Monday, 30 March 2015
Helping
The best forms of therapy, in my opinion, are the ones where the clients are enabled to have most of the revelations themselves, rather than deferring to the insight of the practitioner for "wow"ing.
From someone who follows my work:
"I am honored to be a husband and the father of two wonderful girls, ages 14 & 4. I work full time while my wife works part-time and grows an online business. We really like your work. Your interview with Bonnie Harris has changed our lives. Thank you! "
Get my FREE CD on improving communication skills: https://beyourselfandloveit.leadpages.co/ultimate-communication-power/
Thursday, 12 March 2015
A Touching Testimonial
"I'm very grateful for how things turned out last night. I absolutely enjoyed the conversation and I felt a very strong connection. It amazing to think about that I have known people for decades, and never even been close to anything like this with them.
I also enjoyed going outside, and looking at the stars. It was a great thing to do, which I will certainly remember. Anyway, I would love to talk to you more, and I see it as a great investment.
I`ll initiate the payment now, so please let me know when you have received the payment.
Also, I will be going on a weekend trip leaving tomorrow so I wont be available for another session until next week.
Looking forward to talk to you soon.
And, thanks a lot for your help Antony."
I also enjoyed going outside, and looking at the stars. It was a great thing to do, which I will certainly remember. Anyway, I would love to talk to you more, and I see it as a great investment.
I`ll initiate the payment now, so please let me know when you have received the payment.
Also, I will be going on a weekend trip leaving tomorrow so I wont be available for another session until next week.
Looking forward to talk to you soon.
And, thanks a lot for your help Antony."
Monday, 9 March 2015
Avoiding Unpleasant Emotions
If you are always trying to avoid unpleasant emotions you will not be an honest person and you will probably not create anything fantastic either. Face up to your anxiety and deal with it now - make it fun! This is what you have to do now if you want to have a fulfilling life in the now to come.
Robin Balsiger: 'How do you mean "Make it fun"? Isn't that just another way of not really facing up to it and trying to make it into something else, because you wanna avoid the unpleasentness?'
hmmm interesting what I mean is get into the spirit of the challenge , and see looking at your anxiety as part of an adventure of self knowledge. Sometimes when you do great things there are difficulties, but part of what makes those things so great is that the difficulties sharpened you for the challenge. Something like that, it's hard for me to put clearly. Great question!
Saturday, 7 March 2015
My Vulgar Hatred of The '90s
I was glad to hear that I am not the only person I know who hates the 90s.
I don't know what I find more annoying about the pop music of the 90s, the fact that they constantly shat out lyrics that would be insulting to the intelligence of even the ditzy 14 year old girls that bought it, cases in point:
The 2000s was definitely better. People who played their own instruments dominated the charts even if it was boy-band-metal such as Linkin Park or pop punk stars such as Sum 41 and Bowling for Soup.
At least the 2010s risque and unashamedly id, hedonistic and indulgent (Gaga, Kesha, Nicky Minaj, et al.) All right, most of the pop music of our era it is a bag of balls, but at least it isn't the "oh we are so nice and innocent and sweet, and completely asexual" which was the staple of the 90s, and of course, completely disingenuous. There was nothing more satisfying than when these good little boys and girls were exposed for taking recreational drugs at parties or behaving indecently. It broke the façade.
Much of the disco music of the 90s was simply 70s disco music less the typically well arranged horn and string elements, or 80s disco music less the variety of synth or which was by this point considered "cheesy." We also said goodbye to the overblown rockist power-ballad with attendant guitar solo in pop, also to be considered mawkish and dated. I remember remarking once that M People's single One Night sounded remarkably 70s, only later to discover that it bore a striking resemblance to 1975 number Highwire by Linda Carr and The Love Squad. Likewise One For Sorrow, a track by an innately disposable and all but forgotten 90s band, Steps, is a dead ringer for The Winner Takes It All by Abba.
