What Have You Learned?

[Mike]

Ok, this might seem a little corny at first, but bear with me...

Aside from avalon, ive never really been a forum person(with the exception of one brief stint on a Bukowski forum 8-9 yrs ago. After an epic war of words with the owner, I was subsequently booted. Lasted about a week. I can assure you ..the man is a colossal jerk)

Until today, ive never really examined the Icke forum, for example. Never examined closely ATS, or godlikeproductions, etc.

Until today...

Ive always known avalon was a pretty unique place, but today I have a whole new appreciation for it....which leads me back to the thread title: what have you learned? (from this forum)

One of the most important things ive learned is * gratitude*. Not just as a concept, but how I digest, accept and express it. I still have a ways to go, but i'm getting better. For example, I would have never started this thread 2 years ago...or even a year ago. I would have shivered at the idea. I would have deemed it corny. and maybe it is a little corny, but it won't stop me from expressing my gratitude for this place.

Here's the most important thing ive learned about gratitude: IT NEEDS TO BE RELEASED. IT'S MEANT TO BE RELEASED...THATS ITS PURPOSE. The heart is meant to be filled with gratitude, emptied, and then refilled. I believe much disease and strife is caused by holding this in and not allowing this natural process to take place. I really do!

When I first started here on avalon, I rarely "thanked" posts. I wrote a semi tongue in cheek post about this somewhere, but there was some truth to it. See, i wanted my "thanks" to mean something...and handing them out liberally seemed counterintuitive. I know, very silly...but thats the truth.

Up until recently, I was also very calculated about the praise I handed out. I didnt want to be viewed as fawning or sycophantic...especially to Bill or any member of the mod team. So I held back. There were many, many times I wanted to say to member x "hey that was a hell of a post!"...but I didnt. A sort of distorted pride held me back...and a misleading sense that to do so would be very uncool.

Even when people said kind things to me, I didnt quite know how to process it. It was usually a nice ego boost, but it always left me feeling a little embarrassed. And since I didnt really think much of myself, I thought even less of the complimenter. I couldnt respect them. Basically, I didnt feel like I deserved it, and I resented the implication that I did.

Today my attitude is a little different. It's taken years of work, but i'm getting there. I couldn't have done it without all the countless interactions here on this forum. So, in the spirit of this thread...thank you Avalon! Thanks Bill for starting this place(and thank you for being accessible! it's what makes this place truly unique!), thank you mods for all your tireless work, and thank you to all the members for assisting in my growth.

(Note: as I said, I have a ways to go. I'm already worried that that last paragraph is fawny, sycophantic, corny, and just somehow unnecessary...and i'm still fighting that small part of me that regrets writing it:))...but thats what growth is all about, I guess. Its a struggle. but the part of me that feels good about saying such things is now greater than the part that is sometimes embarrassed about it. It wasnt always so! So i'm moving in the right direction.

Nowadays, when something favorable happens to me, I try to do my best to feel good about it. I kind of let that warm feeling marinate in my heart for a while...I ALLOW myself to feel that gratitude..and I ALLOW myself to feel i'm worthy of it......and then I release it, I let it go...and often this releasing or letting go involves saying or doing something kind for someone else. And thus the natural cycle completes itself. It's a healthy process and guess what?...it feels great too!

So anyway, ive learned a ton from this place...lots of knowledge. The art of the debate. When to say something. When not to. What a "straw man" argument is;). How to phrase certain things. How to interact with different personalities n people. And a lot lot more. But i'd say gratitude is the number one thing ive learned.

How about you guys?

[Carmody]

This seems to be the learning of the art of "Hoʻoponopono", which I am pretty crappy at myself, with regard to public sharing.

To forgive one's self, of one's own mistakes and errors, in compliment...gives one the ability to forgive others their mistakes and issues. Which we all share in the having of.

Which in turn allows the grip of emotions on thought creation to dissipate... and results in an increase in the growth, speed, and size of personal intellect, as these emotionally based blinders come off.

I am in turn, even if it is solely under my breath, grateful for the turns the universe brings to me, so I can grow. If it is ugly, it is not meant to be, and I try not to force it, unless I sense interference, etc....and if it is what i perceive to be a good thing, I try to accept it with thanks and gratitude. Sometimes I accept the ugly and the bad with gratitude, for the same reasons as self teaching and growth. In reality, the so-called good and the so-called bad are two faces of the same lessons, but residual emotions can make that position difficult to reach.

To keep thought and attention in everything, a thing or bicycle we can learn to ride, until it becomes natural and unforced...and thus emotions run free, unfettered and without negativity.

[GloriousPoetry]

Great thread.......yes gratitude is big and releasing it is powerful!

[Mike]

Hey Carmody,

Its a wonderful concept (ho'oponopono)...one that I am truly bad at.

You make a really good point...not just about the ability of forgiving oneself and the subsequent ability to forgive others as a result...but the resulting emancipation of emotions and the growth of intellect etc(thats the bit everyone forgets)

I have to work on that. Really, really do. But its one thing at a time for me.

