Most PROFOUND PLACE that you've been to that has "illuminated the human condition" for you

Many people think that 2012 is about some spiritual change or some human transformation.

So I would like to know -- what is the place that stands out in your mind (jokes aside about human anatomy please) that gave you / has given you the most profound insight (to date) into people in a general sense. It could be an everyday place that you just looked at differently one day, or it could be a place you traveled to. Photos if possible please.

My place is from a 2003 visit to Arizona. The Titan Missile Museum. A museum (Or rather, a formerly operational military site) where you get to see up close (With a guide who used to work there for many years) a nuclear missile (100 ft?) formerly armed with a 9-Megaton Nuclear Warhead in the silo!! That's 600x more powerful than each bomb dropped on Japan! The photos will tell the tale...or do a search on the net. Some user vids online.

Unfortunate that more people haven't been to this place...especially considering its short relative distance to the Grand Canyon or even Montezuma's Castle.





Ex-Armageddon control panel!



Looks innocuous enough!




A long time ago I used to be an idealist / "romantic" about peace being possible, etc...that is until various life experiences (9/11 being one of them), but especially as I started doing extensive traveling and acquiring lots more experiences from all over the world and knowledge about myself / our-selves. Anyway back to that 2003 moment -- so when I looked down the silo and at the same time the guide told our group about the power of this missile, my opinion of mankind --- instantly went in the toilet. Instantly. I mean what kind of logic / thinking would possess someone / group of people to not only design such things but build a whole bunch of them?

SIX HUNDRED TIMES more powerful. Say it out loud. Later...I learned the Russians even tested a larger one...



Wow. Fast forward ~10 years later and now I know the reason why. it isn't logic, but it's FEELINGS (In this case fear being a primary one). Something which is not well understood. And often overlooked and ignored by "science," because traditional and conventional or "scientific" methods of analysis just won't cut it. Relates to Maya = illusion of the self.

Relatively soon, knowledge of how feelings are stored in our mind/body will become more commonplace. And more importantly, how to get rid of them -- "emotional baggage" as some might call it. Or inner demons. It should be noted there is a difference between a --- positive memory vs a negative feeling vs a temporary positive feeling. How can I say this...because I have almost purged all repressed feelings in myself....it's been quite an unconventional process to get to this point. And there is a huge "pot of gold" at the end for anyone who ventures on knowing themselves very deeply...but that is a story better related in person.

Trying to "fix the world's problems" will never be successful until one realizes how they became "problems" in the first place. But, let me not delve too deeply in to this subject (Unless someone wants to know) or it might derail the thread purpose.

I've got numerous other profound places that I've been to that I could post about (LIke the aircraft graveyard - AMARC nearby), but this place has stood out more than others.

...oh...and rather than hating nuclear missiles / nuclear-based weapons, I've learned to "love them" so to speak...for a PHOENIX only RISES FROM ASHES

Does The Void count?
near-death.com...
Sorry I didn't bring a camera with me to my NDE..if I knew I was goin I would have planned ahead
the Void is most definitely profound lol but nowhere on Earth so idk if it qualifies lol

Looking up into a clear night sky on the open ocean. Seeing all the stars.

We live on a speck of dust floating in space, nothing we do matters.

Originally posted by ArtOfTrance
Does The Void count?
near-death.com...
Sorry I didn't bring a camera with me to my NDE..if I knew I was goin I would have planned ahead

the Void is most definitely profound lol but nowhere on Earth so idk if it qualifies lol

Am reading ur link. I haven't had an NDE, though I've had other profound "not-normal" experiences to put it mildly. But no point in talking about that....I've tried, and it is mostly useless...until some more things happen.

But, everyone knows the afterlife in an abstract sense ...that's if you accept reincarnation. Which is noted in the article -- so presumably you do. That's re-in-CAR-NATION (CAR / KARma / CHARacter / CHARisma). ...and maybe contrary to the article...but no soul has ever escaped the cycle! Because to stop it we have to get rid of all KARma!! Not acquire it!

