Using language and aesthetics to manipulate human drives seems like dirty play, IMO, yet it's so pervasive. Beware, the monolith of influence!

And sadly, I'm not even close to Michigan. I'm actually moving back to TX soon, and luckily, there is a skeptics group I left there a few years ago, that was getting into a good groove of libation and discourse! I can't wait to see how it has grown!

He was so far from fading away. I still cherish what he made and it's sad that it all had to destroy him so early.

I think it would be exciting to see what he might be making today, although that thought sends me into inevitable fears of the decline and Christmas album of the Dylanesque artist.

Thanks, hubski is a good little place, so far!

You can download these by right clicking the links and saving. They are all .mp3. Before these lectures, I had read through a couple of primary texts that friends introduced me to, but found myself in a similar boat as you. I've worn these out on long commutes and headphone office days. Hope you enjoy them!

Absolutely. I remember sitting there, thinking, "it's all the same little routine." Play on common vulnerability and offer a path to relief... in a comfortable setting. It makes me think that skeptics and the critically self-aware should just have a lot more pot lucks and run all these jokers out of town!

From what I recall in documentaries and past reading, Kurt tended to latch on to his lovers, seeking motherly care. Courtney seems like a girl who would use and abuse, and hell, with his own emotional instability, and just the general environment the two fostered, I bet shit got really dark. Throw ideals of attachment and devotion into that and this kind of "love song" seems about right.

I visited a local center a few years back, to take a personality test, listen to a couple of Sunday sermons, and ask some questions about all of it... purely from a standpoint of curiosity.

On the surface, it sounds pretty humanist, and the sermons were common man, relatable talks. They covered how the world is troublesome and stressful, and how through this community, and their training/courses, you could ease your burdens and embrace your true potential. They dismiss therapy, so you know what they're competing against.

When I first showed up, the visitor attendant asked me, in small talk, if I had hobbies. I told her that I enjoyed making art and music, and she told me that scientology views all creative personalities as celebrity, as it is highly valued to them.

I can totally see creative types, successful or dreaming, falling right into this line of thought. I blushed a little myself, before coming back to reality!