I am removing the content of this post and apologizing for posting it.

[saras]

61. So do I, actually. But my point is that none of us do yet...que sera, sera

When we got enough language to create societies, we didn't magically get 'just enough', nor did we gradually evolve up to enough - if either were the case we wouldn't have poetry. We got a big chunk of "linguistic" ability when something shifted genetically, and although that got slightly optimized, mostly it gave us far more ability than we needed for human survival. You can be pretty limited linguistically compared to the most capable, and still be a completely passable member of society. But there is a minimum - a fairly large chunk of linguistic capacity that you have to have to be a functioning social human.

I tend to define "spiritual" stuff neurologically, so keep that in mind. Spiritual capacities (whatever the "God spot" actually DOES do for us, and what it might be capable of doing if we consciously developed its various capacities the way we educate ourselves in other areas) seem to be much less necessary for survival - perhaps some minimum is necessary to keep us from drifting too far into self-destructive Darwinian competition or psychopathy. If it isn't necessary, then it can drift towards nonexistence. If it's necessary as a component of some personalities but not others, the evolutionary picture gets hairy, especially as people don't go out of their way to choose gametes for competitive advantage.

So if people start DEVELOPING these capacities, to the extent where a group of people can develop a common set of experiences and language, you have the possibility of a really wide variety of experiences, which we mostly ignore and otherwise let some of the craziest religious people play with unsupervised. I've had a load of wonderful experiences with others, a hellacious collection of really weird ones myself, and I've heard of more bizarre shit than anywhere else but the Internet.

I don't think that religion is the only activity that uses these capacities by any means, but capitalism has pretty much displaced people doing group mind for fun anywhere else.

as far as what kind of spiritual experience is available out there, there's mostly fast food, a few nicer restaurants in odd parts of town, but not very many of these:

During this conversation, the news was spread that two Viziers and the Mufti had been strangled at Constantinople, and that several of their friends had been impaled. This catastrophe made a great noise for some hours. Pangloss, Candide, and Martin, returning to the little farm, saw a good old man taking the fresh air at his door under an orange bower. Pangloss, who was as inquisitive as he was argumentative, asked the old man what was the name of the strangled Mufti.

"I do not know," answered the worthy man, "and I have not known the name of any Mufti, nor of any Vizier. I am entirely ignorant of the event you mention; I presume in general that they who meddle with the administration of public affairs die sometimes miserably, and that they deserve it; but I never trouble my head about what is transacting at Constantinople; I content myself with sending there for sale the fruits of the garden which I cultivate."

Having said these words, he invited the strangers into his house; his two sons and two daughters presented them with several sorts of sherbet, which they made themselves, with Kaimak enriched with the candied-peel of citrons, with oranges, lemons, pine-apples, pistachio-nuts, and Mocha coffee unadulterated with the bad coffee of Batavia or the American islands. After which the two daughters of the honest Mussulman perfumed the strangers' beards.

"You must have a vast and magnificent estate," said Candide to the Turk.

"I have only twenty acres," replied the old man; "I and my children cultivate them; our labour preserves us from three great evils—weariness, vice, and want."

Voltaire, Candide

Crispin Glover reading from Oak-Mot is REALLY distracting... my head is falling off...