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You should check out his book, it's titled "Mysterious Stranger."

I recently borrowed it from a friend of mine and it's a very interesting read.

I would try half.com to get a good deal on it.  It's a handsome hardback book with many photoes and images.  In it he talks a lot about the history of magic and how it has influenced him.

Dan

Thanks for sharing those images, I particularly liked the one with the girl standing in front of the two logs as well as the one with the girl and orbs.

-Dan

Microsoft: 'No impact' from second 'Blaster' attack
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- The second wave of an Internet attack by the "blaster" worm barely caused a ripple Saturday.

Microsoft Corp. said it had no major problems from the worm's attempt to turn thousands of infected computers into instruments targeting the software company's Web site and network.

The Redmond-based company had not noticed any extraordinary network congestion, spokesman Sean Sundwall said. There were also no reports of customers having major problems accessing the targeted Web site, which houses a software patch that fixes the flaw exploited by the worm.

"So far we have seen no impact on our Web sites or any other Web sites due to the 'blaster' worm," Sundwall said.

Still, he urged people to take precautions to protect their computers.

The virus-like infection, also dubbed "LovSan" or "MSBlast," exploits a flaw in most current versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system for personal computers, laptops and server computers. Although Microsoft posted a software patch to fix the flaw July 16, many users failed to download it, leaving them vulnerable.

As of Saturday afternoon, the worm had infected more than 423,000 computers around the world since Monday, according to security firm Symantec Corp.

Of those, about 50,000 were affected on Saturday, said Mike Bradsaw, a Symantec spokesman.

The infection caused computers to reboot frequently or disrupted users' browsing on the Internet. But it also packed a second punch.

Computer experts said starting at 12:01 a.m. local time Saturday, infected computers that have not cleaned up the virus would in effect turn into a legion of zombies instructed to repeatedly call up a Microsoft Web site that houses the software patch. If enough traffic flooded the network, the site could be rendered unreachable and computer users would be unable to access the patch.

But the exploiters of the Microsoft flaw made a mistake themselves. The worm instructed computers to call up http://windowsupdate.com -- which is an incorrect address for reaching the actual Microsoft Web site that houses the software patch. Although Microsoft has long redirected those who visited that incorrect address to the real site -- http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com -- the company disabled the automatic redirection Thursday in preparation for the onslaught of infected computers.

That has helped Microsoft's real Web site stay accessible to users, Sundwall said. The company was taking other measures to keep its site up and running, he said. He declined to give specifics.

Vincent Weafer, senior director of security response for Symantec, warned that Microsoft's network and others across the country could see a slowdown in Internet traffic simply from the volume of activity the worm is expected to generate from its legion of infected computers.

But that slowdown didn't happen, Weafer said Saturday.

The rate of new infections has slowed in recent days, he said, though computer users who still have not downloaded the patch need to do so. He said the company expects new infections to continue for as long as two years.

The worm left behind a love note on vulnerable computers: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!" It also carried a hidden message to taunt Microsoft's chairman: "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!"

CNN ARTICLE: The shifting culture of video games
More women, families attend video game conference

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/08/17/videogame.culture.ap/index.html

goingslow:
Thanks for your comments.  By the way, I have NO idea what you are talking about in regards to "the age of consent" deal.  The deal with polygamy is notoriously associated with the LDS church.  First of all, we do not practice ploygamy now.  Second, polygamy in the past (and in the Bible) was often practiced.  We believe in doing whatever God cammands.  In the early days of the church many LDS men were killed and therefore there were many women with families who had no one to take care of them and therefore a man took more than one wife.  It's definetly worth bringing up and unlike some LDS people, I don't tend to shy away from it.
-Dan

How did you do it?

...and you still have a body, just not the kind of body you are used to having.  When you begin to try to understand the OBE, you must reconsider everything.[]

You know, I don't play Q3, although I'd like to!  I am really more of a console gamer, although if I had the money and a high speed connection to the net, I would be a big time PC gamer.  

