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Originally posted by squandered
reply to post by NorEaster
Any all encompassing explanation is a limitation. If the ALL could show boundaries, it would not be ALL. If you ask for proof of origination you can't receive such information from "god", as the limitations that enable any explanation of origin forfeit the claim to be "god".
Bit of a catch 22 huh?
The way I see it, if a prophet can't get the All to explain how it came to be and how it is that it exists within a contextual environment that allows it to fragment in any way whatsoever without there being such a contextual environment at all, then that prophet never encountered any sort of All at all. At least not an All that is as All as it claims to be.
Not at all. You are imposing your "belief" on what and who god is and dismissing anything that does not fiat that belief.
Originally posted by hawkiye
reply to post by NorEaster
The way I see it, if a prophet can't get the All to explain how it came to be and how it is that it exists within a contextual environment that allows it to fragment in any way whatsoever without there being such a contextual environment at all, then that prophet never encountered any sort of All at all. At least not an All that is as All as it claims to be.
That makes no sense. You claim to be a human but can you explain how humans came to be? Yet you are still a human. And if it always existed and never not existed then of course it cannot say how it came to be for it has always been...
edit on 14-4-2011 by hawkiye because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by squandered
reply to post by hawkiye
Not at all. You are imposing your "belief" on what and who god is and dismissing anything that does not fiat that belief.
I was explaining what "ALL" entails, logically.
I was expressing the fact that I can't possibly understand god, stating that if you hope to understand god, you must fail as whatever you believe god to be, god is greater.
If you think that you can put a date to gods beginning and / or ending etc, this would fly in the face of logic.
You are sporting some kind of ownership of god. I am not.
Originally posted by NorEaster
reply to post by 2manyquestions
Nice story. Only problem is the issue of this infinite whatever-it-is and it's ignorance of its own physical nature. That one inconsistency suggests that while the story is pretty detailed, the most important part of the tale's backstory is information that the author simply can't provide.
Of course, this one small lack of overall revelation is extremely troublesome when trying to accept this vision as being anything more than what anyone who's read the very common premise that suggests that we're all bits of God pieced out to allow IT the opportunity to experience contextual juxtaposition for ITself would be familiar with. I call this the "All exploding itself to experience its All-ness with itself" God explanation, and it's got a number of supporting narrative structures.
The way I see it, if a prophet can't get the All to explain how it came to be and how it is that it exists within a contextual environment that allows it to fragment in any way whatsoever without there being such a contextual environment at all, then that prophet never encountered any sort of All at all. At least not an All that is as All as it claims to be.
Originally posted by 2manyquestions
I don't feel that it didn't answer my question. I feel like it gave me an answer I have a hard time understanding. You're asking me to answer the kind of questions nobody has yet been able to answer. We're talking mathematics, physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, biology, and a number of subjects I have very limited knowledge of. My basic knowledge of these things isn't nearly enough to give you an answer you'll find satisfactory. I wish mathematicians or quantum physicists could have been in my position, because surely they would have been able to make more sense out of it than I can. Post-experience I feel that these experts are slowly chipping away at this mystery. Some of them seem to be onto it more than others, but we are still VERY far away from being able to explain it with proof beyond a doubt. In fact I've become far more interested in these subjects post-experience, because of the fact that it seemed to me that this consciousness creates our reality and our Universe using incredibly complex equations (that's a very basic description). It's like a peasant living in 1045 A.D. and having a vision of E=MC squared. He might be able to draw and write the equation down, he may be able to describe it's dimensions, but he'll never understand what it means.
I don't claim to be a "prophet". All I did was share an experience I had, and I tried to give as much detail as I remembered. I don't feel "chosen", I don't feel "holy", and I don't intend to convert or cram this stuff down anyone's throat. I won't be starting my own church or recruiting anyone to my cult. It was a very personal experience, it changed me, and the best I hope out of it is to connect with other people who have also had a similar experience. I liken it to wanting to join a support group. Rape/abuse victims, cancer patients, addicts etc. sometimes join groups to discuss their problems or experiences, because they feel like people who have never experienced such things won't ever fully understand. I feel that way about my experience. I feel like although I know there's many people who have read about these things, they may never LIVE it, and therefore won't have that experience to fully understand it.
