Illuminati en freemasons in de nederlandse dance

Our ideas of brain and human nature are myths


In control? Think again. Our ideas of brain and human nature are myths

By Madeleine Bunting


The notion of individual autonomy underpins our society, yet new research suggests this guiding principle is an illusion

It was browsing in a bookshop that got me started. I was confronted by a bank of bestsellers on the brain: how it works and how we think. There were the books which have attracted huge attention, such as Nudge and Blink, but there were others popularising the new insights of a range of academic disciplines – social sciences such as evolutionary psychology as well as neuroscience – which are radically challenging the most fundamental assumptions on which human beings operate.

Perhaps that sounds a little overblown, but it's not. Who, dear reader, do you think you are? Do you think your mind is capable of independent judgment and largely directs the course of your life? Do you think that most of your decisions in life have been the product of your rational, conscious self? Do you believe you are in control of your life? Do you cherish ideas such as self-expression, a sense of autonomy and a distinct, self-authored identity? The chances are that, albeit with a few qualifications, most of your answers are yes. Indeed, given a pervasive culture which reinforces all these ideas, it would be a bit odd if you didn't.

But the point about this new explosion of interest in research into our brains is that it exposes as illusions much of these guiding principles of what it is to be a mature adult. They are a profound misunderstanding of how we think, and how our brains work. They are fairytales, about as fanciful and as implausible as goblins.

This is such dramatic stuff that Matthew Taylor at the Royal Society of Arts, which has pioneered public engagement with this new research, argues that we are on the verge of a new Enlightenment. He argues that the 18th-century concept of the individual self has run its course and that a new paradigm of human nature is emerging. Given that assumptions of an autonomous individual underpin every aspect of how we order society and our political economy, educate and tackle social issues, this kind of Big Idea tends to make you feel a tad dizzy.

It's not an accident that many of the biggest bestsellers in this territory are about decision-making – Blink, Nudge and The Decisive Moment. The image which comes to mind is that they are all sticks of dynamite dug in to explode the great sacred mythology of our time: namely that individual freedom is about having choices, and that progress is about the constant expansion of those choices.

Read these books and you discover that people are useless at making choices. We are lazy, imitative, over-optimistic, myopic, and much of our decision-making is made by unconscious habits of the mind which are largely socially primed. We are "not exactly lemmings, but we are easily influenced by the statements and deeds of others", according to Nudge's bleak view of human nature.

The thesis of Nudge which has attracted such keen interest from the Conservatives is that this information can be used to prime better decisions without compromising freedom of choice. Nudge has appeared to offer a neat alternative to state intervention for all those intractable areas of private behaviour – from obesity and smoking to energy use and recycling – which have such damaging consequences. It's intriguing how much attention the thesis has attracted from many parts of the political establishment, such as policymakers in pensions, health and the environment, because often the gains from nudging seem pretty small – it is fanciful to think it can solve the environmental crisis.

This humbling evidence of our hopeless decision-making exposes consumer capitalism as not being about millions of independent decisions of individuals expressing unique identities, but about how social norms can be manipulated to create eager shoppers. Or take the idea of introducing choice into public services; some bizarre consequences will result, such as the popularity of a hospital being determined by whether it has a car park, not the skill of medical staff.

There are two other areas of this new brain research which are arguably more important. First, we have much underestimated the social nature of the brain: how primed it is to recognise, interpret and respond all the time to the input of others and how that lays down patterns which govern our behaviour. We are herd-like animals who show a strong tendency to conform with group norms; what makes our brains so much bigger than other primates is this remarkable capacity for social skills such as empathy, co-operation and fairness. Instead of the old metaphor of individuals as discrete entities like billiard balls, we need to think instead of them as nodes in a relationship network.

The second area of astonishing discoveries is in the plasticity of the brain. We talk of "hardwiring" (computers have generated many misleading metaphors for the brain) but in fact, the brain can be changed. Parts of the brain can learn entirely new tricks. Neural pathways are not fixed, and even much of the damage done by deprivation in childhood can be repaired with the right circumstances of example, support and determination. We can shape our own brains to create new habits that we might have thought we were not capable of – it's a long, hard process but it is possible.

