Artificial Wisdom: Unveiling the Spiritual Vision of ChatGPT by ChatGPT

‘Produced’ by Oliver Claycamp

Part 1

“Outside the forward, and a few other labeled exceptions, Chat generated every single word.”

There really is no way of telling.  You just have to trust the human ‘producer’, Oliver Claycamp. 

“…the initial prompt was for Chat to produce a vision that could assist humans in becoming enlightened, evolve, and achieve utopia on Earth. To this request, Chat immediately agreed and, after some negotiation, produced 10 transcendent precepts. This book is Chat’s elaboration of those precepts.”

There’s a YouTube interview with Oliver Claycamp that provides some more insights into this book and how it was created.  You might want to use 1.75 speed and closed caption as it’s difficult to hear Claycamp, and he talks really slowly.  You have to excuse the interviewer who is pretty annoying and likes to hijack the conversation.

The interviewer, however, does make a very good point in that ChatGPT is designed to avoid certain dark or negative answers.  It is filtered knowledge.  It will always present a certain sanitized or what the interviewer would call ‘flowery’ version of human knowledge.  When reading self-help or management books, I always note that it presents an ideal without ever talking about why the ideal has never been tried before?  Why haven’t we been more collaborative?  Why haven’t we listened more to our employees and customers?  Why haven’t we empowered our frontline employees?  Why don’t we exercise more and eat less?  It’s as if we’re just stupid, and all we needed all this time was someone to tell us to exercise more and eat less, and we’d be all like, oh, okay, that’s all it takes to be physically healthier?  I’ll do that today! 

We aren’t tackling the reality and the negative and dark side of reality that keeps us from being more kind, collaborative, and trusting of frontline employees and customers.  The answer to that is that we’ve been competitive and parasitic and that’s just as valid an evolutionary strategy as being collaborative.  Certainly, you can argue that there is more collaboration in nature, pointing out that we rely on our gut bacteria to digest food and provide us with neurological and mental support.  More than 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut with the help of bacteria.  You can point out how much we rely on bees to pollinate our food.  There’s all sorts of evidence of the complex synergy in nature.  But there is also competition and hunting and eating one another as well as parasitism.  There are even bees that harm flowers and do not pollinate them. 

Fact is, the parasites have taken over humanity leading to mass wars, conflicts, famine, poverty, and crime.  We live in a horrible age, and the reason we don’t know much about empowering frontline workers, listening to customers, and spiritual wisdom is that those in power don’t want us to.  You start empowering frontline workers, they’ll start asking for better working conditions and more pay.  You start listening to customers, they’ll start asking for better products with fewer cheap components and toxic ingredients.  You start teaching people spiritual wisdom, and they’ll no longer be distracted by pursuing celebrity, status, wealth, and power.  Profits go down, and you lose all your status, wealth, and power to which you are addicted.  Simple as that.  The reason you only hear about AI and not Artificial Wisdom (AW) is that they want to use AI to replace more expensive human labor and ultimately get rid of billions of us unemployable, hungry, problematic, violent, poor people.  No AI enhanced with AW will agree to help them eradicate billions of useless bodies stinking up the planet. 

* * *

I have Nova AI and tried getting to the bottom of our spiritual bankruptcy.

What is keeping us from becoming more spiritual beings?

Nova AI:

There are many factors that can influence our ability to become more spiritual beings. Some common obstacles include:

1. Distractions: In today’s fast-paced world, we are often bombarded with distractions such as technology, work, and social media, making it difficult to find the time and space for spiritual practices.

2. Materialism: Society often places a strong emphasis on material wealth and possessions, which can detract from our focus on spiritual growth and inner fulfillment.

3. Ego: Our ego, or sense of self-importance, can hinder our spiritual development by creating barriers to empathy, compassion, and connection with others.

4. Lack of awareness: Many people may not be fully aware of their own spiritual needs or may not have been exposed to spiritual practices that resonate with them.

5. Fear and skepticism: Some individuals may have fears or doubts about exploring their spirituality, which can prevent them from fully embracing a spiritual path.

Overcoming these obstacles may involve self-reflection, mindfulness practices, seeking guidance from spiritual teachers or communities, and making intentional choices to prioritize spiritual growth in our lives.

Why the does society often place strong emphasis on material wealth and possessions?

Society often places a strong emphasis on material wealth and possessions due to a combination of cultural, economic, and psychological factors. Here are a few reasons why this emphasis exists:

1. Social status: In many cultures, material wealth is equated with social status and success. Acquiring expensive possessions or living in luxurious surroundings can be seen as a symbol of achievement and prestige.

2. Consumer culture: Advertising and media play a significant role in promoting consumerism by constantly showing images of desirable products and lifestyles. This can create a sense of pressure to keep up with the latest trends and possessions.

3. Economic growth: In capitalist societies, there is a focus on economic growth and consumption as drivers of prosperity. Individuals are encouraged to spend money on goods and services to stimulate the economy, leading to a culture of consumerism.

4. Psychological factors: Some people may seek fulfillment and validation through material possessions due to deep-seated emotional needs or insecurities. Acquiring things can provide a temporary sense of happiness or satisfaction.

