Success is one of those concepts that we all understand, and yet, in reality it means something different to each individual. What might represent financial abundance to you might represent poverty to someone like Donald Trump.

Your concept of being physically fit is probably not the same as that of an elite Olympic athlete. While swimming a quarter of a mile might represent your new personal best, to someone about to swim the English Channel it doesnt mean much.On the other hand, personal success adds a lot of clarity to theconcept of being successful.

To be successful in any endeavor the first thing we need to do is to identify our own definition of of what personal success in that area would mean. Your pattern of achievement will follow your definition. Many people focus on being successful in just one area of their life such as relationships or business. Thats probably why it is so common to see those who are very successful in one area, but struggling in others.

Another thing that can happen when pursuing success is that we choose to make a conscious trade off by neglecting one or more aspects of life in order to succeed in another. For example, workaholics dont generally have the most meaningful family lives. Everyone at work may see them as extremely successful, but is that how their families are likely to feel?

On the other side of the spectrum we might find a very devoted family man who excels at being a husband and father, but struggles to make ends meet. While he has succeeded in an area that a workaholic has not, his attainment probably doesntbring him much recognition from the business community.

While any level of accomplishment, in any area of life, can be gratifying, I prefer a much broader and more balanced version of being successful. I would rather raise the level of my whole life experience than pursue billionaire status while everything else falls by the wayside. Life should be viewed as a synergistic adventure where goals in one area contribute to the whole. My concept of personal success is actually much more synergistic in nature.

So when we think of living a truly successful life, we are really talking about having a reasonable measure of success in many different areas. For that to be a reality, its absolutely vital that we establish a definition for what it means to succeed in each of those areas and then analyze how succeeding in that area can contribute to the other areas. This is the only way that we can gauge our personal success progress without throwing everything else out of balance.

If you were to list the various important areas of your life that you would like to keep in balance, what would you include? The reason I am writing this article is not to give you my definition of personal success, but to encourage you to think about what synergistic, whole life success means to you personally.

What areas of life matter most to your broader version of being successful? For you to feel like a totally successful person, what elements would need to be included? If you are willing to take the time to actually define your vision of personal success, then you can design a plan that contributes to that vision. If you ignore this step, you may end up neglecting the most important areas of your life in pursuit of a mirage.

People tend to measure success by the results that they can see. Sadly, many people consider material wealth as the most accurate indicator of a successful person. When you look for signs of success, what do you see? Do you consider the wonderful husband and father of modest means who is well liked and appreciated by everyone he knows as successful? How about the very wealthy person who makes everyone around him miserable, but drives a Rolls Royce Phantom and lives in a 27 room mansion?

It is important to realize that successful is not so much something that we do, its something we become. First we succeed on the inside, in our minds, and then we can become successful on the outside. So before you go chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, why not take the time to figure out exactly what personal success means to you?

How much money would it take for you to feel successful? How do you value relationships compared to income? The lines are open!

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What Does Personal Success Mean to You? - Life Skills for ...

The bottom line

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Skyventure International 2013. A Semantic Websnack.

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Images show tunnels in Hollywood, Austin, Singapore, Montral, Seattle and on a cruise ship.

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This is what we should live for, Danlo: the heightening of our sensibilities, the rarefying of our desire, the deepening of our purpose, the vastening of our selves. The power to overcome ourselves. To be more. Or rather, to become more. Who hasn't dreamed of such becoming? - David Zindell: "The Broken God".

Lord Martin Rees, member of the Oxford Martin School Advisory Council, Fellow of Trinity College and Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, giving the 10 year anniversary lecture for the Oxford Martin School.

Transhumanisme is mainstream geworden.

In den beginne had je het Extropy-Institute. Toen ik mij aansloot bij dit instituut, ca 1997/98, was het een gezelschap met een zeer hoogwaardige mailinglist. In Nederland was toen Transcedo in oprichting, transhumanisme met een Nederlandse couleur locale. Een klein groepje van zes leden, die eens per maand op het centraal station in Utrecht bij elkaar kwamen om te discussiren over zaken waarvan iedereen indertijd dacht dat het sciencefiction was, maar waarvan sommige inmiddels gerealiseerd zijn en de meeste andere zodanig binnen bereik liggen dat vrijwel niemand meer twijfelt aan de toekomstige mogelijkheid ervan.

Grootste wapenfeit van Transcedo: het organiseren in 1998 van de eerste Transvision: de bijeenkomst van Europese Transhumanisten, in Weesp. Een initiatief dat daarna jaarlijks herhaald werd in repectievelijk Stockholm (1999), Londen (2000) en Berlijn (2001), waarna in 2002 Nederland weer aan de beurt had moeten zijn. We kregen het in dat jaar echter niet meer voor elkaar. Waarom niet? Iedereen gaf inmiddels zijn eigen invulling aan het begrip transhumanisme en daarmee aan hoe zo'n symposium ingevuld zou moeten worden. Transcedo bestaat inmiddels eigenlijk alleen nog in naam; de leden die cryogene suspensie als de belangrijkste activiteit van Transcedo zagen, hebben een nieuwe vereniging opgericht, de DCO (Dutch Cryonics Organisation).

Inmiddels zijn er meerdere verenigingen en organisaties opgericht met een min of meer transhumanistische doelstelling en, door het veranderen van het karakter van het internet, vinden de meeste activiteiten plaats via Facebook en Google+, al zijn er natuurlijk nog steeds websites. Zoals bijvoorbeeld deze :-), al wordt hij dan ook onregelmatig bijgehouden 🙁 want, zoals gezegd, het meeste nieuws - als dat er al is - wordt gebracht via de social media.

Bij gebrek aan nieuws worden er dan wel eens stukjes geschreven (en gerecycled!) die misschien wat meer navelstaarderig zijn, zoals deze: "Transhumanism: there are [at least] ten different philosophical categories; which one(s) are you?" door Hank Pellissier op het forum van het Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Pellissier onderscheidt tien soorten transhumanisme en wel:

Extropianism

Singularitarianism

The Hedonistic Imperative

Democratic Transhumanism

Survivalist Transhumanism

Libertarian Transhumanism

Religious Transhumanism

Cosmopolitan Transhumanism

Cosmism

en

Anarcho-Transhumanism

Uiteraard wordt in het artikel uitgelegd welk label voor welk type transhumanist staat, maar om de zaak overzichtelijk te houden zijn er mengvormen. Pellissier daagt de lezer dan ook uit kleur te bekennen en op het forum aan te geven welk type transhumanist hij of zij is en, interessant dit te doen aan de hand van een Pie-Chart, die je hier kunt maken.

