The Atheist Cop-Out Answer: The Placebo Effect

My dad told me one time to stop drinking vinegar. "IT'S THE PLACEBO EFFECT!!!" He yelled.

I told him placebo effect or not, it didn't matter. It worked.

In reality, this was some sort of rampant misunderstanding of the placebo effect. Like the first time I tried drinking vinegar by advice of my guides, I was SO convinced it would make me high.

Anyway.

Music

I wanted to include a list of the top songs consistently in heavy rotation while I am going through altered mysticism states:

Woke up this morning (Sopranos theme song) - Alabama3
Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
Shades of Gray - Amanda Marshall
I'm an Albatraoz - Aronchupa
*Around The World - ATC
Trojans - Atlas Genius
Burn it Down - Awolnation
Kill Your Heroes - Awolnation
*Wake up - Awolnation
Uh huh - B2K
Suga suga - Baby Bash
I know what I am - Band of Skulls
The River of Dreams - Billy Joel
Bad Motherfucker - Biting Elbows
Joga - Bjork
Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys
No Rain - Blind Melon
Call me maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
She Wants me dead - Cazzette & Aronchupa
Aicha - Cheb Khaled
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
*Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio
*Dancing in the Dark - (On my iphone it says the artist is Dancing, I think it is the Cateracts or something like that)
The General - Dispatch
*Bodies - Drowning Pool
*What I am - Eddie Brickell
40 day dream - Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes
**Burn - Ellie Goulding
Soldier - Eminem
Till I collapse - Eminem
Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Uma Thurman - Fallout Boy
Cameltoe - Fanny Pack
Like a G6 - Far East Movement
The Walker - Fitz and the Tantrums
Good Feeling - Flo Rida
Evil Eye - Franz Ferdinand
Some nights - Fun
*Annie You Save me - Grafitti6
Ways to Go - Grouplove
Shark Attack - Grouplove
Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger
Try it Again - The Hives
Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
All Nite(Don't Stop) - Janet Jackson
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
*Tongues - Joywave
I predict a riot - Kaiser Chiefs
Never Miss a Beat - Kaiser Chiefs
Wide Awake - Katy Perry
Dark Horse - Katy Perry ft. Juicy J
*We R Who We R - Kesha
Let it Rock - Kevin Rudolph
Spaceman - The Killers
Human - The Killers
*National Anthem - Lana Del Rey
Nobody's Listening - Linkin Park
Nobody Knows Me - Madonna
*Familiar Five - Marcus Marr
This is the new shit - Marilyn Manson
I need to wake up - Melissa Etheridge
Kids - MGMT
Bodyrock- Moby
Space Lord- Monster Magnet
San Francisco - The Mowgli's
Reapers - Muse
Got Ur Self A... - Nas
*Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
**Starships - Nicki Minaj
I'm Afraid of Americans - Nine Inch Nails
Sweat - Oingo Boingo
Insanity - Oingo Boingo
Alligator Sky - Owl City ft. Shawn Christopher
This is Gospel - Panic! at the Disco
Brick by Boring Brick - Paramore
Halo - Porcupine Tree
***Fear of a blank Planet - Porcupine Tree
Another one Bites the Dust - Queen
Du Hast - Rammstein
*Indigo - Rasta
Vedro Nebo - Rasta
Free Mason - Rick Ross ft. Jay Z
The Great American Nightmare - Rob Zombie
*Crazy - Seal
It Wasn't Me - Shaggy
Baptized By Fire - Spinnerettes
Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine - Spoon
The Way We Get By - Spoon
Desert Rose - Sting
Dynamite - Taio Cruz
*Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Girl Talk - TLC
Drops of Jupiter - Train
Ordinary - Train
Sing - Travis
Pump up the Jam - Technotronics
Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
Scream and Shout - Will.I.Am ft. Britney Spears
Concentrate - Xzibit
Don't Trust Me - 3Oh!3

This is the short list of the most commonly listened to songs on my iPhone.

The Inching Effect

I would like to propose the idea that we stop judging religions and belief systems as a whole by the adherent's behavior. Instead, we focus on the inching effect. In what direction are we inching?

In terms of good and bad people, there are good and bad people of all faiths and creeds. There are good Christians and bad Christians, good Jews and bad Jews, good atheists and bad atheists. The question is, overall, let's forget where everyone started out. Let's think, what do these believe systems, looking at the belief system specifically and not the behavior or its adherents, encourage?

You look at Christianity. That's where atheists say, look at all the bad things Christians have done! And I ask, is that the religious belief system, or is it the individual, who committed these crimes?

