Inside the mind of a psychopath/sociopath?

hahaha. well, I might check that site out.

wooooooooooooooooooooord.

This is true. This society is ruthless to mentally ill homeless people. But for your own sake, as you cannot break the rules of your lease agreements (which sure stipulate not taking in people overnight more than occasionally) and become homeless yourself, can you channel your energy, empathy and conscience to something safe for you? I am thinking of volunteering - there must be some local agency helping those people. There is a test for narcissism on this site. To be normal, you need to score - if I recall correctly, 12-15 points. Not zero. This is called "healthy narcissism". You lack that. This might be a good topic for therapy, because some trauma in the past might have caused you to believe that you are not worth your own attention. You ended up with a bleeding heart and that is it. Or, maybe it is not trauma, maybe it is just genetic. Overabundance of empathy.

Just a little tidbit here, jumping in, but if I ever meet me probably unrealistic goals for being a huge musician and making millions of dollars, I want to build a homeless shelter for mentally ill with some doctors and therapists and medications and showers and things like that. Not even sure if THAT is realistic, but it is something I would like to do before I die.

Why do you want to do that?

because if I'm going to take over the world, I have to look like a nice guy.

It just seems like it would be a nice thing to do. I've been homeless and it's not all that much fun. Plus I'm always worried I'm going to end up homeless because I can't seem to keep a job or live at one place for very long. So, if I did, for some reason, make it big.. I would want to do something nice. I do believe in karma. I think I owe karma quite a bit. I even donate money to charity, but it's only because I believe that when you give, you get back 10 fold. I think the bible says that or something. I'm hoping that by giving, I will receive back 10x more than I gave. If that makes sense.

Hmmm interesting..... looks like you got your work cut out for you.

Karma is interesting for sure, have you read a lot about it?

Well, that is one thing I DEFINITELY agree with you on!! I believe in keeping my karma balanced, if not in the positive range, because owing people/the universe is a bit of a pain in the cosmic ***. XDD

I'm always interested in how people interpret karma, because there are so many different interpretations, western, Buddhism, Hinduism, Falun Gong, ect. Shay, what's your take on it ? Same question to you Argv ? I'm just curious and I like to here what other peoples takes on stuff like this, it gives me things to think about.

I'm not sure where my idea of karma came from. I suppose a combination of beliefs I've studied mixed with my personal perspective... Karma, for me, is doing decent things for others & yourself so you have some leftover to be selfish with!! Hahaha. Everyone deserves indulgence. If you work hard, if you're useful & productive, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to play around with your karmic buildup.
My next life, if there actually is one, doesn't feel like it should be dictated by karma. If anything, it should be dictated by self-awareness. Because ultimately, you create your own reality with every thought & every action you create. Even in disliking your place in life, you are still perpetuating it. If you have self-awareness, though, you are at least being proactive...
Hoping some higher power is going to do the hard work for you is silly, in my opinion. You're not taking any initiative in the course of your own life, whether you think it's pre-written or not. You might as well make active choices & decisions, thinking they have already been made, than being boring & complascent.

Thanks Shay, I have my own mixed take on it too, I have a hard time not applying science in some way to my beliefs. I think of Karma more in terms of energy. And I am not decided on what I think of afterlife, but I usually define my spirit as energy as well, where they energy goes after physical death I'm not sure. Does it just become apart of other things that hold energy surrounding it. Agh I confuse myself. But I've had a hard time working out my beliefs on karma. I don't really see it as a tit for tat kinda thing tho, or reward or punishment. Awareness has a place on karma for me too. My belief in higher power is pretty mmm non conventional.

Thanks for sharing your view with me.

It's no problem. If you're a fan of science & spirituality, you should read Fred Alan Wolf. He is a physicist who also has thoroughly studied eastern mysticism. He finds ways to connect quantum theory to commonly held spiritual beliefs... It's quite enlightening! And there's this one book, called 'The Visionary Window: A Quantum Physicist's Guide to Enlightenment' that I think you'd like a lot. I never read the whole thing, but it holds the argument that science & spirituality CAN exist together, without contradiction. They don't have to exist as the same thing, but they can live alongside one another.

IDK. I kind of don't view it as "reward or punishment" either... It's hard to explain. Especially when karma is viewed as some kind of ethereal scoreboard by most people, it's difficult to explain it without contrasting it with its preconceived idea. I guess maybe I might NOT believe in karma, really... However, when I start to feel unsettled or that a certain 'something' is amiss, I reevaluate myself to see if I've looked over something. If I'm happy, I must've done something right. If I'm not, then I missed something. I SENSE an imbalance. But it's nature varies from circumstance to circumstance.
I really only do stuff for people so I am not in a state of owing them... Lol. I don't like people having leverage over me. So I don't think that has a damn thing to do with karma. XD

I think karma is really just a balancing of the conscience when you know you've done some things that were probably inappropriate or wrong. I do look back and see things I've done, but have them justified. I like to try to maintain good karma points, and maybe make up for some of the destruction I caused as a kid.

I really think it's purely selfish however.

Would you, or anyone else, mind if I jumped in and gave my thoughts on karma? I haven't been in this conversation from the beginning, so I would like to ask

No. Please do.

Well, I don't believe karma exists. That's not important though. Don't confuse that with self-effacement. Its existence or non-existence is something of a moot point. Firstly, there is no way to differentiate the illusion of karma and actual karma. It would come to us perfectly camouflaged. Secondly, even if it were proved, it would have no material affect on decisions. People already act in their own best interests. Doing good things, believing the universe will reward you for it, sets up for a nice catch-22. It would essentially turn every good, deliberative act into a selfish one, escaping nothing of what was not already present in our nature. You could even argue that karma takes away the morality of being good. Selflessness is described by absence and not gain. Thirdly, its nature makes us ignorant of all the rules that govern its nature.

