control | The Short Version

Your Brain Is Like Your Liver: No Conscious Control

March 5, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 07-10-07: I've been busy—doing what is a long story—and the reason I haven't been posting is that, once again, it had become a process that took at least two hours out of the day—hardly the short … [Read more...]

Changing Perspective: Meditation, Intention, and Control

March 4, 2008 by Norm Bearrentine Leave a Comment

Originally posted on 05-20-07: Each of these visual illusions, which I mentioned yesterday, besides being entertaining, includes a lesson on perception that can begin to broaden our ideas about "reality." We can become more … [Read more...]

When I realized that the idea of god was a joke, I thought that was the end of the story. Later I found that Christianity had shaped my values, and while some were worth keeping, many had lost their foundation—the meaning of life, for example. Something similar happened when I realized that the idea of free will was a joke, and I’ve spent the decades since both those realizations discovering and editing what Julia Galef calls the “orphan beliefs” they left behind. It’s a tricky business, and this blog has been a chronicle of my efforts to puzzle it all out, including reviews of related books. I hope you find it helpful.