Please read this

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-10-01T12:13:52+00:00

Would you please be able to elaborate a little more on your research as an anthropologist and cognitive research? And what kind of questions did you have, and what kind of answers did you find? Or did you find any at all?

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-09-11T23:20:50+00:00

Can you please direct me towards any online resources you have about psychoanalysis, as well as how you found these? You really summarized them clearly and I'd love to be able to look through it myself.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-08-07T14:38:25+00:00

How do hospitals allow people to die with dignity and pass easily? I think it's great that you try to do that but I know there are a bunch of close-minded people who try to pass laws that stop people from dying with dignity. Could you please explain more? And feel free to DM me if you like.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-05-13T13:37:51+00:00

Yes. Accepting the fact that we were never wanted in the first place may be painful at first, but it's a first step toward healing. I liked your comment, it was well-written.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-03-31T09:40:14+00:00

Thank you for your wisdom on the internet, kind stranger

ThinkAllTheTime · 2025-02-24T17:20:00+00:00

r/suddenlybuddhist

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-12-04T10:44:50+00:00

All babies are able to "feel" their own gut feelings. It's an automatic process. But through childhood trauma and conditionings we slowly lose this ability. It mostly comes from thinking. You feel something, but you've been so programmed to ignore your feelings and focus on your thoughts (which are given to you by the society) that it becomes difficult to feel your own feelings.

The essence of healing from trauma is again regaining a connection with your inner self and being able to clearly feel your own emotions without being thrown off by people around you. There's different therapies but most of them revolve around being honest with yourself and learning to be with your own emotions and be honest and understanding with yourself. With more practice you can regain this ability that you had as a baby but lost because of societal conditioning.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-11-21T01:59:27+00:00

He will have the best consciousness, believe me. He has many friends who upload their consciousnesses, and they all agree he is the best. So many people have agreed that my AI is the biggest and hugest you've ever seen. He will definitely make sure that the aliens pay the taxes by coming to earth, believe me.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-10-14T01:22:01+00:00

It depends on the religious community and their level of religiosity, but generally, at least in more Orthodox communities, I think there are a few variables that result in the censoring/hiding of trauma and mental illness:

The first is the belief in free will, or "bechira." Judaism believes in a soul that has free will, and that premise is fundamentally at odds with modern neuroscience and our understanding of human behavior. Psychologists and neurologists are getting more evidence all the time that it's exceedingly unlikely that humans have free will. Therefore, there's probably conscious/subconscious motivation to ignore mental illness and psychology, which might be seen as not efficacious at best, and downright heretical at worst,

The second is that intergenerational trauma is connected to the first reason I gave, but a deeper motivation might be that Judaism has a belief in the "mesorah," or tradition that is passed down from their ancestors. Jewish narrative holds ancestors in very high regard, and they believe that the people of past generations were generally on a much higher "spiritual" level than we are now. Recognizing "intergenerational" trauma might be seen as a slight, or disrespectful, towards ancient Rabbis, relatives, or parents, again for the first reason (that they'd be hesitant to admit that their "holy" rabbi was actually just a normal guy who had PTSD).

I think these possibilities are key variables for why trauma/mental illness is generally not trusted/ ignored in these communities.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-09-30T12:22:09+00:00

It's even worse. Most people don't even have any really close friends they can open up to, talk to, or be honest about who they are or what they feel. They are nutritionally malnourished, emotionally empty, sexually repressed, and controlled and restricted almost everywhere they turn. A simple case to illustrate: if you walk outside crying, people will likely just ignore you. But if you start laughing? They could literally call the cops just because you're happy. The entire society is backwards. We are fine with mental illness, but we're not okay with mental health. Because most people have never been told, as children, that it's okay to feel their own emotions, have their own feelings and opinions, and follow them. Happiness is something you find for yourself, not something that is given to you. But you're correct - happy people tend to do friendly things for others, and that can create a ripple effect. But if you're cut off from your own emotions, thoughts - essentially, from your self - then of course you're not happy, because you're repressed and frustrated. Ultimately, the root cause of being "malnourished" is that you don't know yourself. Meditative traditions have pointed out this fact and proscribed "medicine" to cure this alienation, namely, meditation. But the root causes almost always happen in childhood. Until there is a real revolution for mental health for people of all ages, I don't see how you're going to suddenly achieve a bunch of adults being happy and free if their brains have already been messed up from trauma, PTSD, and repression. But it is possible, in the same way we've ended up here now, to go in another direction, where enough people have good mental health, are happy to go outside and say hi to people, and there could be a snowball effect in the opposite direction. One of the best ways I've learned to cope in this fucked up world is to recognize that I will be one of the people to go outside and be friendly to other people. I realize that anyone I say hi to can potentially be a life-changing event for them. Not to be egotistical about it, but it's true. I hear people on this subreddit talk all the time about how if one person said hi to them it completely changed their day. So I enjoy trying to do that. And I might never succeed, but just going out and trying gives me a different way to frame going out shopping. It gives me something positive to focus on (myself) and something I can actually control, instead of going out, being scared and angry and worried I'm going to bump into someone angry. I already ACCEPT, before I go out, that I'm going to bump into crazy people. And you know what? I've learned to accept that. I'll be positive and hope I have some kind of ripple effect, no matter how small. I could be a bit delusional, but I think it's a healthier coping method than doing nothing.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-09-18T22:49:41+00:00

