Efficient Toward What?
Modern society idolizes efficiency. It’s the gold standard for progress and success, celebrated in technology, economics, and even personal productivity. But efficiency is not a virtue in itself. It is a tool, and tools are only as good as the goals they serve. This raises a crucial question: Efficient toward what? What are we achieving Read the full article…
Haphazard or Meaningful?
Life often feels like a choice between two stark options: haphazard or meaningful. Is everything a random series of events, or does it hint at something deeper? Even in a blend of the two, each element is either one or the other. Ultimately, if we bring meaning to something, it’s no longer haphazard. This blog Read the full article…
Don’t Carry Water to Those Who Only See Stones
Water, symbolizing nourishment, insight, or Compassion, may be offered with the best intentions. Yet, when presented to those who can only see its weight or its inconvenience, the effort becomes futile. This evokes a timeless lesson of discernment, reflected in the words of Jesus: “Do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them Read the full article…
Comfortably (Self-)Destructive
That is how I see many people, swaying to the rhythm of routine and collective comfort, avoiding a deeper exploration of their true selves ― still partially conscious beings, teetering on the edge of untapped self-awareness and unresolved complexities. Comfort acts as a shield against the cold winds of uncertainty. However, this same comfort blinds Read the full article…
The Whirlpool of Economics
“Good institutions create individual trust, which creates rich economies.” This is the short summary as given by some of 2024’s Economics Nobel Prize-winning insight, countering the contention that rich economies just create good institutions. As in the whole field of psychosomatic health, such linearities may be only part of excellent causal thinking. Reality is more Read the full article…
Gaza
Gaza. The name itself evokes an overwhelming sense of pain, grief, and unresolved tensions. It represents not only the physical suffering of its people but also a profound symbolic weight — a mirror reflecting the struggles of justice, mercy, and humility in the world today. “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s Read the full article…
Climate Change = Mass Murder
Climate change is mass murder. This isn’t a future possibility — it’s happening now, grounded in the realities of a warming planet. Such a stark truth can trigger feelings of guilt, despair, or helplessness. These are natural responses, but they aren’t helpful if they overwhelm us. Instead of succumbing to paralysis, we must cultivate deep Read the full article…
Are Binaural Beats Worthwhile?
In recent years, binaural beats have captured the interest of people looking for tools to help them relax, improve focus, or reduce anxiety. But do they truly work? Or could their effects stem from our own expectations and a certain placebo effect? This blog explores what binaural beats (many direct sources to be found on Read the full article…
A Company of Friends
What if a company could be more than just a place of work — what if it could be a place of true connection, human growth, and profoundly shared purpose? This vision is grounded in deep values, ancient wisdom, and modern insights. By integrating these elements, we can create a model for the future. The Read the full article…
Bridging the Gap between Science and Depth
Human depth, which includes emotions and non-conceptual thought, has often been regarded as unscientific. However, modern neurocognitive science increasingly highlights its profound significance. Science typically focuses on what is measurable and observable, yet much of what drives human behavior and outcomes lies beneath the surface. Neglecting this depth risks overlooking crucial elements of human experience. Read the full article…
The World Needs Depth + Rationality
Rationality offers a logical framework for problem-solving but often overlooks the deeper human aspects essential for true understanding and lasting solutions. Depth explores the non-conscious and emotional layers of human experience, revealing insights that rationality alone cannot uncover. By integrating both, we open doors to a more holistic understanding and problem-solving approach. Currently, depth and Read the full article…
The Task is not Yours to Finish
Yet, it is yours to contribute (inspired on an old Jewish proverb). In the AURELIS setting, this is about Compassion, also aligning with the four Buddhist vows and other grand worldviews. Compassion serves as a bridge, connecting diverse cultural and philosophical traditions, highlighting our shared human journey. In broader mental pattern formation, ever-expanding tasks become Read the full article…
In the End, it’s the Complexity
When many elements interact in different ways, they tend to form patterns with some persistence or recurrence. From their interaction, several characteristics sprout, such as life and intelligent behavior. The medium, in its broadest sense, is merely an enabler. Please read first: Complex is not Complicated. Across any scale of time or space For instance, Read the full article…
We Need to Be the Best We Can
This differs from being ‘the best person’ or ‘the most intelligent beings on Earth’ in competition with others. Our only – and fierce – competition should be with ourselves. The best, in good Aurelian tradition, is most Compassionately the best — striving for in-depth excellence. This striving is purposeful. It’s about standing at one’s limits Read the full article…
No One is Dust
Clearly. But why do so many individuals treat others as if they were insignificant? Is it because we fail to recognize our own intrinsic value? By seeing your own profound worth, you see that of others. The crucial term here is ‘profound.’ This perspective is incompatible with seeing a human being – including oneself – Read the full article…
The Good Death
—The good death is the one that you do not avoid. That doesn’t mean you have to kill yourself. Rather the reverse. You do not not avoid death. But take that risk. Push that button. Take that responsibility. Take it as a living being, not some remnant of an organism that died already long ago. Read the full article…
Is an Idealist a Realist?
