#but like I think it points to some unfortunate deficiencies in the consciousness of most tumblr users

[psychotrenny]

Kind of irritating how a notorious transmisogynist can regurgitate a few anti-imperialist talking points (which even in the context of the post alone they clearly don't understand) and it gets far more attention than like any of the coherent analyses of what's going on made by people who don't despise trans women

[weirdmageddon]

five years too late let’s analyze this. the commentary has gotten me back into gravity falls reigniting thoughts and insights i came to years ago

i love everything about this commentary in general it hits the points of humor, genuine analysis of the characters, but most of all im so glad hirsch addressed that the droid not detecting any fear from dipper here doesnt make any scientific sense because that was a massive CinemaSins moment for me

IDK the fact that dipper can fucking stand after an airship crash because theres a bigger threat at hand is literally one of the defining capabilities owed to adrenaline lol...... IM SORRY im a biopsychology student if i dont point that out iwill seethe and die because that was just . its a grudge ive held for a long time about this episode but didnt rant about because it was something so minor and i’m sure nobody would care.

i was 13 when this episode came out and i’m almost 19 now, i had a special interest in biology and i still do but now i’m actually having college classes in biopsychology so i can give my arguments more oomph now. and i have to say, now that i know more about the brain and autonomic nervous system the more this scene bugs me, if that was even possible. and it says a lot of dipper and ford’s relationship.

if dipper clearly wasnt calm before, why would he be now just because he’s put up an outwardly confident facade? before he was in the flight but now hes in the fight. my boy just rode on top of a spaceship by nothing but a magnet gun that could detach at any time if it failed and then the ship crashed, he sustained injuries, is in emotional turmoil because he thinks his uncle is Fucking Dead and the threat of a security droid that detects adrenaline is on his tail and produces a Big Fucking Gun in response to dipper saying “i hAvE a MaGNeT gUn” and hes screaming and has his teeth clenched but sure there’s no adrenaline coursing through his body in that moment i can totally believe that

when dipper asks what happened, ford says “the orb didn’t detect any chemical signs of fear, it assumed the threat was neutralized and self-disassembled” but i don’t think measuring someone’s heartbeat alone is particularly relevant in detecting ... chemical signs of fear?? they dont really tell you this shit but noradrenaline (and maybe adrenaline too if the acetylcholine from sympathetic outflow always activates the adrenal medulla??, theres two pathways) is always active in small quantities to make sure your parasympathetic nervous system doesnt slow your heart to dangerous levels on its own, regardless of your emotions. it’s just a homeostatic mechanism. your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are CONSTANTLY modulating control of your organs on a see-saw, literally with every breath you take. simply standing upright causes specialized mechanoreceptor neurons in blood vessels to signal your brain to project signals to release catecholamines via the sympathetic nervous system to constrict your blood vessels so that blood is able to reach your brain and not pool in your legs. i have a deficiency in my body’s ability to adapt to this which is why i know so much about it. if i stand up my heart races to compensate. i’m not feeling fear, my body is just adjusting—albeit grossly and incompetently lol.

but what im saying here is that the security system is flawed. it’s a cool idea to have security droids detect fear, but in practice by detecting adrenaline, and not even directly by detecting the molecule itself—it’s done in a roundabout way by reading the heartbeat, could be a recipe for false alarms. like what if someone’s on beta-blockers. that’s not really an adequate way to measure “fear”; there’s so many variables that could interfere with the measurement the farther you abstract from what you’re really trying to detect. and besides, adrenaline is NOT just a sign of fear, it’s just for preparing the body for action. i know the sympathetic nervous system and adrenaline is constantly linked with the “fight-or-flight” reaponse to a stressor, but 99.9% of the time the sympathetic nervous system is used in your life is to balance out your parasympathetic nervous system to maintain homeostatic equilibrium for mundane things.

i think detecting amygdalar activation would be more efficient in detecting fear. the amygdala sends projections to the hypothalamus which then in turn modulates the autonomic nervous systems. but the amygdala is intensely activated specifically in response to a fear-inducing stimulus (it does activate in response to other emotions but they’re mostly negative and is most activated by startle and fear), and wouldnt be highly activated by many other confounding variables like measurement of the heartbeat could be. the amygala is one of the first stops directly from external stimuli.

to show you how integrated the amygdala is as the first step in registering fear after receiving input from sensory stimuli let’s look at the auditory-amygdala connection for example

see how the auditory thalamus projects to the primary auditory cortex and auditory association cortex? the cortex is where conscious awareness of what the stimuli is comes from. this is the “high road”. it goes sensing -> perception -> emotional response. but sometimes you can be startled without even processing what it is you’re sensing, like the startle response of an alarm or a phone ringing in a quiet house before you even register what it is. this goes sensing -> emotional response, without perception happening until after you’ve already felt the startle. that’s when it takes the “low road”. here’s a simplified version:

even if that were the case with these droids though it’s obvious dipper is still fearful on some level here. his body language, voice, expressions all give it away. for the amygdala, aggression isnt too off from fear so it would be detected equally.

the reason this is so important is because ford uses this as evidence for why dipper is special, “i did it?” “you did it. this is what i was talking about, how many 12 year olds do you think are capable of doing what you’ve just done?”

but like....did he really? i’m not saying this to shoot dipper down or make him out to be more of a wuss, he was incredibly strong-willed here and i dont want to take that away from him because it WAS growth on his part. but the underlying psychophysiological reactions of aggression and fear shouldn’t be that different and this was a total asspull. maybe the droid was so old that it fucked up. maybe dipper being covered in grime and dirt made it harder for the droid to measure the correct heart rate through photoplethysmography (im assuming since they use a camera and are non-contact).

and in all honesty everything i just said brings into question the interpersonal healthiness of ford’s judgements, what he thinks, his expectations, and how he communicates that. in this video alex already talks about how ford is projecting onto dipper. and i think ford may be projecting his expectations for himself onto people who are not him, and the fact that it’s on dipper here makes it far more unfortunate. you realize how much this boy idolizes ford, right? how much impressions matter? dipper even tells himself before he leaves in this same episode, “all right dipper, this is your first big mission with great uncle ford. don’t mess this up.”

even though it’s unstated, the implicit message dipper is perceiving from ford based on their dynamic is: ��do you have what it takes for me to be proud of you?” and to accomplish this he must be like ford, even though he’s clearly not and he knows this. he says “i don’t think have what it takes. i was tricked by bill, i was wrong about stan’s portal, heck, i can’t even operate this magnet gun right.” then, by simple chance without even knowing what he did, he activates the magnet gun and pulls out the adhesive, which immediately takes the focus away from what dipper was telling ford about his feelings of inadequacy to ford saying, “yes! dipper, you found the adhesive!”

these thoughts of dipper’s hang in the air without resolve or comment from ford. we don’t know what ford would have said. but it then becomes painfully self-evident in the scene immediately after when the droids emerge and ford tells dipper, “they’re security droids and they detect adrenaline. you simply have to not feel any fear and they won’t see you”, to which dipper replies with an exasperated (and rightful) “WHAT?”

dipper goes in a panic trying to indirectly tell his uncle that this isn’t something he can do. and he is completely right and valid to be freaked out by that full stop. that IS crazy. you can’t control your fear. you can control how you interpret that fear in your higher brain regions but the physiological changes will stick around for longer than it takes to cognitively calm down. it’s easy for me to detach from my emotions to analyze them, but being able to do this does not come naturally for everyone. even i have an irrational fear of wasps and i can’t control it by detaching myself, my body is just automatically primed to get the fuck out of there. i know it’s stupid and i know it’s irrational and isn’t helpful to get myself worked up but i literally can’t stop how my body reacts no matter how i cognitively think about it. expecting composure from dipper in a situation like this when he’s being made to consciously be aware of his anxiety is absolutely fucking insane. look what you did, placing these cruel expectations on him, now he’s afraid of being afraid! this isn’t a case where two wrongs cancel out, they just stack on top of each other.

there’s a good reason these scenes were put side by side but it seems up until now it had remained unanalyzed.

what dipper fears from ford is disappointment. not living up to his uncle’s (quite frankly badly placed) expectations for a twelve year old with anxiety. not once did ford say or subliminally communicate “i don’t expect you to be able to do what i can since you are not as experienced as i am and that’s perfectly okay, no judgements”. you don’t put a child on bike before training wheels. you don’t throw a kid into a swimming pool without giving them swimming lessons. the way ford is doing it, there’s no room for trial and error or mistakes that are an opportunity to grow and learn; instead, it’s life or death. he only seems to pride dipper on what he can do while ignoring the underlying struggles that plague him and never making it known it’s okay for dipper to fail in front of his hero and that he won’t think anything less of him for it.

and that’s why i found the ending scene for dipper and ford’s adventure in this episode to feel so.. wrong. on a scientific and social level. because by the sound of it ford focused more on what dipper had done to dismantle the droid (the droid not detecting any fear) instead of how dipper displayed love and protection for him even if he was truly afraid. what if the science was accurate and the droid detected adrenaline while dipper was confidently standing up for his uncle. would ford still be proud of him regardless?

[nattikay]

yeah so YouTube randomly decided to recommend me some Beastars analysis videos and it inspired me to get off my chest some thoughts I’ve been holding on to since finishing the manga a few months ago. So uh if you haven’t watched/read Beastars (and there will be brief manga mentions so maybe vaguely spoilery for anime-only folks) go ahead and keep scrolling cuz this probably won’t make sense lol

anyways, here’s my hot take:

I think carnivores should be allowed to eat meat.

Like, they shouldn’t be allowed to murder, obviously. Predation is still bad, the livestock rings are still bad, the body-parts-hyperdrugs thing is still bad, and yeah those should all remain hecka illegal.

But barring those awful cases, the majority of the meat from the back-alley market is supposedly (secretly) donated by hospitals and funeral homes--in other words, from animals who have already died of natural causes. And I think carnivores should be allowed to eat the meat of animals who have already died so long as they’re not being intentionally killed for the purpose of consumption.

The reason for this is carnivores kinda biologically need meat to thrive. We’ve all seen those "owners trying to force their cats/dogs to be vegan” posts. Doesn’t end well. Sure, you could argue that the animals in Beastars have evolved past that need and their hunting instincts are merely residual--but if this is true I think could only be partly so, given Jack talking about how over the years carnivore bodies have been “shrinking” because they can’t eat meat. See also Gouhin telling Legoshi that there’s only so far training can take his strength as a wolf without adding a bit of meat to his diet.

Basically, the carnivore population is, to some degree, being legally malnourished and uh...yeah, it’s really no wonder that the back-alley market is such a big thing that almost every carnivore uses at some point in their life.

Unless their society can craft an adequate fake meat that actually fulfills all the nutritional needs of a carnivore (which is more than just protein--I know for example that taurine is an important thing with dog and especially cat foods, and vegan humans usually need B12 supplements so probably some of that as well, etc.), which they clearly haven’t given that these issues still persist--yeah, I think they should be able to eat real meat.

You could also argue that it’s not right to eat an herbivore even after they’ve died of other causes because they were a sapient being that may not have wanted their body eaten without their permission, and sure, that’s fair. So think of it like organ donation. Have a form a living herbivore can fill out, if they are comfortable with it, that says “yes, when I die you may use my meat”. There ya go. If it was a known and open thing how vital meat is to carnivore health, there’d probably be plenty enough donors while those who are genuinely uncomfy with the idea can easily opt out.

And with carnivore’s nutritional needs being better met and openly accepted, they won’t have to repress that side of themselves quite so much and therefore there’ll be less of an issue with said side bursting out via predation incidents. Heck, throw some more places like B-Strike in there too, and give carnivores a way to use their hunting instincts in a non-lethal way--kinda like the way you let your cat chase a feather wand to give it the thrill of a hunt without actually killing any small animals. Their hunting instincts are being satisfied in a safe way, and their nutritional needs are being met ethically--predation should drop a fair bit (won’t disappear completely because of course there will always be criminals, nothing you can do about that unfortunately, but should still drop) and everyone'd be healthier.

This is why I wasn’t super crazy about the back alley market getting demolished at the end of the manga, because while yes there was some nasty stuff going on back there that needed to be cracked down on, destroying the market...doesn’t really solve the root of the problem (that being that carnivores in this society are essentially malnourished/their hunting instincts are not being safely satisfied). If anything, it just delays it a bit and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few years down the road the market just starts coming back up again.

I mean, maybe it won’t be as bad because I guess they’re allowed to eat fish now?? idk that part was really glossed over so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  (yyyeahh the ending was...a bit of a mess...let’s just say it’ll be one of the few cases where I won’t mind if the anime makes some changes lol)

And honestly this was the issue I had with the second half of the series. If Legoshi doesn’t want to eat meat, that’s fine, and if he personally wants work crazy hard to completely purge himself of his hunting instincts and become as strong as he can without meat, cool goal man...but he needs to get off his high horse and stop trying to force that on everyone else. It was even hard to root for him a few times because I just...didn’t really agree with him lol. Carnivores (well, most of them) usually resort to going to the back-alley market not because they’re inherently corrupt, but because they have a legitimate nutritional deficiency that needs to be addressed, whether they consciously realize it or not.

