The Purpose Of Mass Meditation And Why It Is Needed NOW!

Conscious Retreat

There has never been more isolation than 2020. Already, we were collectively shifting into the 4th dimension of digital space, leaving 3D behind. the purpose of mass meditation and why it is needed now

Molecules were steadily getting replaced with pixels, and physical bodies by selfies and avatars.

However, this year really passed the tipping point into full-blown, solitary confinement where the ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ could truly be questioned.

There are many ways to spin this year’s tumultuous events, but every coin nonetheless has two sides. One person’s lockdown is just another’s home retreat.

On the bright side here, many of us have realized renewed focus as we’re when denied our usual outs.

In essence, we as a society were prescribed a global Vipassanā, a time to take a literal breather from the routine rat race and allow our perpetual motion hamster wheels to run themselves out.

This time, if take mindfully, is a chance to take stock, recharge, and possibly reinvent ourselves for the future

Vipassanā

Vipassanā is just one traditional form of mindfulness meditation that cultivates insight. By remaining still and quiet for long durations, one’s psychological house of mirrors is illuminated and cards collapse.

As reflections and reactions are extinguished from their actual origins within, we can stop the endless feedback loop that runs our lives like a tiresome treadmill.

We’re left standing in an empty boxing ring with no opponent left to fight… but our inner darkness. But the truth is just beyond the shadows. This is liberation in a nutshell! What an opportunity!

Of course, there are many types of meditation, and Vipassanā is just one.

All forms of meditation aim to release blockages and restore full flow, proper alignment, and coherence across all spectrums of spirit, mind, emotion, and the body. It is not uncommon for these to have degenerated through millennia.

Meditation allows for deeper brain states, deprogramming, an increased lifeforce and abundant donor electrons, trauma release, detoxing, and the reawakening of our primal natures.

Various meditation methods may incorporate different focuses to attain openings and activations but in essence, they all clear the dross and dirt from our inner selves.

The end result is generally a more inspired flow state, and less egoic resistance to that state.

Collective Connection

Whichever meditative style you chose, the effects can often be further amplified by practicing meditation with others, creating unified force fields. We are all fractal parts of All, and this connection is innate.

Meditation just reminds us that we are part of a larger, conscious organism. We are both particles and waves, with the ability to choose how our world next materializes.

In Nature, we can physically see this waveform connection with mycorrhizal networks linking entire forests together through their roots and fungal hyphae.

In physics, we find remote connections between quantum-entangled particles infinitely far apart. And technologically, what good would computers or cellphones be without the internet or cloud?

We have also been united this year by the shared experience of crisis, and while it has been an unsettling experience, all experience can drive us back to the path of enlightenment.

Mass Effect

While individual meditation may largely change your life, mass meditation may also change the world at large. Therein lies its greater power, that of a force-multiplier.

Transcendental Meditation’s Maharishi Mahesh has actually proven the measurable effects of mass meditation since the 1960s.

Over 600 studies conducted with more than 125 independent research institutions have scientifically-documented its validity now.

Maharishi’s studies show that when at least 1% of a community’s population meditates on a specific outcome like love, peace, or harmony, the coherence of the group’s energy field impacts the collective consciousness of others.

Even violent crime including homicide rates can be significantly reduced with mass meditation.

When a 1993 study measured mass meditation’s effects on crime in New York City, a notorious hotbed for murder, race riots, and theft, it was found that crime dropped more than 23%.

In short, this demonstrates how powerful collective consciousness can be! Not only for each participant, but their focus as a whole. Individual meditation is life-changing, but mass meditation may be even better!

Global Meditation

In light of these facts, why not join forces and meditate together with synchronized intent? It requires no more individual effort, yet may bear greater results, for both you and the planet.

All outer change starts within. And this is just an easy win-win for all involved that we could sure use more of right now.

Watch “A Message To Humanity” on YouTube

“This Too Shall Pass”: 3 Things to Remember Amid Coronavirus Panic

While mass media is steadily encouraging fear and panic, we actually need to calm down and take a deep breath. Here are some things to remember in these trying times.

In these past weeks, we’ve witnessed a series of major historical events of a magnitude that is still difficult to fathom. With these events came a wave of panic that is palpable both on a local and a global level. And, in some ways, that panic is understandable. The specter of an invisible yet deadly disease spreading at an exponential rate has terrified humans for centuries.

At the time of writing these lines, we’re at this strange period of uncertainty where we have no idea where this is going and what kind of impact it will have on humanity. How long will this last? How many people will die? Will the world economy collapse?

This unprecedented situation has triggered in many individuals a great deal of fear and anxiety – steadily fed by a constant influx of alarming news by mass media. Meanwhile, while the masses are physically confined in small spaces and mentally paralyzed with fear, things are happening behind the scenes.