I am still interested in what you're doing with Quake though, so keep us posted in this thread!
Dan

ps- here are some screens from the upcoming Xbox title "Crimson Skies"  It is going to be a marvelous game both in single player nad multi player format:

















to learn more about this game:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/crimsonskieshighroadtr/preview_6072442.html

Adrian,
I agree with everything you say, although I am not sure what you mean about the division between cosmic/celestial spheres.

Latter-Day Saints believe, and this is very simplified (and maybe vague), that Gods/exalted beings, organize intelligences (that have no beginning nor end) and endow them with spirit bodies and then physical bodies, all in an effort to lead them to a state of awareness and eventual exaltation so that they can continue this same process of being "Gods" and eternally organizing intelligence (spirit) and helping them become exalted and gaining "eternal life' or eternal progression (eternal learning, eternal glory, eternal happiness).  

And although we are independent consciousnesess, we are all God or aspects of God and made in the image of God, just as you said.

We also believe that "hell" is only a state of mind and "damnation" is when a being chooses not to advance (e.g., a disincarnate spirit that desires only to be drunken because of a vice or habit not overcome in the physical is damned until it decides to move on and progress).

We believe that Christ is our Elderly Brother and that He attained a state of Godhood before his incarnation here.  Here we believe he played THE vital role in a plan God devised, and that has been devised many other times on many other planets (universes?) before. A plan which enables beings to move toward exaltation.

This knowledge (or these beliefs, depending on how you look at it) of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) is why nearly every other Christian organization (ESPECIALLY "born agains") hate and revile against us.  They think we are a cult and are blasphemous to believe these things, which is really disheartening because we preach against no other church and, in fact, the LDS church often dedicates funds to help other religions and groups.  For example, I know the church recently donated a significant amount of money to help a Hindu organization.  I think this is a true sign of a religion that has ascended beyond the problematic ideas that so many other religions have regarding what is truth and who is right/wrong.


Anyway, bottom line: our knowledge or understanding, as limited as it may be by our current state, is much more similar than I had ever imagined.  I get the same impression when I talk to Robert Bruce as well (in the email conversations we have had in the past).

Thanks for sharing your ideas Adrian (and others)

Sincerely,

Daniel

[8D]Duuuuuuuude, what game is that last screenshot from?

...and unfortunately I have not tried Knights of the Old R. yet, although I am going to rent it ASAP...I have only heard amazing reviews.

Adrian wrote:

quote:I personally believe that Jesus was the highest initiate ever to have incarnated on Earth, from the Cosmic spheres, who came to teach other Spiritually advanced people Spiritual lessons which they would carry on after he departed. Jesus was/is so advanced on the path he is believed to first have incarnated before the Earth itelf existed - on another planet of course. The humans of Earth are the fifth human race to set foot on the path. It is the destiny of everyone to reach the same place on the path as Jesus after aeons of time, and will in turn assist the humans of other planets in their own sacred ascent.

Wow!  Adrian, this more or less exactly what we Latter-Day Saints believe...down to the fact that we believe that each human has the possibility to become "gods" and help other beings advance toward perfection and eternal happiness, etc etc.

I am so happy, for lack of a better word to see that others have come to this conclusion.  In my opinion, what you have posted in this thread is one of the most profound and truthful statements I have ever seen in the forums.

-Dan

PlayStation: Evolve, Multiply, Conquer

Rob Fahey 16:25 30/05/2003
This week's announcement of Sony's sleek new PSX home entertainment device caused ripples in both financial circles and in the electronic entertainment media, along with much speculation about what this means for PS3 and the future of the PlayStation brand. Rob Fahey looks at PSX, PSP and PS3, and the evolution of Sony's gaming ambitions.


Anyone who has been watching Sony's ambitions in the games market, since the death of its SNES CD drive collaboration with Nintendo spawned the PlayStation project, will know one thing - this is no idle dabbling in a new marketplace for the Japanese giant, and never was. Sony clearly sees the games market as a stepping stone to dominance of the home entertainment sector, and in keeping with the approach of many Japanese companies, it has a long-term gameplan for its PlayStation brand and technology.