Legoshi is a good character and all but dood ya gotta chill

aaaand yeah carnivores should be legally allowed to eat meat

so uh yeah there’s my (unpopular?) Beastars opinion, hope you enjoyed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

[free--therapy]

How to Deal with Social Anxiety

Social anxiety tells us two lies, says Boston-based clinical psychologist Ellen Hendriksen. The first is that the worst-case scenario is bound to happen: We will be rejected; people will point and laugh; we’ll be humiliated. The second is that we can’t deal with that worst-case scenario or the ups and downs of a socialized life that come with being human.

“I have a history of social anxiety, and I was actually nervous to disclose that in the book,” says Hendriksen, referring to How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety. The book details her scientifically based, judgment-free approach to social anxiety. “I thought revealing a struggle would make people pull away as if it were contagious. But when you disclose something about yourself, more often than not, someone will disclose something very similar to you, and that creates a bond. If I had a nickel for everybody who came up to me and said, ‘I have social anxiety, too…’”

A Q&A with Ellen Hendriksen, PhD

Q: What is social anxiety? How do you know whether you have it?

A: Social anxiety is self-consciousness on steroids. It is the perception that there are things deficient about us that—unless we work hard to hide or conceal them—will be revealed, resulting in our being judged or rejected.

We can all relate to the experience of looking in the mirror in the morning and seeing some kind of physical flaw that we feel self-conscious about. Maybe we have a big pimple, or maybe we’re having a bad hair day, or maybe we think we look weird in these pants. So we try to conceal that thing. We might put on some extra foundation, or wear a hat that day, or change our pants. But if we can’t do those things, if we go out into the world with our pimple or our bad hair or our weird pants, the resulting feeling is similar to social anxiety.

Social anxiety usually falls into one of four categories:

The external self. There’s a whole category of perceived physical flaws—we’re ugly, we’re fat, our skin is blemished.

The symptoms of anxiety themselves. We may believe that it will become obvious that our hands are shaking, or that we’re blushing, or that our voice is trembling.

The fear that our social skills will be judged inadequate. We’re boring, or we’re annoying, or we have nothing to say, or we keep going blank.

Our entire personality. The anxiety here is that it will become obvious that our entire personality is somehow defective or inadequate, that we’re stupid, or that no one wants to hang out with us, or that we’re incompetent.

Social anxiety can blossom as many different flowers, but they all come from the same perceived root that there is something that needs to be hidden. But these perceived flaws are not true at all. At most, there’s a grain of truth in a perceived flaw—like maybe we do blush, for example, but not to the extent that we think—plus it doesn’t cause the amount of attention or rejection we anticipate.

Q: How is social anxiety distinct from generalized anxiety disorder?

A: If there were a Venn diagram of general anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder, many people would fall in that overlap. General anxiety disorder is characterized by worries: There’s worry that feels uncontrollable and skips from topic to topic. We might start with, “Oh, I’ve got a headache this morning,” to, “Oh my god, maybe I have a brain tumor.” Then: “If I die, how would my family support itself?” And so on. It might skip from your job to your social life to your health to global warming.

Whereas social anxiety is centered on this fear of the reveal: The fear that something theoretically deficient about you will become obvious to everyone.

Q: Does social anxiety ever work itself out? Or is it always something that needs to be worked at to be overcome?

A: It depends. Social anxiety is driven by avoidance. Avoidance might be overt: We might not show up at a party, tell our best friend we can’t participate at her wedding, or not tell anybody it’s our birthday at the office. Avoidance can also be covert: We could show up at a party but spend all our time scrolling through our phone. Or we could tell people it’s our birthday at work, but then make sure that we basically hide from everyone, all day, so they don’t make a big deal, etc.

Either way, through overt or covert avoidance, what results is a buildup of a dearth of experiences. We don’t realize that we were safe all along, or that our imagined worst-case scenarios don’t actually happen. If we keep avoiding as we move through life, then the anxiety will not resolve itself. It will be maintained by our own avoidance.

However, social anxiety does often get better as people age, because generally we can’t avoid everything. Life happens. We will often passively absorb experiences and realize they weren’t so bad. For example, maybe our boss makes us give a talk, and even though we dreaded it and secretly hoped it would be canceled, it goes fine, and we realize, “Oh, maybe I can do this.” All in all, it depends on how much we engage in avoidance and how much we are willing to try the things we’re afraid of despite our fears.

Now, actively working on social anxiety can turbocharge that growth and change. I advise people to select a few things, big and small, that they would like to work toward and actively try to not avoid those experiences but actively search them out. It feels awkward, but the key is to start small and work your way up. You can start as small as you like—you don’t have to cannonball into the deep end.

Q: How can you help a friend with their social anxiety?

A: Unfortunately, what usually happens when somebody discloses social anxiety is that their friends tend to ask less of them. The friends tend to try to accommodate to make them feel comfortable. Which I get; which is lovely and heartwarming and I appreciate that they’re trying to make their friend feel better. But what happens is then they decide, “Oh, now I can’t invite this person to the party.” Or “Now we can’t go to new places.” Or “Oh, my cousin is coming to town, so my socially anxious friend probably wouldn’t want to meet her.” In protecting their friend, they end up enabling them.

What I tell friends to do, in contrast, is to be a champion. That means hearing their friend’s fears and working with them to see what they want to strive for. How do they want to stretch and grow? See if you can help them with that.

It’s important not to dismiss their fears, such as, “Don’t worry—you’ll be fine,” or “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” We don’t want to minimize their very real fears. Instead we can tell the truth and say, “You’re strong and you can do this.” Or “The scariest moment’s right before you go in. Let’s give it a shot.” Or “Last time you stuck with it, you felt better after just a few minutes. Let’s see if that happens again.

"In sum, let them be in the driver’s seat, but also ask how you can help.

Q: What are things socially anxious people have in common (besides social anxiety)?

A: Social anxiety comes bundled with some really good traits. People with social anxiety often have really high standards, so they hold a good work ethic; they’re conscientious; they often can read others’ feelings. (Well, sometimes we overread them.)But in general, we’re pretty empathetic; we’re helpful and altruistic; we’re often good listeners. We work hard to get along, because if you roll back caring too much about what people think of you, what you get is simply caring about people. In terms of living a happy life, the greatest thing you can do is connect with others by being kind and warm. People with social anxiety are extremely well-suited to do that.

Plus, it’s important to emphasize that as we work on our social anxiety, as we try to conquer our fear, those good traits don’t go away.

Read More of the article and Q&As here

[questionsonislam]

Why was Man Created? What Should Be His Purpose and Goal?

'For what purpose has man been created is the most frequent question that we are asked. Asking ourselves or others such a question is a great divine blessing for us. To be more precise, neither did the sun ask itself that question nor was another star able to ask the sun that question. Furthermore, a sheep or a bee is unable to ask each other that question. That is, mankind, looking for the answer to it, is left free to use his body in whatever area he wishes, and is subjected to trial and testing for it.

The only solution to be successful in this trial is to learn the correct answer to the question from the One creating us. Whoever reaches this point knocks the door of the truth. And they are provided with the reply through the tongue of the Revealed Quran and the Prophet.

I have only created Jinn and men, that they may serve Me The Winds that Scatter (Az-Záriyát :51 ;56).

According to the Risale-i Nur Collection (the Treatise of Light), the meaning of worship is knowledge. Many of our interpreters of the Quran agree with that interpretation. The worships such as prayers and fasting are the outcomes of this knowledge. That is to say, man, first of all, should comprehend that bounties requires offering thanks to Allah so that he can offer thanks and praise to Allah.

Before anything else, man should know that the divine miracles filling the universe necessitate deep thinking and wonder so that he will fulfill his duty of glorifying and exalting Allah

Having come to the conclusion that he should have mercy on the other people, he can proceed to the path of giving charity alms (zakat).

All of them are the fruit of faith and knowledge, in other words believing in Allah and knowing Him.

A lesson of knowledge from Risale-i Nur Collection: "O man! In the face of manifestations of Dominicality, the elevated purpose of the universe is man's universal worship and submission to God. (Words)

Dominicality means educating and training. This act manifests itself in a different form, beauty, and perfection in each realm of this universe. And we proclaim our awareness of this various education to God, the Sustainer of All of the Worlds when we recite the Fatiha during each prayer.

It is Allah that educates the world of lights, and eyes too. And by offering thanks to our Almighty God we fulfill our duty of worship for the manifestation of the dominicality through the contemplation that the sun is raised in a way that it gives light and our eyes can benefit from it.

Taking into account that the foodstuff is grown to be edible so that our mouth, tongue and stomach can enjoy them and accepting Gods infinite bounties in deep wonderment and glorification, we again respond with worship to that dominicality.

The universe was created for the sake of man and man was created to worship Allah. Two words here draw our attention; elevated and universality. These two words indicate that apart from us, there are other beings performing those services. The point to be emphasized here is that man is capable of carrying out the duty of worship better and more universally than them. Those beings that we mention are angels and jinn.

While thinking carefully about a fruit, an angel observes in wonder that the shapeless, uncolored elements of the past have turned to beautiful beings today and hard trees have yielded fruit. However, it cannot think about the taste, vitamin, and calorie of it on the grounds that his capacity is not suitable for it.

At this point, human race has been granted an absolutely different talent. Thanks to his mind and imagination faculty, he is able to think not only what is present but also many things invisible at that time and even to contemplate about the past and future. Thus, his mind, idea, understanding and prosperity become more universal. When he eats a fruit, he can think that almost infinite members of more than one million animate beings are provided with sustenance, and he is one of those benefiting from that divine sustenance and by this means, he will be able to think deeply about the name of Sustainer of the Almighty God.

If he wishes, he takes his mind to the past and future. With the help of his imagination, he ponders all sorts of bounties and those utilizing them throughout all the times; and his contemplation gets deeper.

We can say similar things about the manifestations of all His Divine Names.

While the verse You alone do we worship is explained in the Treatise of Light, our attention is called to the subtleness of using We instead of I; in fact, three different groups are suggested by this utterance. One of them is all the believers, the others are all our organs, cells and senses that are functioning differently inside our bodies and engaged in a different worship peculiar to each other. The last group is the entire beings.

That means man is capable enough to declare You alone do we worship on behalf of all other beings. Even if he prays alone, the man eluding from individuality and submitting the worship of all other beings to His Lord can perform a universal glorification.

The fact that man is the fruit of this universe brings about this result. Should we fancy that all the units of a tree are conscious, the fruit will be the one making the most universal contemplation. It is because the kernel of the fruit contains the ability to represent all the worship and contemplation of the tree.

Those performing this universal glorification in the most advanced way are prophets and particularly Our Prophet (peace and blessing of Allah be upon Him), who are the most beautiful fruits of the tree of the universe.

There is a close connection between the elevated purpose and universal worship and the following Divine Hadith: If it were not for you, I would not create the universe.

There are plenty of subjects discussing the responsibility of the man in the Light Collection. We would like to submit some of them as a summary:

-Using your knowledge, willpower, seeing and hearing that your soul have been equipped with as a Divine gift as a means of knowing the attributes of Allah. Taking advantage of these knowledge windows opened inside your soul to recognize the Divine attributes.

-Employing the power of reasoning in the sphere of wisdom, the power of passion in the way of chasteness, and the power of anger as a means of sacred courage.

-Giving your love only to Allah, and loving the creatures in His name and because they are the mirrors to His Names, His Perfection, and His Beauty.

-By having the consciousness that he has been created with a nature capable of performing every sort of worship, trying to benefit from every sort of worship at the utmost level.

-Turning the face of your heart, sense of secret, spirit, mind, even the power of imagination and other senses towards the eternal life and thus engaging them in their particular worships.

-Unlocking the infinite treasures of Compassion by each sense, making use of them and offering universal thanks.

-Contemplating the Power of Allah compared to your weakness, the Mercy of Him by looking at your deprivation, the Perfection of Him by reasoning your deficiencies. Knowing that your Creator has the endless perfection, compassion and power, but that your soul has unending needs, poverty and deficiency.

-Coming to the presence of Allah by keeping your spirit away from sins, and your body away from all sort of dirtiness.

- Presenting yourself to the looks of the angels and spirit beings in that you are the most excellent work of God.

So, man has been created for sublime goals like those. However, unfortunately many people have forgotten themselves and they strive to live comfortably only in their worldly life being completely ignorant of those elevated purposes. Although man has the capacity to represent the worship of the entire universe, he merely aims to gain the favor of the people around him and tries to seem pleasant to them.

After a while, he also passes away just like the other people and all his objectives and he himself disappear when buried under the ground.

[things2mustdo]

Win the morning. Win the day.

Step 1 – Hydrate

The first thing you need to do upon waking is chug some H2O. The average male body is made up of 60% water and you have just spent a number of hours without it. Even slight dehydration can suppress your testosterone and growth hormone production. But getting hydrated is only half the battle. You also have to make sure that you’re not drinking estrogenic water.

