Taomeow

Witch, SO very interesting. So glad to see you again! About powerful entities "taking" from you. I had a lesson in power very recently, the biggest one of my life, and one thing I learned, out of many, is that entities of great power have trouble not using it any which way, and it's not peripheral to the way the universe works, it's the central issue of existence. Great power is hard not to use any which way, hard to control, hard to choose what to use it for and what not to use it for. It's like -- what could I compare it to -- like, e.g., physical flexibility. If you're a yogini, a ballet dancer, a gymnast, etc., your flexibility spills over into everything you do, however you move you can't really move like an arthritis-afflicted ninety-year-old, and if you chose to, you would have to work on it very hard, at all times, and remember at all times that you can't allow yourself your natural range of motion... It's like that with great power. It has to be aware of itself at all times so as to be under control at all times. The greater the power, the harder it is to do that. It's natural for a powerful one to be powerful and to act out of power first, out of any which other considerations later. All the restraints, all the brakes one might want to apply -- they don't come naturally, great power doesn't come equipped with these... it comes unrestrained, it has to work on restraining itself. For an entity of great power, it's a choice to do that, not a need. And that's the central issue of existence. I'll pm you shortly, I want to tell you a bit more...

zzzz, no milk for me?.. I'm devastated... Pretty please... just a little bit of the milk of your human kindness... just a drop...

Ah, innuendo... the fast food of the mind, the junk food of the soul. It is to information what Big Mac is to food: clog your arteries it will, stuff you up it will, nourish you it won't, support your health it can't. How about some facts? What exactly have you learned about the "origins of the practice?" Can you present some information? Can this information be verified by an independent third party -- can you point out a source where such party could find it and evaluate it, a source that is not based on hearsay and opinions?

Tsai yoshtoyoshto... tsai yoshtoyoshto... tsai yoshtoyoshto... Don't know about the "we all" part, can only speak for myself. I've lived some of the things "some," not "we all," watch movies about -- and if that's not the case with you, I would definitely encourage you to do so while the night's still young. It's a magical, glorious, terrifying, inexplicable, immense, immensely mysterious world. Don't let whoever told you that the only things that are real in it are your sofa, your remote control, and whatever "rational stories" you've learned in kindergarten end up having a good diabolical laugh at your expense.

dizzydazzle, I'm glad you're trying to have a bit of fun, but you may have been in too much of a hurry to try to have it at my expense, having failed to at least ask "what do you mean?" instead of assuming I was referring to an irrational belief of mine. In actuality, I was referring to a sequence of events that were factual, not imaginary and not belief-based -- to wit, something that started consistently coming up during my kunlun practice guided me toward another one, as surely as a threaded needle guides a thread or the four zzzz's, your screen name. I described what happened in my personal practice journal on the kunlun forum, and people I was talking to seem to have derived some sense from that instead of Hitler references... I guess to each their own. mgd, I'm sorry I couldn't be a better friend by your definition at your time of need -- I was being one by mine I thought... and what it was that I had to do so as to meet yours, I didn't know and you didn't say (tip: to self first and foremost, not just you: if you need something, ask for it directly... don't expect people to be telepathic.) I did the same thing, actually -- I "expected" a few people to be far better friends than they proved to be -- but what can I do except blame myself for not asking?.. directly?.. for what I need?.. meow out.

