"... On May 16, 7:33 am, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: ..."
> There is no guide or book of instructions. <<gruff > > Are there not any or do you reject any there are? > > I pulled this from the I Die Daily thread back last June. There are > many worthy posts which are worth the read should you want to take the > time or at least read the OP to get the gist of my response and the > reference to Brian Weiss. Well, I suppose were I to be perfectly honest, I have rejected any which may exist, not because of their content or context but rather because they are all no more than speculation and if I'm forced to go with speculation, I'd rather rely on my own than any contrived by another. One or more of them may have it down but I suspect the true and likely unknowable answer contains parts of most of them and most of what none of them dare conceive. Regarding the I Die Daily piece about Weiss, I'm not likely to buy the previous life theory but of all the speculation out there, it's the one that appeals to me the most and makes the most sense. Would that it were. But if it were, I'd like being able to return as another species IF I had my choice which, otherwise the natural irony of the universe would almost dictate I come back as some form of benign insect with a 3 hour life span. A fruit fly perhaps. I can identify with the problems the writer has regarding his Catholic wife and know how deep-seated that sort of upbringing can be. My own revelation of the depths of that catholicity came to me upon seeing The Exorcist, which pushed many theretofore unknown buttons in my psyche. I had nightmares for weeks afterwards and would wake up in the middle of the night and see whats-her-face's face disembodied, contorted and spewing green vile outside my bedroom window. However, I've never experienced, not even remotely, anything like his out-of-body epiphany. The closest I've ever come was the purely mental drug-induced state brought on by taking some good quality amanita in as near an isolation chamber environment as possible given the layman's equipment I had available -- a darkened bathroom in a tub full of warm salty water. A lot of my perceptions and beliefs are derived from the very real fact that whenever things have been darkest with seemingly no where to turn and no one to turn to, the only thing that was there, time after time without fail, was my own consciousness, my sense of self, my intimate and personal identity. No gods, no angels, no saviors, no abiding faith in a superior being, no belief other than the very real fact that it was solely me in possession of myself and that's all there was -- and since I'm here telling the tale, it must have been sufficient. I've always dealt in the pragmatic here and now. That's all there is to deal with and given Santayana's sage observance that he who does not learn his own history is doomed to repeat it, I have managed to pull myself up out of the muck to some small degree by my own bootstraps. The basis for my belief in an afterlife lies in pure science and has nothing to do with any supernatural or religious doctrine or dogma, but rather in the laws of conservation of energy. To me those very laws dictate the existence of something after the death of this body. Our energy does not simply disappear. I too have explored the question of why some individuals are born into luxury and others into misery, and why this essence that is me was born to such parents as I had and not another. After lifelong ponderence I have come to the conclusion that there is no answer to this worrisome and wasteful question other than the luck of the draw. Pure random chance. Yet I also believe that regardless the life one is born to, each individual's life offers the opportunity to learn what is necessary to prepare for what lies beyond. Whether or not those lessons are taken is up to the individual. I consider myself fortunate -- despite being told countless times to get real -- to be among those who have developed at least the question in my mind and heart. For if the question is there, I believe some gleaning of the answer is inevitable, regardless whether or not we are aware of the knowledge. Being atheist, I have to count on such simplicities. There is nothing else to lean on. As for Hitler, Dahmer, Saddam and the like, I guess regardless our wishes and need for vengence (i.e, justice), we are simply going to have to wait to find out. I'm stocked up on A-1. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
