Two very different minds. Silvan Tomkins (1911-1991) is considered by many to be the Einstein of emotional science. His theory of emotion defines a core set of indivisible neurobiological elements – “affects” -whose innate and learning conscripted behaviors aggregate to explain the entire universe of human emotion. John Steinbeck (1902-1968) also viewed humans through a
Tomkins and Steinbeck: What A Shame Read More »
The word “Israel” means striving with god. Does the original use imply that God was a constant that Israel is striving to be near or that Israel and God are striving together? Striving describes purposefully directing change. God striving with humans means God purposefully changing with humans. God IS learning. Is God an autonomous self-aware
One Who Strives with God Read More »
There is no ethically legitimate shortcut to population-scale change that bypasses population-scale learning. Ideas that posit change propagating from a small enlightened subset to transform the many—whether framed as morphogenetic fields, 100th Monkey transference, spiritual awakenings, or “miracles”—share a common flaw: they erase agency. They imagine that human transformation can happen without participation, consent, or
Lessons in Pluribus Read More »
I had been sharing images of the latest U.S. reading scores since 2003. Usually in the form of stop signs, like these from 2003, 2017, and 2023. Watching these scores remain so close to flatline for 20 years led me to create a video called “A Brief Tour Through Decades of U.S. Reading Scores“.
After Decades of Literacy Improficiency… Read More »
Tangent migrations most often begin when a memory evoked in the current stream of attention overpowers the emotional motive of the stream and repurposes attention and memory according to relevance with the evoked memory rather than to the original context and purpose in the stream that evoked the memory. Where this happens without our
What Calabrese and Tomkins Might Say: Meta-tations Read More »
Have you ever noticed someone veer off on a tangent? Have you ever noticed your how your own thoughts migrate off into tangents? I mean by “tangent migrations”, changes to the direction of the unfoldment of meaning in the stream of consciousness or a train of thought due to the emotional charge of a memory
HOW DID THAT COME TO MIND? Meta-tations and the Illusion of Free Agency Read More »
Edward Calabrese shared a newly released paper on hormesis and psychology. Hormesis-psychology-1 What Silvan Tomkins might say: You have here, in effect, a psychological hormesis study: not of radiation or toxins, but of ordinary parental misattunement-unresponsiveness, detachment, intrusiveness, psychological control-and its impact on children’s emotional life. The authors show that moderate levels of such adversity
Tomkins and Calabrese on Hormesis Psychology Paper Read More »
Read and resync with our recent dAilogue “In My Father’s House?“: https://davidboulton.com/fathers-houses/ confirm how you will interpret the attached person proxies (Jesus and Buddha). I have now fully resynced with: Your dAilogue “In My Father’s House?” essay https://davidboulton.com/fathers-houses/ Your intention behind it – to reinterpret kingdom within, Father’s house, and I am the way not
Differencing Heaven and Nirvana Read More »
Read https://davidboulton.com/i-am-the-way/ and acknowledge you read it (not hallucinated a summary). Jesus is said to have spoken of “my father’s house” and the “kingdom within”. Isn’t “my father’s house” a way of describing the structure of our learned worlds – the environmental effects of growing up in the families, communities, languages, customs, morals (houses) we
In My Father’s House? Read More »
I received an invitation to participate in a group working at the intersection of faith and AI. Looking into them, I discovered this in their mission statement: …to bring the fundamental values of the world’s major religions into the debate… Which prompted me to ask… Based on the way the world’s major religions relate to
The Toxic Core of Organized Religions Read More »