Scientific Living

Perception and God

Scientific Living — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:56:09 +0000

Many people have heard the theory that everything that exists is nothing but God- That He alone has become this entire universe, that nothing exists outside of Him, and that the concept of distinction is only apparent. If this were true, then you and I would literally be God. For many people (perhaps most), this can sound absolutely absurd.

How can I actually be God?

Can this claim be rationally established? There are lots of arguments, and they can help (and even convince) us to believe in this theory. But none will ever be perfectly satisfying. However, reasoning is still necessary if there is any chance of ever realizing whether or not this theory is true.

How can I not be God?

This is one counterargument that is sometimes raised. One person says:

“Show me one spot where God exists.”

The other replies:

“Show me one place where God does not exist.”

So here, no one proves anything. There is an impasse. But there is at least an understanding that lack of sense perception of God does not disprove His existence, or His all-pervasiveness.

I have seen God and He is like such and such.

This is another argument. Say a saint or a sage has a divine experience and tells his disciples that “I saw God in such and such a way.” Then, over the next 1,000 years, his disciples go telling everyone, “This is what God is like. Our Master told us so!”

This has a fallacy. It assumes God only exists in one way. It does not prove that God exists only in that way. But it does give some demonstration that He exists at least in that way.

The Elephant and the Blind Men

There is a story about a bunch of blind man that were commanded to go inspect an elephant, and then report back about what the elephant was like. So the group goes out and starts feeling around an elephant. One guy grabs the trunk and says “Elephants are like tree trunks!” Another guy grabs the tail and says “No, you moron! Elephants are like snakes!” Yet another person feels an ear and says “You guys are crazy. Elephants are like huge leaves!”

They are all correct. But they are all incorrect to say that they alone are right. Their perceptions are true, but they are all relative. They do not actually perceive the elephant for what it is. They only get indications of what it is.

Indirect Perception

Everything we ordinarily perceive is through indirect perception. Say I place a wooden chair in front of a bunch of people and ask if anyone knows what it is. Everyone will say that it is a chair.

But how do you know?

Light hits the chair. It is reflected into your eyes. Some kind of signal passes through nerves wires that lead from your retina to your brain. Your brain processes some signals. And somehow or the other, you get presented with an image of a chair. What you are seeing is not actually the chair. You are seeing an indication of the chair. It is a black box process. The chair is the input to the formula. Your psychophysical system (the eyes, nerves, brain, etc.) is a black box that somehow transforms that pure input. Then your perception of the chair is the resulting output.

So it would not be correct to say we know the true nature of the chair. We only know the indirect perception about the chair. Indirect perception cannot actually give us the knowledge of the object. The only way to get unbiased knowledge of an object is not through indirect experience, but through direct experience.

Direct Perception

So if I wanted to know what a chair actually is, I would have to perceive it directly. I would need to eliminate the “black box”.

But look around. Look at an object in the room. If you can name it, then that means you are separate from it. And if you are separate from it, then you are perceiving that object indirectly. And if you are perceiving that object indirectly, then you do not really know that object. So to actually know an object, you cannot be separate from it. The only way I can know the true nature of a chair is by actually being the chair. The subject and the object must become merged. Then there is no space between “this” and “that”. When there is no space, there is no indirect perception. There is direct and immediate perception.

God and Direct Perception

So to truly know God, indirect perception must be removed. The subject (“I”) and the object (“God”) must become merged. So under the assumptions that God can actually be known by us seemingly frail human beings, and that you must be something in order to know that something, then this logically means that we must actually be God.

So that is one argument that appears in various places about perception, knowledge, and the vision of God. It appeals to many people, but not to everyone. And naturally, it cannot be totally satisfying. What course of reason can? In any case, growing requires thinking. And we should all think seriously about these important questions like “Can I really see God?” They are fundamental to our life. So hopefully, this is a little kick start.

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Pharmaceutical Money and Congress

Scientific Living — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:47:33 +0000

Here are some statistics about how pharmaceutical companies financially influence Congress and legislature:

Members of the House and Senate received an average of $25,277 and $81,891, respectively, in pharmaceutical industry contributions in 2008
Pharmaceutical industry spending to lobby the federal government exceeded $1.5 billion from 1998 to 2008, more than any other industry
The ratio of pharmaceutical industry lobbyists to Members of Congress is approximately 2:1
Pharmaceutical industry contributions were targeted at members of the relevant commerce and tax committees responsibile for industry regulation
Members of the relevant Senate committees received an average of $210,432 in industry contributions, nearly three times the Senate average of $81,891
Targeted Members of the House received an average of $163,280 in industry contributions, six times the House average
Pharmaceutical industry contributions favored incumbents by a factor of nine to one (89%)

Source: Americans For Campaign Reform

When a person accepts a gift, there is expectation of return. Can I really trust a politician who accepts this kind of money year after year to be unbiased? Can I really trust politicians to work for health care reform that is really in my best interest when virtually (perhaps literally) 100% of them are on the payroll of pharmaceutical companies? Any health care reform that comes out of such “bought” people can only give more power to pharmaceutical companies and less power to individuals. This is why I am hardly thrilled about any of the health care reform talk that is going on now.