I don't believe in a heaven or hell in an unearthly sense. Accept it as a metaphor for human places....
Post-2012, for those who want to know....we will learn about how this entire process works and who is behind it and the purpose.

As for the void, from my perspective there is a transition process / time period between dying and being reborn, and I have little to almost zero knowledge of how this works. Perhaps your link will provide some clues until then. Have done some NDE research, but not too much.

reply to post by dontneedaname


A beach nearby my parents house that is basically uninhabited...or at least used to be.

It was called snake lake as there was a lake in the back covered by woods, and you guessed it...it was in the shape of a giant snake slithering from the town my parents live in, to the one next to it.

It was so peaceful, and i remember going there to just get away from everything, and meditate.

Kick my shoes off on the beach, find a nice big rock to plant my butt on and just sit and listen to the ocean and my higher consciousness. It was probably the most beautiful place i have come to know in my existence on this earth of twenty years.

Recently though, due to tourists and people from N.Y. that come to the beaches, namely Sandy Hook which is on the east coast of NJ, is had been renovated to cater to the growing tourist and vacationer visits to the town.

It is now called Popamora Point, some Native American name that has nothing to with the land there and it is now apparently a landmark of the the Monmouth County area. They cleared out most of the trees and half of the beach there to put in a parking garage.

Such a sad ending to a great place,
Mike

reply to post by dontneedaname


I do believe in reincarnation,however I believe reincarnation is NOT the goal..reincarnation means you failed IMO
its like 2pac said "My only fear of Death is coming back reincarnated"

There is also no way of knowing if anyone has escaped the cycle..I like to think "ripe souls" fall from the Tree of Life or "escape the cycle"
Anyways Im gonna stop now before I turn this thread into something that should be in Spiritual/Metaphysical section lol

For me it would be Mesopotamia. Standing there on that ancient ground was very humbling for me. In America most of our landmarks and important places are only a couple hundred years old. In mesopotamia it is a land of thousands of years worth of civilzation, and people are still living off the land just as they have for thousands of years. To this American that was a very humbling yet important experience.

reply to post by dontneedaname


For me it was experiencing the deaths of my sister and brother. We all say that we are going to die some day, but the words don't mean anything, even when your parents die. It's only when your siblings go that the full weight of those words hit home: I am really going to die soon.

I can imagine everyone in the world standing in line and slowly moving along until it's their turn to jump in a rectangular hole in the ground.

Really REALLY have to enjoy this life as much as you can, because it is really going to end.

ATS is a pretty cool place to begin ones journey.
With that said i feel that i am far behind the trail blazing posters ahead of me.
I mean that with all sincerity i have had my share of awe inspiring moments from losing loved ones and visiting great places but for me the greatest experience is chilling with you guys in an environment that rises above everyday life in the fact that we can be more open to the harder truths of this hard world.

I hiked for several days in the geologic wonder that is the Grand Canyon, a product of simple erosion and time. I chartered fished at the edge of the Continental Shelf off the Outer Banks, where the inviting blue gives way to inky black that seems -- were it to care at all -- to dare you to not to respect the ocean's power. Both are excellent places to be humbled and realize the earth does not need us. We are its parasites and it will "be" long after we are gone.

I stared up in a dimly lit hall at the restored Sistine Chapel, at the master work of Michaelangelo, as well as the stained glass of Sacre Coeur, with colors so rich we are not able to duplicate them today made by unknown artisans centuries ago, exploding with color in the afternoon sun. Both are excellent places to appreciate what one man can achieve with talent, practice and inspiration.

I've seen the cross section of a giant ant colony, a miracle of social cooperation and hard work. I've seen the dew shimmering masterpiece of a spider's web in the breaking dawn, made from material stronger than man can produce in mass and with no more effort instinct. Both are great to realize that man is outdone by even the tiniest living things on Earth -- we are not so special as we think.

