Robin Williams has died.

Start slicing and dicing into the brain matter and we'll see the truth about where those seemingly profound spiritual feelings come from. :) The idea that any human experience or emotion is anything but cellular transmission is not really my thing. Perhaps it is a spiritual shroud of sorts, like i'm blind and just can't see the truth mannnn. While the serotonin deficiency hypothesis made for great leverage to sell SSRI anti-depressants without having much clinical basis, fundamentally the origin of any mental state or mental illness still resides within the skull. It's a big ugly lump of awesomeness.

I guess it's not as fun to see things through biological goggles. If there really is an afterlife or a spirit or something more than our nervous system, then why does it completely cessate when injected with adequate anaesthetic? Does the chemical flowing through our blood somehow rob us of our connection to another existence, spirit, essence, world, or whatever?

personalities being complex chemical dance patterns & the general concept of us being animals made of smaller animals is pretty mystical tho

  On 8/27/2014 at 3:28 AM, fiznuthian said:

If there really is an afterlife or a spirit or something more than our nervous system, then why does it completely cessate when injected with adequate anaesthetic? Does the chemical flowing through our blood somehow rob us of our connection to another existence, spirit, essence, world, or whatever?

Why does what cessate? I think I know what you are saying. It's not the cessation of the spirit, it's that the body becomes an ineffective transcriber, and you, the spirit of your body, is at dissonance with the flesh.

The question of biology vs spiritual is a simple matter of control. You become a kind of god when you are able to explain things. Anyone who would say there is no God probably wants to be a god himself.

I think most people want to become gods themselves. That's why they invented one and made his plan THEIR plan. God is a construct of the human mind and whatever the reality of the situation is that our minds can't grasp, we are all waaayyyy off base to the point that even talking about god is kind of pointless. Like arguing over what color eyes the imaginary monster in your closet has.

edited for brevity: Candiru: "I'm agnostic."

  On 8/28/2014 at 12:52 AM, sheatheman said:

 

Anyone who would say there is no God probably wants to be a god himself.

You do understand that virtually all atheists are atheists because they don't see any evidence of God, right? I hear similar nonsense from Pat Robertson and Kirk Cameron types who think that all atheists reject God just because they wanna sin.

  On 8/28/2014 at 2:41 AM, sheatheman said:

edited for brevity: Candiru: "I'm agnostic."

No. There is a lot we don't understand, but the idea of a god comes from a drive that is unique to a specific animal on a single planet in a colossal universe. We only experience reality one way. What about sentient beings that can experience it 4 ways, 50 ways, 3-ways in zero gravity in an oasis pod orbiting the moons of Neptune in the year 3077 and you're 652 years old and look 25. What then? Traveling forward in time to meet your grea great great great great great great grand kids is going to outsell church by a longshot let me tell you. I ain't playin.

Full circle, back to Mork, thread lock.

lol

feelings are clearly shaped by the biological.

this does not discount sprituality.

  On 8/28/2014 at 2:11 AM, Candiru said:

I think most people want to become gods themselves. That's why they invented one and made his plan THEIR plan. God is a construct of the human mind and whatever the reality of the situation is that our minds can't grasp, we are all waaayyyy off base to the point that even talking about god is kind of pointless. Like arguing over what color eyes the imaginary monster in your closet has.

that is a brilliant post

simple but absolutely spot on

watmm general banter forum is usually off limits for me, as I think I can't get on with it too much, but I sometimes have a skim through

BREAKING UNHEARD OF NEWS

Robin Williams death is being used for profit:

oh fuck it was demons. everyone was wrong.

  On 8/29/2014 at 10:57 PM, DerWaschbar said:

oh fuck it was demons. everyone was wrong.

lol

depression, cocaine and Ouija boards don't mix well

  On 8/14/2014 at 11:13 PM, Joyrex said:

 

  On 8/14/2014 at 6:05 AM, very honest said:

what a crazy thing, robin williams of all people. what was he thinking? dude must have been looped out. what kind of problem could possibly have faced him that had no better way of being handled? he probably fried his fucking brain, the only feelings he could feel were negative ones and they warped all the ideas he could think. i bet he fucked up his receptors or inhibitors or whatever on some stupid fucking coke binge, snorting shit that 10 different drug dealers cut with their own special recipes on dirty coffee tables, mixing it with downers so he didn't get a heart attack and to quell the paranoia, going on for days on end in a hotel room, watching tv, surfing the internet. maybe he didn't even have a good time, he just felt compelled because he was in the habit.

