"I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me ... but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you.” - Charles Manson
"My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system.... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.” - Charles Manson
I believe the "Dark Night" was a highly realistic interplay between two abnormal psyches. Abnormal but not necessarily unproductive. Both Batman and the Joker were a cut-above the mindless masses, but they dealt with their pain differently. Batman directed his vengeance toward the one-off criminals that lurk in the night; whereas the joker directed his animus toward the entire social structure and the false-morality that prevails in Gotham City. Gotham is like any modern metropolitan which values material wealth and monetary value over and above all else. Virtuosity is dead and the highest attainment is within the heirarchical social structure and not in Love or Compassion. As a consequence; Joker, like Manson, is a victim not of some random act of violence, but of a society that is too afraid to be good. So the Joker sets himself up as a mirror reflecting societies ills back at itself.
"Why don't we cut you up into little pieces and feed you to your pooches? Hmm? And then we'll see how loyal a hungry dog really is. It's not about money... it's about sending a message. Everything burns! " - The Joker
When I read old writings, they have a different tone, a different language, demeanor, and are 100,000 times more brilliant than most of what is printed today.
On another note: This is a bit like the theory that the seat of the soul is the Pineal Gland, and that if the Pineal Gland became aware of itself one would achieve spiritual transcendence. A theory that originated with Rene Descartes.
I as briefly fooled into believing this might just be incredibly naive research by a couple of incredibly naive psychiatrists, but it turns out to not even be that.
Hint: There is no hard separation of brain "regions", the modular approach to neuroscience died with the Triune Brain Model and Brodmann's Areas. Regional distinctions are more a matter of pragmatism than anything.
Actual research - that doesn't just look up "preferred" terms - points to a complex of cortical and thalamic tissue (cortico-thalamic complex) as being responsible for the integration of disparate represenational data (though some reject representationalism in highly specific ways that are too nit-picky to mention here).
The cingulate itself can be disected into "regions", for example into Anterior and Posterior regions with the Anterior being more important for conscious self-awareness. You can continue to reduce the brain to smaller and smaller regions with more specificity, but if you reduce it too much you lose all specificity, and each reduction creates an artificial separation that clouds one's thinking about the total interroperability of the brain as a whole.
Actually more like "Antisocial Personality Disorder" (aka sociopathy). The Joker demonstrates some very strong feelings/emotions which is not typical of psychopaths and his feelings relate to the way he relates to society at large. He appears to hold resentment for society over what it values:
"Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve. " - The Joker
The three kinds of doorways to hell are lust, anger and greed; therefore these three are so destructive to the embodied self must be abandoned. - Baghavad Gita 16:21
Han Solo: [laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. Luke Skywalker: You don't believe in the Force, do you? Han Solo: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense. Ben Kenobi: [gets up and takes a blast helmet] I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. [puts the helmet on Luke, which covers his eyes] Luke Skywalker: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight? Ben Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. [Watches Luke succeed in blocking the lasers] ...See? You can do it. Han Solo: I call it luck. Ben Kenobi: In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Mu is not nothing and it is not something. What buddhists mean by "emptiness" is not emptiness in the traditional sense of the absence of something. It may be better described as "Not a thing". To assist in this realization some employ a negative dialectic (Nagarjuna) which is commonly accompanied by the saying "Neti, neti" ("Not that, Not that"). Whatever one thinks of as Mu, is Not-Mu.
Of course they are "Flash cards for the insane." but the "insane" in alchemy are the uninitiate.
The uninitiate are basically animals, unconsciously driven by instinct and consciously unaware of their own motives.
The conscious mind suffers a phenomenal transparency that does not afford the conscious mind direct insight into its own operation, but alchemical transmutation allows this to happen. Alchemy then is a system of anagogical procession through symbolism, a symbolism that acts on the conceptual architecture of the initiates mind.
The first phase of realization is called "Nigredo" (The Blackening), the second phase is called "Albedo" (The Whitening), lastly "Rubedo" (The Redening). This can be seen as a parellel of other systems like; Jacob's Ladder, Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), etc...
