[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, yifuxero [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ---I tried that already (started with TM)...then tried other mantras of different Gurus. TM is the clear winner. For me too. I started with other Gurus and techniques, then TM. Maharishis TM is the clear winner. In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, matrixmonitor matrixmonitor@ wrote: ---Some techniques might be similar to TM in practice, but none can equal TM in Shakti power. If so, name one. (anyone).
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tertonzeno tertonzeno@ wrote: -- I agree with Lawson on the basis of direct experience: my TM mantra has tangible Shakti in it whereas I couldn't detect any significant Shakti in 2. The Ramakrishna mantra I received from the resident teacher at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood, 3. Sant Mat Mantras, or 4. attempted use of Om Nama Shivaya or Om Shivaya Namah silently, after getting involved with Muktananda. These Shiva mantras are quite powerful if chanted by a group; but didn't measure up to my TM mantra when used silently. 5. and of course, just picking a mantra out of a book; as suggested by that idiot MD from Harvard. (Benson). Nope, after a direct experience taste test, TM turned out to be superior to others, in regard to the criterion of Shakti. Even many TM teachers badly underestimate the direct connection Guru Dev has with the TM initiation and the TM itself - AND - Guru Dev's easy accessibility and ongoing influence in TM meditaters' lives if they are sincere and so choose. He didn't teach and represent the Whole Thing, the Real Thing, for nothing. I've often thought that his real work here began after he left. How is that ?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Maharishi: the mantra is the holy name of God
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [snip] Hindus are said to have 330 million gods, each of whom can have 1000 names, so there would not be any syllable(s) that would not have some meaning as associated with a god. [snip] Hmmm. 330,000,000 X 1,000 = 330,000,000,000 So, that's 330 billion names of gods...or 330 billion mantras. Each mantra can be used in at least one TM initiation. And at $2,000 an initiation, that's... 330,000,000,000 x $2,000 = $330,000,000,000,000...or $330 trillion. Wow! $330 trillion...do you know how many Peace Palaces the TMO could build with that much money?
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: tertonzeno wrote: The Ramakrishna mantra I received from the resident teacher at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood... About a year after my TM initiation I was meditating at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood with Franklin Jones and I heard my TM bija mantra being recited during the puja. That's when I realized that the TM bijas are pretty common - not just made up sounds by the Marshy. But they were not being used the same way - I was using my bija to transcend, they were chanting in order to entertain. Sant Mat Mantras Not sure about this. When I was involved in Sant Mat, there were no 'mantras' given out. Charan Singh just told me to concentrate on the 'Sound Current', Shabd, Naam. ...or attempted use of Om Nama Shivaya or Om Shivaya Namah silently, after getting involved with Muktananda. From what I could tell, the Muktananda sadhaks didn't really have a clue about the transcending aspect of meditation. Again, a lot of chanting and talking about the transcending. There was no checking involved, so how would anyone know if they were transcending or not? These Shiva mantras are quite powerful if chanted by a group; but didn't measure up to my TM mantra when used silently. There's just no comparison to having a puja after a group meditation using TM - it is much more powerful after the transcending. I've been present during many ISKCON pujas and many ISDL pujas for many years - no comparison. This also goes for the pujas held at Dharmadatu and S.F. Zen Center. ...just picking a mantra out of a book A 'mantra' can only be given by a guru in an initiation, otherwise it's not really a mantra. A mantra is anything the guru says it is. [snip] Nope, after a direct experience taste test, TM turned out to be superior to others, in regard to the criterion of Shakti. Based on my experience, TM is the easiest, most effective, and best meditation technique on the entire planet. I don't have a vested interest in saying this since I'm not a TM teacher. Like Judy says, I'm just a rank-and-file TMer. But based on my experience of forty years, I can now say without the least hesitation that TM is just what intelligent people do! Amen :-)
[FairfieldLife] Crop Circle near Barbury Castle
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/barbury/barbury2008a.html
[FairfieldLife] Crop Circle, Hackpen Hill
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/hackpen/hackpen2008.html
[FairfieldLife] Crop Circle near Avebury
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2008/aveburystoneavenue/aveburystonea venue2008.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tertonzeno [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --For those who would like to start chanting the Mahamritunjaya mantra: Om Tryambakam Yajamahe Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam Urvarukamiva Bandhanan Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat We Meditate on the Three-eyed reality Which permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance. May we be liberated from death for the sake of immortality, Even as the cucumber is severed from bondage to the creeper. Simple. I recommend getting Shreemaa's audio tape of her continuous chant, from http://www.shreema.org Play it a number of times to get a big dose of Shakti, and then start. If you start chanting it on your own from scratch, the amount of Shakti will be far less than if you learn it from Shreemaa. But even before getting her audio, you can start right now. I'm sorry to say this, but I wouldn't recommend starting on the basis of that substandard transliteration. IMO, it's better to listen very carefully when someone familiar with Sanskrit chants it, before starting to do it. I'm not sure how much the correct length of vowels means, but I guess the rhythm is rather important. Just checked that out, that mantra is from Rgveda VII 59, 12. Here it is in ITX - transliteration, with pitch accents: tryambakaM yajaamahe su\`gandhi\'m puShTi\`vardha\'nam |\\ u\`rvaa\`ru\`kam i\'va\` bandha\'naan mR^i\`tyor mu\'kShiiya\` maamR^itaa\'t I don't pretend to be familiar with those accent marks (\, ` and '). Perhaps \ is for anudaatta, ` for udaatta and ' for svarita. About the Vedic accent: http://tinyurl.com/4vpeyy
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter drpetersutphen@ wrote: People believe in the ME because its such a fun narrative (not theory) to talk about and the TMO keeps on repeating that it is true. And Maharishi believed it was true to, but he was wrong. And to contemplate that MMY was incorrect or wrong is just nearly incomprehensible to TBer's. The need to believe in the mystical (or as I often call it, magic) is strong on this forum. Even amongst those who I would not call TBs. You can say that again. All this talk about mantras as if they really were magical. Call me a cynic, but in my view another way of seeing the different levels of shakti some see in their mantras is the different levels of moodmaking and expectation that they bring to analyzing them. I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them) that cannot be explained by the placebo effect, plus double helpings of moodmaking and gullibility. In my opinion, meditation works by focusing the attention. What you use as a mechanism for focusing the attention is as unimportant as what kind of shovel you use to dig a hole. So from my perspective, a great number of posts yesterday consisted of people arguing that their shovel was the best, while stand- ing in a partially-dug hole and talking, not digging. When you've got a hole to show off (meaning when you can walk the walk of being enlightened), come back and talk to us about how much better the shovel you used to dig it was. Until then, you're just one more ditchdigger jawing off to avoid doing the work.
[FairfieldLife] Svaamii explains the MMM?
mRtyuMjaya (mRtyum + jaya) : victory (jaya) [over?] disease or death(mRtyum). (I think it's rather rare that a non-final component of a tatpuruSa[?]-compound is in an inflected form, instead of the stem form. In this case 'mRtyum' seems to be the accusative [engl. objective] singular, like 'whom' is to 'who' or 'him' is to 'he') http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRDOo6eSLh0
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
On Jun 19, 2008, at 8:53 PM, new.morning wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Maybe they should change their emphasis from world effects to the simple fact that it's very supportive of a personal practice That may be a good and practical step. But not at the expense of global effects I would hope. A strong Field Effect should have a broad effect-- no just a localized one. If studied properly, looking at lagged effects, and properly controlling for the many exogenous variables, I think an effect will be found. Its fundamental in the experience -- IMO. There currently is no salient theoretical basis for the effect. Unless it's changed the theory was that alpha coherence, a primitive measure to begin with, done, en masse, creates a field effect. But unfortunately this is just bad neuroscience, the same levels of coherence routinely occurs in most normal, healthy humans. Following that logic, we'd already be in Sat Yuga. The effect you're probably noticing is much more likely a combination of expectation effect and placebo effect IMO. That's not to say that there is not potentially an effect from deep meditation. I'm sure once a person reaches the level of subjugation and pacification of negative emotions in their own mindstreams, there would be an effect. But you need a very deep meditation to do so, not just a relaxation effect.
Re: [FairfieldLife] What if?
On Jun 19, 2008, at 2:50 PM, sandiego108 wrote: But what if it is the most efficient, the easiest to practice, provides the greatest benefits after the shortest amount of time? What if after more years pass, after all the measurements have been made, and a global concensus reached, TM emerges beyond all the hype to be the supreme technology in its field? What if? It's highly unlikely that a relaxation response style meditation practice will provide anything more than the benefits we'd see through normal relaxation. That's not to say that relaxation is not a good thing, it is, and it has some benefits. To see any deep, lasting effect you would need a form of deep meditation that actually pacifies negative emotions and/or transforms them into positive, more life-enhancing ones. Then you would not need to imagine some magical field effect since happy and positive people just make life and living easier and less conflict oriented. As lived compassion becomes a norm, people would habitually learn to 'take the perspective of the other' and begin to see, in practical terms, not only our interrelatedness, but that we actually harm ourselves when we harm others because of that interrelatedness.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
On Jun 19, 2008, at 4:18 PM, sparaig wrote: Consider teh meditation teacher who tells his students to grit their teeth and keep on plugging away at thinking the mantra, even when discomfort arises, and only stop if it gets so painful that they can't stand it any more. Consider the meditation traditions that tell you the pattern of breathing you must use when thinking the mantra. Consider the meditation traditions that insist that the mantra can NEVER change, and if it does, you must immediately work to ensure it is perfectly pronounced the same way at all times. Consider the meditation techniques that insist that the mantra is more important than any other thought. Even better: consider the mantra sadhanas where you are given a range of techniques and are encouraged to experiment to find what is perfect for you. Also consider that the mantra tradition itself emphasizes the superiority of a sadhana this is designed for where the student is at and what sound is perfect for them. Once you understand that, you can hopefully appreciate how potentially dangerous taking mantras off a list and handing them out can be--and of course a long history of psychotic breaks, suicides, etc attest to this fact with TM. There's no such thing as one perfect meditation technique for all people.
