Paradoxal

Why do you assume that said gods and spirits actually *want* to be known and/or worshipped? It's a vast minority that actually want human attention, and most that want it do not want it for purposes that actually help humans. On top of that, you misunderstand the nature of said beings. They aren't physical, thus they do not have the ability to affect the physical as strongly as humans can. What they can do, however, is affect things in the physical via toying with chance. Weather, "fate", and freak incidents are where they manifest the most. Of the deities that I've met, one was strictly malicious towards humans, one helped me as a passerby, one has mentored but never interfered directly, and one strongly desires worship and will tell you anything you want to hear (no matter whether it has to lie or deceive you) to get you to praise it. Of the two of these that were named, one was a god from the Norse mythos, and one was the Christian god. Of the two, the one that was more pleasant to deal with was the Norse mythos one, and never did he ask for worship or praise. It's easiest to compare human interaction with gods to a human stumbling across a group of ants misspelling the humans' name on the sidewalk. Yeah, it'll get your attention. You might decide to give them sugar, or you might decide that they're an eyesore and wipe them out. It purely depends on what kind of human you are, and what mood you are in at that time. Gods are similar in their interactions with humans. While they may incarnate from time to time, very few truly care about the state of human affairs, much less proving themselves to said humans. Afterall, would you waste effort proving your existence to ants?

While I agree with most of your message, this one point was something I felt I should add onto. Simply by imagining the possibility of a reality, that reality exists. It's one of the key aspects of magic. Thus, technically speaking, I would say that the various types of "heavens and hells" associated with all these different religions do indeed exist, but I would call them distractions rather than goals. Perhaps a house that you stay in along your way? Systems, what the meat is behind any religion, are simply templates that people can follow to help them reach a higher state of being easier. The dogma and individual mythos of each religion is what is manipulated by mortals in most cases, and said manipulation means it is impossible for it to be true. Thus, it is worthless to debate which religion is true, or what parts of which religions cross, as all of them are fields of falsehoods sowed with seeds of truth. Once one finds their path, they begin to see reality for what it is, without needing the lens of religion or mythos. Before the path is found, the allure of religion can certainly help guide one onto a proper path, but it is important to remember that all guides can be ignored if one decides to be foolish enough.

Well phrased. I would personally go even further, and say that from the standpoint of those "higher up on the spiritual totem pole", those that are less high up would seem as children do to adults. You see them acting out, but understand that they do so because that is where they are currently at, and it is not something to get angry at; though, it can certainly be lamentable to see people rushing ahead to their own detriment!

@BindiHow fascinating! I didn't know this was such a widely known concept; I had thought I was clever for coming up with it! I do disagree with the opinion of the poster on that, but we can't agree on everything.

Quite true, if we were talking in purely literal terms. Of course, all texts of any spiritual worth can be read with at least three different meanings, so how could what I say ever be intended to be purely literal?

All rivers lead to the ocean. One river may start on a mountain, another in a forest, and yet another may begin in a rocky desert, but all of them will lead to a single ocean if followed for long enough. If one cannot see the ocean from a river, perhaps it has not been followed thoroughly enough?

"There is no such thing as 'no such thing'" is a quote I find quite applicable here. It is useful to exercise caution whenever speaking in absolutes, as it is extremely easy for a freak possibility to exist. A village of people believes that there is nothing outside the walls of said village. One person claims there to obviously be things beyond the walls, as said individual has seen such things for themselves. The rest of the village may ostracize said individual, for none of them have seen what he has seen. Yet, in not checking for themselves, the villagers do not realize that there is a pack of wolves inhabiting the forest until the wolves grow to be too many in number, and destroy the village as a whole.

