Tips to The Teachers/Helpers of Astralpulse:

[Drakoreo]

With highest respect to all the vibrant souls of Astralpulse, I make this post on behalf of "the students" (anyone asking advice or questions) who you wish to help/guide. I hope for these tips to only make your services more beneficial.

1) The student is RIGHT whenever what they think IS GOOD. Regardless of your personal perspective, if what they think is helpful to them, let it be helpful for them. That is more helpful than forcing a non-helpful perspective, regardless of what you deem true or false. Allow your student to decide what is true or false for themselves, they likely just want validation, not criticism (unless requested).

2) Encourage the student to find the answer THEMSELVES and to find the teacher inside them self: catch someone a fish, you feed them once, teach them to fish, they are fed for life. Only the student can know what is best for them, you can only help them find that answer for themselves.

3) Be helpful for the right reasons, be supportive, aim to encourage them to be their own best, rather than prove your superior knowledge.


4) do not crush spirits, do not invalidate someone else's experience with your own perspectives. Rather, be supportive and take their side, surrender your own beliefs for their benefit. This fosters growth, instead of self-doubt. To be a teacher/guide takes this responsibility.

5) Allow your student to take their own path, and encourage them to follow their own heart, regardless of what you feel is right or wrong, this is what is BEST for them in the long run. Them following their own path to happiness is more important than what you deem right or wrong. Being a teacher, you must want what is best for them.

The MOST important tip,
Love.
Always love.

Namaste

[Xanth]

In the end, nobody here is right.  This also means that nobody here is wrong.
Experience is unique and on a planet of over 7 billion people there are over 7 billion perspectives.

That should really tell you all you need to know.

Yes, and Love. 

[astralm]

Teach a man in the middle of the desert with no lakes around to fish and he starves to death.

This is not a classroom, there are not teachers and students.  This is more akin, in my view, to a study hall where everyone is a student.  Some students may have more experience and knowledge with the subject matter but there is not a professor that holds the answer key.  Just like any study hall, you ask a question, people around will give you their perspective on it and you take what makes sense, and leave out what doesn't to you.  Or if someone has an idea you haven't though of you think about it, maybe do some research and decide if you agree with it.

I'm not sure I am understanding you correctly but it sounds to me like you are suggesting if someone says something we don't agree with we should just say great job keep at it and not give the perspective we see as correct.  This does not lead to advancement.  I play guitar, I jam with people.  If I learn a new rhythm and go jam with them and show them my new rhythm, and it is off or missing something.  I don't expect them to say awesome rhythm man way to go and just leave it at that.  This doesn't lead to me becoming any better of a musician.  I expect them to say awesome rhythm, but you are slightly off here and here and then show me how to correct it and help me in a supportive fashion.  This is not the same as just agreeing blindly with everything I do and play as being correct.

Yes I do agree with you experiences are personal and there is no right or wrong experience.  I don't share experiences and I try not to comment directly on what anybody else's experience means, as I believe this taints the experience's meaning which is interpreted by you, for you.  Who knows how many people have had their 'obe' experiences altered by the fact they were expecting them to match up with Robert Monroe's or somebody else's who they had read.  This is one of the issues I have with using consensus data from TMI.  If you have listened to the gateway tapes you pretty much are prepared through the tapes and told much of what to expect or what the experiences mean.  TMI affirmation is a full paragraph in which you state your belief in Monroe's style of obe.  Over and over again.  Of course once these people actually have the experiences they are going to be very similar.  This says more about the power of hypnosis and suggestion than it does that their experiences are universal.

So going back to the fishing analogy.  Before you teach someone to fish you should probably make sure they have access to water, and that the water has readily available edible fish in it.  Then you need to make sure they know A successful method of fishing.  You should not try and force your method of fishing if they naturally have a different one as long as their's is valid.  If they are trying to fish by dangling their feet in the water and trying to sandwich the fish in between their feet, you probably need to show them another way.

In closing my point is there needs to be a balance.  You can't just say good job to any idea if that idea seems to you to have no merit, you would be nothing short of straight up lying.  However if the idea has merit but isn't your cup of tea, sure just get out of the way.  One example is chakras and the more direct interpretation of eastern energy body and planes structure.  Not really my cup of tea.  However I would never tell someone using this is wrong, first off I don't know it isn't correct, and second off it is well documented to be an effective model to use.  So sure if it resonates with you, go for it.  On the flip side if someone directly asked what do I think of chakras I'm not going to say I they are the best thing ever and they explain everything fully.

There is such a thing as being wrong.  If someone said the best way for the average person to learn to have an obe experience is to do a handstand and then hum the national anthem to themselves until their body floats up to the ceiling.  This statement is wrong.

[Stillwater]

I am not sure I agree no one is right... that is just a little too new-agey to me.

Apply that thinking to science... someone argues the earth revolves around the sun, someone else argues that the sun is a little ball that rotates around the earth, another person argues that the the sun and the earth are marbles being shaken up in a jar. One of those people is closer to being right than the others.

It is very easy to spot a bad argument. It might be defined by logical fallacies, or invented evidence, or false premises, or any number of things. We can with certainty say it is a bad argument when it has broken the accepted rules of reason.

For instance, say someone argues that because all squares are rectangles, all rectangles are also squares. It is very easy to see that this is an improper use of logic, because one-way relationships don't automatically become conditionals in the opposite direction.

For this reason I think it is more than reasonable to point out when a person has made an argument from insufficient proof or false logical structures. Most possible arguments are bad arguments.

It is much harder to know that an argument is true than that it is in error.

I don't know that my conclusions are true, but it is very easy to know when yours or theirs or hers are false. That is simply a consequence of the rules of logic. It is one of the greatest substantial gifts the history of philosophy has given the world.