[FairfieldLife] The Illusion of Free Will and Neuroscience
Neuroimaging: Free will? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9, 410 - 411 (June 2008) | doi:10.1038/ nrn2404 Recent findings have shown that activity in two non-motor-related cortical areas can predict the outcome of a movement decision up to 10 seconds before an individual becomes aware of the decision. The question of whether humans have free will has been discussed for centuries by philosophers and religious scholars, and more recently by neuroscientists. Haynes and colleagues have now added fuel to the debate by showing that activity in two non-motor-related cortical areas can predict the outcome of a movement decision up to 10 seconds before an individual becomes aware of the decision. Volunteers were placed in a functional MRI scanner and were asked to press a button with either their left or their right index finger whenever they wanted to. Throughout the experiment the volunteers watched a screen that showed a succession of letters, and they had to remember the letter that was presented on the screen at the moment they made the decision which button to press. This revealed that most of the decisions were consciously formed 1 second before the motor response was executed. The authors then analyzed the activity in different brain areas during the time preceding the button press, using pattern-based decoders. This type of analysis can detect 'signature' patterns of activity that are associated with a particular decision. The authors found such patterns of activity in Brodmann area 10 and in the parietal cortex (the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex) - areas that are thought to be involved in executive function and self- processing - and the patterns predicted with high accuracy which button would be pressed. Intriguingly, the signatures appeared up to 7 seconds before the volunteers consciously chose their motor response. Because the haemodynamic blood-oxygen-level-dependent response is thought to represent neuronal activity that occurred about 3 seconds earlier, this finding suggests that activity in the two areas encodes decisions approximately 10 seconds before they enter consciousness. Activity patterns that were observed in the supplemental and presupplemental motor area approximately 5 seconds prior to a decision entering awareness predicted its timing, indicating that different brain areas might be involved in forming the intention to make a movement and deciding when to make it. Although it is hard to imagine that our decisions might be made subconsciously, these findings have important implications. Can people be held accountable for their actions if they do not become aware of their decisions until after they are made? You decide. Author: Leonie Welberg ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER 1.. Soon, C. S. et al. Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Nature Neurosci. 11, 543-545 (2008) | Article FURTHER READING 1.. Haynes, J. -D. Rees, G. Decoding mental states from brain activity in humans. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 7, 523-534 (2006) | Article Source: Nature Neuroscience http://www.neuroscience-gateway.org/2008/080619/full/nrn2404.shtml
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
On Jun 20, 2008, at 4:57 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them) that cannot be explained by the placebo effect, plus double helpings of moodmaking and gullibility. Amen, Turq. I've been more than a little amazed in the last few days--mantras that cause one to lose weight, etc. I wonder--where's the mantra for making flood waters recede? Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: snip I'm sorry it offends you, but I stand by what I said. these experiences FEEL real and regular ordinary people may have such experience. In fact, being smart and creative may make you more susceptible. But to assume something very strange is going on is not necessary. The stress does not have to be a huge stress. People when tired and pushed physically or mentally can have odd mental experiences. Sure. But very few people who are only moderately stressed and tired have such spectacular and vivid hallucinatory experiences--often repeatedly--that they go to a therapist thinking they're going insane. Maybe due to sleep paralysis. Another possibility is falling asleep and dreaming without really realizing it. No, not really, not for a lot of these cases. The reported details of the experiences are too specific and too similar among people who not only don't know each other but have never even read about abduction experiences. This is an instance where the folk-wisdom version of Occam's Razor is useful. If you have an adequate frame of reference--i.e., familiarity with the body of abduction reports--you have to construct incredibly elaborate and unlikely explanations to account for these experiences being due to ordinary, everyday factors. At some point it just becomes more sensible to say, Well, we don't know what's responsible; we don't know what's going on. We can't connect this to ordinary reality. Well, we will have to agree to disagree, though I am a bit put off by your comments regarding what people must conclude about these experiences and that human fallibility can't explain them. It is one thing to say that you believe experience is persuasive and say why you believe so. It is another thing to say that those who don't buy the mystical explanation haven't engaged with the evidence. I haven't proposed any mystical explanation, Ruth. I'm just pointing out that the human fallibility explanation isn't consistent with the facts of the reporting (as opposed to factual basis of the reports, which is unknown). In fact, human fallibility is the simplest explanation and there is plenty of research about how people can make tremendous cognitive errors. One known example are people who have suggested memories of sex abuse and rape that never occurred. And even when told that they are wrong and that their memories were faulty, many cannot believe that they are wrong. Yes, I know about these, although I haven't studied them in any detail. I'm not sure some of them don't have similar problems being explained as human fallibility as the abduction accounts. A mystical explanation is far more of a stretch than explanations relating to how humans make cognitive errors. Again, I didn't *give* a mystical explanation. What I said was, We don't know what's responsible; we don't know what's going on. We can't connect this to ordinary reality--meaning reality that we know about. The choice is between insisting on a stretched explanation and a willingness to entertain the possibility that there is no explanation consistent with what we know of reality. I am not impressed by the similarity of the accounts. Popular culture is filled with similar descriptions of aliens and such experiences. You don't have to read about them to know about them. In many cases the accounts are far more detailed than anything found in popular culture, and these details are very similar from one account to another. There is a framework for the mind to spin up a nice story. Just like the old stories from the middle ages about getting raped by the devil. Many of the stories aren't nice at all, they're horrible, painful, scary, and don't make any kind of sense. And for all we know, the raped by the devil stories from the Middle Ages were accounts of the same category of experiences, just using a more archaic vocabulary to describe them. No more mystical that the common experience of people who have college educations to repeatedly dream that they are not prepared for final exams. Mystical really isn't the appropriate term here. Mystical experiences have very different characteristics, as do the reporting circumstances. And the abduction accounts are so different in nature and, again, reporting circumstances that they really can't be put in the same bucket as final-exam dreams. Just for one thing, I don't think anybody who has such dreams maintains after the fact that they really happened; they're always recognized as dreams. And for another, other than the basic concept, the details differ widely from person to person, often even from dream to dream with the same person. I've had such dreams from time to time, and each dream is vastly different as to the specifics. Plus which,
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: I looked at John Mack a while back, I'll look again. He had some other odd beliefs IIRC. Yes, he thought such experiences could be transformative if they were handled properly. He also believed in auras. Not clear what that means. Did he *see* auras? I am not clear on what he meant either. Maybe saw. Maybe felt. Or otherwise maybe perceived or thought others perceived. Let me ask another way: What did he say about auras? If you have compelling evidence of alien encounters beyond reported experience, let me know. Well, you know I don't have the kind of evidence you're asking for, so I'n not sure why you even mention it. To emphasize the lack of evidence. Then it would have been a bit more straightforward just to say so, don't you think? I already had said that there was no other evidence and you did not acknowledge that fact. I never made any claim there was other evidence, either. I assumed lack of empirical evidence was a given for both of us. It never occurred to me to acknowledge your statement of a well-known fact. This reply is just a dig. That's what I suspected. And a needless one. Now you can criticize how I present my comments, or we can talk about the topic, which is in the case alien abductions.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 20, 2008, at 4:57 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them) that cannot be explained by the placebo effect, plus double helpings of moodmaking and gullibility. Amen, Turq. I've been more than a little amazed in the last few days--mantras that cause one to lose weight, etc. I wonder--where's the mantra for making flood waters recede? Hey, I'm a moodmaking Buddhist 200%-er. If you're gonna impress me, you need the mantra that takes the flood waters and not *only* makes the water disappear, but picks it up and moves it to drought areas where it's needed. None of these twiffy Make the problem go away for us but fuck the rest of the world mantras for me! :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Secret name of God?
Mariska Hargitay! Bhairitu wrote: The guru mantras that you get at an initiate into tantra are so powerful they are not given to just anybody. You have to prove to the guru that you can handle them. The shakti from TM is like a flame from a match compared to the giant beacon of a guru mantra. You have to take caution practicing a guru mantra. That's why practitioners are known to use sandalwood paste on the forehead to keep cool during meditation and ashwaganda to keep the nervous system strong. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/180624
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
Bhairitu wrote: The guru mantras that you get at an initiate into tantra are so powerful they are not given to just anybody. You have to prove to the guru that you can handle them. The shakti from TM is like a flame from a match compared to the giant beacon of a guru mantra. You have to take caution practicing a guru mantra. That's why practitioners are known to use sandalwood paste on the forehead to keep cool during meditation and ashwaganda to keep the nervous system strong. Mariska Hargitay! The better bits in The Love Guru tend to be the least exaggerated: the way Pitka bends the word intimacy into into me I see, for example, or the way everyone uses the phrase 'Mariska Hargitay as a greeting.' Read the rest of the review: 'The Love Guru' By Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune, June 20, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/66bmla
[FairfieldLife] Re: High ranking officers don't believe 9/11 account
Rick Archer wrote: A friend's comments: Regarding the failure of NORAD to intercept the four hijacked planes on 9/11 FACT: On 9/11 there were only 14 fighter jets on alert in the contiguous 48 states. One of these, Building 7, was never hit by a plane and even NIST is ashamed to advance a reason for its collapse. FACT: WTC 7 might have withstood the physical damage it received, or the fire that burned for hours, but those combined factors along with the building's unusual construction were enough to set off the chain-reaction collapse. I saw nothing of significance at the point of impact... FACT: One of the clearest, most widely seen pictures of the doomed jet's undercarriage was taken by photographer Rob Howard and published in New York magazine. Read more debunking: 'Debunking the 9/11 Myths' Populart Mechanics, March 2005 http://tinyurl.com/rslnc
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
We Meditate on the Three-eyed reality Which permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance. May we be liberated from death for the sake of immortality, Even as the cucumber is severed from bondage to the creeper. Simple. Close your eyes and concentrate on your Third Eye, the point between your eyebrows. Look, I don't know if Rampa is a lama, his reincarnation or a plumber. And I couldn't care less. I love this book. I bought it in Italy when I was probably 15 and I have been reading it every few years ever since. - Massimo Maddaloni 'Third Eye' by T. Lobsang Rampa Ballantine, 1986 Amazon Reviews: http://tinyurl.com/5wlmj9
[FairfieldLife] Re: High ranking officers don't believe 9/11 account
Excellent response Richard. This whole 9-11 conspiracy thing is a fascinating study on our relationship to evidence and knowledge. It is the human condition to lack perfect knowledge and this gives all the wiggle room needed to make up low probability explanation for the events of 9-11. Just to add to your list, our local news had plenty of pictures of plane parts on the local news about the Pentagon, as well as interviews with people who happened to be on I-95 who saw the plane hit the building. It was like a missile in that it went right for the building and killed a bunch of people. But it wont matter how many times each point is refuted, the people who want to believe this was an inside job will just switch to some other discrepancy in the descriptions of that chaotic day to focus on. I'm not unsympathetic to mistrust of the movers and shakers in society. Its just that focusing on this kind of low probability crime takes away from focusing on the more obvious betrayals of our trust. But again what I consider obvious will be the next person's low probability theory! Imperfect humans with imperfect knowledge, gotta love it! --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Rick Archer wrote: A friend's comments: Regarding the failure of NORAD to intercept the four hijacked planes on 9/11 FACT: On 9/11 there were only 14 fighter jets on alert in the contiguous 48 states. One of these, Building 7, was never hit by a plane and even NIST is ashamed to advance a reason for its collapse. FACT: WTC 7 might have withstood the physical damage it received, or the fire that burned for hours, but those combined factors along with the building's unusual construction were enough to set off the chain-reaction collapse. I saw nothing of significance at the point of impact... FACT: One of the clearest, most widely seen pictures of the doomed jet's undercarriage was taken by photographer Rob Howard and published in New York magazine. Read more debunking: 'Debunking the 9/11 Myths' Populart Mechanics, March 2005 http://tinyurl.com/rslnc
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 20, 2008, at 4:57 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them) that cannot be explained by the placebo effect, plus double helpings of moodmaking and gullibility. Amen, Turq. I've been more than a little amazed in the last few days--mantras that cause one to lose weight, etc. I wonder--where's the mantra for making flood waters recede? Sal Get a checking
