Seems like the cantankerous soul of Thanatos Sand has been reincarnated in this John Harris guy... :D

Our knowledge of a particular word has to be stored somewhere in the brain. The point is that we are unable to detect exactly where, which means that science isn't currently capable of detecting everything that exists.

Hahaha! Please refer to the thread on getting authentically drunk... >:O

@John Harris I don't believe in souls, but someone could argue that they are undetectable, just like the word 'dog' is undetectable in the brain.

Imaging a supernatural essence like the soul or a natural soul impossibly avoiding all detection is just fantasizing as one fantasizes Angels or Demons. Using your faulty logic, they could be there too. — John Harris

Notice that I put 'soul' in quotation marks. When I say 'soul', I am referring to the sense of being more than just an animal, due to our higher level of intelligence. I don't think there is any force separate from our biological structures, but I can see how the sense of a soul could be an amalgamation of inputs from various parts of the brain, making it seem very real.

Yes, it's me, Thanatos Sand, I lost my password. — John Harris

Well at least we got rid of one idiot! :P >:O

Its a nice idea Cav, but if the soul is natural, it would have been detected by now. There's just no chemical entity/human part that could escape sciences exhaustive means of detection. — Thanatos Sand

We know that a certain part of the brain is responsible for language, but we're not capable of finding exactly where the word 'dog' is stored. Does this mean words are not natural?

By the same thinking, the 'soul' could be contained in and generated by the brain, even though it can't be physically located.

I think intellectual life is comparable to other markets. To be competitive and benefit financially, you need to have a product that has a perceived benefit; it has to be unique, or at lease offer an existing benefit at a lower cost.

Trying to succeed in the intellectual market is a lot like the entertainment industry - you need to have talent, you need to put in a lot of hard work, and a little luck doesn't hurt. In the end, only a very small percentage of the population will 'make it'.

The best example of financial success in the intellectual market is probably the self-help section of the book store, where authors peddle their life hacks to interested individuals. To fit in, your philosophical ponderings would have to offer some way of improving quality of life. Otherwise, where is the value in your product?

We've got us some English-type weather here in Sudbury today. One big cloud covering the sky with a bit of drizzle. Who has something to brighten up the day?

Have you had the pleasure of teaching any of @Sapientia's children?

Oh, that's not so bad! You made it sound pretty grim in your preceding post.

Civic holidays - they're great! Gotta love Canada!

I tend to think my recovery is a combination oh pharmaceuticals, cognitive and dialectical behavioral therapy practices, mindfulness, improved life circumstances, and self help. But I'll probably never know for sure. — Brian

Same here. I'm also reluctant to stop the medication, as there is no guarantee that the brain is not permanently damaged by prolonged periods of depression. To me, it's not worth the risk to try and find out.

But past two weeks, again I started feeling even worse. — rossii

I'm in a pretty decent place right now, but the road to recovery from depression is full of ups and downs. Just when you think you've got it beat, some new stress will make you feel like you're back at square one. But if you're doing the right things - seeing a decent therapist, continuing to take part in life, taking care of yourself - you should get steadily better, despite the setbacks.

For me, the most important things for maintaining decent mood are sleep and exercise, but especially proper sleep. Being overtired is too close to the way depression feels, and it seems quite easy for your mind to slip into its old negative thought patterns.

Well, that was a great week! Back to the grind on Tuesday. Out with the old boss, in with the new! :)

Yeah, just try arguing with Thanatos Sand. You'll find lots of flame there.

The Last Word for today will be... conflagration!

I've been washed clean, and wonder if I should start again.

I look at my stained hands, and wonder if I've done enough...

@Hanover What negative effects do people experience with CBT? The experience was an entirely positive one for me. I wasn't immediately cured of depression, but it certainly didn't add to the misery.

I bet you @Sapientia has a special hammer for permanently deleting children right before he throws them off the cliff.

My point is that the thoughts keep on returning and the hope that CBT might solve the thoughts did not come through. It's depressing that one has to live in a fortress and always be under siege by the negative thoughts. — Question

CBT will help with the conscious part of your problem - catching the negative self-talk that keeps popping up, refuting it, and replacing it with rational thought. It won't help with the poison that may be brewing underneath.

With a proper therapist, you should be able to drill down to the stuff that's tucked away in the sub-conscious. I think you need to dig up all the crap from the past in order to fully heal and move on in a healthy way.