Your thoughts are interesting too, mgd, so here's a follow-up on the ones pertaining to mine: Don't see how this can be read into what I said, but as a general rule, I am indeed a proponent of honesty and courage -- in this combo, since one doesn't really work without the other. I also believe serious physical harm can be, and is, caused by false beliefs quite routinely. E.g., the most dangerous activity someone can engage in is, according to JAMA statistics, seeing a medical doctor. Medical researcher Thomas Moore, upon analyzing these statistics, has concluded that for a resident of this country, the danger to life and limb resulting from seeing a medical doctor or being admitted to a hospital far surpasses that of all vehicular accidents, all hazardous occupations, all chemical addictions, and all wars combined. My point being that whatever people believe is causing them serious physical harm may have surprisingly few intersections with what, in reality, does. I've witnessed kunlun bring up in a few individuals whom I am not going to name feelings and sensations that I saw as textbook illustrations of misplacement -- of old feelings onto current realities -- something I happen to have worked with extensively in the past, via a different modality. Textbook, classic! -- but impossible for the individual to recognize as such, for lack of... hmmm, guidance, theoretical knowledge, or -- in some cases -- honesty and courage. I saw it but could I say anything to anybody?.. nah... You remember I tried, in your case -- you just shot me down on the spot, and I shut up, and that was that. No accusations of cowardice or anything like that. Everybody does what they are destined to do with whatever they're destined to do it with. Who am I to blow against the wind?.. Nobody. However, didn't Max's practice which you got disenchanted with lead you to Jenny's which you felt was right for you? Is there a chance that was kunlun/Max's task vis a vis you personally -- to lead/guide you toward what suits you best? You know, something similar may have happened to me... only I didn't come to Jenny, I got guided elsewhere... but there's definitely this "kunlun got me there" little fact... interpret it however you like, it did happen, sequentially, like that... Bit of a contradiction -- if everybody knows and is equipped to know what is best for them, no one would engage in any practices that cause qi sickness. If qi sickness is there, then at least some people don't know and aren't equipped to know. Pick one or the other -- but I don't think one can really have it both ways. This is not to say I, me, know what's good for you or anybody. Nah... I just know what's bad.

Thanks, Little1! I've studied vodoo some, not practiced, just studied from books (so I guess the correct way to say it is "I studied 'about' vodoo") and I found no parallels with kunlun. Most vodoo practices, unlike the movie versions thereof, are about inviting spirits and deities (Loa) to possess you. In this, one could say that vodoo, despite its many similarities with shamanism, is the opposite of most shamanic practices (with exceptions like the fierce Yanomamo tribe's tradition that is similar to vodoo in that the spirits are encouraged to 'reside' in your inner dwelling, 'shabono,' permanently) -- in "classical" shamanism, you invite spirits and deities in order to 'possess' them, not vice versa. Same deal with taoist Magical practices -- you do invite spirits and deities, sometimes scores of them, to your ceremony or practice, but the goal is to either venerate them or strike a deal when you need their help, not to let them inhabit and control you (which is why you perform a closing ritual and if you do it right, they will all leave till the next invitation). Is this what you mean by vodoo? -- spirits taking residence in you via kunlun? Or do you mean the zombying practices of vodoo? These are very marginal and rare (unlike in the movies) not only in vodoo but in all other traditions of power, each of which has its methods of zombying (the CIA too... and -- gasp -- buddhism too...), but the fact a tradition has them doesn't mean a practitioner will use them, because karmic repercussions are not mild, and a practitioner of power has to be an exception rather than the rule in order to "go there," regardless of the tradition. What makes you think Max went there?

oh but I haven't responded to Yoda's actual question... I ran into something stronger recently and had to put kunlun et al on hold, but I'll get back to it, see how it mixes and matches with this one. Before, practices from Max were mixing/matching with my prior practices very well (I particularly liked RP in full lotus). The current thing, however, is too strong to interfere with in any way, I have zero control over its unfolding and it has to be this way for a while. So my response is, with continuing/discontinuing kunlun, "it depends on what you run into while at it." Ironically, "something stronger" and altogether different that I ran into was inspired by kunlun, so whatever you run into might be connected... as well as whatever you run from.

