Enlightenment is Merely the Absence of Hallucinations

Larry Neal Gowdy

A humorous True Story

In the 9th grade, and at a new junior high school built in the city's newest neighborhood, I was the first known kid to say 'cool' (I had enjoyed watching beatnik shows on TV, where I picked-up the term from a cool cat beatnik). The other kids in school did not know what 'cool' meant, so some kids made fun of me, but before the school year ended, all other kids in school were also saying 'cool'.

All it takes for a new language to form, is one cool cat (or cool kitty). Everyone else will follow.

Imagine - What If?

Imagine a group of five pre-school aged girls playing in the living room. Imagine the girls pretending to be adults. The girls do not know anything about cars except that cars can be sat in, cars move on streets, cars need gasoline, and adults steer the cars. Within the girls' play, they begin inventing names of things that they know nothing about. The girls reason amongst themselves that something must make the cars go, so the girls invent the word 'gobust' to be the name of the thing that makes the car go. As the game continues, the girls invent the word 'stopbust' to be the name of the thing that makes the car stop. As the girls' game continues each afternoon for a week, the girls invent over a hundred names for the things that explain how cars go, how cars stop, and everything else that the girls could imagine a car could do.

When the girls become old enough to enter the first grade, the girls continue using the invented names when speaking of cars. By the time the school year ends, all of the other students are also using the names for things that the students know nothing about. Within three years the invented vocabulary becomes popular amongst children throughout the city. Within five years, many people of all ages in cities throughout the country are using the girls' words. When a younger generation is born, they learn to use the girls' invented words. Schools begin teaching the girls' words to be true fact, and though automotive mechanics know that the new vocabulary is nuts, still the unknowing public accepts the school words to be true. By the time the third generation is born, anyone who disagrees with the girls' choices of words would be hated on and shunned by most everyone in the country.

A Not So Humorous True Fact

The imaginary girls' game scenario actually happened, except it happened with adult men who invented names for themselves: 'philosophers', 'academicians', and 'scientists'. The men did not know what ethics and virtue are, so the men invented names like 'applied ethics', 'consequentialist ethics', 'virtue ethics', and so on. The same men also invented names for emotions, memories, thinking, beauty, and everything else related to the mind. The invented names are now taught in all schools and religions throughout the world.

Observe that Christian missionary and Oxford University employee James Legge (and countless other academicians also) claimed that Confucius said "It is only the truly virtuous man who can love, or who can hate, others." (Li Ren 3). Academicians and other preachers claim things that cannot possibly be true, but still the cult worshipers demand that everyone bow down to and believe in what the academicians claim. Simultaneously funny and repulsive is that many academicians today are striving to have James Legge be worshiped as a "brilliant" "genius" in spite of the fact that Legge did not so much as know what virtue is.

And remember too that Legge was a Christian missionary, but everything Legge said contradicted everything about Christianity. The Christian Bible states "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matthew 5:37 KJV), but Legge always snubbed everything Jesus taught. All Christian academicians do the same thing. All people who believe in gods also behave with hate towards their gods. Every single one of them. And, of course, all of them are also believers of academia and science.

The scientists also did not know what ethics, virtue, and thinking are (nor anything else), so the scientists grabbed their yard-sticks and bathroom scales while racing to go measure ethics and brains. As the years passed, the scientists devised ways to measure ethics and brains more closely with calipers and fMRI photographs. Without first knowing what ethics and thinking are, still the scientists are claiming that they are able to measure ethics and thinking, and, the scientists loudly claim that they alone are the sole experts of describing the ethics and thinking words that were invented without first knowing what ethics and thinking are.

A recent report is of an academician who will be performing a research with the goal of discovering what the sense of beauty is. Yes, it is true that academicians have been claiming for decades that they already know what beauty is, but, as always, academicians contradict everything they say. The article Pathological Science Beauty has a good enough summation: "The absence of an intricate description of beauty single-handedly nullifies all science, rendering all science to be pathological science. If a man cannot describe beauty, then he knows nothing of anything." Every time an academician or scientist opens their mouth, immediately they prove of themselves to be "The imbecile of 4-year intelligence, even though he may have lived forty years... (Lewis Terman)."

Three Quick Examples of Professionals Not Knowing How Their Own Profession Works

[1] While driving the highway from Roswell, New Mexico where I had serviced the security equipment at a major corporation, the company's pickup engine suddenly died. As speed decreased while coasting, suddenly the engine restarted. As I speeded back up to the speed limit, the engine died again. The symptoms were obvious: all of the pickup's electrical (lights, radio, and engine) would fail at a specific rpm, which meant that the alternator bearings were worn, permitting the rotor to physically touch the field windings, and thus shorting-out the electrical. The long drive home was slow because the shorting began occurring at lower and lower rpms.

The next morning we took the pickup to the Nissan dealer for repairs. I told the service manager what the symptoms were, and that all it needed was an alternator. The service manager bluntly stated that the problem could not possibly be the alternator. Two days later the service department called and told us they had the pickup ready. While the company boss and I were at the dealer getting the pickup, the dealer's service manager said that their mechanics worked on the pickup for both days while trying to find the electrical problem, but they finally did discover that the problem was the alternator.