Another Japanese corporate trait which Sony displays very clearly - and frustratingly for commentators - is that of playing its cards close to its chest, and peering into the company's future plans is a task that involves a lot of educated guessing (and judging from some of the commentary on the web, uneducated guessing) and, where that fails, simple speculation.

This week, however, Sony chose to show us a few of its cards at a press conference in Tokyo, where the company announced a new consumer product - the PSX - and gave us further insight into plans for its upcoming handheld platform, the PlayStation Portable. The recently promoted SCE boss, Ken Kutaragi, unveiled the most solid indicator yet of where Sony's business as a whole is going over the next decade, as the company's plans gradually focus in on the PlayStation brand, and various technology strands - ranging from minidisks, PDAs and microprocessors to Blu-Ray media technology and Memory Stick solid state storage - converge.

It says a lot about Sony that Ken Kutaragi is considered by many to be an obvious future candidate for the top job at the company. Sony's ambitious vision of the future is all about electronic entertainment and gaming is the core part of that vision - and, ironically enough, may be the catalyst which drives Sony to become the Microsoft of the early 21st century.


PSX - Sony's Stealth Console

"The 'X' in PSX refers to the 'crossover' of games and electronics," explained Kutaragi at this week's unveiling of the new device, "but it also stands for 'extraordinary'". The man certainly has a flair for hyperbole (remember when playing on a PS2 was going to be just like jacking into the Matrix?), but considering what he was announcing, we're actually in agreement. PSX is extraordinary, not because of the hardware itself, but because of its importance to the PlayStation "roadmap" and because of the ambition it reveals.

It's tempting, though, to write PSX off as being not a lot more than the PlayStation 2 equivalent of Panasonic's Q - a games console in a shiny silver box with some added media functionality. After all, there's nothing in this device which isn't available on the shelves of electronics retailers in Akihabara already - TiVo style hard drive video recorders are hardly rare, standalone DVD burners are gradually dropping in price and becoming more widely available, and the PlayStation 2 is practically ubiquitous.

However, the integration of all of those devices into a single box is an important step for Sony, and the fact that the company has chosen to stick with a variation of the PlayStation brand for the product is a clear indication of where the brand is being led. Over a quarter of a century ago, Bill Gates stated that Microsoft's aim was to put "a PC on every desktop and in every home"; Sony's aim now is to put a PlayStation at the heart of every living room and in every pocket.

A key element of that aim is making PlayStation more acceptable to the world at large. The PlayStation 2 is hardly a thing of beauty ("Darth Vader's toaster" remains our favourite description of the hardware) but it's fine in the context of a bachelor pad, a teenager's bedroom or hidden away in a cupboard under the television of a family living room. In order to achieve mass market acceptance, though, that's not enough. The design conscious must be on board - and crucially, that includes the female sector.

You can be sure that that's a core part of the reasoning behind PSX - and it's why it's already been dubbed as a "stealth console" in gaming circles. With an understated silver finish, a sleek front panel, a slot loading mechanism and all the ugly ports hidden away around the back (including even the joypad ports), it doesn't look like a console - it looks like the best looking DVD player that money can buy.

PSX will bring the PlayStation out of the bedroom or the den, and into the living room - right where Sony wants it. With the installed base of the PlayStation 2 hovering in the 50 million range at the moment, the "serious" gaming credentials of the platform are firmly established; Sony is free to start bringing the words "PlayStation" to the lips of the vital mass market sector that PSX aims squarely for, secure in the knowledge that its reputation among the core gaming demographic is unassailable.

Of course, that's not all there is to PSX. "The PSX will be more than just a PS2 compatible," Kutaragi told the audience in Tokyo earlier this week. "I think it has the power to change the way you see all digital appliances."

Hyperbole at work again, naturally, but there's no doubt that the media centre capabilities of the system easily match any other selection of devices you might care to wire up under your television. It's a world-class product which will be high on many wishlists both in Japan and overseas this Christmas, and it's a clever move to associate the PlayStation name with it.

It's also a step in the direction of making PlayStation into more than just a gaming device. The SCPH-50000 revision of the PS2, announced earlier this month, added more advanced DVD playback to the console, but the PSX elevates this approach to a whole new level, confirming completely the conclusions of commentators who have seen the PlayStation as a pitch into the general home entertainment market from the outset.

With a PSX under your television, the PlayStation isn't just something you turn on to play a game any more; it's what you turn on to watch TV or look at TV listings, to record your favourite programmes, to watch movies, to listen to music or - potentially - to download new media over a broadband connection. That's a compelling proposition, and a vision of exactly where Sony plans to go with the PS3 - or at least, with PS3 compatible devices, if not with the core console itself.

Microsoft, of course, has the same plan - and it could be argued that Microsoft was only spurred into entering the console market in the first place because it realised where Sony's gameplan was leading, and recognised the threat posed to its own plans to dominate the home media space. However, the PSX completely leapfrogs the media capabilities of the Xbox, even if it is a device aimed at quite a different market - and more importantly, it shows just how good Sony are at that particular part of the game, sending a clear shot over Microsoft's bows ahead of the inevitable showdown between Xbox 2 and PS3.

Sony is reminding us that it was making incredibly desirable pieces of consumer electronics which people paid through the nose to put into their living rooms when Bill Gates was still thinking it might not be a bad idea to learn how to program computers. The game isn't quite that simple, but it's a powerful message nonetheless.


PlayStation Portable - The New Walkman?

The PlayStation Portable is gradually being revealed as a far more complex and interesting beast than the handheld console we all took it for at E3. If the PSX is a stealth device designed to bring the PlayStation brand into living rooms it has previously been unable to penetrate, the PSP is no less a stealth console - designed to sit neatly in the pockets of people who wouldn't even consider carrying a GBA SP or an N-Gage.

Originally introduced by Ken Kutaragi as the "Walkman for the 21st century", the PSP appears to be exactly that - not so much a portable games console, as a media centre in your pocket, and perhaps more importantly, a satellite of the main PlayStation media centre which resides in your living room.

Like the PSX, the PSP integrates a selection of technologies drawn from across Sony's consumer electronics division into a single device. Technology, and experience developed over years of working on portable music players, solid state memory, miniature optical media, PDA devices and secure digital distribution systems, are being combined in a single product which, if not exactly a culmination of those efforts, is certainly a major milestone on the roadmap.

The PSP is a music player, a movie player and a game player - with Sony seemingly keen to emphasise that it's all three of those things simultaneously, rather than a games console that happens to play back music and video files. Once again, we see the same approach being adopted here as with the PSX - your PlayStation Portable isn't just the system you turn on to play a videogame on the move, it's what you carry around to listen to music or watch video on the train, and possibly even to perform basic PDA functions. PlayStation becomes synonymous with all kinds of electronic media, rather than just games - exactly where Sony wants to position the name.

A lot of things about the PSP remain unclear, though. The exact specifications of the system with regard to gaming haven't been revealed yet, although it's obvious from Kutaragi's statements both yesterday and at E3 that the console has been designed to provide high quality 3D graphics, easily surpassing the performance of the PSone.

Whether the system will play PSone games in some form remains open to speculation, though. Some have suggested that it may be possible to upload your PSone titles to the system, either using Memory Sticks or rewritable UMD discs (the 1.8GB Minidisc style storage media used by the device); however, sadly for the consumer, it's much more likely that Sony will opt to repackage select parts of the PSone back catalogue and sell them as PSP titles, in much the same way as Nintendo has done with SNES titles and the GBA.

What little we know about the design so far is promising, however, and shows how much Sony have learned about portable device design since the introduction of the original Walkman. The system will have a USB 2.0 port as standard, presumably enabling connection to your PC (or PS2/PSX/PS3...) so that you can upload ATRAC music files sourced from your own CD collection or from an online digital music store. A lithium-ion battery rather than awkward AA batteries (like the GBA SP) is sure to be a popular move, as is the inclusion of Memory Stick solid state storage as well as UMD optical discs.

