“Some mental disorders aren’t merely common—they’re the norm”, or so a recent Science News article, “Rates of common mental disorders double up“, reports. Notice the orange bar in the graph (left) which shows a recent prospective study(1) of 1000 New Zealanders assessed for mental disorders eleven times between the ages of 3 and 32. I have little doubt that such a study done in American would surpass New Zealand’s 50% number. Something is bizarre about this data, in my view. First, why not read it to see what you think. Continue reading ‘Just In: We’re All Nuts!’
Future Shock
I just experienced something strange… the future now. About ten years ago our (humanity’s) plausible future became increasingly obvious to me. I saw our advancing technology leading toward a time of plunging human population, to a point where, for example, governments would support citizens during their parenting years. Now, when I travel on freeways or in the city I eerily ’see’ the time when they will be half empty and overgrown. Needless to say, I never expected to see any solid evidence of this future in my lifetime. Heck, I’ll be ‘lucky’ to see the impact of global warming. Continue reading ‘The Future is Now!’
Seeing what isn't there
I think of the Tao Te Ching as a manual(*) that attempts to help us peek through biology’s covers, revealing what and why as best it can through words. It often acknowledges the difficulty of this, e.g., “My words are very easy to understand… yet no one in the world can understand…”. One problem is that we are both inside and outside the covers (like Schrödinger’s cat ?). Words, being the linear beast they are, can’t convey the big picture view easily, if at all. Nuts! Yet I struggle on to convey what I see. (Perhaps it is the challenge lures me?)
Essentially, things are just not what they seem… or so it seems. We see this view wonderfully stated in chapter two: Continue reading ‘Peeking Through the Covers’
Mother and sons
One curious result of using a ‘taoist’ model of ‘virtue’ to raise my kids is seeing how naturally ethical – even to a ‘fault’ – they have turned out. Given the laissez-faire upbringing they had, it is a little odd to see how rigidly law abiding they can be at times. For example, we headed down the street to order a sandwich at the corner deli. I grabbed a beer to drink (rare for me) as we walked there. They protested, saying it was against the law to walk in public and drink beer. I thought that nonsense. Drink and drive no way, but drink and walk? All my life I have only obeyed laws I agreed with, so they didn’t pick up their highly law abiding ways from me (obviously). And, given the circumstances of how they were raised, I doubt they learned it from anyone in particular. This may be a testament to the deep underlying pull of the ethical paradigm that surrounds everyone. Most conform, some rebel, but everyone feels it. Continue reading ‘Innately Ethical’
Really, what does it look like?
Scientific research is finally verifying something I’ve suspected for years (see Science News, What do you see?). Namely, our need and fear(1) generally dictate what we see(2), even though our mind may believe otherwise. Our perception of ‘reality’ is essentially a subjective reflection of emotion, as this research helps show. However, the researchers see emotion a little differently. For example, the article says: Continue reading ‘Can You Believe What You See?’
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