Of course was a lot of great music in the 90s outside of the charts, although I have thought compared to 60s and 70s and to a lesser degree 80s it was on "The Downward Spiral." For each Nine Inch Nails there were a dozen Stabbing Westwards, for each Nirvana there were six hundred Silverchairs, a thousand clone bands who tried and failed to carry the movement forwards by replicating the sound of what they liked. For each Alanis Morisette or Cheryl Crow a thousand chart-topping acoustic acts have to have been forgotten in time, and you really have to shake your head in dismay.
I don't really listen to contemporary rock so I don't know what it going on with it, but nothing I have heard so far has really grabbed my attention so maybe I have simply stopped paying attention. The crucial difference is, thanks to the advent of the internet, I can listen to virtually anything I like the sound of, from anywhere in the world, at any time - and from any time. Regardless of whether you happen love or hate the music of the 90s, you have one distinct advantage over your 1990s counter-part (or former self.) You can always get access to whatever music floats your boat!
I don't know what I find more annoying about the pop music of the 90s, the fact that they constantly shat out lyrics that would be insulting to the intelligence of even the ditzy 14 year old girls that bought it, cases in point:
- "oh baby you're so fine, I'm gonna make you mine, your lips they taste so sweet,"
- "you are my fire, the one desire, believe when I say, I want it that way,"
- "you drive me crazy, I just can't sleep, I'm so excited, I'm in too deep, crazy, but it feels alright, baby thinking of you keeps me up all night"
- and etc. ad infinitum.
The 2000s was definitely better. People who played their own instruments dominated the charts even if it was boy-band-metal such as Linkin Park or pop punk stars such as Sum 41 and Bowling for Soup.
At least the 2010s risque and unashamedly id, hedonistic and indulgent (Gaga, Kesha, Nicky Minaj, et al.) All right, most of the pop music of our era it is a bag of balls, but at least it isn't the "oh we are so nice and innocent and sweet, and completely asexual" which was the staple of the 90s, and of course, completely disingenuous. There was nothing more satisfying than when these good little boys and girls were exposed for taking recreational drugs at parties or behaving indecently. It broke the façade.
Much of the disco music of the 90s was simply 70s disco music less the typically well arranged horn and string elements, or 80s disco music less the variety of synth or which was by this point considered "cheesy." We also said goodbye to the overblown rockist power-ballad with attendant guitar solo in pop, also to be considered mawkish and dated. I remember remarking once that M People's single One Night sounded remarkably 70s, only later to discover that it bore a striking resemblance to 1975 number Highwire by Linda Carr and The Love Squad. Likewise One For Sorrow, a track by an innately disposable and all but forgotten 90s band, Steps, is a dead ringer for The Winner Takes It All by Abba.
Of course was a lot of great music in the 90s outside of the charts, although I have thought compared to 60s and 70s and to a lesser degree 80s it was on "The Downward Spiral." For each Nine Inch Nails there were a dozen Stabbing Westwards, for each Nirvana there were six hundred Silverchairs, a thousand clone bands who tried and failed to carry the movement forwards by replicating the sound of what they liked. For each Alanis Morisette or Cheryl Crow a thousand chart-topping acoustic acts have to have been forgotten in time, and you really have to shake your head in dismay.
I don't really listen to contemporary rock so I don't know what it going on with it, but nothing I have heard so far has really grabbed my attention so maybe I have simply stopped paying attention. The crucial difference is, thanks to the advent of the internet, I can listen to virtually anything I like the sound of, from anywhere in the world, at any time - and from any time. Regardless of whether you happen love or hate the music of the 90s, you have one distinct advantage over your 1990s counter-part (or former self.) You can always get access to whatever music floats your boat!
Friday, 16 January 2015
Complaining
Complaining about what is without working towards what could be is immature.
Most people think changing the world is more about changing other peoples habits than their own, but most people who make a positive impact in the world lead by example.
Most people think changing the world is more about changing other peoples habits than their own, but most people who make a positive impact in the world lead by example.
Thursday, 15 January 2015
What is Islam?
