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I've had many series of nightmares where I see people die and their soul is half conscious and retarded like an undeveloped child, just wandering around not aware, just like the dream mind being thrust into the real world. I see these souls picked up and devoured by other beings. Not sure if these are just nightmares but I hope so.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2012...ram.html?page=1 DRIVING through the countryside south of Hanover, it would be easy to miss the GEO600 experiment. From the outside, it doesn't look much: in the corner of a field stands an assortment of boxy temporary buildings, from which two long trenches emerge, at a right angle to each other, covered with corrugated iron. Underneath the metal sheets, however, lies a detector that stretches for 600 metres. For the past seven years, this German set-up has been looking for gravitational waves - ripples in space-time thrown off by super-dense astronomical objects such as neutron stars and black holes. GEO600 has not detected any gravitational waves so far, but it might inadvertently have made the most important discovery in physics for half a century. For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan. If this doesn't blow your socks off, then Hogan, who has just been appointed director of Fermilab's Center for Particle Astrophysics, has an even bigger shock in store: "If the GEO600 result is what I suspect it is, then we are all living in a giant cosmic hologram." The idea that we live in a hologram probably sounds absurd, but it is a natural extension of our best understanding of black holes, and something with a pretty firm theoretical footing. It has also been surprisingly helpful for physicists wrestling with theories of how the universe works at its most fundamental level. The holograms you find on credit cards and banknotes are etched on two-dimensional plastic films. When light bounces off them, it recreates the appearance of a 3D image. In the 1990s physicists Leonard Susskind and Nobel prizewinner Gerard 't Hooft suggested that the same principle might apply to the universe as a whole. Our everyday experience might itself be a holographic projection of physical processes that take place on a distant, 2D surface. The "holographic principle" challenges our sensibilities. It seems hard to believe that you woke up, brushed your teeth and are reading this article because of something happening on the boundary of the universe. No one knows what it would mean for us if we really do live in a hologram, yet theorists have good reasons to believe that many aspects of the holographic principle are true. Susskind and 't Hooft's remarkable idea was motivated by ground-breaking work on black holes by Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel and Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge. In the mid-1970s, Hawking showed that black holes are in fact not entirely "black" but instead slowly emit radiation, which causes them to evaporate and eventually disappear. This poses a puzzle, because Hawking radiation does not convey any information about the interior of a black hole. When the black hole has gone, all the information about the star that collapsed to form the black hole has vanished, which contradicts the widely affirmed principle that information cannot be destroyed. This is known as the black hole information paradox. Bekenstein's work provided an important clue in resolving the paradox. He discovered that a black hole's entropy - which is synonymous with its information content - is proportional to the surface area of its event horizon. This is the theoretical surface that cloaks the black hole and marks the point of no return for infalling matter or light. Theorists have since shown that microscopic quantum ripples at the event horizon can encode the information inside the black hole, so there is no mysterious information loss as the black hole evaporates. Crucially, this provides a deep physical insight: the 3D information about a precursor star can be completely encoded in the 2D horizon of the subsequent black hole - not unlike the 3D image of an object being encoded in a 2D hologram. Susskind and 't Hooft extended the insight to the universe as a whole on the basis that the cosmos has a horizon too - the boundary from beyond which light has not had time to reach us in the 13.7-billion-year lifespan of the universe. What's more, work by several string theorists, most notably Juan Maldacena at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, has confirmed that the idea is on the right track. He showed that the physics inside a hypothetical universe with five dimensions and shaped like a Pringle is the same as the physics taking place on the four-dimensional boundary. According to Hogan, the holographic principle radically changes our picture of space-time. Theoretical physicists have long believed that quantum effects will cause space-time to convulse wildly on the tiniest scales. At this magnification, the fabric of space-time becomes grainy and is ultimately made of tiny units rather like pixels, but a hundred billion billion times smaller than a proton. This distance is known as the Planck length, a mere 10-35 metres. The Planck length is far beyond the reach of any conceivable experiment, so nobody dared dream that the graininess of space-time might be discernable. That is, not until Hogan realised that the holographic principle changes everything. If space-time is a grainy hologram, then you can think of the universe as a sphere whose outer surface is papered in Planck length-sized squares, each containing one bit of information. The holographic principle says that the amount of information papering the outside must match the number of bits contained inside the volume of the universe. Since the volume of the spherical universe is much bigger than its outer surface, how could this be true? Hogan realised that in order to have the same number of bits inside the universe as on the boundary, the world inside must be made up of grains bigger than the Planck length. "Or, to put it another way, a holographic universe is blurry," says Hogan. This is good news for anyone trying to probe the smallest unit of space-time. "Contrary to all expectations, it brings its microscopic quantum structure within reach of current experiments," says Hogan. So while the Planck length is too small for experiments to detect, the holographic "projection" of that graininess could be much, much larger, at around 10-16 metres. "If you lived inside a hologram, you could tell by measuring the blurring," he says. When Hogan first realised this, he wondered if any experiment might be able to detect the holographic blurriness of space-time. That's where GEO600 comes in. Gravitational wave detectors like GEO600 are essentially fantastically sensitive rulers. The idea is that if a gravitational wave passes through GEO600, it will alternately stretch space in one direction and squeeze it in another. To measure this, the GEO600 team fires a single laser through a half-silvered mirror called a beam splitter. This divides the light into two beams, which pass down the instrument's 600-metre perpendicular arms and bounce back again. The returning light beams merge together at the beam splitter and create an interference pattern of light and dark regions where the light waves either cancel