tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post8731855720822427523..comments2024-02-11T18:16:53.445-08:00Comments on Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Simple Truth is Revolutionary: So What is the Meaning of Life? (Revised)Arthur Janovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16709863014923629409noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-73307937937606718612015-03-13T12:41:13.659-07:002015-03-13T12:41:13.659-07:00I am not sure even about my own ontogenesis. I was...I am not sure even about my own ontogenesis. I was a child (whatever that means) probably and I was born on a date they told me… and that is the problem with every theory I read about.<br />and it is not just a mystery. it could be painful mystery that holds more answers than we can imagine.vukonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-28777427984495128042015-03-06T04:57:43.742-08:002015-03-06T04:57:43.742-08:00Hey Art
Really nice! Neurosis makes everyone unfee...Hey Art<br />Really nice! Neurosis makes everyone unfeeling, uncaring, many retreated to their heads: "The UNfeeling Supermind" (Barry Long), indifferent to even the most hideous suffering, pain & cruelty. Loved the essay you sent recently when you said animals have the same feeling base as us. Why wouldn´t they? But very few people will accept this because when you don´t feel yourself, you don´t feel childrens feelings or animals feelings so you can treat them - as here in Portugal - with the most incredible insensitivity and callousness imaginable. So adult humans appoint themselves the most superior species on the planet, with rights to do anything over lesser beings; children, animals,....yet it is these "lower" beings who are ALL FEELING, and the unfeeling adult, not remembering how S/he once FELT long ago, kills the feeling child and tortures the animal....billions of animals living & dying in unimaginable conditions (www.viva.org.uk) every day because humans are so incredibly separated from our instinct we don´t even know we´re bloody frugivores!!!! (www.foodnsport.com) Do animals have to read books and see nutritionists? Did you know the diseases affecting Western humans; cancer 40%, blood sugar disorders 90%, arthritis 90+% (eg...) are almost entirely absent in the wild? In our conditioned stupidity we look to experts for all the answers. We believe anything, however stupid, however illogical, however inhumane, because "they" are right. But there is a sizeable minority thinking for themselves, questionning more and more globally; the inner bubble pops, then the next inner bubble pops, and so it goes on as you feel more and more and the full extent of tragedy around us is gradually in stages unveiled. But the further you go, the more you see the more it hurts and just as you begin to breathe a sigh of relief and think you´ve found a sane person...surely she gets it, I´mean it isn´t fucking rocket science all this, it´s just what all kids know, the younger, the more they "know"....just as you think you´ve found a simple, feeling being, they say something real crazy and you realize, they´ve been taken over by the bodysnatchers......and who is left? Except Art, France and a few others...you´re right Art we MUST stick together.Garynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-82108431238167598602015-03-04T14:30:14.757-08:002015-03-04T14:30:14.757-08:00Hi Lars,
-"But haven't you felt an overw...Hi Lars,<br /><br />-"But haven't you felt an overwhelming sense of relief while crying out for...nothing"?<br /><br />YES. Right now, your words have opened me up.<br /><br />-"Don't envision a Life without tears. Laughter wouldn't be that amazing without a certain dose of bitterness. One keeps walking"-. . .<br /><br />So true. Thank you.<br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-44255706651153298452015-03-03T03:05:15.112-08:002015-03-03T03:05:15.112-08:00An email comment:
Feelings... give meaning to lif...An email comment:<br /><em>Feelings... give meaning to life.<br /><br />That's all.<br /><br />The purpose of life is: Reproduce.<br /><br />Thanks for everything.</em>Arthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-26566631423145313532015-03-03T02:28:44.876-08:002015-03-03T02:28:44.876-08:00Hello Paul, I understand what you mean. After all ...<br />Hello Paul, I understand what you mean. After all our neocortex need not be an obstacle to our "well-being" but rather a tool for reaching out to a more complex and fascinating way of experiencing Life. But haven't you felt an overwhelming sense of relief while crying out for...nothing? No arguments, no analysis, no questioning, no nothing. That's what I meant. The border between anger for having been abandonned and despair facing the tsunami of feelings lying behind is very thin. But I agree with you. The thinking brain is surely meant to be much at ease when feelings are at command so to speak. The Thinking brain should be the practical tool-kit to perform on stage what feelings can't but suggest. All women want "their man" to behave" like men" so that they can fully play their own roll. Carl Jung introduced to the world the inner child within us. I've had this connection shut down for decades. Not completely, i must say, otherwise I wouldn't have survived the mess I found when I landed on this world of despair. And I'not just talking about my genetic family, but the smell of chaos I breathed the minute I was pushed to elaborate weird thought at school.<br /><br /><br /> I went to a zoo last year in Buenos Aires and as I approached a badly kept cage the old orangutan inside came closer to the thick glass. we stared at each other for almost 30 minutes in complete silence. I'm pretty sure most of us have gone through something similar sometime. Though we couldn't talk verbally, I know he was telling me something. I knew in his eyes. And so I felt he was. I simply told him I was sorry. I cried, God knows I did. I just don't know why. And don't need to know. Perhaps some old memories from my deep limbic ape brain were allowed to show up. It felt good. Very good. Then I hugged my daughter. Needed I do that? Yes, why not. But she understood. I strongly belief it made her understand. I wish schoolchildren have the opportunity to have that connection before they become thinking adults. It seemed to last for hours. Then I smiled and we kept on visiting the rest of the place. You know, achieving the knowledge of a crumbling event that "made"us all (whatever race we belong to, there's a mitocondrial DNA we all share) what we are, doesn't heal the open injures. Primal therapy does. Only the soft tenderness of your own tears will. But for those of us who have already weapt, cried and sobbed and who knows what more, I personally find it amazing to rediscover our common link to our ape ancestors. I don't want to be an ape again simply because I'm aware that extinction might happen because of our ignorance, our disconnection to the rest of Creation. I belief in human kindness. It took us a huge deal of pain to get here. Why not take advantage of it, despite the trauma behind our epic saga. Once the feelings hold the micro, nothing can stop us from happily embracing that tool we call the thinking brain. Will the pit of agony ever be fully emptied. I don't know. I guess we'll always make errors, and therefore hurt someone we truly love. I guess I was feeling sorry for that and that argentinian ape helped me go through a Primal. And Janov was there, I suddenly realized within the ape's eyes. Though I've never met Art in person, I love him already and am deeply thankful for his priceless commitment.<br />May be it is all about keeping the pit of insane garbage as clean as possible. Awareness of the cleaning process. It's a duty. We don't just make physical exercises in order to reach an everlasting stage of fitness, do we?. <br /> don't envision a Life without tears. Laughter wouldn't be that amazing without a certain dose of bitterness. One keeps walking. The walking, that's the goal. Thank You. I love you.<br />Despertareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896761553793062978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-78751216418017917962015-03-02T13:15:46.541-08:002015-03-02T13:15:46.541-08:00Hi Lars,
I've been having similar thoughts ab...Hi Lars,<br /><br />I've been having similar thoughts about exactly when & why 'we' became thinkers but couldn't put them into words like you have done.<br /><br />-"one can't feel and think at the same time, can one"? Perhaps that depends on how much connection there is. . . vuko made a point that stuck in my memory, that we can learn to use the neocortex as an instrument for connection rather than defense. <br /><br />Perhaps it's possible to have some reflective thoughts about feelings while feeling; but if the feelings are strong (original?) enough, then all of the neo cortex becomes an organ for connection and all thoughts recede. <br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-54179045911911586292015-03-02T00:54:36.068-08:002015-03-02T00:54:36.068-08:00Lars: Wise and astute. artLars: Wise and astute. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-4690317655321453132015-03-01T15:54:31.181-08:002015-03-01T15:54:31.181-08:00Hi Art, I hope you are doing well from your throat...Hi Art, I hope you are doing well from your throat troubles.<br />It's been a while since I posted a comment on your wonderful blog. My latest approach, remember? was very closely linked to the subject you are exposing here, and I feel commited to point it out again. I have been having an inside dialogue with myself ever since concerning the point of evolution and the scope of traumatic consequences that the split-off event you're talking about must have affected our closest chimp ancestors -probably the Australopithecus Afarensis some 300 thousand years ago. I mean, all evolutionary scholars are eager to accept the hominid lineage was broken in some truly misterious but unnatural way and the advent of what we know as homo sapiens . Every anthropologist assumes we should be still dealing with silex pointed arrows by now should the evolutionary chain have been kept in a natural process. My point is that that event, whatever it is (and there are some good studies pointing in that direction), lies behind the seemingly bottomless trauma that our species carries on since the beggining of the times. And that does not collude with the womb traumas we all experienced in any proportion. anxious carrying mothers are the result of the violence experienced by (inoculated to?) the chimp we once were, and still are somewhere.<br />I mean becoming a thinker in a rather fast way -surely in a very short lapse of time in evolutionary terms, and being forced to leave therefore the "feeling mode" (one can't feel and think at the same time, can one? ) is what I believe happened to us. Your brilliant approach to the origin of fear of a human being, the fear of feeling abandonned, ought not to be cut off from the so called religious bibliography, what creationists conceive as the holy manuscripts. A truthseeker can not, should not may I say, discard the arguments of dogma believers, because their surely distorted way of conceiving the origin of life itself might hide a very interesting clue to solving their puzzling radicality. And you don't envision helping release the weight of guilt in some humans and simply putting the rest of them aside as the hopless part of humanity. There is truth behind every door. The split-off event is open though. Ever heard about the clay sumerian tablets? Could it be it is just me who put that together with your discoveries and find out our begginings as humans on earth involved an emotional price we have been paying ever since? <br />Best wishes <br />LarsDespertareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896761553793062978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-20359582050245291452015-03-01T11:47:37.785-08:002015-03-01T11:47:37.785-08:00An email comment:
"To paraphrase Art's pa...An email comment:<br /><em>"To paraphrase Art's patient, John Lennon: "Meaning is a concept by which we<br />measure our pain." There is no need for any additional "meaning" when a moment<br />is perfect, e.g. playing with your children, creating music, walking on the<br />beach with the one you love, sharing an adventure with friends, and so on. It is<br />what it is - the point is to make a society in which people have as much love<br />and fulfillment as possible. In his autobiography, Bertrand Russell said he<br />would gladly live his life over again. Can we honestly say that about our own lives?"</em>Arthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-78375357492184967742015-03-01T03:02:29.685-08:002015-03-01T03:02:29.685-08:00Thanks very much Paul and Graham for the kind word...Thanks very much Paul and Graham for the kind words.<br /><br />To me, as far as science goes (the stuff we can hope to understand, at least), nothing is more basic than mechanical physics.<br /><br />Outside raw mechanics the best you can do is observe relationships, and try to find consistent rules. From what I know of it quantum mechanics is basically only that!...we don't really know how anything actually works. <br /><br />But I do have an attraction to the idea of everything (physical) being ultimately a wave, integrating via resonating standing-waves or something...how else could we visualise a material system that can mechanistically "work"(?)<br /><br />(sorry Art, I know that's completely off topic).Andrew D Atkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04492591375757227409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-15140169844284713422015-03-01T02:55:30.486-08:002015-03-01T02:55:30.486-08:00Hi,