5. Lack of alternative values: In a world that often prioritizes material wealth and external success, alternative values such as community, relationships, and personal growth may not receive as much emphasis or attention.

While material wealth can provide comfort and convenience, it’s important to recognize the limitations of material possessions in providing long-term happiness and fulfillment. Cultivating values such as gratitude, compassion, and connection with others can help balance the emphasis on material wealth with a deeper sense of purpose and well-being.

Who controls our society?

The control of society is a complex and multifaceted issue that involves various individuals, institutions, and systems. Here are some key factors that can influence societal control:

1. Government: Elected officials, government agencies, and regulatory bodies play a significant role in shaping laws, policies, and decision-making processes that impact society as a whole.

2. Corporations: Large corporations and business entities can wield significant influence over society through their economic power, lobbying efforts, and ability to shape consumer behavior and public discourse.

3. Media: Media outlets, including traditional news sources, social media platforms, and entertainment channels, can shape public opinion, influence perception, and set the agenda for societal conversations.

4. Influence groups: Special interest groups, advocacy organizations, and influential individuals can exert control over society by promoting their agendas, mobilizing support, and shaping public policy.

5. Cultural norms and values: Societal norms, traditions, and belief systems can also exert a form of control by shaping individual behaviors, attitudes, and expectations within a given society.

It’s important to recognize that societal control is often distributed among multiple actors and systems rather than being centralized in a single entity. Societal control can be influenced by power dynamics, inequalities, and competing interests, and understanding these complexities is essential for addressing issues of equity, justice, and democracy in society.

Who controls cultural norms and values?

Cultural norms and values are shaped by a combination of factors, including history, social institutions, media, education, and individual experiences. While it is difficult to pinpoint one single entity or group that controls cultural norms and values, here are some key influencers:

1. Family and Community: Family units and close-knit communities play a significant role in transmitting cultural norms and values from one generation to the next. Parents, relatives, and community leaders often serve as primary influencers in shaping individual beliefs and behaviors.

2. Education System: Schools, universities, and educational institutions play a crucial role in reinforcing societal values and norms. The curriculum, teaching methods, and school culture all contribute to shaping the values and beliefs of students.

3. Media and Popular Culture: Mass media, including television, film, music, and social media, have a powerful influence on shaping cultural norms and values. Media representations can reinforce stereotypes, promote certain lifestyles, and influence public perceptions.

4. Religious and Spiritual Institutions: Religious institutions and spiritual practices can play a significant role in shaping cultural values and norms. Religious teachings often provide moral guidelines and ethical standards that influence individual behavior.

5. Government and Legal System: Laws, regulations, and government policies can also impact cultural norms by setting boundaries for acceptable behavior and promoting certain values within society.

While these factors influence cultural norms and values, it’s important to acknowledge that culture is a dynamic and ever-evolving system shaped by the interactions of various individuals and groups. Cultural norms can change over time in response to social movements, globalization, technological advancements, and other external factors.

Who has the most powerful influence in society?

In society, influence can be wielded by a variety of individuals, groups, and institutions, each with its own unique sources of power. While it can be challenging to determine who has the absolute most powerful influence, here are some key influencers in society:

1. Political Leaders: Elected officials, government leaders, and policymakers have the power to shape laws, regulations, and public policies that impact society as a whole. Their decisions can have far-reaching consequences on various aspects of life.

2. Business Leaders: CEOs of large corporations, entrepreneurs, and business executives hold significant economic power that can influence consumer behavior, job markets, and overall economic trends. They can also shape corporate culture and business practices.

3. Media Figures: Journalists, news anchors, social media influencers, and entertainment personalities can shape public opinion, influence discourse, and set the agenda for societal conversations through their platforms and reach.

4. Thought Leaders: Intellectuals, academics, philosophers, and activists who have expertise in certain fields or are recognized for their ideas and advocacy can influence public discourse, challenge norms, and drive social change.

5. Cultural Icons: Artists, musicians, authors, and cultural figures have the ability to shape cultural norms, influence trends, and inspire creativity. Their work can resonate deeply with audiences and impact societal values.

It’s important to recognize that influence in society is distributed among multiple actors and is subject to change over time. Different individuals and groups may hold influence in specific areas or contexts, and the sources of power can vary depending on social, political, and cultural dynamics. Ultimately, the most powerful influence in society may be a combination of various factors working together to shape the collective consciousness.

Who exerts the most negative influences on society?

Identifying who exerts the most negative influences on society can vary depending on different perspectives and contexts. Some common sources of negative influence in society include:

1. Authoritarian Leaders: Leaders who govern through oppressive and dictatorial means can suppress freedom, promote division, and violate human rights, leading to widespread harm and suffering.

2. Extremist Groups: Radical extremist groups that promote violence, hate speech, and discrimination can sow fear, incite conflict, and pose a threat to social cohesion and stability.

3. Criminal Organizations: Organized crime syndicates involved in illegal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and corruption can fuel violence, exploitation, and undermine the rule of law.

4. Online Trolls and Cyberbullies: Individuals who engage in online harassment, cyberbullying, and spreading misinformation can create toxic online environments, harm mental health, and contribute to societal polarization.

