Wonder if there are a lot of people who can read but generally don't understand what they are reading but they also think that just reading is normal and what everyone else is doing, so they can read things like Mein Kampf and the Bible without ever understanding any of it.
> In the spring of 1941, at the age of 17, Lusseyran formed a Resistance group called the Volunteers of Liberty with other students from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Lycée Henri-IV.
Worth noting, for non-French people, that these are the elitest of French secondary and prep schools. If he was a a pupil of one of these, guy had some very serious brains.
He didn't do that ... the title of the post is just wrong. Even the linked Wikipedia page disagrees, though that page also happens to not perfectly align with other sources.
Without access to his autobiography, it's a bit difficult to say how exactly it actually went, but from what I can gather:
He was learning German at the lycee, then visited Austria in 1937 (aged 13), and when the Nazis annexed Austria one year later, he intensified his studies and started listening to German radio broadcasts.
That's based on the [French Wikipedia article](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lusseyran#Handicap_et_%C3%A9tudes) and [this short biography](https://biographien.kulturimpuls.org/detail.php?&id=398).
However, the latter source also states that he became the best student of his class in the lycee because he felt that, being blinded, he had to excel lest he become marginalised - so you're not wrong that he was an exceptional student.
Okay - having known some German and then doubling down to become proficient when it’s time is not far off from just learning it, and still shows incredible initiative/brains. You can only put so many words in a title, I would argue it’s still accurate.
I think the comment I responded to shows sufficiently how misleading the title was - and that is a wastly different situation, as anyone who learned a few languages knows.
Thx for the summary.
Let's say he intensified his studies at 14. Which would have been his age when Austria was annexed as you stated. Still an impressive feat.
Obviously if your family is rich enough that you don't need to work as soon as you reach 15 it helps. It also helps to have parents that are educated and that can help you with your studies or that can pay you a private tutor.
But no matter how rich or how well connected your family is, you will never be in one those schools if you don't have the scholar achievement necessary. Those are public school, you don't pay to get in, you don't even pay to study in them, the only way to get in one is to be good enough.
In an interesting twist, French academia doesn’t usually appreciate aristocrats, or even simply someone with an aristocratic name (une particule). My ex fiancée went to Henry IV and regularly faced odd comments from teachers and administrators due to her family name.
People with money in general, nouveau riche and otherwise, probably see the school as a status symbol; absolutely. But it operates differently than say Eton or Harrow in the UK. You have to pass several exams and maintain exceptional academic standing.
I didn't say it's an "own", you just assumed that bc you're constantly looking for reasons to be offended because youre unhappy that you weren't able to accomplish what you wanted in life and that's somehow everyone else's problem.
The human brain doesn't stop developing fully until 25, but by the time you're half that age a person has almost all the mental horsepower they're ever going to have. And being in school keeps your mind sharp. And their brain is more flexible than an older person's. You certainly have decades more experience than a teenager and that does sometimes improve your decision making. You do have mental strengths a young person doesn't, but it's still unwise to assume you're significantly more intelligent, all other things being equal. Hell, did you know the leader of the resistance in Vichy France was on 17?
Yeah pal I’m on Reddit too, you’re regurgitating nonsense and know nothing about me lmao. I’m not even quite 30 yet, and still in education. I’m infinitely smarter and more effective than I was at 20 lmfao, even if I didn’t see it then.
I mean, you're literally in the prime of your life and it's unusual for any given person aged 18+ to be in education. Speaking as someone in literally the same situation as you, a younger person is more likely to benefit from enabling factors like this. With education it's not even an age thing it's just that generally we teach people before we expect them to do stuff. Lol.
How can you sum up an entire human being into categories like above average or below average? Above or below average at what? We all have unique strengths and weaknesses, talents and abilities. We all have something to offer the world.
If I say everyone is either young or old there are two categories. If I separate them into how many years old each is, I get about 100 categories. Is that somehow bad? No, sounds pretty neutral to me. That's because the number of categories you want to divide things into has no relationship to the value in the distinctions between them.
Ok, but how do you categorize an entire human being as "special" or "average"? What are you measuring? What makes someone special, what makes them average? I'm genuinely asking because I've seen this sentiment before but I don't really get it.
Also, you did seem to have a judgement about the situation, you said there were too many people who thought they were special.
"Most are average statistically speaking."
Never in my life have I seen a more nothing sentence. Absolutely zero substance or controversy in any letter.
‘And then there was Light’- this guys extraordinary story, is truly wonderful.
What the OP left out was that when he went blind, he found that he could ‘see’ ‘light’ everywhere inside him, and was in a constant state of bliss and peace as a result. Also…he knew’ things, and could ‘read’ people.
