Latest / Stuff You Should Know / How Karma Works

Transcript

How Karma Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always is
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and that makes this stuff you
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: should know right, Yes, yeah, the podcast. Have you noticed
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: this carbonated beverage that I'm drinking. It's just like carbonated water. Yeah,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the one that that rhymes with the boy. Um. I've
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: noticed that I've gotten probably burp year in podcasts since
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I started drinking that. Yeah, that stuff is you know,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: it's dizzy. I'm a fan. You can taste the CEO too,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Remember we talked about in the Taste episode. Oh, I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: don't drink the plane one that much here at work
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: because when you drink, well, I drink the green tea
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: here at work iced, but I drink the lime flavored
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: at home. So you pay for that self? Yeah, wow,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Discovery Channel pays for it. What well, it's you know
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: who pays my bills? Oh? Gotcha? Yeah, but that's an
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: exchange for work. Yeah. They don't send me like a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: stipend for the boy. They just send you the line
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: soda you are we done with that one? Yes, it
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: seems like we should be. Yes, Chuck Josh, I'm sure
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: you've heard the word karma bandied about a lot lately.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Oh man, Uh, you could probably find a pretty recent
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: spike in use on the internets in association with a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: person's name. That would be Casey Anthony. Oh yeah, yeah,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Casey Anthony, the alleged killer of her daughter Kaylee, who
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: has let off, who is um found not guilty acquitted.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say, yeah, she's found guilty of something
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: else though today right, she was found guilty for counts
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of lying to the police. Yeah. I didn't follow this
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: case set closely. Actually I didn't either, But I mean
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: like people were crazy over it. I saw, and uh,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I get the impression that most of people, well, don't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: think that that justice was done necessarily. That's the impression
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I get. So people have gone to their go to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: recourse when you have no other recourse, and they are
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: giving it over to karma, the law of the universe. Yes,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: karma will get you. That karma is gonna come around
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and get Casey Anthony one day. Yeah, I say that
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: same thing. So it's a very new ag approach to karma,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: like karma is gonna get you for wronging me, right,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: or I did a good deed, so karma is gonna
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: smile on me, right, And that you can't really approach
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: karma from a true viewpoint as far as the viewpoint
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of the people who created this concept are concerned without
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the positive and the negative. And for the most part,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: karma is actually very negative. It's something you want to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: escape from. And if something bad happens to you, or
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: you are born disfigured or whatever, it's because you did
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: something in your past life. Westerners kind of find this distasteful, right,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: so we've abandoned it largely and taken this new ag
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: approached karma. Let's talk about all forms of karma. It's
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: like mick karma in the Western world. It's exactly right.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: That's a really great way to pick You should coin
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that um chuck. Before we get started, I want to say,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: if you had a problem with acupuncture, our acupuncture podcast,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: our reincarnation podcast, our voodoo podcast, any podcast where we
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: showed um respect to other people's beliefs that are weird
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: or just you know, unlike yours, and you had a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: real problem with it. Skip this one. We want you
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: to continue to like us. We respect your opinions, and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: we don't want to bristle you. So just go ahead
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and skip this one to go to the next one.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: There's like three d and fifty other ones. Just listen
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to us. Okay, listen to the Muppets one. That's a good,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: good advice. No dissenters on that one. So let's give
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: everybody a second. Okay, But you know, we're works. We
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: explain how stuff works. That's what we do. Yeah, and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it's not up to us to assault um millennia of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: beliefs that billions of people across the world hold. So
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: that's not what we're here for. We're here to explain it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Like you said, So speaking from the eastern point of view,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: we'll get to the western view and how we got
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: that later, how it got on. My name is Earl exactly. Yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that's what the basis of the show is, right, So, um, yeah,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: because he gets hit by a car. If you're winning
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: a lottery, uh no, he just won the lottery and
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: gets hit by a car and it gives him pause.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I don't remember the car part. I just knew he
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: won the lottery, but he was a bad guy and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: getting hit by the car made him think, I don't
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: remember that, and I think there was like a song
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: or something like karma, Like karma was on his mind
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: and he gets hit by a car and like that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: was the sign from the universe that must have been
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: in the pilot episode. I don't know if I saw that.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So Eastern Eastern philosophy, and we're talking four main um
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: organized religions that believe in karma. That would be jaane