In 2004 heb ik mijn positie binnen het transhumanisme al eens bepaald; voor het grootste gedeelte gebaseerd op de toen al verouderde principes van het Extropy-Institute. Maar goed, ik heb ook zo'n pie-chart gemaakt en ik kwam er, niet geheel tot mijn verbazing achter, dat mijn ideen de laatste jaren wat zijn gaan verschuiven, je ontwikkelt je natuurlijk, en het zou zomaar kunnen dat deze chart over vijf jaar, vijf maanden of zelfs over vijf dagen al niet meer klopt.

Goed, op het gevaar af dat ik erop vastgepind ga worden, is hier mijn pie-chart.

Allemaal angst. Doom and Gloom. Zelf kan ik niet wachten....

Via Singularity Weblog.

Mooie film van Richard Mans.

In this breathtaking science fiction spectacle, a strange mechanical device lands on a desolate world and uses the planet to undergo a startling transformation, that has profound implications for an entire galaxy.

abiogenesisfilm.com facebook.com/abiogenesisfilm

Abiogenese is het ontstaan van leven uit niet-levende materie.

An Oxford philosophy professor who has studied existential threats ranging from nuclear war to superbugs says the biggest danger of all may be superintelligence.

Superintelligence is any intellect that outperforms human intellect in every field, and Nick Bostrom thinks its most likely form will be a machine -- artificial intelligence.

There are two ways artificial intelligence could go, Bostrom argues. It could greatly improve our lives and solve the world's problems, such as disease, hunger and even pain. Or, it could take over and possibly kill all or many humans. As it stands, the catastrophic scenario is more likely, according to Bostrom, who has a background in physics, computational neuroscience and mathematical logic.

"Superintelligence could become extremely powerful and be able to shape the future according to its preferences," Bostrom told me. "If humanity was sane and had our act together globally, the sensible course of action would be to postpone development of superintelligence until we figure out how to do so safely."

Bostrom, the founding director of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, lays out his concerns in his new book, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. His book makes a harrowing comparison between the fate of horses and humans:

Horses were initially complemented by carriages and ploughs, which greatly increased the horse's productivity. Later, horses were substituted for by automobiles and tractors. When horses became obsolete as a source of labor, many were sold off to meatpackers to be processed into dog food, bone meal, leather, and glue. In the United States, there were about 26 million horses in 1915. By the early 1950s, 2 million remained.

The same dark outcome, Bostrom said, could happen to humans once AI makes our labor and intelligence obsolete.

Lees meer.

Een nieuw boek over transhumanisme komt binnenkort uit: "Religion and Transhumanism. The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement". Een fraaie cover van een biddende post-human:

die gelijk ook een ernstige vraag opwerpt: religie en transhumanisme, is dat niet in tegenspraak met elkaar?

Sebastian Seung, schreef in 2013 het boek "Connectome: how the brains wiring makes us who we are". Zo'n beetje de Amerikaanse tegenhanger van Dick Swaab's "Wij zijn ons brein". In tegenstelling tot Swaab staat Seung niet helemaal afwijzend tegenover cryonics en bespreekt in hoofdstuk 14 van zijn boek de kansen voor het slagen van cryogene suspensie als zijn model van het brein klopt. Dat is de reden dat het boek door veel transhumanisten gelezen is. Het boek eindigt min of meer (er volgt nog een epiloog) met de volgende bijzondere uitspraak:

The bible said that God made man in his own image. The German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach said that man made God in his own image. The transhumanists say that humanity will make itself into God.

Zoals uit de tagline van deze website (een citaat uit "Don Juan und Faust" van Christian Dietrich Grabbe) blijkt, is dat ook hoe ik het transhumanisme interpreteer.

De uitgever rechtvaardigt het boek als volgt:

"Transhumanism" or "human enhancement" is an intellectual and cultural movement that advocates the use of emerging technologies to change human traits. Although they may sound like science fiction, the possibilities suggested by transhumanism are very real, and the questions they raise have no easy answers. If these enhancementsespecially major ones like the indefinite extension of healthy human lifebecome widely available, they would arguably have a more radical impact on humankind than any other development in history.

This book comprises essays that explore transhumanism and the issues that surround it, addressing numerous fascinating questions posed by scholars of religion from various traditions. How will "immortality" or extreme longevity change our religious beliefs and practices? How might phamaceuticals enhance spiritual experiences? Will "post-human" technologies be available to all persons, or will a superior "post-human race" arise to dominate the human species? The discussions are as intriguing as the future they suggest.

De redacteurs van "Religion and Transhumanism", Calvin Mercer, "professor of religion" en Tracy J. Trothen, "associate professor of ethics and theology" hebben duidelijk het accent gelegd op de ethische kant van het transhumanisme:

Gaap. Die discussies zijn inmiddels al heel vaak gevoerd en op zijn minst doet het boek ongeveer hetzelfde als het op deze website eerder besproken boek Human Being @ Risk van Mark Coeckelbergh, behalve dat "Religion and Transhumanism" door meerdere auteurs bij elkaar is geschreven, waaronder Anders Sandberg, dus mijn hoop is dat dit boek daar iets nieuws aan gaat toevoegen, mogelijk - maar het boek moet nog uitkomen, dus ik moet het nog lezen - in ieder geval meer een "dialogue" gaat opleveren. Het boek is ook iets aangenamer geprijsd: 46 voor 472 pagina's, en verschijnt in november 2014.

Via The British Institute of Posthuman Studies - A Critical Forum for Transhumanist Thought. Written by: Peter Brietbart and Marco Vega

We investigate three dominant areas of transhumanism: super longevity, super intelligence and super wellbeing, and briefly cover the ideas of thinkers Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil and David Pearce.

PostHuman: An Introduction to Transhumanism is the first of our planned video series on transhumanism, titled PostHuman.

Interessant artikel in Wired.co.uk in de afdeling Transhumanism: Sleep replacement and 3D-printed shapeshifting: a bodyhacker's wish list. Daaruit de volgende WishList:

2013 to 2014 Wireless file storage Subdermal navigation system Brain-only control of temperature of my house

Five to ten years Replacement of heart Sensors on remaining major organs Proximity sensors Internal alarms Enriched blood (enriched with oxygen)

10 to 20 years Replacement of most major organs Maths coprocessor (OMG I want this so bad) Replacement and entire brain system (audio cortex maybe?) Toxin filtration Replacement of hands B2C (brain to computer) wireless interface with internet Emotional "volume" B2B (brain to brain) wireless interface

20 to 40 years Majority of body replaced 50 percent plus of brain replaced Back up "brain" Levitation tech Self-repair No need for food or oxygen Temporal tuning (slow the perception of time)

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Transhumanisme | Don Juan: Wozu bermenschlich, wenn du ...

