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Do not think too much - Alan Watts


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There are various videos about this topic on Youtube.  Do a search for the following term:

 

Do Not Think Too Much - Alan Watts

 

I'm a big fan of this man ,he's understanding of the human condition and suffering is brilliant ,it's obviously not for everyone but he is well worth checking out

 

Edited by ChessieCat
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Alcohol free since February 2015 

1MG diazepam

4.5MG PROZAC.

 

 

 

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  • 5 years later...

I also appreciate Alan Watts. 

 

For example: 

 

Alan Watts - Why There Are No Wrong Feelings

 

There are no wrong feelings. There may be wrong actions in the sense of actions contrary to the rules of human communication. But the way you feel towards other people: loving, hating, et cetera, et cetera; there aren’t any wrong feelings. And so, to try and force one’s feelings to be other than what they are is absurd. And furthermore: dishonest. But you see: the idea that there are no wrong feelings is an immensely threatening one to people who are afraid to feel. This is one of the peculiar problems of our culture: we are terrified of our feelings. We think that if we give them any scope and if we don’t immediately beat them down, they will lead us down into all kinds of chaotic and destructive actions. But if, for a change, we would allow our feelings and look upon their comings and goings as something as beautiful and necessary as changes in the weather, the going of night and day and the four seasons, we would be at peace with ourselves. What is so problematic for Western man is not so much his struggles with other people and their needs and problems as his struggle with his own feelings. With what he will allow himself to feel and what he won’t allow himself to feel. He is ashamed to feel really profoundly sad, so much so that he could cry. It is not manly to cry. He is afraid to loathe somebody, because you’re not supposed to hate people. He is ashamed to be so overcome with the beauty of something, that he goes out of his mind over this beauty. Because all that kind of thing is ‘not being in control, old boy‘; not having your hands on the wheel. I think this is the most releasing thing that anybody can possibly understand. That your inner feeling is never wrong. What you feel is never wrong – it may not be a right guide as to what you should do, but it is right that you should have the feeling of hating, or of being sad, or of being terrified. When a person comes to himself he comes to be one with his own feeling, and that is the only way to be in a position of controlling it.

 

Source: Alan Watts, from the collection of Lectures ‘You’re It’

 

 

1996-2018 - misc. polypharmacy, incl. SSRIs, SNRIs, neuroleptics, lithium, benzos, stimulants, antihistamines, etc. (approx. 30+ drugs)

2012-2018 - 10mg lexapro/escitalopram (20mg?)    Jan. 2018 - 10mg -> 5mg, then from 5mg -> 2.5mg, then 0mg  -->  July 2018 - 0mg

2017(?)-2020 - vyvanse/lisdexamfetamine 60-70mg    2020-2021 - 70mg down to 0mg  -->  July 2021 - 0mg

March-April 2021 - vortioxetine 5-10mg (approx. 7 weeks total; CT)  -->  April 28th, 2021 - 0mg

supplements: magnesium powder (dissolved in water) as needed throughout the day; 1 tsp fish oil w/ morning meal; 2mg melatonin 

August 1, 2022 - 1 mg melatonin

 

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.  - Karle Wilson Baker

love and justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.  - Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Holding multiple truths. Knowing that everyone has their own accurate view of the way things are.  - text on homemade banner at Afiya house

 

I am not a medical professional; this is not medical advice. 

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Alan Watts - A Conversation With Myself (parts 1-4)

 

 

 

 

 

1996-2018 - misc. polypharmacy, incl. SSRIs, SNRIs, neuroleptics, lithium, benzos, stimulants, antihistamines, etc. (approx. 30+ drugs)

2012-2018 - 10mg lexapro/escitalopram (20mg?)    Jan. 2018 - 10mg -> 5mg, then from 5mg -> 2.5mg, then 0mg  -->  July 2018 - 0mg

2017(?)-2020 - vyvanse/lisdexamfetamine 60-70mg    2020-2021 - 70mg down to 0mg  -->  July 2021 - 0mg

March-April 2021 - vortioxetine 5-10mg (approx. 7 weeks total; CT)  -->  April 28th, 2021 - 0mg

supplements: magnesium powder (dissolved in water) as needed throughout the day; 1 tsp fish oil w/ morning meal; 2mg melatonin 

August 1, 2022 - 1 mg melatonin

 

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.  - Karle Wilson Baker

love and justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.  - Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Holding multiple truths. Knowing that everyone has their own accurate view of the way things are.  - text on homemade banner at Afiya house

 

I am not a medical professional; this is not medical advice. 

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Alan Watts - Don't Take Life Too Seriously

 

(excerpt) 

 

Every sane society allows a certain number of people to deviate -- monks... some sort of outsiders -- and says that you don't have to join, you don't have to play the game. 

A society which is insane and unsure of itself cannot allow that to happen. It says: everybody must join, everybody must work, everybody must belong. 

And then freedom disappears. 

Because, as a matter for fact, the anxiety is that if you say, "Well, you don't have to join, there are conditions under which you can go out," then a lot of people get together and say, 

"Well, what would happen if everybody quit?"

I ask, "What would happen if everybody decided to take American Airlines flight 3 to New York tomorrow?"

Well, they just wouldn't get on. I mean... And they won't, anyhow.

Because a lot of people aren't interested in that. Are not ready to quit. 

That doesn't mean that they are inferior. The acorn is not inferior to the oak tree. It's a potential oak. But as an acorn it's just as beautiful and lovely a thing as a full-grown oak is. 

A baby is as lovely as an adult. Sometimes a great deal more lovely. 

So a person who is in a beginning state of evolution is just as marvelous as a person who is in a higher state of evolution. Just as much a manifestation of the divine dance.

So when a society allows a certain number of people to withdraw, it should have no anxiety that everyone will want to withdraw.

Because some people are absolutely fascinated in competition, in being involved, in playing the game. They should be; it's fine for them. 

But we are witnessing in the United States today a great motivation for withdrawal. It's simply because we haven't provided for it. 

There's no opportunity for a Protestant to become a monk, or a Jew. The Catholics have half-heartedly provided for this sort of thing.

And there have to be people who stand outside the game and do not identify themselves with a class, with a name, with an ego, with a persona, with a role. 

 

(transcribed from audio in the video below)

 

 

1996-2018 - misc. polypharmacy, incl. SSRIs, SNRIs, neuroleptics, lithium, benzos, stimulants, antihistamines, etc. (approx. 30+ drugs)

2012-2018 - 10mg lexapro/escitalopram (20mg?)    Jan. 2018 - 10mg -> 5mg, then from 5mg -> 2.5mg, then 0mg  -->  July 2018 - 0mg

2017(?)-2020 - vyvanse/lisdexamfetamine 60-70mg    2020-2021 - 70mg down to 0mg  -->  July 2021 - 0mg

March-April 2021 - vortioxetine 5-10mg (approx. 7 weeks total; CT)  -->  April 28th, 2021 - 0mg

supplements: magnesium powder (dissolved in water) as needed throughout the day; 1 tsp fish oil w/ morning meal; 2mg melatonin 

August 1, 2022 - 1 mg melatonin

 

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.  - Karle Wilson Baker

love and justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.  - Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Holding multiple truths. Knowing that everyone has their own accurate view of the way things are.  - text on homemade banner at Afiya house

 

I am not a medical professional; this is not medical advice. 

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Alan Watts - It's Only A Game

(on non-conformists and those who check out of the game)

 

 

1996-2018 - misc. polypharmacy, incl. SSRIs, SNRIs, neuroleptics, lithium, benzos, stimulants, antihistamines, etc. (approx. 30+ drugs)

2012-2018 - 10mg lexapro/escitalopram (20mg?)    Jan. 2018 - 10mg -> 5mg, then from 5mg -> 2.5mg, then 0mg  -->  July 2018 - 0mg

2017(?)-2020 - vyvanse/lisdexamfetamine 60-70mg    2020-2021 - 70mg down to 0mg  -->  July 2021 - 0mg

March-April 2021 - vortioxetine 5-10mg (approx. 7 weeks total; CT)  -->  April 28th, 2021 - 0mg

supplements: magnesium powder (dissolved in water) as needed throughout the day; 1 tsp fish oil w/ morning meal; 2mg melatonin 

August 1, 2022 - 1 mg melatonin

 

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.  - Karle Wilson Baker

love and justice are not two. without inner change, there can be no outer change; without collective change, no change matters.  - Rev. angel Kyodo williams

Holding multiple truths. Knowing that everyone has their own accurate view of the way things are.  - text on homemade banner at Afiya house

 

I am not a medical professional; this is not medical advice. 

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  • Moderator Emeritus

@Ariel You inspired me to pull some of the videos from my old benzo thread. Alan Watts really helped me survive acute CT withdrawal. Thank you for reviving this thread! 

 

This Alan Watts music playlist is awesome:

 

Play List - Alan Watts with Music

 

And here are two more that really helped me years ago when I was very much trapped in the storm:

 

On 4/27/2017 at 9:23 PM, Shep said:

And in the end, the goal is to create my new baseline and let the dp/dr know it's "safe" to leave. 

 

How Do You Define Yourself? - Alan Watts

 

I really like this last one because it has Lucindo Einaudi's music in the background. Yes, everything comes from sound and as Alan Watts says in that video, we are in the process of the Big Bang.

 

I'll take that a bit farther and add there's no need to get trampled on by the past, we are "in process", just moving along peacefully inside the Big Bang, carried forward by the Music of the Spheres. . . . . 

 

Watts talks a lot about interconnectedness and the fact that we are a "symptom of nature" and not a separate and lonely part of the universe.

 

Obtain An Abnormal Awareness - Alan Watts

 

 

 

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