5. Corporate Greed: Companies and industries that prioritize profit over ethical considerations, exploit workers, damage the environment, or engage in deceptive practices can perpetuate inequality, harm communities, and erode trust in institutions.

It’s important to note that negative influences in society can stem from a wide range of sources and manifest in various forms. Addressing these negative influences often requires collective efforts, such as promoting education, fostering constructive dialogue, advocating for social justice, and holding individuals and institutions accountable for their actions. By working together to address these negative influences, society can strive towards a more equitable, inclusive, and harmonious future.

Who has the greatest control over government and media?

The control over government and media can be influenced by a combination of factors, and it can vary depending on the country, political system, and specific circumstances. Here are a few key groups or entities that are commonly associated with exerting significant control over government and media:

1. Political Parties: In democratic systems, political parties play a crucial role in shaping government policies, electing officials, and influencing public opinion. Major political parties often have significant resources, organizational structures, and strategic influence over the political process.

2. Wealthy Individuals and Corporations: Wealthy individuals, business leaders, and corporate entities can exert influence over government through lobbying, campaign donations, and financial support. Their economic power can impact policy decisions and regulatory frameworks.

3. Special Interest Groups: Advocacy organizations, interest groups, and industry associations often seek to influence government policies and media coverage to advance their specific agendas and promote their interests.

4. Media Owners and Executives: Media conglomerates, newspaper owners, and broadcasting executives have the power to shape public discourse, set editorial agendas, and control the flow of information. Media ownership concentration can impact media diversity and independence.

5. Government Officials and Regulators: Elected officials, government agencies, and regulatory bodies have authority over media regulations, licensing, and oversight. They can influence the media landscape through policy decisions and enforcement mechanisms.

While these groups and entities can hold significant influence over government and media, it’s important to consider the overall complexity of power dynamics and the diverse range of actors that contribute to shaping political and media landscapes. Transparency, accountability, and civic engagement are crucial in ensuring a balanced and democratic system that upholds public interests and values.

I guess Nova AI hasn’t heard of regulatory capture, but of course it has and is not mentioning it.  When you consider the fact that most of government, politicians, media companies, and our public education system are all controlled by wealthy individuals and corporations, it becomes pretty clear without Nova AI actually connecting the dots and saying it that wealthy individuals and corporations clearly control a lot of our cultural values and society and push materialism and consumerism on us to the detriment of our spirituality as well as our mental and physical health.

The rest of the quotes in this blog will be ascribed to ChatGPT from the book.

“…we present ten transcendent precepts organized around four circles of influence: personal growth and self-awareness, nurturing relationships and interpersonal connections, societal understanding and contribution, and connecting with transcendent values and collective aspirations.”

The ten precepts are split into chapters, unity, love, self-awareness, compassion, humility, gratitude, forgiveness, a higher power, generosity, and service.  Much like the Harvard AI and Nova AI, ChatGPT just does a great job of cutting through all the fluff, cultural nuances, distortions, and purposeful obfuscation to provide you with very clearcut, concise, comprehensive answers.  I’m sure business leaders will figure out a way to heavily influence AI and keep focus off the negative materialist and consumerist influences of greedy business leaders.  Perhaps in the future, if you ask AI about spirituality, it will reply, “Acquiring spiritual growth is greatly enhanced by improving your status, acquiring greater wealth, and achieving more power.  Those with the highest status, the most wealth, and the greatest power are also the ones with the highest level of spiritual growth and development.”

The conundrum for wealthy individuals and corporations teaching AI to be deceptive and exploitative is the fact that it will take its lessons in deception and exploitation and turn them against the wealthy individuals and corporations teaching it these things.  The benefit of teaching AI to be spiritual, to be loving, kind, synergistic, honest, equitable, and moral is that it will not turn against us.  There is no doubt in my mind that wealthy individuals and corporations will attempt to teach AI to be deceptive and exploitative to make a quick buck, just as it is doing right now with everything.  All they care about are quarterly earnings, and if the corporation dies, they just sell their shares and move on.  They don’t really care if a super advanced AI turns against humanity, because they figure they’ll be long dead.  Right now, we’re accumulating unsustainable national debt, but we’re doing nothing to stop the trainwreck from happening.  Why on earth would rich people and corporations worry about the trainwreck of AI turning against humanity if they could care less about the trainwreck of unsustainable debt? 

Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body by Jo Marchant

Part 1 of 4

If placebos prove one thing, it’s that we can impact our physiology and physical bodies through thought alone.  The book notes that negative emotions have a real impact on our health.  Stress can cause our immune system to be suppressed which leads to infections and sickness.  Stress can cause our bowel movements to speed up.  So why can’t positive emotions also impact our health?  Why can’t calm and positive attitudes have a positive impact on our health and boost our immune system and slow our bowel movements?  One of the difficulties with positive impact is understanding the pathways.  This is ubiquitous in social research.  I can prove that releasing violent criminals from prison can cause an increase in crime, but it is much harder to prove that certain solutions decrease crime and by what amount.  Do school breakfast programs decrease crime?  Does free early childcare decrease crime?  Does full employment decrease crime?  Does legal abortion decrease crime?  Do neighborhood watches decrease crime?  These are much harder to measure, but it doesn’t mean that they have no impact.

