That's lovely.

Yes, pretty much

Modern people are smart and everybody in the past was dumb.

All that religion and mysticism. All that stuff about gods, little people, spirits, elves, afterlife, etc. Stuff that all the smart people talked about for thousands of years.

It's all wrong. They were all just dumb.

Does that count as romanticizing too?

1. maybe, maybe not. There are differences that aren't so different and there's a lot of smoke around the subject. We'd be better off to talk more specifically, maybe. I'm being specific about the "controlling your attention" thing, for example.

2. Hmm. Getting offended is basically the national sport of the internet. So you'll pardon me if I take it with a grain of salt. I'm striving for brevity and clarity here. I for one find tiptoeing around the point to avoid offending anybody to be the most offputting style. But all that noise aside, ya, speaking as an AS guy who meditates, it's a really big deal. I'm actually intentionally avoiding getting too handwavey and excited about it here because people tend to find that REALLY offputting.

A bit of experimentation might be required. Different kinds of "object to focus on" work differently for different people.

I tried mantra too. And a few other "things to focus on". I experimented.

I ended up using breath too. Specifically, I used the feeling of breath in the tip of my nose.

FYI. That focusing type meditation is what the Buddhists call "Samatha". It's also called Anapanasati, Concentration Meditation, Samprajnata Dhyana, and a few other names, depending on who's talking.

There's another kind of meditation too. The Buddhists call it "Vipassana". It's pretty great. It's another thing to do with your attention. Something other than focusing and concentrating.

Shamans of yore referred to AS maladies as "the teaching disease". Because it teaches you something important about reality. Something that's otherwise hard to see.

You are clearly high.

Learn how to meditate ASAP. Magic is real and meditation is the doorway to it.

This is too empowering. I prefer to think of myself as damaged beyond all hope.

It's the same people tho.

Post an actual unpopular opinion and see what happens.

The hive forbids conversation between people who see things differently.

People within subject x, y, z are tolerable, even beneficial, and I enjoy their company. People in general are boneheaded and infantile.