This kind of pharmaceutical money infiltrating Congress has been called “blood money”. I could not agree more. Politics is a filthy business, and it is our own fault that we constantly look to politics to solve our problems. There is no moral justification for Congress to allow themselves to receive contributions from pharmaceutical companies. We are going to have to work out our own health, with or without the government.

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Drug Company Merck Tries to “Silence” Doctors

Scientific Living — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:21:26 +0000

Merck is a pharmaceutical company that makes the drug Vioxx. Internal company emails were uncovered that revealed the company had a “hit list” of doctors, researchers, and academics who criticized the drug Vioxx. The emails said something to the effect that these doctors should be “neutralized.” I am not exactly sure what that means, but it doesn’t sound good to me.

There are also allegations that the company used intimidation tactics to silence critics of the drug. These alleged tactics include dropping funding for institutions and interfering with academic appointments.

“We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live,” a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.

Over 1,000 Australians are suing Merck for Vioxx related heart attacks and strokes. According to the FDA., Vioxx was responsible for about 27,000 deaths by 2004.

Even after all that, the company is still making concerted effort to make the drug appear safe. This is just another example of blatant greed and manipulation by a drug company, at the expense of people’s health and lives.

Would you really trust any pharmaceutical company to maintain a high level of ethics or to have your best interests in mind? I wouldn’t. I do all my own research before anyone puts anything in my body. I encourage you to do the same.

I read on some blog (I can’t remember where) about a chemist who had a job interview at a pharmaceutical company, and when he asked about the industries efforts to cure illness the interviewer told him:

“Our industry is based on sustainability.”

You know what that means don’t you? It means drug companies do not like illness to be cured. They intentionally want your illness to be “sustainable”. It makes perfect business sense. That might be okay if you are selling disposable Kleenex. But it is not okay when you are toying with peoples’ health and even their lives. It is even less okay when companies deliberately try to give you the impression that they are trying to help you, yet are knowingly inflicting harm on you. It is evil, and people need to wake up.

You can read the story here.

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Health Insurance Was Made for Man, Not Man for Health Insurance (Self-imposed Slavery)

Scientific Living — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:02:38 +0000

Believe me, Jesus saw this coming!

Many of you must personally know people who are ready to retire, but don’t do it, simply because it will cause them health insurance problems. If they quit their jobs, they will no longer get employer sponsored health insurance. Then they either have to pay much higher premiums that they cannot afford, or they cannot be accepted to any plans in the first place. They are also still several years too young to be eligible for Medicare, which in itself has many criticisms. And so instead of living the life they want to live, they go on working.

This is shameful. It is a factor that leads people towards living a fear-based life. Anything that encourages fear must go. Anything that makes a person weak should be thoroughly uprooted.

“Strength is life. Weakness is death.”

People spend their whole lives a slave to society and never think there is any other way to live. Then they invent all sorts of complex ways to enhance their ways of living, and end up unwittingly trapping themselves. The bloated institution of health care is just one of these ways we have strangled ourselves and limited our freedom. Insurance should be a factor that helps us reach freedom. It is clear that our efforts in this regard have gone terribly awry. Instead of giving us freedom, it has more and more become a factor of bondage.

I’m 24 years old and can’t get health insurance. I can’t even get major medical insurance. But I am not afraid. I depend on myself, and as a result, I choose whatever medical care I want. I seek out the therapies and the doctors I want. And in due time, I will finish with whatever problems I have.

Do you know one of the most reliable signs of a truly excellent doctor? It is that he or she does not accept insurance. Insurance is a limitation in a big sense. It funnels doctors and patients down channels that have been predetermined. Have you ever noticed who the most famous doctors in the country are (Dr. Weil, Dr. Amen, Dr. Hyman, Dr. Mercola, etc.)? They are famous (in part) because they are successful. Their patients get better. And that is because they think far beyond the normal scope of medicine that you would get with the average doctor your insurance company would refer you to.

If those funneled paths were really tried and true, then why is illness so much on the rise?