an afterthought: On BBC TV Dr. Brian Cox (who...Hi,<br /><br />an afterthought: On BBC TV Dr. Brian Cox (who is a physicist) has done a series of documentaries exploring the possibility of life on other planets by collating and analysing the PHYSICAL conditions needed to support basic biology.<br /><br />Unsurprisingly, there are many many places in the universe where these PHYSICAL conditions exist and now there is evidence to show that life may even have existed on Mars (yes, that old chestnut).<br /><br />It's a fascinating debate and one which corals billions of dollars / euros / pounds sterling on yet more PHYSICAL research.<br />Dr. Brian Cox has become the doyen of the physics community with his silky smooth northern accent and his good looks. . . My bosses wife swoons if I mention his name. . . . He even alludes to the 'great mystery of life' and his documentaries are 'spell binding'. . . like a hypnotic trip. . . But he is firmly a physicist and firmly seeing physics as the CAUSE and biology as an effect.<br /><br />I'm quite sure he feels like God when he gets an insight and shares it with us on telly. . . .<br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-11497222656625144482015-03-01T02:28:58.176-08:002015-03-01T02:28:58.176-08:00Hi Graham,
I agree because it is through our biol...Hi Graham,<br /><br />I agree because it is through our biology that all our other perceptions are mediated. But it's interesting that repression hides this fact; it allows us to become 'little professors' who wax lyrical about everything but biology and emotions. Making Gods & Goddesses out of concepts and theories.<br />It's pain avoidance. . . and the technology that comes out of physics doesn't necessarily serve biology very well either. . .<br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-15883926880069771222015-02-28T20:32:51.890-08:002015-02-28T20:32:51.890-08:00Art and friends: Thank you. Here's a dance son...Art and friends: Thank you. Here's a dance song which seems, in its lyrics, to encapsulate the "Primal Revolution" in progress. "Hey Brother! There's an endless road to rediscover...". It's on YouTube and there is a Wikipedia article about it. Some of the images in the video seem to relate to taking care of the brain as in the last sentence of your next post. I'm alluding to a nibble of chocolate and olives. I'm increasingly plagued with poor digestion which I'm finding ways around. I was left to cry myself to sleep when only weeks old, when I was hungry and/or needed a change of "nappie" - later I didn't even cry after I was terrorised by my father leaning over me and screaming in my face to shut up (I can estimate this in various ways to about 2 to 3 weeks of age). This leaves me in a catch22 now because as I'm sure most people realise on some level, the brain is, as always, made of flesh and blood. So I'm learning all the time ways around the involuntary reactions to the early abuse and neglect ways to allow my digestive system to nourish my brain, because only then can I become connected fully with myself and my "brothers" and "sisters". This is working for me. A square or two of Lindt's 90% dark chocolate after a meal for the magnesium which helps put me in the parasympathetic mode which is appropriate for digesting food and the bitter taste which for no known reason stimulates the production of bile which digests fats. Olives for the omega3 essential fatty acids without the omega6 (no hemp oil for me) and so on. I'm even in the process of cutting out sweet fruits - red capsicum is becoming my favorite fruit - partly because my need for calories has plummeted with the resolution of much of the early pains.Grahamehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15388550564777869916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-90925804899621645502015-02-28T09:37:35.386-08:002015-02-28T09:37:35.386-08:00Andrew what you have written is brilliant.
For a ...Andrew what you have written is brilliant.<br /><br />For a new perspective on these mysteries you could try reading Biocentrism by Robert Lanza MD wth Bob Berman. Subtitled "How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe", I think it is worth reading even if you don't agree with all of it.<br /><br />Lanza says perhaps bology, rather than physics, should be considered as th "primary" or most basic sience.Grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14251201141795793309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-84549633961675013182015-02-28T09:28:52.708-08:002015-02-28T09:28:52.708-08:00Andrew what you have written is brilliant.