[ghostrider]

I have learned that the thought ptterns of each human being is an electromagnetic wave that goes out from human to human from planet to planet across the universe ... the law of cause and effect, sowing and reaping, causality, treat others how you want to be treated, is the root cause of ALL the suffering of Earth, the flora, the fauna, and our galactic neighboring races are impacted by our choices which stem from the way we think... so whatever enters you, explore it, understand it, then release it, and move on. .. dwelling on negative emotions, situations, or just plain upside down backwards goings on in our world wont help make a change for the better. ..

[conk]

I did not learn of the importance of gratitude on Avalon, but is was reinforced here. ;) That and forgiveness, as Carmody wrote of, is supremely important. These subjects are in pocket with Non-judgment and Acceptance. Give righteous thanks, seek forgiveness for all things and forgive others, and do not fight the universe.

"This too I surrender to God". All things are predetermined and cannot be changed, but we can intend and pray for a different unfolding of the future. So, acceptance is vital, as we cannot change what God has ordained. God, as universe, does receive and consider our thoughts and intentions and often determines it can come to pass. So, accept what is and pray for what can be.

Thank you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, I love you.

[shaberon]

Spot on. The overall atmosphere here at Avalon is wayyyyy above almost anywhere else you could look. Around the same time I started here, I posted a bit of stuff on another site, and quickly received an ad hominem/personal judgment. Disagreement is fine, but the egotistical slugfest that seems to be so common, is not something I can deal with.

I'm very good at conveying gratitude in person, but admit I'm not that good at "internetting" it. I accidentally offended one of the members with my dry, terse tone...even though it was meant as support, it came across as a sneer. So even with good intentions, it's important to consider how one's statement appears to others...because I'm pretty sure they're not actually in your head knowing what you really meant, and without being physically present, it's tough to make a correction.

[Atlas]

The Gratitude Dance
Ri9PpFVyVhE

[thepainterdoug]

I have learned that you don't really need to meet people in the flesh to have great kinship , friendship and family. Regardless of whats going on in our day to day toil, we can come here and have a certain baseline appreciation for our collective family here regardless of agreement. Thanks BILL RYAN!

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

I'm very good at conveying gratitude in person, but admit I'm not that good at "internetting" it. I accidentally offended one of the members with my dry, terse tone...even though it was meant as support, it came across as a sneer. So even with good intentions, it's important to consider how one's statement appears to others...because I'm pretty sure they're not actually in your head knowing what you really meant, and without being physically present, it's tough to make a correction.

Exactly, and an important point. I believe I too have caused offence or upset by the way I have worded something, which was not the intent at all! I'm still learning that skill.

Slightly off-topic: it's exactly the same with "dem stoopid txt messages". I've seen and heard of people falling out over a damn text message. Because text has limited space, nothing of emotional context can really be relayed. Thus it is emotionless, but us being over-analytical humans will, when we read it, automatically and artificially place an emotional (and sometimes erroneous) context into it. And this is where everything gets misconstrued. Same for a forum. It's an acquired skill learning not just what to say, but how to say it as well. It's not easy.

[betoobig]

I learned/integrated many things:
I am not alone
I am not affraid
And, the most important, is that Avalon (that means all of you) encourage me to be as i am.
Thanks from my heart Mike for this thread, thanks Bill and moods, thanks Avalonians!
Much Love

[Michelle Marie]

I have learned that you don't really need to meet people in the flesh to have great kinship , friendship and family. Regardless of whats going on in our day to day toil, we can come here and have a certain baseline appreciation for our collective family here regardless of agreement. Thanks BILL RYAN!

Before I read this post, I felt like the sense of family and trust and caring pervade this forum. It's my go to place for information and upliftment. I don't watch tv at all ever, and there is no other forum I participate on. I feel like we would be connected even if the Internet went down. We would send good thoughts and prayers to each other through the ether. We do anyway.

Deep heartfelt gratitude to everyone!

Michelle Marie

[zen deik]

Thanks to all for the learning environment we are all participateing in.... Great community....

[Enola]

Here's the most important thing ive learned about gratitude: IT NEEDS TO BE RELEASED. IT'S MEANT TO BE RELEASED...THATS ITS PURPOSE. The heart is meant to be filled with gratitude, emptied, and then refilled. I believe much disease and strife is caused by holding this in and not allowing this natural process to take place. I really do!

That reminds me of something I read yesterday that stuck in my mind:"Gratitude is an antidote for the poisons of greed, jealousy, resentment, and grief."
I take it to mean it has a deeper transformative effect.

But I love Avalon, especially when I'm trying not to work. It's better than reading the showbiz section of the paper.

[Hawkwind]

What have I learned here? Well, gratitude to be sure. This place doesn't quite feel like home, but it most definitely does feel like walking together in that general direction. I've learned to appreciate the unique contributions that each of us makes along the way, and we we are collectively quite the mixed bag of nuts, eh? In short, I've learned (or at least am learning) how to be a responsible member of a mutually supportive community (satsang).

