quote:
...but you can not share a spiritual connection with someone without being physically drawn to them too.
I tend to disagree with such definite statements of what can and can not be.
It's entirely possible to share a spiritual connection but not a physical one. Likewise the opposite applies. Indeed any combination of the two is possible.
It's silly to suggest that spiritual attraction/connection somehow requires or exluce a physical attraction/connection.
I can see, however, that a having a spiritual connection with someone would make them physically more atractive. But at the same time a physical attraction would give some leeway on learning about the other and thus lead to a spiritual conncetion.
But as usual, the disclaimer Your Mileage May Vary applies with full force.
2cents & L&L
jouni
quote:
Originally posted by jilola
It's entirely possible to share a spiritual connection but not a physical one.
I agree with this in theory. It never dawned on me that this might be true until I read it. Have you ever had a strong spiritual attraction to someonw without wanting to be in their presence physically?
For example, with me, there is one person in particular who is a member of this forum who really helps me out spiritually. Ever since I joined this forum, we have bounced ideas off of one another and have a really great friendship going. I suspect if I did not have this spiritual link with this person, I would not feel so drawn. I am really looking forward to meeting this person one day.
If He was just some good looking "Brad Pitt-ish" guy I might be drawn to him physically but I doubt it would be the same feeling... the same strength of psychic attraction.
Kerri
...but you can not share a spiritual connection with someone without being physically drawn to them too.
A spirit can have any kind of body. Would you be attracted to the body if it was not the gender you like?
quote:
Originally posted by beavis
...but you can not share a spiritual connection with someone without being physically drawn to them too.
A spirit can have any kind of body. Would you be attracted to the body if it was not the gender you like?
quote:
originally posted by Lighthouse
"Even extending into my same sex relationships. If I share a spiritual connection with a woman, we often become "soul sisters" as I like to call them... meaning that we mutually support one another spiritually and are like family I would even say that I would rather be in the physical presence of my spiritual family than my biological family. It feels more like home to me."
I'm not saying I want to "Bang" my spirit sisters... (sorry, that's my husband's word and for some reason, Beavis, it seems appropriate when addressing you [;)])... no offense. Just being in the presence of a person who I have a connection with is a form of being physically attracted.
I want to spend time with them and they are my closest friends.
With MEN on the other hand, the line is a bit more fuzzy (sexual attraction always gets in the way... I hate [}:)] having to give up friends because of sexual attraction... it
REALLY REALLY SUCKS)... Fortunately I only connect with very few men on that level... It has been known to wreak havoc on my happy home life [:(].
Oh well (sigh)... if only there weren't the insecurities revolving around opposite sex friendships, spiritual development would be much easier on the marriage.Kerri
Ah I see. You were talking about being in the physical presence of the other person and not about physical attraction as it's usually understood.
But to answer your question, I have and in fact do feel a deep spiritual connection with a number of persons but dont feel any specific need to be in their presence. In fact I have had a profound spiritual connection with a person in the past and found it impossible to continue to remain in her physical presence. And the reason for it was spiritual to boot. Go figure [xx(]
2cents & L&L
Jouni
That's good to know... this means it's not always true as the author stated it is. I think it tends to be true for me... yet my husband and I speak a different language when it comes to our spirituality... I think this makes for many many misunderstandings [xx(].
Because you wouldnt be physically attracted to a woman, it is theoretically possible you could not be physically attracted to a man who you were spiritually attracted to.
Eh? I don't quite understand your statement, Beavis. I think I do but would you elaborate a bit?
2cents & L&L
Jouni
quote:
Originally posted by beavis
Because you wouldnt be physically attracted to a woman, it is theoretically possible you could not be physically attracted to a man who you were spiritually attracted to.
True, but the same statement then may still be true... One may want to be in the physical presence of the other and not want to necessarily "bang" them. I love my spirit sisters and love being with them physically in the same room or on the phone (the phone feels to me like the same room, at least partially.)
We are DRAWN to each other because of the connection... therefore we are physically attracted.. perhaps the word I should be using is "drawn" because it is perhaps less confusing language than physical attraction as jilola stated???
I think "To gravitate towards physical presence" would be suffieciently vague for the purpose of this thread [8D]
Physical companionship and/or presence doesn't necesssarily imply the need to have a sexual relationship.
