Well, here's a thank you note, in advance.
A positive attitude can help deal with the ravages of aging but as anyone who knows anything about nature knows death comes to us all.
I have spent an number of years with native shaman and healers. I witnessed stuff that is considered outside the realm of possibility in our culture and science. I spent time with one of the most respected spiritual elders of the Cree people. I know from personal experience that, although our body may rot in the end, part of us continues in the web of life, in the circle of the Mother.
The elders refer to the Earth as the Mother because she is the source of all life living on this planet. She is a living entity without whose energy there would be no living things on this rock.
But our perception of reality is based on our beliefs about it, so those who hold to the rock of their beliefs will limit their perception and miss out on experiencing a much greater vision of reality. Dying is not the end of the journey, it is just another portal to another leg of it.
JLM - we have talked about Sylvia Browne before. She is as phoney as all the rest. She has all the answers all right. She's a great actor. She just changes "her lines" every few years.
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I believe there is more than just dying and dust to dust etc. You cannot just be with a dying person who is yelling at their mother that they will soon be there and watch them die right then and not believe there is something. I know I've told you this story before but again, as I said before, that man sat upright in his bed with the strength of a lion and yelled something at what to me looked like a bare wall. Then he fell backwards on his bed only to rise up one more time and yell the same thing again. I didn't know what he was saying as he was Albanian. Another Albanian woman in the room told me that he was telling his mother he would be there soon. He rose up a second time with the same strength, yelled the same words and died! I talked with our minister (right there in Vernon) and he said there just has to be something. He said he had been with so many dying people and what I witnessed was not un-common. I've never been in a room with a dying person before or since. I know enough about the S. Browne's of this world to know she is phony! I don't believe that anyone can talk to dead people.
I have spent an number of years with native shaman and healers. I witnessed stuff that is considered outside the realm of possibility in our culture and science. I spent time with one of the most respected spiritual elders of the Cree people. I know from personal experience that, although our body may rot in the end, part of us continues in the web of life, in the circle of the Mother.
The elders refer to the Earth as the Mother because she is the source of all life living on this planet. She is a living entity without whose energy there would be no living things on this rock.
But our perception of reality is based on our beliefs about it, so those who hold to the rock of their beliefs will limit their perception and miss out on experiencing a much greater vision of reality. Dying is not the end of the journey, it is just another portal to another leg of it.
Talloola - Yikes! Don't hurry...take LOTS of time - many years - to worry about that! I was just responding with a tongue-in-cheek R.I.P. to your post about being comfortable with mother earth (much) later on...
I used to think the same from seeing her on T.V. but then I read some books my daughter in law had and I changed my mind a bit. She's got a lot of details that I don't think a phony would go to such depths for. Can't remember the names of the books as it was several years ago that I read them. I don't think she necessarily has everything right, but some of it she just might.
OK, thanks, thought you were hurrying me along, I'm planning
a very long life, I'm considered old on paper I guess, but
if you knew me, and saw me, you would realize that I'm just
getting started, I've got lots to do and a long way to go,
the days just aren't long enough.
I agree with you - and she's not alone in her experiences. I know folks over in Asia who have gone to hypnotists to gain some insight into their past lives. Most of us would think it's all a bunch of crap but these folks don't have a problem with reincarnation in the first place...it's part of their spiritual beliefs. Who's to say they're wrong? And the ones I know who did find out about their past lives had some interesting stories to tell.
Do I believe it's all true? Sure, why not? I figure they'be been at this a lot longer than we have - our knowledge is limited to what we can "prove" with our modern scientific methods. The thing is, we don't have all the answers but more important, how would we even know where (or how) to look for them?
Good for you! I'm much the same way...can't understand why everyone I know is getting older while I continue to get younger!
Some people age faster than others, in many ways, and sometimes the only difference I can see in them is their attitude. Could it be the power of positive thinking can slow down the aging process? (Or least make it more fun?)...I think so!
So what do you think comes next? Must be something fairly substantial if you are looking forward to it!
I agree with you - and she's not alone in her experiences. I know folks over in Asia who have gone to hypnotists to gain some insight into their past lives. Most of us would think it's all a bunch of crap but these folks don't have a problem with reincarnation in the first place...it's part of their spiritual beliefs. Who's to say they're wrong? And the ones I know who did find out about their past lives had some interesting stories to tell.
Do I believe it's all true? Sure, why not? I figure they'be been at this a lot longer than we have - our knowledge is limited to what we can "prove" with our modern scientific methods. The thing is, we don't have all the answers but more important, how would we even know where (or how) to look for them?
