Spirituality...Is it for you??

Phoenix32890..
It means that a local hill is not necessarily Mount Everest.

I am reminded by all of this of the reaction i always have now when someone recommends astrology to me: In my lifetime, about 1200 people have attempted to "guess my sign," 100 of them got it right !

I said modern science was in part came out of alchemy, I could add that other parts of modern science was out of astrology. You know alchemy, astrology, and science are kin. It sometimes happen that they hate their kin.

satt_focusable- I agree that alchemy and astrology were the precursors of modern science, but hopefully we have evolved beyond alchemy and astrology.

In my case, I do not belong to one of them, alchemy, astrology, science that is, but I am a math minded person.


BTW, I dreamt a sight of an annular eclipse, truly. Is this a coincidence?

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/30may_solareclipse.htm?list602263

I think this is a discussion much like any discussion about beliefs/religion. I believe that there are things some of us feel/understand that others gloss over/aren't aware of. There seem to be some people who are more sensitively tuned to the world around them - not just the things they can touch and feel and smell - i believe that there is at least one other sense that we haven't been able to define well yet.






<edited to take an extra word or two out of a sentence, hoping to add a bit of sense>

I have no intention of disputing about experiences, here.

I just checked the results of the "Do you believe in a sixth sense?" pole. 68% said "yes" while 31% said "no". Seeing as how the only 2 choices presented were Yes and No, where did the other 1% go? Perhps it's in...The Twilight Zone!

setanta ... that says more about the knowledge of the people doing the guessing than the validity of astrology, I think.

scorpi o'staia

Let's say I do not DISbelieve. There is probably an explanation for most forms of 'esp', but I'm willing to allow that it might exist. Didn't some scientific study conclude that people actually can tell when they are being stared at with their back turned? Could be a combination of other five-sensory clues.

The other day I was listening to talk radio, and the thought came into my head, "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" It was NOT St Patrick's Day, nor do I have any idea what that song sounds like, nor am I aware of even thinking of that song title for years. Nor did the discussion on radio have anything to do with Ireland or wacky song titles. Within 10 seconds, the person talking on the radio said "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?". Probably coincidence?

I had a remarkable deja vu experience about 20 years ago. I was visiting the Little Bighorn Battlefield on vacation (By the way- today is the anniversary- June 25th, 1876). Everything was ordinarily touristy. But I drove the 10 miles or so to the site of the secondary battle, the "Reno-Benteen fight", not nearly as well known, that was going on at the same time and which had many survivors. The moment I got onto that field, I recognized the terrain and could tell without the guidebook exactly what went on where- sometimes I even had the distinct feeling the guidebook was wrong. Had I been present at the Reno-Benteen fight in a previous life? If I was going to imagine a deja vu experience, why wouldn't I have put myself at the Last Stand Battlefield instead? Officially, I believe that my interest in the event probably stirred some subconscious part of my imagination. But- I still wonder.

Spirituality is for me. I love being spiritual. I have spoken in tongues which is a witness to me from God. I have not done it in church, I did it at home and it just came. Some of the things I say, I understand. When I am saying in tongues, "I worship you God," this I understood. Some things I say in tongues is my own spirit praying for me things I have no conscience of.

I am new here and I am enjoying the religion and spirituality section.

Speaking in tongues??
Sounds like something that can be helped by medication!

carrie i do believe in ghosts auras and other mystical things because that kinda stuff happens to me all the time especially in my house because there are about 20 ghosts and 5 demons in my house that say they are connected to me from my past lives. if you want to continue this discussion please pm me okay.

Gases
Hey, you two dont happen to live anywhere near the Gases at Delphi do you??
20 ghosts and 5 demons!!! Wow, how does anyone ever get the bathroom?????

Just a note...I know this is an old thread...but the 1% of the results is still missing..!!

Re: Spirituality...Is it for you??


The 6th sense could come in handy at the race track.

You see that's what I don't get ... surely there must be some corrupt gifted people who would use their abilities to win the races/lottery etc...lol.

truth
I would have to vote no for myself, given the meaning given here to the terms, "mystical" and "spiritual."

I suppose that to some my Buddhist beliefs must appear "mystical". Fundamental to Buddhism is that the perceptual world is illusory, and that there is no such thing as an individual soul. Can dream creatures have any individuality apart from the dreamer? "What happens to the chairs that deadmen sit upon in your dreams when you awaken?" One should not carry the dream analogy too far, for in Buddhism the "dreamer" doesn't exist either; just the insubstantial illusion of multiplicity, dimensionality, and change. There is no survival of the personality after death, and hence no ghosts of the sort so popular in fiction.

