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I didn’t make her change her belief, SHE chose to believe that what I said was what rang truer to her than the belief she had been holding up to that point. She could have chosen to think that I was misleading her, a demon of sorts. “Get behind me Satan!” But she chose to believe what I was...

I see that we have a semantics problem here. You are saying she truly believed (but hadn’t owned it yet) what I said. And I think you are right. But I would not call it her “belief” if she hadn’t owned it yet. I am talking about belief (IMO), and you are talking about conviction. We believe all...

This is wonder-full. Again, two sincere minds disagreeing, but (at least in my case, and probably in yours also ) finding some merit in what each other is saying. I agree that there is risk of ego contamination in my preferred belief/approach about God. Now I can offer something that could be...

In one counseling session I recall, a lady who was supposedly in the depression cycle of her bipolar disorder shared all kinds of self degradation related to rigid religious ideology from her childhood through adulthood. I don’t recall her specific belief about what or how God is, but I blurted...

The line “but you sense that there must be something more” in the story is about a person peripherally sensing that he is in denial about his dysfunctional lifestyle choices. He is free to choose a different path that would probably be more true to himself but he chooses to ride his twisted...

Here’s a link to a YouTube of it with rolling lyrics:

Seeing ourselves in others and others in ourselves via empathy and love both lowers our resistance and requires it also. When we “put down our defenses” our resistance is lowered and we can float closer to the core or ground of being. Life tragedy can sink us there, but we haven’t learned yet to...

What is fascinating to me is that this “ thing” called comfort can be channeled by humans. While modern psychology assumes it’s an internal state only, perhaps triggered by certain external stimuli or inner thoughts, when opening up to a deeper and wider reality, it seems to flow as though...

Endorphins aid the strain of running. Hot spices also invite either endorphins or some similar natural “joy juice.” Strain and suffering is a natural part of living as a physical and sentient being. So too is transcendence in order to offset the suffering (as sometimes symbolized by death. The...

In the Bible the Holy Spirit was called (if I’m correct) The Comforter to comfort Christ’s followers after he was no longer physically present. But could this provision of comfort be part of God’s Love from the beginning? An enduring function instead of a temporary one to console Christ’s...

I remembered Jaspers from an existential philosophy class (or was it a reading on my own?) . What I took from the information about him was that if you can’t take God out and use it like you would a pocket knife, what good is “God?” This, of course fits with my own interest in the “God...

This may be more in line with my unfinished assignment by Thomas of reading book Paths To Transcendence. But I currently looked up Jaspers as I was contemplating God as Comforter, which I plan to make a theme for a new thread about one specific way that God FUNCTIONS in our lives, helping create...

We may have a closed mind that demands certainty even if a false truth/belief, and if closed mindedness is seen as a personal characteristic, then it appears to negate choice. But fact is, we can choose to open our minds at any point, whether it is a default program (as in the case of creative...

I like Blaise Pascal’s concept of placing our bets when it comes to what we choose to believe. Of course there are those who choose not to see it that way, and instead think they have a certainty, but they have chosen delusion.

But we choose to go along with the conditioning. The possibility of free “propreoceptive” mental activity that David Bohm, in his book Thought As A System holds up as an alternative to the conditioned thought we often succumb to, allows us to come up with new insights instead of being caught up...

I had a dream recently that resembled Shodinger’s thought experiment. I was shooting a very long and low percentage basketball shot and as I waited to see the result, the ball never appeared. The outcome was undetermined. Perhaps my semi-lucid sensing of my participation in an Imaginal realm of...

Liked the fusion of east and west music. Loved the contemplation about “who/what is the true Self?” (Paraphrased). To tie in with my earlier discussion with Talib, today the Unknown was (and this is one denier of Holy Spirit) The Comforter who not comforts ALL who are, have ever, or will ever...

Got book. Only in intro so far. Especially liked this, as one of three “basic themes” of transcendence: 3. The existential “return” to normal awareness…how does the realization of the highest state translate into everyday life…? This is when “God” functions in our lives, bears “good fruit.”...

Good points about how the perfect can become the enemy of the good. If we try too hard to love everyone it certainly could backfire. But perhaps we could learn to hold the idea of loving everyone lightly/loosely, knowing we are but moving in that direction, being gently pulled towards it. Yes...

One thing I like about this forum is the different take on things. I see the marathon project as a personal celebration of life—not as a personal achievement, not ego satisfaction. But then my Christian upbringing had a negative side effect of making me feel a bit inadequate, falling short...