the paradise paradox – Page 17 – worldliness & spirituality

Dating models the lazy way: Luke Petersen – Episode 148

by Kurt Robinson on January 17, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Two men’s views on how to attract women

For many straight men, the subject of how to meet interesting women is a difficult one, and different people face it in different ways. Some choose to avoid their own sexuality, hiding their desires from the world and even pretending they don’t exist. Others shy away in fear, knowing that they want to take action, but not able to build the courage to do it. Still others confront the problem with determination, puzzlement and wonder, not sure exactly how to match their desires with the desires of a woman, but unwilling to surrender to their shy nature.

In this episode, Kurt talks to his long-time friend Luke Petersen about the topic of meeting, attracting and even seducing women. They talk about how spending time improving your social skills may actually save you time in the long run, about dating models, chasing women and having women chase you, about the hard work that it takes many guys to develop their confidence, whether money matters, Mystery Method, card tricks, and other strange things that men will use in their quest for natural confidence.

Join Kurt and Luke on another heart-thumping, testicle-tingling, beast-moding episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Skeptic meets ghost: Luke Petersen – Episode 133

Dating advice from a professional: Chris Manak – Episode 122

The Links:

RSDnation

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

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Kurt’s freestyle rap intro outtakes

by Kurt Robinson on January 16, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

A keyhole view into Kurt’s creative process

See the world with new eyes – (a short) Episode 147

by Kurt Robinson on January 13, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Three simple exercises to make the world magical again

In our dreams, we might often be surprised by events, as the things that happen might seem so unusual it might even appear that something is happening which has never happened before, that something purely spontaneous, divine and magical is happening in that moment. Yet, when we awake, we forget those important messages of our dreams – firstly that new and amazing things are always possible, and secondly, that wonder and surprise are always possible. “The ongoing ‘wow!’ is happening right now.”

Thinking about this upon waking, I scribbled down three exercises which might help us allow the wonder to enter and engulf us:

1. Easy mode – look around you with new eyes. See things as if you’re looking at them for the first time. If you had never known the building where you live, the park near your office, the ferris wheel that stoops over the city – could you have imagined them? The moment you’re experiencing is just for you, right now. What you’re seeing, what you’re experiencing has never happened before, and it will never happen again. This is just for you. This is a special gift.

To get into this state of being, you can try a classic technique from Keith Johnstone’s “Impro”. Walk around the room and point at random objects. Whenever you point at one, say a word for it – but not the usual word for that thing. Call that thing what it isn’t. If you see your sweater, call it a “neverlump”; if you see a table, name it a “noose”; if you see a shopping bag, call it “Cambridge bridge society”, and so on. After a minute or two, you will start to see things with new eyes.

2. Medium mode – thank someone. While you’re looking at those around you in that way, find something magical about what they’re doing, and thank them for it. Magical moments are meant to be shared. Gratitude is magic.

3. Hard mode – do something magical. Create a spontaneous moment for yourself and others. Walk down the street with your guitar singing, gather the family around the piano like you did when you were kids. When someone asks how you are, respond in a way that you’ve never responded before. Tell them that, by pure chance, the universe has come together to give life on Earth and you’re here living it. Do something that makes people think for a moment that they might be in a dream, and anything is possible. Because they are, and it is.

The Links:

Keith Johnstone’s Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

The Cash:

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Shamanic Aliens: Luis Fernando Mises – Episode 146

by Kurt Robinson on January 10, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Luis Fernando Mises of Emancipated Human talks about his experience with ETs

Everyone at some stage in their life has looked up at the stars and wondered if there’s someone there, looking back. Certain organisations have spent millions of dollars on satellite dishes and radio telescopes, trying to find proof of life on another world. Yet, what if there was a technology that humans had used for thousands of years, which enabled us to contact extraterrestrial beings? What if, by putting our minds into a certain state, we could access the wisdom of the universe, and over the course of a few hours, receive knowledge that we couldn’t expect to receive from years of regular study?

In this episode, Luis Fernando Mises of Emancipated Human tells us about his experiences talking to extraterrestrial or interdimensional beings, through the use of entheogens – powerful shamanic medicines such as ayahuasca and huachuma, which have allowed him to have fascinating visions, bringing his subconscious mind to the surface. We also talk about his spiritual dance battle with a malicious spirit that has affected the life of a loved one, stretching back generations. We talk about his experience at a conference for CEOs, how they want to change the world by reducing the power of the state, and how capitalism is aligned with spirituality – because it involves service to others.

