Messages

I smoked weed in my late teens.  All it ever did was make me high.  Never experienced anything different than being drunk.  Afterward, I felt bad for having smoked it at all.  

I don't know if it's as bad for you as tobacco.  I smoke cigarette's and know it's bad for my body. I don't need research or statistics to tell me that.  Hacking up a lung after rolling out of bed in the mornings certainly can't be a good thing.

As far as AP goes, I've never consciously had one, high or sober.  The one spontaneous AP I have had, I had sober.  

My experiences tell me that it's not necessary to smoke weed to AP.  But like Beavis pointed out, his experience showed him drugs (illegal or not) allows him to get there quicker.  I cannot really condone the behavior because it's illegal.  But I'm certainly not going to preach about not doing it.  That would make me a hypocrite.  

OOOoooh, baby.  Never thought anyone could equate a compass with sex.  If I'd only known this during my high school Geometry class...[]

I agree LogoRat. My question is what is it that causes us to focus on things that are self-destructive??  Weak mindedness?  Lack of will power?

I've found myself in situations at times that I feel I moved through unaware.  Like a dreamt my way to a certain point and then became aware that I had placed myself in a situation that was not good.  I still take full responsibility for my actions during those times.  How can I not?  I manifested that situation by my thoughts and then my actions.

I guess if one believed in reincarnation and Karma you could say those were lessons to be learned.  If one is a Christian, one would believe it was the work of some kind of negative force.  I guess there could many explanations to what was really at work there.

I completely understand what you are saying James.  And yes, I do have beliefs.  No specific religious beliefs though.

I was raised in an almost entirely unreligious environment.  I was exposed to bits and pieces of Catholicism (my Mother) and Southern Baptist (my Father).  Although it might sound like I should be CONFUSED (haha!), it really made me open-minded to the existence of different belief systems.  

I've found that although I have trouble BELIEVING in certain religions, I can respect that people have their own beliefs.

When this post was started, I was truly excited to discuss what other people thought about belief systems but what I came to understand about this post was that some people just want validation for their thoughts.  I'm not saying that is wrong, what I'm saying is that my posts weren't to dispute anyone but to provide a point of view maybe other people haven't thought of.      

I still stand by my statement that I don't have a religious belief system.  Maybe not so much by choice but circumstance.  It was not something I was raised with and as an adult, I enjoy the open-mindedness that comes with the lack of "filters" and "building blocks".  That comforts me as much as other people's religious beliefs comfort them.[]

I guess you could say my belief system is to NOT have any beliefs and that my filter removes all beliefs.  On the other hand, I still feel like I'm waiting for my moment of enlightenment.[]

Are we discussing beliefs or belief systems?

I have beliefs.  Many of them.  We all do.

Do I subscribe to any particular belief system?  No.  I think, like you said Mustardseed, that my beliefs are more based on my intuition than anything.  Sometimes just the pressure of feeling like I should have a belief system make me believe certain things.

I'm still searching and researching my own path. []

Excellent question!

Don't we all have a beliefsystem?    

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be·lief sys·tem noun  

1. set of beliefs: a set of beliefs, for example, in religion or politics, that form a unified system
2. organized societal beliefs: a collection and organization of beliefs prevalent in a community or society
(Encarta)

*********

I can honestly say I don't have any religious or political beliefs.  I do have societal beliefs though.  I guess it depends on which you are asking about.

I think the keywords in the above definition are community, society, and unified.  Meaning that to be a belief system, more than one person needs to "believe" in that system.  Even the definition of dogma contains synonym's of the above key words.  And it's Greek meaning follows:

Mid-16th century. Via late Latin from Greek dogma  (stem dogmat- ) “opinion, tenet,â€? from dokein  â€œto seem good, thinkâ€? (source of English orthodox and paradox).](Encarta)

Mustardseed says: "One who vocally attacks the beliefsystem of another would in my book be termed the agressor or the "Missionary" wether one Challenges the beliefs of another with a "prove to me" or simply puts it down as being "ridiclous" makes little difference."

I agree.  Just as people who are attacked for having a belief system, I've also been attacked for admitting that I don't have one.  I don't usually "attack" unless I've been "attacked" first.

Mustardseed says: "I find it way more beneficial if we were all to just put our beliefs out on the table like a farmers market and we could all go around and take a look, no hard sell and no putting down the other "products"."

That would be nice.  Then maybe some exchanges of opinion and open minded discussions could take place.  That we all just agree to disagree.  However, I don't think that is the nature of most people when they feel they have to defend what they believe or they've taken someone else's refusal to believe what they do personally.  That's why I prefer to keep my ideas/opinions/beliefs to myself for the most part.

Hi Birm!

I usually am pretty aware of my hypnogognic experiences especially when I'm trying to project simply because I feel like I'm starting to fall asleep when I experience them.  I end up waking myself up.  And I've always felt they were a bit "dreamy" or fuzzy like I've lost a bit of control over my thoughts.  During meditation, some of the experiences seem so much clearer.  Does that make sense?  Maybe that's were my confusion comes from.  I tried to "label" the experience based on something that I'd already experienced but found incongruencies upon doing that.

