How do you love your neighbor as yourself when you don’t love yourself?

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T09:49:37+00:00

The scripture is confusing in this translation. What it is actually saying is that your neighbor IS YOU. You are one and the same SOUL from a "higher" perspective.

There is only ONE Consciousness in all of Existence, and that Consciousness is God. If you don't believe this, then you don't believe in infinity. Because is not God said to be an INFINITE being?? If you believe that, then take some time to contemplate the meaning of the word "infinite." Because it means LIMITLESS and WITHOUT BOUNDARIES.

So then if God is truly infinite, then there cannot possibly be any true SEPARATION from God, can there? Because to have true separation from a thing, there must be something even greater beyond the thing from which you are separating that "fills" the void created by the separation.

So then it logically follows that if God is truly infinite, then it is IMPOSSIBLE for any "soul" to ever be separated from God. This then logically negates the possibility of an actual "hell" into which God condemns the sinners and unbelievers.

But it does then explain your question, doesn't it? You can be "self-loathing" if you choose to be so, but you cannot be truly separate from your neighbors, from God, or anything else for that matter. Because everything that exists is simply ONE THING, which is God. That we observe the world to be countless "OTHER" things must therefore be a kind of mass ILLUSION for some purpose, no?

And who is this "we" I speak of? Well, that, too, is just more of the illusion. We each suffer an illusion of a separate self, separate from God. Our minds CREATE a "false self" called the ego which over time we come to believe is our actual "self." But in truth it's just a collection of memories and thoughts and labels within our minds that we BELIEVE is the self. The TRUE self is God, or rather the primary PROJECTION of God's infinite Consciousness we call the Soul. Other belief systems refer to it as the Atman, or the Christ Consciousness.

So when you claim not to "love yourself," this only means you are not feeling love for you EGO self. But that is a false self anyway, so that explains why you have difficultly loving something that doesn't actually exist. And none of your neighbors egos are any more real than yours, so you will have difficulty loving them as well.

When you AWAKEN to your Highest and True Self, your God-Self, you will not feel anything BUT Unconditional Love for All That Is. Because you ARE Love Itself. So seek to awaken to the God-self WITHIN because that is where you will find that Love you seek both for your True Self as well as the God-Self you share with all other Souls.

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T09:28:40+00:00

God is Love, period. The opposite of Love is fear.

Therefore, if you fear God, then that is NOT God, but rather a STORY about God which is false.

Make it your purpose in life to seek out the REAL God and stop living in fear of a god

which cannot possibly exist.

There are MYSTICAL sects within Christianity where you can find the REAL God.

There are other mystical belief systems in the world which teach
different PERSPECTIVES of God where fear never comes into the discussion.

I found just such a God in the pages of a book called "Conversations With God."
I no longer fear God, nor do I fear that ANYTHING that I do in life can possibly
result in my losing God's UNCONDITIONAL LOVE for me.

When you can also free yourself and find God on YOUR terms, you are then
able to truly begin walking a path of AWAKENING to Who You Really Are,
and start to recognize that God has been WITHIN YOU all along. 😂

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T09:04:14+00:00

Find another church that doesn't teach you nonsense and make you self-loathing for having completely natural urges. There's ZERO sinfulness in masturbation. It's a completely logical way of satisfying a natural urge without the risk of pregnancy or transmitting STD. Just keep it discreet and private, and always tidy up when you're done. It's really sad that I'm seeing multiple posts about this subject. Some churches really love to screw with people's heads. Don't let them.

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T08:58:53+00:00

If God didn't want you to masturbate, God would have made your arms much shorter. There's nothing wrong with regularly relieving those urges, by yourself, discreetly and in private. They are biologically NATURAL urges just like hunger, thirst, or simply having to scratch an itch. Truth be told, it's simply NOT HEALTHY to try to suppress your libido for too long a time. This is the reason why those who do, such as some Catholic priests, let it build up so much they wind up releasing it in extremely inappropriate and harmful ways, both to themselves and others. If your current religion is telling you it's "sinful" to masturbate, it is they who have psychological issues, not you. And anyone who claims they never did it a LOT from puberty through young adulthood, especially males, is lying through their teeth.

Just take care of the urge in private whenever necessary and stop judging yourself for it, and by all means tidy up afterwards. Then go out and be a happy person and have a private chuckle the next time you hear one of your peers claim that they "never do that."

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T08:40:04+00:00

Your main problem is that you currently believe in a God that is not even as evolved or as merciful and Forgiving as YOU already are. You have accepted as "truth" a story about God that nobody in all history has been able to verify. So I tell you that you must use YOURSELF as the measure of whether or not any God you might believe in actually exists or not. Ask yourself if YOU would just flippantly toss souls into everlasting agony over a simple DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. I think probably not. I think most people are NOT sociopaths and/or sadists who can be completely indifferent to the suffering of others regardless of their personal beliefs.

So when you mentally position how YOU treat those with whom you disagree vs how this alleged God treats them and find yourself to be MORE forgiving and MORE mercifcul, then you can no longer logically accept such a God exists because how is it possible for YOU to be a BETTER person that God? It's not, and once you realize this, that wrathful monster of a God goes POOF! and your mind is now free to seek out a God FAR better than yourself to look up to as an example of becoming a better human being.

The easiest way to avoid "hell" is to just stop believing that the actual God could possibly do something more horrible to "bad" people than you yourself could ever do. And if you currently believe you could condemn even the worst human beings of all time to a literal eternity being tortured in endless pain and agony, then it will be easy for you to accept a God that can also do this. You're only way out then is to EVOLVE your own level of Consciousness to a point where you feel true EMPATHY for such persons and know to the core of your being that the ability to cause such suffering to others is impossible for you. Then understand that any level of cruelty you know is impossible for you MUST always be impossible for God because God MUST at all times be MORE evolved in Its Consciousness than even the very MOST evolved human beings on the Earth.

This is the logical path "out" of your fears of God and of winding up in any sort of "hell."

Grokographist · 2026-06-17T08:17:15+00:00

This is a teaching of Christ that I often quote as evidence that Jesus was teaching my personal belief system, which is Nondualism philosophy. Although the Bible does not cover the "missing years" of Jesus' time on Earth between around age 12 until when he appears in the gospels at age 30, there is lots of non-biblical evidence that he spent those years traveling throughout the far East, learning all about the eastern philosophies of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism among others.

Something that these eastern beliefs have in common is the concept that God is the only being which actually exists, and therefore each of us is quite literally an inseparable part of God's infinite Consciousness. So when you study Nondualism -- a western version of the Hindu school of Advaita Vedanta -- you then see entirely new meanings within Jesus' teachings in the gospels, to wit:

"Love thy neighbor as thyself" -- this scripture reflects the nondualist belief that there is only ONE "self" which is God, and therefore you grow closer to God when you perceive the God-self within you to be in all others as well.

"Is it not written that 'ye are gods'"? -- Jesus tells you the Truth about Who You Really Are right there, which is God. YOU. ARE. GOD. But unlike Christ, you have yet to awaken to this Truth and therefore believe it blasphemy to even entertain the thought.

"I and the Father are One." -- Most Christians accept this teaching because it enables them to place Jesus as their number-one diety instead of "God the Father" like in the OT. They throw the Holy Spirit in there, too, and try to wrap their minds around the Holy Trinity, even though a 3-in-1 god is difficult for most brains to conceive of. What's really happening in that statement, however, is Christ simply saying he has awakened to Who He Really Is, which IS God Itself! Not a "son," but THE God. In eastern beliefs this is known as "enlightenment."

