Is Anyone Prepared to Try a Little Exercise?

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]

[NinjaPuppy]

[The23rdman]

The exercise can be quite simple. Take a subject you have taken a stance on and flip it in your mind. Then you go find all the evidence you can to back that up (however spurious or tenuous) and really believe in what you are finding. I can assure you that you cannot do this effectively in a few hours... actually, that may not be true, but I certainly couldn't.

[The23rdman]

[Arouet]

[The23rdman]

You're missing the point. To understand the charactersitics of a CTist you have to become one. You are seeing this from your analytical left-brain approach in much the same way as you tried to solve the logistic problems with reincarnation in a conversation with Craig (I've been lurking). The only way to understand the value of an exercise like this is to practice it. It will have no value approaching it the way you suggest.

There is a Zen koan about this very thing...

A monk having failed to achieve "enlightenment" (brain-change) through the normal Zen methods, was told by his teacher to think of nothing but an ox. Day after day after day, the monk thought of the ox, meditated on the ox. Finally, one day, the teacher came to the monk's cell and said, "Come out here -- I want to talk to you."

"I can't get out," the monk said. "My horns won't fit through the door.

[NinjaPuppy]

[NinjaPuppy]

[Arouet]

[The23rdman]

[NinjaPuppy]

[NinjaPuppy]

Arouet - All you have to do is go to YouTube and find something... anything and then post the vid here, say "WOW" and abandon the thread. What can I tell you, it's a start. From there you can begin to see how it feels if any negative commentary comes along. Perhaps say that for one day, you'll only read and respond enthusiastically to topics that make you cringe. That might get your juices flowing as to how something like this can jumpstart the proper thought process.

[Arouet]

[The23rdman]

Jeez, you're a piece of work. I've already said I worded the op badly.

Yes, you would have to do what you said. That is why it cannot be done on a few hours. It requires really digging deeply and changing your world view for a while. The point is that after a period of tome you start to experience the world differently and realise the hypnotic state we spend most of our lives in. What we see with our eyes open and closed is the same - our minds programs in operation.