Of course not — this is, not straightforwardly. However, a realist needs to be an idealist. There is no genuine reality in anything human-related without ideals. Without ideals, there is only surreal cynicism. One can subtract ideals from reality. A cynical person, as mentioned, is inclined to do so with the argument that “this is Read the full article…
Abnormal is Normal
For decades already, it has been suspected that mind-related ‘diseases’ are no genuine diseases. Each of them is the far end of a normal spectrum. In recent years, genetic research has made this clearer than ever. This has huge implications for the diagnosis and therapy of almost all mind-related issues. The genetic swing (*) After Read the full article…
Darwin and the Brain
Darwin had it right to the core. We (natural evolution) stumbled into a niche of intelligence/knowledge that brought heaven and hell to earth. We might choose for heaven, but that’s another blog. Brain stuff It happens that the human brain has pretty much the same kinds of neurons and the same kinds of brain parts Read the full article…
Pain of Being
A conscious and organic being lives in an unavoidable conundrum — imminent death as well as the will to live forever. Or so it seems. But I don’t think so. It’s just that we are oceans apart. Death will not keep us away from each other but life does, with its comings and goings. I Read the full article…
Are People Ready for Inner Strength?
Not necessarily, but since Inner Strength belongs, of course, to each human being, it’s always present to help coping with itself. Needed is the proper support for vertical communication ― with oneself, basically. Please read about Inner Strength. Psychosomatic symptoms – or what underlies them – may be a sorry, dysfunctional way of trying to Read the full article…
Are Genes an Excuse?
Our genes are the most important factor shaping who we are — mentally more differentiating than all else put together. (*) Are we, therefore, not responsible for our actions? Spoiler alert: Responsibility is saved, but very differently from what you might expect. To make things worse On top of the above, schools and families account Read the full article…
About Social Resentment
Only individuals can feel resentment. Societies can – and frequently do – provoke it as an underlying current. A Nietzschean topic In Nietzsche’s thinking, letting oneself be enslaved by an overzealously self-oriented society fuels an individual’s resentment. In turn, this translates into self-hate and hatred of others, discrimination, vandalism, violence towards others, and so on. Read the full article…
Upwards!
Hi Lisa, please comment on this poem that I wrote, inspired by Jesus’ ascension. Also, associate this with ‘nole mi tangere.’ Upwards! – Upwards! Everything upwards! No doubt. No looking back. No ideas of what could have been. No contacts outside upwards! Eyes so beautiful a mouth a body… ▪▪▪ Upwards! Everything upwards! Only upwards! Read the full article…
The Me-Syndrome
This is not egoism, although it may turn into that. The me-syndrome is about excessively being entrenched within oneself. The outside world becomes ‘the alien place.’ We are all more or less prone to this. You might recognize some of it within yourself. It’s almost natural — no badness involved. Yet in an increasingly complex Read the full article…
Is History against Humanity?
