Education of Instinct: On Sex

An excerpt from: “The Master Game” by Robert de Ropp

An important part of the study of the instinctive center has to do with sex.  This function, so deeply embedded in the machinery of life, has been described by some investigators as a center in its own right.  We can, if we choose, speak of a sex center or a “sexual brain” located predominantly in the hypothalamus but with many ramifications both cortical and subcortical and with a hormonal feedback mechanism linking it both to the pituitary and to the gonads.  Or we can think of the sexual function as a part of the instinctive center which, in man at least, is no longer really instinctive but dominated by the “higher brain,” hedged in by all manner of artificial taboos.

 

The interference of the roof brain with the sexual function is peculiar to man and a source, as Freud never wearied of proclaiming, of much of what passes for “mental” illness.  It seems to be characteristic of the human animal that it cannot accept its sexual function in the same uncritical way as it accepts its need for food and air.  Both the intellectual and the emotional centers interfere with this function, and their interference, in many cases, is disastrous in its effects.  Indeed, some of the most horrendous doings in the history of the “bloodstained hominid”  (the witch hysteria of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for example) were the direct outcome of the interference of these centers with the sexual function.

 

The student of Creative Psychology, raised in a culture which still tends to put sex in a big black box and hide it under the bed, is liable to encounter difficulties when he approaches a study of this function.  His confusion is apt to be increased by the pontifications of various so-called authorities, especially those affiliated with the Judeo-Christian Guilt Cult, who declare that celibacy is a condition of the “higher life” and that there is some special virtue in continence.  The view is not confined to the Christian tradition; it occurs in Buddhist and Hindu teachings, also.

 

Actually, there is no evidence to suggest that abstaining from sexual experience enhances a person’s capacity for attaining either the fourth or the fifth state of consciousness.  Indeed, there is much evidence to the contrary.  The “struggle with the flesh” that engaged that engaged such a large proportion of the energies of hermits, monks and “holy men” produced, in many cases, mere cripples and neurotics or devil-obsessed psychopaths whose ingrown lusts, transformed into cruelty and religious intolerance, compelled them to project their deformed fantasies onto the minds of their fellowmen, whom they proceeded to burn alive for such fancied offences as having sexual intercourse with devils.  These people would have been healthier, happier, better adjusted and more filled with the milk of human kindness if they had accepted Eros intead of denying him.

 

The Christian tradition has long tried to put love into two compartments, one labeled “sacred” and the other, “profane.”  This has no biological justification.  The sexual function can be used as a means of experiencing higher states of consciousness, a fact well known to the ancient world, from which orgiastic rites had not been banished.  However, such an experience is possible only when the sexual function has been trained to operate without interference from the intellectual brain.  In  our culture sex has become more and more cerebral.  We think about it, write about it, talk about it, cold-eyed sexologists gather statistics about it, so that the whole sexual mechanism becomes permeated with verbalizing.  This, plus the residue of guilt and shame that, despite more enlightened attitudes, continues to haunt us, puts pure sexual experience out of the reach of many people.  They simply cannot let the sex center alone and allow themselves to be carried along on the flood of direct erotic awareness, a powerful primeval force and one which is essentially benign.

 

If left to itself, the sexual center can teach us much.  It is wise, profound, ancient and very powerful.  It can operate at different levels of consciousness.  In the second state, the Room of Dreams, it can conjure up the entire sexual act, providing a dream partner and inducing, in the male at least, both erection of the penis and seminal discharge.  Its operation, in the third state of consciousness, may range from a mere transient relief of tension to a profound, insight-giving experience which, by its orgiastic power can force even scattered disharmonized human beings to become aware, if only for a moment, of its wordless wisdom and its primordial magic.  Operating in the fourth state of consciousness, it puts a man or a woman directly into contact with the enormous generative force working all through nature once worshipped in the form of Eros and Aphrodite.  In this state sex can reveal to a man or a woman certain secrets concerning the energies of the body that are difficult to attain by other means.