In these trying times, vigilant citizens need to be more vigilant than ever. And that means taking a step back, taking a deep breath and remaining clear-headed.

With that being said, here are a few things we need to remember now and always.

1- “This Too Shall Pass”

If COVID-19 is causing in you feelings of fear, panic, and anxiety, please repeat to yourself this timeless saying: “This too shall pass”. Because it will.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln famously recounted:

“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!

Often found in wisdom literature of the ancient Near East, the adage “this too shall pass” aptly sums up the unconditionally temporary nature of human condition. It is a reminder that every single event in human history, whether it is a negative or a positive one, inevitably becomes a thing of the past. And, although there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel right now, this virus will also inevitably become a thing of the past.

The only question is “when?”. Not unlike all other living things in the world, epidemics rise, peak and decline. Sooner or later, this thing will peak and it will decline. In the past decades, SARS and H1N1 caused a great deal of panic. However, the only thing they are infecting now is history books.

While current world events might seem overwhelming, we still have full control of ourselves and our surroundings. Which leads me to my next point.

2- You Don’t Need Up-to-the-Minute News Updates

If you can take away one thing from this site is that critical thinking is required when dealing with mass media. Sometimes, it doesn’t have our best interest at heart and, sometimes, it is even outright toxic. As people are confined to their homes with little to do, the urge to keep up with the news is constant. However, not all news is good to consume. Some of it actually is vile, toxic crap.

For instance, an article in Canada’s National Post titled What might our lives look like when Canada is in the full grip of COVID-19? dug up an obscure report dating from 2009, quoted its grimmest parts and linked them to what is happening now. I will spare you the details, but the article talks about things such as “stockpiling body bags, choosing a central place where people bring corpses of family members and identifying hockey and curling rinks cold enough to be temporary morgue sites”.

The article brought forth no useful information, just wild speculations that poke on people’s latent fears. Gladly, not every reader lapped up the unnecessary fear-mongering. Here are two comments from the article.

Another article from another Canadian publication titled Cancel your March Break straight-up begins with these words:

“Fear is the right reaction to the coronavirus”.

I’m sorry, but no. The only time that fear is the “right reaction” is when a bear is chasing you and you need the adrenaline boost to outrun it. In the case of a global crisis with lots of moving parts that require careful planning, fear is not the “right reaction”. Fear leads to panic-induced, irrational decisions. And a prolonged state of fear can be extremely damaging for one’s mental health.

After a whole lot of fear-mongering, the article ends with these words:

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

I’m sorry, but no. Now, more than ever, we need to remain calm, rational and level-headed. And limiting our daily intake of “panic news” is a great start. Trust me, I know that it is difficult to resist the urge to grab one’s phone and look-up news articles about the virus. I sometimes find myself doing it without even realizing it. But it is simply not healthy or even necessary to do so.

You don’t need to get a mild panic attack each time the number of confirmed cases goes up a notch. You don’t need to mildly despair each time an artist cancels a world tour. More importantly, if you have children, they don’t need to see you turn into a panicky shell of a person. Which leads me to my final point.

3- Life Goes On

If you look outside, the sun is still rising and birds are still chirping. You are still on this Earth and you still have one life to live. Even if you are in lockdown, quarantine or whatever else, you are still in control of yourself and your surroundings. You still need to sleep well, eat healthily and exercise regularly. If you’re stuck at home, put down your phone for a while and use this time to take care of your people, read a good book, work on creative projects and, if possible, go outside and seek the healing presence of nature. Coincidentally enough, in my annual end-of-year articles, I constantly suggest readers to do these exact things. That’s because, despite the constant noise of mass media, the most important things in life happen outside of it.

While this advice might sound extremely boring and generic, this is what needs to be done right now in order to remain vigilant citizens. We need to remain sharp and focused, not weak and fearful. Because, at this point, it doesn’t matter where this virus comes from, what (or who) is behind it and how dangerous it really is. It already managed to shut down the entire world.

Soon, we will need to ask some important questions: Who benefited from this situation? Who went for a power grab? What kind of companies weathered the storm? Where did the world economy shift to? What kind of local and global policies were introduced?

To properly answer these questions, we need to remain strong and watchful. Because, no matter what happens in the next months … this too shall pass.

Ohio Schools Give Yoga & Mindfulness Classes Instead Of Detention

A school in Ohio is doing away with detention punishment and giving students mindfulness and yoga classes instead.

We think that every parent can pretty much agree that there really isn’t anything beneficial to detention.

While the thought of being punished works well for some children, for others, it’s looked at as free time during the day or after school.

And we can’t forget to mention that it ends up disrupting their paren’s schedules whenever they need to pick them up after school instead of taking the bus.

And what do kids learn during after school detention? While they might walk away getting a head start on their homework, the lessons learned during after school detention is pretty much zip.

A school in Ohio is setting out to change that and we think that all schools should follow suit.

