Aeran

I doubt it - but these "ice freaks" are just an extension of the same problem you're discussing - the need people feel to chemically alter their brain to cope with living in modern society. It's not unique to addicts, or to one particular city or suburb, it's a greater sickness in Western civilization. Yeah I know it isn't cheap, but I'd happily pay the extra money just to get away from the soul-sucking pit in the desert that is Adelaide. Being able to go to the beach and immerse yourself in the waves of the Pacific whenever you feel like it is worth the price of entry alone...

What if the goblin just existed on another layer (for lack of a better term - remember that even mainstream science has come to accept that it's likely that what we can innately perceive is only a small percentage of the entirety of reality) of our reality, one which could be perceived through great effort and practice, but was generally ignored because it isn't immediately tangible? It's easier to hold onto your preconceived notions of reality and call the people who do go to that effort crazy than to question your worldview (especially when your career, reputation and income are based on that worldview). I've never heard of Lanza, but he's not alone, there are accredited scientists all over the world publishing peer reviewed research which demonstrates that reality is absolutely nothing like the physical, 3-dimensional, linear, Newtonian construction which the general public believe to be the "scientific" understanding of the world (which ironically is discredited even by cutting edge science which is accepted by the mainstream scientific canon), including phenomena generally written off as "supernatural" (a meaningless phrase in itself) such as direct mind-matter and mind-mind interaction, precognition, separation of the awareness from the physical body, and so on.

Good old Phineas Gage Why do embedded youtube links refuse to load for me because I haven't installed the latest flash player onto my computer? Why can I can mess around with the resolution and color settings of my monitor and the appearance of this webpage on my particular screen will alter radically, despite the not a single thing changing about thedaobums.com itself? Why does the speed at which this website runs depend on my modem as much as the server on which it is hosted? And so on. If consciousness isn't an emergent property of the brain but instead something which is accessed and filtered by the brain, in much the same way that my computer accesses and filters the internet, then it makes sense that altering the the brain will alter the message which comes through. From a more traditionally spiritual point of view, there's the classic "as above, so below" axiom. Mind influences energy influences matter, but this also flows in the opposite direction.

I was actually just talking about this the other day - the modern mangling of Greek philosophy (which is much closer to Eastern philosophy than the European philosophy and modern "philosophy" seen as it's descendents and which Western academia seem to believe are the whole of human philosophy - ie. one can go through undergrad, post-grad and become a philosophy professor without having read a single piece which originated east of Greece, which I think is a pretty disgusting state of affairs) is both tragic in it's effect, amazing in the sheer amount of cognitive dissonance which must be required for the people who study it and makes for a good laugh when you consider what would happen if someone told these self professed "philosophers" in modern academia what guys like Plato and Pythagoras really believed in and got up to. The arrogance and condescension which goes into the process of selecting the small parts of their writings which match modern thought and writing off the rest of as "well people were ignorant back then" is astounding.

Almost any medication or drug you take is going to end up in the urine either directly (certain Siberian tribes used to have rituals where the shaman and the higher ranking members would ingest hallucinogenic mushrooms, and then the "lesser" tribe members would drink their urine to get high, as the drug passed through the system mostly whole, likewise there have been modern cases of methamphetamine users attempting to extract the drug from their own urine, although I don't know if any have succeeded) or as a metabolite, and obviously all this urine has to go somewhere. There are nearly 5 million people in Sydney, that's a lot of pee, and it's just a fact that people in the modern world take lots of medication and drugs... while this kind of thing is useful for epidemiological studies, it doesn't really make a statement about the city itself (although I'm not a huge fan of the fact that it ends up in the harbor, but I guess it would be almost impossible to prevent at least some of it from doing so). Personally I love Sydney and hope to find my way back there some day, it's an amazing city and IMO the best in the country (despite the traffic).

(not sure why my original image on it's side disappeared) I'm sure I'm not blowing anyone's mind here, but it seems like an important addition

This. I don't think complete celibacy is healthy outside of the context of a specific, proven system of yogic/meditative practices designed to maximize the benefits and compensate for the potential side effects it can cause. That said, I wouldn't recommend going back to the daily orgasms which seem to be expected of men in modern society either. From the end of your post is sounds like you've already found a decent balance, so stick with that for now. Don't stress about an exact schedule, just go with what feels natural - refrain from orgasm until the negative effects outweight the positive, allow yourself some release, then repeat. I would also highly recommend investigating meditation/chi kung/yoga if you're interested in reaping the full benefits of sexual retention - read around on this site, there's more than enough discussion of different systems to get you started. Plain abstainence itself will only take you so far.

