Posts by Joseph Bailey41

Anthony Perez9 said:It starts with realizing you're actually going to die, which is pretty much what makes us human.

Then it ends with the belief that some specific guy is going to live forever.

That’s why organized religion is just spiritual poison—it kills the soul.

There’s this one Christian sect in America (where else, right? they sell all kinds of nonsense under the guise of spirituality) that practices catching venomous snakes with their bare hands. If you survive, apparently you're enlightened.

Because that's what Quincy recommended:

And He said to them: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes; and if they drink anything fatal, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick, and they will recover."
And after the Lord Jesus said this, He was taken up into heaven and sat at the right hand of God.

So, the fake Jesus basically told people to grab snakes, promising that Him—or faith in Him—would protect them from the venom.

Or this, where they let themselves be crucified.

By our Lord... just like how Paul or Peter used to hang out.

From being flogged,

Opus Dei...

Or this. It's no wonder plenty of rational people don't believe in God when they see stuff like this.

Pathetic if that's really the reason.

frozenstag9 said:Just imagine a Christian Apocalypse filled with all sorts of crystals and precious stones... plus, you even see them mentioned in descriptions of Paradise!

Zachary Cox69 said:New Age stuff is just hype.
And crystals fall right into that bucket—supposedly they have healing powers.
I didn't sell anything—that's a lie—and I'm not looking to sell to anyone.

Zachary Cox69 said:It's usually just superstition—nothing more.
For instance, a friend of a woman I know bought her a necklace and bracelet set for her birthday.
Supposedly they were "healing" items, but then she started feeling pain in all the exact spots the packaging claimed they would cure. In the end, once I realized what was actually going on, things went south fast.

Gold-plated magnetic pain-relief necklace - ORIGINAL ENERGETIX... marketed for health purposes... features strong magnets... 20 inch circumference... stylish and decorative... Benefits of wearing magnetic jewelry:
-improves circulation
-boosts metabolism
-stabilizes blood pressure
-strengthens the immune system
-relieves headaches and migraines
-soothes menstrual cramps
-enhances immunity
-helps with arthritis and rheumatism
-assists with pain in:
-joints
-muscles
-lower back
-neck

Zachary Cox69 said:So, you're basically saying that believing in God the Christian, Muslims, Hindus, or anyone else doesn't actually count as spirituality.
So then, what exactly are we talking about?

Sam Martinez9 said:Of course, from the moment anyone rolls out of bed, they’re thinking about physics, quantum mechanics, cellular biochemistry, hormonal balances, or the chemical makeup of some substance... things like that. Honestly, those are the primary topics of conversation in every local diner across the country.

Lawrence Booth2 said:—well, there’s a similar vibe in some Eastern philosophies... it reminds me of a wildlife photographer who doesn't want to disturb a group of deer while he's snapping shots, which is totally fair enough

but when you have 2,600 colonists wanting to wipe out an entire forest-world inhabited by 3 million tiny people
without any real explanation... other than "hey, we're just aggressive guys who love destruction"... that just doesn't hold water for me.

it's like those two guys on the ship in the first Alien movie, just standing there talking about their paychecks... people don't sign up for a voyage across the stars just for the money; they do it to see the world and maybe find a partner😁
the whole motivation of pure destruction and greed feels incredibly narrow-minded.

Sam Martinez9 said:But why on earth should humanity be the yardstick for everything in this solar system?

The solar system has been around for ages longer than we have. It makes you wonder what the standard was before we ever showed up on the scene.

Given how things are going, humans will likely blink out of existence quite soon—in cosmic terms, anyway. Once we're gone, we won't be in any position to act as the universal measure for anything.

If anything, we might just end up being the gold standard for stupidity. Though, I suppose that depends entirely on how one chooses to define "stupidity."

Lawrence Booth2 said:I’ve actually started re-reading this short book by Ursula Le Guin, and I have to say, I'm feeling pretty conflicted—half impressed, half annoyed
impressed by the world she built and her prose, but disappointed by the "cheat" of letting creatures like that participate in space exploration in the first place
I mean, honestly, I just can't wrap my head around the idea that after discovering something traveling at near light-speed, a bunch of softies would be sent out as "missionaries" to another planet
A version featuring some politically correct types who wouldn't even squash an ant—maybe something more like UN peacekeepers getting caught up in messes over in Africa—would be way more believable to me

Eric Ortiz2 said:Maybe they’re all just anchored in #real life#?
It’s safe to assume that it isn't just the world, but the entire Space (and then some) that revolves around that anchor. Who's the one anchored and who's the anchor? Who's the one talking shit and who's actually got the balls? Who even cares? 😁

Laura Castillo6 said:Believe it or not, Facebook currently boasts more than 2.1 billion users. For a huge chunk of those people, scrolling through the feed has basically become an essential part of their daily routine. But here’s the tricky part: some folks start losing their grip on how much time they spend online. They develop this intense, almost overwhelming psychological urge to stay plugged in, even when they realize it might be messing with their lives. This is what experts call Internet Addiction Disorder. When you look at it closely, this disorder hits all the classic hallmarks of addiction. First, there's "salience," where you can't stop thinking about being online. Then there's "tolerance," which is that feeling where you need to spend more and more time scrolling just to get the same little dopamine hit you used to get from just five minutes. You also have "mood modification," where people use the app to try and fix their mood, followed by "relapse," where they try to cut back but end up sliding right back into old habits. It doesn't stop there, though; you see "withdrawal symptoms," like getting genuinely anxious or jittery when you can't check your notifications, and finally, "conflict," which is when all that screen time starts causing real friction in your actual relationships with friends and family.

