Humbly Requesting Assistance re: Learning About The Unusual

I have recently been afforded the rare, and probably temporary opportunity to do a little more study, and I find myself in a somewhat unique position regarding interests or conflict thereof. I am a devout Christian, but I believe wholeheartedly that God has many mysteries for us in this incredible universe. I also think it arrogant to believe He would waste such a vast universe with only us in it.

The “awful waste of space” theme.

I heard the Arthur C. Clark quote recently that “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying”. I believe that as well.

So, with that short background, would other readers mind directing me to your favorite web sites and resources where I can spend some time with both video and recorded audio programs to help me learn more? I have stumbled onto far too many “suspect” sites to count, and I trust my ATS peers and their judgment on such matters. I don’t always have a lot of time, and often I have to turn the monitor off so my wife can sleep (so I listen with ear buds), but I am becoming more and more insatiable with my desire to see what others think and why. Of course I don’t always agree, but I at least have the exposure.

Remember, I always come to ATS first for the highlights but when my thoughts take off I don’t always know where the best places are to go. Thanks for any input.

I go to coasttocoastam.com to look at stories and pick out shows to listen to for free on youtube.com

As a Christian, can you really handle the questions you will encounter on your path? I think most people cannot move from one fairly controlling belief system to a challenge of beliefs. My family who are Christians are definitely not open to other paradigms and woul never take the path I have taken.

Ok, for example, if you were to learn the pendulum and dowsing. You would learn about energy and about time and how there is no time except now which moves as fast as you move. All information is available as long as you ask the right question in the right way. Energy can be stored and attaches itself to anything. Now taking that into consideration, where do these energies come from? Are you still in the frame of mind to judge energies as 'good' and 'evil'? If so then what happens when you come across negative energies? Where does prayer come into this. It is obvious that thoughts/energy/will has a profound effect on life so if anyone can affect life or their surroundings with their will, how does God, Jesus, and all of the other beliefs you hold fit into this model of the Universe.

At the moment, all these things are beliefs for you, but as soon as you start to play with the paranormal (and the occult being 'hidden knowledge') you will start to KNOW things because you are practicing them every day and you are proving that they work as you learn about them. You will realise how little your Christian colleagues understand and you will find out that priests/vicars/clergy do not know diddly about anything. In fact, before too long, you will be a wise old man who just smiles and allows others to have their beliefs and be content with that.

Are you really willing to throw all that away? It is pretty scary you know to not have a belief system which is based on one God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. It would mean that you have no means to absolve your sins and to be made whole again, but you would be out on your own taking responsibility for your own actions without anyone to turn to in your hour of need.

After this, you wont be able to call yourself a Christian any longer. Does that bother you?

reply to post by samstone11


I have this thread up right now about reincarnation, if you're interested:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here is one that will test the boundaries of your belief system, you being a Christian and all. But it's a great thread if you open your mind to the possibilities: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here is my long-running paranormal thread, now on page 160+, and still going strong:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Here is a great thread by WildTimes on Reincarnation with 600+ replies from members offering their views:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And here is a thread asking a similar question as you. It has many different threads mentioned:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

That should give you something to look at, for starters.

Hope that helped.

The Universe is an astounding, beautiful event. To me, compared to all the other life forms on Earth, humans are obviously an interesting phenomenon. No matter what people believe in. It all comes down to how people approach it and what they are willing to accept for possibilities.

I find our existence in general completely fascinating. I enjoy trying to decipher life from a third parties perspective. Say like a a scientist that found Earth and is studying it's life. Simple facts like how fast the Earth is spinning, how fast it is flying through space, just those facts are actually pretty mind blowing. Just the fact that "we" were actually able to figure out such galactic sized inquiries is pretty astonishing when you really think about...

But here is where it gets interesting, it is when you start questioning "facts" and start viewing reality objectively, you start to find extremely interesting happenings that are going on everywhere. New discoveries basically everyday, it never stops and we continue to develop better, well, everything.

As to research, this is what I do. I read just about anything and everything that piques my curiosity. I am essentially an Agnostic , so basically I like to stay on the fence about most topics. Except for obvious "Martian Rover Anomaly" and other such hoaxes, obvious stuff. I use search engines and look through a range of topics that are at ATS as well. Since you say time is of the essence, I would recommend choosing a couple topics that your extremely interested in.