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is Um, Sikhism, Jainism, yeah, John, yeah, joinis Um, Uh Sikhism, Hinduism,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and Buddhism. Right. Yes, the word karma itself. We like
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to point out the roots sometimes of these words. It
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: stands script uh karman k r m A N, which
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: means act. Just kind of makes a lot of sense, right.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: There's also a polly word, and polly is the original
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: language used for Buddhist text. I believe um it's kama
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: k A M m A and it means action, so
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: virtually the same thing. Yeah, Well, it all makes sense
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: because karma is all about You're the acts that you commit,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: good or bad, coming back to bite you or elevate you.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Mostly to bite you. So where should we Where should
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: we start out here with I guess Hinduism we should.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: We should also say, like the concept of karma is
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: similar in a lot of ways, but among these four
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of really interesting differences. Yes, if you
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: do remember our Reincarnation podcast, you remember us talking about
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: sam Sara, and that is the eternal cycle of birth
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and rebirth that Hindus believe that humans go through. And
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you're tied to that cycle through karma. Yes, until you
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: shed all your karma, as far as Hindus believe, you
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: will never achieve moksha, which is basically salvation. You're freed
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: from the cycle of rebirth. You don't have to waste
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: any time on earth any longer. Right, But here's where
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: I get confused. For some reason, this one confused me,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: maybe because they're also similar but slightly different. I thought,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: in Hinduism, does the karma reset after each rebirth? No,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: it clings, it clings to the soul. Okay, So with
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: with Hindus, the soul survives transmutation. Okay, With Buddhists, karma
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: is well, we'll talk about it later, but yes, with Hindus,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: it's it. Your soul goes from body to body and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the karma's attached to it. Yeah, okay, So moksha that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you said is the goal of salvation and that's the
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: ultimate goal. And this is one of those things in
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Eastern religion a lot of Westerners can't even comprehend. It
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: can only be achieved after it is no longer desired.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: It doesn't like it blows my mind. I know, that's
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like sound of one hand clapping. Well, and that's why
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they think ponder that for their lifetime, because it's hard
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: to wrap your head around it, right, And I wonder
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the like, the best way to not want that is
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to really enjoy your life on earth. But then moksha
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: is a bad thing, so I don't think it necessarily
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: happens like that. I think you're just kind of like whatever.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: So for Hindu's good karma is you generally get good
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: karma if you uh perform the duties of your social
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: uh status, your cast, and if you perform those well,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: then in your next life you will be born into
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the next highest or maybe you'll skip a couple. Right,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: But you have to, like you said, fulfill your duties, right, Yeah,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: you have to be a good priest or good laborer
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: um or a good leader or whatever. Um. And the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: one of the I guess aspects of Hindu karma is
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that it's a universal law that's independent of God or
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: any of their gods. They have a pantheon obviously, um.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: But none of their gods can mess with karma. It's
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it's its own thing. So a god can't be like, Oh,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna smack you down with some karma because you
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: irked me so bad. They can't do it, right, And
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't I didn't notice whether or
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: not the gods are subject to karma. But um, I
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: would assume probably because it's a it's a natural law,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: but they're subject to it as well. Possibly humans definitely are,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and gods can't mess with it. Right, that makes sense. Yeah,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: you're explaining this to me Buddhism. Well, hold on, there's
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: three Let me just say, there's three types of karma
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: in Hindu The stuff you do here in this life
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: does not affect this life. It's goes in store for
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the next life or another life down the down the way, right,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So you have three kinds of karma. You have parada,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: which is karma that you've experienced during your present life.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But it's from a past life, yes, but you're it's
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: you're going through right now. You're you're born with a
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: club foot. You did something in another life. This is
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: the idea behind karma. Um. There's sancta, which is the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: store of karma that you have coming in future lives.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: But it's not come to fruition. As they say. You
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: got a safe deposit box chock full of whatever your
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: deeds are, right, but you hope that through good actions
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: in this life you can cut down on that store
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: necessarily um, and then the the present um karma that
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: you're sewing that's going to come to fruition will be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: added to that store is called agaman. That's like the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: stuff you're doing now, does that go into the storage
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: when you die? I don't know, Okay, I shouldn't have
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that's that then it's all right, okay, But that's that's