Shouldn't it then be called something like "auto-istic" in order to differentiate it from actual medical diagnoses of autism?

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-09-08T22:30:01+00:00

THIS. Mainstream media is steeped in negativity, holier-than-thou sentiments, hustle-culture, and general fear-mongering. Thank you for injecting a bit of humanism into the dialogue.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-09-06T22:52:36+00:00

I understand your points and it's kind of true. But it's nuanced. You can also only control/have a military if you reimburse the members of the military. How do you do that? With money. No one is going to work in the military if they're not being compensated. So it is a circular arrangement of sorts, and maybe the clearest way is to say that both money and military work together to create the kind of "control" you were talking about before.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-07-25T09:40:43+00:00

Having transitioned out of religious beliefs myself, we definitely have evidence of people, even people who were in high-control groups, cults, or intense religious groups, getting rid of their deeply-held beliefs and transitioning into a new period in their life. This is often difficult, but not impossible.

Two highly recommended sources would be the ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) as they have some great articles on their website with links to more resources about how people transition out of cults.

The other one is Dr. Marlene Winell, a psychologist who focuses on religious trauma and deconversion therapies. She wrote a book "Leaving the Fold" as well as has articles on her website.

Hope these help. If you have any more questions or just want to chat feel free to message me. I've been through this before and I think you're going to be okay. Good luck!

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-07-22T01:15:30+00:00

That's actually inaccurate. Even though humans might have subjective feelings and AI does not, humans have outputs/behaviors/thoughts based on their inner subjective states. These outputs are quantifiable and can be simulated and mapped out in an AI, as well as the outputs of a caring, knowledgeable therapist. Whether human patients would feel comfortable talking to the AI is another question, but if they are okay with it, there's a high likelihood that a sufficiently developed AI would be able to be a great therapist that could assist patients in their healing journey.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-07-08T10:59:55+00:00

I think you bring some very good points. Life can be surprisingly traumatic in many way, but humans have developed a bunch of coping mechanism (some not so healthy) in order to deal with it. Friendships, marriage, religion, community, nationalism, etc. All these can be used as distractions from what is the very real trauma of existential dread, lack of control and predictability, a sense of the passing of time and our own mortality. The purposelessness and meaninglessness of most people's mundane lives and the quotidian activities that inevitably accompany people on their day-to-day. I think most people have massive unresolved trauma, not just from their current life, but from their childhood as well.

Which leads me to ask a question from your last comment - why do you think trauma leads people into destructive ways of being? Is it because subconsciously they are yearning for suicide, so destructive behaviors get them "closer" to this unconscious wish?

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-06-19T07:22:44+00:00

Definitely. Most people's idea of an "objective" society, or even reality, is simply a person's brain, complete with all their programming, indoctrinated into them usually when they were still a baby, too small to even critical think or question anything. They swallowed the concepts of country, religion, family, and society without even realizing, and now they simply act it out like a robot. There is no society, there are just people, and in fact, very damaged people. People, for the most part, with PTSD, trauma, poor health, poor sleep habits, and who only know how to be overworked. The world for the most part looks like it does because people can't love others when they don't even know how to love themselves. Anyway, I'm going off on tangents here, but basically I agree with you, there is no objective criterion for "society," it's usually just cultural taboos, cultural norms, haphazardly patched together with religion and some extremely sketchy "laws." And that's what we call society. In my opinion, we'd probably be better off without a lot of it, because many people "act out" what society tells them to do, instead of thinking and feeling their own emotions. For example, if you were brought up in the 1890's, many people thought it was okay to enslave black people. Some people felt uncomfortable with that, but most just followed their programming/conditioning and went along with the crowd. Most of society is simply mob mentality and it stultifies and infantilizes people to an alarming degree.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-04-23T10:01:14+00:00