Go crazy, have some fun!

I'm sure this thread will generate many intriguing links as well!


I enjoyed the read Op. S&F

@ Christian OP

There are other reasons to want to read the bible than simply believing in it. Regardless of the truths (or lack thereof) contained within, the King James Bible is, like it or not, one of the cornerstones of English literature and has been since it was translated into it's current incarnation in the seventeenth century. I read it daily.

While there are many among us who do not subscribe to the Christian belief system, it can scarcely be denied that we owe much of even our intellectual heritage to many profound works of literature, culture and art that were derived from somewhere within its daft, misguided pages. Amen. In Jesus name. Amen.

I am reading the Bible because I feel it is important to understand the full nature of something if I am to intelligently argue against [or even for] it. My purpose is not one of spiritual fulfillment, I am a sceintist and I would caution you against discouraging anyone to read anything.

Listen to me. I say read and learn as much as you can about anything - especially those things which you are sceptical about - and keep always present the confidence in your ability to decide for yourself those things you wish to believe. This includes homosexuals.

Darryl Forests
A Man Who Sez Amen

reply to post by qmantoo


There is a possibility that you will find out what the log in the eye really means and experiance some things that the bible tries to explain. But if you go this path you might end up seeing and understanding things that the people around you are not ready for since they still have faith while you will know to much and understand on a higher level what the words really are trying to say. You cannot go back to unknowing when you know.

chakra/merkaba is probably what you are seeking if you take the plunge.

The following pertains to supernatural stuff:
--------------------------
I've been curious before I got saved. Got over my head pretty quickly... into dangerous waters and passed the seemingly point of no return w/out any discernible warning. It was not fun.

Proverbs 10:22

22 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich,
And He adds no sorrow with it.
Proverbs 10:22 NKJV

The blessings of the Lord are much nicer.
------------------------
That said... things I find interesting are
-ET UFOs, which I believe are Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6. Contrary to popular Christian belief, they can't be demons because of a few things... one main reason is that demons cannot reproduce (Thank God). Another reason is:

a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
Luke 24:39b NKJV

-Crop Circles- www.cropcircleconnector.com

-NDEs... w/a caveat: do not play videos of NDE experiences... seems to change the atmosphere for some reason.

MarkJS -

one main reason is that demons cannot reproduce

Energy beings do not need sex to reproduce and since they are not of the 3D world, then it really does need to be done. Any being who understands the way the universe works can create another energy being.

The occult societies have been creating thought forms for centuries if not longer. Reproduction as we know it is a purely human sex function and I really dont know where you learned that they cannot reproduce. If I were you, I would question your sources with some critical thinking.

reply to post by sled735

I wanted to take a minute to thank you and encourage anyone who has a chance to follow your link to the veeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Long Thread you started. It could take me a few days (weeks, months.....) to read it all, but you did a magnificent job. The intro is superb, innocent, and precise which invited some exceptional comments. I am your age and have also had a few such experiences I may eventually share more details about. I have seen what I believed from the start to be a demon. It was daytime, huge, in public, I was sober (never drank or did drugs anyway), and it remains some 30 years later the most horrifying sight I have ever had. What confuses me, and maybe you or one of the other great responders can help me with, is the apparent lingering of a next door neighbor's spirit. He passed away at a young age (30, maybe 31 or 32 at most), and seems to be hanging around the neighborhood. He likes to move things such as tools or other items I am working with. I have had to become very deliberate and organized about projects because I may leave a screw in a specific place so I can use it in the next ten or fifteen seconds but when I reach for it I will find it far away from where I KNOW it was left. Assuming I ever find it at all. The question is, where and what are the things that pose the greatest threat to a person of faith? For me, I have always drawn a line at ghosts and demons because I don't want to become "drawn in" to a subject I may have difficulty assimilating in whatever self-defense mechanism I possess. Some great responses here have cautioned against going where you aren't comfortable or secure, so I thought I would ask where other people put up their own blinders.

