It's been wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too long since
I last posted...
Anyway, just a quick one now, but important
nonetheless...
It's all about how to KNOW if you
are actually experiencing truth
and following truth or not.
Try the following experiment:
For 24 hours, when you feel ANYTHING,
ask yourself this question:
DO I HAVE A LOT OF ***EVIDENCE*** FOR THIS?
Or is it mostly a FEELING?
Try it, and you'll revolutionize your LIFE.
Most people will NEVER do this, not
even for 24 hours.
In fact, I'd love to hear how this
exercise has improved your life!
Also, when you hear OTHER people
passionately or not passionately
saying things, ask yourself, what's
THEIR evidence?
Most people base their entire lives,
decisions, EVERYTHING, not on truth,
but on self-delusions.
Till next time,
Michael Marks
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A Little Tip...
Here's another truth:
You know how right now, a lot of people
are telling you to create your own business
and spend all your time on facebook, twitter,
and every other "social network" tool??
Well guess what?
By sheer nature of competition, EVERYONE
is doing it, so if that is the thrust
of your business, do you really expect
to OUTDO everyone who is doing the
EXACT SAME THING???
See, this is the thing, in order to get
anywhere, you have to be creative and
stand out.
It's really easy to get caught up in
your own hype, thinking how great it
all is, and then of course the endless
making sure to link to everyone who
links to you and to be a "great
friend" to every person and make
sure it's all happy and good
all around.
As if no one wanted something
from talking to you, like they
didn't really just want a return
subscribe and link---and this is
what makes the whole thing LOSE
VALUE, because everyone knows
this is how it goes.
And the fact that all this ought to take
a good 4 hours a day, by which
time you feel you've done a lot,
when in reality it doesn't add
up to anything very productive.
The real key is to have something that
people WANT, and then use ALL the
most relevant methods for marketing
and market the hell out of it.
And that takes REAL honesty with the
self, humility for real, and real
discipline.
And half the time, it's just a matter
of sticking with developing your
business idea and putting in the
months and maybe even years to make
it take off, but most people say
hell with that, it's so much easier
to just start writing posts and blogs
and linking and being all chummy
with strangers on the internet
who will subscribe to you as well,
and hey if nothing else, you can
at least all start a family even
though not one penny was made from
the whole thing.
You know how right now, a lot of people
are telling you to create your own business
and spend all your time on facebook, twitter,
and every other "social network" tool??
Well guess what?
By sheer nature of competition, EVERYONE
is doing it, so if that is the thrust
of your business, do you really expect
to OUTDO everyone who is doing the
EXACT SAME THING???
See, this is the thing, in order to get
anywhere, you have to be creative and
stand out.
It's really easy to get caught up in
your own hype, thinking how great it
all is, and then of course the endless
making sure to link to everyone who
links to you and to be a "great
friend" to every person and make
sure it's all happy and good
all around.
As if no one wanted something
from talking to you, like they
didn't really just want a return
subscribe and link---and this is
what makes the whole thing LOSE
VALUE, because everyone knows
this is how it goes.
And the fact that all this ought to take
a good 4 hours a day, by which
time you feel you've done a lot,
when in reality it doesn't add
up to anything very productive.
The real key is to have something that
people WANT, and then use ALL the
most relevant methods for marketing
and market the hell out of it.
And that takes REAL honesty with the
self, humility for real, and real
discipline.
And half the time, it's just a matter
of sticking with developing your
business idea and putting in the
months and maybe even years to make
it take off, but most people say
hell with that, it's so much easier
to just start writing posts and blogs
and linking and being all chummy
with strangers on the internet
who will subscribe to you as well,
and hey if nothing else, you can
at least all start a family even
though not one penny was made from
the whole thing.
Feelings Are Not The Same As Truth
We currently live in an age that pretends
it is advanced and knowledgeable. In many
ways, yes we are very advanced. Yet at
the same time, it is unbelievable how many
educated people totally believe in things
that have the same absence of evidence as
Superman or Mickey Mouse.
If someone said "I believe in Mickey Mouse"
and that Mickey Mouse is a real living
creature who has a friend Goofy, etc,
we would think this person is nuts.
Yet, there is much respect given to endless
self-help gurus who have ZERO evidence for
the things they say.
From people who claim to be magical shamans,
to cult leaders, to even "respectable"
people who are guests on CNN, etc, who
claim to have all sorts of powers,
all this stuff gets the degree of
respect that is based on absolutely
ZERO evidence.
If the same standard of lack of evidence
were applied to other things, then it
would be just as normal to see Larry King
interviewing a guy who said he saw
Superman flying the other day, and that
he also got a trip on the Starship Enterprise,
and then he took a brief visit to Cybertron
to see the Transformers.