Good News Network reported that, high school principal, Jack Hatert, of Yellow Springs High, along with nearby Mckinney Middle school, are working on alternate detention classes.

This would include both mindfulness practice led by an expert and yoga.

Each Monday for 30 minutes before the end of their class, the students can sit down on a blanket in Donna Haller’s second-floor classroom and take time to focus on their emotions, be present, and have an allover quiet moment.

Basically, they will walk away from detention with some coping mechanisms for dealing with their big emotions that might have gotten them there in the first place. Talk about being proactive. Bravo!

This is part of a statewide education initiative that is working to encourage teachers to offer this mindfulness training more regularly to students.

The program is called “Each Child, Our Future,” and the goal of it is to address the mental health epidemic currently happening in the United States and raise capable, well rounded young people.

These mindfulness classes are also accompanied by a yoga option as well, which is held every Wednesday in their library.

Led by Donna Haller, a certified yoga and meditation instructor for both adults and youth of all ages, who has been at this specific high school for nine years.

She shared with the Yellow Springs News, “I love it. It does as much for me as them,” she said of the calming effects.

“Someone I know said that mindfulness and yoga have helped them with their ADHD and with processing an event where they had lost someone who was dear to them,” wrote freshman Isabella Beiring for a video project about the mindfulness and yoga program.

What an amazing way for kids to end their day!

7 psychological superpowers few people have (that you can use to set yourself apart)

“Tell me where I’m going to die so I never go there.”

The sentence above describes a superpower few people have. It’s one I’ve only been able to exercise ten percent of the time, but that ten percent creates most of the positive results I get in my life.

What’s the superpower? Restraint.

Success, happiness, or whatever word you use to articulate what you want, often involves what you don’t do.

Also, restraint from one action can be a springboard to a more useful one, e.g., talking to listening.

We live in an unrestrained world. It’s getting louder, angrier, more chaotic and pretentious.

This is why it’s the perfect time for you to behave in the exact opposite fashion and wield these superpowers few people have.

Hide Your Intelligence

“A know-it-all is a person who knows everything except for how annoying he is.” — Demitri Martin

If you’re a smart person, you might have the tendency to want to show it off.

You want people to know you’re smart. While there’s nothing wrong with displaying your intelligence, the costs for showing it off too much are high. People don’t like being corrected. Also, they don’t want a mirror reflected on their own inadequacy.

If you’re in a work setting, follow one of Robert Greene’s 48 laws of power — never outshine the master. Showing up your boss is a surefire way to make the relationship contentious (even if only subtly).

Showing people up in general means you lack an important type of intelligence — social intelligence.

If you had social intelligence, you’d know that letting other people take the spotlight makes them feel important. And they’d connect that feeling of importance with being around you.

Also, paraphrasing Greene again, it’s much more clever to resist the urge to display your cleverness (move in silence…let people think you’re less intelligent than you are).

It’s difficult for me. I’m tempted to correct people when I hear them say something incorrect. I love talking about all the things I know. But, at times, I’ll catch myself and realize that nobody really wants to know how smart I am. They want to know how I can play a role in their life that benefits them.

It’s almost always better to understate your intelligence than overstate it.

Resist Group Think

Madness is rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule. — Friedrich Nietzsche

We lie to ourselves a lot. One of the main lies we tell ourselves? We think we’re open-minded. On the whole, we’re not.

You’ve cobbled together an identity based on narratives. You tell yourself stories constantly and the ones you repeat often become part of your personality. You’re also prone to adopt narratives based on groups you belong to. You do this because human beings are naturally tribal animals.

The problem with this occurs when you’re unable to even hold views that deviate from your group’s list of stances. This is what you see in the political sphere right now — no one’s budging.

If you’re able to form your own worldview — a legitimate one should contain elements of contradictory philosophies — you’ll have the benefit of not being a crazy person participating in mud slinging contests.

It’s pretty much impossible to form an original worldview because you have to form it by picking up established narratives (unless you’re a truly original thinker, which you’re not). Just knowing how difficult it is to form untainted beliefs gives you the humility to second guess your own opinions.

The end goal? Be able to say that you’ve put thought into which components of group narratives you decided to adopt. And then, stay out of the herd altogether.

You’re going to have to sit on the sidelines while everyone else bickers. Don’t even participate in the discourse. Improve your life.

At the end of the day, most of what happens in your life can be seen and shaped through the lens of your individuality. No matter what group you belong to, the experiences, memories, and emotions you have are unique to you. And, you can only genuinely look to yourself to reshape any of the above.

Stop Caring What People Think About You

“You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves.” — Marcus Aurelius

You want to know a great trick for letting go of other people’s opinions? Read a book about space or watch a Youtube video about it. Right now, I’m reading Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

Here’s a passage from it:

“Our sun is just one of the one hundred thousand million stars that make up our galaxy the Milky Way. The Milky Way is only one of the many galaxies in the local group. The local group, in turn, is just one of the thousands of groups and clusters of galaxies which form the largest known structures of our universe.”