Sifu Terry, I've recently resumed my FP practice, and I've been noticing more and more what you emphasize in this thread - that the energy it cultivates (the "blue" chi) isn't just an excess of the "regular" chi which circulates through the body, but has it's own unique properties. Most surprisingly, I've noticed that it almost seems to have a sense of awareness or volition - I could swear that during practice I can feel the energy actually adjusting my posture where it's out of alignment, or flowing towards areas of my body which are causing problems. I was wondering if you could explain a bit more about where this energy comes from? Is it something which exists dormant in the body and is activated by the combination of breath sequences and movements? Is it brought in from some external source? Something else entirely? Thanks

He references IIH in his book Energy Work, but he wrote that well after Astral Dynamics iirc, so it could be that he hadn't read it at the time. I'm curious about how he would determine that the cord is "almost" impossible to break though - the "almost" implies that he has severed it (or come close to, or witnessed it), in which case he wouldn't be writing any books about the experience I would think I've been told by other sources the same thing that Bardon says - that during astral projection, or even certain deep meditative states where a portion of the energy body disconnects automatically, having your physical body disturbed can be very dangerous. That said, I haven't read Astral Dynamics in completion but I have flicked through it, and going off my own (limited and spontaneous) experience as well as what I've read and been told, what he described in the segment of the text I did read sounded a lot more like mental projection (that is to say, projection of the mental body, but into the astral realm, not projection into the mental realm) than astral projection to me. But I may have simply read the wrong portion, or otherwise be mistaken. Again, I'm no expert. IMO it comes down to the same problem as so many other questions about mysticism, we're trying to quantify and convey experiences which extend beyond the conventional reality which human language developed to explain. We're attempting to convey the ineffable with a tool which was put together so one cave man could communicate to the other cave man that the big stripey cats are dangerous but the red things dangling from the trees taste nice. We like to try and break things down and categorize them, but I don't think it's possible to do so fully once you move past a certain point into metaphysical subject matters. What I'm getting at is that it's quite possible that there are techniques of projecting which make one vulnerable through the potential damage to an energetic lifeline, techniques where such a lifeline exists but is not vulnerable, techniques where no such lifeline exists, and plenty of other techniques with their own unique quirks and sets of risks. I think the best we can do when it comes to safety in these matters is follow the instructions attached to a specific set of techniques instead of assuming that they are universal, (ie. if you're using a method taught by someone and they say that your body shouldn't be touched while you're projecting, then double check that you locked the door), and only work with instruction from sources which you believe to be impeccably trustworthy. And possibly invest in one of these:

Just to throw another perspective into the mix: Bolded addition my own, to clarify the terminology.

http://thedaobums.com/topic/12639-flying-phoenix-chi-kung/ would be my personal recommendation.

All that isn't something I've ever heard of - but it doesn't seem to fit, since what I'm describing only happens during qi gong or similar energetic practices. Still, I'll look into it.

But how would that tie in with the symptoms in the legs?

Hmmmm. Nothing comes to mind immediately, but I'll think it over from that perspective and see if anything occurs to me. I'll definitely keep up with trying to spend time ''grounded''' every day and see what impact that has.

No no That's just something I picked up off the warmup section of the Flying Phoenix DVD's, it was never a regular part of my practice until I experimented with it a few weeks ago to see what effect it would have on my symptoms. I tried it a few times indoors and outside, noticed it set everything off pretty badly with both, and haven't touched it since.

With the legs, yes. I haven't seen anything like that with the chest, although I have noticed a few times a distinct tingling feeling running along the skin in that area when I'm drifting in and out of sleep. I'll give this a shot and let you know what happens. Probably worth mentioning that I had upper back pain for years (especially around the shoulder blades and the neck), but managed to mostly get rid of it with postural change, stretching and meditation - the area is still rather stiff and tight, but the pain was 99% gone until all this started happening. Not that I can think of. I did have something like this up until about 6 months or so ago - a relationship which didn't end well and was 'left hanging' somewhat - but we got back in touch and managed to sort things out and part on better terms. Could you clarify what you mean by ''Yi problem source''?