out or reinforce each other. Any shift in the position of those regions tells you that the relative lengths of the arms has changed. "The key thing is that such experiments are sensitive to changes in the length of the rulers that are far smaller than the diameter of a proton," says Hogan. So would they be able to detect a holographic projection of grainy space-time? Of the five gravitational wave detectors around the world, Hogan realised that the Anglo-German GEO600 experiment ought to be the most sensitive to what he had in mind. He predicted that if the experiment's beam splitter is buffeted by the quantum convulsions of space-time, this will show up in its measurements (Physical Review D, vol 77, p 104031). "This random jitter would cause noise in the laser light signal," says Hogan. In June he sent his prediction to the GEO600 team. "Incredibly, I discovered that the experiment was picking up unexpected noise," says Hogan. GEO600's principal investigator Karsten Danzmann of the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, and also the University of Hanover, admits that the excess noise, with frequencies of between 300 and 1500 hertz, had been bothering the team for a long time. He replied to Hogan and sent him a plot of the noise. "It looked exactly the same as my prediction," says Hogan. "It was as if the beam splitter had an extra sideways jitter." Incredibly, the experiment was picking up unexpected noise - as if quantum convulsions were causing an extra sideways jitter No one - including Hogan - is yet claiming that GEO600 has found evidence that we live in a holographic universe. It is far too soon to say. "There could still be a mundane source of the noise," Hogan admits. Gravitational-wave detectors are extremely sensitive, so those who operate them have to work harder than most to rule out noise. They have to take into account passing clouds, distant traffic, seismological rumbles and many, many other sources that could mask a real signal. "The daily business of improving the sensitivity of these experiments always throws up some excess noise," says Danzmann. "We work to identify its cause, get rid of it and tackle the next source of excess noise." At present there are no clear candidate sources for the noise GEO600 is experiencing. "In this respect I would consider the present situation unpleasant, but not really worrying." For a while, the GEO600 team thought the noise Hogan was interested in was caused by fluctuations in temperature across the beam splitter. However, the team worked out that this could account for only one-third of the noise at most. Danzmann says several planned upgrades should improve the sensitivity of GEO600 and eliminate some possible experimental sources of excess noise. "If the noise remains where it is now after these measures, then we have to think again," he says. If GEO600 really has discovered holographic noise from quantum convulsions of space-time, then it presents a double-edged sword for gravitational wave researchers. One on hand, the noise will handicap their attempts to detect gravitational waves. On the other, it could represent an even more fundamental discovery. Such a situation would not be unprecedented in physics. Giant detectors built to look for a hypothetical form of radioactivity in which protons decay never found such a thing. Instead, they discovered that neutrinos can change from one type into another - arguably more important because it could tell us how the universe came to be filled with matter and not antimatter (New Scientist, 12 April 2008, p 26). It would be ironic if an instrument built to detect something as vast as astrophysical sources of gravitational waves inadvertently detected the minuscule graininess of space-time. "Speaking as a fundamental physicist, I see discovering holographic noise as far more interesting," says Hogan. Small price to pay Despite the fact that if Hogan is right, and holographic noise will spoil GEO600's ability to detect gravitational waves, Danzmann is upbeat. "Even if it limits GEO600's sensitivity in some frequency range, it would be a price we would be happy to pay in return for the first detection of the graininess of space-time." he says. "You bet we would be pleased. It would be one of the most remarkable discoveries in a long time." However Danzmann is cautious about Hogan's proposal and believes more theoretical work needs to be done. "It's intriguing," he says. "But it's not really a theory yet, more just an idea." Like many others, Danzmann agrees it is too early to make any definitive claims. "Let's wait and see," he says. "We think it's at least a year too early to get excited." The longer the puzzle remains, however, the stronger the motivation becomes to build a dedicated instrument to probe holographic noise. John Cramer of the University of Washington in Seattle agrees. It was a "lucky accident" that Hogan's predictions could be connected to the GEO600 experiment, he says. "It seems clear that much better experimental investigations could be mounted if they were focused specifically on the measurement and characterisation of holographic noise and related phenomena." One possibility, according to Hogan, would be to use a device called an atom interferometer. These operate using the same principle as laser-based detectors but use beams made of ultracold atoms rather than laser light. Because atoms can behave as waves with a much smaller wavelength than light, atom interferometers are significantly smaller and therefore cheaper to build than their gravitational-wave-detector counterparts. So what would it mean it if holographic noise has been found? Cramer likens it to the discovery of unexpected noise by an antenna at Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1964. That noise turned out to be the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the big bang fireball. "Not only did it earn Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson a Nobel prize, but it confirmed the big bang and opened up a whole field of cosmology," says Cramer. Hogan is more specific. "Forget Quantum of Solace, we would have directly observed the quantum of time," says Hogan. "It's the smallest possible interval of time - the Planck length divided by the speed of light." More importantly, confirming the holographic principle would be a big help to researchers trying to unite quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of gravity. Today the most popular approach to quantum gravity is string theory, which researchers hope could describe happenings in the universe at the most fundamental level. But it is not the only show in town. "Holographic space-time is used in certain approaches to quantising gravity that have a strong connection to string theory," says Cramer. "Consequently, some quantum gravity theories might be falsified and others reinforced." Hogan agrees that if the holographic principle is confirmed, it rules out all approaches to quantum gravity that do not incorporate the holographic principle. Conversely, it would be a boost for those that do - including some derived from string theory and something called matrix theory. "Ultimately, we may have our first indication of how space-time emerges out of quantum theory." As serendipitous discoveries go, it's hard to get more ground-breaking than that. Marcus Chown is the author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You (Faber, 2008)