I have also considered that the voices I heard were my inner self, higher self, or whatever you want to call it. Or even more simply, my own perceptions of myself. If I thought I knew what I had heard, I wouldn't have asked for others' experiences and opinions. So, thanks for your input!

I will experiment with the sounds though.  It's something to do until I actually "get out".

Thanks again to everyone for your responses!

quote:Originally posted by beavis

Avalon
I think I know what they're feeling: the start of "vibrations" or something similar. Vibrations confuse them because they've never felt anything like it, so it must be the christian god.

I wanted to respond to this because I had a similar experience the first time I attempted to OBE.  Most of the techniques I read were from a very methodical (not spiritual) point of view.  But as I lay there quieting my mind, I realized I could induce some sort of feeling of movement of something from my feet to my abdomen.  I had NO idea what I was doing but it felt familiar (like I had done it before) and intuitive and was the right thing to do.  I know now I was moving energy through my body.  Possibly the onset of early vibrations.

I didn't have any previous experience or knowledge of what was happening.  I "felt" it was right.  I didn't label it as spiritual or coming from God.  I did it intentionally and consciously without prior knowledge.

That one experience will never leave my mind because it was something I discovered on my own.  Self-discovery is an amazing thing.

Hahaha!  I was just coming back here to apologize for that rambling load of rubbish I just typed out!  

Once again, thanks for your reply.[^]

I really love the looks I get from people when I tell them I don't believe in sin.

I think I'm starting to enjoy saying things like that to people just for shock value! Bwwwwaaaahahahahaha!

I used to call myself an Agnostic because I was unsure of what it was I believed.  Then I realized I had a problem with the word "belief". My Dad is a Southern Baptist and it was in his church that I realized how much I disagreed with belief systems.  I'm in no way trying to bash anyone's else's religion, by the way, just stating my opinion.  And now, you can see that I always feel I have to back up my statements such as these with a disclaimer that I mean them no ill will. []  However, I won't apologize for my lack of faith or disagreement.  Not even to my Dad.

I have no religion.  I've never been baptised or been a regular member of any church.   Because of this, I've been called a heathen and been told I'm going to hell when I die.  And those people who call me those things don't realize that those ideas don't faze me because I don't believe in hell and I don't believe I'm a heathen!

I get the argument from Christian believers that it's something they feel, not think or experience.  I've never "felt" it.  I've never even read about any religion that I whole heartedly agree with.

My argument for people who are believers of any religion is to imagine they were born on a desert island where there were no belief systems, do you think you would end up believing in the same God and dogma that you do right now at this moment?  Would you eventually "feel" your faith and beliefs?

I do believe though that there is more to life than what meets the eye.  There are things around us we don't see and notice because we are too caught up in the physical.  It's not something I feel, it's more like something I know, or have known before.

timeless - Great topic!

I've been fascinated with the idea of the Sacred Feminine and the possiblity of Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene since finishing The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.

Thanks Beth for the suggested reading material!!

I think as children, our minds aren't as full of extraneous thoughts or beliefs.  I do think children are more connected with the Astral.

The most vivid dreams I've ever had in my life were experienced in my younger years.  As a teen, I became interested in learning about dreams, esp lucid dreaming.  I didn't know at the time how it was connect to AP.  

As an adult, my dreams have grown less vivid and memorable.  One thing that distinguishes my dreams between normally dreaming, lucid dreaming and AP is the sensation of feeling in them.  In all of my vivid regular dreams, I was missing one sensation and that was of physical sensation.  I only experience physical sensation in flying dreams and experienced it in one spontaneous OBE.

I talk with my kids about their dreams every morning.  My oldest rarely remembers hers, although she claims she doesn't have any.  I've entertained the idea of meeting them in the astral, one day.  Experience is the best teacher and I want them to know about the limitless possibilities they have while asleep.

Thanks Tenacious.  Sometimes I think it might be egotistical to think these voice were talking to me about me.[]

My original expectation of Astral noise was that the sounds would be indistinguishable.  These voices were the first I experienced and did not meet the criteria of my expectations.

I think I felt they were important because of the way I felt I recieved them.  They were like whispers in my ear.  Equally puzzling was in the order I received them (male first in the right ear and female following in the left ear).  It seemed like they were something private that only I was supposed to hear.  And I felt compelled to remember their message.  

Okay, so, maybe I am reading too much into it.[]

The only disadvantage to believing in ANYTHING is when those beliefs hurt or destroy people with words or actions.

I've been searching for the truth for a good majority of my life.  I would so much like to BELIEVE.  I struggle with it.

And I've reached a crossroads in that I'm angry that the truth of Jesus may never be truly known.  So much evidence in the bible points to the good man he was/is but I do not believe that the bible is the Truth.  The truth of Jesus and his word has been lost forever to politians and greed seekers.  

And yeah, I'm angry about it.  I've followed my own path and read much about other beliefs and found that the story of Jesus who supposedly "died for our sins" and supposedly was the Son of God will never truly be known.

A

I've never heard of the "left hand path" but if the term was coined by Satanism through Christianity, your definition makes sense.