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams willytex@ wrote: tertonzeno wrote: The Ramakrishna mantra I received from the resident teacher at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood... About a year after my TM initiation I was meditating at the Vedanta Temple in Hollywood with Franklin Jones and I heard my TM bija mantra being recited during the puja. That's when I realized that the TM bijas are pretty common - not just made up sounds by the Marshy. But they were not being used the same way - I was using my bija to transcend, they were chanting in order to entertain. Sant Mat Mantras Not sure about this. When I was involved in Sant Mat, there were no 'mantras' given out. Charan Singh just told me to concentrate on the 'Sound Current', Shabd, Naam. ...or attempted use of Om Nama Shivaya or Om Shivaya Namah silently, after getting involved with Muktananda. From what I could tell, the Muktananda sadhaks didn't really have a clue about the transcending aspect of meditation. Again, a lot of chanting and talking about the transcending. There was no checking involved, so how would anyone know if they were transcending or not? These Shiva mantras are quite powerful if chanted by a group; but didn't measure up to my TM mantra when used silently. There's just no comparison to having a puja after a group meditation using TM - it is much more powerful after the transcending. I've been present during many ISKCON pujas and many ISDL pujas for many years - no comparison. This also goes for the pujas held at Dharmadatu and S.F. Zen Center. ...just picking a mantra out of a book A 'mantra' can only be given by a guru in an initiation, otherwise it's not really a mantra. A mantra is anything the guru says it is. [snip] Nope, after a direct experience taste test, TM turned out to be superior to others, in regard to the criterion of Shakti. Based on my experience, TM is the easiest, most effective, and best meditation technique on the entire planet. I don't have a vested interest in saying this since I'm not a TM teacher. Like Judy says, I'm just a rank-and-file TMer. But based on my experience of forty years, I can now say without the least hesitation that TM is just what intelligent people do! Amen :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Richard J. Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We Meditate on the Three-eyed reality Which permeates and nourishes all like a fragrance. May we be liberated from death for the sake of immortality, Even as the cucumber is severed from bondage to the creeper. Simple. Close your eyes and concentrate on your Third Eye, the point between your eyebrows. I remember this novel, I probably read it when I was around 15. I still remember in gripping detail how they forced the sliver of wood into his brain to open his third eye. That's hardcore. Look, I don't know if Rampa is a lama, his reincarnation or a plumber. And I couldn't care less. I love this book. I bought it in Italy when I was probably 15 and I have been reading it every few years ever since. - Massimo Maddaloni 'Third Eye' by T. Lobsang Rampa Ballantine, 1986 Amazon Reviews: http://tinyurl.com/5wlmj9
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them And yet this fellow, devoid as he says of any knowledge of mantras, again and again enjoys to remind everone here of his short stint with the TMO more than 30 tears ago. Go figure.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them And yet this fellow, devoid as he says of any knowledge of mantras, again and again enjoys to remind everone here of his short stint with the TMO more than 30 tears ago. Go figure. Having been connected to the TMO decades ago makes him a very, very important person. If not for anyone else so at least obviously for The Turq.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
TurquoiseB wrote: ...you're just one more ditchdigger jawing off to avoid doing the work. Your basic Fwap! Turned out Uncle T. had been relying on a false assumption. He mistakenly thought ancient gnosticism posits a creation that at one point was not flawed, which then became flawed with the 'fall of man,' while the Cathars hold that there was never a time in which creation was not flawed. Read more: Subject: Re: Bogomils and the Concubine of Christ Author: Kater Moggin Newsgroups: alt.religion.gnostic, alt.meditation.transcendental Date: Mon, Feb 7 2005 http://tinyurl.com/5rgl52
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
Hmmm, Galileo a cultist? I don't think so. Heretic doesn't equal cultist. Having strange or nonmainstream beliefs has nothing to do with being a cult. Every religion looks pretty strange from the outside. Few raise to the level of destructive cult. Personally, I believe meditation is one of Nature's miracles http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/mostly.html . I'm not surprised there are scientific studies that show it is good -- for most people. Confession can be shown to be good for most people. OTOH, the public shaming and abuse that Scientology uses its confessional ritual for causes trauma. Similarly a little meditation is probably good. The kind of overindulgence that the Maharishi encouraged appears to damage http://knappfamilycounseling.com/tmdangers.html some people. And the constant drumbeat to pay more and more for less and less -- up to $1 million for the videotaped Raja course -- has driven numerous TMers into financial ruin. Cultism has to do with repression, control, and abuse of a group's members -- usually by the cult leader/founder. Is TM a cult? That's for every individual to decide for him or herself. But I fail to see how the Org could not benefit from reform along the lines I suggest. J. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings wrote: They called Galilleo a heritic (ie. cultist)The only way to not be labelled a cult is to continuously and vigorously pursue scientific research under strict methodologies and continue to have them published in respected peer-reviewed scientific journals. Any organization (including any faith based school initiative, or some drug-induced stupor forced onto kids by states or governement, including also the promotion of junk food to kids, and including the promotion of unproven meditation techniques, etc. etc.) that has not hundreds of studies on the positive outcomes published in this way, are at best a cult, at worst criminally fraudulant.Anything other than something based on hundreds of proven studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, is by definition, mythological in its veracity, religiously ignorant in its application, and considered fraudulant in a civilized societyOffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. I understand Fairfield has a few score people who qualify as fully enlightened. If that's true, how many woke up after abandoning TM for something else? I know lots of people switched to some other practice because they feel it's hastening their growth, but for purposes of testing Dan's point empirically, I'd like to separate perceived progress from actual awakening. Rick, Tom Trayner, anybody - can you help here?
[FairfieldLife] Re: High ranking officers don't believe 9/11 account
Curtis wrote: This whole 9-11 conspiracy thing is a fascinating study on our relationship to evidence and knowledge. Another false claim debunked by Debunking is the idea that there was a stand down order given to the military so that the hijacked planes could reach their targets. Debunking catalogs all the confusion on 911 and shows that even though the hijackers had turned off the transponders, fighter planes were ordered to battle stations. But with over 4,000 planes in the air, and an inadequate ATC system, it is not hard to see why intercepts were delayed (pp.14-19). It was also pointed out the NORAD's more sophisticated radar focused outside the continental US for threats, not inward. No need for wild conspiracy theories. Read more: 'Debunking 9/11 Myths' Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts by The Editors of Popular Mechanics Hearst, 2006 Amazon reviews: http://tinyurl.com/osc4r
[FairfieldLife] Re: University of Iowa flooded
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. OffWorld Stupid or not, a lot of alums had some great times along the river, and will respond to the call for donations to rebuild.
[FairfieldLife] Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
Today's the day!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This reply is just a dig. That's what I suspected. And a needless one. Um, your reply to me was the dig. You misunderstood. I don't know details about what Mack said about auras.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Monks in the Lab
Can someone fluent in French tell me what he is saying at 6:27 and 10:01 in this documentary? On Jun 19, 2008, at 6:43 PM, Vaj wrote: http://fr.truveo.com/Monks-in-the-lab-04022007/id/3454009997 Link
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This reply is just a dig. That's what I suspected. And a needless one. Um, the dig was your statement: Then it would have been a bit more straightforward just to say so, don't you think? I don't know details about what Mack thought about auras.
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Maharishi Effect as bad AC software
TurquoiseB wrote: I've read nothing here about mantras (nor have I ever experienced anything personally when working with them Nab wrote: And yet this fellow, devoid as he says of any knowledge of mantras, again and again enjoys to remind eveyrone here of his short stint with the TMO more than 30 tears ago. Go figure. It's an act. People who live in the state of mind of elitism *have* to attempt to portray those who don't accept their projected elite status as lesser. That's just what bigots do. Read more: Subject: Re: How much is that hooker in the window? Author: Uncle Tantra Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental Date: Sun, Nov 7 2004 http://tinyurl.com/4k2dw5
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Today's the day! Thank you Rick! I am celebrating a belated Father's Day, my birthday, my daughter's high school graduation (from last week) and the longest day of the year. Quite a day for me! Hope everyone else's is enjoyable and fun too.
[FairfieldLife] M Pundits flood University of Iowa
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings no_reply@ wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. OffWorld Dear Off, yes; except that the Pandits playing with Monther Nature unwittingly flooded Hancher Auditorium. It is science it's very tragic. Jai Guru Dev, -Doug in FF Stupid or not, a lot of alums had some great times along the river, and will respond to the call for donations to rebuild.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
On Jun 20, 2008, at 10:39 AM, Patrick Gillam wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. I understand Fairfield has a few score people who qualify as fully enlightened. If that's true, how many woke up after abandoning TM for something else? I think there are signs that people are beginning to awaken in FF and other places and some are just having nice meditative experiences-- common ones which are often mistaken for Enlightenment. But I have not heard of anyone who meets the criteria of CC as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi described it, so I think your claim of full enlightenment is a tad premature. In many ways it seems a typical neoadvaita scene. It seems many of these people did begin to have good experiences after leaving the movement, some with other meditation techniques, some remaining with TM and/or the TMSP.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I haven't proposed any mystical explanation, Ruth. I'm just pointing out that the human fallibility explanation isn't consistent with the facts of the reporting (as opposed to factual basis of the reports, which is unknown). And I disagree. Again, I didn't *give* a mystical explanation. What I said was, We don't know what's responsible; we don't know what's going on. We can't connect this to ordinary reality--meaning reality that we know about. The choice is between insisting on a stretched explanation and a willingness to entertain the possibility that there is no explanation consistent with what we know of reality. Ordinary reality is that people's minds can make incredible cognitive errors as I have said over and over again. Hardly a stretched explanation. Could it feel stretched in your mind because you want to believe in something more? After all, you have said that you have had incredible experiences in group meditation. I imagine you do not want to think that it might possibly be creations of your own fallible mind? In many cases the accounts are far more detailed than anything found in popular culture, and these details are very similar from one account to another. And so are common dreams people have. And don't forget the power of suggestibility. What about the fact that people who have these experiences tend toward making errors of memory? Tend to be suggestible? There is a framework for the mind to spin up a nice story. Just like the old stories from the middle ages about getting raped by the devil. Many of the stories aren't nice at all, they're horrible, painful, scary, and don't make any kind of sense. And for all we know, the raped by the devil stories from the Middle Ages were accounts of the same category of experiences, just using a more archaic vocabulary to describe them. We disagree.There is no way you are going to convince me. And I am not going to convince you. So let's call it quits before we no longer can have a civil discussion about anything. I am not ready to burn that bridge. No more mystical that the common experience of people who have college educations to repeatedly dream that they are not prepared for final exams. Mystical really isn't the appropriate term here. Mystical experiences have very different characteristics, as do the reporting circumstances. And the abduction accounts are so different in nature and, again, reporting circumstances that they really can't be put in the same bucket as final-exam dreams. Just for one thing, I don't think anybody who has such dreams maintains after the fact that they really happened; they're always recognized as dreams. And for another, other than the basic concept, the details differ widely from person to person, often even from dream to dream with the same person. I've had such dreams from time to time, and each dream is vastly different as to the specifics. Plus which, they're all fundamentally realistic--the basic situation is something that could easily happen in real life. Nor do people tend to seek therapy because the dreams are so vivid, frightening, and surreal that they're afraid they're going crazy. And these are just the *superficial* differences. With abduction reports, I'd be willing to consider an explanation along the lines of Jung's collective unconscious, maybe even with a genetic component involving particular brain structures--in other words, a reality that we don't yet know about. Another example of serious thinking errors are the kids in daycare suddenly believing that they were part of satanic rituals and were sexually abused. Some of those seem to me equally strange. I wouldn't be surprised to find, again, that they have some underlying relationship to abduction reports (beyond the cognitive error/human fallibility explanation). Interesting that the child sex abuse claims regarding daycare facilities came to a huge peak, then died. Or perhaps are no longer being reported due to lack of receptivity. There's a tendency with anecdotal accounts of just about any kind of unverifiable strangeness to assume that if a few accounts are shown to have been false, it means that all of them must be false. This ain't necessarily so. What might be interesting is to see if these alien abduction accounts peaked around the mid to late 20th century when the myths of little men with big head, big eyes and flying saucers were so prevalent. I'd have to do some research, but I don't think historically that this is the case. Not sure what the current status is. Plus, the fact that Mack was hypnotizing his patients/subjects leads to a greater likelihood that accounts will be similar and be false. He also had patients that were able to recall the experiences without hypnosis. There is
[FairfieldLife] New file uploaded to FairfieldLife
Hello, This email message is a notification to let you know that a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the FairfieldLife group. File: /Local Services/Ghee business job opening Uploaded by : rick_archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Description : You can access this file at the URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/files/Local%20Services/Ghee%20business%20job%20opening To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/web/index.htmlfiles Regards, rick_archer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[FairfieldLife] Re: M Pundits flood University of Iowa
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam jpgillam@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings no_reply@ wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. Dear Off, yes; except that the Pandits playing with Mother Nature unwittingly flooded Hancher Auditorium. It is science it's very tragic. The TM movement should thank its lucky stars that the ME is regarded as the joke it is. If they *had* established scientifically that the ME could affect the weather, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Nebraska and 5 other states could have sued their socks off. So what's really been going on all this time is *intentionally* shoddy science, to give the impression that the ME doesn't really control the weather or the stock market or any of those other things, to avoid potential lawsuits, and anyone dipping into that all-important 4.5 billion dollar TMO bank account. The TMO *would have* helped all those people who lived along the rivers, but you know how lawyers are. They just couldn't take the chance.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: This reply is just a dig. That's what I suspected. And a needless one. Um, the dig was your statement: Then it would have been a bit more straightforward just to say so, don't you think? I see. But yours was a dig as well, as you explained. I don't know details about what Mack thought about auras. Maybe not a great idea to use He believed in auras as an example of his nonordinary thinking, then?
