Aetherous

wwwoooooossaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Edit: once again I'll attempt to leave this topic alone.

Yogurt is also a good source of cysteine, and has many other benefits.

I understand. When I was thinking of joining there was a bunch of people telling me not to do it, saying all of these same things. I didn't listen to them, and had to find out for myself. So be it. Good luck to you.

mantis, On second thought, I am choosing not to get into it. When it comes to this subject, I can just go off, and it won't look good. You don't deserve to be ranted at from me. Said what needed to be said, so I'm leaving this topic alone. _/\_

Are you in?

The last three replies are good!

It's just a decorative plate I've been looking at. Would be a nice addition to my practice space. Pretty expensive...84 bucks!

If you're very restless by nature, I think that you'd get the most progress from disciplined zhan zhuang.

The benefits are just to get people to join. As soon as they can, they strip you of your benefits. This is actually happening in the guard right now. First, it was kicking people out and taking their enlistment bonuses back, for not passing their fitness test. This was because for a period of time there were too many members in the guard. A bunch of my friends were kicked out and owed thousands. When I passed the fitness test on stress fractures, they said it didn't count and wanted me to re-do it. Now for the past year and a half I've been on profile, just so they can't touch me. They've held my tuition reimbursement (over 7 thousand dollars) for the past three semesters because of this. I went to additional medic training, and they chose not to count it. Now my EMT license expired and they want to recoup my bonus again. Looks like it will be 1000 bucks that I owe them for this. Do they really need my money? If a person is unemployed, they should mow lawns and keep applying at different places. The military is much different than it was years ago.

I'm still in the guard, after one deployment to Iraq as a medic, and getting out in January. Do not join. Do not join. Do not join. Do not join! All that "shaolin" said on the first page is spot on. Respect to him for having tried out for SAS, too. Joining was the worst decision I've made in my entire life. Go to college, or just work normal jobs here and there. Don't sacrifice your own freedom for a useless cause. The benefits aren't worth it, and any chance they get they will try to take these benefits from you. The leadership in the military is made up of mostly spineless idiots. They don't care about your well being, they care about what their boss will think of them if they disobey orders...so they will willingly screw up your life when it comes down to it. Basic training was the best part of my military experience. It was all about taking care of your "battle buddies", and doing more than you thought was possible. I was so proud to have joined, despite the challenge...but that experience ended. The real military is not like that. I am not proud to have served, and I don't consider what soldiers are doing today as "serving their country". I think today's "soldiers" are just underpaid contractors, serving the interests of the government, not actually defending the nation. If you want to become a nurse, go to school for it and take out student loans. Work a summer job. The only reason a person should join the military today is if it's their absolute last option. I mean, if you can't even get a job at McDonalds.

I've been thinking lately how there really might be something to this.

It means you are clearing some channels, due to the fire element in the belly being activated. Good work. It's okay to be numb for a while. I've heard that it helps to open the leg channels (so you won't get numb anymore), if you hold your breath then hit your heels against the floor.

I once read that "siddhi" means a straight shot to hit bullseye. I think the reason why they called it siddhasana is because the whole purpose of the pose is to shoot your energy straight up your spine to the brain. It doesn't really accomplish anything else. If you think of padmasana, you see that a lotus flower blooms open...in other words opening all of your channels. It's symbolic of the purity of the spiritual heart...the pose gives a similar kind of bliss to this description (even half lotus, which is the only thing I could get into). It also accomplishes the rising of your sexual energy to the brain, same as siddhasana. So really, I think siddhasana is overrated. Some practice it because it fits their system of practices...for instance if they have a mantra that has a complimentary effect. Some like myself don't practice any special poses. But if you don't have a system, and if you can get into the pose, you might as well keep practicing full lotus.

I only liked Sagan's book because it contained a lot of interesting information, not because I consider it a good way to open the third eye (it could be, I don't know).

David Blaine is one of the most amazing people in the world...not only for what he has done, but for who he is.

Thanks guys for that Sagan book link.

The stress eraser rocks. If you don't want to buy one, just practice a lot of breathing where you focus on elongating your exhales.

I've read that within TCM, beef is considered neutral, and especially good for strengthening the kidney. Subjectively, after a couple of bites it makes me feel normal (gives me energy when I'm feeling drained) and also grounds me. I start to not feel like myself, and go a little haywire, if I don't have it for a while. Why listen to other sources, when you can tell for yourself what's good for you and what isn't?

As someone who has sacrificed exercise and nutrition to find out if energy work is actually good for people's health (it is), I have to say: being overweight sucks. Back to the gym and eating properly for me!

I'm a dog kinda person.

Interesting...to me that symbol looks like a human figure. The circle is the head, the triangle is like the arms hanging down from the torso, and the square is like the legs. By the way, I've been masturbating since a young age and have no problems with entities.

Yup.