It's just like being a little kid on a playground at recess... You can be enjoying your swing..."ahhh so peaceful swinging on my swing! It's so much fun to feel that weightlessness when I reach the top! Woo hoo..." Then the class bully comes along and pushes you off. You go flying, and your face hits the woodchips with a crack! OUCH. You start to bleed and cry, while he laughs at you. You curl up into the fetal position and pray to whatever higher power will listen that the world would be fair. ...Then your hero comes along. Your best friend, Billy! He takes a swing at the bully - knocking him to the ground. The bully starts crying and runs away with a red face. Billy yells out, "Don't mess with my friend, baloneyx, again!" He comes and helps you up and suggests that you swing together. So much fun again! Brotherly love fills your heart and you're so grateful to have a good friend who will stick up for you. From that point on, the bully avoids you because he knows what will happen...he sees that dangerous look in Billy's eye anytime he looks in your direction. If Billy wasn't there, the bully could mess with you at anytime. You could be eating lunch and all of a sudden a basketball could fly into your head, and your meal would fall all over your clothes and on the floor. You could be sleeping at night and the bully would throw a rock into your window, breaking your favorite transformers toy! You would have to live your whole life in fear...but since your friend Billy is there, you can enjoy your meal. Yum. You can sleep peacefully and dream of the hottest girl in your grade inviting you over for baloney and ketchup sandwiches. And then when you wake up, you can play imaginary war with your transformers. ... So despite the world being a messed up place where evil people run the show and lie to the public about why wars are fought...I think it's good to honor the "Billys" who decided to be vigilant and give up their freedom and peace so that you can have yours. Because it's very true that they are the reason why you're sitting on the internet talking about how much they suck. The way I see it, until people learn some respect we can't call ourselves a civilized society. Have fun, kids.