Now think of your place in that universe. Why so preoccupied about ‘what will happen’ or ‘what others’ will think when you’re already essentially dead? Because human beings are the only known species arrogant enough to place themselves at the center of the universe.

I do it. You do it. The less it’s done, though, the freer you are. That’s the thing about freedom — it’s often a consequence of what you don’t do. Once you decide to stop caring so much, it’ll allow you to do what you want.

Are you going to let other people — infinitesimal pieces of existence in the expanse of the universe — stop you from living your life the way you want to live it?

Stop Placing Blame Altogether

“If it’s in your control, why do you do it? If it’s in someone else’s control, then who are you blaming? Atoms? The gods? Stupid either way. Blame no one.” — Marcus Aurelius

This is about taking ownership of your mind.

If you don’t own your mind, someone else or circumstance will. Owning your reactions to what happens to you gives you a source of power no one can corrupt.

Like most of us, I get angry when someone slights me or treats me unfairly. When situations don’t go the way I want them to, I begin feeling sorry for myself. If I’m lucky, I catch myself and focus on the role I played in the situation.

You’ve heard this before. It’s so cliche. Why add personal responsibility to this list?

Because it’s really really hard and goes against our nature.

Also, there are times where the blame should be placed somewhere other than on yourself, but it’s often fruitless.

Sure, you might be able to convince the person you blamed they’re wrong, but at what cost? To what degree did each of you play in the situation (your apt to take more percentage of the victim category than you should)?

You might be able to bend the universe to your will and make the circumstances around you better — as opposed to just being better — but, again at what cost?

In my life, at least, I’ve seen that forgoing the blame game is a net positive ninety-nine percent of the time. Does that mean I always accept responsibility instantly? Hell no, but being able to do it even some of the time goes a long way.

Stop “Waiting to Talk”

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” — Stephen Covey

Have you ever been in a conversation where it’s clear no one is listening? Each person talks and the others are waiting for a millisecond of silence to jump in.

This entire post has been about dialing back your tendencies. Why is that important? When you’re a little more restrained in your actions and your thoughts, you become a better observer.

When you become a better observer, you realize that you can get further ahead by doing less. It’s not easy to put that idea together at first — less outward activity equaling better results — but it’s true.

If you let other people talk, listen to them, and give up your need to jump into the conversation right away, everyone will love you. People love to talk. Let them.

While they talk, listen. If you really listen, they’ll give you all the information you want to know — their hopes, fears, desires, needs, likes, dislikes. Just sit there while they ‘spill the tea.’

Then, you can do little things that make them feel like you’re a great conversationalist and someone they can trust, even if you barely talk — repeat what they said back to them, ask them a question that makes them continue to talk, genuinely highlight when they bring something up you have in common.

You can use this technique in a real conversation or the conversation — the zeitgeist, blogs, and social media. Don’t jump in the debate. Watch it while everyone reveals their cards.

Stop Letting Your Desires Pull You in Every Direction

“Those who act with few desires are calm, without worry or fear.” — Buddha

Books like Think and Grow Rich teach you to have an ultimate desire for wealth to get it.

If you like to read about business and self-improvement like me, you see Facebook ads on “how to start a six-figure business in real estate” or whatever.

Ambition can be good and necessary. It can also be poisonous. When I focus too much on results — output — writing becomes less fun. It starts to feel like work. When I write what I think you want to read and start to pander because of a desire for clicks, the work suffers.

Every time I do something I don’t really want to do because I think it will help me get something I desire, I feel bad, misaligned, incongruent.

The only times I’ve ever succeeded and felt good were bi-products of doing the work I enjoyed doing.

How about you? What status games are you playing right now? What objects and circumstances are you lusting over? Are you being controlled by a desire for the output or the need to do the input?

I have to remind myself constantly that I can be happy with what I have this second. And, even if my life gets better outwardly, I’ll adjust to it quickly and begin running on the hamster wheel all over again. Better to just do the things I love, right now, and forget about the future.

Stop Taking Everything So Seriously

“Outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but over time devour us from the inside out. And it’s even more insidious than most vices because we don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure.” — Tim Kreider

Imagine a society where everyone tended to their own well-being first before shouting into the sky about the government or what’s on the news?

What if we stopped watching the news altogether? If we did that, we’d realize — while things are nowhere near perfect — the sky isn’t falling. It isn’t. It isn’t.

You can probably see this in your own life. The things we tend to take seriously at a high level, e.g., will we go to war with ‘x’ (there’s always an x), have little to do with what’s going on at the ground level, otherwise known as our actual life.

