let's do nuance

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Pepi, 

What silliness!

I guess the most offputting aspect of New Age belief is how
easy it is, how sloppy the thinking.

Pepi spoke of physicists' concept of inextinguishable energy as 
though it were an argument for the immortality of humans. 
Plants and animals may have energy but so does a flashlight battery. 
Quite an argument!

Hegel spoke of the silent smirk of Oriental philosophy/philosophers. 
This is quite outdated. They're still smirking but they're not silent
any more. 

New Age beliefs are an amalgam of ignorance and intellectual
laziness. Not a single one of Pepi's preposterous beliefs has a
serious argument behind it. It's just offered to the customers on
a take it or leave it basis. At least the Episcopalians have the
39 articles and the Catholics their catecism. Their primary 
assumptions about a godhead and the Christ may be unprovable
but at least the rest of the chain of their argument is rigorous.

And their music and dress up is way more attractive than omming 
in a yellow bedsheet. 

As ever,

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pepi Plowman" <pepstoil@yahoo.com>
To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 6:38 PM
Subject: Re: let's not do nuance


> Wayne,
> 
> Thanks for your take on the soul or notsoul, as the
> case may be.  Belief systems are our main limitations,
> nicht wahr?  I reckon whatever you believe is what you
> get.  
> 
> Joe Rowe (perhaps you know him) sent me a purportedly
> "true" email recently about a guy who had terminal
> cancer of the throat.  He was living in a hospice and
> told he had little time to live.  He was good friends
> with his caregiver and made her promise that when he
> died she would not move his body for six hours
> afterwards, because he'd heard interesting things
> happen after one dies.  His caregiver eventually did
> find his body, flat-out dead on the floor (I guess he
> was on the way to the bathroom), and left it for six
> hours, as she promised.  The guy had a near-death
> experience (except that he came back after more than
> six hours, hardly "near" death).  
> 
> He went through the proverbial dark tunnel with the
> big white light at the end of it, only thought, as he
> neared the light, "but if I go there, I'll be dead!"
> Sensing his ambivalence, the white light communicated
> with him telepathically the equivalent of "No sweat,
> man, you don't have to come if you don't want to, but
> hey, can I help you?" The guy answered, "Well, uh,
> would you mind if I asked a couple of questions?"
> White light sez: "Hell, no, son, ask anything you
> like!" Guy sez: "Okay.  What happens when you die?"
> White light sez: "Whatever your belief system, that's
> what you get." (As in, e.g., the documented account of
> the child who had a "near-death experience" and came
> back crowing, "Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!") The white
> light showed the guy all kinds of things during this
> interlude--how the universe is made like a giant
> trigonometric puzzle--inextricably and
> interdependently related--how humans are relatively
> but dust, albeit legendary in the cosmos--and (the
> thing that most impressed me--that THERE IS NO EVIL
> SOUL IN THE UNIVERSE.  It's only in relation to
> physical manifestation (i.e., being born into a body)
> that the human soul becomes tempered, toxic or
> tolerant.  Now that's a wide paintbrush! (This was
> major for me, because I tend to malign the baseness of
> humans, for the most part.  To think that in their
> original form, sans body, the soul is pure and
> perfect, gives me hope for my own lack of charity
> towards my fellow man.)
> 
> So anyhow, the guy comes back after more than six
> hours of being stone dead, and asks his doctor, "Ain't
> it a miracle!?"  The Doc sez, "You're just in
> remission."
> 
> pep
> --- Wayne Johnson <cadaobh@shentel.net> wrote:
> > Oh, I wish I didn't feel compelled to write this.  I
> > know, just know, that I
> > will surely regret it.  But I just can't find any
> > sane and
> > non-Transcendental argument for the existence of a
> > "soul".  I really,
> > really wish it were true and that we could all come
> > back again, but my
> > belief is that when the "biological" light goes
> > out...it stays out.  Finito!
> > No mas!
> > 
> > From my perspective, we have some tens of thousands
> > of years of "wishful"
> > thinking aided and abetted by a bunch of
> > semi-literate, semi-criminals who
> > wish to profit by spreading mystical and irrational
> > beliefs.  Did Arthur go
> > to Avalon?  Probably not, as much as I would like it
> > to be so. Ain't going
> > to see him again.  Nor any other person what has
> > kicked the "biological"
> > bucket.  Doornails is doornails and when you is
> > gone, you is over.
> > 