[Xanth]

I am not sure I agree no one is right... that is just a little too new-agey to me.

Science works with this physical reality, where, things can be tested.
What I mean when I say that "no one can be right" is that all this stuff is a unique experience from one consciousness to another.
And until some over-arching consciousness-science comes around which "proves" one opinion/belief over another... no one is right. 

[Stillwater]

I think it is a language thing again here then.

Here is an example to explain the difference in our thinking here:


Suppose a coin was flipped by an unbiased person in another room; 2 people who couldn't see the outcome each decide they feel one outcome or the other is more likely, and they choose opposite outcomes.


In your view of things, neither is right, because they had no basis for knowing which was in reality more likely.

In my view, one of them is right, but not justified in their assertion because they lack proof.

I define "right" based on truth / falsity. You are defining it by what in philosophy is usually termed "knowledge"- AKA, the person knows what is true, and has an adequate and sufficient means to know it is true. "Knowledge" is usually held to be a harder standard to meet than "truth".

I think that is where we are diverging- we didn't agree over what the definition of "right" is.

[Drakoreo]

Teach a man in the middle of the desert with no lakes around to fish and he starves to death.

This is not a classroom, there are not teachers and students.  This is more akin, in my view, to a study hall where everyone is a student.  Some students may have more experience and knowledge with the subject matter but there is not a professor that holds the answer key.  Just like any study hall, you ask a question, people around will give you their perspective on it and you take what makes sense, and leave out what doesn't to you.  Or if someone has an idea you haven't though of you think about it, maybe do some research and decide if you agree with it.

I'm not sure I am understanding you correctly but it sounds to me like you are suggesting if someone says something we don't agree with we should just say great job keep at it and not give the perspective we see as correct.  This does not lead to advancement.  I play guitar, I jam with people.  If I learn a new rhythm and go jam with them and show them my new rhythm, and it is off or missing something.  I don't expect them to say awesome rhythm man way to go and just leave it at that.  This doesn't lead to me becoming any better of a musician.  I expect them to say awesome rhythm, but you are slightly off here and here and then show me how to correct it and help me in a supportive fashion.  This is not the same as just agreeing blindly with everything I do and play as being correct.

Yes I do agree with you experiences are personal and there is no right or wrong experience.  I don't share experiences and I try not to comment directly on what anybody else's experience means, as I believe this taints the experience's meaning which is interpreted by you, for you.  Who knows how many people have had their 'obe' experiences altered by the fact they were expecting them to match up with Robert Monroe's or somebody else's who they had read.  This is one of the issues I have with using consensus data from TMI.  If you have listened to the gateway tapes you pretty much are prepared through the tapes and told much of what to expect or what the experiences mean.  TMI affirmation is a full paragraph in which you state your belief in Monroe's style of obe.  Over and over again.  Of course once these people actually have the experiences they are going to be very similar.  This says more about the power of hypnosis and suggestion than it does that their experiences are universal.

So going back to the fishing analogy.  Before you teach someone to fish you should probably make sure they have access to water, and that the water has readily available edible fish in it.  Then you need to make sure they know A successful method of fishing.  You should not try and force your method of fishing if they naturally have a different one as long as their's is valid.  If they are trying to fish by dangling their feet in the water and trying to sandwich the fish in between their feet, you probably need to show them another way.

In closing my point is there needs to be a balance.  You can't just say good job to any idea if that idea seems to you to have no merit, you would be nothing short of straight up lying.  However if the idea has merit but isn't your cup of tea, sure just get out of the way.  One example is chakras and the more direct interpretation of eastern energy body and planes structure.  Not really my cup of tea.  However I would never tell someone using this is wrong, first off I don't know it isn't correct, and second off it is well documented to be an effective model to use.  So sure if it resonates with you, go for it.  On the flip side if someone directly asked what do I think of chakras I'm not going to say I they are the best thing ever and they explain everything fully.

There is such a thing as being wrong.  If someone said the best way for the average person to learn to have an obe experience is to do a handstand and then hum the national anthem to themselves until their body floats up to the ceiling.  This statement is wrong.

Exellent point! I agree, it is a good idea to show others another perspective besides their own, especially one that works for you, but do not say yours is superior-in all roles of life-your view is absolutely valid, and I apriciate being able to see it, I want to encourage you to persue that tune of your heart, that is the message I mean to be sent. Be encouraging, not dominating, share your story, but don't say it's superior.. Whatever we are to each other, it is most effective when we are respectful, kind, and encouraging.

[Volgerle]

The way I see it that this is a place to get advice for many students of APing. Everyone is a student, that has been stately correctly above. No one here is a teacher in that sense. If s.o. here pretends to be one I'd take it with a grain of salt to be honest.

However, some have a little more experience (which does not always mean they are 'wiser' or more skilled in that area) maybe just with certain areas or situations. When there is a situation where you had an experience and you found a solution for yourself, this is the point to share it. Take 'gaining sight from exit blindness' or 'exit methods / preventing being stuck' as two prominent examples.

I always say my advice is suggestion. Try it out. It might work or not work. It might be your cup of tea or not. No guarantees given. But it 'might' be helpful and I think in a few cases it was, such is my conclusion from this and other forums where I got feedback. Same applies to where I received advice. Some helped, some not. Such is the nature of our occupation here. Different things work for different people.

As said, I'm a student too, we all are here to learn and share. There is no guru and no dogma. If it was, this would be not the right place any longer.

[Stillwater]

As said, I'm a student too, we all are here to learn and share. There is no guru and no dogma. If it was, this would be not the right place any longer.

That is my major credit to this site. Almost all of the forums similar to the Pulse are centered around a charismatic teaching personality as the guru. I think the lack of that condition here makes the place a fair deal more objective, and a much better place for debate.