Bill, my friend....

Bill Fletcher, my friend.  Rarely if ever have I had such a pure friendship.  Isn't that something?  We just seem to, and value, each other. Probably 3 times a week, when I come down the mountain so I can go back up for exercise, 3 hours worth, we get together, for a couple hours over coffee or pizza salad bar.  I tell him what I've been up to and he shares with me his goings on. It is an extremely nice part of my life. I am much richer for it.

Early 50's, a remarkable man. Finds many ways to serve these local Sierra Nevada communities, computer expert, camp host, hotel manager, guide, atm sales and service, friend....

Headed back up the hill, we'll stay if the snow is not too deep, feeding the horses on the way.

Update. Weather, Achilles tendon, kind contribution to the mission.

At least one more day, and possibly three, as the degree of difficulty of this Mission has gotten a little bit too high, and unexpected support has arrived. The heater up in the mountain is exercise, hiking, walking, and possibly cycling. But with the 7 in of snow that arrived on the mountain last night cycling is not a good idea due to safety issues for the next several days while hopefully things melt, and hiking and walking are severely reduced due to Achilles tendon damage. And the arrival of an unexpected generous contribution yesterday plus the availability of a very nice affordable hostel here in town, with an extremely good man as the proprietor, all are going to result in some further time here down in town.
The laptop for certain applications is not useful up there because there's no ability connect to the Verizon signal. But here in town there is Wi-Fi so that project will receive some time while here in town.

A note to the longest, steadiest, most faithful benefactor to this mission besides the pilot...>>>

I had just told this friend that as he had wished, I have sought refuge in a $35 a night hostel down in Lone Pine as 7 in of snow was forecast up on the mountain. My friend: You are wind under our wings. It's been a tough 3 or 4 days. Not bad, but tough. The right Achilles tendon is damaged, two weeks ago, having to push the vehicle in a dangerous situation it tore a bit. Thankfully it does not seem to be overly aggravated by pedaling but up on the Magnificent Mountain where I am, very cold, my heater is walking and climbing as the body gets cold. And that is greatly inhibited by this Achilles tendon damage. Plus I am trying to avoid damaging it further and maybe even letting it heal. And emotionally and psychologically I am not learning very rapidly how to deal with this and it has me feeling a bit discouraged. Point being, your kindness, your goodness toward this Mission at this moment is particularly helpful. Hugs

Eight legs worth of surly customers!

Update. Extraordinary beauty. Storms, Critter tracks, Etc.

Tremendous degree of difficulty increase from the fact that the every 2 days thousand to 1500 calorie workout climbing this top 10 cycle climb in the country, makes me very very wet. Yesterday the motor was set so that I carried me plus about 60 lb, and the motors and batteries carried the rest. And the arrival time is as Darkness sets in and the temperature plummets. Yesterday the last hour was in the cloud that was raining and snowing on us. But thankfully skills and practices have been honed where a complete dry change of clothing is available to be grabbed, taken into the literally freezing cold Outhouse stall, and quickly put on trapping the rapidly dissipating body heat in the warm clothing and off we go! This dashboard shot is some of the clothing, a very small portion, involved in this life-saving procedure. Hypothermia being the alternative.

This was some of the magnificent's, a partial reward, existing in this exquisite beauty, for the endurance hinted at above.

And speaking of reward, some Critter tracks on the untouched snow of the trail.

And this morning, as many days, this is today's office. Not a bad view, huh? If you click on the photograph and using your fingers expand it you will get your sense of this incredible beauty.

As can be seen in the weather forecast below, no sun will be available for the next four days so the vehicle is 200 vert ft down the hill harvesting energy in two batteries. And the solar kettles are harvesting energy, boiling water, for the coffee and hot chocolate tonight. Using the inverter off the batteries of course water can easily be boiled as often as done but the kettles are much more sustainable, elegant, and energy in the batteries will be at a premium the next four days.

The weather forecast, the snow forecast, should be about 15 or 20% of what the numbers below represent. The weather tools are absolutely fabulous, including this information from Weather Underground, but in this case it has a too difficult task of differentiating the Mount Whitney Peaks only about a mile and a half or two west of where we are sitting which will get indeed that much, and this actual location which will get only 10 or 20%, in all likelihood. Still, discretion being the better part of the of Valor, this forecast would call for the vehicle and me to be down in the valley for the next 4 days. In all likelihood we will not be valorous. Much of what's going on right now is testing the limits of the vehicle and me and honing our skills in dealing with various situations. So we'll probably try and whether things up here.