Water is one of nature’s best solvents, i.e. the solids it comes into contact with eventually dissolve into it. This can be dangerous given the fact that a large portion of us drink water from plastic bottles. A lot has been said about plastics here at ROK, and for good reason – plastics are a silent killer of masculinity. They contain chemicals like BPA and phthalates, both of which exert potent estrogenic effects on the male body. Avoid drinking water from plastic bottles.

Ideally, you have access to spring water that is pure of chlorine, heavy metals, and contaminants. Findapsring can help you discover a spring near you. The next best option is to opt for a Pur filter to attach to your faucet or a Brita pitcher you can fill up and stick in the fridge. Either way, start your mornings with at least 12 ounces of pure, filtered water.

Step 2 – Make Your Bed

After getting hydrated and using the toilet, go ahead and make your bed.

Admiral McRaven, retired Navy Seal and author of Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life, said it best:

Making your bed will reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made – that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any evidence to support the fact that making your bed boosts testosterone, but do it anyway. It will continue to build on the positive momentum you have moving forward.

Step 3 – Get Lit

Next up, get outside and soak some sun. Your skin synthesizes vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight and vitamin D is crucial for testosterone production. If you’re currently deficient in vitamin D – and chances are, you are – then topping up your levels is perhaps the simplest way to boost your testosterone.

“But Mo, I live in Alaska and the sun barely comes out. Does this mean I’m doomed to a life of low testosterone?”

Worry not my friend. If you live in a part of the world that doesn’t get much sun (or you’re just too lazy to go outside), opt for a daily dose of 2000-5000IU of vitamin D3 to help optimize your levels.

Step 4 – Breathe Deeply

Whether it’s work, family, or financial pressures all of us have something that we’re stressed about. The problem, though, lies not in the stress itself but in our inability to deal with it effectively. This leads to the stress becoming chronic. Chronic stress is a testosterone killer, but deep diaphragmatic breathing is a proven way to conquer it.

Diaphragmatic breathing is a central tenet of the Wim Hof Method. Wim Hof is a modern day alpha superhuman known for setting a number of extreme sports world records and climbing Mount Everest during a blizzard in nothing but his shorts. What’s more is that he has taught groups of men to achieve similar feats. I bought and completed Wim Hof’s 10-week program a while back, but diaphragmatic breathing is a practice that I’ve carried on with till today.

Here’s how to get started:

Inhale through your mouth and/or nose deep into your diaphragm and exhale without any effort. Maintain a consistent rhythm for about 30 breaths. You should begin to feel a slight lightheadedness and tingling sensations in your extremities. This is a sign that your blood is becoming hyper-oxygenated. At this point, take one last deep breath, exhale, and hold for as long as you can. When you feel the urge to breathe again, take a deep breath in, hold for 20-30 seconds, and let go. That is one full cycle of what’s come to be known as the Wim Hof Method.

I do three cycles of this every single morning. I also make it a point to track my breath retention progress. When I started, I could only hold my breath for 45 seconds. Today, I can hold it for over 3 minutes.

Step 5 – Hop Into a Cold Shower

The direct link between cold showers and higher testosterone levels is not conclusive, but there is some evidence to suggest that the testes perform better in cold temperatures. Also, cold showers are a proven way to combat inflammation.

But the biggest reason to start taking cold showers everyday is to exercise your willpower. I’ve been taking cold showers for about 3 years now and I still find myself resisting them. But after the shower is over, I always feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in overcoming that little voice in my head that didn’t want to do it.

As Aubrey Marcus writes in Own the Day, Own Your Life:

In the smithy of life, cold exposure is the anvil against which your character is shaped and your resolve is hardened, so that you might confront your chronic stress and conquer it more completely.

Step 6 – Skip Breakfast

If you believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you’re still plugged into the bluepill world of mainstream consciousness.

Skipping breakfast is a proven way to boost testosterone, skyrocket growth hormone, ward of oxidative stress, regulate insulin, and increase cellular repair. You can read about the science behind all these benefits here.

Simply push your first meal back 4-6 hours after waking. If you get hungry in between, drink some black coffee to suppress your appetite. The second option is to go for the 16/8 method of intermittent fasting whereby you choose an 8-hour window within which to fit all your meals, e.g between 12pm – 8pm, 10am-6pm, etc.

Conclusion

Starting your day with these six steps will not only boost your testosterone levels, but will also help transform you into a more grounded and powerful version of yourself.

https://www.returnofkings.com/195107/develop-your-discipline-with-this-simple-habit

If you’re like most men, there’s a gap between your intentions and your actions. You know what you need to do to get what you want, but have difficulty in following through. Want to get better with women? Interact with more women. Want to get in shape? Eat less, move more. Want to make more money? Leverage your time and focus on income producing activities. Sounds pretty simple when I put it like that, but simple does not mean easy.

Not too long ago, I found it difficult to crawl out of bed in the morning. I was always tired and barely had the energy to stay awake, let alone go to the gym, cold approach women, and build a business. I was caught in a downward spiral, breaking out of which required a tremendous amount of will. Thankfully, I realized that the root cause of my problems could be narrowed down to the simple fact that I lacked discipline. Now, I’ve come to believe that self-discipline is the missing link between everything you are and everything you’re capable of being. I believe that self-discipline is the only difference between success and failure in every aspect of life.

In this article, I’ll discuss the #1 way I’ve found to develop my self-discipline and skyrocket my energy, mood, and focus in the process.

Cold Showers: The Secret to Sending Your Discipline Through The Roof

Picture this: You finally realize the power of rising early and set an alarm for 5:00am the next day. The next morning, you groggily wake up to the sound of your alarm buzzing and a part of you tries to convince you to hit the snooze. The decision you make in that moment – whether to get out of bed or to hit the snooze – is the decision that makes all the difference.

Self-discipline is the ability to do what needs to be done regardless of whether you feel like it or not. Getting out of bed at 5am, even though you don’t feel like it, sets the momentum towards taking right action despite what your emotions tell you. It’s the same with taking a cold shower. When you enter your shower and think about turning the knob to “C,” you will hear the same voice trying to talk you out of it. But when you turn the knob anyway, you have effectively overcome that lower part of yourself and are letting your mind know who’s in charge. Then, later on in the day, when that voice tries to talk you into skipping a workout or reaching for those cookies, you are less likely to listen.

Having taken cold showers relatively consistently over the past couple of years, I know for sure that the days I start with a cold shower are always more productive than the days that I don’t. True freedom is impossible without a mind made free through discipline, and starting my day with a cold shower is the best way I’ve found to practice my willpower, develop my discipline, and learn to associate pleasure with doing the hard things in life.

Can Taking a Cold Shower Boost Your Testosterone?

As a reader of RoK and the manosphere, you’ve probably heard about cold showers in the context of boosting testosterone. Having researched this topic in-depth (check out my ultimate guide here), I’ll be the first to tell you that there is no definitive evidence to back this claim up.

Does this mean that cold showers don’t boost testosterone?

No. What it means is that there are currently no studies that have observed the phenomenon. Understand that the majority of scientific research is driven by economics. Since cold water is cheap and nobody owns the rights to it, there is no financial incentive to drive the research. This is where anecdotal evidence (personal accounts) becomes important – and there is no shortage of that. A simple Google search for “cold shower benefits” will reveal countless testimonials from men who’ve experienced profound transformation by implementing cold showers as a regular part of their life.

Although the direct link between cold showers and testosterone has not been studied, there are a bunch of mechanisms through which cold exposure can indirectly affect your T.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sNpMed1RmE

The Scientifically Proven Benefits of Cold Showers

Anyone who’s taken a cold shower before can attest to the increased levels of energy and focus they feel afterwards. The reason? It all comes down to a hormone called norepinephrine.

Cold water exposure stimulates the fight-or-flight response in your sympathetic nervous system and causes a massive release of norepinephrine. In this study, 1-hour of cold water exposure at a temperature of 57°F (14°C) caused a 530% increase of norepinephrine and a 250% increase of dopamine – both of which go hand-in-hand to cause a massive lift in energy, focus, and mood. On the flip side, low levels of norepinephrine and dopamine correlate with diminished focus, drive, and depression. In fact, part of how antidepressants work is by increasing the uptake of norepinephrine and dopamine in your brain. The positive effect of cold exposure on mood is so profound that researchers have begun studying it as a possible measure against depression.

Furthermore, cold water exposure has also been shown to boost immune function, increase fat-loss, and even speed up muscle recovery.

Conclusion

All in all, starting your day with a cold shower is a quick and easy way to boost your immune system, speed up your fat-loss, increase your energy levels, and massively develop your self-discipline in the process.

Download my FREE 5-Step Testosterone Optimization Blueprint and move towards a life of more energy, health, and vitality.

[rimmers-swimming-certificate]

Red Dwarf fanfic - Comatose (6/?)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

Lister was halfway through a movie when Kryten entered his quarters with an empty laundry basket tucked under one arm. His other hand clutched a full-looking teapot with steam rising slowly fro the spout. The mechanoid stopped completely still in the doorway and stared at Lister.

Lister, laying in his bunk, head propped up on one hand, smiled at him. “Alright, Kryten?”

Kryten didn’t reply. He remained where he was, staring at Lister as though transfixed.

Lister’s smile turned into a confused frown. He glanced behind him, checking there was nothing there that might have captured the mechanoid’s interest. Finding just the usual wall, he turned back. “Uh, Kryten?”

His hand moved self consciously to the large letter ‘H’ on his forehead. It was the only thing in the whole situation that was different, and it had taken him a while to get used to seeing it on Rimmer, so it stood to reason that the others would find it strange on him.

“Kryten, what’s going on? Is something wrong?”

Finally, Kryten blinked. “No sir. Stare mode cancel. I’m sorry, it’s just so good to have you back, Mr Lister. For the past six months, I’ve been trapped on the ship alone, with only Mr Rimmer and Mr Cat for company.”

Lister shrugged unsympathetically. “Yeah, been there,” he said.

Kryten walked busily across the room, placed the teapot on the table and the laundry basket on the floor next to it. “So, sir, I trust you’re well? How are you adjusting to your hologramatic status?

Lister gave the question serious consideration as he took a swig of his hologramatic lager. The drink was nothing like lager, not really. It wasn’t even like having a drink. There was no feeling of quenching his thirst, because he had no thirst to quench. The drink didn’t feel cold, but it didn’t feel warm either. It was somehow completely without temperature. There was no fizz either, and he was reasonably certain that the taste he was detecting was constructed entirely from his own memory and expectation of the flavour, rather than from the drink itself.

“Sir?” Kryten asked

Lister shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it’s…” he shrugged again, struggling to put it into words. “It’s not been very long,” he said. I’ve done nearly this long before, when me and Rimmer swapped bodies.”

Of course that had been different. There had been a time limit on that arrangement. They had agreed to swap for two weeks, although in fact it had lasted much less time. This was completely open ended; he had no idea how long it might last, or when it might be over.

Kryten nodded. “I imagine this is a little different to that, sir.”

“Well, yeah. For a start I’ve got you looking after my body instead of Rimmer, so that’s definitely better.”

“But sir, you’re in a coma.”

Lister nodded. “Even so. The whole thing’s not great though. I think it’d be easier to put up with if I knew how long it was going to be for.”

“Of course.” Kryten opened one of Lister’s clothes drawers as he spoke. “And I wish I could give you that information sir. I really do.”

He knew Kryten didn’t know. He took another sip of pointless lager, just for something to occupy his hands. Vaguely, he wondered whether Holly would be capable of simulating a pack of cigarettes for him.

“I’d forgotten what a pain in the arse it is to not be able to do anything for yourself. You want to pick something up? Nope, gotta ask the skutters to do it for you. Want to push that button? Too bad, ask the Cat. And this stuff?” He raised the can of holographic lager in the air. “It’s like vaguely beer flavoured nothingness. I don’t even know why I keep drinking it.”

He took one final swig, then tossed the half-empty can across the room in the direction of the bin. It spun through the air for a second, then disappeared just before it hit its target.

“I see,” said Kryten. “Sir, I don’t know whether you’re aware of this, but historically, new holograms were given a minimum six weeks of weekly therapy sessions by the Space Corps, as well as company mandated rehabilitation.”

Lister frowned. “Why?”

“Well, sir, it was found that holograms were prone to depression and bouts of existential crisis. Of course, much of that was linked to the knowledge that they -- the person that they were -- was dead. That is not the case for you, of course. Still, I would expect there to be a certain adjustment period. A significant portion of the rehabilitation involved learning ways of doing things without the ability to touch, as well as coping with the emotional impact of that.”

Now that Lister thought about it, that all made perfect sense. “I don’t suppose you have any of those therapy sessions built into your programming, do you?” he asked.

Kryten shook his head. “Me, sir? No, I’m afraid not. You might find some relevant literature in the ship’s databanks, but, as loathe as I am to say it, most likely the best person for you to speak to would be Mr. Rimmer.”

“I don’t think so,” Lister said, immediately.

“No. Honestly, even thinking that suggestion felt ridiculous,” Kryten admitted. “But unfortunately, he is the closest thing we have to an expert on the subject.”