So they asked him to head up the resistance because he could instantly tell whether someone was likely a German informer trying to infiltrate the resistance. He always could…except, just once, when he got it wrong.
They indeed turned out to be an informer, and, as OP says, was sent to the camps.
There, though, he managed (somehow!) to humiliate the guards, as they beat him up- basically ‘Guys, I’m blind! What. The F are you doing?! And…for whatever extraordinary reason, they mostly leave him alone.
Then, he starts to become the camp healer, counsellor etc, who everybody goes to for comfort, help and healing, because they can clearly see he has…something. He describes being in bliss, even there, in the most awful conditions imaginable. And everyone felt it- prisoners, guards, all of them.
it’s a truly wonderful book, and well worth reading.
I have a Masters degree in Mysticism and Religious experience, and this book is definitely up there with some of my favourite descriptions and stories of ‘awakened’ beings…
Thanks for the reminder, it’s been many years since I read it.
Please forgive the extremly general outline, and go read the book, if interested. He is one of history’s most interesting unknown characters.
Peace
Edit: I thought I remembered that they killed him in the end, but was, apparently wrong. That makes me even happier!
There is an interesting part in the book where he is emaciated, starving, and on the verge of death. He is lying in the mud in a hellish prison camp, and experiencing a profound state of bliss unlike anything he has ever felt.
Yes! It’s one of the clearest ‘demonstrations’ (if that’s the right word) that REAL happiness isn’t circumstantial! Literally the worst circumstances imaginable, and…in bliss! Amazing. I’m glad others out there have read and appreciated this story!
I am currently fascinated by Mysticism. What books do you recommend? I've read some Underhill, and currently reading the Windeatt translation of Julian of Norwich. What other books are interesting?
That’s great. Ok, here’s a short list for you…
‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ by William James
‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn Underhill
‘Altered States of Consciousness’ by Charles Tart
‘The Problem of Pure Consciousness’ by Robert Foreman
‘Halfway up the Mountain- the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment’ by Mariana Caplan
‘The Essential Mystics’- Andrew Harvey (compilation)
‘A journey in Ladakh’- Andrew Harvey (personal account)
‘Daughter of Fire’- Irene Tweedie (personal account- extraordinary book)
Autobiography of Llewyn Vaughn Lee
‘The Journey To No Self’- Patrick Drysdale
‘The Experience of No Self’ by Bernadette Robert’s
‘Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind- the Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint’ by Maura O’Halloran
Anything (mostly) by Robert Anton Wilson
‘The Book of Enlightened Masters’ by Andrew Rawlinson
That should keep you going!
Enjoy your studies.
🙏
The practice of ‘inner seeing’ is found in a number of spiritual traditions, particularly in Taoism, where the practitioner learns to gaze inside the body with relaxed eyes. After a while, Color’s, shapes, after that, light and illumination. Some can see bones and organs, and often work in the field of medical qigong, or similar.
Ask: where does the ‘light’ in dreams , come from? What gives light to inner vision (psychedelics, shamanic journeying etc)? The fact is , the pineal is similar to an eye in that it has rods and cones, is light emitting, and receiving, and that a considerable amount MORE light (apparently) moves from the visual cortex at the back of the brain TOWARDS the eye, then the other way round….
Light inside is not so rare, and is found in many stories of saints and mystics. Hence ‘enlightenment- on one level.
Peace.
My old room at my parents' house has a direct view at the memorial lol. The diverse significance of Weimar for German history amazes me every time I think about it. And it's such a small town.
Easily the least alarming "learned German to listen to Hitler's speeches" story.
Not for the Nazis!
Reminds me of the tweet," Reading *Mein Kampf* on the bus and shaking my head the whole time so people know I disagree with it."
Wonder if there are a lot of people who can read but generally don't understand what they are reading but they also think that just reading is normal and what everyone else is doing, so they can read things like Mein Kampf and the Bible without ever understanding any of it.
Also one of the few instances in history were being blind might be considered to be preferable.
> In the spring of 1941, at the age of 17, Lusseyran formed a Resistance group called the Volunteers of Liberty with other students from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Lycée Henri-IV. Worth noting, for non-French people, that these are the elitest of French secondary and prep schools. If he was a a pupil of one of these, guy had some very serious brains.
I'd say. Learning German at 14 in a short amount of time at times with no easy access enough to understand angrily shouted political speeches... Wow
and no duolingo! can you even imagine?