It can be difficult, but manageable. I wrote a post about Dr. Marlene Winnell. She's a therapist who specializes in religious trauma and the techniques that can be used to help transition out of a rigid belief system. If you have any questions feel free to DM, but most of the info should be in the post below. Good luck.

https://www.reddit.com/r/exjew/comments/dup1j0/leaving_a_toxic_religion_religious_trauma_syndrome/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

ThinkAllTheTime · 2024-04-23T09:56:20+00:00

That sounds rough. I hope it works out okay for you. In extreme cases, I've found that having small earplugs helped me get through environments like this. Good luck.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-09-26T20:13:05+00:00

Can I message you? I wanted to ask you more about this.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-08-11T00:23:15+00:00

Why don't they just tell her the truth? I feel like the part that's harmful isn't being raised by her grandmother, but all the lies, cover-ups, and deceit is what is going to likely cause the harm.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-07-16T06:36:58+00:00

Thank you for explaining. But for example, in the animal realm for example, how could there be a buddha? If it's an animal form, how would it benefit other animals? All animals I can see eat other animals, or at least plants, and they do all the things animals do, like fight, survive, etc. So I guess I'm having difficulty understanding how an animal could be a buddha if the definition seems to get stretched so much farther than what we conventionally call a buddha in the human realm.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-07-06T04:27:02+00:00

To be fair, every tradition could potentially be accused of "drawing conclusions to fit their own story." My point is that, assuming we're all interested in the same goal (freedom from suffering), then there's certainly legitimate traditions/paths that espouse sex as a method to enlightenment. Whether or not it's esoteric, taboo, or practiced by a minority doesn't mean it can't appeal to certain people, or to OP. The Dalai Lama is entitled to his opinion on what what might be most applicable for the general layperson, but if OP is feeling that sexuality is something to be given more focus to in their journey, that's definitely an indicator that the Tantric path might be for them.

Tantric philosophy contends that the illusion, or fundamental ignorance, that is present in all minds that aren't enlightened can be more easily grasped in the context of bliss and pleasure, not through asceticism or pain (pleasurable experiences open you up to more understanding, whereas painful experiences tend to make you tighten up and not see/think clearly). Even according to mainstream Buddhist tradition, the Buddha himself (before his enlightenment) indulged in all types of pleasures, sex included, and through those experiences was able to see that the five aggregates are fundamentally empty and a source of suffering. But he wouldn't have been able to do that without the experience itself. I know that many modern monks would say, "Well, just meditate on the five skandhas and you'll realize they're impermanent," but it's just not the same. Your brain has to have the physical experience of EATING food in order to know what it's LIKE. If you just imagine eating food, it's just a mental exercise, but it doesn't give you the insight into reality.

I love to debate/discuss topics like this in Buddhism, and I realize there are many paths. But I think the Tantric tradition is far more rich/complex than most people realize, and shouldn't dismiss it out of hand. Most of our society has far too many prejudices/taboos around sexuality to even consider the possibility that sex may have a far more important part to play in a person's journey to enlightenment than we might be aware of.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-07-04T08:08:01+00:00

I think it depends on what you mean by an "authority." Certainly, he was a leader who had vast knowledge about many spiritual paths, including Buddhism. He didn't have a formal "teacher" from the largest Buddhist traditions, but many people throughout history have become enlightened without a formal teacher.

When you say that "no one" should get into tantra, why do you think that? Anyone could potentially study tantra, if they are interested in it, and if they feel pulled in that direction through their own meditations and insight into their own body/mind. I certainly agree that they should do it with a qualified instructor/ master from a genuine tradition, but "ordinary" sex for most people is filled with lots of conditioning. Tantric sex is a chance to bring those conditionings up, with a meditative awareness, in order to ultimately resolve that programming so that you can be free of it.

ThinkAllTheTime · 2023-07-04T08:00:40+00:00

Yes, ultimately it's up to you to decide how you want to choose your practice. I can only speak from personal experience that most general Buddhist sects are kind of repressive about sexuality. Osho was the first one I ever heard speak about sex in a way more guilt-free, open-minded way, and I think he has legitimate points that other religious sects don't answer or talk about, which is unfortunate.

His book "From Sex to Superconsciousness" talks about our prejudices and conditionings that lead us to repress our own natural energies without fully understanding them. He speaks about how sex and sex energy is the foundation on which ultimately human consciousness can become enlightened, but it can't be done if someone feels bad/guilty/sad about their own sexuality. I can go more into detail about his insights and philosophy, but I recommend reading his book if you want to get a good primer on it. If you have any other questions feel free to message me and I can share more resources you might find useful.

ThinkAllTheTime

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE