From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sat Sep 16 2000 - 18:49:10 MDT
Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
>
> I have never had that experince myself, tho' I believe the Hindu's called it
> Satori. My brother in law described something similar years ago watching the
> waves come in on the beach, and a sense of the stars on the horizon and the
> life in the shallows somehow being interconected, as one process etc. Also
> there was in James Horgan's book, The End of Science, his own personal
> parietal-lobe experience, when he claimed to have experienced God as a single
> mind, many minds (psylocibin?).
In the Hindu tradition it is called "samadhi". There are various
flavors of samadhi described in yoga literature. I believe "satori" is
the term used for much the same thing in Zen Buddhism iirc. There are
terms for similar states in the mystic writings of many religions and
traditions. The million dollar question is what these states are and to
what extent they are or are not useful.
>
> << Ever play with the notion that somewhere in this Universe some species
> of intelligent being may well have kicked off a Singularity and created
> one or more Singularity class intelligences? If they did who is to say
> that such Powers may not occassionally tickle the minds and cultures of
> developing species with ideas/images/memes leading to the creation of
> others of their kind and/or preparing for the acknowledgement of the
> existing ones? For that matter are we totally certain that our own
> Singularity will never have the ability to reach backward in time and
> influence the smoothness and particulars of its own becoming? What if
> some of the trascendent glimmerings of what most call God or Void or
> whatever are actually forebodings and/or backward or external reachings
> of such? Wildly speculative I know. Probably impossible to test or
> falsify. But something I can't rule out.
>
> It might even be a key useful in understanding and even pulling into
> some cooperation the world's religions.
>
> - samantha >>
> Yes, its a compelling vision, so to speak. I, myself, am hung up on
> monotheism, so I rather am mostly focused on a Single Mind, which the earlier
> peoples called God. To me Mind is the central thing to study, cause that is
> what makes us the thinking animals we are. Physics is now replete with
> concepts that seem from our vantage point miraculous, so why not have Mind
> being part of it. If that is not to someone's taste-so be it. What if these
> insights and what-not eventuate in "God", however that is conceived. I am ok
> with this as long as it doesn't remain a meme owned by bombers and torturers.
> Maybe that is what you are instinctively involved with, taking God back from
> the book-burners and fanatics?
Personally I think that Singularity class minds are likely to merge into
larger Mind. But that is an intuition or even a prejudice rather than
something I can make an argument for that is more than a rationalization
of an already existing belief.
I think "miraculous" is a point of view or way of looking at some aspect
or other. I am not at all sure "God" can be taken back from the
book-burners and fantatics for the simple reason that that entire
concept has become so conflated with that level of "religion". So I
hesitate to put such labels on some of what I experience. I am
increasingly convinced that there is a perfectly valid and very
important seed at the heart of religion/spirituality that should not be
lost and is quite needed as we go forward toward a sci-tech
Singularity. But I don't yet know or at least I don't yet own what I
can/should do about that, if anything. I also believe that some of the
self-examination, self-transformation techniques from different
spiritual systems will be quite important in unraveling some of our
genetically programmed and learned behavior patterns that may
increasingly be in our way. And I think that some of the traditional
practices and goal states are at the least partial tools and states
needed to actually live peacefully and happily with increasingly
god-like powers. They are at least a possible source of some ideas and
hints that might turn out to be very useful.
- samantha
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