Paradoxal

Something being an illusion does not mean that it does not exist. That is only the way it appears on the surface. By looking a little deeper, you may see a different picture entirely. How can I describe to a blind man what it is like to see? I describe what I see myself, and yet it is taken as a fantasy! How laughable indeed! It would be worth looking into Plato's Allegory of the Cave, friend! I believe that it can describe this better than I would on a forum post, but unfortunately, that in itself is simply "what you read"! I think you're uncomfortable looking past the cover of the book, and that is fine. It's perfectly natural to want to stop at the brink of the unknown, and come back with the experience of coming close to it, but it is quite rewarding to take that one extra step in. As for time itself, look at dream time. Look at the differences in how we "experience" life day-to-day, as the years go by. A year for a child feels like an eternity, and yet a year for an adult feels like nothing at all! A minute of anticipation lasts much longer than ten minutes of fun, and yet funtime is much longer objectively! Some dreams can last years while only taking an hour to conjure, and some martial artists can enter a time-free state via focus. Time is something entirely irrelevant to experience, and yet we always attempt to place our experiences in time itself.

So THAT's what "Wanko Soba" is named for!

Is it not entertaining to see people take a simple theory personally? I don't know if your theory is correct, @dmattwads, but I find the gut response of many to be quite an amusing example of lack of self awareness. That said, I don't think it's *just* kidney jing deficiency that causes it. It's likely a combination of factors, and not all "trolls" do so for the same reason. Nungali, for instance, "trolls" in a helpful way. He makes fun of others in an attempt to let them see the folly of their ways, almost like a mischievous fae. This sort of thing is often referred to as "trolling", but I very much doubt it is what you are referring to as "trolling". Why not use a more specific definition of the behavior you're referring to?

I have read that White tiger has a habit of bringing out hard-to-control anger when clearing the meridians, but I do not know if it is true or not. It would be something I suggest looking into if you're looking at picking it up.

This is because humans are specialized in exclusion. We exclude things that we are not familiar with because they are potential risks. This is how we survived before we were "civilized", and it is also what leads to the tribal mentality. It's simple to see this trait in pretty much every other animal out there as well; if it's not taught to be accepting of something, it will view it with suspicion. If you don't know what a plant is, would you eat it? What if your parents raised you with that plant in your diet? It's that sort of thing. As said trait applies to spirituality and ideas, along with more physical aspects of life, even the most pure ideologies would eventually develop sections that believe it to be the only thing out there. Now, it can be taught that everyone has a valid opinion, but one person who believes that their opinion is the only valid opinion can easily ruin that. Such a development easily happens when the teachings are taught by those who do not understand them, such as many of the current and past church officials (Look at how it was taught during the middle ages, and compare it what the book actually says). In cases such as these, said people use the "My view is the only right view!" as a power move, to keep them at the top and others below them. Nonetheless, I find it easiest to view this as part of a cycle. A "religion" is born when one "enlightened" individual (not exactly a buddha per se, but more like someone with some insight into what's beyond) decides to teach disciples, and those disciples decide to teach the message to others. Eventually, the teachings spread outside of what was originally taught, and those teaching no longer understand the teachings. Once this happens, corruption strikes, and the downfall of the religion begins. During the downfall of a religion, a new individual is born and starts a new religion, which continues the cycle. If we view the different bits of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Calvinist, Lutheran, Protestant, etc.), Judaism, Islam, and the Pagan religions of the Romans and Greeks, and look at the overall history, we begin to see something of a pattern. When a religion falls, it doesn't always disappear, but its ability to recruit and the peoples' trust in it lowers. That's my take on it, anyway. I'd love to hear other peoples' opinions as well, as this is something I've been concerned about as well!