Physical ( as in being geographically displaced) doesn't imply being separate. The distinction is subject to the individual's (irony) perception of existence.
2cents & L&L
Jouni
quote:
Originally posted by Lighthouse
I just read something in a book that suggested that you can be physically attracted to someone and not share a spiritual connection but you can not share a spiritual connection with someone without being physically drawn to them too.
I thought she was a beautiful woman until she opened her mouth. lol [:P]
I do know that the inner person is what I find attractive about a person. The more I know about the person the more attractive or unattractive they appear to me, reguardless of exterior appearances. So really it is the spiritual which would shape my view of the physical.
quote:
Originally posted by jilola
I think "To gravitate towards physical presence" would be suffieciently vague for the purpose of this thread
[:D][:D]
I liked what you said too before you edited your post fallnangel...
kerri
It's been said but I think that although a spiritual connection can strengthen or even spark a physical attraction... I don't think it's inevitable to happen.
Although from experience a special spiritual connection does make someone all the more beautiful.
Or maybe I just have my mind in the gutter and I'm thinking of physical attraction as just wanting to sleep with someone :)
quote:
Originally posted by MoonGirl
Although from experience a special spiritual connection does make someone all the more beautiful.
Or maybe I just have my mind in the gutter and I'm thinking of physical attraction as just wanting to sleep with someone :)
Been there...
try telepathy...
you can FEEL more than you know through telepathy...
but I think you need that special spiritual connection.
(I've never AP'd so this may be true too)
it makes life interesting...
if not completely insane
(and wonderful) at times [;)]
Sigh...
Okay can someone pull this back out before it really goes into the gutter?
Thunderbirds to the rescue, huh?
Here goes: Physical attraction is a physical interpretation of the perceived spiritual connection. Thus being physically attracted to someone may hint at a possible higher level rapport (but not necessarily so to which many failed relationships bear witness).
There, thread deguttered.
2cents & L&L
quote:
Here goes: Physical attraction is a physical interpretation of the perceived spiritual connection. Thus being physically attracted to someone may hint at a possible higher level rapport (but not necessarily so to which many failed relationships bear witness).
WOW... Great Job!
This makes me think of another quote from the same book, Too bad I can't remember the title... it will come to me. I'm paraphrasing here:
When you love someone, you are seeing God in them, they represent a connection to God for you. (God or your connection to the Universe, however you interpret that to mean)
How does this ring for you? I believe God to be LOVE in the highest sense of the word, all encompassing, blissful, ecstatic... blah, blah, blah.
So could that original statement be that we are trying to commune (in a physical sense) with the God we see in them? therby being physically attracted to their spiritual side?
Kerri
quote:
This makes me think of another quote from the same book, Too bad I can't remember the title... it will come to me. I'm paraphrasing here:
When you love someone, you are seeing God in them, they represent a connection to God for you. (God or your connection to the Universe, however you interpret that to mean)
How does this ring for you? I believe God to be LOVE in the highest sense of the word, all encompassing, blissful, ecstatic... blah, blah, blah.
So could that original statement be that we are trying to commune (in a physical sense) with the God we see in them? therby being physically attracted to their spiritual side?
Here's what I think the Love we feel on the physical is: It is the our perception of the cohesive force between souls that are facets of the total existence often termed god.
Saying that the Love we feel towards another individual is ann attempt at communing with god is almost exactly correct save for the underlying assumption that god is separate from us or we from god.
The deeper the Love we feel the closer we are to the actual union of souls we have on the spiritual domains.
But love (as in I love tennis) and Love (as in I know your soul) are two very different things. They often get confused and the word itself has experienced a terminal inflation.
We Love someone because we subconsciously (or soconsciously depending on our level of understanding) see god in him/her and realize this god is the same god we ourselves are.
ach, to out it short: I agree in a way [:)]
2cents & L&L
Okay, this brings me to another quote:
Excerpt from The Anam Cara
"In the Celtic Tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and cara is the word for friend. So anam-cara in the Celtic world means "soul friend."...
The anam-cara experience opens a friendship that is not wounded or limited by separation or distance. Such friendship can remain alive even when friends live far away from each other. Because they have broken through the barriers of persona and egoism to the souls level, the unity of their souls is not easily severed. When the soul is awakened, physical space is transfigured. Even across the distance, two friends can stay attuned to each other and continue to sense the flow of each others lives. With your anam cara you awaken the eternal. In this soul space there is no distance...
