Starcraft Personality Test

[Nissa]

There's no such thing as the supernatural. I'd know, I used to perform exorcisms.

Deep graves, deep pockets.

That's cute, honeybun.

[Gradius]

You're definitely right that sensing others doesn't equal being a better person. It gets overwhelming when you sense so much from others, and you don't know how to act with all that stuff in mind. Seriously, you do need to start thinking about God. He helps me deal with all the overwhelming emotions I feel, and the church understands this sort of thing in the form of spiritual giftings. It's called word of knowledge, where you suddenly receive a piece of information in your head that you absolutely know is true. You have to be careful with it, though. I one time sensed something about a girl and brought it up, and she got really offended at me. Sometimes the best thing to do when you sense that kind of thing is pray, because there's a time to tell people about it, and a time not to, and it's hard to know the difference.

Lots of people can do cold reads. It doesn't mean they have mystical powers. :P

[Nissa]

Who says they're mystic powers? They're spiritual powers. Everyone's a spirit, so everything spiritual is really normal. A person's spirit is the part of them that is gone when they die -- their personhood, their emotions, and knowledge. Nothing mystic about it.

[The_Blade]

Aaaaand... We have hit the hornet nest! Yey!

Seriously though, a while back we had a discussion on heaven and stuff. It went everywhere.

[TheEconomist]

Who says they're mystic powers? They're spiritual powers. Everyone's a spirit, so everything spiritual is really normal. A person's spirit is the part of them that is gone when they die -- their personhood, their emotions, and knowledge. Nothing mystic about it.

As someone who proactively tries to improve their "inuitive processes" I believe it basically comes down to pattern recognition, awareness, and "loading" more details of a large system in the mind. The subconscious is much better at these things because it isn't burdened by self-doubt and fact checking like the higher mental processes are which slows down the process and makes you unsure. If simple exercises (such as meditation or visualizers) can isolate the parts of the brain responsible for this and turn myself into an oblvious fool to something incredibly observant, then I really don't think there's anything mystical or spiritual about it. It's just a part of the brain that is misunderstood because we don't analyse it as much as we do high level states of mind.

This probably needs some context. Before I meditated and some other things, I was pretty much locked in my own shell. I engaged with people, I was popular, and people liked me, but they might as well have been objects in the environment I interacted with. Just by doing some simple exercises I went from this to be able to pick up on subtle body language cues to find what the person is feeling or wants to talk about and adjust my behavior according. Helped enormously with women because every woman is so incredibly different and particular about social interactions that one thing that works well with another will have another ready to slap or call the cops on you. My point is that I have tangible evidence for these simple exercises working. More importantly, it made me able to predict my father's stroke. Six months before he had it, I was able to pick up on small little details here and there that told me something was wrong. You know, like a dog does. I didn't know why I felt that way so I ignored it for longer than I should. The take away point behind here that I was given "psychic/spritial/mystical powers" simply by training the specific physical portions of my brain.

To be honest, I knew from the very moment you started posting here that a discussion about religion or spirituality would be imminent. I'm not psychic at all. I've just engaged by subconscious in a way I would "engage" my biceps or pectorals. I even know what you mean about the password thing, My password changes every 90 days on my school account and I always seem to know when its changed. That's because it always happens at the worst time so my subconscious counts down the days for Murphy's Law to screw me in the ass. Another anedote is that I can usually tell when someone is calling me. I have about 20 people that I have to talk to on a fairly regular basis for apartment related business. When the phone rings, I can usually tell who is calling me even though I have nothing tangible to go on. Its just that there's some pattern that by disciplined subconscious has picked up on that I'm not consciously aware of. It's kind of like the old saying of a "Woman's Intuition" which science has shown is the result of larger quantities of white matter in the brain (and smaller quantities of grey matter). White matter basically connects the brain to other parts of the brain and makes it better to form specific memories and to recognize abstract minuscule patterns.

[Visions of Khas]

The subconscious is much better at these things because it isn't burdened by self-doubt and fact checking like the higher mental processes are which slows down the process and makes you unsure

This. Thank you. So many people fail to recognize the human brain and psyche as a beautifully layered machine. Experiments can essentially tell you what you're going to do before you know.

I'm a fairly empathetic person. Put someone in front of me and I'll pick out subtle mannerisms here and there that clue me into what they're thinking or feeling. Is it psychic? Nope. Mirror neurons, if anything.

Though I am atheist, I am not opposed to religion in and of itself. Like anything in this world, it can be used for both good and bad. To me, it is essentially a collection of stories and practices.


TE, I've been interested in meditation for a while now but never got around to it. How did you start and evolve your approach to it?

