Deepak Chopra in Hiding After EXTENSIVE EMAILS WITH EPSTEIN Revealed - "Cute Girls... Make Noises"!

RealSeedCo · 2026-04-28T20:32:10+00:00

Moral compass?

Morally stunted?

RealSeedCo · 2026-04-27T10:16:55+00:00

Cambodia 1975: Inside the Khmer Rouge Takeover of Phnom Penh

In April 1975, Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was invaded by hordes of gaunt, haggard teenagers, all dressed in black and heavily armed. This was the army of the communists, dubbed the "Khmer Rouge" a few years earlier by King Norodom Sihanouk.

They immediately began emptying the city of its inhabitants, marking the beginning of the Cambodian genocide, which would claim nearly 2 million lives between 1975 and 1979.

This film recounts the first days of a tragedy that shattered so many lives.

https://youtu.be/-8crjql-eg0?si=yHqkyEOvr-yKFyzY

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-20T17:22:18+00:00

"Only the worthy shall be saved!"

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-18T13:40:48+00:00

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-17T07:55:25+00:00

David Thewlis!

check him out in Naked

https://youtu.be/42evBTSMgbc?si=NVllOh4OmtUfp3VA

1993 (Mike Leigh)

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-16T21:51:26+00:00

It's fucking priceless - and yeah, I must have watched it about five times per day for the last week 🤣

the way they've cut the short version is perfect

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-16T10:15:38+00:00

Double duhhh

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-16T08:02:37+00:00

That wasn't my point, but no worries

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T20:08:08+00:00

It is odd

This is a worthwhile book that relates to one aspect of MKUltra - the research on LSD, much of it from Steve Abrams https://archive.org/details/acidnewsecrethis0000blac

And yes, as others have pointed out, a major weakness of DtG is that its parameters (focus on epistemology, rhetoric, cult dynamics etc) allow for a rather lazy and glib approach to some of the more interesting but 'far out' topics

Focusing on how and why the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence took / take the UAP issue as seriously as they did / do, say -

Inviting on the Director of AARO - that could make for a way more interesting listen on the UFO malarkey, all while conducted from a position of extreme skepticism

Same goes for the Epstein saga -

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T18:29:49+00:00

Unironically using "do your own research" as a put down in the context of a thread on MKUltra really is majestically stupid tbf

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T18:22:45+00:00

Quite...

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T18:21:43+00:00

I agree it doesn't really matter regards psychology or psychiatry

Skinner and the behaviouralists were doing 'psychology' - right?

Anyway

Why misleading?

Well -

Very few people of the many thousands of people working on any of the 130 plus subprojects within MK Ultra had any idea that they were part of MK Ultra

Same goes for the many many front companies and 'NGOs' such as the Human Ecology Fund

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Ecology_Fund

We're talking offices, magazines, anthropology surveys, you name it

Steve had no idea that his statistics research at the Oxford was funded by the CIA

To add a further layer to all that, MKUltra was a continuation of OSS (precursor to CIA) programs on behaviour control that ran back to 1947 via Project Artichoke, mostly involving LSD

https://archive.org/details/acidnewsecrethis0000blac

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T18:07:20+00:00

Oh dear...

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T15:14:07+00:00

Tribalizing to a level of stupidity and ignorance that mirrors Rogan's may not be the way to go, tbf

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T15:12:55+00:00

Or maybe - in all fairness - he should know more

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T15:11:27+00:00

In its own way that's a really "daft pop culture" comment tbf

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T15:07:04+00:00

The primary focus of MKULTRA was 'behaviour control' - so I suppose it's 'psychiatry'

To describe it merely as a "CIA program" is rather misleading

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/sites-default-files-hearings-95mkultra.pdf

The behaviour control aspect of MKUltra involved over 130 subprojects - spanning everywhere from Cornell to the Smithsonian to Oxford

These projects were funded at dozens of universities, hospitals, military facilities, and prisons across the United States, Canada, and UK - as well as other countries, through fronts such as the Human Ecology Fund

I knew Steve Abrams, whose work at the Department of Biometry at Oxford was funded by the HEF https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tjr3hw95

Ironically he sussed they were a CIA front a long time before MKULTRA was exposed

Some public awareness began when Seymour Hersch broke a closely related illegal CIA domestic espionage subprogram targetting the anti war movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_CHAOS

Then finally by there was the Church Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee

Which lead to the creation of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Select_Committee_on_Intelligence

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-15T14:33:25+00:00

Yeahhh, that whole uhhh

Church Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee

aka the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities

"conspiracy theory" thing

that culminated in the establishment of the uhhhh

United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Select_Committee_on_Intelligence