[DeDukshyn]

 
Yeah it's all about energy movement ... not energy itself. Same as in physics, a stretched elastic band does nothing, a stretched band released is thrust forward. One must utilize the release -- hence all the concepts behind "giving freely of yourself" as some Nazarene dude tried to tell us, but was misunderstood. When you release, love, gratitude, appreciation, praise -- that opens up voids in us in the shape of love, gratitude, appreciation and praise. The universe then seeks to fill that void with equal shapes for you; like water seeks to fill the void within itself after an object of displacement has been removed from it. If you choose to reject it, whatever the source (usually other humans), then you have caused the flow of all that good energy to cease altogether. Not good. :)

This is an explanation of the mechanics that our terminology in regards to "karma" also seeks to explain.

Very well written opening post Mike, thanks for sharing that! Appreciated! (Take it like a man! :P)

[Mike]

@conk: "accept what is and pray for what can be." Excellent. And great sig too, by the way.

@ghostrider: well put. Another way of saying that might be "we are all one". Agreed?

@shaberon: ive been in a few of those egotistical slugfests too....both as a perpetrator and as a receiver. It took me a long time to realize that nobody really wins those battles...people only think they do. The art of knowing when to stop posting...ah, thats a good one. Takes kind of a zen mind set.

[Mike]

@atlas: I can't really dance...but I have a bop now n then, as they say...only when no one is looking. I think it takes a certain humility to do that dance in public. I'm not quite there yet;)

@painterdoug: exactly! Its the family atmosphere that separates this place from others like it. No doubt.

@bootobig: that was heartfelt man. Thanks.

@starmariner: I just got off the phone with a close friend who i'd fallen out with over text messages...we didnt talk for 7 years(we both know how to hold a grudge;)) i'll never let it happen again. I was nodding along while I was reading your post...lotta wisdom there

[Mike]

I have learned that you don't really need to meet people in the flesh to have great kinship , friendship and family. Regardless of whats going on in our day to day toil, we can come here and have a certain baseline appreciation for our collective family here regardless of agreement. Thanks BILL RYAN!

Before I read this post, I felt like the sense of family and trust and caring pervade this forum. It's my go to place for information and upliftment. I don't watch tv at all ever, and there is no other forum I participate on. I feel like we would be connected even if the Internet went down. We would send good thoughts and prayers to each other through the ether. We do anyway.

Deep heartfelt gratitude to everyone!

Michelle Marie



Hi michelle,

I have no doubt in my mind that ive communicated with certain people here in less than conventional ways. I'll leave it at that:wink:

[Mike]

Here's the most important thing ive learned about gratitude: IT NEEDS TO BE RELEASED. IT'S MEANT TO BE RELEASED...THATS ITS PURPOSE. The heart is meant to be filled with gratitude, emptied, and then refilled. I believe much disease and strife is caused by holding this in and not allowing this natural process to take place. I really do!

That reminds me of something I read yesterday that stuck in my mind:"Gratitude is an antidote for the poisons of greed, jealousy, resentment, and grief."
I take it to mean it has a deeper transformative effect.

But I love Avalon, especially when I'm trying not to work. It's better than reading the showbiz section of the paper.


I'm always trying not to work...;)

@Hawkkind: its said that earth is one of the toughest planets to incarnate on in the entire universe. somehow I believe it. I'm very pleased to be walking this path with many of the spiritual warriors here.

[Constance]

You've just inspired me to write about gratitude on A story we all write Mike. Thank you possum!:bearhug:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?86165-A-story-we-all-write.&p=1072168&viewfull=1#post1072168

[Mike]

 
Yeah it's all about energy movement ... not energy itself. Same as in physics, a stretched elastic band does nothing, a stretched band released is thrust forward. One must utilize the release -- hence all the concepts behind "giving freely of yourself" as some Nazarene dude tried to tell us, but was misunderstood. When you release, love, gratitude, appreciation, praise -- that opens up voids in us in the shape of love, gratitude, appreciation and praise. The universe then seeks to fill that void with equal shapes for you; like water seeks to fill the void within itself after an object of displacement has been removed from it. If you choose to reject it, whatever the source (usually other humans), then you have caused the flow of all that good energy to cease altogether. Not good. :)

This is an explanation of the mechanics that our terminology in regards to "karma" also seeks to explain.

Very well written opening post Mike, thanks for sharing that! Appreciated! (Take it like a man! :P)



Great post Duk, as usual. You're the new gov'nor..seems to me.

