I have listened to and analyzed the reports of many,many students in their experience of academia and have come to the inevitable conclusion that the unconscious intention of almost all schooling is to make students as miserable as possible! This would support the theory which I have, up to now at least, considered conspiratorial that school is designed to prepare people for the workforce.After that painful educational process almost any job,no matter how stressful or boring seems like liberation lol.At least ,at the end of a day of work you are free.And you get paid!At school,you are never free until the semester ends or you get the degree! Welcome to the modern world.But before I leave you on this question,I should mention the cognitive dissonance caused by social conditioning.In this social conditioning,people are taught that school is the best time of your life and the key to happiness. Simply put,that is hogwash!
Category Archives: Metaphysics
Epistemology Unpacked -The Covid-19 pandemic
I guess philosophy is important after all lol.My two favourite terms these days are Epistemology and Empiricism and its sister Philosophical Materialism.So my apologies to Wittgenstein and John Stuart Mills after all lol.
So( not supposed to use that word according to current anal grammarians lol.Another form of political correctness-this time in the world of grammar.).And yet(probably also banned as a term lol) it is SO useful lol.Maybe that’s why they want to ban it! (the conspiratorial epistemology-to be unveiled shortly).So,I repeat,the current pandemic gives us a chance to examine different forms of Epistemology.Epistemology basically means “how do you get to the Truth,The Realty of any situation or question?”(same word btw in Arabic-Truth and Reality=Haqq!)
So let us examine four forms of Epistemology as applied to the Covid pandemic and try to see their relative value.I will personalize these approaches in order to make the point more vividly and graspable(sorry again grammarians-probably not a legitimate word!).
- The Didier Raoult paradigm-information on the ground.For those that don’t know this fascinating character from Marseilles,he is one of the first doctors to promote hydroxychloriquine as a Covid treatment-mostly based on his clinical experience at a hospital in Marseilles.He even took the trouble to document his cases and show that at his clinic ,they had reduced the death rate by about 70% by this approach.Further studies done in the right way,using HCT early in the illness with azithromycin and Zinc came to similar conclusions-anywhere from a 60-80% reduction! All of this based on exanining the facts on the ground.This principle is applicable to many other situations .Ask the people who are there experiencing it.But no! The current Epistemological paradigm forbids this It is dismissed either as subjective or anecdotal or some other disparaging term. I was pleased to hear from my brother in NYC whose future son-in-law was himself working on the ground in a Brooklyn hospital where the doctors noticed that HCT was useful early in the illness and they were not even using it with antibiotics and zinc! But no,the CDC and WHO will hear nothing of this .They need their prospective, double-blind ,placebo-controlled peer-reviewed i.e. non-existent studies lol to arrive at conclusions.)
- The Chris Martenson(peakprosperity.com) paradigm.Unlike the former paradigm Chris is working from outside the battlefield.But he uses the on the ground workers as one source amongst others.Then he interviews people who have experienced the illness,looks at the research including the less high-profile journals and the non-statistical scientific reports.He scours the newspapers,TV Cable News and radio reports.From this vast array of sources he is able to discern the chaff from the wheat,pick out the B.S. even in hot-shot journals like Lancet and JAMA and then come to conclusions.He is almost invariably right and when he isn’t he admits it. Oddly enough I have seen judges in the courts using a very similar process of teasing out the reality from an abundance of sources.And they consistently understand the Reality better than the expert doctors who are supposed to be experts in the area. That is because the doctors are using the next paradigm-the Fauci approach lol
- The Fauci and his acolyte Sanjay Gupta approach- also known as current scientific consensus.These people only believe in peer-reviewed,placebo-controlled,double blind prospective studies and Cochrane database metastudies and official organizations like WHO and FDA and CDC..They are very often wrong as has been Fauci all along in this pandemic.He got the mask issue wrong(not enough studies?!)the hydroxychloroquine issue wrong(looking at the wrong studies and ignoring the right ones) and the man-made nature of the virus(how he could get that one wrong is beyond me as HE was instrumental in creating it!). The problem is that most medical personnel and certainly the formal afore-mentioned institutions(WHO,FDA,CDC,NIH) are all using that paradigm! No wonder we are in such confusion and such trouble.