If you are questioning where qi comes from, I would say that it's not from this particular plane of existence, and thus would not be subject to our laws of physics. When approaching this subject, it would be more appropriate to use eastern science (think yin/yang as a measuring stick) compared to western science (think a device as a measuring stick). This isn't something I've gone too in-depth in myself, but all the explanations for qi that I have heard from people trying to make it understandable from a western scientific perspective were easily debunked. As for the idea that qi is plasma, the biggest issue I have with it is that plasma does not have a way to create all of the same phenomena that qi can create (the biggest one I can think of is body reinforcement, which I can't see a good way to accomplish with plasma as I understand it). That said, it would be rather nice if western science eventually reached an understanding of qi, but I don't think that will happen for as long as our measuring sticks are physical in nature.

I found these things out by experimenting with what works best for me. Some were inspired by other rules I've heard of, but I personally tested what worked and what didn't. My initial motive in contacting said beings was a combination of curiosity and malice, as I did not like the idea of there being anything that could affect me without me seeing it. In addition to said motives, curiosity about who I am, what this world is, and why we're here were also certainly motivating midway through. Now, it's mostly a relationship of teacher and student, where I learn what I can from who I can.

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. Could you rephrase that?

You have just immensely helped me by saying this. I've never really known what to call it, but I now have a name for it. "Satori"? Do you know of other systems that have names for this as well?

I'm still unable to do a full astral projection (as in completely leaving the body), but it does depend. Sometimes, I will do a mental projection (which is where I have somewhat split consciousness, as in I still have awareness of my body, but I can see, hear, and feel things in the astral), sometimes they decide to visit me and I feel a presence of sorts, which I then check via mental projection, and sometimes I call out to them by mentally saying their name with intention to call out to them. The most common way I interact now is the latter, but that only gets do-able once you are able to completely empty your mind of thoughts and keep it that way. I find that if your mind isn't completely empty, it's extremely hard to tell the difference between stray thoughts and the responses of said beings. Sometimes, I have to repeat questions multiple times to get a reliable answer. Tying in, I find the things that improve my receptiveness to such messages include "purity", as in not being sexually active for a time, having a full amount of qi, and having entirely unaffected consciousness (no caffeine, no alcohol, no drugs). Sometimes though, I will get either a garbled answer or a simple "I'm not allowed to tell you that yet".

Then it would likely be best for him to go get some TCM treatment, as western medicine does not possess a permanent cure (if I am understanding you correctly to mean that it has a cure!).

I've had a few run-ins with demons and demonic possession, but none of them were similar to what you'd see in the movies. At most, I've seen people lose memories of events, have someone else controlling their body, and/or going animalistic. Usually, however, what ends up happening is said victims hear sounds following them (such as footsteps, dragging chains, breathing, etc.), they develop unusual interests (One such person was possessed by an incubus; they heard dragging chains behind them at random, developed an unusual sex drive, and was always tired), or have general fatigue. I've never come across one that starts levitating or something of that sort, though I won't dismiss the possibility. The difference between possession and mental illness lies in the level of energetics involved; usually, it's easy to tell at a glance based on the feel of the person involved. It's similar to the feeling when you meet a highly developed person, except inverse. Running into my previous statement, there's a difference between being possessed and being mentally ill. Your energy feels like that of schizophrenia, though, of course, I can't give you an official diagnosis. I would seriously suggest looking into methods of correcting or compensating for your system as compared to potential exorcisms. That said, if you are possessed, it would not surprise me given the interests you've shown, but I feel like the root of your issue lies elsewhere. Another important thing to note is that as much as I dislike psychiatric medicines, they do provide a perfect bandaid for some issues that are hard to fully fix. I'm not qualified to help you with this, but what I'm saying is from experience with others who had schizophrenia, combined with my own experiences with the US mental health system. I don't know enough about TCM to know if it can help you better than western medicine, but I would suggest looking for potential solutions before focusing on the demonic aspect.