It seems to, yes, although I haven't experimented with this too extensively, but, for example that standing posture I linked the picture of (http://thestillmind.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/img_01401.jpg), sets it off rather badly (I tried it both indoors and outdoors). The thought occurred to me, although distance healing isn't something I know a lot about, and I'm kind of wary about it since it seems like it would lack the ability to provide immediate feedback - what if they end up doing something which only makes the problem worse? Or if they undo the ''blockage'' entirely in one go and all the 'sick energy' (so to speak) floods my system at once and trashes my health even further (I'm not even sure if that's a reasonable concern, as I said I don't know much about it)? That's not to say I'm totally opposed to the idea, but I'd want to speak to someone carefully before I have them tinker with my energetic anatomy from the other side of the planet. I have been working to try and understand what's going on, from a spiritual/emotional perspective, if that's what you're referring to, but so far it hasn't made much of a difference. Contact details for a practitioner in Sydney would be awesome I didn't even think of a chiropractor - to be honest, I know very little about what they do or how it's supposed to work. I'll look into the option. Acupuncture is something I've been thinking about, the problem is that there are a lot of places around here that do it, but not many with a great reputation, or which give the impression that their practitioners know anything about the 'energetic nuts and bolts' so to speak. Most of them (and this goes for TCM here in general, from what I've found researching the subject) seem to be of the ''stick this needle here and that needle there and then take this herb because that's what the books say'' variety, which I don't think will be of much use. I just don't have the time, energy or finances to go into the city every day and see a random acupuncturist until I find one who knows what they're doing, which is why I was hoping someone here would be able to point me in the right direction. I haven't been practicing outside, no, although I watched that documentary someone posted here on TTB about 'grounding' and for the last 4 or 5 days have been making a point to spend at least an hour or so barefoot and outdoors. I understand that there are supposed to be setups which can allow you to bring the energy from the earth indoors with wires and such, and am going to look into the concept, and in the meantime will keep going outside barefoot as much as I can each day - which does seem to get the energy flowing through the legs, I noticed the painful prickling symptoms there started up briefly one afternoon just from walking around on the lawn barefoot while I watered the garden. Hmm, I haven't been thinking in terms of MCO, do you think it might be related, based on the symptoms described? My working theory, based on what I've been feeling and experiencing and my limited/amateurish knowledge of energetic anatomy, is that the flow of the energy somewhere along the legs or in the pelvis is or was blocked (possibly due to posture or lifestyle, I spend a lot of time sitting down, and until a year or two ago had awful posture), causing a buildup of 'sick energy' if you will, in my legs, and that my practice is either causing that blockage to start coming undone or otherwise aggravated that buildup of 'sick energy' and causing it to leak slowly up into my torso, where it gets stuck in the left shoulder/heart area and causes more problems before being 'metabolized' away. Kind of like the energetic equivalent of an abcess which is slowly leaking into the blood stream - but I could be completely off the mark there. Alternately the cause could be emotional, but that gets a lot more complicated. It's probably worth mentioning that my personality has, in Bardon's terms, a very strong Air element and very weak Earth element, with Earth being the element related to the legs and pelvis. I'm just not sure if that's a factor, or to what extent those emotional/mental aspects translate so far over into the denser energetic/physical body. Once a week. I abstained completely for a while last year, but the benefits seemingly plateaued after about a week while the buildup of libido became more and more distracting, so I settled on once a week.

Still not sure what the goosebumps thing is about, but the Randi challenge is meaningless BS.

^ I'm confused, what 'evidence' are we supposed to be looking at there?

The problem with the Middle Pillar is that if the energetic anatomy isn't at least somewhat cleansed of ''blockages'' before practicing it, it can actually compound those blockages and cause major problems. I experienced this myself, and it was pretty awful. I was lucky in that the blockages were so severe that they resulted in obvious, acute symptoms, which gave me enough warning to break off the practice, but if you have a problem on a deeper level (and anyone who's new to spiritual practice is almost guaranteed to have some level of blockage and imbalance, imo) then that may not be the case. I'd highly recommend that you don't commence with the Middle Pillar as the first stage of practice. At the least, do as Regardie recommends in the above quote and practice the LBRP for a while (he says a few weeks, but I'd recommend at least 3 months or so - can't be too thorough), which should start the process of cleansing your subtle anatomy and adjusting it to the influx of energy. Adding a routine of basic yoga, qi gong or meditation would be even better. If you haven't done so, I would highly recommend you look into the works of Franz Bardon - his Initiation Into Hermetics is written specifcally for people who are in your situation of wanting to learn these practices but not having a teacher available, and it contains a well rounded and extensive system of progression which is highly regarded.

There used to be someone from Australia who posted here and ripped people off by claiming to sell Mo Pai manuals, so whenever a new member from Australia posts in a Mo Pai thread, she assumes they're a scammer and starts making insinuations to that effect Don't worry, I got the same treatment. BKA, what you really need is to bring one of the mods in to help you, then you can do good cop/bad cop.

Why do we have two threads on this same topic?

Which makes sense as long as you pretend that Greece didn't exist.

This strikes me as tangentially relevant to the direction this convo is going in: http://www.strangenotions.com/gods-philosophers/

While I agree with your general sentiment (that we should look past racial prejudice), your historical account is a vast oversimplification, to say the least.