I think I figured out the rapture thing.

[manitou]

This post is a bit out there.

 

More and more, I'm coming to the conclusion that upon our death, we will transport to wherever we believe we are going; at least for a while, and then maybe everything enters the collective. Who knows?

 

But I think a Christian will probably have a moment with Jesus at death, perhaps a Buddhist would have a moment with Buddha, etc.

 

As a shamanic type with Taoist tendencies, or vice versa, I'm never sure which - I have a type of afterlife template which involves a green pasture and my horse that I had to put down. All my deceased animals and people I've loved are there. I hope to land there, at least for a while, perhaps a lucid dream in my journey.

 

Okay, I thought....so how does this work for one who believes in a Christian rapture of sorts, where they're physically elevated to a higher level while the rest of us remain behind writhing and gnashing our teeth?

 

Can anybody say UFO?

[Otis]

So Mormons get their own planet, but only for a little while?

[manitou]

So Mormons get their own planet, but only for a little while?

 

Do Mormons believe they'll be getting their own planet?

[Marblehead]

Do Mormons believe they'll be getting their own planet?

 

Do I believe any of this?

[Eric23]

Pick up a copy of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo.

[Sloppy Zhang]

In the manga series "Shaman King", when people die they all return to the great spirit. Except similar souls will congregate around one another- Christian souls will gravitate towards other Christian souls, and they will enter into what their projected form of heaven would be. Meanwhile Buddhists will enter whatever they think they're going into. "Evil" souls will go to "hell", with is really just a massive congregation of evil souls, and since they are full of hate, malice, greed, etc, they will eternally be trapped in a very negative place.

 

All are in the same place, just in different areas. And within that framework, a soul who is strong enough and aware enough can move in between the different realms and see what's going on.

 

Anyway, yeah, just throwing that out there.

 

As for the rapture thing, to my knowledge, it's not just a "death and then afterlife", it's "people will be yanked, body and all, up into the heavens, and other people will still be around". Which DOES make it sound a helluva lot like a UFO.

 

And to the best of my knowledge, the Mormons believe there is only room for a limited number of people to get into heaven (and I guess that'd be the same for a rapture), which makes the UFO theory seem, strangely, even more likely

[Otis]

Do Mormons believe they'll be getting their own planet?

That's my understanding. The faithful, upon death, become like Angels and get their own planet to be Lord of.

 

I think there's also some serious UFO rapture stuff going on in Mormonism, but I don't know many details.

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Do I believe any of this?

Do we believe in you?

[Marblehead]

Do we believe in you?

 

Hehehe. One point for you.

[manitou]

It just seems like lots of near death experiences involve seeing in some sense the religious icon of their choice, then coming back and telling about it.

 

Maybe this world is just a whole series of religious thought-bubbles that keep people encapsuled within the perimeters. But maybe all the thought-bubbles will run together, like real bubbles do, and then they'll all be realized as All and None.

 

People who are lucky enough to transcend the thought-bubbles (and perhaps out and out atheists) may be somehow not subject to the same mechanisms as those within the thought bubbles.

 

But then, watching Ancient Aliens and those things sort of ties things together in a circle of sorts. If there were civilizations previously as some of those programs suggest, perhaps there were other civilizations either on this planet.

 

Oh gee. I just answered my own question. Take time out of the equation. There is no past, present or future. Maybe sasquatch is an offshoot of the Neanderthal man and he's still around. Maybe we're in the middle, here and now. Maybe the UFOs are the future Us, but they're here now too. Past, present and future.

 

Perhaps I should light up another.

 

P.S. Sloppy - LOL - I'm so glad someone else can halfway see it. When the thought hit me today I cracked up because of the implications of the rapturees being zapped up for experimentation or something.

Edited April 14, 2011 by manitou

[Marblehead]

A lot of "maybe"s in there lady.

 

But no problem, there are many who feel as you do.

[manitou]

It was just a Maybe sort of post.

[Nanashi]

[三江源]

My link

 

a poster here, Kris, mentioned the book "The Lost secrets of Death" by Peter Novak... is very interesting.Thought you might like, manitou.

[hagar]

So Mormons get their own planet, but only for a little while?

Lived with Mormons for a year. Almost married one. They've allready gotten themselves another planet.

[manitou]

My link

 

a poster here, Kris, mentioned the book "The Lost secrets of Death" by Peter Novak... is very interesting.Thought you might like, manitou.

 

Thanks for the link, Cat. I'm just starting The Audible Life Stream - Ancient Secret of Dying While Living by Alistair Conwell.

 

From things I've read previously (including the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but many years ago) I'm of the opinion that death is a mental process that may take us to different planes of awareness of phenomena as it is happening. The instant of death is only the beginning, as I understand it. My hunch is merely that the experience may be tailor-made due to our own proclivities, tendencies, and preferences.

 

I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. It think it'll be the trip of a lifetime. Might as well, huh?

Edited April 14, 2011 by manitou

[dawei]

I think this may be giving too much power and position to the mind; it now controls the immaterial world? IMO, It's not the mind which returns us into the immaterial world.

[manitou]

Dawei - good point. But the material mind may be the very thing that is causing all this. If we are all One, then we must manifest thought from a common juncture, because we are manifesting from the inside to the outside. Unless one wants to look at the Tao as the void somehow being outside of ourselves.