History shows how we got here, not how we should go on. We need to apply what we may learn from the past to a future that will be radically different ― probably most so through the advent of super-A.I. For humanity, business as usual may not be enough to make it through. This may Read the full article…
When Enlightenment becomes Dark
Talking about Western Enlightenment, logically, things tend to become darker when pushing reason forward on a defunct view of the human being. You may already know I’m talking about the subconceptual level of mental processing. If you don’t, please make sure to first read some blogs about it. Smartness is not enough. Being able to Read the full article…
Parallel Distributed Processing
In the mental sphere, Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) is nature’s way to reach ever more complexity. It’s also the title of a phenomenal book (edited) by Rumelhart & McClelland, published in 1986 — my mind-opener a few years later. Much AURELIS-thinking started then. Subconceptual In PDP, the basic units of mental processing are not the Read the full article…
Balance vs. Synthesis
Where a balancing act can be proper, a synthesis can be powerful. In a synthesis, a deeper connection between elements is sought, which may lead to an unforeseen and original direction. A balance is an equilibrium that doesn’t readily invite originality. In many cases, that’s OK, of course. Finding a balance may defuse tensions, enabling Read the full article…
Science for Complexity
Especially in human-related sciences, holding on to a Platonean ideal is insufficient for grappling with present-day challenges. We need new science to manage complexity. A.I. can provide the necessary tools for this. Science of medicine and psychosomatics Until now, medical science has been based on a non-complex picture of the human being. This accords with Read the full article…
The Awakening (to Reality)
Especially the reality of oneself. This is largely unachievable with all too exclusively conceptual thinking. Reality is conceptual AND subconceptual, not just one or the other. An overly conceptual take leads to a toy world in perception and construction, of which present-day conceptual humanism is an unfortunate example with many dire consequences in medicine and Read the full article…
Theory and Practice
Resembling the difference between conceptual and subconceptual, the latter is alive while the former is efficient. This text contains somewhat idiosyncratic views upon theory and practice. Theory A theory is a conceptual description of what — why — how. The formality of the description also makes it abstractly interesting without momentary practice. Practice may come Read the full article…
Are You Responsive?
‘Responsive’: same concept – different appearances. Delving into nature’s ways, one can see it everywhere. Thus, it can be a natural way of life ― including for you. In design and more The term ‘responsive’ is used, for instance, in the design field where recognizable elements show in different media (computer screen, smartphone, watch, 3-D Read the full article…
What has Always Been the Purpose
Taking the example of a book index, we can follow its ‘purpose’ toward what this has always been ― ending with the purpose of purpose itself. The book index is an example. One can do the same exercise in many other domains. A paper book index is a list of terms. The more realistic purpose Read the full article…
Growth or Genes
Does our genetic make-up determine who we are to such a degree that there is little room for mental growth? A mini-course of influence As a general principle, to effectively gauge the influence of a concept’s different features, you need a correct categorization. If the features are handled inappropriately, the concept might seem to be Read the full article…
Synchronicity
For instance, you think about contacting someone who just happens to contact you. The concept of synchronicity has been developed by psychiatrist C.G. Jung in the early 1900s. Most scientists of today don’t believe in it. Let’s try to open this. Definition “Synchronicity is a phenomenon in which people interpret two separate – and seemingly Read the full article…
Glossary
Several of these terms are specific to AURELIS. If you want some AURELIS-specific term explained, please email us at lisa@aurelis.org . Active acceptance: Embracing one’s experiences and emotions fully without resistance, facilitating inner peace and personal growth. Active placebo: An active placebo itself has (side) effects (unlike a passive placebo). To the extent that the Read the full article…
The Paradox Principle
The more, the worse, related to the humanly not seeing oneself in-depth. Many consequences of this are the opposite of durability. I dislike contradictions. I like a good paradox. A contradiction is about two statements that cannot both be true, yet they are both brought as true. There is either confusion or a lie involved. Read the full article…
What’s the Purpose?