The Memory Stick slot is made particularly interesting by the fact that the PSX also boasts one, and we expect the PS3 to replace proprietary memory cards entirely in favour of Memory Stick. Indeed, it's expected that Sony will shortly bring out an adapter enabling Memory Sticks to be used as memory devices on the PS2 (similar to Nintendo's forthcoming SD Card adapter for the Cube) - a logical move, since both devices use the MagicGate security and encryption system. The gameplay potential for moving data files between PSP and living room PlayStation devices is huge, and we'll be interested to see what developers come up with given this new ability.

Perhaps wisely, Sony have chosen not to follow down Nokia's path of integrating a mobile phone into the mix. Fundamentally, mobile phones and media players lie at opposite ends of the portable device spectrum in terms of design and ergonomics, and some of the criticism of the design of Nokia's N-Gage is entirely on the money - it's very hard to make a good game console that is also a good phone, so you generally end up with a product that is only average in both departments.

However, would anyone be surprised if the generation of Sony Ericsson phones which appears around the same time as the PSP supports a range of link-up functionality with the device? An end-to-end chain of connectivity, from Sony's online media servers to the media centre in your living room to the media player in your bag to the phone in your pocket - it's a wet dream for technologists, media companies and consumers alike, and Sony may be closer to realising it than anyone imagines.

The real loser here, it seems, is Nintendo - whose share price fell over 10 per cent in the hours after Sony announced the PSP at its press conference the day before E3, despite the fact that the Japanese launch of the device is over 18 months off and the specifications are entirely up in the air. "Sony only needs to clear its throat and Nintendo shakes in its boots these days," one analyst commented to us in Los Angeles - but despite the utter dominance of the Japanese sales charts enjoyed by GBA software and the massive unit sales of the console, given the option of a well designed and powerful music, movie and game player in your pocket, who will really have space for a GBA SP in their daily load-out?


PlayStation 3 - The Next Really Big Thing

As interesting as the PSX and PSP announcements and the thinking behind them may be, the real meat of Sony's plans is still a relatively well-kept secret. We know what will power the PlayStation 3, and we have a rough idea of just how powerful the system will be - but the release date, design and functionality of the device remain matters of pure speculation.

One thing that is clear is that PlayStation 3 is going to be the culmination of Sony's plans in this space to date. PSone was a stellar debut in the games market, PS2 built on that success and experimented with new technologies, PSX and PSP will expand the market into new spaces - but PlayStation 3 will be the real deal, standing on the shoulders of those giants and making a serious bid to own the space underneath the world's televisions.

So, what do we know about PS3 from a technical perspective? Well, for a start, it will be based on the Cell microprocessor, which is described as a "supercomputer on a chip" and has been co-developed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony as a next-generation chip for consumer devices. Manufacturing of Cell processors is expected to start seriously over the coming 18 months, although Sony's new fabrication plant for the chip, located in the Nagasaki Prefecture of Japan, probably won't come online until 2006 at the earliest.

Cell is expected to power a range of devices, from mobile devices (PSP 2?) to home entertainment systems and set-top boxes. Although the hyperbole which SCE is wont to spin around all of its new technologies has led to a certain level of suspicion about Cell (and occasionally, cynical if somewhat unfounded accusations that the "mythical" processor is a red herring), the fact is that it's a fairly well understood piece of technology - no more mysterious than the PS2's "Emotion Engine" core, which for all the marketing spin surrounding it pre-launch, was little more than a relatively normal MIPS CPU with some extra instructions tacked on.

Cell, similarly, is a speedy piece of silicon which marks not so much a revolution as an evolution from the types of chip that the companies involved in its development have previously created. The really interesting thing about the chip is that it's been designed to operate in a cluster of similar devices, with an architecture that scales up to accomodate multiple Cell CPUs working in tandem. Of course, you can do that with standard PC chips - many large servers have multiple CPUs, and dual-processor PCs are becoming more popular in the enthusiast market (having been a core part of Apple's line-up for some time), but all the evidence suggests that Cell is uniquely capable in this respect.

PlayStation 3 is expected to sport multiple Cell chips - at least four, and perhaps as many as eight of the devices, quite possibly all nestled on the same piece of silicon. From a development perspective, the transition to writing PS3 code from PS2 code will be a huge one; this isn't a continuation of the same sort of architecture that the PS2 used at all, but like PS2, is a completely new platform for developers to learn. However, it should be noted that parallel processing is a fairly well understood branch of computer science, so while developers may struggle to get to grips with the system initially, it is unlikely to continue the PS2's reputation for being an incredibly tricky machine to develop on.

In terms of the marketing of the device, two different approaches exist for Sony. The company must decide whether the platform is going to be a single integrated device, bringing together both the media centre capabilities of the PSX and the hardcore games console sensibilities of the PS2. This seems the most likely outcome - a single PlayStation media centre device which plays games, movies and music, accesses broadband content and interfaces with portable devices (like PSP), mobile phones and any other relevant gadgets.

However, the company could equally decide to produce a family of PlayStation products, all inter-compatible and based on the same Cell architecture. A stripped down console-only version, similar to the PS2, would appeal to hardcore gamers; a fully specced media centre version would appeal to the same market that PSX targets. Other versions of the console might offer different subsets of the available functionality, depending on where Sony recognises demand for specific types of PlayStation device. In an ideal world for Sony executives, the question asked when you go to buy a new piece of consumer electronics will not be whether you want a PlayStation, but which PlayStation you want.

The question most people really want an answer to regards the launch date of the device, but this is one card Sony is playing very close to its chest indeed. A number of factors will affect this date, not least the availability of Cell - the processor is not expected to be manufactured in high volumes until 2006, although reasonable volumes (perhaps enough for a launch in Japan) may well be available in 2005.

Sony will almost certainly be beaten to market by Nintendo, but Nintendo has no aspirations to creating media centre devices, and as such can probably co-exist happily with its Japanese rival. Microsoft's position, on the other hand, is more difficult. Basing the Xbox on PC technology makes it very developer friendly, but it also cripples the company's options in terms of hardware and makes the manufacturing costs of the console extremely high throughout its lifespan. A difficult balancing act faces Microsoft with the Xbox 2. The PlayStation 3, like its predecessors, will inevitably be ahead of the PC hardware available at the time, so if Microsoft launches ahead of the PS3, it may well find itself underpowered compared with Sony's offering - but if it allows Sony to gain a headstart, then as with the current generation of console wars, more powerful hardware may not be enough to catch up.

I found this and thought I would post it for those interested in what people who don't believe in Edwards have to say:

John Edward is a psychic who is making headlines on television.  He has been on the Oprah Winfrey show, Larry King Live and a host of other well know TV programs.  Unlike the spiritualists of yore, who typically plied their trade in dark-room séances, Edward and his ilk often perform before live audiences and on television. Indeed, Edward (a pseudonym: he was born John MaGee, Jr) has his own popular show on the SciFi channel and CBS2 called Crossing Over, which has gone into national syndication.  Yes, he does claim to speak to the dead, and for that he charges $750 for a 30 minute private session and upwards to $100 for his convention style group sessions. My guess is that this multi-millionaire also speaks more frequently to his investment banker!

Spirit contact is growing today. People who have lost loved ones want to know that their deceased relatives are okay. People may seek advice from the departed loved one, but in most cases are subconsciously wanting to know what's in store for them one day.

What is spirit contact? It is contacting a disembodied being, whether it is believed to be a dead person, a being in another dimension, a spirit guide, a spiritual being, an advanced soul, a demon, a higher evolved Master, or any spirit. Spirit contact has been and is common in many cultures that contact dead ancestors and contact the spirit world for advice or for information on the future. In the United States, the religion of Spiritualism, which still exists, teaches that one can and should contact departed souls for advice. Those of you who have read my book know that I was once a spiritualist medium and I can attest with all certainty  that there is something on the "other side". I thank God that I was able to realize that this "something" were demons who were impersonating the departed. If you don't get anything else from this piece, please pay attention here: YES, the 'other side' can be contacted...I have personally done so. But the contact is not with your former loved ones, but demons of the Prince of Darkness.

