manitou

I can see well enough to see a purchase coming. Thanks, spotless.

LOL, Brian. I was wondering about that one as well. The thing that's confusing to me, is that yes....I do have unusually large toes with humongous toenails. I was just wondering how Marbles knew.

Interesting on the coffee thing, Spotless. And the sunglasses thing. It occurred to me last year that I wasn't born with sunglasses on, why did I need them now? I've pretty much stopped wearing them, and in fact encouraged the sun to come into my eyes (from an angle, like while driving, etc) because we are indeed part of the sun and it just shouldn't be toxic to us! When you speak of supplements, are you speaking lutein?

Stifle Ma at your own peril, lol

This is my theory too, but it seems to be working in the reverse, lol. When I'm about to do a healing ceremony on someone, I have them relax as much as they can, even if standing. I mention all parts of the body to them, to disengage muscles the best they can so that there are no knots of muscle where energy will get stuck. The last thing I have them relax is the eyes, because it seems to be the most subtle of the clenched muscles. To finally relax the eye muscles can be a bit of a revelation to one who hasn't done it before, consciously.

My personality and body felt like they were dissolving - particularly the personality. The mind expansion happens on its own because of no inner dialogue during meditation. I've not heard of the jhana, but I will look them up. Formless realm is a very good description of what it was.

Thank you, Mr. MH. But it's sort of true. My dad had the detective brain and I got it, not my brother. Certainly you have parts of ma and pa both?

I've been practicing at the healing arts for a while, with varying degrees of success. One thing I've noticed recently is a change in the energy that seems to be emitting from my hands. Not even just the hands! What it feels like is total inclusion. Total, tingling inclusion with another human being. If I shake someone's hand or touch them in any way, I don't know that they notice anything at all - but I notice a feeling of non-separation between that entity and me. Like we're all one big body. If I'm sitting on a couch and Joe sits next to me and, say, our thigh is touching - the feeling of a 'liquid sensation' within me, the same as above, will come over me - and once again, there is no separation between myself and the other. Or at least that's how it feels. What I've noticed in the past couple weeks is that if I'm relaxed and maybe reading a book and I happen to place my own hand on my own stomach, the same thing happens! I suddenly feel like a big bowl of jello or something liquid - like all the organs have merged together. All in all, it's a feeling of extreme well-being. That's the only way I can describe it. But it definitely is an 'energy' thing, much like being plugged into a type of current. Is anyone else experiencing something similar?

Melting rubber is getting very close. is it accompanied by a current-like feeling in the belly or abdomen? Like a magnetic pull or tug? I wish I could give you a technique. It's just happening spontaneously.

It's indescribable, strange, effervescent, melty, warm, pleasurable all at the same time. Definitely animals, in particular any time one of my dogs is on me. Even stronger than the human connection. Not sure as to trees, I haven't tried it although they're all around. The earth, definitely, particularly if I'm laying face down: the definite pull of magnetism. Not sure about rocks but I do love those 'witnesses from the beginning of time'. Maybe one day, the sky as well...

No, I would experience it differently this time. I know a shaman in Santa Barbara who experienced the same thing (I forgot to mention in the other post that I felt that I had come to a membrane or something, like the edge of the universe). My shaman friend had the same thing happen and he actually poked his nose through the membrane. I also must admit that I may have smoked a little weed before the meditation, lol. It was just the strangest feeling - like there was no 'matter' anywhere - it was total isolation, and blacker than black. The loneliness physically hurt inside my shoulders, arms, chest, and stomach.

I'm a woman but I have a pretty masculine thought process.

Ya Mu - sounds like a wonderful exercise. I'm going to work on that one. A few years back I read an article in a magazine that talked about putting pieces of black paper over the lenses of glasses, and putting a pin prick in the middle, where your vision would be. Then, I guess you just go around the house for an hour or so with these pinpricked glasses on. I keep meaning to try this - my vision is getting worse and worse too and i just hate wearing glasses, and I've never been able to tolerate contacts. But this pinprick method does make a little sense to me, like "training" the eye muscles back to a more focused vision, where it used to be. Now, on a more metaphysical vein - maybe those of us who appreciate the concept of Oneness are the ones who find their eyesight getting worse. Like.....it's all running into all One? at least it makes us feel a bit better.. I can just about justify anything, lol.

For me, my years of meditation - over 30 - has been the method of emptying the mind of all thoughts. This is thought-emptiness, but there is no 'feeling' of emptiness. I only experienced a true "feeling of emptiness" that was almost painful - during one meditation where I got so far out there that NOTHING was around me. No presences, no stars, no planets -----the feeling was that I was all there was, hanging around out there in the dark, and it was a terrifying experience. I had felt my personality melt away, and the only thing that remained was my god-self. I felt like I was experiencing that which is at the base of all life, but totally unadorned. I've never felt lonelier in my life, it was horrible. If in fact God, the Dao, It, Spirit - whatever we want to call the life urge - If in fact It decided to manifest plurality from a place of loneliness, I can sure understand why after that meditation.

Use your imagination, dear

This is slightly off-track but something you said reminds me of something else, UTI. When you say 'the mind is on another "wavelength" in emptiness - I have often thought this too. As to wavelengths and emptiness, doesn't it seem likely that all human brains are on the same wavelength, in general, and this is how the humans communicate with each other? And that all dogs are on the same wavelength and this is why they communicate with each other "in emptiness", or just through body language. And that all squirrels are on the same wavelength and this is why they have their own little universe? This always brings me back to 'All being One', the only differences being between the wavelengths. the whole enchilada is just one big wavelength machine.

Some of the posters here, you can see the light shine from between the words - if you have the eyes.

You're too funny for this forum.

3 times, and one is hilarious; My first one. I was on probation, only on the job for maybe 8 months. I was temporarily assigned to Hollywood Detectives for a short time on the probationary 'wheel'. At that time, in 1969, women were still wearing uniforms of skirts and heels. (Well, shirts too!) There were about 4 of us detectives trying to serve a felony warrant for robbery. All the guys drew their guns as we approached the house. I drew mine too, only it was in my purse and had a holster on it. Instead of taking it out of the holster, instead I just held the gun with the gun still holstered and pointed at the house. I guess I was too scared, too new - and I was afraid to unholster the damn gun! The men in my company cracked up and were relentless on me for weeks. They made up a story about how the suspect was shot with a 38 caliber holster, etc, etc. (which he wasn't, he wasn't even home). Another time my partner and I were arresting a rapist who was hiding in his underwear behind the clothes in his closet; all I could see was his white underwear, so that's where I pointed the gun to make the arrest. The third time was, again at Hollywood Division, my female partner and I were looking for a suspect who was believed to be living in the old Houdini Estates in the Hollywood Hills. The current owner of the estate saw us way in the distance coming up his driveway, and for some reason he thought it was a fine idea to unleash his two dobermans to run us down. We stood our ground and drew down on the doggies - they were so well trained that they nipped at our legs, but didn't bite. We didn't have to shoot, but it was close. It put a run in my nylons, that's how close his teeth got. CT - Not in a million years would I have suspected that you have such a background!! What an incredible journey you and I have both taken to wind up in this place....

I once heard of a naked spiritual fellow in India, (I think it was India) who went about not only naked, but carried a broom and swept the path ahead of him to make sure he didn't step on bugs. This has stuck with me for years. Have you heard of this possible sadhu?

Hi Unseen - it seems to me that if you had a desire to delve into the satanic, the desire was there for a reason. So you had to go to the outer reaches of the dark to find the light, perhaps. To find its border, then make the turn because you discovered it wasn't what you were after, after all. You saw the fallacy of extremism of any sort. it may take a little while to shake off the cling-ons of that experience. I wonder also about ancestral input - but in my case I would call it ancestral guilt. A curse? Possible I guess, but not probable. I would say that our ancestors carried within them the very building blocks that we are made out of. An example of what I'm talking about is the George Zimmerman verdict after shooting Trayvon Martin. I was so upset, that I started attending the Second Baptist Church, a predominately black church, after the verdict. (Believe me, I'm not a church-goer in any sense of the word, but I did feel compelled to get to know an entire group of people different from myself, that I had never taken the time to get to know before.) I felt compelled to support the church to the tune of about $200 a month, plus buy them a $900 refrigerator that they needed. I didn't quite understand why that verdict affected me so deeply, until I remembered that my ancestral lineage includes slave-ship builders and traders from Massachusetts from the 1600's on. I suspect that's why I feel the cause of the African American as deeply as I do. It must have gone a ways to alleviate the inequity I feel in my soul, because I no longer feel compelled to go there. This went on for maybe 3 months.

Thanks, BKA, for your nice comment. Steve - My only problem with the word 'allow' is that it infers that we have made a judgment as to whether something should be allowed or not. As if we're in the position of being the keeper of the Gate. It indicates a dynamic that includes not only ourselves (as to what we will allow into our consciousness) but also seems to include others. But then again, I'm not a parent and therefore not as well versed in allowing or not allowing. I see what you mean about Acceptance too, though. Like the inference is that we have to 'like' it, if we gag it down. I think acceptance can be merely an openness to a person, situation, or idea without having a reaction to it at all. Just to be aware that it's there and has been acknowledged and merged into everything else That Is within ourselves.

Yes, I do believe that has something to do with it. You look sublimely serene. Was the picture taken at the wailing wall?

I carried for 15 years as well, never had to use it. Pulled it out a few times is all. I don't know about the security guard situation we're talking about here, but my experiences with security guards in California (while i was a member of LAPD) is that most of these folks, with few exceptions, aren't qualified to get into a big chingazo involving a gun. There's more involved than just knowing how to pull the trigger. One who has been trained in military or police work knows that there's an entire attitude that needs to accompany the carrying of a firearm, if one is in a position of authority. One must be able to assess a situation immediately. One must have gone through training involving hostages, different situations involving other innocent civilians being in the immediate area - over and over - one must really know the law and know when firing the weapon is appropriate. The security guards, as the OP said, are more often than not merely there to observe and report. If one is in the position of being armed, though, and in a position of authority, then firing the weapon is always the last resort, when all else has been expended (theoretically!) This would seem to me to not be against the Dao - the shooting is done with reluctance, in a sense. Reluctance because the last thing in the world he wants to do is take another's life, no matter how heinous the crime. But to protect himself and other innocent bystanders, certainly it would be justified and understood. Where I live in Ohio, every other backwoods person around is carrying a firearm. It just makes one feel great knowing that your very life is contingent on the mental health of the toothless fellow dressed in camo standing behind you in line....

No, it is CT who is the rambler extraordinaire.....