"All" matter interacts with itself. Why does everyone have such a problem with that? There are so many threads and posts from, "Is Satan an Alien" to "I Think My Dog is God." What does it matter.

"Everything interacts with everything." Why is this so hard to comprehend for some of you? It flows like water to me. Honestly! I have been reading and reading so many different theories about this subject but I just cannot accept answers some have when questions are raised about such trivial things like life and death and keep a straight face. That's just one. Take anything that is raised.

I don't see the significance of wondering if there is life elsewhere. "Of course there is." Will the Hadron Collider destroy Planet Earth or end the known Universe? Does it really matter? I have to say no.

Nothing ends, Nothing! It just blends. ALL LIFEFORMS are one in the same. "Light is a Life Form." Ramble that around in your mind for awhile. Darkness is a Life Form. They may not want or understand each other but they coexist. Conscience is alone with itself. Conscience is the reality of, you guessed it, its own being. All is not a part of the big picture, the big picture is all.

Well, I'll stop my ramblings now. I have no doubt that this will end up in netherworld. That's OK! I know I'm on course and so does the rest of me.

I understand that. I have flickers of that reality rolling around in my head. Again, I understand it and can grasp it, it is (I guess for me) making the concept of that reality a reality to my personal beliefs and letting go of all the other BS. Easier said than done. I understand that reality isn't waiting for me to grasp it and that regardless of if I do or not, it is still the reality. It would just be nice to flow with it all. =)

But right on and excellent way of wording it.

To accept that ''Darkness'' is a lifeform people would first have to accept that darkness itself exists, which many, if not most, do *not*.

They believe in the ''absence of light'', and using that train of thought, the ''darkness'' lifeform would be a lifeform of nothingness?

Originally posted by SlytOfHnd
Nothing ends, Nothing! It just blends. ALL LIFEFORMS are one in the same.

I disagree. There is a very specific difference between you and me and every other tiny bit of life everywhere else. We all have our individual points of view, and nothing I know of can make me see things and experience things through your point of view. It does blend on certain levels, but not all. In the end, you can't see out through my eyeballs, and I can't see out through yours. And when I die, the universe will be gone, including you. I think that's an important point.

I think the easiest way to phrase this is that in the "all are one" view, consciousness itself is the point, not the memories of what has been experienced. If viewing it this way, who you are is like a video surveillance device coupled with a viewer. (A consciousness) You are both recording data, (the memories, the ego, the mind) and you are simultaneously Aware of the the data as it is being viewed. If you think you are the data bank, the recorder, (rather than the Awareness itself,) then you are correct, when "you" die, your data is gone forever. If you think you are the awareness itself, then awareness continues to exist after your individual mind, ego, etc. dies. That awareness does NOT cease to exist when the recording device does, it is now viewing through the surviving recorders.

Most "mystic" traditions are attempting to show you, not just get you to believe, that you are not the recording device. Not the mind, not the ego. You never were. You were, are, and always will be the Awareness itself. It is demonstrable, but it can take a lot of effort (read years, lifetimes) to demonstrate it if someone is completely identified with their own individuality.

Obviously, this is in contradiction with many religions, (at least their dogma) so you may not ascribe to this view. Its not an attempt to convince, just explain.

Originally posted by TruthParadox

I didn't mean to be "testy". I was asking an honest question because I know some close friends that have taken shrooms and report the same effect: loss of ego and oneness with the universe. It's a perspective, and most people aren't born with this perspective.

Yeah, shrooms can do it and IllusionsareGrander stated so can LSD and meditation.

But in my opinion it is mostly about "grace". It will happen or it won't. I have a sister that is heavily into meditation (like 2.5 hours a day for the last 25 years) and she has not had any experiences of this magnitutde.

On the otherhand I am pretty lazy about meditating but had it happen spontaneously to me a few years ago while driving down the highway, it lasted all day and changed belief into knowing (no drugs involved).

And like the OP i find threads about who's God is better, or "I saw a shadow it must be demon out to capture my soul" and the like to be very tedious. It is just best to avoid them and save yourself the stress. You can't make others understand, and like you said its all one, those thoughts come from the one consciousness too.

[edit on 17-8-2008 by Sonya610]

I tend towards the panthiestic view as well. All is one, matter and energy are conserved. The universe is God playing hide-and-seek with himself. The notion of a strict division between the worshiper and the worshiped can be laugable. In the final analysis there is nowhere to go and nothing to do. In a sphere of infinite volume all points are the center point. Right where you are sitting right now is the Throne of Reality. I am not superior to any other being, nor am I inferior. In the end there's nobody here but just us chickens.

This kind of viewpoint is very advanced and hard to maintain for any length of time. Integrating it with lower levels of perception is difficult. There is a problem of words and representation. Its easy to get hung up on definitions; words are slippery and once the original feeling is lost its hard to evoke through words. All religions started in a pure flash of some sort of higher consciousness, but they all devolved into ritual, empty supersition, clinging to sacred texts and even violence and war.