Let's face it: the only real justification for using vaccines to "immunize" ourselves against disease is derived from the natural fact that when challenged our immune systems launch a successful response. Were it not for the elegance, proficiency, and mostly asymptomatic success of our recombinatorial (antibody-based) immune systems in dealing so well with infectious challenges, vaccination would have no cause, no scientific explanation, no justification whatsoever.*

In fact, ever since the adaptive, antigen-specific immune system evolved in early vertebrates 500 million years ago, our bodies have been doing a pretty good job of keeping us alive on this planet without need for synthetic, vaccine-mediated immunity. Indeed, infectious challenges are necessary for the development of a healthy immune system and in order to prevent autoimmune conditions from emerging as a result of TH2 dominance.

In other words, take away these natural infectious challenges, and the immune system can and will turn upon itself; take way these infectious challenges and lasting immunity against tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pathogens we are exposed to throughout our lives, would not be possible.

Can vaccines really co-opt, improve upon, and replace natural immunity with synthetic immunity?

How many will this require?

Are we not already at the critical threshold of vaccine overload?

By "improving" on our humanness in this way, are we not also at the same moment departing dramatically from it?

Presently, compliance with the CDC's immunization schedule for children from birth through 6 years of age requires 60+ vaccines* be administered, purportedly to make them healthier than non-vaccinated or naturally immunized ones.** Sixty vaccines, while a disturbingly high amount (for those who retain the complementary human faculties of reason and intuition), does not, however, correctly convey just how many antigenic challenges these children face in total...

A new paper published in the journal Lupus entitled, "Mechanisms of aluminum adjuvant toxicity and autoimmunity in pediatric populations," points out that as many as 125 antigenic compounds, along with high amounts of aluminum (AI) adjuvants are given to children by the time they are 4 and 6 years old, in some "developed" countries.

The authors also state: "Immune challenges during early development, including those vaccine-induced, can lead to permanent detrimental alterations of the brain and immune function. Experimental evidence also shows that simultaneous administration of as little as two to three immune adjuvants can overcome genetic resistance to autoimmunity."

Vaccine adjuvants are agents that accelerate, enhance or prolong the antigen-specific immune responses vaccines intend to elicit. In essence, they enhance vaccine "efficacy," which is defined by the ability to raise antibody titers. A vaccine's "effectiveness," on the other hand -- and which is the real-world measure of whether a vaccine works or not -- is not ascertainable through the number of antibodies produced. Whether or not a vaccine or vaccine adjuvant boosts antibodies that have actual affinity with the intended pathogen is what counts in the real world, i.e. antibody-antigen affinity, (and not the sheer volume of antibodies produced) determines whether a vaccine will be effective or not.

The semantic confusion between "vaccine efficacy" and "vaccine effectiveness" ensures that vaccines which disrupt/harm/hypersensitize the immune system by stimulating unnaturally elevated antibody titers may obtain FDA approval, despite the fact that they have never been shown to confer real-world protection. *** Some vaccine researchers have even suggested that breastfeeding, which may reduce vaccine-induced elevations in antibody titers in infants, i.e. its iatrogenic disease-promoting effects, should temporarily be delayed in order not to interfere with the vaccine's so-called "efficacy."

Common adjuvants include: aluminum, mineral oil, detergent stabilized squalene-in-water, pertactin, formaldehyde, viral DNA, phosphate, all of which are inherently toxic, no matter what the route of exposure.

Many parents today do not consider how dangerous injecting adjuvants directly into the muscle (and sometimes blood, due to incorrect and/or non-existent aspiration techniques), especially in non-infected, healthy offspring whose immune systems are only just learning to launch effective responses to the innumerable pathogens already blanketing their environment.

Adequate breastfeeding, in fact, is the most successful strategy in the prevention of morbidity and mortality associated with infectious challenges, and is so distinctively mammalian (i.e. obtaining nourishment and immunity through the mammary glands), that without adequate levels (only 11.3% of infants in the US were exclusively breastfed through the first six months of life (Source: CDC, 2004)) infants become much more readily susceptible to illness.

Not only have humans strayed from their mammalian roots, by creating and promoting infant formula over breast milk, and then promoting synthetic immunity via vaccines over the natural immunity conferred through breastfeeding and sunlight exposure, for instance, but implicit within the dominant medical model to replace natural immunity with a synthetic one, is a philosophy of transhumanism, a movement which intends to improve upon and transcend our humanity, and has close affiliation with some aspects of eugenics.***

The CDC's immunization schedule reflects a callous lack of regard for the 3 billion years of evolution that brought us to our present, intact form, without elaborate technologies like vaccination -- and likely only because we never had them at our disposal to inflict potentially catastrophic harm to ourselves.

The CDC is largely responsible for generating the mass public perception that there is greater harm in not "prophylactically" injecting well over 100 distinct disease-promoting and immune-disruptive substances into the bodies of healthy children. They have been successful in instilling the concept into the masses that Nature failed in her design, and that medical and genetic technologies and interventions can be used to create a superior human being.

Continue to Page 2

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

Read the rest here:
Vaccination Agenda: An Implicit Transhumanism / Dehumanism

by Eric Steinhart Department of Philosophy William Paterson University Journal of Evolution and Technology

Vol. 20 Issue 1 - pgs 1-22

December 2008

from JournalOfEvolutionAndTechnology Website

Omega Point Theology Being Used As Framework For 'Christian' Transhumanism

Tomorrow's Nephilim As Spiritual Leaders Of New Global Order

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was among the first to give serious consideration to the future of human evolution. His work advocates both biotechnologies (e.g., genetic engineering) and intelligence technologies. He discusses the emergence of a global computation-communication system (and is said by some to have been the first to have envisioned the Internet).

He advocates the development of a global society.

Teilhard is almost surely the first to discuss the acceleration of technological progress to a Singularity in which human intelligence will become super-intelligence. He discusses the spread of human intelligence into the universe and its amplification into a cosmic intelligence. More recently, his work has been taken up by Barrow and Tipler; Tipler; Moravec; and Kurzweil.

Of course, Teilhards Omega Point Theory is deeply Christian, which may be difficult for secular transhumanists.

But transhumanism cannot avoid a fateful engagement with Christianity. Christian institutions may support or oppose transhumanism. Since Christianity is an extremely powerful cultural force in the West, it is imperative for transhumanism to engage it carefully.

A serious study of Teilhard can help that engagement and will thus be rewarding to both communities.

1. Introduction Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was a Jesuit paleontologist.[1] He combined his scientific study of the fossil record with his Christian faith to produce a general theory of evolution. Teilhards body of work has much to offer transhumanists, who advocate the use of technology to enhance human capacities and see current human beings as in transition to posthuman forms.

There are several specific reasons for transhumanists to study Teilhards work.

The first reason is that Teilhard was one of the first to articulate transhumanist themes. Transhumanists advocate the ethical use of technology for human enhancement. Teilhard's writing likewise argues for the ethical application of technology in order to advance humanity beyond the limitations of natural biology. Teilhard explicitly argues for the use of both bio-technologies (e.g., genetic engineering) and intelligence technologies, and develops several other themes often found in transhumanist writings.