They're nearly indistinguishable, but it's been pointed out to me that *technically* the Christian god and the Islam god are both split-offs of the Jewish god, in that they were originally one being until their followers' combined delusions ended up splitting them. I would say that it felt rather powerful, and certainly full of "light", but it felt like it was a facade. If I were to compare it to something physical, it's like a person pretending to shine with light while paying someone to always shine a spotlight on them from afar. I'm not sure if gods work the same way as us in terms of mental functions, but it almost gave off a narcissistic feeling, like it thought it was more than it actually was. It certainly was more powerful than most humans, but that power felt off for some reason (my personal theory is that said feeling was from the way its followers affected it, as gods and their followers are intrinsically linked). It did give me truthful answers to my questions, and felt rather genuine in its desire to help humans, but it still struck me as odd. I have just realized that I had failed to mention one other deity that I've technically interacted with, but said deity was one of chaos. I don't know its name, but one of my friends has a habit of getting possessed by it. Not really much to say about this one, other than the fact that it's quite annoying when it possesses my friend. I've included this for the sake of a truthful response, but I honestly don't think there's much I can really say about this one.

I believe I covered this in a previous thread with you, but it was Archangel Michael. Completely shattered my worldview at the time, and I would like to think it led me to change for the better. As for the gods that contacted me, my patron is one from a well-known pantheon, but I've been forbidden to give its identity out by said god for whatever reason. I met my patron through work with a guide spirit, though it seems that its been helping me without my knowledge from before I became spiritually aware. I speak with my patron from time to time whenever I have serious questions that can't be answered in normal ways, but we do not chat much. The other ones that I have contact with and have discussed this to some length were the Christian god, and a local Japanese deity that never gave me his name. The Japanese deity resided in Asakusa, near Sensoji Temple (I'm unsure whether he was residing *in* the temple or not, as he never specified); this one looked like an elderly man dressed in Han Dynasty-era scholarly clothes. I'm not even sure on his location of origin, but he had a certain presence that I've only seen from rather powerful gods (specifically, the others were my patron deity and the Christian god). This particular deity helped me with a detox of some particularly bad energy and provided me pointers on better practices to engage in. I have interacted with one other god, but that particular god was not friendly; it was one that took a penchant to controlling humans, messing with memories, etc. It was not a high level god, as the others I mentioned were, and it was one that could be overpowered by powerful humans or groups of mages. Said god dwelled in a large, glowing-white library in the astral, with many spirits around it serving it and gathering information; the spirits were usually human in shape, and acted as if they were in an automated "company" of sorts, though it was much more "robotic"-feeling in their actions, almost as if they were just dolls without minds. It had an asura-like appearance, with bull-like horns sprouting out of its forehead, four arms, and a large bushy mane around its ape-like face. It appeared in formal attire, and appeared to be very muscular (though, it wasn't physical, so I suppose this is just the shape its spirit chose to take?). I met it in an area that appeared like a fancy office of sorts, but again, this was the astral, so things certainly were not as stable in appearance or function as the physical. The general modus operandi of this particular one was to lead a group of puppets to gather and preserve information, and it was extremely protective of its puppets in an odd way; it did not care if any of them were lost, but it refused to give them away or let their former minds take over their bodies once more. I am not aware of this particular deity had a name, but if it did, it was probably not very famous in the human world.

Directly from the gods I have contact with, though, I realize the health of a skeptical look at this sort of source. I started my path due to the interference of those of divine origin, so I've naturally been quite interested in figuring out how such beings tick and have spent quite a lot of time looking for answers in this particular subject.

Yes, one of the most common ways for gods to be born is via human invention. Technically speaking, if one person even believes in the concept of a god, said god comes into existence. However, in most cases, such a god would be as fragile as a dried leaf in the wind. One major exception to this would be when religions branch off into different sections, and their believers end up accidentally "splitting" a god. Such a process creates two weaker deities from one stronger deity, and each one of these new deities retains much of the personality of the old. Depending on how the process unfolds, it could replace the original, split its duties, or even create two near-duplicate entities that fight for supremacy. If you want to see how such a process could happen, look at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for an example. The dogma changes brought on by human arrogance and greed within these religions ended up creating different deities from one root entity, and vastly weakened said entity's influence.

