Cru·ci·ble
/ˈkro͞osəb(ə)l/

noun

  • 1. a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures: “the crucible tipped and the mold filled with liquid metal”
  • 2. a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.
  • 3. a meeting of the Ethics Lab.

The Ethics Lab is a place where we report on our experiments with meditation, contemplation, exercises, training, thought experiments and various means of inciting and inviting altered states for the purposes of applied consciousness expansion and fun. An Ethics Lab is both individual practitioners and meeting to provide each other peer reviews of our progress. The Ethics Lab has been meeting under various names since the early 1980s

Why You Almost Certainly Can’t Actually Think For Yourself

Why You Almost Certainly Can’t Actually Think For Yourself

Thinking for myself by Vincent Downing Thinking for one’s self is something everyone claims to be able to do. Its like having a sense of humor that way. Unfortunately or not—depending on what you stand to gain or lose—thinking for yourself is much rarer than a sense...

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Gods Boys And Monsters–Entire Book

Gods Boys And Monsters–Entire Book

Gods Boys and Monsters An Account of My Travels Through the Human Ecology by Vincent Downing   Abandon all Hell, ye who enter here Hello all you religious and other types of humans. I wrote this for you. You should read it. When a man who is convinced you are...

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Metathink Manual Entire Published Sections

Metathink Manual Entire Published Sections

A Metathink Manual Or: The Neurotechnicon by Vincent Downing This is an excerpt. The opening and as many of the exercises as I've prepared for publication. Metathink is thinking about your thinking. Metafeeling is your feelings about your feelings. Metaconsciousness...

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Ethics Lab What is it? Why Should You Care?

Ethics Lab What is it? Why Should You Care?

by Vincent Downing The Ethics Lab is me. I am an artist with a story to share. Luckily my art is storytelling. What follows are two books. Many essays poems etc. And relief prints. I call what I'm doing ethics because my ethics are of immediate moment by moment...

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I’ve  prepared two books and a series of essays.  The first book Gods Boys and Monsters is my attempt at recreating my own process of analysis and deconstruction. How I grew up under the Catholics and what I did to deconstruct and integrate through my mid 30s. Much of this nakedly biographical stuff is painful and angry. But its what I have that I can authentically convey to you. Think of it in the same spirit as a drill sargeant barking at you. He’s got some very specific objectives, and they don’t include you or he being comfortable. Accompanying Gods Boys and Monsters is a series of essays. These are for the purpose of aiding their audience detach from their tribal/dogmatic thinking.  (In this case Progressive/liberal/leftie type folks.) The second book the Metathink Manual is an account of most of the mental/emotional tinkerings I’ve managed to date. I’ve prepared excerpts.

Letter To A Seeker At Recovering From Religion

Letter To A Seeker At Recovering From Religion

Roxanne: wow. Thanks. I have been down a similar path because, as I suspect — given that you and I have submitted to ExCommunications — we are similar creatures. On that basis I’m going to presume to give you some unasked for advice. Its unlikely that you will ever...

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How Do I Regard Christians Collectively?

How Do I Regard Christians Collectively?

How do I regard Christians, collectively. Am I better than them are they better than me? No and no. Is a person bad just because they believe bad things. (Such as queers are abominations before the Lord.) Well, I’m going to save us a lot of trouble and spill it right...

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What Do I Believe Essay 2007

What Do I Believe Essay 2007

by Vincent Downing 2007 What do I believe God and Religion God probably exists, but is irrelevant because if it exists or not my task is to live an ethical life. We do not need to know God for meaning or morality, but we do need to know ourselves and the world....

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Card I sent to my Friends and Family Mailing List

Card I sent to my Friends and Family Mailing List

The Card I sent to my Friends and Family Mailing List in 2021. by Vincent Downing One side was a mylar sticker that would produce a blurry distorted image of whatever was reflected in it. The other side had the following: When I was a child, I spake as a child, I...

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Ethics Lab: Death In My Garden

Ethics Lab: Death In My Garden

Ethics Lab: Death In My Garden Video by Vincent Downing Seneca was certainly right. For a happy old age, find a garden and tend it. If you're lucky you'll get to tend to a garden over time. Death In My Garden

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Why I Preferred Humanism To Feminism

Why I Preferred Humanism To Feminism

by Vincent Downing Why did feminism fail to appeal to so many men? The name. When I hear the word “feminism” I know that whatever these people have in mind, it doesn’t include me in some essential way. Just the fact that its named after a group of people of which I am...

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The Hell I Could Go To Without Believing In Hell

The Hell I Could Go To Without Believing In Hell

by Vincent Downing The most frightening idea about Hell I ever read is the idea that going to Hell was voluntary. That we send ourselves to Hell, and blame God for our punishment just as we blame the Devil for our transgressions. The reason this frightened me more...

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My Remarks on the American Humanist Manifesto III

My Remarks on the American Humanist Manifesto III

by Vincent Downing Chris West and I are both proud members of the AHA and the Humanist Society https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/ These are my remarks on the Humanist Manifesto III. They are mine alone, not organizational for THB. Knowledge of...

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Ethics Lab Precursor: The Orgone Committee 1991-96

Ethics Lab Precursor: The Orgone Committee 1991-96

by Vincent Downing The Orgone Committee was a small body of metaphysicians, skeptics, occultists, pagans, etc. All of the “eclectic” variety which meant we usually subscribed to a specific memeplex (philosophy/religion) but were free to add or subtract. We had great...

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Final Report On The Smiling Friends Social Club

Final Report On The Smiling Friends Social Club

Final Report on Smiling Friends Social Club by Vincent Downing For about three years a massively multiplayer online game called EVE Online was my addiction and obsession. I fell in love with the metagame. The game within a game. This was spy stuff and security. Since...

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Below here is the sliver of the Metathink Manual that’s ready for publication. I’m pleased and proud to begin presenting, after 42 years of preparation, my (almost) complete Bag of Tricks…….

 

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