 

I think the earth manifested from the inside out, over time. One layer and one event over the other. My guess is that the 'I' inside you is the very same 'I' that's inside me; the only difference is our conditioning. I'm also wondering if each and every one of us don't share the very same subconscious brain, and the subconscious brain is continuing to 'create' all that we see. It would be the conscious part of the brain that gives us the illusion that we are separate people.

 

I sometimes think about those huge mushroom masses that extend for miles upon miles under the earth in various areas - have you read about those? I wonder if the brain analogy can be extended to include the mushroom masses as being part of the earth's brain. After all, from mushrooms extend all sorts of separate realities, if you ingest them. My guess is that the indigenous would consume these plants (the ones that grew above) and have a group hallucination that would function as their thought-bubble, their template for future living in some cases. Perhaps our worldly affairs thought bubbles were all kicked off by the hallucinogenic plants. If you read Revelations, it sure reads like one who has been given visions during a hallucinogenic experience.

 

I don't mean to detract from the visions....if they were given by the plants, then they're there for a reason.

 

Perhaps fire is the originator of life. Perhaps all the suns are actually huge balls of awareness, chunks of which break off and become planets. The awareness stays within the planet by means of the molten fire at the center of the earth. when the time is right and conditions have ripened, the fire inside continues manifesting; earth, weather, grass, animals, humans, and beyond. The humans are the ones who have manifested with the ability to think outside of themselves. Perhaps It wants to manifest the finest humans with all their senses, so that It can Experience all that it thinks of.

 

This certainly wouldn't explain the Why (other than just plain experience), but maybe there's something to it as to the How.

Edited April 15, 2011 by manitou

[dawei]

I would say the mind creates the false sense of what is life; it constructs and manifests what we think is going on. Like the front end to interfacing conscious in the physical realm. The lower brain is what connects us beyond all this and may be interface to the unconscious part we all share or a part of (I might call it just the immaterial instead of void). I would not say that Tao is the void but I see it as PART of the immaterial non-existent. I think the other thread on Divine Power (I prefer Presence) has overlapping ideas; that is the whole which Tao (to me) is a part of.

 

I am not disagreeing with you. I like most of what you said.

[manitou]

Yes - I agree, this thread is definitely heading to the Diving Power thread. I haven't seen any disagreement between our POV's at all. What you call 'false' realities, I would call separate realities. We all have a mutual agreement, somewhat, as to what reality is, so that we can communicate.

 

But if you and I are standing next to each other looking at a mountain, the mountain will be slightly different looking from where you and I both are, despite how close we try to stand. I really think we're kind of talking about the same thing; I guess I'm just coming more from a Castaneda perspective on this particular point, cuz that's been my path.

 

But I surely love the fact that we all meet here, and I always find your responses very deep and thought provoking. I sense that you are a very gentle and wise soul.

Our souls are very close.

[Gerard]

This post is a bit out there.

 

More and more, I'm coming to the conclusion that upon our death, we will transport to wherever we believe we are going; at least for a while, and then maybe everything enters the collective.

 

I believe (and experienced) that you'll go to where your karma dictates; that is in a physical-mental-emotional form according to what you sowed in this life: developed habits and traits...and usually spirits return to the place they were most familiar with (Earth in our case) since its vibrations attract the spirit in question...but sometimes it's not the case, they could end up in another distant place (from a cosmologic point of view).

[ejr1069]

Possibly your light will visit the great light (source, God, etc) briefly and then be reincarnated. If the person reached enlightenment in their life, possibly they get a choice to stay with source or come back?

 

Just an idea.

[manitou]

I believe (and experienced) that you'll go to where your karma dictates; that is in a physical-mental-emotional form according to what you sowed in this life: developed habits and traits...and usually spirits return to the place they were most familiar with (Earth in our case) since its vibrations attract the spirit in question...but sometimes it's not the case, they could end up in another distant place (from a cosmologic point of view).

 

I tend to agree with you about the developed habits and traits. My only problem with the word karma is that it connotates time in the equation and as such is rigid, a cause and effect. That's a linear way of looking at it. But maybe a more Daoist way of seeing it is to see it as more fluid, more Now. Perhaps the fact that we do study and we do have a passion for the fire within helps to exponentially remove some of the karmas and maybe it isn't a hard and fast rule that we must reap what we sow in a mathematical way. On the other hand, I know that every action has an equal and opposing reaction, so I could just as easily be blowing smoke. But I do believe that intent to cultivate our inner channels to express that which expresses clearest the intent of the Tao does certainly count for something. Sincerity is everything. Heart is everything. Love for our brother and all life forms is everything.

[Gerard]

My only problem with the word karma is that it connotates time in the equation and as such is rigid, a cause and effect. That's a linear way of looking at it.

 

Why should "karma" connotate time in the equation? Karma is all the added layers to the primordial spirit and the task is to realise that they are simply an illusory state. Karma is "wanting something" and the more you want the more you will put yourself into debt. There is no time as such only a measure of change and as you know everything is constantly changing around us.

 

Tackling the mind is the master key if you seek liberation.

 

[三江源]

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Edited March 17, 2015 by 三江源