Sombunall

The word "sombunall", which means "some but not all", could be a highly useful word. It was coined by ontological language master Robert Anton Wilson. It functions as a condition attached to the word following it. This changes the sentence from a jarring absolute into a soft semantic glide.

"Women are crazy."
"Sombunall women are crazy."

Which of these two sentences is wrong? Which offers enough leeway to be sensible and variable to context and other yet-to-be-determined conditions?

In actuality "sombunall" is an excessive use of syllables. "Sombunall" simply means "some", since "some" already implies "not all".
However, the word "some" is often easily overlooked, so for the spirit of effect I like to use "sombunall". It brings attention to the condition you are attaching to the subject.

Joe A: "Some dingos have displayed acts of aggression in some cases."
Joe B: "Hey this asshole just said all dingos are aggressive! Can you believe the nerve of this guy???"

Or alternatively...

Joe A: "Sombunall dingos have displayed acts of aggression in some cases."
Joe B: "Sombunall dingos? What the hell is a sombunall dingo???"

There are very few absolutes in this world.
2+2=4, but not all 2s equal 4. They only equal four when given the condition of +2.
You could say "Sombunall 2s equal 4." Then someone would need to figure out which 2s equal 4. Only the 2s that have the condition of +2 added to them equal 4, but not all 2s equal 4.

In societal culture we have situations that almost always have complex variable or unknown conditions. This makes "sombunall" very useful in statements about our complex relations. The more complicated the cultural situations, the more possible variables exist.

Here is an exercise.
Change these absolute statements into statements that allow for variables using "sombunall":

"Cops are dicks."
"White men can't jump."
"Snakes are poisonous."
"Frogs are green."
"Muslims are the enemy."
"Chickens lay eggs."
"Pot smokers are dumb."
"Humans are the smartest animals on Earth."
"Steppenwolf songs are awesome."
"Flags wave in the breeze."
"Republicans/Democrats/other/etc are wrong."

"Apes have gone askew."

Enjoy using SOMBUNALL. It can change the dynamics of your expressions and prevent you from getting backed into the semantic corners of absolutes.

Here are links to more resources about sombunall...

http://deoxy.org/wiki/Sombunall

https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/sombunall-coinages-become-cult-words/

http://vixenstrangelymakesuncommonsense.blogspot.com/2010/06/ask-your-doctor-if-time-is-right-for.html

ALSO! PLEASE JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP "APES GONE ASKEW!"

Virtual Vacation

Perhaps you do not have the time or means (for now) to visit places you may be interested in, but you could consider the next best thing: a virtual vacation.
Here's the idea....

Plan a week in a location. Let's say India as an example.
For the entire week you can do things to virtually put you there. Of course nothing is like the real thing, but this can still be a good learning experience. To spend a week in India "virtually" you can do some of the following things.
-Buy a travel guide to India
-Learn some Hindi 
-Watch films or read books set in India
-Eat Indian cuisine
-Talk to friends from India or who have been there
-Watch Indian tv or film
-Study Indian culture, history, and religion
-Get on Google Earth and "visit" India
-Daydream that you are there

Of course none of this is as good as the real thing, but it can allow you to spend a week in a learning experience.
Happy travels.

Revised Must-read Book List For Living

"Walden" by Henry David Thoreau 
"Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson 
"The Yoga Sutras" by Patanjali 
"Science and Sanity" by Alfred Korzybski  (alternative: "Drive Yourself Sane" by Bruce Kodish and Susan Kodish)
"The Bhagavad Gita"
"Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau  
"Quantum Psychology" by Robert Anton Wilson  
"The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield 
"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

"Freedom From The Known" by Jiddu Krishnamurti 

"Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu

"The Book" by Alan Watts

"Critical Path" by Buckminster Fuller

also read science books!

I Am An Ape

I Am An Ape

I am an ape. That’s for sure. You too. Well, at the very least we are riding around in an ape body and experiencing reality with an ape brain with apish tendencies. If I slip on a banana peel I can break my tailbone and experience a pain in the arse. If I slip in my relations with other apes I can get a headache or perhaps I can be a pain in the arse. It’s all very complex apishness, these bodies and minds. The numerous variables of complex ape psychology are hard to comprehend. Yet, we are tied in for now to this primal primate set of limitations.

And that’s what the human experience is, a complex set of primate limitations experiencing a small fraction of reality and cursed by the certainties we have about it. Even the elevated and enlightened minds among us remain attached to the dear apeness we think we experience as the truth. Our highly regarded certainties sit on dynamic display through our human expressions into the frantic collective of other humans (society), and the display case is sometimes impenetrable. In some cases it is bullet-proof or even bomb-proof to allow no tampering with this prized “truth” we think we possess.