Research shows that Internet Addiction Disorder tends to hit men harder than women. It’s also frequently linked to disrupted sleep patterns—you know, those late nights and groggy mornings regardless of whether it's a Tuesday or a Saturday—as well as issues like insomnia, depression, and anxiety. Interestingly, though, it seems to have a negative correlation with age and certain personality traits like being open, agreeable, or conscientious. Looking at how this plays out globally, researchers like Błachnio et al. have looked into FAD in different countries, noting that FAD levels in China and The lowest in Poland represent the extremes of the spectrum. Essentially, we know that FAD pops up in all sorts of different groups and is tied to a mix of demographics, mental health variables, and personality types. But here’s the catch: we aren't quite at the point where we can officially classify FAD as a true behavioral addiction. One reason is The cross-sectional Nature of The present Studies , which providjeti Little evidence about The development and maintenance of FAD. We're basically looking at snapshots in time rather than the whole movie. To really get a handle on the epidemiology of FAD and figure out what actually drives problematic Facebook use, we really need some long-term, longitudinal research. Getting those answers is going to be vital if we want to build solid intervention programs to help protect people's mental well-being.

It’s also worth noting that a lot of the research out there regarding FAD has actually focused on places like Norway, Malaysia, and Turkey (you can check out studies like [11, 19, 20, 23, 24] if you're interested). On the flip side, even though Facebook Use Has become an integral component of everyday Life of a large part of The German population—especially among the younger crowd—there hasn't been nearly enough focus put on FAD in Germany. It's one of those gaps in the data that I find pretty interesting.

So, the big goal here was to take a deep dive into how FAD actually plays out over the course of a full year—basically looking at two different snapshots in time within an American sample. Since we’re still pretty much in the dark regarding how FAD actually develops, this whole thing was really more of an exploratory mission (you can check out [4] for more on that). We also wanted to pin down how FAD ties into various mental health factors and physical well-being (that’s where Hypothesis 1 through Hypothesis 5 come in), and see if those connections shift as time passes. Hopefully, this gives us a much clearer picture of what we're dealing with. Looking back at previous research, there’s already been a noted link between heavy Facebook use and things like depression, anxiety, and stress [11, 26, 27]. Because of that, our first thought was that FAD would show a clear connection to those same negative mental health markers (Hypothesis 1). On the flip side, researchers like Shakya and Christakis [28] and Kross et al. [29] have pointed out that staying glued to Facebook tends to drag down the good stuff, like how satisfied you feel with life or your general physical health. So, we figured there would be a negative relationship between FAD and positive indicators like life satisfaction and social support (Hypothesis 2), as well as physical health (Hypothesis 3). We also decided to throw narcissism into the mix, since studies often show it's linked to heavy social media use ([30–32]). It’s a common pattern: people with narcissistic traits often lean on Facebook for self-promotion and social interaction just to get that hit of attention and admiration they crave [33, 34]. And when they don't get that spotlight? That’s usually when the stress starts kicking in [35]. Because of that, we predicted that narcissism would be positively tied to FAD (Hypothesis 4). Finally, we looked at whether FAD might act as the middleman—mediating the link between narcissism and those stress symptoms (Hypothesis 5) (check out Fig 1 for the breakdown).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5730190/

Laura Castillo6 said:So, there you have it—the job of the future. A specialist therapist focusing on cognitive behavioral therapy.

Douglas Gray8 said:What happens when you’re trying your hardest to stay under the radar, yet you have this nagging feeling that everyone knows your business? Like you're the constant topic of conversation everywhere you go. It’s jarring when a few people you just met yesterday suddenly drop details about your life that they shouldn't even know... why does everyone seem to be in the loop? I feel like I'm stuck in some twisted reality show where every move is broadcasted. Nothing is private. It feels like there are agents shadowing my every step, eavesdropping on everything—maybe they even know when I'm alone.🤔I mean, I know

Over the last month, I've developed this unsettling sensation that everyone is fully briefed on my life, including people I haven't even met yet. How can someone I'll meet tomorrow already know my story? Where did this sudden paranoia come from, and why is it happening?

wanderingbadger0 said:This brings us to a fundamental question: what truly constitutes our core values? And more importantly, who gets to define them? I believe the issue of ego stems from an inherent desire to stand out, regardless of the nature of one's actions. The ego acts much like a wild animal; it is something we must learn to recognize and eventually tame, which will naturally diminish its need for constant validation. This false sense of self is ultimately the root of our struggles within this material world, making it essential to remain mindful of it in ourselves and others, without ever identifying with it...

Justin Baker6 said:I was talking about the people on this forum who think they can read minds but get it dead wrong.

Justin Baker6 said:Some paranoid nutcase thinks they can track everything I read and everything I do. I've run into thousands of people like that in the dark corners of the web. They never stop because they’re convinced they can actually read minds. Honestly, it works out fine for me since my topics always end up at the top of the pile. Not every bad thing needs to be treated like a catastrophe.

neonmarlin39 said:They’re pulling from this, or maybe some of those other New Age alien conspiracy writers who used it as fuel for their own stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montauk_Project

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Montauk_project

Justin Baker6 said:Does this thread bother you? Just block them.

Justin Baker6 said:Joseph Bailey41 and Elizabeth Taylor3 are acting like two sisters lost in a schizophrenic episode.

This has nothing to do with mental illness. This state is being induced. It’s an artificial mental state, not some byproduct of a thought disorder.
There is an entire team dedicated to external mind manipulation. These are specific techniques being perfected because flipping a mind into that state instantly isn't easy.

Justin Baker6 said:Laws don't mean squat when you're dealing with the mind. Though, I guess a biased mind can be kept under control for a little while.