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Hindu karma alright. Buddhist karma believes They believe that the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: soul accumulates karma and that it carries over to the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: next life. Right, it makes this very cool, But there's
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: no soul in Buddhism. It's your karma. That that links
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: one life to the next, right right. They don't believe
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: in a soul like we think of a soul, no
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: here in the West. But the karma that you generate,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: that you have when you die makes it to your
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: next life and becomes I think that just the coolest
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: three words ever. Nirvana. No, that's one word, the cool nirvana. No,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: it's too okay. Germ of consciousness, yes, yes, I think
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: that's really awesome, Like that's informs what you do in
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: this life. Yeah, the vignana, I believe it's what they
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: call it. But it's not your soul transmigrating from one
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: life to the next, reincarnation, but it is a form
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: of reincarnation, yes, And the soul consists of the five
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: skandas uh sensation, body sensations, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness. But
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: that's not the same as the germ of consciousness right right, Okay, yeah,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: all of them, all of the karma combined becomes the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: germ of consciousness in the next life. Right in. Buddhists
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: like Hindus want to break the cycle of sam Sara
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: to ultimately reach Nirvana via the Middle Way or the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: eight full Path, which we already talked about in reincarnation
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: as well. Right, See is this confusing to me? Like?
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Am I weird? Because it's confusing? Not really? I mean
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: if you think about it, you can, really you can
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: break all of these beliefs down to this. You your
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: actions have consequences, Yeah, I get that part. And good
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: deeds will get you closer to not having these sticky
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: consequences from past lives any longer. At the very least,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: you won't generate new stuff. And in most of these beliefs,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you can eventually shed all this or get rid of
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it through either just time, good deeds, or the intervention
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: of God, depending on what your religion is. Right, Because
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: it's the same in Seekhis m they also want to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: The whole goal is to exit the chain of reincarnation
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: once again. Right. Basically everybody thinks earth is just terrible, right,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: so um, the the Buddhists, um, well, Buddha himself came
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: up with some pretty good thoughts on karma. He had
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: this famous quote saying we are the heirs of our
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: own actions, right. Um, But he was really big on
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: contradicting the idea that everything from our past lives informed
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: everything in our current lives and therefore we weren't. Um,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: there's no such thing as free. Well, right, that's a
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: big sticky part of karma is that, depending on how
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: you look at it, where it's just completely fatalist right
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to where there's nothing we could do any differently. This
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: is gonna happen to us anyway. So there's no reason
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to stop being a pervert or a thief in this life.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: And the way that that's um kind of uh, I
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: guess contradicted is um. That was one of his teachings
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: he said, He said pervert um, which stuck out to me.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I know the Buddhists, the Buddha knew what pervertstory um.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: But uh, the way you get around that is to say, no,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: stuff you're doing now you can control, and if it's bad,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: it's gonna come back to bite you in your bottom
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: in the next life. And that was Buddha. Yeah, the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: bite you in the bottom thing, that was I I
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: paraphrased him. Are we on daginism? Did I just kind
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: of briefly go overseeks? So should we cover that in
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: more detail? Um? Well, hold, let me tell you two
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: more things about Buddhis I found interesting. One is um
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the paca is the result of karma, so karma's action,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: but paca is the result. So it's like, um, the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: karma is to vapaca's seed is to fruit. Is an
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: analogy I've seen nice, right, um, and then asana is
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a type of karma, a good karma. You would hope
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it'd be good. It's the karma, an act of karma
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: that you um commit on your deathbed. Right, so maybe
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you will all of your money, your possessions to like
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: a local orphanage or something. They Buddhists give great import
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: to um asana because it's so close to the beginning
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of the next life that it's just it's more potent,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I believe. And does that outweigh even the bad deeds
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: that you've done, Like no, can you store you know? No?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: But it would be like if you're compared maybe a
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: bad thing you did in your six to a good
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: thing you did on your deathbed, if the the asana
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: is gonna just be, it would be bigger in scale.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: I guess that's the impression I have. Again, I'm not
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Buddhist or Hindu or giant or seek so this is
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: all just outside research. I'm I'm I'm a strong member
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of the Church of Josh. Okay, yeah, I am too.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: That's weird of Josh. Wow my first member. Oh you've
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: got more than one of my friend. Uh So I
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: mentioned Sikhis and briefly, do you have anything else on that? Yeah?