The experience illustrates that although people might be paid professionals, most of the people are still unable to rationalize how things work.

[2] Several years ago I visited a large heating and air supply for the purpose of purchasing a 24 volt central heating relay. I told the 20-something fellow behind the counter that I needed a 24 volt fan motor relay, but the fellow said that they did not sell relays. I was stunned because the supply house was the largest in the city, and it seemed to be unbelievable that any heating and air supply house would not carry one of the most common replacement parts. Before I left, I chose to ask additional questions for the purpose of verifying that the supply house did indeed not carry relays. As it eventually turned-out, the supply house did stock relays, but the young man had been told that relays are named 'actuators'.

Relays have been around for over a hundred years, and relays had always been named relays, but, apparently, someone (little girls?) decided to rename relays as 'actuators'. Worse is that the employee did not know how heating and air units work, else he would have rationalized what a 24 volt relay would be.

[3] William James, Boris Sidis, and William Sidis spoke of their curiosity of a 'reserve energy'. In 1920 William Sidis wrote the book The Animate and the Inanimate in which he theorized about the reversal of the second law of thermodynamics and 'reserve energy'. In William Sidis' book he wrote: "This work sets forth a theory which is speculative in nature, there being no verifying experiments. It is based on the idea of the reversibility of everything in time, that is, that every type of process has its time-image, a corresponding process which is its exact reverse with respect to time. ...This is in accordance with some recent discoveries. The late Prof. William James has discovered in the domain of mental phenomena what he calls "reserve energy," which later investigation has shown to be present to a more limited extent in all biological phenomena. ...Lord Kelvin, however, does not work out the theory. He suggests that life works through a reversal of the second law of thermodynamics."

The topic includes four of the most well-known names in the fields of physics, psychology, academia, science, and intelligence, but none of the individuals were able to rationalize how things work. Today, William Sidis is often claimed to have been the world's smartest man, but he wasn't even smart enough to recognize that his statement "corresponding process which is its exact reverse with respect to time" was absurd. Within the physics of Nature (the laws of Nature), nothing can have an "exact reverse", nor so much as have a vague general "reverse". To not know that there can be no reverse, proves that the person does not so much as know how the normal 'forward' process works.

The above three examples are sufficient enough illustrations that people memorize words, and then invent imaginary beliefs of the words, all without the people first knowing what the words mean.

Birth of Cults

A cult is a small group of individuals who memorize and believe in the lead cultist's invented words. When the cult grows in popularity, it is renamed to be a 'philosophy'. When the philosophy grows even more popular, it is renamed to be a 'religion'. When the religion grows to encompass the whole world, it is renamed to be 'science'. When science becomes a government's religion, the governments then mandate that all citizens believe in the cult. The government-mandated obedience to the cult is named 'academia' and 'public schooling'.

Anyone who does not believe in the cults of philosophies, religions, science, and academia, is hated on and shunned by the cultist believers. Anyone who refuses to be brainwashed in public schools will be arrested, repeatedly beaten for years, and forcibly placed into prison, and if the person still resists, he will be murdered by government employees. Don't think so? Go ask the Native Americans what the USA government did to their parents and children who refused to be herded into government schools. Also ask the adults who survived years of constant physical and psychological abuse from academicians in schools. Once a cult gets a foothold, people flock to murder each other while claiming that murder is righteous behavior. The Oxford University sinology professor and Christian missionary James Legge himself stated in writing that it is virtuous to hate people. Moloch worshipers and academia worshipers: same thing.

Scary Stuff

Scientists do not so much as know what beauty is, oh but scientists do claim to be the sole experts of beauty, even though the scientists do not know what beauty is. The same applies for emotions, memories, language, consciousness, logic, and everything else related to the human mind and body.

If a person cannot describe their own emotions, then the person does not know what emotions are. Almost no one on earth is able to so much as to describe their own emotions, nor are they able to describe their memories, nor thoughts, nor the sense of beauty, nor sensory perceptions, nor anything else about their own lives. Ah, but most everyone does believe in science's and academia's claims that they know everything about everything because they memorized newly invented girls' words for things that they know nothing about.

Philosophy is a cult. Academia is a cult. Science is a cult. Deny it all a person wants, but they are still cults that use invented noun-names for things that the cults know nothing about.

As automotive mechanics stand back and shake their heads at little girls inventing car-names for things that the girls know nothing about, so do self-thinking people shake their heads at philosophies, religions, sciences, and academia. Little girls playing dress-up, academicians playing scholars, and scientists playing gods of knowledge: same thing.

Schoolmarms' Invented Words

(Quick drawing using Inkscape's calligraphy pen.)

The Chinese word 德 is composed of three ideas: [1] small steps, [2] ten eyes (the 'ten eyes' might refer to five gods watching, or 10 implying perfect, or something else), and [3] heart. The early bone script version of 德 only has [1] small steps and [2] ten eyes. The common English definitions of 德 are 'benevolence, ethics, kindness, morality, virtue'.

