I was writing a fairly lengthy reply when I realized.. What good would this do? Does all this talk make you a good person by virtue of knowing what the opposite is? If I read a lot of books about fitness and bought a lot of exercise gadgets would that get me in shape? I can appreciate that it may be appropriate to revisit the topic every once in a while, but we have covered this before..
Introspection
JoinedPosts by Introspection
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56
What is EVIL? Who Defines?
by D wiltshire inwhat is evil?.
who defines what is truly evil?.
if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
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56
What is EVIL? Who Defines?
by D wiltshire inwhat is evil?.
who defines what is truly evil?.
if someone lived a trillion x longer than you, and had a billion x more reasoning ability would he come to the same conclusions as you?.
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Introspection
Who defines what is truly Evil?
Santa Claus and his band of merry men..?
Seriously though, I think most people will agree that practically speaking, you can only consider what is evil in relative terms. Given this idea of sinning against the holy spirit, we might also gather that is the only absolute evil, as all else can be forgiven. If we go with that, then you have to know which sins are sins against the holy spirit, so how can we really say which case is truly evil? Even if you think God talks to you, I'd think some things are on a need to know basis. So, unless there is a need for a human being to know every act of sin against the holy spirit and everyone who has sinned in this way that cannot be forgiven, then there's just no way to know.
I think looking at things from the perspective of how self centered a person is would be better. From the view of witness theology, I guess it would be this idea that Satan wanted others to worship him because he was pretty. (of course, another way of looking at that is worshipping the self) When you think like that, the best you can do in terms of how you treat other people is what YOU think is best for them, or how they should be treated etc. Looking at it this way, a person like this would be ignorant at best and possibly dangerous. It's sort of like the person doesn't do much in the way of actually relating with others, but will instead make certain judgements when they pick up on some little piece of information which they consider to be grounds for absolute judgement, whether they realize it or not.
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the little voice in my head........conscience??
by IWish4Truth inthere's constantly a little voice in my head, yeah, you know the one that never let's a situation sit for long without making it an issue?
i wonder if im too hard on myself.
i have a constant inner struggle with certain things.
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Introspection
Did you ever see the movie As Good As it Gets? Remember the part where Helen Hunt's character was asking her mother how to spell conscience? "This can't be right - Con-Science???"
Seriously, sometimes it's just a matter of conditioning, or repetition. This happens with your thoughts as well as things you do. The fact that these thoughts are spinning around your head in the beginning means nothing more than the fact that it was repeated many times. Some of it may be "bible trained", but really if you look at it for what it is it's society trained, the way you're supposed to behave, make the meetings, go out in service and so on. So in a sense, it isn't "your" voice or thoughts.
Sometimes it helps to think about other things first, it can be along the same lines - do your own research about the bible, or atleast anything that is relevant to reality or your view of it. The information can click together at a later time. If you feel brave you can try to do it just through meditation, but it's good to have some support if you go that route, otherwise just be prepared for having your heart broken at a deeper level than a mere romantic crush. (remember what the scriptures say about a crushed spirit) For that matter, it's good to learn about it instead of just jumping right in, because usually there are teachings which are helpful to the practice.
One thing that may be useful as a technique is using another language. Unless you're equally fluent in that language, it probably wouldn't pack the same "theocratic punch" as English or whatever language you learned the "truth" in. Not only is it a good thing to know, it can help change that thinking pattern or atleast allow you to develop one with greater breadth.
Here's a question for ya: If you think those thoughts from the little voice is you or are yours, what is it that's asking about the voice?
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Any athiests here had a demon experience?
by Marilyn ini've made friends with a mormon lady, and she told me that her 14yo daughter has thrown out all four harry potter books because she's realised they are dabbling in and encouraging demons.
then she told me about her demon experiences herself.
has any exjw, of sound mind, had a proper demon experience (as opposed to improper!!)?
