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I haven't tried it yet (mostly due to lack of a mic) but I'd like to try playing a suggestion in my headphones on repeat while I write, paint, or some other engaging activity.  I'm hoping that as I eventually tune it out consciously, it'll get implanted subconsciously.  Anyone else have any experience with that, or think it will or won't work like I'd like?

Admittedly I haven't experienced it enough times to know whether it's a coincidence, and by now it could even be a subconscious trigger without there being any real correlation.  But, it seems that as rare as it is for me to spontaneously wake up paralyzed with vibes, it almost always seems to happen on or around the full moon.  There have only been two full moons since I started paying attention to this possible trigger, but the next is tonight, and I'll be making sure to go to bed early, doing NEW and meditating for a while just in case my chances really are any better.

I've made this thread to see if anyone else has noticed this, and to perhaps get others to pay attention who might not have made the connection before.

Also, to keep track of the lunar cycle I found this page with a little module that does so:  http://www.calculatorcat.com/moon_phases/moon_phases.phtml  

Also worthy of note is that the page I first saw it on had this to say...

quote:
Dr. Dave Oester: We have found that two or three days on each side of the full and new moons are the best times for conducting ghost investigations and also during solar storms. We have been teaching that peak geomagnetic fields are the best times since 1994. Peak hauntings seem to occur during peak geomagnetic conditions.

...which I found interesting as well.  So, thoughts?

It has a place where you can copy code to stick it on your own page, but for anyone who doesn't feel like doing that, I've uploaded my own: http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/palehorse13x/moon.html

Okay, here are what I believe to be some pieces of a puzzle that I've put together in the past few days.

Our story begins roughly 25 years ago, a little under two years before my birth.  My parents were lying in bed, when my mom woke up to a strange red light hovering over their bed.  She thought she was seeing things, until my dad woke up too, and said "do you SEE that?!"

Fast forward to a few years ago.  My mom got up during the night and was going into the kitchen, when she happened to look over, and saw a picture of me that was sitting on a table... glowing with red light.

Also, in the past few years, I've woke up more than once to find my field of vision bathed in red light, as if my whole room was glowing softly, and gradually it would fade away.

Lastly, my favorite color is and always has been ::gasp:: red.

Now, after the picture incident I figured all this was somehow connected to me personally, but I was never sure how.  I used to think it might be something ominous, a sign that something was going to happen to me at some point.  Back when I was still a relatively conservative Christian, at one point I even thought I had woke up in the middle of the rapture, lol.  

Well, a few days ago I was sitting in class, not really even thinking about this stuff, and in the middle of the lecture, everything sort of spontaneously connected -- what if this orb WAS me?  I lean toward a belief in the preexistence of souls at this point, so what if I was visiting my future parents before I incarnated?  As for the glowing phenomena, what if I've been APing without any memory of it (I've never had a conscious AP experience as of yet) in the form of this red orb?  It'd make sense for my vision to be filtered through that color upon waking up if I had just been out of body in that form and was now integrating with the physical, right?

So does this make sense to anyone else?  Do you think I'm on to something, or no?  Has anyone else APed in orb form, or heard of this happening?  Anyone have any thoughts on what else all this could mean?

In any case, I seem to be having some success lately with Cube's method of ignoring your body's urge to shift, scratch, swallow (etc.) and tricking it to think you're asleep so you'll go into trance... and I've decided to incorporate this red light into my visualizations as I'm trying to exit, and I'll definitely report back if anything happens.  If nothing else, I figure it'd take less energy to generate a ball of light than a copy of my entire body, heh.

Also, if this turns out to be something, then maybe it'll help explain the origin of at least some orb phenomena -- people APing incognito.  We shall see.

Lately, particularly after reading a lot of the John Titor story[1] and surrounding events, as well as a thread on "alter-vús"[2]  I've become increasingly interested in time travel and related subjects, though really, I always have been.