I spend most of my training time on seated practices, at least, at this point. Around 4-6 hours a day are spent on "meditative" practices, including ones meant to refine internal energy. I've gotten tremendous gains from it, in fact, I would say that my combat and mental capacity grows multiple factors faster via seated practice than via standing or moving practice. That said, I still do standing and moving practice. If I were to only sit, it would make me sick due to inbalance. I have also made myself sick through forcing inappropriate seated practices, so I will vouch that if it doesn't feel right, then you should probably consider taking a break. I think that this topic would count under "Dragon Sickness", though, I am not well-read enough to tell for sure. What I have found, despite my negative experiences, is that as long as you keep proper precautions in place, seated practice can be massively helpful. "Can be", being the key phrase here. If your body, mind, and energy system are not ready for it, it can certainly be harmful. This thread might help, if you haven't already looked into dragon sickness:

"There is no place in the world for someone who believes there to be no place in the world for themselves."

As where I live is something of a hotspot, encounters with non-physical entities are a near-daily occurrence for me; thus, I will select some of the more unique or interesting (in my opinion!) encounters I've had. We recently had to put one of my family cats down; her kidneys had failed and there was no hope of survival, only suffering. A few moments after the injection, no more than one or two minutes, and no less than thirty seconds, I found that she had taken a ghost-like form. Her physical body was still on the table, but her spirit was walking around the room energetically. Of course, the doctors and my family were not able to see it, and my physical eyes could not see her either. It was simply a presence that I've gotten somewhat attuned to, so I used my mental screen to see rather than my physical eyes. When she rubbed up against me, as cats do, I could feel my energy field being pressed, but not my physical body. She followed us into the car, and stayed with us on the way home. It felt much like she was trying to comfort my family, because we all felt extremely guilty about having to put her down, and we were grieving at the same time. After getting home, she followed us into the house, walked around for a bit, and then left. Another, much briefer, encounter that happened recently, was at around 4:00am. I was up late, and was looking for food in the kitchen. All of a sudden, I felt a presence in the living room, and so I looked in. There was a visible aura around my father's favorite chair, somewhat human-shaped. I asked mentally what it was doing there, and why it was here. It said it was visiting, and meant no harm, but asked me to let it be. Usually, when things wander into my house, I exorcise them without a second thought, but my gut told me to do as this one asked. It felt distinctly like a ghost (I've had encounters with three ghosts before this one), so I asked who it was. It felt like it was smiling (of course, I couldn't see a mouth on it, but that was the sensation I found), and said that I shouldn't worry about who it was. I went to check on my father, as I wanted to make sure he hadn't died in his sleep, and he was still alive. Thus, I summoned a familiar to keep watch over my family to make sure they were not harmed in their sleep, got my food, ate my food, and went to bed. The next day, I found out that my father's best friend had overnight in his sleep. He had known me as a child, but I don't remember him. A few years back, I had a rather extended encounter with a spirit serpent. Its appearance was that of a bright, leafy-green snake, with a double-scaled pale tan belly. If I were to estimate size, it would have been around sixty centimeters in diameter, and at least three to five meters long. Its head was arrow-shaped, and was a bit taller than most real snakes I've seen. It had multiple spikes swept back on the back of its head, and two smaller spikes above each eye pointed forwards. Its eyes were of a dark green, with black pupils. Its scales shone in multi-colored reflections, and its tail was spiked much