> Spirituality and Mysticism > What is Mysticism?
  #1  
Old 04-15-2004, 10:32 PM
Default Introduction to Mysticism

This involves the discussion about people who had been in a coma, and speculation about whether or not they had spent some time with the angels, without the need to consider any alternatives.

Excerpt from the thread, Spirit vs Energy ...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Digital Cuttlefish
Does this mean you refuse to list any other possibilities? (I negate nothing--I would ask the others to try the same thing.) You say "it leads you to wonder"...in asking you to come up with possible alternatives, what am I doing besides helping you to "wonder"...? I don't know about you, but when I wonder, I hate to limit myself right off the bat to only wondering about one possibility.

So...gonna list any? Or do you prefer constraining your wondering to that which you have already decided you believe?
You're right, there's no point in dwelling on it if you believe it to be highly unlikely, however, since it does coincide with my beliefs/experience, I have no problem thinking about it and leaving it alone at that. Hmm ... Which actually brings up the nature of how I know what I know. Basically I don't commit anything to memory unless I understand it first. You know what they say, "Garbage in garbage out," right? So in that respect I stay pretty close to home with my ideas (more of an internal experience) and, although it leaves me somewhat limited in terms of the things I think about, more often than not my ideas do bear fruit.

Basically it's a way of thinking about things internally without going nuts ... albeit it wasn't until after I had gone nuts that I discovered the process. Are you familiar with shamanism? Neither is it altogether different from what Robert A. Johnson was saying about getting in touch with your unconscious self. Consider it an introduction into mysticism.

Do you know what else? It rarely requires any confirmation from someone outside of the experience. Sort of like a stand alone Java applet as opposed to JavaScript.
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  #2  
Old 05-07-2004, 04:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iacchus32
Do you know what else? It rarely requires any confirmation from someone outside of the experience. Sort of like a stand alone Java applet as opposed to JavaScript.

Rarely? I would say never. Religious experience is self-validating. We'll never convince atheists of anything, we can only seek out the like-minded. We know what we mean.
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  #3  
Old 05-07-2004, 10:22 PM
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All religious experience is annicdotal, not emperical, and science considers annicdotal evidence to pretty much be worthless.
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  #4  
Old 05-07-2004, 10:47 PM
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I'm interested in religion, not science.
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  #5  
Old 05-11-2004, 08:19 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dretceterini
All religious experience is annicdotal, not emperical, and science considers annicdotal evidence to pretty much be worthless.
Yes, it might be anecdotal to a brick wall, which in effect doesn't feel anything, but to a conscious annimate being, with its high degree of sensitivity -- and yes, that includes our feelings -- it is anything but anecdotal.

Ever consider that human beings may very well be designed in such a way as to perceive God?
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  #6  
Old 05-16-2004, 05:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dretceterini
All religious experience is annicdotal, not emperical, and science considers annicdotal evidence to pretty much be worthless.
Does that mean Science has a pretty worthless view of Religion then?
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  #7  
Old 05-16-2004, 05:35 PM
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Science is concerned with physical existance. An idea becomes a concept, but a concept isn't real, in the same way the idea and concept of a car isn't real until the physical object exists. The truth or fact of a car doesn't exist until the physical object does.


Religion is concerned with ideas and concepts, but no physical object has to exist. To religious and spiritual people, the idea and concept in and of theirselves connnotes truth and fact. What is true or fact is taken upon faith, without emperical evidence.

A scientist may start out with an idea, create a concept around that idea, but the fact or truth of that concept has to be proven by experimentation to be real. A scientist never takes anything as fact based purely upon faith. Religionists do.
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There are some things that travel faster than the speed of light; the thoughts of an imbicile (To paraphrase Gabriel Voisin, automotive and aero engineer, 1934)

Perhaps "TRUTH" lies in the middle of what appears to be a paradox (ME)
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  #8  
Old 05-16-2004, 06:29 PM
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Do you believe it's possible to work with a hunch? Or, in that sense learning how to trust your instincts? I don't see why not, animals do this all the time don't they? Hmm, could it be that the animal kingdom is more of an intuitive realm and, that Religion has essentially emerged from the same realm? Afterall, most of these so-called deities of the past have at one point been tied to nature. Maybe this faith business is more a matter of learning how to be intuitive, akin to say, priming the pump where, once this creative energy has begun to flow, so do the creative revelations which also ensue? Or, at least this would be my guess for those who practice what they preach.
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  #9  
Old 05-17-2004, 01:30 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Iacchus32
Do you believe it's possible to work with a hunch? Or, in that sense learning how to trust your instincts? I don't see why not, animals do this all the time don't they? Hmm, could it be that the animal kingdom is more of an intuitive realm and, that Religion has essentially emerged from the same realm? Afterall, most of these so-called deities of the past have at one point been tied to nature. Maybe this faith business is more a matter of learning how to be intuitive, akin to say, priming the pump where, once this creative energy has begun to flow, so do the creative revelations which also ensue? Or, at least this would be my guess for those who practice what they preach.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by intuitive, but to my mind people become religious or spiritual due to some sort of emotional need.
__________________
There are some things that travel faster than the speed of light; the thoughts of an imbicile (To paraphrase Gabriel Voisin, automotive and aero engineer, 1934)

Perhaps "TRUTH" lies in the middle of what appears to be a paradox (ME)
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