The Messages from the Spirits: John Edward's show, "Crossing Over," was so popular on the Sci-Fi channel, that it 'crossed over' from cable to regular network. Edward approaches a section of the audience and starts giving his 'impressions' of what he is getting, whether it be a name, numbers, or a date, until someone responds with information that matches. He also asks the person questions as he tosses out 'clues' he says he is receiving. Sometimes it seems that he is throwing out very general information and that the person in the audience is filling in the blanks for Edward. Other times, Edward seems to be uncannily accurate.

Interestingly, it seems the dead have a hard time being very clear. For example, they may show Edward pink roses to say that everything is alright, according to Edward, or they may show Edward a flag to indicate their past patriotism in this life. It is sort of like a game of spiritual charades. One wonders about this. Why can't the dead just speak words to Edward, or write them out on a "spirit chalkboard" so to speak? James Van Praagh (another popular medium in the U.S.), in explaining the difficulty he has in interpreting the symbols shown to him by spirits, said that the recently deceased spirits were just learning to communicate, and so one could not expect all messages to be clear. This raises other questions: Why do recently dead people have trouble communicating? Where do they get these objects that they show Edward and Van Praagh? Why can't they just project their thoughts into Edward's mind? Why are their messages so prosaic and, well, boring? The picture one gets of these creatures certainly does not present a very interesting company of people to pass the time with. Why would these spirits have any special wisdom just because they are dead?

Though the spirits always claim to be happy and to be doing well (is Hitler also there with them, doing okay?), we do not know why they are happy and doing well. What do they do, exactly? And if they told us, how do we know it's true? How can we test these spirits to see if they are lying about anything or everything they tell the mediums? The answer is that we can't test them based on our own experiences since we haven't been to the other side. Only God really knows who these spirits are, and He has told us through the scriptures that they are really demons.

Note that the messages from the "dead," from the spirits, and from channeled entities never encourage people to believe the Bible, never urge people to trust Christ for salvation, and often openly contradict God's word or even speak derisively of Christ as Savior.

I just wanted to say that I agree with Adrian.  I do not know whether or not Edwards is genuine, but most of the truly gifted people I have met do not live lives in the spotlight or use their talents to make money.  

Sure Robert is making money off of the sales of his books, but at the same time he offered his advice for free for years before he ever wrote a book and furthermore, his book is not expensive and more than anything else it is truly helpful.

I have studied Edwards and he can be VERY convincing, at the same time, however, there are methods one can master to decieve.  

I would like to talk to someone who has known him as a life long friend or something like that.
Dan

I know Jesus the Christ is my Savior and Lord.  I know this for myself and I know it not because of what I have been taught or what I have read, but because of personal experiences.  In the end it doesn't matter to me what he says or she says.  What matters to me is the ongoing spiritual experiences I have in the spiritual and physical planes.

I don't judge anyone else or condemn anyone, but I will forever praise my God and ascend to those spheres I believe have been prepared for all those who will accept that he atoned for all the sins of mankind.

By the way, I don't believe in the traditioanl heaven and hell, etc. and I don't believe that one must accept Christ in this life to be "saved" AND I do agree that many (unfortunately MOST) Chrisitians have a distorted view of who and what God is.

I agree!  The images I posted I just grabbed from wherever I could find them and linked them up.  It would be great to hear from the artists and to find out what inspired them and how they feel about their work, etc.
Hey, I found a real picture of Robert (the) Bruce!:

I am actually working towards my Masters of Education and will start teaching high school English in a year or so.  I sub right now.

First of all, it's important, especially as a student, to realize that the teachers are definetly aware of these problems (not all, but most).  Here in California the State standards and framework for Education is causing major problems.  Then you have discipline problems, budget problems, etc. etc.  It's a very complicated issue and it really shouldn't be.  The problem is the beauracracy (I know I didn't spell that correctly, but I stopped trying to figure that word out a long time ago...some English teacher I am going to be eh??)

