How yo can tell that you have an entity issue (based on my personal experience)

[dwai]

The use of words like demons have a very real, misleading and propagating feature. It is extraordinarily naive to think they are only just words. It frames the entire nature of them as bad and predisposes mind to assume all sorts of things. Also, bringing God even into the discussion also brings with it the immediate distaste so many of us have for idiots speaking on behalf of God.

 

What is interesting here is that the conversation that one constructs using the words Demon and God in this context is precisely the kind of sentence structure the very beings we are talking about love us to use. It wakes up a whole shit storm having nothing to do with the actual subject and solutions at hand.

 

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Regarding the idea that these being do not exist and that we should in a sense transcend their existence - along the line that none of us actually exist or sentence structures along that line - it is of no value. Ignore and move onward with the idea that they do not exist is a false proposition.

 

Essential to the process is the elimination of such words as Demons and in general the flip side - Angels and God.

Our bodies are in a sense like a house - our religious heritage - most religious heritages - have us trying to subjugate our house as something inherently vile and a temptress. (How incredibly unfortunate for women this has been)

 

Moving beyond religion is something most of us in these forums have done - and it is part of the process as ones vibration rises. I do not mean in any way to vilify religion - it has its place and the services of each have their place in bringing to that group exposure to higher energies.

 

We have this house - it is our body / being temple during this life. Because our planet does not teach people yet how to properly work with and attain the great fruits available to us from birth, we treat our relationship with our great vehicles in the most damaging ways.

One of these relating to the subject at hand is to leave all the doors open. Since we are not taught how to care for ourselves in the higher sense and our religions are as yet twisted concoctions of fable and truth and hysteria- we have no idea what we would best do and plow through life with the assets of our heritage if they may be called that.

 

We are not taught autonomy and when many "find it" it is through barricade. For many that cannot barricade themselves, they invite other players to help keep the play alive. Most - nearly all - are a mix of the two - on either extreme they are typically locked up or sedated.

 

Beings inhabit bodies everywhere - we inhabit ours, the squirrel inhabits its, and our pets inhabit theirs. We eat the bodies of chickens and cows formerly inhabited by a being, and beings exist all around us. As many do not have bodies as do. Beings oversee small environments, care for plants, rein over vast regions.

 

The Human being, contrary to much babble thought, is a very high being. We are so high that we signed up for a very tough mission.

And we are still as yet so mired down in this mission and the illusion of time and space that it feels as if we are tainted and utterly lost.

In our lowly state of affairs we both reject the mission and retch at the prospects - and we invite into this mix the aid of anyone or anything that can do something - even if it is to simply manipulate us and keep us "alive". We rent ourselves out or give our bodies away in this lament and foggy existence. We invite beings of all kinds into the house we call our body and we let them rearrange the furniture, purchase the foods that will keep us their slaves and read books and attend worship that will fill our minds with fear and further deplete us of any notion of what we might do to clear our house and our minds and again take ownership of these great vehicles we have been given and the astonishing possibilities we will embody.

 

The foremost way in which we can begin to clean up the mess is attention to our diet. If you suspect you are "well rented out" then a fast can be very helpful and the removal of all alcohol and drugs is essential. Drugs such as sugar and caffeine included. General indulgence needs to end.

Maintenance of a lower range of vibration is essential - for those well rented out - Not "Flying High" is essential.

This is a very important problem - a great many who are finally and "forever" on the path have arrive here through great angst. The teachings immediately bring to us all sorts of practices that bring great immediate relief and empowerment - but in our exuberance we Cannot hear very well when our teachers - the real ones - tell us to get out of our heads, to ground, to learn to control our desires and not to feed our fears. We think we have a handle on that - we don't and we don't and we don't.

 

We reject any real Head issue, being grounded is "New Age crap", and our desires "are under control to the extent they should be otherwise I might as well be dead", and "I don't fead my fears, but I must stay well informed other wise the fucking bastards would own me".