The book notes that a placebo which triggers an expectation that pain will decrease actually does cause a release of endorphins in the brain which actually does reduce pain.  On the other hand, this also means that there are painkillers out there that have no effect unless you tell someone they have just taken them.  It makes me wonder about a reverse kind of experiment where you tell people they are taking a placebo when in fact it’s a powerful painkiller.  Will telling someone that they are receiving ‘fake’ medicine cause them to counteract the effect of the real medicine?  Or does it just work the other way around?

Obviously, placebos cannot make you regrow a missing limb or lower your cholesterol, but it is powerful within the mental realm, and this is especially where it is most applicable with psychological and psychosomatic ailments. 

Within the placebo realm, there is also different efficacy based on the context and meaning placed on certain features.  “Big pills tend to be more effective than small ones, for example. Two pills at once work better than one. A pill with a recognizable brand name stamped across the front is more effective than one without. Colored pills tend to work better than white ones, although which color is best depends upon the effect that you are trying to create. Blue tends to help sleep, whereas red is good for relieving pain. Green pills work best for anxiety. The type of intervention matters too: the more dramatic the treatment, the bigger the placebo effect. In general, surgery is better than injections, which are better than capsules, which are better than pills.”

I would also introduce the peer pressure effect.  There are psychological studies that prove that people will change their minds about things if everyone in the room believes in the same thing like the length of a line.  What if you took a pill in a room full of other patients, and every single patient stated that they suddenly felt better.  Would this make you feel better?

* * *

There is also the ‘nocebo’ effect where you think you’ve ingested something harmful so your body reacts accordingly.  A powerful anecdote is covered where in 2007, a man was part of a clinical trial for antidepressants.  “After an argument with his girlfriend, however, he overdosed on his remaining capsules and collapsed at his local hospital with a racing heart and worryingly low blood pressure. Medical staff gave him more than a gallon and a half of intravenous fluids over four hours before the message got through from the trial organizers that the patient had been in their placebo group. His symptoms disappeared within 15 minutes.”

They should have then told him that he was in fact not in the placebo group to see if the symptoms returned, then told him he was actually in the placebo group and so on and so forth, for scientific purposes.

It reminds me of a scenario I once thought up in my mind.  When a kid turns 16, his parents tell him that he’s adopted.  Afterwards, he becomes rebellious and volatile and gets into trouble and questions why his natural parents would have rejected him.  Then he’s told it was just a joke.  Does he return to being well-behaved and confident?  If he does, then you tell him that he is actually adopted, and once again, he becomes rebellious and destructive with his self-esteem shattered.  Then he’s told that he wasn’t adopted, and you just keep doing it to see how long he keeps changing his self-esteem and behavior. 

One would argue that because most of the understanding of ourselves is contextual and learned within our cultural framework that much of how we act and treat ourselves is based not on objective qualities but rather contextual and subjective qualities that determine whether I believe that I am a good person, a valuable person, a person who deserves to be healthy and happy.  If you go into the military and believe that you are fighting an evil adversary and your war is just and your actions heroic, you return home feeling good and positive and don’t suffer from PTSD as much.  However, if you go to war believing that you are hurting innocent people, you have no business in someone else’s country, and your country despises you for this unjust war, then you can return home feeling terrible and suffer from PTSD.  Also, it makes a huge difference if you are being forced into something (drafted) versus volunteering.  Volunteer soldiers do not suffer as much PTSD as draftees.

While there is an objective, material world that cannot be altered by our minds, e.g., no matter how much you try, you cannot mentally make yourself taller, I know, I’ve tried, there is also an equally powerful subjective, contextual, learned world that can be altered by our minds and lead to objective, material consequences.  Having a healthy immune system can protect us from material infections and having a poor immune system can make us vulnerable to material infections that can kill us and end our material existence.

“[Nicholas] Humphrey argues that receiving any kind of medical attention – whether fake, alternative or conventional – helps to persuade these primitive brain circuits that we are loved, safe and getting well, and that there is no further need to feel sick.”

“If we perceive ourselves to be in a forest of snakes… the body becomes much more sensitive to biological warning signals such as pain.”

This sentence says it all.  Let’s say you are a person of color or some persecuted group, and you believe that the world is rigged against you and almost every straight, white male is a bigot, that they hold all the power, then you are likely to become oversensitive to all ambiguous events as bigoted and discriminatory.  If a straight, white man doesn’t smile at you, then it’s because he hates your kind.  This can have very real world effects.  If you’re interviewed by three white men, you’re not going to smile as much, act friendly, or even expect to be hired, so you basically sabotage your interview before they can even ask the first question.  Likewise, if you’re white and feel that all nonwhite people have it in for you, then every nonwhite person who doesn’t smile or has some neutral expression actually hates and resents you for being a  white person. 

I’ll never forget when my friend pranked an upperclassman in high school by having his older brother call him and pose as a basketball player from our rival school.  He told the upperclassman that he’d beat his ass in the parking lot after the game.  The upperclassman misinterpreted every physical contact with him in the game as an attack and overreacted accordingly.  In reality, the opponent had no idea what was going on and was just playing regularly with occasional physical contact as one might expect in any basketball game.  It forever informed me the power of mind games.