Hey, I have been trying to be celibate as well. My spiritual path is trial and error as well. I could be without sex now, altough sometimes I fail. If i fail in a wet dream it is not that bad. However, I think I will be without loss of semen in the future (maybe some wet dreams, but that doesn't matter much). I meditate sometimes and it helps. However, I sometimes I feel disconnected from the world in that way. Thus I still miss a girl. It is not that i want a girl for sex, but still. I think we man and woman are wired to be together. When I love a girl or when I meditate I can feel my chi rising to higher chakras. Make the love for a woman divine love and the chi will rise even higher, I guess. When the chi/prana comes higher I often feel a lot better (especially the heart chakra) Old memories from my youth come in my mind. Remember how blissful your youth was! This was because you had a lot of chi in your higher chakras! Damn I am so happy I found this out at www.celibacy.info. This is a lot better than masturbating on porn! Thus, dual cultivation is the way I am going to pursue in the future (I have no girlfriend yet)

And yet isn't that an interesting correlation? Who knows what's going to happen. I prefer to enjoy my present than dream (or fear) my future.

...and the morning lasted all day. The Dream Academy

My mom and my dog died on the same date 15 years apart. The depth of loss for each Being that we love and lose is different for each of us, and can not be simplified. It is very difficult on our hearts. So - Death is very difficult on emotional levels for the ones left behind, even while we accept the transcendant nature of our loved one's spirits going on... I dream of many of my dead friends and family often, & try to offer the comfort of my blessings to their spirits as I feel their blessings remain with me still.. .All of those whom I've loved the most in this life have died already. But I look forward to new love and a life shared with new people who will connect with me on deep levels once again... Take yr grief as deep as yr able -it will pass (if not fully)- in time and leave you stronger and more able to deal with this sometimes trying world we share- love to all-Pat

Oh man, it's not about being married or not... It's about fulfilling your destiny as a human being... There are various roads to that, in various cultures, but most of them encompass what the title of this topic suggests, one way or another... Without that, we have nothing... It is said that one of the most important things in life is having no regrets of things you should have done, when you look back... Having a wife (consort or what you want to name it) Having a child Having a workplace that allows you to express your nature Having a social life, human energy interaction, is cultivating your human soul... I am sure you knew all that, I just repeat them for the sake of repeating... Peace L1 PS: This alone of course will not take you too high, or too deep, but it's an excelent precursory to: "Don't worry, your feelings about kids are normal adult male feelings... No exceptions... i think... Until it happens to you. Then you become a complete man, Ren, if you please. YM is right... the first way to immortality is thru your children. If you want to go beyond that, you would still need a first hand experience with it. Just to see the amount of dedication and real-life envolvement that it really means. Immortality is a high goal, with the little we do daily, it's just a farfetched dream. Your kids will be the best teacher at what it means to become an immortal..."

Hey boys Don't worry, your feelings about kids are normal adult male feelings... No exceptions... Until it happens to you. Then you become a complete man, Ren, if you please. YM is right... the first way to immortality is thru your children. If you want to go beyond that, you would still need a first hand experience with it. Just to see the amount of dedication and real-life envolvement that it really means. Immortality is a high goal, with the little we do daily, it's just a farfetched dream. Your kids will be the best teacher at what it means to become an immortal... Amen! L1

"Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen They talk of days for which they sit and wait, all will be revealed ... Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear" Have fun with your new toy teopakees!

Thanks, I did see that but didn't pay attention to it or do the math because I was looking for 'breathing' type words. My teacher also taught about 'imbibing', and in our 'formles' way it was done without saying a word or any formal non verbal teaching on it either. Learning is all about careful observation and imitation, something only masters do. Wouldn't it be nice to only have masters as students? Dream on.

Iv had a heart chakra orgasm in a dream.when i woke up it still lingered in my chest.

I do have the Dream Yoga cd version, though I am not interested in selling them yet.

