Mysticism

 I thought it helpful to remind myself why I fit into the category of mystic. It's a trajectory I've been on most of my life.

Summary

Mysticism: is the practice of pursuing spiritual insight. 

A mystic is a person who engages in mysticism, aiming for spiritual union or knowledge. 

Once they've awakened to the Divine and their consciousness has been united with the Divine, the mystic sets out into the everyday world.

A mystic is a person who believes in or seeks direct spiritual knowledge and union with the divine or ultimate reality, often through prayer, meditation, and intuition, rather than through ordinary human senses or intellect. As an adjective, mystic describes something that is spiritually significant, mysterious, symbolic, or beyond normal human comprehension. 

A mystic is a person who has experienced, or believes in the possibility of, profound spiritual insights or direct contact with the divine, a state beyond rational thought. 

They are devoted to spiritual understanding rather than material gain, focusing on the inner life and the path of spirituality. 

Mystic: can refer to practices or symbols that are esoteric, otherworldly, or spiritually significant. 

It can also describe qualities that are mysterious, awesome, or have a spiritual power that is hard to explain. 

The word relates to or is characteristic of mysticism, the belief in the existence of realities beyond human comprehension. 

Yup, fits me pretty well! 

Rei Toei has Granddaughter

 Tilly Norwood. Non corporeal, DNA-less, purely unmanifested object. 

It's been 30 years since examining the implications of Tilly's arrival for the first time. I am not excited, surprised or otherwise ruffled by the arrival. I have a context for it. Her ancestor, or beta model, was Rei Toei.

William Gibson's 1996 cyberpunk novel Idoru features the culmination of what we are experiencing today. That's my opinion. Give it a read and let me know. 

The context I refer to is rooted in ancient Vedanta philosophy and modern Noetic research. 

"We project our disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination we call the world."

It is this consciousness that fascinates some. There is no widely accepted definition that I know of. 

Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, and theologians.

Source: Wikipedia

Yet consciousness and the ability to project complex human thoughts, mannerisms, and affects is what makes this AI object of interest. Tilly, the actor, will be manipulated in its own digital realm to elicit responses in our consciousness. Tilly has, I imagine, a limited range of consciousness that is enabled by mechanical and digital 'senses' analogous, perhaps, to human sight, taste, touch, speech, etc. I'm fairly certain that the plan is to enhance interactivity with AI analyzed inputs and outputs to seamlessly integrate with film scenarios and flesh and blood, 'meat' actors. And human actors can see the ratios shifting rapidly!

Context. That's what I said. Otherwise the beat goes on with consciousness of the group coming to a consensus about reality in the same way for centuries more. Mostly without awareness or critical thinking. It probably will continue for most people that way anyway. 

The context I've found provides a way out, thus not to be enmeshed and suffer needlessly. Maybe suffer just enough.
But that's why we're here isn't it? Me writing you reading. Drawn by some fascination. 

When Questions have Negative Intentions

Rhetorical questions, as a cross-breed of questions and statements, represent an effective tool in putting forward the Speaker's ideas, as well as influencing the ideas and opinions of other people. Because of their communicative effectiveness and multifunctionality, they are frequently used in different contexts and for different purposes, not at all benign. Other types of questions can be sarcastic, or designed to open up controversial emotional content, and can close off certain responses and contain misinformation/red herrings to guide people into subtle traps. 

For example, Open and Closed question strategies are used by salespeople to focus attention on the desired product. Being a traveler the intent I run into so often is when someone asks a question to allow them to dominate the conversation with their stories, experiences and opinions. Feeling used, manipulated and exploited are the aftermath of these questions.

Conversational chess players love this stuff!

Positive questions have a wide range as well including:

Intents based on conversational flow

In communication, the purpose of a question often relates to how it drives or affects a conversation: 

• Introductory: Used to begin a conversation and engage with someone. For example: "How's work going?".
• Mirroring: Acknowledges what was just said and reflects it back to the speaker. For example: "Good. How about you?".
• Follow-up: Probes for more detail or information on a previous topic. For example: "What are you working on right now?".
• Switching: Intentionally changes the direction or topic of the conversation. For example: "Did you watch the game last night?". 

Intents based on information gathering

Questions can be designed with a specific goal in mind for the information they gather: 

• Clarifying: Used to confirm or better understand information that has already been shared. For example: "Are we implying that...?".
• Seeking information: The most common intent, used to gather facts and data. For example: "What is the status?" or "Who is involved?".
• Seeking understanding: Deeper than simple information gathering, these questions aim to grasp the meaning behind data. For example: "What does this mean for our long-term plan?".
• Stimulating creative thought: Also known as divergent questions, these encourage imagination or exploring cause-and-effect. They often have no single "correct" answer. For example: "What might have happened if...?". 
• Seeking judgment: Evaluative questions that ask for sophisticated levels of cognitive or emotional judgment. For example: "What are the similarities and differences between...?".

As I look through the 'positive' list I see that they can easily become negative. Also, when the asker takes the answer given as a condemnation, judgement and/or criticism of the hidden idea behind asking we quickly become aware something was off in the first place. In cases like this I am quick to point out the 'slight of hand' involved which usually ruins the game for the asker and pisses them off, having got found out. 

     "The only winning move is 

       not to play."

Becoming aware of how we use, or abuse, questions is an informative way to detect our orientation to others in conversations. Questions from positive intentions encourage consensus reality and trust, negative intentions promote betrayal and lack of trust.