by Knowsnothing 114 Replies latest jw experiences
This is "True"......
I have had the Almighty exert His strength over me causing pain throughout my body, showing how easy it is to bring me pain and even death. He let me know that if I was disobediant to Him He had authority over me to bring me to my death. I of course acknowledged His authority over me, and my willingness to serve Him, letting Him know I will never disobey Him out of Love for The Almighty GOD.......
Estephan
Estephan,
That was my point exactly that the demons do not cower and run at the name "Jehovah". That is what JW's think but they have it wrong. The only scriptural text where the demons spoke to Jesus and seemed in fear (more like worry) of him is this one;
Matthew 8:29
“What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to tortureus before the appointed time?”
But to say they run in fear from the Name Jehovah, or any other is wrong. Also a poster said a Satanist used jehovah's name? Well that is very common. Many in the "dark arts" so to speak, mix elements of the bible with devil worship.
7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the ( N ) revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a ( O ) thorn in the flesh, a ( P ) messenger of Satan to torment me--to keep me from exalting myself!
8 Concerning this I implored the Lord ( Q ) three times that it might leave me.
9 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for ( R ) power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather ( S ) boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Cor. 12:7-9
I've never had any experiences with the supernatural, but I know others who have. These people are not insane, they're not on medication, they don't suffer from delusions and they're not paranoid schizophrenic----they've had things happen which don't seem to have any rational explanation.
Just because something cannot be measured, studied, dissected and observed in a controlled laboratory and then written by someone with a PhD in a peer-reviewed journal, doesn't mean it can't happen.
Just because something cannot be measured, studied, dissected and observed in a controlled laboratory and then written by someone with a PhD in a peer-reviewed journal, doesn't mean it can't happen.
I agree.
Just because something cannot be measured, studied, dissected and observed in a controlled laboratory and then written by someone with a PhD in a peer-reviewed journal, doesn't mean it can't happen.
I agree.
I too agree.........it is known as 'faith" in GOD to see things beyond our physical realm.
E.
Estephan,
That was my point exactly that the demons do not cower and run at the name "Jehovah". That is what JW's think but they have it wrong. The only scriptural text where the demons spoke to Jesus and seemed in fear (more like worry) of him is this one;
Matthew 8:29
“What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to tortureus before the appointed time?”
But to say they run in fear from the Name Jehovah, or any other is wrong. Also a poster said a Satanist used jehovah's name? Well that is very common. Many in the "dark arts" so to speak, mix elements of the bible with devil worship.
It seems I have heard the same thing. They could exhibit fear of the certainty of The Almightys Power and you are correct by providing scriptural reference. It must be "written" in order to be factual. Matters of scriptural interpretation are up for debate.....
E.
All I can add to this is my own personal experience. Some will believe me, some won't.
Let me start off by saying that I do not believe in spirits, ghosts, demons, etc., in their traditional applications. I had always thought that people's claims of seeing ghosts, being demon-possessed, clairvoyance, psychic abilities, etc., were nothing more than delusional hogwash. I still feel this way, more or less.
About two years ago, I took the job as head manager/ bar manager/ hotel manager for a rock & roll bar/pub with an 11-room hotel upstairs. This building was built in 1904 along the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. It has Oregon's oldest liquor license and has been operating as a bar/restaurant since it's opening. During prohibition, there was reportedly a speakeasy/opium den in the basement. The building has countless claims and press as being "one of the most haunted places in the Pacific Northwest". There were accounts of there being a brothel in the upstairs portion which is now the hotel in which one confirmed murder of a prostitute took place. There are also accounts of people dying from consumption in the hotel as well. When the person who's job I was taking over left, he told me "good luck and I hope you don't scare easily". I didn't think much of it as I didn't really believe in ghosts or hauntings. The events that took place shortly thereafter changed my view on hauntings forever.
My desk was in the basement. Mind you, the basement of a 100+ year-old building is naturally a bit creepy. The lighting was sparse, it was musty, cold, etc. There was a particular corner of the basement that just didn't "feel" right. It was always darker and colder than other areas of the basement. There was a light fixture in that corner in which lightbulbs would never stay screwed in. they would loosen so that they would flicker endlessly. There were many times that I would go to tighten the lightbulb in the socket, only to return mere minutes later to find it flickering and loosened again.
The weirdest phenomena was that when I would run upstairs to grab an invoice or something from the bar, I would be gone from my desk maybe 1-2 minutes, tops. Many times, I would go back downstairs to find that my desk chair had rolled 30 feet from my desk, around a corner, and uphill where I would find it spinning in the same corner as the flickering lightbulb. This happened at least a dozen times. I'm not trying to say that it was a "ghost", but SOMETHING was making my chair move across the basement. There were no other people in the basement at the time of these incidents, either. I did not do drugs or drink while on the job, ever.
I would also hear disembodied coughs that sounded as if they were 4-5 feet away, but I would be completely alone. I would hear whispers, screams, groans, etc. Once, I felt a hand on the back of my neck, but nobody was around but me.
It finally got to the point where I would be afraid to go to work. It was very uncomfortable to be there. Many times I would be there completeley alone before the other employees began to trickle in. Those times were the worst, because I eventually began to come to terms with the fact that I definitely was not alone in the building. The other employees all had their own stories and experiences too. One of my cooks was struck in the side of the head by a flying jar of mustard TWICE in one evening, enough to make some pretty impressive goose eggs and bruises. Guests of the hotel were constantly complaining of strange disturbances during their stays as well. We had a hotel "ghost log" behind the bar where guests and employees alike would write down their experiences. It was many, many pages long.