He discusses the emergence of a global computation-communication system, and is said by some to have been the first to have envisioned the Internet (Kreisberg, 1995). He advocates the development of an egalitarian global society. He was almost certainly the first to discuss the acceleration of technological progress to a kind of Singularity in which human intelligence will become super-intelligence.

He discusses the spread of human intelligence into the universe and its amplification into a cosmic-intelligence.

The second reason for transhumanists to study Teilhard is that his thought has influenced transhumanism itself. In particular, Teilhard develops an Omega Point Theory.

An Omega Point Theory (OPT) claims that the universe is evolving towards a godlike final state.

Teilhards OPT was later refined and developed by Barrow and Tipler (1986) and by Tipler alone (1988; 1995).

Ideas from the Barrow-Tipler OPT were, in turn, taken up by many transhumanists (see, for example, Moravec (1988; 2000) and Dewdney (1998)). Kurzweil also articulates a somewhat weaker OPT.

He says:

evolution moves inexorably toward our conception of God, albeit never reaching this ideal

(2005: 476; see also 375, 389-390)

Many transhumanists work within the conceptual architecture of Teilhards OPT without being aware of its origins. Indeed, Teilhard is mostly ignored in the histories of transhumanism; e.g., he is mentioned once and only in passing in Bostroms (2005) detailed history of the transhumanist movement.

The third reason for transhumanists to study Teilhard is that he develops his transhumanist ideas within a Christian context. Teilhard shows how one might develop a Christian transhumanism. Although some secular transhumanists may be inclined to react negatively to any mention of Christianity, such hostility may prove politically costly.

Transhumanism and Christianity are not essentially enemies.

They share some common themes (Hopkins, 2005). Of course, it is understandable that many transhumanists reject the superstitious aspects of Christian doctrine and the authoritarian aspects of Christian institutions. Likewise, Teilhard wants to abandon those aspects of Christianity. He argues that Christ is at work in evolution, that Christ is at work in technology, and that the work of Christ ultimately aims at the perfection of human biology. Christianity is a complex network of doctrines and institutions.

A study of Teilhard can help transhumanists to locate and carefully cultivate friends in that network and to locate, and carefully defend against, opponents.

The fourth reason for transhumanists to study Teilhard is that they are likely to need to defend themselves against conservative forms of Christianity. The dominant forms of Christianity today (at least in the USA) are conservative. As the cultural visibility of transhumanism grows, conservative Christians will increasingly pay it their attention.

They may feel increasingly threatened by transhumanism and come to see it as a heresy (Bainbridge, 2005). Various conservative Christians have already opposed transhumanism (Wiker, 2003; Hook, 2004; Daly, 2004; Hart, 2005). Since Christianity is an extremely powerful cultural force in the West, it is imperative for transhumanism to engage it carefully.

Conservative Christian forces have already opposed various biotechnologies (such as embryonic stem cell research and cloning) and may oppose all the enhancement techniques that transhumanists advocate. Conservative Christianity currently has the political power to effectively shut transhumanism down in the West.

Teilhard was attacked by conservative Catholics, and transhumanists may have to fight similar battles over similar issues. And yet Teilhard gained a surprisingly large following both within and beyond the church.[2]

A study of his work can help transhumanists develop nuanced strategies for defending against attacks from conservative Christians.

The fifth reason for transhumanists to study Teilhard is that they may want to build bridges to liberal and progressive forms of Christianity. Teilhard believed that science and technology have positive roles to play in building the City of God in this world.

A study of Teilhards work may help transhumanists to explore the ways that transhumanism can obtain support:

from Christian millenarianism (see Bozeman, 1997; Noble, 1999)

from Irenaean and neo-Irenaean theodicies (see Hick, 1977; Walker, Undated)[3]

from liberal Protestantism (see Arnow, 1950)

from process theology (see Cobb and Griffin, 1976)

Teilhard believed that everyone has a right to enter the kingdom of heaven it isnt reserved for any special sexual, racial, or economic elite.

A study of Teilhards writings can help transhumanism embrace a deep conception of social justice and expand its conception of social concern (see Garner, 2005). A study of Teilhard can help transhumanists make beneficial conceptual, and even political, connections to progressive Christian institutions.

My goal in this paper is to present the thought of Teilhard de Chardin in a way that is defensible and accessible to transhumanists.

Teilhard was working in the early twentieth century, at a time when biology was primitive and computer science non-existent. Many of his ideas are presented in a nineteenth-century vocabulary that is now conceptually obsolete.

My method is to present these ideas in a charitable way using a contemporary conceptual vocabulary, and to show how they have been refined by transhumanists such as Tipler, Moravec, and Kurzweil. One might say this paper offers a transhumanist reading of Teilhard or even a Teilhardian transhumanism. Since I make extensive use of computational ideas, I am offering a computational model of Teilhards thought.

I thereby hope to make his ideas accessible and to encourage further study of Teilhard among transhumanists.

Teilhard produced an extensive body of work that may be of interest to them;[4] there is also an enormous secondary literature on Teilhard, much of which may be of great interest to transhumanists.[5]

2. Teilhard and computation

2.1 Complexity and logical depth Physical things can be compared in terms of their size, mass, and so on. But they can also be compared in terms of their complexity. Complexity is an objective physical property and the scale of complexities is an objective physical scale.

Teilhard says:

the complexity of a thing... [is] the quality the thing possesses of being composed (a) of a larger number of elements, which are (b) more tightly organized among themselves.... [Complexity depends] not only on the number and diversity of the elements included in each case, but at least as much on the number and correlative variety of the links formed between these elements.

(Teilhard, 1959, The Future of Man, page 98; henceforth abbreviated FUT.)

A first refinement of Teilhards thought requires that we update his definition of complexity.

We can define the complexity of an object as the amount of computational work it takes to simulate the object. It takes a more powerful computer to simulate a more complex object. Bennett (1990) makes this idea more precise by defining complexity as logical depth.

He says:

Logical depth = Execution time required to generate the object in question by a near-incompressible universal computer program, i.e., one not itself computable as output of a significantly more concise program.... Logically deep objects... contain internal evidence of having been the result of a long computation or slow-to-simulate dynamical process.

(Bennett, 1990: 142.)

Teilhard observes that increasingly complex systems are emerging in our universe over time.

We can plot this emergence on a graph with two axes: a time axis and a complexity axis (Teilhard, 1973, My fundamental vision in Towards the Future, page 166; henceforth abbreviated MFV). Teilhard refers to the emergence of increasingly complex systems as complexification. Today we are more likely to talk about self-organization. But the idea is the same.

According to Bennett, we should expect more complex objects to appear later in any evolutionary process.

Teilhard would agree.