- I can’t complete this abbreviated list of Epistemological approaches without mentioning the Brian Rose,Sayer Ji Plandemic conspiratorial epistemology.These people see the lies and the deceptions of the official stories of government and health institutions but go way beyond the facts into paranoid projections.So the fact that there was a 201 Event meeting of government and public health officials and businessmen Organized by John’s Hopkins University in October 2019 that simulated a pandemic to try to develop strategies to deal with such an event means for them that the pandemic was planned.Wrong! The fact that the Wuhan lab was under the control of the Chinese military means that this virus was a bio-weapon of war.Wrong again. The fact that Bill Gates screwed up with vaccines in India and Africa means that he is trying to depopulate the world so that he can better control it.Anyone with familiarity with the paranoid mind-set(I was a psychiatrist for 45 years lol) can recognize the cognitive errors in these kinds of distortions and projections.On top of it,they may be dangerous as they stir up unnecessary fear and anger in a situation where there is enough realistic fear and anger to go around already!
- Btw, each of these types of Epistemology can be used in many other areas of life as well.As I have indicated in other articles on this blogsite-which you are free to explore.In fact,I consider myself to be an Epistemologist of Spiritual Reality and Truth.Keep reading and keep in touch if this interests you in any way .Salaams,Joel Ibrahim Kreps
Bureaucracy,Empiricism and the American Election
Republican Convention: Some mediocre speeches,some reality.As opposed to the Democratic Convention.Better,more intelligent speeches.Less reality! Fascinating this play between theory and reality.Most people believe in theory! Yes,theory.Because that’s what we’re taught to believe in at our schools.You know- like double-blind ,randomized placebo-controlled studies.That is bureaucratic theory and it has cost thousands of lives! One thing I must say in Trump’s defense.He is THE ONLY politician who sees through bureaucracy-sporadically for sure,but nevertheless from time to time.Everyone else just accepts it.I consider bureaucracy and its natural allies-Empiricism and so-called Rationality THE biggest problem of our times-far beyond even corruption because bureaucracy and Empiricism corrupt our vision and make it impossible to see Reality and act accordingly.This phenomenon is in full view in the current Covid-19 crisis! God help us!
Vaccine Development! The Corona Crisis
Kudos to the Russians for the rapid vaccine development i.e. circumventing the obsessional regulatory vaccine process.I did not use vaccines in my medical practice but I can tell you that each time a new anti-depressant came out,I did not need 30,000 cases to tell me if it was safe and effective.By less than ten cases and CERTAINLY by 100,I was well aware of the cost/benefit therapeutically of the new meds! And btw (please turn off your contradiction detectors here.They are not useful lol!) with all this obsessive testing of the regulatory agencies many vaccines have shown harmful effects down the road anyway.What is really needed here is not greater numbers, as the Empiricists like to believe,but better observational skills among the scientists-something sorely lacking in modern medicine- lacking because of this very emphasis on measurability rather than “seeing”!)
Epistemology 101
Beginning to formulate the contours of a diplomaed course in Epistemology lol.Epistemology 101 will be titled “The Myth of Rationality: The Superheroes of the Rationalist movement”.In this first and introductory course we will study the statements of Bill Gates(Remember perfect 800 SAT scores lol),Antony Fauci,who is still in denial about his role in creating the Covid crisis in the first place and ex-president Obama who had the chutzpah at the end of his presidential reign to say:”We did the right thing in Syria”! (At least Clinton had the humility to say he messed up in Rwanda).That should be a good start!Applicants will be screened to test if they are able, in the smallest way, to demonstrate associative and intuitive thinking rather than the “rationalist” sort.Needless to say we will be fighting against decades, if not centuries, of social conditioning so I expect lots of pushback lol
It’s NOT all about the money
It’s NOT true that it’s ALL about money! That is another contemporary myth! In the guise of fighting materialism,that affirmation is actually supporting it?!Greed is only one of Seven Cardinal Sins in Christianity lol.Actually ignorance ,as the Buddhists rightly point out,in all likelihood has more to do with people’s mischief than greed itself.Take Fauci for example.I really don’t believe his mistatements are about greed.That’s not my reading of his personality(even if he has financial interests in vaccine development as one of the “money causes all evil” ideologues is likely to point out).No.Fauci is limited mostly by his scientific ideological framework sometimes referred to erroneously as “evidence-based medicine”.Actually people like Fauci are UNABLE to read the evidence because of their narrow intellectual paradigm.That paradigm excludes anecdotes,excludes individual case histories especially of the patients themselves! and excludes studies that don’t have large populations or expensive statisticians onboard.Science has lost its capacity for the pillar of Clinical Observation and replaced it with an obsession about study design and complex statistical analysis.In that way they OFTEN get things wrong.P.S. There may well also be embarassment about his role in developing this virus! But for now,he seems to be in complete denial(unconscious?) of that connection.