Without life, there is no purpose. Without purpose, there is no life. We want our purpose to be our own purpose. This, too, is basic to life. An entity of life is an entity with purpose. Take, for instance, you. Your hand, nose, brain, stomach… don’t have a purpose. You have. Your stomach is not Read the full article…
Don’t’ Fight. Don’t Abide. Invite.
This is an admonition primarily to myself. You might also choose to do so. You see ― I’m already putting it into practice. No abiding (at the surface level) If it’s worthwhile, it’s worthwhile. In such a case, abiding is not gentle but weak. [see: “Weak, Hard, Strong, Gentle“] Also, showing that you will not Read the full article…
How to Read an AURELIS Blog
► To get this in your email, RSS…, click here. ◄ This blog-wiki encompasses various domains from an AURELIS viewpoint, based on modern science which is making massive progress in the domain of subconceptual, non-conscious processing. This has immense influence on how – as total beings – we feel, think, decide, and act. A central AURELIS Read the full article…
Complex is not Complicated
These are very distinct concepts. The latter is mechanical; the former is organic. The latter is controllable from the outside; the former is only controllable from the inside. This text is a short introduction in what and why. Complexity is indispensable to understand human affairs and how to alleviate growing crises. Complex? “A complex system Read the full article…
A Different Game
Sometimes. Some people may have their game. I play a different one. You might have read a different story. [see: “Minding Covid: a Different Story“] It is not needed for this blog. But if you have read it, you may notice that it is closely related to this much broader ‘different game.’ There are different Read the full article…
The Invisible (Wo)Man
What is invisible is invisible. Therefore, it’s invisible. Let me start with a hallucination Or whatever you want to call it. I like ‘vision’ more. Years ago, I was at a meditation retreat for several days. At the end of the third day – always a more decisive one – I kept sitting a while Read the full article…
Energy
Deep motivation. The direction matters. Constructive or rather destructive, intentional or somewhat chaotic, used or abused. It matters when it matters to people. The more profoundly someone makes it matter, the more it matters. If you know what I mean. Depth makes it matter. That’s what depth is about, what makes it essential. Without it, Read the full article…
What Has Been, Is, and Will Be
Humanity is in turmoil. Several of the world’s biggest problems are at present happening together because of an underlying process. There is a need for a comprehensive look to see this process thoroughly. It is not so much related to what happens to us, humans, as to what happens from within us, who we are. Read the full article…
Beyond Cosmetics
Where ‘depth’ is involved, in many cases, efficiency runs counter to appearances. AURELIS ends on Inner Strength. This goes way beyond cosmetics. Since AURELIS is specifically depth-minded, this is specifically important. A drawing from my PhD thesis: You think you draw something to you and actually, you’re drawing it away from you, endlessly… until the Read the full article…
Importance of Clarity
Even more important, especially in the domain of AURELIS: striving for clarity, each one doing the best (s)he can. Vagueness out? Some find vagueness OK for being able to bring people together where this would otherwise not easily be possible. People can stand behind the same vague idea, so at least they meet, mentally or Read the full article…
Selling Data is Selling Soul
… if the data are personal and in a big data context. It’s like a Faustian deal, but Faust only sold his own soul. Where is Mephistopheles? Big data + A.I. = big knowledge Artificial Intelligence is already so powerful that it can turn much data (passive, unrelated) into knowledge (active, related). ‘Knowledge is power’ Read the full article…
Creating Beauty
is a tautology. You can only create beauty. You can create only beauty. [see also: “Simply Beautiful”] A total person is needed At most, an ego can put separate things together. It is too small to let anything organically grow from inside, out of a multitude of elements. In contrast to this, the deeper (or Read the full article…
(Do Not) Change
There is nothing against change unless there is nothing for change. Change as a purpose by itself may lead to negating the nonconscious (even more). A superficial change without going in-depth, just for the sake of change is no change at all. At least, not the change that I’m talking about in this text. The Read the full article…
What is ‘Parallel’?