And the real reward of enduring all this is the time and Solitude to try and learn to be helpful in the world, reading, studying, writing. You may notice a fat rather substantial reformatting of this blog. If you click most or all of the pictures on either side it will take you to what seems to be the fruition of my life's work, what I was born to see and share. Imagine that no credit to yourself you were given the vision to create the cure for cancer. But the Cure is a pill that is so extraordinary in its ugliness and horrible taste, horrible initial taste, but no one, no one, no one, will even seriously consider taking it. But that's the situation. And maybe one in a million will. LSGIABeing.com LSGIABeing.com

Archive blog layout

My breakfast buddy

Monumental Epiphany just now? Do unto others all things whatsoever that you would have them do unto you, is, is, is, the Universal employment plan that we all need. Whether or not it is paid for is up to creator!

Monumental Epiphany just now? Do unto others all things whatsoever that you would have them do unto you, is, is, is, the Universal employment plan that we all need. Whether or not it is paid for is up to creator!

My new jury, advisory board, my new compass.

At earlier times these last 20 years it has been instrumental to my work, Focus, Insight, accountability, discipline to live in front of a jury, a clientele. Come to think of it, that was completely instrumental to 25 years as an executive in high-tech.

In recent months or maybe years that has been missing.

Recent days or weeks there have been troubling moments when oh, James, why are you obsessing over this trivial concern? Why are you so indecisive on various things? Why are you spending so much time on Facebook? Why are you not devoting more time to the study that you understand is so crucial?

This in the last day or so has reminded me of this earlier practice. And summoning has been begun to my imagination of the jury again, The Advisory Board, all of the figures at [LSGIABeing.com] but especially now, not only the man Jesus, but Buddha, Confucius as I am coming to know them through the invaluable book by Karen Armstrong, the great transformation.

Oh, and my clients, the one in a million that can be saved, their soul can be put back in charge, among the survivors decades or centuries in the future, and maybe one or two today.

This feels quite promising. Grounding. A necessary means of keeping my limbic system, the seat of my conscience and vision and wisdom, in charge.

The wind last night was terrifying.

Extremely important update. Joy is the answer, LSGIABeing is the way.

What if there might be a cure for cancer? What if you see what might be a cure for cancer? You go for it? I mean do you try and develop it? What if it turns out you were a fool? What if you have almost zero chance, one in a trillion?

Ever since the birth of my two biological offspring I have been operating on a theory that joy is the answer.  

As a young, socially crippled, socially unable, socially repugnant young executive in high-tech, I have operated on the theory that Joy is the answer. That human beings as the most powerful creatures known in the universe, that their output and the Purity, goodness, creativity, brilliance, of their output could only be maximized when they were aligned with the pursuit of joy, not pleasure, not happiness, not Comfort,  not wealth, not even personal survival, etc etc etc,  but only when aligned with the opportunity for joy. And in Industry despite how incredibly unpalatable I am personally, the results were impossibly astonishing.

And where is the opportunity for joy? Probably unlike anything else in the Human Experience there is a sure and certain answer. Totally within the control of each individual regardless of circumstances. So it can be extremely difficult and seem impossible, it is never beyond the grasp of any individual.

I believe that a man like Jesus referred to it as Soul, having the soul in charge, living out of the Soul. Serving from the soul in solidarity with the neediest. Living out of our capacity to be LSGIABeing.com, by whatever words or none. But our language has been so corrupted over the centuries that I suggest that this cumbersome assembly of words, loving soul of goodness in action being is necessary. 

Nothing blindly is done by me, to a fault, and each step along the way this Theory, that joy is the answer, has been studied by me, challenged by me, practiced by me, refined by me, at each step of the way I remain willing to throw it out. But instead every day week month year decade teaches me that it could be the cure to everything important to the human species and now to all species that we are Exterminating.

It is too late to save the human species and the rest of the species were destroying. The cancer caused by not pursuing joy as a species, except the one in a million, is far too advanced.

But there is still you, there is me, and there is the one in a million that we might  impact,  to help resurrect  their joy, to save them from the prevailing joylessness, to resurrect their LSGIA Being. 

I had no idea that not only be human giant Jesus, the colored guy, not the white fiction, but not only Jesus but all of the Giants of humanity, Confucius, Buddha, Etc were pointing in this direction if not grasping it fully. In fact Jesus the colored guy, the real one, maybe the one that did grasp it. Fight every historical measure he had zero interest in a life after this one if he believed there was one. By all reliable scholarship he was convinced that each individual could find and live a life of Joy, Heaven if you will, in this one.

The other giants like Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, it seems that it was more instrumental for them although my study is far from complete. They saw it as a way, what I call loving soul of goodness in action being, they saw this as a way of ending the Carnage that each of them were living in culturally. Jesus did forsee the Jews were going to be destroyed but it seems that he was not seeing that that could be stopped, but that each individual despite the oppression and impending destruction by the Romans, that each individual could live in joy, Heaven, every breath, despite their impossible circumstances.

To me this is way more than the equivalent of curing cancer. And I expect to be redoubling my pitiful inadequate efforts to try and work on Bridging the Gap.