Medical Epistemology
People seem to have trouble grasping what I mean by the “Obsessionalization” of medical and social processes.So let me give you an example to help you understand.Dr. Richard Bartlett ,a Texas physician, claims he is having great success in treating Covid cases with inhaled steroids specifically Budesonide.He explains that Covid is a respiratory inflammatory disease and these steroids are inhaled and anti-inflammatory.He also claims that Taiwan,Japan and Singapore are doing really well with the same approach.Makes perfect sense to me.I I call that”scientifically plausible hypothesis” something I much prefer to “evidence-based” which is far too technical and Empirical for me.
So you would think this would elicit interest and enthusiasm in the medical field,no?! Not at all! Remember.these people can’t hear!
So here is the commentary from one medical analyst.I am including it because it is so typical of contemporary “scientific” thinking!
A few things to beware of in COVID “news”:
- Evidence that is ANECDOTAL– testimonial – no numbers, data, study. (Always be concerned when this is the primary evidence that is given. It is one of the hallmarks of medical quackery.)
- Lacking specific numbers or data to back up the claims. The doctor we are discussing today won’t tell how many patients he’s treated, just that he’s been “doing it since March” and that “they’re all alive”. (So have I and mine are too…maybe I should go on TV!)
- Bashing all of the major national and international health care authorities (CDC, WHO, NIH), suggesting they are missing something very basic. (“All the experts are wrong” is usually a suspect position)
- Consider the Source – Credentials Matter. Physicians should share their specialty, medical school training, etc. rather than mentioning TV appearances or political appointments. When a physician speaks, he should have a specialty that would be tied to the topic as well. For instance, this doctor mentions being a surgeon. That carries a bit less weight than a pulmonologist or infectious disease specialist or even an emergency physician or family physician who are on the front lines.
- Over-simplification of statistics can be suspect as well. These claims of why ENTIRE COUNTRIES are seeing such low numbers, claiming it MUST be because of this treatment and not because of effective prevention because of masks, tracking, etc. (Beware of oversimplification of something this complex)
- Consider Motives. This is most obvious when someone is trying to peddle a product – medication, therapy, book, etc. But occasionally it might be for other reasons, like notoriety. I see no clear red flags in this case, but this is often the most obvious warning sign that something is amiss.
- Let’s take these one by one:
- 1) Evidence that is anecdotal-the bugaboo of all medical science.That terrible enemy of all Empirical processes.But you know what?!”There is more reality in anecdotes than in all the scientific literature(Ibrahimic aphorism lol)How did you chose your last vacation spot(anecdotal evidence lol).How did you choose your last partner lol?Unless you went on a dating site lol Anecdotal evidence etc.,etc.What they are saying is: “Don’t listen to anyone.Just read the peer-reviewed journals.”Then you will get lost for sure.Ok. Then be guided by an expert who studies them regularly.But the experts like Fauci don’t listen,don’t look elsewhere,don’t really think deeply.They just accumulate data.i.e Empiricism!Never ignore anecdotal evidence! It can be life-saving!
- 2) Lacking specific numbers. They had very specific numbers in the Lancet study that had to be retracted-from 95,000 patients(probably the reason it got published!These people are omnibulated by numbers.Like some men with breast-size lol)
- 3)Bashing all the major international health authorities.Duh… Well,they have been wrong on nearly everything about this virus so I don’t see that as a big problem!
