I'm participating because davidfb108 has been saying stuff that I can recognize in my own experience. I recognize him from the BATGAP Yahoo group, but I've never interacted with him before. These days, I am seldom inspired to communicate openly about personal matters.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <anartax...@yahoo.com> wrote : I have been thinking of going on the peaked, but there is already someone there who writes about experience similar to the way I do, so maybe it would not matter. I doubt you could get on the peaked with out a pseudonym because Jim was so annoyed that you would not recognise his 'enlightened status'. While I think he had some sort of profound experience, I think his ego co-opted it. The other problem with interpreting what Jim's experience was is he is not very articulate in expressing experiences in general, it's like trying to read a license plate on a fuzzy photograph. I notice Alex is over there now, they seem to be discussing various kinds of de-stressing prior to and following awakening, things I have experienced myself. In general the posts over there have a much higher woo factor than ones appearing here, such as this post from Jim: 'Just as we were "magnetically" attracted to Earth, does the same process continue, after we work out our karma here, but on another planet? Just as a for instance, perhaps we continue to have desires that cannot be fulfilled here, on Earth, and then gravitate towards another world where different 'laws of nature' predominate?' 'I am not all that interested in any alternatives to here, for quite awhile, though I am curious about the mechanics of it all, how life continues to evolve.' A good, clean realisation seems to have a zero wow factor, and is of a totally unexpected character. When I was younger I had more spectacular experiences, and while a glimpse of what I would call 'real' came through, they were mostly de-stressing and hallucinatory. Those sort of pie in the sky experiences though, seem like the kind that could be reported on the peaked that would stir up a discussion. Being around like-minded people tends to be more comfortable, but the intellect and sense of what is real also suffers when one is not challenged. Your challenges tend not to be intellectual arguments but more like a stone wall wherein one crashes upon. An absolute rejection of the point of view being expressed, and I think that can be an effective technique for unwinding woo, provided a person is not too stuck in the goo. I find it interesting that the groups on the peaked and here have settled into a less confrontational mode, and I think this has a lot to do with belief. People do not like to have cherished ideas ripped to shreds. It's Winter here, but no snow at the moment. Come Spring, I expect Jehovah's witnesses to come around with their pamphlets. I am typically cordial to them, and attempt to ask odd questions. I am thinking I could be more direct and just ask them why they want me to adopt their mythology. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Especially if the people reporting experience of the placebo feel that they're getting attention or pats on the back for reporting it. For example, the well-documented phenomenon in the Fairfield domes where someone reports a "new" experience, one that hasn't been mentioned before, and by week's end 20 other people are reporting that they've had that experience, too. And I think we all remember the was a certain former FFL member would react every time someone would report a new experience here. Not *only* would he report having had that same experience before, but he'd say that it was something he *used* to have, back a few years, but that he'd outgrown it now. So for him any reported experience became not only an opportunity to claim "Me, too," it became an opportunity to claim "Me, too, back when I was just starting...don't worry, someday you'll get past it, too, and become as evolved as I am," and thus assert his superiority. Presumably he's still doing the same thing on his new group. What I've always wished someone would do is MAKE UP a "new" experience, and then either report it in the domes or post it on The_Leak, and then sit back and watch how long it is until others start "piling on" and claiming to have had the same experience themselves. :-)