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Introspection
I'm going to address this from a different angle, which may or may not sound good.. Have you ever been in love? If yes, does that prove love exist? If no, does it prove it doesn't?
It's already been pointed out that it depends on the individual's interpretation of the experience. Someone who think's they're in love with the greatest person in the world would obviously have to believe love exists, and the person who's jaded and cynical about love may very well deny the fact that others care about them, in whatever shape or form that may take.
Things like this will often be misinterpreted too. On the rare occasions where I discuss the principles behind internal martial arts with people who are not familiar with it, I find people who are not familiar with it have a tendancy to interpret the phenomenon as psychokinesis, which it is not, and none of the practitioners think of it in that way. But there are people who question whether it actually exists, too, and of course that comes from their own experience base and what they believe based on people they know etc. In this case, to have the experience would either mean you develop the ability yourself, which people will readily tell you take a long time, or you can be on the receiving end and get hurt. So... In a way it's kind of a catch 22, but people who fancy themselves as tough guys have gotten hurt before.
I think I've said it before, but the interesting thing about this kind of stuff is that all the teaching and teachers who seems to be most authentic to me will tell you to meditate in some way, and the common ingredient in the meditations is to think of nothing or cling to nothing, not even the belief that it is true, I can do it, I believe in myself or any of that crap. Maybe that is what is hard, or atleast rare - for people to completely drop all of their assumptions, even for just a moment.
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Chaperones
by Introspection inone would think this has nothing to do with witnesses, but i wonder... this is from the december issue of life extension magazine, which i believe metatron mentioned before.
(yeah, blame him) the "chaperones" they are talking about are stress proteins, or so they claim.. something to mess with your mind!.
normal proteins have to have a certain shape in order to work, and stress may cause "unfolding" of proteins so that they lose their proper shape.
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Introspection
One would think this has nothing to do with witnesses, but I wonder... This is from the December issue of Life Extension magazine, which I believe Metatron mentioned before. (yeah, blame him) The "chaperones" they are talking about are stress proteins, or so they claim.. Something to mess with your mind!
Normal proteins have to have a certain shape in order to work, and stress may cause "unfolding" of proteins so that they lose their proper shape. Chaperones are required at a certain level to assist with or correct folding of proteins. They also go around and rescue proteins that have become improperly folded and refold them properly. If they can't be refolded, the chaperones tag them with ubiquitin so they can be degraded and eliminated from the cell.
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Intro's quote-o-rama
by Introspection ini guess i've been inspired by stephen's quote threads, so i'm going to start one myself.. not one particular author here, just whatever i can find:.
q: why do you think that people are so protective of their egos?
why is it so hard to let go of one's ego?.
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Introspection
More from that nut Chuang:
Uncle Legless and Uncle Cripple were touring the area of the Hill of the Dark Prince and the zone of Kun Lun where the Yellow Emperor stayed.* Without warning a willow tree suddenly shot up out of Uncle Cripple's left elbow. He was certainly most surprised and somewhat put out.
'Sir, do you dislike this?' said Uncle Legless.
'No,' said Uncle Cripple. 'What should I dislike? Life exists through scrounging; if life comes through scrounging, then life is like a dump. Death and birth are like the morning and the night. You and I, Sir, observe the ways of transformation and now I am being transformed. So how could I dislike this?'
* Symbols or places of immortality
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46
Let's have some honest answers
by chappy inok all you ex's, be honest.
do you ever have that little voice pop in your head and say "what if - just what if they're right?".
it happens to me on occasion and i've been totally out for years.
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Introspection
I see that Outlaw, which is why I asked.. There's certainly a big difference between being in for a few years and being out for decades as opposed to being in for decades and being out for only a little while.