[Nissa]

I guess so, Econ. But God created that brain, so eh. That, and I'm pretty sure Blade is male.

Whatever. I've seen miracles and heard God, so I don't feel any real need to debate God here. Oh, but I want to clarify a point. It's not like "religion", some grandiose institution or system to make people behave a certain way, but rather a relationship with God as a person. Just wanted to make that clear. Sometimes people get it mixed up.

[TheEconomist]

TE, I've been interested in meditation for a while now but never got around to it. How did you start and evolve your approach to it?

I actually just had a lengthy discussion about this with Gradius. It was mostly concerning Visualizers and audiowave brain entrainment (binaural beats/isochronic tones) so it ignores some of the other things I do to meditate but I'm not sure I'm of the state of mind right now to give a proper response to that. I'll simply say that, what is more important than how you meditate is how you use your mind. Like you said, the human psyche is a multi-layered complex entity and its very much connected to each other. Something as simple as understanding the deeper meanings of music or being able to be especially alert when driving can help something as different as economics. I suggest you look into brain waves and brain states if you haven't already to know what I'm talking about. The main thing is simply to try to find and isolate as many unused parts of your brain as possible and to train them. What you do to train them can be as simple as listening to music, day dreaming, playing a platformer, or doing speed math. I guess what I'm saying is that if there's something I am doing (by choice or else) I do it to the best of the my abilities with the belief that it will engage a part of my brain that will benefit me elsewhere. I know, that's very, very, very, general and probably sounds like nonsense, but the point I'm trying to get to you is that the best method is one you've made specifically for yourself at that particular time.

That being said, there is a particular exercise that I do that I feel is very beneficial and important and extremely easy to do. That is visualizers. Here is my conversation with Gradius on that.

*WARNING* HUGE WALL OF TEXT, I really wish I knew how to do the spoiler box things.

It stimulates creativity simply by making you use your right hemisphere brain more. The right hemisphere of your brain is activated by random, nondescript imagery and motion. If the objects are recognizeable, you use your left brain which is basically just watching a movie, which makes you use left and right more in sync, which isn't the point. Visualizations immerse you in abstract thoughts because the objects aren't recognizeable and it decreases left brain function and right brain function through movement and imagery. Basically, it helps you to day dream. Day dreaming is caused by the natural switching of hemisphere you do throughout the day. You might have experienced this naturally if you ever got "in the zone" when playing sports or video games and the time just passed you by. This basically just puts you into that state by your choice. Nothing particularly magical or spiritual about it, although entire relgions with billions of followers have been based around this over the centuries.

As for evidence, I could go into the scientific aspects of it such as how it puts you into low alpha or theta brain waves (meditative, intuitive state) and there's plenty of that. I used to have a 100-page or so PDF file that I have bookmarked on Google Docs, but it was taken down. I'm sure you could find some more easily on the internet, but, I strongly recommend you just give it a shot for yourself. All of that is well and good but I think the best evidence is simply in cultures and religions. In Native American cultures they would stare at fire and go on a "vision quests" caused by the random, abstract, chaotic nature of fire. Hindu religions have similar things surrounding water and artistic patterns, etc. Its also the same principle behind the medallion used in so called "hypnosis". All of this is just a religious way to say that your body naturally adapts to the stimulus you are putting in front of it. Put a bunch of numbers and problems of some kind in front of you and your right hemisphere functioning will decrease and your left hemisphere will increase. The right hemisphere handles movement, in the moment experiencing, and the overall picture of what you're seeing or thinking. Left brain picks out specific objects at the expense of seeing everything, the right brain sees everything at the expense of being able to pick out specific details. All you're doing is simply telling your brain that you need to be using your right brain right now for abstract, random imagery which just so happens to also be your creative, intuitive side. Each hemisphere's functioning is attached and called to the forefront whenever one of its parts are used.

I don't really use it as meditation in the quite literal sense. There's no Hindu or Buddhist philosophy behind what I do although I can personally attest to it and I have heard in various places that people do use it for those reasons. What I personally use it for is simply to help me get in a certain state. Some times I use it while listening to music to relax but most times I use it for specific tasks that aren't at all related to meditation. Listening to audiobooks for one. When I listen to audiobooks without it, the imagery in my mind is no where near as vivid as when I am I told you before that using a visualizer turns an audiobook into a movie. I promise you that that is no exaggeration, and the effects are permanent, like going to the gym, in that you'll be able to do without a visualizer as you develop those parts of your brain. I'm much more likely to get sidetracked by real life problems or start analyzing the problems of the world if I haven't balanced my mind and visualizations help with that. I had that problem when I used to read physical books, I would read for a few pages, space out and think about something else, then notice I "read" several paragraphs without any comprehension. As the reading session continued, this would get worse until I could only focus on my thoughts unrelated to the book. I do not have these problems when using a visualizer, If I stop "reading" it is because I have exhausted my interest or focus on the book itself, not side matters. My primary use for it though, is to simply allow my subconscious to work things without being slowed down or distracted by my consciousness. Some of the greatest insights and break throughs in my understanding of just about anything came while I was just staring at a visualizer.