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I thought the Siek's got kind of a short shift shrift, shrift,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: shrift in this article a little bit. Um, there's you know,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: plenty of stuff out there. Um, there's actually a very
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: venerable scholar, Dr Gobin seeing Mansukhanika. He's a he's a
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: learned Sikh scholar. So Dr Mansukhani took on the same
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: idea that the your acts in a previous life are
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: having an effect on your current life, and that fatalistic
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: view of like, well, there's interesting is free will? Then
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: he took that on and said, no, there is such
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a thing as fate and it is very strong. So
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: fate will look at like a river, right, but man
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: can still make waves in this In this river, your
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: actions are like a wave or like a whirlpool. So
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: it's within this flowing river of fate, but you're still
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: having a consequence through your actions. Do good things. And
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Eddie was one of the ones that used. Yeah, so
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: so do good things, do good acts, and you will
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: gain favor with God. Um. The that's not unique to
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: seek is um, I think Um. The Hindus believe that God. No,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the Hindus believe God can't have anything to do with it.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: That the gods can't. The Sikhs say, no, God can
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: create or destroy karma. And so if you find favor
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: with God through good acts or through prayer or whatever,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: um you will there will be an effect of a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: loss of karmic debt. Boy, they did get the short drift.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: They totally did, and there their Their view of karma
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: is that it's the accumulation of effects of past deeds
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: on your character, and the character is tied to the
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: soul and so therefore the character survives death. Wow, so
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: you're you're you wake up in the next life with
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the same character character that was assembled by your previous life.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: All right, I like that one. Plus, they had the
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: cool turbans uh jiinism is where we get a little
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: star wars e with the whole thing. This sort of
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: reminded me of the Midichlorians how they explained the force
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: in which one it was. It was one of the
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: newer ones. You know, they explained the forces middy clorians
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in the cells, and everyone was kind of like really, yeah,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: like you had to explain that. Yeah. Anyway, Giantism actually
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: believes that karma is a an actual atomic substance with
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: actual particles that attach itself to the jiva or your soul.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: And as long as your soul is burdened by karma
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: once again, you were trapped in that cycle of birth,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: death and rebirth. But they believe it's a physical thing. Yeah,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: like a particular matter. It can't be sensed or measured
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: in your words, um, and I took that well, the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: vibrations of your words, your thoughts, and your deeds, they
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: collect it, right, They attract karma, these particular matters UM.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And Jainists UM have classified like I think, something like
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty eight sub types. So there's eight
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: types of karma, two main types physical, physical, and psychic. Uh,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: there's eight types and a hundred and fifty eight subtypes.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: And they do it to like a remarkable degree. So
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: like if you, um look at the number four subtype
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: of the body shape, Nam, you're a hunchback if you
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: have that kind of karma. Yeah, so like they have
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: it down to like that granular level. But the one
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: that what it reminded me of is epigenetics. House what
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: what do you mean? Well, they're they're saying, like karma,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: this particulate matter is attracted to the soul and it
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: affects its function, but it doesn't change the nature of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the soul in just the same way that like these
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: proteins are attached to your genes and they affect its expression,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: but they don't change the gene. They just change its
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: function how it functions. That weird, And they've been talking
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: about this for a whole Well, and Ginuts believed that
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the bad deeds are more likely to stick so in
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: their life like sort of like you know, Hindu and Buddhist,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: they live very meagerly, don't like seek out the material things.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Um obviously live a sober life and don't harm other
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: living things. Yeah, I think they're the ones that have
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: There's a sect of Jains that have little brooms giants.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: They have little brooms and they like dust off before
