Then you might be interested in Alfred Korzybski's work in General Semantics (a field which he founded). Its basic tenets being, "the word is not the thing defined," or, "the map is not the territory":

I've heard that the Googlers are secretly pod people.

Ha! At least it might save us from a sequel. Ah, who am I kidding...it was a guilty pleasure.

Thanks! This almost makes that Google Image search worth it.

Thanks for the article. I always found this image/correlation fascinating.

And, in nine short months, that "Sun" will be a beautiful baby boy. And we shall call him "Ra."

I wouldn't say "just...", but of course proper sleep is integral to one's health. Just like levels of stress and one's social support can have a large (and often under-emphasized) impact on mental health. That being said, I think one area that goes almost completely neglected is nutrition. Here's an interestin­g…

That sounds just like an experiment social psychologist Robb Willer would do. Guy is such a prick. DON'T TELL HIM I SAID THAT!

My pleasure! They keep popping up and getting taken down. Not even sure how long this one will last, and it's the only one I found as of late.

Great doc.

My pleasure! If you haven't read A Beginner's Guide..., it's incredibly comprehensive and makes some pretty fascinating, crystal-clear connections. Thanks for the thread!

That makes two of us! Just last month, in fact. It really was a well-written and fascinating book.

At the risk of repeating myself - same here! This book introduced me to that stuff, and my mind has remained blown ever since:

Exactly! It's like we've got these jumper cables, and a nervous system that needs jump starting. The "jump starting," in this case, being into states that may anticipate, or induce, future adaptations of human consciousness. Fun to think about.

Same here. We evolved along with, and because of, our diet. There weren't any classifications of "illegal drugs" back then, and these things flourish in all sorts of conditions in the wild - it's hard not to imagine at least occasional consumption. Considering mankind's predilection to experimenting with…

I can't even express how awesome this mention is.

In short, I absolutely love and agree with Aldous Huxley's beautifully succinct take on the matter:

Here's one from the Ukraine.

How great! That remains one of my top overall books. I embedded a great video from the author (whom I fortuitously share a last name with) that I found equally mind-blowing.

Not at all! It's a pretty broad range, and I'll probably do a piss poor job covering it. But, besides Sacred Geometry (one of my favorite books on the matter, A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe - [www.amazon.com]), some of the stuff I'm interested in is: