Messages

So I've just started going to school out in Berkeley, and there's these people out on the street claiming to do "hands off" sessions to clear up the energy body and advise people on how to improve their energy bodies. I was wondering what kinds of opinions you people hold of this kind of stuff.

The reason that it is often so futile to debate God (although like any exchange of ideas, it has its own pleasures and value for its own sake even if no conclusions are ever reached) is that those who do not believe in God will commonly defend their position with arguments and rationality, but to many God is something experienced. The divintiy which underlies that beautiful infinite comlexity which is creation is something that has been tapped into not just by mystics of every stripe and nation, but to millions the world over through prayer, meditation, music, drugs, and ton of other ways beyond the scope of my knwoledge. It does't really make much difference (to me anyway) wether this is identified as Holy Spirit, Tao, "The All", or any other title, but I think God works as a common term that most of us in this board more or less understand.

William James summarized what I'm trying to say about knowledge of God near the end of the Mysticism chapter of his Varieties of the Religious Experience. And although he is talking about mystical states specifically, I think it is fair to apply this to the spiritaul expereince as a whole:

"(1) Mystical states, when well developed, usually are, and have the right to be, absolutely auritative over the individuals to who they come.
(2) No authority emanates form them which should make it a duty  for those who stand outside them to accept their revelations uncritically."

Experience and feeling are nearly-impossible to transmit (especially through text). Rationality cannot overcome what one has experienced directly.

I also have some basic questions about energy. I have read both Astral Dynamics and the NEW manual online, and I will  be sure to check out the aura reading guide soon. From Roebrt Bruce's exercises, I have already begun to feel the energy, but I still have a question. This may sound stupid or swelf-evident to some of you but what do I do with this energy? Besides astral projection, which was my original reason for beginning this work, what kinds of things does one do with a well-stimulated energy body. Thank you for your patience.

I've been reading these forums for about a month, but didn't really feel I ahd anything of value to add to most of these conversations since I know I'm a rookie at this stuff and I'm here to learn not preach. But although I am just beginning my journey into meditation and astral projection, I am very experienced in the area of marijuana. And although I agree that it is very difficult to do some types of meditation stoned because of the problems with concentration, I also feel that being a stoner helped particularly my energy work a great deal. The basic tools which underly the NEW method (simualting tactile sensations) were extremely familiar to me, since I did that stuff all the time high. It seemed to me that I was able to accelerate through some of the early stages of this learning process faster since I was refining skills I already knew and learning how to use them properly instead of having to start from square one.