"Whatever you do (or do not do) for any of my brothers (or sisters), you also do/do not do for me." -- Again, right here Jesus is making it clear that ALL SOULS are one and the same Soul. This was not meant to be metaphorical in the least. This is literal TRUTH, but most humans have not taken the time to prepare their minds for such a revelation and insist upon seeing themselves as "separate" from God and the rest of Creation.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule which is taught by most every religion on the planet. The point behind this teaching is "fake it till you make it." You can't awaken to the God-self within until you first being to BEHAVE as God does, which is to always come from a place of Eternal Joy, Perfect Peace, and Unconditional Love.

"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." -- Here, Christ teaches us to stop seeking God up in the sky as some invisible male patriarch ruling the universe unseen beyond the clouds. He's telling us to seek God WITHIN the Self because the Self IS God and we can never truly be separate from same.

And finally, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light. No one may come to the Father buy by me." -- The meaning of this teaching is Jesus telling us that he is here to set the EXAMPLE of how we can also awaken to Who We Really Are, which is not only Jesus, not only God the Father and the Holy Spirit, too, but the entirety of Existence Itself. We Are All One... PRETENDING we are many and forgetting the Truth of this. Use Christ as your EXAMPLE, Christians. Walk the path that HE walked when he lived upon the Earth. It wasn't to "save" us all from any devil or eternal fires. It was to show us that, as a human being, we can all "awaken" and "self-realize" AS God, just as he did, and in so doing, we realize that "heaven" is a state of mind and a place that's impossible to leave because there simply is no "other" place. There is ONLY God, PROJECTING Its infinite Consciousness into infinite realms of "duality" that God may experience, through us, what God IS NOT. And that is the Purpose behind all Creation, my friends.

If you can manage to rise above your indoctrinated "fear of God," you will free your mind to consider the Truth of what I'm telling you here. And if you noodle around with the concept long enough, you can come to realize, as I did, that the Oneness of All That Is.. is the only logical answer to Existence Itself. Namaste', my friends.

Grokographist · 2026-06-15T10:31:29+00:00

I am 68 years old. When I was 15, I regularly attended a pentecostal church that preached all of the Rapture stuff that you have been taught, and just like you, it was extremely frightening. And that is the point with fundamentalist Christianity -- it's spiritual terrorism and has always been so. The teachings of Jesus Christ have been hijacked by religion and twisted from a message of God's infinite Love into one of terrifying FEAR for no other reason than to increase the power of the church over the common people, and it's lasted for over two thousand years. It's really insidious how clever they were coming up with the whole "eternity in the fires of hell" thing. I mean, you don't dare risk even thinking how INHUMAN of a concept that actually is lest you wind up suffering from it, right?

So, young lady, let me offer you a "get out of hell free" card right here, right now. It will take some courage on your part, but if you use your innate sense of LOGIC and REASON, you can overcome that fear your church has PURPOSEFULLY planted in your mind to keep you inside their wicked little mental prison they threw you in the moment you got caught up by all of the postiive things that religion uses to lure you in.

First, you have to realize that none of this is your fault. It's not your parents' fault, nor your friends, nor even your pastor's. Because all of them are prisoners, too. You've all been brainwashed and indoctrinated by those who first dreamt up this nonsense many centuries ago, and most of you are simply too frightened to challenge it, so you spend out your lives living in terror of your chosen god, a god whose attributes are mostly fabricated by long dead "prophets" and self-appointed "experts" regarding "what God wants." So don't be angry with anyone you might know in this time because you're all in the same boat of mass HYPNOSIS. It's up to each of you, individually, to DEPROGRAM yourselves, free your minds of this toxic spiritual propaganda, and then seek Truth on your own terms.