In ancient religion, the "left hand side" was originally thought to be ruled by the Goddess, and the right by the God.  Interestingly enough, Italian and French words for "left" are sinistra and gauche, respectively.  And today, anything considered radical is "left hand thought", anything irrational is "left brained" and anything EVIL is SINISTER.

If you have any questions about what the female spirit means to Christians, read Genesis (Eve was created via Adams rib, although women are the childbearers), original sin was perpetrated by Eve, Mary Magdalene was a whore (although there are historians who believe she was actually married to Jesus and bore his child).  Even the Virgin Mary couldn't take credit for conceiving Jesus Christ as he was the immaculate conception.  

Did you know that millions of women were killed during the crusades?  A book was published during the Catholic Inquisition called Malleus Maleficarium that told the world of the dangers of "freethinking women" or witches as the Church put it.  Reminds me of the Salem witch trials.  

Yep, sounds Christian to me.  Sounds evil too.

This movie looks cool!  The trailers sort of reminded me of "The Crow".  Which I also thought was an awesome movie.  

I think it's about time there are more female roles in which the female actually fights back and defends herself.  I'm not a feminist by any means but having two daughters, I want them to learn to stand up for themselves because if they don't, no one else will.[B)]

I believe women will eventually get their power back.  Heehee!

Aha!  I think I felt it last night.  Of course, I originally chalked it up to irrational paranoia.  Until I thought about the circumstances surrounding the situation.  

I have had sensations before of being watched and it's an uneasy feeling (I think almost everyone has).  I have just finished reading The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown.  This book is fiction but contains a lot of historical investigation surrounding the true meaning of Jesus' teaching and his intentions, the holy grail and the intervention of the Catholic Church in the Knights of the Templar's quests.  Fascinating reading but continued the search on the internet myself.  I was reading about Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary.  I was on the following website when it happened http://templarchronicle.homestead.com/SiteMap.html .  I have been on a quest of sorts myself.  I know what I don't believe, not sure what I do believe in though.

Anyway, shortly thereafter, I got up to take a look outside, it was pretty late last night.  That's when it hit me.  I felt fear, as if there was something out there.  Something that didn't like me being there.  Add in the howling wind and my wind chimes tinkling and I felt like I was watching "Something Wicked This Way Comes".

Neo, I don't know what to say.  Ignore it?  I don't know if it's possible to ignore the feelings I sensed last night.  Next time, I might try something different.  Don't know what yet.

Thanks Nick and Focus 15.  I will definitely check out the sticky's on phasing and it looks as if the website also covers visual images during meditation as well.  Again, the images seemed to be symbolic in nature and left me wondering what they meant.

Van Stolin, maybe next time I'll speak back to them.  All I could think at the time was "remember those words, remember what they are saying".

Thanks again!

Avalon

Boy, I wish I could feel the spiritual negativity, maybe I'm just too caught up in the physical.  Or maybe it's because I'm an idealist, or think that just as we create our own fantasies, we create our own realities as well.  I know that there are many people of different belief systems that feel something is not far off.  I have yet to experience it.  

I apologize for the hijacking of this post but couldn't resist responding to the idea of the police being evil. Thanks to those of you who offered words of support.  I know not everyone will agree.  There are many reasons why people go into law enforcement, mine was to protect the public (those who can't protect themselves).    Yes, some are in it for the wrong reasons.  I agree.  The suspect in my first kiddie porn case was a police officer.  I was not surprised but disgusted and disappointed.

Avalon

Hey Beavis!  

I've been a police officer for almost 10 years now.  Sometimes I'd like to drag people to the office I work in and show them some of the crimes I investigate.  I'd like you to look at some of the images I see day in and day out.

The pictures of small children being fondled by adults.  Children being forced into sexual situations with each other and then photographed by adults.  Adult male genitalia being forced into a virgin child, male or female.

When you have seen what I see everyday, then you can come back and tell me how evil I am for trying to find the people who perpetrated these crimes.  If police officer's are evil, I'd like to know what definition you'd come up with for murderer's, rapists and pedophiles.  

Yeah, I'd agree there is a strong evil presence in this world.  And I see it every day.

34.  But I tell people I meet that I'm 40.  Then they say "Wow!  You look great for your age!"[]

Thanks for the link La Foret (is it okay to call you La Foret?)!

OMG!  Did anyone else listen to this?  Call me crazy but I felt immediate energy in my brow and crown chakra!

I'm going to have to go out and find this!

Walking the Path -

Couldn't find that exact quote, but these are close!

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
---Bertrand Russell

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."
-Confucius

It seems that I've heard a more similar quote and I think it is a proverb.

Maybe moving quickly has always scared you and now you are more in tune with your fears?

I don't know what to tell ya.  

I noticed something similar riding a ferris wheel with my daughter over the weekend.  It terrified me to watch her trying to look over the side.  I actually found myself holding onto the pole in the middle of the "car".  My 6 year old noticed and asked why. I was a little embarassed. [:I]

I have NEVER been afraid of heights.  I've been parasailing and sky diving and they were both exhilirating experiences.

And I was scared of a friggin' Ferris Wheel.

Tenacious -  The Aquarian's have now passed the Taureans!  BOOOO!

My b-day is April 24th.