Originally posted by ArtOfTrance
reply to post by dontneedaname

 

I do believe in reincarnation,however I believe reincarnation is NOT the goal..reincarnation means you failed IMO
its like 2pac said "My only fear of Death is coming back reincarnated"

There is also no way of knowing if anyone has escaped the cycle..I like to think "ripe souls" fall from the Tree of Life or "escape the cycle"
Anyways Im gonna stop now before I turn this thread into something that should be in Spiritual/Metaphysical section lol

I just have to say that i agree with you on the reincarnation department. If you've failed....

It seems as tough you're getting another shot.

Ive recently learned to read palms, and seeing as how i noticed im gonna have one more life after this....Im probs gonna fail, yet there is indication that leaves room for success!

So wish me luck!
Mike

That was honestly very sad and i am sorry to hear...

But there was also a very beautiful statement at the end

Really REALLY have to enjoy this life as much as you can, because it is really going to end.

that really hit home with me, thank you so much
Mike

added: time to make some calls

another add: to deadeyedick:

Star for that my friend, i feel the same way

"Most PROFOUND PLACE that you've been to that has "illuminated the human condition" for you"

Probably standing atop the Neo-Sumerian Great Ziggurat of Ur in what is now known as Nasiriyah Iraq.

en.wikipedia.org...

This thing is thought to have been built in the 21st century BC and had crumbled to ruins by the 6th century BC.
Then was rediscovered in the 1920's and rebuilt in the 1980's.

It made me realize that our country will die out like the Sumerians did. I saw that we are the new Rome. Expanding our global reach so far and wide at the cost of our homeland, our home-base the United States collapsing and ceasing to exist. You have heard the saying Man's reach exceeds his grasp? I could see the extreme cost of sending United States military troops all over the globe. It is a sacrifice we are making as Americans at the cost of our country. We shall fall soon, just like the Sumerians who built that Ziggurat.

The pride before the fall.....

We have spread ourselves so thin, we have squeezed the citizens so hard that there is nothing left to take. There is no more tax money to take and give to the rest of the world. We used it all up.

It shouldn't be too much longer now for us. Maybe someday someone will stand on the ruins of our White House in some foreign soldiers uniform and look down and wonder how we lost everything we had.

They will wonder how far we stretched as their teachers tell them tales of how we had 1,000 military sites all over the world.

We shall have our slave revolt soon, just like the Romans had theirs.

There's a storm coming ATS. The Aristocracy better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, they're all gonna wonder how they ever thought they could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.

On the bright side of gigantic nuclear warheads...

When we destroy the planet with nukes and kill off mankind, we will all be able to experience the living hell of the mutant cockroach/ insect wars (I'm not joking) that the Imprisoned Geneticist Mantis being information slaves escaped from when they had to REALLY destroy that *infested* (not overpopulated *infested*) planet completely rather than just on the surface and then find yet another one to live on and try to teach it's inhabitants mind over matter... and when they see mutant militant weightlifting steroid snorting rapist cockroach hell with their own eyes they will have a much greater appreciation for not making mistakes the first time so we don't have to start all over again and watch our limbs being eaten while our head is 30 feet over... there... somewhere.

And some people think they actually traveled from light years away.

We're not quite there yet. We're still figuring out what happened on home turf.

Oh wait... that's right... nobody here remembers HELL despite the fact that so many of us were there... That damn VEIL of Death everybody loves so much rather than remembering the sacred preservation of life!

That trips us up every time!

ok... I'm afraid I'm not done with this "past" thing just yet.

It appears as though at one point in time early man had some interesting obstacles to overcome in his daily life... Such as Giant bears, megaldon sharks. Oh and watch out for that 8 FOOT SCORPION IN THE WATER WITH CLAWS THE SIZE OF YOUR HEAD.

G-G-G-G- (gasp) Gi- GIANT BIRD! GIANT BIRD! GIANT COW EATING BIRD!

This article is pretty funny, worth a read.
www.cracked.com...

I put this here because man is lucky. He has dominated this world and overcome some vicious foes but how did he do it? With intellect. The real question is, where did he get that intellect? what makes him reach for the stars in the first place? Why is he different than every other beast in the jungle? Why does he not only put himself above all the other animals, he puts himself above other men. Why?

Some say it is because he was chosen for exaltation by God.

If God can make anything he wants then why did he create man? were the first sons of God not good enough?
I say, why was he so bossy and why was he so certain he knew what was right? I believe the answer is because he has seen things beyond comprehension and was part of a group of entities who were creators that were constantly trying to create something better and better and this is expressed in our nature of self exaltation but we are missing the beat a lot of times. We like to make improvements as did God but for what reasons? Are we making improvements to better the lives of all?

As far as angels are concerned, maybe they were just so powerful that the division was inevitable because some of them had different natures and were created in different ways. Maybe angels are just like the bible says and in heaven are neither male or female and do not have offspring of their own so when they create, they are taking something from themselves and giving it to the lower life form of a world or taking something from the lower life form and creating a lesser angel of Heaven... and maybe their are different types. But the gap becomes more and more narrow as time goes by and man evolves while the heavenly beings move down from the heavenly war and the spiritual strife that they comprehend much better than us because they can see more... and one day like the bible says, they will come here to earth to live... like men do... and have lives and families like men do... instead of constantly working for the ascension of the species that has forgotten and largely rejected what they know, what they have seen and what they have been through.... and the two worlds will come together unified at last. A bright new future with the hard lessons of the past.

Jehovah was an entity that had footsteps when he walked, had to disguise himself as did other Elohim and did not like to show himself to man. He was telepathic and emitted fire or lasers at will. He had a short temper but good intentions and was disappointed when his people went astray and desired their own King to rule them. So he gave them one of partial human flesh that would not be corrupted as men so easily are and they rejected him.

Not only did man somehow get lucky enough to overcome many things despite the fact that his known history is so short and he knows so little about himself but they managed to over come dragons... large reptiles. Creatures who are not exactly evil (as we are all under the same empire) but full of fear and cold blooded and likely to turn and be easily startled, given to attack... simply of a different nature. Mammals are different in that they can maintain their own temperatures longer and are of a literally different temperament... but we are still related to all creatures in some way... just as we are related to Heavenly beings.

Sit back, relax... be resolute. Remember the good things about your nature and do not doubt your connection to all other beings. We can't all get along at all times but there is this thing called progress... and we can close the gap. We can stop the hunt and the warring and the thirst for blood. We can befriend animals, we can help them and bring them more into our world... and we can have respect for the gods and we can open our minds to a vision of hell that we never want to experience and we can eliminate this from our lives... or the wiser will do it for us, thinking we have become too proud... or choosing to keep our eyes closed.

You can't say you're above others if you can't even rise above your selves... but when we know the truth, we will all see... and we will know what's right.

We have come along way and we ARE moving forward.

Dammit... I hate it when I post in the wrong thread... delete.

For me it would definitely have to be straddling the San Andreas Fault, in Palmdale CA there's an Apt building on Ave S that is directly (about 50 from) the fault-line. If you go over to the "crack" you can literally stand on both sides of it and feel the little shakes and groans it makes constantly.

reply to post by dontneedaname


Tough question, with various possibilities.

Artistically / creatively, then it has to be both the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. Just breathtaking what man can create and achieve.

In terms of natural beauty, many many places. For example, Lake Plitvice (Croatia), Lake Tahoe, Lake District (and many other places here in the UK), Massif Centrale in France.

For history and culture, Cyprus, most of Europe, North Africa. Never been to the Middle East but want to visit Petra and Syria generally (not the best time though ).

Have to say, the World War 1 cemetary's in Northern France are rather abrupt and shocking.........certainly make you think.........as does Nuremburg, Auschwitz, etc.

The place that stands out in my mind would have to be my Church in Arizona. More specifically, the place I camped out at for my spiritwalk.

reply to post by pajoly


I love the way you write. Absolutely beautiful post.
I almost felt like I was there & saw those things myself.