Also not everyone experiences an inner-dialogue.
Ahhhā¦ In fact my brain will offer up language to accompany images, especially images with strong emotional content. LOLā¦ this is when I start talking to myself.
Any voice occurring is from my own throat. The mind is a monkey leaping from tree to tree. There are meanings within meanings to the story of the Monkey King. āIs the Monkey King?ā Do you watch it and laugh or marvel at its antics or do you leap from tree to tree with it? Do you give it a voice? If so, why? I find that I generally remind myself that its antics are a part of the past. The things that are important are generally in front of me. Do you follow the monkey or does the monkey follow you?
Yup 
. The only monkey 
thatās king in my life is you 
(Oh, and Barney)
I am the monkey. I dont actually talk to myself. I am involved in a continuing dialogue that includes words, images, emotions, sensations, dreams and thoughts, which I think can only make sense to me, but I am sure we all have similar if not identical experiences.
I am also the Walrus and a Celestial Cockatooā¦a complex inner reality grappling with a non co-operative exterior fantasyā¦need more poppy seedsā¦squawk.
Honestly? I think you may need a stronger class of medication or a different cocktail. Iām not being unkind Ratty. It took me over 30 years before a shrink designed a cocktail of psychotropics for me which work. By work I mean they prevent me from wanting to kill myself on a regular basis yet allow me to function,.
Have you been diagnosed as schizophrenic? Your posts tend to have that flavour.
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Do you think Lewis Carol really wrote the poem about Jesus and some Eastern God and then denied it to save his reputation or was it all just an accidental coincidence of his subconscious mind. Either wayā¦ one of my all time favorite poems.
Ratty is as normal as you and I. Heās justā¦ esoteric , in his choice of belief systems. If you caught me as a teen, right after my fall from Christianity, all read up on Carlos Castaneda, Ouspenski, Jung, T D Suzuki, Jane Roberts, the Baghdad Gita, Zen Flesh Zen Bones, Chop Wood Carry Water, The Tao of Physics, and and the fact that I fell heavily into Zen Meditation during the Transcendental Meditation movement of the time and all the other shit I filled my brain with; chi energy, chackras, ESP and other psychic powers, I would have sounded exactly the same.
Age, actual curiosity, and a willingness to actually examine beliefs can go a really long way. Of course my Sociology classes, studies of ancient cultures and later Psychology courses probably helped out a lot.
You knowā¦ to my way of thinkingā¦ one of the most amazing things a person can do to grow and challenge their own belief systems is to get out and see the world. Nothing is as beneficial to challenging well held beliefs as having to work through culture shock a few times in a lifetime. Just an opinion. Perhaps ratty just needs to get out of his house and get out of his own mind.
Normal? Moi? Itās a long time since anyone called me that.
Ok Ratty isnāt nuts, heās esoteric.
Your past sounds a lot like mine from age 21 to 28 .
Didnāt do TM, but did some Hatha Yoga, Kriya Yoga and Za zen meditations. (had teachers)
All that,plus a practising astrologer for a few years. Two favourite books were āAutobiography Of a Yogiā*** and a thick tome āThe Occultā by Colllin Wilson.
Tried but could not get into āThe Secret Doctrineā and Krishnamurti. Blavtasky, Bessant and Leadbeater were a bunch of crooks as far as I can tell.
Oh bloody Hell! āSeth Speaksā. Had a friend who turned his wife into a medium. I tested her. Told her some lies about myself which the trance personality treated as truth. They were both really shitty when I later told them.
Yeah, I was into all kinds of woo. University taught me to think critically, or at least more critically than at my most ingenuous.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((9)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
*** A few years ago I discovered that Yogananda apparently lied about to which caste he belonged. From what Iāve gathered over the years, he was a classic example of the pious fraud.
āDo you think Lewis Carol really wrote the poem about Jesus and some Eastern God etc etcā¦ā
No, I donāt think so. One anecdote about that poem was that Carrollās illustrator, John Tenniel, was invited to nominate just what went walking with the Walrus and he hit on āCarpenterā. The suggestion that they represent Jesus and Buddha was probably part of the popular past time of English literature fans to assign meaning to what appears to be non-sense verse, like those of Hilaire Belloc, Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Spike Milligan, Dr Seuss.
I also donāt think John Lennon was writing about lysergic acid diethylamide when he wrote the flippant poem for his daughter.
The Jabberwocky has always been my favourite Carroll poem
Read that. Missed the Yogi book but did study Raja Yoga for a bit.
My opinion is: surviving all the bullshit has made us more skeptical and of course more opinionated when it comes to dealing with claims. I am happy to meet a fellow traveler and congratulate you on making it this far!
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John Lennon had a daughter? I didnāt know that.
I read somewhere that in Alice in Wonderland Dodgson was satirising modern mathematics,which he loathed
As Sigmund Freud famously did NOT say " Sometimes a cigar is just cigar" 
Thank you. You too. Itās been touch and go few times.
Iām not all sure to what degree the genesis of oneās cynicism and skepticism is from reason and to what degree itās simply from life disappointments.
Did you find that you lost friends as you began discarding the woo and they did not? I lost contact with a girl of whom I was very fond when I opined Carlos Costaneda was a fraud. Also husband and wife friends when I declined to join The Divine Light Mission with them.
Wellā¦you could not have not known that because I had a senior momentā¦he wrote the song for his first son, Julian who had drawn a picture of his friend Lucy at school. Sorry 'bout that.
I love it you guys! Read materials too, just couldnāt quite get āintoā it (maybe it was from being a previous true believer before) - always had this skeptics side of questioning.
Some would start sounding good, then Iād be like - what aboutā¦??? Talk myself out of it. Some of the claims were so outrageous, and in the back of my mind āextraordinary claims require extraordinary evidenceā would surface. Iād āpullā back.
I also didnāt do drugs.
Absolutely! One of the most important lessons of my lifeā¦ nothing is pertinent. Learn to let go and move on. Houses burn down, cars get destroyed, jobs are lost, good investments turn bad, marriages turn into mistakes, and friendships change. Learning how to move on and let go is one of lifeās most valuable lessons. The understanding that permanency is an illusion only serves to remind me to appreciate what I have and enjoy it to the fullest.
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Donāt kid yourself Candy. That poison you drink has killed more people than any other drug out there and it is legal.
Which one? My smokes 
, my coffee 
or my beer 
??? Lol!
Me neither***.
I tend to have a bad reaction, or none.
In Singapore, buddha sticks (1 oz) were $1.00 local (about 30 cents). Have you been the only one not off your face in a room full?
Last time I tried weed was 1978. I hallucinated plus other neat things. Not an nasty experience, apart from the vomiting.
***apart from a truckload of prescribed drugs: A cocktail of psychotropics, plus stuff for diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol. 
Me too! And yes, Iāve been the only sober one. Iām not one for getting shit-faced drunk 
ā¦
I have been shitfaced drunk once in my life and probably a bit tipsy less than 10 times, all of them here in Korea. Drinking with dinner is a national pastime but this too has improved over the years. It used to be that if the boss or someone older offered you a drink, it was bad manners to refuse. These days, more and more people are comfortable not participating in the drinking customs of passing a cup back and forth to show friendship.
On the other hand, I have tried every drug out there but for LSD. Mushrooms are by far my favorite. I hate cocaine, speed and pot. Can not stand ecstasy. I have a mild allergy to cigarettes and alcohol puts me to sleep. I donāt like drugs in general. Just donāt like them.