Angles are an extremely important part of geometry! ...Jokes aside, there's a certain level of development people need to be at in order to even perceive the divine in most situations. The first time I saw an angel was while I was asleep, and I still can't truly see them with my physical eyes (but I can summon them and feel their presence when they decide to drop in). As for the divine, they're at a higher level so it's even harder to sense. Of the gods I've interacted with, two of them made themselves known purposefully with an offer of help, one of them I reached through a mutual connection, and one of which was the one that likes to claim there are no others, and I met him through a series of coincidences. I wasn't capable of seeing any of them with my physical sight, and was only able to see them through projections, but I have taken the time to confirm the things they have said and claimed to have done, and have found them to be true. As for the idea that humans can't exist without the divine, I would say it's much more complex than that. A pyramid is built from the ground up, and likewise, higher spiritual beings generally got their foundations from lower spiritual beings. Some gods were created from human delusion, others are former humans, and even more were created as divergences in thought came about. This world is indeed something of a playground for higher beings, but that's only due to the fact that they have gone past our current level. A world-class tennis player could certainly play with beginners, and would certainly smash them, but said world-class most likely started as a beginner in the first place. Likewise, without the world-class athletes to inspire those outside of the game, much less beginners would even attempt to get better at the sport. The same can be said of the relationship between the divine and the baser classes.

I started learning martial arts for two reasons: I wanted to learn more about using internal energy, and I wanted to learn how to protect myself without using weapons or magic. After starting in Traditional Wing Chun, the first three or so years were completely physical only. Sifu would actively deny that chi was more than breathing, and would purposefully steer us to only focus on learning how to fight and defend ourselves efficiently. I kept with it, as I've had to use self-defense stuff we'd been taught already, and knew that it worked well. Eventually, Sifu invited me to a neigong seminar, which is when he started acknowledging the more internal aspects of our system. Now, as I've done a bit more research, I see TWC as an interesting combination of a health-boosting qigong system and a pragmatic combat martial art. Yes, there are internal aspects. Yes, there are external aspects. Some things are kept from lower level practitioners due to their current development level (which includes your mental state!), and some things are truly as simple as they say. If you were to look through my posts on this forum, I think it would be pretty easy to see that I'm fairly new to this rodeo still, so I've clearly not learned all there is in the art I actively practice; but I still learn things from every class I take, and I practice outside of class often to help reinforce the things I learn. As for MMA, I think it is important to remember the meaning of "MMA". "Mixed Martial Arts" is what it stands for. It's supposed to be a melting pot of various systems, and I think that's a beautiful thing, but if you start learning MMA without having a foundation in a single martial art, you won't get very far. The thing that sets professional fighters apart is their sheer athleticism, as well as their consistency, rather than their technique (though, oftentimes, their technique is still quite decent!). I recall a retired professional wrestler coming into class one day, and showing us his "warmup" routine. None of the advanced students could even get halfway through it! It was quite simple too, as he went from a squat to a bridge to a handstand and back to a squat (like a flip, almost), but the entire movement took him around five minutes to complete one rep. He took a simple exercise and did it extremely slow, which made it extremely challenging. Sifu has always told us "An amateur will learn a technique until he can do it right, but a professional will learn a technique until he can do it right at any time, at all times, no matter the situation."

Nothing is bound to time, as time itself is an illusion. What we experience as "time" is just a construct of the realm we are currently in, and as soon as one leaves said realm, time becomes a nonfactor. It's why various experiences completely ignore the concept of time.

"Gods" are different in nature compared to "immortals". Their source is different. If I had to try to put it into words, which is quite an impossible task, I would compare immortals to highly evolved animals, whereas gods are more like highly evolved plants? Naturally, it is not meant literally, but their root nature is entirely different. Anything that is different compared to the standard will be targeted, so it is better to remain in obscurity. Those attuned to the dao will be satisfied being water sitting in puddles, rather than water gushing out of fountains.

