“Tinnitus Truths”

With severe tinnitus we have both noise and pain.
Add to that the emotional suffering of our reaction to it, and the load becomes unbearable.
Perhaps the combination is much worse than our initial discomfort??
This is what I have been learning.

This course of action is not easy to begin with
- but it is ‘do-able.’
Dave x
Jazzer

 

Heyyyyyy @Jazzer how are you? Not been around much figured I should check on the old young ones.
Elmer

 

I’m okay buddy.
As there is no cure and no effective treatment I don’t waste my time on research, conjecture, wild goose chases, surveys, fundraisers, etc....
Acceptance and adaptation is all there is.
So that is what I concentrate on.
I am mostly to be found on these pages, as you have probably noticed.
Hope you are well buddy,

Dave x
Jazzer

 

For everyone doing it tough today living with tinnitus, There's nothing like a drop of kindness

 

Sometimes we just have to...

 

Echhart Tolle knows nothing about pain. The man an idiot.

 

To Greg Scramento:

My migraines and my tinnitus are much aggravated by this hot, humid summer weather.
My migraines cause vision distortion such that I cannot read or drive. They also cause full throttled nausea and the sensation of my head being swollen to disfigurement.
When I awake, I have to gauge just how invasive my tinnitus will be; this determines what I can (or cannot) plan for the day. Occasionally in spite of my best efforts it will compel me to spend the whole day in a state of total listless inertia hoping that the next day will be less onerous.

Combine both conditions and the very suggestion of "mindfulness" advice throws me into an apoplectic, vitriolic seizure.

Just for laughs I have been listening to Julian Cowan Hill's advice about imagining that this distress is reduced just because the dimension of your full awareness is increased.
If the ante of raising severe pain were not eventually capable of breaking through anyone's resistance and/ or coping mechanisms, then torture would not have been universally applied by nearly every regime throughout history to elicit information or a confession.

 

@DaveFromChicago -- My migraines do that to me as well, and I deal with them to some degree (often quite intense) literally every day, and have for many years. In you're interested, I outlined my most (unusual) effective remedy in the following post: -- Poll: Occasional OTC Painkiller Experiences from Tinnitus Patients

 

@DaveFromChicago
Hi my friend

I don't know all that much about Julian Hill, but I believe Echhart Tolle is a $ phony who does not have tinnitus or pain.

Tolle has stated that for the best part of two years in the early 1980s. being in his mid-30s, that he would sit on a park bench in Russell Square, central London, in a state of deep bliss and watch the world go by. Several of his friends and others that knew him then, have called him a liar.

No one has a right to tell someone how to ease severe pain non medically when they don't have severe pain themselves. These type people are $ show makers - entertainers and can cause more hopelessness to those not able to jump a high bar.

 

“We all take a view - and I have mine.”

 

Severe internal head noise, and chronic pain, are totally unacceptable.
Yet we are forced into some degree of acceptance because there is no alternative to suffering.
Some of us will look for psychological, philosophical, conceptual support.
I am one of them.
If some kind soul can come up with something I have missed I would much appreciate it.
I have my own mountain to climb.

 

Hello Dave,
I knew nothing of Eckhart Tolle until I read your posts. I am happy for that, because I read the words for what they were.
These words and philosophy I intuitively latch onto as a compass to survive this mess, the noise and pain.

Happy belated new year Jazzer, it's been a long time, feels that way. Haha.
And warm wishes to @Greg Sacramento, @Star64 and all my friends here at Tinnitus Talk and fans of Jazzer's thread Tinnitus Truths.

 

I rather not post with controversy...
Some of my concerns with Tolle after reading everything that he ever published is about "Living in the Now". Only living in the now is not advised for those with neurological disease. Two neuro conditions that can develop later in life is dementia and Parkinson's. Focus on remembering good times of the past can be either a positive or negative depending on outcomes and one's present condition, but it's not good to live in just the present with losing memory. By not keeping the mind active without focus on the past, stage increase of dementia can happen very quickly.

Tolle does have supporters and many also think that he's (internet search) a phony and fraud. He has told many in seminars that severe tinnitus and severe pain is just a matter of mind. I have heard him say this in person. I would listen to Julian Cowan Hill or a TRT instructor before I would listen to Tolle who does not have tinnitus or pain.

So many people that know Tolle personally have online comments under topic "is Tolle a phony".

https://artofericwayne.com/2013/09/19/when-is-spirituality-just-blaming-the-victim/

 

Much of what Greg has written and uncovered here I agree with.
Much of it I have argued with other Tolle acolytes, and have serious misgivings about.
“Nothing is good or bad - but thinking makes it so.”
‘CRAP !!’

I am pleased that he brought these points up.
I agree with many of the criticisms levelled at this man.

Is he a complete ‘phoney?’
To me he is a ‘Curate’s Egg’
- good in parts - bad in parts.