I use this primarily when I'm thinking about economic matters. Whenever I'm trying to "see" into the future, I just get a bunch of information in my head (infodump) then stare at a visualizer and let my subconscious sort it out. It helps me to sort out the information and form a coherent understanding in my mind, but, perhaps most importantly, it allowed my subconscious to work on it to an extent that I cannot get it to do without a visualizer. Sometimes I'll come to very strong conclusions about something, not be entirely sure why, but then as time goes on, I'll usually find that it was correct, or at least more correct than I would've gotten otherwise. Without a visualizer, I'm usually pretty aware of exactly what I think and why and know pretty well what my understanding and knowledge gaps are about a subject, which is best in most circumstances, but when I'm working on a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard problem, I need something more, and a visualizer helps with that. I consider it one of the key reasons I am able to think as much as I do. I told you before that I spend hours and hours a day just thinking, probably more time than I do sleeping, that's no exaggeration, I promise you, but I wasn't that way until relatively recently. Visualizers are an important part of the reason I was able to become that.

Like I told you before though, I know it will take some serious dedication to it for a while for you to get the benefits of it. I started and stopped quickly for years and years until I finally had an epiphany. But, now that I understand, I wish I had been doing it all the years, would have helped in so many ways I can't count them. This is going to feel like a waste of time for a long, long, long time. You have to be in the right state of mind and your experience will derive from that state of mind. It takes getting used to to be able to get into that state of mind easily. Consider this working muscles in the gym you haven't worked in along time. Just stick with it and eventually your mind will adapt and you'll be able to use these parts of your brain easier and more effectively.

Like I said, I do listen to music with it and it intensifies the music itself while also sort of giving a story or theme to the song instead of just pretty sounds. But, if you don't want to use music, you can use binaural beats or isochronic tones. I've used them a lot in the past and I can also promise you that they do work, to a reasonable extent, if done correctly. You can find them on YouTube although to get the best result you need a lossless file. I've got a program that makes them. It's not complex to use, but it would take some getting used to. You can also combine music and the tones if you want. I can make a couple WAVs for you if you tell me what kind of state you want to be in. You can find a list of the frequency to brain state all over the internet. Be very aware though, that you're venturing into retard territory and you'll be told lots of things about how if you meditate to certain frequencies you'll be able to do all of these amazing things. There's certain people who think all you need to cure addiction or bad habits is to meditate to the correct frequency. You know those types, they're all over the internet. I don't need to tell you that is nonsense and you need to stay away from it. Clearly, there's not much scientific or logic reasoning behind it, however, they have proven that hearing different frequencies puts the brain in a certain mood. This is why we enjoy music and it has an effect on us. The only difference between a properly done binaural/isochronic is that it's meant to focus on a particular mind state instead of going up the scale like all music does and its also supposed to be much more specific. There's some pretty outrageous claims surrounding these things, just like anything of its kind, but I have used LifeFlow (Project Meditation) and few others and I can tell you it does have some benefits. Nothing miraculous, but beneficial. There's debate in the scientific community if it works any better than music or if its just the same thing, but there's very little debate that there IS an effect of some kind. Therefore, it may be better for you to simply listen to certain kinds of music. Astropilot, the artist I told you about, his music plays in the title screen of Space Engine and when flying through space, he specifically states that he crafts his songs around certain frequency ranges for certain moods. Actually, all artists do to some extent, but this is more specific. The only reason I knew about him before Space Engine was that I found him on YouTube with some various tones with it.

I'm pretty sure I'm borderline ADD

As a kid, I was diagnosed with pretty severe ADD. Things like this not only helped me to cope but to master the problem and turn it into one of my greatest assets. The difference between me being a functioning human being and a chaotic mess of uncontrollable energy is a pretty thin line consisting on various routine activities like visualizers and meditation, etc. If that's what you're after, meditation as a whole and visualizers specifically will be of great benefit to you. Focusing on the here and now was always my biggest problem. Even when I was in the most stimulating of social situations, I was never really there mentally, always off analyzing some shit that didn't at all matter at the time. If that's what you feel like, yeah, you've probably got ADD. Good news though is that there's a good chance that there's a more powerful brain underneath there than you ever thought, just needing to be disciplined. As a teenager, I just kind of always assumed I was retarded or that there was something wrong with me. I could never focus on anything to retain any information. Video games (namely StarCraft) was just about the only thing I could concentrate on. Little did I know, all I needed was to create a fairly easy to follow routine and my brain functioning fell right in line and my entire life went from hopeless to organized and promising.