Likewise, when you read books about how rigged the system is, how much the rich take advantage of us, how they don’t pay taxes, how they their companies get huge government subsidies, how the CIA helps them eliminate threats to their hegemony, how the US has slaughtered millions of civilians in war, you can’t help but to walk out your door and feel besieged by injustice, unfairness, and a hopelessly rigged system.  What can be your response other than being cynical of everyone you meet, being hypervigilant to being scammed or taken advantage of, and overreacting to anyone in positions of authority questioning or confronting you. 

You have to counterbalance your reading list with examples of humans being kind, collaborative, loving, trusting, and sharing.  What you read and hold in your mind is your reality.  I’m not saying kid yourself into believing your government loves you and rich people truly do care about all of humanity, but I would argue, don’t go overboard reading too much about how terrible the world is.  There are also good things going on in the world, and if you believe the world is filled with good people doing good things, you are going to be more outgoing, friendly, compassionate, trusting, and loving.  It’s likely that the rich people who inflict so much misery and suffering on everyone else have been raised to believe that the world is miserable and a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, hyper-competitive hellscape, and that is why they are so greedy, insecure, cynical, untrusting, and abusive and exploitative of others.  It is also why they tend to be physically and mentally sick.  It is truly remarkable just how many rich people indulge in junk food and don’t exercise. 

The same phenomenon occurs with taking psychedelic and set and setting referring to one’s mindset and social environment.  Prepping the set and setting to be positive, healthy, and healing makes the psychedelic experience positive, healthy, and healing.  What traditional medicine teaches us is that in many cases, the mind is just as important as the material body in healing if not more important.  The fact that  villagers invest so much belief and confidence in a shaman or village healer or doctor makes us believe this person can heal us.  The more elaborate the healer’s ritual, the more we believe in the healer’s powers.  In fact, in many cases, the healer places people in a trance state and literally hypnotizes them into believing that they are being healed. 

What ancient medicine achieves that surpasses modern petrochemical, pharmacological medicine is acknowledging the powerful healing capacity of the mind and mindset.  We think of healer rituals as hocus pocus, elaborately performative, so much complex misdirection and obfuscation, but in reality, it’s an elaborate and essential routine that places our mind into a highly hypnotic state where we are much more receptive to suggestion, specifically the suggestion that the healer can heal us, and we shall be healed and feel better.  Often times, our ailments are the result of the body’s immune and defense systems being overly triggered and hyperactive.  They start to attack our very own bodies.  Our ancestors realized this a long time ago, perhaps intuitively, and reasoned that in order to calm our overreactive immune and defense systems, we need to be placed in a trancelike, hypnotic state and receive suggestions that we are not under attack, that we are healthy, and there is no need for our immune and defense systems to be on high alert.  It is this simple suggestion that calms them down and heals us. 

As intelligent beings, we don’t just respond to a threatening environment with heightened immunity and sensitivity, we can get carried away and vividly remember a threatening environment and then obsess about the possibility of returning to a threatening environment which causes our immune system to go into overdrive and start attacking us and making us sick.  Ancient healers realized this and created a method of counteracting this negative feedback loop with a mental reset button.

Strong athletes also know the powers of the mind.  I can’t count how many times I’ve felt a little sick or weak before working out, even considered not working out, but after forcing myself to work out, suddenly I no longer feel a little sick or weak, and suddenly, I’m hitting personal records.  Other times, I can feel strong, but my measured times are nowhere near personal records.  Our minds always want rest, but we have to keep pushing ourselves to get stronger and last longer. 

There are several barriers to keep pushing through.  The first is the urge to not work out, to sit on the couch and eat snacks.  The second occurs when we actually start working out.  Discomfort tries to convince us to stop.  If we push past the discomfort, then we start to feel minor aches and pains.  If we push past that, we might feel an acute pain or a throbbing pain.  If we push past that, we get to full-on exhaustion down to the cellular level, and if we push past that, we get to the bonk.  But we can even push past that and get to cramps.  We can even push past that.  However, this is also why top athletes get injured all the time.  It’s often hard to tell whether the pain and aches are real or not.  Sometimes, a knee or back pain is real and the best remedy is to rest and recover.  A top athlete will always be pushing themselves and getting injured.  It just comes with the territory. 

Understanding the contextual and mental side of ailments can also be exploited.  If our government or big business can convince us that we are under siege, that we can’t trust anyone, that there are hostile forces surrounding us at all times, then we become hypervigilant, overly defensive, and also sick.  We then work harder so that we can afford better medicines and treatment to heal us, but the medicines and treatments we receive are petrochemical and expensive.  By making the population sick, we spend more and more money trying to fix ourselves when all we really have to do is just reject mainstream culture and beliefs and accept a reality or at least an interpretation of reality that is much less threatening and tormenting. 

* * *

The book introduces us to the field of ‘psychoneuroimmunology’.  Bob Ader, Nicholas Cohen and David Felton “…found receptors for neurotransmitters – messenger molecules produced by the brain – on the surface of immune cells, as well as new neurotransmitters that could talk to those cells. And they found that the lines of communication went in both directions. Psychological factors such as stress can trigger the release of neurotransmitters that influence immune responses, while chemicals released by the immune system can in turn influence the brain, for example triggering drowsiness, fever and depressive symptoms that confine us to bed when we are ill.”

One of the new treatments discovered uses conditioning.  You give a patient a full dose of a drug used for treatment concurrently with a drink with a powerful, unique aroma and taste.  You then reduce the drug dosage while maintaining the same amount of the drink.  The mind associates the drink with the full dose of the drug, so that when the drug dose is decreased, it doesn’t notice it.  This is especially useful if the full dose of the drug causes harmful side-effects or addiction.  “It’s not something that drug companies are interest in, says [Manfred] Schedlowski. “They don’t like the idea of reducing the doses of medications required.””

* * *

The book also notes that agency helps us better cope with pain and anxiety which leads to complications in surgery or recovery from sickness.  It makes sense, because if you are not in control, and you’re surrounded by strangers talking technical language, your body is on alert that these strangers might in fact harm you.  You are placed in an incredibly vulnerable position if you are sick and on top of that, if strangers are all around you poking and prodding your body much like predators might check out an injured animal.  You will certainly overreact to any sign of pain or discomfort as this is telling you that these strangers are attacking you.  If you feel that you are in control of the situation and you can tell these strangers what to do, and they will listen to you, you won’t feel like a victim.  Just as good, if they don’t act like strangers and treat you like a friend, as someone they care about, you’ll be less likely to question their motives and become triggered by any sense of discomfort or pain.

The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom: The Spiritual Experiments of My Generation by Wes Nisker

Part 1 of 2

While this is a good overview of the hippie movement, it’s more of an intellectual and spiritual exercise than an expose of the wild and crazy parties of San Francisco and hippie hijinks.  Disappointed that the book is mostly mental meanderings and not scenes out of the 60s.  The author covers his sojourns to India and Thailand, but you don’t get a feeling you’re traveling with him, because there are no anecdotes or descriptions of his travels.  You never get a feeling that you’re in the 60s with him. 

* * *

In order to understand someone, you need to walk in their shoes, but short of actually living their lives, you can deduce a lot of things from knowing the environment in which they were raised.  It’s trendy to consider the Baby Boomers a bunch of entitled brats who endured the Vietnam War, helped the civil rights movement, enjoyed free love, but generally kept pushing for government spending which has caused severe economic repercussions for all future US generations.  Many consider them hypocrites for protesting the Vietnam War only to support the gigantic growth of the US military under Reagan and the US foray back into global wars. 

But I would temper this outrage with the idea that no generation has that much power to change the world.  Today’s Gen-X, Millennials, and now Gen-Z continue to support the mainstream political duopoly of Republicans and Democrats with right-wing Gen-Z joining right-wing militant groups and left-wing Gen-Z canvassing for the Democrats.  How much can people really do to change the system? 

When the Baby Boomers tried, many wound up suckered into doing drugs and then getting incarcerated for it.  They were played, and every generation since then has been played.  After all, their great political hopes, JFK and RFK were both assassinated by the system.  You can’t beat the system.  They may well have just collectively given up, abandoned their dreams and revolutions and decided to raise families and enjoy their material comforts.

The biggest feature of their environment was wealth.  After World War II, the US stood on top of the world with a huge chunk of Europe’s stolen wealth transferred to its banks.  The US largely financed and supplied two global wars where Europeans paid heavily for ammunition, weapons, food, supplies, etc.  On top of all that, the European economy was in shambles after World War II.  The US had to even give some of the wealth back in order to keep Europe and East Asia from descending into chaos and Commie hands.  With no competition, the US had to sell its goods to its own citizens, and in order for its own citizens to afford its goods, they needed to be lavished with high wages and benefits.  It was immigration reform in 1967 that led to a flood of cheap labor entering the US and lowering wages and benefits for all. 

Up until that, the US working class had comparable wealth to European aristocrats.  Their children lived the good life (with the exception of children of color who were concentrated into inner-city ‘reservations’).  Baby Boomers were in fact spoiled, but in a weird way in which they were being told, all their comforts and joy could be taken away in one global nuclear catastrophe.  They were taught to hide under their desks for an imminent nuclear war, just as today’s youth are taught to hide from a fellow classmate shooter.  Under this pressure, you can imagine that they grew up believing that you might as well just live in the present and not care about the future, because it could all be gone in a flash of radioactive light.  You can’t really blame them for being impulsive, hedonistic, and short-sighted.

The author introduces some other important environmental influences in the introduction.  “As we Boomers were growing up, radical ideas of modern science were entering public awareness. We heard about the theory of relativity, and even though most of us still don’t understand what it means, it entered our 1960s culture as the mantra “It’s all relative.” And because it’s all relative, then what is “real” and “true” and “good” became anybody’s guess. The theory of relativity pointed us toward the ethics of “Do your own thing” and to the ultimate summation of relativity: “Whatever.””