....but why did you have to say all that sh!t so much better than me? Damn you:)

P.s. taken like a man indeed LOL:beer:

[Mike]

You've just inspired me to write about gratitude on A story we all write Mike. Thank you possum!:bearhug:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?86165-A-story-we-all-write.&p=1072168&viewfull=1#post1072168

Beautiful. Whats next?;)

(That thread has confused me for so long....ive only now read the OP. Glad I cleared that up:o)

[Constance]

You've just inspired me to write about gratitude on A story we all write Mike. Thank you possum!:bearhug:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?86165-A-story-we-all-write.&p=1072168&viewfull=1#post1072168

Beautiful. Whats next?;)

(That thread has confused me for so long....ive only now read the OP. Glad I cleared that up:o)

Hilarious! I'm glad you did finally clear that up! :bigsmile:

Well now...let me see ;)

Maintaining a constant state of gratitude for the past, present and future is the key to receiving inspirations in which to help others.

Being able to connect with our inspirations fuels our ability to ........

Stay tuned! :ROFL:

But in all seriousness now Mike.

Thank you for all that you contribute. We are very blessed to have you here.:heart:

[Lost N Found]

Thank you Mike, Just giving back what was given. That always has to move and can't be bottled up. I have known all my life that our love does flow freely and it must. If it is shut up then it turns to a black cloud. So you have given and learning here on Avalon has un bottled the love of a very large family of human beings. There is so much here that most can come and learn about. Yes there are other places to learn from but I know that coming here has opened the doors to so much more and I say that from my own heart.

Meeting folks from other places in the world and getting to know and understand the heart and mind and soul of others brings the gratitude, the loving the giving the knowing the understanding of our existence into a more well rounded openness in all of our beings. You have said you were confused about a thread but once you read the OP you became more less confused. This is the way of everything it would seem. Just to understand where this or that might come from or get started.

A Story of fiction or Science Fiction or Non-Fiction comes from the deeper areas of the writer and if it reads well and someone gets interested it does open a heart and mind a soul. That is just one way. There are so many in life. I have bounced along so many paths in my short life of 300 years and I always learn something new and It seems like a daily occurance. It is the acceptance and reflection that makes all the difference.

I met you here and that is a blessing in itself. I move through the time of yesteryear and the time of tomorrow and I live in the now. So in life and being hear I am a time traveler and I am so glad you are here even if you are obstinate or embarrassed or any other emotion or way. You are who you are and that is the gratitude I have. So to say, Meeting you is something learned here brother.

Just a nut and a reflector
Steven

[ulli]

Some years before discovering Avalon I was on several Wingmakers forums,
and even though gratitude was hailed in the philosophy section as a central virtue worth developing
( https://www.wingmakers.com/content/philosophy/ ) my experience
of those forums made it nearly impossible to do so.
The challenges were just overwhelming. Predators who felt it was their mission to violate the minds of others and rob them of inner peace were the norm.
So it was impossible to create a sense of community. All those forums were unmoderated. I learnt then the importance of security in all areas of life.

I'm grateful for this thread, Mike, and also grateful that this forum has helped me with my own transformation in ways that none of the earlier forums did.
But then again, maybe the process was already well on the way, even back then.
And changing communities was part of that process.

[Pam]

One of the most important things ive learned is * gratitude*. Not just as a concept, but how I digest, accept and express it. I still have a ways to go, but i'm getting better. For example, I would have never started this thread 2 years ago...or even a year ago. I would have shivered at the idea. I would have deemed it corny. and maybe it is a little corny, but it won't stop me from expressing my gratitude for this place.



Here's the most important thing ive learned about gratitude: IT NEEDS TO BE RELEASED. IT'S MEANT TO BE RELEASED...THATS ITS PURPOSE. The heart is meant to be filled with gratitude, emptied, and then refilled. I believe much disease and strife is caused by holding this in and not allowing this natural process to take place. I really do!



There is so much practical truth in your post, Mike. I believe you have outlined the secret to a happy and fulfilled life here. Just having gratitude is not enough, just like you said, it is meant to be released, it is a living force of nature and it needs to move around and to be shared. In fact, I would venture to guess that if one holds gratitude within,allows it to become stagnant, it really is no longer gratitude. Coveting gratitude would transmute it into something less.

I recently fell into a contracting fear state with the theme of "not having enough", the antithesis of gratitude. Wow, that is an ugly place to be. A sort of self fulfilling dark hole. I was able to see that I was creating this state of mind and was able to turn it around by seeing the abundance in my life, rather than what I don't have. It really can be as simple as that. Kind of like putting on a different pair of glasses and looking at the same scene with different optics.

Anyway, Mike, thanks for your always genuine sharing.

[BMJ]

Plenty on many different topics, also slightly of topic, what is the Avalon forum I ask?
I think of it as hub/conduit via which like mind people sharing experiences, thoughts, theories, feelings and intent has a flow threw affect on the readers and contributors of the material which bolsters the contributors and readers enlightenment, and likely on multiple levels.

[Bill Ryan]

.
* Bill picks up the talking stick just for a couple of minutes *

Well, I think this is on-topic. Not learned this from the forum, but certainly on the forum (and beyond). A serious response, too.