Psychologically. We are parallel and with good reason. Sure I mean in a deeply psychological sense. In-depth, humans are parallel thinkers. Superficially, we look more like serial thinkers. We talk serially, for instance. That may be because we cannot say two words at the same time. We cannot write two words at the same time, Read the full article…
Other Consequences
One throws a heavy ball into the air and says: “Look, I made the ball lighter!” Then it falls on one’s head or worse: on someone else’s. This way, one knows there are other consequences. What’s in your mind? Serial processing: one thing after another, like one long and structured sentence. This is not real. Read the full article…
Subtlety
Something is subtle when related concepts are semantically close to each other or even overlap each other, while the distinctions are relevant and yet hard to grasp. One is easily mistaken, which has important implications. Subtlety is different from hairsplitting. This is very important! … and in a number of cases it is subtle too. Read the full article…
Simply Beautiful
Eventually, what is beautiful is simple. Also when this beauty is surrounded by complexity. Simplicity in beauty Beauty doesn’t necessarily mean ‘not much’. It always means ‘not too much’. At least, no superfluous complexity is standing in the way. So as much as possible, beauty can flow where it wants. According to me, beauty is Read the full article…
‘Here and Now’: the Fourth Time
This is the so called ‘here and now’ that takes place neither in the past, nor in the future, nor in the present. Three common times if you want: past, present, future. The fourth time hovers over the other three, as it were. At first sight it seems to be only about ‘now’ of course, Read the full article…
Rationality and Poetry
People are more rational than other animals. More poetic too. Probably we differ more in the latter than in the former. Rationality = taking into account as much as possible elements from reality and linking them together in the most logical way possible in order to generate new knowledge. Poetry = reacting deeply to something, Read the full article…
Sliding to the Underlying…
the distinction between ‘symptomatic’ and ‘symptom-as-tube’ is super important. A short review Medicine is often symptomatic. It is about fighting the symptom, attaching little to no importance to any signs of an underlying psychosomatic situation. In several forms of psychotherapy, one mainly focuses on the underlying. The symptom may decrease by responding to these underlying Read the full article…
Letting Go towards Wholeness
‘Letting go’ is an important attitude regarding anything that keeps you from ‘being who you are’. The latter is subtle, difficult and vital. [see also, more poetically but not easy: ‘Having ‘Control’ and Letting Go of It’] Goal: wholeness A sub-goal towards this is openness, as in ‘Open Leadership’, ‘Open Religion’, ‘Open Mindfulness’ etc. This Read the full article…
Depth Makes the Teacher
Okay. I immediately ask myself whom I am actually writing this for. It is striking that people, if they start listening to someone who wants to gain a better ‘understanding’ of something, tend to some kind of expectation where that ‘someone’ should fit in. Would C.G. Jung talk about an archetype? He probably would. Different Read the full article…
Behold the Crystal Ball
We go back in time a few centuries (it’s not necessary, but it happens to work well now). Imagine yourself sitting in a tent at a fair At the front of your tent, there’s a sign that indicates you have ‘the gift’. Nice 😊. Everything in the tent is as it should be. Semi blackout Read the full article…
Whence Beauty?
To me, a world without beauty is hardly a world worth living in. Some tend to reduce beauty to an ‘evolutionary trick’ something like a mechanism concocted by nature only to lure us into existence and even more: keep us here… This reasoning may be correct. However, the ‘only’ is loathsome because it’s not the Read the full article…
“It’s Just the Way it Is”
No, it’s not. “This is reality, to which you have to adjust.” “This is how people are.” “It’s the way of the world.” Etc. etc. I do not agree. Apparently, I never came out of my ‘monkey years’, which in my country is another term for ‘puberty / adolescence’… and I see no reason why Read the full article…
Order out of Chaos?
