Religion: An antidote to despair? (afterlife, reincarnate, God, Earth)
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Rational intellects are too quick to dismiss our other sensitivities beyond the normal sensory system. Disciplined and consistent meditation eventually enables a sufficient disconnect from our usual sensory system and allows us to sense other aspects of our reality not currently amenable to our senses and instruments. Don't write those off because you are only using 5% of reality to write off 95+% of the rest.
OK, well nobody will accuse me of being rational.
I KNOW that there's a portal to another dimension in my purse and that things go to "that place" for varying periods of time. I can be looking for something that I know is in my purse, and I'll dump it out and empty every damn pocket and what I'm looking for is gone. An hour later, or the next day, I open my purse, and there it is right on top.
Rational intellects are too quick to dismiss our other sensitivities beyond the normal sensory system. Disciplined and consistent meditation eventually enables a sufficient disconnect from our usual sensory system and allows us to sense other aspects of our reality not currently amenable to our senses and instruments. Don't write those off because you are only using 5% of reality to write off 95+% of the rest.
Kind of like when you take peyote? Alternative realities? Once after taking peyote, after the strychnine worked its way out of my systrm, I found myself sitting, with my white shepherd, on the edge of a great canyon. I felt the wind on my face and saw the birds circling and singing.
Was this real?
BTW: white shepherd was a pet canine, not a . . :-)
But odd experiences under the influence of hallucinogens does not diminish disdain for organized religion.
Kind of like when you take peyote? Alternative realities? Once after taking peyote, after the strychnine worked its way out of my systrm, I found myself sitting, with my white shepherd, on the edge of a great canyon. I felt the wind on my face and saw the birds circling and singing.
I KNOW that there's a portal to another dimension in my purse and that things go to "that place" for varying periods of time. I can be looking for something that I know is in my purse, and I'll dump it out and empty every damn pocket and what I'm looking for is gone. An hour later, or the next day, I open my purse, and there it is right on top.
Kind of like when you take peyote? Alternative realities? Once after taking peyote, after the strychnine worked its way out of my systrm, I found myself sitting, with my white shepherd, on the edge of a great canyon. I felt the wind on my face and saw the birds circling and singing.
Was this real?
BTW: white shepherd was a pet canine, not a . . :-)
But odd experiences under the influence of hallucinogens does not diminish disdain for organized religion.
The problem with substances that alter our mentation is that we are no longer sober and in control. That is why disciplined meditation is best. You retain sober control of your perceptions and your ability to evaluate the experiences. A detailed discussion of hallucinogens and other altered states like dreams would take us too far off topic, but a short answer is that some of the experiences are real and others are sourced in our subconscious. We do not disagree about organized religion and its potential for very negative impacts on people and society at large.
I KNOW that there's a portal to another dimension in my purse and that things go to "that place" for varying periods of time. I can be looking for something that I know is in my purse, and I'll dump it out and empty every damn pocket and what I'm looking for is gone. An hour later, or the next day, I open my purse, and there it is right on top.
But I digress...
Is that the same one that is in my dryer where socks go?
Back to the OP: I think "gettin' God" has given many people a foothold on a ladder that might lead them out of their personal abyss. Many addicts, prisoners, and others whose lives for one reason or twenty have spun out of control and have "hit bottom" - embrace the power that hope can instill - whatever its source.
And nobody builds faith in an unseen/unknown god-thing without a heaping helping of hope.
So it's not at all difficult for me to understand how an all-loving, all-forgiving, all-understanding Jesus can be a beacon to one lost in the dark.
Last edited by TroutDude; 03-23-2019 at 08:00 PM..
Reason: Required a "be."
Back to the OP: I think "gettin' God" has given many people a foothold on a ladder that might lead them out of their personal abyss. Many addicts, prisoners, and others whose lives for one reason or twenty have spun out of control and have "hit bottom" - embrace the power that hope can instill - whatever its source.
And nobody builds faith in an unseen/unknown god-thing without a heaping helping of hope.
So it's not at all difficult for me to understand how an all-loving, all-forgiving, all-understanding Jesus can a beacon to one lost in the dark.
It *is* understandable. One would like them to get as much surety and pleasure and direction from, say, Bach and philosophy and architecture, but it doesn't work that way. Too many people don't have access to this facet of human culture, find those things culturally foreign and can't relate to or enjoy them. Sexual and racial stereotypes play a role, peer pressure.
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LOL