The alternative community is not in very good shape in some areas. Like the curate's egg (https://www.google.com.ec/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjmlq3m1YnNAhUGKB4KHVPxBGcQFggoMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCurate%27s_egg&usg=AFQjCNHYZr12IEnb-gJVHknFILSbY4PoOQ&sig2=G_jwg2TT0tV2Bpml1QmpSg), it's 'good in parts'.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p45a5datcks/T7un_XdAkjI/AAAAAAAAK5M/JPJ6nAJTWEI/s1600/Punch-curates-egg2.jpg

With the internet has come the easy proliferation of information. We don't have to work hard at it any more, at all.

A couple of minutes Google searching gives us access to anything written or said by anyone online, ever. And people write or say a lot of silly (or harmfully false) things — intentionally or otherwise.

Many in the community (I'm not talking about members here) — and I'm going to say this straight — have limited experience, knowledge, education, or even basic intelligence. In some cases, as with young folks new to all this, it's hardly their fault.

Almost all of us human beings pretty much started from zero this lifetime, as we have to do every time. But it's so easy for someone to pick up a dumb YouTube video (or e-mail) and then forward it around to thousands (or millions) more.

So easy, also, for anyone at all to take advantage of this informational chaos, and cause a lot of harm.

It doesn't take much fluoride in the water (metaphor here: 'fluoride' = bad information) to affect the overall awareness of the whole population.

The alternative community was much smaller — but much smarter — 15 years ago. It really was.

So, here's the point.

On the Avalon forum (and in some other places, and with other people, too, of course), I feel we're kind of fighting a rearguard action sometimes. We're standing up, as best we can, for real information, real perspectives, real analysis, real understanding, real personal experiences. And real mutual support, coaching and encouragement.

Occasionally, I look at what's being posted, or reported, or claimed out there on the net, and for a moment I roll my eyes and despair. Sometimes I think — being honest again here — we may deserve what might be coming to us if we can't get a whole lot smarter, collectively, very soon.

But then, very often, I log into the forum, and I'm encouraged. I see admirable wisdom, shrewd awareness, significant experience, great kindness, impressive articulateness, cautious discernment, real people.

So, we're all still standing. It's a mild mystery to me why the forum doesn't have 100,000 members rather than 10,000. But I think that too is an indicator of the problem.

Not that many citizens out there regularly dine in the best restaurants. Most are going to McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts.

The analogy applies. Going for the cheap-and-easy has always been part of the human condition.

[Carmody]

which leads into:

Cooperation emerges when groups are small and memories are long, study finds: (http://www.sciencenewsline.com/news/2016060118430077.html)

The tragedy of the commons, a concept described by ecologist Garrett Hardin, paints a grim view of human nature. The theory goes that, if a resource is shared, individuals will act in their own self-interest, but against the interest of the group, by depleting that resource.

Yet examples of cooperation and sharing abound in nature, from human societies down to single-celled bacteria.

In a new paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Pennsylvania researchers use game theory to demonstrate the complex set of traits that can promote the evolution of cooperation. Their analysis showed that smaller groups in which actors had longer memories of their fellow group members' actions were more likely to evolve cooperative strategies.

The work suggests one possible advantage of the human's powerful memory capacity: it has fed our ability as a society to cooperate.

"In the past we've looked at the interactions of two players to determine the most robust evolutionary strategies," said Joshua B. Plotkin, a professor in Penn's Department of Biology in the School of Arts & Sciences. "Our new analysis allows for scenarios in which players can react to the behaviors and strategies of multiple other players at once. It gives us a picture of a much richer set of social interactions, a picture that is likely more representative of the complexities of human behavior."

Plotkin collaborated with Alexander J. Stewart, then his postdoctoral researcher and now a Royal Society research fellow at University College London, on the work, which builds on years of game theory examinations by the pair.

In their earlier works, they used the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma scenario, in which two players face off and can choose to either cooperate or not, to understand what circumstances promote the rise of generosity versus selfishness.

In the new paper, they added two levels of complexity. First, they used a different scenario, known as a public-goods game, which allows players to interact with more than one other player at a time. The set-up also enabled the researchers to vary the number of players in a given game. In the public-goods game, a player can contribute a certain amount of a personal resource to a public pool, which is then divided equally among all players. The greatest shared benefit comes when all players contribute generously, but that also puts generous players at risk of losing resources to selfish players, a tragedy of the commons scenario.

The second added level of complexity was imbuing players with the capacity for long memories. That is, players could use the actions of their opponents from multiple earlier rounds of the game to inform their strategies for subsequent rounds. If a player repeatedly encountered a player in a group that frequently behaved selfishly, for example, they may be more likely to "punish" that defector by withholding resources in future rounds.

In addition, the populations of players were permitted to "evolve," such that more successful players, those that achieve greater payoffs, are more likely to pass their strategies on to the next generation of players.

Stewart and Plotkin found that the more players in a game the less likely that cooperative strategies could win out. Instead, the majority of robust strategies in large groups favored defection.