Much of it for the coming weeks will be online, trying to improve what has already been created by me, my blog, and LSGIABeing.com, as a more effective cure, in the unlikely event of the one-in-a-million susceptible to cure wanders into them.

All thoughtful , constructive, serious comments, contributions, insights from you are welcome.

The joy of energy harvesting, farming, gardening, solar, wind.

Review, spiritual Evolution, George vaillant. An invaluable gold mine in a deadly minefield.

Review, spiritual Evolution, George vaillant. An invaluable gold mine in a deadly minefield.

The gold, the life-saving truths found throughout this book are extraordinarily important. But the book is laced with landmines and unless one procedes carefully they will do themselves permanent damage.

George is an extremely useful probe for us, the right person at the right time to observe important developments in the realm of psychobiology. And thank goodness for that. But whereas he has a lifetime of observation he has little or no personal experience. By way of analogy , he has spent countless years observing those who climb sheer Rock faces and communicates that to a population who has never seen it. But not being a rock climber himself fatal it would be for his readers to proceed to the rock face on just what he says. And also it would be a mistake for the would-be rock climber to ignore what he does share.

The author of this review, James, for reasons no credit to himself, has spent a lifetime practicing, studying, exercising the capacity for unselfish love, living with the soul in charge, which is at the heart of what vaillant shares with us. To this lifelong practitioner, James, the gold nuggets throughout this book are invaluable to the extent that he has spent months studying what vaillant provided. But also months agonizing over the extraordinary errors also laced throughout the book.

Although it will seem that James has some desire to speak negatively about vaillant and the book this is not at all the case. The Nuggets that vaillant provides to us are so extraordinary valuable to the life of every individual, that the poisons that he also unintentionally introduces are that much more consequential and must be flagged.

Throughout the book vaillant authoritatively identifies the extraordinary intellectual failure that the field of psychology has been and continues to be, as evidenced by the recent vital progress being made by a few in the field and related fields of Neuroscience, ethology, primatology, cultural anthropology and the like.

Imagine that the field of psychology had ridiculed and even more so denied the human capacity for lust, anger, violence, intellectual Pursuit…. Flesh and head respectively. How incredibly bankrupt, correct? It has done the equivalent, not the equivalent, infinitely worse. It has violently denied the human capacity for unselfish love, Soul in charge, demonstrably the most important capacity to the survival of the human species over the Millennia and into the future. And the solitary source of the ultimate human emotional state, Joy. It has violently, violently, viciously denied, belittled, ridiculed the existence of such a thing.

George does us an invaluable service of laying out the studies in a variety of disciplines that indisputably indicate that in the human limbic system, the mammalian part of our brain, the inbuilt capacity and orientation to unconditional love is inbuilt not only in our species, especially in our species, but also to varying degrees throughout the mammalian Kingdom.

This aspect of the book is beyond invaluable. More than any other book I know if everyone read and grasped this aspect of the book it would change the world. No, that won't happen, but if it did, it would change the world.

But as the book stands if the book were read without supervision it would change and hence the futile effort of this review. In one sentence George brilliantly presents the truth of unconditional love, and then three sentences late later conflates it we lust, selfish love. And this pattern repeats itself over and over and over and over.

George does not grasp the importance of those gold nuggets. And he is willing to dilute his presentation trying to appeal to too many audiences and too many goals, particularly the religious communities around the world. He has the right, it is understandable, but we are out of time as a species, and each living individual is out of time to get it right.

At some time in the future I would like to have the time to present the detailed notes and analysis paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter that I have agonized over these last weeks. And one on one, if asked, I could do so. But for now the following will have to suffice, a quick assessment chapter by chapter of highs and lows.

Chapter 1. Positive emotion. George opens with a Majesterial encapsulation of the gold Nuggets that he strews throughout this book. It is a magnificent true story and the bottom line for him of the story is this: “Unselfish love (soul, heart) had conquered both Darwinian “selfish” genes and Kantian pure reason (flesh and head respectively). The transformative power of positive emotion had interceded. Positive emotions—not only
compassion, forgiveness, love, and hope but also joy, faith/trust, awe, and gratitude—arise from our inborn mammalian capacity for unselfish parental love. They emanate from our feeling, limbic mammalian brain and thus are grounded in our evolutionary heritage. All human beings are hardwired for positive emotions, and these positive emotions are a common denominator of all major faiths and of all human beings. Thus, this is, in some respects, a revolutionary book. I shall argue that thepositive emotions are not just nice to have; they are essential to the survival of Homo sapiens as a species.”

Had George tightly adhered to this in every paragraph of this book it would be the most important book on earth. Truly. Sadly, this is not the case. But the truth that human kind or the human individual needs to understand is in the quotation above, often substantiated throughout this book, most importantly with the scientific advances in the last 10 or 20 years richly documented here in. Substantiated most importantly by finding the organ, if you will, previously unknown, Limbic system, mamalian brain, the most important part of the triune brain. Most important organ for the human species survival past, present and for the few that will survive what a world dominated by head and flash, cerebral cortex and hypothalamus respectively, is in the final stages of destroying.