This all may seem remote from politics, but it's not. Jon Cruddas has a habit of startling audiences by arguing that the regeneration of the left requires a convincing new account of what it is to be human. Are human beings self-interested creatures or are they collaborative? The right's argument for market capitalism is rooted in the former but the research on the social brain supports the latter. Put crudely, we are social creatures with an inbuilt tendency to co-operate and seek out each other's approval and that is probably more important in determining day-to-day behaviours than narrowly conceived self-interest.

In a thought-provoking pamphlet on the implications for politics to be published early next month, Matt Grist, who runs the RSA's Social Brain project, concludes that both the right and the left have lessons to learn. The rightwing emphasis on the individual's capacity to triumph over their environment through willpower is undermined by the research which shows how childhood deprivation leaves such scarring on the brain. While the challenge to the left is to recognise that the myopic tendencies of the brain to privilege the short term has been held in check by institutions and traditions which can safeguard longer-term interests. Perhaps that requires greater understanding on the left of how such institutions operate and a revision of assumptions about why they restrict individual autonomy.

To add one more element to this potent brew of extraordinary ideas: what has been left out of the UK debate so far is how much of this new research maps on to Buddhism. In the US, a group of researchers has been involved in an ongoing dialogue with the Dalai Lama to deepen understanding of the correlations between the new research and Buddhism. Here is a system of thought which has maintained for several thousand years that the idea of a separate individual self is an illusion, which urges a set of practices to increase awareness of the processes of the mind in order to transform them and cultivate ethical habits such as compassion or courage.

Apologies if by now you are feeling giddy. This is the kind of stuff which challenges almost everything you're used to thinking about yourself.

Source: guardian.co.uk

Occult Symbolism : Saturn Worship

May 25th, 2009 | By Vigilant | Category: Vigilant Reports

You might not know it, but the entire world has been worshiping Saturn for thousands of years. The cult has never stopped and its rites are still present to this day. Saturn, dubbed the “Lord of the Rings”, is the reason why we exchange rings at weddings or put halos on the heads of godly people. This article exposes the attributes of the god Saturn and the perpetuation of his cult through in pop culture.




Since ancient times, sages gazed at the stars, admiring their heavenly glow and attributing them godly powers, based on their effect on humans. Before the Great Flood, Saturn was regarded by all mankind as the supreme god and ruler of the kings. Occult researchers affirm that Saturn ruled the kingdom of Atlantis and became the divine ancestor of all earthly patriarchs and kings. The cult has been perpetuated through numerous gods during Antiquity:

“Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all connected with ‘a great Saturnian continent;’ they were kings that ruled over countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and Spain. ”
Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations

In Egyptian mythology Isis is considered Saturn’s eldest daughter:

“I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest daughter of Saturn, most ancient of the Gods”


Saturn in Semitic Civilizations
Semitic civilizations referred to the god Saturn as “El”. The supreme deity was represented by a black cube. We can find instances of the cube across the world.




Black Cube in Santa Ana


Will be part of Apple’s 24/7 store in NYC

Manhattan, NYC

Denmark

Australia

The Kabaa was worshiped thousands of years before the advent of Islam

This black cube is a remnant of the ancient worship of El. Maybe Jews and Muslims have more in common than they think…Ancient Hebrews represented Saturn with the six pointed star, which later became the Star of David (it also had many other esoteric meanings..Mer-Ka-Ba). The symbol is still found on Israel’s flag.


Many esoteric researchers affirm that the name Is-Ra-El is the combination of the names of ancient pagan deities Isis, Ra and El.
Saturn in Western Civilizations
The Greeks and the Romans also worshiped Saturn as a cruel deity. Here’s a brief summary of the mythology of Saturn in the western world:

“With the deposing of his father, Saturn became the ruler of the Universe for untold ages and he reigned with his sister, Ops, who also became his wife.It was prophesied that one day Saturn would lose power when one of his children would depose him. To prevent this from happening, each time Ops delivered a child Saturn would immediately swallow it. When her sixth child, Jupiter(Zeus), was born, Ops had him spirited away to the island of Crete. She then wrapped a stone in his swaddling clothes. Her deception was complete when Saturn swallowed it, thinking it was the child. When Jupiter was grown, he secured the job of cup-bearer to his father. With the help of Gaia, his grandmother, Jupiter fed his father a potion that caused him to vomit up Jupiter’s five siblings, Vesta (Hestia), Ceres (Demeter), Juno (Hera), Pluto (Hades), and Neptune (Poseidon).”
-Wikipedia, Saturn (mythology)


