(December 30, 2021 at 8:36 am)brewer Wrote:(December 30, 2021 at 3:08 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: That was an interesting read, brewer. Thanks for sharing.
I learned of Ernestine Rose for the first time. Can't believe I hadn't heard of her before. She's fuckin' awesome.
I also found this bit interesting:
One of these days I'm going to make a thread about what I call "realistic mysticism"... like that of Thoreau... that holds the natural world as its divine object rather than a god. Not that I practice that sort of mysticism or anything. But I find it interesting, and think it's defensible.
Using divine/divinity/mysticism causes an immediate negative knee jerk reaction for me. Also 'saying that God does not exist is not so different from saying that we cannot comprehend God’s existence'.
I haven't read Gray's work and doubt that I will, it appears to be pop psychology and he's another purveyor of woo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gray_...an_author)
https://www.famousauthors.org/john-gray
Yeah. A ton of warning bells. I mean, the guy got his degree in "Science of Creative Intelligence" from Maharishi International University.
I was a little suspicious of some of the things he was saying... such as secular humanism being a stand-in for monotheism. Now it makes a bit more sense. He's prone to crude, uncareful thought, which is fine for a pop sci author. But he is borrowing on some ideas put forth by more careful thinkers.
I wouldn't let the term mysticism bother you. There is an attempt by some to rescue the notion from its religious trappings. In much the same way that meditation was once only practiced in religious circles, but it was secularized and repurposed in psychological therapy as a means to clear one's mind and reduce anxiety.
The question is: is mysticism in the same boat as meditation? Is it fit for secularizing and repurposing?
Or is it just nonsense like "the power of prayer" and a myriad other things that, unlike meditation, have no use for a nonbeliever?
