Do Some Religious People Really Have A Neurological Disorder?

[ufojoe]

Well, that too!

What do you think of that DNA nebula?

[ufojoe]

Seriously, check out the meditation/sheets video. Amazing what the human mind can do.
Soooooooo under estimated.

[Big_MAC_Buc]

Seriously, check out the meditation/sheets video. Amazing what the human mind can do.
Soooooooo under estimated.

Yes, it is amazing what the mind can do. The monks appear to have found a solution to the problem of bed wetting.

[Big_MAC_Buc]

But seriously, folks, the mind is a wondrous natural phenomenon that is capable of spectacular achievement. I still marvel at the achievements of people afflicted with savant syndrome, similar to the character Raymand Babbit played by Dustin Hoffman in the movie The Rainman. Wondrous, indeed.

[The White Tiger]

I thought ''Crustal Displacement" was when the cheese slid off the pizza.

I think that's what happens after a bag of Crystal/White Castle hamburgers.

[The White Tiger]

Meditation might provide "evidence" for yourself. But not for anybody else. It's a personal thing.

I agree. Other than the unlikely order of the cosmos, and some other interesting leaps in evolution/speciation - I think this is the only confirmation you can prove.

Prayer, (when you're not asking for anything) would work too. IMO.

Again, I agree.

But I've always considered that prayer, unlike meditation, would need to be directed to someone, don't you?

[Pirate Zone]

I hope by being "held reponsible" for whatever you do doesn't mean you think whether or not you go to Heaven is based on what you DO .... Could be a BIG mistake.

Yes that is what I mean and if you feel differently that's ok, because what either of us believes in has absolutely no bearing at all on each other whenever it's our time to die(you won't be by my side and I won't be by yours, or anyone else's side).

[ufojoe]

Meditation might provide "evidence" for yourself. But not for anybody else. It's a personal thing.

I agree. Other than the unlikely order of the cosmos, and some other interesting leaps in evolution/speciation - I think this is the only confirmation you can prove.

Hey, we agree on most of that too. Evolution, IMO, cannot explain everything that has happened
to human beings. Although, I don't know if it's a God or just some other higher intelligence.
Maybe gods with the small g?

But I've always considered that prayer, unlike meditation, would need to be directed to someone, don't you?

Yes, until I read "The Lost Mode of Prayer" by Greg Braden. That mode of prayer consists of getting
quiet and emoting what it would feel like if your request had already come to fruition. There's
no personal God involved or needed.

As an example, say you need a job really bad or you're going to be homeless. Sit down, get quiet
and try to feel like it would feel if you just got hired for a $100,000 a year job. Intention and
emotion are powerful things.

Like I said before, I don't think prayer works because some personal God is answering selected
prayers. I'm still waiting for a Christian to explain why a personal God would care about
bacteria or blood cells being prayed for. Those experiments have been done and positive
results have come from them. Is God listening to those prayers or healing requests?
IMO, it's all about the healers and channeling energy. And intention.

[The White Tiger]

Sure, except it seems like you are setting out to purposely, NOT find what you are looking for. Or maybe it's that what you don't want to find?

That unique version of vizualization sounds a lot like what Christians call faith. You know, "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

What you refer to as channeling energy and intention - isn't really any more provable than faith in a God. It is simply more acceptable to those that cannot accept that there is a God.
 
It's a little like having a form of spirituality but not having any substance...to me anyway. It's like there is no "there", there.

Ever thought that if you feel like you should pray, and you want to pray - then maybe you're being drawn to it?

As far as your question to Christians - I don't think we've ever talked about that one? I think by definition that a personal God would want to know you, and would want to know what struggles you were having with bacterium or blood cells. I may not be the one to ask. I have what I think was a personal experience with what I believe was a very close encounter with God during my son's illness. I cannot tell you that he recieved immediate and miraculous healing, ours was more of a process. We were aware of as intense a peace and mercy as the intense fear and terror in the beginning of the ordeal. Our family has discussed many times how intense the feelings of caring and love we awoke to many mornings - it was incredible.

I think you can choose to believe, or choose to not believe. Same amount of faith for both decisions. No demand for either.

[The White Tiger]

I think you have to be drawn to investigate God. The words "His ways are magnificent..." lose some meaning over the years. Sounds hollow. I try to think of it in these terms:

Suppose you have never seen an elephant before. You are led into a dark room where a large animal is being held - your hand is placed on the animals leg and while bindfolded you are asked to describe an elephant.

From this you must try and grasp what it is you are describing. It is impossible. It is how I feel when I am asked to articulate God.

You are led to God and he reveals himself to you. It is a crude analogy but it approximates the feeling.

We cannot grasp a being of this magnitude - let alone attempt to describe Him. I think that is the purpose of the Bible - he is described to you by what he has done or how he has manifest himself in the lives of other men. As best as is able.

Understanding that the enormity of this being cannot be placed in the confines of a leather bound book. Or discovered by very astute learning. Unless you are drawn - you could just as easily be concentrating on the elephants toenail - you look at such a micro level that you miss the macro. These are our interpretations from a dark room from behind a blindfold. When we speak to those that believe, we have a clearer ability but sometimes fall into undecipherable jargon - but after sometime with him in meditation - wow. Who He is to each of us personally - who He personally reveals himself to be....

My description is a very limited description for what I have experienced. You all use faith every day - and have used as much as it it takes to make the "great leap forward" to belief. Some are very close - but the room is very dark and our frame of reference is suspended.

Descriptive words are poor substitutes for who I know.