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DeVliegendeHollander comments on Open thread, Apr. 01 - Apr. 05, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 31 March 2015 10:06AM

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Comment author: ChristianKl 01 April 2015 12:44:17PM 3 points [-]

Nothing has healing properties as such, not even official medical treatments, they just have body-changing properties which we interpret as beneficial i.e. healing.

That's a debate of semantics. If the store would empirically create health benefits than it doesn't matter much whether the label of "healing powers" is semantically correct.

He was no the best Zen teacher around, but culturally compatible with New Age stuff and then she can go to a proper Zen meditation center.

I would be vary of bringing a person who sees spirits to spend more time meditating. I wouldn't do anything that encourages the girl to detach from reality.

Comment author: [deleted] 01 April 2015 01:05:28PM *  2 points [-]

Those benefits would have to be specific instead of a general healing potency. It had to work for migraine and not work for diarrhea.

Same way how "eating vegetables is healthy" is only a broad approximation. It does certain things, that are useful in certain circumstances, those circumstances being largely general unless one has specific medical conditions when not, such as undigestible fiber cleaning out the guts (not a good idea for Chron's), such as slow digestion meaning a slow insuline release (useful in general for most modern people, not so useful for eating directly before a hard workout), and so on.

Meditation doesn't detach from reality. Where did you get this idea from? It detaches one from one's interpretations of reality. Like you meditate and hear a sound. It teaches you to not instantly go and think "hey, that is a dog barking" and thus replacing the experience of a sound with a concept, with a mental category, but simply experiencing the sound directly without attaching any label to it.

Comment author: ChristianKl 01 April 2015 02:54:56PM 0 points [-]

Where did you get this idea from?

A variety of experiences.

It detaches one from one's interpretations of reality. Like you meditate and hear a sound. It teaches you to not instantly go and think "hey, that is a dog barking" and thus replacing the experience of a sound with a concept, with a mental category, but simply experiencing the sound directly without attaching any label to it.

The effects of meditation a bit more complex. I don't want to go to much in the detail here because that would mean that I would have to use words like "energy" with I don't use on LW.

Meditation is a beautiful thing, but it has effects. When it comes to a person who already sees spirits I would treat very careful.