Re: New thread time while you're all here - religious belief and mental health where are the lines?

Halla" wrote in response to Jymn's repy to her previous post:
<snip>
[Individuals v Chameleons]
Best indicator of lots of things, that. Wish we all took more notice
of it. (And for the record, my instincts advise to stamp hard on
anyone who suggests that going round to 'sort out' a suspected
paedophile or similar with little or no evidence is a matter of
instinct. My instinct say that is sheeplism and blood lust, and my
instinct know what it's on about. ;-)

It is
We should (though learning to listen to it would be needed)

Plus knowing what is instinct and what is the little childish voice
that *wantwantwants* and doesn't let little things like reason get in
its way. :-)

There is that.
Magician know thyself, springs to mind.

It does (or it agrees with mine and we're both wrong, which I doubt).
<snip>

Which ones are the easy questions then?

The origin of the universe, the meaning of life the universe and
everything,
the best real chocolate shop in England and a few others I already know
the
answers to :~)

Gwan then, I'll have the answers to those ones, ta. ;-)

Accident, 42 and Bonnets of Scarborough
:~)
Could be wrong about the first.

<snip>

Well now, how do they know if they come out of it as themself then,
rather than as something the helpful person thinks they should be?[1]

I suspect they don't.

It'd be so handy to have a little tag or something, a pin somewhere
that says 'You Are Here'. ;-/

But that defines both you and here? As in who you are and where here is.

<snip>
Always a bummer, when your lapdog proves to have independent thought
</tic>

Can shake the foundations of world to discover that it really isn't
all about you. <eg>

Need more earthquakes <weg>

<snip>
To me, chameleonism goes far deeper than that, but may start that way.

You give the impression that you find it a sort of trickster
characteristic. Like it is a deliberate reaction to a situation, a
choice someone has made to be confusing. <g>

No, its more a surrender of self. a trickster would still have some
integrity and sense of self.
I don't know whether it starts as a survival mechanism or just that sheeple
are sheeple whereever they be.


I don't know about reflecting those around them, mind. That's a
mirror, which is different AFAIC. Mirrors show what's there
(backwards), they don't change to compliment the person looking into
them.

Mirroring is a powerful counselling tool and I've probably got completely
the wrong word. Is echoing any better as a term? Its the subsuming of
self
(if any self remains) to any group that the person happens to be around
that
I'm referring to.

Right. That's probably more what I'd call chameleonism than mirroring,
I suspect we're simply using differnt labels for things. <g> I don't
think a mirror changes when it reflects something else, whereas a
chameleon blends seamlessly into its background.

<g> semantics again.
Nail, head, strike.

It's quite possible for an individual to comfortable with
and appear to fit in with a huge range of groups and social occaisions,
and
still retain their own sense of self - that's not what I'm referring to.

Yes. Me neither. It's a knack I much admire, and most of the people I
know who can do that can fairly be described as 'strong characters'.

It takes self confidence, or at least enough self confidence to fake the
real thing.

<snip>
[1] My ideas of 'personality' and 'self' are kind of friable, y'know.
<g>

Having spent huge amounts of time over recent years being unable to
communicate and getting knocked into a tiz by the question "how are you"
partly because I couldn't always work out what "you" referred to, I can
empathise. I'm not always the arrogant cocky *** that I may appear as
<g>

Say it isn't so! ;-)

<g>
Actually I think the cocky arrogant side disappeared about 20 years ago ;~)
(when I realised I was mortal)

Please don't take anything I say as a personal attack, but as an
exploration
and refining of ideas. I don't attack friends, but am aware that I don't
always communicate what I actually mean.

It didn't occur to me to feel attacked.

I'm pleased, didn't want to think I'd been that bad at communication, but
some of my comments felt a little blunt on rereading (blunt as in clue by
eight)

Jymn


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