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Originally posted by emsed1
I am finding out some amazing things in Freemasonry that were never revealed to me in my progress through the Craft. It's not because they were being withheld, but because they have been forgotten.
Originally posted by emsed1
I am also starting to understand the arguments about Pike and the inner/outer, higher/lower aspects of Freemasonry and it makes perfect sense, but not in the way conspiracists would have you believe.
Originally posted by emsed1
There is no high level cabal that exists to hand over the mysteries of time and universe. The mysteries ARE THERE though, but they cannot be given, only sought.
Originally posted by emsed1
Here are some common ideas.
1 - People have spirits or souls
Originally posted by emsed1
2 - We have been separated from an omnipresent benevolent force and we long to return
Originally posted by emsed1
3 - We have ability far beyond what we commonly perceive
Originally posted by emsed1
4 - We have (either by choice or tragedy) 'lost' the information that will allow us to return to our true nature
Originally posted by emsed1
5 - It is inherent in our nature to create, learn and be kind
Originally posted by emsed1
6 - Groups of men have given up on searching for what is lost and now desire to control what is temporal.
Originally posted by emsed1
7 - What was lost has been guarded throughout our history by stewards so that it might not be used nefariously.
Originally posted by emsed1
8 - our ultimate survival depends on our ability to turn this world into a peaceful, vibrant civilization.
I am finding out some amazing things in Freemasonry that were never revealed to me in my progress through the Craft. It's not because they were being withheld, but because they have been forgotten.
I am also starting to understand the arguments about Pike and the inner/outer, higher/lower aspects of Freemasonry and it makes perfect sense, but not in the way conspiracists would have you believe.
There is no high level cabal that exists to hand over the mysteries of time and universe. The mysteries ARE THERE though, but they cannot be given, only sought.
Maban talked about three original truths. I believe these are the same three truths given mankind at the beginning of our history. He said we would not be able to handle them at our stage of human development and our world and our society would collapse. I know now (a small bit) of why this is true.
In some versions of history the "knowledge/gnosis/word/logos/truth/light" is LOST and our purpose as living beings on this world, above all else, is to find it.
In the other common version of history the "truth/light/gnosis" etc. was not lost, rather it was HIDDEN due to an uprising in mankind that would wreak havoc, evil and destruction were they to obtain it.
Originally posted by oconnection
The way I see it now is Pike was speaking of a Mason's leveling of understanding. There will be those who treat Freemasonry has a nice place to get a beer and hang out with there buddies. While there are others who are there to grow, seek knowledge, ect. So the end result will be some who have a greater understanding, greater growth because of the effort they put into it.
This is a non-Mason point of view, but that is my understanding.
Originally posted by oconnection
I am kind of bent on the whole issue, it's still up in the air if I'll join one day or not.
Originally posted by oconnection
I suspect one of these truths would be something along the lines that would essentially be in direct conflict with just about every major religion out there.
Originally posted by EnlightenUp
I have entertained a similar understanding in the recent past. The former are the "low-level" Masons and the latter are the "high-level" Masons. Those low-level guys really don't know who the high-level one's are and those high-level guys really do know how to control those in the lower eschelons of the pyrimid. The excessively mundane interpretation of the conspiracy crowd is accurate but on a profane level of understanding.
I'll never join if I were to be in any way restricted by oath from discussing knowledge with those "outside". The rituals I wouldn't care about as that is personal business. However, the knowledge therein is for all. The only barrier I am comfortable with is myself, working with my own sense of conscience. If anything is going to pretend to be above me and control me like that, I will graciously decline regardless of how much I am "accelerated".
I'm both fundamentally in conflict and fundamentally at peace with every major religion out there. It's because they don't really matter.
(I'm happy to see you and emsed1 helped to get this thread get resuscitated.)
Originally posted by oconnection
I thought you were a Mason, I guess I got my facts mixed up in some way. Either way it doesn't matter.
Originally posted by oconnection
When countless numbers have lost there lives over religion it is obviously one of the greatest forces at the same time, sadly it can be one of the greatest of evils.