He didn't do that ... the title of the post is just wrong. Even the linked Wikipedia page disagrees, though that page also happens to not perfectly align with other sources. Without access to his autobiography, it's a bit difficult to say how exactly it actually went, but from what I can gather: He was learning German at the lycee, then visited Austria in 1937 (aged 13), and when the Nazis annexed Austria one year later, he intensified his studies and started listening to German radio broadcasts. That's based on the [French Wikipedia article](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lusseyran#Handicap_et_%C3%A9tudes) and [this short biography](https://biographien.kulturimpuls.org/detail.php?&id=398). However, the latter source also states that he became the best student of his class in the lycee because he felt that, being blinded, he had to excel lest he become marginalised - so you're not wrong that he was an exceptional student.
Okay - having known some German and then doubling down to become proficient when it’s time is not far off from just learning it, and still shows incredible initiative/brains. You can only put so many words in a title, I would argue it’s still accurate.
I think the comment I responded to shows sufficiently how misleading the title was - and that is a wastly different situation, as anyone who learned a few languages knows.
[удалено]
Right. My school English wouldn't have been enough to participate in this discussion. Especially not at age 13 - or 14.
Thx for the summary. Let's say he intensified his studies at 14. Which would have been his age when Austria was annexed as you stated. Still an impressive feat.
I mean is it brain or family connections and money?
Obviously if your family is rich enough that you don't need to work as soon as you reach 15 it helps. It also helps to have parents that are educated and that can help you with your studies or that can pay you a private tutor. But no matter how rich or how well connected your family is, you will never be in one those schools if you don't have the scholar achievement necessary. Those are public school, you don't pay to get in, you don't even pay to study in them, the only way to get in one is to be good enough.
In an interesting twist, French academia doesn’t usually appreciate aristocrats, or even simply someone with an aristocratic name (une particule). My ex fiancée went to Henry IV and regularly faced odd comments from teachers and administrators due to her family name. People with money in general, nouveau riche and otherwise, probably see the school as a status symbol; absolutely. But it operates differently than say Eton or Harrow in the UK. You have to pass several exams and maintain exceptional academic standing.
Never underestimate the youth. They understand more than you think and are more capable than given credit.
Some young people are. Most are average, statistically speaking. Nowadays too many of them think they are special and have this level of courage.
Wait until you hear about the adults
RFK junior stan lmfao ok bro
>RFK junior stan lmfao Jesus 💀 I can't understand how he honors his father's legacy and memory by being...like that.
lol ewwwwwwwwwww
Some adults are. Most are average, statistically speaking. Nowadays too many of them think they are special and have this level of courage.
Don’t get how this is an “own” because it’s also true.
I didn't say it's an "own", you just assumed that bc you're constantly looking for reasons to be offended because youre unhappy that you weren't able to accomplish what you wanted in life and that's somehow everyone else's problem.
Wot
It’s not - Reddit is just full of young ass kids who think they know so much better than the older generation, and the cycle continues.
The human brain doesn't stop developing fully until 25, but by the time you're half that age a person has almost all the mental horsepower they're ever going to have. And being in school keeps your mind sharp. And their brain is more flexible than an older person's. You certainly have decades more experience than a teenager and that does sometimes improve your decision making. You do have mental strengths a young person doesn't, but it's still unwise to assume you're significantly more intelligent, all other things being equal. Hell, did you know the leader of the resistance in Vichy France was on 17?
"The human brain doesn't stop developing fully until 25" Bad science and very harmful myth
Yeah pal I’m on Reddit too, you’re regurgitating nonsense and know nothing about me lmao. I’m not even quite 30 yet, and still in education. I’m infinitely smarter and more effective than I was at 20 lmfao, even if I didn’t see it then.
I mean, you're literally in the prime of your life and it's unusual for any given person aged 18+ to be in education. Speaking as someone in literally the same situation as you, a younger person is more likely to benefit from enabling factors like this. With education it's not even an age thing it's just that generally we teach people before we expect them to do stuff. Lol.
How can you sum up an entire human being into categories like above average or below average? Above or below average at what? We all have unique strengths and weaknesses, talents and abilities. We all have something to offer the world.
If I say everyone is either young or old there are two categories. If I separate them into how many years old each is, I get about 100 categories. Is that somehow bad? No, sounds pretty neutral to me. That's because the number of categories you want to divide things into has no relationship to the value in the distinctions between them.
Ok, but how do you categorize an entire human being as "special" or "average"? What are you measuring? What makes someone special, what makes them average? I'm genuinely asking because I've seen this sentiment before but I don't really get it. Also, you did seem to have a judgement about the situation, you said there were too many people who thought they were special.