That's not surprising, but it is saddening in a way. As a college student, though, this does give me some hope of income, so I appreciate you bringing up the possibility of using tarot as a profession. I'd probably end up doing most of it online, but perhaps it could work for me.

There certainly are universal principles behind it all, as I was alluding to previously. I can answer how certain aspects work according to my understanding, but I don't think it wise to trust another's understanding to create knowledge, so I don't usually try to go into detail on these things. In fact, the more detail you go into with a lot of these "universal systems", the less sense you end up making to the uninformed listener. If I were to oversimplify, this world is similar to a video game in its functionality, but the code running our world is much more complex than that running a game. Many moving parts interact with eachother, so very few concrete and simple rules are always true. Given that this realm is closer to the hellish realms than the heavenly realms... that is likely true. That said, there is value in the lower realms as suffering doesn't exist in the higher realms. Suffering motivates change, the lack thereof creates stagnation. Thus, even the gods will incarnate once in awhile to keep themselves growing. The 'foolish' that I am talking about here is closer to 'the rebel' than 'the fool' in character. It is foolish to do something that you know will harm you for no gain, but some are sufficiently motivated to do so anyway. 'The rebel' is a negative fool, while 'the fool', as used as a child-like character, is a positive fool. Both sides have similar roots, but different effects.

I'm unsure on that. The skill level and talent of the operator do factor into the success rate, but I have found that it still retains a fairly high success rate even for those without the prerequisite skill, at least, among the people I have directly taught and compared notes with. I recall the thing that seemed to change one particular student's mind was when they had cast the spell on a day with a 0.5% chance of rain, and it ended up storming. Nonetheless, weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, so it definitely must be repeated a multitude of times. I've never considered professional tarot a viable possibility for employment. How did you get clients? Was it mostly remote or in person? Why did you end up quitting (if you did)?

I would have expected you to already know one; how interesting. Nonetheless, the "ritual" is as follows: Hold your hands as if you were holding a ball, and visualize a ball of energy in said hand. It would be a good practice to keep focusing on visualizing it for a few minutes, if you are not experienced in energy work. Once you have the ball solidly constructed, focus on "commanding" the weather to change in your favor. An example command would be "Rain tomorrow at 4pm at this location", but as long as it is specific and you give it enough time to work, it should be fine. The longer time you give it between the spell and the specified event, the higher the success rate will be, at least, in my experience. Focus on imbuing said "ball" with that command, and intend for it to work. After spending a good time focusing on the intent, for beginners somewhere around 1-3 minutes is usually plenty, act as if you are throwing the ball to the clouds. "See" the ball leaving your hands and entering the sky, where it bursts and scatters across the world. Compare weather forecasts before you cast it, see if it works, and note down the results. It's common to fail, but it's also common to succeed beyond statistical probability. Repeating said experiment over and over again over the course of a few weeks to a month should provide enough data. One thing I should note, however, is that once the person begins to understand that there is more out there, it is important for them to direct their attention to other sets of actions, rather than this one spell, as changing the weather does have significant karmic consequences. Unfortunately, it's the only spell with concrete, measurable results that I know I can teach others regardless of their talent or my proximity to them, so it is the one of the most reliable ways to soften their mindset that I have found. Other than this one, it is possible to do so via predicting the future using tarot cards, but that one is only available for those with that particular skillset.

The first step to convince anyone of anything is to recognize their views as valid, thus giving them legitimacy. Once that is done, it lowers the walls that usually pop up when people are told of their mistakes, and makes it easier for them to learn to correct them rather than falling into cognitive dissonance. In my personal experience, the easiest way to do this for both sides is to befriend them, and allow them to see you as a reasonable individual. If you bust a ritual out of nowhere, they'll likely enter cognitive dissonance instead of improving. Unfortunately, like a doctor can't help those out of their reach, it is near impossible to do that for YouTube celebrities unless you already know them.