There is in every man a local consciousness connected with his quite external body. That we know. Is there not also in every man the making of a universal consciousness? That there are in us phases of consciousness which transcend the limit of the bodily senses is a matter of daily
experience. That we perceive and know things which are not conveyed to us by the bodily eyes and heard by our bodily ears is certain. That there arise in us waves of consciousness from those around us, from the people, the race to which we belong, is also certain.
May there not then be in us the makings of a perception and knowledge which shall not be relative to this body which is here and now, but which shall be good for all time and everywhere? Does there not exist in truth,
as we have already hinted, an inner illumination of which what we call light in the outer world is the partial expression and manifestation, by which we can ultimately see things as they are, beholding all creation, not by any local act of perception, but by a cosmical intuition and prescience, identifying ourselves with what we see? Does there not exist a perfected sense of hearing as of the morning stars singing together, an understanding of the words that are spoken all through the universe, the hidden meaning of all things, a profound and far-pervading sense of which our ordinary sense of sound is only the first novitiate and intuition?
Mr. Carpenter refers elsewhere to "that inner vision which transcends sight as far as sight transcends touch" and to "a consciousness in which the contrast between the ego and the external world and the distinction between subject and object fall away." These are surely the words of one who has himself undergone this experience. Carpenter, however, is careful to warn
us that we are not to suppose that people who have this experience are in any way to be regarded as infallible as to its exact meaning. "In many cases indeed" he remarks, "the very novelty and strangeness of the experience may give rise to phantasmal trains of delusive
speculation"
Originally posted by emsed1
Here's a thought to ponder:
What if we ARE God? Not just people with pieces of God inside us, but what if we are collectively the creators? Perhaps we made this puzzling world to experiment in and gave up our true nature for a while to come down and play in the sandbox?
In my experience in the last few years in American Masonry we have become much more of the charitable social club and much less about learning whatever truths are hidden there.
Originally posted by emsed1
Here's a thought to ponder:
What if we ARE God? Not just people with pieces of God inside us, but what if we are collectively the creators? Perhaps we made this puzzling world to experiment in and gave up our true nature for a while to come down and play in the sandbox?
Originally posted by oconnection
Ah the conversations we have on ATS are unlike any I have in the real world.
1) We are God
Man I hope we don't have the extreme religious types around these parts, there eyes may bleed.
2) Any ideas?
You'll have to excuse my skepticism but I think most people would be skeptical to the truth of "We are God".
Generally, I don't use "God" or other names. It connotes some kind of anthropomorphic entity that makes stuff. I think that fits Jesus better than "God". He knew he and the father were one but the father still greater (did I get that right?).
Originally posted by oconnection
Anything "pagan", out of the body experiences, meditation , ect was considered "devil worship. So I feel it's been a long road since my younger years and I've grown both mentally but very much spiritually.
Maybe one day I'll come to the realization, my mind and heart are open to new ideas and new truths. I just personally haven't achieved any type of understanding in that sense. Not that your wrong in any way, it's just my path has not brought me there.
I've calmed down my ambitions after my one "lucid dream" which I shared early in this thread. To tell you honestly It scared the crap out of me. But at the same point I feel as though I have a gift or an extra sensitivity to what's going on beyond my normal 5 senses.
When I was a child and to this day I can not watch a horror movie because to me it's not a bunch of made up characters, to me I've seen many things that are represented in such movies.
So I guess you can say my fears have hampered my progress. I guess you can say my concerns are about being possessed. So as of late it's been meditation, dreams, and visions.
I don't know how this relates to the conversation but I felt an urge to share for some reason.
Yep sorry for the sermon but you asked and I went to a lot of church when I was younger.
John 14:11 (KJV)
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
John 14:28 (KJV)
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Originally posted by emsed1
Anyway -- one thing that IS chilling is the similarity between The Lost Symbol and the stories Maban told us. In fact, substituting certain words and locations would reveal a VERY similar story. IE, 'order from chaos' vs. 'light from truth'.
Originally posted by emsed1
I wonder what other thoughts we could conjure up that would be as mind-blowing or society-shattering besides the realization that we are God, or the realization that we are nothing but a grand accident with a finite life? Both are terrifying if you ask me.