"I'm on the bus. I'll see you in five minutes."

Really? You see people ‘dying’, you think people actually die? I know the body disintegrates or whatever but how do you know the person actually dies? And as for seeing people queuing at food banks, because they have no money to buy food, you seem to have made a lot of assumptions and come to some definite conclusions. We could say many things about people standing in a que, we could say one woman is a wonderful person, she’s so kind, she queues up all day in such a long line and gives most of her gifts to other people. We could say so many things, other than they have no money to buy food. Do you really know that they have no money to buy food? Most people have some money, even if it’s only 50p and if they do have 50p, it is not correct to say they have no money for food. 

This is nothing at all to do with semantics, that is often what people say when they imagine they are disagreeing with somebody. But I’m not disagreeing with anybody and it’s certainly not semantics. It’s simply speaking from a position of the truth. Which isn’t magical or supernatural, but to say outright that somebody has no money to buy food, could be wholly incorrect yet you say it with confidence and without realising that there could be another explanation. 

Can you honestly tell me that it’s true, that people die? 

You know three people now. I don’t have a television, I have never taken to it. Even as a kid I used to clean my nannan’s coal cellar out to avoid watching the television. I would rather be out in nature and I agree wholeheartedly with the religious guy, it is the perfect form of mind control because many people (enough to make it work) love it and are completely unaware that they are being mind controlled, even when it’s proven to them. 

All these discussions simply distract the mind from the real issue. Governments etc have exercised mind control on its population ever since man began. 

It’s only a problem if you think it is and if you think it is, it is a problem. Like Henry Ford said, if you think you’re right or you’re wrong, either way you’ll be right. 

Who cares whose snooping on me, I’d rather be in the woods, amongst nature, enjoying this truly abundant universe. 

The double split experiment shows that we change the behaviour of matter simply by observing it. As for our thoughts, we ‘think’ or many people think they are triggered by things we see or by things around us but they’re not. They actually come from within us, which you can prove yourself by becoming a vipassana meditater. If you’re not a photon, what are you? 

That’s funny, or maybe interesting, that you assumed I was presuming to tell you how you think, feel or experience the world. I guess it’s interesting because that’s exactly what my sister said when I was talking to her over lunch the other day. Her response surprised me then, as yours does now, as I at no point tried to tell anybody what they think or feel. Both of you told me that you know your own minds and what it is to be you. I never doubted that. That’s why I was surprised when you both said that. I speak through universal laws and truths, not to or about anyone personally or perspectives. I haven’t got a perspective, I’m not actually too sure what that means, so manybe I do have one. 

For the record, nobody is ‘spiritual’ or not only spiritual anyway. We all have a spirit but people who call themselves ‘spiritual’, are often people following some new age fad or ‘buddhism’ or some such, but they might as well be watching the tv for all the good it’s doing them. And nobody said your ‘perspective’ as you call it, isn’t valid, I’m baffled at why you tell me that. Surely everybody’s ‘perspective’ is valid and equal? I would never think otherwise, that thought doesn’t enter my head. However, for something to be ‘true’, it must be true for everyone and it is must be unchanging, otherwise it’s not a truth, just the way somebody views something, so in effect, you could say it’s ‘true’ to them, but it’s not a universal truth. 

I own mobile phones. 

But....

I often choose not to carry it with me.

When I'm going to the local shops I don't see the need to have it with me on person.  I leave it at home and can see who (if anyone) rang later.

I only switch on the GPS when I need the mapping software.  It's useful to see my location in an instant when I need to.

Televisions.  I only know two people who definitely didn't own a TV.  One was a power walker (neighbor) who was always on the move.  Walking backwards and forwards.  And didn't spend much time at home.  The other was a former work colleague who was very religious.  He made it very clear to people that televisions were an invention of the devil. And their purpose was to divert people from their true purpose in life, which was praying and worshipping god.

Poverty and ill health don’t exist.

I think I can see where you're coming from on this - but I disagree fundamentally with your assertion.  It isn't a figment of my imagination if I see people dying in hospitals of terminal illnesses, or people queuing at food banks because they have no money to buy food.  Or people dying of malnutrition in countries blighted by drought, disease and political corruption.  I think you're really talking about a semantic matter here.

Yeah.  Digital assistants.  According to one report I read recently, around 42% of children aged 9 to 16 use voice recognition technology, such as Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, to help them with their homework.  The report warned that barking out orders to devices risks making children less polite, because these digital assistants do not demand a 'please' or 'thank you'!