Somehow, THIS is taken as clearly nuts,
but all the other total liars are given
so much respect.
I've thought a lot about why this is,
and I think it's because people are
more vulnerable to LOSING their own
logic while they are suffering from
emotional pain - so very often, we
don't want to come head-to-head with
reality, even if that reality is a
"maybe", it's not enough for many
people, people want ANSWERS to
things, and if science doesn't have
an answer, then by George, someone
else will be around to MAKE IT UP.
Religion did this for thousands of
years, and now the "new religions"
are doing the same thing- all kinds
of "new age" stuff that is just
another way of making people believe
that their emotions are something
MORE than emotions, that their
emotions are actually something...
...something....WHATEVER the heck
you want it to be!!!
That's the power of these lies, it
can make you TEMPORARILY feel like you
are somehow on the verge of something
amazing, a link to something supernatural,
etc, etc, until eventually the reality
comes down that in fact you are not
any more guided or inspired than
anyone else, at least not because
of the "special link to the supernatural
forces".
Hey, i'm not saying that supernatural forces
do not exist, i'm just not arrogant enough
to pretend that I AM THE ONE WHO KNOWS
all about it.
Relying on feelings can be dangerous.
What if I'm feeling really ANGRY???
Should I take actions based on those feelings?
What if I'm feeling super GREAT?
Should I make an investment based on that feeling?
The reality is that I think emotions give juice
to life, but we should make decisions when we
are CALM and after putting in thorough research
on something.
Of course, this takes emotional DISCIPLINE,
it takes "emotional state" MANAGEMENT, which
is something most people hate doing, they'd
rather do drugs, or naturally drug their system
with sugar or other kinds of foods, alcohol,
or they become addicted to some kind of new
age cult or movement that again has zero
evidence or logic behind it.
Since time immemorial, logic doesn't matter
to the masses. Emotions will get entire
nations, entire civilizations, to do
ANYTHING, even if it's self-destructive.
So the first key to truth is to learn to
manage our own emotions and just get calm.
Until we can do this, we are most likely
brainwashing ourselves by experiencing reality
only through the lens of whatever emotional
filter is currently "active" at the moment.
it is advanced and knowledgeable. In many
ways, yes we are very advanced. Yet at
the same time, it is unbelievable how many
educated people totally believe in things
that have the same absence of evidence as
Superman or Mickey Mouse.
If someone said "I believe in Mickey Mouse"
and that Mickey Mouse is a real living
creature who has a friend Goofy, etc,
we would think this person is nuts.
Yet, there is much respect given to endless
self-help gurus who have ZERO evidence for
the things they say.
From people who claim to be magical shamans,
to cult leaders, to even "respectable"
people who are guests on CNN, etc, who
claim to have all sorts of powers,
all this stuff gets the degree of
respect that is based on absolutely
ZERO evidence.
If the same standard of lack of evidence
were applied to other things, then it
would be just as normal to see Larry King
interviewing a guy who said he saw
Superman flying the other day, and that
he also got a trip on the Starship Enterprise,
and then he took a brief visit to Cybertron
to see the Transformers.
Somehow, THIS is taken as clearly nuts,
but all the other total liars are given
so much respect.
I've thought a lot about why this is,
and I think it's because people are
more vulnerable to LOSING their own
logic while they are suffering from
emotional pain - so very often, we
don't want to come head-to-head with
reality, even if that reality is a
"maybe", it's not enough for many
people, people want ANSWERS to
things, and if science doesn't have
an answer, then by George, someone
else will be around to MAKE IT UP.
Religion did this for thousands of
years, and now the "new religions"
are doing the same thing- all kinds
of "new age" stuff that is just
another way of making people believe
that their emotions are something
MORE than emotions, that their
emotions are actually something...
...something....WHATEVER the heck
you want it to be!!!
That's the power of these lies, it
can make you TEMPORARILY feel like you
are somehow on the verge of something
amazing, a link to something supernatural,
etc, etc, until eventually the reality
comes down that in fact you are not
any more guided or inspired than
anyone else, at least not because
of the "special link to the supernatural
forces".
Hey, i'm not saying that supernatural forces
do not exist, i'm just not arrogant enough
to pretend that I AM THE ONE WHO KNOWS
all about it.
Relying on feelings can be dangerous.
What if I'm feeling really ANGRY???
Should I take actions based on those feelings?
What if I'm feeling super GREAT?
Should I make an investment based on that feeling?
The reality is that I think emotions give juice
to life, but we should make decisions when we
are CALM and after putting in thorough research
on something.
