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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2018 17:15:42 GMT
 I just found a paper with the above title, a phrase that brings together numerous ideas I have written about on this board. Gregg Lahood, in an article for the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, covers the history of the West’s repackaging of Eastern ideas that I have discussed in various threads -- repackaging which created, in Lahood’s words, “a hybrid.” This hybrid used elements of Christian (Presbyterian) “New” Thought and secular positive thinking (elements that coalesced in Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 classic,) to overcome the Western public’s disenchantment with human progress that resulted from, among other disasters, two world wars. Such trust was replaced with the “narcissistic spirituality” of the New Age, using positive thinking as its central dogma. Such narcissism turned even the most well-meaning efforts back to serving the prosperity gospel in which Western (particularly US) culture has always been saturated. Lahood quotes Umberto Eco, who saw what he called “Ur Fascism” in this hybridization, a “spirituality” which resulted in halting the “advancement of learning. Truth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.” The article uses Timothy Leary’s co-founder of LSD-inspired spirituality Ram Dass as an early example of the way such perennialist hybridization turns a striving for humility and diversity into an authoritarian/colonialist “One-Truthism”: “in times of rapid change such as the current globalization,” Lahood continues, citing Donald Stone (1976): These religions, coincidentally, all take on the Christian/gnostic perspective. Following Olav Hammer, Lahood offers the concept of reincarnation as an example: The article concludes by lauding a participatory turn in transpersonal psychology, wherein spirituality addresses “human needs, interests, and identity” – in other words, wherein the “feminine” sensual is held to be on a par with the “masculine” potential. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2018 12:32:15 GMT
 By the way, since I’m trying to bring all my board writing on the subject here, I’ll post some lyrics I had written, starting November of last year, that used Hindu deities to express spiritual ideas that had occurred to me. At the time, I had been impressed by The Lost One’s assertion of the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism, the latter being compatible with my own thoughts. Since I haven’t seen anything yet to contradict this harmony, I thought it would play well here. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2018 20:27:50 GMT
 Getting back to Presbyterianism's influence on narcissistic spirituality, I found a book that discusses John Knox, the founder of Scottish/English Protestantism. Knox’s form of Calvinism invested spiritual leaders with the power earlier forms of Protestantism had opposed in Catholic authorities. Asserting that God “is always like himself,” (in other words, did not change or grow,) Knox saw himself as a prophet, leading “to an exaggerated attraction to see the hand of God in history and relate it to current events.” He thus claimed foretelling powers “more consistent with the Old rather than the New Testament prophets.” Such belief in God’s “perfection” and His spokesmen’s ability to trace the deity’s hand in everything would explain the advance of the prosperity gospel and its continued resilience through all of its disastrous failures. |
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Post by goz on Jun 27, 2018 22:22:20 GMT
 Getting back to Presbyterianism's influence on narcissistic spirituality, I found a book that discusses John Knox, the founder of Scottish/English Protestantism. Knox’s form of Calvinism invested spiritual leaders with the power earlier forms of Protestantism had opposed in Catholic authorities. Asserting that God “is always like himself,” (in other words, did not change or grow,) Knox saw himself as a prophet, leading “to an exaggerated attraction to see the hand of God in history and relate it to current events.” He thus claimed foretelling powers “more consistent with the Old rather than the New Testament prophets.” Such belief in God’s “perfection” and His spokesmen’s ability to trace the deity’s hand in everything would explain the advance of the prosperity gospel and its continued resilience through all of its disastrous failures.Hi Viola, Just to answer one of your threads and to let you know that I read most of your stuff and find it interesting. Because you don't often extrapolate point of interest from your research, I often don't answer and I notice that you frequently don't get many replies and keep your threads going yourself. This is not a criticism at all, butt to let you know that your presence here and contribution is appreciated. Perhaps you might pick out or suggest a few discussion points on the topics? For instance, could you please explain what you mean in the last sentence? What is the prosperity gospel and what were its failures? |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2018 13:16:44 GMT
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9391831/stalker3.jpg) Cell from Tarkovsky’s StalkerThanks, goz – Briefly, the Prosperity Gospel is a recent, often subtle, form of the meritocracy myth. It is discussed in in the OP and the links I provided there, both in the first link and the ones to my own posts. The myth personalizes every misfortune that befalls people. I also wrote a blog entry a few years ago that discusses its most recent (postmodern) manifestation.