I finally asked to be transferred to a different property within the company because I grew tired of being scared and uneasy all the time at work.
Like I said, I still don't believe in ghosts, demons, etc., but what I DO believe is there is some sort of strange, unexplained phenomena causing very mysterious things to happen at the White Eagle Saloon & Rock & Roll Hotel in Portland, Oregon.
Many of you will not believe what I've written here, and that's ok. It does sound a little far-fetched. All I can say is that I witnessed this stuff first hand and it affected my life in a very negative way. I can't say that I know what caused it, but I can definitley say that it was something beyond my ability to explain or understand what was causing it.
Perhaps one needs only to contemplate the meaning of reality. Reality exists only in one place, and that is your brain. Your eardrums vibrate at frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz and send signals through your auditory complex into your brain, and your brain interprets them as sound. The rods and cones in your eyes are similarly limited to specific wavelengths of light and colour that are sent as signals to your visual cortex in your brain which interprets them. Same goes for your sense of smell, taste and feel. They are signals picked up by your body and interpreted by your brain.
Almost 20 years ago I was commuting to various places in Canada and the United States troubleshooting production facilities. For two years I spent 36-48 hours at home and the rest of the time in airports, airplanes, hotel and motel rooms, factories, automobiles and offices. There were times I would wake up in the morning and have to concentrate to remember where I was.
I was in Atlanta, Georgia, can't remember the name of the hotel, when the alarm beside my bed went off at 5:00 in the morning. I was to attend a meeting in Augusta at 9:00 and had to make my way to the airport for an early flight. The room was pitch black but for the red blinking light in the smoke detector mounted on the ceiling. I reached over to the bedside light and turned it on, then silenced the alarm. I got out of bed, walked to the bathroom, turned on the light, urinated, shaved and showered. All this took about 7-8 minutes. I was towelling myself off as I walked out of the bathroom and I looked over at the bed to see myself asleep in it. I stopped in my tracks and stared for only a few seconds when the alarm went off and I opened my eyes to a pitch black room with only a little red blinking light on the ceiling.
This experience was what is called a lucid dream. I could see every detail in the room, my slightly bloodshot eyes and the unkempt state of my hair in the mirror. I could smell my urine, the soap and the shampoo, feel the bristle of my morning beard giving way to the razor and the hot water flowing over my skin, hear the rush of the shower and my thoughts as I put together the sequence of the day ahead of me. It was all very real but it was not real. I was fully conscious but I was also asleep. It was only a dream generated by my brain but because everything was entirely plausible, normal, I did not recognise that I was dreaming.
I related the experience to a co-worker who told me that he had devoted considerable time to learning about the phenomenon, including training himself to dream lucidly. A week or so later he gave me a book on the subject - there are many, this one was Jungian - which went into history, culture and practice (including, for example, the Senoi tribe in Malaysia).
I have had other lucid dreams but in every case I have been able to recognise that I was dreaming because of implausible details generated by my brain. An oversized rocking horse, a strange being or place never before seen, talking with friends and family who are no longer alive, flying like a bird over tropical forests that look like giant broccoli down below. I have been able to prolong a lucid dream, recognising completely that it is a dream but enjoying the experience to the fullest. I have also been able to terminate it instantly when the experience being manufactured by my brain was unpleasant. In all cases I awoke in my bed remembering every detail but recognising that it was not real.
Your brain is capable of some incredible things but those things exist only in your head.
Also posted as the OP in this thread http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/experiences/208611/1/Reality-exists-in-your-brain
Low-Key Lysmith, I just want to say I appreciate you sharing your experience and that I think your attitude says a lot about you. Spirit realm or not, the fact that you left your experience categorized as "unexplained", IMO, shows great open-mindedness.
Did you read the Ghost in the Machine experience a couple pages back? It describes a "ghost" account and then shows how an engineer who worked in the "haunted" building uncovered the true source of this experience. In the end, a low frequency standing wave was causing all sorts of unexplained things to happen, including the feeling of a presence, the moving of objects, seeing figures, etc...
There's no reason to assume that's what caused the problems at your old place of employment but I would definitely be interested in seeing the results of an engineering/physics study perfomed there.
"Just because something cannot be measured, studied, dissected and observed in a controlled laboratory and then written
by someone with a PhD in a peer-reviewed journal, doesn't mean it can't happen."
That's a bit of a strawman, isn't it? Who ever made that claim? I can apply the same sentence to ghosts:
"Just because something cannot be measured, studied, dissected and observed in a controlled laboratory and then written
by someone with a PhD in a peer-reviewed journal, doesn't mean it can't happen.a ghost/demon is responsible for it."
My point is that Joe Observer is hardly qualified to state that a particular unexplained event was caused by a ghost or demon, only because it was bizarre and he can't explain it. Why can't such an experience just remain unexplained, like Lysmith has done with his experience above?
Great post, Nick. I'm a fan of lucid dreaming but can't control them. Who needs TV with lucid dreams, eh?
That thinking also led me to read up on solipsism and simulism a while back. I have no reason to hang belief on either philosophy but I think they're interesting concepts.