edit on 15-4-2011 by 2manyquestions because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by NorEaster
Originally posted by 2manyquestions
I don't feel that it didn't answer my question. I feel like it gave me an answer I have a hard time understanding. You're asking me to answer the kind of questions nobody has yet been able to answer. We're talking mathematics, physics, chemistry, quantum mechanics, biology, and a number of subjects I have very limited knowledge of. My basic knowledge of these things isn't nearly enough to give you an answer you'll find satisfactory. I wish mathematicians or quantum physicists could have been in my position, because surely they would have been able to make more sense out of it than I can. Post-experience I feel that these experts are slowly chipping away at this mystery. Some of them seem to be onto it more than others, but we are still VERY far away from being able to explain it with proof beyond a doubt. In fact I've become far more interested in these subjects post-experience, because of the fact that it seemed to me that this consciousness creates our reality and our Universe using incredibly complex equations (that's a very basic description). It's like a peasant living in 1045 A.D. and having a vision of E=MC squared. He might be able to draw and write the equation down, he may be able to describe it's dimensions, but he'll never understand what it means.
Oddly enough, I can tell you exactly how the author of our own contextual environment - the very same one that you shared wth this whatever-it-is - came into existence. It doesn't take a transcendent experience to figure it out, and it doesn't take any faith whatsoever in an unknowable unknown. Nothing is unknowable. Ay least nothing that actually exists. If you're trying to defend an impossibility, then yes, you'll have to embrace an unknowable unknown, but that should be your clue that what you're trying to defend is simply not true.
An expereince is nothing more than an experience. Perception is not fact, and has never been fact. What is also true is that the way that one progresses into a deep meditative state is exactly the same way that one progresses into deep states of self hypnosis. I know this because I used to record self hypnosis cassette tapes for friends of mine back in the 1980s when there was interest in that sort of thing for use in quitting smoking and other things like that. The exact process is what I have since discovered is being used to achieve deep meditative levels. I guess I'm not surprised.
I believe that you had that experience, but I don't believe that that thing was "the All". Check out my overview of the concept of contextual juxtaposition and the need for a contextual environment for that sort of thing to be possible between two unique entities. That is the bottom line in this situation, and regardless of how profound it seemed, that whatever-it-is was not being honest with you. And it knows that it wasn't being honest with you. The informational realm is no less full of threats and scams than the corporeal realm. That said, the informational realm's got good and decent humans within it as well, and they've been working to clear some of this crap up. The hard part is that the truth isn't as exciting as the SciFi con jobs generally are.
Originally posted by 2manyquestions
I don't claim that there are or aren't 'unknowable' things. I feel that there are things I don't understand, but this doesn't mean that those same things are 'unknowable'. I accept the fact that sometimes I will encounter situations or things which I will not be able to understand. It doesn't mean that I will never understand them, but for the time-being I probably won't be able to comprehend them. Someone else looking at those same things may come to understand them even if I could not.
I believe that you had that experience, but I don't believe that that thing was "the All". Check out my overview of the concept of contextual juxtaposition and the need for a contextual environment for that sort of thing to be possible between two unique entities. That is the bottom line in this situation, and regardless of how profound it seemed, that whatever-it-is was not being honest with you. And it knows that it wasn't being honest with you. The informational realm is no less full of threats and scams than the corporeal realm. That said, the informational realm's got good and decent humans within it as well, and they've been working to clear some of this crap up. The hard part is that the truth isn't as exciting as the SciFi con jobs generally are.
I'll check it out. If you could, please post a link.
If I understand you correctly, you assume that the entity was separate from me. Let's pretend for a moment that my experience was a glimpse into a Universal truth. I did not feel separate from the consciousness. I felt extremely connected to it and I felt I was a small piece of it. I was it, fragmented from myself, just like you would be IT, fragmented from yourself. In that case I would have to lie to myself. I don't feel that I would purposely deceive myself, but then again anything is possible. Is it possible that all of this is a lie? Absolutely. Is it also possible that maybe this is part of the big truth? I don't see why not. Until we experience physical, permanent death, it's unlikely that we'll learn what the truth is.