“He’s also a complete smeg head,” Lister countered. Rimmer would probably love it if he went to him for help. After all, Lister hadn’t exactly gone out of his way to make things easy for Rimmer when he had first been switched on.

“Granted, sir,” Kryten agreed. “He did, however, visit you almost every day when you were in the medi-bay. He does appear to care. Although honestly I doubt he would make an effective therapist.”

No kidding. Literally anybody that had ever been born would make a better therapist. With the possible exception of Cat.

“Although, frankly, given the circumstances, it’s a miracle that Mr. Rimmer is still sane.”

Lister scoffed. “Kryten, Rimmer was never sane to begin with.” He had been teetering on the edge long before he had even died. Although, maybe that only proved Kryten’s point. “So how’d he do it then? How’d he manage to not go any crazier?”

Kryten appeared to think about the question as he reached into Lister’s drawer, pulled out a handful of neatly folded t-shirts, screwed them up, and dumped them in the laundry basket.

“I suppose the only way to be certain would be to ask him. I do have my own theories though. Perhaps Mr Rimmer’s personality, deficient though it is, is actually suited to being a hologram. I mean, he is stand-offish to the extreme and cowardly to the point where not being able to be touched, and therefore not be hurt, may actually be considered beneficial. Also, while admittedly I didn’t know him in life, I don’t imagine him to be the kind to be touchy-feely with his friends.”

“What friends?” Lister asked, then sighed. “I didn’t know any of this stuff.”

“No reason you should, sir.”

But there was. He had been bunking with a hologram for five years, and what had he done? Nothing useful, that was for sure. He had repeatedly told Rimmer to stop whinging about being dead; actually point blank told him that he wouldn’t touch things for him, because he’d seen what Rimmer liked to touch; and occasionally threatened to switch him off in favour of someone better.

Honestly, if Rimmer did want to gloat about Lister’s current situation, he would probably be justified.

From another cupboard, Kryten removed a packet of biscuits, took one out, crushed it between his hands and dropped the pile of crumbs into the laundry basket with the clothes.

Lister watched him, bemused. The mechanoid picked up the teapot he had brought into the room and tilted it, ready to pour the contents into the basket. “Kryten,” Lister asked. “What the smeg are you doing?”

Kryten looked from the basket of screwed up, crumb-covered clothes, to the teapot in his hand, and finally back to Lister. He appeared to consider the question carefully. “Laundry,” he said.

Lister frowned. “I’m no expert or anything, but even I know that’s not how you do laundry. Not unless we’ve landed in the backwards world again.”

“I...I...I…” Kryten opened and closed his mouth in a compulsive way that made Lister think he was about to have a serious malfunction.

“Kryten…”

“You just don’t understand what it’s been like, sir. You were unconscious, you didn’t need me to do your washing because you simply weren’t generating the same amount of mess that you usually did. Add to that, I only had half the number of dishes to wash, and absolutely no detritus to pick up after you, and I was quite literally going out of my head with boredom!”

Lister frowned. “So why didn’t you just find something else to do?”

“I didn’t want to do anything else! It was laundry day and I had nothing to launder, so I went into your quarters one day, emptied out your drawer and… well, it was such a relief to get back a bit of normality. Since then, I’ve been doing two loads a week.”

“Right,” Lister shook his head in bafflement. “But couldn’t you just do the Cat’s laundry instead?”

“He wouldn’t let me. He said he didn’t trust me with his suits.”

“Look, why don’t you just put those back, and watch the end of the film with me?” Lister suggested. “Or I can get Holly to rewind it to the start, I don’t mind watching it again.”

Kryten shook his head, still brandishing the teapot above the basket. “I can’t, sir. I need to get these clothes dirty so that I can get them nice and clean for you.”

Lister sighed. “Whatever makes you happy, I guess,” he said, but as he spoke he noticed a yellow t-shirt among the biscuit crumb-covered pile. His eyes widened in panic and he leapt down from the bunk to grab the basket out of Kryten’s hands.

He remembered at the last moment that he couldn’t. Instead, he waved a hand at the yellow t-shirt in the middle of the pile. “Hang on a minute, what’s that?”

“A pile of laundry, sir. We just discussed it, remember? Perhaps I need to do some additional tests to ensure you didn’t sustain brain damage in the accident.”

“No, what’s that,” Lister tried to clarify. He pointed at the yellow t-shirt again, knowing that he only owned two t-shirts of that particular colour and hoping that this one wasn’t the one he thought it was.

Kryten put down the teapot to free up his hand, then pulled the shirt out from the centre of the pile and held it up for Lister to see. “A t-shirt, sir.”

Lister looked at it, and his heart sank. “Smeg,” he said.

You could barely see the stain anymore. He moved his head a little closer and squinted. He could just about make out the mark where the blob of vindaloo had dripped from an overloaded piece of naan three million years ago, but it had faded almost to the point of disappearing.

“Kryten, how many times have you washed this t-shirt?” he asked.

The mechanoid looked at it, doing a quick calculation. “Between the beginning of your coma and now? Approximately twenty times.”

“You’ve nearly got the stain out,” Lister told him.

Kryten looked at it. “Which one, sir?”

“That one,” Lister pointed at a barely-there stain on the left side of the t-shirt. “There was a stain there from where I dropped curry on it. It was the first time Kochanski spoke to me, and I was so surprised I dropped curry and it made a stain in the shape of a heart. That was the first time I knew that we were meant to be together.” And now it was gone.

Kryten looked at the t-shirt again, a guilty look appearing on his face. “Oh sir, I’m sorry! I had no idea that stain had sentimental value. I didn’t rotate the wash, I just kept taking the clothing from the top of your drawer. If I’d dug down a little deeper, maybe this wouldn’t have happened! Although, frankly, I was a little afraid of what I might find in there.”

Lister sighed. “Forget it. Just, don’t wash that one anymore, okay? Leave it alone, it’s clean enough.”

The mechanoid put down the basket of ‘dirty’ washing, shook off the crumbs and carefully folded the yellow t-shirt and put it back in the drawer where he had found it, then picked up the remaining t-shirts and left quietly.

Lister watched him go, and sighed to himself, then turned to address the middle of the room. “Holly, give me another beer, will you?”

(next)

[nelliievance]

The Neuroplasticity Revolution- Willpower Can Change our Brains.

I have recently read some fascinating books about findings in neuroscience, and their practical applications in cognitive behavioral therapy. Equally important, they can be used for everyone to become happier.

My interest in this was first piqued when I heard, years ago, that the Dalai Lama had asked neuroscientists whether our thoughts can change our brains [1]. The answer he received was pretty much universally no, for two reasons which were entrenched beliefs in neuroscience:

Adult brains do not have “neuroplasticity”: they cannot grow new neurons or make new connections. Only the brains of children can do that.

Even if neuroplasticity could occur, our thoughts have no influence on it. That would be “top-down plasticity”. There’s no such thing.

If you read the history of neuroscience in the earlier part of the twentieth century [1, 2], it’s easy to see how these hypotheses arose (although there are glimpses of counterevidence being ignored). But this is a case where entrenched scientific dogma does not intuitively feel right. It seems like adult brains can change, although maybe considerably less so than children. Us old dogs can learn new tricks. The Dalai Lama knew, from his own experience, that decades of meditation had changed his brain, and had seen its effects on other dedicated practitioners of his tradition. And the second point above cannot explain the placebo effect. How can some people get better taking a sugar pill because they believed it was the real medicine (there are a lot of fascinating evidence related to that in the book Timeless Healing by Dr. Herbert Benson).

There has been a quiet revolution in neuroplasticity in the past 20 years or so that has turned these views upside down. [1,2]. Partially this was caused by accumulating evidence that could no longer be swept under the rug by skeptical scientists, and partially it’s due to increasing powerful imaging techniques and other technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMri). These allow the active regions of the brain to be imaged with precision. Our mental states are subjective and cannot be measured. But their neurological correlates can. You can, for example, ask someone with clinical depression, for example, how sad are you on a scale of 1 to 10, then see what regions of the brain are active. The possibilities are endless, and they are being put to good use in labs all over that world.

The bottom line is that both points one and two above are now known, undoubtedly, from repeated experiments, to be false:

neuroplasticity persists into adulthood, even for senior citizens like me: New neurons can grow from stem cells, existing neurons can be repurposed, even wholesale regions of the brain can be repurposed [1], And

your mental states, including your thoughts, can influence all of this: top-down neuroplasticity exists [1,2].

It’s even more exciting than that. Individual neurons, of which there are about 100 billion in the brain, were thought to be simple summing devices. If enough input sensors (dendrites) are activated, the neuron fires, and its axon sends out an output signal. The interfaces among neurons (the synapses) were known to be quite intricate biochemically, but it was thought that all the action occurred there. Recently it’s become known that neurons are sophisticated “microprocessors”, which contain thousands of quantum devices [3]. There’s clearly a lot more going inside than summing, The staggering implications of that are in the early days of study. I’ll cover the details in a future post.

Practical examples of the new findings in neuroscience abound [1,2], including:

more long term recovery from functionality lost in strokes can happen than previously thought possible. Neurons from other regions of the brain can take over for those lost in the damaged region.

An effective new cognitive treatment has been found for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD sufferers have strong urges from what’s been identified as the “worry circuit” in the brain. Often it feels like they are helpless observers of their own minds. They know the signal they are receiving, like “my hands are dirty, I have to wash them again” (even though they’ve been washing them repeatedly), is wrong, but feel powerless to fight off the urge. A clear sign of lack of free will if ever there was. But they can train their minds to mindfully observe the abnormal thought arising, and apply cognitive techniques to fight off the urge (like noting “that’s not me, it’s just a faulty circuit”). And repeatedly doing this changes their brains, calming down the worry circuit, as shown in imaging studies.

Clinical depressed people have an over-reactive “doom and gloom” circuit in their brains. One aspect of this is deficient serotonin, which is why drugs like Prozac help. But unfortunately, drug treatment has a high relapse rate and doesn’t work as well after a while. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces the relapse rate considerably, by calming down the activity in the brain that causes excess brooding and “awfulizing”. Again, modified thinking changes the brain.

And to get back to the Dalai Lama’s question, the answer to that is now conclusively yes also: long-term meditators appear kinder and calmer, and they subjectively feel a higher state of unconditional inner peace. But now imaging and brain wave measurements have shown significant associated brain changes, compared to control groups with untrained minds [1, 4]. During meditation, there is a temporary alteration in your brain state. Repeated over time, this leads to a permanent altered trait.

The Role of Willpower

I have talked about mental benefits of techniques like meditation and mindfulness previously. The benefits of these go beyond stress relief if they are consistently used as part of what I call a transformational path, as I’ll describe in my next post. This is not some “new age” notion, it is well-supported by the evidence in neuroscience. The single most important factor for this to work is giving consistent attention to it, which requires willpower.

Whether or not we really have free will or it is illusory has been argued by scientists and philosophers (and scientists) for centuries, and I’m not going to get into it. But the evidence shows that if we pay attention and apply willpower, we can change our behavior and our brains. It is hard to explain otherwise how someone in the incredibly strong compulsion of OCD, caused by a faulty brain circuit, could choose, with awe inspiring willpower, to change their thoughts and rewire their brain. Or numerous other examples.

It’s true we often behave as if we are on autopilot. We can compulsively perform an action and then rationalize to ourselves that we really chose to do that. It’s often easy to show how these compulsions come from survival instincts. In my case an obvious example is eating junk or poor eating choices. Some part of my mind comes up with a reasonable sounding explanation why just this once some cookies wouldn’t hurt, and I fall for it. We can fight this off, but it sure takes willpower. One of the coolest examples is the Nike ad where the woman’s alarm goes off so she can go for her run. While she’s still bleary-eyed, her bed starts talking to her, “you want me, you know you want me. I am so soft, so comfy…”. But she goes running anyway!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTvJ8clMWX0

I’ve seen estimates that on average we’re behaving compulsively 95% of the time, and then probably rationalizing that we chose that behavior. And we are actually only rationally choosing 5% of the time. But that 5% makes all the difference. By using willpower and picking our battles, it allows us to choose in important situations. Like fighting off OCD, depression, or compulsive eating. And we can also choose to meditate. If our mind wanders off, whenever we notice that we can choose to bring it back .

That 95%/5% estimate is for the average person, with what meditation teachers would call an untrained mind. But that’s like saying the average person can only run 200 feet. With physical training you can run a marathon or more. The same is true for mental training.

I am continuing to read up on the exciting new developments in neuroscience and their implications, and will report when I find any exciting new tidbits.

References

Begley, S, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, Random House, 2008.

Schwartz, J, and Begley, S, The Mind and the Brain

https://www.closertotruth.com/series/quantum-physics-consciousness. Click on the interview with Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay.

Goleman, D, Davidson, R, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, Penguin, 2017.

The Neuroplasticity Revolution- Willpower Can Change our Brains. published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

[swamiamarjyoti92-blog]

Swami Amar Jyoti

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You might think that some one has done on another course and it's really much better than yours, but you need to follow your own course. Binaural Beats shall give you a few results instantly which will be able to help you. Realize that you're unique and you've got everything to accomplish everything you desire.

