---
title: "Appendix"
canonical: "https://spiritual-rationality.org"
pages: 5
---

# Appendix {#top}

*The complete “Appendix” chapter of https://spiritual-rationality.org, as one markdown file — its index page followed by every page beneath it, in reading order. The whole book in one file: https://spiritual-rationality.org/llms-full.txt*

## Notation {#notation}

Source notation, not standard markdown:

- `::gloss[…]` — definition of the heading above it. Invisible on the site;
  it is the hover card for links to that heading. Read as a definition.
- `::gloss[…]{#id}` — defines a term holding its own anchor. `#id` is the
  link target; the block below is what it annotates.
- `::nogloss` — heading deliberately has no definition.
- `:::note[…]` / `:::info[…]` — callouts (MyST/Docusaurus admonitions).

Footnotes are GFM. Heading anchors are GitHub-style slugs, written out as
`{#id}` in the combined files.

## Contents {#contents}

- [Appendix](#appendix)
  - [Empiricism re Therapy Efficacy](#appendix-therapy-efficacy)
  - [The Garden Of Eden](#appendix-garden-of-eden)
  - [Specific Claims from Specific Traditions](#appendix-specific-claims)
  - [Whose Buddha?](#appendix-whose-buddha-historiography)

---

# Appendix {#appendix}

*Page: https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/appendix — also at `/md/appendix.md`. Anchors within this section are prefixed `appendix--`.*

This chapter has supplementary essays on specific topics which didn't fit in the main body of the book.

- [🔨 Empiricism re Therapy Efficacy](#appendix-therapy-efficacy)
- [🔨 The Garden Of Eden](#appendix-garden-of-eden)
- [🔨 Specific Claims from Specific Traditions](#appendix-specific-claims)
- [🔨 Whose Buddha?](#appendix-whose-buddha-historiography)

---

# Empiricism re Therapy Efficacy {#appendix-therapy-efficacy}

*Page: https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/appendix/therapy-efficacy — also at `/md/appendix/therapy-efficacy.md`. Anchors within this section are prefixed `appendix-therapy-efficacy--`.*

Oy vey.

---

# The Garden Of Eden {#appendix-garden-of-eden}

*Page: https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/appendix/garden-of-eden — also at `/md/appendix/garden-of-eden.md`. Anchors within this section are prefixed `appendix-garden-of-eden--`.*

There are a variety of theories, stories, and fantasies which I'll refer to as stories of the *Garden of Eden*. These stories revolve around a reconstructed past which was vastly more spiritually wealthy: more peaceful, wholesome, trusting, integrated with the earth, healthy in diet, etc.

As fantasies or [imaginal](/md/practice/practices.md#imaginal-practice) background, I have no real objection, but as actual depictions of the past, I believe these are broadly false. Furthermore, insofar as we're concerned with actually trying to understand our own species, and especially what ought to be possible for the future, we should not be using stories like these to guide us. 

I have a few claims here:

1. The lives of most humans who have ever lived have been uncomfortable, difficult, vulnerable, and often brutal, much more than we in the 21st century West usually imagine. 
2. The kinds of stories about the history of our species which circulate in pop discourses, especially in hippy circles, are very often based on a combination of sparse anecdotes and fantasy or imaginative elaboration from anthropological and archaeological evidence. 
3. While "traditional societies" are well adapted to their contexts in many ways, many features of their cultures look more like a random hodgepodge—some of them delightful or curious, and many dysfunctional or harmful, but mostly just not particularly well optimized for *anything*.

Beyond these, my claim is that from my (sparse) reading of anthropology, I haven't seen evidence of societies[^appendix-garden-of-eden--contact] which display overwhelming spiritual integrity, righteousness, or robustness. In general, ethnographies feel like they're describing the inheritors of a lineage of adaptation, trauma, dysfunction, ignorance, and authentic human spirit, muddling through with what they have at hand.

[^appendix-garden-of-eden--contact]: Mostly I mean before contact with the West, but largely the same after also.

## How bad was it? {#appendix-garden-of-eden--how-bad-was-it}

## Pop-spiritual pseudoanthropology {#appendix-garden-of-eden--pop-spiritual-pseudoanthropology}

## Adaptation and optimization {#appendix-garden-of-eden--adaptation-and-optimization}

## It is our birthright to adapt and be joyful {#appendix-garden-of-eden--it-is-our-birthright-to-adapt-and-be-joyful}

---

# Specific Claims from Specific Traditions {#appendix-specific-claims}

*Page: https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/appendix/specific-claims — also at `/md/appendix/specific-claims.md`. Anchors within this section are prefixed `appendix-specific-claims--`.*



---

# Whose Buddha? {#appendix-whose-buddha-historiography}

*Page: https://spiritual-rationality.org/book/appendix/whose-buddha-historiography — also at `/md/appendix/whose-buddha-historiography.md`. Anchors within this section are prefixed `appendix-whose-buddha-historiography--`.*