Anyway, I say stick with school, go to college and then unleash the dragon in Grad school...the liberty to study and research and rewrite the rules really comes later in life, although don't let that stop you from doing it now, but I think a good, solid, well rounded education is in the best interest of every individual (and that doesn't go for everyone, but for most people it's important...especially if you want to make a living doing something you like).

Dan

Veliki,
Some of your pics are coming up, but others aren't.  I think if you upload them from your own hard drive, you have to be online for them to be visible (someone please correct me if I am mistaken).  So maybe you can find a place to post them on the web and that way they will be visible to everyone.

I might talk to Adrian about a place where we can post pics permanentely.  I think the visual medium is an important one in terms of representing the OBE and other "mystical" phenomenon.  It sometimes helps people to have a visual rep. of things they otherwise only expereince or imagine.
-DAN

Beavis- you are right on about him being close minded.  

It's really sad when you realize just how close minded and ingnorant most people are about, well, everything...and I don't mean to make it sound like all of us have everything figured out.  The main thing is that more you learn the more you realize you don't know.

I am going into education and I vow to be an understanding teacher.  And when my kid talks about his dreams or other expereinces I am going to be there for them...

Hey Tab, how old are you if you don't mind me asking?  I am just curious...
Best
Dan

Veliki,

Hey, we want to see the pictures you put up but there is something wrong.  Make sure you click the icon that looks like this:
And them make sure you insert the URL/web address of the image in the middle.  

If you need any more info or help, IM or email me and I will walk you through it.

Thanks!
Dan

Thank you for posting this message Tisha.  I back up everything you have written.  The whole point of these forums is to share, to grow, to learn and yes, to argue.  To argue, what!?  Yes, to argue.  By the word "argue" I don't mean mud slinging and verbal abuse however.

First of all, lets look do quick yet in depth review of the term "argument."  The term dates is a noun and it dates back to the 14th Century and has it's roots in Middle English and Latin (arguere).
The easiest definition of the term is: "discourse intended to persuade."  One of the reasons we come here is to learn and to teach.  Many of us in here feel that we have some understanding (although I will be the first to admit that mine is limited![])  So when we believe something we often present an argument, or a discourse intended to persuade.

Another definition of the term is as follows: "A coherent series of statements leading from a premise to a conclusion."  Once again, nothing wrong with that..it's a natural and normal method of intercourse or communication between intelligent minds.

So there is nothing wrong with an "argument" BUT THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG when people start using foul language, belittling one another or attacking one another in any malicious way.

The key, in my opinion, is to not post in anger.  If you stop and think about it, the best way to defend yourself or a principle is to do so in a calm collective way.  If the other person is being irrational or mean, let the truth be shown to everyone.  Sometimes we just have to let people makes asses of themselves (butt= a donkey OR a silly or stupid person).  

And, like Tisha said, if things are obviously out of hand, the moderators will step in and take care of it...that way we as members of a peaceful community don't have to get our hands dirty by flinging the mud back at the idiots who slung it int he first place.

Best,
Dan

Leyla,

First of all, I am very sorry for you.  What a horrible perdicament!  Second, although Bevis' post made it sound as if these people have some kind of religous bias against you, I know that it goes above and beyond that (or below that). It's not that your friends think what you are doing is wrong (you made it clear that they were intrigued themselves), they are just selfish and conniving and will obviously do anything to push their way to the top.  

FInally, I think your boss, or the "guy in charge" could find himself in trouble for discriminating against you based on heresay.  You can believe or think anything you want, at least in this country, without fear, legally speaking of course.  You probably don't want to do this, but just know that if you were to get an attorney I think you could have a case.  Then again, this is a "he said she said" kind of thing.

I guess the lesson to be learned has something to do with friends and trust.  Real friends would not have done what they did.

I would personally confront the guy and tell him exactly how you feel.

Best wishes and keep us informed.