like its head. It appeared in multiple dreams, and I would often feel like a snake was nearby in various locations where there were no snakes. This was at a point when my spiritual awareness was rather low, but it made quite an impact on me mentally. Eventually, I called out to it mentally, and had a conversation. Among other things, I asked why it was following me, what it was, and what it wanted. It had replied, paraphrased, that it was a "spirit serpent", and that it was following me because it was curious about me and wanted to see more. After that conversation, it stopped appearing near me and stopped following me. I have encountered it since, but that was when I specifically called out to it. One of the more recent major occurrences happened this summer. I worked as a pizza delivery driver at the time. I got the feeling of wanting a break from my work for around two weeks, getting stronger as the weeks went by. Over the weekend of one week, I decided to call in and tell them to take me off my shifts for a week because I was getting exhausted. They agreed, but told me to finish out the week I was schedule to first, which was a matter of course. At the end of the second-to-last shift on the job, one of my buttons popped off. On my way home from that shift, I saw the form of a dragon in the clouds (a western dragon, and not a good sign in this case). When I got home, and counted the cash I made from that shift, I made an exact 66$. Throughout the rest of the next few days, I felt a massive sense of foreboding. At the beginning next shift I was assigned to, I was T-boned by someone going well over three times the speed limit in a residential area while on their phone. My insurance refused to cover, as I did not have the right type. It completely totaled my car, cost me my job, and messed my back up rather badly. While this occurrence wasn't completely supernatural, I would say that this particular instance convinced me to listen to my gut with more conviction. As a final story for this post, I'll tell a cautionary tale of my own mistakes. The year I was learning to drive, I had also been studying astral projection. During the week I was taking driver's ed classes, I was working on lowering my connection to my body to make astral projection easier. By the time I went to class one night, I had been up for around 20 hours straight, and hadn't eaten in around 36 hours; I had planned to try to astral project after class. During that class, they showed a video of a fatal car crash from within the car. Apparently, they're not supposed to warn the students beforehand, so noone can leave the class. If a student leaves during the video, they have to retake the entire set of classes. Well, the video was from facetime records. A group of teenage girls was facetiming while driving on a highway, and due to the driver's attention being on the call, they veered off the road and crashed into a fencepost. The driver shattered all the bones in her body, the front seat passenger got her cheek impaled on a splintered wooden fencepost, and the ones in the backseat got cut up from the glass and beaten by the impact. Only the driver died. However, when the video started, it triggered an accidental projection into the video itself. I felt the whole crash from the perspective of every person involved, starting from around a month prior and ending around a month after. I felt death from all the bones being crushed, I felt the fencepost impale my cheek, and I felt the horror of the first responders. I felt the grief of the parents, the anger, the fear, all of it. I can remember the funerals, as well as the arguments involved. All of this happened in an instant in realtime. When I came back to my body, I immediately ran outside and threw up. It took around three months for me to mentally process all that I experienced in that instant. Thus, my warning, is to be extremely cautious in what practices you take seriously, and do not underestimate the risks of sticking your nose in things you do not understand. The supernatural can be wonderful, but it can also bring experiences much beyond the purview of most people. Practice caution, learn about things before attempting them, and stick to your gut feelings. I hope this has helped, despite how dark some of the stories may be!

