analects noun, pl

/ˈan.ə.lɛkts/

a collection of ideas, extracts, or teachings.

Abstractions as Gods

stuff On the things we make sacred

show:

analects under the categories btrmt. believes in, as set out in the manifesto

analects organised according to the fundamental questions of philosophy

sequences of articles gathered around a more focused idea

  • the value of ritual 25 Jul 2026 [audio + edited transcript] You don’t get a choice about whether you ritualise. Only about whether you chose the ritual.
  • sages and wisdom 16 May 2026 [audio + edited transcript] The doctor and the guru run on the same authority structure. We just pick which one to trust by its costume. Choose by what sits under the c...
  • gesticism 26 Jan 2026 [article] Lots of things are happening, but anything can matter, and whatever gives meaning will eventually demand sacrifice. The agony of attention....
  • on cynosure 7 Mar 2025 [article] Cynosure is the idea betterment is empty without gratification and connection. No true betterment can occur without celebrating the fruits o...
  • aesthetics are facts too 21 Feb 2025 [article] Cultural and aesthetic ‘facts’ are as real as any ‘objective’ truths. They’re just centred on different kinds of meaning. Trivialising them...
  • bdsm as a lazy ideology 17 Jan 2025 [article] BDSM is an ideology stack—a collection of behaviours borne of a culture that surrounds some core set of human needs. But is it lazy? Hard to...
  • speaking in tongues 23 Aug 2024 [article] Glossolalia has a unique pattern of neural activity, distinct from psychopathologies and even other trance-like states. So, the feeling unde...
  • panpsychism isn't that fun 22 Sep 2023 [article] Panpsychists reckon they’ve one-upped materialists and non-materialists in explaining how consciousness might have come to be by telling us...
  • on managing magic mushroom experiences 29 Jul 2023 [article] Mushrooms change the balance between inside-out forces (the all-consuming neural networks that support the ‘self’) and outside-in forces (th...
  • the value of ritual 17 Mar 2023 [article] Rituals are often dismissed, but they’re just procedures with a purpose. We all engage in ritualistic behavior—many habits and routines meet...
  • mundane cults 27 Feb 2023 [article] We’ve been taught that cults are dark and scary things. But we have been fooled. The cult is a prominent building block of modern community....
  • abstractions as gods 28 Dec 2022 [article] We can use abstractions to get a handle on complex features of the world. By personalising centres of purpose in the world, we can better co...
  • spirituality of mind 29 Aug 2022 [article] The secular world replaced the soul with a mind in the brain. Modern science of mind finds no such thing, but a collection of mini-minds whi...
  • useful pharmacology 28 Jul 2022 [article] We absolutely love some drugs. Others terrify us. The difference is familiarity more than any other single thing and the result is confusion...
  • it's not 'just' a placebo 28 Dec 2021 [article] The phrase “it’s ‘just’ a placebo effect” is used to wave away inconvenient findings that some alternative therapies work, because we don’t...
  • the value of the sacred 24 Aug 2021 [article] The sacred isn’t a social myth; a delusion of the religious. It is what happens when we bind moments of personal meaning and power to someth...
  • in praise of the sage 19 Jul 2021 [article] Our culture spurns the ‘guru’ as a charletan and the traditionalist as a relic. Legitimate knowledge comes from reasoned observation, not in...
  • varela's gestures 10 Apr 2021 [article] Neuroscientist Francisco Varela’s “gestures” of awareness—suspension, redirection, and letting go—are an incredibly simple guide to understa...
  • states of mind 5 Dec 2020 [article] There is no such thing as an ‘altered’ state of mind. Or rather, all states of mind are ones that are altered. Preferring the familiar ones...
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