This is where the wild party gets started: in the colliding of rigid truths. And wild parties can get out of control in a second. A guy looks at another guy’s girl (his possession) and shirts suddenly fly off and grunting and flailing begins. Some would call this a “fight”, but a fighter would call this an absurd mess, as if Mozart were witnessing a Justin Beiber concert. Nonetheless, a melee has ensued and the crowd reacts in its various ways: some frightened, some appalled, some joyfully entertained.

Is that uncivilized behavior? I suppose alcohol fueled mayhem can be construed as uncivilized, but it is the same complex ape-like social operations we can see even at the highest levels of society. This is because it is all primate reactions. Don’t be fooled by the uprightness and fancy words. We are a highly out of control species compounded by complexities on top of complexities.

However, the elevated mind and even the heathenous mind having brief moments of clarity can transcend these primal reactions. At least the reactionary behavior can be reduced or applied appropriately or sensibly. Each moment offers something to jolt us into or out of these foolish guardings of erroneous certainty which is supported by the tricks of our own mind. It is a choice that can be made, but only if we see that our perspective of reality is not all reality; that many factors are ignored by our opinions of truth. Once the walls of certainty collapse new growth is possible, like letting sunlight into a room full of dying plants. And we are dying. We are suffering a long slow social and psychological demise, because time has moved forward without us. We’ve hung on to our “truths” for far too long.

Ok, Laren, since you seem to know it all….

Wait a minute, I know nothing. That’s what this is all about!

….why don’t you tell us what to do?

There’s the problem: this ape mentality of thinking we need to be led, or thinking that we need to lead.

The Argument Against Evolution

You've got to admit that the argument against evolution is extremely weak. It's about as strong as the position of the Flat Earth Society or people who don't believe in gravity.

Here are a couple of points made against evolution:

First, we have witnessed and documented evolution.

Second, humans are still evolving.

This is probably the dumbest and most irrational thing ever uttered by a human. It's amazing to think that this would sound reasonable to any grown adult with enough intelligence to be capable of tying shoes.

If you do not believe in evolution (because it doesn't fit your particular "system" of indoctrination) you are suffering from dogmatic mental delusions and a rigid perspective of reality not based on reality. This isn't a matter of respecting beliefs, it's a matter of the dangers presented to society by false beliefs. Yes, beliefs held and taught are dangerous to the sanity of society. Abandon or change any beliefs in the light of new information. Alter your personal system of belief instead of adhering to one error within it for the sake of the whole, 

In other words: EVOLVE.

Thou Shalt Not Take Thy Shalts Too Seriously

Here are a few thoughts on the Ten Commandments. Some good and some not.

• ¹ And God said all these words: ² I am the Lord who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. ³ You are to have no other gods but me. All Gods say this. All jealous teenage boyfriends and girlfriends say this too. It's pure nonsense. 
• ⁴ You are not to make an image or picture of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth: ⁵ You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters; ⁶ And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws. No pictures please! Also, obey your father, even if he's wrong. If you do this, even though it's wrong, I will reward you. Don't ask why!
• ⁷ You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged a sinner by the Lord. This is an attempt to not be implicated, but humans have engaged in evil in the name of God since the dawn of man. There must be a lot of souls in hell! 
• ⁸ Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day. ⁹ On six days do all your work: ¹⁰ But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among you: ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and .earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy. Nature doesn't know what Sunday is. Sunday is just another day.
• ¹² Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Honor your parents who raised you. If they a worthy, they deserve it. This is good advice.
• ¹³ Do not put anyone to death without cause. "Thou shalt not kill". This is the most sensible of the commandments. It's an easy one to follow too. Don't murder anyone or else. I feel that society goes a little too easy on murderers.
• ¹⁴ Do not be false to the married relation. This simply means don't have sex with anyone else, but there are several cultural exceptions to this.
• ¹⁵ Do not take the property of another. Another extremely easy one to follow, but whole societies of millions of people are based on stealing from each other. So maybe it's not really so easy.
• ¹⁶ Do not give false witness against your neighbor. Don't lie about others or make false assumptions. We shouldn't need God to tell us that, but I guess some people do.
• ¹⁷ Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is his. You may BORROW an ass, but not a wife. I've never had an easy time accepting that other people should be considered property.

We can take all the petty human flaws and jealousy out of it and put it all into sensible perspective with The Wiccan Rede:

"And ye harm none, do what thou whilt."