- 4)Consider the Source – Credentials Matter. I see! So if he were a respiratory physician he would be credible?!But as a surgeon he is not. Then I guess we need to listen to Trump lol He’s the president,the top of the food chain. Personal Anecdote lol: I once went to be evaluated at The Shouldice Hernia Clinic outside of Toronto.They saved me from an unnecessary operation! All the doctors there are recycled physicians.The vast majority are not even surgeons .But they have the best results for any hernia clinic in the world.No.Credentials are NOT what is most important.Knowing how to get the job done is what counts.
5)Consider motives. Aha,the last-ditch attempt to deny real knowledge.Impute a selfish motive! They do it in politics all the time.Why not in medicine?!Since the drug in question is very cheap,they can’t impute a greed element.It must be the search for notoriety.Maybe he’s looking to sell a book like John Bolton lol? This is obscene.
So there you go.If you want to mistrust,I would suggest you go to the top of the food chain-the so-called experts.There are a lot of good people like this Christian doctor looking for practical solutions rather than ideological and greedy ones.We need to listen more to them and less to experts!
State of the Nation-Muslim AND non-Muslim
Most people in the modern world are unwittingly affirming and defending the humanistic,secular,Empiricist,Rationalist social consensus.At the same time they are refusing to develop the insight(firasat),discernment(furqan),inner vision (basirat) and real hearing(samia) that would lead them to the Truth- on all levels.Dangerous state of affairs,really! Btw ,this includes most of the Muslims who often have the right ideas,but the wrong instincts! That is, they are consciously believers but unconsciously Rationalists and believers in self-direction(tadbir).
The Contemporary Zeitgeist
People nowadays( the good ones lol) are so concerned about expressing themselves,about being heard, about having their opinions respected( all progressive,humanistic,democratic principles) that they have a lot of trouble hearing the Truth.It is all well and good to be respected and heard but this is NOT the way the deepest truths are transmitted!
Think of how the Prophets taught.Did our holy Prophet Mohammed go around saying;”What did you think about my latest revelation.I want to hear your opinion” lol.Did Jesus say to his apostles”Let’s have a vote.How many of you think we should confront the Pharisees?” Did Moses say”O.k. guys.The majority of you don’t want to enter Palestine.Let’s wait on this for awhile”.Ok.You get the gist of it.
The same is true with the saints and awliya and gurus.They don’t wait to do polls on their students as to how to proceed.They rather call on their own inspirations or that of their teachers and everyone follows from there.Sometimes they get it wrong,in which case if they are sincere,they backtrack and look for a better way to proceed.If they asked for everyone’s opinion ,they would be paralyzed and the entire movement forward would come to a halt.
Even in the domain of science,the democratic.Empirical way doesn’t work.Science advances through geniuses like Archimedes and Galileo and Newton and Einstein not through a consensus of mediocrity.
One of my favourite science-oriented people these days is Chris Martenson of peakprosperity.com(forget the financial stuff,for now.Look at the science) Especially look at the Epistemology.He looks around at all reports and emails sniffing around for the Truth.He has developed what I call “The Ear of Truth”-in science! Then he puts it all together and he is very often right.As opposed to the bureaucratic W.H.O and CDC who,despite their billions of dollars of resources, seem to get it wrong more often than not.I really like his epistemology.Check it out.
And why can we not use a similar epistemology in spiritual matters? We can, I believe!That is precisely what I am trying to do-look at the other religions,look at psychology, sociology,the n.d.e experiences and put it all together in a coherent package.
But then there is the delivery.Then you come up against the “But what about my opinion? Does it not matter what I think” Actually not! l remember my first spiritual seminar with EST in California.The trainer at the front held up a pencil and dropped it on the floor.”That’s gravity” he said.It doesn’t matter what you think.The pencil drops anyway.A law of nature” And a lot of reality is exactly like that.It doesn’t matter what you think! Put that in your democratic peace pipe and smoke it lol.