Then I will do so in the morning, after breakfast. It is late night here, so I do need some sleep.

Good response. I'll start with the prophetic visions, then, as that was what got me started on my journey in the first place. Some background info is needed beforehand, though. Until the first vision I had, I had been an extremely militant athiest, and would openly insult and degrade those that believed in anything that I couldn't see. I saw anything that couldn't be written in a scientific journal as malicious scams targeted towards those who were not as smart as I. I had read the bible as a bedtime story since early childhood, however, and have close family in the bible belt of the USA. On to the vision itself, it wasn't anything spectacular. It happened while I was asleep, though, it wasn't a dream. I'm not sure how to describe the feeling well, but it felt much more real than reality does. The only times I get that feeling are from projections, and I remember everything that happens in these projections near perfectly, no matter how long the projection lasts. I came to in a pearly-white room; it was square shaped, with similar colored and textured ceiling, floor, and walls. The floorspace was around 10 meters by 10 meters. There were no visible entrances, exits, or windows. No visible light sources, but the whole room was glowing with golden-white light. As I looked around the room, I saw a massive humanoid figure. Around 274cm tall. He was dressed in flowing white robes, and leaned on a large double-edged sword, something similar to a claymore. His face was surrounded by a golden-white light, which felt brighter than the sun, but strangely, I could see his face clearly. If I had to describe his features, they were the epitome of beautiful. As soon as I saw this figure, I instantly "knew" who it was, despite never meeting him before, nor knowing what he was supposed to look like; "Archangel Michael". He simply told me "Tread carefully, a storm is coming. The waters will soon clear". After that, I woke up. For around a year and a half after the dream, I questioned its validity. I did not heed the warning, and did not exercise caution. In the period of around 3 months after the dream, I had problem after problem in my life. I wasn't careful with what I said, and it led to a fight with my girlfriend of four years, which led to a breakup. I wasn't careful with my actions, which led to a group I led being ripped apart from the inside. I wasn't careful with my emotions, which led me to alienate most of my then friend group. All of these things could have been avoided if I had acted with caution. During that time period, I became convinced that if nothing else, Michael was indeed real. I spent much time doubting my own sanity, and more time cursing Michael for not giving me more details on what was going to happen. This is the time period in which I became involved in the occult, as I felt the need to learn more about this unseen side of things. Another thing that happened during that time period was a second "dream", in which I recovered past life memories. Again, it was one that I can remember crystal clear, even now. That said, it also took me many years to fully accept that it was true, due to my ingrained skepticism. In the dream, I was a child; around six years old. I woke up sometime around sunrise, saw my father off to work, and played games in the living area. The rooms were floored with tatami mats, and the home itself had around six rooms. The walls were made of framed paper, and the doors were traditional Japanese sliding doors. I recall my bedroom, the kitchen-area, the living area, and the hallways. My mother dressed in a purple flowered kimono, while my father wore western-style clothing. In the dream, I wore plainly colored samue kurume, dark green and light brown. I spent most of the morning after breakfast at the table, playing with wooden toys, while my mother was working on food in the kitchen. Slightly before lunchtime, I felt the ground shake. I looked out a window, and saw a large fireball. I saw my mother look out the same window, utter an exclamation, and by that point, I felt hot. I saw light shining in from the windows and walls, and I felt my body heating up rapidly. I felt myself catch fire, and burn to death. At the end of the dream, I felt a deep sinking sensation that felt like I was being sucked out of my body into the depths of the earth. That, that was the second catalyst to what started me on my path. It was what got me interested in Japanese culture as a whole, as well as what helped convince me that there was more than meets the eye in life. It also traumatized me, and helped create a motive of malice towards a "god" that would create such a vile world, as well as an ambition to surpass whatever god may have created this world. Said trauma, ambition. and malice have already been worked through, and I am now thankful for the wakeup calls I received from these experiences, but they were by no means pleasant. While I don't expect people to believe me simply because I claim something, I would indeed be happy to share more if you would like to hear more. It does take some time in the right state of mind to type these up though, so do bear with my slow speed!

I've found that I'll sometimes unintentionally control the weather still. I think it has something to do with the level of power of the person in question on how easy it is, but most people that I've met that are involved in internal martial arts have enough to do it accidentally. As for the experiences, of the subsets I listed, are there any that particularly interest you?

Of those particular experiences, the weather manipulation is actually a simple bit of magic that you were potentially pulling off on accident (though, of course, it could have also been external intervention.) The simplest way to cast a weather spell is something similar to prayer; you simply focus your energy and intent into a desired weather pattern. It's something I've done plenty of times, and I could see a prayer accidentally having the same effect. I can't offer you concrete proof, as the proof I have is all first-hand. That said, if you care to listen, I have had multiple experiences with ghosts, prophetic visions, memories of past lives, interactions with various "kami" (it's somewhat hard to explain in English, but simply put, beings that include the fey, gods, demons, and spirit animals, among others), and a high rate of successful spells cast. If you are looking for personal proof, I would suggest learning how to read tarot cards. They are quite reliable as a means of fortune-telling, and once you get practiced enough with them, they become proof in their own right.

I assume that they are true, as when one gets deep in meditation, it is certainly hard to see the outside world. I used to go into traces for hours on end, only breaking out of them when my parents would try to talk to me. It's also reasonable to note that due to training, at this point, I'm in a near constant state of mind similar to what is achieved via meditation, though, my state isn't quite the same as meditation. I've had contact with beings that I've been informed were taoist immortals before. As I've not confirmed their powers, I can't say for sure, but the beings I have been in contact with did not assume a physical form. They were a presence akin to ghosts or local deities, but much more powerful and pure. One visited my home for a time and scared my cat quite a lot.