"This makes intuitive sense," Plotkin said. "As a group size increases, the prospects for sustained cooperation go down. The temptation to defect and become a freeloader goes up."

Conversely, their findings showed that giving players a longer memory, the ability to remember and base decisions on as many as 10 previous rounds of their opponents' actions, led to a greater relative volume of robust cooperative strategies. Part of the reason for this, the researchers said, was because greater memories allowed players to develop a broader array of more nuanced strategies, including ones that could punish individuals for defecting strategies and ensure they didn't take over the population

"A stronger memory allowed players to weed out the rare defector," Plotkin said.

In a final set of experiments, Stewart and Plotkin used computer simulations that allowed the memory capacity of players to evolve alongside the strategies themselves. They found that not only were longer memories favored, but the evolution of longer memories led to an increase in cooperation.

"I think a fascinating takeaway from our study," Stewart said, "is that you can get a set of circumstances where there is a kind of runaway feedback loop. Longer memories promote more cooperation and more cooperation promotes longer memories. That kind of situation, where you go from a simpler system to one that is more complex, is a great example of what evolution does, it leads to more and more complexity."

As a next step, Stewart and Plotkin would like to use human subjects to evaluate their mathematical findings.

"We have all these results about what kinds of strategies are successful that take into account different features of players' actions," Stewart said. "We'd like to run an experiment with people to figure out what they are actually paying attention to when they're playing. Is it their payoffs? Is it their opponents' payoffs? And see how those strategies match up to those we see in our analyses."

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep26889

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

thus the short term memory enforcement of amusement, sexuality, violence, shock, games of teams and so on, all combined with attention break up patterning ---of television, advertising, sound bites, twitter, and so on...all that is designed to SHATTER co-operation and maintain control in a child like state of ignorance.

It all plays into the animalisation of society and shatters and process of societal/cultural build and leaves the people unaware... in a putty like state of pure potential in manipulation.

It's a Bernaysian nightmare state that is almost wholly perfected, after a near 100 year long build up of test and use in technique, trial, and manipulation.

Then they add in the toxins, the chemical, and thus overall generational genetic make-up manipulation.

[conk]

Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle, top to bottom. On the left list all the things for which you are grateful. On the right list all things that aren't going well for you.

The left side is almost infinitely long, isn't it? The right side peters out after 8 to 10 bullets. Amazing, right? Where do you chose to focus your consciousness, left or right? What should be an elegantly simple answer, left, seems to confound so many of us. The naysayers, the skeptics, you've seen them. They walk down the hall staring at the baseboard as if something interesting will happen down there, rather than look up and embrace the world and those around them that are staring at the sky.

[Antihero]

Here I can be myself. I learn from my mistakes here. Thank you Avalon, friends, and foes. I love you!

[Mike]

Some years before discovering Avalon I was on several Wingmakers forums,
and even though gratitude was hailed in the philosophy section as a central virtue worth developing
( https://www.wingmakers.com/content/philosophy/ ) my experience
of those forums made it nearly impossible to do so.
The challenges were just overwhelming. Predators who felt it was their mission to violate the minds of others and rob them of inner peace were the norm.
So it was impossible to create a sense of community. All those forums were unmoderated. I learnt then the importance of security in all areas of life.

I'm grateful for this thread, Mike, and also grateful that this forum has helped me with my own transformation in ways that none of the earlier forums did.
But then again, maybe the process was already well on the way, even back then.
And changing communities was part of that process.



Well, myself and many, many others are very pleased that it worked out that way.

I wrote something not too long ago about keeping one's appointment with fate. In other words, it seems to me that even though an event may be kind of crystallized in one's future, one still has to make an effort to get there. And occasionally i'll have this empty, hollow feeling followed by a thought that someone missed their appointment with fate (maybe me?)..and now i'Il be lesser for it.

I can't really imagine the forum without the "here n now" thread. Seems to me youre right where youre supposed to be.

[Joe Akulis]

What have I learned?

I've put a lot of puzzle pieces together over the past decade. Initially I was doing this by finding amazing people and reading things they've written.
Then I stumbled across Avalon, and learned that some of those amazing people were members here. Then my approached changed to: finding amazing people and pestering them with questions! (And reading things they've written.)

Look at one puzzle piece and you rarely can tell what it shows. Get a hundred different pieces to fit together and you can begin to understand some of the picture.

In the spirit of this thread, I thought about sending a shout out to some of the members who have helped me paint my picture over the years. (Yes, now I'm mixing metaphors, but not if I say that once a puzzle piece gets connected, then the edges of the piece disappear. Then I'm still good.)

But then as I started building the list I decided I didn't want to highlight any one person over anyone else here. (With one exception, listed below.)

Thanks for joining Avalon, and thanks for taking time to throw some knowledge my way!

Bill Ryan - You made it happen. You haven't eaten your hat yet, and I'm still turning over that one post where you said our body-consciousness can be brought along again for another ride. (I gotta try that.)

