EXISTENTIALISM

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The philosophy of Existentialism considers that:

Human beings are free to choose:

(1) to do right or wrong

(2) what to value

(3) how to live.


Existentialists consider that:

A. The world is not orderly or meaningful.

B. Human beings have no pre-existing or set nature or character. 

C. Some people may be born handicapped, or Black, or White.

But everyone is free to be a good or a bad person.

Soldiers are free to disobey orders.

D. Instead of getting our code of behaviour solely from dodgy ancient gods or texts, we should look inside ourselves.

E. Each individual has to work things out for himself/herself and then lead the appropriate life.

On Being An Existentialist

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Søren Kierkegaard was the first Existentialist philosopher.

Kierkegaard came to believe that, by the 19th century, Christianity had deviated from its original meaning of 'mercy, humility and loving-kindness'.

Kierkegaard equates God with Love.[3]

Thus, when a person engages in the act of loving, he is achieving an aspect of the divine.

When an individual does not come to a full realization of his infinite side, he is said to be in despair.

"Kierkegaard was an unhappy, neurotic, and terribly suffering man."

Soren Kierkegaard.

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Where did Kierkegaard perhaps go wrong?

Kierkegaard said that you feel anxiety because you see that you and you alone are responsible for your actions.

Kirkegaard often had doubts about God.

Imagine if Kierkegaard had tuned into 'something outside himself' and become a happy nurse or doctor.

Imagine if Kierkegaard had been less obsessed with himself.

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Existentialists believe that when you're born, you have no meaning and no purpose.

Existentialists believe that there is no 'morality' in the world, other than the 'morality' that individuals create from inside themselves.

In other words, morality is not part of the fabric of the world.

Many Christians, Buddhists, Taoists and Humanists would argue that there are signs of ethical behaviour in the world of nature.

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Friedrich Nietzsche was an existentialist.

He believed that life is 'will to power'.

This idea has appealed to some Nazis and Zionists.

Jean-Paul Sartre was an existentialist.

"Sartre believed that since there is no God to design man, man has no blueprint, no essence. 

"His essence or nature comes not from God as Creator but from his own free choice."

Sartre by Peter Kreeft.

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Albert Camus did not consider himself to be an existentialist, although his ideas seem identical to those of the Existentialists.

Camus wrote The Stranger (L'Étranger,1942).

According to Camus:

"In a universe suddenly divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger.

"His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land."

This is the problem with most Existentialists.

They generally reject such things as Reincarnation, the Holy Spirit, the Tao and all things Serendipity.

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Some people believe that our minds co-create reality.

ESCAPE THE FILTER BUBBLE.

GOD

DEVOTION - GOD

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MIND OVER MATTER; ULTIMATE REALITY; CONSCIOUSNESS

We choose; we have free will.

"Ultimate reality is consciousness."

According to Amit Goswami, a theoretical nuclear physicist:

"Consciousness is the ground of all being... Our free will is real...

"Reality is not two things - God and the world - but one thing, consciousness."

The problem of evil can perhaps be explained by looking at the equation 0 = +X -X.

When there are created 'things', we get dualism.

In other words, when we have 'hot' we also have 'cold'.

When we have 'good' we also have 'bad'.

We could perhaps see 'God' or the 'Ulimate Reality' as being '0', and the world as being +X -X.

Or we can see 'Reality' as being '0' which can be +X -X.

"The mystics of all the great traditions agree that all distinctions are imaginary and that the Ultimate Nature of Reality is non-dual."

The Mystical Core of the Great Traditions

The Taoists would argue that there is always Yin and Yang.

There is only a problem if there is a lack of balance.

Of course the mystics would also say that Ultimate Reality is much more complicated than we normally imagine, and that Ultimate Reality cannot be described in words.

Dr. Ian Stevenson:

"Twins in Sri Lanka.

"We did testing that showed they were identical, yet they were markedly different in their behaviors and physical appearance. 

"One twin began to talk about a previous life as a Sinhalese insurgent, said he was shot by police in April 1971. Anyway, his family laughed at him, so he shut up and nothing could be verified about what he said. 

"The older twin talked copiously about the previous life of a young schoolboy. He made several specific statements that ultimately checked out. He said he lived in a place called Balapitiya and traveled by train to a school in another town called Ambalangoda. He made comparisons between the families' property. 

"He referred to an aunt, by name, who had cooked chilies for him. 

"Perhaps the most astonishing thing was that when the two families met, the boy pointed to some [writing] in a wall that turned out to be the name of the deceased boy he was remembering. The subject said he had made that when the cement was wet. No one in the deceased boy's family had noticed it before."

Conversations/Dr. Ian Stevenson.

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The Self-Aware Universe - Amit Goswami

Jack Schwarz practiced mind over matter.

He could put a long sail-maker’s needle through his arm without injury. 

"He also displayed his ability to regulate his body's blood flow by causing the puncture hole in his arm to bleed or stop bleeding at will... 

"According to Schwarz, he could also see people’s auras, which allowed him to gauge their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental conditions."

10 Amazing Examples of Mind Over Matter.

David Seidler "eliminated his cancer through meditation and imagination...  

"He spent the two weeks leading up to his surgery envisioning a clean, cream-colored, healthy bladder. 

"When Seidler went in for his pre-surgery biopsy, the doctor was stunned to find a distinct lack of cancer..." 

10 Amazing Examples of Mind Over Matter.

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DEVOTION - GOD

Ros Barber's new novel Devotion is about God and para­llel universes.

Finlay Logan's daughter has died, in a parachute accident.

And Finlay Logan, who is a psychologist, is assessing the sanity of April Smith, a Christian fundamentalist who has blown up a bus.

Finlay says: "There is no fucking God. Because it simply wasn't possible that God the Father would smear your twenty-one-year-old daughter across a field in the Surrey Hills."



Finlay meets Gabrielle Salmon.

Gabrielle Salmon is a scientist who studies consciousness.

She claims that she can help people to connect to God, and thus find peace.

She has managed to reproduce Religious, Spiritual and Mystical Experiences (RSMEs). 

Author Ros Barber now presents two parallel universes for Finlay.

Finlay can choose.

We should note that the scientists now tell us that this is possible.


Schrodinger's cat.

Things are made out of tiny 'particles'.

According to the scientists, when you come a cross a 'particle' it does not have a 'fixed state' - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.

In other words, if you come across Mr Schrödinger's cat lying very still on the grass, the cat is neither dead nor alive - until your mind decides what its 'fixed state' will be.

Let us imagine that you have a very strong feeling that the cat will be alive and well next year.

Then the cat is currently not dead.

The future has affected the present.

dailymail - Can the past change the FUTURE?


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Christians believe that things go better when you tune into the Holy Spirit.

The Taoists would call the Holy Spirit the Tao.

When you are tuned in, the cat is not dead.



Some Taoists and Christians and others believe that bliss can be achieved when:

1. You believe that, when tuned in, life works out for the best.

2. You are compassionate

3. You are moderate (Avoid extremes)

4. You are humble (The selfish ego is switched off)

5. Everything is in balance

6. Being tuned into the Holy Spirit or the Tao or whatever you want to call it, you go with the flow.

(You are not battling against the Holy Spirit or Tau)

7. You avoid the use of force; you avoid pitting your will against the universe.



Eventually the cat will die, but it will continue in the Spirit.

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