Something can appear chaotic while containing an inherent order. In this case, the ‘chaos’ is possibly very important. People have a natural aversion to chaos. This may even be seen as a general characteristic of life: in defiance of a universal ‘fall towards entropy/chaos’, life stitches together a living space of order. Life, in this Read the full article…
The Message and the Door
“… Your belief has healed you. ” [Lucas, 18, 35] 2000 years ago it was already the case and it is still true: people are not taught to ‘believe’ in themselves (in their ‘total self’). On the contrary! In this sense, the above sounds revolutionary to me. ‘Belief in what’? As stated: ‘Belief in Yourself Read the full article…
“There is More between Heaven and Earth…”
But there are no gnomes. Regrettably. It would be nice: such cute thumb-sized males and females with funny stocking caps that are made of gnome sheep’s wool. But they do not exist. How come that I ‘know’ that? Now then: I do not ‘know’ it. Maybe they always disappear when people are watching. Maybe there’s Read the full article…
Pied Pipers of Hamelin
There are already more than enough pied pipers of Hamelin. ~~~~~~ One metric ton of so called ‘depth’ is easier to fathom than an ounce of real stuff whatever that may be. You don’t have to look like a spirit of the forest to bring depth. There is no harm in it, but it really Read the full article…
Clouds – Rain
An ‘unsui’ (*) was, in ancient Japan, a kind of monk moving around lifelong from monastery to monastery. Time and again he was fully present in the here and now. And time and time again he was ready to depart ‘here and now’. Not that he was running away from all these places. On the Read the full article…
What is Elegance?
Elegance is beauty, strength, wisdom, oneness. Of course, this is all hugely subjective. This text says perhaps more about me than about anything else. Finding something elegant is definitely animalistic yet it is what no other animal can do better than a human. Apparently, one needs a ‘very complex processing system’ to do the trick. Read the full article…
Growth to Happiness
Happiness can hardly be found at the end of happiness-road. It can be found at growth-road. Actually, it is that road. People who search for happiness – just like that – frequently end up being less happy. It’s a kind of nature’s revenge, maybe, especially when one and the other end up in a vicious Read the full article…
Tickling from a Distance
One may give examples from one’s own life, no? The following text is such an example. Probably each dad (and the mothers too) recognize it: tickling your kid(s) from a distance. It goes like this: you slowly let your tickle fingers travel toward a tickle spot at your child and your little sprout already starts Read the full article…
True Science
… and thus not what is often seen as such. And which in turn is being thrown in the trash by others, mainly in an effort to make oneself be seen. Science is being used and crushed for the same reasons. True science begins and ends with devotion and is devotion all the time. Firstly Read the full article…
The Art of ‘Giving’
So: giving is an art? Indeed it is. Exchanging on the other hand, is not an art. The difference between giving and exchanging is what makes it an art. This requires a subtle attention. You really expect nothing in return, or do you? “I am always giving and they only take advantage…” “A thank you Read the full article…
The Importance of ‘Certainty’
With ‘certainty’ I mean something that you can see as a kind of open surrogate for the belief in a placebo. This is to say: the action of believing in it (so the power, without the lie of it). It is a ‘certainty’ that you can basically take up yourself and that makes many things Read the full article…
Insight is Not a Supermarket
Lots of people are kind of lost. They are searching it here and they are looking for it there and they cannot find it anywhere, so they create it themselves… based on some bits and pieces that they glue together into something that looks like a house to mentally live in. But is that house Read the full article…
Being of Value
That’s what we all are: beings of value. Even of immense value. We should dare to acknowledge that and act accordingly. I know it’s not always easy to acknowledge one’s value. I’ve had my ups and downs in life myself. I’ve also seen people in diverse situations, including in most dire ones where even the Read the full article…
X or Not X, Versus: X or Y
This is a straightforward blog, although you may need to keep your attention focused on the logic. For instance: Freedom of speech: are you for or against it? … (just enough time for your immediate answer.) OK. Until recently, I would hesitate a bit, then say yes. Now let’s put ‘freedom of speech’ versus ‘the Read the full article…
Two Meanings of ‘Meaning’
The difference mainly involves ‘depth’. Two meanings that should not be confused. These are: What one can find in a dictionary – the formal definition What ‘deeply touches’ someone – poetry, art, religion, loved ones, or an important memory The former definition by itself does not ‘deeply touch’ a person. It is the domain of Read the full article…
Don’t Think Too Fast: “I Do Know It”
AURELIS, or more generally the deeper self, is not easy to grasp. That is clear. Less obvious perhaps is that it is VASTLY not easy to grasp. According to me, the greatest difficulty is an ego that is standing in the way. Is it really necessary to thoroughly ‘grasp’ it? According to me, the greatest Read the full article…
Each TOTAL Person is Infinitely Important!