For one, I've had what might be a few alter-vús myself, as well as a decidedly bizarre experience in my childhood, and another about two years ago.  I may or may not elaborate more on that if this thread goes anywhere.

Then... I'm very much intrigued by what seems to be a popular theory of time here; i.e. that what we define as "past, present and future" are illusions, there is only the eternal "now," and all moments in time exist simultaneously, but in parallel universes, dimensions, whatever.

Add into this accounts from people like Robert Monroe, who have APed to find themselves living in someone else's body, someone else's life, only to snap back to being Robert Monroe on planet earth shortly after.  Also, experiences from both Monroe and Bruce, of having some bizarre experience, only to find out later that it was directly caused by their future selves.

My point in all this -- I'm wondering if it would be possible to use these concepts to actually alter your own past in some way, while keeping your current set of memories and experience in place.  The first option would be to send some sort of message to yourself in the past to cause your past self to alter his course, which might alter the circumstances in which you find yourself in your percieved present.  

Your second hypothetical option would be to actually project your consciousness back into your past and reposess the life of your past self, but with the added life experience you didn't have at that time, allowing you to make different (hopefully wiser) choices.  So, once you make it back to the time you left, hopefully your circumstances have significantly improved through your own volition.

So, what are all of your thoughts?  Is this possible?  Advisable?  How do you believe one would go about achieving this?  If you didn't actually travel back to your own past, but rather a carbon copy of yourself living in a parallel universe, what would be the implications of taking over that life?  Could it be done? Would you be considered a "walk-in"?  Would this be unethical, as if stealing someone else's body, or would you have a rightful claim upon it?  What would happen to the life you left?  Would a walk-in who wasn't you step in to posess your body and life?

I'm particularly interested in hearing any of your experiences which could be considered evidence toward figuring out exactly how this system operates.  My intentions with this post are basically to get intelligent and gifted minds (which I think are in no short supply here) playing with these questions based on our current knowledge and experience, to see what we can come up with.  No, I'm not expecting someone to show up with a "time travel manual" (though hell, if someone has one, I'd probably be willing to try anything once.  Hehe)  And yes, my not-so-well disguised ulterior motive is to see what can be done about altering certain circumstances in which I currently find myself, while learning about reality itself.  So... discuss!


[1]  If you haven't heard of him, John Titor is an alleged time traveler from an alternate timeline in the year 2036 who posted in a web forum for a while during, I think, 2001.  There's a whole lot more drama, details and a sizable cult following involved with this story, but I'll leave that for you to Google.

[2]  An "alter-vú" is a convenient term given on this thread I've been reading: ( http://www.anomalies.net/cgi-bin/bbs/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=001280;p= ), to the experience of having memories that don't correspond with your reality.  Example: you walk down a street and notice that there's a large building where there wasn't one yesterday, and everyone you ask remembers it as having "always been there."

While I was on vacation this past week, I happened to find and bought a 1931 Metaphysical Bible Dictionary written by one Charles Fillmore, who founded the Unity School of Christianity.  The book itself is very interesting; much of it checks out with things I already know, and I've learned much in the past few days I've been reading through it.  However, this is the first I've heard about said school, and I'm intrigued enough to want to learn more.

So, does anyone have any experience with and/or info on them?  I've done a lot of reading pro and con, and unsurprisingly found stuff labeling them everything from a dangerous cult to just another denomination.  I'm asking here rather than in some of my more overtly Christian forums, because I figure I can get a much more unbiased viewpoint, rather than reactionary condemnation.  What I'm really looking for are Christians who have a good understanding of the more esoteric side of religion, while still remaining true to Christianity, and not jumping off the deep end into relativism or mass-marketed new age fluff.

Sooo... any thoughts?

I think I'm a bit ahead of the game where deep trance is concerned, as I believe I've felt the sensations before, and can mentally duplicate them with relative ease.  But, therein lies the problem.  The first time I felt those sensations, it was in the context of being on an operating table.  As I was going under, I had the sudden feeling of a cold numbness over my entire body, and the sensation of spinning and/or falling all at once.  Now, at the time I had no idea what it was, and I was pretty sedated and not thinking rationally to begin with... so for all I knew I was dying, and all I remember is my mind freaking out on me right before I was completely out.  But yeah, from everything I've read, I now believe I was artificially induced into deep trance right before I lost consciousness.

While I think that knowing the sensations should give me a definite advantage, it has instead become a big roadblock in my AP progress.  I haven't been able to shake the mental association with that bad experience, and so I can't mentally duplicate the sensation for more than a few seconds without activating the "fight or flight" response, which of course makes relaxation impossible.  In fact, at *any* change in sensation, my mind tends to go "holy shyte, you're dying!  abort!  abort!"  

So, does anyone have any advice for breaking such associations?

Anyway, I just wanted to post this now while I'm thinking about it, but I probably won't be around for about the next ten days.  Thanks in advance to anyone who responds, and try not to miss me too much.  []

For as long as I can remember, I've occasionally experienced strange waking imagery.  The pattern is always the same -- shortly after falling asleep, I'll wake up suddenly, for no apparent reason, look over, and see something hovering somewhere in my room.  Oddly, the image has never had any connection to anything I'd been dreaming.  Usually I've only been asleep for a few minutes, so there hasn't been enough time to start dreaming anyway.  Also a bit strange is the fact that I've never experienced any fear when this happens, despite the fact that some of the images are decidedly unnerving.  

Of the ones I can remember, I've seen:

--A goat's head hovering in the middle of the room.
--A dark, shadowy humanoid figure, mostly black with bits of red, crawling on the ceiling.
--One or two unnaturally large spiders crawling on the wall, either behind where my head rests or on the right side.
--I have a random childhood memory of a huge spider with bat wings on a white wall.  I had always passed it off as something from a dream, my imagination, or a false memory... until I saw one again a lot more recently.
--Woke up by a female voice going "hey Jon!" to find what looked like a gift basket of flowers hovering over my bed.  I consider this one significant, because it happened on the night of my birthday.
--The whole room glowing red (numerous times).
--A large scorpion.  Had the presence of mind to try putting my hand through this one for the hell of it; nothing happened.
--Something that looked like a page of text above my window, that faded before I could read it.
--Something that looked like an indistinct green face.

The latest one, about two nights ago, was by far the most interesting.  Late that night, I did some NEW, meditated for a bit, and then went to bed.  I woke up suddenly to see a stylized, emotionless eyeball, in the middle of what looked like a large flower with tons of petals radiating out from it in a large circular pattern, all in shades of blue.  At the time, the eye reminded me of the one atop the pyramid on a $1 bill.

The reason this one is so interesting is the story behind it.  The day before I'd seen this thing, I had some guy post in a personal forum of mine, partly to plug some artwork on his own page, but I didn't have time to go check it out that day.  The day after I saw this "vision," I happened to go to his page on a whim, and saw this:

http://iam.bmezine.com/r/j/hsd9o8/u2mvqqt3.jpg

...And my jaw dropped.  The eye and coloring is identical; the pattern around it is pretty damn close... the only thing missing was the Jesus in the middle.  I haven't decided if I'm going to say anything to this guy yet, or what I'd say if I did; I have no idea what to think.

The reason I'm posting is to hopefully get some input on what to make of all this.  I'd really like to figure out what's causing it, whether I should have any cause for concern, etc.  The possibilities I've come up with are that it's either random imagery generated by a tired mind, or something independent of me.  The former is what I thought when it first started happening anyway; not so much now, especially after the birthday present and the cyclops flower incident, though I think the possibility that it's "all in my head" still hasn't been disproven.