The thing that partly puzzles me is that so many people claim to have experienced a very similar (alternate) reality. It's very possible that certain parts of the brain (when stimulated) produce the same effect in all human beings, which would account for the similarity between all these stories. It may also be possible that there may be some truth to that alternate reality. I wouldn't know where to begin to try to prove it, and that is why I'll simply share it for what it is, and act accordingly. Despite my inability to determine whether it was truth or lie, it created a positive effect in my life and helped me to better cope with our world. Does that mean I should continue to believe it despite all evidence to the contrary? Of course I shouldn't. On the other hand,... if it helps me treat people better and helps me get through difficult times, I don't see too much harm in it. I'm not out to convert anyone.
Could my sharing a potential lie cause more harm than good? I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead. Maybe that's why we have the world's religions today, because someone somewhere shared their experience with others, and inspired them to create large groups of people who didn't fully understand. They perverted the experience, added onto it, and next thing you know you've got the Spanish Inquisition, the murder of thousands (or rather millions) in the name of God,..... something that goes completely against the original experiencer's beliefs. It MUST be felt to be understood. Reading and talking about it is like describing the sky to a person who spent their entire life being blind. I mean... it's just indescribable.
Your concept of God flies in the face of the same logic that such a god would have used to ensure the physical integrity of what it has created. Not everyone can really understand logic at its most primitive and most rigid, but that doesn't release reality from its stranglehold. Perception is not, and never has been, reality. And while imagination is wonderful, nothing has ever been brought into concrete existence as a result of free and unfettered whimsy. In short, not everyone is suited to the task of unraveling the mysteries of reality, so don't let it get you down. Maybe you're good with a PowerPoint presentation?
Originally posted by NorEaster I'm trying to tell you that I do understand what you experienced. A lot of people have experienced what you experienced, and our cultural beliefs have been crafted as a result of people having experienced these events, and translating them in their own ways to the people they know and meet. I am not saying that you didn't experience what you experienced. I am just trying to help you understand what it is that you experienced. It's extremely difficult to release your own translation of an event long enough to examine an alternate perspective, and I understand just how difficult it is to do that. However, it's an extremely valuable capacity for one to possess, since there are experiencers and translators, and it's extremely rare for any one person to be both an experiencer and an accurate translator. The fact that a person's experience becomes integral to their own personal Identity is what causes the problem in most cases. Especially when the experiencer is just beginning their run, and the whole adventure is new.
Even long-time experiencers can be weak as translators, and many are. These are two very different capabilities, and the difference between the two is akin to the difference between an artist and that artist's agent. Both are dependent upon one another for a successful career, since the type of thought process that each employs is almost diametrically opposed to the other. In that case, the artist is pushing from the universe behind his eyes into the universe before his eyes, whereas the agent is taking from the universe before his eyes into the universe behind his eyes. Expecting one person to perform both feats is unrealistic, and we can see the impact of how our own arts and entertainment industry has been gravely limited by the DIY culture that has become the norm within the last decade or so. The really great stuff is hidden, while the really cheap crap is ubiquitous. Maybe not the best analogy, but I hope you can see the parallels. Translations demands a very detached point of perspective, and must be based on unaffected reality knowns. Human intellect is simply not a fact-centric form of information, and while it is invaluable as what it is, it's not useable as a reliable source of fact.
I have a book that I wrote on the larger question of what exists as real in the macro sense of humanity, God, humanity, physical reality, and the nature of both corporeal and eternal existence. It's being revised at the moment, and I'm waiting on the new proof, so the book is not available for the time being. There are no unassociated links, since this effort is just being launched, and I'm being extremely careful in how I roll this information out. I've discovered that there are too many ways that even the most plainly stated assertions can be misunderstood or misrepresented, and so I've been testing a few of the larger notions on boards like this one to see where the weaknesses are in my presentation. The new edition proof is on its way, and if you are interested, then check back with me (U2U) and I'll let you know when the new edition will be available. To say that this book is comprehensive is an understatement. Its like a Chilton's Manual in its specificity, and requires no faith-based acceptance of anything.
I understand that this is how it felt, and I can explain why it felt like that. There is what I referred to earlier here as contextual commonality, and in the case of human beings (which is what that God thingy actually was) this commonality can exist in multiple layers. You can be "one with" your family members, your office pool, your softball team, your college fraternity, your spouse, your BFF, and even with some guy sitting on a bar stool next to you that agrees with you that the Yankees suck and should never win another World Series ever again. Within the informational realm (which is the only realm you could've actually run into this God thingy) contextual commonality takes on a much more profound level of significance, since the eternal nature of information requires that contextual relationships have definitive impact between associative and disparate unique wholes.