As I got older and researched the problem, there's a very real problem with certain people (correlating with high IQs) where left brain functioning overrules right hemisphere functioning to the extent that the person exhibits strong ADD symptoms even though it isn't technically ADD. It's more like a restless brain that isn't being stimulated in certain areas. I was always a thinker and after spending so much time just thinking I guess I kind of weakened the part of my brain used simply to "be". Meditation helped me conquer this pretty well, i.e. spending as much time a day as possible focusing on every detail I could of the here and now and then visualizing doing the same thing before sleep. Visualizers also helped greatly with this since it trained my brain to also be more aware of the present. Now, I know it's pretty much as simple as activating the visual cortex and right hemisphere functions. After a long visualizer session, I feel like some kind of superhuman in the way that I can pick out details, be aware of everything around me (to ridiculous extents) and things seem to move slower. More than that though, it really helped with my intuitive processes, for example, say, since you mentioned women, it helped me to be aware of subtle body language cues and to come up with topics of conversation and the like.

I don't just do this for the effect though its basically required maintenance for me. I start falling apart without it, probably because I spend so much time inside now compared to what I used to do.

That is what meditation is used for

Meditation is more "clear your mind and let it go where it wills". What I do is more augment the thinking processes under the surface that are held back by conscious thought. Subtle difference I know, but it's probably there. I'm sure meditation gurus would scoff at the idea that I try to direct my thoughts toward specific, logic based problems while I meditate.

My question is whether the extra stimulus (music, visual input, audiobooks) actually takes away from the meditative state.

For me, personally, now, no, far from, it helps the experience quite a bit. However, I remember there was a time when it was difficult for me to focus on the two stimuli. For example, I could either focus on the visualizer or the music/audiobook/whatever. That's the early stages eventually it'll be like second nature and no difficulty at all to focus on both. This stage didn't take long for me. I think it was the death cries of my ADD. It's up to you either way, but I don't know if I would recommend that you wait though, not sure, just try it yourself. Entrainment (binaural beats/isochronic tones) would probably be a bit easier than music and audiobooks though so you can also try that. Some people also like rain, ocean, nature sounds. I recommend you head on over the TPB and download LifeFlow, also called project meditation. The program itself recommends that you start with the first track (Alpha waves) and then do that for several weeks and then move on to the next. There's ten major tracks for alpha to lower theta waves. Personally, I didn't have any problems skipping to wherever I felt like, but maybe that's because I had already been meditating so much. My favorite is the 'Creative Flow' and 'Nirvana'. Play those with a visualizer and I promise you, if you give it time, you'll start to feel the benefits.

[Gradius]

TE, I've been interested in meditation for a while now but never got around to it. How did you start and evolve your approach to it?

I just started myself a few weeks ago. 20-30 mins per day while I'm at work. I use a visualizer. I think the key is remembering that it's an active process. You'll want to think about random shit, but you have to resist the urge. I'm hoping this will help with my ADD, as well as the other documented health benefits of meditation. But yeah TE has been doing it for a while, he's your go-to guy.

[TheEconomist]

You'll want to think about random shit, but you have to resist the urge.

To elaborate on this, basically, what you're trying to do is isolate the lower levels of your consciousness. When you first start, there's going to be a phase where you're going to be thinking about random shit like the things you have to get done or something that happened last week. That's fine, but not what you're trying to do. You're trying to get the deeper thoughts that go on behind the scenes that you're not completely aware of. So, that means you're trying to empty your mind of conscious thought but then letting your subconscious go wild. You don't need to direct it. Sounds more difficult than it is and it may feel awkward at first, but the more you do these things, the easier and more natural it will be.

I liken the experience to how, when you're say, reading a book or doing homework, you'll be trudging along and then all of a sudden you'll feel a bit of a jolt a little bit later and realize you were day dreaming. For example, you might realize that you read a few paragraphs without any focus or comprehension, or that you were staring at that math problem for five minutes and didn't even know it. That's sort of the kind of state you're trying to isolate with visualizers. That's a state caused by the left brain crapping out and the right brain taking over. This happens naturally approximately every 90 minutes (why we day dream in class or at work) so don't feel like its something weird of anything.