Denyoz Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 Well, I listened to some of the videos (one had been removed). Mitzer, did you watch "DMT - The Spirit Molecule" ? The people explain in detail the experiences they had and I was wondering if you could somehow relate them. EDIT: relate to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitzer Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Well, I listened to some of the videos (one had been removed). Mitzer, did you watch "DMT - The Spirit Molecule" ? The people explain in detail the experiences they had and I was wondering if you could somehow relate them. Oh, yeah...I started to watch it when friends dropped by. I forgot to go back to it. I'll do that later today. Thanks for reminding me, Deny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denyoz Posted May 19, 2012 Author Share Posted May 19, 2012 A question for anyone watching all the videos.......What are you getting from them? Has it already changed the way you are thinking?What picture do you have right now of 'the universal power'? Is anyone feeling like 'one' with the universe? Do you think it could change your life for the better? how? I just finished watching the video on near death experiences (post #14). What I find weird is that when you're dead, you can still see, hear, touch, probably smell and taste, and you have memory. So then why do we need eyes, ears, nose, nerve endings, tastebuds and a brain? I don't get it. Why do we even have a body? Why do we have to live this animal-like life on earth if we are so happy without it? Everyone who dies says he doesn't want to come back in their body. One reason why I am depressed is that I cannot find meaning in this physical existence with all its useless suffering. Ok, so I have an eternal soul, death is a lie, I am connected to everyone and everything, that's great. But then what? I still have to work, cook, clean, repair, wash the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn and live as if this life was important. How is this life important? Why not just blow up the planet and live happily ever after? Sorry Margee, I'm answering your questions with more questions. And I know no one has the answers. So this evening I'm going to look for video on "The Purpose of Life". brb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted May 19, 2012 Moderator Share Posted May 19, 2012 A question for anyone watching all the videos.......What are you getting from them? Has it already changed the way you are thinking?What picture do you have right now of 'the universal power'? Is anyone feeling like 'one' with the universe? Do you think it could change your life for the better? how? I just finished watching the video on near death experiences (post #14). What I find weird is that when you're dead, you can still see, hear, touch, probably smell and taste, and you have memory. So then why do we need eyes, ears, nose, nerve endings, tastebuds and a brain? I don't get it. Why do we even have a body? Why do we have to live this animal-like life on earth if we are so happy without it? Everyone who dies says he doesn't want to come back in their body. One reason why I am depressed is that I cannot find meaning in this physical existence with all its useless suffering. Ok, so I have an eternal soul, death is a lie, I am connected to everyone and everything, that's great. But then what? I still have to work, cook, clean, repair, wash the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn and live as if this life was important. How is this life important? Why not just blow up the planet and live happily ever after? Sorry Margee, I'm answering your questions with more questions. And I know no one has the answers. So this evening I'm going to look for video on "The Purpose of Life". brb These ARE the same problems I have also Deny. I will look some of this up with you as we journey along the path of finding purpose........................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VacuumFlux Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 A question for anyone watching all the videos.......What are you getting from them? Has it already changed the way you are thinking?What picture do you have right now of 'the universal power'? Is anyone feeling like 'one' with the universe? Do you think it could change your life for the better? how? I just finished watching the video on near death experiences (post #14). What I find weird is that when you're dead, you can still see, hear, touch, probably smell and taste, and you have memory. So then why do we need eyes, ears, nose, nerve endings, tastebuds and a brain? I don't get it. Why do we even have a body? Why do we have to live this animal-like life on earth if we are so happy without it? Everyone who dies says he doesn't want to come back in their body. One reason why I am depressed is that I cannot find meaning in this physical existence with all its useless suffering. Ok, so I have an eternal soul, death is a lie, I am connected to everyone and everything, that's great. But then what? I still have to work, cook, clean, repair, wash the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn and live as if this life was important. How is this life important? Why not just blow up the planet and live happily ever after? Sorry Margee, I'm answering your questions with more questions. And I know no one has the answers. So this evening I'm going to look for video on "The Purpose of Life". brb These ARE the same problems I have also Deny. I will look some of this up with you as we journey along the path of finding purpose........................... When I feel like that, I find comfort in the idea that we're an accident of evolution, unplanned, and no external entity has assigned us any purpose. That leaves me free to quit looking for a purpose, assess where I am right now vs where I want to be, and plan actions to get there. It's not the same comfort as having an external purpose, but it does give me a focus to my will and makes me want to work and fight for