hypermagda
Member
Hehe! You can always choose to see this as some kind of lesson I suppose ;-)I should have gone with Kamarling earlier.
Take care Steve x
Hehe! You can always choose to see this as some kind of lesson I suppose ;-)I should have gone with Kamarling earlier.
Good point (as many others you made). The guy's name is Procrustes btw :-).You appear to seek to combine these two diametrically opposed ideas into one. Resulting in an implicit belief that existence is a totalitarian indoctrination center where individual souls with free will are put through specific life events to "teach" them things by an obscenely powerful entity capable of dictating the limits of their reality. Reducing people to machine learning programs that are used as tools by some more powerful entity for its own purposes. And you appear to believe this would be a good thing.
There's a greek story that I remember that I might've posted on this forum before. I can't remember the exact name of the guy but it goes like this: There's a guy named Pygoras who claims to have a bed that will fit anyone. So people come from all around to try out this guys bed. Some people are too tall for the bed, so Pygoras cuts off their feet. Some people are too short, so Pygoras bind's their arms and legs, breaking them, stretching and maiming them to make them fit. This process continues for every person who tries his bed. The bed fits everyone because Pygoras changes the person to fit the bed.
Steve, you --certainly not me-- clearly embrace the darkness, given that you "know" that it comes from the same source as the light and is therefore something to be welcomed as 'a lesson'. This sentence of yours (above) is enormously patronising, but I now very well that you won't get this and honestly, I'm not going to waste time trying to get you to see this or anything else. I know lots of people who see things like you, and I'm just happy that they are good-hearted people at least.
I feel you are kind of sweet, like a young child who covers his eyes and thinks that therefore the bad things he didn't like to see are not really out there. I quote you: "Maybe it's because I'm simply not able to bear the pain of such events that take place daily around the world. Maybe that's god's burden? My job is to make the best of what I have and not embrace the darkness."
Feel free to bathe in whatever makes you happy. I wish you all the best.
... I just think of it as a game..
I like your humor :) and admire your use of it in a language that isn't your primary!
(...)
I don't know about the love of the "source"... I just think of it as a game and a drama. It seems to me that the main problem in the universe is not evil, but boredom. Evil is a secondary problem that emerges as a solution to the first problem. It is only pain that makes something "serious".
(...)
The main unresolved question for me is: would it be better to develop individually or join the metaphysical hierarchy by surrendering something of myself to it in exchange for being a part of the power structure? Christianity (my roots) paradoxically seems to very individualistic in some ways yet also very collectivist in some ways. I guess the optimal conclusion is likely a balance of both. Anyway it has made me reconsider the value in praying to "a benevolent higher power" (which I haven't done much of in a long time) since in all likelihood one does exist and if it exists, it seems most likely to be beneficial to be attached to it as long as you can jump out and flip the bird to it if the head of it turns out to be the Demiurge.
Thank you for your kind words Hurmanetar. The appreciation is definitely mutual! You're one of my favourite people around here in fact, although I will humbly admit that a lot of your posts go over my head, hehe!
Yes, I am certainly more open to seeing existence in this flawed material world as some kind of stupid, cruel game concocted by (bored?) entities who are very different from us, rather than as something that is designed to make sense *for us*,
As I wrote in an old post: this does not seem to be "about us" individually. We don't matter (that much).
I am actually very interested in what you wrote about connecting to a "benevolent higher power", because empirically speaking it would indeed seem to work, although imo whatever power/entity/being we seem to be connecting with would not be the (supposedly) ultimate one but just one of the (many?) strange inhabitants of what I increasingly suspect is a shamanistic universe....
Thank you for your kind words Hurmanetar. The appreciation is definitely mutual! You're one of my favourite people around here in fact, although I will humbly admit that a lot of your posts go over my head, hehe!
Yes, I am certainly more open to seeing existence in this flawed material world as some kind of stupid, cruel game concocted by (bored?) entities who are very different from us, rather than as something that is designed to make sense *for us*, given that we all have to look so much around to find a meaning in our existence (often failing) that it is more likely that we are just forcing ourselves to endorse the "meaning" this reality might (just might, we don't know) have for other, more powerful entities who are doing their thing, whatever it is....As I wrote in an old post: this does not seem to be "about us" individually. We don't matter (that much).
I am actually very interested in what you wrote about connecting to a "benevolent higher power", because empirically speaking it would indeed seem to work, although imo whatever power/entity/being we seem to be connecting with would not be the (supposedly) ultimate one but just one of the (many?) strange inhabitants of what I increasingly suspect is a shamanistic universe....
This podcast and this post made me think of two weird experiences I have had:
The second weird experience happened much more recently when I tried magic mushrooms. I experienced this weird mechanistic world, in all grays and blacks, with grinding machinery -- it was almost like I was in a large, robotic brain, seeing the gears and wheels cranking and sputtering. I felt presences there and demanded: Who created this World? What are you? The response I got back was: "We are Bored Immortals." Not sure what to make of all this. Are entheogens truly a gateway to other dimensions/worlds -- or simply brain tricks?
Thank you very much for sharing! I find your experiences very interesting, maybe because they kind of confirm my working theory about what is going on :). There seem to be powerful beings behind this "theatre" of physical reality, where we are merely puppets with pretty limited leeway. I guess at best we can choose our master, like puppies hoping to be liked, taken home and "adopted"/protected by good "powerful beings"....
