Spiritual memes

The pastor led a marathon prayer service at the New Christian Destiny Centre, calling for divine intervention in the presidential race. This included requests for prayers from Africa and South America to help Trump to win.

“I hear a sound of victory, the Lord says it is done,” White said even as all counting indicated that Trump was trailing.

In a video widely circulated on social media by the handle Right Wing Watch, White utters chants like “victory, victory, victory”, “strike and strike and strike” and “Africa right now, Africa right now, Africa right now”.

https://images.indianexpress.com/2020/08/1x1.png

Here’s how people on social media reacted to it:

The first time White prayed with Trump was when he was host of reality TV show The Apprentice. Over a decade later, she also led the country in prayer when the billionaire was sworn in as 45th president of the United States in 2016.

As performance practitioners, we hear a lot about the so-called power of theatre. Yet not all live performances are powerful. So when they are, what makes them so? This essay uses the neuroscience of spectating and imitation to make the argument that live performance has the ability to transfer certain units of cultural information—including those with spiritual content—from performer to spectator. These transferable units, called memes, can be as specific as a simple melody or as sophisticated and individualized as a spiritual belief system. I am interested in how certain units of spiritual ideology can be spread from character to spectator in the theatre. It is important for us as artists to consider the biological impact of the transmission of ideas from the stage space to the audience.

In The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins coined the controversial term meme, an abbreviation of the Greek root mimema, "to imitate." Dawkins uses the term to define units of culture includi ng "tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches."¹ Just as genes are passed on from parents to children, memes, Dawkins argues, can be passed on from brain to brain via cultural transmission. This transmission takes place via the subconscious imitation of the behavior of others and through formal and informal education. Susan Blackmore similarly argues that memes, like genes, evolve by "memetic selection." She also suggests that religious memes eventually have an impact on which genes are successful.²

In Breaking the Spell, cognitive philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that we should "set aside our traditional reluctance to investigate religious phenomena scientifically, so that we can come to understand how [End Page 26] and why religions inspire such devotion."³ He argues that religion is such an influential natural phenomenon that it must be understood in order to make informed political decisions. I would argue that as performance practitioners, we benefit from understanding the science of spiritual belief systems in order to make informed aesthetic decisions.

In the past decade, theatre scholarship has crossed disciplinary lines with the cognitive sciences to better understand how spectators become engaged with the subject matter represented on the stage. In Engaging Audiences, Bruce McConachie examines how various cultural concepts, empathy, and emotion are working in the minds of spectators during a theatrical performance. He argues that the cognitive sciences can tell us, as theatre practitioners, how to better understand and stimulate the spectator's brain. He writes: "As actors and spectators, we want to be pushed to emotional extremes," and so "audiences must engage with actors . . . and the artists . . . must engage with the spectators."⁴ Using recent neurological research concerning imitation, McConachie argues that while witnessing a staged event, the brain itself imitates the event, thereby effectively experiencing it. In other words, what the senses perceive, the brain translates into actual experience on the neuronal level. Once the spectator's brain has simulated the experience of the event onstage, a unit of cultural information—a meme—has been transferred.

Building on McConachie's argument, I suggest that the brain, through a series of cognit ive and psychosomatic processes, has the capacity to share in the representation of spiritual experiences onstage. Theatrical performances can act as neurological rehearsals for real-l ife scenarios, forming new neural pathways that create or reinforce belief in specific spiritual ideologies. Performative representations of spiritual experiences can, like the genetic code found in our DNA, carry and transmit elements of spiritual culture.

In Mystical Mind, Eugene d'Aquili and Andrew B. Newberg explore a possible evolutionary development of the brain that includes spiritual experience. They define the "cognitive imperative" as people's inherent need to "organize their world cognitively" and to "use their rational mind/brain to wonder about God and the mysteries of religion."⁵ The process of witnessing the representation of a spiritual experience onstage encourages the development of new neural pathways that make room for a cognitive organization of the unseen world.

The notion that the human brain—indeed, the mind itself—and the human body are interconnected is substant iated by consistent discoveries by neuroscientists. Humans...

Facebook says it removes content “that could contribute to imminent harm”, but more general conspiracy theories do not get removed.

The company believes it is better to leave these things up and label them “false” rather than removing it, as it would simply exist elsewhere on the internet.

A Facebook spokesperson said in March the platform removed “hundreds of thousands” of pieces of harmful misinformation and applied warning labels from independent fact-checkers to 40 million posts.

The pivot from Buddha memes to “misinformation” is not unique to Energy Therapy UK.

“Many websites and Facebook pages that were formerly centred around self-care or ‘alternative care’ have now become fully dedicated to spreading health-based disinformation,” William Dance, a PhD researcher in linguistics and disinformation at Lancaster University, told BuzzFeed News.