You can't will your body to continue to overturn cells and proteins. You can't control telomerase activity with your mind...
science will never find out anything about reincarnation,
it has nothing to do with facts and reality, it will never
be seen in a test tube, or show up anywhere, it is to do
with the imagination, science is all about curiosity and
proving theories, and finding hard results which can be
understood and make sense to others, reincarnation is only
for those who 'want' to believe it happens, but can never
actually prove it happens, but anyone who wants to believe
it, does.
Our minds are
so 'powerful', we can talk ourselves into believing anything
if we try hard enough, and people with great imaginations and the talent for writing can make up, or imagine many things, then transfer those ideas onto paper.
Just because we can't know anything after we die, doesn't
mean we have to keep our minds open to all sorts of mysterious things happening to us, or wonder what happens
to us, I have none of those things going on in my mind at
all. I know where I'm going, with no fear.
People can write anything in books, people will read them,
and either believe or not.
Many need to believe in reincarnation because it feels much
more comfortable than hanging around here for eternity
with no one paying attention to them, after they die,
personally I am happy to know that I will be here for
eternity, I can touch my earth, lay on it, jump on it,
grow my food on it, build my house on it, and use it for
my resting place after I die, pretty cozy.
)pessimist
SirJP - You must have missed out on the parts of history that teach us about the body being more than just a physical object - you know, the spiritual part, to name one. In some cultures, they believe that you consist of body, mind, and spirit. Each one is part of your being.
I've seen different twists on this (body, mind, and soul) but they're mostly fairly consistent with each other, from what I've seen.
When you combine that with the beliefs that exist in the energy of the universe and how it is responsible for all life, it shapes up into something that seems to be quite understandable.
It all presents some interesting, if not fascinating possibilities about what life is all about, why we are here, and where we might be going after we're finished with the physical body.
C.B. Did you ever read books by Sylvia Brown (the psychic)? Lot of stuff there to mull over. NOt sure just how valid all of it is, but she sure has the answers. She has already lived through over 60 incarnations and from what I could gather she figures she's on her last. I'm just wondering if the stupider you are the more you have to look forward to. I must be good for at least another 60.
YI have a pretty open mind on this stuff, having lived over there for a number of years. There is lots we don't know, even if we think we know it all (although I can't think of anyone in particular like that at the moment!)...
Talking about "life after death" makes a lot of people very uncomfortable, but I've never figured out why.
My opinion is that there must be more to it than just being a piece of meat that's here for a few years, and then planted to rot. Or get burned up. That seems to be a rather shallow version of it all, but maybe we're just not meant to know all these things. I figure that could be why it's a mystery to us - what's wrong with a little mystery? Keeps life (as we think we know it) more interesting.
What she is spouting is Hindu philosophy, JLM. Hindus believe that we go through several incarnations before we can achieve salvation. I haven’t read her books, but from what you have written, it is just stale, rehashed Hindu version of afterlife.
JLM - we have talked about Sylvia Browne before. She is as phoney as all the rest. She has all the answers all right. She's a great actor. She just changes "her lines" every few years.
I agree that it could be that. Really there are so many things it could be. You really had to have been there. I have never seen anything like that in my life and I have to tell you - it's on the spooky side! He was a Muslim and he sure wasn't calling for Allah!
That is what makes sense to me, Cliff. This single existance just doesn't make sense to me.
Most of us work at improving ourselves all our life, for what? There's answers out there and I don't think we stop until we've got them.
There is just one problem, can't remember who it was but someone pointed out if there aren't statistics to go with the hypothesis, then they aren't true.
A helluva good long sleep.
I don't know a thing about telomerase but I do know of a doctor who has successfully treated life-threatening conditions through nothing more than energy healing.
I'm not at all concerned about who wishes to disbelieve it or make fun of it...couldn't care less. My point in telling this true story is that it has reconfirmed my long-held belief that we don't know everything and perhaps we never will. When I say I have an "open mind" on things that I don't understand or can't be explained by "conventional" methods, I'm saying it for a pretty good reason.
Part of the problem in this discussion is the definition of life. Life is not the movement of material things like our bodies or that of birds, animals, fish or even plants. Life is the energy that animates all living things. Life is a continuum and we are but one small aspect of that continuum. The life force inherent in all living things is measurable and quantifiable. When something dies, that energy is transmuted into other life forms as the body decays. Nothing is gained or lost, just changes. So in that way, we never die.