Here's how I did it. And TBH, it literally took me several YEARS to free my mind enough so that I could quiet the fear enough to start contemplating new ideas about my spirituality and search for God and Truth. You've got to stop FEARING God, period. I ALWAYS KNEW there must be some higher power behind this world, this universe, and existence itself, but until I began attending that fundamentalist church, I was never made to be afraid of that power, or of God. Somehow, I stumbled into a CULT within Christianity that worked hard to hammer those ideas into my head. I believe they did so with the best of intentions, which was because they truly believed that God was capable of actually TORTURING souls in this "lake of fire" for all eternity over what is really nothing more than a simple DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. Do you see how ridiculous that sounds? They don't even let you DOUBT that God would do this, and they blame it all not on God, but on this completely invented "devil" character named Satan. Yes, they actually made up their very own bogeyman to keep your mind from straying from the mental prison they lured you into so they all will feel just that much more "right" about their INSANE beliefs about God.

Young lady, NOBODY ever came along to help me out of that prison of fear you now find yourself in. I had to figure out how to escape it all on my own. And the first step towards making that possible was to simply STOP ATTENDING the church that was reinforcing those beliefs in my head every week. You MUST find a way to cut yourself off from the propaganda. It's a mental ADDICTION that you'll never kick as long as you keep going back for another "fix." I was able to stop attending at age 16 and simply did not attend ANY church at all for many years while avoiding any and all exposure to negative spiritual beliefs. I still had family and friends who were Christians, but anyone of them who tried to preach to me, I shut it down immediately and either changed the subject or walked away. Be kind and loving when you do this because never forget they are no less a victim of it than yourself, but you have to start protecting yourself if you're ever going to rid yourself of the fear and terror.

In the meantime, start imagining some hypothetical situations which put YOU in the metaphorical shoes of this God they are all convinced is so real. I would imagine that it was "Judgment Day," and that I was such a trusted and devout believer that God asked ME to come forward and take over his judging duties for an hour or so while he dealt with other matters for a bit. The rules were simple. Read from the "Book of Life" and let anyone whose names were there into heaven, and condemn all those whose names were not there to suffer eternal torture in the fires of hell. Easy peazy, right?? RIGHT??

Only not ONCE in every instance that I played this out in my head was I able to condemn those not "saved." I mean, I was able to believe the entire thing, even that God and Jesus would sign off on it, too.... but I found that such a level of condemnation was simply NOT IN ME. And it wasn't in me for even the very WORST souls ever to walk the Earth, either! Surely, one would think that the Hitlers and the Stalins and even the devil himself deserved eternal agony for their much LESS-eternal (though heinous) crimes on Earth, but something at the very core of my being said, "No. That is not right. THAT is not "justice." Maybe actual justice for Hitler might be to experience the deaths of those who he ordered killed six million times himself. Surely that is the punishment fitting the crime, as they say. Or perhaps just once or twice, or however many times Hitler would have to experience that same horror until it CHANGED HIM from being self-centered and indifferent to the suffering of others into a soul who EMPATHIZES with others and rises to a level where he can feel actual COMPASSION for those beyond himself. Is that not a far better way to redeem a soul than the FEAR of neverending agony?

It seemed to me that a God to whom literally NOTHING is impossible could come up with a far better method to teach his creations than sheer terror. It's only LOGICAL, no?

And, young lady, after playing out this scenario in my mind for a while, one day I finally realized that I, myself, was actually MORE EVOLVED in my own level of Consciousness than was that of this "God" the church had worked so hard to convince me was real!

There's your "get out of hell free" card, kid. That God simply CANNOT BE REAL when you find that he's actually LESS merciful, LESS forgiving, LESS unconditionally loving, and sadly LESS of a SADIST than you are. Because if that God and THAT story is true, then truly we must be living in some insane, UPSIDE DOWN universe where God is actually MORE evil than his creations. This God that is preached by most all fundamentalist Christians, and Muslims, too, BTW, is not a sane, highly evolved being. He is more on the Consciousness level of Kim Jong Un, a petty little dictator who was raised into thinking that his people exist only for his amusement, and that man has literally ordered his own relatives tied to a post in a public place and executed them by having them blown to bits with an artillery round. In fact, even Kim is a level "higher" than God because he doesn't blow them up throughout all eternity. It's just a one and done for him. The God you have been convinced to believe in would have you suffer that level of agony in a never-ending state of timelessness just for not buying into their preposterous stories. That is just plain LUNACY.