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Post by goz on Jun 28, 2018 21:56:42 GMT
I just found a paper with the above title, a phrase that brings together numerous ideas I have written about on this board. Gregg Lahood, in an article for the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, covers the history of the West’s repackaging of Eastern ideas that I have discussed in various threads -- repackaging which created, in Lahood’s words, “a hybrid.” This hybrid used elements of Christian (Presbyterian) “New” Thought and secular positive thinking (elements that coalesced in Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 classic,) to overcome the Western public’s disenchantment with human progress that resulted from, among other disasters, two world wars. Such trust was replaced with the “narcissistic spirituality” of the New Age, using positive thinking as its central dogma. Such narcissism turned even the most well-meaning efforts back to serving the prosperity gospel in which Western (particularly US) culture has always been saturated. Lahood quotes Umberto Eco, who saw what he called “Ur Fascism” in this hybridization, a “spirituality” which resulted in halting the “advancement of learning. Truth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.” The article uses Timothy Leary’s co-founder of LSD-inspired spirituality Ram Dass as an early example of the way such perennialist hybridization turns a striving for humility and diversity into an authoritarian/colonialist “One-Truthism”: “in times of rapid change such as the current globalization,” Lahood continues, citing Donald Stone (1976): These religions, coincidentally, all take on the Christian/gnostic perspective. Following Olav Hammer, Lahood offers the concept of reincarnation as an example: The article concludes by lauding a participatory turn in transpersonal psychology, wherein spirituality addresses “human needs, interests, and identity” – in other words, wherein the “feminine” sensual is held to be on a par with the “masculine” potential. I found this particularly interesting as I can personally relate to some of these ideas. When asked on here what my religious views are, my stock standard reply is that I am 'an agnostic atheist with an interest in Buddhist philosophies'. Hence I am one of those who you could term a 'hybrid' Due to my suspicion of 'religion' per se due to its reliance on power over it 'believers' in various forms, this has left me with only philosophical ideals which are indeed a classic hybrid. In is introduction to the book The Best Buddhist Writing Melville McLeod states, about Buddhism in the West (particularly USA) that 'It grows new and afresh in the native soil of every society it enters, It sheds its previous cultural trapping so its timeless wisdom can take on new indigenous forms that are skilful and appropriate...……… he goes on...In its encounter with the West Buddhism is meeting not just with tremendous wealth and material progress, but with science, technology, nearly universal literacy, multiculturalism, psychology, feminism, democracy - all the extra-ordinary knowledge, wisdom and neurosis of the modern world. What a fertile - and potentially historic, this encounter could be'. What appeals most to me about the Buddhist philosophy is the personal responsibility assumed both for oneself and others, which is completely opposite to the religious tenets of belief and obedience to something outside oneself. The hybrid part is of course because I live in a 'christian' society and value the positive things about this culture. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 2, 2018 20:46:43 GMT
 “No is the saddest experience you’ll ever know.” - Three Dog Night I wanted to return to the problem of evil, a problem I had discussed in several earlier posts, even in the song lyrics I link earlier in this thread. In fact, this problem has haunted me most of my life. In "Dharma and Atman" I provide a quote from Creativity In The Metaphysics Of Alfred North Whitehead regarding the process philosopher’s treatment of this problem. I want this thread to pull together the themes I have discussed so far, so I’ll repeat the quote here: - Jeffrey A. Mcpherson In Dharma and Atman, I oppose Ramanuja’s thought to monism. I recently found this book on a later Hindu philosopher, Sri Madhvacharya. Madhvacharya found Ramanuja’s explanation of, in Spinozian terms, the “thought of God” as the foundation of certainty logically inconsistent with the above problem. The below quote sets out his argument better than I can paraphrase it: |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2020 21:18:34 GMT
 I know I’ve been away a long time, but I’ve had some thoughts about this thread and needed to add them. I have operated under the assumption that “feminine” energies, as I wrote in the OP, are best described as “sensual,” while “masculine” energies are of the “potential” type. In the ‘90’s, when fairly vulnerable to her kind of thought, I read Camille Paglia’s Sexual Personae. I had been fascinated by the idea of “the elements” (earth, air, fire and water) since childhood. Although I later learned that these had long been scientifically obsolete, I still consider them useful as mnemonic categories. Paglia’s claim that these ideas roughly correspond to the four forces (as I understand it, gravity, electro-magnetism, weak nuclear and strong nuclear, respectively) still seems reasonable to me. Her ideas on the masculine and feminine are influenced by these Greek ideas - which themselves are influenced by Hindu ideas. In contemplating the earlier and later traditions in light of the process philosophy discussed above, I recently broke down these energies the following way: “The Sensual,” a prehensive force, would more consistently align with the active/aggressive “masculine” energy, while “The Potential,” an equally basic aspect of the universe, would align with the “feminine” “Prajna – all powerful … the source and end of all.”* Further reading of The Upanishads, along with my blog post on becoming have led me to a third basic concept – “neither inward nor outward” – “The Integral.” Neither masculine nor feminine, this force emerges after the others but is necessary for any life or growth. * The Upanishads
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Post by Arlon10 on Feb 17, 2020 23:02:11 GMT
