Sounds Scare Scrawny People More Easily

End noise pollutions!

Once in awhile science makes perfect sense.  The title says it all and here’s the article referring to the study:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090428/sc_livescience/soundsscarescrawnypeoplemoreeasily

Real Truth about Meditation

Meditation is too often a crutch, and it is too often something people use as a semi-religious practice.

One of the useful things to recognize is all types of meditation are tools. And like all tools they can and will get old.

They are not ends in themselves. They are not where your focus should be after a certain point of working with them. They are at best stepping stones to a larger reality.

What is the purpose of meditation practice?  To train and control attention.  To control where the mind focuses.  To know the nature of mind.  To still it so a larger reality can come into your awareness.

Eventually meditation practice should be discarded or modified to be replaced by the practice of awareness throughout the experiences of life. Gardening, playing music, playing hacky sack, martial arts, contemplating numerology, are just a few of the infinity of examples of activities that will meditate you.

Let go of the meditation practice after awhile, once you get the idea.  Bring awareness into life.

Secrets of Success Stay Secret

The principles of success are almost unknown.  Most of what is written about success is really what sounds good, not what works naturally.

There is almost no real science research about why people are successful, especially financially.

The self help industry is an industry of illusion spinners.  They sell what people want to believe, not what is true.  Usually what people want to believe is that which is the most distant to reality, not what is closest to it!

Endless websites say they know how you too can become successful… for the lowlowlow price of onlyonlyonly x$.  Come on!

Working hard is not it; it’s not why people are successful.  Some inheritors are successful in what they undertake and didn’t work hard at it; others burn out the family fortune in years.

Good looks are not it.  They may help but for every Hollywood star there are the beautiful hundreds who are still valets and waiters who didn’t get lucky.

Talent is not it.  See above.

So what is it?

That’s a good question.  The first thing to realize is that almost no one out there knows.

You might get a report, or an entire book, about how millionaire’s think but for all you know (this is the classic fallacy of confusing correlation with causation, the bane of science research) the millionaires are thinking that way BECAUSE of what is happening to them and what they are doing, not the other way around.

Realizing that, where does that leave you?

It leaves you with a good question.

Why Doesn’t Goal Setting Work?

Why does goal setting require so much reinforcement?  Why do people have to spend so much money on continually getting pumped and re-pumped by the latest book, CD, video, or seminar and have to force and force themselves some more to set and pursue goals?

My hypothesis is goal setting is totally and completely unnatural.

And it doesn’t actually work for most people.

The entire success and self help industry is founded on  ideas and writings that sound good but  in fact do not work.

Free Will, Google and AI, and Military Karma

There is no free will.  Where is it?  Find it for me!

Google may become the first planetary AI.  I hope that happens soon.  It’s dragging its ass a bit right now at its current speed of development.

The US Navy, in the recent shooting of the pirates who took an American hostage, had a chance to end the standoff peacefully when negotiating with Somali elders – the elders wanted to return the hostage with guaranteed safe passage for the pirates.  The US Navy said no, and insisted on ‘bringing the pirates to justice’.  Now, while the work of the US Navy Seals is admirable in freeing the hostage, the US has brought upon itself increased likelihood of further bloodshed.