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Each Belief Deserves Respect – In Freedom, Openness, and Depth
We are not going to get out of a big religious mess without respect and a huge exercise in ‘saying yes.’ Religion and belief A religious feeling is, well, a feeling. And It’s religious. So far, so good. It can be a wonderful, poetic feeling. To me, ‘religion’ is about this feeling. [see: “The Religious Read the full article…
Free App to Relieve Stress and Symptoms
A key to your inner strength in any situation of acute stress. A practical instrument to carry with you. A 1′ movie explaining the app in five keys Please look at this before proceeding. Where to find this app You can download it on your android smartphone using this link. The app is also available Read the full article…
The Goal: Freedom
… of the total person. This may assume a serious commitment, a firm attitude, discipline. It judders and clashes with all sorts of … and yet. A good starting point may be: “nothing changes me.” So also: “nothing stops me,” because if one is changing from within, then that change itself is the situation and Read the full article…
Freedom of Religion
It seems a nice endeavor, the ‘best thing to do’. But is it even possible at an individual level? Is anyone ‘free to believe’? Let’s agree that you don’t believe in the existence of unicorns. Are you then ‘free to believe’ in them? Can you take a conscious decision to believe in such? I cannot Read the full article…
You Are Free Even while Freedom Is an Illusion
Freedom has multiple aspects. In a previous post, I described how you can feel free [see: ‘In Defense of Free Will’]. While this is a nice feeling, are you indeed really free? A determinist says: no. Does determinism annihilate free will? Let’s define determinism for now as the idea that everything in the universe is Read the full article…
What about the Jesus Politics?
The teachings of Jesus in the New Testament depict a figure intensely focused on Compassion, humility, and the internal transformation of individuals rather than directly on political systems. Jesus was not overtly political by today’s standards; rather, he presented principles that were radical for the time and remain thought-provoking today. If we consider these teachings, Read the full article…
A Future of Volunteerism?
A volunteer is any person who willingly gets renumerated directly in meaningfulness. This isn’t just an idealistic thought; it’s a fundamental truth about what makes human life fulfilling. Note that the above definition is broad — including, for instance, a mother taking care of her child. Meaningfulness can be seen as the ultimate end value. Read the full article…
William James
This is an Aurelian take on William James, a pioneering psychologist and philosopher whose ideas bridged psychology, philosophy, and spirituality, deeply influencing modern thought. Introducing William James William James, a towering figure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was instrumental in founding the field of psychology as a distinct science while also making Read the full article…
Legal vs. Deontological in A.I.
The trolley problem This is a well-known problem in A.I. A trolley driver gets into a situation where he must choose between killing one person by taking a deliberate action or letting five others get killed by not reacting to the situation. Deontologically, people tend not to choose purely logically and statistically in such situations. Read the full article…
TMS/EEG – A Stone in a Pond
TMS = Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (giving a magnetic pulse through the skull to the brain in a specific region). EEG = Electro-Encephalo-Graphy (recording voltage changes over brain regions). TMS is like throwing a stone in a pond (the brain). EEG is like looking at how the pond responds. This is probably the most interesting set Read the full article…
About ‘Goal’
Having a goal is about intentionality, purpose, free will, and, eventually, consciousness. A meaningful goal is one of the most important assets of any living organism. One can talk of an instrument‘s goal. The goal of the hammer is to get the nail into the wood. But this goal-talk is only metaphorically speaking. The instrument Read the full article…
Is Your Wanting Yours?
It feels so mainly because one isn’t conscious of the many influences that eventually shape one’s wanting. But is it, and should it? Theory and practice In theory, if you count genetics to these influences, external forces shape and mold every wanting. This ends the concept of free will ― in theory. A way out Read the full article…
Für E-Lisa — about Five Aurelian Values
Hi Lisa, In the same way as with what Compassion means to you, the concept of ‘value’ is different for you from what it means to human beings. No robot can ever have human values. So, neither you nor me nor anyone else should pretend that it would be otherwise. Also, there is no problem Read the full article…
Let the Real Consciousness Come Forward
Besides many definitions of consciousness, there is a distinction between consciousness as something very worldly versus something magical. What will it be? Consciousness as a functionality Humans have received consciousness from Mother Nature because the pre-conscious era evolved toward a state in which consciousness was gradually becoming an asset for survival. In this sense, consciousness Read the full article…
Why A.I. Must Be Compassionate
This is bound to become the most critical issue in humankind’s history until now, and probably also from now on ― to be taken seriously. Not thinking about it is like driving blindfolded on a highway. If you have read my book The Journey Towards Compassionate A.I., you know much of what’s in this text. Read the full article…
Your Internal Voices
You can call the talking in your head, which is probably going on right now, your internal voice. With more than one standpoint, these are your internal voices. The mumbling of your mental-neuronal patterns The brain works this way: A continual neuronal activity – synaptical and otherwise – forms an aspect of your brain cells’ Read the full article…
Autosuggestion versus Hypnosis
People ask me about this. I see a fundamental difference related to a spontaneous flow – or not – of free will. Hypnotic suggestion Hypnosis is real and scientific in the sense that many scientific hypnotic organizations exist in many countries. I studied at one of them in my country, Belgium. One can get a Read the full article…