Do you have Michael Winn's tapes on Dream Yoga?...If so, I'd be interested in purchasing them

What were your favorite topics on The Tao Bums this year? There's been a LOT, 79 pages of them. Damn. We've come a long way. Here is the first page: http://www.thetaobums.com/index.php?showfo...all&st=2310 Some really good discussions this year. Here are some of some of my favorites that I pulled from scanning through the pages. I think I'm going to send a "Best of 2008" email out to the whole list early next week. Will you do me a favor and take a minute to scan the list below, let me know if you think I missed any good ones? Or if you think any of the topics I listed suck and should be removed... Thanks! Enjoy. What Bothers Me About Philosophical Daoism Topic starter: gossamer the importance of the neck Topic starter: laotse Why is there so much disrespect in the Taoist tradition? Topic starter: Cameron Goals, destinations, silence about... Topic starter: Ian Tea, Flavors, tea ceremonies...good tea for everyone Topic starter: joeblast Eyes, healing & maintaining good eye health Topic starter: freeform Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra Topic starter: Cameron Harold Roth Nei Yeh--best book to start Topic starter: Brian L. Kennedy Well Put Post about Zaneblue, aka Witch Topic starter: drew hempel Spirituality and the Occult, discussing occult practices and the nature of spirit Topic starter: SFJane Different Meditations, Well put way to describe different types of meditation Topic starter: WhiteTiger Imagination or Visualization is never a good method Topic starter: exorcist_1699 Discourse on Taoist Internal Alchemy Topic starter: dao zhen Daniel Ingram, Harcore guide to buddhist meditation Topic starter: Ian Enlightenment vs. Self-Realization Topic starter: AugustLeo Why is there so much evil in the world? Topic starter: durkhrod chogori The True Eye of the Tiger, A visual approach to the I Ching Topic starter: sean A Toltec view of Self, A path to spiritual freedom Topic starter: Stigweard Wu Wei = non doing Topic starter: cold Deep breathing practices, Yoga, daoist, Buddhism Topic starter: Wun Yuen Gong what is a person? Topic starter: de_paradise spirituality thumping: to thump or not to thump Topic starter: de_paradise weak erection Topic starter: mantis Dying in meditation, How to achieve this experience? Topic starter: durkhrod chogori Kechari Mudra Topic starter: Immortal Who thinks Bill Bodri is right? Topic starter: Cameron That imbetween state, Condition for good practice. Topic starter: Ian Tensegrity and Golden Dragon/Diamond Body? Topic starter: Xienkula1 Mer Ka Ba Topic starter: Wun Yuen Gong Purifying the subconcious to avoid loosing jing Topic starter: provs Becoming multi orgasmic / Orgasm without ejaculation. Topic starter: Vantage emptying or filling ?, be one with Dao Topic starter: YMWong All the hurt in the world... what do YOU do? Topic starter: Anette L non-dualism & the need for practice Topic starter: mat black Shuigong, Taoist and other dream practices Topic starter: sheng zhen Who am I ?, any ideas??? Topic starter: sunshine Darkness Retreats, peoples experiences Topic starter: Swami Jai Transmissons Topic starter: Scadder21 Is KunLun Bogus?, A Complete Path or Complete Fluff? Topic starter: Jakara What is the Kunlun Energy Topic starter: Swami Jai KAP Kundalini Awakening Process Dr. Glenn Morris Topic starter: Vajrasattva KAP Kundalini Awakening Process Dr. Glenn Morris July Topic starter: Vajrasattva Spiritual Guides Topic starter: neo women must learn to redirect their orgams too, tao for ladies Topic starter: smartgirl093 My journey in follwing the book: "Multi-orgasmic man" Topic starter: TheSeeker About love. Topic starter: cat Dark Night of the Soul, a personal experience of meditation and madness Topic starter: SFJane The Fire Yogi Topic starter: SiliconValley David Verdesi, It's for real? what's your opinion? Topic starter: amacgregor Shaking Practice in Bali Topic starter: joebob Does Taoism believe in a God? Topic starter: Azoro Natural Living Topic starter: emily K? Topic starter: muz Full-lotus fallacy, Like many others Topic starter: durkhrod chogori What Does Yin Energy Feel Like? How Do You Cultivate it? Topic starter: mwight Would like to hear how others experience "Qi" ? Topic starter: shontonga Wizard Wang Liping? Topic starter: styrofoamdog Pre-heaven Jing, a panacea for sufferings Topic starter: exorcist_1699 What is the goal of Taoism?, Freedom? Enlightenment? Parlor Tricks? Topic starter: Unconditioned Courses, Books, Etc. Etc. That You Couldn't Do Without For Your Practice. Topic starter: mwight Gross Sense Impressions of the Transformation Process Topic starter: DarinHamel Nei Gung - What is it? to Starjumper, Buddy, et al. Topic starter: VCraigP Kunlun San Diego and assorted musings, warning: this is growing long... Topic starter: Taomeow For those of you still chasing "abilities", as if they prove awakening. Topic starter: Hundun John Changs 1st Westerner student Topic starter: shidoin My fellow trees Topic starter: hagar western magic, kaballah?,dolres ashcroft nowiki, your unseenpower Topic starter: phore Taoism of Western Imagination, [long winded but useful] Topic starter: YMWong The "S" word Topic starter: Cameron Questions about Egyptian Mysticism, to answer question from Yoda Topic starter: apepch7 Increasing spiritual awareness leading to diminished happiness? is life boring now? Topic starter: nomad Daoist and Tibetan Transmissions Topic starter: Spirit Ape absolute direct work with fear, questions. Topic starter: Pranaman Etymology, The 'true sense' of things Topic starter: Stigweard Ayuhasca? Topic starter: SereneBlue Can We Transcend Lust?, How To? Topic starter: ddilulo_06 Chanting names of goddess, chanting, goddess, wicca, witchcraft, vajrayogini Topic starter: phore Differentiating Yin and Yang in your body Topic starter: baloneyx Talking To God Topic starter: mwight Full lotus, techniques to achieve full lotus meditation Topic starter: sheng zhen Why Taoism is different Topic starter: exorcist_1699 Fu healings, introduction to FU Topic starter: Mak_Tin_Si Virtue is..., What virtues should a Taoist have? Topic starter: Stigweard Immortality - the various views Topic starter: picnic Relaxing tea... Topic starter: lostmonk A Question For The Ladies Topic starter: mwight The True Taoism? Topic starter: Anabhogya-Carya A Warning, to the chargers Topic starter: benny Tummo? Topic starter: mewtwo Magus of Java Teachings Revealed, My two cents on the subject... Topic starter: Fiz Master Nan & Bill Bodri - circulation being a waste of time, what do you think of this? Topic starter: nomad Immortality Topic starter: dragonfire Human Flight -> Qinggong, Light Body Skill Topic starter: benny relative and perfect pitch., the training as a meditation Topic starter: Pranaman Shaktipat, A Quick List of Gurus Topic starter: SiliconValley Vajrasattva's Greatest Hits Topic starter: Yoda Long Distance KUNDALINI KAP Training through Skype Topic starter: Vajrasattva Most Events that Happen to us do not Matter! Topic starter: Pietro Daoists usually die, (or SHOW me one who did not) Topic starter: YMWong May I introduce the highest Buddhist practice?, its is called thogal and leads to light body Topic starter: alwayson Yin Xian Fa and Ling Bao Bi Fa Cultivation Methods Topic starter: 松永道 What is the Most Common Problem... Topic starter: 林愛偉 Question about spirituality and scientific testing Topic starter: seekeroftruth Best way to enlightenment Topic starter: markern why have YIN and YANG, A brief history and basics of yin and yang Topic starter: Mak_Tin_Si Haiku Chain, Make it spontaneous ... have some fun Topic starter: Stigweard