I've honestly always viewed life as closer to a game than most people would care to agree with. Dealing with these feelings of reality being mistaken is something that you should be extremely careful with, as it can lead you down some rather dark paths. I will vouch that such a view is more true than not, but it is indeed something rather hard to get used to for most. I've personally found that there's no going back to the "normal" side of things after you've opened this door, so I believe that attempting to accept things as they are is probably the wisest course of action for you. As for methods of improving the emotions around such an existence, I would suggest looking into Buddhist compassion meditation. A simple one that I personally practice is as follows: Relax and quiet the mind. Call up a memory of the feeling of compassion, and attempt to embody said memory. Try to focus on the compassion, eventually beginning to feel the emotion itself, without a memory. Once you begin feeling full compassion, focus on it for as long as possible. I don't quite remember where I learned this, but it has helped me stabilize myself after going too far in some metaphysical searches before. One other meditation to look into is "tree of life" meditation, but I do not have a good enough script for that for you. Best of luck in figuring this out!

I'm not the most "Daoist" person out there, as I've only studied the DDJ shortly, but what I've seen said can be traced directly back to the DDJ. That said, where I believe most of Daoism's value lies is the practices and thought-processes behind those practices. I tend to stick to Daoist-based practices as they feel best for me, so perhaps I could be considered Daoist, but perhaps not. This is the version of the DDJ that I'm most familiar with. Give it a listen while you relax, and you may find the answers you're looking for.

The "problems" of the modern world are no different to Taoists than the "problems" of the ancient world. What you are describing as "problem", Taoists see as "natural". It is not wise to attempt to "solve" nature, so those with power and wisdom will not attempt to solve the "problems" of today. To me, it sounds like what you are asking for is some specific Taoist dogma. While I'm sure that Taoist dogma exists in many different forms, I'm not entirely sure why you would seek dogma in the first place, and I'm not sure if you'll find the answer you are looking for among dogma. In regards to the answer you are seeking, you have gotten plenty of responses that have the same message, but it doesn't seem that that message is what you are looking for, as you simply ask the same question once again. I would suggest emptying your mind of preconceived notions, ideals, and desires, and reading the responses of Riversnake, Wu Ming Jen, thelerner, liminal_luke, Freeform, and Mithras once more. All of these fine folks have been saying something that seems to answer your question over and over again, but the message seems to be lost because it is not what you want to hear.

Then you are simply not ready to understand what I am conveying. That is okay, as everyone has to progress gradually, but you won't find your answer until you are ready to understand your answer. I hope that someone gains at least some understanding from my posts, whether it be you, me, or someone else.

Children find many things unfair that adults do not see as such, and if looked at rationally, are indeed fair. I have found children who can accurately identify inequalities to be rare, but indeed they do exist. These children are often more mature than their peers mentally. That said, there are plenty who think it unfair that they do not have the same toy that another child has, and attempt to take that toy by force. All things are connected. I still question my sanity, given my involvement with magic and cultivation, but every time I attempt to test whether my theories or ideas are true or not, it is always proven to be true. I would say that such testing is the only logical way to confirm the unseen, but logic only serves as training wheels, and never the actual skill or mindset. Most people attempt to judge things with logic and emotion, both you and I included. Unfortunately, not everything can accurately be judged by those metrics. In fact, the very idea of "judgement" or "truth" is a concept that only works when we're rooted in the physical. The folks who are fully aware and awake spiritually (such as highly advanced practitioners from most spiritual practices, or folks with much older souls, to name a few examples) are those that do not think from the physical, and thus generally will not see most things as unfair. Those that they do see as truly unfair are seen as natural, and something that is not a problem as it is natural. As our debate is getting slightly off-topic, I would like to remind you of the classic phrase: "look not at the finger, but at the moon it is pointing to." I do hope that I've helped shed some light on the concept, no pun intended!

Children have a hard time understanding many adult concepts because they are not mentally developed enough yet. What we're referring to as "one light", is really simply a state. I've not heard it by that name before, but it sounds like the state I know of. You can think of that state as the spiritual equivalent to "growing up", much like when we grow from children to adults, we suddenly gain the ability to understand and learn more things. For better or worse, not everyone reaches this state of spiritual maturity during their lifetime; I have met elderly men who have the spiritual maturity of a twelve-year-old, and I have met people in their twenties and thirties who have already grown up spiritually. It truly depends on one's experiences and talents.