 

and people have the audacity to act like fear and loathing style drug use is fine. hunter thompson was snorting coke every thirty minutes toward the end of his life.

 

be careful with your brains, people.

His widow has said he was sober at the time of his death, and was apparently in the beginning stages of Parkinson's disease - couple that with bipolar disorder, and he probably had enough of this life, despite all that he would leave behind. That, or he didn't want to degenerate and make his family suffer at his expense, and better to remember him when he was still at his best physically.

 

With the money that he had he could have afforded to treat himself of Parkinson and whatever else he was coming down with. The truth is he probably just didn't want to battle it.

  On 8/29/2014 at 10:42 PM, very honest said:

feelings are clearly shaped by the biological.

 

this does not discount sprituality.

yeah. who is to say physical elements don't have spiritual properties we can't quantify?

it's certainly a back and forth between physical and "spiritual", I'd say. From my own experience: I had a drug overdose when I was 26 that completely shattered my mind and led to a nervous breakdown, which then led to a prolonged black depression that lasted many years (and that, I think, I've never truly beaten). I got on various meds which did stop the immediate problem of me wanting to kill myself. *However* traditional "talk therapy" also helped immeasurably, I had what you would call a good old-fashioned "epiphany" about all the aspects of my character that were holding me back, hindering my recovery. Specifically, having so much of my self-worth being based on my impression of my own skill and competence, my aversion to failure and making mistakes, etc. In short I wasn't used to the ideas "it's ok to fuck up", "it's ok to be less than perfect, to be weak and in need of help", and I developed an ego that became more based on emotional health than on pride over accomplishments. It also helped that I got to a point where I was able to have a girlfriend again, and fuck like a rabbit, which no doubt both flooded my brain with neurotransmitters in a more healthy, controlled, and natural way, but also gave me the emotional and spiritual support of someone who loved me.

So...tl;dr, yes I believe everything is ultimately brain chemistry, but we also get ourselves into problems by thinking, and can get ourselves out of problems by thinking too. Many people with depression have underlying emotional issues based on personal history, that can greatly be addressed through non-medicative ways. I think our bodies and minds are very good at self-correcting, most people just need to develop the ear to hear their inner voice.

It requires a lot of bravery to honestly face one's "issues".

Also, a bit of wild,baseless conjecture about Robin Williams: it wouldn't surprise me at all if he had childhood sexual abuse in his past. I'm not sure why I feel that way, he just gives me that vibe. The same vibe that people who have *documented* childhood sexual abuse pasts give off, like Oprah and Tyler Perry - that desire to live in a perfect world that seems very artificial, a certain underlying sadness, an interest in children, an interest in swapping gender roles, etc. I could be way off base, but suicide is not a rational act, it's emotional pain with rational justification after the fact. Something embedded that pain deep in Robin Williams, probably when he was a kid. Imo.

Robin passed a little over a year ago, he was infinitely brilliant, in anything he did, even this shit show. The tributes make me tear up, so I won't post them here but there are many, and they are well deserved. He was also a passionate gamer and named his daughter after The Legend of Zelda. O Captain My Captain, I hope you have found peace.

[youtubehd]35YHvoNXxAA[/youtubehd]

I read this recently, Robin was doing mime shows in SF parks for years before he was discovered, a talent he never exploited after he was "discovered". just another hint of how talented this man truly was, he could do anything, mime, comedy, drama, the sky was the limit. But he was an alcoholic, like so many others, and an addict, but also manic depressive and body dementia was what finally scared him into suicide. A true loss to the human race, for sure.

http://petapixel.com/2014/08/14/photographer-photographs-two-mimes-1974-realizes-35-years-later-one-robin-williams/