Baddogma's Meta Cafe- Polite Discussions About Scientific Mysticism and General Weirdness

a reply to: Baddogma

That left me with the (near) conviction that our thoughts create our realities, and thus, religious folks WERE happy and safe in the arms of Jesus, or Allah, or Satan, or any other tulpa created and then autonomous and living... and I have remained rather happy with that view.

I think that I agree. Our thoughts certainly influence our emotions and they influence our behaviour and so they do, in turn, influence our reality. I can't quite describe this viewpoint of mine well enough, or maybe I haven't formed it well enough in my mind yet.
It's something about which of the myriad sides of reality we turn to face. If you look for strangeness, then you will find it in abundance; if you expect it then it will meet you face on. If you ignore it, or refuse to acknowledge its existence then you won't find any in your life.

That's pretty much what a few others have said in this thread already, so I'm no original thinker, but there is definitely something more than just interpretation of events or cognitive bias at play. There is something else.

A few nights after my father died, I heard someone come along the hall. The bedroom door opened and woke up my (then) baby son. I watched the door close again and heard my other son's bedroom door open. I got up, and of course, as perfectly fitting for this thread, there was no one there. I checked on the other two children and they were sound asleep. I knew- knew, not wished for or hoped for, knew -that it was my father checking on his grandchildren as he had done countless times before.
So what's going on? Was he there or did I create the sounds and movement from an overwhelming desire to see him again? Either way, that is still indicative of that something mentioned earlier.

I don't have any answers for you, but very very happy to discuss in your excellent thread.

a reply to: Baddogma

There are different factions that are integrated into the nervous
systems of different blocks of humans.

So it's like a 'border pass' is needed sometimes.. depending
on the relationship between the factions at that time.

All this stuff is 90% psychology/sociology and 10% physics.

Kev

a reply to: Tulpa

Interesting take and I'll be happy to hear more from you in the future. Thank you.

To veer slightly off your musings ...

I know that the mind has effects on our common "reality" outside of the obvious physical and psychological effects, just look at some famous "miracles" as well as day-to-day stuff... but one must take other minds of differing focus, wants into account and on top of that, expectations, no matter how focused or ritualized, sometimes don't materialize... magik doesn't always work and folks, no matter how careful and positive they are, can get ill.

So it is a swirly mix of Darwinian intentions and the strongest minds win? Is there a planning council a dimension over that nixes some folks wants and promotes others due to some overarching plan?

Beats the heck outta me...but I wonder...

a reply to: Raxoxane

Howdy Rax.. .glad you dropped in and you can have the comfy table by the window.

Telepathy has to be one of the most common things I and my acquaintances have experienced, so by expanding that sample, I'd guess most others have, too.

Every day I experience something "odd" (or completely natural, I think) like knowing who is calling... but I haven't had the same clarity/abilities that I had as a tyke... my first guess would be that more experience adds more complexity and doubts.

And... I get flashes when in groups... strange thoughts, usually negative, come and make my interactions difficult sometimes... depending on the folks. I put it down to plain ol' social anxiety most of the time, but admit I've gotten specific flashes about things that later come to light and are accurate... and some flashes about how folks view you aren't exactly comforting... anyway, I think telepathy isn't always a good thing as a human.

But the link with your child is familiar to me and interesting and not at all surprising. Thanks.

a reply to: GBP/JPY

Interesting and I'm glad you could come back and tell us about it! And again, the following isn't directly related to your experience, which I hope you expand on!

My own agnostic father came back after a heart attack and a ten minute period of death to tell me he awoke to a reality far more present and "real" than this one, and this, our present reality, quickly faded as if a dream... he said (paraphrasing) "no wonder folks don't come back to say "hi" as why would you want to inform a dream character you were fine when you awoke- and how would one do that?"

He also described a torus shaped exploding/enfolding mass of energy-everything that he termed "god." He was as anti-religious (and truthful) as anyone I've met, so that info stuck.

So, I dunno if there's one governing body of a Christian persuasion waiting for us over there, but personally I hope I don't end up like the poor souls (or whatever they were as "souls" is a loaded term) I've met who seemed like death for them was simply becoming invisible and being tied to the place they died...which seems more like a real hell than any lake of fire.

I know the discussion gets deep... so I'll keep it shallow for now. Thanks again for your time and experiences... more please.

a reply to: stargatetravels

Thank you very much for your experiences. You aren't alone by any means!

I too had a "dream" when a tween of rising up through my roof and looking out at my city from above...tasting the weird metallic taste of clouds and noting that it got colder, then warmer, then colder as I rose. One thing that sorta made me think it was more than dream was that I saw an old Frisbee on my roof that I had no idea existed, but when I looked later, it was, in fact, there.

The 'heavenesque' part of your experience is intriguing. I've read oodles of occult lit that asserted a "Summerland" or Nexus or really, just a realm that mirrors expectations, exists and is different, or has different aspects, for everyone. That would make a bit more sense than supposing one religion being valid.

One vivid dream I had after my dad permanently died had us walking on a beach he said he'd made for us to chat and that the reality "after" was just way more mentally malleable than the physical.

Guess we'll see!

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Thanks for coming in, Mystik... detailing some of your views are very appreciated.

I find I agree with many of your thoughts... and might just have far more to learn for the others... and have validated some of them through experiment, myself.

Simply making yourself happy and gregarious and projecting that as you go about your business will make one realize how much we mold our realities and attract our experiences. It is striking... and far more work to do than one might think...well, it is for me as a general depressive, anyway.

I still have questions as I know folks who are versed in the occult and are general positive thinkers who've gotten slapped with the misfortune stick ... and also wonder if this view could lead to one thinking ill folks willed it so, and thus opening a can of "your own darned fault" worms.

So what are the limits of "magical thought" and why, is my first general reaction? I look forward to you hanging about.

From personal experience, I say many things can be trained. I met an interesting individual years ago that everybody shunned because they said the he was creepy, but couldn't say why when I tried to delve into the reasons for why people found him creepy. The best they could say was "he seems to manifest out of nowhere when he's being discussed'. The second most common argument was that the guy was arrogant.

Well, personally I didn't find anything strange about the person but while having a spiritual / religious conversation, I confronted him on his arrogance that was pissing me off during the discussion. The guy fell silent and subsequently withdrew from the conversation. I though nothing about it at the moment.

Next morning, I was surprised to find the man sitting in front of my house when I woke up. He apologized for being an arrogant ass**** and thanked me for teaching him a lesson and wanted to teach me something in return. I thanked him, but said I don't require anything in return, I was just happy he came to his senses. However, he insisted on teaching me something but refused to say what. My interest was naturally aroused.

For the next few days, he took me to a special place in the forest that he said he had prepared. It was a small clearing with bare packed ground. In the middle of the area was a tiny sprout that had just germinated. He advised me to meditate on the sprout and not leave the area until evening when the sun started setting. The first few days, I found it hard to stay in the area even though I was doing meditation at the time. I couldn't see the point of the exercise. On the third day, I was already bored and suspected the man was getting revenge on me for scolding him. There was nothing to learn here, I concluded. Anyway, I decided this was the last time I would come here.

The man used to drop me off in the morning and fetch me in the evening when the sun was setting. Every time he fetched me in the evening, he would look at me and shake his head and say we would be back in the morning. On the third day, I sat down to do my meditation as usual and the man left. That day, he returned about 10 minutes later, or so i thought and I commented on it to him. He pointed at the sky, it was evening already. I was bewildered, I was almost sure no more that 10 minutes had passed and this time he seemed to be delighted at my progress. I tried to recall the day, the only thing that I could remember was that I was tuned, in sync with the small plant growing in the middle of the clearing. I remember turning my 'leaves' with the sun, the surge of nutrients and water in my 'stem', for all purposes, I was the plant growing in the clearing all day long. It was a confusing feeling.

Next day, he took me to another clearing with a larger plant in the middle. The same happened as with the sprout, I was the plant all day. I lost total track of time as I did before. The day after that, it was a huge banyan tree, hundreds of years old in ruined temple grounds. The rush off this huge tree was incredible, I 'saw' hundreds of years of history around the tree with my minds eye and details of the temple which since had crumbled to piles of rock. I thought I was imaging 'the history' of the tree, but it became even more creepy when the man asked what I had seen and could recount the same now nonexistent details that I had observed during my 'vision'.

