Page 1 of Tony Brussat's writing

1. Qualia and the Mind-Body Dualism Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that the reason the pigeon can navigate home from anywhere, even if he is prevented from “knowing” where he is, is because he is able to sense the magnetic fields which surround the Earth. Well... (posted by Tony 312 days 18 hours ago.)

2. The Spirit of Qualia The first anthropologists to study religion around the world found what they considered to be primitive, almost fossilized predecessors to the modern, “great” religions. The fetishism and nature worship of our ancestors still lingered... (posted by Tony 317 days 4 hours ago.)

3. Qualia Blossoms There is some debate about which is more important, a flower's seeds or its blossom. Seeds, of course, carry the flower's DNA into the next generation, but the blossom is the flower in full potential. In a human, we are slaves to our own seed, our... (posted by Tony 322 days ago.)

4. Star-Spangled Qualia There is a passage in Plato, when Crito is trying to convince Socrates to flee Athens, when suddenly the Laws of State become personified and argue why Socrates ought to stay and suffer his sentence of death. The Laws of State argue simply and... (posted by Tony 328 days 5 hours ago.)

5. Qualia Is for Lovers Qualia Is for Lovers What qualia and love have in common is that they both pull us into relationships. In fact, love is a form of qualia, just like color, or smell, or texture, or pattern. Like all qualia, we only know it because we sense it;... (posted by Tony 328 days 20 hours ago.)

6. Wake Up and Smell the Qualia! First of all, ideas are qualia. Ideas, just like colors, or smells, are not really part of the things that have them, though they are very much a part of us. A rose wouldn't be red if we (or some other organism) had not evolved the ability to... (posted by Tony 332 days 15 hours ago.)

7. A New Look at Qualia If you google the word “QUALIA” you will get links to a bunch of articles which, after the first paragraph, turn into gobbledygook. The reason these articles are so hard to read is that qualia is hard to understand. Even the simplest... (posted by Tony 334 days 17 hours ago.)

8. A New Scientific Consciousness In a 1961 paper, Susanne Langer explained that a new culture was probably in the making. Her optimism told her that although science was destroying the old world, it was also bringing on the new. "A scientific mentality capable of engendering a... (posted by Tony 2 years 77 days ago.)

9. Patterns and Pollution Although the brain may be genetically hardwired to perceive particular types of patterns, such as edges, light versus dark, hot versus cold, and even time, most patterns are learned from experience. Actually, since there is no memory "storehouse"... (posted by Tony 2 years 83 days ago.)

10. Are the Laws of Physics Alive? An underlying premise of the qualiadelic experience is that ideas are alive. They are living entities, vying for space in our brains. So, here's a question: are the laws of physics alive? The common wisdom is that the laws of physics are... (posted by Tony 2 years 98 days ago.)

11. The Decay of Stuff Symbols are just ideas made manifest. And symbols decay. Even the spoken word, the premier human manifestation of an idea, decays in a quickly fading echo. All the man-made stuff that we see around us, all the TV's, cars, clothes, buildings... (posted by Tony 2 years 101 days ago.)

12. Momentary Gods As the great philosopher of language and meaning, Ernst Cassirer revealed: "Every impression that man receives, every wish that stirs in him, every hope that lures him, every danger that threatens him, can affect him thus religiously. Just let... (posted by Tony 2 years 142 days ago.)

13. Extraordinary American Dreams Jane Monnig Atkinson tells a typical story of the Wana people of Sulawesi, in South Asia. Two men were camping together when they heard the sounds of ritual drumming, although they were far from any human settlement. Searching, one man found a... (posted by Tony 2 years 149 days ago.)

14. Convenience The famous biologist, E. O. Wilson, compares species that are able to occupy multiple habitats with those "specialized to live in particular habitats." For instance, one kind of finch may find different sources of food, while another may be... (posted by Tony 2 years 169 days ago.)

15. Transitions Qualia, such as color, depth, texture, by themselves, don't tell us much about consciousness. However, the qualiadelic relationships we have with these elements our perception of them is most important. For our perception of them evolves as we... (posted by Tony 2 years 171 days ago.)

16. How to Get the Ego Out of It's Comfort Zone The ego, as Eckhart Tolle describes it, is like a defense mechanism gone out of control, which eventually imperils our personal growth. Conscious Ritualing provides us with a safe way to lure the ego out of it's comfort zone, so that we can... (posted by Tony 2 years 182 days ago.)

17. Deep Throat and the Competition of Ideas Censorship, we have decided, is the predator of ideas. However, following the lead of biologist E. O. Wilson, we acknowledge that predators increase diversity. Predators keep the competitors somewhat equal; without them, a few competitors rise and... (posted by Tony 2 years 203 days ago.)

18. Ideas as Predators The Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, in 1919 proposed that the best means available for assessing the truth of an idea is to see how it fares in a marketplace of truly free competition. This was a nice slap on the wrist to the would-be... (posted by Tony 2 years 205 days ago.)

19. The Qualiadelic Experience of Higher Animals Whales, dolphins, humans and surely others (elephants? Chimpanzees?...), all once upon a time looked inward and saw the Qualia in their own minds. It was the birth of higher consciousness. Qualia, the most well known of which are color, smell... (posted by Tony 2 years 231 days ago.)

20. Stonehenge and the Sound of One Hand Clapping Sometimes it seems as if virtually everything is Qualiadelic. But in fact, most things are only potentially Qualiadelic. A great example is Stonehenge, the ancient rock formation near the southern coast of England. Stonehenge is so massive... (posted by Tony 2 years 232 days ago.)

21. Ritual in Boxes Ritual in boxes -- rituals within rituals -- is the secret to making every moment Qualiadelic and meaningful. This can happen in two, different ways. Either we use the same ritual again and again throughout the day, to open up other rituals, or we... (posted by Tony 2 years 235 days ago.)