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Psychology Reptilian Mind

Automaticity: Humans Behaving Like Machines

(Including Driving, Meals, Sex, and Work)   automaton n.1. a machine that simulates human functions (e.g., a mechanized installation device on a conveyor belt) via preprogramed coded instructions. 2. a human acting in an autonomous and routine manner, seemingly without an external driving force. APA Dictionary of Psychology. automaticity n. the quality of a behavior or mental process that can be carried […]

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Contemporary Issues Psychology Spirituality

Stampede Greed and Desperate Need

(Or, What the Sackler family and the Haitian refugees have in common) What do the Sackler family and the Haitian refugees have in common? They are both using every resource they have to survive. The Sackler family has armies of highly-paid lawyers and tax specialists, unenlightened elitist judges, ubiquitous myth-manufacturing media, money-oriented medical professionals, and lobbied subservient politicians to […]

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Contemporary Issues

Dinosaurs, Billionaires, and Mass Extinctions

Dinosaurs became rulers of the world about 201 million years ago after a mass extinction eliminated their major survival competitors. About 66 million years ago the dinosaurs, themselves, ceased to exist along with three-quarters of all life on earth because of another mass extinction. Dinosaurs had been the most powerfully successful creatures in history before their sudden exit. The […]

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Contemporary Issues Personal

Suffering, Indifference, and a Dead Deer on the Side of the Road

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them.”—George Bernard Shaw I was driving home when I saw a dead deer lying in the grass on the side of the road. Oklahoma City covers a lot of ground with enough room to be the “home” of […]

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Contemporary Issues Foundational

The Content of Our Mind Does Not Determine the Level of Our Consciousness

(Understanding What Is Good, Great, Evil, and Human) Introduction Most of us believe that people possess one mind. Sometimes that mind has the wisdom and courage to declare in the face of widespread civil violence: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies”—a thought that surely comes to us from “the better angels of our nature.” Other […]