[FairfieldLife] Re: High ranking officers don't believe 9/11 account
I believe that just like with the JFK, MLK and RFK assassinations, we will never know the full truth of what happened from 'officials' of the US government. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A friend's comments: It has taken me a while to become highly skeptical of the govt/media accts of 9/11. But I don't see how anyone can read this story and not be. The two most glaring things, for me, are 1) that the third WTC building (number 7), which collapsed, was never hit by an aircraft (what the?) and 2) that simply following normal procedures for such things, the Air Force would have intercepted all four 9/11 flights within minutes of their departures from scheduled flight paths, thereby preventing all collisions with the WTC buildings or the pentagon. Read this article in full and wonder what really went on. Excerpts below for the time challenged. Reading just the underlinings will take even less time. USA Military Officers Challenge Official Account of September 11 Thursday, 22 May 2008 10:15 www.daily.pk The full article is at: http://www.daily.pk:80/world/americas/99-americas/3865-usa-military-officers -challenge-official-account-of-september-11.html Twenty-five former U.S. military officers have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and called for a new investigation. Excerpts: The lack of interception of the planes by the Air Force Regarding the failure of NORAD to intercept the four hijacked planes on 9/11, Col. Bowman said, I'm an old interceptor pilot. I know the drill. I've done it. I know how long it takes. ... If our government had done nothing that day and let normal procedure be followed, those planes, wherever they were, would have been intercepted, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. Capt. Davis continued, Additionally, in my experience as an officer in NORAD as a Tactical Director for the Chicago-Milwaukee Air Defense and as a current private pilot, there is no way that an aircraft on instrument flight plans (all commercial flights are IFR) would not be intercepted when they deviate from their flight plan, turn off their transponders, or stop communication with Air Traffic Control. No way! With very bad luck, perhaps one could slip by, but no there's no way all four of them could! WTC Building 7 Collapsed without Being Hit by an Airplane Lt. Col. Shelton Lankford, U.S. Marine Corps (ret), an attack pilot with over 300 combat missions, wrote in 2007 to the Michigan Daily, Our government has been hijacked by means of a 'new Pearl Harbor' and a lot of otherwise good and decent people who are gullible enough to think that the first three steel-framed buildings in history fall down because they have some fires that the fire fighter on the scene said could be knocked down with a couple of hoses and through which people walked before they were photographed looking out the holes where the plane hit. One of these, Building 7, was never hit by a plane and even NIST is ashamed to advance a reason for its collapse. The improbability of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 is a major concern of these officers and a growing number of scientists, engineers and architects. The building was 610 feet tall, 47 stories, and would have been the tallest building in 33 states. Although it was not hit by an airplane, it completely collapsed into a pile of rubble in less than 7 seconds at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11. In the 6 years since 9/11, the Federal government has failed to provide any explanation for the collapse. In addition to the failure to provide an explanation, absolutely no mention of Building 7's collapse appears in the 9/11 Commission's full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A retired fighter pilot, Col. Razer served as an instructor at the U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School and NATO's Tactical Leadership Program and flew combat missions over Iraq. He continued, The 'collapse' of WTC Building 7 shows beyond any doubt that the demolitions were pre-planned. There is simply no way to demolish a 47-story building (on fire) over a coffee break. It is also impossible to report the building's collapse before it happened, as BBC News did, unless it was pre-planned. Further damning evidence is Larry Silverstein's video taped confession in which he states 'they made that decision to pull [WTC 7] and we watched the building collapse.' The Pentagon Crash Col. Kwiatkowski was working in the Pentagon on 9/11 in her capacity as Political-Military Affairs Officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense when Flight 77 allegedly hit the Pentagon. She wrote, There was a dearth of
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Today's the day ! I light this candle, the symbol of Pure Consciousness for Jim. May this light shine upon him in ever expansion, and be a blessing for all his present and future endeavours in this our beautiful universe ! Jai Guru Dev Happy Birthday Jim !
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. It certainly lengthens the process. Kind of like what was expressed just about TM, that doing the technique once a day for a month isn't equivalent in benefit to doing the technique twice a day for half a month-- The twice a day is more beneficial. Building up that consistent momentum is key.
[FairfieldLife] This is just outrageous!
By the end of the month, White Lily Flour, for more than 100 years a staple for biscuits, cakes and pies, will no longer be made in the South. Read more: 'White Lily Flour leaves the South' Posted by Glenn Reynolds Instapundit, June 20, 2008 http://tinyurl.com/67htsl
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Illusion of Free Will and Neuroscience
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Neuroimaging: Free will? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 9, 410 - 411 (June 2008) | doi:10.1038/ nrn2404 Recent findings have shown that activity in two non-motor-related cortical areas can predict the outcome of a movement decision up to 10 seconds before an individual becomes aware of the decision. Well, guNaa guNeSu vartanta iti! ;-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@ wrote: Today's the day ! I light this candle, the symbol of Pure Consciousness for Jim. May this light shine upon him in ever expansion, and be a blessing for all his present and future endeavours in this our beautiful universe ! Jai Guru Dev Happy Birthday Jim ! Thank you Nablus, very kind of you-- I have always really enjoyed anyone's birthday, including my own. Best wishes for a better and better world as we all move forward.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip We disagree.There is no way you are going to convince me. And I am not going to convince you. So let's call it quits before we no longer can have a civil discussion about anything. I am not ready to burn that bridge. As you wish. I'd just point out that I've noted a number of facts (as opposed to opinions or conjectures) about abduction reports that are distinctly inconsistent with your theories about what generates them, which you haven't refuted. I did some Web reading this morning looking for statistics on the distribution of abduction reports over the years but got sidetracked into reading some other interesting material. I'm about to post a sort of digest of what I found. Obviously, you're free to ignore it; I just want to have it on the record.
[FairfieldLife] Re: M Pundits flood University of Iowa
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony2k5@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam jpgillam@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings no_reply@ wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. Dear Off, yes; except that the Pandits playing with Mother Nature unwittingly flooded Hancher Auditorium. It is science it's very tragic. The TM movement should thank its lucky stars that the ME is regarded as the joke it is. Fairfield was protected, as has happened again and again. The ME certainly cannot nullify all the collected karmas of all the american wars since 1945. It's just not possible.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
Practice makes Perfect --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 danfriedman2002@ wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. It certainly lengthens the process. Kind of like what was expressed just about TM, that doing the technique once a day for a month isn't equivalent in benefit to doing the technique twice a day for half a month-- The twice a day is more beneficial. Building up that consistent momentum is key.
[FairfieldLife] Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
Abduction researcher Budd Hopkins has some good articles debunking the debunkings here: http://www.intrudersfoundation.org/if_readings.html (I just read the articles I discuss below this morning *after* posting my responses to Ruth, BTW, so those responses weren't influenced by what Hopkins or, later, Jacobs says.) In Part 1 of a four-part article called Patterns of UFO Abductions, Hopkins notes that of all the reports he's aware of (thousands, including those he elicited himself), the vast majority of which involve the abductee being examined by the aliens while naked, none of the accounts mention embarrassment at being naked. In Part 2, he writes: In these hundreds upon hundreds of UFO abduction accounts, I have yet to hear anyone state that the UFO occupants paid the slightest attention to an abductee's heart during the physical examination procedures that routinely occur during these encounters. The aliens' interest is almost invariably focused upon the abductee's genitals and lower abdomen. There are frequent additional 'operations' involving the abductee's head, and in particular the nasal cavity, the eyes and ears. We also occasionally hear of procedures having to do with the feet, the major joints and the rectum. But never, ever, the abductee's heart. If that's true, and if all these reports are false memories, it's quite remarkable. In Part 3, he notes that none of the abduction accounts he's aware of feature food and drink, even peripherally. He points out that fantasizing normally involves at least some elements of real life, especially of very common and important human activities. Again, the absence from the reports of any references to eating and drinking, if accurate, is astonishing if we assume they're all fantasies or false memories. Finally, in Part 4, he notes the almost complete absence from any of the reports (including several from police officers) of the aliens wielding weapons of any kind. Especially given the forced-abduction scenario described in these reports, if they're all fantasies or false memories, this absence, if accurate, is startling. In other words, if the accounts are just fantasies or false memories, in accord with the standard patterns of fantasy, one or another of these elements should be present in a significant percentage of the accounts. Hopkins believes the accounts are of real live aliens, and that these absent features support that notion. As I've said, I doubt the premise of alien beings. But at the very least, the absences indicate that there is something about abduction accounts that is qualitatively different from ordinary fantasizing, false memories, or even hallucinations. They're just not the same phenomenon. Hopkins's Response to the ABC Peter Jennings 'Seeing Is Believing' TV program is also of interest. He takes direct aim at the sleep paralysis explanation for abduction accounts. He was interviewed for the program and made the same points I'm about to list, but none of them made it into the finished documentary, which proposed sleep paralysis as *the* explanation for abduction reports: --For the first 20 years of his research into abduction reports, none of the experiences took place while the subject was in bed asleep (or half-awake); they all involved abductions while the subject was engaging in routine daily activity. --In a number of cases, several people were taken at the same time, and the abductees afterward reported identical details. --He also cites some apparent physical evidence, such as new but healed scars. --Of the abduction reports he's aware of, some 30 percent were not obtained via hypnosis. (I haven't read the other articles linked to on this page.) Another site I looked at this morning-- http://www.ufoabduction.com/research.htm --has some interesting material. David Jacobs, the abduction researcher who runs the site--rather grandly called the International Center for Abduction Research--reviews Susan Clancy's book Abducted. (Clancy is one of the authors of the Memory Distortion study Ruth cited.) It's an openly hostile review, but many of the points it makes about Clancy's not having engaged with the evidence are significant. He also has a critique of the Jennings ABC special, making points similar to those of Budd Hopkins (they're colleagues, so that's not surprising). He says, flatly, It must be understood that all debunkers commit one or more of three errors: 1, they do not know the data, 2, they ignore the data or 3, they distort the data to make it conform to their explanations. There are no exceptions to this rule. He also has a multipart article titled Thinking Clearly About the Abduction Phenomenon that I plan to read later today, if I can manage it. Finally, he has a page addressed To Therapists: http://www.ufoabduction.com/therapists.htm At the end, he writes: If you would like to contribute to the investigation of abductions using
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future,at least. This is one of the best posts I've seen on here for a long time. I think it's a bad reflection on the group that it hasn't generated more support or comments. People here are mostly up their own arses arguing about really miniscule points or issues that the group thinks are important but no one else does. John's post lays out some good points for people to think about and they're issues that affect a lot of the lurkers here. I think the TMO is capable of reform, though it will take a long time and maybe even a generation before the present structure is dumped. These guidelines are simple common sense changes that the TMO needs to make before it has any chance of seeing its better ideas becoming widely accepted.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@ wrote: Today's the day ! I light this candle, the symbol of Pure Consciousness for Jim. May this light shine upon him in ever expansion, and be a blessing for all his present and future endeavours in this our beautiful universe ! Jai Guru Dev Happy Birthday Jim ! Thank you Nablus, very kind of you-- I have always really enjoyed anyone's birthday, including my own. Best wishes for a better and better world as we all move forward. And so did Maharishi ! He would never except someone's shyness in wanting to avoid being celebrated on his birthday - all had to come up on stage and sit next to him on that day. He said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. Enjoy your day :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: To finish up my prior post: Judy said: Again, I didn't *give* a mystical explanation. What I said was, We don't know what's responsible; we don't know what's going on. We can't connect this to ordinary reality--meaning reality that we know about. You last sentence is your mystical explanation, youn can't connect this to ordinary reality. Sounds mystical to me. The choice is between insisting on a stretched explanation and a willingness to entertain the possibility that there is no explanation consistent with what we know of reality. The explanations are not stretched in my mind and are consistent with research on how our minds work and how our memories work. A good intro to that is from the book I mentioned that started this discussion. I am not impressed by the similarity of the accounts. Popular culture is filled with similar descriptions of aliens and such experiences. You don't have to read about them to know about them. In many cases the accounts are far more detailed than anything found in popular culture, and these details are very similar from one account to another. How different would the details be if you believe you were abducted by aliens and brought to a spaceship? With abduction reports, I'd be willing to consider an explanation along the lines of Jung's collective unconscious, maybe even with a genetic component involving particular brain structures--in other words, a reality that we don't yet know about. This is a long way from where Mack was at for most of his career.Of course, we know little about the mind, but we do know that it plays tricks on us. I read plenty of Jung way back when, I loved him as a student, but I don't really buy his theories. Another example of serious thinking errors are the kids in daycare suddenly believing that they were part of satanic rituals and were sexually abused. Some of those seem to me equally strange. I wouldn't be surprised to find, again, that they have some underlying relationship to abduction reports (beyond the cognitive error/human fallibility explanation). Interesting that the child sex abuse claims regarding daycare facilities came to a huge peak, then died. Or perhaps are no longer being reported due to lack of receptivity. Oh I don't think so! Parents would go ballistic. Instead, people are not messing with suggestible children's minds to the same extent. It doesn't take much to get an imaginative child going. I do think that we still make kids way too afraid of adults and thus susceptible misreading adults intentions. There is some good research on this. You might want to read The Construction of Space Alien Abduction Memories by Steven E. Clark and Elizabeth F. Loftus at http://www.questia.com/PM.qst? a=od=77026015 This is just an abstract. How might I obtain the article? Hum. I don't know if you can get it on the internet without subscribing to a service like questia. You might have to get it from a library. The accounts from the recovered-memory subjects in this study appear to all be of the abductions having taken place upon awakening from sleep with paralysis. But there are also significant numbers of accounts of people who claim they were abducted while going about their normal activities, which tend to be missing time accounts-- in some of which the person is reported to have vanished by others with whom he or she would normally have been in contact during the missing time period. Yes, that was this particular study. But as I mentioned, people can fall asleep or hallucinate in all sorts of situations. Carbon monoxide poisoning is another example. It's easy enough to conclude that waking-from-sleep-in- paralysis abduction reports are simply hypnopompic hallucinations, since the latter is a known phenomenon (although most hypnopompic hallucinations aren't anywhere near as elaborate or prolonged). Doesn't work so well for the missing time type of report. Plus which, this study didn't test such individuals. And further, the experimenters assumed a priori that the abduction reports were false. It would be interesting to have researchers who are at the very least open-minded about the possibility that abduction experiences are in some sense real to attempt to replicate this experiment. So, interesting but by no means conclusive, as far as I'm concerned. Of course not conclusive. You collect studies and get a body of research. You research how the mind works and do particular studies on things that you are interested in.Believing the reports of abduction were in error was their hypothesis. Nothing wrong with that.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
Happy Birthday Jim ! Thank you Nablus, very kind of you-- I have always really enjoyed anyone's birthday, including my own. Best wishes for a better and better world as we all move forward. And so did Maharishi ! He would never except someone's shyness in wanting to avoid being celebrated on his birthday - all had to come up on stage and sit next to him on that day. He said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. And so Maharishi put them up on stage with him so that he could suck as much of that energy as possible?
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
On Jun 20, 2008, at 9:11 AM, danfriedman2002 wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. And the thunder crashed, as the lightening flashed when the Great Pronouncement was made. Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Happy Birthday Jim ! Thank you Nablus, very kind of you-- I have always really enjoyed anyone's birthday, including my own. Best wishes for a better and better world as we all move forward. And so did Maharishi ! He would never except someone's shyness in wanting to avoid being celebrated on his birthday - all had to come up on stage and sit next to him on that day. He said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. And so Maharishi put them up on stage with him so that he could suck as much of that energy as possible? Yes, in your crazy world. In reality they had to enter the stage to share that livelyness with everyone. The stage was the only place where everone could see the person.
[FairfieldLife] Re: University of Iowa flooded
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings no_reply@ wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. OffWorld Stupid or not, a lot of alums had some great times along the river, and will respond to the call for donations to rebuild. Then hopefully they will build a levy that is strong enough, try to emulate the Dutch. Stupid American levees breaking all over the place. There will be more of this across the country, probably California next. OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: M Pundits flood University of Iowa
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, dhamiltony2k5 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Patrick Gillam jpgillam@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings no_reply@ wrote: Yea, I remember that Arts campus down by the river. You couldn't get a more stupid place to build buildings. This is not some big disaster in Iowa, its just stupid planners. It would be like building your house on the edge of an active volcano. Very stupid. OffWorld Dear Off, yes; except that the Pandits playing with Monther Nature unwittingly flooded Hancher Auditorium. It is science it's very tragic. Jai Guru Dev, -Doug in FF Except in the article they mentioned the Art Department being flooded. It is not trajic. I think it is quite exciting. (and blaming the ME for poor American construction is just silly) OffWorld Stupid or not, a lot of alums had some great times along the river, and will respond to the call for donations to rebuild.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip He [Maharishi] said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. Enjoy your day :-) Thank you-- I definitely am-- do you have any more details to add to what you have said above? A person's Devatas? I don't know about this.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future,at least. This is one of the best posts I've seen on here for a long time. I think it's a bad reflection on the group that it hasn't generated more support or comments. People here are mostly up their own arses arguing about really miniscule points or issues that the group thinks are important but no one else does. John's post lays out some good points for people to think about and they're issues that affect a lot of the lurkers here. I think the TMO is capable of reform, though it will take a long time and maybe even a generation before the present structure is dumped. These guidelines are simple common sense changes that the TMO needs to make before it has any chance of seeing its better ideas becoming widely accepted. Your common sense is rubbish. The TMO does not need any silly input from the majority of the people who are living like animals. Their ideas being widely accepted will hopefully never happen simply because the world would blow up. Too much Sattwa too quickly is not a good thing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 danfriedman2002@ wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. It certainly lengthens the process. Kind of like what was expressed just about TM, that doing the technique once a day for a month isn't equivalent in benefit to doing the technique twice a day for half a month-- The twice a day is more beneficial. Building up that consistent momentum is key. Some people say that having taken one guru you should not make another. But this doctrine is not of the shaastra, this is [just] minds imagination. The guru is gone to for happiness. Up until when bhagavaad (God) is gained - up until then you can go and change guru. So then we haven't seen any guru-bhakta (devotee) fearful of shifting, always studying in the very same class of the very same guru. Actually, to transfer class and to transfer guru is natural. It is not disrespectful to the former guru, actually respect has been done the guru, but in future you get the promise of discipleship of fresh gurus. Vyasa's son Shukadeva ji acquired knowledge from his own father, then he gained knowledge from Shankara ji and also gained knowledge from Narada ji. In the end he took instruction from Janaka ji. Therefore, 'Having taken one guru, another you should not' - this is all rubbish talk and is obstructive to the welfare. You should not ruin your life with this kind of empty words. Many lives have been caused to live in births, now then be alert to attain the human birth. Understanding the method of upaasanaa (worship) from higher and higher gurus, having been doing actions according to Veda shaastra, be doing chanting and puja of Bhagavan, then it is certain you will cross the sea of saMsaara (worldly existence). ~~ Swami Brahmananda Saraswati - Guru Dev [Shri Shankaracharya UpadeshAmrita kaNa 69 of 108] http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/upadesh.htm
[FairfieldLife] Re: University of Iowa flooded
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip Then hopefully they will build a levy that is strong enough, try to emulate the Dutch. Stupid American levees breaking all over the place. There will be more of this across the country, probably California next. OffWorld We need rain in California first!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: To finish up my prior post: Judy said: Again, I didn't *give* a mystical explanation. What I said was, We don't know what's responsible; we don't know what's going on. We can't connect this to ordinary reality--meaning reality that we know about. You last sentence is your mystical explanation, youn can't connect this to ordinary reality. Sounds mystical to me. That sure isn't what I mean by the word mystical. As I pointed out elsewhere, mystical experiences have very different characteristics, and the reporting circumstances are also very different. To call the premise that there is no known explanation an explanation of any kind seems to me to distort the meaning of the word. The choice is between insisting on a stretched explanation and a willingness to entertain the possibility that there is no explanation consistent with what we know of reality. The explanations are not stretched in my mind and are consistent with research on how our minds work and how our memories work. They're very plausible if you aren't familiar with the nature of the reports and the reporting circumstances. Once you have become familiar with them, the explanations you propose have to be stretched excessively to account for the data. See my post Abduction research--for Ruth (or not) for some of these elements. As I said, Occam's razor works only in an adequate frame of reference. snip In many cases the accounts are far more detailed than anything found in popular culture, and these details are very similar from one account to another. How different would the details be if you believe you were abducted by aliens and brought to a spaceship? Wow. They could be very different. Again, you really need to read the reports. The chances that so many people could come up with reports that were so similar on so many details without having consulted with each other is just about nil. And as Budd Hopkins notes, a significant number of these details had never been reported in the media or in print, up to the time he published his own books in the mid-'90s. With abduction reports, I'd be willing to consider an explanation along the lines of Jung's collective unconscious, maybe even with a genetic component involving particular brain structures--in other words, a reality that we don't yet know about. This is a long way from where Mack was at for most of his career. Yes, I know. I'm not a devotee of Mack's philosophy. snip Interesting that the child sex abuse claims regarding daycare facilities came to a huge peak, then died. Or perhaps are no longer being reported due to lack of receptivity. Oh I don't think so! Parents would go ballistic. It's not unusual for parents to *deny* their kids have been sexually abused even when there's excellent evidence for it. In this case, if the parents were aware of the current perception that most such accounts are bunk, they might well assume their kid was making stuff up. And the kid quickly gets the idea that such reports are not acceptable, so he or she just shuts up. snip And further, the experimenters assumed a priori that the abduction reports were false. It would be interesting to have researchers who are at the very least open-minded about the possibility that abduction experiences are in some sense real to attempt to replicate this experiment. So, interesting but by no means conclusive, as far as I'm concerned. Of course not conclusive. You collect studies and get a body of research. You research how the mind works and do particular studies on things that you are interested in.Believing the reports of abduction were in error was their hypothesis. Nothing wrong with that. Well, actually, that *wasn't* their hypothesis. Their hypothesis was that people who gave abduction reports would score higher on certain kinds of memory distortion tests. The assumption that the reports were false was not part of that.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 sandiego108@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 danfriedman2002@ wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. It certainly lengthens the process. Kind of like what was expressed just about TM, that doing the technique once a day for a month isn't equivalent in benefit to doing the technique twice a day for half a month-- The twice a day is more beneficial. Building up that consistent momentum is key. Some people say that having taken one guru you should not make another. But this doctrine is not of the shaastra, this is [just] minds imagination. The guru is gone to for happiness. Up until when bhagavaad (God) is gained - up until then you can go and change guru. So then we haven't seen any guru-bhakta (devotee) fearful of shifting, always studying in the very same class of the very same guru. Actually, to transfer class and to transfer guru is natural. It is not disrespectful to the former guru, actually respect has been done the guru, but in future you get the promise of discipleship of fresh gurus. Vyasa's son Shukadeva ji acquired knowledge from his own father, then he gained knowledge from Shankara ji and also gained knowledge from Narada ji. In the end he took instruction from Janaka ji. Therefore, 'Having taken one guru, another you should not' - this is all rubbish talk and is obstructive to the welfare. You should not ruin your life with this kind of empty words. Many lives have been caused to live in births, now then be alert to attain the human birth. Understanding the method of upaasanaa (worship) from higher and higher gurus, having been doing actions according to Veda shaastra, be doing chanting and puja of Bhagavan, then it is certain you will cross the sea of saMsaara (worldly existence). ~~ Swami Brahmananda Saraswati - Guru Dev [Shri Shankaracharya UpadeshAmrita kaNa 69 of 108] http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/upadesh.htm This discussion is about frequently changing techniques, not gurus. As your example above implies, there was just one instruction provided: In the end he [Shukadeva] took instruction from Janaka ji...