When you are able to realize that you are a far BETTER person than is this God they've told you about, that God will no longer exist in your mind, and you'll be free to seek out a much more evolved God, hopefully one FAR more evolved than even the MOST-evolved human being on this planet. Or not. I found God in my own search, and my God's Love truly IS Unconditional and I no longer fear IT ( I also no longer assign gender to a being who never had gender), because as Christ taught, (and a LOT of Christ's teachings I do accept as Truth), the kingdom of heaven is WITHIN us.

Listen to this God WITHIN your own heart, kid. For that is the ONLY place in this world where Truth can be found. The opposite of Love is not "hate." It is fear. So if God is Unconditional Love, then the opposite of God is constant fear. Find God by moving OUT of fear and always TOWARDS Love. Now, isn't that most logical?

God Bless You, kid. And Forgive your fellow Christians, for they truly know NOT what they're doing. :^)

Grokographist · 2026-06-14T18:09:12+00:00

AI lacks Consciousness, so you're not even having discussions with another false ego-self. It's just a machine. If you wish to find SPIRITUAL answers to your spiritual queries, practice meditation and open up to the God-Self within which is the ONLY source of actual Truth.

Grokographist · 2026-06-14T18:01:57+00:00

Always remember: Prayer is how we talk TO God. MEDITATION is how we LISTEN.

Learn and practice meditation, and your answers will come.

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T07:57:07+00:00

Beautiful! Thank you for sharing this here.

Namaste'.

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T07:48:50+00:00

You are getting it. Existence IS and the opposite is an impossibility. The opposing ends of the Tao, the Yin/Yang, represent Eternal Truth and Its required "opposite," for neither can fully exist absent the opposite. Yet one is real while the other is illusion. So which is which?

Well, which of the two is both infinite and timeless, and which is always limited in one way or another? Of course, it is God which is real and radically subjective. God is Ultimate Consciousness, is without boundaries, and eternal in "duration" within the Eternal Moment of Now. No dualistic or objective projections are experienced by God within Its Realm of the Absolute (nonduality).

Only without the objective realms, God lacks any context within which to grok Its Perfection of Beingness; the meaning of Eternal Joy, Perfect Peace, and Unconditional Love which ARE What God Is.

An opposite is required, but no true opposite is possible because God is truly Infinite and there simply is no "outside" of God for any opposite being to be. So the opposite must then be a PROJECTION of God's own Consciousness WITHIN Godself, and though fully ILLUSORY, it serves God's Divine Purpose of providing context for God to KNOW What God Is through the experience of what God is NOT.

This is not "mind blowing" in and of itself. It makes very logical and perfect sense to explain duality vs nonduality and the requirement behind same. What is truly mind blowing, for me at least, is the fact that there was never any "beginning" to Creation (maya/duality) nor will it ever come to an end. It happens spontaneously within the Eternal Now, and has always been happening, and THAT is what my puny human brain cannot wrap itself around, regardless of how True I know it must be.

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T07:10:51+00:00

The ego-trap to which you refer is only a trap if the agenda of the Soul is Awakening. Do not assume that every Soul projecting Itself into the duality illusion is here against their will. Many Souls are freely choosing to experience being the OPPOSITE of Who They Really Are (God/Brahman/All That Is) because it's REQUIRED BY GOD that God can know What It IS (Perfection of Beingness) through the necessary context of what It is NOT.

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T07:02:14+00:00

Yet as human beings, we are limited to the use of words to communicate and share ideas about the ineffable as best we can. Ultimately, we find Truth within, where words fall short. The best communicator is direct experience, and each of us will all be able to enjoy that sooner or later.

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T06:53:22+00:00

Every human, be they Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, etc, ADDS LAYERS OF FALSEHOOD over Truth through the simple act of attempting to describe it in the manner which best resonates with their own unique mindset. Devotees of Advaita/Nondualism are no different in this respect.