Other pages have also built up a huge audience by posting inoffensive content and then suddenly changed tack to more harmful content, he said.

“Facebook and other social media platforms must do more to identify and act against pages who shift their narrative towards disinformation over time,” said Dance.

This week, NewsGuard published a list of 15 Facebook pages around the world that are “super-spreaders” of misinformation about the coronavirus.

In addition to Energy Therapy UK, it names Health Impact News, which it described as: “a network of health sites that publishes false content … including a false claim that Vitamin C was an effective treatment for the coronavirus” and Tropical Traditions, a page that “publishes a mixture of lifestyle content, recipes, and health information from unreliable sources,” which made the same claim about Vitamin C.

Some followers of Energy Therapy UK are not happy with the recent pivot, according to comments left on the Facebook page.

“The page should stick to the positive energy healing,” one said. “There were so many political posts I finally quit scrolling through.”

“Lately it has been too political and divisive, therefore I am unfollowing,” said another. “I try to fill my feed with positive energy.”

However, other followers are strongly supportive of the Tannas; last week, the page addressed the backlash directly and posted to say, “We've lost some people and that's fine. But the truth cannot be squashed.”

Spirituality is seen as a serious thing, but does it always have to be like that? No harm in laughing out loud while looking at a few spiritual memes!

It’s the 21^st Century and everyone is using the internet to exchange ideas and creativity is sprawled all over the place.

The millennials have found an amusing way to manifest their sarcasm against the hypocrisies of the society through a mighty tool called ‘MEMES’.

Memes are all over the place now – making our Mondays a little less painful, our life a little less stressful and our resentment towards nonsense finds a better expression. In totality, memes are our savior.

You had a bad day? Read a meme. Are you losing your mind? Read a meme. Are you feeling bored? Read a meme. And also judge your best friend’s loyalty towards you by counting the number of memes she/her tags you in! (Not a reliable measure of loyalty, though!)

Spiritual awakening can sure be a painful process, but these memes will reduce the pain with the humor they bring along. Be it energy fields, bad vibes, aligning chakras or crystals – just name it.

Don’t waste any further moments and indulge yourself in the hilarious experience of reading these spiritual memes which are absolutely on point.

Here Are 36 Hilarious Spiritual Memes That Will Make You Laugh Out Loud

1.

Reading old Facebook posts written before your spiritual awakening. My kundalini is rising.

2.

When I overhear someone talking about spirituality.

3.

When you commit suicide to escape a miserable suffering life on Earth and get reincarnated 30 seconds later…

Brah for real?

Related: What Is Spiritual Bypassing? Beware of These 10 Types

4.

When you correctly guess someone’s zodiac sign and feel spiritual AF.

5.

When it’s Monday but it’s good because you meditated and got charged crystals in your pocket.

6.

When you meditated, balanced your chakras, hugged 5 trees and someone has the audacity to try and kill your vibe.

7.

So today at church a guy in a suit tried to drown me, and I kid you not, my family just stood there taking pictures.

8.

When my higher-self finally gets sick of me ignoring all the signs and synchronicities and has to drag my ass where I’m supposed to go.

9.

Me, no longer allowing people to infect my spirit with their low vibrations.

10.

When someone says some slick shit and you’re trying not to flip out because you’re working on being an enlightened individual.

Related: The Dark Side of Spiritual Awakening

11.

Lemme get this straight. So you “spiritual” but you think talking to “spirits” is evil?

12.

Your spirit guides looking down on your dumb ass as ignore every red flag, number sign, and dream warning they give you.

13.

Do you wanna come over, we’re balancing chak-

14.

When someone says my use of foul language is not very spiritual.

15.

When you’ve meditated, rolled around in the grass butt naked and drank 10 liters of beet juice but you’re still not grounded. “Pls help”.

Pages: 123

a collection of the best spiritual memes / woke memes

A positive self-talk is the single most rewarding asset you can have. Learn the 5 ways to alter your self-talk in less than 5 minutes — link below

https://notjussayin.com/5-simple-ways-to-think-consciously/

They kicked out the right set of things. What about you?

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.

Bob Marley

Recommenced read — Live a life that works FOR YOU!

And this is how you protect your energy!

You cannot have a positive life with a negative mind.

Change my mind

Thinking about it wont make it happen.
Got to take action too

notjussayin

No Expectation = No Disappointment

notjussayin

Problem Solved!
Do you agree? ⁠

Me after a powerful visualisation session…⁠

When I say “The meaning of Life is to give Life meaning.”⁠
⁠

how the ego disappears…⁠
⁠

My mind engaging in what-if scenarios like…
99.99% of which don’t even happen!

I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.

Mark Twain

When you realise how far you’ve come…
Give yourself a pat on the back ⁠

notjussayin

sharing reminders on conscious living so you can live a life that works for you! #subtleremindersarekey