If it's the latter, then that opens up a whole lot of other possibilities.  Are the images themselves entities, or are they generated by something unseen?  Is it all from one source, or has my room become an astral zoo?  I would think they'd have to be from more than one source, since at least one seemed friendly, many are neutral, and some were distinctly unnerving.  Are they something I should be concerned about, or attempt to rid myself of, even though they don't evoke any fear or harm me in any way as far as I know?

I recently bought PPSD, partly because I thought it might have some insight on these sorts of things, but no such luck.  Well, the countermeasures will come in handy if I decide I need them, but I don't even know what these things are, let alone whether they warrant my opposition.  Aside from that, the only description of something similar were "astral spiders," but it didn't have much else to say about them.  If nothing else, I have them to thank, because this strange phenomena was largely what first got me interested in all the subjects that eventually brought me here to AP.

So... insight, anyone?

This thought occurred to me after reading Robert Bruce's article on what happens after death.  According to him, one stays in the RTZ until the supply of etheric energy in the body runs out, correct?  Well, what if they wanted to stick around longer for whatever reason, and had something to supply them with the energy necessary to do so long enough to accomplish whatever they need to?

Enter the idea of the Astral Bank.  Would it be possible to create a thought form (I just like the idea of a bank, and think it fits) into which people could send the necessary energy to be saved for this purpose?  It seems like one could literally create a "retirement fund" for themselves, and there could also be a collective "account" that living people could donate their energy into, and dead people (who knew it was there) could take that energy as needed, to gain enough time to fully adjust, say their goodbyes, or whatever else they felt like doing.  For that matter, to take the idea even further, it could even be a means for the living and dead to cooperate in that they could stick around long enough to help prove the afterlife to the rest of us.

So yeah, I've never actually APed myself; this is just a result of me playing with the ideas I've come across in my reading.  I don't know, I just think it'd be a cool thing to do for those who have passed on (as well as those of us who inevitably will), if it's possible.  To those with more personal experience -- is something like this conceivable?  Advisable?  Anyone care to elaborate on how it could be done and what it would take to accomplish?

Yeah, this is what happens when I'm bored and sleep deprived.  Heh.

quote:Originally posted by Quiet Storm

I just read that article and the author's views are very interesting to me, but I agree with you Palehorse that it is a bit one-sided. But if it's all true or not Im undecided really, and I do wish I could know the whole truth.. and like right now, lol but I think accurate history is very hard to find...but it is nice to ponder on the many views I come across.

Well, I'm always willing (maybe TOO willing [])  to discuss my perspective on my field of study, which I think often ties into a lot of things we discuss here.  Modern mainstream scholarship may have its biases and flaws, but it'd be a huge mistake to throw it out completely IMO.

On that note, another thing I forgot to bring up about the circumcision issue, is that evidence has shown that the Egyptians were doing it long before the Hebrews came on to the scene.  Based on that fact, it's a theory of mine that the Hebrew slaves were forcibly circumcised by the Egyptians in a display of subjugation...  then later on, the Hebrews wrote it into the Abraham story as a way to cope and turn the tables on what had to be a devastating and extremely painful humiliation.  A growing number of "Jews against circumcision" have even pointed out that circ. is rather out of place among the body of Jewish ethics and law, including one that forbids marking or mutilating the body "like the heathens do."

It's just unfortunate that the ritual became so ingrained in Judaism that the cycle of mutilation continued generation after generation, and is an extremely difficult one to break.  After all, if such a thing was done to you, then not doing it to your own son would mean admitting, on some level, that a huge mistake was made... and most people just aren't willing or able to do that.  That's why you'll see secular atheistic Jews who don't attend synagogue, and don't give any thought to Jewish ritual or law... but will look at you like you have three heads if you question them on circumcising their kids.  We see the exact same thing with female genital mutilation in some Muslim and African countries, and Americans usually give the same rationale (he should look like his daddy!) for circumcising their own kids as well.