You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the "friend of your soul." The Celtic understanding did not set limitations of space or time on the soul. There is no cage for the soul. The soul is a divine light that flows into you and into your Other. This art of belonging awakened and fostered a deep and special companionship. In his Conferences, John Cassian says this bond between friends is indissoluble: "This, I say, is what is broken by no chances, what no interval of time or space can sever or destroy, and what death itself cannot part." (He talks more about your Other which I understand as another word he is using for your Soul Mate.)
In everyone's life, there is a great need for an anam cara, a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. When you are understood, you are at home. When you really feel understood, you feel free to release yourself into the trust and shelter of the other person's soul..."
Kerri
Anam Cara, my beloved. Yep, that's it.
Just that ultimately we all qualify for the description yet in our lifetimes we only realize it with respect to few people.
There is no difference, no you and I; just one existence we all are adn express. Anam cara is indeed th erealization that there is no difference between the two individuals. Yet it goes deeper to the realization that there is no difference at all, between anyone or anything.
Thanks for reminding me of the term. Iäve been searching fo rone for a while [:)]
2cents & L&L
jouni
You're welcome... [:)]
Paah, I was going to post something profound and cool but suffered a brain leak. Age does not come alone.
Your turn.
2cents & L&L
Jouni
So we hear so much about Soul Mates. Is the Anam Cara what we are looking for? Is this why we feel physically drawn to people when we have a spiritual connection? Are we each looking for our Soul Mates? Do we perceive that if we have a spititual connection at all, we may have found out Soul Mate?
Or is it that we're searching for our own divinity and we can only recognize it if the "mirror" of another is held up to us?
Same with anger and other emotions, we become angry or jealous (all those emotions we would rather forget that we experience) We are seeing our own reflections in others of our perceived weaknesses (The ego hates weakness and attacks it at any chance.) Is the Anam Cara experience one of seeing our own divinity through the image of the other?
Your turn [;)].
Kerri
I have dated men of all kinds (attractive, not attractive, intellectual, strong, fun, etc) but I have yet to have a relationship with someone spiritual like me.
I decided not to date anymore until I find my spiritual equal. Otherwise, I'de rather not waste my time nor my energy.
I also agree.. being with people that I have met who are spiritual are more fun to be around than family members. However, all the spiritual people I have met are usually older woman (except for my best friend who is my age and she and I on the same path spiritually). I have yet to meet any spiritual men. Go figure
Blissful
Where are these spiritual women you keep talking about? [:)]
Blissful,
I see what you're saying. A Rabbi once told me I should be a Rabbi (go look at my picture on my website, I'm the furthest thing from looking like a Rabbi... blonde & blue & Scandinavian looking) This was the highest compliment he could have paid me. At the time I said, "I Could never marry someone who was not my spiritual equal."
... then I got blinded by love...
go figure
Kerri
OK, I'm jumping in for the first time. Lighthouse, I think that one doesn't necessarily feel drawn to someone to have a spiritual connection to the person. I think one can also be repulsed or dislike another person and the spiritual connection is that the person is in our life to provide a lesson we are here to learn.
For example, the weakness I may fear that I have, I will see in another person and really have a physically negative respomse to the display of a certain weakness in the other person.
If the author, Sylvia Browne is right in her book, Life on the Other Side (I think that was the book in which she cites this phenomenon), and we make agreements with other spirits before we come to earth then the negative relationships (possibly family members) are just as spiritual as the positive relationships (chosen friends).
We can be just as repulsed by the negative aspects of another person as we can be drawn to the positive aspects of a person. I think both are spiritual connections, but we tend to call the positive encounters in terms of "Kindred spirits," "soul mates" and the like.
It begins to hurt my brain to think too much about the negative people that have come into my life and imagine that I made some agreement for those people to be so unkind, hateful, or mean to me.
M
Meadows,
Welcome to Astral Pulse.
Good point! I hadn't thought of it that way. We are all drawn to each other to learn spiritual lessons (it's my belief that they are ALL spiritual lessons)
I'll have to think on that one... Thanks.