A few thoughts if nobody minds... "Forced" vs. "spontaneous" is a false distinction for all practical purposes. Our "spontaneous" is abnormal due to the fact we weren't conceived, carried in the womb, born, raised in any natural spontaneous manner in any natural spontaneous environments. (Taoism has a vast chapter dealing with the proper way to prepare and handle a human being to be whole before he or she is conceived even, and certainly during the mother's pregnancy and labor, and in the early developmental, "imprinting" times -- and it is a far cry from what is done in modern times. A child conceived, carried and born in a mindful natural manner is conscious from the start and remains so. This kind of spontaneity we don't even dream of because we don't know what we're missing. Similar practices existed in all indigenous tribes, only 'civilized' people abandoned them and turned a young developing human being into an unconscious "object of handling," whose spontaneity, as a result, is limited to a fraction of a percent of what it really is for a member of our species -- from the start, and typically till the end.) As a result, what we mistake for "spontaneity" as adults is really a bunch of unconscious knee-jerk responses to all the abnormalities of our developmental history, responses as forced as can be -- but forced below the level of conscious awareness. E.g., the "spontaneous" inability of an adult to voluntarily move his or her intercostal (between the ribs) muscles and the bones of the skull is thought of as "normal" -- medical texts state so! -- but it ain't! So if a practice restores this one normal ability, out of many-many-many we're missing, via methods that "don't feel natural and spontaneous" in our current book, in our current (drastically curtailed) comfort zone -- is it a "forced practice?" or, rather, a "force to use so as to overcome the force that counteracts spontaneity?.." Duh... If we modern urbanites go with only what "feels natural and spontaneous" to us (sic!), we will degenerate into mere appendages of our machines in no time. What DOES "natural" feel like to a baby hooked up to machines and interacting with machines before, during, after birth and for most of the rest of her life?.. What DOES "spontaneous" feel like to a child immobilized for most of her waking life in a crib, in a classroom, in an office?.. What DOES "un-forced" mean to someone who has never forced herself to do the impossible to save a loved one from this mechanical predicament?.. What does "forced" mean to someone whose definition of "spontaneous" is "my current comfort zone?" One's current comfort zone is usually so far removed from what "spontaneous" really is that investing into maintaining that is an investment into being a simple machine appendage -- no extra buttons please, I'm happy as it is, spontaneous as can be! Is that all you can be spontaneously, modern urbanite?.. Sheesh!.. And... I don't mean harmful forced practices aren't out there and aren't out to get you -- what I mean is, few modern people are equipped to tell the difference between a harmful forced and a beneficial spontaneous... So I guess this is a call to humility... You don't know because you aren't equipped to know. So just don't assume you do out of your current comfort zone -- don't assume you do, I mean the generic "you," not anyone personally...

Thanks for the bust! Yes, in the sense I have regained my pre-Peruvian memory of who I used to be and can tap into that in order to function routinely -- e.g., derive an opinion to post on TTB from that gone but not forgotten person whom I rather clearly remember as "me" -- and that's the power of memory... The Power of Back Then! And no, in the sense the real "now" is still "then and there" for me -- all the time... ...which brings me back to the point I'm making: "now" is whenever is the most important for one systemically (not "important in the head" or "important in the heart" but "important in the DNA"). I'm a big believer in the advantages of knowing this consciously and trying to choose what to do about it consciously too, instead of being the puppet of your own "real inner time" without knowing it. Everyone's "Real Inner Time" is different, but I doubt it's "right now" for anyone. Real Inner Time is always exactly where you happened to look at the Real Existential Clock -- -- so currently, my "real inner time" is February 16, at all times. I'm aware of the fact that I'm sort of talking in riddles, but it's not intentional... I just haven't figured out how not to yet.

Well, I've an ancient ax to grind against the whole "power-of-now" line of reasoning, it's not the clip you posted, it's just me. This whole argument, no matter who makes it and in what terms exactly, is based on the assumption that time is linear. Which, to me, is a wrong premise in any discourse, whether cosmological, philosophic, ethical, empirical, or scientific. And, Cam, if time flows like water in your empirical world... it does in mine too, but have you noticed that water's behavior is infinitely versatile?.. Life and time that are seen as linear can only be like water flowing through some plumbing pipes where, indeed, the past and the future don't matter, all that matters is that you get your water when you open your faucet "now." But real water, unlike imprisoned water, doesn't behave anything like that... nor does time, nor does life... being and nonbeing are nonlinear, both of them.

Compare to the unpopularizable (and therefore ever-unpopular in all Indo-European cultures) taoist proper view expressed, e.g., by Zhuangzi: "There is a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be a beginning. There is being. There is nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be nonbeing. Suddenly there is nonbeing. But I do not know, when it comes to nonbeing, which is really being and which is nonbeing. Now I have just said something. But I do not know whether what I have said has really said something or whether it hasn't said something." Yeah... This might cause anyone stumbling across a not-so-simple truth like the above to feel cheated out of an opportunity to commit to a simple popular cause. Which is why Tolle is bestselling and Zhuangzi, merely immortal.

Fenugreek tea.

