Pseudoscience is both a tribute to, and a mockery of, real science. Most of it is quite dreary.
Better by far to willingly embrace the non-rational aspect of human existence in all its glorious expression. (I avoid the term “irrational” here not because it is inaccurate but because of its perjorative connotations. I am nothing if not courteous.) How could anyone interested in the ancient writings of the Bible not confront the non-rational aspect of our human lives?
The purpose of this thread is to celebrate, not mock. I am fascinated by all human expression. I believe in the power of the active imagination in the Blakean sense. (Blake used to tell people that he regularly had dinner with the Prophet Elijah. Do you believe this?) This thread exists to celebrate those among us who live in Alternative Realities. Who dream while awake.
Note to the Moderator: The import and tenor of this here thread will be clear enough I think when I post examples. I would request that any posts not relevant to the subject be routed elsewhere. ID, no. Flat Earth, certainly.
I find this idea utterly charming. The only thing preventing me from getting on board with it is that I have my own hypothesis to explain UFOs. On the two days a month I devote to the contemplation of outre explanations I surmise that UFOs are resident fauna which live in our upper atmosphere. Occasionally environmental disturbances force these creatures to lower levels. Hence UFO sightings. One of the side benefits of this explanation is that it seems to irritate the alien spaceship crowd. I don’t suppose they’ll react any differently to this video.
The purpose of this thread is to celebrate, not mock. I am fascinated by all human expression. I believe in the power of the active imagination in the Blakean sense. (Blake used to tell people that he regularly had dinner with the Prophet Elijah. Do you believe this?) This thread exists to celebrate those among us who live in Alternative Realities. Who dream while awake.
I love the above and look forward to watching the videos above and begin in the celebration.
Ronald Hutton is very pleasing to listen to, and I imagine a wonderful bloke to have a history professor.
He is enough a rationalist to posit different explanations for his encounter.
I find myself forever fascinated by the way in which different cultures interpret different experiences.
If you would, talk a little bit about “the active imagination in the Blakean sense.”
…active imagination in the Blakean sense.
Blake believed that the poetic and artistic imagination was a genuine way of experiencing reality. We tend to equate “the imaginary” with the unreal or even fake. To Blake, God, Jesus, and the angels existed in the imagination and it was in that world we encountered them as living realities. The active imagination is conscious, deliberate imagining not simply having idle notions or fancies.
We may not be artists like Blake but even we can have a taste of this mode of perception. Read a good novel and it comes alive in your imagination. You meet characters and have experiences in your mind. To Blake that was real. And who is prepared to argue with him?
“I believe in the power of the active imagination in the Blakean sense.
(Blake used to tell people that he regularly had dinner with the Prophet Elijah.
Do you believe this?)”
Brad Jersak, _Children, Can You Hear Me?: How to Hear and See God_ (2013), in the last chapter
Children hear the Lord easier than anyone else.
Virtually the only block that I encounter in them is their parents’ own unbelief.
If we will assume, as children often do, that God is _already_ speaking to them, we can nurture their ability to tune in to his voice.
I woke up to this truth when my friend Phil heard his five-year-old son Richard talking to an adult male in his bedroom.
Alarmed by the voice, Phil ducked into the room to see who it was that invaded their home.
Richard stood there alone.
Phil looked around the room. “Who was that I heard talking to you in here?”
“God,” Richard replied, as if this were normal.
Here’s my point: It _is_ normal.
Children who _can’t_ hear the Lord anymore (yes, _anymore_) have usually been inadvertently shut down by an adult.
In this chapter, I hope to equip you with creative spiritual exercises and suggestions that will help you maintain and develop a hearing heart in your children, whether they’re at home, at church or another ministry setting.
“I believe in the power of the active imagination in the Blakean sense.
(Blake used to tell people that he regularly had dinner with the Prophet Elijah.
Do you believe this?)”
