If he was attempting to levitate or talk to the dead, I would agree. However, the human body is capable of many things that we would consider impossible. Consider small women lifting cars off their children, etc.

The brain and nervous system put limiters on our body to protect it, this is fact, however with training or via fight or flight response, it is possible to temporarily override those natural limitations to perform amazing feats.

Yes, the drill was not the right type of bit to go through flesh and he may have been pushing against it, but to not break the skin and for him to resist the pain, that is amazing. The title of the video does not mean I believe in some mystical technique that allows the body to resist damage, it was more of a joke. I do believe that through years of conditioning and training that this person has managed some feats that you or I would be seriously injured by.

This....
"THE pixie dust does exist - you could snort if you wanted to and it would show you" ....

The pixie dust @ulysses1904 first referenced and you replied to is (from my reading) the pixie dust that makes you religious.

You assume I have not 'taken the plunge' just because I don't take it the same way you do? Quite an assumption for you to make, an erroneous one. I've taken many a 'trip' in my day, on many a substance. I feel that I have enough grasp on reality to understand that anything they made me see or feel was a chemical reaction in my brain to a drug, not a mystical, religious, spiritual, or other experience.

Drug experience are as false as religion, IMO. Your mind creates images and thoughts that are not based in reality. If you can gain some measure of peace or knowledge from that, good for you, most can't, and suggesting they take unregulated, often permanently damaging drugs in a random setting is not responsible.

You are most likely correct that that is not what most people think, because most people simply don't think.

Wow...so any mystic, people generally regarded as useless for any other profession, should be given more weight than anyone who ever graced a stage, no matter what other credentials they may possess? I don't believe that is what most people think, not even most religious people.

Any functioning eye can see itself if you have a mirror. A sword can cut itself if you melt/bend it. ;-)

It seems that you think god had the option to create a perfect universe, but chose not to. If 'he' is omniscient, he does know how it will turn out. (side note, all BUT ONE of those infinite possibilities would be imperfection, but why would 'he' not choose perfection?)

The elegant function of the universe is no proof or even indication of any intelligence behind it, but is only proof of elegance of the laws of physics/nature. No intelligence or designer required for this elegance, and I think the need to have an anthropomorphized "creator" take credit is just a way to feel that somehow humans (which most would say 'he' created the universe for, and/or are made in 'his' image), and therefore you are, in some way, very like the 'creator' and deserving of misusing the universe in any way you see fit.

Non theists do not get mad at god anymore than you get mad at Santa for not bringing you what you want, or leprechauns for not handing you their gold. We get mad at people acting ridiculously, giving credit to phantoms for explainable events, confusing fact with myth, confusing impressionable undereducated people, wasting valuable time with nonsense and non sequitur (often simply as a method to obstruct change), and standing in the way of progress, both scientific and societal. We don't think god fails our standard (except the standard of reality or the requirement of actual existence), we think the very IDEA of god fails along with every definition or description...every time it's examined honestly....no matter which god you choose to examine.

I don't believe that it is what most people think. Most people believe in God, for starters, according to every poll ever taken on the subject, at least here in the US.

The mystics, who deserve far more credence than stage actors, say that God created the universe because an eye can not see itself, nor a sword cut itself. For God to know himself, the universe was created, so that God could see all of the possibilities. And one of those possibilities is imperfection, or at least what we see as imperfection, such as people who kill or bacteria that makes us sick.

The programmer programs the computer and he doesn't always know how it's going to turn out. The artist throws paint on the canvas but a certain chaos theory enters into it.

At any rate, to see the Universe and not realize the intelligence behind it is just sad. At the least a thinking person should investigate all aspects of it.

To ignore the intelligence behind the universe is just stubbornness. How do you maintain your anger at God when you don't even believe in God?

I got news for you. If you are mad at God, then you believe in God. If you think God fails your standard, then where did that standard come from?

When the level of complexity of a system far outreaches the mental ability of the 'student', it looks like magic. The world must be a wonderful, mystical, magical place for this woman.

Of course, there's someone in the crowd with a microphone. It'd be a pretty crap show if you couldn't hear the audience member.

The mystical surgery was the least interesting part of the show, IMO. some fake blood and some slight of hand, not really that impressive.

but you should have watched to the end... you missed the best part

Awful imo. No stooges or setups but amazingly there's a person with a microphone right behind whoever he wants to talk to. I didn't watch till the end in all fairness. Had to stop when the mystical surgery started.

This is missing the standard mystical/spacy background music!

Yeah, I mean I've done it all sorts of different ways except IV'ing. I refuse to IV anything unless under medical supervision

Honestly, I think nasally just is not going to be beneficial which exactly like you said is the result of pinwheels & confusion. Plus, a burning nose.

Orally, you are going to want to make sure you are using a MAOI that you are comfortable with already so that the MAOI vs. DMT effect is somewhat understood.
Then obviously, dosage is everything. If you don't know how much you did, you may have only had a very sub experience. Which is when it seems like LSD... that is when you know you just need more because you are no where close yet.

These states I would say aren't really even "sub-breakthroughs" and approach a level similar to other psychedelics. I would NEVER recommend a breakthrough dose because it is not "confusing" as to what is going on. It's wildly real when you are "there".