I think this is a lot more significant of an issue than most people realize, though.  I mean, if you "welcome" an infant into the world by forcibly amputating the most sensitive part of his anatomy without any anesthetic, what effect do you think that'll have on his developing brain and psyche?  What do you think his first impressions will be of the world, of how secure his safety is, of how much people are to be trusted?

IMO, the fact that the three biggest circumcising cultures in the world (Jewish, Muslim and American) are at the center of the world's main sources of conflict, and are the most militant in general, may be no coincidence.

quote:Originally posted by Quiet Storm

ANUNNAKI REPORT FROM INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE TEAM: http://ivan.harhan.org/documents/2003-05-briefing-doc.txt

Interesting article.  I don't know enough about ancient history to evaluate all the claims, but based on the parts I do know a lot about, I can tell the author is being way too simplistic, and way too quick to jump on any chance to demonize the Abrahamic religions, societies and people.

First, from what I've seen, all the societies that supposedly descended from the Annunaki were just as imperialistic and brutal as the Jews and Christians ever were.  Ancient empires were all pretty much the same in that regard.  So, the picture that the author is painting, of peaceful and enlightened ancient people who were brutally conquered and oppressed by YHWH and his people, is pretty inaccurate.  I seem to recall that it was the "enlightened" Babylonians who conquered and enslaved the ancient Israelites, as did the Assyrians.

Secondly, I agree that there is a whole lot of questionable stuff in Jewish religion and history.  I agree with the author about the barbaric practice of circumcision and all their wars of conquest, including the oppression of Palestine in the present day.  However, if I were to operate within his framework, then I would have to say that YHVH's religion was infiltrated by the "forces of good" more than once.  I particularly have in mind the writings of the prophets, who repeatedly rail against their people, condemning their sins and calling them to a life of good ethics and social justice.  The prophets could even hold *kings* accountable without fearing for their lives -- something unprecedented in ancient times.  For all its faults, there is a very strong tradition of ethics and social justice within Judaism that continues to this day.  

Moving on, if I continue to operate within this framework, then I would say Jesus was also sent by the "good guys."  The radical egalitarianism, social justice, love for your fellow man, and personalized spirituality he stressed certainly does not fit with the author's portrayal of YHVH.  Nor is the early Christian movement, which stayed strictly peaceful and pacifistic for the better part of 500 years, until it was co-opted as the state religion of a failing Roman Empire; only *then* did it start to become violent.  You would be hard pressed to find *any* religion in history with such a good track record.  So, while I'm willing to entertain the idea that YHVH and the "Father" that Jesus claimed to have come from are not the same entity, and perhaps even that Jesus was sent as part of an ongoing effort to subvert and defeat YHVH's religion, that idea is as old as Gnosticism.

Lastly, I think he has it backwards about Islam originally coming from the "good guys" and later being co-opted by YHVH.  I did a research paper last semester on the history and meaning of "jihad" in Islam -- suffice to say that it originated with Muhammad himself; the spreading of Islam by the sword is mandated in the Q'uran, and began very early on, as soon as they had the numbers to achieve it.

quote:In other words, that's life on planet earth. Somehow, humanity will manage.

At this point I can't help but point out that it's easy to skip through the tulips singing "Circle of Life" when your state isn't the next one on God's hitlist.  

:X

Well, its been nice knowin' all you fine folks...

Just happened to notice a similar article in my paper, and thought it'd be of interest...

-----------------
Scientists watching unusual events near volcano

Series of earthquakes could signal eruption of Mount St. Helens

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 Posted: 3:45 AM EDT (0745 GMT)

VANCOUVER, Washington (CNN) -- A series of unusual earthquakes near Mount St. Helens in recent days has scientists warning that something more serious could be imminent.

The "hazardous event" the U.S. Geological Survey warns is possible could be an explosion caused by steam building up inside the volcano, or it could be more serious -- involving molten rock and deadly gas.