More:
Teilhard de Chardin and Transhumanism

Fat Loss via Better Science and Simplicity

It is possible to lose 20 lbs. of bodyfat in 30 days by optimizing any of three factors: exercise, diet, or drug/supplement regimen. Ive seen the elite implementation of all three in working with professional athletes. In this post, well explore what I refer to as the slow-carb diet.

In the last six weeks, I have cut from about 180 lbs. to 165 lbs., while adding about 10 lbs. of muscle, which means Ive lost about 25 lbs. of fat. This is the only diet besides the rather extreme Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD) that has produced veins across my abdomen, which is the last place I lose fat (damn you, Scandinavian genetics). Here are the four simple rules I followed

Rule #1: Avoid white carbohydrates

Avoid any carbohydrate that is or can be white. The following foods are thus prohibited, except for within 1.5 hours of finishing a resistance-training workout of at least 20 minutes in length: bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating anything white, youll be safe.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again

The most successful dieters, regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or fat loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and match, constructing each meal with one from each of the three following groups:

Proteins: Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor Chicken breast or thigh Grass-fed organic beef Pork

Legumes: Lentils Black beans Pinto beans

Vegetables: Spinach Asparagus Peas Mixed vegetables

Eat as much as you like of the above food items. Just remember: keep it simple. Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Almost all restaurants can give you a salad or vegetables in place of french fries or potatoes. Surprisingly, I have found Mexican food, swapping out rice for vegetables, to be one of the cuisines most conducive to the slow carb diet.

Most people who go on low carbohydrate diets complain of low energy and quit, not because such diets cant work, but because they consume insufficient calories. A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.

Some athletes eat 6-8x per day to break up caloric load and avoid fat gain. I think this is ridiculously inconvenient. I eat 4x per day:

10am breakfast 1pm lunch 5pm smaller second lunch 7:30-9pm sports training 10pm dinner 12am glass of wine and Discovery Channel before bed

Here are some of my meals that recur again and again:

Scrambled Eggology pourable egg whites with one whole egg, black beans, and microwaved mixed vegetables Grass-fed organic beef, pinto beans, mixed vegetables, and extra guacamole (Mexican restaurant) Grass-fed organic beef (from Trader Joes), lentils, and mixed vegetables

Rule #3: Dont drink calories

Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened iced tea, tea, diet sodas, coffee (without white cream), or other no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk, normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. Im a wine fanatic and have at least one glass of wine each evening, which I believe actually aids sports recovery and fat-loss. Recent research into resveratrol supports this.

Rule #4: Take one day off per week

I recommend Saturdays as your Dieters Gone Wild day. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. I make myself a little sick and dont want to look at any of it for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function, etc.) doesnt downregulate from extended caloric restriction. Thats right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia.

###

If you enjoyed this post, check out my latest book, The 4-Hour Body, #1 New York Times and #1 Amazon bestseller. You will learn: the finer details of the Slow Carb Diet (outlined in the above post), how I gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, how to produce 15-minute female orgasms, and more.

You can also get the Expanded and Updated 4-Hour Workweek, which includes more than 50 new case studies of luxury lifestyle design, business building, reducing hours 80%+, and world travel.

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Posted on: April 6, 2007.

Watch The Tim Ferriss Experiment, the new #1-rated TV show with "the world's best human guinea pig" (Newsweek), Tim Ferriss. It's Mythbusters meets Jackass. Shot and edited by the Emmy-award winning team behind Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and Parts Unknown. Here's the trailer.

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How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days Without Doing Any ...

An African proverb says, When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside can do you no harm.

Self-awareness is one of themost importantskills for success.How you behave and respond to external situations is governed byinternalmental processes. Self-awareness uncovers anydestructivethought-patterns and unhealthy habits. Thisleads to better decision-making and behavioral responses.

Here are 12 exercises for greater self-awareness:

Before acting on a decision, ask yourself Why? Follow up your response with another Why? And then a third. If you can find three good reasons to pursue something, youll have clarity and be more confident in your actions.

Being self-aware meansknowing your motivesand determining whether theyre reasonable.

The philosopherWittgensteinsaid, The limits of my language means the limits of my world.

Emotions create powerful physical and behavioral responses thatare more complex than happy or sad.Puttingyour feelings into words hasatherapeutic effecton your brain; if youre unable to articulate how you feel, that can create stress. Heres agreat listof feeling words to help withlabelingyour emotions. Increase your emotional vocabulary with one new word each day.

Related:Are You Emotionally Intelligent? Here's How to Know for Sure.

The ability to say no to yourself to put off short-term gratification for the long-term gain is an importantlife-skill. Like a muscle, it is strengthened with exercise. The more you practice saying no to small daily challenges, the better you can withstand major temptations.

There are plenty of daily temptations --social media, junk food, gossiping, Youtube. Make a goal of saying no to five different temptations each day.

A person without self-awareness runs on auto-pilot, and responds withknee-jerk reactions. Self-awareness allows you to assess situations objectively and rationally, without acting onbiasesand stereotypes.

Takea deep breath before you act,especially when a situation triggersanger or frustration. This gives you time to re-assess whether your response will be the best one.

Nobody is perfect. Being aware of your flaws, but failing to accept accountability, is leaving the job half-done. Were often critical of others, whileignorantof our own flaws. Self-awareness helps turn the mirror on ourselves and prevents hypocritical behavior.

Iteration and self-improvement only happens once you recognize a flaw. Create a habit of acknowledging yourmistakes, rather than making excuses.

There is non-stop commentary inour headsthatis not always helpful. A little bit ofnegative self-talkcan spiral into stress and depression.

Pay attention to the way you respond to your successes and failures do you pass off your achievements as luck? And crucify yourself after failures? Positive and negative feedback-loops will form in your mind based offhow you respondto successes and failures. Being tough on yourself needs to be balanced withself-compassion. Celebrate your wins, forgive your losses.

Related:How Talking to Yourself Can Help You Be More Successful

Watching yourself on video can be a cringeworthy experience, but awareness of your body language, posture, and mannerisms improvesyour confidence.

Slouching, or taking a low-power-pose increasescortisoland feeds lowself-esteem, while standing tall or taking a high-power-pose stimulates testosterone and improves your performance. Using hand gestures helps witharticulatingyour thoughts and affects howpeople respond to you.

Record a speech or presentation and evaluate your posture andhand gestures. Watch videos of skilled speakers and adopt their mannerisms to improve your own.

Taking an opposing view forces you to question yourassumptions. Your "default"beliefs and worldview are notalways reasonable; its healthy to argue against yourself and see how your views hold up.

And youll give your brain a good workout. Processing challenging information stimulates newneural connections.

Knowing your personality type allows you to maximizeyour strengths and manage your weaknesses. Understanding your strengths and talents can be the difference between a good choice, and agreatchoice. (Strengths are skills and knowledge that can be acquired, whiletalentsare innate).