There are some sects of Buddhism with rather wide popular appeal that theorize rebirth into a illusory heavens and hells as a result of behavior during life. This is a sort of purgatory in an endless chain of rebirths leading to eventual Enlightenment. The theological foundations of these sects is questionable, and seems to run quite at odds with early Buddhist texts (ie, before around the 4th century CE). Ghosts were a culturally popular idea in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan long prior to the introduction of Buddhism, and I think it probable that early Buddhist teachers utilized the popular superstitions of the populace to gain adherents.

The notion that Buddhism is "mystical" and that advanced students and masters have supernatural powers is bunk. We don't walk in the rain without becoming wet, nor prophesy the future. There are no Seven League Boots, and if you want to turn a lump of coal into a diamond you must either wait for nature to take its course, or apply heat and pressure to the purest carbon by some mechanical means. The dead do not have messages for the living. Some may come to Buddhism seeking these wonderful powers, but they will find if they stay long enough that the real magic is to learn self-control, patience, and tolerance. Defeating suffering is a heroic task and there are no magical shortcuts.

Ghosts and magic seem even more out of place in Western Civilization where materialism has been in ascendancy since at least the mid-17th century. That alchemy, astrology, and other such still have large followings merely demonstrates the power of popular culture to ignor the benefits of science and the scientific method. It is true, that quantum physics is counter intuitive and so difficult to demonstrate using traditional science that it appears magical to some. However, within advanced mathematics quantum theory and physics are rational, just difficult to understand. The talk of alternate dimensions and universes by quantum theorists has been used by some to support some peoples deep belief in ghosts, seeing the future, etc. Theoretically I suppose it is possible, but I don't know of anyone working in the field who believes that their work supports such nonsense.

The thing is that if magic rules, then the laws of physics and mathematics crumble. A miracle is the suspension of the laws of physics and the suspension of the laws of probability. Possible, but so unlikely as to be practically zero. Gravity does not suddenly and inexplicitly reverse itself. Objects in orbit do not veer from their courses, or suddenly stop, without something acting upon them. Dice obey the laws of probability, unless they are loaded or in the hands of a cheat. Dreams may reveal our unconscious understanding of small, almost unnoticed events in our waking life, but they are not messages from God. Many people claim to have personal experience with strange and unexplained presentments, but there is no evidence whatsoever for teleportation, telekinesis, or telepathy.

As to the future, we have a choice of believing in Free Will, or Fate, and never the two shall meet. The future can only be foretold if it is fixed, and can not be changed. If the prophecy doesn't come true then it is a false prophecy isn't it? If the prophecy is correct, then fate must overrule any attempt to alter the future. If we have Free Will, then we can influence outcomes within the constraints of physical law and probability. Islam tends to be fatalistic, whereas Western civilization tends to support the idea that individuals can and do make a difference in outcomes all the time. Accept the notion that the future is a fixed game, and there is no point in striving to improve oneself, or the world in general. All that is required in that model is FAITH in the power of God.

I choose to believe in Free Will, the laws of physics and mathematics. I choose to follow the Buddhist doctrines that are most consistent with the highest teachings I can find. I may be a Buddhist, but that religion doesn't ask me to blindly believe everything someone tries to tell me. Buddhism is on the contrary a deeply intellectual religion that has great appeal to anti-intellectuals ... or maybe it's the other way around. Buddhism is a very anti-intellectual religion that has great appeal for intellectuals. Hmnn. I vote NO to the poll question.

Pay attention, stop going off to sleep.

My idea of mysticism is different from the way many people here are defining it. I don't think of mysticism as supernatural; it's an experience of nature or reality beyond the objective or rational. It's direct experience and relating to the world as a part of yourself, a melting of the boundaries of time and spacce, an identity past your own skin.
l
Spirituality is a confusing word too. I don't think of spirit as an invisible being, or animism, but rather a feeling, a relating to other living things. If I spoke of the spirit of a flower, I wouldn't be talking animistically as if the flower had a separate spirit body, instead I'd mean a sort of relationship I felt with the flower, a subjective identity with the flower and all it's ecological significance throughout time.