halfway through super sense by bruce hood and it's freaking me out slightly. the guys is a rationalist and firmly presents good evidence as to how the brain is hardwired to look for patterns and meaning in random events. it's a persuasive argument and presented in a lucid easy way however i feel mr. hood needs to really get out of his mind on some psychedelics before commenting on reality further. the brain he talks about is the one that filters information, it's the standard brain hardware version that most humans are born with the one that the central nervous system filters as information flows in. when the psychic center is opened reality changes as does ones perception of it. and it is here where the weird shit occurs. i'm enjoying the science in the book but it's based on a very standard version of supernatural ideas. once your brain has an ayahscia experience the idea of super nature appears straightforwards.
another thing i dislike about the book is he does not differentiate between super nature and the supernatural. for example he talks about how people would not want to handle a fred wests cardigan for fear of what it represented or some evil inherently within the item. this has nothing to do with nature and more to do with superstition or fear. if the constructs of the mind are dismantled the idea of inherent evil is pointless.
nor is the idea that evolution can't exist hand in hand with intelligent design. why can't the designer use evolution?

apart from these issues supersense is a very interesting read, well written and well worth reading.

this morning i awoke to a martian atmosphere, yes indeed i was on the red planet. despite it being incredibly warm and windy a massive dust cloud had descended upon all of sydney and engulfed us in its atmosphere. it was quite surreal and ironically at the same time the UN were discussing climate change in NYC. i think they had some nice champagne and told lies to one another like most political animals. they probably throw the press a few soundbytes and pose for a photo opportunity, appearing concerned while watching the neon from the back seats of stretch limos. its a strange day on planet earth.