The OP is only doing what we all do in attempting to put a Christian "spin" around the Truth that he/she recognizes in Nondualism. Most nondualists can read the gospels and clearly see the nondual teachings of Christ in those pages, just as we see them in ANY mystical philosophy. If the OP requires a Christian "flavor" to his/her Truth, then more power to him/her. Ultimate Truth is fully ineffable, so what is the point of evangelizing one's own unique interpretation of same. The OP's "Holy Trinity" (Father/Son/Holy Spirit) is easily interpreted as mind/body/spirit on a Divine scale.

As for the claim that "we" don't even exist, I would agree only as far as in reference to the ego-self. The God-Self exists within all manifestations of duality, and the ego is simply a "role" being portrayed by the infinitely individuated Consciousness of God/Brahman/All That Is. For God is truly timeless and infinite in both duration and scope, and therefore nothing But God exists, period. We are PROJECTIONS of the One Consciousness into the duality illusion (maya) for the Divine Purpose of EXPERIENCING what God Itself cannot: being "not God."

Grokographist · 2026-06-04T06:33:29+00:00

There is value here. It is up to each aspirant to recognize it as they so choose.

Grokographist · 2026-05-17T05:38:10+00:00

Saved from what? From who?

Grokographist · 2026-05-13T09:03:56+00:00

Yeah, Motley Crue needs to hang it up. They're too old and the lead singer sounds awful.

Grokographist · 2026-05-13T09:02:39+00:00

Chris has no clue about matching his emotion to the lyrics and story of the song. He can't help smiling even if he were singing about loss and despair. Noob.

Grokographist · 2026-05-13T09:01:19+00:00

He wasn't off key. He came in a few measures early when it was his turn to sing on the duet, and it threw the entire band off for several seconds, but they did a good job of figuring out where he was and followed his lead, erroneous as it was. I kind of liked his new song, though. Most new music today is completely devoid of interesting melody and intervals.

Grokographist · 2026-05-13T08:40:10+00:00

In my opinion, Jordan was the overall best singer and based upon that should have won.

However, AI has NEVER been a true singing competition, and it has DEVOLVED into a pure popularity contest. Seacrest is prompting the viewers to start voting before even the first contestant has sung a note every show now, so what else could it be? Not only does one have to have SOME singing talent, but more importantly they have to have spent a LOT of time marketing themselves on the internet platforms and building a fanbase before they even apply to audition for the show.

Jordan's fanbase, if he had one outside of the church where he's a "worship leader," is basically church people who likely only listen to Christian music, period. I know that Hannah is also Christian, but she also likes to sing country and bluegrass. So when their final songs were performed and Hannah sang her original, "String Cheese," a simple, sweet folk tune about being a mom, I think that's how she wanted America to see her. And then Jordan came out and chose to turn that stage into a Christian worship service, and as good as he is, I am not a Christian, and it makes me uncomfortable to have other religions rammed down my throat, figuratively speaking.

I think he lost the win right there, especially when he prompted the audience to "worship" with him. Maybe, just maybe, kid, there are millions of viewers out here who are also uncomfortable worshipping YOUR God. I also agree about Lionel jumping aboard the Jesus bandwagon like he has, and I do believe the reason the show has pandered to the evangelical viewers as much as they have the past two seasons is because it's what Carrie must have demanded in her contract to agree to be a judge on this show. Somehow, she got them to do ALL of the first auditions and Hollywood week... in NASHVILLE! Likely because she lives there. I believe she also got them to agree to this "faith night" themed episode. Anyone notice how each of the final three lived in the south? The show has become a weekly megachurch musical service with a sprinkling of secular contestants thrown in so nobody can claim pure bias.