The quakes are occurring less than a mile below the surface of an 876-foot-tall lava dome within Mount St. Helens' crater. Some of them are of a type that indicates the presence of pressurized fluids or magma, the USGS and the University of Washington Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network in Seattle said Monday in a joint statement.

"We're still thinking it's not likely to be anything real big," said Tom Pierson, a USGS research scientist at the Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver. "We're not real worried. [The seismic activity is] very interesting to us because it's unusual."

A group of very small, shallow earthquakes, called a "swarm" by seismologists, began Thursday morning and peaked about midday Friday, Pierson said, then slowly declined through Sunday morning. Those quakes were all less than magnitude 1.0.

But since then, more than 10 earthquakes with a magnitude between 2.0 and 2.8 have been recorded, according to the notice issued Monday.

"They're all pretty small magnitude," Pierson said. "Maybe that largest one, you might feel if you were pretty close by."

Still, that's the most earthquakes recorded in a 24-hour period since October 1986, when Mount St. Helens had a minor eruption that added to the lava dome that began forming after the catastrophic eruption of May 18, 1980. That eruption blew out the side of the mountain, killing 57 people and deforesting 230 square miles.

In the fall, quakes in the area are common, Pierson said, as rainwater seeps into the ground and turns into steam when it reaches the lava below ground. With no outlet, the steam can build up until a small explosion occurs, he said.

"That, we feel is the most probable thing that could happen, if anything happens," he said. "Could be this thing would just shake for awhile."

Such an explosion could send rocks flying into the air in the area of the crater and the outer flanks of the volcano, Pierson said.

Yet scientists cannot rule out the possibility of a more serious eruption, he said. An aircraft will soon fly over the lava dome to test for the presence of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, signs that magma might be building up.

Similar earthquake swarms were recorded in 1998 and 2001, but no explosion occurred in either year, Pierson said.

The U.S. Forest Service, which manages the park on Mount St. Helens, has closed areas around the crater and the volcano's outer flanks to hikers.

Two small trails across the north side of the mountain have also been closed, and hikers are not being issued permits, Ranger Todd Cullens said. Hikers and climbers are still allowed on trails below 4,800 feet, he said, and tours are continuing.

Mount St. Helens is about 55 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon.

CNN's Kimberly Osias contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/09/27/mount.st.helens/index.html

Oh goodie, here we go.

------------

PARKFIELD, California (AP) -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 struck central California on Tuesday and was felt as far north as San Francisco and Sacramento, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

An aftershock of 5.0 magnitude struck four minutes later.

Police said there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

In nearby Redwood City, the quake delayed the murder trial of Scott Peterson after a juror reported feeling the tremors.

Thousands of people from throughout the state reported feeling the quake.

"It rattled everything hanging on the walls and the chandelier was swinging. It didn't do any damage to our house. There were two shakers, one right after the other," said Ben Brown, who lives in Paso Robles.

The earthquake, which struck at 10:15 a.m. (1715 GMT) was centered 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Parkfield and 17 miles (27 kilometers) north east of Paso Robles, scene of an earthquake that killed two people in December 2003.

Parkfield, located on the San Andreas fault, is known as the earthquake capital of California.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/28/california.quake.ap/index.html
----------------

This is nowhere near me and we didn't feel anything here... but damn, I had to open my big mouth.  :X

Well I mean, I know about the earth changes... I meant about Oazaki specifically.  What leads you to believe he is indeed He-Man, Master of the Universe (tm), much less that you are personally involved in his grand design?  

All jokes aside, I'm just still waiting to see any real indication that he is or isn't anything he claims to be, so I can finally get off this damn fence.  []

quote:And what if the October Surprise is: Life goes on.

