Did you go on a spiritual quest? (page 2)

Satanus

Ps, i also checked out eckankar. Went to one of the conferences. Sang huuu. One of their guys went nuts doing their stuff.

S

After leaving the JWs I waited a couple of years before taking on any spiritual quest. I eventually ended up back with the Catholic church which is how I was raised. I'm not a regular attender, but I do go occasionally.

Most of my "worship" is performed in the "Most Holy", which is my living room where Rocco resides.

W

poppers

I did the following: raised Catholic; learned to meditate and practiced one particular discipline for 9 years, and as a consequence drifted away from organized religion; pursued psychic powers via meditative disciplines and finally gave up on that; investigated and practiced other forms of meditation, chanting, shaktipat (awakened kundalini), pranayama, and japa; returned to Catholicism (got drawn in by the mystical side as exemplified by various "saints"; practiced centering prayer as taught by Father Thomas Keating; drifted away from Catholicism again (something was still felt lacking); and finally discovered nondualism about 10 years ago, which put an end to all searching.

Robdar

It consisted of one point: Find the light and sound. No other info, just repeating that and rambling on--the same on live tv every week. I believe the guy who does the show has full-blown psychosis. It's painful to watch.

Yeah, Eckankar (I cant believe I mispelled it in my above post--must be a senoir moment.) has some nutty people in it. It also has some genuine believers.

I have always been fascinated by light and sound. I noticed at a young age that everybody, everything, has a sound or a vibrational frequency. And by being very silent, you can tune into this "soul whistle." Eckankar was the first religion I discovered that actually spoke about the universe, God, what-have-you, having a sound. When I would meditate on this sound, the Eck, I would hear some awesome things. I wish I could explain it better but I can't.

Plus, there were many musicians and poets involved with Eckankar and that is always nice. But in the end, Eckankar didn't quite do it for me although I learned much.

jaguarbass

Yes I have been on one my whole life.

I have been searching for my maker and origins, since i have been concious.

I'm pretty sure we are the children of Astronauts from planet Nibiru.

There are 10,000 year old Summerian text that say so. They even made pictures of the rockets

and capsuels and astronauts.

You might thing thats not too spiritual.

But that is where my spiritual quest lead me. I was dissapointed that I didnt find a sky pilot, God.

I was sorry that I looked behind the curtain and saw the Wizard.

But curiosity killed the cat.

But were slaves of the astronauts from Nibiru.

And that is were I have found the most evidence.'

Thats not to say that there is not an unknown power, God beyond our genetic

engineers.

But I havent found any evidence, and they havent given us/ me / mankind any either.

For war fuzzy feelings with out evidence.

I submit that we are all god. Little tiny pieces fragmented off.

We are God or spirit sons of God having material experiences.

Thats what I come up with from 5 trips through the bible cover to cover and reading

all kinds of spiritual writings by gurus and people who are contemplating their navels

and the signifcance of the universe and our existence.

Much of the bible old testament, was taken from the Sumerian text that say we are genetically enginered

slaves of the people from nibiru, who are very much like us.

Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, the flood.

Except they twisted the truth in the bible.

In the original sumerian text the devil is the Good guy.

Jehovah is our worst nightmare.

If you dont believe me just read the old testament.

Heaven

I am still on my life quest, which includes spirituality, and I think I always will be. I believe it is part of the journey of life. Unfortunately... or maybe fortunately, we are not born with all the answers. I believe there is a reason for this. That by going through the physical experience of living, searching, and educating ourselves, we discover the real truth... the universal laws of nature... of life. The very things that resonate in one's heart as being principled. Experience is the best teacher.

I do not feel associating or identifying with any one man-made religion or group is going to be the ultimate answer. They are all part of the learning process... the journey. As my brother put it, my relationship with God and Jesus is personal and private. And while I agree with him, I believe at some point, we need to talk to other people about what goes on inside of us. Hence, fellowships and ultimately, organizations are created to fulfil this need. I've always been leary of 'organization' as this is where the human being seems to go off the rails. A hierarchy inevitably follows with levels of power and politics, with principles coming in anywhere from second... to not at all.

My ex feels we are all part of some gigantic lab experiment with earth being the maze and the humans being the mice. It is possible.

My hope is that what we have learned is not lost and that we help others to learn. Heaven

Chalam

Hi,

I was brought up in a christian home, gave my heart to the Lord at a young age. Come 16 I walked away from the church and spent 20 years trying not to this of anything spiritual. However, the Holy Sprit called me on numerous occasions. I decided to start listening around four years ago and have never regretted the decision since :)

Thus I am like the proverbial prodigal son. The Father is looking out for you to return to His house with welcome arms and throw a party :) Or the parable of the lost coin or lost sheep, we are precious to the Shepherd, every single one.

All the best,

Stephen

WTWizard

My viewpoint is that spirituality is getting answers to explain why life exists and where it is headed. The Bible has done nothing to give me the truth about any of those questions.

If anything, science did a much better job at explaining these mysteries than church, and if those damn regulators keep their grubby paws off the scientists and let them do their jobs, it will be even better. As I see it, the Bible lies and has no correction mechanism.

Narkissos

Catholic -> JW -> Protestant -> ? (although I might still be called an "ethnic Catholic" by rebel's standards, never thought of it that way...)

What I find interesting is to consider the JW episode as an integral part of the "quest" rather than a meaningless and empty parenthesis. I was there too, and whatever I have become since I must own up to it as well.

AllTimeJeff

What I find interesting is to consider the JW episode as an integral part of the "quest" rather than a meaningless and empty parenthesis. I was there too, and whatever I have become since I must own up to it as well.

This thought really resonated with me Narkissos. That is essentially how I have viewed my involvement.

There are times where I want to pretend I never was a JW. But I can't do that. I think it healthy to own all parts of my JW involvement.

After going through the angry atheist phase, I find myself really paying attention to the spiritual aspect of my personality. I sense it a healthier, less angry approach.

I guess certain New Age takes on spirituality have resonated with me. I read the "Celestine Prophecy". There is a lot of what I consider "bunk" in it, but some interesting thoughts as well. Scott Peck wrote an article a long time ago on the 4 stages of spirituality. I thought there were great observations in that essay....

What I am trying to incorporate is my committment to 100% intellectual honesty, what science proves, with my own personal observation that science cannot quantify quality of life improvements with those who worship.

Life isn't just about scientific facts. However, theism really does drown out doubt, and its useful utility. One thing Pecks article brought out that I agree with is that often, an atheist/agnostic is more developed spiritually, simply because they don't take everything offered about "god" and "worship" at face value. That doubt is actually a step in forward spiritual development.

Thats where I am at right now.....

Did you go on a spiritual quest?