It may have something to do with which systems you favor "naturally" -- visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. I am predominantly kinesthetic, so I "visualize" sensations more than "pictures." If you visualize your feet as coals, as you say you did, your body might not know what to do to "accomplish" that -- a picture may not warm things up in anyone who isn't predominantly visual, while a sensation... what IS the sensation of having coals for feet? My body would be clueless. If I want to warm up my feet, I visualize my blood flowing to my feet... feel it pulse, feel it flow, feel its warmth, feel its heat! This is something my body recognizes and goes, aha, I know this one... OK, I can do it. If you still want to go with the image of hot coals, try mentally standing on them rather than turning your feet into them maybe?

Thank you, Seth! I agree with your analysis completely, and I have no idea how and why he knows what he knows, a government-implanted provocateur is a realistic possibility, though the accusation would have to be substantiated by at least one fact, IMO, something I currently don't have -- not one... doesn't mean they don't exist, of course. But then there's another thing... more up our collective metaphysical alley, so to speak (we're primarily a metaphysical forum after all! )... so... the story goes he went to Peru and took ayahuaska, and that's what got him started with all the weirdness and all the revelations and then supposedly all the research was undertaken to figure out what the f... This one little fact (IF it's a fact, I dunno) might explain the far-out stories of his very differently. Ayahuaska is notorious (through millennia of native use in shamanic rituals) for opening up communication with other dimensions and other worlds, even other galaxies (sic), and native American "vegetalista" shamans were talking about strange interspecies communication for thousands of years, some of them veritably intergalactic. Have you seen Mayan and Incan, pre-Mayan and pre-Incan art, e.g.? A lot of what I've seen looks like depictions of some biotechnological entities, creatures, surroundings... it is so... well, otherworldly... and it was created by people who had these visions and revelations thousands of years before Icke yet used the same connecting medium... But of course it's pure speculation... just one thing that makes the far-out parts of his message a tentative possibility -- at least I know and understand his primary metaphysical source (if the story is true of course), don't know about his other sources... Really don't know.

There's thousands of very bad youtube entries on the subjects under discussion. Laughably unconvincing, outright crazy, or unskillfully (well, skillfully too) mixing truths with lies and utterly discrediting the former with the latter. It's hard to tell how much of it is amateurish inefficiency of delivery and how much, purposeful poisoning of the well. Just like with taoist disciplines, it's always better to go to the source in order to find out what it's all about. Take Icke, e.g.. I've heard about him some fifteen years ago and shrugged him off as another lunatic, maybe bigger than most. But my opinion at the time was derived from having "heard about him," not from "hearing him out." Then one of his books wound up in my hands by sheer accident, and I had to change my opinion. It's like with Max... once you know the guy, you might change your opinion. The thing with Icke is, forget the reptilian shapeshifters for a moment and notice instead that he predicted a whole bunch of political, economic, social events in the then-near future based on his research that became reality just as predicted, with uncanny accuracy. That's what made some people who aren't exactly stupid start to take him a tad more seriously. Can you accurately predict the future of the global developments, say, three, four, ten years into it? If you were to prove, by the fact that everything you predicted had then come to pass, that you can, I'd probably listen to what you have to say about how it is that you do it. Icke does it by following current events back into history whence they flow -- and doing stupendous amounts of dogged and accurate research -- and going all the way to the source. In doing so, he eventually hits some interesting premises that do sound like lunacy -- if you don't follow the exact root he traces and just jump to conclusions. But the thing is, he doesn't jump to conclusions. Right or wrong, it's all documented... and I've always thought that the very best way to really understand the present and predict the future is to trace back a phenomenon's 'lineage.' Where things come from tells a lot about where they're going...