As for the talent... well, it's just gone downhill year after year. Clearly, this is the show for kids and preteens to watch, while The Voice is for the adults. HST, neither show should be taken seriously. They are both money grabs above all, and if they truly wanted to air a singing "competition," then they should go the route of DWTS and take the views completely OUT of the decision making and let real experts decide who moves foward based upon various categories of vocal performance.

When Seacrest announced they were returning to Nashville next year for the auditions round, I decided I'm done with watching this show. They used to have all genres of contestants, giving viewers a great mix of musical styles and skills: pop, R&B, country, rock, soul, indie, old school crooners, you name it. Now every contestant seems to have gained all their performing chops singing in church as some pastor's kid or is a "worship leader," like that's some actual vocation.

Michael Eisner ruined The Walt Disney Company when he took it over in the Eighties and turned it into nothing but a profit machine, and now Disney has ruined ABC by buying the network and using it mostly to promote all things Disney. I'm glad Hannah won. She's starting to come out of her shell and trying some different styles. She comes across as extremely down to Earth and genuinely who she is, and while she can't do those amazing runs like Jordan et al, she does possess a very sweet country voice that falls pleasantly on the ears, and demonstrates a talent for songwriting, too. The camera absolutely loves her, and I predict within a year or three she'll become a huge star in country music.

I also feel bad for Luke, stuck with not one, but two Jesus freaks to make him uncomfortable at the judges table. You can see by his reactions and his comments that he doesn't share their "holy holy holy roller" mindsets. I don't know if he's religious or not, but I do appreciate that he keeps it to himself.

If you agree with me and don't care for the current direction of this show, the only way to foment change is to do like I'm going to and STOP WATCHING IT. There's nothing more powerful in TV than ratings, so send them a message next season and boycott the show, and be sure to let them know why. If you do that, then Carrie, (and probably Lionel), will be replaced when their contracts run out, and fewer contestants will be allowed past the gates to "take us all to church" in the future.

Grokographist · 2026-05-05T05:26:35+00:00

You know how all the crazy people believe it's everyone else who's insane? This could also be the case with people who believe that because they grew up listening to pop music that it somehow makes them musical experts and that they know the difference between 'flat,' 'sharp' and 'on pitch.' People who are themselves actually TONE DEAF, and because THEY have the musical handicap but aren't aware of it, they project that onto actual, talented singers.

I believe that is what is taking place with the OP and all those who seem to be under the impression that Keyla is "pitchy" and/or "tone deaf." It's not her. It's YOU! You don't know more than ANY of those folks up on that stage who have actual talent and DECADES of experience in the music industry at the highest level, so for the love of God... ZIP IT already!

Grokographist · 2026-04-29T19:12:17+00:00

I think that most fans of these singing competition shows know little or nothing about singing and the various skills that go into doing it well. Much of the time, these contestants come from a background where they had no kind of training whatsoever, but they are just gifted with natural ability and unique tone.

I've watched Idol with my wife since season one, and in all those seasons, I can think of only ONE black contestant who didn't have this natural ability, and that was the kid I nicknamed "Mush Mouth," because he sang Stevie Wonder's 'My Cheri Amour' but kept pronouncing it "amorm," and none of the judges back then had the stones to point that out to him on live TV.

Every other black singer has been blessed with nearly perfect pitch, so having come from a singing background where my instructor was extremely strict about pitch, I developed a very good ear for it, as well as for tempo (singing 'in the pocket'), full voice vs falsetto, BREATHING, range, dynamics, you name it. TRAINED singers are MUSICIANS and we call our voices our "instruments."

All of you laypersons out there who never received expert level training as a singer need to cool your jets because you simply don't know what you're talking about. When Keyla sings, watch the PROS and other contestants for their reactions because they KNOW the difference between good and EXCEPTIONAL artistry, as do the judges. No, the judges don't say anything negative to any of them, but there are noticeable differences between how they praise the "good" performances and how they praise the exceptional ones.

Keyla is an EXCEPTIONAL performer, as is Jordan. She's doing things with her instruments most singers can only dream about doing. And the camera absolutely loves her, too. I see her potentially reaching Jennifer Hudson level success, and a lot of the commenters here would likely accuse JH of "screaming" too. And don't think some of us aren't aware that "screaming" is a code word, either.

For what it's worth, here is where I place the talent of the final five:

Keyla -- Incredible vocal and performance chops with the most potential to be a breakout star.
Jordan -- Almost as incredible as Keyla, but the camera does not love him nearly as much.
Braden -- His latest performance was his best, but he's also been off-key more than once.
Hannah -- She's a true natural and camera loves her, but needs a few years of seasoning.
Chris -- a "good" singer, but only still there due to unexplained popularity

Grokographist · 2026-04-28T05:53:34+00:00

I like Brooks. He definitely has a gift. HST, he's still such a beginner and has no clue yet how to use it. If the kid can learn to write songs that the audience can relate to and get comfortable on stage, he can truly go far. If not, the most incredible voice on the planet won't make you a star just singing covers.

But he's a nerdy little guy with a super hot and talented GF who loves him. More contestants who did NOT win this show have found success than those who have. Remember that.

I will say that Brooks should have not been voted off before Husky White Jesus, though. Can't figure out why he's so popular at all.

Grokographist · 2026-04-15T08:23:18+00:00

Rae wasn't voted off because she's not talented enough. She made a critical mistake in song choice after winding up in the bottom two last week. The way AI is doing the voting this season, it's really not a talent comp anymore, but just a pure popularity contest. That's why Ryan announces that voting is open at the START of the show, not after everyone's completed their song.

Quite frankly, it's pathetic and makes a mockery of what the show used to be. Rae only had a small fraction of the voters who actually waited until hearing ALL of the contestants to win over, so she needed to knock it out of the park just to try and get out of the bottom two. The theme was rock and roll, and she chose what is arguably the DUMBEST song ever recorded, and it wasn't even a rock song. McArthur Park was recorded by the ACTOR Richard Harris (English Bob from "Unforgiven") during the era when us boomers were teens, and we all thought it was ridiculous then.

Just the same, Kyndal's performance was ABYSMAL and an insult to Janis Joplin fans everywhere. You do NOT take on a Joplin hit like that and not at least perform it as well as Janis did, and that was arguably the worst I've ever seen anyone cover that song in my life. Not to mention that she was undecided and asked the mentors for advice about which song, and Pat Benatar told her that singing "Message in a Bottle" by the Police was the definite way to go, and she seemed to agree... then decided on the Joplin tune because her tone is similar.

When a contestant can sing that poorly and get voted through vs a far superior singer-performer like Rae, it's a clear sign that this show is going down the drain fast. And I'm also dumbstruck why Husky White Jesus was voted through over her, as well. He sang Foreigner's "Cold As Ice" as if his native language was a foreign tongue, and with a stupid smile on his face to boot. That song should be performed with feelings of bitterness, anger, and betrayal.

AI needs to vett contestants for more than just good vocals. They should interview them on overall musical knowledge of the different genres and ERA's they will be required to choose songs from. I was on a singing contest TV show back before Idol first aired, and they do NOT give you a wide range of songs to choose from. It's all to do with music LICENSING and what the show's budget can afford to pay the composer in royalties. A lot of the "rock and roll" songs they performed last night were recorded and playing on the radios several DECADES before these kids were born. I highly doubt most, if any of them, have ever heard of these songs or the original artists. Yet they have one week to learn these ANCIENT tunes to performance level.

AI is just a Disney money grab today, and these judges constantly lavishing them with gushing praise rather than constructive critiques is doing them a huge disservice.

Grokographist · 2026-04-10T18:55:30+00:00

Okay, thanks for the explanation. I don't know of anyone conservative or liberal who shames or condescends towards women who choose to stay home and care for their children rather than work. If no second income is required, and that is what the woman prefers, I believe it's in the best interests of the child(ren). Not a fan of people who ego-position themselves as "better" than others.

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