You co...Andrew what you have written is brilliant.<br /><br />You could try reading Biocentrism by Robert Lanza MD with Bob Berman if you want a new perspective on those mysteries. Subtitled "How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe", I think it is worth reading even if you don't agree with all of it.<br /><br />Lanza says perhaps we should see biology, rather than physics, as the "primary" or most basic science.<br /><br />GrahamGrahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14251201141795793309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-86745685502326217032015-02-27T14:50:41.599-08:002015-02-27T14:50:41.599-08:00Brilliant Andrew,
The Hindus 'believe' th...Brilliant Andrew,<br /><br />The Hindus 'believe' the universe is constructed entirely from sound and scientific equipment can confirm that through many, many ranges of 'vibration' with correlating wavelength, amplitude and frequency. . .<br /><br />What I like about Primal and this blog is the 'vibes'. . .<br /><br />Paul G. Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-78415863872893700152015-02-27T14:26:27.541-08:002015-02-27T14:26:27.541-08:00An email comment:
Thanks for Writing this...... So...An email comment:<br /><em>Thanks for Writing this...... Someone wrote a song about that... Enjoy.....one of my fav's..<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEep67akIn4" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEep67akIn4</a></em>Arthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-69425864446999773762015-02-27T14:23:02.643-08:002015-02-27T14:23:02.643-08:00You are the reason I write Cecilia. artYou are the reason I write Cecilia. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-47338550682382146232015-02-27T07:13:32.497-08:002015-02-27T07:13:32.497-08:00Hi Art,
Your mentioning of the gurus me immediatel...Hi Art,<br />Your mentioning of the gurus me immediately reminded me of a carton which I found decades ago<br />in an issue of the Playboy (shame on me...?) which I have framed in order to look at it every time <br />I work at my desk...<br /><br />I shows a " cavern man" whose answer to the vendor man of shakes goes like this; <br />"2 and a half for one shake ?!... and You ask me what´s the meaning of life..?!<br /><br />Yours emanuel<br /><br />emanuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01380331335118885426noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-83562675811535237812015-02-27T06:58:26.601-08:002015-02-27T06:58:26.601-08:00All you write about used to be me. I sought out t...All you write about used to be me. I sought out the gurus - genuflected before them. It was pathetic, but there was no motivation to get out of bed. I was searching for the meaning of life. It was an elusive venture as I could never seem to find it. Then one day, through one of your previous patients, I began to employ your techniques and I can attest to the fact that once one feels the pain again and works through it effectively, they will discover that there is no meaning to life, other than what one gives it. Your work has saved my life. I am now sound and am now giving meaning to my own life. I am forever grateful to you and what you do. Thank you so much!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07412772893933845603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-52110801913872519632015-02-27T04:00:57.076-08:002015-02-27T04:00:57.076-08:00On evolution:
It is totally obvious we were forme...On evolution:<br /><br />It is totally obvious we were formed from lower animals; that natural selection must be fact (how can't it be?), and that life tunes itself to the survival demands of the environment. The evidence is overwhelming that life evolves.<br /><br />BUT, there are still profound mysteries, such as:<br /><br />-The fact that life is so crazy-complicated that you would think that it began a trillion, trillion years ago. <br /><br />....It is not unreasonable to speculate over the *possible* existence of some hidden dynamic behind the evolutionary process, because asking brute trial-and-error to create even a basic living cell might be considered a grand stretch.<br /><br />-It is totally incomprehensible how a computational/mechanical process--no matter complex--can experience itself and produce a consciousness, which is the essence of what makes life, life (and not just a biological machine)<br /><br />-It is incomprehensible how a universe can give birth to itself out of nothing...and happen just so happens to exist in a form that facilitates the potential for evolutionary processes.<br /><br />None of this proves in itself the existence of any kind of god, and certainly does not disprove the evolutionary process in itself. BUT it does prove that we may know far less about the ultimate truths behind everything than me might sometimes assume.<br /><br />But that is just mystery. I define religion as 'replacing mystery with superstition'. Which is just bullshit.<br /><br />Materialist-Atheism, is denying the existence of profound mystery altogether (as it seems). I would say that also is bullshit.<br /><br />And when Materialist-Atheists dismiss even the existence of profound mystery (and I'm not saying that's you, Art), which is in fact an irrational position, they give religious people a licence to dismiss science by highlighting the Atheists error. This I believe has been a mistake of the Atheists in trying to debunk superstition.<br /><br />...Sorry if all that was a little irrelevant :)Andrew D Atkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04492591375757227409noreply@blogger.com