Optimism versus Realism--or What We Focus on and how it Affects Us

[onawah]

Being a forum that is largely about "conspiracy theory", which naturally consists mainly of uncomfortable subjects, forum members may be concerned with whether "staring into the abyss" is negatively affecting those of us who are preoccupied with doing just that, as the side effect of researching what's really going on in the world that is being hidden.
(...From whatever motivation, which can range from simply wanting to be in service to others by exposing the truth, to needing to understand a problem in order to avoid it ourselves. )

Personally, I was working very hard for a long time at being a "positive thinker" but eventually I realized how that can actually result in mental and emotional imbalance and becoming foolishly blinded to reality.
(Being a Leo, I can tend to go to extremes, and I may have actually gone to the other extreme as well at times. For example, I was at one time an ardent student of the "Course in Miracles", the main premise of which is that evil actually doesn't exist.
Until I realized how the public was being lied to about 911, and began jumping down many rabbit holes nearly full time. )

Being always in resistance to accepting that the Dark side of things exists may actually also result in a warped imbalance that can make the Dark side appear somehow fascinating and attractive, and necessary in order to be a "sophisticated" person.
Older and wiser souls are no doubt aware of all that and work at maintaining a balanced and healthy perspective.
...Although that may seem like pessimism to younger souls who think they must maintain a state of denial about the yin and yang of this 3D reality in order to remain optimistic.
To the wise souls that's no doubt one more sure avenue to disillusionment.
That question of balance applies to so much in life.

This line of thought was sparked in me by recent posts from a couple of long-time Avalonians who are apparently feeling the inevitable squeeze of disillusionment now.
...And then by the following relevant episode from Greg Reese (which is kind of ironic, since he is very much a whistleblower and conspiracy theorist himself ):
Mental Food
Greg Reese
Feb 10 2026
https://substack.com/home/post/p-187409490
(Podcast at the link)

"The concept of “mental food” is simple: just as the food we eat shapes our body, the information and stimuli we consume with our senses shapes our psyche, our emotions, and our overall well-being. There is an ancient proverb: “The body becomes what the foods are; as the spirit becomes what the thoughts are.” The Buddha taught that feeding the mind with greed, hatred, and delusion strengthens those things, and that practicing mindfulness allows us to guard the “gates of the senses” and curate a more pure experience. Epictetus taught that the mind should be guarded like a fortress against external events to maintain inner peace and freedom. According to Rosicrucian philosophy, pure thoughts build finer vehicles. In James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh, the mind is compared to a garden that must be cultivated. By treating thoughts as seeds, individuals choose to plant positive, constructive ideas or allow weeds of negative thought to grow. This shapes the individual’s character and determines their outcomes in life.

GIGO—”Garbage In, Garbage Out”—is a computing principle that simply expresses how the quality of the output is directly determined by the quality of the input. You don’t want to input garbage code into your computer, and you certainly don’t want to input garbage into your mind. And Social media, for the most part—along with much of mass media—is garbage.

Studies show that habitual scrolling on social media causes desensitization, reduced focus, dopamine addiction, compulsion, anxiety, and depression. Exposure to political media, regardless of political affiliation, increases feelings of despair, hopelessness, and paranoia. And this psychology is very well known: when people are kept in this voluntary state of hysteria, they are easily herded in any direction the shepherd desires.

Techniques called microtargeting and hyper-nudging are used against social media consumers to foster conflicts and reactive behaviors, and to create echo chambers that temper worldviews. This manipulates the emotions of all social media consumers on a subconscious level, keeping them from asking deeper questions. State-sponsored social media manipulation is officially being used in over sixty countries to condition the minds of the masses. Propaganda is very popular with governments because everyone is easily influenced by it.

G.I. Gurdjieff calls these sensory and psychological inputs from the external world “impressions” and taught that impressions are the highest and most important food, requiring conscious awareness to be properly assimilated. And warned that without a well-practiced sense of self-awareness, the acquired personality—what some call the ego—will mismanage the impressions, causing people to be hypnotized and poisoned by them.

