Why so many people–including scientists–suddenly believe in an afterlife

reply to post by OpinionatedB


Thanks for taking the time to look those up, OpB. I've just ordered the 'trilogy' by Chris Carter (if you look at the link in the OP and go to amazon, you'll see the other two titles as well. Very excited to read them...

and I'll check out the Tibetan Living/Dying thing as well.
Like LewisStulePHD, I prefer real books that one can thump on the table, dog-ear pages and write in.

wildtimes
reply to post by EnochWasRight

 

Have you seen the movie What Dreams May Come?

I have not. Thanks for the suggestion. You seem to be, from what I read of your posts, very tuned in to "suffering". I have suffered, make no mistake - and I do believe we "suffer" in order to learn, but I don't think that's the "whole purpose" of life. It's part and parcel of this life, yes...but I think "BALANCE" is what we're meant to 'find.'

Take a look at all the good things you reap from live. In no case, unless you received it from someone else, did you lack suffering to achieve the good. If you receive it from someone else, then they were suffering as a necessity to gain what was given. Suffering to gain a reward is a necessity.

Take a look at all the evil you reap in life. In all cases, it is due to taking a reward that is not earned. Suffering follows. Overeat and you will suffer the health concerns associated. Stop eating and the same problem occurs. As you say, there is a balance to the swing of the pendulum. This is the point of the chiral nature to life. Two things cannot be superimposed on each other. They are each required to work in harmony. Your hands are good examples. Husband and wife are good examples.

Read these two threads.

Pendulum

Chirality and Two becoming One New Thing

Unless you experience suffering as a result, you cannot know how to manage chaos toward unity. Unless you experience suffering as a cause of unity, you cannot know how to manage chaos. They are reciprocal, just as all opposites are in life. The trick, as you say, is to bring the swing of the pendulum to a resting point by managing both sides of the experience.

Did Christ model this to us? Did he earn the gift He gives?

there would be no need for any kind of faith if God just "showed up". So that's why it's a test. Can you cultivate your faith? Or are you a cold hearted snake that's no good for anything but to be thrown in teh fire.

reply to post by WarminIndy

Now as for the answer to this question, he would not have known the difference. He was a rural farm kid born in 1903 on the farm in Ohio. No, I had never even heard of Set until a few years ago.

Exactly. He would have simply assumed. This is why we can't take such experiences for granted. An elderly man who is largely uneducated in matter of theology and prone to relying on preconceptions...yeah. While he may have had an experience, the contents of said experience are not set in stone.



What are the chances he could have mistaken this being for Satan?

reply to post by spartacus699

there would be no need for any kind of faith if God just "showed up". So that's why it's a test. Can you cultivate your faith? Or are you a cold hearted snake that's no good for anything but to be thrown in teh fire.

Faith is bull#. If he needs faith to make his miracles work, they're not miracles, they're scams. Faith is just another way of reinterpreting a completely random or happenstance event as an engineered intervention intended specifically to make your life a happier one in spite of the fact that literally thousands of people need it or deserve it more than you do. Faith is also a device by which to cast a righteous and upstanding light on the fact that you apparently feel God's DIVINE PLAN needs to be adjusted purely for your benefit. Otherwise, you wouldn't need faith because the evidence of his omniscient foresight would be evident in the way that NOBODY ever needs anything.

The fact that the world is in such poor shape right now says that faith doesn't do crap, God doesn't do crap, his Divine Plan is worth crap, and our trust in him is crap. So don't sell us that line, we're not buying it.

wildtimes
reply to post by LewisStulePhD

 

| meant the book, book. With the paper and ALL that jazz..

Oh, trust me, I MUCH prefer to read paper and cover books. I just meant like an amazon link or summary page or something. I'll look for it.

Great, but if You'd like I can send the book to You, along w/enough $ to "Pay it forward". The One before Me got it from another One. The "magic"(k) is in the paper and binding, kind of like a chant.

