Free Will, Cheap Will, and Expensive Will

In the fixed-universe model we were playing with, the apparent contradiction disappears if will doesn’t mean creating a new universe. The whole structure is already there—including the possible lifelines. Will concerns which line is being consciously traversed.

Then you get something like: Continue reading →

THE FAST TRACK TO HEAVEN

People want to know what’s in it for them.

Jim Carville famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” When it comes to spiritual work, we might put it slightly differently:

It’s the payoff, stupid. Continue reading →

This isn’t really an art presentation for marketers; it’s a working presentation to help an art consultant/decorator/designer understand what they have available to sell and how to position the collection. Continue reading →

Take the “A” Train…

Suppose the universe is not something that is happening. Suppose it is something that is.

Imagine an enormous static object in eleven dimensions. Everything is there—not merely every object, but every event, every lifetime, every beginning and ending. Running through this object are billions upon billions of lifetime lines. Continue reading →

The usual problem with “How do I stay awake?” is that people try to produce a state. They strain, concentrate, become solemn, monitor themselves—and pretty soon they’re sound asleep while working extremely hard at being awake.

I’d turn it around: Continue reading →

opinion:

HOW TO TELL WHEN A GOVERNMENT STARTS OPERATING LIKE THE MOB

By “mob,” I don’t mean a crowd of angry people running through the streets. I mean the Mob. What used to be called “The Mafia”. Continue reading →

• The Song You Didn’t Notice — You hear fifty songs. Forty-nine go by. One suddenly catches you and changes your internal state. What happened? Why that song, at that moment?
• Who Is Listening? — A companion to “Who Is Walking?” Music is playing. The body hears it, emotions react, memories appear—but is anybody actually listening?
• The Three-Second Experiment — In the middle of any ordinary activity, become completely present for three seconds. No meditation, no preparation. Then ask: What was different?
• Background Music for the Human Machine — We constantly provide a soundtrack for ourselves. Does the music merely accompany the machine—or can it interrupt it?
• You Don’t Have to Like the Music — This one could be especially useful for KGOD/Norton Street. Transformational use of music may have almost nothing to do with musical taste. A song you dislike might actually be more useful because it won’t let you comfortably disappear into it.
• What Exactly Are You Doing on Zoom? — Everybody thinks they’re attending a Zoom meeting. But you’ve actually got fifty little laboratories sitting in fifty different rooms. Put on one piece of music and something different happens in every laboratory.
• The DJ as Experimental Scientist — This one fits today. The DJ isn’t merely entertaining the room. He’s introducing one stimulus after another and watching what happens. Change rhythm, language, voice, emotional temperature, familiarity—and the room itself becomes the instrument.

I particularly like The DJ as Experimental Scientist for this morning. It connects directly to what we’re doing, but underneath it is the whole teaching: we aren’t necessarily playing these songs because they’re good songs. We’re playing them to find out what they do. Continue reading →

Spent the entire night working on arrangements. I’ll demo those this morning at zoom. Continue reading →

Looking for a rap that people can use with friends to introduce the idea “you are asleep”? I know you’d like to tell someone, but … how to say that to a friend? Continue reading →