AP forums with little activity

[Kazbadan]

At some months ago that i see AP forums with little activity. At 2 years ago, or so, Ap forums were much more active i think.

What do u htink its happening?

[Telos]

Perhaps people are desiring a less spiritual and (I'm serious) more open-minded investigation of dreaming.

That's at least why I'm not very active in AP forums anymore.

[Beth]

Telos,

I understand what you mean ... sort of.  Could you help me better understand what that would involve?

Peace,
Beth

[Nay]

For me life gets in the way.   I just can't be on the computer 24/7.  And in my opinion I think people should take a break anyways.  

Not to mention my experiences seem to be getting more and more personal and wouldn't make sense to anyone without me having to go into those personal things.  And right now that would be a, too much on my platter type thing.

Nay

[IequalMC2]

That something you think is missing would be nothing. Reading that too often could have a subconscious effect. Sorry to ramble, I didn't plan it, just figured it out, I think you missed nothing.

[Mustardseed]

You were exited, all part of something bigger than your combined effort. The divine in whatever form you wish to define him, moved in you. Then mans thoughts entered, .........conform, eradicate, debate yet not to know and determine truth, but to persuade others of unsure opinions. With it a dullness of spirit we each became experts, alienated from each other by our own expert opinion. Pride the way of man and the dove flew away.

[Kazbadan]

I think i understand what you say Mustard, lol...my english its not good enought to fully understand the meaning of what you say, but i think i get it.

I know that many of the members here in AP forums reached "higher" planes of existence and they dont need AP forums.But, if there is little activity here, that means that little people are becoming interested in spiritual evolution or in AP, obes, etc.

[Greenrat]

i think a lot of users went to astraldynamics.com, probably because robert is more likely to post there than here.

[Telos]

Telos,

I understand what you mean ... sort of.  Could you help me better understand what that would involve?

Peace,
Beth

I'll try, Beth. I have written a number of drafts for this post so far, but it seems like I get needlessly verbose.

I think the spiritualization and occultization of dreaming has been self-defeating and very limiting.

I know this may sound odd at first, for the goals of each are liberation and self-empowerment. Spiritual people seem almost by definition to adopt an inclusive and holistic worldview, while aspiring to a paradigm of open-mindedness. Right?

I aspire to that paradigm. I do not think there is such a thing as too much open-mindedness. Some people have said that too much open-mindedness is a bad thing - that we should not be so open-minded that "our brains fall out." It's incorrect, I think, for people to say that. What they mistake for too much open-mindedness is actually another kind of closed-mindedness.

In most cases I think too much open-mindedness is mistaken for closed-mindedness to falsification.

I think it's possible that the connection between lucid dreams and spirituality is an accident of appearances.

To illustrate, an idea entered the philosophy of art sometime in the 20th century. It stated that a work of art needn't be aesthetically pleasing in order for it to be good art. Thus, according to this idea, aesthetics and art have no real connection whatsoever. Our habit of seeing them as connected was just that, a habit, and not an observation on the dependence of art on aesthetics.

The same thing has happened, I think, to dreams and spirituality over the years. Thanks to Judeo/Christian/Muslim holy books, ancient eastern philosophy, more modern authors such as Carlos Castenada and Robert Monroe, etc., we, in our limited view, saw lucid dreams and spirituality as part of the same thing.

Lucid dreams can be very profound. They can even be meaningful, beautiful, or life-changing. Perhaps they can even be supernatural. But why, despite appearances, should they have anything to do with the grand design?

Imagine, for a moment, that dreams are like an undiscovered country. A very large, impressive one. Who's to say that this is the country where we came from? Or that it's connected to all others? Or that it's our goal?

What if instead of going in the direction of that country, we go another?

Or go around?

[mactombs]

Lucid dreams can be very profound. They can even be meaningful, beautiful, or life-changing. Perhaps they can even be supernatural. But why, despite appearances, should they have anything to do with the grand design?

That's a very good question. I have the same question. But I cannot answer it without experiencing more. The good news is, I'm proceeding along quite nicely.

I'm more interested in conversation about how to achieve things like AP, and more to a point, personal experiences about what happened. I'm interested in sharing experiences, but unfortunately, there aren't a lot of experiences being shared here, and when they are, they don't usually kick up much conversation.

And Nay does have a good point - things get personal, and it would be difficult to get a satisfactory explanation across, if such were within comfort zones as it is.

I'm also interested in finding out if it's possible to forgo forums and communicate via lucid dreams - maybe it is already happening and I just haven't found that type of "forum" yet. Maybe that's where everybody is going ...