Some of Edward Snowden's revelations make frightening reading.  Facebook is a veritable mine of information for anyone who might have a mind to exercise a little social control. 

Can't think who might want to do that.  Can you? 

(If you get a chance, check out the film 'Snowden', which is kind of an introduction, based on things he exposed about the security services and how they operate).

There seem to be more than a few top software developers who have later "turned against the beast" they themselves helped to create. I'm no use at remembering names but every so often one or another of them is pursued for a documentary every time issues of internet privacy hit the headlines.

Whether they worked for Google, Facebook or another big company, they all share basically the same story in that these 'traitors to the cause' objected to what they saw as ever deeper invasions of privacy that people using their services were being duped / encouraged / pressured into accepting without really knowing or understanding exactly what they were signing up to. Many such changes come as routine updates and we don't even necessarily 'agree' to anything. 

In the documentaries I've seen, those men (they were all men) have all (to varying degrees) gone off-grid and say it's partly because they forsee (and have seen) major societal changes that make them scared for not only their own future and that of their families but for society at large. Many of them have suffered threats from not only their previous employers but also from their government. It makes me wonder what it is they're afraid these men might reveal. 

As the most un-tech-savvy person I know, I just assume that whenever I'm online everything I do, say, or access is being seen by someone, somewhere. I believe you don't even have to be 'online' for your devices to be accessed by someone!? 

I don't own a mobile phone / smart phone, but I do use my partners to WhatsApp the kids. I use our laptop for this forum and researching ASD but that's fairly recent. Before that I was probably only on the laptop about two or three times a month for banking or checking e-mails. We don't have any 'smart' devices in our home either and I can't see us ever getting any in the future unless the not-so-smart alternatives become obsolete (a distinct possibility). 

I think the worst, certainly the creepiest, 'smart' device I've ever heard of are those that monitor your home and everyone / everything in it 24/7!!! What are they called again, is it 'Siri'? The ones on the TV ad's that you can tell to do your shopping for you or switch off lights or play music in another room? Imagine having that connected to everything in your home and it being hacked!?!?!?!    

The only thing that the double slit experiment proves is that something can exist in more than one form and more than one place simultaneously. Like opinions - except my changing opinions on something happen BECAUSE i'm in a different place / time and not simultaneously. Hmm, so not a perfect analogy really, but then I'm not a photon. 

I am autistic.

I am not spiritual.

I am not "more connected to everything and everyone else on the planet", in fact my perception is that I feel less connected to them. I am me and I know what that means to me. Please do not presume to tell me how I think, feel, or experience the world.

I am not trying to tell you how to think, feel or experience the world either, merely stating my experiences and thoughts on what i see around me every day.

Both 'Perspectives' are equally valid and equally 'true'.   

Our youngest daughter started asking for her own phone at about aged 10, two years younger than her older sisters, and I'd agree from many other things I've seen that these devices in particular and this connected-ness more generally is, in a sort of mission-creep way, extending to 'capture' much younger and older people than previously. Both extremes are being made to feel they 'need' to have devices and be connected to participate in the world because more and more services are only available online. 

We ended up getting our daughter a phone at aged 12 but less due to her 'wheedling' and more due to the fact that she started boarding school and it was the only way we could keep in touch with her regularly throughout the week. Other than WhatsApp messaging us and her sisters throughout the week (and friends at the weekend), she mainly uses it for music and games. (We left her the responsibility of topping it up so, being a teenager, that NEVER happens and it's never actually used as a phone!) 

I like the fact that we can keep in touch with her until she returns home on weekends (I use my partners phone and refuse to get my own ... so far!), I'm fine with her using it for music and games, I think it's useful that she uses it to Google things related to school (or not) and it's a calculator, diary, event reminder, and alarm all-in-one ... BUT ...

I hate the pressure she's under from other teenagers to join all sorts of social media platforms which I think are really dangerous!!! For everyone, but especially for younger people who are much less discerning in who they allow to contact them and in how much credence they give to things these people say. We're constantly having discussions about internet safety and I have to admit to being at a disadvantage because my knowledge on the subject is less than basic. (Her older sisters police her phone / usage for me and it's worked well so far.)  

I'd definitely agree about the general lowering of IQ and don't think that's helped by over reliance on things like spellchecker! And text-speak  :/   There seems to be a corresponding lowering of EQ or is it a rise in things such as depression? People seem to be aligning their self-worth with things like their 'likes', 'followers' and other such ways of measuring 'popularlty'. I think this external 'locus of control' is probably contributing a LOT to the growing rise in depression, especially among young people. The longer I can keep my daughter from social media the better, as far as I'm concerned.    