Join us in the next star-faring episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Shamans with Guns: Luis Fernando Mises – Episode 96

Peyote Spaceship Part 1 – Episode 118

Peyote Spaceship Part 2 – Episode 119

Mental illness and shamanic experiences – The Andrarchy Show episode 1

The Links:

Emancipated Human on YouTube

Emancipated Human on Facebook

The Cash:

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Synchronicity – Leandrew Dixon

by Kurt Robinson on January 8, 2017 in Podcast • 0 Comments

Leandrew tells a story about a day full of synchronicities that made him wonder what was going on in the universe.

Watch or listen to the full episode here L-Dixon: Believer to atheist to wonderer- The Paradise Paradox Episode 143

Transcript

I used to be this straight-edge atheist character, and now, having experimented with psychedelics, witnessed synchronicities – I’m still sort of agnostic, but I highly and strongly believe that there is something greater going on than what we currently understand.

I feel like I had become a different person in a way – completely diametrically opposed to where I was before.

The Ouroboros – the snake eating its own tail – it represents rebirth, and cycles. To me, that kind of represented the fact that I had come around intellectually, to start to devour my old ideas – the old picture of reality I had. It’s like, that’s bullshit, that’s almost as much of a religion as the religions I was so opposed to. So I made the decision to go get these tattoos, the Ouroboros tattoos. That day, I wanted to get Carl Jung’s book “Synchronicity”, because he’s the one who coined the term and I just thought it would be a cool thing to read. I went to Barnes & Noble and I picked up the book, and I noticed that he has his book “Man and his Symbols” right next to it. I picked that up and go to flip it to a random page, completely random page in the middle of the book, and it’s the fucking Ouroboros. I have the synchronicity book in my left hand, and that day I’m going to get these tattoos, and I flip open this book randomly and it’s the Ouroboros. It was just a mindfuck that I couldn’t deny.

It was just one of those things. I know my personal experiences and synchronicities – they aren’t really a testament to the larger reality, they’re not “proof” of anything, but it was like a sense of internal validation that, there’s something more going on, that I want to dive into and try to figure out and understand as much as I can.

Anyway, later that day, I go and get the tattoo, still have the books in my car. The tattoo artist is just starting, doing the head. He randomly mentions to me “Hey, you know what, I’d rather be just running through the forest and tripping on mushrooms.” And at the time I had a pretty large supply of mushrooms, so I’m like, “You’re talking to the right person – we can make this happen.” I ended up paying for my tattoos with the mushrooms on the day I grabbed the synchronicity book and opened up the page with the Ouroboros… It was just a mindfuck.

Depression and cultural alienation with Andrarchy

by Kurt Robinson on January 4, 2017 in Best Bits • 0 Comments

Andrarchy explains why his experience with depression was less about mental illness and more about alienation

Transcript:

I don’t think I had a disease called “depression”; I think that my mind was conflicting with what is socially acceptable for a mind. I was having difficulty integrating with society. And because I was having beliefs and ideas that were different than everybody else’s, that created discomfort and sadness in me that was difficult to resolve because there was nobody there to guide me through the experience.

I do believe that there is a place for therapists – whether they’re psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, whatever – I do believe there’s a place, because if somebody had been there to say “this is normal” – not just “this is normal”, because they do say that – but if they were to explain to me, basically, “hey, society is a construct; it’s a set of delusions we all kind of agree on so we can function, so we can go to the store and make sure there’s shit there – we share these beliefs, not necessarily because they’re true, but because they enable us to form stable societies. Just because you don’t see them as true, doesn’t mean you’re broken.”

Follow @andrarchy on Steemit!

Watch and listen to the full interview here.

Everything is information: Andrarchy – Episode 145

by Kurt Robinson on December 30, 2016 in Podcast • 1 Comment

The Story: The evolution of everything: The philosophy of crowdism

If you’re a writer and you sit down to write a story, essay or book, as the pieces start to come together you might draw on years of experience and knowledge. The experience of depression you had when you were in college, the periods of low functionality caused by it, and the steps you took to eventually drag yourself out of it. Then, the years of reflecting on those times, and everything you read about it, and your thoughts as you attempted to process the ideas of others as they relate to what you went through.

In this episode, Kurt interviews Andrew Levine (a.k.a. andrarchy) about how the process of his life resulted in the process of writing a book, tentatively titled “The Evolution of Everything: The Philosophy of Crowdism”. Andrew explains how his epihany that “Enlightenment means freedom from genes and memes” lead him down a rabbithole, making new discoveries, until he eventually discarded the idea, and how it relates to the idea that everything is information.