I stopped reading the news and going on Twitter all the time. It’s not real life. I realized I was getting riled up over nothing. Also, even if the situations were as dire as I thought, my tweets weren’t going to fix the situation.

All the while there were plenty of things in my own life that needed tending to.

Get out of the outrage, ‘if it bleeds it leads’, machine right now. It’s not worth your sanity.

Then, even in your own life, try to stop taking everything so seriously. Focus on your career, but don’t make your career your life. Be prudent, save, budget, but don’t become a worry wart.

Spend time with your friends and family without worrying much about anything beyond them.

I’ve said this many times. From the perspective of the universe, you’re dead. Clutching on the steering wheel of life gives you the illusion you have control. You don’t, really.

Just live.

Learn to Love Yourself to Help You Love Others

Being in love may be one of the most intense and impactful experiences. People in love admit to spending about 85 percent of their time thinking about the object of their affection¹. This is, of course, no surprise, as intense romantic love evokes brain regions associated with the reward center, specifically dopamine (the pleasure chemical), and increases feelings of motivation, ecstasy, and craving^2,3.

As a result of these powerful, provoking emotions, love is portrayed in the media perhaps more than any other subject area, with 73 percent of songs referring to love⁴ compared to only 37 percent of songs referring to sexual intercourse⁵, not to mention all of the movies and other forms of media about the subject of love.

For some, they may only thrive on the momentary buzz of entering a relationship, with no long-term commitment in mind—a serial dater, perhaps. However, many others, depending on what they value, want to develop a deeply connected relationship with another human being. For those who seek the latter, some lucky ones may find a happy ever after, whilst for others, it may be more difficult.

Indeed, many people often find this is not always possible and find themselves getting caught in negative cycles, which cause a disconnection and can lead to resentment and the end of that relation. The statistics show that about half of first marriages end in divorce, and second marriages are even more likely to end⁶. Though there are many circumstances for relationship breakups and falling out of love, such as financial problems, affairs, lives and interests diverging in different directions, etc., some problems can stem from personal problems with their selves, sometimes in the form of classified personality disorders.

Problems with selves may be rooted in painful or abusive histories, which, if unchecked, can affect the way you relate to yourself and the person you love. Borderline personality disorder relates to a history of insecure disorganized attachment⁷, often characterized by emotional instability, impulsive behavior, and intense, unstable relationships.

Other personality disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder, which is characterized by excessive interest with oneself, selfishness, a sense of entitlement, and a lack of empathy, can greatly affect the quality of a relationship. Many of us may have heard of the “gaslighter” who may lie, project, or align people against their partner in a relationship in order to maintain control. Of course, not all relationships are so toxic; however, toxic relationships usually have one thing in common—issues with the self.

In supporting yourself, one way is to engage in self-compassion exercises. Loving yourself should not be in a narcissistic way, but instead in a deeply connected, non-judgmental, and compassionate way. Self-compassion involves self-kindness instead of self-judgment, common humanity and belonging instead of isolation, and mindfulness instead of over-identification⁸. A balanced, mindful response to internal suffering is important, where one does not try to suppress difficult emotions, nor does one ruminate on these feelings⁹.

The internal struggle with difficult thoughts and emotions (i.e., issues with the self) may be one of the reasons for the toxicity in a relationship, a reflecting outward of the inward turbulence. A toxic relationship may be misleading, as there can be passion, but without any of the truly loving, caring, or connected aspects, which may be important for longer-term success.

These relationships often involve the highlighting of deficits of the other in hurtful ways and may be an outward projection of insecurity and emotional instability of the self. Self-compassion can facilitate a feeling of connection to others when things go wrong and in times of failure and difficulty¹⁰. It can help you balance awareness of painful experiences, acknowledging them in the present moment, and not dramatically running away from the storyline of one’s problems in life.

For these reasons, developing a healthy relationship with yourself may be the key to developing a healthy relationship with another. Studies have demonstrated that people who are more self-compassionate have more positive and higher-quality relationships than those who do not¹¹. Perhaps, therefore, the most important relationship you have really is with yourself.

Problems such as narcissism can be internally characterized by closing off from vulnerability, which can be harmful. In contrast to this, a connection with self in a compassionate, accepting way, where one is open to vulnerabilities such as painful memories and experiences, may facilitate a deeper openness and connection with others. It’s this connection that may then ultimately allow for longer, more satisfying, and truly loving relationships. So, learning to self-care through self-compassion, rather than self-soothe through egotistical and low self-esteem, romantic game-playing will help you truly love another.

References:

1. Fisher, Xu, X., Aron, A., & Brown, L. L. (2016). Intense, passionate, romantic love: a natural addiction? How the fields that investigate romance and substance abuse can inform each other. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 687.

2. Fisher. (2016). Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray (Completely Revised and Updated with a New Introduction): WW Norton & Company.