Of course, this takes emotional DISCIPLINE,
it takes "emotional state" MANAGEMENT, which
is something most people hate doing, they'd
rather do drugs, or naturally drug their system
with sugar or other kinds of foods, alcohol,
or they become addicted to some kind of new
age cult or movement that again has zero
evidence or logic behind it.
Since time immemorial, logic doesn't matter
to the masses. Emotions will get entire
nations, entire civilizations, to do
ANYTHING, even if it's self-destructive.
So the first key to truth is to learn to
manage our own emotions and just get calm.
Until we can do this, we are most likely
brainwashing ourselves by experiencing reality
only through the lens of whatever emotional
filter is currently "active" at the moment.
Cherish The Truth Is Born!
It hit me like a crazy bolt of lightning.
How awesomely different would the world be
if the TRUTH actually RULED?
To quote the line from the movie with
Jack Nicholson "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
Well, actually, I think most people CAN
handle the truth, and that in fact the
truth will get people a lot farther.
However, it takes great GUTS to do this,
most people are too scared, for it means
that maybe their whole life they have
been doing things wrong, and now they
might have to change that...even though
every second they DON'T change, they
are just getting further and further
away from getting ANYWHERE meaningful.
Most of the time, lies do NOT help us.
If you wanted to get to a destination,
would it feel good to get a map that
made it seem simple, but actually led
to the WRONG destination?
Of course not, so for this basic reason,
I feel that the truth IS important and
in fact VITAL.
So the mission of this blog is to simply
spread as much USEFUL truth as possible.
I'll also take questions and comments
from anyone.
By the way, just because I believe in
TRUTH, doesn't mean that I am against
the use of our IMAGINATION, or against
things like art or anything like that.
In fact, these things can be used to
help express truth as well. Of course,
they can also be used to get emotions
going and that can be used to manipulate
people's minds, but such is the responsibility
of an artist.
So just like anything else, you have
responsible artists and irrresponsible ones.
The first lie I'd like to tackle is the
lie or rather the lies, that we tell
OURSELVES.
So for example, let's say we are emotionally
involved in a relationship, and then we
break up with someone, we may end up using
cognitive dissonance (a fancy term for
reverse rationalization) to convince
ourselves that we were the ones who
are right.
We will look for selective evidence to
prove our point to ourselves and thus
never grow as a human being.
Al Capone rationalized to himself that he
was a great guy because he sponsored some
soup kitchens.
Adolf Hitler probably felt he was a
great guy too.
Joseph Stalin probably thought he was
doing important work.
Emotions are what cause us to basically
look for ONLY the evidence that backs up
what we WANT to believe, and to totally
ignore evidence that would lead to us
having to CHANGE our ways.
How awesomely different would the world be
if the TRUTH actually RULED?
To quote the line from the movie with
Jack Nicholson "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
Well, actually, I think most people CAN
handle the truth, and that in fact the
truth will get people a lot farther.
However, it takes great GUTS to do this,
most people are too scared, for it means
that maybe their whole life they have
been doing things wrong, and now they
might have to change that...even though
every second they DON'T change, they
are just getting further and further
away from getting ANYWHERE meaningful.
Most of the time, lies do NOT help us.
If you wanted to get to a destination,
would it feel good to get a map that
made it seem simple, but actually led
to the WRONG destination?
Of course not, so for this basic reason,
I feel that the truth IS important and
in fact VITAL.
So the mission of this blog is to simply
spread as much USEFUL truth as possible.
I'll also take questions and comments
from anyone.
By the way, just because I believe in
TRUTH, doesn't mean that I am against
the use of our IMAGINATION, or against
things like art or anything like that.
In fact, these things can be used to
help express truth as well. Of course,
they can also be used to get emotions
going and that can be used to manipulate
people's minds, but such is the responsibility
of an artist.
So just like anything else, you have
responsible artists and irrresponsible ones.
The first lie I'd like to tackle is the
lie or rather the lies, that we tell
OURSELVES.
So for example, let's say we are emotionally
involved in a relationship, and then we
break up with someone, we may end up using
cognitive dissonance (a fancy term for
reverse rationalization) to convince
ourselves that we were the ones who
are right.
We will look for selective evidence to
prove our point to ourselves and thus
never grow as a human being.
Al Capone rationalized to himself that he
was a great guy because he sponsored some
soup kitchens.
Adolf Hitler probably felt he was a
great guy too.
Joseph Stalin probably thought he was
doing important work.
Emotions are what cause us to basically
look for ONLY the evidence that backs up
what we WANT to believe, and to totally
ignore evidence that would lead to us
having to CHANGE our ways.
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