Ah, but, no academician nor scientist is able to describe what benevolence, ethics, kindness, morality, and virtue are.

By what reasoning is it possible to sanely declare that the unknown Chinese word 德 implies an unknown English word? Don't you have to know what benevolence, ethics, kindness, morality, and virtue are before you can know that 德 means benevolence, ethics, kindness, morality, and/or virtue? Well, nope, not according to academia and science: all you have to do is to memorize dictionary words, and, according to academia and science, reciting the imaginary words is all that a person needs to do for the person to know what things are.

'Tiny person him learning, enter ear, come-out mouth.' (Xunzi)

So Crazy, It's Likely True

No long ago, it was reported that a scientist claimed that he discovered how the sense of beauty occurs. According to the report, the scientist claimed that the eyes change shape, and it is the shape of the eyes that creates the sense of beauty. Really! Seriously! That's what has been reported! Yes it is screamingly crazy for anyone to believe that a scientist could be that nuts, but, actually, considering all things, and considering that scientists and academicians have said similar things for phantasia and other topics, then, well, (:::shrugging shoulders:::). it might actually be an accurate report.

Without hesitation, conscious self-thinking people are able to intricately describe what beauty is. Humorously, when I begin describing a thing, usually within an hour my wife will hold up a hand as she rubs her finger tips, smiles, and very slowly says "Too, much, information.". For some of us, we can describe things non-stop for hours while also illustrating the ideas with observable physics.

Oh! And the topic of virtue is far more complex and fun to talk about than beauty! And more lengthy!

Scientists and academicians, however, cannot so much as utter a single coherent word related to beauty (nor virtue), but, of course, the scientists and academicians continue to loudly claim that they are the sole experts on the topics of beauty and virtue.

Beliefs in Things That Do Not Exist, are Hallucinations

If a person truly believes that a thing exists, but the thing cannot be seen nor in any manner perceived with sensory perceptions, then the person is mentally hallucinating. People who have hallucinations are given several invented noun-names including 'dementia'. Julian Jaynes had an interesting thought about hallucinations:

"The gods are what we now call hallucinations. ... with everybody following his own private hallucinations. ...a rigid hierarchy, with lesser men hallucinating the voices of authorities over them, and those authorities hallucinating yet higher ones, and so on to the kings and their peers hallucinating gods."

"...The only extensive study was a poor one done in the last century in England.2 Only hallucinations of normal people when they were in good health were counted. Of 7717 men, 7.8 percent had experienced hallucinations at some time. Among 7599 women, the figure was 12 percent. Hallucinations were most frequent in subjects between twenty and twenty-nine years of age, the same age incidentally at which schizophrenia most commonly occurs. There were twice as many visual hallucinations as auditory. National differences were also found. Russians had twice as many hallucinations as the average. Brazilians had even more because of a very high incidence of auditory hallucinations."

"...At the heart of this seminal work is the revolutionary idea that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but was a learned process that emerged, through cataclysm and catastrophe, from a hallucinatory mentality only three thousand years ago and that is still developing." (Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, ©Copyright 1975, 1990)

Not all hallucinations are visual and audial. Some hallucinations are of touch, smell, and taste. Some other forms of hallucinations are strong convictions of beliefs in things that do not exist and cannot possibly exist. Just for the fun of it, we can invent another new noun-name for when people hallucinate within their own minds, and we will call it 'hallucinatus fides' (Latin is the only spoken language I ever enjoyed learning: it sings so smoothly, and is much more fun than merely saying 'nuts'). Jaynes' first sentence is very descriptive when a couple words are given a synonym:

"The gods are what we now call ~~hallucinations~~ beliefs. ... with everybody following his own private ~~hallucinations~~ beliefs. ...a rigid hierarchy, with lesser men ~~hallucinating~~ believing the voices of authorities over them, and those authorities ~~hallucinating~~ believing yet higher ones, and so on to the kings and their peers ~~hallucinating~~ believing ~~gods~~ scientists."

An unfounded belief, is a self-invented hallucination.

Easy Enlightenment Without Effort

Several religions and philosophies promise their followers 'enlightenment'. None of the religions and philosophies have ever described what their alleged 'enlightenment' is, but, nevertheless, many people have believed in the religions and philosophies because the people believed that they would be given the reward of an unknown 'enlightenment' for believing in the religion and/or philosophy.

Instead of wasting decades of one's life attempting to acquire a thing that no one has ever been able to describe, it is much easier and faster to simply recognize that all philosophies began like the little girls' game, and that all of the philosophies' words were invented without first knowing what the words mean. Once a person recognizes that philosophy, academia, and science are a mere continuance of the girls' game, then at that time the person can stand back, observe the nutty beliefs that people have, and, be enlightened. No, it isn't the best form of enlightenment, but it's a mighty good first step, good enough to cause a person to feel a bit freaked at how people are so easily led to believe (hallucinate) things that are not true.

To see, and to understand that people hallucinate in their own minds, one result is that the observer discovers that they are then free to choose what is true within the real world of Nature. Self-thinking is, in its own way, a form of enlightenment.

Related articles are in the Intelligence section.