Warm fuzzy feelings and reality checks.

[The AlphaOmega]

I fully agree.  We are given free will, and the bad things that happen are not caused by entities making someone do it, but that person making the choice for themselves to do it.  We are the only ones who can affect our lives and we must take full responsibility for the decisions that we make, and learn from them.  I agree that many times people jump to conclusions about spiritual reality.  There may be many realities, but for the moment this physical world is the one we live in.  Spirituality is real, afterlife is real, etc.  But the only way you will really know that is if you apply reason and common sense to strange events.  There are many instances in which it's logical to believe in spirituality.  Likewise it's risky to put all your hopes on the spiritual and not make concious efforts about your own actions in this physical world.  Life is what you make it!

[volcomstone]

looks like someone is having trouble with the mind-body duality concept

but if what you say is true, then who keeps hiding my car keys?

[atalanta]

I absolutely deny any problem with my understanding of the mind-body duality concept.  I have certificate in reflexology, diploma in accupressure, Bachelor of Arts in sociology with many psychology subjects where I got high distinction levels in neuropsychology, I have been on numerous spiritual retreats with a master of the Shankaracharia tradition, done courses in transpersonal psychology and if I had the money I would be now doing a course in psychoanalysis (Freud) and analytic psychology (Jung).

I am not saying all this to blow my own horn but to demonstrate that I have no problems shifting from idea to idea or experience from experience.  I am quite comfortable discussing the body, the mind and the spirit.  I do not deny the existence of the spirit and its effect on the mind and body, or that of the mind on the body.  My point is that if there is a simple earthly explanation to an event, then we should apply it.

If you are repeatedly losing keys then you need to ask yourself, if maybe you are going through a period of not being very focussed.  Maybe, you are stressed.  Even hormones can cause fuzzy thinking, pregnant women are known to experience this phenomenon, as well as people with iron deficiencies, thyroid problems, etc.  Now assuming nothing lately in your life has changed, maybe, you need to look at the mind level and do your own bit of psychoanalysis.  What do these keys mean to you?  When you are using them, is it to go somewhere you don't really want to go or are anxious going?  Etc...  Maybe you are just disorganised in your environment?  Etc...  Surely, it is better or more efficient or more credible to consider these factors before thinking that its some entity hiding your keys, where the proof or evidence is nil.  Missing keys in and of themselves is not evidence of entities.

I want to also say how dangerous it can be to advocate such a position.  I know of a woman who believes she is in communication with angels who guide her.  She talks and has written books about people who have multiple souls and gives this as a reason why some people will run their lives and relationships hot and cold.  She claims that she is not referring to the psychological disorder 'multiple personality', yet many of the things she describes, in terms of experiences, symptoms, behaviours belong to this disorder.  

I have worked voluntarily with people with that disorder in the past.  Irrespective of whether her thinking is sound, the fact is that a lot of people who would benefit from psychological treatment are going to be taken in by her cult like group.  They will explain away their symptoms on entities and it will aid their wish for denying reality.  97% of people with these disorders come from a history of trauma and abuse.  None of that will be dealt with because all their symptoms will be explained away as some interference by outside forces.  When you question this woman about evidence for her claims, her only reply is that her guide confirmed it so.  It is a disaster in the making.

I don't know if this helps but we have a row of hooks next to the door in the hall.  Whenever we step in they go straight there.  Maybe you need something like this.

[James S]

Having seen this kind of phenomena in many Pentecostal churches, I'm quite familiar with the idea of ascribing "evil spirits" to physiological or psychological conditions. This is readily accepted by people who wish to be absolved of the responsibility of having to take care of their own problems themselves.

What such people often don't realise is thier "evil spirit" problems will usually be far more easily resolved if they take the less complicated path of looking towards physical causes and cures first.

I'm quite familiar with the usefulness of treatments such as Reiki, and many of the psychic defence measures mentioned on this site,  but some people can become so caught up in the idea that all problems they suffer are the result of some kind of neg attack, they forget that the physical world offers many simple, straightforward and effective cures to thier symptoms. I whole-heartedly agree with Atlanta's idea of "if you get migraines, don't eat chocholate."

Regards,
James.

[volcomstone]

I don't like scapegoats either.

but the key car gnomes act quickly and quietly, its very hard to catch the little buggers as they are very sneaky. very sneaky.

[atalanta]

I met a woman once who was suffering from multiple personality disorder.  She was reported that she had been ritually abused, which took place at night time where she was woken to take part in horrific events.  Because of this, she believed that each night someone was entering her house and rearranging her furniture.  However, during one of our crisis talks one of her alters admitted to doing the rearranging.

I also knew a woman who had to see a gyneacologist because she was taking 7 birth control pills a day.  One for each alter![:O]

Maybe your car gnomes are actually dissociated parts of yourself.[]  The question remains, why are you choosing to misplace your keys?

[volcomstone]

one questions still remains after that

"dude wheres my car?"

[James S]

I do have to admit, after having said you should look to the natural before the supernatural, I work in the computer industry, most of my career having been spent repairing things.....

Gremlins are REAL!!! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

[]
James.

[kiauma]

LOL James!

Yupper.  []

[atalanta]

Hi,

I have been reading the various posts over the last few weeks and some of them are very well thought out.  Some come across as totally unreal and airy fairy stuff, belonging more to psychology than parapsychology.  Just because you have an experience which seems amazing, spiritual, etc, doesn't make it real.  It may bring about warm fuzzy feelings but does it have real substance or is it of the substance we on earth call reality?  

Ask yourself, is there a simple straight forward answer.  If you have a migrain then that is the constriction of blood vessels that is causing that, not some naughty spirit.  Maybe it is a spirit, but how do you validate that other than you 'just know its so'.  Life is so difficult and there are illnesses, murders, disease, etc, all around us.  If every time something negative happens in our lives we explain it away as some entity or negative force then we are being irresponsible.  What I mean by irresponsible is that we refuse to see our involvement in the process of life.  "I have a migrain" you say to yourself, "it must be some negative energy", then you cleanse your house and put up charms etc, to protect yourself.  The fact that yesterday you may have eaten chocolate (a well known trigger) or missed a meal or downed several glasses of alcohol doesn't occur.  It shifts responsibility for your life outside yourself and you enter into a kind of psychosis where you deny the realities of life in order to feel safe in a make believe world and then retreat into superstitious behaviours to protect yourself from that reality.  Reality is harsh and sometimes there is no other explanation for a negative experience other than 'excrement happens'.

I don't deny the existence of spirits or other paranormal events and I have experienced many of them myself but if these phenomena are going to gain some kind of credibility, we have to surely, examine our individual and collective experiences and within that, accept that some experiences are nothing more than a highly evolved imagination doing its thing.  There is nothing that indicates or triggers a lack credibility faster then when you ask someone how they know that something is so and they answer that their guide or intuition told them so.  How do you find evidence for something when the only thing you have is someone's belief or opinion?

Just in case anyone wonders why mild mannered me would put up a thread like this, let me say first of all, its not any negative force or entity.  It may be because I am going through a rough time at the moment or maybe I just have PMT, but its not because of some outside force.