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Spiritual Influences
#21
I get what you are saying Mike.

LSD is an interesting side road here, as it demonstrates that chemical influences in the brain can trigger the sense of greater or higher spiritual awareness. Things like fasting, isolation, meditative trance induced states can also produce changes in the brain chemistry and wave forms to bring about the experiences that we relate to the label of 'spiritual experience'.

These have been studied by science and things like chemical changes and brain wave changes do take place in the brain through the sheer intent of a trained individual. One can 'think' ones own brain into odd patterns and change the chemistry to produce effects which are not the common everyday experience of being awake.

The mental hospitals are full of individuals who think they have a much closer walk to 'God' they are typically schizophrenics, but other well known mental illnesses produce religious delusions and hallucinations in patients.

Why am I stressing Religious Delusions? Because that is a very broad range of experiences.

"(I also had them frequently as a child, but am not epileptic… but bare with me.)"

Now I'm going to be mean and point out that childhood epilepsy is a very common thing and most grow out of it around or directly after puberty. I can pretty much assure you any neurologist would quickly label your childhood experiences as childhood epilepsy and dismiss you.

Of course this isn't to say that this may not be a connection with the Divine (God/Allah/Father Spirit - whatever you call it). I am going to say there is a direct correlation between brain function and spiritual connections, and typically when the brain is functioning outside of nominal parameters these experiences take place.

Being something more becomes a matter of faith. Science has yet to say exactly why it is the schizophrenic has such a 'faith based' experience and expression of the illness. Science has yet to fully satisfy the spiritual connection that LSD provides. They know something is going on chemically but what exactly - they don't know. They also don't know the primary causes of epilepsy. They can see it happening in EEG's, yet they cannot find an organic or physical cause in most cases.

So yes, it is possible that human beings come equipped with 'other' brain function which allows for connection with the spiritual realm. Perhaps we all have epilepsy to one degree or another, just some of us have it a lot more and it becomes a problem. Perhaps we are all schizophrenics, just some of us get stuck in that mode and can't escape.

I think it boils down to ones faith on the matter.

I lack faith - always the crises of faith in this one. But then God and I have been at odds since the foundation of the world. Wink
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#22
Bowyn Aerrow Wrote:...I lack faith - always the crises of faith in this one. But then God and I have been at odds since the foundation of the world. Wink
I used to feel that way but I don't anymore. Exactly why I don't feel that way or what changed isn't clear to me at all.

I only have a few minutes eating my 'lunch' at work (I work until 8pm on Thursdays).

At base, the way I look at it is we humans have a potential "sense" (analogous to the five senses) that is largely undeveloped in us. I sometimes call it, "a sense of the sacred." By "the sacred" I'm not talking about any particular "religious" symbolism. It might best be described as an apprehension...The ability to know immediately and directly (not through thought) that there is a sacred reality that is at once transcendent and immanent. It's undoubtedly what Blake was talking about:

Quote:“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Of course we can boil everything down to "brain chemistry" if we want... but, to me, that is equivalent to looking through the wrong end of the telescope... a reduction of insight and a negation of truly evolutionary (and revolutionary) possibilities. Again, as I see it, the question has to do with *meaning*. Does meaning mean anything? Does it matter or not? It's like asking the question, "How can anything you or I or anyone does in their life make *any* difference whatsoever when presented against the backdrop of the material universe?" Our lives are so short (in comparison to billions and billions of years), our size is so small (compared to billions and billions of galaxies). The material cosmos that our science sees reduces us to non-exitence by comparison.

SO, then, what is this "meaning" thing... this ability to experience, to live, to feel pain, to know, to loose one's way, to suffer and yet experience the most profound heights of ecstasy ... all within one lifetime (my own for one, drugged and not). (You might be interested in this one.)***

Frankly, I've come to the conclusion the Hindus pretty much have it the most 'right' of all... We live in the illusion of ourselves as being puny, insignificant humans with our voracious appetites and ignorant fears when the reality is, we *are* "god" manifesting in this form... as, indeed, is everything we shall ever know. And our most painful suffering is our not knowing this fully for lack of this "sense of the sacred" I was speaking of.

***Quoting one of the reviewers...
Quote:DMT or (n,n) di-methyl-trptamine is produced by many organisms and is found abundantly in plants and animal tissue. In humans it is believed that it is produced in the tiny pineal gland, which is situated deep within the brain. Its location in the brain corresponds with Eastern Ayurvedic traditions of the highest "chakra". In reptiles, the pineal is a light sensitive organ, and though this function has been lost in humans, it has been referred to as the "third eye". Descartes called it the "seat of the soul", and in modern times it has been a focal point of consciousness research.
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#23
I definitely think the Hindus have it right when it comes to reincarnation and the purpose of life ...but i go further with it and I think there are seven cycles of evolution...this is the third of seven planes of existence and becoming one with God is the final goal...and it requires many lifetimes and humility that is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve...
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#24
Castaneda anyone?
I bid NO Trump!
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#25
LJay Wrote:Castaneda anyone?

Carlos you have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life Castaneda?

Yeah...I like him. My favorite is Jiddu Krishnamurti...I have learned a lot from him..

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"...one of Krishnamurti's insights
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#26
East Wrote:Yeah...I like him. My favorite is Jiddu Krishnamurti...I have learned a lot from him..

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society"...one of Krishnamurti's insights
Yeah, I'm a Krishnamurti fan as well. Xyxthumbs
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#27
Bowyn Aerrow Wrote:I have come to the conclusion that most 'spiritual' encounters take place in the head and are a symptom of something wrong with the brain, either chemically or it firing out of sequence or something.

And what of the rest of them?
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#28
Hardheaded1 Wrote:And what of the rest of them?

I file that in the same file as UFO's, Sasquatch and other phenomena which defies science (at this time).

I don't whole heartedly agree with the explanation(s), however I do not deny that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in human philosophy (To steal from Bill).

Stuff happens which does fall outside of nominal parameters, defying human science and knowledge. Not all UFO cases are explained, not all spiritual encounters are brain farts, not all sightings of Big Foot are explained away by good drugs or lots of drink. People see, experience witness stuff which doesn't come under the rational explainable universe as we think we understand it.
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#29
I come from a religious area, but my spirituality is much more Buddhist. I don't believe in any god or higher being, but at the same time I feel guilty for not believing. I think that stems from the environment that I am around, much like that quote that was posted by East.

If I could come up with the money, I would like to move somewhere where people don't really know me and see how I am without societal expectations.
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#30
I am considering rolfing again....

This is where you get a very deep tissue and sometimes PAINFUL massage and the premise is basically that your body stores trauma and emotions and have a rolfing is intended to let go of the trauma....

I was a little scared when I did it before BUT afterward...I felt a lightness...like I lost a lot of weight at once...hard to explain...

I never really give myself over to any school of thought in the metaphysical/pagan/new age spirituality realm but I think there is probably truth in most things so I am open to pretty much experiencing everything....and it has served me well ...

Has anyone else considered rolfing?...or have you done it?

http://www.somaticworks.com/rolfing.html

Also...check out the pictures...that is what I meant I think about the lightness I experienced

http://www.rolfing.org/index.php?id=135

[Image: before-after.jpg]
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