it. Sometimes I still ache for a sense of belonging and purpose, but I find when I'm full of a will to action, the concept of "purpose" just gets in my way. I guess that is sort of similar to my sense of human identity I had as a christian. I decided that if god doesn't have a body like us, then the only way that we can be made in his image is that we too are creators. We make things. My purpose is not to discover something out there, but to create something inside of me and bring it into being. Arts and music are great for that. Cooking can be too. Even organizing my room can be a way to force my environment to fit my personality. My purpose isn't to be a cog inside a machine, but to make machines. And the way that attitude feels is best summed us as "I am. And I will [as in directed choice, not helping verb]." Edit: fixed double copy of quote 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asanerman Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 ... One reason why I am depressed is that I cannot find meaning in this physical existence with all its useless suffering. ...Ok, so I have an eternal soul, death is a lie, I am connected to everyone and everything, that's great. But then what? I still have to work, cook, clean, repair, wash the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn and live as if this life was important. How is this life important? Why not just blow up the planet and live happily ever after? Sorry Margee, I'm answering your questions with more questions. And I know no one has the answers. brb I'm reminded of the words of the Third Zen Patriarch: To seek Mind with the (discriminating) mind is the greatest of all mistakes... The more you talk about it The further astray you wander from the truth. ~Sengstan, Third Zen Patriarch. Verses on the faith mind. Trans. R. Clarke. Sharon Springs, N.Y.: Zen Center 1975. If you allow (not resist) you're existential angst it will lead you where you need to "go." Denyoz you're discovering for yourself that the nature of consciousness is one of the most fundamental and difficult of all philosophical questions. That "discovery" process is necessary and healthy for without it you will always be an existential slave to the options and taste others. To put it another way, self-discovery is a way that many of us have "salvaged" ourselves (what a distasteful term, but hopefully you get my drift)-- something my religious tradition taught me that Another was to do for me--didn't happen regardless of my trust. Consciousness has been looked down upon as a disease of life (Nietzsche) and has been looked up to as Infinite Being-Bliss: the Sat-chit-anada (being-consciousness-bliss) of Vedanta. Any way you cut it, any attempt to use sensory perception, logic and philosophy and/or science (modernity and post-modernity), consciousness slips through scientific research and conceptual analysis like water through a sieve into the womb of spiritual tradition (religious pre-modernity). Resting in the Great Nest consciousness cannot be perceived or adequately be conceived; it can be known through direct intuition. The question is for me, "how do I reconcile or integrate the many strengths and weakness of both the Perennial Traditions (pre-modern wisdom) and the scientific (modernity and post-modernity wisdom)?" How do both the strengths of the ancient wisdom traditions and the important contributions and insights of modernity transform my life! Whether I like it or not, the truth is (at least for me) that consciousness is not personal but trans-personal, not mental but trans-mental and that even to attempt to describe this "reality"--contrived or actual--results in a paradox. In a sense, you might say, my own depression--being pressed down by the waste of life--has a purpose--how to become a lover in the madness--despite it all, given I'm here already. (Losers already have nothing to lose) When I think about it, no one but myself has to live my life or for that matter transform it into something I can live with and more than that honor and admire and then give away--no stings or conditions required, certainty after my living 64+ years I can honestly say that the traditional "obvious out there" gives a rat's ass. Let your angst guide you! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 One reason why I am depressed is that I cannot find meaning in this physical existence with all its useless suffering. Oh, the beautiful field full of flowers in the spring! So meaningless to behold, since they all wither and die? How the mind can kill the radiance of life, rather than breath it in all its forms into the soul! Why do we do this? This should be your first question. How do we release ourselves from doing that?, should be the next. Ok, so I have an eternal soul, death is a lie, I am connected to everyone and everything, that's great. But then what? If you are asking that question then you are stuck in the temporal. How are we liberated from that, while still being within that? These should be your questions. I still have to work, cook, clean, repair, wash the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn and live as if this life was important. How is this life important? Why not just blow up the planet and live happily ever after? Why not just burn that field of flowers? Sorry Margee, I'm answering your questions with more questions. And I know no one has the answers. Maybe looking for answers is the source of the problem. So this evening I'm going to look for video on "The Purpose of Life". All of these 'answers' are mere mental models, not living life itself. Asanerman was spot on in everything he said. You should read his post over a few times. If you are looking for answers, you are trying to use the mind to grasp what is beyond it. You are placing the mind, your mind, as the pinnacle of grasping life; life which cannot be grasped by mind. In fact, you cannot grasp life at all. You cannot hold it. It is no wonder one becomes depressed in such an attempt! Instead, you release all such follies into it, then become it, and the only struggle then is the mind trying to express in words what words cannot contain. We are That, which is beyond the mappings of the mind. You simply release yourself into that, and let the mind be more an art form of trying to reflect its Light and paint with its colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted May 19, 2012 Moderator Share Posted May 19, 2012 A friend sent this to me and I thought I'd share it. I'm not sure if it's posted somewhere else or not.......anyway, maybe another little peice to the puzzle? I'm 20 minutes in..... quite interesting........they look at a preserved brain from a human...