Apech

The standard Big Bang cosmological model is full of holes ... its cannot explain everything.

Matter can be created and destroyed. For instance in an atomic explosion where matter is released as energy.

a moment's solo the orchestra stares at me it wasn't my turn!

Sure - if we all agreed all the time life would be dull.

Marblehead, Never thought you'd like Placebo http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Nl7ir53Zndc

I manage very well thanks! :lol: Well, it is true that the brain is an important mechanism for the expression of consciousness but it is my view that consciousness or sentience is a function of the energy that makes up everything. It doesn't arise because of complexity or wiring or programming or whatever you might want to call brain functioning. A person without legs cannot walk and a person with brain dysfunction cannot express themselves but this isn't the same as saying they have no consciousness. Obviously there is no proof that I can provide except to say the alternative view produces the problem of saying at what point does the supposedly unconscious matter which makes our bodies actually become conscious? If it is when the brain appears then don't amoebas and bacteria have any kind of consciousness at all???

I think it all boils down to whether you think that you are your body since it is your body which stops working and decays after death. If you are more than your body then it is possible that your spirit or consciousness survives death in some form or another. It seems to me self evident that I am not just my body because if I chop off my leg for instance I don't get any less than I am now. This is true of all parts of my body and even my brain which as physical organ is not in a different status to any other part of the body.

I totally agree that this place only works if we respect each other - not necessarily the point of view (which could be just plain wrong) - but the other person. What I really like is those long rambling threads which go off an tangents taking all the scenery before they come back on topic. These usually involve a lot a healthy dispute and sometimes a bit of argument - but that keeps it interesting and I don't mind some rudeness as long as it doesn't get stupid. But I guess the rule is that everyone has a valid view point even if you don't share it. Cheers. John

me just sitting still while the sun revolves around a day in the life.

Welcome to Taobums. We are all studying (and pretty ignorant too) :) so join the gang. Enjoy your stay. John

The irony is that people who try to preserve life very often live in some strange way which is very much not about potential, for instance the 52 year old Dorian Grey thread kind of thing. So I take your point about not being cautious. I actually believe in continuation after death but not in any of the kinds of fantasy that religion tried to feed us - a lot of that is just a kind anesthetic or opiate as Marx would have said. I think that thinking about death in a non-morbid kind of a way is quite healthy and helpful. For instance it certainly makes you focus more when you realize you are not immortal. I believe in continuation because logically I reason that I am not my body ... but that's just what I think ...

MH, I always read what you post because its interesting and thought provoking. It's a great place, Taobums, to drop in and listen to what people think. I don't know if we are on the same path or not, or even if it matters. I can see you speak with integrity from your heart and your experience and that is all that counts. Cheers A.

Thanks Mal!

Hi, This plant was used for healing and aphrodisiac in Egypt, its scent was supposed to be very important - has anyone any experience of using it for healing and can anyone describe its smell for me? It was deified as the god Nefertem. Thanks A.

Subtle???? I want a Taobums T shirt ... can you still get them?

Oh! That brought me down to earth. Thanks for answering anyway .

Turning the other cheek is misunderstood I think. It actually means volte face - turn around or turn away - so what he was saying was learn to walk away from a fight - otherwise you get a never ending cycle of retaliation and revenge which escalates. He wasn't saying offer up your other cheek to be hit. With the money lenders - he was opposing hypocrisy - good thing for me I hate it too. Not sure about his death - except to say its given a lot of people plenty to think about.

I find Jesus the person quite inspirational but if I ever start to gravitate towards him Christianity immediately puts me off. He said love thy neighbor but they seem to spend all their time hating everyone who is not one of them.

I'm not really into herbal things but I was reading about the god Nefertem who is the child who is born in the blue lotus. In the Pyramid Texts when the king comes out of the underworld into the horizon he is said to appear as Nefertem. "Unas will appear as Nefertem, as the water lily at the Sun's nose when he emerges from the Akhet everyday, the one at the sight of whom the gods become clean." The fact that he is at the Sun's nose suggests that it is the scent of the lily/lotus which is important. Its something to do with opening up perception, freshness, newness, stimulation. That's why I was asking about the smell. They found blue lotus flowers in Tutankhamun's coffin when they opened it up. Nefertem was the child of the god Ptah of Memphis - one of the oldest gods of Egypt and who is said to create all the other gods through his heart (mind) and tongue (thought). The mother of Nefertem is Sekhemet whose name means 'powerful one', a lioness often thought of as wrathful because of the myth (Celestial or Divine Cow) in which Ra sends out his eye in the form of a lioness against mankind when they plot against him. When she over does it and threatens to destroy all mankind Thoth and another god called Onuris (the hunter) put beer mixed with ochre (a red dye) instead of their blood so when she drinks the blood she gets drunk and sleepy and so is pacified. Rather like the phrase 'drunk on power'.

I'm saying hello back.

Welcome. Keep up the meditation its good for you. A.

Scotty, What do you use it for?

Nothing wrong. I've never been entirely convinced by John Chang but I know he has a lot of followers on here - I've only seen the video posted - the one where he pokes a chop stick through a table and other things though. I think there's probably a lot of us who could cite the telepathic type of siddhis and I myself could say there's lots of occasions when I have known something I could not logically know and so on. But the other walking on water stuff - well I think that's few and far between. Cheers A.