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I think it's very important to come to the realization that people (and societies) are CHANGING, and have been continually and directionally changing for hundreds of years now.

FIRST, it is becoming more and more difficult to believe in "magic," as civilization progresses. A few hundred years ago not only was it EASY to believe that some sort of "god" must have placed life on our planet, it was almost NECESSARY: giraffes, after all, don't just "pop" out of rocks! These things had to come from SOMEWHERE--they don't just grow from nothing (until, that is, we discovered a great deal of evidence and process that shows they probably did that very thing!). Fifty years ago it was PERFECTLY reasonable for most major universities in the US to have departments of parapsychology: SO MANY people reported psi phenomenon, after all--it was taken as a given that such things EXIST, and it was time to focus some scientific investigation on the phenomenon...until those departments couldn't seem to actually FIND the phenomenon to study!

Furthermore, worldwide communications and mixing of cultures have shown what is ANALOGOUS among all or most cultures--that they all seem to invent gods and create and sustain superstitious beliefs. People have come to see that others seem to love to report FANTASTIC things, and then others follow. It becomes more and more apparent every year that MAGIC THINGS DON'T EXIST. The Leprechauns have vanished.

SECOND, at the same time, we're finding more and more that the very FABRIC OF EXISTENCE seems to be magical! Using the most ORDINARY of processes: observation, consideration, testing (i.e., science) we've visited the moon, we can schedule to fly around the world, we make machines that do something quite close to thinking out of exquisitely structurally detailed pieces of rock (silicon integrated circuits)...not to mention the revelations of quantum mechanics.

It used to be that anything could be true, that you were stubborn and incurious if you didn't admit some plausibility for ANY report of ANYTHING, that belief DEFINED YOU, and that you HAD to believe something...or else you had NOTHING in your head.

Now...reality is STEAMROLLING over belief. A significant part of the world now sees "belief" (in anything not directly observable) as nearly a JOKE. Beliefs are seen as "local quaintness." And strangely, the same people who "believe" seem BLIND to the ACTUAL MAGIC that is created every single day, all over the world. Technology is taken for granted, and is intellectually uninteresting to "believers." Such people are more fascinated by "magically" flying that ACTUAL MAGICAL FLYING (in a jet, for example). And the ACTUAL magic that has been created in the last hundred years goes UTTERLY BEYOND THE MAGICAL IMAGINATIONS of people only TWO hundred years ago.

We're living in interesting times, where people's attitudes are ODD (more odd than they used to be), because the world is CHANGING SO FAST--and people aren't keeping up with it.

....but for those who wish to keep up (i.e., those who want to "take in" new realities as they are unveiled) it's necessary to develop ability to DISCRIMINATE the real from the imagined, and to understand the difference between magical thinking and rational thinking. And lots of people are lagging a bit in that area, IMO; again, because things are changing radically even from one generation to the next--so the attitudes and sensibilities we take in by osmosis from our parents NO LONGER WORK WELL in the world we live in.

Simply, the days are nearing an end where simply asserting something fantastic (chi "works" ) is meaningful (or indeed even INTERESTING) to a thoughtful person. We've discovered, finally, after thousands of years of confusion, that not everything is "real," that people make things up or are deluded in what they believe, that some things ARE true, and that mere THINKING and TESTING of what IS true can produce MAGIC! It's an EXCITING and MAGICAL WORLD! And it's no longer NECESSARY TO INVENT THINGS for that to be true!...and it's necessary to be able to separate the true from the imagined in order to best take advantage of human perception and knowledge.