You look at the Holocaust, and you look at belief systems like Darwinism and Christianity. Neither of these belief systems encourage genocide. Christianity in itself encourages peace. If people decided to shoot someone as a result of their Christian religion, you can say that that was a "bad soul," or a "bad Christian," and not evidence that the underlying religion is bad.

It's about the spiritual growth of the adherents, and in which direction they are encourages to move. The underlying belief here is that there are, inherently, varying degrees of goodness and badness in all people, and it's all over the map.

You often hear of Christians converting and how a belief in a higher power encouraged them to get off drugs, or embrace their family, or stop beating their wife. And you think, my oh my, this wife beater also cheated on his taxes! But then you think hey, it's the inching effect. At least he is not beating his wife anymore.

So when looking at history, don't look at the fact that Christians did this, and atheists did not. Focus on the fact that Christianity encourages the idea that no good deed goes unseen, while atheism encourages the belief that it doesn't really matter.

The Royal Road to Destruction

I had a dream that Mark Zuckerberg lived in Portland, and he had a place where you could go and see him right downtown.

I was on his property, and we were talking about the clay I used yesterday at the hospital. If I was going to be famous, which I am, I can't use the clay. It makes it so my fingerprints leave marks. The people in my line of work that came before me were Steve Jobs, then Mark Zuckerberg, then me, and I would be recognized for my work on the brain.

I was sitting down at a table with someone else, and a glass of wine spilled and landed on both my friend (someone older and female), and me. I didn't think anything of it, but my friend got upset. She said the wine was an older smellier version of real wine, and it landed on us to discredit us.

My friend in the dream was Subbie.

In real life, I have been feeling really really bad. I keep my head up at all times, keep my head above water, everywhere I go I keep my head above water.

I keep wondering about how I am doing, am I crazy? Am I crazy? That's the question I keep asking myself. And it keeps coming back as, damn I must be, but what about this experience? Or what about this?

My guides have given me enough proof that I am psychic, I know my guides exist, I know they are real spirits, etc. The question is, are we really doing anything meaningful or are we on THE ROYAL ROAD TO DESTRUCTION?! I can't access very much information, I know absolutely nothing. I know my brain contains a lot of information, but my ability to consciously grab at it has withered.

I woke up this morning, and I have an image in my head from a recent dream prominently ingrained in my mind. It is of a old Victorian house, and a pipe leading from the top floor down to the bottom floor. In the dream, it was in a coloring book, and I was coloring this pipe in.

War on Christmas?

In this house, we are atheists (which wasn't mentioned to me at a young age). However, as a young child, we had a little nativity scene in with our Christmas decorations. Every year I would play with it, and it formed part of my early understanding of the Christian religion. Except I misheard, and I thought it was "Cheesus" and the thing around his head was the cheese.

In other words, the concept of God wasn't commented on until I reached a certain age.

What is the war on Christmas? A fight to eliminate a holiday? Some laugh here, as we start decorating for the holidays way too early, and are blasted with the same Christmas carols year after year on repeat way too many times.

Is that what the war on Christmas is? I say, no. The war on Christmas is, quite simply, a fight to remove Jesus from the holiday.

Now we can fight till the cows come home over the original holiday (apparently it was Pagan or someth'), or we can just admit that in this day and age, Christmas is Christ's birth celebration. Do people have some sort of problem admitting that we celebrate Christmas in this country? Now, I don't personally care if a store decides to use an all-inclusive "happy holidays" greeting instead of the standard "Merry Christmas," as to not leave out our Jewish friends. But is there something freaking wrong with a nativity scene?

Some say, I don't like seeing icons of stuff I don't believe on government property! And we've all been there, we don't like the way the country is run either but there isn't a well-formed "violation of church and state" law to draw upon.

The country was formed on Christian principles, and it doesn't indoctrinate anyone to have a depiction of Jesus' birth on public land. That's what I think. And then we get a chorus of "They were deists!"

Anyway, I think that "violation of church and state," applies to actual laws and not decorations.

And then, we get the red cup controversy, where Subbie and Conscie clashed and then Conscie agreed.

Well, it's kind of nice to have a design on a cup, instead of just a blank red cup. It's fine to point that out, everyone. Hey what gives? No manger scene?

I think next year, Starbucks should have a nativity scene on the cup. We had an atheist "nothing" year, now let's have a Ch- Chr- Christ, Ch- Chr- Christmas year. It doesn't mean you are a heathen if you are gay!

It's time we do away in one fall swoop with the Christianity phobia. What it comes down to is the, "people who believe in that don't believe in science!" argument over and over again. A lot of people don't think that's a valid argument.

And while were at it, we'll have a pharmaceutical design on the cups to celebrate atheist's Christmas next year.

Time

For now, we exist in this present moment. But did we always?

If you were in a dimension, and someone else was in another dimension, and these two dimensions do not interact or are easily reachable by each other, let's say only every once in awhile does someone pass between them and when they do, no information is relayed between them.

What time is it in the other dimension?

What is that person in the other dimension doing, RIGHT THIS MOMENT? The answer is, a whirlwind of activities and not anything in particular!

Time only exists as a reference point. If you look at what someone else is doing, you both check your clock and discuss what you were doing at 3:00 sharp. Otherwise, when you pass, there is a time warp. You spend enough time in transit, you will never be able to synchronize watches between the two dimensions!

There is only a need for intelligent synchronistic features of time if the two time zones intercept. Otherwise, there is no reason for there to be time kept in one dimension and time kept in the other, and for to be any continuity between the two time zones.

Does time go backwards? Time never goes backwards, silly. That's because at the same time, no imprint or continuous occurrence of past events reiterates. There's no such thing as time travel!

What is time? Time is flow, movement or change. It can change rapidly at times, stay the same at other times, and never ceases to amaze the weirdos. What if time went faster sometimes, and slower other times? Does it need to occur at a continuous pace? The answer is, no. Right now it's going really fucking slow too!

Peace

I have no anger at anyone, and I am open to any new friendships that come my way. I am serious, there is no one I am holding on to anger at.

Last Night's Dreams: A Return to the Holy Place

Last night I had a dream where I woke up, and I was lying in bed. I was fully convinced that I was wide awake. Then, some spirits (or people?) came into my room and snatched me from my bed!

I was put on my airplane, but there was a moment where it was hard to get away from the cops that were outside the house (the guardianship?). I was put on an airplane, and we were flying over this place with beautiful flowers that were so big, I could see them very very well from the airplane. We landed in the beautiful gigantic flower garden, and there were three colors of flowers that I was looking at in the dream. Deep purple roses, and black and white roses. In the dream, I was in the flower garden and I suddenly thought of Chance, a young man who died recently whom I knew.

The flower garden had a really weird emotional connotation, and when I think of it now, it reminds me of Miss Piggy. That makes no sense, but that was the closest concept the flower garden reminded me of.

Then I got back on the airplane, and there was a song playing that I liked. Now that I am awake, Subbie told me it was a real song that I listen to on a regular basis. In the dream, Subbie pointed out that there were a couple other songs that we wanted to check out we never got the chance to.

Then, we landed in some sort of marketplace. I was being escorted somewhere. My spirit guides kept pointing out a burger joint in the region. When I finally got close enough to look at it, it was some place called like Fisher Price Burgers (it wasn't the name in the dream, that is closer to the emotional connotations of the name. In the dream, I was thinking that Fisher Price Burgers was a more fitting name). It has the emotional connotation of when I was a very young child, and the way places like McDonald's seem to really young kids. The entire place had kind of an elven emotional connotation.

I think this dream is trying to tell me to get back to my youth-like state of wonder with the world. I have lost touch with that feeling, that feeling of awe with the wonders of the planet. I feel so worn-down, thinking of global warming and all the atrocities that are about to unfold on the planet. Also, the flower garden indicates the holy side of myself.

The Cross-Eyed Smiley Face

I have some sort of image in my head, in association with enlightenment.

It is a cross-eyed smiley face. Or maybe not cross-eyed, cross lipped. Or some sort of abnormal facial expression.

It combines the emotional connotation of smiley faces, with some rhythm of drumming, with the feeling you get as a kid looking at your dad's computer stuff. Like, really intensely technical.

It has a low-level computer engineering feeling to it. And it is a colorful smiley face.

But that doesn't do it justice. It has the feeling of breaking through two-dimensions and becoming three-dimension. Or breaking through three-dimensions and becoming more than four dimensions.

It reminds me of that South Park episode, where Stan found out the Tooth Fairy wasn't real and started questioning everything at the same time, and had an existential crisis. The music from that episode.

I can't really do that image justice. It just exists somewhere in my frame of thought.

And above all, it has a feeling of zen.

It came into my mind when I was watching a video by Osho, in reference to when Osho laughed when he reached enlightenment because the process of enlightenment was absurd.

Fungal Women: Heavens, what are the SHROOMS doing here?

For I, once was, wasn't, and then was again, a fungal woman. One of the women who reacts to the world with indifference, swallows the fungal cure, and revisits pastimes long spent off.

In short, These Three Fungal Features appear in Fungal Woman old and young alike:

1. Dark wavy hair, or auburn.

2. Fungal cures (drugs or whatever)

3. Resistence to anecdotal evidence


Merry hee hay ho, that's all.