Hi Scotty, I`m a 45 year old male. I`m also a mental health patient with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In 1990 I started reading self help books which led to books on mysticism. I was so inspired reading about all the Spiritual enlightenment stuff that I more or less dumped everything else I had been interested in up to that point; I`d been losing interest in things for a while anyway, except alcohol which helped me manage with my illness, although I`ve given that up now. In 2000 after I`d been meditating for 7 years, I ended up in a mental hospital with my illness. It was in there that my dark night started. The quick results I expected from meditation didn`t appear and I started to lose hope. After that point everything in the world looked completely pointless and has been that way ever since. Now the world looks like a desert, and I spend all my time hoping and waiting for a mystical experience. I started experiencing Spiritual guidance a couple of years ago, in the form of precognitive dreams and also synchronicities. This lifted my spirits for a while, but now it seems as though it`s not enough, and I long for an awakening experience. It now seems as though I`m stuck in a bad dream which seems to have no end. I can`t imagine how anything in the world can possibly become meaningful again.

Without trying hard to be Enlightened or drilling into emptiness arduously to attain Shen , never can you grasp the Tao but relying on an external idol or a written symbol . Without training your virtue and upgrading it , never should you dream of liberating yourself or rescuing others out of your/their destiny/ karma just by worshiping an idol or writing a symbol .

PS CS4 "Gold" http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?...n&iId=14318 Dream Weaver CS4 "Platinum" http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?...n&iId=14343 I heard that Flash CS4 Is platinum on the newest wine version too, but cant find any documentation on it. Final Cut is Mac isn't it? As for your custom windows programs, you can always run them inside of a virtual machine and get them to work. Virtualbox lets you Install a copy of windows inside of linux. I've got some old dos games running in linux... how geeky is that XD I see where your coming from though, if I had to run all those programs on a daily basis, it would get frustrating, having to reinstall and tweak them every six months when a new version of linux came out.

Never accept traditional idealogy by face value. Always question it and find out what the real reason behind it is. Some have real reasons for it, others, no legitimacy. If someone says no beef? Why not? Whats the difference between beef and chicken. They are both meat right? Yes, but beef may have more hormone altering nutrients. Eat too much in an advance stage in development and you may lose your jing. In the beginning, I would say eat what you want. In advance stages it most likely will matter. In the advance stages, your body is supposed to be in its purest form. Your body is full of yang. At this point in training, you'll probably want to avoid meat altogether. If you eat any at all, you could be releasing sperm in your sleep. You don't need to dream sex to lose it either.

I've had a number of these kinds of experiences...more of them this year. The vibes are very common, but getting away from your physical body is another issue. I've had the vibes (sleep paralysis) many more times than I've gone OBE. And they are like lucid dreams, except there is no break in awareness from "being" back in the body--real time, then shifing outside the confines of the body. I've also gone from lucid dream--to my body(vibes)--and out. I originally thought of it as a projection inside my deeper relative awareness. I like the concept of consciousness occupying ALL space...so instead of "going" OBE, you are just changing "focus". This was Robert Monroe's conclusion in his later years. Here's a link from an interesting fellow that was a long time contributor on the astral pulse forums, explaining the "focus" model of consciousness: Phasing Awareness Satyalok

I've had quite a few similar, lets call them high-vibe lucid dreams. Yesterday I became lucid on my bed as my body went into crazy acceleration, and also sometimes feeling like silly putty being smushed. Just like you, the evidence pointed towards a dream state as my mind was partly manifesting fictions--and yet there was something non-dreamy about it. I often lose vision, as is have awareness of a scenario but no sight, just darkness. At one point I realized there was someone in the room and I grabbed her arm and asked her name. She say, "Ivy, no. Iris. No. Isis." The fact that she came out with a list of short "I" names made me think that it was my subconscious doing its relational functioning, and even then I realized this was only my subconcious mind, not an entity. But I have the same questions as you. I do know that astral travel books characterize the leaving the body as a time just at an energy acceleration. Your descriptions sound like dreams. You might find interesting this guy: http://www.shaman-australis.com/~claude/dreams.html

