Delusion and an "overabundance of meaningful coincidences"

This video is a reply to a question from a Redditer, see / question_for_harmen_me... . I initially posted it privately on my personal channel but I thought it might be worthwile to share it on my YiTube channel as well. It is a bit of a incoherent ramble, but maybe you will find something of value in it.

[@zhouoracle]

Very interesting topic indeed. I share your opinions for the most part. I will add a few points if you don't mind. There is a viral meme on the internet claiming that there is an information desk at Salzburg Airport where they provide assistance to air-passengers who arrived at the Austrian airport but their original intention was to travel to Australia. It appears this is just a joke but I can see this happening (much more stupid things have really happened). I see the purpose of Yi Jing as being a warning tool for "the passengers" that they may be going in the wrong direction. That is all. One may heed that advice and change the direction or they may decide to persist with their original plans. No one can take away individual freedom of choice (and responsibility that comes with it) from them. Yi Jing worldview is not fatalistic. Of course, there is no limitation as for what kind of questions one can ask Yi Jing so what I just said would apply mostly to the questions of personal nature however the basic premise is the same: Yi Jing is providing enhanced insight into any possible situation and what will inquirer do with that information is up to them. I have also noticed that academics do not want to use Yi Jing as a divination tool, instead they rather "disect" it in all directions as a copse on the cold slab of granite in the anatomy class of the medical school. Why hesitation? I think the answer is twofold: fear and danger. Fear 1) They fear for their professional reputation. Leaving the realm of cold rationallity and wandering off into the forest of irrational thought is in direct contradiction to the basic tenets of the science: scientific effort must be concerned with objective truth, it must be measurable and experiments mut be repeatable. Studying Yi Jing as a divination tool they would not get far with that kind of attitude so the best course of action is to avoid/ignore it, call it superstition. 2) They probably also fear that by studying Yi Jing divination abilities they may "catch" more than what they bargained for, something so disruptive for their cherised scientific paradigme so they conclude it is better not to touch it, 3) Some of them did use Yi Jing as a divination tool and later they changed their mind and stopped using it (one such example is a Canadian Greg Whincup whose book I hold in high regard). He did not provide details as to why he decided not to use Yi Jing for prognostication any more but my guess would be the reason was this: he was schocked and puzled by the accuracy of those predictions and much like Confucius he thought that it could be the spirits that are providing those answers so he decided to avoid the whole business of Yi Jing divination altogether, to be on the safe side. Fear is also scaring away ordinary Yi Jing readers as well: 4) As you correctly pointed out they fear Yi Jing will give them some horrible news (which is not true - line text of Yi Jing as well as hexagram names and statements are suprisingly soft) or open their eyes to some truths that they would rather not know. It is much safer to study lingvistics and history of Yi Jing as it brings pleasure as well, 5) Some people think or feel that using Yi Jing as a divination tool automaticaly translates into them subsribing to the fatalistic worldview in which their destiny is already mapped out for them and they do not have much say in the matter. So they choose blissfull ignorance over such fatalistic attitude. This is wrong of course but... Danger. 1) Objectivily and realistically Yi Jing as a divination tool has a potential to seriously undermine the western pragmatic rationality based paradigme. Academic scholarly approach avoids such danger. 2) Objectively and realistically (as you also pointed out) Yi Jing as a divination tool may push some people into serious mental illnes (if they are already close to the edge of sanity). Why is that? In my opinion this is for very understandable reasons: we navigate this world mostly based on the concepts of our mind/language. When we say "house" we all agree for the most part what that means. Even with abstract concepts like "beauty" most people will come to an agreement if a face of a person is (mostly) beautiful or ugly. However when we use Yi Jing as a divination tools we MUST STREATCH those concepts to a certan degree, often those concepts get expanded to the breaking point so that someone who is not familiar how Yi Jing works would not understand what happened. A healthy person will quickly revert back to the "ordinary reality" state of mind soon after using Yi Jing for divination purposes. Someone else may remain in that state of "concept disturbance" for a long time which will seriously interfear with their functioning in their day-to-day life. Yi Jing as a divination tool is a wonderful (self) exploration and learning tool with great potential. It is also useful as a anxiety reducing strategy. Yi Jing is a beautiful gift from the ancient Chinese sages but one may or may not see its true value for as long as fear and danger are lurking in the background.