Join us in the next culture-defying episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Mental Illness Outsiders – The Andrarchy Show episode 5

Talking to horses, seeing aliens and demons – The Andrarchy Show episode 4

A psychotic break or shamanic awakening – The Andrarchy Show episode 2

Mental illness and shamanic experiences – The Andrarchy Show episode 1

The Links:

Andrarchy on Steemit

The Cash:

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

The value of ideas – L-Dixon

by Kurt Robinson on December 27, 2016 in Best Bits • 0 Comments

Transcript

There’s like the whole of human understanding that we currently have. And there’s a lot of experiences and things that happen on the fringes of that, that may or not be legit phenomena. A lot of times when considering these things, people that are more closed-minded might not even wanna –

I’m not really a flat-earther like myself, but when you’re encountering ideas like that that are outside your own paradigm, don’t immediately take it as: “Okay, I’m judging this as it comes in – I’m not even going to listen that; I know it’s not true.”

Even ideas which are not true can expand your idea of what you think is possible, or it can be creative fuel – writing science fiction, or it could connect to something else that is legit.

Watch the full episode here: L-Dixon – Believer to atheist to wonderer: Episode 143.

Catholicism in Mexico: A death cult?

by Kurt Robinson on December 21, 2016 in Religion • 0 Comments

When I walk into a church in Mexico, I can’t help but escape the images of death. There will normally be several idols of Christ, bloody and beaten, on a cross or in a coffin. In the Cathedral in Guadalajara, there is a mummy in a glass coffin, which supposedly belonged to a martyr, a young lady beaten to death by her father, enraged by her ambition to be a nun. I saw a similar mummy in Pachuca, Hidalgo, with a similar story. Apparently this story is repeated in churches all over Mexico – an archetype, a story too good to be told just once, like a rerun of ‘I Love Lucy’.

The other day I walked into the sacred art museum, which is attached to the Cathedral. In the first room we walked into, while looking at the paintings, I had the uncanny feeling that the people in the paintings were looking at me, or waiting to look at me. My companion also felt that there was something dark about the place. (Unfortunately, I can’t show you any pictures of the museum as they asked us not to take photographs.) In another room, there was a stand intended to hold books for a chorus, in the shape of a ziggurat or burial mound, with Christ on a crucifix at the top. The whole thing was painted black. Again, I felt I shouldn’t turn my back on it. I wondered about the dark things this object had seen, wondering if children had been abused while perched on its shelves.

In another room, there was a particularly gruesome picture of Christ, apparently already very dead, with Mary Magdalene by his side, holding his hand. His hand was by her mouth, but instead of kissing it she appeared to be sucking it. In front of Christ stood a dark female figure in a black robe with very white skin, tears streaming down her cheeks. I assume it’s supposed to be Mary, but it looked like Death.

In the entire museum, I saw Christ as an infant, as a dying man, and as a corpse – almost always in states where he wasn’t capable of teaching anything. The only exception was a handful of paintings depicting the scene “Christ among the doctors”, in which Christ is about 12 years old. The Sermon on the Mount was never portrayed. I wonder if that’s a decision of the curators, or of the Mexican artists over the centuries, or of their commissions from the church. Perhaps there are different ways to interpret it, but to me the message seemed to be: your god is impotent and helpless.

I hope I don’t offend anybody with this post, as this is just my experience as an outsider looking in, and obviously there are subtleties that someone more familiar with Catholicism would notice. However, I do think that people should be wary of these types of images. A man might make a fine idol for you to pray towards, and you might even kiss its feet, as I’ve seen many people do. If the man controls the image that you pray to, you can be sure that he also controls you. God needs no intermediaries.

Homeopathy: Just water? – Episode 144

by Kurt Robinson on December 20, 2016 in Podcast • 0 Comments

The Story: Are homeopathic solutions nothing more than water?

For many educated people, the argument against homeopathy as a system of medicine is pretty straightforward: it’s just water. That is to say, homeopathy involves diluting substances to a level that you can’t reasonably expect any of the original substance to remain, and therefore any medicinal effect that it has can’t be better than regular water, or a placebo. However, they’re mistaken.

This is a fallacy of composition – it assumes that because water molecules are identical, anything made from a bunch of water molecules must also be identical. A simple analogy to demonstrate the error in this line of thinking would be to say, all Tetris squares are identical, and so any Tetris board formed with 20 squares has the same properties. Or, all oxygen atoms are equal, and therefore any combination of them must also be equal – which is not true, oxygen atoms can form in molecules of O2, O3, O4 and O8.

In fact, there are at least three studies suggesting that homeopathic solutions are not “just water”, but something else – something with a measurable difference. Join me in finding out how in the next watered-down episode of The Paradise Paradox!