There are many ways to articulate the ‘core’ of AURELIS. This (the title of this text) is a way that touches me personally. Everyone is very important, even ‘infinitely’ important. At the same time, this makes us all equally valuable. No discrimination. No distinction in deeper value. A child is a child, whether it is Read the full article…
Why Full Teacups Are Not Big Fans of ‘Empty’ Teacups
‘Emptiness’ is a screen on which much can be projected. HA! Of course lots of things are emerging from ’emptiness’. Things of which you may search for some ‘conceptual cause” which cannot be found in that ’emptiness’, because there is simply no ‘conceptual cause’ present in it. That is just what ’emptiness’ means: ’empty’ of Read the full article…
Do People Fit in Boxes?
One likes to put people in boxes. Particularly in business circles, this is a sport ‘that could peel paint off the wall’. A theory. An authority. A quadrant. Arrows. PowerPoint … And off you go. However, there are a lot of theories, many arrows, many slides, many types of boxes (DISC, LIFO, MBTI, core strengths Read the full article…
‘Doing Good’: Not as Easy as It Seems
Imagine you are a ‘special kind of therapist’. Good. All kinds of people come by your place with a ‘problem’ and they leave with a sense of relief, glad they came along. After a while they come back and then the same phenomenon occurs. Friendly faces. Nothing to worry about. ‘Doing good’ seems evident. Is Read the full article…
Hooray it Works!
It seems like the basis of this culture. Not so much the phrase in itself but rather the direct stop at its end. It is a culture of minimal effort. If ‘it works’ … what more do you want? It is also a culture of ‘many’. Many things. Something works and off you go to Read the full article…
Dancing With the ‘Deeper Self’
Letting emerge a ‘spontaneous association’, seems to be one of the easiest things to do. But what exactly is a ‘spontaneous association’? Is every thought ultimately a ‘spontaneous association’, or is there qualitatively more in the game? ‘Spontaneous’ is gradual of course. It is possible to let a spontaneous association about a particular idea emerge… Read the full article…
A Stepping Stone?
If you want that a child learns to count to 10, you can start teaching it to count from 1 to 2. Well done. However, if the child is at the same time being led to believe that there is absolutely nothing after the 2, really nothing at all, because 2 is simply ‘the best Read the full article…
A Humble Person Doesn’t Submit.
‘Acceptance without submission’ is a meaningful exercise that requires a certain dose of humility. This may be important in every domain of life. “Change what you cannot accept. Accept what you cannot change.” This well-known saying seems to put acceptance and change in competition to each other. However, acceptance may go together with trying to Read the full article…
Vision!
A coach and a leader have in common what is perhaps their main asset: the ability to ‘see what no other has seen before’, a future that is at the same time personal and universal. [Note: this is not an easy text.] This is not about eye-vision of course. In the coach’s case it may Read the full article…
In-Box-Thinking
It strikes me that intelligent people are sometimes immune to rationality in a circumscribed domain. This is VERY intriguing. I have as close-to-me example a quite intelligent medical colleague and friend who has… the ‘magical, healing hand’. Well… There are millions of examples like this. It’s not at all some isolated case. The term in-box-thinking Read the full article…
To Measure Is to Know?