Fallnangel, you're surrounded by spiritual women... open your eyes.
Kerri
My turn? Ok.
The term Soul Mate is a bit misleading in the sense that it suggests that there can only be one.
I have come to the conclucison that the term is only an attempt to cast the spiritual unity of our true beings in physical terminology. We are all Soul Mates in the real sense of being one but as incarnate individuals we are only aware of the connection in some rare instances. Hence the term Soul Mate and its usual interpretation.
We are searching for our divinity, to use your term, and often can only perceive it in relations to others. But a reflection is only half the truth and it's extremely difficult to see the truth outside if we haven't found it inside. Thus it is infinitely important to accept yourself and embrace your true being before you can fully understand that everyine else is the same.
Anger and jealousy are physical plane expressions of being frustrated at seeing behind the spiritual smoke screen into the truth of oneness between all.
Anam Cara is seeing that the other is the same, not separate but still individual and that in loving others we ove ourselves and vice versa. It's difficult to put into words, at least for me, but it is in my opinion the undiluted realization of oneness.
2cents & L&L
Jouni
Okay...
I'm starting to see that all my own lessons are coming back to haunt me. Jouni & Meadows are talking the same language (You two are so smart) and I have a story that relates to it...
I gave a speech about it a year ago and will post it here... it illustrates this point about contracts... being drawn yet needing to learn a lesson through the attraction. Here is an excerpt from the speech:
I recently gave a speech entitled "Trash that Borrowed Cloak" where I explained that we choose to accept other peoples false beliefs as our truths and call these borrowed beliefs our "definition of self." I then gave a few anecdotes about some of the people who helped me form my false definition of self. I explained that all of the people who told me there was something wrong with me were seeing in me something that they had rejected about themselves. I cited my greatest tormentor, Andy, who every day, screamed FAT to me all the way to school. I then explained that he did this because he subscribed to the false belief that he was flawed in some way and was projecting his own self hatred on to me.
The night after the speech, I had a marvelous dream where I had another moment of Clarity. I was sitting at a very large round table, giving the same speech I gave the night before, Andy was sitting to my right. As I got to the part where I said, FAAAAAT, Andy was becoming visibly nervous. I tried to soothe him by rubbing his back and arm. Then, when the speech was over, I gave him a wonderful, healing hug, filled with So much love that that feeling remained with me for several weeks after. That night, I owned the concept that I taught the night before. I saw how all the pieces fit together.
You see, I contracted Andy to bring me that lesson. I had a crush on him in Junior High school and he was the one person who could hurt me the most. I saw him every day on the bus and the combination of this and his particular style of torture, impacted me so strongly that had it been any other person, in any other way, I would not have had such a profound effect on my definition of self. It also would not have had such a profound impact on my ability to reverse those negative feelings that I carried around with me for so long.
That night, I realized that Andy gave me the greatest gift that anyone has ever given me. He showed me the part of myself that I chose to reject and needed to heal and accept in order to recognize my "Life Purpose." My gift to you is to ask what you perceive as your special flaw or dysfunction. Once you understand that it is only a flaw in your perception, you will then see that only your perception needs correction and you will experience your own Moment of Clarity.
I didn't include the entire speech because it's quite a bit of reading...
Anyway, what it illustrates is that I was drawn to Andy but it was not for Love as we would define it, but it was for Love at the same time. Through understanding what I rejected about myself, Andy was holding a mirror up to me and showing me what I needed to heal within my own mind to see a grander picture of my own divinity.
Make sense?
Kerri
This conversation reminds me of the concept of the "Twin Flame". I got the following excerpt off of a website to define the concept and how it relates to this conversation:
"Did you know that you often attract people into your life who look as you do in parallel or past lives? For example - you are a man seeking a female partner. You will seek out someone who looks and acts if you were a woman - like a mirror image. Your ideal partner is who you are in that physical body! We are always seeking ways to experience ourselves. "
quote:
Originally posted by Avalon
This conversation reminds me of the concept of the "Twin Flame". I got the following excerpt off of a website to define the concept and how it relates to this conversation:
Interesting you should mention this. I'm surprised I didn't in my first post. I've read a lot about twin flames. This is a deeper connection that soul mates. We have many soul mates but only ONE twin flame!