"The alchemcial process is a method for self knowledge that the soul undergoes far outside its realm of existence." - Marry Anne Atwood
Dunno. I was into Philosophy/Religion pretty hard-core when Lost first came out. I immediately recognized "Dharma" as a Buddhist reference, and the logo of the Dharma Initiative as "Ba gua" (8 Trigrams depicting the fundamental principles of reality).
However, I found the show incredibly boring and repetative. I quickly grew tired of the Jake/Sawyer/Kate love-triangle and all the "mysteries" that continually got piled on. I suspected it would wind up killing a lot of time and generating a lot of confusion, and not much else. So I've never seen beyond the first season.
"I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me ... but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you.” - Charles Manson
"My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system.... I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.” - Charles Manson
I believe the "Dark Night" was a highly realistic interplay between two abnormal psyches. Abnormal but not necessarily unproductive. Both Batman and the Joker were a cut-above the mindless masses, but they dealt with their pain differently. Batman directed his vengeance toward the one-off criminals that lurk in the night; whereas the joker directed his animus toward the entire social structure and the false-morality that prevails in Gotham City. Gotham is like any modern metropolitan which values material wealth and monetary value over and above all else. Virtuosity is dead and the highest attainment is within the heirarchical social structure and not in Love or Compassion. As a consequence; Joker, like Manson, is a victim not of some random act of violence, but of a society that is too afraid to be good. So the Joker sets himself up as a mirror reflecting societies ills back at itself.
"Why don't we cut you up into little pieces and feed you to your pooches? Hmm? And then we'll see how loyal a hungry dog really is. It's not about money... it's about sending a message. Everything burns! " - The Joker
Hint: There is no hard separation of brain "regions", the modular approach to neuroscience died with the Triune Brain Model and Brodmann's Areas. Regional distinctions are more a matter of pragmatism than anything.
Actual research - that doesn't just look up "preferred" terms - points to a complex of cortical and thalamic tissue (cortico-thalamic complex) as being responsible for the integration of disparate represenational data (though some reject representationalism in highly specific ways that are too nit-picky to mention here).
The cingulate itself can be disected into "regions", for example into Anterior and Posterior regions with the Anterior being more important for conscious self-awareness. You can continue to reduce the brain to smaller and smaller regions with more specificity, but if you reduce it too much you lose all specificity, and each reduction creates an artificial separation that clouds one's thinking about the total interroperability of the brain as a whole.
2. Human Skull 3D Anatomy Model
"Don't talk like one of them. You're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me! They need you right now, but when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper! You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve. " - The Joker
Fear is the Mind-Killer - Dune
Han Solo: [laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
Luke Skywalker: You don't believe in the Force, do you?
Han Solo: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
Ben Kenobi: [gets up and takes a blast helmet] I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. [puts the helmet on Luke, which covers his eyes]
Luke Skywalker: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?
Ben Kenobi: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. [Watches Luke succeed in blocking the lasers] ...See? You can do it.
Han Solo: I call it luck.
Ben Kenobi: In my experience, there is no such thing as luck. - Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
The uninitiate are basically animals, unconsciously driven by instinct and consciously unaware of their own motives.
The conscious mind suffers a phenomenal transparency that does not afford the conscious mind direct insight into its own operation, but alchemical transmutation allows this to happen. Alchemy then is a system of anagogical procession through symbolism, a symbolism that acts on the conceptual architecture of the initiates mind.
The first phase of realization is called "Nigredo" (The Blackening), the second phase is called "Albedo" (The Whitening), lastly "Rubedo" (The Redening). This can be seen as a parellel of other systems like; Jacob's Ladder, Dante's Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), etc...
"The alchemcial process
is a method for self knowledge
that the soul undergoes
far outside its realm of existence."
- Marry Anne Atwood
However, I found the show incredibly boring and repetative. I quickly grew tired of the Jake/Sawyer/Kate love-triangle and all the "mysteries" that continually got piled on. I suspected it would wind up killing a lot of time and generating a lot of confusion, and not much else. So I've never seen beyond the first season.