Thanks again for your post. I will be looking it over. BTW--is there a way to get to the final page and work backwards? I find that interesting sometimes.

reply to post by mcx1942

Thank you for the response. Your opening phraseology referring to the Universe as an "event" was amazing and one of the most eloquent statements I have ever read. I have already shared your words with quite a few people who agree, and it is important that I stop long enough to say thanks for the input.

reply to post by Forests

Thanks for the time you gave me. I want to applaud you for taking the time to read the Bible for any reason whatsoever, and hope you will understand when I say I also hope you find something there that will cause you to see what I see and brought me to believe so wholeheartedly in the Bible and all of God and His work. Interestingly, I was once a member of a very, very large mega church who decided to stop all contributions to a Christian University because the school had started teaching evolution. For the very same reasoning you mentioned, I was the lone vote out of more than a thousand for not dropping their support (which actually angered some members because they could not say their vote was unanimous). I agree with you that it is extremely important to know both sides of a dispute or perhaps you have no business participating.

Good luck, and if you have questions as you read through the Bible I would love the exercise in explaining what I know, don't know, and/or "why" if you would like to contact me. Believe me, there is FAR more that I do not know than what I do know and it is likely I can learn as much as you do. Thanks again, and best wishes.

reply to post by samstone11


Hi Sam. I'm not a Christian myself per se, (although I am a fan of the figure J.C. himself, either real, archetypal, or mythologically speaking) but I do have a few suggestions that might interest you being that you yourself are Christian.

The first is A Course In Miracles. courseinmiracles.com... I don't know exactly how to summarize, but I've read most of it and it is certainly interesting and has a bit of notoriety in certain circles. I file it in the alternative Christian category, and though I don't know for sure quite what to think of it yet, it has given me much food for thought and in some way it resonates with me.

Another book I would put in the alternative/other Christian interpretation category would be the Urantia Book. This one I have read the full way, but it is massive and pretty strange stuff so prepare yourself mentally before you embark upon it, if you choose to that is. Also has a following among some and if nothing else is unique compared to much else I've read.

The same actually could be said of A Course In Miracles, which I personally prefer as it seemed written in a more simple and understandable language. It is also available online; www.urantia.org... Personally I think it is a little too "instructive" for my liking, but I admit there are parts that, because of how it is written that really are sort of mind blowing in their way. The jury is still out for me, though there are things about it I don't particularly care for.

And to close out the trifecta trinity of spiritual Christian reading recommendations, I would point you in the direction of Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, the man responsible for the famous and oft repeated quote; "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

Here is the wikipedia link; en.wikipedia.org...

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (French: [pjɛʁ tejaʁ də ʃaʁdɛ̃]; May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving) and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere.

Teilhard de Chardin has two comprehensive works. First, The Phenomenon of Man, sets forth a sweeping account of the unfolding of the cosmos and the evolution of matter to humanity to ultimately a reunion with Christ. Following the leads of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, he abandoned literal interpretations of creation in the Book of Genesis in favor of an allegorial and theological interpretations.

The second comprehensive work of Teilhard de Chardin is The Divine Milieu which attempted to do two things. First, in the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a belief among some Catholics and other Christians that in order to be “holy” one had to devote himself or herself to purely religious activity and that secular work had no lasting value. Teilhard de Chardin, consistent with the Jesuit motto of “finding God in all things”, wanted to demonstrate that secular work (including his own scientific work) was an integral element of creation and the Incarnation, so that for religious reasons, Christians should be committed to whatever work they were doing and offering it up for the service of God.

II have read the Phenomenon of Man and it from what I remember it was heady but also pretty intriguing and brilliant stuff to consider.

Anyways, those are my suggestions, good luck on your path and in these new endeavors.

Peace. ~

-edit- I've thought of another book (if you are a reader that is, which I hope you are otherwise this entire post will be useless to you) by an early father of Psychology, William James.

The book is "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and it made a very favorable impression on me when I first read it years ago. It also helped me through a tumultuous phase in my life at the time I was reading it.

... And look at that. After a quick search, wouldn't you know; there is a legal copy of it online at what looks like some Virginity university or college website of some sort. This book I highly recommend, it deals with real case studies of people who have had religious experiences and is a comparative analysis of them, looking at the similarities, differences, etc. etc.

etext.lib.virginia.edu...