3. Xu, X., Wang, J., Aron, A., Lei, W., Westmaas, J. L., & Weng, X. (2012). Intense passionate love attenuates cigarette cue-reactivity in nicotine-deprived smokers: An fMRI study. PloS one, 7(7), e42235.

This Year We Don’t Need More Stuff for Christmas – We Need More Love

Each year around this time we expect the holiday season to bring us closer together but, does it? Far too many people obsess over getting and giving gifts to the point where they lose sight of what truly matters.

The heart of Christmas regardless of your views should come from a place of love and care rather than greed and selfishness or perhaps for some selflessness to the point where they become overly stressed and ready for things to be over with. Growing up I saw this happen frequently.

For instance, my parents would become so stressed about being able to provide us (the children) with a ‘good Christmas’ that they would end up forgetting what things are actually all about.

Rather than spending time with us and enjoying each other as a whole they would close themselves off a bit and were more-so interested in just ‘getting through’ the holiday rather than experiencing it properly. That being said, there are also people who use this time to ask for some of the most insane gifts and expect far too much of those in their lives.

Whether you’re one of the two or perhaps just someone who wants to be with your family we should be doing our best to remind others that when it comes to Christmas, more ‘stuff’ is the last thing we all need.

In such a cold and saddening world we need more love, more compassion, and more willingness to consider the fact that not everyone is as fortunate as we are. There are children who wake up and have nothing under their trees and there are also children who don’t even get to enjoy holidays at all. Some are more worried about having their basic needs met than anything else.

Sure, for those of us who live in more developed countries like the US the idea of not having clean drinking water or having to live in a shack without proper heating is not something you hear about every day but it is a reality for many in smaller or less developed countries.

There are people in this world who are struggling in ways most of us could never imagine and being thankful for all we have is important. Sure, being able to read this on your smartphone is nice but there are people in this world who have never even seen a smartphone before.

I recently came across an article on MoneyWise that was titled ‘Here’s Why You Should Stop Buying Christmas Presents’ and it really got me thinking about this kind of thing. We burn through so much money during the holidays, especially on Christmas itself. Not only are we in most cases piling up debt to cover the costs, but we’re also losing sight of the togetherness that we should be focusing on.

We don’t have to cut gift-giving out entirely, but we do need to look at it from an outside perspective and see just where we stand in everything. You can show someone that you love and care for them without spending 40 bucks on a sweater that they end up having to pretend to like. Isn’t simply sharing a nice meal together and catching up enough?

Professors House wrote as follows on the topic:

Could it be that each and every one of us has simply slipped into the black hole of marketing ploys and commercialism – without realizing that our pocketbooks are being taken for a hayride over guilt mountains? What would YOUR Christmas be like without presents? How would you react, or your family if you decided to simply forego the fabricated tradition of exchanging gifts during this time of year?
Sadly, there are many people who feel much like Jo from Little Women did, when she said, “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without any presents!” And so they (and likely you) shop. But it is worth considering what the true meaning of Christmas is to you and your family.
There is always time to start new traditions, which perhaps focus more on the people in your life than the presents you can afford. And what an amazing gift THAT would be to pass down to your children. Chances are in 30 years, they won’t remember the gifts under the tree – but they will remember the smell of hot apple cider, and singing Christmas carols with mom and dad around a roaring fire. So YOU be the judge. Could you have a Christmas without any presents?

While I don’t think we should cut gift-giving out entirely, I do think we should be working to help others during this time and limiting things within reason. Gifts should just be a plus rather than the thing that we act as if the whole holiday revolves around, don’t you agree?

This Christmas, remember to keep those who are not fortunate enough to be where you are in your thoughts. Christmas isn’t about presents, it’s about presence.

Beyond Physicalism

Philosopher Hedda Hassel Mørch defends the idea that consciousness pervades the cosmos

Philosophy has taken a beating lately, even, or especially, from philosophers, who are compulsive critics, even, especially, of their own calling. But bright young women and men still aspire to be full-time truth-seekers in our corrupt, capitalist world. Over the past five years, I have met a bunch of impressive young philosophers while doing research on the mind-body problem. Hedda Hassel Mørch, for example. I first heard Mørch (pronounced murk) speak in 2015 at a New York University workshop on integrated information theory, and I ran into her at subsequent events at NYU and elsewhere. She makes a couple of appearances—one anonymous–in my book Mind-Body Problems. We recently crossed tracks in online chitchat about panpsychism, which proposes that consciousness is a property of all matter, not just brains. I’m a panpsychism critic, she’s a proponent. Below Mørch answers some questions.—John Horgan

Horgan: Why philosophy? And especially philosophy of mind?

Mørch: I remember thinking at some point that if I didn’t study philosophy I would always be curious about what philosophers know. And even if it turned out that they know nothing then at least I would know I wasn’t missing anything.