<blockquote data-quote="SWIMfriend" data-source="post: 3515393" data-attributes="member: 1900">I think it&#039;s very important to come to the realization that people (and societies) are CHANGING, and have been continually and directionally changing for hundreds of years now.FIRST, it is becoming more and more difficult to believe in &quot;magic,&quot; as civilization progresses. A few hundred years ago not only was it EASY to believe that some sort of &quot;god&quot; must have placed life on our planet, it was almost NECESSARY: giraffes, after all, don&#039;t just &quot;pop&quot; out of rocks! These things had to come from SOMEWHERE--they don&#039;t just grow from nothing (until, that is, we discovered a great deal of evidence and process that shows they probably did that very thing!). Fifty years ago it was PERFECTLY reasonable for most major universities in the US to have departments of parapsychology: SO MANY people reported psi phenomenon, after all--it was taken as a given that such things EXIST, and it was time to focus some scientific investigation on the phenomenon...until those departments couldn&#039;t seem to actually FIND the phenomenon to study!Furthermore, worldwide communications and mixing of cultures have shown what is ANALOGOUS among all or most cultures--that they all seem to invent gods and create and sustain superstitious beliefs. People have come to see that others seem to love to report FANTASTIC things, and then others follow. It becomes more and more apparent every year that MAGIC THINGS DON&#039;T EXIST. The Leprechauns have vanished.SECOND, at the same time, we&#039;re finding more and more that the very FABRIC OF EXISTENCE seems to be magical! Using the most ORDINARY of processes: observation, consideration, testing (i.e., science) we&#039;ve visited the moon, we can schedule to fly around the world, we make machines that do something quite close to thinking out of exquisitely structurally detailed pieces of rock (silicon integrated circuits)...not to mention the revelations of quantum mechanics.It used to be that anything could be true, that you were stubborn and incurious if you didn&#039;t admit some plausibility for ANY report of ANYTHING, that belief DEFINED YOU, and that you HAD to believe something...or else you had NOTHING in your head.Now...reality is STEAMROLLING over belief. A significant part of the world now sees &quot;belief&quot; (in anything not directly observable) as nearly a JOKE. Beliefs are seen as &quot;local quaintness.&quot; And strangely, the same people who &quot;believe&quot; seem BLIND to the ACTUAL MAGIC that is created every single day, all over the world. Technology is taken for granted, and is intellectually uninteresting to &quot;believers.&quot; Such people are more fascinated by &quot;magically&quot; flying that ACTUAL MAGICAL FLYING (in a jet, for example). And the ACTUAL magic that has been created in the last hundred years goes UTTERLY BEYOND THE MAGICAL IMAGINATIONS of people only TWO hundred years ago.We&#039;re living in interesting times, where people&#039;s attitudes are ODD (more odd than they used to be), because the world is CHANGING SO FAST--and people aren&#039;t keeping up with it.....but for those who wish to keep up (i.e., those who want to &quot;take in&quot; new realities as they are unveiled) it&#039;s necessary to develop ability to DISCRIMINATE the real from the imagined, and to understand the difference between magical thinking and rational thinking. And lots of people are lagging a bit in that area, IMO; again, because things are changing radically even from one generation to the next--so the attitudes and sensibilities we take in by osmosis from our parents NO LONGER WORK WELL in the world we live in.Simply, the days are nearing an end where simply asserting something fantastic (chi &quot;works&quot; ) is meaningful (or indeed even INTERESTING) to a thoughtful person. We&#039;ve discovered, finally, after thousands of years of confusion, that not everything is &quot;real,&quot; that people make things up or are deluded in what they believe, that some things ARE true, and that mere THINKING and TESTING of what IS true can produce MAGIC! It&#039;s an EXCITING and MAGICAL WORLD! And it&#039;s no longer NECESSARY TO INVENT THINGS for that to be true!...and it&#039;s necessary to be able to separate the true from the imagined in order to best take advantage of human perception and knowledge.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="SWIMfriend, post: 3515393, member: 1900"] I think it's very important to come to the realization that people (and societies) are CHANGING, and have been continually and directionally changing for hundreds of years now. FIRST, it is becoming more and more difficult to believe in "magic," as civilization progresses. A few hundred years ago not only was it EASY to believe that some sort of "god" must have placed life on our planet, it was almost NECESSARY: giraffes, after all, don't just "pop" out of rocks! These things had to come from SOMEWHERE--they don't just grow from nothing (until, that is, we discovered a great deal of evidence and process that shows they probably did that very thing!). Fifty years ago it was PERFECTLY reasonable for most major universities in the US to have departments of parapsychology: SO MANY people reported psi phenomenon, after all--it was taken as a given that such things EXIST, and it was time to focus some scientific investigation on the phenomenon...until those departments couldn't seem to actually FIND the phenomenon to study! Furthermore, worldwide communications and mixing of cultures have shown what is ANALOGOUS among all or most cultures--that they all seem to invent gods and create and sustain superstitious beliefs. People have come to see that others seem to love to report FANTASTIC things, and then others follow. It becomes more and more apparent every year that MAGIC THINGS DON'T EXIST. The Leprechauns have vanished. SECOND, at the same time, we're finding more and more that the very FABRIC OF EXISTENCE seems to be magical! Using the most ORDINARY of processes: observation, consideration, testing (i.e., science) we've visited the moon, we can schedule to fly around the world, we make machines that do something quite close to thinking out of exquisitely structurally detailed pieces of rock (silicon integrated circuits)...not to mention the revelations of quantum mechanics. It used to be that anything could be true, that you were stubborn and incurious if you didn't admit some plausibility for ANY report of ANYTHING, that belief DEFINED YOU, and that you HAD to believe something...or else you had NOTHING in your head. Now...reality is STEAMROLLING over belief. A significant part of the world now sees "belief" (in anything not directly observable) as nearly a JOKE. Beliefs are seen as "local quaintness." And strangely, the same people who "believe" seem BLIND to the ACTUAL MAGIC that is created every single day, all over the world. Technology is taken for granted, and is intellectually uninteresting to "believers." Such people are more fascinated by "magically" flying that ACTUAL MAGICAL FLYING (in a jet, for example). And the ACTUAL magic that has been created in the last hundred years goes UTTERLY BEYOND THE MAGICAL IMAGINATIONS of people only TWO hundred years ago. We're living in interesting times, where people's attitudes are ODD (more odd than they used to be), because the world is CHANGING SO FAST--and people aren't keeping up with it. ....but for those who wish to keep up (i.e., those who want to "take in" new realities as they are unveiled) it's necessary to develop ability to DISCRIMINATE the real from the imagined, and to understand the difference between magical thinking and rational thinking. And lots of people are lagging a bit in that area, IMO; again, because things are changing radically even from one generation to the next--so the attitudes and sensibilities we take in by osmosis from our parents NO LONGER WORK WELL in the world we live in. Simply, the days are nearing an end where simply asserting something fantastic (chi "works" ) is meaningful (or indeed even INTERESTING) to a thoughtful person. We've discovered, finally, after thousands of years of confusion, that not everything is "real," that people make things up or are deluded in what they believe, that some things ARE true, and that mere THINKING and TESTING of what IS true can produce MAGIC! It's an EXCITING and MAGICAL WORLD! And it's no longer NECESSARY TO INVENT THINGS for that to be true!...and it's necessary to be able to separate the true from the imagined in order to best take advantage of human perception and knowledge. [/QUOTE]