To those seeking answers

[atalanta]

Everything you have said is true but one.  We are not alone in our experience.  When you are feeling alone in this experience, try and expand your awareness to remember that you live in the same space/time as Jesus, Ghandi, Mohammad, Buddha, angels, saints, prophets, ancestors, etc... who all fought the same fight you are going through or are present to you and your experience.  

Some people think that the struggle for spiritual mastery means that we have to suffer a kind of madness.  Its almost as if madness becomes a kind of indicator of how spiritual we have become and in a distorted way it becomes almost revered in spiritual circles.  Madness is an indicator of someone who refuses to experience painful, often opposing forces.  In trying to control these opposing forces, they experience a type of neurotic suffering.  As long as they are attempting to work through this madness/suffering then it is indeed a spiritual journey.  However, if they stay in this madness as if it is a right of passage, they will suffer unnecessarily, and they will fail in their spiritual quest.  The underworld is to be visited, not be made of as a permanent address.

A saying of mine when I feel like I am going off the rails is, "we are sewn into the very palm of God, where can we go where God is not."  It reminds me that I had better get on with it because there is no hiding place, there is no use avoiding the pain, just go through it.

[Rastus]

What you speak of isn't limited to spiritual matters.  People frequently ignore many things in their mundane lives.  An abusive spouse is probaly the most common example.

Answers?  Everyone wants answers.  I've maintained for years:  Re-think the question.  Like the classic Hitchhikers guide to the Glaxing, the answer is 42, the problem is no one knew the question!!!  If you got an incredible answer to the meaning of life, how would you even know if you didn't specifically define the question?  If your question is too broad, does that mean the answer is also?  And, you have an answer at a specific point of reference, does that mean it can't change at some other reference point?

By inference, I have stated that you need a well defined question, at a particular reference point, for a particular set of conditions and circumstances, to truly make light of the answer.

[Euphoric Sunrise]

Steel Hawk, i'm sure you are perfectly adept to speak for yourself, but you can't tell everybody else that your experience are the same as everybody theirs will be. We are all on different paths, we are all different minds that react differently to situations presented to us. Nobody can tell anybody else what their search for answers will bring.
Still, i don't for a minute believe that trying to seek answers has to hinder a person the way you have described. In fact i don't think anything has to cause that. Each experience in life can be looked at as a lesson and can be learned from in a positive way.
Personally, in trying to seek answer my life has become much greater than it has ever been. I have started to come out of the hole i was in and realise certian things about my life, and on the whole i have become much happier than i previously was.

I can understand what you are saying. Seeking answers often calls on a person to question basic beliefs that they have held throughout life, and that they thought they knew were right. That doesn't mean you have to go insane, or that nobody understands. Your experience is alone, yes, but there are other people going through other experiences who can relate to the idea that reality is changing.
I tend to think of it more as fun than anything else. Reality is not set in stone, it is free, and can change. Seems much more interesting than a static reality if you ask me.

Well, that's my take on the issue.

[Steel Hawk]

I can personally tell you that you would have been better off staying ignorant.  Your never ending quest for knowledge will change your reality over and over again.  You will most likely go insane for a short period of time.

This is of course if you find the answers to certain questions.  People that you thought were insane or crazy will now appear to be right.  You will be isolated and alone with your beliefs.  There are some forums such as this where you will find a bit of comfort.

However, you will be lucky to find anyone that truely understands.  You learn that people don't have the answers.  The answers come from within.  At least in the end.  You can try and go back, try to forget what you know, but it won't work.

There's a great deal of false information and hidden in it is true knowledge.  It's a defence agaisn't the profane.  Another thing I've learned (in my case):

The more knowledge I acquire the less human the greater of the population becomes.