Note that Barry, um, prefers not to address the issue of writing about spiritual experiences as a contest with "winners" and "losers," instead characterizing my presentation of what he himself has stated as an "attack."
But if you read what I wrote below, you'll see that I said nothing negative about his position, nor did I criticize it. I simply stated his position and asked for others' opinions of it. So why is he so upset? Why is he so afraid of what others might think of him that he has to try to distract attention from the issue of his own position by attacking me? I think what particularly galls him is that I've never felt the need to be able to write "creatively," about spiritual experiences or anything else. Nor have I ever felt that makes me a lesser person than Barry. I have plenty of other skills and abilities, including many that Barry lacks. I'm happy with those. It almost seems as if Barry is so intimidated by my skills that he has to make this huge deal of a skill that he has (more or less) and that I lack, in order to feel better about himself and exalt his own self-image in the eyes of others. ---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote: Every word written as Yet Another Attack, Yet Another Attempt To Entice Others On This Forum To Attack Barry ("we all *should*, actually"), and Yet Another Excuse for why she's terrified to ever try to write creatively. This is what being a long-term editor *does* to a person. Either that, or what being a long-term TMer *does* to a person. :-) Then again, maybe it's just living in New Jersey. :-) Wouldn't it have been easier to overcome her fears and Just Do It? --- In [email protected], wrote: > > I find it fascinating--we all should, actually--that Barry thinks of writing > about spiritual experiences on FFL in terms of a contest with "winners" and > "losers," and believes that such posts should be subject to critiques by the > group. > > I'd be interested to know if anyone here feels encouraged by this approach to > post their spiritual experiences. > > I'd also be interested to know if anyone here believes they are competent to > critique such posts (see Barry's three criteria for judgment below). > > > > And the simple reason is ego, and ego-protectiveness, the very qualities that > *prohibit* and *block* both the having of and the expression of spiritual > experience. > > If Judy were to declare some experience she once had "spiritual," she'd open > herself up to people like herself -- "editors." These strangers get to decide > whether 1) the thing she describes could be described by even one fellow > human being as "spiritual," 2) whether she did a good (or even competent) job > of describing the experience, and 3) whether any of it was worth reading in > the first place. Not gonna happen. She's got too much invested in her > imaginary "image" to ever risk that. > > Meanwhile, those of us with no real "image" to protect can write Whatever The > Fuck We Want. > > All in all, I think we win. :-) >