Hi Baloneyx. From what you have written you have had some real exprience. Did you learn a method or does this just happen to you? From my limited exprience the sense of or feeling of vibration is a key indicator. Sometimes you can adjust the frequency of the vibration by moving your bottom jaw slightly, I have found this to be very beneficial depending on your intentions. All life vibrates.Some vibrations can be helpful others harmful it pays to be aware of this. The problems I have encountered (again my exprience is limited)is maintaining clear awarness while in an altered state. I have found by practiseing One pointed meditation this enables me to have some degree of clear cognition during the night. For more indepth study of this please refer to Tibetan dream yoga. OBEs or lucid dreaming are very similiar at least superficially to what is known in Tibetan as The Bardo of Becoming, which is the state most people describe when they have a Near Death Exprience. Thus the empahsis on continued clear cognition during the night. If we cannot maintain control at night during sleep what chance then do we have at death? Some techniques I have found that help. Have a point of reference be it a ring on your finger,your hand, a word,anything that you can continue to bring your focus back too. Take your time, relax, try not to be distracted by sounds or colour or movement.Continue to bring your attention back to your point of reference. Weather we think what is happening is real or not, does it matter? Surely it is more fun to explore. Remember that the constraints of the wakeing world no longer apply. Given enough time your true intentions will emerge. It is beneficial to have protection when out and about.Calling upon the name of that which you hold in highest regard,takes you were it is best to go. Happy journeys. Ps Putting your left foot behind your right calf while flying helps to maintain momentum.

Dao will provide........ Dao does provide......... But sometimes we are too blind and full of ego to see..... I said, "Today, there are not many systems to support spiritual teachers, and they also have to pay for rent, and food. Most of my teachers in China charged some fee for the first trainings, and then after that we were family, and there was never any money exchanged - though the relationship changed, and I had to pay in practice, or helping them with projects, or tasks, etc." It is a modern way of showing respect, and a giving heart, and also a humility and sincerity. Of course it should not be abused." No teacher can make one a Taoist. A Taoist is made through self cultivation. A Taoist is one who follows the Way of the Great Natural Law. A Taoist does not need a piece of paper or license. They have the same system in China today. I can pay money and get an official "Taoist Lineage" passport plastic thing with my photo in it, and be registered with the Chinese government, etc..... I am not, and I refuse to get such a registration. I know of some Americans who teach and call themselves Taoists and have come for a few weeks, paid money and obtained such registration. I know one person who runs some tours to China, and all members of the tour can come home with such plastic "Taoist" passports and be "official". I feel this is very wrong, and goes against the Way of Taoism. I am saying that if you are taking regular lessons with a master, or if a master is sponsoring a special training or workshop with you, it is proper to pay. There are costs and expenses the teacher will suffer for his efforts in teaching, and if possible, the student should show sincere thanks, and pay some tuition. The real thanks for the teachings should come from the student working hard to practice the method taught, and if possible master it. Now....... If there are some sincere student who can not afford the workshop, or class then something should be made available to allow them to learn. This is all in the public realm. Traditional disciple relationships should never really involve payment and money. In such a relationship it is more like father/mother and son/daughter. My teacher often paid for meals, hotels, and other costs when we studied together; and even helped me to set up my business and taught me much about herb export and other things related to earning money to make sure the material realm was taken care of. Yet I had many other responsability and work I had to do for him. I ran a small academy for Taoist Yoga..... We had students come from time to time who wished to study, but honestly said they could not afford payment of the class fees - we have costs such as rent for the space, and other costs to run the public school - We allowed them to come for free. I have run public workshops in China. Almost every workshop, there is a person (sometimes more than one) who can not attend due to the costs of the workshop, yet they wish to attend - we always try our best to work something out with them to allow them to come - though we can not afford to pay their hotel, food and transportation costs. In this way, I feel I am being honest, and trying my best to not let anyone miss out on something we are involved in due to money. We live in a material society, and it is a fact of this current age we are in. There is no public support of spiritual study or projects. I have a dream to house a retreat project for serious alchemy students in China. Or at the very least have myself and a fellow disciple go off and do long term practice and exploration in alchemy. Why are we not doing it right now? Money....... It is something we have to face and deal with in these times..... And most people teaching in the public are also bound by the reality of money..... But, there should be no abuse. Everything should be within a normal standard; within reason.

I have heard as one progresses on there path, they dream less. By that I mean, they have more restful sleep.

What about the "cause" of the problem? Even you kept a journal, you will not cure the "cause" that cause this to happen. So it will happen again and again and again. Maybe sometimes worked and sometimes it will happen again and again and again. Dream is very easy to intrude by black magic because when you sleep your soul (Hun) will be out of your body and into another dimension. So this is a good time for the black magic or curse to work into your body. If you do not treat this fast, you will just build up a super distructive decease in your body which turns into a tragedy later on.