Thank you... reciprocated! Well, the only thing I could do is say what it is that I, personally, am doing -- I don't have a universal recipe. Here's how I go about it: 1. Try to stay informed, and take the time and patience to contemplate and analyze the information -- don't buy everything, don't reject everything, just let it accumulate into a hypersaturated solution and crystallize into some clear understanding eventually. Things you hear, things you notice, indirect evidence, direct experience, the 'feel' of things... how does it feel to be lined up and shot... no wait, not shot, I mean, searched... at the airport, e.g.? how does it feel to be handled impersonally, like an object, by an impersonal, objectified machine -- by people who are paid to not behave as people, by systems that don't behave any other way than automatically -- how does if feel to be reduced to an object of handling which the machine is set up to crush the second this object tries to exhibit human feelings, human behavior?.. 2. Invest in metaphysical solutions, but don't place all your eggs in this particular basket. Learn to be strong inside, try to be strong externally to the extent possible. Work on that because the machine crushes weakness first, doesn't mean it can't crush strength if it's a big enough mean enough machine... but still... Don't set yourself up to go quietly into the night. This is spiritual death with or without physical one, far as I'm concerned. 3. Play it by ear, be alert, try to visualize what it is that you, personally, would be able to do for yourself and your loved ones in the worst case scenario. E.g., I had a dream. I call it The Dream of the Red Suitcase. In that dream, the worst case scenario started unfolding and I wasn't ready, which was symbolized by a Red Suitcase that I should have packed long ago for just such a possibility, and when I rushed to grab it, with the last-escape route about to close within minutes, turned out my Red Suitcase was lying there in the middle of my bedroom, open, only half packed, with stuff that was supposed to go in it strewn about, with no chance I could possibly have enough time to pack it now. So... if you get a lesson like that from whatever source -- say your higher self -- pay attention and do something about it... What exactly, I don't know. I don't even know yet what it is exactly that goes into my own Red Suitcase... Try to figure out what it is that must go into yours, and take it from there?..

Alas, I have no clue. The feel is circa 17th, give or take a century or two. I just had a crazy thought. What if that Schermer woman was your ancestress?

Yeah, a fun thread indeed. For me personally, the coolest part was the correction of my past-life pronunciation (and the sound it was that I remember, not the spelling -- I have no idea if I was literate in that life -- "if that life or any of the others ever happened" is an ongoing disclaimer, as I stated at the very beginning) -- by TTT which turned out to be the closest thing to corroboration of the experience's reality I ever had. (Remember, I thought the second word sounded like 'kirche' -- two syllables -- and TTT said it's 'kerk' in Dutch, and then the actual Schermer church with that unforgettable bridge smack in front of it turned out to be known as 'kerkje' -- two syllables -- just as I heard it in my mind's ear!) This particular memory emerged when I was 19, with no prompts from anywhere. I was living in the Soviet Union, behind the then-solid-enough Iron Curtain. I had no particular interest in things Dutch nor any exposure to same, nor any discussions of same with anybody. I had never read a Dutch novel nor seen a Dutch movie at that time. Schermer Kerkje had no place to come from other than from within. To the best of my knowledge. With other memories, it's the same -- i.e. I know that I know things that I couldn't possibly read in a book or see in a movie, but I would never be able (or care to) prove it. So the pronunciation correction that ultimately wound up validating my two-syllable memory... priceless.

Call yourself an "alternative historian" (if you've done enough research into alternative non-syndicated sources of history, of course), and call the other party "coincidence theorists"-- after accumulating a good amount of evidence pointing to the fact that the only alternative to the "conspiracy" explanation must be the "several thousand accidental events all leading to one and the same outcome" explanation. E.g., you could congratulate "coincidence theorists" on being staunch true believers in things like... hmm... say, an accidental terrorist attack unrelated to the accidental Patriot act that followed chronologically only by accident, and was totally unrelated to the accidental ongoing and accelerating process of dismantling of everybody's constitutional rights, which of course has absolutely nothing to do with a completely accidental process of demolition of economy and a completely unrelated war, which only accidentally has led to a completely accidental enrichment of a few military-supplies cartels whose leading members only accidentally include the Bin Ladens and the Bushes, which of course only accidentally coincides with accumulation of power and wealth unheard of on this planet in fewer hands than ever in history which is of course even accidentally impossible to link to absolutely and totally unrelated suffering of a few billion accidentally TV-watching, newspaper-reading, this-way-only-informed human beings. And so on. You won't convince them of course -- the stuff in their drinking water is a CNS suppressor (accidentally, of course) and they have the misfortune of being more sensitive to its effects than you or me, so they do deserve compassion if not information (for which they have no use because -- remember -- they are true believers, and beliefs have no use for information at all, let alone non-syndicated, non-approved by the bosses kind.) But at least you won't be the one stuck with a nasty-sounding, character-assassinating, stupidity-implying label anymore. That's a start...