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: they sit down because they don't want to accidentally kill anything.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: YEA interesting. Yeah, I've been letting moths out like crazy. Dude,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: We're under attack. Really, yeah, you should, um turn out
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: your lights. Yeah. Uh so, now can we move on
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: to karma in the West, this interesting perversion, not a
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: perversion just here in the West. It's become a truth, yeah,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: half truth of Mick Karma. It's become just a buzz word, um,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: meaning you know how to how to increase your luck
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: basically by doing good things, right, like tipping. Yeah, like karma,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: a karma jar is a tip jar. Yeah, yeah, that's
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: kind of awful little bit. Well, have you ever wished
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: bad karma on someone? For real? Like thought that or
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: said that, you mean, like schaden fraud? No, I actually
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: said like, man, you've got some bad karma coming. You're
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: wait for that? Oh yeah yeah yeah. I used to extensively,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Like really, that was my thing. It's just so easy.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: You just relinquished power, like, oh well, I don't have
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to do anything because carm is going to come back
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: or the universe is going to come back and get you. Well,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: in a way, though, it's kind of good because it
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: means that you're not obsessed with revenge. So yeah, it
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: is very good in that sense. Yeah. I had a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: lady in l A that sold us a treadmill. I
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: used treadmill that Her name was Joan, and that's all
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I'll give you. But we remember the first and last name.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: We still say it a yeah, was it Joan Crawford. Um,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: but she sold us this. She wasn't famous. She sold
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: us a treadmill that um clearly did not work. When
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: we got at home, like you know, I ran out
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: under place. It was like, hey, this is cool. It
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: turns out after like six or eight minutes the thing
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: overheats and stop ops and it was just like that.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: And we called her back and we're like, hey, you know,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: we were just at your house for five minutes ago
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: and we bought this treadmill and it's not working. Overheats
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and stops and you know, you knew this, and like
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: we'd like her two back or whatever. We'd like to
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: bring it back. And she said, I'm not a store,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: That's what she said. And we were like really, like,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: you know, you kind of known this thing didn't work,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: like we just you know, you sell someone else or whatever.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Just we just want to make this right real quick.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: We'll be back over there in thirty minutes. And she
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: was like no, She's like sorry, I'm not a store.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I don't accept returns, and I wanted to take the
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: treadmill and get some friends and go throw it to
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: you said this big bay window, throw it through her
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: window in the middle of the night. And Emily said,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I couldn't do that, And she just said, it's probably good.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Karma will get her one day. It's it's a good way.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's a way to go. At the very least. You
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: can serve a lot of energy that you can use elsewhere.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: I'm more productive things than the treadmill. Yeah. And plus
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I'm mean, like accelerating or hastening karma by like burning
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: someone's house down, will get you in trouble. Some people
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: think that that generates bad karma for you weirdos. Uh So,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: in the West, it's obviously become well, you called it
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: a new age. It is very new age. And what's
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: interesting is we can trace it back to pretty much
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: one person who introduced the idea, the concept of karma
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: to the West, Helena Blovotsky. Yeah, Madame Bolovotsky, Madame Bosky. Yeah.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: She was. She was a she was a Russian. She
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: was very well traveled, she was very well read. She
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: was also um something of a huckster during the era
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: in the UM the Northeastern United States, where you could
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: basically say, hey, I'm a medium. Look at this um
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: cheesecloth that I'm pulling out of my throat. It's it's spirit.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Did she do that? She made a tea cup and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: tea saucer up here early on and just performed a
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: few tricks, and they were like all sorts of um
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: spirits or depths that she worked with UM that we're
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: basically gave all these grand pronouncements and lessons that like