Y'know, as often as you try to downplay the idea that something rather significant and unusual may indeed be going on in the world, I think you have an inkling that there might be something to all this after all.  Otherwise, what interest would you have in posting regularly in this and all related threads?  On the other hand, I think that even most of us who think there might be, also allow for the possibility that there *won't* be any huge event, transition, apocolypse, whatever, in the near future.  At the most basic level we're all pretty similar -- regular people living in turbulent and potentially dangerous times, where the future is uncertain.  We're all looking for answers, and we'd all like some way to assure ourselves that everything is going to be okay.  No offense intended; just some observations on my part.

quote:
I wouldn't be too eager to see the end of the world order or life as we know it or the chaos and mayhem that would result from that kind of collapse. It may sound all romantic and heroic and just and fair....but just look at the places in the world where such collapses have occurred. Not a pretty sight and not easy to survive. Panic and the brutality that comes from desperation becomes the order of the day. And who among us can honestly say, in their deepest of hearts, that we would not be as savage as the next person in fighting for food and water and whatever it takes to survive?

Don't get me wrong, I don't exactly delight in the idea of widespread death and destruction myself.  However, if we look at it another way, the system by which the world is being run is *already* causing widespread death and destruction on an unprecedented scale.  As history has taught us, it often does take some sort of major upheaval to shake "the powers that be" from their foundations, and yes, there are usually casualties... but how many more casualties and how much more suffering would there be if those powers were allowed to continue on?  From that perspective, I'd say that a relatively short period of cataclysm with a light at the end of the tunnel is preferable to an indefinite period of darkness and oppression.  Lest I be considered hypocritical, I'll also say that if I knew such a time was coming, but that my own life would have to be lost in the transition to a better future, I would be more than willing to give it up, especially considering how transitory human life is to begin with.  The only thing that *really* bothers me at this point is not death, but rather the uncertainty of it all.

That said, if it came down to a fight for survival, I don't think any of us could say for sure what we'd do.  All I can say is that if it comes down to that, I hope I'm at a point in my spiritual development where I have the strength and resolve to stay true to my ideals regardless of what may come.  I would personally rather give away that last bit of food and water and face death, rather than being reduced to fighting my fellow human beings to the death like an animal for scraps... but of course it's easy to say that *now.*

quote:
I hope that no one here becomes so obsessed with what disasters and "surprises" might come tomorrow that anyone forgets the beauty of today and the life's breath that is within in each moment of today.

Good thoughts.

quote:
Yea, talk about the apocalypse has been left now for 'the fringe'.

In some ways though, I'm not entirely sure that's such a bad thing.  Reason being, any mention of an apocolypse within the mainstream is going to validate the beliefs of several million Christian fundamentalists, and at that point there's no telling what they'd do.  All I know is that the Left Behind books are bestsellers for a reason -- they play on this group of people's deepest fears and deeply held religious beliefs.  If you light off that powder keg, we're going to have a lot of really panicked and not entirely rational people on our hands, on top of what ever *else* happens in the coming months.

I think a friend of my brother's is a pretty good (and rather disturbing) example of the average person I'm thinking of.  Not long ago I had a conversation with him when he asked me what I thought about Revelation and the apocolypse.  I gave him a bit of my thoughts on it, and then he gave me his: "I can't wait to grab the sword of the first angel who falls, and start kicking butt."  These people really do relish the thought of their God coming down to kill all the evil-doers and delivering them from this "evil" society.  Just give them an excuse to think that it's on, and I bet many will start trying to accomplish "God's work" -- and suddenly Muslim extremists won't be the only terrorists we'll have to worry about.

For my part, I know that the word "apocolypse" literally means "revealing," or "unveiling," and I believe that's exactly what's going to happen, possibly sooner than later.  The problem lies in how to get the word out to a large number of people (because I do believe everyone should have at least a *chance* to know the truth) without throwing mass amounts of already jittery people into a panic.

quote:
I say in about a week or 2 I'll know exactly what position I'm in reguarding the Zhedhi Order and their works.