Proceed with this book if you can keep in mind, and measure every passage by, the quotation above which strikes right to the heart of the truth. The reader who does so will find the gold Nuggets richly strewn throughout this book and avoid the land minds. Otherwise, do not proceed.

Over all chapter one is fabulous, extremely constructive. But George can't seem to help himself. He clearly does not see with his limbic system what thank goodness his cerebral cortex has brought to us in this chapter as he blunders into, “If readers will permit me to define pleasure as the result of positive emotion rather than mere hedonism, then…” WTF? And George nowhere in the book evidences that he sees the centrality of this horrible deadly error. Pleasure is the neurological psychological reward provided by the nervous system when it senses that we are pursuing what our hypothalamus, our Reptilian Brain, our selfish brain wants. Joy being the exact opposite reward, when the nervous system senses that driven by our soul, our heart, our mammalian brain, our limbic system, we are attempting to serve those Among Us in need!

Chapter 2. The prose and the passion. With this chapter George gets off to a pretty wonderful start, “Only recently have scientists discovered that the compassion, joy, and unselfish love so important to religion and to the Neolithic mind are not irrelevant to science. You see, the
Neolithic (hunter-gatherer) mind that “natural selection built” was more like that of a four-year-old—all images, animism, magic, and emotion—than like that of a modern, highly educated adult. Dependence on the written word and the use of the scientific experiment to verify imagined cause and effect were still far in the future by the time that natural selection had completed the “hardware” of the Homo sapiens brain. Moreover,ever since our invention of new “software” like the printing press and the scientific method, we have had less and less respect for the superstitious, mystical brain that natural selection built.” Bravo! Except for the troubling mistaken quote from EO Wilson with which he begins and then goes back to after the quotation above. “Only recently have scientists rediscovered that the compassion, joy, and unselfish love so important to religion and to the Neolithic mind are not irrelevant to science. You see, the
Neolithic (hunter-gatherer) mind that “natural selection built” was more like that of a four-year-old—all images, animism, magic, and emotion—than like that of a modern, highly educated adult. Dependence on the written word and the use of the scientific experiment to verify imagined cause and effect were still far in the future by the time that natural selection had completed the “hardware” of the Homo sapiens brain. Moreover,ever since our invention of new “software” like the printing press and the scientific method, we have had less and less respect for the superstitious, mystical brain that natural selection built."The task of a thoughtful future humanity must be to correct the “misalignment” between our scientific and our emotional brains.” because he and Wilson think that somehow the cerebral cortex and the mammalian brain are equals in a successful human life or humanity is a species. But Time After Time After Time the wonderful examples that he introduces in this book are no such thing, they are the soul in charge, the heart, the limbic system, the mammalian brain in charge of the cerebral cortex and hypothalamus, Reptilian Brain. Nowhere does George evidence that he sees this although his examples scream it from the rooftops. And his examples are exactly correct.

A profound value of this book is that it brings us such important revealing research from the last 10 and 20 years. But our research is conducted by those like George who worship their cerebral cortex in charge so quite possibly never the available instrumentation will be used to reveal what the likes of Abraham Maslow saw so many decades ago. That the mammalian brain, now clearly identified, when activated brings to Bear the full spectrum of white light, all of the positive emotions, activated and put in charge in addition to things he does not speak of, wisdom, Vision, which he speaks of tangentially, creativity, inspiration which he says is of the cerebral cortex but it is not it is primarily with the limbic system in charge.

With few exceptions this chapter 2 is helpful and extraordinarily so in many cases. He courageously lays out the anatomy and existence of the limbic system. There is little to be careful of in this chapter except for where he says, “Emotions, like the smooth muscle of our viscera, cannot be controlled by conscious will.” So incredibly blind, and wrong. And almost by his own words, elsewhere in the book. Where he speaks of the capacity to focus, and by being self-aware, self-monitoring, and focusing on what we look at and how we conceptualize it we are choosing which part of the nervous system, head, flesh, or soul, to activate. How can he be so blind? He is cerebral man. It is.

But with this chapter George gives us back Far and Away the most important part of our nervous system, that which makes us human, that, when in charge, gives us joy, and Hope For The Individual or group that keeps it in charge. Thank you George.

Chapter 3. 3 evolutions. For the most part a lot of very helpful material. Useful to highlight three types of evolution important to humanity, genetic, cultural, the software if you will, and the individual aging, maturing process.

There are some significant landmines in this chapter however. Among overprivileged people like George, the elites that he views as the healthy human beings, probably the opposite is true, he assumes that mature morality comes with age. That may be correct. But more likely it is a reflection of the sickness of our culture, and structural changes. How much easier it is for his Elite study subjects in their Advanced age to be moral, when they have structured their Financial Security earlier in their years.