[Mike]

@bmj: well put. I wouldnt dispute any of that.

@Bill: i'd describe being involved in the "alt" field as such: prolonged periods of confusion, horror and despair interspersed with bits of awe, enlightenment, and emotionally moving moments. Thing is, when you become involved in the bigger picture, its impossible to go back, isnt it? Things we were once interested in just fall by the wayside. In a way, this material chooses you...and deep down, I dont think we'd have it any other way. It's been said that earth is one of the toughest planets to incarnate on in the entire universe. It's also been said here many times that a much smaller group of "light" oriented people can offset much larger numbers of "dark" individuals. I choose to believe it. I have to believe it.

I too am surprised that the forum membership isnt much larger. For a while I thought we, the current group, were kind of holding down the fort for a while..while the rest of the cavalry was waiting for their cue to jump in and reinforce our troops, so to speak. I felt certain that surely we couldn't be the end all be all....that surely there were many thousands of people behind the scenes...wise, fearless people that would somehow make all this ok....just waiting for the right opportunity to join the fray. Took me a while to realize that wasnt true...and when I did, initially, it filled me with despair. Now my feeling vacillates. Like you, it kind of depends on what i'm observing that day.

Please dont stay discouraged too long Bill. Its people like you that give the rest of us hope. remember, if you jump, the angels will catch you. Pretty good line there:wink:

[Mike]

Here I can be myself. I learn from my mistakes here. Thank you Avalon, friends, and foes. I love you!


Well said. Ive likely learned just as much from my foes as I have my friends here.

[Mike]

Hey Joe,

Thats a great feeling when those puzzle pieces come together, isnt it?:sun: you cant help but feel youre being guided by a benevolent higher power. Wonderful experience.

Now, I think the question for most of us is: what do we do with that knowledge? Thats the new struggle

[Mike]

Perterpam,

It IS really like putting on a different pair of glasses. I like your metaphor.

A very simple act...but.not.always an easy one:)

[Matthew]

Yes, amazing forum. I talk about topics here with a small circle of interested friends. It opened up various topics they were already interested in. The journey of waking up is circular, that's one of the first things I learned when I joined. And how important kindness is with people waking up from lies that are designed to humiliate. The other side works with fear and pride but we get by with freedom and kindness. How do we kick back with freedom and kindness? We can shine a light on them best we can, and have discernment which we do together. Propaganda and disinformation comes at us thick and fast best thing we can do is team up to pick through it.

[Carmody]

I actually get to speak and be heard, without ridicule, without verbal and mental beatings. To voice thoughts and have a small modicum of respect be thrown my way. To not be ostracized. That's what I get from Avalon. I try to give back. But not my humor, it's just a bit..er.. post life so to speak.

My few friends enjoy my presence, but they want to put tape over my mouth when we go out, as I reach out to people to try and find the interesting people, by challenging their reality concepts with outspoken ribald dark twisted humour that takes a certain minimum of intellect to make it though it.... without being burned at the stake by the literal ground pounding minds out there.

They ask me why I do this, and I tell them it is the shortest distance between two points, the two points of dead air & dead people/zombie/automatons...and intelligence that is aware & capable. So when I spin the stuff out there, in the airwaves of the given public world, it's either a complete disaster and I'm seen as a nutbar (by 96-99% of them), or the person doubles over with laughter and choking..or joins in with their own returns. It's like radar pinging the crowd for intelligence. (life as a flowing infinitely variable Monty Python skit)

[Mike]

I actually get to speak and be heard, without ridicule, without verbal and mental beatings. To voice thoughts and have a small modicum of respect be thrown my way. To not be ostracized. That's what I get from Avalon. I try to give back. But not my humor, it's just a bit..er.. post life so to speak.

My few friends enjoy my presence, but they want to put tape over my mouth when we go out, as I reach out to people to try and find the interesting people, by challenging their reality concepts with outspoken ribald dark twisted humour that takes a certain minimum of intellect to make it though it.... without being burned at the stake by the literal ground pounding minds out there.

They ask me why I do this, and I tell them it is the shortest distance between two points, the two points of dead air & dead people/zombie/automatons...and intelligence that is aware & capable. So when I spin the stuff out there, in the airwaves of the given public world, it's either a complete disaster and I'm seen as a nutbar (by 96-99% of them), or the person doubles over with laughter and choking..or joins in with their own returns. It's like radar pinging the crowd for intelligence. (life as a flowing infinitely variable Monty Python skit)


"life as a flowing variable monty python skit"

indeed!

your post reminded me of a quote by the great british writer malcolm lowry(from his masterpiece "under the volcano":

"no, my secrets are of the grave and must be kept. and this is sometimes how i think of myself, as a great explorer who has discovered some extraordinary land from which he can never return to give his knowledge to the world...but the name of this land is hell."