So what is Islam? Is it what Muslims do?
No, otherwise eating pork or drinking alcohol could be considered Islamic, as some Muslims certainly do. Clearly not all Muslims follow Islam, as not all Christians or Jews follow their religion. Actually what Islam is - is not all that open to interpretation. There are two statements that all Muslims agree with: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his profit." If you say that declaration in Arabic you become a Muslim.
Islam is the worship of Allah + the imitation of Mohammed as described in The Koran (of which there are two, one written in Medina and one in Mecca), the Siras, and the Haddith. The earlier Koran is not really a problem, it has the phrases about how "let there be no compulsion in religion", that "you have your religion and I have mine", &c. in it and was written by Mohammed when he was in Mecca. The later Koran is more problematic as it has the most intolerant and radical passages in it, "I shall cast terror into the hearts of the Kafirs. Strike of their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!" Unfortunately there is a notion in Islam that "later verses take priority of importance over earlier ones" (abrogation.) Every tolerant verse in the Koran is later somewhere abrogated in the text.
Islam is a peculiar religion because you cannot actually practice Islam with its primary text, The Koran, alone. The Koran states in over ninety verses that every Muslim should live his life as Mohammed lived his life. If Islam were only the worship of Allah, then one could practice Islam simply by reading the Koran, however, because Islam is also the imitation of Mohammed we need to go to The Sira (an eight-hundred-page biography of Mohammed) and the Haddith - a collection of little stories about Mohammed called "The Traditions" - in order to find out how he lived.
Unfortunately, when we turn to these texts we find that Mohammed - who is meant to be emulated - was a conqueror who cut heads off and consummated a marriage with a 9 year old. In light of this the Islamic doctrine as a whole is not very friendly to non-Muslims or Muslim women. The Kafir can be tortured, raped, enslaved, deceived and murdered. Women are men’s “fields,” worth half what a man is; men can have sex with them whenever they want, marry them at a prepubescent age, or own them as sex slaves. There is no notion of the golden rule in Islam, as pertains to non-Muslims, only other Muslims are under the protection of the doctrine.
While to us the "good Muslim" is the moderate Muslim, in Islam proper - the "good Muslim" is the one who best emulates Mohammed, therefore when we talk about radical Islam we are talking about a literal reading of the text (particularly the second Koran.) When we talk about "moderate Islam" that is actually also an accurate reading of the text - all those passages are in there. Both are true. It's not that one is right and the other is wrong. Open it up and you will find passages to support both interpretations.
Conservatives will say that radical Islam is caused by the doctrine, and Liberals that it is all the fault of Western foreign policy. Certainly, the US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, certainly in Afghanistan against the Russians, Saudi Arabia being the most obvious example, president Reagan supported Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan's dictators who carried out a programme of radical Islamisation (with Saudi funding). America has also infuriated the Muslim world by supporting Israel, stationing troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and propping up its dictators in spite of movements in various countries towards democracy or the adoption of socialistic governments, and waging war on predominantly Muslim nations. Since our 2003 incursion into Iraq, at least 151,000 and possibly over a million Muslims have been killed in that country.
It is ignorant for conservatives to turn a blind eye to the history of Western Imperialism, and naive for liberals to imagine that the Islamic doctrine has nothing whatever to do with how Muslims behave. The truth about why Islamic people of the world are, on average, more radical than Western religionists is more likely to be a combination of both, as well as other factors - particularly the very authoritarian parenting styles which are prevalent in Islamic countries and even amongst many Muslim families in Western countries. (We not that in the "bible belt" where we encounter a far more radical form of Christianity, the parenting styles are more retrograde than in the more secular parts of America - in some states corporal punishment is legal in schools.)
Whenever an aspect of Islam is unpleasant people will say “That’s not the real Islam” - but there is only one authority on what Islam is, and that is Mohammed. That is to be found in The Koran (both of them), The Sira, and The Haddith.
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Bill Warner, Sam Harris, and Dr. Noam Chomsky for being my main sources of education on Islam.