To override this, one must interpose consciousness the moment the impression is received. As an impression arrives, pause and observe it objectively, and observe how your thoughts, emotions, and body react to it. Use reflection to properly address the impression, and if needed, redirect it to the intellectual center for analysis. To get really good at this, you could sit comfortably every evening before bed and reconstruct your entire day, working backwards scene by scene.

For many, this requires consistent effort, but restricting yourself from violent media and feeding yourself more positive stimuli has the benefits of reduced ego-driven reactions, less stress, more peace, and spiritual evolution. Studies on media deprivation and mental health show that even taking a break for one or two weeks significantly reduces anxiety, depression, loneliness, and insomnia. Studies have shown that listening to non-lyrical classical music reduces stress and depression while enhancing cognition and emotional processing. It improves sleep quality, memory, and mobility in older adults.

Be careful what you “eat.” As Nietzsche famously said, “If thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” "

By Greg Reese
A commentary on the current course of human destiny.

******************
Then again, there is another perspective that challenges just how on target even conspiracy theorists are when so many devote themselves passionately to issues that are minor in importance compared to the larger issues that affect the health and well being of all life on the planet, but which often remain on the sidelines.
(Possibly because those issues are just too depressing to dwell on, or, more likely, too unbelievable.)
...Because too many people are still in such denial about those larger issues that it may feel like a hopeless waste of time trying to bring it to public attention.

Such as what Dr. Ana Mihalcea expresses in the excerpt following from:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-186349271
Humanity United Now - Ana Maria Mihalcea, MD, PhD
Are Geoengineering Magnetite Nanoparticles Causing Ice Storms Also Used For Cognitive, Biological and Technological Warfare Against US Civilians?
Jan 30, 2026

"If my tone seems a bit cynical at this insanity, it is only that I am wondering about the fact that people will march the streets and protest for one or two individuals being killed in some situation. They will get riled up in political wars, what is called ICE today, was called Black Lives Matter, J6 etc.

But the population of the world will not rise against the military industrial complex and the world military intelligence shadow governments when every man, woman and child living on earth is being poisoned via geoengineering operations and our biosphere and home planet is being destroyed. It does not matter what country you live in, what gender, sexual orientation, creed, religion, skin color, political persuasion or any other identifier you want to name as our differences that warrant discord--

WE ALL BREATHE THE SAME WEAPONIZED AIR OF THIS EARTH.

Is it because the brain destruction via these magnetite nanoparticles combined with the mind control electromagnetic frequency warfare via 5 G, HAARP is so effective that people are not waking up to this existential threat?

We are running out of time, because demented people will never change this situation -- and that is where everyone’s brain is heading, even the youngest people."

(Thankfully, she goes on in the same article to talk about the remedies, such as EDTA, that she has found which detoxify the human body from the nanotech in question. )

Just some food for thought, and possibly discussion.

[shaberon]

You are perhaps getting at what we might call Discrimination?


For instance, in the examples given, the first one already contains the solution. Listen to classical music.

The second one is not something I would pick up or pay any attention to. No response. Here's a relevant maxim:


stop threatening me.


Whatever takes on that tone can kindly sail back to the abyss.

There are already enough problems, such as we can take that one at the root, pollution. It's that simple. Industries need to be regulated to keep them from dumping stuff into the environment -- all of them at all times. Doesn't matter if there are new and different pollutants. Clean it up. End of discussion.

Same as my reaction to Covid -- nothing. Ask the Africans.

That extends to the world of ideas, such as "Q" or "Israel", nothing about them merits attention. There's no discussion to be had. They can simply be discarded. I'm not "getting into it", in terms of their self-justification, empty bag.


Now, in terms of Realism, well, we're not going to agree on but so many things, and only to a certain level or point. It seems to me we are often sitting on square one, factual disagreement. For example, if I pick a historical example:


Cagliostro

then I'm going to find 90% of the posts on here re-iterate the same calumny or distortions that were used to frame the guy in the first place.

We can supply most of the reasons why this is false information, but it tends to have little affect against foregone conclusions.


