![](https://higherthoughtcannabisgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/24-0628-NL-strangest-things-as_707080293.jpg)
There’s a Higher Thought question that goes “What is the strangest thing—or one of the strangest things—you’ve ever believed?”
But I think a better question could be “What is something you currently believe that people might find odd?” (And I wonder if Jill and Susan might agree that that’s a better question).
Anyway, here are a few of my own beliefs that reasonable people might … um … dispute:
- I believe animals are far smarter than we realize, smarter than we can even imagine. When I was young, it was common to insult someone’s intelligence by calling them a “birdbrain.” I never seem to hear that expression anymore, in this era of microprocessors. It wouldn’t make sense now because who the heck knows what can fit within the contours of a bird’s brain? (Perhaps scientists think they know, and scientists are pretty smart, but I would still cleave to my agnosticism on the issue of what birds can think about.)
(And dogs and cats, jeez, don’t even get me started.) - Before humans developed speech, we communicated via telepathy. I’m absolutely sure of this. I’ve had a handful of clearly telepathic episodes in my life (starting as a small child, so don’t go ascribing this to drugs) and I’m convinced it’s a latent capacity in us all, gone slack from underuse and dependence on spoken and written language.
Or maybe actually – for all I know – the capacity is a lot less latent in some individuals (or tribes?) than others. - Sometimes, especially when I’m lonely, I find myself spontaneously fantasizing imaginary conversations I could be having with certain people. I am sure billions of other people do this too. Do you do it? (I’ve never actually asked anyone else if they do it. I’m only thinking of this now.)
- Here is a truncated, chopped-up quote by Thomas Merton, but you’ll get the gist:
I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts … the person that each one is in God’s eyes … If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed … we would fall down and worship each other.”
Or, as my Buddhist godson put it in a poem: “Let the light in our eyes shine, so when any being looks upon any other being, they are so filled with awe that selfishness becomes unthinkable and extinct.”
I believe this is possible, though I don’t think I’ll see it in my lifetime.
It may take millennia, or eons, but it’ll occur.
(Now I imagine my Buddhist godson saying, “It’s already happening. It’s happening all the time. It’s happening right now.”
I tell him, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
And he cracks up.)
Leave a Reply