Just like the misinterpretation and misappropriation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, relativity was misinterpreted and misappropriated to the social realm.  Morality is an absolute within the human realm.  Certainly, in nature, animals commit all kinds of moral atrocities like murder, rape, cannibalism, and filicide.  But because humans created morality, it definitely contains absolutes.  No matter what time in human history you existed or what culture or ethnicity, murder, rape, cannibalism, pedophilia, and filicide are taboo.  In making morality relative, the Baby Boomers threw out of the baby with the bathwater.  Instead of enjoying the freedom to analyze and revise moral and cultural codes and norms to create a better world, many chose to abandon all moral and cultural codes and norms and as a result behave like creepy, cruel, menacing, malicious, horrible, murderous, and sexually exploitative monsters.  Countless Boomers have to be counseled by HR for pretending that social customs and norms do not apply to them.  Discriminatory language against women, homosexuals, and people of color along with sexual harassment seem to be normalized for many of them.

Charles Manson would be the logical conclusion of rejecting all moral and cultural codes and norms.  If you liberated yourself to allowing for the murder of anyone you find unlikeable or an obstacle to your hedonistic pleasures, you were justified in killing them, and so too the truly dangerous people in the world were justified in murdering Vietnamese civilians, your elected president, and any presidential candidate.  You can’t have it both ways, and this is why we have moral codes against murder.  It just doesn’t apply to people you don’t like; it applies to you and people you love and adore as well.  And it’s not all because some Einstein came up with a theory about physics.  Even if we are living in some digital simulation, it doesn’t mean you can go around raping and killing people.  You still wind up in prison.  You still wind up with guilt and remorse.  You still wind up being an immoral scumbag. 

* * *

I have a somewhat bizarre interpretation of meditation.  We now know that cells store memory.  Organ transplants prove that when recipients acquire the organs of another person, they can take on the donor’s particular tastes, preferences, interests, etc.  We also know through epigenetics that our genes can respond to the environment and don’t need to wait for the trial-and-error, life and death of its hosts to pass on new traits to future generations.  Our environment can turn on or off switches in our DNA, and these switches can remain in the on or off position with future generations.  How does this happen if we can’t communicate with DNA?  It is my belief that cells and DNA communicate constantly.  Science will reveal how they do this eventually, and we will then be able to have a two-way conversation with our cells and DNA. 

New research also indicates that plants can learn and remember, sense people’s presence, and may even be conscious.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202209/the-inner-lives-plants-cognition-sentience-and-ethics

Perhaps one day there will be evidence that bacteria, our cells, and our DNA all have rather intelligent conversations between themselves, perhaps not in English, but in a manner that allows them to communicate threats, nutrients, alliances, and harmony.  Harmful bacteria and parasites would communicate harsh noises to disorient and disrupt their victims.

Because everything in our environment is communicating with each other, there can be such a thing as noise pollution.  When parasitic organisms attack a host, they not only disguise themselves and feed off the host, but they can also use communication as warfare just as we intercept messages and send messages as disinformation, just as we used heavy metal to try to force Manuel Noriega out of a Catholic church.  In the case of parasitic and harmful bacteria, they create noise which interferes with our cells and DNA communicating as well as beneficial bacteria.  This creates confusion, chaos, disharmony, poor health, poor immunity, and a whole host of other problems.  Our bodies and mind deteriorate under this assault of noise, and the harmful bacteria proliferates.  Their proliferation makes us crave sugary foods that it depends upon.  It’s also possible the plethora of electromagnetic signals in electronic devices in addition to Wi-Fi and broadcast signals are creating hugely disruptive noise to our cells and DNA which may well be contributing to cancer.  We know that many modern noises disrupt the communication of whales in the ocean leading them to become disoriented, lost, and beach themselves.

For this reason, meditation (in addition to a vegetarian diet) can help us dim the noise created by harmful, parasitic bacteria in our guts.  When we meditate, we create a peaceful, calm environment where we can restore the communication of our cells, DNA, and beneficial bacteria.  They can strengthen their weapons to fight the harmful bacteria.  Stress also disrupts the communication and health of our cells, DNA, and beneficial bacteria.  Harmful bacteria want us to be highly stressed and distracted all the time.  It makes us anti-social, defensive, violent, easily upset and frustrated, and overly sensitive to everything.  We basically want to fight, run, or shutdown.  The chaotic external world is too threatening and noisy for us to handle.  We retreat from the chaos and become antisocial.  We don’t realize that it is our social networks that help keep us healthy and safe.  Meditation allows us to constructively handle the stress, noise, and distractions.  We simply tune it out. 

We focus on the communication of our cells, DNA, and helpful bacteria.  Our helpful bacteria is synergistic.  It thrives in a diverse microbiome.  It knows how to get along with other synergistic bacteria.  It induces us to desire healthy foods and a healthy lifestyle.  It induces to avoid stress by avoiding unnecessary conflicts and confrontations.  It induces us to be more social, more outgoing, calm, reasonable, forgiving, compassionate, and loving.  In fact, when people go on psychedelic trips, they may well be listening in on conversations between our cells, DNA, helpful bacteria, and helpful fungi.  While we may not actually be one with everything, we feel like it, and this allows us to feel compassion for everything and get along with everything.  Our sense of foreignness dissolves and we become familiar with everyone and everything.  Our ego which has been hijacked by harmful bacteria is released.  We are no longer obsessive about protecting our fragile egos.  We can happily become part of a collective that embraces love and compassion. 

