Things I Believe In...

And Things I Don’t…

Some things that, in my opinion, probably do not exist, except in people’s imaginations: Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, Enlightenment, Stillness, and Free iPads.

(I mean enlightenment as in a state of permanent transcendence of self-interest. The "New Age carrot" as a facebook friend put it…)

I do believe in the existence of energy fields around the body, but only the verifiable kind, like infrared or heat energy, or static electricity.

I do believe in the existence of Eskimos, although I’ve never met one.

I do believe in the existence of aliens, just not here on Earth. I don't believe inter-stellar travel is possible. I could be wrong of course, but the space and time barriers, seem insurmountable to me. Interstellar communication of some kind is far more likely. I will not be convinced of the existence of aliens on Earth by the way, until one is standing in my front yard with a ray-gun.

Love at first sight? Not fully realized love of course. That takes time and energy. But I do believe it's possible at first sight to know that another person is someone with whom one could do that work, that the other person is right for you.

Sasquatches, Yetis, Bigfoot? No way. A huge social mammal on Earth that has so far eluded us? Not a chance.

Bargains, I do believe in, but not if they are labeled as such.

Stillness to me is only relative. Everything is moving, vibrating, or spinning in some way.

And I would add "Silence" to the list as well. I know there is no sound in space, but there is vibration and to me, silence means no vibration.

I don’t believe the human mind can move objects except through the actions of our physical bodies. I don’t believe people can fly, levitate or even increase their hang time when jumping beyond the limits set by gravity.

I believe the only thing that can beat good physics is better physics.

I don’t believe that anything is “supernatural”. If it exists, it’s natural.

I don’t believe in immortal souls, Heaven or Hell. I’d love to be wrong about that, but only if there’s no Hell. Although, what the Hell?, Hell might be better than nothing. I don’t believe in reincarnation or any of the other afterlife scenarios. I barely believe in this life, let alone the next one.

I don’t believe restaurants with “high school” kitchens, that is, restaurants staffed primarily by high school kids, are safe to eat in, which pretty much rules out fast food joints. This is because underpaid overworked young people with very recently formed senses of right and wrong are not likely to follow all the appropriate hygienic procedures and in fact might deliberately violate them.

I didn’t believe “2012” would be any different from any other year in terms of disasters and such. If the Mayans were so prescient, why didn’t they see the collapse of their own civilization coming? And remember, their calendar had to stop somewhere. They couldn’t keep chiseling indefinitely. Even our calendars don’t go on forever. I was right about this one.

I do believe that most “alternative” medical therapies work, at least for some people, but usually not for the reasons the practitioners of them think they do.

I do believe that so called “Western” medicine has a lot to offer, but unfortunately the entire delivery system is so corrupt and money infiltrated that I don’t trust it.

I believe that exercise is best when it’s integrated into daily life, rather than sequestered to discrete workouts and places like gyms. And, other things being equal, outdoors is better than indoors.

I believe that cell phones, the internet and the digital revolution as a whole are making our brains lazier and lazier. Just as cars weakened our legs, so computers are weakening our brains. We do not think, we ask for information from the net.

I don’t believe in “purging” or “eliminating” things from our psyches or lives. We can learn to relate to things differently, but nothing can be done away with entirely.

I do believe in love.