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agnosticator Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 If the essence of my being is consciousness, how is it possible to lose consciousness (faint)? Where does my "soul" go while I'm unconscious? Even people who have near death experiences become aware of something while dead, they don't lose consciousness. So how can something as trivial as fainting make you lose consciousness completely? It doesn't make sense. Apparently, a coma is the total loss of consciousness and it can last days or months! Is it possible to lose consciousness forever? If not, why not? There was a discussion with a Christian that's pinned in the Colosseum http://www.ex-christ...-consciousness/ that covers this very well. I think the dualistic assumptions that dominate our culture cripples the discussion. Even though our conscious or self-aware "mind" seems to be the "I", there is much more to being an individual person than just that. We aren't dissociated from our brain and body. Many times I've experienced my "sub" conscious taking over for my "conscious" self. It was mostly when some skill I learned to perform was needed without conscious thought. IE, there wasn't time to consciously think about what needed to be done. As a result, I've learned to trust the "sub"conscious part of myself completely. I see the sense of "me" being dependent and intimate with the whole of my being. I feel whole more so now, than when I was a believer. I also feel more of a connection to all lifeforms, in that my brain and body evolved this far thanks to all those organisms that existed before me. Without my lizard brain, I wouldn't be! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asanerman Posted May 19, 2012 Share Posted May 19, 2012 If the essence of my being is consciousness, how is it possible to lose consciousness (faint)? Where does my "soul" go while I'm unconscious? Even people who have near death experiences become aware of something while dead, they don't lose consciousness. So how can something as trivial as fainting make you lose consciousness completely? It doesn't make sense. Apparently, a coma is the total loss of consciousness and it can last days or months! Is it possible to lose consciousness forever? If not, why not? There was a discussion with a Christian that's pinned in the Colosseum http://www.ex-christ...-consciousness/ that covers this very well. I think the dualistic assumptions that dominate our culture cripples the discussion. Even though our conscious or self-aware "mind" seems to be the "I", there is much more to being an individual person than just that. We aren't dissociated from our brain and body. Many times I've experienced my "sub" conscious taking over for my "conscious" self. It was mostly when some skill I learned to perform was needed without conscious thought. IE, there wasn't time to consciously think about what needed to be done. As a result, I've learned to trust the "sub"conscious part of myself completely. I see the sense of "me" being dependent and intimate with the whole of my being. I feel whole more so now, than when I was a believer. I also feel more of a connection to all lifeforms, in that my brain and body evolved this far thanks to all those organisms that existed before me. Without my lizard brain, I wouldn't be! Well said agnosticator, well said! The body has no existence outside of interbeing. Our bodies are comprised of the earth's elements and are always responding to the world's touch. There is no single core "piece" to the body that constitutes our essential selves; all pieces are connected. ~R. Rosenbaum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agnosticator Posted May 20, 2012 Share Posted May 20, 2012 Well said agnosticator, well said! The body has no existence outside of interbeing. Our bodies are comprised of the earth's elements and are always responding to the world's touch. There is no single core "piece" to the body that constitutes our essential selves; all pieces are connected. ~R. Rosenbaum Thanks asanerman! "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together." (Beatles) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocklobster Posted May 20, 2012 Share Posted May 20, 2012 What I take away from this video is what seems like 4 different opinions, and mine leans toward the materialistic sense. That "we" the soul, is simply the sum of everything we are. In my opinion some of the key ingredients that give us self awareness is memory. If you think about it, memory or the ability to store experiences in our brain and hold onto them is what makes us self aware. It's the sum of all things happening within us. Both subconscious and conscious. Obviously I'm no expert on this but the more I think about it the more clear it becomes. I have had a NDE and I never experienced anything claimed like in the documentary. My brain was simply just shutting off. I was attacked by a siberian husky in norway, one in the neck. And three in the face one skimming my eye. But I guess all nde are different. I don't remember feeling any pain. Thats not to say I don't believe some part of us goes on. I do think there's a big possibility in reincarnation, but not in a spiritual sense. Just by taking the only evidence I have, which is my life right now, who's to say I won't find myself in some other form of life after this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts