tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post2113846008015278746..comments2024-02-12T23:25:09.583-08:00Comments on Overweening Generalist: Promiscuous Neurotheology: Pt.2michaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-62136262242192198602018-03-02T19:10:22.491-08:002018-03-02T19:10:22.491-08:00Hi Michael,
I'm enjoying your blog. We have m...Hi Michael,<br /><br />I'm enjoying your blog. We have many of the same favorites -- RAW, Watts, Sapolsky, Korzybski, et al -- and I was wondering what book you'd recommend to start with John Lilly. Or if you could share your thoughts on his books generally. Might make a good post. (hint, hint -- haha).<br /><br />Thanks for your thoughts,<br /><br />InigoInigo Montoyahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12407785346239329299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-6216695676165129292012-09-15T13:21:52.349-07:002012-09-15T13:21:52.349-07:00Both Robert Anton and Edward O Wilson were influen...Both Robert Anton and Edward O Wilson were influenced by Philip Wylie at a young age. <br /><br />Rodney Brooks's work has exploded in influence, and anyone can Google and see robots built from "bottom up" and I find it surreal. What does this suggest about human evolution? Marvelous stuff.<br /><br />The semantic problems I have and will continue to have regarding this topic: "religious experience": does it mean some OOBE when you talk to the Blessed Virgin Mary? That you were picked up by aliens in a UFO? That you had a very very pleasant time at church? That your orgasm was a religious experience?<br /><br />Wm James's Varieties of Religious Experience seems still one of the 3-5 best books to approach the subject; when I mentioned his 1890 textbook that seems a whole other matter: there he addresses just about everything, and with STYLE. And it's a textbook! Check it out from the library and just open at random and read: you're getting still-relevant presentations of basic ideas in what is now cognitive science, with James's bend obviously philosophy plus experimental psych (how foreign it all seems from Freud!), with notes, examples and ideas drawn from a vast generalist's reading.<br /><br />But then maybe I'm one of those odd eggs who still thinks an 1890 textbook is fun to read.<br /><br />Reductionism seems the default mode for the tough-minded investigator of other-than-ordinary psychological phenomena. <br /><br />I can't recall giving a head's up on anyone named "Tony Y." I don't know who that is. Or: cannabis in my system prevents me from recalling?michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-13885076629206338042012-09-14T21:58:22.992-07:002012-09-14T21:58:22.992-07:00I'll cop to being a reductionist but
it hardly...I'll cop to being a reductionist but<br />it hardly equates to the usual ideas<br />about neural matters. Things are far<br />more complex inside the skull when<br />you start investigating them. The tykes of McKenna being just one easy<br />example of how far the mechanisms can<br />take the observer "me". It was nice to see Ramachandran locate the soul,<br />with the caveat that it can be excised with a scalpel Even less of a<br />popular heresy is Rod Brooks robotic<br />work based on lifeforms, it shows<br />a very different picture of how we<br />function inside. Fortuneately I<br />read Phillip Wylie while young so<br />was prepared to understand BS (in<br />the sense RAW used it. I assume that's W. James (varieties of religious experience) writer, and that is worth reading.<br />Oh, thanks for the heads up on Tony<br />Y., the first thing I found was his<br />13 year old school performance on YouTube...GRIN<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com