Bending spoons and PMT

[robinturner]

Provoked by watching a documentary on Uri Geller and reading about a friend's pre-menstrual moods.

We want to believe that Uri Geller can bend spoons because we want to believe that things can happen because we want them to.
We are disturbed by hormonal mood-swings because we want to believe that our emotions are a reliable reflection of our experiences, or because we don't like the idea that we can't control.
As Epictetus said, there are things which are in our hands, and things which aren't. But distinguishing between the two is tricky.

Comments

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

"... distinguishing between the two is tricky"

see Dharmadharmathavibangha (roughly, "Distinguishing Between Reality and Appearances")

I get out of it this way: whatever the ultimate reality of "whoever it is that experiences" and "whatever it is that is experienced" there is the moment of vivid experience itself, i.e. bare awareness of the movement of mind in the moment.

*Yoiks! Dzogchen is taken over my view! (Is that good?)*

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

heh ... I accidentally split the line between "is taking over" and "has taken over"!

[solri.livejournal.com]

All your base are belong to us!

[hfx-ben.livejournal.com]

You tantric fellow-traveller you!

;-)

[asteriskhere.livejournal.com]

I caught that documentary too (BBC Europe, right?).

I saw Uri Geller perform live and he did this seed-sprouting thing that left me a little bit with the feeling of, "hm, maybe..." But lately I heard Uri say that David Blaine is not a 'magician' and in fact he truly has superpowers, and that convinced me with absolutely no hidden-away shadows of doubt that Uri is a complete phony.

Bending Reality

[cf.livejournal.com]

There are far better prestidigators that Uri Geller with far more interesting psychic powers. For instance, Geo W. Bush believes that he can wage war without casualties and can make fiscal realities disappear with a smirk.

Its funny, i hadnt really thought of stoics for years till i started reading your blog, and i just finished wolff's man in full which has stoicism write large in its thema. I wonder why we actually wonder what is in our hands: perhaps it is not the point.

reality

[maggie-lucy.livejournal.com]

When I was a student I read Locke & Plato & consorted with physicists. They all led me to question reality & I became unsure of my existence. This was depressing - we do like to feel in charge, if not of our fate, at least that of our own reality. Perhaps my mother's no-nonsense - roll up your sleeves & get on with it (whatever 'it' was) , or the nasty sense of imminent death on a shaky belay & 300' of cliff below could have brought a change of perspective. My surroudings & life events seem to have some consistency, & among the figments of imagination (such as friends, lovers, tutors, landladies) there seemed to be consensus, so I might as well like it or lump it, if you'll excuse these technical terms, & get on with my life.

Re: reality

[solri.livejournal.com]

It's surprising the effect Locke can have on young minds. I didn't read any of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding till I did my MA, and by this time I'd already been through Zen, the Doctrine of the Void etc., so it didn't strike me as anything earth-shattering, but one of my students last year read it while doing my Matrix course, and it blew his mind!