By know, I was getting a little scared of my new 'skills'. I could not rationalize anything anymore. On top of that I started astral projecting during the night which only added to my confusion. The following week, we did Castaneda style 'power walking' in the pitch of night in a area with razor sharp lava rock cliffs and thorny bushes. Never got a scratch and there were no cliffs, the ground was even. I tried navigating the same area in daylight, cut my foot on lava rock and got multiple bleeding scratches off the thorns when trying to trace my nightly 'power walks'. I was getting even more confused. At the time I was not familiar with Castaneda either, only made the connection years later.

Then one evening, sitting on the beach and watching the sunset, I observed a beautiful woman, whom I had noticed earlier walk onto the beach and start doing her evening yoga as the sun was setting. She had he back towards me. For some reason, I lifted my hand and started to trace the rhythm of movements she was making while doing yoga, suddenly I heard her thoughts and at the same moment she turned around furious (she was about 20-30m away) and shouted at me to stay out of her head. I was stupefied and couldn't say anything.

I confronted my teacher about it and he laughed. Yes, you will hear other peoples thoughts if you want to if you continue on this road I am showing you. You will also be able to resist the elements, extreme cold or heat. You will gain telekinesis, teleportation, you will be able to pass solid matter, you will gain all sort of abilities that are considered supernatural. Now, do you understand why I was a little arrogant? Reality is not what you are taught it to be, all is resonance and everything is connected. If you can tune yourself correctly, you can perform the supernatural.

After this discussion, I was terrified. The next day I told the man, I'm done with more training as the fear of the unknown (not being able to rationalize) has turned into terror as I cannot see where this path would ultimately take me. It took me years to digest what I had 'learned'. I still can do 'power walking' in pitch black, I still astral project sometimes, which never happen prior to my training. I have a good sense of energies of people and places, recently made my friend startled when commented on their country mansion 'This place is sure haunted'. He said it is something their family does not discuss, but all of them have had weird experiences in the country house including their dog.

Haven't told many people about this, I think most would consider me a nutter.

a reply to: Punisher75

Just wanted to say welcome... and that goes for all, as the posters multiply (heh, hopefully) I'll have to stop filling the thread up with so many individual answers/welcomes.. .and hope my own lack of politeness is understood, as I simply find others far more interesting than myself!

As a general rule, most Christians will accept God as a Supernatural entity, the Devil as a Supernatural Entity and angels and demons and so on as supernatural entity's, however HOW they interact with one another seems to be the thing that most don't get into.

Is interesting and one of the things I shorthand to "puerile" when saying most religious dogma just doesn't cut it for me and seems far more human than something revealed from a higher perspective... mostly.

For myself, the fact evil is relative (outside of obvious things like attack/ death / freedom, etc.) and exists points to a maybe "God" that is not so concerned with the minutia or is simply letting it go as planned (Watchmaker) and thus personal attention/supplications are rather futile... .or it's a darker Darwinist/Lovecraftian scenario, heh.

But I don't know and would love to read some more in depth meanderings from your brain... so thanks and please drop in and add what these interactions are, in your view, when able.

a reply to: Gryphon66

Welcome Gryph... we arrived at similar philosophical destinations though I was lucky (some would disagree, I know full well) enough to not be too indoctrinated by any familial religious views. Reason and "scientism" (heh) are my own gravity wells, as well (heh again)... but the darned mystical has more mass than I would have thought.

I am of the opinion that the two poles will meet, though, and we'll figure it out... once this "odd" aspect of our worlds are admitted and addressed by the whole. Thanks for participating.

a reply to: Baddogma
Baddogma, you are one of the most polite
intelligent interesting members we have,
so you always have a pass on having to address every post.
Including this one

a reply to: combatmaster

I am certainly interested in your odd experiences, knowing you to be truthful and technically gifted... so when you have time, I'll be riveted!