 

We don't hear the Qi Gong Master when he says "attention lower dan Tien" but when we hear the word Kundalini we perk up and are ready for a blast off.

When working with Chakras we want to open them all up - and run them at white - and we and most teachers have no clue what this even means or how completely wrong and damaging it is.

We think the seventh chakra is better than the first.

We will spend hours moving to a high state and no time at all greeting our union with our body and the earth and in coming back to full breath and a grounded state.

Gradually we move into an addiction for trance and loose ourselves to the babble of that state - little different than the one we are seeking to relieve ourselves from. Or we go to clean "intellectual" engineering and wall ourselves off from a great deal of real inbody practice and we sidestep the heart entirely.

 

Dissipation is perhaps the biggest issue of all in this struggle we have signed up for. It is dissipation that removes from us the fruits of transmutation.

Very well articulated. I'm a culprit of doing many of the things you point out...funny thing is, sometimes the "truth" scares us so much, we want to go back to living the "lies". Reminds me of the movie "The Matrix",  about how the thought of plugging back/staying plugged into the "matrix" is so tempting for so many.  Also funny thing is, the "New Age" is essentially repackaging and regurgitating what systems like Daoist meditation and Yoga etc have already covered in far greater detail (I have issues with the new age stuff around this) - it is tempting to look at the thing that is most familiar to us (culturally) - so we gravitate towards that. I think we can't completely block out "Mother Culture" and her whispers...

[Spotless]

Very well articulated. I'm a culprit of doing many of the things you point out...funny thing is, sometimes the "truth" scares us so much, we want to go back to living the "lies". Reminds me of the movie "The Matrix", about how the thought of plugging back/staying plugged into the "matrix" is so tempting for so many. Also funny thing is, the "New Age" is essentially repackaging and regurgitating what systems like Daoist meditation and Yoga etc have already covered in far greater detail (I have issues with the new age stuff around this) - it is tempting to look at the thing that is most familiar to us (culturally) - so we gravitate towards that. I think we can't completely block out "Mother Culture" and her whispers...

I agree with you for the most part here, but on the topic of New Age I differ in that New Age is part of a paradigm shift on many levels. One of them is simply to bring ancient teaching into the present, into the West for the Western Mind, and also brushing off the dogma that has built up upon it. Our translations are still for the most part horrible - however beautiful, articulate and diligent the translation. In part because the initial wording was from another time and in part because we are indeed in a new age. But here in the West, we do not wish to worship, we do not wish to bow down - we have done that and the blood shed from our heritage and those like it continues as ever it will from those childish and past time traditions.

New Age has been vilified by those groups, it calls them silly, cults and other words - they have framed it and most of us have taken the bait. But I am 60 and remember when all this Eastern stuff was exotic and hard to find - you had to go to an Occult Bookstore or borrow money from your parents and fly to India.

BE HERE NOW and all the other books that landed that thinking here in the West squarely and sussinctly were from the New Age movement - it is not a dirty word. It is not a perfect concept or a well set group either - but on the whole it includes the Western Daoists, the Western Buddhists and Hindus. It even includes some Christian groups who do not resemble anything most would relate to Christianity.

Our heritage likes to disparage New Age because it helps to keep separate the previous labels and tends to create fewer holes in the dike - but the holes are many and those becoming Awake or already enjoying enlightening are growing fast and our teachings are emerging with a Western Voice in Western terms - and we are articulating the process and experience from down where the rubber meets the road and not in the lofty flower filled hazy wonderful Gods and Angel filled words of the ancient texts but play by play action on the rug, in the first few days, in the following weeks, months. The confusion, the utter newness interwoven with the previous and the oscillations and the settling in and the fact that we did not immediately walk on water or "see all and everything", how the words take time to come and how we have no idea what to do nor any compunction to do while still in a world of "do" "do" "do".

The new ager may talk about the stars and planets and the elements and sound like a nut with crystals around their necks and incense in their hands - but this is what the Eastern Minds has in their DNA. They come with five seasons, heat/cold, wet/dry, yin/yang, earth metal fire wood water wind Sun Moon. We have had pills and technology and "none of this whimpering external effects crap" - but this stupidity is changing. We have not had 7000 years of a firm hand from the top, we have approached actual democracy - the Western Mind is free of many fears and has a tolerance that is admirable (if hard to see).

This great commingling of teaching is the New Age - it makes one queasy - and some wear it a bit too easily it seems, but Wow how refreshing compared to only 50 years ago.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Spotless

[dwai]

I agree with you for the most part here, but on the topic of New Age I differ in that New Age is part of a paradigm shift on many levels. One of them is simply to bring ancient teaching into the present, into the West for the Western Mind, and also brushing off the dogma that has built up upon it. Our translations are still for the most part horrible - however beautiful, articulate and diligent the translation. In part because the initial wording was from another time and in part because we are indeed in a new age. But here in the West, we do not wish to worship, we do not wish to bow down - we have done that and the blood shed from our heritage and those like it continues as ever it will from those childish and past time traditions.

New Age has been vilified by those groups, it calls them silly, cults and other words - they have framed it and most of us have taken the bait. But I am 60 and remember when all this Eastern stuff was exotic and hard to find - you had to go to an Occult Bookstore or borrow money from your parents and fly to India.

BE HERE NOW and all the other books that landed that thinking here in the West squarely and sussinctly were from the New Age movement - it is not a dirty word. It is not a perfect concept or a well set group either - but on the whole it includes the Western Daoists, the Western Buddhists and Hindus. It even includes some Christian groups who do not resemble anything most would relate to Christianity.

Our heritage likes to disparage New Age because it helps to keep separate the previous labels and tends to create fewer holes in the dike - but the holes are many and those becoming Awake or already enjoying enlightening are growing fast and our teachings are emerging with a Western Voice in Western terms - and we are articulating the process and experience from down where the rubber meets the road and not in the lofty flower filled hazy wonderful Gods and Angel filled words of the ancient texts but play by play action on the rug, in the first few days, in the following weeks, months. The confusion, the utter newness interwoven with the previous and the oscillations and the settling in and the fact that we did not immediately walk on water or "see all and everything", how the words take time to come and how we have no idea what to do nor any compunction to do while still in a world of "do" "do" "do".

The new ager may talk about the stars and planets and the elements and sound like a nut with crystals around their necks and incense in their hands - but this is what the Eastern Minds has in their DNA. They come with five seasons, heat/cold, wet/dry, yin/yang, earth metal fire water wind Sun Moon. We have had pills and technology and "none of this whimpering external effects crap" - but this stupidity is changing. We have not had 7000 years of a firm hand from the top, we have approached actual democracy - the Western Mind is free of many fears and has a tolerance that is admirable (if hard to see).

This great commingling of teaching is the New Age - it makes one queasy - and some wear it a bit too easily it seems, but Wow how refreshing compared to only 50 years ago.

My issue with the New Age isn't necessarily in their assimilation of the Eastern knowledge. As someone who bridges the East and the West, I find it offensive to see my traditions being watered down, repackaged and sold as something "original". Or appropriated and references to its source (the mother tradition) omitted. A better approach would be to take a more humble and "empty-cup" approach and learn in the native tradition. That's why I object to titles such as "Western Yoga, Western Tai Chi, Wester Daoism, Western <fill in the blank>". If it is not the real Yoga, it is not yoga. If it is not the real Tai chi, it is not tai chi (and so on). Because these traditions have cultural nuances that will be missed if you omit their culture.

 

What I'll tell the Westerner who wants to try something different is to give that differentness a real try. Don't try to have your cake and eat it too. If your Western system doesn't work for you, don't try to mould something else to fit that framework (since it doesn't really work anyway). If you want to study Yoga, study yoga (or which ever non-western system you pick), don't change its tenets to suit your fancy (or sell your books and videos - which far worse and far more harmful imho). 