Start with understanding where you fall on theintrovert/extrovert spectrum;know yourMyers-Briggstype; and thenconduct a personalSWOTanalysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats).

Keep ajournaland track your progress. How would you rate your current level of self-awareness out of ten? Think about how often you say regretful things; repeat bad habits; make absent-minded decisions; and have erraticthoughts.

Set regular goals, break big goals down into smaller milestones. Ask yourself at the end of each day, What did I do well today? And, How can I improve on this tomorrow?

We all have blind spots in our thinking patterns and behaviors. Asking for regularconstructive feedbackcuts through any self-deceitor one-dimensional views you might hold. But only ask people youd consider mentors those who understand you; whom you respect; and will tell you what you need to hear, not what youwantto hear.

Meditationis a foundational practice for improving self-awareness. To focus solely onyour breathingis to focus on a key internal process. Youll become aware of how your mind wanders, and get better at snapping out of distractions.

For beginners, start with ten minute sessions. Find a quiet place to sit, breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. Count your breaths silently, pulling your mind back when it wanders. See how many breaths you can string together.

Related:Meditation Isn't Just For Hippies: Here is How it Can Help Entrepreneurs

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12 Self-Awareness Exercises That Fuel Success

Join us for the 2016 SDT Conference June 2-5 &Business Pre-Conference with Richard Ryan, Edward Deci & Scott Rigby June 1st

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)is atheory of motivation.It is concerned with supporting our natural or intrinsic tendencies to behave in effective and healthy ways. SDT has been researched and practiced by anetwork of researchersaround the world.

The theory was initially developed by Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, and has been elaborated and refined by scholars from many countries. Deci iscurrentlya professor at the University of Rochester in the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology in Rochester, NY; Ryan, a clinical psychologist, was recently appointed asProfessor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney, Australia. Together and separately, Deci and Ryan have promoted SDT through theory, research, andtheirongoing training of scholars.

This website presents a brief overview of SDT and provides resources that address important issues such as human needs, values, intrinsic motivation, development, motivation across cultures, individual differences, and psychological well-being. Also addressed are the applications of Self-Determination Theory to:

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Self-Determination Theory

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Sri Yog Vedant Seva Samitis all over the world organizes many Geeta Bhagwat Satsang, Meditation Camps all over the world for human upliftment under the guidance of his holiness Sant Sri Asharamji Bapu.

Sant Sri Asharamji Bapu is a self realsied Saint from India, whose presence is today sanctifying the land of India . The Moksha Kutir (cottage of salvation) set up on the banks of the River Sabarmati in Amdavad in the year 1972 has today become a pilgrimage place for spiritual guidance in the name of Sant Sri Asharamji Ashram. Let us have a look at the various altruistic activities for public welfare run under the inspiring guidance of Pujya Bapuji.

Over 300 Ashrams have been established at various places in the country. There are satsanga centres at Matawan, Washington (USA) Toronto ( Canada ) and other places abroad. Shri Yoga Vedanta Seva Samitis: About 1275 Seva Samitis world-wide run by the ashram are engaged in various services for the welfare of all sections of the society.

So the activities are as follows

Satsangas by Pujya Bapuji and His blessed disciples are being continuously carried on in different cities, villages and schools, whereby noble thoughts and traits are promoted in the society.

Today millions of people are getting relief from incurable diseases through the techniques of Pranayama, yogic practices and health-tips in these Satsanga-programmes. Here they are taught to lead a happy and successful life by practicing the values of dharma and the pious knowledge of Vedanta in their daily lives. Besides this, they are thaught ways to Self-realization, the highest goal of life through the combined practice of Bhaktiyoga, Karmayoga and Jnanayoga

millions of people are getting their latent powers awakened through kundalini yoga, meditation and yoga in Dhyana Yoga Shivirs organized in the company of Pujya Bapuji. They are experiencing peace and bliss by becoming free from stress and sensual depravities through meditation. Click here to know more on, Dhyan Yog Shivir

Student life is the basis of human life. To strengthen this, Vidyarthi Utthan Shivirs are organized in the holy company of Pujya Bapuji. In this, students are imparted training in yogic practices, yogasana, meditation, etc. so that they may develop their latent powers and become devoted to their aim in life and be imbued with will-power and discrimination. These children then grow to become noble citizens of tomorrow and glorify their parents, teachers and the nation.

There are crores of initiated disciples of Bapuji throughout the world who are engaged in various activities of public welfare along with their spiritual advancement.

Pujya Bapujis satsanga discourses are being telecast through Aastha, Aastha International, Sanskar and through city-cables.

354 books are published in 14 languages by the ashram. The monthly magazine Rishi Prasad is being published in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu. Kannada and English Languages while another monthly magaine Darvesh Darshan is being published in Sindhi. The monthly news paper Lok Kalyan Setu is being published in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati languages. More than 1.7 million copies of Rishi Prasad are published every month.

More than 17,500 Bal Sanskar Kendras are engaged in the divine work of inculcating noble traits in students

Millions of copies of Yuvadhan Suraksha (Divya Prerana Prakash) have been distributed among students, youths and the common masses. Besides this, thousands of youth upliftment programmes have been organized so far. Yuvadhan Suraksha Abhiyan has instilled new inspiration in the youths.

There are arrangements for Mauna Mandir Sadhana in around 140 ashrams wherein the sadhakas have divine spiritual experiences by observing a vow of silence for 7 days.

Besides special services such as regular free distribution of food grains and bhandaras through Vanvasi Utthan Kendras (Tribal Upliftment Centres) in different parts of the country, distribution of food-grains, clothes, utensils note-book to children, sweets, etc. and cash distribution with bhandaras by Pujya Bapuji are being carried out on a large scale. Regular programmes of kirtan and bhandaras have become a main part of the service activities of the ashram. Millions of poor tribals, deprived and orphans have been benefited through thousands of bhandaras so far.

Articles useful in daily life are distributed in orphanages.

Thousands of ration cards have been distributed by the ashram to the poor, destitute and widows, through which food grains and articles for daily use are distributed among them every month.

Cool butter milk and water outlets are provided at bus-stands, railway stations and public places free of cost.

Under this scheme offered by the ashram, those who have no means of or are unable to earn their livelihood are provided with the benefits of japa, kirtana and satsanga from morning till evening along with food and wages with a view to eradicating poverty and unemployment and sanctifying the atmosphere through japa and kirtana.

Ayurvedic eye-drops and Vastudosha Nivarak (for relief from harmful planetary influences and for promoting peace and happiness) are distributed free of cost as prasada.

The ashram has always been at the top in terms of service and promptitude whenever the country had to face natural calamities. Be it the earthquake of Latur or Bhuj; the famine in Gujarat, the flood in Orissa and Gujarat or the Tsunami disaster the ashram has rendered non-stop services at all places.