What you felt was the way such a profound level of contextual association feels (as compared to how the corporeal perspective experiences a similar association) Pretty intense, to say the least. Then again, perception within the informational realm is much more "real" than in the corporeal realm, since the experience of that perception is not being negatively affected by the sluggishness of information processing and storage by way of carbon data processors. When you die, you'll discover what I mean about the extremely elevated level of direct experience. That said, the translation of that experience will still be subject to what you expect of reality, and more importantly, what you refuse to allow as reality. There are a lot of very lost people within the informational realm. Even worse, there are a lot of people taking advantage of a lot of lost people in that realm where we're all inevitably headed. My concern is to mitigate this obvious problem with straight up information that folks can turn to if things start to spin out on them once they've left the corporeal realm.
People have been experiencing miraculous things for thousands of years, and each of them is absolutely convinced that what they experienced has a much more expansive application within the corporeal world of human beings. Demon exorcists have been packing Catholic pews for centuries, and in fact have been the most effective marketing arm of the Vatican over the last 1,000 years. In the 3rd world, they still have a tremendous impact on parish numbers, and even that show Paranormal State (on A&E) has informal ties to the American Catholic community, promoting the Catholic Church as the go-to source for all your demon-possession related needs. Is this a harm that is being done? An Evangelical will certainly suggest that it is, but then, they perform their own magic shows and draw in the faithful through miracle healings and divine interventions, so who are they to squawk about the Catholics and their circus tent?
But is any of this harmful? Well, if a person passes to the informational realm, and is negatively affected by the rigid expectations that were drilled into their head while they were in corporeal development, then yeah, it did end up being harmful. Not intentionally harmful, but then we've all read the news stories of people who prayed over their child as the poor thing died of a twisted bowel or a burst appendix. Intent has nothing to do with what's harmful and what's beneficial. Net impact is what matters. In the case of a erroneous translation, the history books are packed with the devastation brought on by reckless translations. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" is a cliche because, like all cliches, it's true.
The thing is that translation is the most difficult part of the experience. It's also the most important part. Like you said, bad translations have caused good people to act the part of absolute demons in service of just how bad a translation can become. I do know that there are extremely specific aspects of reality that all dynamic and intelligent beings are inherently affected by and that they can't overcome. Even the creating author of the contextual realm that we inhabit is limited by these very clear and constant parameters - one of them being that the author itself cannot physically exist within the confines of the contextual realm that it created - so forget about meeting God within this realm, it simply cannot possibly happen. In my book, I do explain how some will eventually get to exist as a community within God's own contextual realm, but it's pretty dense stuff and you need some intellectual discipline to wade through the technicals involved in proving the logic structure. But it is there, and thoroughly vetted.
So, the next time you visit the informational realm (which, by the way, is doable, even if the specifics of the journey are not exactly what you might imagine them to be) be aware that it adheres to the same sub-structural parameters that you're already used to, and that the magic is only in your perception of what's being presented to you. Also, all that exists as intelligent has its own unique agenda, and while some agendas are wonderfully benevolent, and some are horribly malevolent, some are simply bored and in need of a momentary distraction. I'd take everything I see with a dash of salt, and simply make a note of it. Certainly share it with others, but be responsible in your role as an experiencer. Not everyone gets to be an experiencer. It's quite a privilege. Hell, I wish I could've been one.
Originally posted by squandered
reply to post by NorEaster
Your concept of God flies in the face of the same logic that such a god would have used to ensure the physical integrity of what it has created. Not everyone can really understand logic at its most primitive and most rigid, but that doesn't release reality from its stranglehold. Perception is not, and never has been, reality. And while imagination is wonderful, nothing has ever been brought into concrete existence as a result of free and unfettered whimsy. In short, not everyone is suited to the task of unraveling the mysteries of reality, so don't let it get you down. Maybe you're good with a PowerPoint presentation?
I don't understand why you decided to insult me? I'll defer to your previous comment that was well writ.
I don't have a concept of god except that the infinite is unreachable.
I would argue that 'absolute' "free and unfettered whimsy" is the language of god, but I don't claim to be capable to separating myself from my conceptions of reality, however, I believe true wisdom is the essence of our being, moreover the life force that is 'us' is inseparable from god and infinite.