I am already in therapy; but, I suppose I am having high expectations or something as I don't feel as though it is helping me. — Question

It may be that you haven't found the right therapist. I know I went through a couple of duds before I found one that was helpful.

It might also be that you're not on the right medication. I've been through many drug combos, and I'm finally on what seems to be the right mix. Thankfully, it's a mix that doesn't have any obvious side effects, so I'm not too motivated to try and get off of them.

Another thing that seems to be helping is something called repetitive trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). If they offer it where you live, I would recommend giving it a shot. It can be expensive though, and typically isn't covered by medical benefits. Where I live, it's close to being covered by the government health plan.

Spending an entire week with my girls. Feels great! X-)

Some people do commit suicide, that's true. My guess is that the usual cause is NOT that people get tired of dealing with the suicidal thinking. Something precipitates a surge in despair, like losing a mate, losing a job, chronic illness that gets worse... that sort of thing. — Bitter Crank

For me one attempt was precipitated by a major crisis during an extended period of severe depression. The other occurred after a night of binge drinking, during a very stressful period in my life. My depression was fairly well controlled by medication at the time, but I think the meds were masking a lot of the stressors.

Feel free to private message me - I have a fair bit of experience with depression, recovery, and relapse, and may be able to offer some sound advice if I know more about your situation. (Although I like to keep everything in the open, in the hopes that it will help someone else.)

Similar to @0 thru 9 there was a lot of breaking down and rebuilding involved in my recovery process. I believe the CBT based therapy really helped with discarding the negative self-talk and beliefs, and gave me the tools to stop the same sort of beliefs from redeveloping.

If you're really depressed, being on the right medication can be a good tool to get you to a place where you feel motivated enough to start the work you'll need to do to get better - therapy, exercise, proper sleep, balanced diet, healthy relationships.

Even now that I'm in a pretty decent place, being tired from lack of sleep can bring back a feeling resembling mild depression, and the negative thinking tries to fight its way back in. Stressful situations have the same sort of effect on me.

As for suicidal thoughts, they are usually a part of the hamster wheel of depressed thinking when I'm tired or stressed, but they carry a lot less power. In my case, I'm not sure if they will ever go away completely, because I had two nearly fatal suicide attempts.

If peace of mind were an achievement, it would have to be the achievement of an unpeaceful, striving mind. But it is not an achievement at all, but simply what happens when one stops trying to make a delicious cake out of shit. — unenlightened

It is quite an achievement for me, following a decade of depression. And the world doesn't feel like shit now, at least for the time being.

I said that from individual experience. CBT doesn't cure depression or make it go away, as anyone with depression would hope. It only addresses the final product of a "botched"/depressed mind. — Question

I think it's like you say - an individual experience. I believe CBT was an important part of my recovery from depression.

I have come up with a new word that means 'the last word'. It is zyzalogue. I win.

Yes, I think everyone has lost interest. I'll start a new thread to let them know the game is over, and I won.

@apokrisis I still don't understand how positive adaptation could occur without some kind of conscious intervention. Take my example of the centipede:

Little atoms joined together into little cells that are operating according to some biological program spontaneously changed what they were normally doing, and said 'Hey, legs would be useful, and we can construct them just so.'?

Too bad you couldn't think of anything - then you might have had the Last Word.

Only if you provide a valid reason for the identity change, and it is approved by 50% of the PF membership (excluding Rich and Thanatos Sand - their opinions don't matter)

@apokrisis

OK, so what if a semi-aware consciousness pervades all living things, and receives input from each entity's experiences, which it then uses to decide on perodic evolutionary changes to genetic programs? Genetic code is its programming language, but unlike computer code, it has a natural degree of chaotic behaviour, especially when subjected to various environmental factors (explaining things like cancer). The consciousness has a general sense of what is possible, and puts forth program changes that enable it's entities to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Add to this a desire to expand its population of entities — CasKev

So if you replace 'semi-aware consciousness' with 'universe', does this fit with what you were saying about accelerating heat death?

Then I could have a nice conversation with @Sapientia's favourite kids, 68 and 69.

That's where we do our best thinking!

@Rich Any ideas on what the overall aim of the big creative intelligence might be?

@Rich So what are you referring to when you say "the big creative intelligence"?

hey, apo's back, nice — darthbarracuda

Yeah, seems like he knows some stuff. Maybe he can help us out in the 'Implications of Evolution' thread...? @apokrisis

@Thanatos Sand Well that was entirely unhelpful.