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Abduction researcher Budd Hopkins has some good articles debunking the debunkings here: http://www.intrudersfoundation.org/if_readings.html (I just read the articles I discuss below this morning *after* posting my responses to Ruth, BTW, so those responses weren't influenced by what Hopkins or, later, Jacobs says.) In Part 1 of a four-part article called Patterns of UFO Abductions, Hopkins notes that of all the reports he's aware of (thousands, including those he elicited himself), the vast majority of which involve the abductee being examined by the aliens while naked, none of the accounts mention embarrassment at being naked. In Part 2, he writes: In these hundreds upon hundreds of UFO abduction accounts, I have yet to hear anyone state that the UFO occupants paid the slightest attention to an abductee's heart during the physical examination procedures that routinely occur during these encounters. The aliens' interest is almost invariably focused upon the abductee's genitals and lower abdomen. There are frequent additional 'operations' involving the abductee's head, and in particular the nasal cavity, the eyes and ears. We also occasionally hear of procedures having to do with the feet, the major joints and the rectum. But never, ever, the abductee's heart. If that's true, and if all these reports are false memories, it's quite remarkable. In Part 3, he notes that none of the abduction accounts he's aware of feature food and drink, even peripherally. He points out that fantasizing normally involves at least some elements of real life, especially of very common and important human activities. Again, the absence from the reports of any references to eating and drinking, if accurate, is astonishing if we assume they're all fantasies or false memories. Finally, in Part 4, he notes the almost complete absence from any of the reports (including several from police officers) of the aliens wielding weapons of any kind. Especially given the forced-abduction scenario described in these reports, if they're all fantasies or false memories, this absence, if accurate, is startling. In other words, if the accounts are just fantasies or false memories, in accord with the standard patterns of fantasy, one or another of these elements should be present in a significant percentage of the accounts. Hopkins believes the accounts are of real live aliens, and that these absent features support that notion. As I've said, I doubt the premise of alien beings. But at the very least, the absences indicate that there is something about abduction accounts that is qualitatively different from ordinary fantasizing, false memories, or even hallucinations. They're just not the same phenomenon. Hopkins's Response to the ABC Peter Jennings 'Seeing Is Believing' TV program is also of interest. He takes direct aim at the sleep paralysis explanation for abduction accounts. He was interviewed for the program and made the same points I'm about to list, but none of them made it into the finished documentary, which proposed sleep paralysis as *the* explanation for abduction reports: --For the first 20 years of his research into abduction reports, none of the experiences took place while the subject was in bed asleep (or half-awake); they all involved abductions while the subject was engaging in routine daily activity. --In a number of cases, several people were taken at the same time, and the abductees afterward reported identical details. --He also cites some apparent physical evidence, such as new but healed scars. --Of the abduction reports he's aware of, some 30 percent were not obtained via hypnosis. (I haven't read the other articles linked to on this page.) Another site I looked at this morning-- http://www.ufoabduction.com/research.htm --has some interesting material. David Jacobs, the abduction researcher who runs the site--rather grandly called the International Center for Abduction Research--reviews Susan Clancy's book Abducted. (Clancy is one of the authors of the Memory Distortion study Ruth cited.) It's an openly hostile review, but many of the points it makes about Clancy's not having engaged with the evidence are significant. He also has a critique of the Jennings ABC special, making points similar to those of Budd Hopkins (they're colleagues, so that's not surprising). He says, flatly, It must be understood that all debunkers commit one or more of three errors: 1, they do not know the data, 2, they ignore the data or 3, they distort the data to make it conform to their explanations. There are no exceptions to this rule. He also has a multipart article titled Thinking Clearly About the Abduction Phenomenon that I plan to read later today, if I can manage it. Finally,
[FairfieldLife] Fox's baby mama drama: just the tip of the iceberg
Dear Friends, Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not one of us. I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment: http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1720-176150 Here's what happened recently: After Senator Obama won the nomination, he and his wife gave each other a pound in front of the cameras. Fox anchor E.D. Hill called the act of celebration a terrorist fist jab. Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as Obama's baby mama--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child. It was a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative cultural stereotypes about Black people, an insult not only to Michelle Obama but to women and Black people everywhere. After each of the incidents mentioned, Fox issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again on the third? It means the apology is meaningless. These aren't one-time incidents--they're part of a pattern that continues no matter how often Fox is forced to apologize. Fox has a clear record of attacking and undermining Black institutions, Black leaders, and Black people in general. If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join me in helping to bring an end to Fox's behavior. http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1720-176150 Thanks. Rick Archer President SearchSummit http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmapaddr=1108+S.+B+St.csz=Fairfield% 2C+IA+52556-3805country=us 1108 S. B St. Fairfield, IA 52556-3805 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: fax: Skype ID: http://www.plaxo.com/click_to_call?src=jj_signatureTo=641-472-9336Email=r [EMAIL PROTECTED] 641-472-9336 914-470-9336 Rick_Archer https://www.plaxo.com/add_me?u=25769982909v0=356483k0=1251699766v1=35648 4k1=804482755src=client_sig_212_1_card_joininvite=1 Always have my latest info http://www.plaxo.com/signature?src=client_sig_212_1_card_sig Want a signature like this? image001.gif
[FairfieldLife] 15. REVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE
15. REVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE, VOLUME 15: CONTENTS http://salvationscience.com/v015.htm 1. FAITH From John 20: 29: Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed even more are they that have not seen, and yet still have believed. 2. DECIDE Subject: Rig Veda http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rvi09.htm This revisit is because the last message about it was not entitled Rig Veda. To repeat, The Satapatha Brahmana states that Soma Pavamana (Moon Pure Food) is both urine and seed. Moon implies the female monthly cycle, and hence, the Full Moon Sacrifice. In the Bible, the Tree of Life bore its fruit 12 times a year. The Bible says: Its fruit (seed) I give you for food, and its leaf (urine) for medicine. This Mana (Mother Water) is the Biblical Manna from Heaven. It is the Blood of the Passover Lamb, which was placed between the two doorposts (male and female). It is Buddha's Middle Path, between the two walls of water (male and female) in the Red Sea (blood). RadhaKrishna RasaMishra. Where did you stand at Kurukshetra and at Armageddon, where all met in the Valley of Decision? The decision is theological. Jai Om. - Sw. Tantrasangha 3. KHECHARI MUDRA IS YONI MUDRA From the Hatha Yoga Pradipika: 43. If the Yogi drinks Somarasa (urine)... 4. VAJROLI IS RASA TANTRA From the Hatha Yoga Pradipika: The Vajroli. 82. Even if one who lives a wayward life, without observing any rules of Yoga, but performs Vajroli (Rasa Tantra), deserves success and is a Yogi. 83. Two things are necessary for this, and these are difficult to get for the ordinary people -- (1) milk and (2) a woman behaving, as desired. 84. By practicing to draw in (sucking, consuming) the bindu (seed), discharged during cohabitation, whether one be a man or a woman, one obtains success in the practice of Vajroli. 5. RE: KHECHARI MUDRA IS YONI MUDRA Thanks Jessica! I always wondered why Svatmarama called it Yoni Mudra, since it is that technique, whereby we look and listen inward to the spiritual dimension. There has been a lot of that happening spontaneously in the east, but it doesn't get much publicity in the west. Telepathic Clairvoyance and Clairaudience of the Third Eye and Third Ear, which becomes a kind of Soul Travel, if one exits from the top of the head and sees and hears things of this dimension at a distance. Some of us have experienced it or have witnessed others do it. Svatmarama mentions the hearing part a lot. I used the term, Yoni Mudra, not in his context, but my own, i.e. a yogi going down on the yoni. I mean this with deep respect, of course. Sai Ram. 6. VAJROLI (TANTRA) A KIND OF AMAROLI (URINE THERAPY) From the Hatha Yoga Pradipika: 7. WHY IS URINE THERAPY IN A TANTRA? RE: THE COMPLETE SHIVAMBU KALPA VIDHI FROM THE DAMAR TANTRA 8. TANTRIC ORIGINS OF MOTHER WORSHIP Tantra is iconoclastic and requires no names, forms, rituals, mantras, yantras, icons or temples - only a man and woman in love with each other and with True Dharma, whereby they obtain maximum Salvation from the 8-Fold Suffering of: hunger, disease, senescence (the universal disease from aging), death, low mental intelligence, emotional depression, entrapment of consciousness within the physical dimension, and the impermanence from the endless round (Samsara) of incarnations. Of course, to attain such a state, one must attain an ongoing Genetic Rejuvenation to maintain physical immortality... 9. THE LIVING WATER IS URINE From the Holy Bible: 10. LIVING WATER IS FROM SPOUSE From John 4, in the Bible: 11. PROOF POSITIVE: RIVERS OF LIVING WATER From John 7, in the Holy Bible: 37 ¶ In the last day, that great day of the feast, Lev. 23.36 Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Ezek. 47.1 · Zech. 14.8 12. URINE THERAPY IN THE ATHARVA VEDA VI, 57. Urine (gâlâsha) as a cure for scrofulous sores. 1. This, verily, is a remedy, this is the remedy of Rudra (Siva)... 13. PSALM 22 (FROM THE HOLY BIBLE): 30: A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. 14. URINE THERAPY CLINIC IN INDIA 15. URINE THERAPY CLINICS 16. BARODA CLINIC 17. DR. LODHA'S CLINIC 18. THE BRIDE From the Holy Bible - Revelation, chapter 21: 19. BRIDE'S TREE OF WATER OF LIFE Revelation, chapter 22: http://salvationscience.com/v015.htm ***
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: snip He [Maharishi] said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. Enjoy your day :-) Thank you-- I definitely am-- do you have any more details to add to what you have said above? A person's Devatas? I don't know about this. Gaze at a person a few days before his birthday, then again at his day. You should be able to notice a distinct difference. His/her personal Devatas are those that have this particular soul as Their responsebility. They are there to protect and help on a personal basis. Them being particularily obvious on a persons birthday makes him a blessing to his sourroundings on that day. He is not being celebrated, rather he blesses.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: They're very plausible if you aren't familiar with the nature of the reports and the reporting circumstances. Once you have become familiar with them, the explanations you propose have to be to read the reports. I have read in the past some of these reports and I am not blown away. Done with the topic and time to do some work. I can't believe I spent so many posts on this!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday Jim Flanegin