Of course some believe there's only ONE being behind it all (see Yogananda for instance: http://www.theself.com/lifeisadream_yogananda.cfm).
"To the audience it was a tragic experience. To the operator in the projection booth, it was only a movie! And so it is with God. He has created (imagined) movies of light and shadows, the hero and the villain, good and evil, and we are the audience and the actors."
"The director of the movie sees the murders and the suffering and the comedy and the drama as means to create interest for the audience. He stands apart from the play and directs and observes it. God wants us to behave with detachment realizing we are only actors or observers in his cosmic movie"
I hope this is not the case because it would mean that s/he/it is a dangerous psychopath. But it certainly is a possibility.
And of course some people think it's OK that physical reality is the way it is (it's a question of personal taste, at the end of the day....some people like watching horror movies, some don't). This is how I feel about it:
"Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your father knowing it-Matthew 10:29
But it falls, just the same. What good is seeing it fall?"-The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
I currently tend to share your world view, Magda -- seems to me there's definitely a psychopath at the helm of this particular planet. Even the natural world, with all its beauty, requires creatures to eat other creatures -- with all the attendant pain and fear that goes along with that process. The question for me is whether there's anyone/anything else? The Gnostic worldview appeals to me in that it suggests that this particular world is controlled by a psychopathic/confused/arrogant Demi-urge, which seems just about right to me, but if I'm not mistaken, that view still suggests that there's some higher "Good" God somewhere else. So how come this "higher" good god/force is letting all this evil crap happen down here? Either He/She/It doesn't have the power to intervene -- or doesn't care to?
I'd still like to believe in some kind of dualistic or polytheistic creator Being/Beings -- cause we are totally and hopelessly #$% if it's just ONE bipolar being running this mad show.
Thanks Magda! Yes, in some ways, it's almost better to be a materialist where there's no "God/force/ground of Being" to blame for all of this -- it's just random/the way the world works -- a dog eat dog world/survival of the fittest/absolute power corrupts absolutely type of thing. I considered myself an agnostic for a long time and wasn't really troubled that much about the nature of God/Evil for a very long time since I didn't really "believe" it/he/she existed and evil was easily understood in human terms (greed/power/control/psychopathy) anyway.
But when I started looking deeper into what I thought were "simple" real world deep state conspiracies, it seemed to eventually and always point to stranger things going on. Maybe it's just demented people who "think" they can channel metaphysical evil. But maybe there's something there. That, coupled with some of my own limited experiences of woo/psi/entheogens have made me wonder whether a metaphysical aspect does in fact exist -- though I tend to agree that if there IS anything beyond this material world, it appears to be an amoral/indifferent force or ground of being.
I guess that's why part of me is becoming drawn to "magick" as a possibly working concept: if there's this amoral ground of being/force that can be channeled/utilized for "evil" (as clearly some think), then perhaps it can also be utilized/channeled for good or to counteract/stop evil? In other words, maybe we can actually participate more powerfully in this very strange "game" or "movie" we seemed to be trapped in?
I hope that all just made sense! :)
Hi Magda,
1(....) I know Kabbalists strive to balance both paths to walk the Middle Path, which I assume means trying to reconcile both the good/shadow (dark) parts of oneself. Perhaps this is necessary in this dualistic world we find ourselves in, but personally, I'd like to eradicate evil, not reconcile with it. (....)
2 (....) Whether they are just total nutjobs operating in a materialist world devoid of a metaphysical reality -- or whether there is something to it (metaphysically) is the question I'm trying to answer for myself. What kind of "God" would demand such behavior? Is it the same ground of being that created a dog-eat-dog natural world? (....)
3 (...) It's actually extremely puzzling to me that people can discuss the possibility of dark metaphysical forces (e.g., in the astral, in NDE's, as evidenced by various events, etc.) or a psychopathic demiurge -- and yet cannot connect these thoughts/ideas/theories to the very real physical evil being perpetuated against other human beings here. I do get that some people don't have the interest or the inclination to want to go there -- and I don't particularly want to dwell there either. But it is currently part of my rumination on what the heck is going on in this "game" or "school" or "movie" or "nightmare" or "God's entertainment." (....)
4(.....) So that's another one of my current conspiracy theories (understand that I'm just trying to make sense of things -- I have no firm beliefs): that the mainstream denial of the reality of consciousness beyond the brain is specifically so that that the general public/average Joe doesn't figure out how to "tap" into the same force that those in the know tap into. (...)
5) Again, maybe it's my own way of trying to figure out if there's any way out of this flawed movie, other than what we all eventually find out at the end of life.
In Magick the biblical GOD is just one of many god archetypes you can draw from.
So if you were to do a ritual and wanted to use the associations of a jealous GOD for whatever your intent was well.....you can use that. Or you can do a ritual with jesus and use his humility and such
Magda -- loved your post as well and will respond more in depth later (off to work!). I want to take some time to read the Kabbalah links you offered first. They look quite interesting and I'm trying to look more deeply into the Kabbalistic theories of "God" and this bewildering manifestation myself! PS: the link was in Italian but was able to use the translate button to convert to English -- I'm hoping I can order the Zohar book in English and read it more easily on my ipad. I'm actually half Italian myself (my mother) but do not speak it. :)