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: she issued to her cult of followers UM. But she
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: was very charismatic too. She was incredibly intelligent and very charming,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: but she was also something of a fraud. But this
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: lady basically came up with this idea that she she
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: was coming down with this divine wisdom that was handed
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: down to her. Theosophy. Yeah, she founded the Theosophical Society,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: and I thought it was interesting as she was a huckster.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: She co founded it with Henry Steele Allcott, who was
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: an attorney and a journalist. So you're going to hook
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: up with something in a in a huckstery way, you're
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: really ce o a if you have an attorney on
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: one side, and then you can get depressed by the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: fact that he's a journalist. So I don't know if
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: this woman was if she bought her own hype. She
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: from what I understand, I just read an entry on
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: her in the Skeptics Dictionary. Um. But the from what
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I understand, she's she seemed fairly um committed. She was
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: finally run out of like the Um, the organization that
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the theosofts. Yeah, like in five or six. Don't they
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: still exist today, Yeah, because they accused her of trickery
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: or something like that. But um, by the time this happened,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: they were in India. So like, she seemed very committed
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: to the idea of you know, this Hindu teachings. But
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: basically her idea was too that all all of this
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: occult um scripture of like Zoroaster, and it's just just
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in the n Gnostic texts, all that Um could all
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: be reconciled with like um the idea of Atlantis and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: this where these supreme beings lived and there's astral projections
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and all of this, all the stuff that we take
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: for granted today came from this lady in this era.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And one of the things that she introduced was the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: concept of karma, right, and it was to prepare us
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: for what she called the Aquarian Age, which was the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: ultimate enlightenment or time of brotherhood. I guess a k
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: a the nineteen fifties right, well was she was? It
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: sort of like akin to the Rapture? Is that now?
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I think it was just a change in consciousness among
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: a humanity as a whole. It's like the sixties. You know,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: it's the coming of the Age of Aquarius. Yeah, what
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: was that from hair? Yeah, so there you go. Age
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of Aquarius meant everybody was on acid. That's right. John
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Lennon Instant Karma is Gonna Get You number three hit.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it was that big of a hit.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I've never heard it before. Oh, yes, you had. I
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: have not shot I'm not kidding. And we All shine on.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: You've never heard that chorus? Oh, I didn't know that
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: it was the name of the song. Well, yeah, Instant
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Karma's Gonna Get You, And then the chorus was and
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: we All shine On. I had no idea that was
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the song. It's also a Nike commercial. Yeah, that's where
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I've heard it. Yeah, of which my name is a Royal,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: which we've already covered. Eventually it became fodder for television
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: mustachioed guys who was also a scientologist. Who Jason Lee
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: isn't ye? Man, have you seen that Memphis Beach Show. No,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: he's on that. He stars in it, and apparently when
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: he has a rough day work in the homicide beat,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: he goes out at night and like plays the blues.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I saw him in a Granddaddy show in l A, Yeah,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: and thought, oh, man, I love Jason Lee. Did they
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: play that one song? Did they have a hit Granddaddy? Yeah? Yeah,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: I was in twenty eight days later when they're in
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the Girls. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they played that song. Yeah,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: it's a good one. I never heard any other Granddaddy songs,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: but that's a good song. They can't top that one now,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: actually I think they have. Well I'll have to go listen.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Um what else you got, Chuck? I got nothing, man,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: This one just the followed me for some reason. I apologize,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: you do great, thank you. So I guess the lesson
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: here is, um, anytime you about karma and you sure
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: tipping somebody an extra dollar is a good idea. But
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: don't forget the other aspect of karma where if there's
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: something bad has happened to you or somebody who's born
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: disfigured or just dismembered somewhere somewhere in life, or just