One reason I was attracted to philosophy of mind in particular was that it seemed like an area where philosophy clearly has some real and useful work to do. In other areas of philosophy, it might seem that many central questions can either be deflated or taken over by science. For example, in ethics, one might think there are no moral facts and so all we can do is figure out what we mean by the words “right” and “wrong”. And in metaphysics, questions such as “is the universe infinite” can now, at least arguably, be understood as scientific questions. But consciousness is a phenomenon which is obviously real, and the question of how it arises from the brain is clearly a substantive, not merely verbal question, which does not seem tractable by science as we know it. As David Chalmers says, science as we know it can only tackle the so-called easy problems of consciousness, not the hard problem.

Horgan: Did you have any odd experiences of self-awareness as a child, like those described in this column, or mystical experiences? And if so have they influenced your philosophy?

Mørch: When I was maybe 12, I remember sitting on a bus and suddenly being very struck and puzzled by the fact that I am me and not someone else. That sounds like the same kind of experience as you had, though not as intense. I’m not sure how it influenced me, but it might have made me more inclined toward to deflationary views of the self along the lines of Derek Parfit, Galen Strawson and Buddhism. The experience represented the self as very hard to make sense of, and if so it makes sense to deflate it as much as possible.

Horgan: I’ve called integrated information theory an example of neo-geocentrism, in which we project human traits onto nature. Am I being too critical?

Mørch: IIT implies a form of panpsychism, which projects consciousness onto nature, and this might seem geocentric or anthropocentric. But one person’s anthropocentrism is another person’s anti-exceptionalism. If everything is conscious, then humans and animals are not special exceptions to the rest of nature, in the sense of uniquely possessing the rare property of consciousness; rather, we are just like everything else. From this perspective, panpsychism is more in the spirit of the heliocentric revolution than a step back to geocentrism.

I should also clarify that neither IIT nor panpsychism in general project advanced consciousness, such as human-like cognition or self-awareness, onto most parts of nature, only extremely simple qualities. Projecting advanced consciousness would be unreasonable and perhaps geo- or anthropocentric. But projecting simple consciousness, in my view, actually contributes to an elegant solution to the mind-body problem which removes all the “epicycles” generated by physicalism and dualism—just like heliocentrism did to geocentrism.

Horgan: Okay, maybe I have been too critical. But can you tell readers, briefly, why they should take panpsychism seriously?

Mørch: Physicalism and dualism are the two main alternatives to panpsychism.

Physicalism implies that consciousness doesn’t exist. Physical science cannot capture what it’s like for someone to have conscious experiences, such as seeing red or being in pain, or any of the qualitative or subjective features of consciousness. So if consciousness is physical, it’s not qualitative or subjective, and therefore not really consciousness after all.

Horgan: Did you have any odd experiences of self-awareness as a child, like those described in this column, or mystical experiences? And if so have they influenced your philosophy?

Mørch: When I was maybe 12, I remember sitting on a bus and suddenly being very struck and puzzled by the fact that I am me and not someone else. That sounds like the same kind of experience as you had, though not as intense. I’m not sure how it influenced me, but it might have made me more inclined toward to deflationary views of the self along the lines of Derek Parfit, Galen Strawson and Buddhism. The experience represented the self as very hard to make sense of, and if so it makes sense to deflate it as much as possible.

Horgan: I’ve called integrated information theory an example of neo-geocentrism, in which we project human traits onto nature. Am I being too critical?

Horgan: Okay, maybe I have been too critical. But can you tell readers, briefly, why they should take panpsychism seriously?

Mørch: Physicalism and dualism are the two main alternatives to panpsychism.

Dualism implies that consciousness doesn’t matter. Physical science shows no sign of any non-physical forces causally influencing the brain or body—everything seems explainable in neurological, electrochemical, or other physical terms. So if consciousness is wholly distinct from the physical world, as dualism says, it probably doesn’t influence our actions at all; it’s purely epiphenomenal.

Panpsychism avoids both of these consequences. Put very simply [more details here], according to panpsychism, science only describes matter from the outside: it tells us how physical things relate to each other and to us, not how they are in themselves. But every outside needs an inside. We know the inside of one physical object, namely ourselves, and this inside is consciousness. Why not think other things have the same kind of inside as well? If so, consciousness gets to play an essential role in the physical world, without being reduced to something purely physical.

Horgan: Okay, but will science ever find a solution to the solipsism problem?

Mørch: One might think panpsychism solves this problem, because it tells us that all physical things are conscious. But panpsychism does not imply that all things are conscious as a whole. Human brains (or certain parts of it) are conscious as a whole, but tables and chairs are probably not—they should rather be regarded as mere collections of conscious particles. The question is whether the same holds for, for example, insects, jellyfish and plants.