I AM trying to type that this particular book is "special" w/out putting a "label" on it. I AM also aware that by offering a "complete stranger" a book, I have put You in an awkward situation/predicament ("What's the catch, Mac?") There is none. Because along with the "magic" comes a large dose of "juice". I figured if You got a 'jolt' out of "The Dead" and You're still "in Body" that it may help You (the "other Me") on "our journey". By 'helping You' I AM 'helping MySelf'

But I do sincerely apologize as "we" haven't met in "real life" (that You know of hahahaha)

My offer stands as submitted.
namaste

AfterInfinity

What are the chances he could have mistaken this being for Satan?

My own opinion would be "pretty unlikely", since he was in Ohio, and Set is Egyptian.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky (roughly - think "upper Ohio River drainage") has it's own set of spirits, as almost all river systems do. Set's AO is the Nile drainage.

Since Spirit types seem to be pretty territorial, and get out of sorts and grouchy when invaded, jerked around, or otherwise put upon, I doubt Set would last in Ohio any longer than either the Msingwa or the Great Horned Snake would last in Egypt. He would be an invasive species, and the opposition would have the home team advantage.

Don't quote me on that - it's just me, rambling.

reply to post by nenothtu


Just like Jesus is unlikely to appear to someone in New York or Kentucky or Oregon when he lived and died in the middle east, right?

I think my point is made.

reply to post by LewisStulePhD


Are you saying that your "copy" is somehow infused with some "special" Almighty Knowledge that other copies wouldn't have? (Yes, I got the I AM reference...) What is your PhD in, Dr Stule?

Sorry, you're being a bit too vague for me to take advantage of your kind offer. If you'd like to U2U me with a bit more info, that's fine. Why me?

reply to post by wildtimes


How much you wanna bet it's a bible?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


LOL, hadn't thought of that! I have one, though it seems to have a repellent quality and sits unmolested on the book-shelf where its neighbors are repeatedly reached for, read, referenced, and reinserted regularly. I just lent two of them to my son: Everyday Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck

Everyday Zen: Love and Work
by Charlotte Joko Beck

"Everyday Zen" offers a warm, engaging, uniquely American approach to using Zen to deal with the problems of daily living--love, relationships, fear, ambition, suffering. Beck shows how to live each moment to the fullest.

,

and Secret Splendour: The Journey Within

Secret Splendor: The Journey Within Paperback
by Charles Earnest Essert (Author)

Who was Charles Essert? Passionate adventurer, non-conformist, traveling with carnivals and circuses, working in factories and on farms, selling, playing music, building: a citizen of the world. He was a soldier in combat, who, when he left the service became the seeker who would journey around the world--- searching, reading, pondering, asking, is there a reality behind this world? Avatars, sages, and mystics throughout the ages pass down techniques and methods for transcending the human scene into the fourth dimension --- principles for attaining enlightenment. Yet all who reach this rarefied dimension universally acknowledge that the experience itself is something beyond words and thoughts--that it is virtually indescribable. In this remarkable book, Charles Essert not only points the way to enlightened consciousness, he has been able to describe the indescribable in words of profound clarity.

No, there really is a title called The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. It's 21 years old now. But I wouldn't be one bit surprised if it talks about the same stuff as so-called 'New Agey' philosophies. Like I said, the ideas aren't NEW, not at all. They just get perpetually recycled and reinvented.

I think it has something to do with Genetic Memory, Collective Consciousness, and Intuition. I had figured out what my beliefs were before EVER finding them backed up - and was SHOCKED when I did find them backed up in several different places. Those "aHA!" moments, you know?

reply to post by wildtimes


I wish the women around here were as cultured as you are.

We all make mistakes. The Creatrix knows this well.

reply to post by spartacus699

there would be no need for any kind of faith if God just "showed up". So that's why it's a test. Can you cultivate your faith? Or are you a cold hearted snake that's no good for anything but to be thrown in teh fire.

What?

Are you addressing me, spartacus699? Are you calling me a cold-hearted snake? That's a new one!! lol

My beliefs get tended every day...cultivated routinely, nourished, fed, and watered. Do yours? Or are yours old, moldy ones that you dig out just to hold under the noses of those who challenge them? I don't think God will EVER just "show up" in any form that you are imagining; GOD is not a separate being, and certainly NOT a "man" sitting on a "throne in the clouds." And we DON'T become angels and get wings, halos, and harps and have to worship him eternally.