9 big Gaushalas are being run by the ashram, where thousands of cows rescued on their way to slaughter houses, are being served. Gaushalas are being run in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and other States.

Huge number of addicted people are becoming de-addicted through the De-addiction campaigns run by the ashram.

These shivirs which have been started with the view to utilize the vacations of students to make them cultured, intelligent, industrious and altruistic have been highly commended by students and their guardians. In these shivirs, students are imparted excellent guidance on important aspects such as yogic science, ideal daily routine, and on how to become ideal students and secure good marks in exams.

Note books, textbooks, uniforms etc. are distributed free of cost to poor, parentless and helpless children. Special note books are produced for children, which carry moral, edifying phrases, inspiring pictures and anecdotes, tips for development of memory power and keys to success.

Carpets, desks chairs etc. too are provided in rural and tribal schools.

Training in meditation, Sadhna, increasing memory power, etc. are imparted by Sadhakas and Sadhikas in various schools.

The ashram had organized this nationwide competition in the years 2002 and 2003. 5,32,799 children had participated in this competition, out of which 1,89,671 competitors came out successful and 3,515 participants were given prizes. Recently in Jan'09 over 4.5 lacs of students participated in Divine Inspiration competition - a competition on book Divine Inspiration.

Harinam Sankirtan Yatras (processions with chanting the Lords Name) and prabhat pheris are organised throughout the country with a view to eradicate thought pollution and make the atmosphere pious, in the course of which sacred literatures, too are distributed.

Medical treatments are provided by expert physicians at various places through acupressure, naturopathy and ayurvedic and homoepathic therapy. Besides this, free medical camps are organised in the remote areas of the country. The ashrams mobile dispensaries provide service even in those tribal and rural areas where medical facilities are not easily available.

Fruits, milk, medicines and sacred literatures are distributed to patients.

Every ashram has one Banyan or Pipal tree which has been endowed with spiritual powers by Pujya Bapuji to help people get their material needs fulfilled. It is referred to as Barhbadshah or Pipal Badshah by devotees. These places have today turned into accomplished spots for getting ones wishes fulfilled.

Permanent and mobile centres which provide spiritual literature at down to earth prices are being established with a view to distribute spiritual literature throughout the country and help every section of the society including the poor to avail itself of life-elevating spiritual values at home.

The nectarine precepts of Pujya Bapuji are made available to people through video satsanga centres at various places.

Free distribution of spiritual literatures and satsanga programmes are organised in 446 Jails throughout India for the upliftment of prisoners. 2,80,000 prisoners have been benefited so far. Booklets are provided to them so that they may utilize their leisure period for writing down the Lords name. A set of 73 books published by the ashram, and CDs and cassettes of Pujya Bapujis satsanga are given to the prison libraries as well.

Mahamrityunjay yajnas and other such programmes are organised for this purpose.

Padyatras (processions on foot) are being taken out from time-to time for spreading moral values and awakening people against addictions. Padyatra was taken out from Jammu-Kashmir to Kanyakumari as well.

More here:

Sant Shri Asharamji Bapu Devotees - HariOmGroup - || Ashram

The Fourth Way of Self-Transformation

"Real love is a cosmic force which goes through us. If we crystallize it, it becomes the greatest power in the world."

G. I. Gurdjieff

Views from the Real World

"With the right methods and efforts, a man can acquire consciousness. What this implies we, in our present state, cannot even imagine."

P. D. Ouspensky

GurdjieffWork.com is for those who are seeking to understand the nature of self, the universe, and the inner meaning of the Gospel message. It is for those who care about our world a world which seems tragically out of balance not what we imagine it could be. It is for those who sense the urgency of participating more consciously in their own transformation, and thus the transformation of the larger world.

We must realize that man cannot expect to live in harmony if he cannot undergo a definite and radical transformation of his consciousness as it relates to the significance of human life on earth. If we are unable to achieve the needed transformation, we can expect more of what we have seen throughout man's tragic history: violence, wars, and the slaughter of innocent men, women and children to settle our racial, religious, and political differences.

GurdjieffWork.com is a comprehensive source of information and material on the Teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff, known as "The Work" and the "Fourth Way," including numerous contributions from many of his closest students such as P.D. Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll as well as articles, audios and videos from well-known Fourth Way teachers such as Theodore Nottingham, James Parkinson, Jacob Needleman, Tim Cook(Church of Conscious Harmony) and many others. In addition, GurdjieffWork.com also includes selected writings, videos and audios of J. Krishnamurti and aFourth Way Bookstore.These teachings and resources are offered to sincere seekers to help you gain access toa living truth referred to throughout the Gospels as the "Kingdom of Heaven", and in the Work as "Real I" ...spiritual understanding that resides in the minds and heart ofevery soul.

The Terror of The Situation

"We see everywhere a preponderance of vulgarity and stupidity of all kinds, and in life, we only see new divisions, new hostility, new misunderstandings."

Gurdjieff called this the terror of the situation. Through whatever form Gurdjieff expressed himself, his voice must be understood as an urgent call to each of us. He calls each of us to free ourselves from the inner chaos in which we live. He calls us to open our inner awareness. He asks us why we are here, what humanity wishes, and what spiritual forces will we ultimately commit our entire being to. Above all, Gurdjieff asks us if we understand who we are, and more importantly, what we might become.

Gurdjieff Calls Us to Awaken

"Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot even conceive a shadow of what man is capable of attaining."

Go out one clear starlit night to some open space and look up at the sky, at those millions of worlds over your head. Look at the Milky Way. The earth cannot even be called a grain of sand in this infinity. It dissolves and vanishes, and with it, you. Where are you, and is what you want simply madness?

Man's possibilities are very great. You cannot even conceive a shadow of what man is capable of attaining. But nothing can be attained in sleep. In the consciousness of a sleeping man, his illusions and dreams are mixed with reality. He lives in a subjective world and he can never escape from it. And this is the reason why he can never make use of all the powers he possesses and why he lives in only a small part of himself. For a man who wishes to wholly be himself one day, the search for the truth of what he is becomes the most urgent necessity.

What is the sense and significance of life on earth, and human life in particular?

This was George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff's question. At an early age he had realized a high degree of being. Experiencing the mindless mechanicality of man, the wars, the destruction, the misery, the question arose in him: Why is there life on earth, what purpose does it serve, if any? Gurdjieff studied orthodox religion and science but their answers didn't satisfy him. He came to intuit that the wisdom societies of ancient civilizations held the key to man's true identity and purpose. Humanity, he recognized, was in dire need of this knowledge, for humanity had entered a crucial period in its development. "Unless the wisdom of the East and the energy of the West," he said, "could be harnessed and used harmoniously, the world would be destroyed." In 1911 Gurdjieff took a vow to awaken people to a new level of being, of consciousness, of conscience; in a word, to a new type of man. He vowed to introduce and establish in the West the esoteric teaching of self-transformation he had discovered, one he said that was completely unknown up to the present time. He called it The Fourth Way.