And what of a young Rachel Corrie? Still, like virtually all of psychology, the unhealthy population is studied for its extremes and the most positive of the unhealthy population is held up as the optimum. This is crazy. When will we start with the healthy individuals, like young Rachel, or young Greta? Maslow did.

And then this. “As developmentalist Carol Gilligan points out, we have no self to give “selflessly” away if at first we are not “selfish.”” What kind of culture-specific, unexamined, superficial garbage is this?

And in the final several pages of this chapter there is quite a bit more garbage. Be careful you don't step in it.

But it ends on a positive note. “what human evolution is all about. Over time, just as evolving humanity is better shielded by science from capricious famine and infant deaths, just so its faith traditions—once dependent on the protective but negative emotions of abject fear and righteous anger—can give way to the positive emotions of faith, love, hope, joy, forgiveness, compassion, and awe—the positive emotions whose biologic underpinnings will serve as foci for the next seven chapters.”

Not that his attempt to save the religions should be lauded, it should not. They are cancerous Corpses and should be allowed to die.

And does George even realize that he is not speaking here of connecting the prose and the passion, but rather having the soul, the heart, the limbic system, the mammalian brain in charge?
.
……. Creator willing, to be continued......

January 3rd, 2019 note. The plan was to complete this review weeks ago. But it will be several weeks s till until it is ready to go. Higher priority than completing this has been assumed by attempting to basically master the invaluable work of Karen Armstrong in, the great transformation recommended in George's book. Also, work is being undertaken to internalized, grasp, and even memorize certain of the passages that scholarship indicates were actually said by the man Jesus 2000 years ago. Roughly 20% of the words and sayings and examples actually attributed to him.

The lesser of two evils? Which will you accept, lung cancer, or liver cancer? Enough.... >>>

The lesser of two evils? Which will you accept, lung cancer, or liver cancer? Enough.... with this lesser of two political evils b***. No candidate that throws Palestinian children into the meat grinder should get your vote even if it means the end of all creation. That's how it is for me.

Log. Things I know now, a little bit better than the year before.

Things I know now, a little bit better than the year before.





How irritating someone is to me is a pretty accurate measure of how much pain they are in personally.

At least 1/3 of any population in complex cultures of the last thousands of years, are would be oppressors, slave owners, exploiters, molesters, abusers…. The segment of the population that would be the French aristocracy, the white slave plantation owners, the Nazis, never go away. They only go underground.

The documentation, the rigorous experimentation, now proves that psychology has been an enemy of Sanity with few exceptions being the Abraham Maslow's of the world. It did, and still does, pathologized empathy, love, Humanity, decency, Vision, intuition in service of the tyranny of our head and flesh in charge.

The likes of Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Muhammad were great inventors far more important than any in technology, science, Industry in the last 200 years. Albert Einstein observe this. And yet in line with the tyranny of psychology and materialistic wisdom, that only the head and the flesh matter, not the mammalian loving limbic system, the heart, the soul,, there has been no progress and substantial regress since these Giants of humanity, Psychology, Soul, walked the earth. The only progress that really matters is standing on their shoulders and going Beyond, yes, too late to save creation, but not too late to save an individual here or there.

I do not yet have the skills, though they seem to be building, to stop wasting time watching the burning of everything that is decent, not just the fires.

I'm writing this in 31 degree temperature, it was 17 degrees Fahrenheit this morning and going down into the low 20s again tonight. I continue to learn that throwing off the tyranny of my head and flesh for the freedom of my soul, the limbic system, the mammalian brain, is the path of unending Joy, even if a bit inconvenient and a little bit uncomfortable sometimes. But not much of the discomfort is due to ignorance of how to make a body quite truly comfortable in ways that our society says are quite impossible.

Have I learned this? I hope so, because it might be the most important lesson for the little time I have left. The great embodyiers of the Soul, Jesus, Confucius, Buddha, Etc, never saved more than one in a million and that continues through to today. I have in essence wasted much of my life trying to prove them wrong. No. I must devote the rest of my life to trying to save the next one in a million and I think that I can be quite joyful and focused there. And it is truly fostering delusion when I Stray From This implying that more than one in a million can be saved. Why such a low number? The toxicity of our cultures these recent thousands of years. In an old asphalt parking lot the most one can hope to do is to cause a flower here or a blade of grass there to find healthy life. This is the work.

It has not been nor will it become my purpose to be a competent cyclist. But time has made me one anyway. This is useful because I should be able to avoid having to spend time focusing my attention on moving the vehicle.

It certainly does seem that the mechanics, maintenance, performance requirements of this complex experimental vehicle are pretty substantially understood. It was wildly unstable and horribly financially expensive before. Not so anymore. So it seems. Thanks to those who got us this far.

For a number of years now I have been existing off of the kindness of friends and devoting every penny of my tiny Social Security, under two times the National Poverty Level, to this mission. Only in the last several months have the needs of the vehicle allowed us to surface from horrible credit card debt. But that seems to have happened. Barring any unforeseen disaster it's now likely to continue. And going forward we continue to learn that we can almost always live rent-free financially, BLM, National Forest, or at about $4 a day but that rarely is done by us.

The last year and for the foreseeable future the primary focus of this mission is to increase in ability to help the one in a million throw off the tyranny of their head and flesh, and put their soul in charge for the joy of it. The prior two years involved establishing this experimental vehicle as a type of thing which among other things could manage the mileage of a young cross-country cyclist, 70 miles a day. That phase is passed. And this past year it has been learned, really in the last month or so, that not 30 miles a day or 40 miles a day as necessary. This wonderful vehicle is a micro RV, a tiny home. And, it is a phenomenal exercise mechanism. It is 750 pounds. So 10 miles a day at 4 miles an hour even in an area that I've been staying in for weeks now, can give this old body 1400 calories every couple of days worth of exercise. Dramatically dramatically dramatically reducing the wear and tear on the vehicle.

This year I have learned that I would much rather be at the base of a magnificent Mountain freezing my ass off, battling high winds, then down in a much warmer area, Southern California, which is also quite nice but much more built up with much less access to the physical Beauty.

Autism for some or many may be substantial health pathologized. It may be that what we consider normal and highly desirable in our society is being crippled empathically, and that the problem with autism is a heightened deep empathy. And this as a theory makes my entire life much more understandable to me then it was even several weeks ago before this Theory occurred. Among my Fondest Memories is the wife of an executive with whom I served in the Washington DC area several decades ago seeing the hunger strike for Darfur in front of the Sudanese embassy wrote thinking that I wouldn't see it, this man is a sad case of runaway compassion. I've never received a better compliment.

To be continued….

Absolutely wow. Video. Rave and Rivet.

And moments before this one was on a slightly upper Branch feeding the other. What a privilege.

For those few serious human beings, indescribably important.

On my third reading now, beginning a detailed annotation and digestion.

If like Karen Armstrong you are a great spirit, International scholar on the world's religions, unlike me, then this book is not important to you.

If you do not have an undying Agony over the pain in the world, Unstoppable for most, but not for all, then this book is of no importance for you.

If you think that so-called spirituality, religion, is either just a personal choice or something to fight over, this book is of no value to you.

But Armstrong clearly sees it differently by implication, and I'm finding it Beyond invaluable. She understands that the giant founders of the world religions were creative Geniuses, inventors, regardless of how they thought of themselves. They created Solutions to improve upon the Life of human beings and all of creation, by creating a vision, an understanding, of how to be that was a less painful, more joyful, less destructive, integration between the truth of our human being, and the physical and cultural environment in which we live.

I do not know of a more important book, or body of information to study and go beyond, in this 2019 world for the serious human being needing to personally grow to be of Greater service to creation.

It is legally free for download here.

https://archive.org/details/ArmstrongKaren

Often I have thought of myself as that character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, driven mad by a vision that grasped him that he did not understand, in his living room sculpting he knew not what. Armstrong's understanding is not new to me, but the exhausive scholarly insightful underpinnings are. It is gasoline on my fire.

Almost exactly a year ago an iteration of that Fire Within Me, The Vision Within Me, took a large step forward, much larger than I realized up until this moment, I'm seeing now, here. We have all got a lot of work to do.

LSGIABeing.com]

Susie come!" How close to the edge she is, measured by how irritating she is I suspect.....

Susie come!" How close to the edge she is, measured by how irritating she is I suspect.

At the base of this beautiful mountain, on an otherwise peaceful 'holiday' morning in a half populated small Campground, my neighbor, Susie come! Susie come! Susie come! Over and over and over and over.

Periodically I've been wondering how to deal with this.

Among other things it brought to mind how infinitely more irritating I was when in early 20s I had a wonderful dog, but was a thousand times more noisy than this lady.

So glad I am for the thought that just occurred to me. How irritating she is probably speaks very accurately about how close to the edge she probably is. It certainly did with me.

James

Autism. The blind pathologizing those .... >>>

Autism. The blind pathologizing those who have sight? Extraordinary insights from my friend. Empathy deficit? Deep empathy overload. Overloaded souls in a sick world.

To my friend who has children with autism I sent this video that you've probably seen, along with the following note. And my friend replied.

