Water...

Finished reading The Mind and The Brain .  I would highly recommend reading this source information on some the more recent, as in 90's developments in neuroscience.   I found it very readable.   Its critics might argue that it's getting in to the mushy metaphysical, and it will antagonize the hard-core materialist.  Personally, this material is what I've been trying to get some understanding on for some time now.

I'm fascinated too with Timothy Allman question.  Katherine Stewart in her "The Good News Club: the Christian's Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children" exposes a relatively new movement called the Christian Nationalists.  Falwell seems to be among the leaders of this this movement. Side note:  I once knew the late Dr. Alfred Lau personally.  At one point he was a member of the California Church of the Open Door.  He knew Billy Graham.  He could rattle off a long list of names whom he seem to refer to as all inter-connected to the same fundamental beliefs.  Lau was in favor of such associations. I was astounded to read in the Good News Club a list of names that I recognized.  Whether the Christian Right spontaneously organized itself as we know it today or not does not matter to me.  I think Karen Armstrong's historical context has some validity in giving us some answers as to why. Tandem Katherine Stewart's research of the rise ...

I'm thinking that some digging into the over all conversion process is vital to my personal understanding the de-conversion process.  After having a vivid dream of praying (imagine it, I don't believe in god; maybe . . . "The spirit is drawing me"; go fuck yourselves all you voices of unreason), I suppose I realize there's a lot of unconscious unpacking going on.  At 2am, it's not a pleasant thing, though. For several years prior to my deconversion (why is it necessary to reference this?) I read around the block. I've read The True believer. Hoffer, Eric.  The true believer: Thoughts on the nature of mass movements . HarperCollins, 2011.   I re-read this morning: Inner Experience and Conversion   by Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., Executive Director, AFF Editor, Cultic Studies Review I've been over this territory so many times.  dé·jà vu! My conversion: I wanted to fit in.  I was of an impressionable age.  I was six when I was s...

I did a integrated family systems model exercise this morning for 10 minutes. It took me most of the 10 minutes to get quite. I've had for several years an extremely difficult time every time I see a homeless person. I'm over-whelmed with pity and empathy, but healthy compassion does not seem to emerge very comfortably. So this mental exploration trip into the person-hood of that part of me that feels compassion, the want to help, was most fascinating. My goal was simply to be present with that part of me. No criticism. A loving acceptance and a willingness to get to know this part of me. I'm scared of it in many ways. I often experience feelings of helplessness, over-identification, empathy that goes down the wrong the roads of seeing myself in that person's shoes, which has a small measure of value, but there comes a point that I re-coil, and begin criticizing, I flee the part that gets to identifying the emotional implications of a destitute life. Destitute ...