Welcome, Combatmaster.

a reply to: beansidhe
Ah, hiya Bean... the chick (forgive me my misogynistic terms I find funny- not meant to be demeaning...at all) with the great taste in alt music and a vast intellect to boot. Always welcome to slum around my environs.

And yup.. .thoughts do have more "oomph" in the "real" world than most credit, it seems... and that ghostly visit is pretty standard according to the countless others experiencing the like.

Some are offended that, if some afterlife exists, their own relatives never visited in so obvious a manner... and I wish I had an answer as to why that is. My father's view that this place becomes more dreamlike once "dead" might be valid, but why some folks show up solid and physical as life, or as images, or as invisible (heh), only making sounds or opening doors, and still others, in fact most, never show at all or at best, appear in half-remembered dreams, is a real puzzler... to me, anyway.

So, too early to tell if this is an "excellent" thread, yet... but thanks and you are/will be always welcome.

originally posted by: UnderKingsPeak
a reply to: Baddogma
Baddogma, you are one of the most polite
intelligent interesting members we have,
so you always have a pass on having to address every post.
Including this one

Here here!

Many mystical folks on ATS give me
Me stomach upset...but Mr BD is
A true gentleman and scholar. He's
One of the few OP on this subject to
Whom I'd gladly respond.

(and I probably give them stomach
Upset...but that is a different topic)

Kev

a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Thank you very, very much for coming KPB.

Those of you who are unaware of Kev are in for a treat if he bothers to stick around. He has a unique view as a shaman/scientist and some of his findings are unsettling .. .but interesting and might even have truth! He has a theory of spirits as plasma beings/parasites that is involved and evolving... and is fairly unique.

Now... would that "border pass" translate to the physical inorganic, too? Like a wall or door of a house?

And what are your views on energies seemingly trapped in a home... the standard ghostie? I know you have mentioned your view that the "soul" does not exist as generally thought, and is instead a separate beastie/parasite that uses humans as incubators (to really understate it)... but if/when you have time, over time, a little overview would be wonderful.

Oh, and yeah... I am confused due to mentions that we are generally immortal, though merely an animal like all the rest and not as important as we think in the grand scheme, but , in your view, are we truly "immortal" in some manner, as a soul or data collection, or more a congregate of parasites?

Thanks!

a reply to: Gryphon66

Well, what's interesting to me is that in every single part of the world through time -- every single culture has a puzzle piece that fits alongside other pieces from other places/times.

The more systems you look into, the more angles you see from. I call it "map building".

The more experiences you have, the more dimensionally rich you can make your map. Most people only have awake and asleep -- but through things like meditation there are more baroque states of mind. You then can put more "points" on your map to help triangulate, orient, and determine your position.

a reply to: TatTvamAsi
Welcome TatTyamAsi... well, we're not "most" and what you relate is par for the odd course in meta-land.. .those esoteric teachers can be funny ducks... but one cannot really blame the "real" ones for losing patience with "normals" so set in their own worlds of comforting rationality...

But I come from the "plain speak" side of esoteric land... and airs of 'guru-hood' and such ego games are funny, but not productive.. .though they could be protective, I guess, to all involved.

Anyway, very interesting and thank you. I've brushed such areas myself... as far as Castaneda popularized "power walking" I was with a group of folks, some in high heels and evening dress, and we made an arduous 2 hour hike through canyons and desert in less than 20 minutes, at night, and we all just felt as if "in a groove" or half in a trance... so yup, no thoughts of delusion here!

a reply to: Baddogma
I'm not sure if this is off topic or not but you might want to read What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson. It's an interesting take on life after death. There was a movie made on it starring Robin Williams. While I like the movie, the book is much better.

a reply to: Skid Mark
No, not off topic at all... and I saw that flick and, more importantly, read the same materials the writer did!

The reality of any after death consciousness might truly be somewhere between that movie, Betelgeuse and Nightmare on Elm Street for all I know... heh.

a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Well, that's sweet, is much appreciated and half makes me wanna run and hide... but thanks! I responded anyway, as I'm here right now, and all... though I should likely pay more attention to work... heh.... nahhhhhh....