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 sandiego108@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 no_reply@ wrote: snip He [Maharishi] said that on that particular day that persons Devatas was very lively and the person was not receiving in celebration, rather he was distributing freely of that particular energy. Enjoy your day :-) Thank you-- I definitely am-- do you have any more details to add to what you have said above? A person's Devatas? I don't know about this. Gaze at a person a few days before his birthday, then again at his day. You should be able to notice a distinct difference. His/her personal Devatas are those that have this particular soul as Their responsebility. They are there to protect and help on a personal basis. Them being particularily obvious on a persons birthday makes him a blessing to his sourroundings on that day. He is not being celebrated, rather he blesses. Are these Devatas the same as what are known in the West as Guardian Angels? Just curious-- the more I know, the easier it is to tune in and get a visual. Thank you.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com , taskcentered [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hmmm, Galileo a cultist? I don't think so. Heretic doesn't equal cultist. To the Catholic Church they were the same thing. An Occultist has the word 'cult' in it, and anyone accused of occultism was a heritic. Galileo was accused of being a heritic and 'of the devil' , yada yada yada. Having strange or nonmainstream beliefs has nothing to do with being a cult. Every religion looks pretty strange from the outside. Few raise to the level of destructive cult. Personally, I believe meditation is one of Nature's miracles http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/mostly.html http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/mostly.html . I'm not surprised there are scientific studies that show it is good -- for most people. Confession can be shown to be good for most people. This above statment is cult-like and a fraud. Where is the scientific research published in respected peer-reviewed journals to show this? OTOH, the public shaming and abuse that Scientology uses its confessional ritual for causes trauma. Similarly a little meditation is probably good. The kind of overindulgence that the Maharishi encouraged appears to damage http://knappfamilycounseling.com/tmdangers.html http://knappfamilycounseling.com/tmdangers.html some people. Oh its going to damage the hard rocks of ignorance alright. Make no mistake about it, the power of this transition is going to be very transformational. And the constant drumbeat to pay more and more for less and less -- up to $1 million for the videotaped Raja course A million dollars !Lol, that's only 495,000 thousand British pounds, or 640,000 Euros. The lesson is -- don't take the course unless you have half a million pounds to spare. Maharishi was taking from the rich to give to the poor. Hundreds of thousands learned for free in 3rd world countries. I have a friend in the Far East who learned TM for free, then the Siddhis, and then Governer training -- all paid for by Western contributions. -- has driven numerous TMers into financial ruin. Like who? Name one please. And they are happier people now -- unless they were attached to being rich. Now they are digging gardens and enjoying life. Cultism has to do with repression, control, and abuse of a group's members -- usually by the cult leader/founder. Sounds like you are talking about the US government? Highest percentage of prisoners than any other country...by far. Secret prisons etc. Is TM a cult? That's for every individual to decide for him or herself. But I fail to see how the Org could not benefit from reform along the lines I suggest. I agree with reforms. They are already instituting them. I was surprised how quickly the price of TM dropped after Maharishi was gone, something I have advocated for years. Changes will start to come now and you will see them. In just 50 years Maharishi instituted everything necessay for the next 10,000 years, so it is very misfit to current thinking. The current leader swill simply pull back a little from the things that are a bit too far out. You will see this more and more. Some things that Maharishi advocated that are too far out though, may actually be forced upon the world by circumstances anyway. He advocated re-building the cities for example. Well with current oil crisis and the price of food going up , alot of people are giving up their commute to the city for a simpler life outside the cities, and this trend could continue and the cities will be forced to re-build in a different way in order to survive. Interesting times. OffWorld J. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com , off_world_beings wrote: They called Galilleo a heritic (ie. cultist)The only way to not be labelled a cult is to continuously and vigorously pursue scientific research under strict methodologies and continue to have them published in respected peer-reviewed scientific journals. Any organization (including any faith based school initiative, or some drug-induced stupor forced onto kids by states or governement, including also the promotion of junk food to kids, and including the promotion of unproven meditation techniques, etc. etc.) that has not hundreds of studies on the positive outcomes published in this way, are at best a cult, at worst criminally fraudulant.Anything other than something based on hundreds of proven studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, is by definition, mythological in its veracity, religiously ignorant in its application, and considered fraudulant in a civilized societyOffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, do.rflex do.rflex@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sandiego108 sandiego108@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 danfriedman2002@ wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. It certainly lengthens the process. Kind of like what was expressed just about TM, that doing the technique once a day for a month isn't equivalent in benefit to doing the technique twice a day for half a month-- The twice a day is more beneficial. Building up that consistent momentum is key. Some people say that having taken one guru you should not make another. But this doctrine is not of the shaastra, this is [just] minds imagination. The guru is gone to for happiness. Up until when bhagavaad (God) is gained - up until then you can go and change guru. So then we haven't seen any guru-bhakta (devotee) fearful of shifting, always studying in the very same class of the very same guru. Actually, to transfer class and to transfer guru is natural. It is not disrespectful to the former guru, actually respect has been done the guru, but in future you get the promise of discipleship of fresh gurus. Vyasa's son Shukadeva ji acquired knowledge from his own father, then he gained knowledge from Shankara ji and also gained knowledge from Narada ji. In the end he took instruction from Janaka ji. Therefore, 'Having taken one guru, another you should not' - this is all rubbish talk and is obstructive to the welfare. You should not ruin your life with this kind of empty words. Many lives have been caused to live in births, now then be alert to attain the human birth. Understanding the method of upaasanaa (worship) from higher and higher gurus, having been doing actions according to Veda shaastra, be doing chanting and puja of Bhagavan, then it is certain you will cross the sea of saMsaara (worldly existence). ~~ Swami Brahmananda Saraswati - Guru Dev [Shri Shankaracharya UpadeshAmrita kaNa 69 of 108] http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/upadesh.htm This discussion is about frequently changing techniques, not gurus. As your example above implies, there was just one instruction provided: In the end he [Shukadeva] took instruction from Janaka ji... Different guru implies different practice. I've seldom, if ever, heard of different gurus giving the exact same instruction/practice. What's the point of changing gurus if it isn't to get different instruction? Like Guru Dev said, The guru is gone to for happiness. Up until when Bhagavaad (God) is gained - up until then you can go and change guru. Someone wrote here recently that Maharishi was a volunteer. Well, I don't know exactly what Maharishi was, but even he said that he wasn't a personal guru. Guru Dev is.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com , guyfawkes91 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future,at least. This is one of the best posts I've seen on here for a long time. I think it's a bad reflection on the group that it hasn't generated more support or comments. People here are mostly up their own arses arguing about really miniscule points or issues that the group thinks are important but no one else does. John's post lays out some good points for people to think about and they're issues that affect a lot of the lurkers here. I think the TMO is capable of reform, though it will take a long time and maybe even a generation before the present structure is dumped. These guidelines are simple common sense changes that the TMO needs to make before it has any chance of seeing its better ideas becoming widely accepted. None of this will matter anyway soon. The planet is either going back to a dark ages chaos soon (and I will be the King -- loved by all the people due to my harsh rule ;-) ...or there is going to be a very powerful transormation of consciousness that is WAY MORE than people just being a bit nicer to each other. The changes will be tumultuous and powerful. Less than 5 years, but probably this year. OffWorld
[FairfieldLife] Re: Fox's baby mama drama: just the tip of the iceberg
It remains to be seen if the American people are fed up enough with the crap propaganda from the loony right wing freaks on FOX and the wingnut talk radio shows to give a clear message of rebuke to them by providing a big win for Obama and the Dems in November. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dear Friends, Right now, Fox News is trying to paint Barack Obama as foreign, un-American, suspicious, and scary. They're trying to send Americans the message that our country's first viable Black candidate for President is not one of us. I've joined on to ColorOfChange.org's campaign to push back on Fox, publicly demanding they stop their race-baiting and fear mongering. If that doesn't work, then we'll go to their advertisers and the FCC. I wanted to invite you to sign on as well. It takes only a moment: http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1720-176150 Here's what happened recently: After Senator Obama won the nomination, he and his wife gave each other a pound in front of the cameras. Fox anchor E.D. Hill called the act of celebration a terrorist fist jab. Then last week, a Fox News on-screen graphic referred to Michelle Obama as Obama's baby mama--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child. It was a clear attempt to associate the Obamas with negative cultural stereotypes about Black people, an insult not only to Michelle Obama but to women and Black people everywhere. After each of the incidents mentioned, Fox issued some form of weak apology. But what does it mean when you slap someone in the face, apologize the next day, then slap them again on the third? It means the apology is meaningless. These aren't one-time incidents--they're part of a pattern that continues no matter how often Fox is forced to apologize. Fox has a clear record of attacking and undermining Black institutions, Black leaders, and Black people in general. If we don't push back now, we will see more of the same from now until November. Please join me in helping to bring an end to Fox's behavior. http://www.colorofchange.org/foxobama/?id=1720-176150 Thanks. Rick Archer President SearchSummit http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmapaddr=1108+S.+B+St.csz=Fairfield% 2C+IA+52556-3805country=us 1108 S. B St. Fairfield, IA 52556-3805 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: fax: Skype ID: http://www.plaxo.com/click_to_call?src=jj_signatureTo=641-472-9336Email=r [EMAIL PROTECTED] 641-472-9336 914-470-9336 Rick_Archer https://www.plaxo.com/add_me?u=25769982909v0=356483k0=1251699766v1=35648 4k1=804482755src=client_sig_212_1_card_joininvite=1 Always have my latest info http://www.plaxo.com/signature?src=client_sig_212_1_card_sig Want a signature like this?