I find that the more progress I make spiritually, the less I care about inequality, injustices, or political issues. I used to be extremely militant about wanting equality, a fair system, and good leadership; I was probably *too* extreme back then, actually. However, as my awareness of the world outside the physical grows, so too does my awareness of circumstance. I find it hard to condemn those that do "evil" deeds, and even harder to hate such individuals. Afterall, if I had taken a different path, I could have easily ended up being worse than they. It truly is an amusing paradox that as one gains more true power, one has less desire to use that power. From what I understand of what @Wu Ming Jen is referring to, it's not something that functions on logic, nor does it function on emotion. What is meant by "one light", is mostly a state of being. It exists outside of human perspective, which is why those that enter it no longer perceive most things as inequalities. Words will not do this state justice, no matter how many are used. Humans and animals will die, no matter who does what. If seen from these animals' perspectives, it could indeed been seen as "unfair" to die in the way that they do, but from outside that perspective, where is the inequality?

From my experience, terminology for these things is somewhat inconsistent, so I'll try to be clearer by referring to the things we talk to as "spirits", and the source of those things as "souls". I wouldn't really call them two separate things, rather, the spirit is simply a facet of the soul. In my previous post, I tried to use one word, "spirit", to describe both of these, so it may have come off a bit unclear. "Spirit", in the phenomena that we see that is often classified as "ghost", "haunting", etc. is basically just a leftover record of the initial "soul" that was there before. The soul itself is outside of spacetime, whereas the spirit, as a manifestation, can be either in or out of spacetime. If we think of a cut jewel, with many faces, the jewel as a whole would be comparable to the soul, whereas the faces would be comparable to what we're referring to as a spirit. If we think of a river, the river itself would be comparable to the soul, whereas the droplets are comparable to spirits. The thing that was seanced with was a "spirit", while the person whose past life it was also has a different "spirit". If we use these terms, the thing that links the two of them is the "soul", as each spirit is a different manifestation of the soul.

From what I understand, spirits that we consult are closer to "records", or perhaps "pre-programmed responses", rather than the initial source. Technically speaking, you could probably seance with spirits of people from the future, as long as you had connection enough to actually contact them. This is because what we call "spirit" is above the constraints of space and time; this is also why it is possible for one person to have multiple incarnations in the same world in the same timeframe. I hope this helps answer your question!

I don't exactly know if I'd have what other practitioners call a "fully developed" dantian, but I do have my LDT developed to the point of being able to store energy there. It feels almost like a lead ball, about 2 inches diameter when I focus attention on it. If I lightly listen, it will feel like sunlight, taking up around three quarters of my abdomen. The biggest thing I would personally emphasize about these sensations is that they are never painful for me. When I run my qi, it will get "hot", but it won't be "burning" me. It feels much like sunshine feels, when one is sunbathing; a fuzzy kind of heat. The system I follow is different from Damo's, and I generally use his as either supplement or reference material. That said, I used Damo's method to get the MCO running quite nicely, and still practice it for expansion of my MCO, as I know it is not fully open yet. You can find more info on the dantians in a topic that I started awhile back; I found the responses and conversations quite helpful: Be extremely careful on mixing practices. This goes for basically all internal arts. On the video, I have not watched it, but I agree with everything Trunks said. Be *especially* wary of any sexual-based arts that you find on the internet. While I will acknowledge that valid sexual practices exist, they are hard to find and even harder to verify for someone that knows little, myself included. Sexual practices can mess you up in several major ways. You can find a number of threads on this forum regarding those kinds of practices, including semen retention. Quite a few of these threads started as "help, I messed myself up" threads. I would like to reiterate that I personally view most people on this forum as more knowledgeable about these things than I am, as I have only started martial arts a bit less than five years ago. In addition, I was only introduced to the internal arts last summer, a bit over a year ago. Take my words with a grain of salt, and feel free to question basically anything I say.