Literary critic Camille Paglia talks about the vacuity of contemporary culture, why the university system is broken, and how a growing focus on sex and sexual identities indicates the West is in decline. She explains that all leaders should serve in the military so they know war is hell and don't get us entangled in pointless adventures abroad, and also that the Left is totally divorced from the realities of the working class. A wonderful interview.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Cults: Mormonism
Two videos, both produced by former Mormons. The first is a short primer on what Mormons actually believe, including God once being a mortal man from another planet who only later became God, spirit children being transported to Earth to live in human bodies, and becoming gods to rule over your own alien planets. Runs 4 minutes.
In the next video a former temple worker proposes a challenge as to what exactly will count for evidence that Mormonism is a fraud perpetrated by Joseph Smith and his successors. Runs 13:40.
In the next video a former temple worker proposes a challenge as to what exactly will count for evidence that Mormonism is a fraud perpetrated by Joseph Smith and his successors. Runs 13:40.
Cults: How Mind Control Works
Former Mormon and physician Joshua (last name unclear) explains how cults employ mind control using the BITE model (Behavior control, Information control, Thought control, Emotional control) of Steven Hassan, famous cult expert. He explains the specifics with examples from Moromonism: how they control what you can, and cannot read, who you can and cannot interact with, what you can wear and eat, lies they tell about doctrine until you are higher level initiates, and exhausting members with constant activities. Runs 29 minutes.
Saturday, March 14, 2015
Cults: Scientology
Another hour long documentary, Secrets of Scientology, in which former top brass within the church blow the lid off its devious nature. Any thinking human already knows Scientology is an admitted scam invented by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard to make loads of tax-free money.
The people in this video still believe in the doctrine of Scientology, but they reject the authority of the Church of Scientology, which is an evil, monolithic entity that seeks to control the lives of all its current and former members. They wish to start a reformation within the religion to turn it into something legitimate instead of a cult bent on gaining money and political influence.
The people in this video still believe in the doctrine of Scientology, but they reject the authority of the Church of Scientology, which is an evil, monolithic entity that seeks to control the lives of all its current and former members. They wish to start a reformation within the religion to turn it into something legitimate instead of a cult bent on gaining money and political influence.
Cults: Jehovah's Witnesses
I'm beginning a new series on cults. A cult, as I will define it, is a political organization that masquerades as a religion, has a highly secretive structure and promises revelation of secret knowledge for ever increasing amounts of money (tithing), isolates members from their families and the outside world, is highly litigious, says that all other religions are wrong, or evil, and promises to correct all the errors with knew knowledge, uses brainwashing tactics on its members, and presents a view of the world and religious facts that is obviously wrong. The three main cults I will focus on are the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, and Scientology. They all have pretty much the same structure, and, as we will see, both Mormonism and Scientology are forms of ET religion with very similar cosmologies.
To begin the series here is an hour long documentary film Witnesses of Jehovah.
The Watchtower has made about 20 "prophecies" of the exact date of the end of the world over the past 200 years that have all failed. They say that only 144,000 of their select Jehovah's Witness members will go to Heaven, and they've all already gone there so Heaven is completely full already. The Bible itself says that the 144,000 are all from the 12 tribes of Israel, so they are ALL Jews. The Bible also says way more people will go to Heaven than just that handful of Jews. Their doctrine blatantly contradicts all the stuff that is definitely true or at least probably true about the Bible. In fact, if Jesus said it you can be sure The Watchtower teaches the exact opposite. Jehovah's Witnessism is fake.
To begin the series here is an hour long documentary film Witnesses of Jehovah.
The Watchtower has made about 20 "prophecies" of the exact date of the end of the world over the past 200 years that have all failed. They say that only 144,000 of their select Jehovah's Witness members will go to Heaven, and they've all already gone there so Heaven is completely full already. The Bible itself says that the 144,000 are all from the 12 tribes of Israel, so they are ALL Jews. The Bible also says way more people will go to Heaven than just that handful of Jews. Their doctrine blatantly contradicts all the stuff that is definitely true or at least probably true about the Bible. In fact, if Jesus said it you can be sure The Watchtower teaches the exact opposite. Jehovah's Witnessism is fake.