I would be more interested in knowing where it started.

Are the rocks on Mars subject to karma? Those tide pools of sulfuric acid on Jupiter's icy moon Europa? What happens in those environments is governed by chemistry and physics alone. I do not think (though I could be wrong) that a rock falling 300 meters on a lifeless planet needs balancing.

Are the animals on the serengeti subject to karma? They make decisions based on their physical needs, but these are hardly moral decisions. Does karma govern non-moral decisions? I do not think (though I could also be wrong) that a hyena disemboweling a giraffe needs any more balancing than the instinct to survive already provides. Among hyenas, karma would only be dishing out cruelty. In fact, as every animal is capable only of selfishness, karma would result in an ever escalating cycle that would definitely and necessarily kill every living thing not capable of doing good. Every living animal on the serengeti would be there in defiance of karma.

There would be a three-billion-year-plus defiance until nature could finally produce an animal capable of receiving good things from this karma (unless it sat there waiting, in latency, ignoring the cruelty of hyenas and lions and baboons and everything that ever lived). Then we have human beings.

And we are to sit here in judgment for things hyenas and baboons can ignore? It does not seem fair that human beings get picked on by karma and hyenas can go on disemboweling with complete immunity. We both walked the same grass fields 100,000 years ago. Why should our morality give us a disadvantage to those cruel, heartless beasts when we were in competition for the same foods?

So perhaps, in its ethereal fairness, it casts a blind eye to those evils that both men and hyenas do to survive. Perhaps it was our good that helped us find shoes and arrows and tents, but still, only rewarding the moral good of our species still disadvantages us as evil is more potent than good. And if karma can only reward the good in imperceptible and impotent ways, then why even have it? The bad would necessarily go unpunished and the positives would be mere insults in the face of overwhelming evil.

Why support such an injustice as karma? (I said that to be ironic)

I only agree with the statement of Heraclitus, a man's character is his fate. What we do has consequences already. What is the purpose in adding more?

NotCrazyLikeYou ,

Really good points, this is why with whatever I personally believe about Karma, I don't believe it is a reward system. I think that's more of a western thing. I believe in energy very much so, and to me karma deals with energy, balancing out positive, neutral and negative energy, or exchanging energy. When you look at in terms of positive, neutral, and negative, it says nothing of "good" or "evil". I see it as an exchange of energy that always seeks to restore balance.

Animals are interesting, do they carry karma? Obviously I don't know. Buddhism and Hinduism believe that animals are apart of rebirth or reincarnation, karma is attached to your soul. I am not sure to the extent that they support the idea of human being reincarnated to animal. And I am not sure, if a soul is just a soul without designation of human or animal, plant ect. Pretty sure Buddhists believe that the energy is reborn into another, not the soul.. anyways.. I don't see why it is out of the question, especially if you do not think of karma as reward for good or evil, but see it as energy.

I can certainly understand and respect your view point.

How much awareness do animals really have? If karma is energy based action, then could animals not also carry karma? Also I don't believe a rock falling needs balancing, but I do believe the universe does, because the sum of total energy in the universe is always the same.

Shay, awesome! Thank you so much for the book info, and I already looked into Fred Alan Wolf last night, I was pretty excited to have something new and interesting to read. much appreciated!

It's only a belief that if you do good things, they will come back to you, which could be all a person needs to choose good over evil. Just like everyone has the ability to be "psycho" if you treat them bad enough, at some point humans develop something called love or empathy or conscience which I suppose is the only real difference between animals and ourselves.

From a strictly biological aspect, there is no way karma could exist, however if you think there may be a higher power involved, then the idea of Karma is entirely possible. I'm taking a gamble and saying that there is a possibility that this planet wasn't created by a big bang in the atmosphere and everything just happened to come together just perfectly, and it's possibly the work of a "higher power".

but I will stop hopefully just short of creating a large and impossible to win debate on religion vs. evolution.

Interesting, honestly, yes to both.
A sociopath I know, is kind looking, "caring" and often changes her personality so that those she is with will like her. Lying was everything, ever little thing was a cold pure lie. She would take drugs just because everyone else was. She would tell you all the things you wanted to hear but really weren't the best. She would go behind your back and hate on everybody. Sometimes when drunk she would scare me a bit, it threw me off, like I could see the evilness coming out. She was horrible to her partners, she never even liked them.

She even admitted she tries really hard, and nobody knows who she really is.. neither does she.

...but those are the most fun.

As much as that is true
Those are the ones that get deleted and then our fun abruptly stops.

I'm all for it, but you have my theory in a nutshell already.

well, again, I don't know if I am one of those, I just think I have traits and I think it runs in the family (on my dads side).

I try to have fun with it, but it does seriously suck when you can't feel close to anyone, and ultimately just end up hanging by yourself most of the time.

One thing, after doing reading about it, I never really noticed until I'd read about it, is when someone tells me that someone in their family died, I find myself thinking "That's good, they aren't in pain anymore" or whatever, and it's my immediate thought. Not a thought to them for missing a loved one, I immediately think about the positive aspect.. or the A-hole aspect, which is what it usually comes down to. I just have no sympathy or empathy (genuinely) for people. I can try to fake it, but I just don't.

I am intrigued by it, because I wonder if that's why I've always been a loner, even though I like people alot, I just.. can't feel any connection with anyone. Not unless it's superficial like we both play music, but then once the music talk is over, there is nothing. It's just like.. "ok, well.. maybe we'll see each other again.." or "We should jam sometime".

Then, say I show up to "jam" with people (assuming they actually let me), and I just kinda sit there and say nothing. I have nothing to say except stupid things that are retarded. Make stupid jokes. ugh. frustrating sometimes.