How far is it from Schermer? Could I of that Schermer life have known your ancestors? I don't remember my last name from that life, alas, or my first one for that matter. (I remember several names from my Greek life, including my own, one day I'll research...) It's loopy to me... like the Amazon. If you look at it from above the plane whereupon it flows (from a plane in the sky, in the case of the Amazon, or from a different plane of existence, in the case of the river of time), you see the meanderings of the great river very clearly on a clear day, and you see that most loops don't swirl back onto themselves, but some do... some do. Strange things happen in the river of time. Mystery of mysteries!.. It's interesting how (at least some) men's past life memories are "more linear" than (at least some) women's -- they (men) perceive a hierarchy, an ascension from "lower" to "higher" kinds of spiritual accomplishment -- also they seem to remember facts (job description, rank, social status, etc.) while I, e.g., whose all past life memories are of female incarnations (doesn't mean I never incarnated as a man, it's just that I can't remember any of those lives, if they ever happened) -- I mostly remember how things felt and what the way they felt meant to me.

TTT, OK, I found it and recognized it. Nearly gave me a heart attack. On page one of your link, picture number six (bottom right) gives the closest view to the one I remember. If you click on it, the caption says something I can't translate, but I noted the word "Kerkje," which is further explained as "de kerk" -- well, "kerkje" seems pretty darn close to what I, in this life, interpreted as "kirche" as I hear it in my past-life memory -- what is it, an archaic way to pronounce "kerk?" Do you happen to know? or you, fair Rain?.. The caption says, omschrijving: "Kerkje Gr. Schermer", de kerk vanuit het westen. The bridge is THE bridge, the one I remember, unless it's its twin brother, a replica, etc. Looks pretty much the same. I noticed the date on one of the buildings in another picture on that page -- 1652. I may have been a century or two off with the word "medieval" earlier, I really have no idea exactly what century it was -- my feeling is that not much, and not fast, may have been changing visually or lifestyle-wise in that place between, say, the 15th and the 17th centuries, so I couldn't tell the "when" for sure. (Matter of fact, I know an Amish family from Pennsylvania whose all members dress exactly like their medieval or 17th or 19th century ancestors did as we speak, have done so all their lives, just like their parents and grandparents in the 20th, and all their clothes are still homemade. When they were here in CA on a visit -- they were seeking some medical treatments for a sick little boy in the family and eight relatives came along with him! admirable and enviable! -- I was showing them around and people kept stopping them in the streets, at stores, etc., to ask if they were for real. Yup, they were. And their thinking, unlike their clothes, isn't archaic at all... but I digress too much, sorry.) Anyway... TTT, thanks! Appreciate the near-heart-attack!

Oh, thank you so much! I wasn't sure about the pronunciation, it could easily have been Kerk, it's quite possible that I could superimpose a relatively close-sounding German pronunciation a few centuries later... since I did learn some German in this life and it may have affected my phonetic perception. Then again, I may have been a German lady living in Holland, who knows?.. But the fact that Schermer exists and is in fact a real place in Holland -- this I only found out today, when I was going to respond to the thread and went to google looking for the word I knew from that life, and voila... Schermer, in Holland! Now if I recognize a church... but I don't really remember the church, only the bridge... but anyway, lemme look... thanks again!

I don't know if it's real. I remember a few, but not beginning to end, just some episodes. One in medieval Holland. There was a bridge, I had to cross it on foot often and remember it well. I remember the name of the place -- Schermer. I went to a church I called Schermer Kirche, don't know if it had a different name, I remember pronouncing it very fast, it may have been the name of a street too. I remember the weather, the clothes I wore, my brisk pace crossing that bridge. I remember being busy, energetic, and comfortable in my environment. I was probably no one special, a merchant's wife or some such. Another one in ancient Greece. This one was cut short -- I was only 16 -- and I remember its last day in great detail. It was a Greek tragedy! Another one -- nomadic, I remember the smells, the space -- and I can see the shoes I wore. They were soft as gloves, red leather embossed with gold. I must have been wealthy in this one. I remember a sense of absolute authority. Another one prehistoric, wild, this one was the best one. I remember the taste of many things -- some berries, wild honey, water... I remember my older sister from that life. She was bossy but caring.