Edg, because you're so...uh...edgy and all, I suspect you'll take my quickie
response below as if it was intended as some kind of affront, and it really
wasn't. I was just taking advantage of these "revalidated FFL guidelines" vibes
to just be honest.
To expand on this a bit, to be honest I've always gotten the impression from
your writing that your approach to most spiritual topics is intellectual, as
opposed to experiential. When you get into how much you know about Advaita, for
example, my impression is that this is stuff that you "know" -- intellectually
-- about Advaita, but without ever having experienced the states of
consciousness that are being written about. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.
I say this not to take a dig at you but to point out a possible distinction
between the two of us. I haven't just read about and thought about the basic
principle of Tantra -- the peaceful co-existence of complete opposites -- I've
*lived* it. I've spent fourteen years with Rama -- and all the time since --
living it.
Please try to remember who you're talking to here.
I write science articles for a living. I have a strong feel for what science
considers "real" in this world and what it does not.
At the same time, *I cannot deny my own experience*.
While knowing all of this about science, I have personally witnessed many of
the siddhis you have only read about. I have sat in the desert -- or in a
Dennys along a California highway -- and watched someone just gently lift up
off the ground (or the naugahyde Dennys benches) and float in the air for a
while.
The morning after experiencing something like that, if you are a bit of a
cynical scientist like myself, you tend to wake up thinking, "OK, what the fuck
was that?"
I still don't know.
All I know is that I experienced it, in states of mind that were as high and
clear as I have ever experienced in this incarnation, and that were completely
free from the effects of any kinds of drugs, and that for me it all really
fuckin' happened.
I am NOT saying that I know exactly *what* happened. What I'm saying is that
*something* fairly extraordinary happened, and that until someone proves to me
exactly what it was, I'm going to go easy on myself for not getting all anal
about what is "real" and what isn't.
That "real" enough for you, dude? :-)
From: "TurquoiseBee [email protected] [FairfieldLife]"
<[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Fancy that!
I have *absolutely no problem* with such seeming contradictions.
If you do, I would suggest that they just might be *your* problems. :-)
From: Duveyoung <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 8:49 PM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Fancy that!
Barry -- you are on record here being quite against most "magical thinking,"
but here we find you being quite the believer. "That explained quite a few of
my dreams during the period I lived there. :-)" Would this be hypocrisy or
you just playing loose with "what's real?" I ask this in the fullest sincerity
to honor the recently re-validated FFL guidelines.
---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
Excellent.
A few years ago, before we actually moved from Spain to the Netherlands, my odd
extended family and I spent a month living in Amsterdam in a house we'd rented
there. It was a really cool house, with multiple floors and a grand piano and a
great kitchen, but at the same time there was always something "off" about it.
So I asked around the neighborhood and found that it had in previous centuries
been an asylum for crazy women. That explained quite a few of my dreams during
the period I lived there. :-)
From: salyavin808 <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 8:02 PM
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fancy that!
In the late '90's the TMO acquired a mansion in a highly sought after part of
London. Namely Kensington palace gardens. It was a fabulous house, right
opposite Kensington palace. Huge place with double iron gates and a massive
ballroom.
It faced east too. The heads of the movement all lived there and all said how
amazing the perfect vastu felt. I lived there too for a while, just helping out
the media department. Great place to stay as the big knobs sure knew how to
live, bespoke silk carpets and the best food eaten off mahogany tables.
The idea was that they'd use it to wine and dine the rich and famous thus
spreading TM to the top of society, as was Marshy's wish at the time. "The rich
won't eat in a poor house" he said, they sure didn't here! Not that all that
many came. Hardly any in fact, but the intention was a good one if you approve
of that sort of elitism. I didn't but staying there made a nice change from our
draughty, cold and empty mansion in the Bedfordshire countryside.
But as I was finishing my book on The Great Escape I was reminded that the
house had a rather more chequered history than expected. It was owned and used
by MI6 to interrogate captured Nazi officers during and after WW2. Including
the masterminds of the massacre that wiped out 50 allied airmen in 1944.
Fancy that, I might have slept in a room that was once occupied by a terrified
Gestapo murderer who sat awake all night dreading his fate at the hands of a
war crimes tribunal. I wonder if they appreciated the vastu at all?
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