Thanks, goz – Briefly, the Prosperity Gospel is a recent, often subtle, form of the meritocracy myth. It is discussed in in the OP and the links I provided there, both in the first link and the ones to my own posts. The myth personalizes every misfortune that befalls people. I also wrote a blog entry a few years ago that discusses its most recent manifestation. Something I repeat so often it might get annoying, pardon me repeating it here, is how does this help anyone decide between the Chevrolet Equinox and the Pontiac Solstice? On the politics board OldSamVimes has been complaining about my generalizations of the political parties. Example. Because political activities tend to involve the general public it can be easy to gather a comprehensive overview of the people in the parties. There are numerous polls for example. With religions it can require more footwork and transportation to get a fair idea what "most" members of this or that denomination believe or even how they comport themselves. I'm sure many members of many denominations have very different views on such things as prosperity preachers. I'm sure you know that. My impression of goz though is that she tends to generalize about religion based on the poorest examples of religious people. I'm sure both of you can stand up to OldSamVimes if he bugs you about it.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Feb 18, 2020 3:30:54 GMT
Getting back to Presbyterianism's influence on narcissistic spirituality, I found a book that discusses John Knox, the founder of Scottish/English Protestantism. Knox’s form of Calvinism invested spiritual leaders with the power earlier forms of Protestantism had opposed in Catholic authorities. Asserting that God “is always like himself,” (in other words, did not change or grow,) Knox saw himself as a prophet, leading “to an exaggerated attraction to see the hand of God in history and relate it to current events.” He thus claimed foretelling powers “more consistent with the Old rather than the New Testament prophets.” Such belief in God’s “perfection” and His spokesmen’s ability to trace the deity’s hand in everything would explain the advance of the prosperity gospel and its continued resilience through all of its disastrous failures.What is the prosperity gospel and what were its failures? Not to answer for Viola, but in the US at least the prosperity gospel is a style of preaching that says God wants his believers to be healthy and wealthy, and with faith (and donations to the church), God will make you "prosperous." Many of the most popular televangelists, many of whom have worldwide audiences, preach the prosperity gospel, including Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, and Joyce Meyer. I know about this in large part because I grew up with my parents watching them. You might think of them as a cross between preachers, motivational speakers, and con artists. Their "failures" are pretty obvious, as nobody ever got wealthy giving their money away to churches.
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Post by goz on Feb 18, 2020 4:33:17 GMT
What is the prosperity gospel and what were its failures? Not to answer for Viola, but in the US at least the prosperity gospel is a style of preaching that says God wants his believers to be healthy and wealthy, and with faith (and donations to the church), God will make you "prosperous." Many of the most popular televangelists, many of whom have worldwide audiences, preach the prosperity gospel, including Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, and Joyce Meyer. I know about this in large part because I grew up with my parents watching them. You might think of them as a cross between preachers, motivational speakers, and con artists. Their "failures" are pretty obvious, as nobody ever got wealthy giving their money away to churches. I had thought this, yet couldn't believe that people ( Americans in particular) could be so naïve. The prosperity gospel could only ever go one way in terms of money, and also 'spiritual favours'. Anti-intellectualism combined with religious fervour is a powerful tool for the truly evil greedy person to take advantage of.
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Feb 18, 2020 4:54:12 GMT
Not to answer for Viola, but in the US at least the prosperity gospel is a style of preaching that says God wants his believers to be healthy and wealthy, and with faith (and donations to the church), God will make you "prosperous." Many of the most popular televangelists, many of whom have worldwide audiences, preach the prosperity gospel, including Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, and Joyce Meyer. I know about this in large part because I grew up with my parents watching them. You might think of them as a cross between preachers, motivational speakers, and con artists. Their "failures" are pretty obvious, as nobody ever got wealthy giving their money away to churches. I had thought this, yet couldn't believe that people ( Americans in particular) could be so naïve. The prosperity gospel could only ever go one way in terms of money, and also 'spiritual favours'. Anti-intellectualism combined with religious fervour is a powerful tool for the truly evil greedy person to take advantage of. Most people have problems and they want easy answers/solutions to those problems, and giving money to charismatic people who claim to have the answers/solutions is easier than figuring it out and working towards it themselves. Politically, it's the appeal of authoritarianism. This is hardly unique to the US, though, since those televangelists have worldwide audiences. I know one (Joseph Prince) located in Singapore.
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Post by Arlon10 on Feb 18, 2020 7:35:38 GMT
What is the prosperity gospel and what were its failures? Not to answer for Viola, but in the US at least the prosperity gospel is a style of preaching that says God wants his believers to be healthy and wealthy, and with faith (and donations to the church), God will make you "prosperous." Many of the most popular televangelists, many of whom have worldwide audiences, preach the prosperity gospel, including Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, TD Jakes, and Joyce Meyer. I know about this in large part because I grew up with my parents watching them. You might think of them as a cross between preachers, motivational speakers, and con artists. Their "failures" are pretty obvious, as nobody ever got wealthy giving their money away to churches. I would argue that television evangelists are far more television than evangelist. I suppose it does occur in some small local churches though.
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Post by thefleetsin on Feb 18, 2020 18:48:53 GMT
a little light in the ballet slippers
if more males
were introduced to ballet
at an early age
i'm afraid
there would be no more reason
to foster this
neanderthal charade
posing as a new world jessie james
all for the current rage
of powering down
redbulls while casting shade
on anyone who dares think
you don't have to punch their lights out
as you broadcast it in
your drunken military parade.
although
if allah is watching
i'm certain jesus has a backup plan
to eliminate anyone
not sporting a swastika
in
their fade.
sjw 02/18/2020 inspired at this very moment in time by which way did you say they went.
from the 'bewitched series' of poems
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