No, otherwise eating pork or drinking alcohol could be considered Islamic, as some Muslims certainly do. Clearly not all Muslims follow Islam, as not all Christians or Jews follow their religion. Actually what Islam is - is not all that open to interpretation. There are two statements that all Muslims agree with: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his profit." If you say that declaration in Arabic you become a Muslim.
Islam is the worship of Allah + the imitation of Mohammed as described in The Koran (of which there are two, one written in Medina and one in Mecca), the Siras, and the Haddith. The earlier Koran is not really a problem, it has the phrases about how "let there be no compulsion in religion", that "you have your religion and I have mine", &c. in it and was written by Mohammed when he was in Mecca. The later Koran is more problematic as it has the most intolerant and radical passages in it, "I shall cast terror into the hearts of the Kafirs. Strike of their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers!" Unfortunately there is a notion in Islam that "later verses take priority of importance over earlier ones" (abrogation.) Every tolerant verse in the Koran is later somewhere abrogated in the text.
Islam is a peculiar religion because you cannot actually practice Islam with its primary text, The Koran, alone. The Koran states in over ninety verses that every Muslim should live his life as Mohammed lived his life. If Islam were only the worship of Allah, then one could practice Islam simply by reading the Koran, however, because Islam is also the imitation of Mohammed we need to go to The Sira (an eight-hundred-page biography of Mohammed) and the Haddith - a collection of little stories about Mohammed called "The Traditions" - in order to find out how he lived.
Unfortunately, when we turn to these texts we find that Mohammed - who is meant to be emulated - was a conqueror who cut heads off and consummated a marriage with a 9 year old. In light of this the Islamic doctrine as a whole is not very friendly to non-Muslims or Muslim women. The Kafir can be tortured, raped, enslaved, deceived and murdered. Women are men’s “fields,” worth half what a man is; men can have sex with them whenever they want, marry them at a prepubescent age, or own them as sex slaves. There is no notion of the golden rule in Islam, as pertains to non-Muslims, only other Muslims are under the protection of the doctrine.
While to us the "good Muslim" is the moderate Muslim, in Islam proper - the "good Muslim" is the one who best emulates Mohammed, therefore when we talk about radical Islam we are talking about a literal reading of the text (particularly the second Koran.) When we talk about "moderate Islam" that is actually also an accurate reading of the text - all those passages are in there. Both are true. It's not that one is right and the other is wrong. Open it up and you will find passages to support both interpretations.
Conservatives will say that radical Islam is caused by the doctrine, and Liberals that it is all the fault of Western foreign policy. Certainly, the US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, certainly in Afghanistan against the Russians, Saudi Arabia being the most obvious example, president Reagan supported Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan's dictators who carried out a programme of radical Islamisation (with Saudi funding). America has also infuriated the Muslim world by supporting Israel, stationing troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and propping up its dictators in spite of movements in various countries towards democracy or the adoption of socialistic governments, and waging war on predominantly Muslim nations. Since our 2003 incursion into Iraq, at least 151,000 and possibly over a million Muslims have been killed in that country.
It is ignorant for conservatives to turn a blind eye to the history of Western Imperialism, and naive for liberals to imagine that the Islamic doctrine has nothing whatever to do with how Muslims behave. The truth about why Islamic people of the world are, on average, more radical than Western religionists is more likely to be a combination of both, as well as other factors - particularly the very authoritarian parenting styles which are prevalent in Islamic countries and even amongst many Muslim families in Western countries. (We not that in the "bible belt" where we encounter a far more radical form of Christianity, the parenting styles are more retrograde than in the more secular parts of America - in some states corporal punishment is legal in schools.)
Whenever an aspect of Islam is unpleasant people will say “That’s not the real Islam” - but there is only one authority on what Islam is, and that is Mohammed. That is to be found in The Koran (both of them), The Sira, and The Haddith.
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Bill Warner, Sam Harris, and Dr. Noam Chomsky for being my main sources of education on Islam.
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