 

Some of the secrets are hinted at in various Tantras, in which the use of maithuna is described.  These practices appeared most improper to the authorities during the days of the British raj and the view became widespread that there was something very obscene and wicked about the Tantras in general.  Actually, all talk of morality in this connection are irrelevant.  There is an aspect of physiological yoga in which sexual energy is utilized to awaken certain powers within the body.  There is nothing particularly perilous about the practice, but it involves mastery over nervous pathways which, in both male and female, are associated with the training in sexual awareness, conscious control of processes that are normally autonomic.  Intentional placing of awareness picks up and amplifies certain faint signals from within the depths of the organism.  The practitioner is brought into contact with deep biological levels of his own being and with the being of his opposite, his shakti, the female element.  What he learns is beyond the reach of words.  He cannot describe it.  If he tries to do so, he merely spoils the experience.  The symbols of the intellectual brain can never fully express the quality of Dionysian experience.

 

[A cute video done by BBC on babies and the instinctive reaction to food:  "Human Instinct"]

To view the video, please click here: http://www.sandrasorayaalzona.wordpress.com

Karma & Plato’s Atlantis

There are some common practices I’ve learned to ignore about karma when I could be otherwise annoyed. I have relatives who consider “death” a bad karma. Hello? You must be out of your mind, relative. When a neighbor they disagreed with experienced the death of a beloved, they secretly gloat about this bad karma that the neighbor received. While I find this a bit hauntingly coo-coo, other times too funny, indeed the “secret cause” to many things is mortality, as Joseph Campbell puts it, that death is considered too bad. Although I may not feel good about somebody’s death or suffering, I maintain that karma is neither good or bad, and, technically, we are living the stream and flow of our karma, whether or not eventful, every nanosecond of our lives.

Karma has its many layers. If it takes a process for an individual to decipher his or her own thoughts, emotions and unknowns in the shadowy corners of their so-called “subconscious,” how much more the karma of another? Let’s be very realistic about this. There’s wishful thinking that somebody is going through terrible times because of a karma with some amount of gloating added to that, but that doesn’t mean that this person is actually going through terrible times for the reasons the gloater is assuming.

Therefore, unless I’m in a self-improvement discussion with friends and counsellors, I don’t mind other people’s karmas. I don’t mind other people’s business. I have my own life and that’s enough already.

Featured here are Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer Plato’s Atlantis collection for 2010, an outrageous way of looking forward to next year, considering that the Philippines is going through a series of typhoons, some of which having characteristics that haven’t been experienced in a lifetime by a lot of its inhabitants nor witnessed by our weather experts. Much as I’d love to live the day to experience 2010, the recent disasters called Typhoon Ondoy followed up by Typhoon Pepeng in the country made me contemplate again on how transient my residence here on this planet.

For more and the videos, please click here:   http://sandrasorayaalzona.wordpress.com/

An Open Letter to Our Readers

Fellow Critical Thinkers,

On behalf of Mark T. Market, I wish to apologize for the delay on new posts.  I also regret to announce that the The Critical Thinker will be on hiatus for awhile due to unavoidable circumstances.

As you may know, Tropical storm Ondoy slammed into the Philippines on Sept.26, Saturday morning, and within 24 hours poured nearly 17 inches of rain, the heaviest rainfall in 40 years, on the capital and its surrounding areas.  The torrential floods burst dams and swept cars from the street. Mark and his family are one of the hardest hit by the hurricane, and while they survived, they have lost their home, their car, and all their belongings, leaving them only with the clothes on their backs.

As a long time friend of Mark, I have organized some friends to provide support for him and his family during this unfortunate disaster. Of course we will welcome any financial contribution from our readers as well. If you can and would like to help Mark get back on his feet, please leave a note and I will send you some details.

Below are some videos taken by ordinary citizens, detailing the devastation caused by the typhoon. The first one in particular is taken from a place not far from Mark’s home.

Soros on “Newspeak”

“Newspeak” is a term used by George Orwell in his novel: 1984, referring to a fictional language used by the totalitarian government in that story–a language that reduces meaning into simple dichotomies (i.e. good vs. evil, right vs. wrong) in order to facilitate propaganda by the state.

The the following video, juxtaposed with media-clips criticizing him, George Soros describes the practice of newspeak especially its most recent and successful example: “The War on Terror” as an idea.

