Re: virus: Belief and Knowledge (was: The truth about faith)

Keith Holmes (kholmes1@ibm.net)
Tue, 8 Jul 1997 20:44:15 GMT


At 09:50 AM 7/8/97 -0700, Tim Rhodes wrote:
>
>
>
>On Mon, 7 Jul 1997, Keith Holmes wrote:
>
>> There are many methods of inducing certain pleasing states (emotional,
>> psychological, whatever) in ourselves, music most certainly included. Are
>> you suggesting that the Tibetans are creating a doorway into another
>> dimension, i.e., some type of spiritual or supernatural experience which
>> cannot be accounted for physically and not explained by a knowledge of our
>> own bodies, nervous system, brains, etc.?
>
>No. But "accounting for" and "understanding" are to different fields. I
>know several art historians that can describe a painting marvelously, but
>that can't paint worth a damn.

What a relief! I was hoping I had misunderstood.

>> If so, put me on the incredulous list also. If not, please help me
>> understand why you are referring to this as "mastering the non-physical
>> world."
>
>The "mastering the non-physical world" quote that some people have such
>trouble with came from the program to a performance event, they are not my
>words or the terms I would use.

Fair enough. What terms would you use? There may be more common ground here
than I had thought.

>But to illustrate the point, are memes a part of the physical world?
>(this isn't as easy a question to answer as you may think)

Yes, they are. But I think I'm confused again. Seemed like an easy question
to answer, but your suggestion it is not causes more questions. Such as, if
memes don't exist in the physical world, what world do they exist in? Is a
memory, a dream or a thought part of the physical world? Whatever memes are,
they reside in bodies. Similar (even exact?) memes may exist in other
bodies, but take away the body and - poof! - no meme.

Maybe I'm just not bright enough to catch on yet. :)

>-Prof. Tim

Keith Holmes