I believe you are looking to connect with something outside of yourself, or with some intelligence that is
not of this world? Or some hidden knowledge that is pre-programmed into your DNA?
Are you asking me or are these just statements of what you believe?
What have Salvia got to do with it?
Sirona
BabaYaga, If I squeeze your brain in the right spot, you will have an out of body experience.
Indeed. Would it produce an out of body experience in which the experiencer visits places and finds out information they didn't previously know? That would be interesting. Sirona
so yes, the brothers came for "encouragement" and of course, my husband is out of town on business... so it was me and the kids.. so i did let them in, i like these brothers...these are some things we discussed.... 1. i went over how that stupid "obey" email got all this started, got me to divulge to my girlfriend how i was feeling about the whole religion.
about how at the end of the call she said that she can't associate with me anymore, and then right after that call/ 30seconds later while i'm crying a pioneer called and asked "do you consider yourself one of jeh witnesses anymore??
" and i thought that was crazy for someone to try to trap me when i was sitting crying on the phone, upset with the last call... i told them that for all purposes i am already dfed since noone will talk to me anymore, and only one friend called to see what happened, everyone else just listened to the gossip of whatever spread, and wrote me off even though i'm technically in good standing.
4. I then went over the fact that it's a cult. I told them when you see a list of 100 facts that make a group a cult, we do 99 of them- the one we leave out is we dont PHYSICALLY abuse our members. They loved this. First answer they had was "do you know the definition of a cult? it had to have ONE leader, therefore we cant be a cult. Then the other brother told me that the apostles were accused of being in a sect, and it was a good thing. They kept talking aobut how "YOU KNOW ITS JEH's DIRECTION because of all the wonderful clean up efforts after disasters, how the redcross comes in AFTER the witnesses.. and finds witnesses to know whats going on. about how we rebuild brothers houses at no cost to the brothers"... therefore, i had to bring up the cult issue. Of COURSE people in a cult take care of each other- that's why they feel special and stay in.
Actually, cults can be run by a group of people. The point is that the followers are following HUMANS rather than god.
5. I actually brought up the whole idea of the fact that when Jesus came for the inspection in 1919- which i believed when it was, they said "no it was 1914" that the teachings we were teaching then were SO off base, there is NO way we could have been appointed as gods mouthpiece. I told him as a witness, you never think about what we could have been teaching back then, but just accept that we were "chosen"- there was no way we could have been chosen. they also FOUGHT that we knew the date "1914 as end of gentile times" since everything started in 18XX whatever year... i said NO, we thought jesus had come in 1874 ( i thought it was) and by 1919, 1914, we weren't looking for him... they said, NO.
Well they are either stupid, or they are liars.
Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence May 1 1881
“We would like to correct this misapprehension once for all, by stating that we do not expect Jesus to come this year, nor any other year, for we believe that all time prophecies (bearing upon Jesus' coming) ended at and before the fall of 1874, "
Prophecy, 1929 , p. 65, 66
"The Scriptural proof is that the second presence of the Lord Jesus Christ began in 1874 AD. This proof is specifically set out in the booklet entitled Our Lord's Return."
Catbert
Never trust what you see and feel just before sleep.
Same goes for altered states.
Strangely enough, that is exactly what mystics accept....very early on in their training.
Sirona
interesting article on slate.com:.
http://www.slate.com/id/2195683/.
any creationists out there up to a challenge?.
It astounds me that people can suggest that this is not evolution!
If you have a salamander who adapts to the environment by losing its sight....then it adapts again due to some other environmental issue....then adapts again....all of these changes over a long long time will result in something which is nothing like a salamander! It will be classed as a different species eventually.
Sirona
I agree that mystics don't talk about their experiences very often.
True pursuit of that path takes a lot of learning and a lot of discipline. I couldn't put myself in that category, but I have touched upon some of the things involved. I have started a thorough study of the Qaballah, including meditations on its symbology. That can produce some interesting experiences!
Mystics are not just "people who believe in invisible spirits".
The course I started (directed by a "mystery school") is 5 years minimum. That is meditation and study every day, recording it every day in a journal (and submitting this work) for 5 years.
After that you've still got a lifetimes worth of study to do. Or several lifetimes worth.
Sirona
my jw mother thinks that all christians (non jws who call themselves christian) are all trinitarian.. i tried to point out that there are certain groups who are not trinitarian, but she seemed to think that all christian groups in babylon the great believe in the trinity.. is it true that only fringe groups reject the trinity?.
sorry for my ignorance but i don't know much about mainstream christianity.. i would like to email her (my mum) a list of religions which reject the trinity but are also christian.
i also heard of groups who believe and preach about jehovah as gods name.. sirona.
WOW!
Thanks for all this info.
I have emailed my mum with a list of faiths who reject the trinity. From our discussion it appeared that she'd been told this by JWs (that others all accept it)
I'm trying to highlight that there are other options apart from JWism. The trinity is a doctrine which JWs find it hard to get over at first even when they've first left the JWs.
Sirona
my jw mother thinks that all christians (non jws who call themselves christian) are all trinitarian.. i tried to point out that there are certain groups who are not trinitarian, but she seemed to think that all christian groups in babylon the great believe in the trinity.. is it true that only fringe groups reject the trinity?.
sorry for my ignorance but i don't know much about mainstream christianity.. i would like to email her (my mum) a list of religions which reject the trinity but are also christian.
i also heard of groups who believe and preach about jehovah as gods name.. sirona.
Hi
My JW mother thinks that all Christians (non JWs who call themselves Christian) are ALL trinitarian.
I tried to point out that there are certain groups who are not trinitarian, but she seemed to think that all Christian groups in babylon the great believe in the Trinity.
Is it true that only fringe groups reject the Trinity?
Sorry for my ignorance but I don't know much about mainstream Christianity.
I would like to email her (my mum) a list of religions which reject the trinity but are also Christian. I also heard of groups who believe and preach about Jehovah as gods name.
Sirona
does not believing in god bring evil down to a simple explanation of the conflict that is within every human being.
seems to me the "force" is at work in the world, and the "force" is both good and evil.
sometimes it is easier for me to believe in the existence of satan than the existence of god.
and I need to add
in true "matrix" style, what our minds perceive as real affects our reality...
Sirona
does not believing in god bring evil down to a simple explanation of the conflict that is within every human being.
seems to me the "force" is at work in the world, and the "force" is both good and evil.
sometimes it is easier for me to believe in the existence of satan than the existence of god.
In my view, forces exist which either balance or unbalance. Someone said "yin and yang".
Since "God" or "Gods" are a human interpretation of "Divinity" ....I would expect that Satan is simply another human construct which was created in order to represent all things which hurt us.
Sirona