What leads you to believe this?  When I was emailing Oazaki a while back it was about some unrelated stuff, but I also asked him how things were going on the Zhedhi front, and he didn't answer that part.  As of now, I believe he's a pretty intelligent guy with possibly a good amount of knowledge of human nature and esoteric matters... but that's about as far as the evidence I've seen can take me at this point.  If he's wrong about his more dramatic predictions, then I'd probably say he was someone who aimed high and honestly gave his best shot to bringing these things about, but didn't end up being able to pull it off.  The other option is deliberate deception, but he doesn't come off that way to me, so that's my take on it.

quote:
September has been all about getting prepared, in October excrement is *really* going to hit the fan and the people will begin to know it.

Yeah, I just hope the aforementioned feces doesn't involve "the big one" finally hitting my state.  And if it does, I hope I survive it.  I rather like my position of possibly being alive at the right time to have a front seat view of the apocolypse, and I'd like to keep it that way.  It'd really suck to get squished outta here before the *real* fun begins.  []

quote: Funny how this next 'incarnation' of Ivan (now a tropical storm) is expected to DIRECTLY hit Crawford Texas on Sunday, exactly where George Bush's ranch is...

Well I'll be damned... and I was *kidding* about the hammer of God smiting Republicans.

I'll tell the other three horsemen we're on in five.

Hah... I have read Monroe, and that's a good point.  Time travel has actually become my topic of interest lately, so that'd be pretty awesome if I managed to prove time travel to myself and solve a 25 year old mystery in one shot.  Crazy stuff, man.

Eh, I'm not so sure about any positive outcomes that may come of this just yet.  The most likely outcome I see is for Dubya and Jeb to take this opportunity to play hero, dump a bunch of federal dollars into Florida for reconstruction, and essentially buy that state's vote.  I hope I'm wrong, but we shall see.

I'm also not really willing to call the destruction of someone's house or the loss of their life "justice" for a vote they cast four years ago.  But, if these hurricanes serve to wake more people up to what's going on around them, then some good may yet come of all this.

Don't know if anyone has seen this yet, but I figured it fits here.

http://bash.org/GODvsBUSH.gif

No, I don't really believe what this is saying... but I can't pretend the idea of God chasing Republicans with hurricanes doesn't amuse me, either.  Ahem.

Eh, there are a few ways to solve those kinds of problems depending on what view you take of time's nature.

One, baseball player A could travel to an alternate timeline where the homerun happened, while player B traveled to one where it didn't.  

Then... even if both of them did manage to time travel, there's the issue of being able to exert control over the flight of a baseball, which could prove even trickier, lol.  If you didn't manage to hit a homerun the first time around, what makes you think you're going to be able to after one, two, three more tries?  

The moral of the story, I think, is that just because you can hypothetically travel through time, you still have a degree of indeterminancy, and of course free will, to deal with no matter what timeline you're in.  I personally don't think it would be advisable, maybe not even possible, to interfere with either of those.

It seems Vladimir Putin is trying to use that school massacre to put an end to free elections and make a major power grab.  This should be... interesting.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/14/russia.putin.ap/index.html

quote:It is possible to "skip" between time lines, paralells of events, life, being . . . proving it is harder, very hard because you've already moved once it's done, something only to be experienced. There have been times when I've seen glitches. They are small. Suddenly something like a very common use word looks wrong, you're quite sure it's spelt another way, but you can't find that other spelling and it fades as you move onward in travel.

See, that's just it... it's so maddeningly fleeting, isn't it?  We're given the occasional rare glimpse behind the veil of this crazy thing called reality... but only just enough to know *something* is there, and that's if we're not too busy questioning our own sanity by that point.  I have a strong hunch that we're all endowed with the innate ability to blow that veil wide open... but how?  That's the million dollar question, but it seems that if anyone has the answers, whoever does isn't talking.  At least not to me.  And as much as I try to remain patient and persistent... I might as well admit that this frustrates me to no end.

India/Pakistan is another one that comes to mind.