by Frannie Banannie 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Frannie
I feel it's all I can do to put on a happy face and keep on keepin' on, while I just barely tread water
If you didn't put on a happy face, would you be yourself, then? Would it take less energy, ie, would it be easier if you were yourself? Could you keep on going without the happy face? Just suggestive questions. If the answers are in the negative, then by all means keep on as you were
SS
::My point really is... Thoughts don't require language... we seem to think that they do, because of our social nature and our desire to share and be validated as individuals... In the end, however, it becomes the language we use that really describes externally how we think and feel...
Actually, language is extremely important for (abstract) thought. In actuallity, it looks as though the reason we think the way we do is due to our learned language abilities - not the other way around. Of course, feelings are different since they work on a lower level in our nervous system.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031226.html
rem
Rem
I would suggest that some events are niether feeling, as in emotion, or thought. Thought comes after or during an event, as the mind analyses and labels. Emotions are reactions to an event, which could also be separate from it. I suggest this possibility, because one meditative practice involves observance without judgement or reaction; merely observation. In this practice, a person can sit there, observing his own thoughts without getting involved w them by judging them, without identifying w them, and without rejecting them.
Compare it to observing a rock at the side of the road. You don't judge it as good or bad, and you don't expect it to anything, so you have no reaction to it, except calling it by the common name. One can learn the similar w thoughts. And so, this makes for another, a third state of being, or attitude that isn't thought or emotion.
SS
If you didn't put on a happy face, would you be yourself, then? Would it take less energy, ie, would it be easier if you were yourself? Could you keep on going without the happy face? Just suggestive questions. If the answers are in the negative, then by all means keep on as you were
SaintSatan, I thought I would have to give this a lot of thought....but I don't....I'm surprised to realize that the "happy face" is who I really am, who I wanna be....the negativity seems to be an undercurrent and peripheral......and it's easier....MUCH easier to express happiness and jocularity......takes a LOT less energy than it does to express the negativity....it's the negativity that drains my energy....thinking about it and expressing it or just knowing it's there....but the negativity seems to drag out of me a lot of negative knee-jerk reactions.......does that make sense?
Frannie B
Actually, language is extremely important for (abstract) thought. In actuallity, it looks as though the reason we think the way we do is due to our learned language abilities - not the other way around. Of course, feelings are different since they work on a lower level in our nervous system.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031226.html
Rem, can you expand on those thoughts? I've bookmarked that site for future reading when I can concentrate...thanks.
Frannie B
I don't know, Frannie. This is an interesting idea. I know that sometimes I have used mind over matter to control pain. I'd like to learn more about how to unlearn old thinking and learn new thinking though. Sometimes it can be one thing someone says to you that changes years of thinking.When I was a teen, mom's friends had a book about out of the body experiences. She told us that no one had been able to finish the book because it scared them. Mom and I bought our own copy and neither of us could finish the book. It was that scary!
FlyingHighNow, I sure would like to hear that "one thing"....but at least, I've begun working on making some positive changes....I just feel it's gonna be a lonnnnnng "row to hoe", yanno? That book sounds scarey!
IMO You are correct that many "psychic" or paranormal experiences actually come from within us, but IMO that does not make the experience any less valid. (e.g. people who "make" a ghost or poltergeist, or get a flash of inspiration which seems to be from an external source but is actually from them)The reason for this is that I believe we are not separate from God and that we all have divinity within us, and using our mind this way is tapping into that. That is not to say that there are no paranormal experiences that come from elsewhere - I think that a paranormal event can be linked to something other than our own mind aswell.