GOD is here, GOD is us, the planet, the universe, energy, matter, and all that is, seen and unseen. Manifested.

You seem like a very unhappy person, btw. Just an observation and some feedback. That must suck.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


Well, thanks! I take it you mean in your physical location? They're out there...it's where you go looking that matters. Try book stores and libraries - the philosophy sections...or a college campus near you.

reply to post by wildtimes


Yeah...while I sound perfectly well-mannered (albeit occasionally acerbic when speaking in sarcasm) and educated on screen, I'm a veritable klutz of sinful proportions in the real world. I can't say something without sounding like a creep, a weirdo, an idiot, a goofball, a jerk, or any combination of them. I try to be funny, it comes off as lame, I try to be clever, it comes off as trying too hard, I try to be sweet and sensitive, I come across as being a rapist or some such.

Even though I'm much better than I was as an adolescent, my social skills are still clearly lacking, which is how it comes to be that I'm just so darned good with computers. I feel safer and more secure when interacting online because everything about me is a LOT easier to moderate and monitor. Not to mention computers don't ask for much. Electricity and an internet connection. Boom, done. Much less complicated and straight forward, computers are. If I could find one with a personality...ahem. I'll stop there.

But yeah. It's easier to talk about than walk about, if ya get my drift.

reply to post by Oannes

We all make mistakes. The Creatrix knows this well.

Indeed. So? What prompted you to insert this non-offering here (except to point out that you like to imagine the Source is "female")?

AfterInfinity
reply to post by nenothtu

 

Just like Jesus is unlikely to appear to someone in New York or Kentucky or Oregon when he lived and died in the middle east, right?

I think my point is made.

edit on 2-11-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

Jesus is unlikely to appear to anyone, anywhere, since he is no longer on Earth, according to their own book. He might appear to them if they die and go to wherever he is, but I don't think he comes back for visits or to check on his bank account. I thought we were talking about gods here, rather than human ghosts. That was my mistake. Apologies.

Was Set ever human, that he should follow human conventions? If so, then that's probably a whole new ball game as far as mobility goes. I wouldn't think that humans would compete with gods for territory - they have other humans to contend with in turf wars.

With that said, and since Jesus enters the fray, I've noticed that in many NDE's a figure is reported. Christians identify it as Jesus, Shiites identify it as The Imam, Buddists identify it as Buddha, etc, but I know of no genuine case where it identified ITSELF. This figure seems content to let the individual do the identifying, based on their own cultural preconceptions. I believe that in all cases it's the same figure, and it just neglects to correct them as to it's identity - if indeed it really has a separate, ever-was-human identity.

reply to post by AfterInfinity

I can't say something without sounding like a creep, a weirdo, an idiot, a goofball, a jerk, or any combination of them. I try to be funny, it comes off as lame, I try to be clever, it comes off as trying too hard, I try to be sweet and sensitive, I come across as being a rapist or some such.

My social skills are very lacking,

That's a rather "harsh" self-assessment! Are you 'projecting', or has someone told you this??

If the latter, when did you first buy-into it? If the former, how long have you felt like such a 'tosser' and assumed others see you as such?

reply to post by nenothtu

With that said, and since Jesus enters the fray, I've noticed that in many NDE's a figure is reported. Christians identify it as Jesus, Shiites identify it as The Imam, Buddists identify it as Buddha, etc, but I know of no genuine case where it identified ITSELF. This figure seems content to let the individual do the identifying, based on their own cultural preconceptions. I believe that in all cases it's the same figure, and it just neglects to correct them as to it's identity - if indeed it really has an identity.

Quite!

That's what I've gathered as well.

See Aklusha99's post regarding 'preconcieved' images - and how "thought-forms" exist. Mellen-Thomas Benedict visited a variety of "heavens" - and discussed how there's a "fractal" of our souls in every "version" of heaven we have ever heard of or imagined....

those who are immersed in only ONE traditional view have MOST of their 'higher self' in those "heavens" that they imagine. They all "exist" merely by having been dreamt up.

Kind of reminds me of my early stages of reluctance to investigate - I remember thinking "If I read this, I will become contaminated!". But, being me, I did it anyway. What a ride!!