It would be nice to at least get fairly close to the same set of facts. Then we move to a value disagreement. Such as there are obvious facts about what Israel does. I, personally, place a huge negative value on it. I understand that there are some who see it otherwise. Little point in trying to altercate with them directly. We're in conflict.


Therefor, I get most current events from Russia and Asia. The web pages are very plain. Articles lack sensationalism. It's much better quality. They categorically limit themselves on mechanization of the mind, so a person can still think at a high level. That means that the vast majority of people are more listenable than western experts.


That is why this is not theory, but actual, the message of Kurdistan:

Guerrilla Roza Sores Dersim said another aim of the conspiracy was to consolidate the place of the slavery system that began with the enslavement of women and the structure of a slave society, and to eliminate the women’s freedom struggle that stands against it. She said: “From the very beginning of the struggle led by our movement to this day, Abdullah Öcalan has created a profound set of ideas and a philosophy for the freedom of women and brought them to us. Öcalan is now recognized and embraced across the world. As women committed to Öcalan’s ideas, we will strive to be worthy of him to the end. We will deepen ourselves in Öcalan’s ideas and philosophy and put them into practice. We will make this effort and conduct our struggle on this basis. As women across the world, we need to know ourselves. We need to examine where we stand within the imperialist and capitalist system; we need to learn the extent of our position. We must know where we have stood from history to the present and wage a great struggle.

Abdullah Öcalan saw women’s place in history and worked so that women could have free thought and an identity. He sought ways for women to break free from the male-dominated system and the capitalist system. Öcalan knew very well that the enslavement of women lay at the foundation of the enslavement of society. For this reason, he stated that society cannot be liberated unless women are liberated. This applies not only to the Kurdish people but to all peoples of the world.

This is for everybody according to N Kuran:

Today, it continues its struggle not only against a single state, but against the representatives of capitalist modernity as a whole.

At its core, this process concerns all of humanity, because it contains a return to essence and a move toward liberation in the very space where humanity first practiced its earliest experiences within the relationship between search and meaning. On the one hand, it constitutes a challenge to capitalist aggression through the perspectives of democratic modernity and the solution of the democratic nation; on the other hand, it offers a timely theoretical and practical lesson to those within socialism who have betrayed its essence. It is worth recalling that at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, a socialist revolution was expected to take place in Germany, as Germany was the country where industrialization, and therefore proletarianization, was most advanced, and classical Marxist theory pointed in that direction. Yet the socialist revolution occurred in feudal Russia, a place wholly unexpected and, according to classical Marxist theory, lacking favorable conditions. Antonio Gramsci described this in his works as a revolution that developed contrary to Marxism and offered important assessments.

I can only recommend or suggest that the Kurdish perspective and what we have posted under Turmoil in Nepal as intelligent, perhaps brilliant, populations, that aren't simply going to take a handout or someone else's solution.

The United States is so over that I don't realistically see a future for it. That's because it is the imperial capitalist system referred to above, but its population is not really capable of the same kind of self-analysis. Yet from recent posts we have a hard time agreeing what "capitalism" is, and, in others from raw data, we see that its education or literacy level is dropping, so that it remains slightly above the "undeveloped third world".


I just changed automatically when I was about twelve, realizing all it had to offer was garbage, I had to mostly sever contact and reach out for other input. If there was something particularly wonderful about it, that I somehow missed, I'd like to catch up, but all I'm aware of is that which makes the mind and the person smaller and weaker.

[JackMcThorn]

I've struggled with Optimism versus Realism for decades. I sort of get happy people, even if they are a bit oblivious. It's the lack of reality that sets in that is discouraging much like too much reality. Which is directly related to Onawah's mention of balance and how important THAT is.

But I also think it is a matter of sphere of control. Particularly, decided immediately if something is in or out of your control. IF I am going to spend my time on what in the world is going on, then I must realize some of it, [mostly] is really out of my control. Therefore, I should not let it rent any part of my mind, with a focus on any emotional tendencies.

It is in my control to 'cherry pick' at the cherry tree of media. I have escaped the clutches of social media, years ago - again, within my control.

Balance is required in everything and it is a good reminder from time to time even if you try to master it.