Sirona, I feel mostly the same way.....I just wish there were an easier way to RE-train my mind to accept the positive ideas or imaginings, rather than the negative rebuttals it's been trained to conceive....(sighs)
Frannie B
There is a book you might find interesting called "The Holographic Universe" by Michael Talbot. He proposes that the universe is holographic in nature and that physicality is just an illusion. The first part of the book discusses scientific research that would seem to validate his conclusions. Holographic plates can be broken and yet each pieces contain the whole information of the image. MT proposes that we are like that--we contain the universe in side of us. That would explain things like out of body experiences; people are not really going out, they are going deep inside their subconscious. He says our thoughts create our reality. This would explain alot of paranormal activity
Particlesnwaves5, that book sounds interesting because I've often wondered if this were true....LOL! (Matrix-ology taking over here)
I would like to relate one experience I had while being a witness. A woman, that I was making return visits on, gave me an item that I took home. When one of the sisters noticed it, she mentioned that the woman who gave it to me dabbled in the occult. I prayed that night that if the item was demonized for Jehovah to let me know. That night I awoke to some type of tissue in the air like streams of cigarette smoke. I felt paralized and it took some time to be able to utter Jehovah's name. When I did the room cleared. Naturally, I got rid of the item that night.But later, I began to question what I experienced, feeling that there must be some rational explanation for this event. Then I read that sometimes we awaken only halfway. That causes us to be paralized and this phenomenon lasts an average of eleven seconds. It can seem like an eternity when you're scared. I think this would explain alot of experiences that people have had.
Particlesnwaves5, it seems you were influenced more by what you'd been led to believe from the WTS-mindset....I've experienced that "limbo sleep" too....peripheral sounds and events are magnified a thousand-fold, it seems....very frightening!
You know, the Bible never explicitly says demons inhabit items--just people and animals. Really how reasonable would it be to think a demon could attach himself to a chair or a book, etc. I think the thought that demons inhabit items is just a religious superstition that preys on our minds. I just wonder how many other events people commonly experience are actually physilogical(sp?) events that are misinterpreted.
I agree PNW5....I've wondered this same thing.....
I think you do "magnetize" to you the things you are thinking about so it is important to keep a positive hopeful outlook. Expect good and it will come.
I believe this too, PNW5....as an example, when I've gone to play at the casinos or to play bingo, I've ONLY won when I've been there with a friend and having a REALLY good time, laughing and everything....of course, my emotional biorhythms were also peaking at those times, so I'm torn wondering whether its the biorhythms or just being relaxed and having fun with it that makes the difference....
Frannie B
everything is a product of what we are conditioned to believe.
Pleasuredome, I think you're right there.....I can remember when I was very young....my mother was divorcing my father, so I must have been around 5 yrs old....while I was sleeping one night, my mom moved us into an apartment she'd rented and put me to bed....I think we were all sleeping on a sofa sleeper.....when I awakened the next morning to discover my different surroundings, I told my mother I'd been there before....I had a dream during the night about a young woman, dressed in clothing from the 20's or 30's era and I think it was me, perhaps in a former existence?.... and I knew what the apartment's details were....I told them to her, and knew where everything and every room was located....It was such a STRONG sense of deja vu....but my mother negated my thoughts as just a dream, nothing to it.....since then, I've sometimes experienced slight feelings of deja vu about people and places but NEVER to that extent again....I think she invalidated my experience and caused me to lose perhaps a valuable skill....
Frannie B
SaintSatan, the ability to look at a rock and think "rock" requires the brain to complete a very complex set of arguments. One MUST have language to do that. There are brain-damaged individuals who could describe the rock in great detail, yet not be able to identify it. Other possibilities might be Small Dog, Ball, or Bread. Language both allows us to function and limits our perceptions.
Here is some interesting reading on the subject,
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat : And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks
I don't think my entire life is guided by my own mind. I don't think my mind could halt an avalanche. I think we all are subject, to a certain degree, to forces outside our control.
Matthew 5:45 NIV ... He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
On the other hand, how I see my world has a direct impact on how I live my live. When I see my day as an endless supply of opportunities, my life starts to change for the better. It sure beats the WT view of a decaying world. Check out this article,
Is opportunity ringing on a broken doorbell? by Martin Avis
jg
Sound interesting.
SS
