idea then

Wow... So much talk about conspiracy is giving me an urge to replay Deus Ex.

Herein, I think, lies the core problem of your little philosophy. We are particularly predisposed to replicating these bad memes/ideas at the expense of the good ones. These bad ideas have not 'crept' in uninvited, their very existence and survival is precisely a result of the medium that they fester in. You have noticed the symptoms of the problem, the bad ideas, and stopped right there without seeing the actual root of the problem, the rotten human mind. You can't immunize children from replicating bad memes anymore than you can immunize them from breathing air: it's in their nature, going against which is futile. You think you and those people you keep quoting are the first ones to notice these problems? I am sure they have been noticed thousands times before, thousands of years before. And to what end? Nothing is solved.

Life is a Kobayashi Maru scenario, and the only solution is Kirk's

Wow, thread growth

I'm suggesting that red is simply a colour that springs to mind very quickly. It has a name that's quick to say, it's a very common colour, and it's a colour that we are sensitive to. Likewise, hammer is an iconic tool that springs to mind very quickly.

These would have qualified as explanations if they were true:

• The last sum is 77+77. The digit 7 is shaped like a hammer.

• The sums cause neurons in the spareoomal part of the brain to fire. These are next to the neurons that fire when stimulated by the smell of a new hammer.

• There is an advert for red hammers on the side of the page.

• 10 rhymes with 'red'.

You didn't give me any such explanation, you just waffled and reiterated what you'd already said. You can't back up your comment at all.

I am referring to your attempt to create an association between the Gregorian calendar and the Matrix. I am calling you a hypocrite, because you seem to be attacking the use of mind tricks like association, yet you are using them yourself.

I don't understand. I can only assume your definition of 'mind game' is different from mine, in which case we haven't defined it properly. I believe Evert has already covered the implications of not defining things properly.

And yeah, Steve Allen wins.

Merry Christmas

Especially if you were parked in front of the TV when you were a kid

Yes, but not everyone has been aware of them. They've been able to just roam free because we've been largely unaware of what's actually going on.

All humans are not evil, rotten creatures by nature. We become rotten, or good in contrast, only by what influences us.

I don't think that's true. Teaching children good memes, and then teaching them about the bad memes, will cause them to reject bad memes and spread good memes as they evolve. If you allow them to see both sides of things -- and most things only have two sides with infinite variation on either -- they can choose which side they want to represent.

No, but I do think it is grossly undervalued information. Many people do not realize the real problem, which is why we get conspiracy theories.

I'm starting to think of life as a complicated game of prisoner's dilemma

[edit]

I wasn't trying to associate the Gregorian calendar with the movie, though I guess I should have assumed people would think of the movie. I expected the supporting quote to be read (which was stupid of me), so I posted it twice and bolded parts the second time, and thought I had described the matrix enough to separate it from the ideas in the movie and associate the matrix with our flawed perception of time (and not some Hollywood production)
Mentioning that they should make a movie about it was just intended a joke, I didn't want you to associate it with the movie. I even said "The film does discuss things of this nature, but The Matrix in The Matrix is not The Matrix of reality (AFAIK)"

I'm pretty sure a discussion about this stuff on this medium is greatly prone to failure. The topic is far too big in scope, and the post content isn't read or understood in it's entirety.

So... who else likes banana smoothies?

A lot of this could be explained by people taking special notice of the unusual (evil) and so naturally it takes on a proportionally greater significance than warranted. So people and their memes aren't as evil as they seem. Just sayin'...

You're probably right. I've started to take special notice of memes in general and how certain traditions, trends and other things may affect psychology. Bad memes just seem to be everywhere in my community and I see fewer good memes in my travels.

Memes are everywhere, and some of them are not as obviously evil as CNN. I noticed an "evil meme" at Walmart the other day with my sister. We were going through the kids shirts and one of the shirts had a prescription taped to it with a doctors note type of thing which said homework couldn't be assigned to him, because his doctor said it was causing him distress (in kids words ).

It recommended a high dosage of video games It was so funny I considered it for my younger cousin. I thought it was cute, but then I reconsidered and thought "I wouldn't want it to go to his head". So I put it back, but when I went through the rest of the shirts I started to notice there were about 20 variations of anti-homework t-shirts in the pile after it! The whole section that it was in was anti-homework t-shirts. Most had a monkey on them doing something outrageous and they said things you really don't want kids repeating.
I would think that kids who wore these shirts may not take homework as seriously as they would have if they didn't have the shirt. So then I think "This idea is of negative consequence."

Of course, it's Walmart, so what do you expect really... but I wonder how many people just don't notice that and just find them funny.

I agree. I think all of those cool pot t-shirts are what started you down the crazy path.

Sorry my last post was a bit brief and harsh. It's Christmas, which for my family means lots of chocolate and therefore not much straight thought. I also rushed it because food was ready!

Well, it seems I saw an evil intent where none was intended. We all do that sort of thing. Maybe Derezo can be prone to seeing evil intent in other people where none was intended?

I just went back and reviewed your post where you quoted a blurb and emboldened bits. It does sound interesting for sure, though for me it rings a few alarm bells. The talk of one's "natural holy time", and of a capitalised "Culture of Life", suggests religious preaching.

Giving it the benefit of the doubt in this respect, I then read it a little differently. The idea of following a different clock is an attractive one, but perhaps that's largely because we associate Gregorian calendar dates with commitments. Work is generally required of us between specific times. Meetings and deadlines come with specific dates. Perhaps an element here is people's desire to live in a world with no pressure, and shirking the calendar is certainly a novel metaphor for throwing away all those pesky commitments. (Of course, we look forward to dates sometimes - especially the romantic kind - but people forget that and focus on problems!)

I wonder what it means to become "socially liberated". Surely it can't mean losing friends

I also think it's a little unfair of the blurb to accuse everyone of "the predatory culture of death".

Ultimately, I have to say I feel that the blurb is a perfect example of religious preaching. Specifically, it is mixing a perfectly valid form of escapism (a world with no pressure and a different measure of time) with some ill-defined terms (see above) and some attacks on the real world ("culture of death", "enslaved"). The escapism attracts and interests people. The vagueness challenges the analytical part of the brain and tires it out, preventing it from rejecting the attacks. The attacks create a general feeling of dissatisfaction and a belief that the new religion is a good idea, and the ill-defined terms become some of the concepts that the new religion is based on. Lucky that we can smell this stuff, isn't it? I am genuinely curious as to what proportion of the population really wouldn't smell it coming and would fall for it ...

On the other hand, the gripe about Walmart sounds like something you'll get a lot of sympathy for. I don't like the sound of those T-shirts either

The guy is a Rabbi
Even so though, there is a certain culture of death associated with the big monotheistic religions that want to be the only religions ("oneism"). "natural holy time" is just fancy religious speak for this "star time" I was talking about earlier. A different choice of words, which is what the problem with communication is on this topic -- connotations. People are typically unwilling to accept words they don't agree with, even if they do agree with the intent and meaning, because they attach some sort of stigma to them based on other things that have come in the same package with different contents.

I think it means to lift that veil of an "awkward feeling" from adult social life and follow a more connected social mindset. The idea is to become reconnected to everyone through an unseen layer of humanity we're being pulled away from, a sort of collective unconscious, which I think is associated with what is often described as a spiritual interconnectedness to every individual in some religions. The Kymatica movie forms a bit of an analogy of people who are disconnected as becoming "cancerous" over time. Everyone is still different though, and not everyone is disconnected from this just because they use the Gregorian calendar. It's not so cut and dry. However, I do think the calendar has a lot to do with a flawed perception of time.

He also says "psychically" liberated, which to me is a deeper understanding with your own psyche, making you psychic. That word holds plenty of connotations and stirs up images of a Jamaican woman with a bandanna for me, but it's nothing like what you see on TV or in "psychic" advertisements. You don't suddenly read palms or tarot cards, or pick out winning lottery numbers

I hadn't thought of it in that way, but I don't have a lot of commitments to begin with. The calendar does reaffirm our commitments, but even without it you still need to commit to spend time on things, even if that time is tracked in a different way. It's not so much that you no longer track time, but instead you track time differently so that you are more connected to the moment you're observing. There's a lot of esoteric stuff out there about that, but it is chock full of language people tend not to like.

.. I don't have any. You should have done your homework

You've seen them, and they caused you to spiral down the path of craziness because you, like all other people, are too weak minded to be unaffected by the mind altering drug known as Walmart t-shirts.

Oh teh noes!!! Everyone is a pot head because of Walmart!!!

Walnuts contain pot?

Derezo, how can you be so sure that you've been enlightened? Maybe you've just fallen for a scam like the rest of the population. Think about that for a while.

With that logic how can you be sure of anything? Can I be certain beyond my human capabilities? No. Not about this, and not about the taste of pineapple or my perception of the color blue. I could be the only one who tastes those and sees those the way that I do.

I don't toss around the word 'enlightenment' so easily though. I wouldn't call what I have experienced 'enlightenment', but I do think I am more aware of some things. To me, enlightenment means you are completely self aware. Every moment you participate in is with right purpose, right intent, and right action. I'm not there yet.

I haven't been paying too much attention to you^[1], but I'm almost certain I heard you call yourself enlightened in one of your crazy posts.

No, but Steve Allen said I could be on the path to my enlightenment, and I said that is true. I very well may be. In the same response I borrowed his terminology in saying that I may seek to enlighten the unenlightened once I've found my way.

I'm not intending to create any sort of sense

One of my friends went crazy after smoking too much pot. They locked him up in a psych ward with a pedophile in his room. Don't want to know how that ended...

Anyway, take it easy. Remember, moderation is the key.

Also, you are thinking way too much about the meaning of things. You know what youll have from all of this? Absolutely nothing. When you kick the bucket, your corpse will rot like all the rest, your brain will be eaten by worms, and all that knowledge, wisdom and THC will go to waste.

This doesn't actually prove the pot caused it. It could have been a political ad full of bullshit promises that drove him over the edge, or using IE, or any number of things.

I've found that this is a very wise way to look at living. I too spend much time thinking about the nature of existence so I can "rise above it." But in the end, "living above it" can only detach you from the reality you are actually a part of - being a sheep, a friend, or a grain of sand.

Don't be afraid to enjoy what you got, even if it's not existential enough for you.

Perhaps I do tear things apart too deeply, but some of that has become just automatic from the subjects I've been learning about. I already have my answer, which is what I've gotten from the experience, but it is an answer difficult to share. The focus went completely away from what I was trying to convey and instead on me and what I'm supposedly doing or doing wrong, or the illnesses I have or don't have, or whatever. Maybe I didn't direct the thread well enough. Having said that, I do want to share my answer, and this topic is sort of my first (second?) experiment in doing that.

You don't think I currently smoke marijuana, do you?
I don't now.

My biggest problem is that I don't enjoy the things that people I know enjoy. Video games and beer are the two most popular items among people I know. I only think of them as war simulators and depressants though.
It seems like I grew out of them and nobody else did. I find it enjoyable to sit and read a book. Nobody else I know does crazy shit like that.
Other than that.. I'm trying

The length of this thread proves you can keep a conversation going, that's for sure.

¿ƃuıƃuɐɥɔ dǝǝʞ ɹɐʇɐʌɐ ɹnoʎ sǝop ʎɥʍ

¿nʍop epispn txeʇ rnoʎ sı yɥw

udside down?

Anyway, before this dies off I gotta throw this in since it came to mind:

Doctor, doctor, gimme the news;
I got a ... baaad caaase of Looney Tunes!

Spot the pattern, silly.

- Doctor, Doctor, it hurts when I do this!
- Don't do that then.