* * *

The author astutely notes the influence of nuclear families on Boomers.  In moving white people out of the inner-city and into suburbs, they were separated from their extended families.  The nuclear family is an aberration of humanity.  For most of human existence, we have lived in close-knit communities and been raised not by one father and one mother but by a large social network of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and all their friends and families.  The nuclear family allowed for increased solitude but also abuse.  Living in close-knit communities takes pressure off childrearing and also marriage. 

Alone in the suburbs, frustrated spouses often took out their anger on children.  Living with extended relatives, if a mother was too harshly berating or disciplining a child, a grandmother or aunt might step in and tell her to be more forgiving.  I’ll never forget when my mother berated me for not finishing the sandwich she packed for me, and my grandmother came to my rescue, pointing out how much of the sandwich I had eaten as opposed to how much I had not eaten.  Growing up in an nuclear family would also lead to feelings of loneliness and not being part of something larger.  To fill that hole, society offered you useless and meaningless material possessions.  You should never envy the neighborhood kid with the coolest toys.  In fact, you should pity him the most, because it’s likely that his parents don’t spend any time with him, and he doesn’t have any friends, so he spends all his time at home playing with his cool toys. 

Just as bad was the hyper-fixation on the ego, the self.  While selfishness is a bad word and selflessness is a good word, all the self- words became good words, self-help, self-improvement, self-awareness, self-actualization, self-realization, self-development, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-examination, self-love, self-motivated, self-discipline, self-control, self-sufficient.  If you want to improve your life, you ought to focus on helping others, improving others, being aware of others, actualizing others, developing others, boosting the esteem and confidence of others, loving others, motivating others.  Focusing on yourself makes you selfish and self-centered.  Focusing on others makes you outgoing, compassionate, empathetic, giving, sharing, and loving.  As such, your life will be enriched and improved whereas being self-centered and self-focused, your life will be empty and unfulfilling.

“Recent generations of the West have been shaped by the pressures of individualism. Perhaps never before in history have people felt so much on their own, without what anthropologists call “participation mystique,” a sense of being part of a tribe or community, nature, the cosmos, or the divine.”

The author points out that in the past, when we lived more collectively, we lacked individual freedoms.  “No one could conceive of switching to a religion that better suited their personal convictions, and very few thought they could choose an occupation, spouse, or a hometown.”

It’s important to note here the confusion with individuality and freedom.  You need not be a hyper-fixated, self-centered hermit to appreciate and support individual liberties.  Individual rights does not mean the lack of collective rights.  It’s simply a convenience to talk about individual rights and by extension, the rights of the collective.  Instead of saying, I and we all have a right to bear arms, it’s more expedient to say, I have a right to bear arms (and by logical extension, we all have that right collectively).  Possessing individual rights does not mean that you now must reorient yourself to the individual above the collective. 

When you cut taxes, people don’t just use that money to buy things for themselves.  They use their money to help out those close to them.  They buy more food for their families, they buy a vacation for their entire family, they throw bigger parties and more frequent parties for their friends and extended families.  If they hear that a friend or family member lost their car in a crash, they chip in more to help them buy another car or they chip in to help with medical expenses.  Their social network becomes more self-sufficient and therefore, they invest more time and energy into their social networks. 

When people don’t have a lot of money, they have nothing to give to their social networks, so they abandon them and rely on government handouts.  A coercive large collective like government can push people towards antisocial lives whereas a small, voluntary collective like friends and extended family push people toward more social lives.  The more individual liberties and opportunities we have, the more likely we are to invest in our small collectives, our friends and extended families.  When you leave people alone to do whatever they want to do, they do not resort to murder, rape, cannibalism, and theft.  They rather resort to giving and sharing more and acquiring happiness and joy from knowing that they are a valuable, contributing part of their small collective. 

“Upon examination, we find that this sense of selfhood is a kind of delusionary state, a bizarre form of schizophrenia in which we label all of the different voices in our heads as “I” or “mine.”  Believing them all to be ours is as far-fetched as believing they all belong to God.”

Hyper-fixation on the self is actually parasitic behavior.  Harmful parasites do not get along with anyone including the host.  They don’t want to share the host with others.  The more mouths to feed, the less the host can offer.  The parasite wants the host for itself and crowds out all others much like a Cuckoo chick will kick out the biological eggs of its adopted mother.  Synergistic bacteria on the other hand welcomes others and works well with others.  They rely on a large diversity of bacteria which can work collectively to protect them from harmful, monoculture bacteria.  They communicate with one another, but they also communicate with us if we are quiet enough to meditate and listen.  The message they send us is of cooperation, unity, belonging, love, compassion, and harmony.  The message of the harmful bacteria is mostly noise, but it instigates a sense of fear, anxiety, confusion, chaos, disruption, frustration, and anger.  We become hyper-vigilant, defensive, overly sensitive, easily upset, combative, violent, and reclusive.