Monday, February 23, 2015
The Man From Heaven 2
A few years ago I told you about Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, a Siberian Lama whose body has been preserved for 87 years. Itigilov's body remains in the state just following death, with soft skin, flexible joints, and liquid blood still in his veins. Recently a new body was discovered, on the black market (I found the black market once, but that's a different story). The man is currently unidentified, but there is speculation that he might have been Itigilov's teacher. The new body appears to be in much worse condition, very dessicated with dark grey skin, but still in a fantastic state of preservation for a body believed to have died 200 years ago. Buddhist art professor from Ulaanbaatar Ganhugiyn Purevbata says that the man is not dead, simply in a deep state of meditation. I'm not ready to say that this unidentified man, or Itigilov for that matter, will spring to life at any moment, but it does allow us to look at the fine line between life and death.
New research from Dr. Sam Parnia is showing that death is not a moment in time, it is a process, and a process that can be reversed many hours, or sometimes days, after a person is traditionally classified as dead. When the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje died in 1981 his heart remained warm for three days following the time he was legally classified as dead. Lama Surya Das, American Dzogchen Buddhist master, says that this state is called tukdam, a period of a few days after death during which the body remains in the same position and does not begin to decay. The mind is said to be in such a deep state of absorption that the body remains preserved, neither dead nor alive, until the person leaves the body behind. After a few days the body will fall over and begin to decay like normal. Up to this point we have hard documented evidence of bodies remaining preserved for a few days, but the idea that a monk can remain in this state for a century or more, according to Surya Das, is just mythology.
The idea of self-mummification (sokushinbutsu in Japanese) to create a "living Buddha" that will last forever might seem at the outset to be a contradiction of impermanence (anicca), but it is better understood in terms of skillful means (upaya). The mummified body, lasting for hundreds of years, serves as a symbol to future generations. The laity need their symbols of hope, their totems, to worship and keep them going in this world of suffering. Some may aspire to become monks, and future monks may themselves may aspire to study the dharma more diligently, and may even take on the difficult practice of self-mummification to serve as inspiration to still future generations.
If you would like to know more there is a documentary floating around the ether somewhere called Mystery of the Tibetan Mummy which tells of a 500 year old self-mummified Tibetan lama and goes into a little detail of Dzogchen practices and the history of sokushinbutsu. If you manage to find a copy feel free to leave a link in the comments section. (I have it on my computer, but I'm not about to incur the wrath of the youtubes for uploading copyrighted material, even if it aired only once and Discovery Channel has no intention of making any more money off of it.)
New research from Dr. Sam Parnia is showing that death is not a moment in time, it is a process, and a process that can be reversed many hours, or sometimes days, after a person is traditionally classified as dead. When the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje died in 1981 his heart remained warm for three days following the time he was legally classified as dead. Lama Surya Das, American Dzogchen Buddhist master, says that this state is called tukdam, a period of a few days after death during which the body remains in the same position and does not begin to decay. The mind is said to be in such a deep state of absorption that the body remains preserved, neither dead nor alive, until the person leaves the body behind. After a few days the body will fall over and begin to decay like normal. Up to this point we have hard documented evidence of bodies remaining preserved for a few days, but the idea that a monk can remain in this state for a century or more, according to Surya Das, is just mythology.
The idea of self-mummification (sokushinbutsu in Japanese) to create a "living Buddha" that will last forever might seem at the outset to be a contradiction of impermanence (anicca), but it is better understood in terms of skillful means (upaya). The mummified body, lasting for hundreds of years, serves as a symbol to future generations. The laity need their symbols of hope, their totems, to worship and keep them going in this world of suffering. Some may aspire to become monks, and future monks may themselves may aspire to study the dharma more diligently, and may even take on the difficult practice of self-mummification to serve as inspiration to still future generations.
If you would like to know more there is a documentary floating around the ether somewhere called Mystery of the Tibetan Mummy which tells of a 500 year old self-mummified Tibetan lama and goes into a little detail of Dzogchen practices and the history of sokushinbutsu. If you manage to find a copy feel free to leave a link in the comments section. (I have it on my computer, but I'm not about to incur the wrath of the youtubes for uploading copyrighted material, even if it aired only once and Discovery Channel has no intention of making any more money off of it.)
Friday, February 20, 2015
God and Attachment
Another lovely video with Kriyananda. Here he talks about gratitude and getting rid of attachments. Everything you have is on loan and must be surrendered one day. Give your fear and worries to God and you'll live in peace.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