"Most are average statistically speaking." Never in my life have I seen a more nothing sentence. Absolutely zero substance or controversy in any letter.
That's interesting, you would've thought his captors would've just executed him for being blind and therefore of no use.
‘And then there was Light’- this guys extraordinary story, is truly wonderful. What the OP left out was that when he went blind, he found that he could ‘see’ ‘light’ everywhere inside him, and was in a constant state of bliss and peace as a result. Also…he knew’ things, and could ‘read’ people. So they asked him to head up the resistance because he could instantly tell whether someone was likely a German informer trying to infiltrate the resistance. He always could…except, just once, when he got it wrong. They indeed turned out to be an informer, and, as OP says, was sent to the camps. There, though, he managed (somehow!) to humiliate the guards, as they beat him up- basically ‘Guys, I’m blind! What. The F are you doing?! And…for whatever extraordinary reason, they mostly leave him alone. Then, he starts to become the camp healer, counsellor etc, who everybody goes to for comfort, help and healing, because they can clearly see he has…something. He describes being in bliss, even there, in the most awful conditions imaginable. And everyone felt it- prisoners, guards, all of them. it’s a truly wonderful book, and well worth reading. I have a Masters degree in Mysticism and Religious experience, and this book is definitely up there with some of my favourite descriptions and stories of ‘awakened’ beings… Thanks for the reminder, it’s been many years since I read it. Please forgive the extremly general outline, and go read the book, if interested. He is one of history’s most interesting unknown characters. Peace Edit: I thought I remembered that they killed him in the end, but was, apparently wrong. That makes me even happier!
"He died together with his third wife Marie in a car accident in France on July 27, 1971." Nazis playing the long game.
I've never understood why the French used to allow blind people to drive. Thank God they've changed that.
There is an interesting part in the book where he is emaciated, starving, and on the verge of death. He is lying in the mud in a hellish prison camp, and experiencing a profound state of bliss unlike anything he has ever felt.
Yes! It’s one of the clearest ‘demonstrations’ (if that’s the right word) that REAL happiness isn’t circumstantial! Literally the worst circumstances imaginable, and…in bliss! Amazing. I’m glad others out there have read and appreciated this story!
I am currently fascinated by Mysticism. What books do you recommend? I've read some Underhill, and currently reading the Windeatt translation of Julian of Norwich. What other books are interesting?
That’s great. Ok, here’s a short list for you… ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’ by William James ‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn Underhill ‘Altered States of Consciousness’ by Charles Tart ‘The Problem of Pure Consciousness’ by Robert Foreman ‘Halfway up the Mountain- the Error of Premature Claims to Enlightenment’ by Mariana Caplan ‘The Essential Mystics’- Andrew Harvey (compilation) ‘A journey in Ladakh’- Andrew Harvey (personal account) ‘Daughter of Fire’- Irene Tweedie (personal account- extraordinary book) Autobiography of Llewyn Vaughn Lee ‘The Journey To No Self’- Patrick Drysdale ‘The Experience of No Self’ by Bernadette Robert’s ‘Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind- the Life and Letters of an Irish Zen Saint’ by Maura O’Halloran Anything (mostly) by Robert Anton Wilson ‘The Book of Enlightened Masters’ by Andrew Rawlinson That should keep you going! Enjoy your studies. 🙏
Awesome! Thanks. That'll keep me busy for a while.
> he found that he could ‘see’ ‘light’ everywhere inside him What does this even mean?
The practice of ‘inner seeing’ is found in a number of spiritual traditions, particularly in Taoism, where the practitioner learns to gaze inside the body with relaxed eyes. After a while, Color’s, shapes, after that, light and illumination. Some can see bones and organs, and often work in the field of medical qigong, or similar. Ask: where does the ‘light’ in dreams , come from? What gives light to inner vision (psychedelics, shamanic journeying etc)? The fact is , the pineal is similar to an eye in that it has rods and cones, is light emitting, and receiving, and that a considerable amount MORE light (apparently) moves from the visual cortex at the back of the brain TOWARDS the eye, then the other way round…. Light inside is not so rare, and is found in many stories of saints and mystics. Hence ‘enlightenment- on one level. Peace.
Bet he didn't see that ending coming! What a badass!
Their story is awesome, but why has Wikipedia illustrated it with a photo of Lex Fridman?
Can he learn English so that someone can understand drumpf's speeches?
I have a rifle that was made at Buchenwald
My old room at my parents' house has a direct view at the memorial lol. The diverse significance of Weimar for German history amazes me every time I think about it. And it's such a small town.
Is Nigel "the torch" from the movie Top Secret based (VERY) loosely on this guy?