emotional

Interesting article. I disagree with it completely. I like my dogmas and I refuse to let go of them.

Carol Massey

I wonder that we are myth-makers and if we were to give up our myths (or dogmas) that then we would be creating the myth (or dogma) of no myth (or no dogma).

emotional

I don't regard astral bodies, astral planes or God as myths. I regard them as literal truth, just as surely as there is a sun shining above us literally. I never did like mythology and symbolism, I have always been a literalist in my regard to all questions.

Carol Massey

I might say that I am a literalist too, but that from my perspective, one of the best made points of the article has to do with origin. Like the article says, I, too, feel that I did not come 'to' the earth (from above or beyond), but that I came 'out' of the earth. I hold this to be a sacred truth, in every sense, not because it is mystical, but because it connects me to the ground of my being, and gives me a greater sense of what it means to live responsibly. If I hurt the earth or my fellow beings, I hurt myself because of my connection to them.

Here's an interesting tidbit for ya emotional: Did you know that for every action you begin.....your brain started it in motion a full half-second before you became conscious of it? That is scientifically verifiable..made me rethink the freewill thingy for sure!

emotional

I'm agnostic in this regard: I don't know where the astral body comes from. It may come from high, or be born together with the earthy body, I just don't know. In any case, I believe the astral planes are the soul's real home. In the material plane in which we live now, all the spiritual realities (including God) are hidden. The veil of unknowing is lifted after bodily death.



My incentive to live responsibly is the belief that everything will be played on a Life Review after death, and all undoings will merit a period in the "hell planes" (purgatorial hell, not eternal) for being cleansed. No sin goes unpunished.

The brain works in mysterious ways, I say. I am forced to acknowledge that the brain plays an important part in our consciousness and behaviour; I just hope to heaven that it's not only the brain that plays such parts. I believe there is a duplicate brain, the etheric or astral brain, that takes over once the material brain ceases to function. Maybe science will verify this one day, but I'm not holding my breath, and my belief is independent of scientific evidence for it. I have a need to believe in life after death, therefore I do.

Carol Massey

For you wonderful birthday, emotional.....Desiderata

:notworthy You are very special!

emotional

Yay! Thank you, Carol Massey! You're really something else!

Carol Massey

Hi Opera Nut,

Apologies for the late response to your post! Would you care to share? I'm very interested in others experiences of the numinous.

leyline

hi carol

what i find cool about your way of looking at everything as being real and physical and natural, is that you refuse to split things up into say spiritual and physical, and accept both as equally real cos they are the same stuff. (?)

i was surprised though that you like susan blackmore.... but then again if you make no distinction between the supernatural and the normal why shouldn't you like her or anyone else.

As for us being myth makers i agree. But the idea of giving up the making of myths and ditchin dogma........... sounds like a cool myth to me.

Emotional has a very different relationship to the physical world of course with the astral body and the mystery of its origin. But each myth has its power and insight and blindspots, so i see each as contributing differently to the richness of being alive. For me, rather than defending a particular way of being i prefer to be open. The downside is that it lacks commitment, ........ except for a commitment to multiplicity and diversity that is.

Sounds like the complete opposite to your point of view, but in a way maybe not. For me instead of considering everything as physical and natural, i consider every aspect of our lives as a relationship to reality. We cannot escape these relationships, except perhaps through some kind of 'final lights' out death in whatever final realm, because we can never escape our humanity. (whatever that is). We can though, change our relationships with reality for other ones that we consider deeper or more personally resonant.

leyline

Hi opera

"I have never heard God talk to me, or seen a ghost, or seen a UFO, or had a near death experience, so those are not real to me personally.

I have had a couple of "cosmic" experiences in my life ....."

yes i would use those words too. Except as i become less sceptical and more open i do find that i make connections that i didn't before. Like serendipity. I now feel that the universe is sometimes telling me things through what i would have previously dismissed as coincidence. I get the feeling that angels have to communicate with us physically in this way for the fearing of blowin our minds and compromising our individuality........ and thus they still let us decide for ourselves with faith and the sensitivity that goes with it.