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People Who Drink Their Own Pee Are Obsessed With AI, Using It to Reassure Themselves That It’s a Miraculous Cure-All (futurism.com)

submitted 4 days ago by cannedtuna@lemmy.world to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

156 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The power of AI.

Long story short, AI initially pushed back on the ridiculous idea that drinking your own piss was a cure all, then these users figured out that adding words like ‘esoteric’ to their prompts let them direct AI to tell them what they wanted to hear.

Tbh article was too gross for me to finish. That’s all you get from me for a summary.

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[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah but that's what I mean, the terms "esoteric" and "occult" basically originated because it wasn't safe to openly study/practice certain teachings. Even owning the wrong book could have meant a death sentence in some times and places. Hence, practices were "occluded" and passed on in secrecy from adepts to initiates.

My point was that even though some places have evolved culturally beyond that, not all places are quite there yet. So an offbeat joke about sacrificing goats isn't exactly going to be an effective coping mechanism everywhere...

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Hence, practices were "occluded" and passed on in secrecy from adepts to initiates.

Sometimes, more often I think it was more because higher teachings would be misunderstood without the foundation of "initiation". Persecution was certainly an aspect at various points in history, but I don't think that's the main reason the subjects were "occult".

So an offbeat joke about sacrificing goats isn't exactly going to be an effective coping mechanism everywhere

Oh I meant less as a coping mechanism and more just not worrying about the assumptions of the profane. But then esoteric studies aren't really the sort of thing you discuss with random people. I only go into my study and practice with like-minded individuals. I can't really think of any situations where someone who would have negative preconceptions about the esoteric would know about my studies, unless I wanted them to.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

more often I think it was more because higher teachings would be misunderstood without the foundation of "initiation".

It's definitely both. Not sure whether it was one more than the other, but that probably varied by time and place. The important part is 1), not getting burnt at the stake and 2), not handing a student a teaching that they haven't yet developed the tools to understand, because that could mislead them into potentially dangerous delusions.

another part of it:

A third reason which is 3), not handing the teachings to a psychopath or a narcissist or someone who's gonna go all machiavellian and try to use it to control other people instead of themselves. Which apparently eventually leaked out because psychopaths today have occult secrets, and there's actually a really dark side to the whole billionaire oligarchy thing going on today, and it's connections to right-wing chaos magic. There's a whole rabbit hole if you ever feel like pulling those threads. But maybe you're already familiar with what I mean.

Oh and 3.5), not handing the teachings to a charlatan who will misframe them with inflated promises while minimizing the challenges involved and the patience and endurance it requires; and then try to market a watered-down version to gullible people, which basically amounts to an intro-lesson's measure of "secret knowledge." Which again, must have leaked out cause there's all sorts of fluffed-up BS pop-occultism these days. And I don't just mean people who are into it for the aesthetic, I mean almost the entire "self-help" industry. Shit like the "Silva Method" where they charge rich people out the ass for expensive seminars where they pretend their founder invented meditation.

But yeah, that's basically the gist.

But then especially studies aren't really the sort of thing you discuss with random people.

Yeaahhhh, about that... when I was younger I really wanted to find people who were interested in occultism so I went around discussing it with random people like a dumbass because I thought we were living in some sort of enlightened era where secrecy was no longer necessary...

spoiler: secrecy is still, at the very least, advisable.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As a man who's been traveling east, as it were, for the last few years, secrets never stay secret. I'd wager just about every nugget of divine knowledge worth knowing is out in some form or another. But in my view, a pilfered secret without the framework to understand it is about as useful or dangerous as fluffed up nonsense. Less so honestly, since they're not suitably impressive without the knowledge to understand. Fantastic claims, far beyond the purview of sincere esotericism, are more attractive to charlatans.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah yeah well the secrets of that order have all been published in writing for at least a hundred years at this point. But the secrets themselves aren't about the words but the delivery.

So an outsider looking in might think "what's the big deal?" And I think that's what leads overactive imaginations to come up with grotesque explanations for what they think the "real" secrets are.

a somewhat darker take:

That and the old himmlerian propaganda that demonized the institution. You could see the same threads popping up in the qanon bullshit if you paid attention, which was the first thing that tipped me off that neonazis were making a political comeback.

It's still been an uphill battle to convince people that that's what we're dealing with...

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Other orders are no different, everything has been published for years.

And yeah, overactive imaginations create a lot of malevolent noise (e.g. Taxil), but at the same time I think that mystique is what drives people to start the journey in the first place. What I expected of the "magickal powers" associated with esoteric study have changed drastically since I began. I'm reminded of some yogic text I read over a decade ago, describing all the fantastic powers gained from years of strict yogic practice, yet the process of unlocking those powers divests one of the urge to use them.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, that makes sense. If I remember correctly they say something along the lines of "Don't pursue the saddhis, because then they won't come to you. Pursue samadhi alone, with no attachment to any outcome, and then all the saddhis will come naturally, but you won't care because you will already have samadhi."