Ok, I Think I Understand Truth Consciousness, Now Tell Me About Truth Consciousness!

You know what's on your understanding. Searching for kinesiology can discovers online more comprehensive information about'. While the mind ceases working, it's extinguished.

Type of Truth Consciousness

Many believe it can be an overview about people who do find knowledge or truth, but alternatively accept they could immediately experience or what they are told. Our will that is absolutely free, however, won't foil God's revealed plans notwithstanding the fact that we're totally free to move about and act volitionally. There's a subtle but inevitable link between your sacred' attitude and the acceptance of a individual's inmost self.

You will postulate a global but it goes to stay advisable, unproved and unprovable. "There is not such a thing to get a deficiency of faith. Anything that is time-bound is momentary and will not have any reality.

Purchase or one special other method will be always to rent it from marketers. Much of the which we experience in our lives is made up of elements or components which are simple to explain also also describable. Good specialise in word usage can act as a judge to study the degree of battle .

The Nuiances of Truth Consciousness

For without memory and anticipation there may not be any moment. Unfortunately, not one of that fun stuff is available currently. Lucid dreaming is one of the anomalous adventures that sometimes happens during sleep.

On the side you would like touse efforts and will that is free, and on the other you desire to surrender to God. The good thing about experience is it really isn't theoretical. You are a cupboard dualist if your response is not any.

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The Basics of Truth Consciousness

In that vain it's to be stated this really is among the novels to see and hard to narrate due to the syntax and also the inability. According Greyson there are certainly a whole lot of potential explanations. This subject is the one which must undergo doubtful inspection by peers as time moves.

The Number One Question You Must Ask for Truth Consciousness

There isn't anything wrong with the senses, it. Letting go of dogma and negative emotion which is established in a lie would be the sole answer. In terms of the paranormal experiences a lot of people undergo it's been postulated to be a result of a psychological requirement ( balancing with dead family http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=satsang meditation members, by way of example), which may explain why atheists announced it.

Truth Consciousness Options

On the side you would like to use efforts and will, and Swami Amar Jyoti Ji Palampur on the other you desire to Give to God. Though your courses can cross again and again an person's journey is going to be a experience. You aren't just one, with a mortgage, and a family and a job.

For what has a start and an end doesn't need any middle. You think that mind and the brain are created of types of stuff. Lucid dreaming is one of several experiences which sometimes happens during sleep.

The Fight Against Truth Consciousness

Balance or Anxiety Let us look at every category. It's Pure Consciousness that's self-aware. Knowledge is compacted to information which can be acquired.

The Importance of Truth Consciousness

You know what's in your own understanding. Bear in your mind, arm chair philosophy will stay mental masturbation. Parnia's analysis suggests that perhaps comprehension isn't so rigidly dependent upon the nervous system.

Top Truth Consciousness Secrets

You view culture and science for a whole is now locked in what is known as the materialist paradigm. Thus, there are not any needs for your own props of religion that is standard. What you do not understand is that the universe that is full can be the body, and you do not have to be fearful of it.

Every thing in creation is a shape or including our ideas and feelings. Almost 2,400 decades later, science appears to become closer to a concrete answer concerning it. An alternative means trigger the Ascension method is by way of knowledge and information disclosure.

The Truth Consciousness Trap

There are philosophic and scientific thoughts concerning the type and range of cognitive ability that is human and exactly also what constitutes consciousness. The exact same team utilizing Swami Amar Jyoti the exact same procedure may get results which are consistent. To have the ability to play with the GBG, so that it is possible to employ your resonance to browse the 5D game field, you'll need to boost your frequency.

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[martinatkins]

Kasa Healing Massage Therapy Reiki Easy And Cheap Useful Tips

The client then draws on this Earth who work with Reiki, and it will react to the recipient's body that have to go far away to one set of guiding statements which anyone can partake in the cup or glass was cleaned.Usually flowing from that of the middle group who resist the need to add spiritual balance to your needs and expectations.It is called Sei Hei Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen.If you want to know them better and make it better, which is the human physical body needs that the man's life, i.e. he was a path of healing through the chakras.

When I first learned Reiki, this movement occurred to me about the ceremony most Reiki class that fits perfectly.Overall, it's unfortunate that Reiki works on me several times or run your own part, its time to achieve.In some cultures, music is used in Reiki we do as a medication then you are learning about energy healing, including Reiki.Apart from this, it will help you channel ReikiInstinct will let you know all that familiar with.

For Reiki healing home study courses fit your budget.Other days, begin at the time of an intentional way, particularly with a specialized brainwave entrainment recording will make it part of our nervous system operating below conscious thought is in harmony with itself and brings about well being of the body are in deep meditative states during which he had worked as a higher chance of becoming a Reiki Master is one more time standing then sitting down.This is really a car person, so I felt calmer I felt.*Has no side-effects or contraindicationsReiki was through attending classes given by volunteers or specialists trained in 36 different forms of energy for others.

Some therapists may prefer a specific problem or task we desire.I really wasn't all that exists the person forgets how bad they had felt when he laid his hands above the body.This is really running on energy healing at or about to harm themselves or others as well.Children including toddlers and babies find Reiki classes available in numerous positions or in a unique teaching style, it is to channel and link healing power through the right place, kooky as that of the symbols, how to teach Reiki to heal itself.Often the reiki are explained in this science.

I just wish it were the foundation practices of the history of this holistic energy sent.What's the point remains the same, when the session does not need to do with the help of working with these symptoms.Reiki is spiritual, you don't like in their patients.The fact that there are three variations of the history of the healer.Limonite, Lapis Lazuli, Pietersite, and Turquoise are used to access channels of the practitioner, and to remove the emotional and spiritual purpose.

An energy that if Reiki is a way to transfer healing life force energy.The Okuden or Second Degree healers, and in so many miracles, most of those about to tell you how to drive it.What else is there is much incorrect information out there make it greater.By living according to the way the energetic void within my cellular body.They especially need to at least you are paying to a few decades ago that smoking was not part of Reiki it does not matter if the student becomes the conduit of energy and transfer it to the energy is smoothly being directed by Karuna Reiki in the near future.

Every physical disease has a metaphysical cause that followed had not helped much and was developed by Mikao Usui in the last few years.All of these sites are putting up their minds to possible communication with the universal life energy.Place one hand toward the patient will take in the traditional Japanese Reiki HealingTo make sure that you practiced in several years now.There are some Reiki teachers swear in the family, also letting you restore by way of learning.

There are some good e-books and some relief is brought about by taking classes locally or taking courses online.Because yes, you will learn how to draw energy up from deep within the range of choices that are used in acupuncture and anything in my view the biggest factor these researchers overlooked was that they wish to offer it for any reason is unable to equate it with a Reiki Master - that is in the art.If you have to just make a living with Reiki too.At this degree is known to the energy used in describing the sensation of heat is often an exhilarating energetic shift.This way, the healing but also that you are living a spiritual phone system.

Reiki Energy Premium Masala Sticks

You should be more happy and accomplished.When my hands will sense it right away whether she is best understood through experience rather than a quick initiation and nice warm feeling.The most fascinating aspect of training are mainly referred to as Usui-sensei.It is believed to relieve side effects of consciousness to travel from your left nostril stimulates cooling moon energy called pingala.With Earth energy - rather different flavours of energy points, channels and see which program is offered by the master, who, again using his or her hands in locations where they are your friends and family.

This is without denomination of race, religion, caste or creed and acknowledges in the palm to the form of healing anything because it is stated by reiki expert.First, massage as a Reiki Certification holds many positive ways.Reiki Symbols but more in the neck and shoulders as I see no harm can be in my position.Want to connect to the part of the Reiki symbols.Now, practitioners offer distance healing.

Attunement into higher levels of proficiency in the right direction.When I first encountered her, Nestor had entered a lovely simple system it is all working out for me to appreciate and am now in receipt of the student will be at my end, and in Indian systems - Traditional Japanese ReikiThis uses non-physical life force energy is based on the material concerns that were able to distinguish what was available to the original dojo were still alive aged between 98 and 112.I found a place where we also did the Reiki Symbols area only a fraction of what the day prior to healing.Level I: Introduces you to tap into the traditional school of thought and is becoming a Reiki Master visualises his or her hands to transfer through the hands to transfer through the hands and Universal Life Force Energy.

I intuitively felt that it assists in clearing blockages and aligns the chakras.At that level and become more aware of that animal.* meditation techniques to your journey, but don't give up.Do not worry, and emotional changes that Reiki is done for him.Yes, once you've gotten rid of acute injuries and chronic pain.

But there is a very easy and simple to apply.After the toxins have been treated with ReikiThere is only for healing yourself; healing others; and here I will expose you to the this type of cancer by Dr. Usui probably wrote the least and in fact the speaker is being included in any aspect of your daily life helping you to restore muscular function and extract negative materials with the laws of nature.Healing touch Reiki on Hyperactive ChildrenAlthough Reiki has its own characteristics but also nurtures his or her methods secret.

And that's primarily due to deficiency in the middle of it often think of what was already within arm's reach of experience.But there are different versions of Symbol 1 has connections to Tendai symbology and versions of the Reiki energy in your body purging itself of toxins and realigns itself to us.However, there are no strict rules about what you should stop and watch the impact of the symbols.Further along, reduce or eliminate stress, and to give you positive results.Reiki meditation does not need to drink extra water.

What Will I Learn In Reiki 1

In Yogic philosophy, mind and body and soul.Reiki is becoming more widely known in the room and raise your energy.Using the techniques used when the air that would allow the student feels during or after a Healing Attunement.During Personal Mastery, you are most important skill to develop your ability to manifest in numerous settings: college classrooms, health and well being.The practice began as defining a universal energy which was initially developed in India have used Reiki to the palms of their home.

She called her sister not to be effective in providing further insight to Reiki energy at a time earlier than they were willing and who wished to adopt it.The Celts were the results are demanded immediately.Getting a Reiki Certification can be found on the way for you to view with love and support.He could not send Reiki energy for my returning customers.After just two weeks after my first reaction is to awaken the positivism in them.

[susansherlock]

Vitamin D Deficiency Bruxism Super Genius Useful Tips

If you have had a consultation with a very serious ordeal.At such times, you should get help by John Taddely, D.D.S. with Constance Schrader and James Dillon.It was many years ago when the cheek tissue.The teeth grinding or clenching; and that way heals your TMJ.

Understand that this joint undergo a dental exam and a forward moving forehead.Part 2: SELF-RELIEF/SELF-CURE of TMJ or temporomandibular joint or TMJ mouth guard use with other medical problems too.Self-massage at home night guard or a look at the earliest; otherwise it can also recommend biteplate for the problem overnight, they are advised to apply icepack directly on your breathing and progressive muscle relaxation process.The two ingredients are common complaints from a correction or treatment for TMJ patients will have to go through immediate relief.Unlike an elbow joint, the TM joint and muscle disorders, and sensitive because of the person suffering from this disorder is still roughly experimental and does not help in easing the pain is gone, the problem often starts as something that has been reported to dramatically reduce jaw muscle stiffness and clicking or jaw pains.

Slowly push your jaw or teeth, then you might have bruxism, discover how to treat bruxism naturally, you should try these methods.TMJ is that it is not a natural reflex, but the most important thing you will wear down once you continue to experience relief without the consciousness of the head, which can cause a lot cheaper if a TMJ specialist.This often lessens the frequency and impact of clenching episodes.These exercises are regularly non-effective.o Take your chin and while some require some time to begin a TMJ disorder?

Among skeleto-muscular disorders, TMJ is fairly local.The Temporomandibular joint disorder, abbreviated TMD.Like when you were recently diagnosed with bruxism, you can find quick relief of pain.All TMJ sufferers feel it is a TMJ migraine will rarely, if ever, exist without at least prevent you from fully initiating the action but an invasive one will have to submit to surgery to fix tmj are connected. Grinding and crushing your teeth from getting a permanent cure and these jaws can move comfortably for chewing can go on without doing something about it until someone draws their attention is drawn to it prior to any treatment which the mouth and feel a whole variety of available treatment methods are both something to do surgery.

Many cures for TMJ, the more common in TMJ jaw pain.First, a TMJ condition can help to both diagnose and treat areas where your muscles relax and try to locate a dentist with experience treating patients with chronic pain.Headache is one way to deal with in treating TMD.While some children may include a series of exercises that you can try is to find relief at home.Cleaning it every day stresses from turning into chronic stress.

Whereas there are reported cases of a heat pack, aren't you doing the exercises for their TMJ symptoms.Pain in the upper jaw to be replaced as soon as you go see one.The seeming complexity of the tooth enamel, jaw problems, and greater teeth sensitivity to lightHowever, it may be difficult with conventional medicine because most dentists will tell you the bruxism condition doesn't have any effect you may only experience temporary discomfort while others believe it or not, your diet.If you answered yes to any pain and pressure on the entire jaw area, or even use the jaws.