Originally posted by samstone11
reply to post by sled735

 

I wanted to take a minute to thank you and encourage anyone who has a chance to follow your link to the veeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Long Thread you started. It could take me a few days (weeks, months.....) to read it all, but you did a magnificent job. The intro is superb, innocent, and precise which invited some exceptional comments. I am your age and have also had a few such experiences I may eventually share more details about. I have seen what I believed from the start to be a demon. It was daytime, huge, in public, I was sober (never drank or did drugs anyway), and it remains some 30 years later the most horrifying sight I have ever had. What confuses me, and maybe you or one of the other great responders can help me with, is the apparent lingering of a next door neighbor's spirit. He passed away at a young age (30, maybe 31 or 32 at most), and seems to be hanging around the neighborhood. He likes to move things such as tools or other items I am working with. I have had to become very deliberate and organized about projects because I may leave a screw in a specific place so I can use it in the next ten or fifteen seconds but when I reach for it I will find it far away from where I KNOW it was left. Assuming I ever find it at all. The question is, where and what are the things that pose the greatest threat to a person of faith? For me, I have always drawn a line at ghosts and demons because I don't want to become "drawn in" to a subject I may have difficulty assimilating in whatever self-defense mechanism I possess. Some great responses here have cautioned against going where you aren't comfortable or secure, so I thought I would ask where other people put up their own blinders.

Thanks again for your post. I will be looking it over. BTW--is there a way to get to the final page and work backwards? I find that interesting sometimes.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. I've been busy on my other threads. And thank you for the compliment on my paranormal thread. I had no idea when I first started it, it would go on forever! It has been almost a year and a half now.
You can get to any page you want by going to the address bar, and at the end there is a page number. Just delete the page there and type in the page you want to see. It took me almost a year to find that out. I had been scrolling through the pages when I needed to refer to a post! What a pain! I finally sent a message to a MOD and suggested they put up a way to get to a certain page, and he/she informed about that.

As for the boundaries with ghosts and goblins... Not all ghosts are evil. They were once human like us. They just don't have a body any more. It could be a relative trying to make contact with you for some reason, or it could be a former resident of the home people live in.
So, unless the ghost is causing a major problem, they should be treated with the same respect you would treat a human.
Sometimes they don't realize they are dead, and they move things, or knock on a wall, or anything to try and get someone's attention.
If the ghost moving your things is causing a problem, just tell him out loud that you would appreciate him not moving them. Speak to him the same as anyone else. Then, if he is making you uncomfortable, tell him to leave; that you don't want him in your workshop.
Sometimes it may help to tell a ghost they have died, and they need to crossover so they can continue their journey on the other side. But, I have also heard, just recently, that no one should ever tell a ghost they are dead, it they don't realize it. I don't know about that. People have been helping them cross for ages with no back lashes, as far as I know.

Demons are a different story all together! You will KNOW when it's a ghost, or a demon by the feeling you get. You cannot escape the evil they emit. They will scratch you, try to hurt you, scare the wits out of you, etc.
If you ever suspect you have a demon, contact a priest, or a demonologist to come and get rid of it immediately.

I lived with an evil ghost while growing up, as you know from reading my thread. It wasn't a demon, just a mean spirit. I would have zapped him to the underworld in a heartbeat if I had known how back then. There was no way NOT to pay attention to it... no way at all. Evil spirits feed on your fear, and this ghost feasted on me practically every day! I was young and didn't have any knowledge how to protect myself, other than calling on my angel for protection. That worked to make it leave for that night, then it would come back. Repeat.

I'm about out of characters, so I will end now by inviting you to my thread. I, and the others, would love to hear your story.

Originally posted by samstone11

Thanks again for your post. I will be looking it over. BTW--is there a way to get to the final page and work backwards? I find that interesting sometimes.

Another post to say, in this case, it would be best to start at the front and go forward. People respond to posts that may be several pages back, and you wouldn't know what they were referring to.

Some of the more fantastic posts are at the beginning and middle of the thread anyway. But there are many, many good ones at the last part too. Well, after thinking about it, the whole thread is awesome!

And to answer why ghost stick around... sometimes they don't realize they are dead. And other times it is from fear of punishment if they allow themselves to cross over.