Messages

As I understand it, it is not important who the man Jesus was, the message was supposed to superceed the importance of the man. We (as humans) were NOT supposed to worship Jesus, he was a messenger, and we are supposed to live according to that message, whether catholic, protistant, jewish, budhist, or pagan.

I don't know if Jesus walked the earth as the messiah or not, I wasn't there at the time, but the message was a good one. Too bad some people get all cought up in the semnantics of the religion and ignore the message.

In a movie titles "The Devil's Advocate" (good flick too!) Al Pacino played the devil and Keanu Reeves played his son. Al was trying to convince Keanu that god wasn't so great...in the middle of his arguement he said that Satan's greatest trick was to convince man that he DIDN'T exist.

Makes sense....

Allanon in entitled to his beliefs, however I am entitled to be free of his beliefs....

Tisha,
I know where you're coming from, and I'd hate to see AP sink into the depths of the useless too.  

This is one major reason to have moderators. I've been on many a forum, newsgroup, etc. that falls victim to the many different types of personas that ruin discussion. The one thing that could have saved the groups were impartial and open minded moderators. I could recount reasons for failings, or list persona types, but I won't. I do want to say that when one of these 'types' pop up and try to usurp the good conversation with so much dung they need to be challenged. That's when the moderator's ears  need to perk up because that challenge is what eventually turns into a power struggle for ideas, beliefs, and the need to be believed.

In other words, I hear ya, and keep up the good work (pat pat)

General, no need to be afraid of the 'voices' and noises. They are a combination of different things depending on the circumstances.  My opinion, and that's what it is, is that you shouldn't listen to people like Azaithoth999 the red.  

Az's intentions aside......

Of the noises and voices I have heard; some can be attributed to hypnogogic sounds which are nothing really more than clutter popping up from the subconscious in preparation for work your mind and brain do during sleep. Other noises have been 'background', not directed at me at all. If there is a spirit, awareness, or entity that wants to communicate, it won't do it during your shift between waking awareness and the waking dreaming awareness, or astral, or whatever you're on your way to.  When spirits or entites wish to communicate, they don't want to be misunderstood since there is obviously a purpose for the attempt if an attempt is being made.

My advice, just observe it without focusing on it and let it pass. If it startles you into waking, you were most likely on your way to a decent snooze anyway

The only thing I want to address is the sword and armor. I have asked for it, but what it produced was just another thought form and was rather useless against what I was going through at the time.

I don't remember if Robert's text expounded on the intricacies of the technique, but anything you 'generate' like this is merely a representation. The sword represents protection and power, it isn't,, nor does it provide real protection or power. To understand this is to not need the representation, rather deal with the source of the 'protection' directly.

To the post (by Douglas I think) regarding what Carlos was talking about when you 'die'....

First off, Carlos tried like the devil to speak in parable fashion that sounded as intelligent as possible. When he spoke of dying he did so in several ways. The way most quoted by his readership and/or followers is 'being eaten by the eagle'.  Supposedly, when you die, if you do not have the ability to raise your awareness with the energyyou've spend a lifetime gathering, you will not 'sneak past the left side of the eagle'.

Taken in parable, this is fine.  Through my own experience in journeying, I find his concepts of energy gathering to be pretty ignorant. (and he crosses the term with "power" often, even confusing it further with the term "knowledge") A basic even in physics is that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only borrowed. If you follow Castaneda's logic, even if you succeded in your efforts following his doctrine, you would eventually 'die' anyway.

However....  What he describes as the "Eagle" -is- actually the Spirit, God, whatever term you prefer.  The path to freedom lies between the birth Spirit gave you and your final moments here. If you do not advance toward "freedom", or maintaining awareness beyond death, you will become one with Spirit again at death.  I'd go out on a limb here and say that 95% or better of all religions seek this as their "heaven", and that's where they want to be.

Yet, just as Spirit knew many would return, some would not. Some, the ones that manage to attain a level of awareness through the use of energy and their own metaphysical states during their lifetime, will remain free. Not return to Spirit to become part of the whole.

This is not to say that if you do this you are an adversary to Spirit, quite the contrary. As a mother gives birth to a child, raises it, and watches it walk free toward the waiting world, so Spirit gave birth to our awarenesses, watches as we grow or don't grow, and waits to see if we will succeed in gaining this precious freedom.  We are still free to love Spirit and be thankfull of course, as we hope to love our parents...

Beyond this point I'd begin to severely diverge off to other topics, so I'll stop here []

This is based on my own experiences journeying and more. I take into consideration that each person is idividual, and your perceptions may be quite different had you followed the path I have, but here it is. Enjoy your paths []

Hi again,
The proper term for what his sore is a decubitous ulcer. It was level 2 until it was debreeded, then it seemed to tunnel outward. I'm not sure if that actually happened before the debreeding or after, regardless, it's to the ischial now.

Hard to believe sugar would help! I can try, but I'll microwave the sugar first, I keep that thing as clean as a whistle and wouldn't want to risk an infection right there at the bone. Before it was debreeded I did use Tegaderm, all that did was lock the fluid in. Too much tissue was already necrotized. Now I wet pack the hole as best I can with sterile gauze and saline, covering it with yet more gauze.

They want him in a special sand/air bed for 3 weeks, that's why they want him there in the hospital, because those beds weigh a bloody ton and won't fit here in the house. I'm looking into alternatives now, I want him home where -I- can control his care, not 2 or 3 nurses having to service an entire wing.

Thanks for the thoughts and prayers, they are appreciated

Perhaps the question should be rephrased to: what is the -purpose- of life? Nearly the same, but not.

The meaning of life is found within it's purpose, and that is to grow, learn, progress. Take the lesson from a catapillar and apply it to your spiritual path.

Your path does not stop at your death, only your body stops.

Ferris Beuller said, "Any 'ism' in my opinion is not a good thing".

Not exactly a quote from a religious source, but it's relevant nonetheless.  Any "ism" (ie; catholicism, judaism, communism, socialism)  ALWAYS consist mainly of vocal fanatics and stubborn "dead enders" not open to new ideas....(or frightened little sheep afraid of what they don't understand)

Always keep an open mind, never lock yourself into a concretized belief system and expect to progress spiritually.

Soulfire,

Carlos Castaneda, "the man" was a con artist. He took ideas from many different belief systems and tried to make a unique spin on shamanic sorcery. He did this with only one thing in mind, to create a following, and therefore a cash flow. This cash (cow) flow still exists beyond 'the man' in the form of "ClearGreen", his pet organization.

However, please do not confuse the the man and the ideas...many of his ideas are based in truth. I will credit Carlos with a few things, including the fact that he opened many doors for inquiring minds and sent many a soul on journeys for their own spiritual truths.

His writings, as many others writings, are barely more than food for thought. In your journey toward finding your own path, you should consider what people say about their own, but NEVER adopt what they say as dogma. Instead, seek, learn, experience for yourself, then integrate this experience and lesson into your path. This, along with your base-line belief system (spirit, God, etc) will take you home.