Of course, it sounds to me like the real question here is do you ever get over it, is it possible? I suppose generally speaking it does make sense to think the longer you were in, and especially if you were raised in the religion, the longer the process will be. So, even if I say I am completely over it and you choose to believe me, my guess is it means little to someone who was in for a longer period of time. Of course, I guess there's always someone who's been in longer than you.. Lets say that person is completely over it, and you believe them or believe that is the case. But even then, it seems to me we can always say that's an unusual case or something.
So my thought is, maybe a question we can ask is what can we do to get over it, undo the damage etc.? Of course there's never any guarantees, and nobody would claim a quick fix as if there's a weekend workshop for it or something. But my concern is over the potential view that it's always going to be there. Sure it may be harder the longer you've been in, and it may take more time. But is there any reason to believe in it as an absolute, enduring thing? Whatever the case, I think that the experiences of others is only of relative importance. It seems to me that on a personal level, it would have to start by allowing the possibility that it can be completely overcome. If we have a sort of open attitude that anything can happen, it includes both the possibility that we can completely overcome it and that the witnesses are right, but the possibility of the latter could be on the same scale as the possibility of seeing pigs fly tomorrow morning. We've all spent a lot of time trying to make pigs fly, so why not give the possibility of completely recovery (if the word is warranted in the particular case) a chance?
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46
Let's have some honest answers
by chappy inok all you ex's, be honest.
do you ever have that little voice pop in your head and say "what if - just what if they're right?".
it happens to me on occasion and i've been totally out for years.
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Introspection
OK all you ex's, be honest. Do you ever have that little voice pop in your head and say "What if - just what IF they're right?"
It happens to me on occasion and I've been totally out for years. Intellectually, I know that they're dead wrong. Apparently it's psychological; years of brainwashing has done it's damage. Can any of you long timers honestly say that the damage is totally and completely reversed?Well, yes, except it's not my voice, it's the voice of people from this board which pops up as I read a message like this one.
In your second question, do you mean long timers who were in for a long time, or long timers who have been out for a long time? Whatever conclusion you draw from the replies, keep in mind that someone who is completely over it may very well be absent from a board like this one.
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151
Intro's quote-o-rama
by Introspection ini guess i've been inspired by stephen's quote threads, so i'm going to start one myself.. not one particular author here, just whatever i can find:.
q: why do you think that people are so protective of their egos?
why is it so hard to let go of one's ego?.
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Introspection
I hope I haven't posted either of these already.. In any case, they are both from the Book of Chuang Tzu, the second is a quote by Confucius:
Chuang Tzu was one day fishing in the Pu river when the King of Chu despatched two senior officials to visit him with a message. The message said, 'I would like to trouble you to administer my lands.'
Chuant Tzu kept a firm grip on his fishing rod and said, 'I hear that in Chu there is a sacred tortoise which died three thousand years ago. The King keeps this in his ancestral temple, wrapped and enclosed. Tell me, would this tortoise have wanted to die and leave his shell to be venerated? Or would he rather have lived and continued to crawl about in the mud?'
The two senior officials said, 'It would have rather lived and continued to crawl about in the mud.'
Chuant Tzu said, 'Shove off, then! I will continue to crawl about in the mud!'
A man without feet has little love for shoes.
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Reaching JWs with humor..
by Introspection ini was thinking, since the main problem seems to be that witnesses usually won't open up.
well, there seems to be no shortage of funny human behavior, so why couldn't this work?
of course, it isn't a matter of laughing at them.. perhaps point out some behavior that wouldn't be readily identified with witnesses (but does fit) and go from there...
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Introspection
Hi again Ken, your wife sounds like a wise woman. I think sometimes humor opens us up to see the truth of a situation, so I don't think of it as just a matter of being silly and not taking things seriously.
There is an issue of whether a person's intellectual understanding is coherent with their spirituality, though. I think in some cases there may be a relatively small and insignificant discrepancy which can just be left alone. However, if a person is very religious to the point that it dramatically affects their world view and it actually inhibits or cause them to repress their natural spirituality through some convoluted rationalization, then I think that should be addressed.