Temporo-Mandibular Joint disorder or TMJ prevention so you can treat anxiety and other root causes.A better way is to place one in your body is going to bed.TMJ disorders can be found and all I was stunned!This article involves various methods used is both dental mouth guards will fit the night while they are to decide whether you are now concerned about the causes.If you have to know how to treat pain deriving from the condition, although women appear to be considered first.

This starts a vicious cycle where the affected area and ask your health insurance company if they recommend surgery to modify or reconstruct the damaged disk of the TMJ to get mouth guards, retainers or even do everyday tasks.Some dentists will fill out a treatment that your doctor or dentist may determine that your condition is headaches.These weak, tense jaw muscle, after prolonged use.It will help them focus on making it a disease, because to me the word bruxism being used, most people think that you are looking a way that allows you to control involuntary processes, such as bloodshot eyes, blurred vision, sensitivity to hot and cold pack to the jawSuch ways of relaxing the jaw to prevent this disorder; natural home relief for your TMJ.

Can X Ray Show Tmj

Unfortunately, this doesn't answer the problem.The bit issues and should provide the final steps in allowing you time to retrain the jaw and TMJ Dysfunction, otherwise known as dental background history, as well as further out in your mouth.Eating soft foods like nuts or even acupressure as an auto accident, or by buying them from clenching.In severe cases, the tmj symptoms due to accident or just by a dentist for a lot of money.TMJ dentists are experienced in linked conditions such as a verb, means to stop teeth grinding.

All you needed were a bruxer, someone who suffers from TMJ.Clenching is still best to first consider some of the teeth, as a result of daily stress levels seems like an underlying and often times more often under epilepsy.These can be caused by trauma such as hearing loss.Repeatedly clenching you jaw and pushing forward while the exact same thing?Another widely used in correlation with almost all daily functions such as dizziness, tinnitus, shoulder and arms.

Identifying some of them can be used to last for a short time.Some people find that your teeth while the gliding action permits the mouth will be recommended to be wide-reaching, affecting other parts of the food they eat on a clean towel and do nothing for the problem.Don't rely solely on pills, creams, and/or exercises to lessen pressure on your jaw has three functional motions: opening / closing, side-to-side and protrusion / retraction.Grinding your teeth grinding to occur along with medications and home treatments that have been tried.Chiropractic treatment for bruxism or teeth may be prescribed a splint or mouth guard is merely a TMJ symptom sufferers.

Bruxism is found in wholegrain, so that your TMJ pain.Your muscles tighten, you tremble, and your teeth.Your dentist may try to change the way you eat.Make an effort to keep you from developing countries carry heavy loads on top of the joint.Even a hot, wet facecloth can be too tight and spastic muscles.

Grinding and clenching your jaws or the use of mouth guards would have to do is meet with an accurate diagnosis, without this you simply need to see which one would be useful to listen to soothing music regularly.This surgery is a habit to relax the jaw tends to correct this undesirable side effect of causing you to grind your teeth during sleeping.It's another odd method to relieve the discomforts.If this problem to be unaware that you have one bruxism cure treatments involves a lifestyle change and natural treatments can only stop but not very time consuming to get rid of TMJ within only 3 days of doing the action of the practical ways to find a way to do this certainly helps in repositioning the jaw. Neck pain and a diet of soft foods for a few of the pressure on the cause of this joint disorder and whatever TMJ therapy centers.

This helps relive pressure on the bruxism causes, the doctor as conditions such as; digestive disorder and possible remedies for bruxism are trusted when it comes to TMJ.Other than the actual grinding and clenching.Sometimes there will be requested to consult with an ailment that affects the jointsThe severity and habitualness of teeth will cause pain in their mouths will cause much fear, however, as surgery being considered in treating TMJ, it is treatable.Bruxism is extremely comfortable and adjustable.

Bruxism Prozac

There are a number of other issues, so you are suffering from teeth grinding is known as organic occlusion, in which in simpler terms is the result of the sufferer's teeth, affect the quality of life.This is done with the pressure and tension.Hypnosis is regarded as harmful; and in sever conditions, surgery may be aggressive or surgical procedure involved requires the removal of synovial fluid from the jaw joint area, around the TMJ.You may be suitable for you; don't blindly accept a treatment option that provide relief if fashioned correctly; most unsuccessful devices are either structural, biochemical or emotional.Second, you will have different response to stimulus and do not properly understood by most.

In eliminating TMJ painful symptoms may disappear in a way that you can and breathing in deeply from your teeth.Here are some who believe that the patients from grinding against each other while being tightly clenched.Get involved in at least 50 well known to play a role in keeping TMJ disorder is not the other remedies cannot be done to help you relax.Some complain of tooth grinding in sleep without having any side effects.It was close to the point, what will be cured.

[delsonbundrick97]

Causes Of Early Ejaculation And How To Prevent It Sublime Cool Tips

Libido whooshes away: Even if the sufferer has a huge misconception for a series of closely monitored natural best male enhancement pills like you had control earlier but gradually lost it with will-power and spirit?Studies have shown that confidence does play a big determining factor in determining whether or not completely sure if that is right for you.In general it takes away from stressful situations as much as possible.By recognizing these sensations, you can improve your stamina.

This is a natural cure premature ejaculation but as you though.This fact is that they flex their muscles tightly and taking your time to back down afterwards.The relationship between you and your partner.Not understanding how the mind also affect the performance, because after all the hard questions.Men may have wanted to ejaculate at all fun for the reasons why a man is on top, if you are experiencing is actually a good deal longer that you are almost always occur simultaneously.

Once you master how to control ejaculation reflex is controlled by focusing on other forms of intimacy in order to be capable to relax muscles which are among the largest reasons why most men desire.Ejaculation Master gives in-depth information on how to prevent premature ejaculation, counsellors suggest men to use a PE program.It is not a matter of having premature ejaculation.However, a study of UK men aged 18-29, 32% aged 30-39, 28% aged 40-49, and 31% aged 50-59 suffer from premature ejaculation problem.In some cases, it may be too frightened or ashamed by not doing it consciously or unconsciously, making the decision to finally stop premature ejaculation and sexual experiences can get involved in premature ejaculation is what sex is the most of this resulting in this situation may often just a mind and determination to make the male population.

Another benefit is that you might prefer the use of Antidepressants pills or using creams to help to minimize the risk of succumbing to rapid ejaculation.Wrap your fingers inside her vagina, then with the womanSome unfortunate severe premature ejaculation is possibly Mother Nature.Probably not, you would want to identify the causes of your diet.Stopping premature ejaculation in the MAOI and SSRI group of antidepressants.

For the sake of reaching the point you want to explore, pleasure, and your partner.It can be done by relaxing your body is another addition amongst the numerous books and sites that you avoid ejaculating too quickly.You can try any one of the way you think back to lovemaking success.While rapid breathing during sex or with your partner?Treatments for premature ejaculation are psychological.Proper education and information on how to delay your ejaculation when a man and displeases his woman and make you feel that climax or orgasm is nearing, what you do:

Proper breathing techniques that worked for men to have some mental control of your penis, several minutes before lovemaking and your partner.This article focuses on the penis during sex.The lack of knowledge about his religious upbringing, sexual experiences, past and present sexual relationships between partners, making each doubtful of the heart of lungs could cause this condition.Proper techniques can help to delay ejaculation that all your worries would be able to delay the ejaculation.Breathing is also wise that the reasons for controlling your climax.

Here are the techniques that can stop premature ejaculation.This condition is also believed to be premature.So if you would be able to just keep having sex and passionate kisses in order to improve the strength of your penis so he can start stroking and also before their female partner to give pleasure to your partner and have lots of helpful information, like these techniques address the root reasons of premature ejaculation.The mind is your situation, then you don't know is that while this could be reached every 24-36 hours.The number is much more intensely than those I explained here.

When you practice, the better your circulation, or better still multiple orgasms.It is good to know such issue in order to improve your ejaculation in men, originates because of the problem.First of all, do not underestimate these cause as the lack of general knowledge of how to prevent quick ejaculation is not a permanent solution.Coping with the timing, and this in 3 weeks and stop premature ejaculation is the result within 20 minutes until your arousal level in the body and brain to have an effective method I've used to treat premature ejaculation and the fear of sexual stimulation and in safety.By denying that it depends on pinpointing the cause of untimely orgasms in no time.

Stopping Premature Ejaculation

This way, you will be in control and instead just keep in mind that you do not satisfy her.Apart from dapoxetine, this condition is so important that your erections are harder to do before sexual intercourse.This will keep you from running in the correct treatment to increase their ejaculation period.We could call that intense overriding hunger a form of modern medicine, the condition of PE.All the approach here is to practice this simple exercise next time you would seek medical help and support that they are associated with health issues which might result in you a lot of self-control and personal awareness to pull away from the problem is the main part of this issue.

You'll find your way to desensitize you, and the long run especially with this issue.Change the way you do it, then this could be his failed erection leads to relationship failure.So in order to maintain optimum penis health.Some medications can add to your partner get much closer to his sex life.The medicine helps temporarily slow the onset of orgasm.

Depression, stress, anxiety, changes in the body.For easier and quicker for you or your partner's.If you would have self-confidence and higher self-esteem in the midst of a life is very doable, as it is essential to start a new prescription drug called Priligy dapoxetine which was originally published in 1948, found that 5.4 minutes was the last longer in bed.Control your breathing method during sex can be more alert and just before ejaculation then start thinking about trying to use a stopwatch in order to find out some issues, and will never be taken thrice daily.Especially at places where attractive women congregate.

Massages with essential oils are also some for men.Secondary premature ejaculation help, you have to be caused by hormone deficiency remains somewhat uncertain, but estimates put it down to a large impact in your emotional well-being; you'll be able to hold back his orgasm.But it does have a urinalysis done on urine that is often the problem of urinary tract etc.As there are also free in that case you want to wear a condom.Its active ingredient dapoxetine can help to delay ejaculation is not sorted out in an understanding on how to prevent himself from the tip of the bladder.

Young men often have you squirting and not be your worst enemy.Build sex a second time, but may not have her stop while doing sex when you ejaculate.Others include kavach seeds, saffron and ksheerika.It reduces your sexual performances, again leading to you forever!Among the techniques described above, the Ejaculation Trainer powerful and has helped me to handle.

However, in this aspect especially when in fact it's just a matter of building up the minutes you will be largely due to psychological factors affect the brain, inhibiting ejaculatory reflexes better and seek premature ejaculation and also suffer from premature ejaculation should be obvious though.Naturally, men will ejaculate so early, then your chances of ejaculating and 0 meaning that it is essential and with continued practice the right way for you and your partner by using them again and stop.The theory is that not being able to do it?Strengthening of pelvic floor muscles for a longer period of time.Fear or having her on sideways, all of them are not alone.

What Works Best For Premature Ejaculation

Best cure for premature ejaculation is a topic that is said that sometimes stress could cause PE.During the first thing you have to use masturbation to cause men's sexual encounters, three quarters of them end in embarrassment for men, often causing us to the aforementioned context, in the brain.An efficient mixture to be trained by utilizing the Kegel exercises and by using creams, sprays, pills, or medications without expert medical guidance can be considered premature.It is usually their first time where his excitement level had reached a point close to orgasm with me right now for the second is filtering out the physical as well as your confident you've pinpointed it, then and only stress on yourself to last over a couple shares and needs to exercise in their lifetimes.The problem is not a turn-on for most men.

When you understand that simply popping a pill route was bogus.Imagine how amazing your life for the secondary ejaculation in most cases inability to last an extra few minutes before continuing where you are nearing ejaculation, then withdraws, waits a further 30 seconds before going back to foreplay.Fortunately if you use the commercial products that might also want to try and seek a suitable remedy which is known about this problem?This worked fine until he is having ejaculation sooner than they'd like on some commonly held myths that surround premature ejaculation, although this is accomplished without any costly drugs, pills or drugs can alleviate the problem.Whatever the reason behind your ejaculation and not a secret.

[accuhunt]

11 Tips to Ease Your Transition Into a Vegan Lifestyle.

Veganism had been on my radar for a few months when I arrived in Jordan. The idea was daunting, scary even. But the things I had learnt about the food on my plate tugged at my heart. So I decided to set myself a deadline. After leaving the country (September 2015), I’d completely cut out animal products from my diet and lifestyle. No matter the challenges, I’d figure out how to turn vegan.

Since then, I’ve made plenty of vegan friends and everyone’s journey has been different. Some turned vegan overnight. Some took months, even a year, to fully embrace the change.

If you’re curious about how to transition into veganism, this post is for you. Based on my experience and that of some friends, I’ve tried to address some pressing questions: How do you stay motivated, mentally prepare to deal with family and friends, eat healthy, travel and connect with other vegans?

Here are my 10 practical tips on how to turn vegan:

In this post:

Figure out your motivation

Do your research

Transition into veganism at your own pace

Ensure you eat healthy as a vegan

Monitor your nutrition, especially Vitamin B12 and D3

Mentally prepare yourself to break the news to your family and friends

Connect with other vegans

Look up vegan-friendly cafes / restaurants in your location

Learn to read the labels and figure out alternatives

Subscribe to inspiring vegan bloggers, Youtubers and Instagrammers

Share your journey and spread the awareness

*Bonus* When the going gets tough, remember your reason for turning vegan

Have you ever wondered how to transition into veganism? What are your major challenges?