To solve this problem, we should of course look at empirical correlations between human consciousness and physical properties of the brain. From this, we can reasonably infer that animals fairly similar to us are also conscious (as a whole), but when it comes to organisms like jellyfish, which are very different from us, I think we cannot determine in a principled way whether they are similar enough to also be conscious (as a whole). Therefore, it seems that empirical studies alone cannot give a full answer.

I think IIT has a promising approach to this. It says that not only must we study correlations between consciousness and brain properties from the empirical, third person or objective perspective, we must also consider the structure of consciousness as it appears to us from the first-person or subjective perspective, and infer the physical criteria of consciousness from this. This is known as the axiomatic argument for IIT [more details here]. One might object to the specifics of this argument, but as a general approach it seems to me like the only clear way forward, assuming the problem can’t be solved in a standard empirical way.

Horgan: I’ve argued that we will never find a single solution to the mind-body problem. What do you think?

Mørch: I think we already found it, the problem is just to convince more people!

Horgan: What about quantum mechanics? Does it have anything to do with consciousness?

Mørch: As I said, science only captures the physical world “from the outside”, or more precisely, in terms of its relational structure, and this also holds for quantum mechanics. Some seem to think quantum structure is more likely to be connected to consciousness than classical structure, perhaps because features such as indeterminism and non-locality are perceived as distinctively mentalistic. But as I see it, any kind of physical structure is equally in need of an “inside” or an intrinsic, and therefore conscious, basis.

One might think quantum entanglement has something to do with mental combination, that is, with how simple particle consciousness combines into complex human and animal-type consciousness. This is roughly because an entangled system is irreducible to the sum of its parts similarly to how combined consciousness seems to be, and perhaps also because, within a conscious mind, information seems to be shared instantly between all its parts, which can also be seen as similar to how entanglement works. One problem with this idea, though, is that our combined consciousness is confined to the brain, but entanglement is not, insofar as evidence suggests that the whole universe is an entangled system.

Horgan: Thanks, for a comment on quantum mechanics and consciousness, that’s surprisingly clear. Do you believe, and perhaps hope, that science, even if it cannot understand the mind, might transform it through brain chips or other technologies?

Mørch: I’m not very informed about this, but it seems to me that the brain is so complex that it might be difficult to drastically interfere with it such that consciousness changes in an interesting way rather than just breaking down. I also think there are so many interesting experiences available already, so I don’t strongly hope for it.

Horgan: Do you believe in free will?

Mørch: I don’t know—William James puts it nicely when he says that the question of free will is undecidable in theory, and so, “craving the sense of either peace or power”, we can only choose to believe in it or not on pragmatic grounds.

I also like Galen Strawson’s view (from his book Freedom and Belief) that although we have good reason to think free will is impossible, most of us are still psychologically incapable of not believing in it, but maybe with practices such as meditation we can eventually become capable of not believing it. But it seems to me perhaps the opposite could also happen: if we develop our minds in a certain way maybe we can come to understand how some kind of freedom is possible after all.

Horgan: What about God?

Mørch: Not really. But there is a religious view I find interesting, which is pandeism: the view that God used to exist, and be the only thing that existed, and then transformed himself into the universe, and so no longer exists. The reason God did this was basically for fun, or to see what happened. And maybe at some point the universe will transform itself back into God—that would be like nirvana or heaven. But then eventually God would get bored again and start the cycle over. As I understand it, this is close to some parts of Hindu cosmology.

It might also resonate with your psychedelic vision of God that you’ve written about? Though this version seems less depressing.

Horgan: I like that! I think I’m a pandeist! What’s your utopia?

Mørch: I suspect that true utopias are impossible, because all pleasure will eventually get boring, and to avoid boredom one must take the risk of pain. As Schopenhauer says, “Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom”, except the pendulum also swings through their opposites, pleasure and fun, which at least makes the cycle more bearable, and worth partaking in. This is also partly why the pandeistic view I just described appeals to me.

But until boredom sets in, I would probably like to spend some time in the garden of Epicurus, where they lived a simple life focused on avoiding pain and enjoying simple food, philosophy and friendship. I especially like Seneca’s description here.

How to Correct Negative Behavior With LOVE and COMPASSION

There is a wonderful story circulating the web for some time now, and its high vibration is touching my heart each time I read it. So I’ve thought to share it with you:

“An African tribe does the most beautiful thing. When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done.

The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as Good, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness. But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help. They band together for the sake of their fellow man, to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he’d temporarily been disconnected: I AM GOOD!”

I don’t know if it’s a true story and, honestly, this is not the important thing. What matters is its message of wisdom and compassion. We can correct a damaging behavior with Love, Compassion and Support. Sometimes, people do bad things just to draw attention onto themselves… it’s a misunderstood cry for help, and our inability to respond to it with Love and Dedication, only makes things worse.

So, when you will find yourself in a similar situation, please, remember the power LOVE and COMPASSION. ♥