[@andrewmarchione8201]

some gems in this video. also that hoodie is fire

[@sinocosm198]

Its been a very helpful video.

[@svenchristensen6987]

Thank you, Harmen. (Though I got the opposite relation concerning spoken vs. written English ;-) )

[@SonnyZaide]

Harmen, it’s Sonny… awesome video, let’s talk soon!

[@davidwalker6183]

Thank you for these thoughts. My Mum has dementia Alzheimer's problems and has spent the last ten months in various kinds of dementia wards. This has been a traumatic experience for me. I had no experience of seeing how people with these problems suffer. For me the Yijing has been invaluable. It is a book of wisdom that prepares you for events in life that will occur. The book speaks to you and also to us all. It will therefore often seem uncanny in it's complete understanding of your problem. The images of the Yijing will always be relevant to the psyche of humanity. It offers a unique mode of understanding.

[@advandepol7537]

Great wisdom and presentation again. Much better than anything else on youtube, even from the chinese. Not to flatter you, because I have known your name for 20 years or so, and didn't bother to pay attention to you up until recently. As your work was not in english, it couldn't be that valuable. What also didn't help is that you are my countryfellow man (lol). Also the dutch book -Beeld van de Tjing- from Jan Ton that you recommend, is a book you won't find anywhere else, whereas it hasn't even been translated. With this praise I feel free now to make a critical remark. When you mention in the beginning of the video that chance has no meaning of itself, and that YOU are the one who gives meaning to it, it suggests that the chance is just arbitrary and that there is no synchronicity involved. However, later you say that the answer you get from the i ching is the only right answer for that moment. I think you could have been clearer. I do believe in the divinatory truth of the I Ching, but always struggled with the fact that using coins will give a different answer than using yarrow sticks. It's like the method of obtaining random numbers has a meaning of itself, but that is all I can say about it. Probably it is one of the things in life we will never be able to explain.

[@YiTubeChannel]

It is difficult to be clear when you are just rambling, Ad 😁. Yet I don't agree with what you say - "When you mention in the beginning of the video that chance has no meaning of itself, and that YOU are the one who gives meaning to it, it suggests that the chance is just arbitrary and that there is no synchronicity involved." I don't know why you see that 'suggestion' in my words, I never explicitly said that si any implications that you see in them are on your behalf. The fact that I give meaning to a certain coicnidental event, does not automatically imply that 'chance is just arbitrary': chance and its interpretation are two different things. If I ever said that "the answer you get from the i ching is the only right answer for that moment", I meant that the answer that you get is the BEST answer you can get - even though other hexagrams might apply as well (and probably will), the one you get is the answer that you need. This goes for any method that you use, otherwise said, the method is not really important. What is important is: are you able to accept and work with its answer?

[@advandepol7537]

I like the word -rambling-. I would also appreciate it when you let my critical statement be pronounced by a computer voice. You have to admit that the meaningful chance and the interpretation are very much intertwined, because otherwise the meaningful chance would not be meaningful. You might say that the chance has no meaning until we see the meaning of it, but that is like someone saying that there is no water, whereas they are not opening the tap. In anyway, it doesn't matter so much, because it is not unpleasant to listen to you.

Thank you for making this public! It's always nice to hear your thought regarding the YiJing. Do you plan to make more of the "Examples of Early Yijing Divination" series? Those were really interesting.

[@YiTubeChannel]

Hi David, I do have plans for that series but it is very difficult to find early examples of Yi divination in the old books. The examples that are given in Zhouyi Gushi Kao by Shang Binghe are often taken out of context and I need to find the original source to understand the whole picture. It all is quite time consuming. But I will definitely make more of these kind of videos.