Depressed and Then Diagnosed With Autism, Greta Thunberg

I wrote: I so relate to this young person. I've often wondered if I am on the autistic Spectrum though that is supposed to involve profound lack of empathy and that does not seem to be my problem. Hugs

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/19/depressed-and-then-diagnosed-autism-greta-thunberg-explains-why-hope-cannot-save


My friend: ahhhhhh well that's the very very common and very very wrong assumption that so many make about those with autism...even folks who are supposedly experienced and trained make this mistake all too often....that those on the spectrum lack empathy. I have never seen this to be the case. Not in my children and certainly not in any of the other autistic folks I've been around of any age. If anything it is more suffering from a profound SURPLUS of empathy and being near paralyzed by it that is far more typical. And I read more and more articles that back up this more radical view.

It is more a lack of empathy on the part of the caregivers and the researchers in my opinion that leads them to this very wrong conclusion. Because they fail so utterly to understand the motivations and reactions of these unique individuals. Because how could they understand? Their brains are not wired at all the same.

Here's an example. When my child was in 2nd grade he got suspended and I was called down to the office to school for a "very serious" incidence of my child apparently "BULLYING" another child. I was shocked, flabbergasted and appalled that his teachers and administrators at the school so utterly failed to see who my child is and what he is capable of. So I went to the school and listened to all the things they accused my child of. Here was the tale: there was another student who was having a hard time, crying, throwing a tantrum, apparently inconsolable. and while the teachers and "responders" were trying their hardest to contain the situation, My child was absolutely incapable of following the instructions all the other students were given to ignore what was going on and get back to work. What /they/ saw was that my child walked over and started laughing in close proximity to the boy. In defiance of their orders. So they interpreted that as malicious, as him laughing AT the boy and trying to make things worse. Which somehow escalated into him being a bully. So I kept quiet and listened as they all scrambled to roll out this story about my son that not a single bone in my body felt was true. When they concluded I said, well, what did my child tell you happened when you asked him? And they all stopped and looked at each other and said, well, we didn't ask him. We just sent your child to the office for disobeying and making everything worse for everyone. Your child was being a BULLY they insisted.

So I said, did my child cause the student to be sad? or upset? No, no your child didn't do that. I said, okay well my child is in the next room, go ask my child. So my child came in and looked red and ashamed and vulnerable and sad and I said, can you tell me why you laughed when that boy was having a hard time? And my child started crying and said through his tears, "I was laughing because the teachers told us that laughter was the best medicine for sadness, so I wanted to go over and cheer him up"

You could have heard a pin drop. I smiled and looked at my child and said, "of course you did honey, thank you, that's what I thought. You need to know that most people didn't understand that's what you were trying to do, and that most people here don't think the way you do, so you may have to occasionally explain to them what you're doing so they understand."

So they let my child go back into the other room. And I stared them down and said, okay, so first you're going to tear up that piece of paper that uses the word BULLY that you want me to sign and put in my child’s permanent record. And then you're going to find a way to apologize to my my child for traumatizing him over my child’s misguided attempts to help a friend in need. And then you're going to let my child get back to class and learn some stuff rather than punish my child for giving a fuck.

ANYWAYS, they did all the things I asked. And my child has been treated and responded to differently ever since. They now understand that my child is NOT even capable of lying and if anything is more likely to get in trouble by confessing to doing things my child thinks maybe shouldn't have even when nobody is looking for someone to blame. They also understand that my child’s heart, even if actions are awkward and confused because of difficulty connecting with and understanding how to interact with neurotypical folks, is in the right place. It's gotta be so frustrating and challenging for my child when I'm not there to help translate for or advocate for him, but my child's getting better at doing that all the time.

James, I'd say, there's a pretty strong chance you are on the higher functioning end of the autism spectrum. I know that I very likely am. It's just that being female for some reason makes the symptoms different, less severe, than it can present in males. I suffer greatly at times from an excess of empathy. It's crippling, if you look at it in a way...but in other ways it's enormously liberating, because I can see and understand things at a level so many others seem utterly incapable of. Fascinating, really...

Thank you for sharing this :) I love reading stories of children standing up to asshole adults Heart.

My friend provided some of the research and I found a third piece easily.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-radical-new-autism-theory

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/aspergers-alive/201303/guide-reporting-autism-theory-mind-empathy

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201705/is-autism-really-empathy-disorder

The blind Society pathologizing those who can see.

PS. What a tremendous contribution from my friend, and personally I find it extremely Illuminating on my own life. A shallow empathy cripple am I, but deep empathy, not so much. For much of my years I yearned for the reverse. But for decades now I have understood it as my wealth. My soul. My life. Thank goodness it was never the reverse.

Quail!

Ravens snacking

Who can imagine being like Jesus, or Buddha, or Confucius, or Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr? Who would want to? Such.....

Who can imagine being like Jesus, or Buddha, or Confucius, or Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr? Who would want to? Such lives are so admirable, most people do admire them, but be like them? I happen to know someone who does want to be like them, me. They are the folks I have envied from my earliest recollection, such an extraordinary quality of life. To love the world that much. I suspect this is what has been missing in all the religions. So close and yet so far. The most admirable enviable Quality of life ever achieved is by such individuals. And some, many, most, all of us are born to be capable of such quality of life.