G. Scott Sparrow, _I Am With You Always: True Stories of Encounters With Jesus_ (1995), 229pp., on 96-97
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My husband chose that night to tell me that he no longer loved me and that he felt he and the children would be better off without me.
I remember asking him if he was willing to try to work things out, and he said, “No.”
I got out of bed and hobbled to the living room on my crutches and sank down onto the couch.
I know that I cried for several hours until I was totally spent.
I told Jesus that my children and husband didn’t love me and treated me with great dishonor.
I told him that I had no one left but him.
At that moment, I felt the sofa cushion beside me sink down and felt someone sit down beside me.
I reached my hand over hoping it might possibly be my husband, but _there was no one there physically_.
Then I felt a warm and loving arm go around my shoulder, and was suddenly immersed in the most unconditional love imaginable.
I knew that no matter what happened to me, _he was enough_.
It was as if I became a totally detached party in the whole situation with my family.
I disconnected.
I was immediately able to respond with true disinterested love for the first time.
The sense of love and total peace lasted for more than six months without being broken by any situation or person.
I knew that I could lose everything physically, but still have everything that mattered— because I had him, Jesus, and that _nothing_ and _no one_ could ever separate me from his love.
Since that time, in all fairness, I must say that God has been allowed to work out his love in our home and marriage.
But there are still times when I yearn for that total completeness I felt when, for a season, he protected me and he was all I had. (B.S.#2)
“I believe in the power of the active imagination in the Blakean sense.
(Blake used to tell people that he regularly had dinner with the Prophet Elijah.
Do you believe this?)”
Vianna Stibal, _Theta Healing: Introducing An Extraordinary Energy Healing Modality_ (2010)
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Page n470
It was during this time that I was involved with organized religion.
My mother had been involved with religion her whole life and was always talking about ‘Jesus’ this and ‘Jesus’ that.
From an early age I could never figure this ‘Jesus thing’ out.
I would think, ‘Why would I pray to Jesus when I can talk to the Creator? Isn’t that who we should be talking to?’
I got myself into trouble with these statements when I was in church and when I was in my mother’s presence.
But at this period in my life things had changed in my young mind.
I was married and I was going to be a mother.
Now I became more involved in religion.
I could still never understand the focus on Jesus, though, until my father-in-law gave me an old copy of _Jesus the Christ_ by James E. Talmage.
By this time I had begun to read better, but this book was an even greater challenge.
It fascinated me, though, with its insight into aspects of Jesus that I had never known.
When I was three-quarters of the way through the book, I prayed to the Creator about the questions that I had about it.
It was during the day and my husband was away at work and I nodded off to sleep with these burning questions in my mind.
It was then that I had a dream that was so strong it was a vision.
In this vision, I was taken out into the cosmos to a faraway place where there was a beautiful beach.
I intuitively knew that the beach symbolized the sands of time and the waters were the Sea of Knowledge.
I saw a man sitting on a black rock that the incoming waves were breaking on.
I knew that this was the man Himself, Jesus the Christ.
He said, ‘Hello, Vianna. We know one another.’
After a slight pause, He added, ‘You have questions about me and my life?’
I said, ‘Yes, Lord, I do.’
Jesus waved his hand and said, ‘Look!’
An opening into time was made and Jesus showed me all that was in his early life in the Holy Land.
In a vision within the vision he showed me the truth of all the people that he had experienced in the time before the crucifixion.
I saw the Sadducees and the Pharisees, the Romans and the Apostles.
He showed me that he understood all of these people and bore none of them any ill will.
He was the kindest person I’d ever met.
He pulsated with a deep understanding of where everyone around Him had been coming from at that time and what was going on in the present.
An incredible feeling of compassion came from Him.
Then I asked Him about the end of the world and when it would come.
What I saw was not what you would expect.
I saw special children being born into the world.
It was the birth of these children that would mark the end of the world as we knew it and it was these children themselves who were the new beginning.