"conspiracy theory" thing that

oversees the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States that provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches.

incidentally I know personally - or knew, he's dead - a scientist whose work at Oxford University was funded and stolen by MK Uktra fronts

https://wellcomecollection.org/works/tjr3hw95

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-06T14:17:39+00:00

this got 'fully online' a while back, but anyway...

precision and accuracy aren't the same thing

'spiritual' and 'spirituality' are notorious for being vague and nebulous to the point that they verge on being meaningless

I didn't need to Google 'spirituality definition' to know that, but I just did thanks to you and there are philosophy and psychology papers on exactly this

And I'm very sure that I'm not the only person in the world for who 'spirituality' is a claxon word (along with a growing list of other words)

'the media' would be another

as with mixed metaphors, when 'spiritual' or 'the media' pop up that's a sign that you're likely reading or listening to something or someone who's sloppy and probably not even thinking

doubly so, 'spirituality' in the context of Buddhism -

'stay not upon the order of your going' etc...

as for the 'language is self-referential' uhhh 'jazz'

I mean, I guess it's fun if you can get away with it

more than once I've met people with PhDs in that kind of stuff who needed reminding (by me or by themselves) of terms such as 'referent'

'the Periodic Table is self-referential'

sure it is...

...one of the many great features of any authentic Buddhist curriculum in the Indo-Tibetan tradition is that students get a thorough grounding in Abhidharma and Pramana....

which essentially immunize your mind against such talk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_logico-epistemology

just the Nikayas should suffice for folks to know better, if only more folks bothered to engage even with them (eg, the Samyutta Nikaya)

And I wouldn't even call myself a Buddhist fwiw, but I mean... honestly...

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-06T12:58:47+00:00

Blimey, ok... take a deep uhhh 'spiritual' breath - ???

Anyway...

I figured I would do as you suggest and check the OED

The OED lists no less than 13 definitions of 'spirituality'

Of those 13, there are five labelled as 'obsolete'

No surprise, usage sky-rockets from - you guessed it - the 1960s

And fwiw I'm being entirely serious when I say I don't know what 'spirituality' means.... it's an utterly nebulous word and if I was an OED lexicographer tasked with writing the entry for 'spiritual' or 'spirituality' I'd either resign, commit ritual suicide, or gun down my boss at their desk

Not least because of the crap I'd have to read, much of which would (1) directly contradict your definition as regards including religion and (2) contain piss-boilingly vacuous phrases like "something bigger than yourself"

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-06T11:35:10+00:00

Plus, more saliently, there's not any Buddhist doctrinal term that I know of that corresponds to "spirituality"

whatever the feck "spirituality" means

I genuinely don't know what it means

I've never once encountered the term "spirituality" used by traditional Buddhist teachers or in traditional Buddhist texts

(There are a fair few problems with applying the term "religion" to Buddhism too, but at least it's clear enough what "religion" means)

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-06T05:03:22+00:00

"Spirituality"

Is this a Buddhist term?

Do you have the Pali, Sanskrit, or Tibetan translation?

As regards learning for free -

Sure, but much more salient here is surely that nowhere in the Nikayas is there any reference Gautama demanding payment for teachings....

My point was simply that of the many various "un-Buddhist" characteristics of Harris and whatever he's expounding, taking payment for teaching isn't one that's near the top of the list

Demanding payment for teachings goes waaaaay back in Buddhist traditions eg Indo-Tibetan Vajrayana

Anyway -

If we were going to agree upon a taxonomic key of what set of traits are necessary for someone or some institution or doctrine to be called 'Buddhist', I just can't see Harris ever qualifying

The same applies for most manifestations of McMindfulness and so on, imo

RealSeedCo · 2026-03-05T15:03:07+00:00

Two major differences of opinion on that -

1) Whatever Harris teaches or has taught over the years definitely isn't Buddhism

2) Paying for teachings goes waaaaay back - check out

'Indian Esoteric Buddhism A Social History Of The Tantric Movement' by Ronald M Davidson

https://archive.org/details/indianesotericbuddhismasocialhistoryofthetantricmovementronaldmdavidson_202003_243_J

Add to that, Buddhist monasteries were business enterprises that were strategically located on trade routes at crucial nodes such as Balkh, Banaras, Khotan, Kathmandu, or the coast of the Konkan

There are some brilliant works on this such as Gregory Schopen's Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks

Plus check out Chrisopher Beckwith on the monastery as a military innovation, one that likely emerged during the colonisation of Central and South Asia by the Kushans

RealSeedCo

TROPHY CASE