And then there is the diplomacy of it all-the relationship aspect.Most people have trouble with the Truth.They react-from personal offense,from social-conditioning,from prior mindset.And they get upset and angry.So the message needs to be diluted and sugar-coated in order to pass.The danger there is that ,like a lot of sellers and marketers,you lose the essential truth of the product.In any case,that is what I am working on.Wiser people than me have “failed” at this project.( Think John the Baptist.Of course”failure” is a very relative term.His apparent “failure”-being beheaded- may well have been ultimately a great success!)So I am trying to remain humble and maintain my bodily integrity lol.Salaams.And pray for the success of Truth over falsehood.
Judgment vs. Discernment
As Westerners,most of us were raised with the Christian slogan “Judge not,that ye be not judged” Matthew7:1 as a basic teaching of Jesus.This concept has echoed throughout history so that even nowadays we hear people saying “Don’t be so judgmental” as if this was an obvious truth.
In Islam, as well we are taught by the scholars to have a good opinion of people( Husn Al Thann) although most of the textual evidence actually refers to having a good opinion of our Lord rather than of humanity.Also we are told to make 70 excuses for our brother or sister if we see them doing wrong although this is not really an authentic hadith.On the other hand, at the same time, we are encouraged in the Quran to practice “amr bil maroof and nehi al munkar”(enjoin the good and prevent evil).How can we possibly do that if we don’t acknowledge and state to others the good and evil of their actions.So,this is a much more problematic question than meets the eye at first glance!
If we go back to the Biblical references to start with we have in Genesis of the Old Testament Adam and Eve being forbidden to eat the fruit of a particular tree.This fruit is from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.The punishment for this act was being exiled from the heavens and sent down to earth!
If we reflect on this story ,which is very deep indeed ,what can we understand?This is what I would propose as an explanation.1) That having ideas about good and evil is inconsistent with being in the heavens.Makes sense ,no?There is only positivity,light and love in the heavens.No need for judgment,no need for discernment.
Now,what about the Earth-plane? It appears that discerning good and evil is fundamental to existence on this plane! Is that not your experience?!Common sense,no? How can we possibly manage our lives in this world without being able to discriminate between the two? Ever known people who are too unaware or too naive to make those judgments lol?Ever noticed all the trouble they get into ?!
So how do we resolve this apparent contradiction- between being forbidden to judge and needing to judge in order to survive?!Let me propose a potential solution.It has to do with the difference between discernment (‘furqan’ in Arabic- also one of the names of the Quran ‘Al Furqan” so it can’t be bad) .Discernment is necessary.Judgment may be optional .
And what is the difference between the two.”Aye,there’s the rub” (That’s Shakespeare.Let’s bring in some secular wisdom as well lol).This is how I see it.With discernment,you can see clearly the difference between good and evil.But at the same time you don’t denounce the evil.You take note of it and you manage it,you try to inoculate yourself against it,you detoxify it, you mitigate it-call it what you will..But you don’t denounce it because it,too,is from God.One of the recitations we did with the BaAlawi people of Yemen said “Al Khair wa shaar fi mashiat Illah” Both good and evil are from the will of Allah.Sorry for the moralists amongst you but that is the reality.Evil has it’s purposes!We need to confront it without denying it.
So every time you come in touch with evil,remind yourself that it too is purposeful.It might be designed as a test,it might be there to teach you something,it might purify you and raise your rank.But it needs to be there for this life’s purpose to be realized.And when you get to the other side you will know why!
Now ,one of the main practical aspects here is how to manage this evil- or this ignorance or this untruth(‘batil’ in Arabic). The first step is not to deny it!That just makes matters worse.The second step is to develop discernment and use use your wisdom .This is no easy matter.It requires a life-time and more.Our parents should be our first teachers but,in all honesty,most of them,caught up in their social conditioning ,daily worries and unresolved conflicts and desires,are woefully inadequate on this score!
So we have to seek out teachers of various sorts.Sometimes ,if we are lucky,we may meet them in our daily lives and during our professional training but most of the time,we need to seek them out.And that is a whole other subject and many go awry on that path.It’s somewhat like a Catch-22! You need discernment to find a wise teacher so if you don’t have it to start with,how can you possibly get there?! The answer is the Mercy of Allah who will grant you this great ‘niamat'(gift) of a wise mentor if you are sincere and worthy.May you all be granted this Mercy. Without it, life can easily become a shipwreck! Salaams,Ibrahim