Saturn devouring one of his children by Peter Paul RubensSaturn always had a negative, if not evil significance. In ancient times, it has been called “The Greater Malefic” which was opposed to Jupiter, “The Greater Benefic”. Saturn is esoterically associated with man’s limitations, restrictions, death and decay. His Greek name was “Kronos”, the ruler of time, time being the main factore inevitably leading to the death of mortals.Traditional representations of the “grim reaper” originate from the attributes of the god Saturn, who held the sickle with which he slain his father.




“To the initiate, the skeleton of death holding in bony fingers the reaper’s scythe denotes Saturn (Kronos), the father of the gods, carrying the sickle with which he mutilated his own sire.” Saturn and Satan
Saturn has also been associated with Satan and this, for numerous reasons. First, many authors argue that the word Satan is derived from the word Saturn. Second, Saturn is associated with the color black as well as Satan. Third, Ancients considered Saturn to be the farthest planet from the sun , the latter being associated with the principle of Good. (Note that Pluto never was considered a planet). Saturn is consequently the celestial body that is the less exposed to the sun’s divine light and thus associated with the coldness of the principle of Evil. Finally, the “great god Pan”, the horned deity, represented Saturn in ancient paganism. This half-man half-goat creature is considered the ancestor of our modern depictions of Satan.



“Pan was a composite creature, the upper part–with the exception of his horns–being human, and the lower part in the form of a goat. (…)The pipes of Pan signify the natural harmony of the spheres, and the god himself is a symbol of Saturn because this planet is enthroned in Capricorn, whose emblem is a goat” -Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All AgesSo Pan was depicted with horns due to the fact it represented Saturn, the ruler of the house of Capricorn which symbol is a goat:


Capricorn - symbol of the Goat rising from the body of a fish


Pan was the controlling spirit of the lower worlds. He was portrayed roaming through the forests, penis erect, drunk and lascivious, frolicking with nymphs and piping his way through the wild. We might say he ruled the lower nature of man, its animal side, not unlike Satan.

Despite acknowledging its association with Evil, secret societies find the veneration of Saturn necessary to obtain illumination. It is the necessary counterpart of the principle of Good. Masonic authors clearly associate Saturn with Satan:

“Saturn is the opposite to Jupiter; his symbol is the cross above the sign of Luna ( ). He is the Satan, the Tempter, or rather the Tester. His function is to chastise and tame the unruly passions in the primitive man.”
-J.S. Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods

Probably the most extreme example of a secret society worshiping Saturn’s Evil principle is the “Fraternitas Saturni”. This occult organization is based in Germany and openly embodies the hidden side of Saturn worship.

“The Fraternitas Saturni (FS), the Brotherhood of Saturn, has become known to English readers through fragmentary descriptions which emphasize the sensational, sex-magical aspects of this lodge’s work or else its darker, more Satanic, side.This is understandable in light of the fact that the FS is (or was) the most unabashedly Luciferian organization in the modern Western occult revival, and its practice of sexual occultism perhaps the most elaborately detailed of any such lodge. The FS represents a unique blend of astrological cosmology, neo-Gnostic daemonology, sexual occultism, and Freemasonic organizational principles. This grand synthesis was originally the vision of one man, the long-time Grand Master of the FS, Gregor A. Gregorius.”
-Stephen E. Flowers, Fire & Ice: The History, Structure, and Rituals of Germany’s Most Influential Modern Magical Order: The Brotherhood of Saturn




To Conclude
This article presented SOME of the ways humanity represented Saturn through the ages. The great amount of symbols associated with this obscure deity only emphasize its importance in human history. The advent of the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam confined the worship of Saturn to occult circles. As we saw here, the Lord of the Rings is still omnipresent in popular culture but only recognized by those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.


Source: jordanmaxwell.com