I'm in search of mine. Wish me luck. Many lives can be had before finding and connecting.
Blissful
So,
Is the Twin Flame the same as the Anam Cara experience described above?
Kerri
According to what I've read, twin flames were one in the beginning and were split (to form 2 souls). In their reuniting, they are able to transcend normal human relationships.
It is much like a anam cara. There are so many different takes on what a soul mate is and is not, it comes down to what it is you choose to believe (isn't everything?).
For an extremely complicated (and much of it is over my head :) explanation, go here... http://www.excelexgold.com/about_twin_flames/about_twin_flames_maintext.htm
I just wanted to post the title of that book I quoted here, The Ecstatic Journey: Walking the Mystical Path in Everyday Life by Sophy Burnham.
Kerri
quote:
Originally posted by runlola
I've been told that for a relationship to really be fulfilling & lasting it has to be compatible on 5 different levels.
Physical
Mental
Creative
Spiritual
Emotional
The closer to 100% on each level makes the best relationship even though it is possible to get by on being 85-100% on only 2 levels. Unfortunately, I have yet to find someone that I am compatible with on more than three levels.
Wow.. when you look at this list, I realize I've only dated men who have had one thing on that list. How unbalanced (and it explains a lot as to why those relatioships all died out too).
Thanks for sharing
Blissful
Is there a test you can take to know where you stand and what you should be looking for? I was chatting with someone today who I think did one of these tests... He was in the 90% group with one very popular actress... I don't know what test it was though.
Kerri
My two cents...
I think that spirit is drawn to the physical and the physical is drawn to the spirit. I am reminded of statements like, "and the Word became flesh" and something about being created in the image of the Creator. I think that the physical world allows us to experience things in a more solid way, it allows as to form and confirm our thoughts and identity, to make our souls more whole or real. I am reminded also of how we sometimes meet someone who appears to be an old soul. They are people whom in we recognise the experiences of many life-times. I think of saints and people like Ghandi, Jesus, Mohammad, etc, in those terms. They are souls who have lived several life-times, experienced much and each time gave more depth, more meaning, more realness to their soul. John Edwards sometimes when reading people will say that he knows the soul coming through is a child because they don't come with a lot of life-force/experience with them. So living on the physical plane adds to us.
When we are on the physical plane, however, we are aware of the spirit plane, well, those of us who can still remember some of it. We yearn for it but still have things to accomplish here, so we stay. However, we become attracted to all things spiritual. We search for people who remind us of all things spiritual. However, we are not making that search in a spiritual world we are making it in a physical world. This means that in order to connect with other spirits on this plane we do so by physical closeness. This may mean just having friendly chats or it can mean sexual closeness.
Okay, the last point here however is this. Human beings are all primed and ready to go sexually. Our sexual bodies don't care whether it is with a male or female or object, etc. Our minds do but our bodies don't. Therefore, every contact with another person is going to exert a sexual component. The difference is the mind. We choose not to interact with someone who is not appropriate for us, no matter how much our souls are attracted to them.
I have had that experience with three males in my life. Each of them very spiritual, the first a poet, the second a priest and the third an academic who would have denied being a spiritual person since he bordered on being an atheist. I recognised their spiritual connection to me but for various reasons we were not about to have a physical relationship. I don't hear from them anymore but I know they are out there doing their thing and I am doing mine and we will eventually meet up somewhere.
I think in Buddhism they talk of a final reincarnation, please correct me if you know. I think the idea is that we go in these cycles until we become enlightened at which point we stop coming back. I think that enlightenment then is when we become so fluid in the spiritual and physical world that we move through each easily and conscious, in the same way that two separate ingredients come together to develop a new thing/identity.
My brain hurts.[;)] It was more than two cents, I think.
I just read something in a book that suggested that you can be physically attracted to someone and not share a spiritual connection but you can not share a spiritual connection with someone without being physically drawn to them too.
I think this rings true for me... Even extending into my same sex relationships. If I share a spiritual connection with a woman, we often become "soul sisters" as I like to call them... meaning that we mutually support one another spiritually and are like family I would even say that I would rather be in the physical presence of my spiritual family than my biological family. It feels more like home to me.
Does anyone have any input on this? Have you ever been spiritually attracted to someone without a physical attraction of some sort? Is it possible?
Kerri