Saving the soul, properly understood, is moving the soul into sufficient cocooning of external loving, and then on to self sustained loving of others.

Saving the soul, properly understood, is moving the soul into sufficient cocooning of external loving, and then on to self sustained loving of others.

Gladly living in the winter time without external heat

Living without external heat in the cold. Reflections.

Twice in the last 3 years this healthy but 67 year old male body has existed for extended periods in cold weather without external heat sources for the body, except for the occasional cup of hot liquid.

This by choice, options were available. Going to warmer climates. Moving into a heated structure. Not by way of some idealistic force of will but rather by choice of greed for optimal experience greedy choice for joy is my reason for choosing to live in the uheated cold.

This was entirely unforeseen by me. I would have thought it impossible, living in and unheated tent by choice at Standing Rock North Dakota December through February. More recently living in the excruciatingly beautiful Hills around Lone Pine at the base of Mount Whitney. Warmer Joshua Tree 250 miles south was where I expected to be 6 weeks ago.

Is my body completely happy with this choice? Almost completely but not at the beginning of each.

Unexpected lessons being learned.

A heat source is always available, exercise, movement, walking, running, ..... all medical doctors with compassion reading this are filled with Gladness. This means periodic exercise rather than the otherwise sitting in a recliner for 3 or 4 hours at a time. Instead, brief periods Of the affore mentioned movement introduced, very happily.

2. Clothing, sleeping bags, both in layers. Does my body prefer sleeping in an external heated room or appropriate sleeping bags? The former was my guess. The letter in actual fact. It is just as comfortable. The thermostat is as easily available as opening the hood or folding back the bag. And my soul loves the simplicity of it all. The sustainability. The greedlessness of it.

My body and cerebral cortex, flesh and head respectively as opposed to my soul, are a bit frustrated to say the least at the beginning of these junkets. James, this is requiring so much effort putting on or removing layers of clothing, so much time. Sadly it takes days or weeks for these two parts of my nervous system to get in the habit of this routine. But they do. And then just my soul is left to be really glad at the sustainability of, and greedlesness, of this approach.

Cycling is the sole mode of Transportation and primary means of exercise and heat for this old guy. Cycling generally for me results in profuse sweating. In the days or weeks at the beginning of such. The body and flesh do nothing but whine about this. But finally my soul says, get over it guys. And figures out that peddling at 115 watts per hour output instead of 135 heats the body nicely, moves the vehicle satisfactory,  at little or no sweat!

Joy is the answer. See recent posts and video logs on my log. The pursuit of happiness and pleasure says that these writings above and experience are idiocy, mistaken ideas, insanity. But the pursuit of joy, the optimal human experience says quite the opposite.

Oh, several other things.

And then there is this amazing thing the human body. The mystery of its adaptation too cold and hot has not yet been fully solved by me. The duration, most effective triggers, are things yet to be mastered by me. But it is quite amazing. Awakening this morning at 28 degrees Fahrenheit and then sitting and working, writing and researching, at 33 degrees my hands and body were behaving like they did in 50 degree weather 4 weeks ago. Some of that is the confidence comes from that recent experience. James, yes your toes are cold, but as soon as you decide to get up and walk for 15 minutes or run for 8, they'll be warm again. Don't worry.

Some of it is learning curve regarding sleeping bags and garments. What works best for me under what circumstances? Tonight will it be too $30 sleeping bags or one? Today will it be no upper body base layer, a medium-weight one, heavyweight, or 2?

On a different but related note, solar thermal, solar thermal, solar thermal, solar thermal, solar thermal, Did I mention solar thermal? For the heating of water, the heating of a dwelling, pre-heating of all cooking water.

And, persistence paying off, $60 boots with 800 grams of thinsulate insulation for the feet

James

Very long ears has my neighbor.

Insane light show tonight. 30 photos in archive.

See archived link above.

Video log update. Gladly captive in Lone Pine.

Most important book in the world, the other one. Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong. I'm on my first of

Most important book in the world, the other one. Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong. I'm on my first of what I expect to be several readings. Slowed by my arduous first priority of writing a review of the other most important book, great because it is not as toxic as the other books of psychology, spiritual evolution, George Vaillant.“The one and only test of a valid religious idea, doctrinal statement, spiritual experience, or devotional practice was that it must lead directly to practical compassion. Ifyour understanding of the divine made you kinder, more empathic, and impelled you to express this sympathy in concrete acts of loving-kindness, this was good theology. But if your notion of God made you unkind, belligerent, cruel, or self-righteous, or if it led you to kill in God’s name, it was bad theology. Compassion was the litmus test for the prophets of Israel, for the rabbis of the Talmud, for Jesus, for Paul, and for Muhammad, not to mention Confucius, Lao-tzu, the Buddha.…. “