Human beings are social creatures. In the past, when people lived in tribes, if a person did something wrong, they would be banished from the tribe and within days, they would be dead. People need social contact. It’s a fundamental part of human nature. Because most humans don’t know their true nature, they allow themselves to be manipulated. If you look back closely over the history of slavery, you will see that modern man is simply modern slave, only now he finds his own accommodation and food. 

There’s nothing right or wrong with modern forms of communication but if you look at what’s going on at Silicon Valley, you will see they’ve been working on hand helds and wearables for a long time as a means of tracking and therefore manipulating people’s spending habits etc more easily. So phones and now watches (wearables) are moving us along nicely towards being chipped. 

Autistic people don’t require the same level of human contact as nt’s do because the part of the brain which has evolved over the years, to allow a person to be more connected to their physical aspect of being, in order to build societies, cities etc, is not present in autistic beings (I forget the name of this part of the brain), but we haven’t got it which means we’re more connected to our spiritual aspect which means we are already more connected to everything and everyone else on the planet so we require less of the actual physical contact. 

We live in a world of cause and effect, this has been proven. It has been proven, beyond doubt, that we create our realities through our thoughts, through our minds, our minds absolutely has an effect on what is physically happening. If the laws of nature were based on chaos, how do you explain the precise and exact movement of the sun and stars etc. There are no accidents in this world, it runs exactly and precisely. If everything is made by destroying something else, who or what made the original thing? 

There’s no such thing as good or bad, that is perception, it is the meaning that people give to something. 

What is a ‘physical’ entity? Poverty doesn’t exist, but to those who believe in it, it does. 

That’s right, people have been sold an illusion and they have bought it. Society is controlled even by the words we have been given. For example, the word ‘consumerism’ came into use in our society at a very precise and strategic point. There’s a book by a German guy that’s been translated into English called ‘plastic words’. It’s only a small book but difficult to read but the guy clearly shows when words were first introduced into society and why. They’re great tools. 

Poverty and ill health don’t exist. There’s nothing to agree or disagree about, they just don’t exist, only in appearance. Ill health and poverty are simply the effect of, let’s say, faulty thinking. Faulty thinking is the cause and poverty or ill health the effect. Poverty is never the result of a gross imbalance of wealth. That would indicate that there is only a certain amount of wealth that exists in the world, which isn’t true. Everything that was ever created, started with a thought, therefore thoughts are the cause and what we see are the effects. This is the reason why some people are wealthy and some are not. All the great thinkers and spiritual leaders of our past and present teach this, even Einstein sussed it out and experiments such as the double slit experiment proves this. 

Yeah... I think I'd go along with that.

I think what you're talking about here is perspective, not reality. I agree that we all have the power to change our perspective and choose to see things around us as good / bad but that perspective change doesn't actually have any effect on what is physically happening - only on how we see and respond to it.

The laws of nature, of the universe and everything in it, are actually based on chaos and entropy. Nothing is 'made' without destroying / utilising something else. It's not wrong or bad or anything, it's just a fact. We can choose to change our perspective and only focus on the 'good' stuff (who decides which bits are 'good'?) that is being produced but it doesn't change the fact that the whole process of growth / continuity / progress, relies on something else having died / rotted / stopped being / or being fundamentally changed first. 

The "appearances" of things such as poverty and ill health are simply determined by a person's perspective and are naturally different for each person. Taking the perspective that these things don't exist might make them disappear from your perspective, but not necessarily from anyone else's perspective and, more importantly, not in reality if those things are physical entities. 

they will never control you, unless you allow them to, which the majority of the population do

This is true.  But it's very difficult for many people to 'opt out'.  Too many societal pressures.  Of course, much of it is because people are being sold an illusion about what life should actually be about.

Never judge by appeareances. If you do, you will believe in delusions such as poverty, I’ll health and such things. These things don’t exist, not in reality, only in the controlled chaotic world of appeareances. 

So, poverty is just an 'appearance'?  And ill-health?  I'm not sure what point you're making here, BlueRay.  Ill-health exists.  Poverty may be the result of gross imbalances of wealth or resourse distribution - in other words, there may be plenty for all, but the way it's engineered by the powers-that-be means that many are denied (through wars, etc) - but many people in the world still live in poverty.  Relative, or otherwise.

I take it you mean that, like disability, these things are social constructs.  I'd still disagree about ill-health, though - even if society does make many people sick.