[Songtsan]

But life is about experimenting! However, I agree with you halfway. At some point however, it was through trial and error that all these systems came about in the first place. There is no perfect system for everyone because everyone is different. Every body is different to some extent. I used to study yoga like crazy. Went to yoga teacher trainings and all that jazz. The main Ashtanga series (1st form) involves some seated postures that just weren't meant for my back with my hypolordotic curve (structural, not muscular)...you can't always fit every type of peg in every type of hole. So there should be yoga for westerners...I once took a class on teaching chair yoga for seniors. The Way involves being adaptable. Being too focused on explicit forms and traditions could make you miss the boat. I suggest the middle way between conformism and nonconformism. Life is a Dance. Old ways get broken down by Kali so new ways can emerge. Know the masculine (static/fixed/traditional/routine), but keep to the feminine (receptive, adaptive, flexible). No one owns any spiritual system, not India, not China, no one. We all come from the same source progenitor.

[manitou]

josama - sorry, I haven't read the entire thread - but has anyone suggested to you that you contact Flowing Hands, if he is still active on the forum? He has a great fountain of wisdom that he channels and attributes to a spiritual entity. I'm guessing some of your questions and/or confusion about whether something is truly a channeled entity or a contorted ego - at least you'd have someone to talk to who is walking in the same shoes.

[rascal]

This is an interesting thread - a lot of conflicting viewpoints on what the OP is experiencing! I think it's easy to get hung up on semantics, or as the Buddhists say, mistake the finger for the moon, the map for the destination, etc.

 

There is a concept in medical anthropology called "idioms of distress" that essentially states that, as humans, we express our experiences of pain and illness in cultural and personal narratives that make sense to us in relation to how we were taught to experience and perceive the world. Therefore, it makes sense that if you are experiencing suffering in the form of a demon, and this is how your mind structures your pain, then an appropriate solution would be some form of exorcism or removal of this demon. That is, if you wish to tackle the problem in the context of how you understand it.

 

Another way I was just thinking you could possibly look at it is through a Taoist lens, and this is where I think a lot of people are getting hung up on semantic differences between "ego," "demon," etc. which are all essentially screaming the same message - "I am in pain!" - yet they are hitting on a possible solution that could help if you reshape your approach.

 

From my reading of the Tao Te Ching, and something that helps me personally, is to think of my lived experience as the "uncarved block." I often carve the block of my thoughts and feelings into separate categories of ego, pain, love, sadness, happiness, what-have-you in order to categorize and sort them out, find what is desirable and what is not. Through mindful meditation practice, I find that if I take the judgement out of my internal process (good, bad) I can look at painful and traumatic experiences in my life as all part of the same uncarved block. In other words, my narrative is not something to be picked apart and sorted into categories of pain and trauma, but are to be viewed as a factual whole of life or nature that I am unattached to because they don't "belong" to me - they are part of what "Is" and not what I "Have" or anything intrinsic to me as a person separate from the world, time, space, etc.

 

Your demon, in a way, is the same thing. It is not Something you Have, it just Is, just like the wind. And like the wind, you can walk against it and fight it, you can walk with it and let it carry you along, you can try to study it and observe it with various meteorological tools, you can sit and do nothing and let it chill you to the bone, you can stand behind a tree to hide and buffer it's force, you can build a house and close the door to not invite the wind in - these are all choices you can make, which is a very powerful statement about you as a person and the potential of what you can do in the present to no longer be a victim to the wind, or in your case, the demon. The only difference is that demon exists as a structure in your mind, and you are subjecting yourself to it by relinquishing your power to it. Perhaps it's time to kick the demon out! Or maybe you need to build a solid house, and not invite it in!

 

Easier said than done, and I just realized this may come across as psychobabble, but hey, what do I know! Best of luck!

Edited April 25, 2015 by rascal