svelteciderMar 6

What is a belief you’ve done a total 180 on?

https://lemmy.ca/post/61396220

What is a belief you’ve done a total 180 on? - Lemmy.ca

I used to be strictly materialist and atheist. Now I’m pretty spiritual. Don’t necessarily follow a religion and don’t support bigotry but yeah, I’m fairly spiritual now. This is a recent development and I never thought I’d be here like 5 years ago.

Show threadTheLeadenSea
What do you mean by being spiritual? I’m an idealist so I think consciousness/subjective perception is the fundamental substrate of reality, and matter/the physical world is just an illusion, but I wouldn’t consider myself spiritual…
Mar 6 at 3:59pmWeb
Show threadGrailMar 6
Cool, do you think the belief in physical reality can be harmful?
Show threadTheLeadenSeaMar 6
I think you have to operate in the framework of the sensory world when acting within the sensory world, and like using science and stuff to work out what’s likely to happen if you do certain things as opposed to other things. But that’s not the same as saying that you believe the physical world is real
Show threadGrailMar 7
I think we should use science to manipulate our senses for good, regardless of alignment with reality. But the realists say we should only use science to get closer to reality. I think they’re stifling scientific progress.
Show threadIntriguedIcebergMar 6
That’s actually the basis for Mahayana, which then transformed into multiple kinds of Buddhism. I’d consider it a pretty spiritual stance, if not only because it means that you’ve spent time thinking about what is “reality”.
Mahayana - Wikipedia

Show threadbsitMar 6

Not at all to imply that this is your case, but there’s a difference between having an intellectual understanding of idealism and actually having the lived experience of it.

And most people need to do some kind of practices to get there, which are typically found in spiritual contexts (meditation etc.). But there definitely are people who just kinda click into it.

Though… yes. It’s a philosophical stance but it kinda gets tossed under the umbrella of spirituality. Maybe that’s actually a problem come to think of it. Since spirituality is easier to dismiss as “woo” (as in, everything that goes against the almighty scientism is woo…)

Though you do say:

subjective perception

What do you mean? Because as an idealist, I was specifically taught to see the difference between a subjective perception and general consciousness. It’s very possible this is just semantics of course.

Scientism - Wikipedia