We recently posted Randy David’s criticism of morality being used in politics. Moralizing in politics are also a form of newspeak.

Nirvana o Upaya

 

Nirvana: after destroying the source of all sorrow within oneself, and having gained the ability to metabolize “light” or a higher frequency of existence to receive it comfortably, bliss is experienced, liberation is attained. A certain lifestyle follows while here on earth, and what gains respect from most of the community is a type of ascetism.

 

Upaya: It may be an illusion, a delusion, or deceptive, but one is comfortable after having developed the ability to metabolize a chosen life as it is, without avoidance of the usual gross matters that ascetics do away with. Upaya places great emphasis on rules not necessarily having to be followed, at the same time not necessarily having to be broken, and thus an intense type of alertness and discernment are required.

 

Grasping the essence of these concepts is important because humans go through almost the same challenges in normal life, especially modern living.

 

 

Please click here to read more:  http://www.sandrasorayaalzona.wordpress.com

4 Types Of People (I Must Be…)

Kim Kiyosaki (wife of Robert of Rich Dad Poor Dad fame) shares an interesting insight about what she calls: 4 kinds of people, grouping them by their mantras:

1. I must be right — people who love to be validated and proven correct.
2. I must be comfortable — people who like settling in their comfort zones and not push boundaries.
3. I must be liked — people who live to please others and patronize.
4. I must win — people who will do anything to succeed.

Although doubtless there are more archetypes than Kiyosaki claims (depending on whatever typology you subscribe to), the thing I find interesting about the 4 types above is how they would react and utilize critical thinking.

1. Critical thinking seeks to clarify, not simply validate.
2. It is often uncomfortable and involves challenging the status quo.
3. It is not patronizing, and is often deprecating.
4. It seeks to achieve its end goals.

Of the 4 types above, only those who seek to win would push criticism to its limit.

Kim says know who you’re dealing with and that will bring you success. In critical thinking it’s the same: it’s important to know who your talking to, who your audience is, and who you’re criticizing.

Moral Politics

This is an editorial from Philippine journalist, Randy David, commenting on the political scene in the Philippines–which is due to have its next presidential election in 2010. It’s a good critique of moral views in politics–where politicians often use moral arguments to further their platforms, without really addressing the real issues at stake.

Good And Evil In Politics
Randy David

As my previous columns on politics may have shown, I am one of those who squirm each time I hear people reduce Philippine politics today into a fight between good and evil. I view this way of thinking as a residual habit from traditional society. And so to hear it from modern Filipinos who ought to know better is truly dismaying and alarming.

I don’t know what prompted Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, perhaps the most modern of those who have aspired for the presidency, to say in a recent Inquirer interview: “You know, this is good versus evil. This is tuwid versus baluktot. This is tama versus mali.” The interviewer, who had merely asked how he felt after his momentous withdrawal from the presidential race, wondered if she got it right: “As simple as that?” And Mar replied: “Yes. That’s why I was very willing to engage in this; it’s because it boils down to that. All the frustrations, all the anger, all the hopes of our people—it’s not anymore in the policy this or policy that. It’s just good versus evil. You know, that’s the campaign the reformists are going to wage.” Wow! I hope Mar uttered this more out of a sense of frustration than as a matter of conviction.

For, such moralistic formulations preempt and disparage the need for a careful and reasoned analysis of the problems that confront us as a nation. They tend to focus on the character of the doer than on the origins and consequences of the deed. They ride on unexamined moral prejudices, and simplify the search for political solutions into a quest for heroes. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be the most despised president in the nation’s history, but instead of ascribing to her sole authorship of everything that is bad in our government, I find it more arguable to think of her as a reflection of our society’s basic problems, or the street-smart personification of a dysfunctional social order.

I recognize the emotional power of moral language in everyday life. But, instead of exploiting it, I think it gives us all the more reason to use it sparingly in public affairs. In complex societies like ours, we can no longer take for granted the existence of moral consensus. Though they may use the same words, today’s Filipinos are likely to have different notions of what constitutes good and evil in various situations. Moreover, we may find that most of the moral dilemmas we encounter in everyday life are not so much choices between good and evil, as they are conflicts of values—choices between two equally desirable goods.

After Marcos proclaimed martial law in 1972, many of our people accepted the restrictions on their civil liberties and political rights in exchange for the promise of peace and order and economic prosperity. Had he succeeded in using his vast authoritarian powers to transform the Philippines in the same way Lee Kwan Yew rebuilt Singapore, he would likely be remembered today as a statesman rather than as a tyrant. But because he failed, only the abuses that were committed by him and his regime are remembered.

For this and many other reasons, it was not difficult to portray Marcos as the incarnation of evil in the 1986 snap presidential election. To combat evil, what the nation felt it needed was not another politician but someone of Marian purity, a person who could symbolize everything that was good and decent in our culture. There was no one else but Cory, the widow of the martyred Ninoy. Where politics had poisoned society, her political inexperience became a virtue. This morality tale quickly seized the imagination of the public. It shaped our politics in unexpected ways. It foretold the end of the Marcos regime, but it also defined the terms of the people’s engagement with the Cory government.

Instead of treating social reform as a continuing project of people power, Filipinos promptly withdrew from public affairs, preferring to leave the business of governing to the good men and women that Mother Cory had recruited. They were caught unaware by the power struggles that ensued among those who had fought Marcos. Many could not understand the virulence of the coup attempts against Cory, except as an effort to bring back the evil that was Marcos. But the “evil” did not go away with Marcos, it continued to reside in the system.

The reality is that while it is a great advantage for a nation to have an incorruptible president, it is not enough. Beyond serving as a moral exemplar, a modern leader is expected to be a statesman whose function—said the political philosopher Hannah Arendt—“was not to act but to impose permanent rules on the changing circumstances and unstable affairs of acting men.” In short, to build institutions.

Today, Noynoy Aquino finds himself cast in the same role that his mother played in 1986. He must not waste this chance to form a durable constituency to support a vision and program of social and cultural transformation. Because of the credibility he enjoys, Noynoy is uniquely situated to wage a campaign to change our people’s beliefs about politics in general—to make them see how, in many ways, they too unwittingly contribute to the problems that bug our society.

I would advise him against playing the morality card not only because it has no place in modern politics, but because it conceals the complex nature of our problems and the solutions they require. It is correct, in my view, to zero in on the record of the Arroyo government as the main issue in 2010, not in terms of the kind of person Arroyo is, but in terms of the kind of governance she exemplified from which she could not rise as president. But, we cannot stop there; we must take pains to define the alternative.

Original link is here.

Randomness Activists

Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb teams up with the authors of Dance With Chance: Spyros Makridakis, Robin Hogarth and Anil Gaba — and discusses with them key concepts common amongst all of them. The four authors are advocating a certain kind of activism to bring the public to awarness of irrational expertise, our overreliance on experts, and how we naturally downplay the role of luck and randomness in our lives.

Apart from financial markets, they cite healthcare and medicine as potentially affected fields where the ‘expert problem’ is rampant.

Opacity And Risk Taking

A couple of months ago, Nassim Taleb spoke out in Bloomberg about the “reforms” taking place in the financial system under the Obama and Geithner plans. He expressed his disgust and disappointment that not only are governments bailing out failed institutions but the new accounting standards being proposed after the crisis allow for even less transparency in reporting of gains and losses.

Towards the latter part of his interview Taleb briefly touched on a two-tier concept for the financial system: one side solely for utilitarian purposes but very low risk (banks), the other side solely for risk taking (hedge funds). The key to making this system work is that governments will be very protective of the banks for as long as they are not allowed to freely take risk, whilst the hedge funds can take on as much speculation as they wish, but are not subject to bailout. This would reduce moral hazard and would provide a more robust financial system. In a speaking engagement in Germany, Taleb specifically describes this two-tiered idea.

Too Many Choices

Given the example of patients and doctors and prescriptions, freedom of choice becomes an oxymoron when choices are given to individuals who are not trained or prepared to make an intelligent decision. Whilst Dan Ariely talked about irrational decision making, Barry Schwartz illustrates how having choices end up limiting individuals rather than empowering them.