Esoterics vs critical thinking 21st century view

What you can gain from practicing esoterics and occultism in different cultures

In other words, are you sure meditation and shamanism kill critical thinking?


My dear readers from all over the world!

I would like to dwell on a topic which is complicated, mysterious, hip, fun, provocative, deep and creative. This is the link between the so-called ‘traditional’ cults and practices, esoteric, occult and mystic wings and microgroups within each religion and the prolific, exalted, hyperactive and hyperproductive air of the civilization in the nowadays’ world.

First of all, the skills you obtain while visiting the so-called ‘spiritual schools’ in different cities, countries and even in different segments of the virtual space will vary vastly.

Some people enter the spiritual community even while practising their mainstream religion/philosophy/lifestyle creed/set of workplace mottos/daily routine protocol, follow the rules of communication, the written or unwritten ‘code of conduct’ and are satisfied with the quality of their lives for long years of joy, safety and commitment.

The other group of adepts may even include converted or partially converted atheists, materialists and agnosticists. Numerous theorists and researchers who perform, used to perform or are likely to perform at peak of their talent, brightness and quality might sometimes voice or imply their innate and allegedly temporary scepticism towards both rational thinking and irrational

While I have been surfing the RelWeb (this is merely my temporary designation of this information field),  or the SciWeb (this is how I label all sorts of scientific theoretic and experimental knowledge posted online) I have faced a wide array of unusual, complex, controversial, disquieting and alarming messages, most of which were  or seemed to have been delivered from and circulating between distant territories and areas in which the Internet is a rarity or is used for purposes others than knowledge clarification, perfecting and sensible dissemination. ArtWeb also appears to be a highly competitive, posh and overly emotional space, but the more grasp of it we have, the more we get attached to the alluring charm of it, its constant vigor and diverse, mysterious, enchanting energy.

Even given the trends of social media and .com domain personal websites and blogs, which in many cases might appear as volatile and may be subject to drastic changes, the trends of RelWeb work differently and follow a strikingly huge number of patterns.

Let’s assume I have traced and noticed (sometimes modelled/projected) more than 780 000 000 types of human behaviour, rituals, sets of convictions, combinations of ideas, intellectual, emotional patterns, beliefs, values, ideals, countervalues, argumentation/communication schemes, types of  personal, organizational, political, financial, travel, consumer, industrial, aesthetic, social, scientific, linguistic,  decision-making over a period of more than 35 000 years.

These may include but nor be limited to:


Mainstream theories

Alternative theories

Theories which are scientifically approved and/or backed up by ‘hard science’  and/or huge chunks,  significant clusters, waves or arrays of data

Theories and methods which might be considered obsolete/outdated now but have been used or have been circulating over decades, centuries, epochs and eras.

Marginalized theories,  methods, ideas and hypotheses

Unchecked theories, ideas or hypotheses

Proverbs, in-group illusions and beliefs, popular and rare memes, patterns of in-group, out-group, inter-group behaviour/communication.

Countless poems, film plots, legends, theatrical plays, including those in natural languages which I’ve only had a glimpse into  and out of which I only happen to know (and not always reproduce) less than 80 words and whose grammar is still quite vague to me.

If you asked me why I do my best to keep pursuing study of these languages, what would I have said?

Simply because the world is global and I have to always be fit for covering highly specific topics or covering common topics in a new way or presenting them to new segments/clusters of the audience.

Numerous short videos from social networks or news sites displaying  or implying new or long-forgotten lifestyle/work culture/value sets/positions, memories/views/traditions of various professional, educational, relational or recreational communities

How did I collect this knowledge and how am I (and, hopefully, some other people) are planning to use it?


First of all, in most cases I do my best to keep things clean. I make sure I have at least some bleak ancipative knowledge of the topic I am about to cover. In case I do not, I either make short semi-formal inquiries for some more guidance and facts or follow routines which ensure my basic competence while covering a topic.

Given a choice, in most cases I follow a routine which falls under late 90’s – mid 2000’s standardised news/investigative/interview  journalism, but guidelines are slightly modified  to fit the country in which the respondent resides or a target group is or seems to be located.



Now, coming back to guidelines, instructions and standards.


Although I have been covering for more than 15 years, I avoid positioning myself as a veteran journalist or a guru art critic, simply because things may change in a momentary, new technologies, methods and topics arrive at least 5 times per hour, and sticking to the same methods and values may add to my professional loyalty and dignity and at the same time detract from versatility and ‘gut feeling’ which is not only beneficial for reporting, reviewing and investigating, but also for getting things done without getting lost in unnecessary detail, which is a ‘business, hard skills’ component of journalism, the math and the economy behind it.

Now let me share my own highly personalized and subjective view of what loyalty is in journalism.

Being a loyal journalist means following some kind of a strategy or a set of strategies and values which not only make you visible within the community but also open to new projects, missions and lessons, ready to learn new skills and techniques, however doing your best to covering events or displaying people, ideas, phenomenae.

So, in case Z-Gen readers, writers, future authors or contributors  are following me now or they seem to have bumped into one of my pages by chance and they really seek some guidance and simple, ‘Nutcracker-like’ answers, I’d say that there’s something beyond simply following your paper/journal/magazine/agency/forum/social network rules.

This ‘something’ is a thing I would call a perpetual urge for new impressions, new events, new methods of delivering information, new ways of transforming it, new ways of reading, listening, sometimes even ‘daydreaming’ between the lines. Even if these things won’t get you to a top paper, they might be of use at any time. Do you know a term for this stable craving for novelty? It is called ‘kaynerastia’, and this word comes from Greek.

At times you Gen Z-ers, as well as us Millennials might make impulsive, vociferous social statements and later feel grandiously limited by our own principles, therefore stressed, puzzled and perplexed.

Of course this essay is far from being a comprehensive set of steady guidelines, but I would like to emphasise on a set of traits which makes both Gen Z-ers and Millennials stand out, which might act as our ‘KPI-boosters’ and ‘vulnerability exploits’ under different circumstances and within different  groups.

A high level of dedication to our values, a high creativity level, as well as intuition and the ability to communicate out needs clearly are going to help you in your future tasks and missions.


The author,

Maryna Tchianova, wishes the best of success to journalists, bloggers, IT CEOs, inventors and promoters all over the planet and, hopefully, even beyond Solar System.

#TEDx international

#startups

#AI

#Online media coverage

#VR===augmented reality

#international blogging