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Quote by Roger Scruton

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An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture

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Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton

Roger Scruton, born on February 27, 1944, is a renowned British philosopher. His research areas include aesthetics, political philosophy, and moral philosophy, which have had a profound impact on the philosophical world. more

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“Moreover, there are things that it is wrong to watch but permissible to do — and I think this point would not have needed spelling out in the days before Internet pornography, and all the other temptations that lie in wait for our contemporaries. ‘ What am I doing watching this? ’ is a deep moral reaction — the ‘ guilt ’ version of the shame that would accompany the knowledge Downloaded from that other people are watching you watching. To explore this aspect of fantasy, which has of course been of great concern to psychologists and psychotherapists in recent years, is beyond my scope. But it points us towards an important feature of fantasy, which again distinguishes it from imagination — namely, that fantasy is addictive, and exhibits the pattern of press-button rewards which we find in other addictions. Neuroscientists have had a lot to say about this pattern, and about the dopamine surges on which it depends. But it is not simply a matter of deviant neural pathways. There is a deviant intentionality involved in fantasy, and one that is connected with other deviations from what I call the ‘ aesthetic understanding ’ — a pathway back to the self, that escapes the demands of the other”

ImaginationFantasyAddictionPornography
Author:Roger Scruton
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“The observer effect puts our everyday perceptions and assumptions in a blender. It dictates—if we’re to be honest with ourselves, sober in our thinking, and not reactionary in our emotions—that the world we see is NOT the ultimate reality, but merely a projection of it. From this perspective the manifest world is revealed as what Hindu mystics referred to as maya, illusion, the imaginal outpourings of minds—like children naturally playing in magical constructs that seem eminently real—simply doing what minds do.”

ImaginationMagicIllusionQuantum PhysicsSimulationMayaMatrixPower Of ImaginationSimulation TheoryObserver Effect
Book:Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality
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“A critical piece of holistic self-becoming involves the deeply felt realization that our thoughts, beliefs and intentions aren’t merely mental or ‘just imaginary’ events. On the contrary, they’re potent forces interacting synergistically with the quantum field, the biofield of the Universal Mind, if you will. In a culture crafted by eager yes-men and -women to an overbearing materialism, this may be a hard pill to swallow. But that doesn’t change this clear (to many anyway) dynamic: the simply powerful act of observation influences the universe at its most basic level.”

ImaginationAwakeningManifestationQuantumHolisticPower Of Positive ThinkingIndividuationImaginalObserver EffectBiology Of Belief
Book:Get Out of Here Alive: Inner Alchemy & Immortality
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“One can live without books. Birds live. Cats live. Even the best of dogs live. But only humans can soar on the words from a book. Stories fling us high into the clouds with imagination. Poems make hearts weep with emotion. Science stuns the mind with wonder." She let her hands fall to her lap. "Without the stimulation of literature, you can live, yes. But your soul will be earthbound. A clod without imagination." "I..." He blinked as if taken aback for just an instant before assuming his usual haughty expression. "I assure you, my lady, I live perfectly well without books." "No." She shook her head, pitying him, this severe man who thought he wanted for nothing. "No. You breathe and you move, but inside, in your mind, there is only gray. You don't know what it is to soar.”

ImaginationSoarElspeth De MorayElsie And JulianLiterature Forever
Book:No Ordinary Duchess
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