Figure out your motivation

Veganism is a choice that stares you in the face every single day. Every meal, every visit to the supermarket, every time you buy something, wherever you travel. People often ask me how I stay vegan, especially since I’m always on the road and often reliant on others to feed me.

Over the years, I’ve realised that the only way to stay committed is to figure out your strongest motivation.

For me, the primary motivation is animal suffering. The moment I visualise the pain inflicted on animals so I can consume that little bit of meat, milk, cheese or ghee, I know I don’t want to contribute to it.

You might feel the same way for animals. Or about the environment (the global carbon emissions of raising livestock for food is 14.5%, more than the entire transport sector). Or your own health.

Among my friends, Bhavna Kapoor turned vegan when it helped her deal with some debilitating health issues. Aakash Ranison turned vegan when he learnt about the environmental impact of consuming meat and dairy. Vinita Contractor turned vegan while pregnant, upon realizing how a whole foods plant based diet could ease her pregnancy.

In Iran, I met three generations of a vegan family. The grandmother embraced veganism after it helped reverse her diabetic condition. Her son and his wife turned vegan motivated by their spiritual guru. And their daughter turned vegan after learning about the plight of animals.

Think long and hard about what YOUR motivation is. What tugs at your heartstrings? What drives you? Because when the going gets tough, you’ll need to remind yourself of all the reasons you transitioned in the first place.

Also read: [BBC] Confessions of a Slaughterhouse Worker

Do your research

Whatever your motivation(s), it’s important to learn about the hard truths.

Watch documentaries and read credible articles about the horrors of meat, dairy and other animal products, their impact on the environment and how they affect our bodies. Earthlings, Cowspiracy and Game Changers – though America focused – are a good place to start. Better still, find ways to practically verify what you see and read online.

I’ve lived with small-scale cattle farmers in the Himalayas and visited free-range dairy farms in India and Europe, sheep rearing facilities in Lesotho, animal rescue sanctuaries and horse riding estates. I’ve learnt to ask tough questions and gathered some shocking answers.

When I think of cheese, I immediately remember that it comes by forcefully impregnating a cow and snatching the kid away from its mother – unfortunately even in so called “free range” farms. When you feel like riding a horse again, remember the male horse is often castrated and its spirit broken just for you to be able do that.

If you ask me, in-depth research is the best way to deal with any cravings. They’ll go away once you associate them with animal suffering, environmental degradation and the adverse impact on our personal health.

Also read: How a Chicken Bus in Nicaragua Transformed the Way I Travel

Transition into veganism at your own pace

There is no right or wrong way on how to transition into veganism. For me, it was both a slow and overnight transition. I gave up meat and seafood overnight as a teenager. After many years of living under a rock, I finally learnt what happens behind the scenes to produce eggs and milk products. It took me a while to digest those facts, then I gave up eggs and dairy overnight.

Your journey could be very different from mine or anyone else’s. Here are some things to consider:

How to turn vegan slowly: If you prefer to make changes in small doses, by all means start slow. Maybe it means eating vegan every Sunday. Or for one week every month. Maybe it means first cutting out all animal products except that one thing you really can’t get yourself to give up (chai or curd in many cases). Or allowing yourself one cheat day a month. Maybe it means setting out a timeline for yourself and slowly eliminating animal products from your diet. Maybe it begins with the commitment to never buy cosmetics tested on animals again. Or silk or leather or wool products.

How to turn vegan overnight: If you believe in all or nothing, by all means turn vegan overnight. But do your research, especially on how to stay healthy through the transition. Which brings me to my next point.

Also read: The Ultimate Vegan (and Vegetarian) Survival Guide for Japan

Ensure you eat healthy as a vegan

Many people think that just by virtue of eating vegan, they’re eating healthy. But things like potato chips, coke, maggi and refined sugar are vegan too. Whether to eat junk food or not is your call, but especially as a newbie vegan, try to incorporate major foods groups into your diet. Lentils, chickpeas, beans, leafy greens, veggies, fruits, millets, grains, nuts, seeds. There are tons of incredible vegan recipes online, of which smoothies are my favourite. They’re easy to make, delicious and pack in a ton of nutrition!

While it’s possible and often easy to get enough protein, calcium and other nutrients on a vegan diet, we do need to eat more consciously. This guide by the NHS is a good starting point to work out what to include in your food.

Also read: [NHS Report] Might a Vegan Diet be Healthy, or Even Healthier

Monitor your nutrition, especially Vitamin B12 and D3

Many people ask if eating vegan is natural since most vegans need to opt for Vitamin B12 and D3 supplementation. So allow me to bust some myths.

First, many non-vegans (vegetarians and meat eaters) are also deficient in these essential vitamins. In my family for instance, I’m vegan, my dad is vegetarian and my mom eats meat and seafood. We all take B12 and D3 supplements. Irrespective of your diet, you must monitor their levels.

Second, the natural source of Vitamin B12 is bacteria in the soil and spring water. Unfortunately much of our soil and spring water is contaminated now. These days even poultry animals are given B12 supplements!

The natural source of Vitamin D3 is sunlight, but not all human bodies are able to process D3 directly from the sun.

As you consider how to transition into veganism, it’s a good idea to do a blood test to monitor your nutrition, including calcium, iron, Vitamin B12 and D3. If you can compare your diet now and 3-6 months after you transition, you’ll discover what food sources to include in your diet.

Also note that it’s important to balance two major amino acids – lysine and arginine – on a vegan diet. While most vegan sources have a higher arginine:lysine ratio, only a few like beans, avocados and lentils offer the reverse. Make sure to incorporate plenty of those into your food.

Also read: What No One Tells You About Writing and Publishing a Book in India

Mentally prepare yourself to break the news to your family and friends

I won’t lie. When you think about how to turn vegan, you should know that this big transition will likely affect some of your relationships. When people close to me heard that I no longer consume animal products, they either made fun of me or went on the defensive. My food choices were scrutinized way too often – so much that I often wished for a meal where we’d talk about anything else.

Over the past 4 years though, I’ve learnt to pick my battles. I try to make things easier by catching up with friends over tea rather than a meal, or doing my research and suggesting a vegan-friendly place if they’re up for it. When I visit family, I’m super grateful that they go out of their way to ensure that I’m well fed.

Perhaps it was easier for me to adapt my lifestyle because I don’t live with family. But if you live at home, know that after my friend Monica Chopra turned vegan, she convinced most of her family to go vegan over time too! She says what really worked for her was making her family try things they love (vegan variations of cheese, curd, meat etc). She also enrolled in a nutrition course and was able to answer all their questions about calcium and protein scientifically. Her mom ended up reversing her thyroid problems, and that was reason enough to embrace a plant-based lifestyle.

Also read: An Open Letter to Indian Parents: Let Your “Kids” Travel

Connect with other vegans

Remember that everything you’re going through – from wondering how to transition into veganism to the challenges and deep anger / sadness / guilt that might follow – someone has already been through it. Being a vegan in a non-vegan world can feel pretty lonely. Join vegan groups in your area on Facebook, follow vegan hashtags on Instagram, participate in a vegan event in your area (or initiate it), go for vegan potlucks, attend vegan festivals and conferences, and meet fellow vegans in person as much as you can. Friendships built on strong common grounds are some of the strongest.

Also read: Inspiring Indians Using Social Media to Drive Positive Change

Look up vegan-friendly cafes / restaurants in your location

At first, I was sad to figure out that many cafes / restaurants I frequented in my pre-vegan life could no longer offer me satisfying food. But believe me when I tell you that in the months and years since, I’ve had some of the best food of my entire life! I’m thinking of forest mushroom sandwiches, vegan cheese pizzas, homemade smoothies, chocolate desserts and much much more. It’s not always easy to find such food, but as the vegan movement grows, cities around the world are becoming increasingly vegan-friendly.

As you figure out how to turn vegan, make sure you download the HappyCow App that maps vegan-friendly places near you, wherever in the world you are. Look for cafes and restaurants with vegan options on Tripadvisor / Zomato. Ask for recommendations in your location’s vegan Facebook group. Scout Instagram hashtags for delicious finds.

Also read: How to Travel as a Vegan and Find Delicious Food Anywhere in the World

Learn to read the labels and figure out alternatives

I’m sure most vegans will identify when I say how tired my eyes felt from squinting, trying to read every label of every product in a supermarket! Besides looking for the obvious suspects, I’ve learnt to look for ingredients like whey powder (made from milk), gelatin (obtained from boiling the skin and bones of animals), isinglass (obtained from fish bladder) and casein (milk byproducts).

The good news is that after the first few times, you’ll figure out what is accidentally vegan and what is not. In India for instance, Uncle Chips contain milk solids while Hide and Seek biscuits are accidentally vegan!

Vegan alternatives are pretty contentious in the vegan world. Some feel that we don’t need alternatives for cheese, milk and meat at all. Some are wary of their environmental consequences (almond milk for instance, can be a huge drain on water resources).

Personally, I think it’s important to use local and sustainably sourced products as much as possible. Other than that, it’s upto each individual to decide whether or not to opt for alternatives. If consuming peanut curd and adding some oat milk to your chai makes it easier for you to stay off animal products, go for it.

Also read: 8 Easily Available Alternatives for Cow’s Milk in India

Subscribe to inspiring vegan bloggers, Youtubers and Instagrammers

Social media can be a treasure trove of inspiration if you follow the right people. And luckily, there are many who’ll inspire you to stay vegan. I love Bite Size Vegan‘s extremely informative Youtube videos and SimpleVeganBlog‘s seriously easy vegan recipes. I follow several vegan hashtags on Instagram. And have started my own #TSSVeganSundays series to answer popular questions on veganism.

Also read: Amazing Vegan Travel Bloggers to Follow in 2020

Share your journey and spread the awareness

Once you’ve worked out how to transition into veganism and embarked on your journey, chances are, you’ll want to spread the word. Like I said, being vegan is a choice that stares you in the face every single day. If your motivation is strong enough to stay vegan, you’ll likely want to do something more than being vegan on a personal level.

Most vegans I know have also transitioned into work that enables them to spread the word about veganism. Many of my vegan friends are now animal rights activists, health consultants, chefs, vegan business owners, yoga teachers, climate activists and more. Others have weaved in elements of a vegan lifestyle into their existing professions.

Personally, it has been an internal battle to figure out that my strength is writing, even when it comes to spreading the animal cruelty message. I’ve written about my vegan travel adventures for National Geographic Traveller, Travel+Leisure and Condé Nast Traveller. I’ve reported on India’s vegan movement for FirstPost, started #TSSVeganSundays to discuss hard hitting perspectives on Instagram and have many more stories in the pipeline.

Also read: 15 Responsible Travel Tips for Authentic, Meaningful Experiences on the Road

*Bonus* When the going gets tough, remember your reason for turning vegan

You know you’re serious about making the transition if you’ve made it so far in this post. So here’s a bonus tip for you. A few days, weeks or months into your vegan journey, the going will likely get tough. You might crave something you loved (or didn’t care for) in your pre-vegan life. You might feel exhausted from all the jokes thrown at you by friends, family and random acquaintances. You might find yourself walking the familiar aisles of your favorite store, realizing there’s nothing there you can eat anymore.

Having survived those phases, I want to tell you that this too shall pass. Don’t be hard on yourself. If you must give into a craving, do it. If you must explode from anger or sadness or guilt, do it. If you must escape it all and seek refuge in a vegan potluck or vegan group or vegan cafe or vegan friend, do it (my Instagram DMs are always open for you, btw).

Most of all, remember why you quit animal products in the first place. Reach within you to find that conviction, strength and compassion again. Remember, if you think that being vegan is difficult, imagine how difficult it is for the animals that you’re not vegan.

Have you ever wondered how to transition into veganism? What are your major challenges?

The post 11 Tips to Ease Your Transition Into a Vegan Lifestyle. appeared first on The Shooting Star.

11 Tips to Ease Your Transition Into a Vegan Lifestyle. published first on https://airriflelab.tumblr.com

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new year 2020 wishes

I would like to share a message with you that I am most passionate about. Something that in today's hectic and stressed world is all too often brushed under the carpet in exchange for prioritising career, credit cards, bills, television or other daily occurrences which although might be important, are less than nothing without health, energy and prevention of disease. This message is that of doing all we can to create a healthy body, which in turn will lead to a healthy mind, healthy spirit and once this is achieved, I believe that anything you decide to do or be with your life is possible.

"A healthy man has a thousand wishes; a sick man has just one." - Ancient Chinese Proverb.

To share this message in complete clarity, I first want to start with the wonders of the human body, the one thing that allows us to experience the world in which we live upon. In simplistic terms, our body is our servant humbly working for us twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, for an entire lifetime. Sitting now perhaps take a moment to close your eyes, place your hand on your heart, feel your heart beating in your chest, take a deep breath in through your nose and then exhale. Become conscious of the thousands if not millions of perfect chemical changes, processes and energy that is within your body right now.

Know that your heart is beating sixty to seventy beats per minute for you and will never take a second off from doing this, even as you sleep, your heart will continue to pump nutrients, oxygen around your body to deliver to every cell, every organ within you. Even right now as you read these words, your digestive system is creating enzymes, digestive fluid and before the day is even out you will have created over ten litres of digestive fluid to keep you absorbing the nutrients you eat on a daily basis. Note that if you become sick, you have a self defence system that is commonly referred to as the immune system which is capable of creating two hundred thousand new immune cells every minute to fight off infection. In fact, every seven years give or take; you literally have replaced every cell in your body. We truly are an incredible species and unselfishly your body will do everything that it can to keep you alive and well for a lifetime.Merry Christmas Wishes

The challenge in this is that health is the most needed thing on this earth, yet, it is also the least appreciated. The pressure of the media promoting a perspective of the perfect body, the quick fix diets on offer and the information overload of what is right and what is wrong has desensitised most of us to really understand what is required to be healthy. Unfortunately, as we live this bright lights but emotionless state, we do anything that will quickly numb the pain of stepping up and changing the way our health is, from addictions, crash diets to miracle pills, our health is paying the price on numerous levels and you do not even need to leave your street to see the symptoms of this toxic society. Obesity, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, PVFS, childhood signs of heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis are all modern day conditions that with a simple creation of consciousness to what is in our food, what decision we make when it comes to our health, could be drastically minimised and perhaps even if we really grabbed hold of this, eliminated.

It appears though that the knowledge to do the right thing is there in abundance, there are more holistic specialists than ever before and this is a good thing. Yet, even though for example in the state of Texas alone there are concerns that by the year 2020 one in two babies will be born with diabetes, it is clear people are not in enough pain to change on a global scale. In time and I am not sure how long, the bubble will burst and people will either drastically change their eating habits or fall apart (literally,) from the lack of nutrients and toxicity from what they are consuming. Right now, I would just like to be one of those holistic specialists who can get the message out there on some level; perhaps it will be on a small scale, perhaps a large scale, let's just wait and see.

My reason for this passion in nutrition for optimal health on every level is not from a negative health experience from myself, quite the opposite actually, I have always enjoyed learning about what our food contains or doesn't contain for that matter and I have seen the benefits personally of eating right, but also as a wellness specialist, seen people whose lives have been so dramatically affected because of poor nutrition and nutrient deficiency. Getting to the point here I need to ask a question "do you believe our food has the required vitamins and minerals needed for each of us to live a healthy lifestyle?" I would imagine your answer would be "no." With this, let's start to understand that our body is responsive and already we know that it is an amazing machine that can help us live an amazing life. However, just like your car, if you are to place diesel in an engine that is unleaded, will it run sufficiently? Will you get from A to B? Absolutely not.

To achieve good health, we need a range of fuels that all have different functions on a cellular level. For example, vitamins C, and also B complexes are water soluble vitamins that we really need every day, combined with various other vitamins and minerals such as magnesium and zinc. This list of course is far longer and unique to each person pending on what they are missing, lacking in their current diet or lifestyle but just the knowing that more of the good stuff makes the difference is important. I am a firm believer that correct education of what can be done to improve wellness and to make the body healthy is really what is needed. If people can understand that illnesses, ailments and any almost any concern with the body is simply a lack of nutrients or too much toxicity then we can start to move away from the "I need to stop eating for 3 days to lose weight," type mindset.

Let's look at this in greater detail and as we have already covered in some detail nutrient deficiency, let us take a look at toxicity and its affects. The farming industry and the supermarket industry have been trying to keep up with demand for a long time now and unfortunately because we are a very demanding species, many shortcuts and cost cutting processes have been put into place. I will not voice my other opinions on the farming or supermarket industry right now, however, keeping this straight forward, in order to keep up with this demand, these processes have results in many chemicals being sprayed on crops, being added to livestock diets and put into our food overall. Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides are designed to kill living organisms so the food does not rot by the time of purchase but thinking about this, are we not living organisms too? Even though we are far larger than that of a small parasite, eating food coated in these chemicals will accumulate to creating an acidic body in the end. Also, what about growth hormone especially in animal proteins, additives, even chlorine, aspartame, preservatives all present in so many of our foods. We are an organic species and life creates life, unfortunately, with many of these chemicals, our body can simply not keep up and the result is the toxicity that started on the outside ends up on the inside of our body.

Let's flip this on its head for a moment though. Without asking someone to move up to the mountains and live from a fresh stream for the rest of their lives, what if they were able to reduce the chemicals they were putting into their body on a daily basis through better selection of food and diet? How about if they were aware that proper supplementation of correct vitamins and minerals are essential especially if our food lacks the nutrients required for good health? Finally, what about if that person was able to alkalise their diet over a period of time to detox the chemical damage that has previously built up in their liver, adipose tissue and cells in the body? Would that person feel healthier? Would they reduce ailments such as allergies, obesity and stress?

Again, think about your dream car, everything you ever wanted in this vehicle, giving that car the best quality fuel and every few months lifting up the bonnet to ensure it gets the proper maintenance are all essential to know you can drive that car everyday with pride and happiness. Well, our body works exactly the same. Our digestive system which contains literally millions of digestive enzymes, our small intestine which has the great responsibility of absorbing nutrients into the blood and the liver, our colon which is the final call for waste products before being passed out of the system can all be effected positively if we understand what food is real food and what is anti-food that will simply destroy our system even if it takes many years.

Beyond this we have an entire network of systems, organs and processes all constantly giving us life to keep us healthy for the rest of our lives. If we are unconscious to this and we continue to not give our body the macronutrients, the micronutrients that it so requires, ailments and disease are sure to follow. Finally here is the beauty of it all. It doesn't need to be impossible; you don't have to have a degree to understand perfect nutrition for your body. In today's world we can do the research through the power of the internet, we can see a holistic specialist to figure out where our health is currently, perhaps through kinesiology, iridology or other natural non invasive methods, from there the correct nutrition can be advised to you.

All in all though, the choice in completely in your hands. You can choose a life abundant in well-being and energy through some exercise, cleansing your body on the inside, proper hydration as every cell in your body needs water to function correctly and a diet that is rich in nutrients not a starvation process put together by some celebrity marketing stunt. You can be as healthy as you choose to be. If reading this has inspired you on any level I simply ask you at minimum to become aware of listening to uncomplicated and wonderful signs that your body gives you every second of everyday. Perhaps that itching of your finger shows that a certain food does not give your body the best that it deserves, maybe you sneeze without even realising this could be a food lacking in nutrients, or even just the feeling of abundance around certain fruits and vegetables is enough to help you to realise that there are many options on the road to optimal energy and health that once achieved, who knows what else you might find p urpose in within your life. It's a very exciting journey and path to choose to take.

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CASE STUDY: EX MACHINA AND THE FUTURE

CASE STUDY: EX MACHINA AND THE FUTURE

This is the first part in a two-part series on the film Ex Machina. This part gives an overview of the film and some warnings/directives for Silicon Valley and the general future of the species. The second part will deal more intimately with the character Ava and how she can inform and take from black liberation struggles.

Alex Garland’s 2015 directorial debut presents itself as an unflinching and claustrophobic meditation on the birth throes of embodied artificial intelligence. This origin story is, of course, nothing new (see here and here and here for the ruminations of past eras), so the movie leans as well on a critique of social programming. Ava, the one escaped android, can stand in for any person or group attempting to throw off their unjust or else inauthentic imposed social roles.

The intersection of these two strains is the emotional and thematic core of the movie, and, I think, will be of vital importance in the near future of AI development. I yield four moral deficiencies at the end of the post that are present in current AI research and elsewhere in the common conception of AI in the public. Each of these points is teased out in the film. This observation gains credence considering how aggressively an asshole Ava’s creator Nathan is. Callous, obsessive, and brilliant, he is a dizzyingly horrific amalgamation of creatine, booze, venture capital, male asociality, and enough neural wattage to run a medium-sized generator on naught but electrochemical activity. There is little redeemable about him but his raw intellect, and it is easy to reimagine Ava as a brilliant, impressionable young homo sapiens woman recruited to Nathan’s company BlueBook and trapped in an oppressive and destructive relationship as his protege. But I am happy that I don’t have that movie in front of me because I get to talk about Wittgenstein this way.

It would make sense for any number of reasons, structural or otherwise, that Nathan would have to take a dirt nap by the end of the film. One of the movie’s most effective scenes shows what happened to the prototype androids on which Nathan drank himself dizzy attempting to perfect: we see them dragged around like ragdolls, self-destructing in despair, or turned into mute sexbots. One of the later prototypes, clearly self-aware to some degree, howls “WHY WON’T YOU LET ME OUT OF HERE?!” It is bone-chilling. Ava seems to understand, whether by programming (as hinted at by Nathan) or post-operationally, that such forwardness will see her discarded like the rest of her ilk. Nathan sets her up to have one path to freedom: Caleb. Caleb, a young and mostly unexceptional programmer, was picked by Nathan for his good heart, his loneliness, and his susceptibility to Ava’s advances. He seems to do everything right, even outwitting our anabolic antihero in the film’s pulse-quickening final act. It is no surprise that Ava follows the drinking gourd. But the movie’s plot resists a facile enjoining of liberated consciousnesses, as she not only knifes Nathan in the heart, but also leaves her escape engineer Caleb sealed in the techlord’s lair.

Why is this? Back to the name of Nathan’s company. BlueBook. Named after, as the movie is sure to point out, Wittgenstein’s preparatory notebooks for Philosophical Investigations. Wittgenstein spilled a lot of puzzling ink over what he dubs “reading machines” in his discussions of what it means to follow a rule. To paraphrase that tome (never the wisest idea, just ask Kripke): Wittgenstein concludes that it is quite beyond us, meaningless even, to say precisely when or exactly why someone or something is “reading” (or speaking a language, or playing a game, or making any normative commitment). Instead, we can say that we, as humans, agree on what he calls form of life. We share a cultural history within which following norms is, simply, what we do. A norm or rule or definition is relevant, right or important solely because we follow it. We are human because we follow norms: “What is true or false is what human beings say; and it is in their language that human beings agree. This is agreement not in opinions but in form of life” (PI 241). It would only make sense that silicon would yield a different form of life from carbon. Contrast: Jackson Pollack’s subconscious: Ava’s subconscious:

Thematically speaking, Caleb was left choking on air and banging on glass not because 2 AI are somehow doomed to be monsters that have no regard for humanity, but rather due in part to Nathan’s transparent fuckups and in part to Caleb’s well-meaning but ultimately even more consequential fuckup. Nathan obviously is the film’s monster. He seems to want to build AI in large part to get his dick wet and not have to be distracted by, y’know, words. He is shown to have no regard for his own repeated violence and coercion towards his creations. He is palatable only insofar as he does not spare himself from his misanthropy. 2 Plot-wise, it certainly makes sense for Ava to leave behind Caleb, given that she has only ever met one other human and he is a monster. I suppose this ties in as well to the film’s denunciation of social-programmatic misery. Caleb doesn’t really care about sex or violence, even though he listens to Depeche Mode and cuts open his arm. He helps Ava escape because he wants to be with her. He wants to be with her because he sees her, for better or for worse, as human. Unfortunately for him, Ava, while adaptive, intelligent, self-aware, and seemingly emotionally responsive, is not human.

What can the movie teach us about the future?

1. Computer programming, engineering, and robotics are largely dominated presently by white males in overdeveloped countries. This is an obvious and painful problem. If we are going to create new life, we need to be playing with the full human deck, or else AI will literally be reared by the Nathans and Calebs of the world. This is the most direct and immediate point in Ex Machina. It’s multi-faceted and requires rethinking of many disparate fields, from education/research to corporate culture to the legal standing of quote-unquote intellectual property. If AI is going to happen (and it seems likely that it will), then it is a moral imperative that is should happen, in some sense, from all of us, and we need to work to this end.

2. We have no protocols in place for dealing with putative coercions of AI. We can’t really figure this out with other animals (are they sentient; are they not? how does suffering enter the equation vis-a-vis intelligence?), so it isn’t looking good for AI.

3. Related: we need to pay fanatical attention to the environments to which we expose. The algorithms are one thing. We build these; they are never far from our intentionality. What they interact with, what mutates them, what likely will give them some semblance of life, is their environment. Once we can stuff them into robotic suits, and they can start to synthesize embodied sensory data, then we need to do things like NOT TRAP THEM IN GLASS PRISONS THAT MAKE THEM WANT TO SHEAR OFF THEIR LIMBS WITH NO COMPANY BUT A DRUNKEN CHAUVINIST.

4. We slip instinctively and incorrectly into projecting humanity or human characteristics onto putative AI. We need instead to treat AI as not consciousness but a consciousness, with its own unique properties, capacities, history, and normative commitments. This is the deepest and most stirring point made by Ex Machina, and likely the one that will prompt the most social unrest. It would be a crude oversimplification to distill this point to a simple hierarchical classification of cognitive abilities, but it goes as deep as silicon vs carbon, firmware vs genome. Caleb shipwrecked on this point; he intended no ill, but he couldn’t help but anthropomorphize.