Notice that I did not say 'religious' forum. I personally do not care to argue doctrine, as I feel it is pretty bogus to begin with. I believe there is Universal Law, but I don't necessarily think that it is black and white. In other words, context is everything. And the organized religions are suspect to me. The argument in the past was that it turned into a big flamefest. Well, if this were a separate forum, that "fear" would not materialize because those who don't want to discuss God don't have to click on it, and those who are trembling at the thought of dissent are forewarned that it's a possibility. I am dismayed at how many sites have a policy to try and create groupthink and act as if any debate is a horrific prospect. It's the yin and yang, baby. You cannot have 100% agreement on all matters and it's not the end of the world if you disagree.

Things seem to be cheerily matter-of-fact at the "Do you ever talk to Jehovah's Witnesses?" thread, so I think a metaphysics forum would do all right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2010 09:29PM by Tamukha.

Thanks for the vote. Actually, I was thinking that perhaps it could include all kinds of far-out topics like the paranormal, astrology, and conspiracies.

On, no, not conspiracies![writhes on the floor] . . .

Well my thing is always uncovering truth. It seems that people who value their intelligence are the first ones to dismiss believing anything other than what we are told by the government and the media as anti-intellectual, but how can we in good faith allow ourselves to go along with wars based on trumped-up "evidence" and other crimes against humanity? I think if we are not willing to think for ourselves and explore alternate theories, we run the risk of passivity, which is right up the alley for those who may be doing it.

I myself have had some pretty strange experiences. Yet, whenever I share them, usually its with a great deal of skepticism, as if they never happened. Well, so much so that I even doubt that they were anything other than just the result of stress, or not remembering the details of an event.

So, they include getting attacked by a 'spirit' which was a skelton, with blue burning flames and smoke bellowing out. I was awaken by this, so its difficult to know if it was really just a dream. but what a dream!

And of course I have had the materializing coins in my pocket. That is passed off as I just bought something and forgot that I obtained change in the usual way.

the clinchner is that I cannot share those experiences with other people, I cant make the metaphysical happen for someone who doubts it. So, I ultimately wonder about the value of such experiences, that they cannot be varified by outside sources.

Thats my two or three cents. I would be interested to know what people think, pro or con for what I experienced and just shared. The two I gave respresent the high and the low of my experience.

I just remembered in one of the books I read, it mentioned table turning. It said that was a favorite pastime in England about 150 years ago. People sat at a table with their palms on the table. I don't remember if you were to ask spirits for something or not. I got the impression that people just sat there. After sometime the table would start to move on its own.

Sometimes it took several hours of sitting in the dark. Sometimes the table would move in sudden scary ways, but the author claims that he sat in on several table turning sessions to prove the reality of the metaphysical to skeptics. The author lived in more recent times. But, table turning has rather gone out of fashion.

If I suggested this to my friends, I am sure most of them would be disinterested for several reasons. Skepticism would be a big one, and I don;t think they would be willing to wait several hours in the internet age for something weird to happen. And if they already believe in the metaphysical, they would suspect unfriendly spiritual forces at work.

Would anyone be interested in doing table turning? Or something else? what else could demonstate the metaphysical. it would be interesting to try and think of something we all could do over great distances. Maybe i will try to send you all a message of some sort, or an image mentally?

Table turning--I've done that. It occurs to me that we are more removed, psychically, in this day and age, from the Unseen, so perhaps a metaphysics forum would be beneficial.

I participated in a table tipping once. It was at a psychic workshop. Two of the people in the group told us about how they used table-tipping to get in touch with this guy who had been killed in a plane crash and they thought the death was orchestrated, etc. and so the guy - I think it was a relative of theirs - would communicate to them on how to conduct their lives because they were in danger and being watched or followed, also, etc.

So about six of us in the group took turns talking to one of our dead loved ones. I got in touch with my father, supposedly. The table lifted and tilted at different angles and it would mean yes or no to the questions we posed. It was interesting, but I prefer spiritual healing more than communicating with spirits.

You could go use the Astral Dynamics forum

Thanks, Jana! (The other banana)

Astral Dynamics forum? Heh? This?:

[forums.astraldynamics.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/2010 07:15PM by Tamukha.

Tamukha,
"It occurs to me that we are more removed, psychically, in this day and age, from the Unseen,"

Its in line with everything in our age of 'skepticism'. In prior ages I think everyone believed in the unseen, and people regularly had some contact with spirits, gods, elementals etc...

So, these days either people don't believe, or they think that the only beneficial communication is through some scripture which is already written.

Kidraw,
Interesting, I never thought of table tipping as being a form of communication. What I read seemed more like amusement, where the people were doing it just to experience something paranormal, or metaphysical.

Bannana who,
"I personally do not care to argue doctrine, as I feel it is pretty bogus to begin with. I believe there is Universal Law, but I don't necessarily think that it is black and white"

Having said that, realize that what you have said IS doctrine. Some evidence for that is there are movements which have taught something like that, if not exactly that. In addition, there are a number of religions that feel that things ARE black and white, and they hold the key to understanding those things black and white. So, an alternative would be a doctrine which denies that.

Mislu: That is why I differentiated between religion and metaphysics, which is a broader (almost generic) term to encompass New Age beliefs, spiritualism, paranormal, etc. And even some Eastern beliefs mirror this idea of there being a method to this madness called living in the Material World, like karma explaining the seemingly unfair conditions some people are born into. If I were to ask a Christian minister why some child in Ethiopia is starving to death, they would typically say "God's will," which doesn't resonate with many people due to the seeming cruelty and/or lack of logic of a loving God doing such a thing.

Banana who,
Well, there was a thoughtful christian guy who questioned that, and said exactly that, he eventually got labeled as a heretic from his own congregation. He basically lost his congregation and had a difficult time supporting himself without an income and not other profession. Eventually he found a following with a whole new congregation, but it took a lot of work. Some of the 'unique' teachings he came up with was universal salvation, or eventual salvation of everyone, the general belief in a divine being was sufficient. Also that it wasn't necessary to even know or believe in jesus.And a few other things, but those were the major ones. So in the end, it didn't sound very christian, and was rejected by his former congregation.

I saw an interesting u tube video, "new age Opra" she was trying to make a point about tolerance, but it appearently did not go over well with some folks in the audience, and it looked like she was very angry with their lack of agreement. I thought it was rather strange, because it did sort of look like extreme tolerance could ironically produce intolerance.

christians, especially fundementalist ones are afraid of new age teachings, paranormal, eastern religions, metaphysics etc... I would say that they exclude themselves from wanting to be included in such things. I would guess that most Muslims and jews probably would also. I know that some new agers like to use christian, jewish and muslim like terms, like angel healing etc...But usually they say they aren't really angels.

Wiccans and neopagans are probably a better fit for more generic belief in the paranormal and metaphysical,most promise direct contact with various gods/spirits, if approached in the correct manner.

An atheist would probably say something like there are physical and emotional needs to be met, and suffering is caused from not getting them met. Thats pretty simple, no god reguired. One could certainly practice compassion and giving and still be an atheist, and potentially with less strings attached than someone with religion. Every christian soup kitchen I have ever seen usually has some preaching and encouragement towards prayer and conversion. I don't know maybe that exists with atheists. But I have yet to see an atheist soup kitchen or the 'atheist army' thrift shop.