This is essentially a tinnitus site.
My tinnitus has been screamingly loud (electric shaver intensity) for over six years, non stop.
His suggestion that ‘it is possible to find a place of stillness, beneath all of the mental noise,’ is quite liberating to me.
I do find such a place in my meditation.
His thoughts in this regard acted as a confirmation - hence I suggested it to others here.

His idea that we can still experience ‘love and joy despite our pain’ are valid to me.

His views on the ego which invariably looks for dissent and disagreement to nurture its strength, are impressive, and neatly describe those people who are short tempered control freaks, some with overtly Asperger hostility.

So - yes - serious misgivings on my part.
But then I have never agreed with everything that anybody has ever said.

I would say approach with caution,
and maybe use what you find relevant
- if anything.

 

@Jazzer -- Well put--and here I thought I was the only one! (Not really)...

 

My dear Lane.
I always attempt to be objective.
I never wish to be so partisan that I overlook faults that present themselves.
We should not defend the indefensible.
Greg has very specific objections to ET on the humane grounds that he appears to be dismissive of the devastation of pain, noise, anxiety etc....
I make him right.
I raised this very point in a discussion group the other day.
It was frowned upon.
The jury - in my case - is out.....x

 

Hey @Jazzer -- I too strive to be objective, but alas, that's not always the case (I'm human). -- Regarding objectivity, observing others' faults, etc., whereas some people look for inspiration and deep insights into these kinds of life dilemmas from various scriptures, I often find that what can strike a chord with me the most is on bumper stickers (how sacrilegious is that???).

I gave a lot of thought to one bumper sticker in particular: "Don't believe everything you think". It was a variation on something I'd learned earlier in life. When I would get pretty agitated or vexxed about something, I learned to tell myself this is just how I think and feel in the moment. How might I feel after a period of time? Lo and behold, 24-48 hours later, I would often (usually) be looking at things quite differently.

What I learned after a while, is that everybody has their "faults", and or blindspots, and/or.... ad infinitum. When it came to how to "deal" with other people's faults, I came to realize we all have our "enlightened" parts and "unlightened" parts of ourselves. And I figured if others are willing to overlook some of my blindspots, I'll do my best overlook their's. In other words, I've learned not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think this applies to ET as well. I've been enjoying some of the writings you've posted. And even though @Greg Sacramento pointed out some "interesting" things about him, I don't see any reason to discard everything he has to say. He's just like all of us in a way--a little enlightened in some areas, and hmmm, not so much in others.

 

Nice well considered post Lane.
That’s you all over my friend.

 

@Lane There's lots of discussion on the internet from those who either know ET or met with him.
I once had a long in person conversation with him and he came across to me as a cult leader.
He attitude is that those in extreme pain still should be able to feel joy and be happy.

Taken from the article that I posted above.

Tolle adds insult to injury by insinuating that the soldier who has lost limbs on the battle field, and saw too much horror, is making himself unhappy, whereas Eckhart’s eternal bliss would not have been shaken by the same experience.

He told me the same. Regardless of a severe injury and severe pain, one still should be able to be happy and feel joy.
If this is not callous cruelty (someone without injury and pain), then I don't know what is.

 

I am clearly having to reassess Tolle.
There is no question that those with severe pain, injury, illness, suffering depression, post traumatic stress disorder etc... would love to be able to experience joy, happiness, and love of life once again.
His philosophies suggest that this is possible.
As @Greg Sacramento points out - this man has no experience of any of these tragedies.

Does his philosophical insight alone qualify him to even address the situation.

I started reassessing this very issue some weeks ago.
I wrote to his Facebook ‘Eckhart Tolle Pointers Study’ group asking this very question.

Before questions are publicly posted up on the Facebook site they go before an adjudicator who will assess their relevance.
My questions were not deemed relevant to the working of the group, so they did not get public posting, nor achieve any answer.

It looks to me as if ET has come up with some reasonable insights for certain situations, but is trying for universal acceptance in a ‘one size fits all’ approach which can propel him to the kind of cult stature that Greg suggests.

 

There is much debate as to whether Eckhart Tolle is a valid philosophical voice, or not.

Despite having a massive following there are a number who think of him as nothing but a phoney, and others who refer to him as an idiot.

He suggests that peace, joy, love of life, freedom from the tortures of our existential circumstances are all possible once we can free ourselves from regretting past injustices, accrued injuries and current health tragedies, by living in the ‘NOW.’

When I first read these theories I rejected them out of hand. They infuriated me.
That was about five years ago.
I still have some misgivings.

However - when we are chained to a hateful condition, do we not need to retain a glimmer of optimism?
An encouragement to believe in the possibility of, at least, stillness.

When Tolle says “Even when there is noise, one can become aware of the stillness beneath it,” he gives me the strength to go on believing in the possibility of ‘Peace.’
“By dropping your resistance to noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.”

Doubtless ‘mumbo jumbo’ to some, but I appreciate the encouragement to believe in the stillness I find in my meditation.
It may just be an aid to acceptance?

We all take a view.