“Few of the many pharmaceutical drugs on the market are actually safe and effective.”
(Dr. Weil)

So those who criticize people who practice “voodoo” alternative medicine, or push “snake oil” are perhaps the ones who really are subjected to snake oil. My doctor recently told me that there was some government agency that reported in a study that 80% of all treatments are actually unproven!

By the way, Dr. Weil has a new book which looks extremely interesting:

“Almost everyone who has been treated by – or works within – the American healthcare system at least suspects that it is deeply dysfunctional and on the verge of collapse. Although politicians have weighed in on all sides, in Why Our Health Matters: A Vision of Medicine That Can Transform Our Future, Dr. Weil identifies the root of the problem. He shows precisely how American medicine, manipulated by profiteering drug companies and abandoned by government overseers, has lost its way. He then presents a solution that will not only make healthcare affordable, but will also dramatically improve the rapidly deteriorating health of the nation’s citizens.”
(Dr. Weil)

You can read more about it on his website.

Take care of your health now. I heard on the news that another government agency estimated 80 to 90% of all chronic disease would be eliminated if people stopped smoking, exercised, controlled stress, and ate healthy. So why not start with that. That may be more valuable than any amount of health insurance. Don’t wait for someone to solve your problems. You alone are responsible. And if others cannot take care of themselves then educate, encourage, and empower them to do so.

Buddha himself delivered this message:

“Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”

We will eventually get health insurance right. It is very unlikely that it will happen in my lifetime, but it will happen. In the mean time, I’d rather depend on myself as much as possible. Even when we do get it right, I’d still rather depend on myself. Independence is happier.

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A Brush with Hearing Loss

Scientific Living — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:50:22 +0000

Several days ago, I woke up and realized that I could no longer hear anything out of my left ear. I immediately banged my head against the pillow, thinking that there was something stuck inside. It felt a lot like when your ears get clogged in the swimming pool. Anyway, it didn’t work. Then I got up and started to think what could be wrong. It would have been very easy to freak out, but I did my best to stay calm.

Staying calm is not an easy thing to do when you have Lyme disease. The infections systematically sabotage your nervous system and destroy your inhibitory powers. Nevertheless, I was able to stay fairly composed. I had been through so many frightening health episodes to know that somehow and someway, I always get through them.

“I see no way, but He sees.”

Of course, I was particularly worried that this hearing loss could be more than just a simple clog. Lyme disease is frequently known to cause hearing loss, and so my worry was aggravated by considering that possibility.

I researched on the internet and reflected on the knowledge I had about hearing loss, and I concluded that there were four main possibilities:

Temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJD) is condition that basically means your jaw muscles and ligaments are all messed up, and it hurts. Strangely enough, a problem stemming in the jaw can sometimes cause hearing loss. I have plenty of jaw problems (just one of the literally hundreds of complications of Lyme disease), so I thought this could be possible.
Infections can cause hearing loss. This option was even more suspicious due to the fact that I know myself to be taken over by a number of raging infections.
Compacted earwax. This also made sense, as I intuitively felt like there was some physical obstruction.
Physical damage to the ear. I didn’t have pain, and actually, I realized I still had maybe 5% of hearing in the ear, so I didn’t think this was likely.

Knowing that the only one of these options I could quickly do anything about on my own was compacted earwax, I researched ways of clearing out the ear on the internet. After that, I posted on a number of Lyme and ear related support forums, and got other people’s opinions. Many Lyme sufferers responded indicating that they had hearing problems. This was discouraging. However, many non Lyme sufferers indicated that they have had clogged ears in the past, and solved it easily. These peoples’ comments also confirmed what I had believed would be the best way to clear out a clogged ear at home:

How to unclog an ear
(I wonder if this is on Lifehacker?)

It simply involves water, an eyedropper, and hydrogen peroxide- all of which I already had at home. I decided that I would try unclogging the ear at home using this method. Then I thought, “Well, let me at least go see the doctor really quick, and if all he does is refer me to an ENT specialist, then I will go ahead and try this.”

So I saw the doctor, and sure enough my ear was clogged. Then the nurse cleared it out using this exact same hydrogen peroxide method! And presto, I had my hearing back. It seems though, that I could have saved a few bucks by staying home and doing it myself.

Nevertheless, I was pleased that I had “shined” in the midst of my own little adversity. I had proven to myself that by using my own intellect and sound research, I would have been able to make a medical decision that would have been both safe and effective. Nevertheless, because it was convenient I still went and saw a doctor. But the whole experience left me encouraged knowing that I am not as helpless as some people would like me to believe, and that I can exercise tremendous power over my own health. I hope this also empowers you.

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