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: where it was killed or abused, people believe that that's
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: karma too. So do you believe in karma in the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: very loosest sense of like if you do good things,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: like good things will return your way. I don't even know.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: To be honest, I think you should do good things
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: because that's the right thing to do. But you know
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: what I do, But I don't believe it's any kind
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: of natural law or cosmic force. I believe it's more
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: like doing good deeds brings out a level of consciousness
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: where you're attuned to goodness, so you notice that in
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: other people in life more so you open up that
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: door very much. So, yes, whereas like if you judge
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: other people, you are you become consumed with the idea
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: of being judged, and that like dwell down there where
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: did I agree with you there? That's what I think
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: it is. I think I agree with you completely Church
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and Josh exactly. Well. If you want to read more
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: about how karma works, type in karma with a k
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: don't be dumb with a k uh in the handy
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: search bar at how stuff works dot com and that
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: will bring up that article written by Saradwiti of stuff
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you missed in History Glass that is right, and Chuck,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I said, uh, search bar and they're somewhere. So Listener Mail,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Listener Mail. We asked for calls from people in the
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: First Murderer podcast who might be related to John Billington
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: and lo and behold we have one. Yeah. And also
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: can we mention what dorcas means? Yeah, what does it mean?
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: It means gazelle in great And we heard from quite
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: a few people who have family members named Dorcas. Yeah,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: grandmothers usually Dorcas, Dorcas Minorcas. Yeah, all right. Uh, this
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: is from Wren in Elburne, Illinois. Hey, Josh and Chuck
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and Jerry. You said you wanted to hear from people
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: who related to John Billington. Well, here I am my aunt.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Researched our family history a few years ago, put it
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: all together in a book and gave it to the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: family members for Christmas. It's a great gift. When I
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: first got it, the billing Things Billington's story was for sure,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: the most intriguing the girls from Stuff you missed in
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: History class at a podcast about it a couple of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: years ago as well, and I love that edition and
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: played it for my dad, who thought it was cool. Um.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I have played it for almost everyone I know, saying
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: at the end of the episode, and that's my family
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: in a nutshell. I'm one of those people who was
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: super excited to say I'm related to the first murderer
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: in the New World, and also love to tell the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: story about his son almost blowing up the Mayflower. I
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: told my sister when she was pregnant that if she
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: was having a girl, she shouldn't name the baby Dorcas Dorcas.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: She didn't find it amusing and had a son anyway
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and named Dorcas just dork. I think this mail merchant
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: d O r C. Anyway. I just want to express
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: my excitement for the episode. I really love all the episodes.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: Keep it up. Ran from Elburn, Illinois. Nice well, thanks
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: a lot, RN Billington, I don't think that was Yeah,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: if you've got a good deed that you did to
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: somebody that you would consider good karma, right, do you
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: think you deserve a little good karma for it. Let's
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: have a karma off, or how about this and have
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: evidence of that return, like you did a good deed
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and you won the lottery, like the good one. That's
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: a good one. Um, well, we're holding a little mini contests.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Whoever has the best one in our opinion will make
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: it to listener mail. That's right. But it's not a
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: real contest. It's unsanctioned. That's right. I didn't even use
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the word contest just now, did I know? There's no prize,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: no nothing. It's a karma off. Anyway. If you want
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to let us know about that, you can tweet it
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to us at s y s K podcast. You can
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: also go on to our Facebook, Facebook dot com slash
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: stuff you Should Know, or you can send it old
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: fashioned email at stuff Podcast at how Stuff works dot com.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: explore them as promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: are you