How much did you smoke? And what kind of tool did you smoke it out of? There is definitely a "mystical" state in there you just have to do enough. I was apprehensive as well until I stopped saying it was bullshit and did it myself whilst taking heed to all of the information I had gathered over the years on the topic. I am flabbergasted to this day and anyone else who has "received the message" knows what I am talking about.

I've never found anything mystical about psychedelic drugs, including DMT. As I see it, they just throw a wrench into the works of your brain and thus your perception of consciousness. It can be very interesting and enlightening, particularly as a visceral lesson in how subjective 'reality' is, but it isn't in any way mystical to me.

You're conflating two different points.

1 - Is overpopulation a problem that needs to be addressed?
2 - If it is a problem, is it possible for us to address?

We've been competing for less and less resources ever since populations started growing. Nobody in this thread has offered any evidence for why suddenly at and above 7 billion it will really become a problem this time. My hypothesis is that the past shows that the change in living standards from increased populations will be gradual and not cause some kind of cataclysmic hunger or global food war. Where is your evidence to the contrary? I've shown examples recent and past where the world has dealt with respectively, (1) high commodity prices and (2) dealt with proportionately much higher population growth than what we are experiencing today.

Society has continually shown the ability to drastically grow agricultural yields, tap deeper and harder to access water and energy reserves and substitute different inputs when a commodity becomes scarce or expensive. With global birth rates barely above replacement and global population plateauing, where is your evidence that with the ingenuity of the many people that have come out of poverty since the end of the Cold War, that we won't be able to handle a historically relatively mild proportionate growth in population?

Every time I see someone channelling Malthusian scare mongering such as this video, I always see the same tropes -

(1) The word exponential bounded about with some kind of mystical reverence;
(2) An over-abundant use of analogies while being absent of any historical basis for their argument; and
(3) A complete lack of plausible solutions to the problem because their argument is grounded in emotion and intuition rather than practicality.

I can't really speak for Systema, and there are certainly some people in aikido who focus on mystic nonsense.

But the base underlying principles are sound. I've been taken apart by a 73 year old man literally half my size. I've also trained with other people in various jujutsus, and both of us have found something to learn from the other.

I don't really think it's self-deception. Maybe for some people, it is, but I'm under no illusion about how well I'd do against one of the UFC guys.

Besides, people seem to think that Aikido practitioners are somehow restricted to the demonstrated techniques. IMO, those are merely teaching aids, the "finger pointing at the stars", if you like

Ultimately, debating martial arts on the internet is even more pointless than debating with creationists. You really need to experience each art to understand it. If it isn't for you, that's fine; find something else that is.

It is true that MMA is not the be-all end-all of martial arts,and in fact "two persons of equivalent weight competing willingly on neutral ground" is quite far removed from "actual trouble" (key words: "two", "willingly").

That being said, two things:
1) There have been 'no-hold-barred' fights / underground duels recorded since at least the 1920s, some of them very violent and bone-splitting (famously: Kimura Vs Gracie), and 'soft' aikido-style systems never won anything.

2) More importantly, systema does claim a number of things, including being a martial art in the military sense, and being the product of an elite military force, to which it was reserved (i.e. it was secret). It also claims to have semi-mystical roots dating from the middle ages, and bonker stuff like 'paralyzing soft punch' and 'healing punch' (this is claimed by its actual founder - you can look it up). Of course none of those claims have been substantiated.

So systema is either:
- An elite martial art with Fist-Of-The-North-Star like powers, yet no one heard of it before or beside (not pre-USSR historians, not recognized Russian martial artists, and not actual Russian elite military officers), and was/is super-secret, yet can be somehow taught to anyone.

Or:
- Stuff made up by two guys out of the army.

You decide.

If your goal is "studying" and "bettering yourself", shouldn't that involve something that's honest with its claims?

I agree with Velocity5, it is, indeed, self-deception.

I agree with ya.

There are a lot of jumping to conclusions and pseudo-scientific & "spiritual" & "mystical" hyper-babble in there.

It's really not about being "right" about anything; I think when people go on their spiels about it - there is a lot of personal fervor and frustration that this is obviously something extremely important to study because it "seems" like the "impossible". That it is so impossible to describe that it seems like anything or everything. Even when I think about times I have been under it and try to imagine what it was like I feel like I am going to bust reality wide open.

I do believe that it is bizarre that this chemical exists and seems to interact with us in an extremely intense and vivid way. It will be interesting to find out what scientists find out about this thing in the next 50 years and hopefully they can figure out more than "It is attaching to 5-HT_ & 5-HT_ receptors".

In 2013 scientists found that a rat's pineal gland contains this molecule so the future is going to be pretty interesting on this topic.

why exactly should we care what a "mystic" says?

I think it's extremely funny how theists arbitrarily determine what is and isn't a miracle in their obsession with appeals to emotion.

every single theist has a different idea of what is and isn't a miracle. And you wonder why we dismiss the idea of miracles? As braindonut already mentioned, there are countless things out there that don't require surrendering to an imaginary sky being to have awe and wonder about.