> > So.  What do I have to look forward to?  Not a damn
> > thing.  Is that
> > existential or what?
> > 
> > Cheers until then...."Happy Trails to You, until we
> > meet again".
> > 
> > wj
> > 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Pepi Plowman" <pepstoil@yahoo.com>
> > To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
> > Sent: Saturday, March 27, 2004 5:32 PM
> > Subject: Re: let's try to do nuance
> > 
> > 
> > >
> > > --- Michael Eisenstadt <michaele@ando.pair.com>
> > wrote:
> > > > Pepi,
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for writing at length about this.
> > > >
> > > > No, I don't speak it.
> > > >
> > > > In Hebrew school (to prepare for confirmation at
> > 13
> > > > for the sake of my religious grandmother who
> > would
> > > > have had a fit if I wasn't confirmed), we used
> > to
> > > > say
> > > > Baruch ator, I don't know anymore.
> > > >
> > > > Baruch ator are the first 2 words of all the
> > > > prayers.
> > > > Actually we worked our way through quite a bit
> > of
> > > > Genesis reading it in the original which was my
> > > > original
> > > > introduction to the ENORMOUS charm of reading a
> > > > foreign language.When I slowly worked my way
> > through
> > > >
> > > > one of the books of the Iliad in the original
> > many
> > > > years
> > > > later, I thought back to Miss Snow with the
> > enormous
> > > >
> > > > boobs driving us like Gadarene swine through the
> > > > beginning
> > > > of the bible.
> > >
> > > Amusing visuals here!
> > >
> > > >
> > > > As for your and your sisters' previous lives,
> > that
> > > > sounds
> > > > like hard work.
> > >
> > > Seems like it always is.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Let me get this straight: the jews burnt in the
> > > > ovens
> > > > came back as the Plowman sisters (or some of the
> > > > Plowman sisters); the Nazis who died came back
> > as
> > > > Israelis.
> > > >
> > > > I still come back to this simple question: if
> > you
> > > > and your
> > > > sisters love all people all that much, how do
> > you
> > > > come
> > > > to the conclusion that the Israelis are reborn
> > > > Nazis?
> > >
> > > A few Israelis, perhaps.  Certainly, not all. 
> > This is
> > > merely supposition, in any case, as we both know. 
> > But
> > > I would say by observing the ones who manifest a
> > > similar persona with a similar agenda (except for
> > the
> > > reversal of the victims), however you would
> > describe a
> > > Nazi.  Sharon, perhaps?  Hey, for all we know,
> > Arafat
> > > may have been a Jew in his past lifetime!
> > > >
> > >
> > > > You write:
> > > >
> > > > > But may you not hate too much, it's bad for
> > the
> > > > soul
> > > > > (I know, you don't believe in its existence. 
> > Oh,
> > > > > well, so be it).
> > > >
> > > > I'm not the hater. I was taking exception to
> > other
> > > > folks'
> > > > hatred. Is that allowed in your scheme of
> > things?
> > >
> > > You were taking exception to others with your
> > > assumption that they hated--sometimes an incorrect
> > > one.  And certainly, we've already been
> > here...you're
> > > allowed to be as incorrect as you like, and I'm
> > > allowed to perceive you that way, whether you see
> > it
> > > that way or not.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > And yes, it is totally bad for the soul. I
> > believe
> > > > in the
> > > > existence of the soul, I just don't believe in
> > its
> > > > survival
> > > > after death. That's for cowards who don't want
> > to
> > > > accept that they must die and stay dead.
> > >
> > > Death is a part of Life--they're not
> > opposites--our
> > > energies continue into perpetuity.  Any scientist
> > will
> > > tell you that there is no energy on earth that can
> > be
> > > made to disappear completely--it merely transforms
> > > into something else.
> > >
> > > It has nothing to do with being a coward or not.  
> > If
> > > one leaves one's body and is awake, as everyone
> > does
> > > when sleeping, it's enough proof for me that there
> > is
> > > a soul. You're crossing a room.  No, you're
> > floating
> > > across the room.  You look down at your body.  No
> > > body.  A light the color of a Peace Rose.  Is that
> > > Life?
> > >
> > > >
> > > > And I aint got no agenda.
> > >
> > > Well, good, I'm glad to hear that!
> > >
> > >  If you or others want to
> > > > believe in up to 5 impossible things before
> > > > breakfast
> > > > like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, hey!
> > be
> > > > my guest!
> > > >
> > > Thanks, my friend, for taking a different tone
> > with
> > > me.
> > >
> > > Best to you,
> > >
> > > Pepi
> > > > Best,
> > > >
> > > > Mike
> > > >
> > > > P.S. When it comes to learning foreign
> > languages,
> > 
> === message truncated ===
> 
> 
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