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From: sher@rochester.UUCP (David Sher)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.religion
Subject: Re: Pfui
Message-ID: <10987@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 05:27:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: rocheste.10987
Posted: Sun Aug 11 05:27:04 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 03:11:13 EDT
References: <1276@pyuxd.UUCP> <2145@pucc-h> <1313@pyuxd.UUCP> <434@spar.UUCP> <1388@pyuxd.UUCP> <626@psivax.UUCP>
Reply-To: sher@rochester.UUCP (David Sher)
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 28
Xref: linus net.philosophy:1992 net.religion:6958

>In article <1388@pyuxd.UUCP> rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) writes:
>>Can you give an example from your personal experience of something you
>>didn't like that you chose to like.  Try it.  Take something you absolutely
>>despise, and decide to like it.  Remember, no conditioning to change your
>>behavior toward that thing will be allowed.  After all, you can do it
>>without "new experiences"...

I believe a challenge of this sort was aimed at me by the redoubtable
Rich Rosen.  So I choose to respond!  I have dredged up from memory an 
incident where I chose to change my desires.  It was about 4 or 5 years back
when I was begining to become adequate at judo.  My sensei (coach sort
of) had decided that I was overweight and told me to diet.  I chose
as the simplest route to stop desiring any deserts and any bread outside
of sandwiches.  I admit that it took about two days before my desires
left me entirely.  In this period I naturally did not partake of either
free standing bread or deserts (though both were offered to me free of
charge due to the benificence of the Yale dining halls) but this is natural
since I had already lost most of my desire for them.  After about a month
of this I broke my collar bone and decided I need any available form of
pleasure to deal with this depressing situation.  Fulfilling a desire
is an easy way to cheer oneself so I decided to once again desire
free standing bread and deserts.  It again took about two days.
-David Sher
sher@rochester
seismo!rochester!sher
Ps: I will be at a conference about a week so if you would like me
to see your replies please send them as well as posting, otherwise they
might expire before I get to them.