Messages

Morality for me is doing what is best for someone.  What is 'best' depends on your situation.  If you are sure that you are helping your friend out then it is a moral act even if it turns out to be an incompetant act.  I also think that there are moral standards for yourself, masochism is not ethical.

Respecting autonomy is one aspect of doing what's best for another person but there are exceptions when respecting another's autonomy is unethical.  If someone is suicidal and wants you to go away then it is not an ethical thing to leave.  However leaving someone to kill themselves is not what is best for them (if you don't agree on suicide being unethical then I will elaborate) so it is ethical to use physical force to stop them killing themselves (calling paramedics to put them in an asylum for a night is an option.)

A real life situation for you:  I went to a bikram yoga studio yesterday.  It's very intensive postures done in a hot sauna, great fun but very exhausting.  We were told not to leave during the session but rather to lie down in the sauna if we got too hot.  One guy decided that he couldn't take the heat and so stood up to go.  The instructor told him he couldn't leave.  He walked past her and left.  She did not make any physical motions to block him, only verbal.  In your opinion at what point do verbal actions count as unethical?  (side note: I was very surprised to hear we weren't allowed to leave.  I've been to bikram yoga before and there was never any question that you could step out if you needed to.)

Generally speaking I agree with you. I will put in physical terms "being there" for my friend.  Let's say that my friend's ex left a message for my friend to call her.  I am infringing on my friends autonomy by not passing along the message.  If I deem my friend able to handle the stress of being reminded of his ex I would pass the message along but if my friend were about to write an important exam I would not.  Do you think that would be a moral decision?

Buts thats the beauty of having autonomy, being able to make you own choices, even if they are bad ones.

Virtually word for word from a quadrapelegic I met talking about how he wanted to live his life.  Well said.

As for the competancy test, that's a grey area.  While I think ideally it would make sense, there are two major problems.  First of all, by who's standards?  I think that you put too much power in a person or a group's hands by allowing them to decide what defines maturity.  However I do wish our society had a coming of age ceremony beyond going out and getting borderline alcohol poisoning on their 18th.  The other issue is that being able to make clear decisions isn't a black and white thing, it's a gradient.  I've worked with kids and the goal of a kindergarden teacher is to be able to leave the room and have nothing change. To have the kids autonomous and able to settle their own disputes.  A good kindergarden teacher does achieve this most of the time by the end of the year but it happens in stages.  And people never stops growing up and changing.  At what point do you say "ah, now you can make sound decisions!" when people are learning their whole life (hopefully) to make better and better choices?

Your description of a piece of your attacker feeding on your throat chakra makes a lot of sense.  From what I've seen a spell creates a certain type of spirit from the caster's energy which then goes and does whatever spell they've crafted.  I'm not into magic, I like my mental energy work more, but I've seen a little bit of it.  It sounds like if you are very good at grounding you may be able to ground it out. 

you probably have one you like, but here's an idea anyways.

Sit down with your spine straight, shoulders apart, head up, or whatever feels comfortable and strong.  Close you eyes.  Imagine roots shooting out from you into the earth.  Let them grow and expand.  Feel and enjoy the strength of the earth.  Breathe in and draw the strong, healthy earthen energy up into your body.  Exhale and feel your negative energy fall out of you into the earth.  Repeat until you feel ready to tackle the spirit in your throat.  When you are ready, breathe in and draw the earthen energy up to your throat.  Continue breathing in and out bringing earthen energy to your throat.  Feel the energy loosen the spirit's hold.  Feel the spirit getting weaker and smaller.  Feel the spirit changing colour and dissipating.  Feel it start losing it's grip on you and moving away from you.  Feel it leave you completely.  Now let the extra energy fall back into the earth and slowly open your eyes.

Note:  You can also do this while standing.  Only draw as much energy as you can control, don't overload yourself with earthen energy.  This technique can be used for general negative energy, not just spirits. 

Alternately, if you like more direct magic, just rip it out.  Close you eyes and become aware of all the energy in your body.  If you're new at this, run your hand over your body and feel through it.  This is your energy body and you have complete control over it.  Remove an energy blockage for the fun of it.  Now look at the spirit in your throat.  Imagine a white hand reaching in, grabbing hold of it and flinging it away from you.  That simple, it's gone.  I'd do some healing work on your throat chakra afterwards as those things usually have roots like a plant.  Again the more emotion you put into this one the better it will work.  Grounding doesn't work well with anger, rage or other firey emotions but this does.  If you're using anger, don't try and remove blockages, just go straight for the spirit.  Best of luck!

Another example for you:  What if I have a friend who has just gotten out of an abusive relationship?  99% of the time he knows he doesn't want back into that hell, but occasionally he starts thinking that it would be a good idea.  Whether he's asked me to or not I consider it a moral thing to be there for him during those times to remind him that it's not what he wants long term.  Do you agree? 

Premise 1) Our autonomies are characterized by the choices we make.

True, but we may have trouble sticking to the choices we've made.  I'd also like to modify this premise to "informed choices" rather than just choices.

Premise 2) Any choice is a preferred action over other possible alternative actions.
Premise 3) Any preference is a desired "something" over other possible "somethings"

This example takes into account not the immediate preferred actions but the long term preferred action.

Premise 4) Any desire is the longing for emotional gratification.

Again, I am looking out for my friend's long term rather than immediate emotional gratification.

A curiosity of mine, how much force do you think is morally acceptable to stop someone from committing murder?  Do you agree that the less force used the more moral it is?

The problem with this point of view is it paints humans as consistant creatures when they are anything but.  For example if someone is so enraged that they are ready to literally kill someone then it is my moral responsibility to interfere with their autonomy and stop them.  Assuming that it was just rage and not more deeply rooted, they're likely to thank me when they calm down.  Is it morally correct to interfere with someone's autonomy to stop them from interfering with someone else's?  What if it were a tattoo that I am 99% sure they wouldn't like later, then am I morally justified in interfering even when they aren't infringing on another's autonomy?

I'm gonna go with Selski.  Chocolate and wine, there's nothing better.

Lesson learned, be aware you have a certain amount of this energy.

I see it more like muscles.  You have a certain amount you can lift - you have a certain amount of energy you can draw.  The more often you lift weights the more you can lift at once - the more you draw energy the more you can draw at once.  You can sprain a muscle - you can completely deplete yourself of energy.  etc.

fthmdg asked a bit higher up if you need to draw your energy from something.  I'd say no, we all create energy.  Sometimes it can be very useful or fun to draw energy from something like the earth or God.  If you're talking about healing it's extremely useful to draw energy because you can typically draw higher energy levels than you can create.  I've had very limited success healing, I think largely due to that fact that I dislike drawing on anything outside myself.  Play with it, see what you like.

The left over heat/cold/magnetic/tingling is energy that's still pouring out of your hands.  Undirected energy like that tends to be unhealthy.  Grounding it works well.  The easiest way to ground it is to put your hands on the ground and visualize the excess energy pouring out of your hands and into the earth.

I used to see them a lot too.  I told my friend one day and he told me to make fun of them.  Give them goofy glasses and such.  I did it to one of them and I've never seen another.