I was so impressed and humbled by the incredible compassion that I felt coming from Him that I decided that if it was possible I would be as kind and compassionate as He was, or at least strive to be so.
I felt that I must give this incredible spirit a gift for the testament that was his life, for his compassion and mercy.
I asked Him what I could give Him.
He told me: ‘Vianna, the greatest gift you can give me is to create something beautiful.’
To Christ I gave the greatest gift I could give: the gift of my creativity.
I made a vow to God and Christ that I would paint the ‘End of the World’ and ‘The New Beginning’.
Then I saw a vision of three murals that I would paint in the future.
I also told the Christ that I would name the child that was in my womb in respect of Him.
I named my son Joshua Lael.
Joshua means ‘Salvation of the Lord’; Lael means ‘He is God’s’.
Since that time I have studied many religions and have found knowledge in all of them.
But I will always remember how I met the spiritual essence that was Jesus the Christ and the promise that I made.
I pray that you will listen to what the Creator tells you.
I pray that you will know that the answers you receive are clear and real.
I pray that you will be able to keep egoism out of the equation.
Many of the folks mentioned in this here thread would be described as belonging to something called the “New Age Movement”. What is that? The first video from Religion For Breakfast (a good channel I recommend) attempts to explain.
Doreen Virtue was active in what she describes as the New Age Movement but converted to hardcore Christianity at some point. Now she has a channel helping other such converts. As I said the purpose of this thread is not to mock other people’s beliefs but examine them. So I simply note the pervasive burning imagery in her video and note that she opposes the New Age not because she is skeptical of its reality. She believes.
NOTE TO DAVID: Sir, I have no problem with you (or anyone) participating in this here thread, as long as it’s relevant to the conversation. So far so good. That said I will not allow you to fill up this thread with book posts about books you’ve never read and are unwilling to discuss as you have others. Thread carefully. I know people.
Whenever I see the name of Carl Jung I have one of my only occasional spells of nostalgia. It brings to mind the Ansley Park bookstore near my home when I first moved to Atlanta. They had a whole psychology section devoted to Jung’s work. What a great neighborhood bookstore! Long gone of course.
I was a huge UFO buff when I was a kid. I still have a couple of those old Time-Life magazines filled with mysterious and blurry pictures of orbs, disks and odd lights from all over the world. It certainly captured my imagination! I remained interested in the phenomenon long after I began to doubt the reality of extraterrestrial visitations. (I can safely say that I am one of the few human beings who read the entire Condon Report cover to cover.) What finally drove me away was the Contactee movement which seemed pathological and twisted.
Jung was attempting to view the phenomenon from a psychological viewpoint filtered through his own theories of how the mind worked. It is still interesting from that perspective. The occultists and the conspiracy-mongers bore me silly. Jung’s book is still well worth reading although I don’t subscribe to all of Jung’s ideas.
Polytheism is alive and well it seems. It does raise a lot of questions. Can you really recreate a devotional tradition that has been absent for centuries? When a polytheist worships a deity what exactly is taking place? Here is one view.
These folks are relatively benign. Infinitely preferable to all the Bible Thumpers.
But I’m afraid it’s much too late for me though. My view, admittedly uncharitable, is similar to that expressed in the old 50s Hollywood sword and sandal classic Demetrius and the Gladiators, sequel to the mighty The Robe. The hero Demetrius (Victor Mature) has rejected Christ and returned to his pre-Christian lifestyle, shacking up with the hot Priestess of Diana (Susan Hayward). She takes him to the Temple and encourages him to make a sacrifice to Diana. Demetrius replies, “Having known and then rejected Christ do you think I would bow down to this?“
Pagan reconstructionism as a kind of cultural theater and spiritual play seems perfectly fine to me. As long as you don’t fool yourself into thinking you are believing the same way the ancients did. There really are lines that have been crossed and for good or for ill we really can’t get past the cherubim and go back to the garden. I prefer the terror of science. But that’s just me.
BDEhrman
FreedomBen
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Robert