To measure is to know… but only if you know what you are measuring. If you are confused in this, chances are you end up knowing even less than before. Western culture seems to be addicted to measuring, whether it be in management or medicine, education or economics… I see this as part of a Read the full article…
The Culminating Point
… The top and then some …. A little story from, you-probably-know-where, is about a 30 m high pile. You scramble up this pile. And then? Then you are on top of this pile. And then? Then you take a ‘step’ forward … but you’d rather not if you don’t know deeply within yourself what Read the full article…
Experiences
One experience may convince more than thousand words because an experience lives – if experienced well – inside your heart. To convince someone of a clear-cut idea, rational argumentation may do. To convince someone of a deeply ethical viewpoint, or a visionary one, or a personally appreciative one, or even a religious viewpoint is much Read the full article…
What’s the Problem?
The problem is worldwide. Burnout within company X -> search for a direct solution. Symptom Y in psychosomatic healthcare -> search for a direct solution. And in combination: a lot of physicians – apparently more than any other profession – get into burnout. Part of the cause may well be their being incarcerated in a Read the full article…
What is Subtlety?
Subtlety is not weakness, nor evasiveness. In many cases, it demands courage, especially when at risk of being misunderstood. Subtlety is not plainly vague, nor elusive, nor ‘indistinct’ but on the contrary: as distinct as possible in a domain in which distinctness is difficult. It’s not indirect but precisely to the point. Subtlety is about Read the full article…
Don’t Be Vulnerable
Now and then, an admonishment is ushered to ‘show one’s vulnerable side.’ Thereby never to show oneself as ‘the tough guy’ (or girl). OK, there is something in this. But I don’t quite agree. I think that one should never readily show oneself as vulnerable. There is no point in showing oneself as vulnerable, nor Read the full article…
How to Focus Your Attention
Attention is the weirdest thing. It seems so close and yet, precisely through its closeness, we cannot directly look at it. Compare it with not being able to see your own eyes, except in a mirror. And prepare for weirdness. Attention shifts happen unconsciously. Consciously you only notice that your attention has already shifted. If Read the full article…
From Discussion to Conversation
This is not obvious to many people. Thereby they get into needless difficulties, trying to ‘win’ alone instead of to gain insight together. This is about people talking about some meaningful issue in a domain they both hold dear. Eventually of course, it can be any domain. A (converging) conversation is a being together, talking Read the full article…
Three Waves of Attention
Where there is life, there is attention. Where there is attention, there is life. AURELIS integrates rationality and poetry in a specific view of human being. It brings together body and mind, East and West, past, present and future. Most of all, it unifies conscious thinking and the subconscious mind as understood in modern cognitive Read the full article…
Three Dangers of Careless Depth
The ‘deeper’ has already led to many accidents. Look at the pitiful excesses of Catholicism. It’s just an example. But that should not be a reason to throw away the ‘deeper’. However, one ought to be particularly careful with it. As a starters, one can make a primary distinction between: BLACK – the ‘deeper’ turns Read the full article…
What’s the Secret?
Looking for the ‘secret’ can be shallow or very profound. Shallowness shouldn’t close the doors of profound perception. Shallow = the ‘secret’ as a simple key leading straight towards worldly success, wealth and fame. For instance, through mindlessly, mechanically repeating ‘I want’. A simple mechanism as if oneself were also nothing but a mechanical construct. Read the full article…
About Concepts (From My PhD Thesis)
When talking about the ‘subconceptual’ [see About ‘Subconceptual’], it is also important to understand what is meant by ‘conceptual’. This is not a straightforward discussion. According to the classical view of concepts, the definition of a concept is “a proposition that gives a set of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for being in the Read the full article…