In his talks, Gurdjieff gave a keen analysis of the modern dilemma. "There is a growth of personality at the cost of essence, that is, a growth of the artificial, the unreal and what is foreign, at the cost of the natural, the real and what is one's own. We see everywhere a preponderance of vulgarity and stupidity of all kinds, and in life, we only see new divisions, new hostility, new misunderstandings. To avoid a complete disaster, it was necessary to achieve world harmony as soon as possible. It could not be achieved by politics, philosophy, religion or any organized movement that treated man in the mass. It could only be accomplished through the individual development of man. If enough individuals could develop themselves, even partially, into genuine natural beings, each such individual would then be able to convince and win over as many as a hundred others who would, each in his turn, be able to influence another hundred and so on." What Gurdjieff was saying was that everyone, like Atlas, would hold up, be responsible for, their own world and thus the larger world.

We Are One Humanity

The Golden Rule Norman Rockwell

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

"He on whom your attention rests is your neighbor; he also will die. If you acquire data always to realize the inevitability of their death and your own death, you will have a feeling of pity for others, and be just toward them.

From realizing the significance of your neighbor when your attention rest on him, pity for him and compassion toward him will arise in you, and finally you will love him. Also, by doing this constantly, real faith, conscious faith, will arise in some part of you and spread to other parts, and you will have the possibility of knowing real happiness."

G. I. Gurdjieff

Prayer forWorld Peace

Pray to become a vehicle of divine love, a channel of the creator's will. Pray for direction and divine guidance and surrender all personal will through devotion to truth. Dedicate your life to the service of our common creator and your neighbor. Choose love and peace above all other options, and strive to reach the state of being of unconditional love and compassion for all life.

Living a Conscious Life

"If a man reasons soundly, he inevitably arrives back at himself, and begins to search for the answer of what he is, and what his place is in the world."

Maurice Nicoll

Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, by Maurice Nicoll, provides a roadmap that leads one to liberation from self-illusions into the inner sanctuary of the heart where he can discover what G. I. Gurdjieff calls 'Real I', and what the Bible calls the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. It is from this heart where a man or woman can develop the wish, as the Gospels instructs, to love God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

In every age, there is sown into the world esoteric teaching which gives the direction in which individual evolution should take place. In our epoch, we have been given the esoteric teaching in the Gospels indicating the direction in which individual evolution should take place at this stage. The word esoteric is commonly misunderstood to mean secret or hidden. Esoteric schools have existed for many thousands of years, but in the pre-industrial technological world they consisted of relatively small isolated groups.

The vast majority of humanity has never heard of esotericism and extremely few people came into contact with a real school. The 'secret society' mentality connected with esotericism arose partly from this ignorance due to circumstances, and it is used in current Fourth Way schools as a selling tactic. People love secrets; they love elitism, 'hats', and agreed-upon delineated hierarchical groups. But esoteric does not mean secret or hidden; it refers to the inner meaning of a thing. In the first place, this knowledge is not concealed and in the second place it cannot, because of its very nature, become common property.

There Exists Great Meaning to Life and The Universe

Esoteric knowledge is not hidden, it is available, however the enormous majority of people cannot hear it or, if they do, they find it fantastic or, at least, unnecessary. Esoteric teaching is for those who are not satisfied with themselves or with life as it is, those who feel there must be some greater meaning to life and who yearn to find their own meaning in it. If you are mostly satisfied with yourself, with the kind of person you are, the esoteric path is not for you. You must have a question in yourself and feel a longing for understanding, for completeness and for personal meaning and direction. Then, if you seek, and when you find, you will be able to hear.

This work is beautiful when you see why it exists and what it means. It is about liberation. It is as beautiful as if, locked for years in a prison, you see a stranger entering who offers you a key. But you may refuse it because you have acquired prison-habits and have forgotten your origin, which is from the stars.

Whoever meets these ideas without prejudice feels touched to the heart by a force of truth that cannot be denied, and also called upon to question all the values which, until then, have supported him through life. Ideas of this magnitude are such that, in front of which, one's personal ideas and prejudices must stand aside to make way for the deeper meaning of the thoughts to penetrate a man's understanding and affect his being. However, by finding again and again in himself the taste of these ideas, a man can receive practical help in his search for an unchangeable truth.

The Mark

There is something in us eternally young, that can understand beyond the visible world, beyond phenomenal reality, but this one thing in us is lost to us in the world of objects, and the external things of the senses and using the logic of the senses.

"The Work is something living in our hearts and minds. Follow the path, see what changes take place within you, and what light begins to dawn in you."

Maurice Nicoll

The Gurdjieff Work

Introduction to The Gurdjieff Work by Jacob Needleman

Introduction to the Gurdjieff Work

Man, Gurdjieff taught, is an unfinished creation. He is not fully Man, considered as a cosmically unique being whose intelligence and power of action mirror the energies of the source of life itself. That the fate of the earth is somehow bound up with the possibility of the inner evolution of individual men and women resonates with the contemporary sense of impending planetary disaster.

"The Gurdjieff Work may be understood as the practical, painstaking cultivation of that state of awakening to the truth of the human condition in the world and in oneself."

How are human beings to change this state of affairs and begin drawing on the universal conscious energies which we are built to absorb but which now pass through us untransformed? How is humanity to assume its proper place in the great chain of being? It is necessary for individual men and women to awaken, to remember who they are, and then to become who they really are, to live it in the service of truth. Without this awakening and this becoming, nothing else can help us. But it is very difficult. An extraordinary quality of help is needed. To this end, Gurdjieff created what has come to be called The Work.

"The practice of self-observation, in accordance with the overall aim of the Work, is not a form in and of itself, but is fundamentally a preparation for the inner search within the midst of life."

The work of self-observation acquires a completely new meaning as the developing attention lets go of its effort, joining and willingly submitting to a higher conscious seeing. Through such experience, a man or woman begins to come into contact with an ever-deepening sense of an inner need which allows an opening to a powerful conscious influence within oneself. According to Gurdjieff, without a relationship to this more central aspect of oneself, everyday life is bound to be an existential prison, in which the individual is held captive, not so much by the so-called forces of modernity, as by the parts of the self that cannot help but react automatically to the influences of the world.

Journey to Essence Newsletter

The Kindom ofHeaven

""For a human being, any serious critique of reality must commence with himself, that is, with him who is making the critique in the first place."

Charles Daly King

"The level above Man is called the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God in the Gospels. It has many other names in different writings. In the Gospels, it is said that the Kingdom of Heaven is within. It is at a higher level of a man. To reach it, a man must reach a higher level in himself. If everyone did this, the level of life on this earth would change."

Maurice Nicoll

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