i highly recommend this documentary btw (if you like weird, disturbing strange sh!t)

wma61_wfHqg

ive written a book titled "carnival". the title has a literal aspect to it, but mainly it's a pun on a number of things..the folly of life so forth (it's a novelized memoir in the tradition of henry miller, celine, and bukowski etc). i think you might like it (or at least what it's trying to do). my old english professor assures me it is very publishable. good news for most writers, but in my heart of hearts i was hoping for words like "transcendent", "brilliant" "will be taught in universities across the globe" etc. well, not only did she not use those words, but she actually had the stones to critique parts of it..can you believe that?:)

no, honestly, at the time i was actually offended...such was my level of delusion.

ive read it so many times now that even i can't tell if it's good anymore. ive lost all perspective. my friends arent what youd call seasoned readers, and they merely seemed confused by it. and most (who are in the book) are unhappy with the way they were portrayed. anyhoo, i got disillusioned with the whole thing and shelved it.

wait, what was my point here? oh yeah, the monty python thing...i can relate.

[Mike]

Yes, amazing forum. I talk about topics here with a small circle of interested friends. It opened up various topics they were already interested in. The journey of waking up is circular, that's one of the first things I learned when I joined. And how important kindness is with people waking up from lies that are designed to humiliate. The other side works with fear and pride but we get by with freedom and kindness. How do we kick back with freedom and kindness? We can shine a light on them best we can, and have discernment which we do together. Propaganda and disinformation comes at us thick and fast best thing we can do is team up to pick through it.


"the journey of waking up is circular". you should embroider your pillows with that;). great statement!

[onawah]

I think Avalon has helped me to learn how to keep my sanity and keep my boat afloat, how to keep my sense of humor, how to participate better in real community, and in learning non-avoidance, which surely must be part of real maturation.
I think I used to equate spirituality with not paying attention to the more unpleasant aspects of life.
What I think now is that that only intensifies the fear factor.
I don't want to dwell on the scary stuff, but I feel like facing it and being aware of it makes me a stronger and more courageous person, and Goddess knows, we need courage in these times with all the scary stuff that needs to be faced.
I also used to try really hard to avoid confrontation; I am not still not a very confrontational person, but I am much more willing and confident about sharing my views and even getting into debates with others who see things differently without feeling threatened, and not embarrassed to ask questions if I don't know something.
My family of origin was very scared of confrontation--survival was the main focus and our lifeline was tenuous, so rocking the boat was very much frowned upon, and that included showing anger.
I'm not nearly as afraid of my anger as I used to be--it just feels OK and normal now, and nothing to feel guilty about.
I think I've only met one other Avalonian in person, and even though I don't participate in most of the more chatty, personal threads here, I feel like I know some of you better than most of the people I know in the flesh (not all the extraneous details, obviously, but some of the most core, important things that really matter, and that you are true friends, however distant in geographical terms.

Although it's kind of weird to be sharing really personal stuff on a forum that anyone can read, I think that has helped me get over a certain amount of shyness. I'm actually known in the town where I live by some as a member of the Avalon forum, which I thought at first would have made me feel overexposed, but it actually doesn't bother me, to my surprise; and in another sense, I've grown to value Kerry's advice about the safest place being out in the open.

Thanks for the thread, Mike, :hug: and thanks to Bill :waving: for keeping the Avalon home fire burning.

[Mike]

I love ya Nat! Great post!

:hug:

[Michelle Marie]

I have learned that you don't really need to meet people in the flesh to have great kinship , friendship and family. Regardless of whats going on in our day to day toil, we can come here and have a certain baseline appreciation for our collective family here regardless of agreement. Thanks BILL RYAN!

Before I read this post, I felt like the sense of family and trust and caring pervade this forum. It's my go to place for information and upliftment. I don't watch tv at all ever, and there is no other forum I participate on. I feel like we would be connected even if the Internet went down. We would send good thoughts and prayers to each other through the ether. We do anyway.

Deep heartfelt gratitude to everyone!

Michelle Marie



Hi michelle,

I have no doubt in my mind that ive communicated with certain people here in less than conventional ways. I'll leave it at that:wink:

Me too! Uncanny, isn't it?
Resonate with your vibes, Mike.
Warm appreciation,
Michelle Marie

[jagman]

Mike, I wanted to answer your thread last week but I also
wanted to ponder on it for a while.....
After pondering.... Here is what I came up with?
I believe there are no coincidences in life!
We all have probably learned different things from Avalon.
I think Life in general is about learning and growing and
loving and sometimes being happy and also learning it's alright to be sad and mournful. A great man once said
Don't count the days:"Make the days count."
We are all, Flawed, Perfect and Imperfect, At the same time.
Some times we feel like we make in-roads or progress
Some times we feel and must learn how to deal with
rejection and humiliation! A meaningful life to me is?
Service to others! And Service to myself!
Life's too Damn short! (At least this life is! lol )


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E2hYDIFDIU


So what I have I learned? Nothing and Everything.