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: Abduction researcher Budd Hopkins has some good articles debunking the debunkings here: http://www.intrudersfoundation.org/if_readings.html (I just read the articles I discuss below this morning *after* posting my responses to Ruth, BTW, so those responses weren't influenced by what Hopkins or, later, Jacobs says.) In Part 1 of a four-part article called Patterns of UFO Abductions, Hopkins notes that of all the reports he's aware of (thousands, including those he elicited himself), the vast majority of which involve the abductee being examined by the aliens while naked, none of the accounts mention embarrassment at being naked. In Part 2, he writes: In these hundreds upon hundreds of UFO abduction accounts, I have yet to hear anyone state that the UFO occupants paid the slightest attention to an abductee's heart during the physical examination procedures that routinely occur during these encounters. The aliens' interest is almost invariably focused upon the abductee's genitals and lower abdomen. There are frequent additional 'operations' involving the abductee's head, and in particular the nasal cavity, the eyes and ears. We also occasionally hear of procedures having to do with the feet, the major joints and the rectum. But never, ever, the abductee's heart. If that's true, and if all these reports are false memories, it's quite remarkable. In Part 3, he notes that none of the abduction accounts he's aware of feature food and drink, even peripherally. He points out that fantasizing normally involves at least some elements of real life, especially of very common and important human activities. Again, the absence from the reports of any references to eating and drinking, if accurate, is astonishing if we assume they're all fantasies or false memories. Finally, in Part 4, he notes the almost complete absence from any of the reports (including several from police officers) of the aliens wielding weapons of any kind. Especially given the forced- abduction scenario described in these reports, if they're all fantasies or false memories, this absence, if accurate, is startling. In other words, if the accounts are just fantasies or false memories, in accord with the standard patterns of fantasy, one or another of these elements should be present in a significant percentage of the accounts. Hopkins believes the accounts are of real live aliens, and that these absent features support that notion. As I've said, I doubt the premise of alien beings. But at the very least, the absences indicate that there is something about abduction accounts that is qualitatively different from ordinary fantasizing, false memories, or even hallucinations. They're just not the same phenomenon. Hopkins's Response to the ABC Peter Jennings 'Seeing Is Believing' TV program is also of interest. He takes direct aim at the sleep paralysis explanation for abduction accounts. He was interviewed for the program and made the same points I'm about to list, but none of them made it into the finished documentary, which proposed sleep paralysis as *the* explanation for abduction reports: --For the first 20 years of his research into abduction reports, none of the experiences took place while the subject was in bed asleep (or half-awake); they all involved abductions while the subject was engaging in routine daily activity. --In a number of cases, several people were taken at the same time, and the abductees afterward reported identical details. --He also cites some apparent physical evidence, such as new but healed scars. --Of the abduction reports he's aware of, some 30 percent were not obtained via hypnosis. (I haven't read the other articles linked to on this page.) Another site I looked at this morning-- http://www.ufoabduction.com/research.htm --has some interesting material. David Jacobs, the abduction researcher who runs the site--rather grandly called the International Center for Abduction Research--reviews Susan Clancy's book Abducted. (Clancy is one of the authors of the Memory Distortion study Ruth cited.) It's an openly hostile review, but many of the points it makes about Clancy's not having engaged with the evidence are significant. He also has a critique of the Jennings ABC special, making points similar to those of Budd Hopkins (they're colleagues, so that's not surprising). He says, flatly, It must be understood that all debunkers commit one or more of three errors: 1, they do not know the data, 2, they ignore the data or 3, they distort the data to make it conform to their
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
matrixmonitor wrote: ---You're probably right, but my main interest (aside from personal Sadhana) is investigating Spiritual Movements and techniques which are headed toward changing the world at large; so we can get out of the current Tamasic mess and into something approaching a mini-age of Enlightenment. If the Gurus you speak of are only instructing people in a handful of elite students; I'd say - more power to them; but what about possible earth-changing influences that are more likely to occur with hundreds of thousands of practitioners? That's what the yogic meditation techniques are for. In general gurus have two types of meditation they teach: one for the masses that anyone can do and one for their disciples. The latter get the guru mantra. The guru, of course, teaches the yogic meditation to many more people than they make disciples.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
Nablusoss1008, Labeling people animals because they do not believe the way you do is a primary symptom of cult thinking http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/culttales.html . When I was a TM Governor, we used to refer to nonmeditators with disdain. There was even an underlying fear that we might catch some of their stress. We used to call them mud -- after that story the Maharishi told about another monk in the Himalayas. This black/white, us-vs.-them thinking is unhealthy for both us and them. It's one of the primary things I mention need reform in the TM Org. A true spiritual organization advocates respect, care, and concern for all life -- at least human life. It's a measure of just how spiritually bankrupt the TM Org has become that that attitude is prevalent in some quarters. But I believe in the strength and potential of the wonderful people I have known in the Movement. Creative. Intelligent. Spiritual. I believe -- together -- we can create a TM Org we would be proud to be a part of. J. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 wrote:Your common sense is rubbish. The TMO does not need any silly input from the majority of the people who are living like animals. Their ideas being widely accepted will hopefully never happen simply because the world would blow up. Too much Sattwa too quickly is not a good thing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
Didn't take long to get snarky. One word spoken reveals the man's entire way. Enjoy --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 20, 2008, at 9:11 AM, danfriedman2002 wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. And the thunder crashed, as the lightening flashed when the Great Pronouncement was made. Sal
[FairfieldLife] TM is just like screwing
Was anyone on the Santa Barbara ATR course where Maharishi gave a lecture in which he said over and over again that TM was just like screwing? No one could suppress their laughter and I don't think he understood why they were laughing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: What would FFL be without its most strident voices?
As a member of the 'lurkers', I took your warm invitation and posted. I'd hoped for discussion (got a bit of sarcasm instead). Perhaps FFL could be moderated a bit more closely. Discussion would be good. Most know good discussion when the're in it. Thanks for the offer. I'll see how it goes. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Looks to me as if for the next 12 days we have a chance to find out. Judy, in a fit of being (dare I say it?) REAL REAL STPID, has bounced herself off the forum next week. Lawson is probably still out next week as well. Shemp has been reserved in his posts and has contributed some interesting and valuable insights, so he hasn't been an issue in recent days. Everybody already ignores most of what Nabby and Willytex and Off say anyway. And Jim? Well, he's already established in the past that the enlightened can't count as high as 50, and if he keeps up his gay-baiting campaign, he'll be out next week as well. So who does that leave? Well, it leaves folks who occasionally complain (and with some justification) that FFL is too confrontational and argumentative and in-your-face for them to participate in fully, or comfortably. Now's your chance, you lurkers. Go for it. If there are subjects you've always wanted to introduce but were afraid to because you knew they'd be turned into arguments within two replies, now's your oppor- tunity to give voice (or the sound of keyboard clicking) to them. Those who are already civil and restrained, like Curtis and Hugo and Marek and Ruth and Rick, will probably continue to respond the same way. Even inveterate assholes like myself might decide to lay low for this blessed period of time and allow this spiritual forum to actually be spiritual for a while. Might. I'm not promising anything, but I'll try. So what's out there to discuss that could be better discussed without someone trying their best to turn the discussions into arguments? And what's out there that doesn't *deserve* to be discussed that much during these next 12 days? Like has-been Hillary Clinton, or the other subjects that people have used to pull Judy's puppet strings and make her Just Go Away? Well, she's away. There is no *need* to post things for her to compulsively react to for the next 12 days. There is no need to mention her or her name or any of the others' names as well. We could give pulling their strings as much of a rest as their absence will give us. Or, it could be business as usual. Your call.
[FairfieldLife] 16. REVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE
16. REVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE THE TANTRAYUDHA OF SALVATION SCIENCE, VOLUME 16: CONTENTS http://salvationscience.com/v016.htm - 1. ORIGINS OF HERESY Subject: The Beginnings of Christian Heresy http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11044a.htm 2. ON THE RECENT BIN LADEN SPEECH 3. THE MARRIAGE SUPPER IS RASA TANTRA From Revelation 19, in the Holy Bible: 4. RE: FDA SUPPRESSION OF STEVIA IN FAVOR OF TOXIC NUTRASWEET AND SPLENDA 5. INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO FASTING FORUM GROUP 6. OBTAINING DMT Subject: Obtaining the Psychedelic Estrogen, DMT http://dmt.lycaeum.org/extract/where.html The human body manufactures DMT, also found in Ayahuasca and other plants. It is the center of the Santo Daime Community's religion, based primarily in Brazil. We theorize that DMT increases with the rejuvenation, which occurs from Urine Tantra. It could explain the Astral Projection or OOBE (out-of-body-experience), resulting from Rasa Tantra and the Rebirth it causes. Your.. Picasso 7. REMOTE VIEWING http://www.firedocs.com/remoteviewing/ This shocking revelation was first declassified in the mid-90's, when several hours of documentaries about it were aired on TV. They said, with their methods (which are never disclosed), they could take an average person and make him superior to any natural born psychic! Similar events were happenning, spontaneously, to large numbers of people throughout Asia a decade before, and nobody knew why or how! I find zero documentation of this, the most extraordinary event in history. Those who know about it are reluctant to talk about it, and so am I. Let's just call it a mass Shakti Pat, without explanation. Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies. - Sw. T.. 8. PROJECT GENESIS This method was invented by my Shakti Ma, Karen Douglas Snow, some 25 years ago. She asked: The Modus Operandi of success in Tantra, is to make male and female 'as one flesh', like Adam and Eve. Basically, that means that they must share the same Bioplasma, which would be neither male nor female, but a mixture of both, or as the yogis say: 'Prana (Bioplasma) must be in Shushumna Nadi (the Central River)'. Correct? Yes, I answered. She continued: Then why not just take a man and woman with the same blood type and hook them up together with intravenous tubes, and let their two blood streams flow together? Thus was born Project Genesis, another promising experimental protocol, invented by the beloved Hermetic Scientist, Karen Snow. She is in the Spirit now, and my gratitude for her contributions is eternal. Thanks Karen! Jai Om. Sanatana (Eternal) Dharma ki Jai. - Sw. Tantrasangha 9. SALVATION FROM THE 8-FOLD SUFFERING Unlike other religions, ours tries to define all words and terms, to eliminate vagaries as much as possible. If you question the average Christian: You want to be saved from what?, he would say: From damnation and Hell. If you ask him to define those terms, he might get a little confused, because, frankly, it is doubtful if he ever gave it much thought. This indicates a shallow understandeing with not much contemplation... On the other hand, we define our terms. The word, Salvation means nothing until one asks, Salvation from what? The answer is Salvation from: 1. Hunger 2. Disease 3. Senescence 4. Death 5. Emotional Depression 6. Low Mental Intelligence 7. Spiritual Entrapment of Consciousness in the Physical Dimension, and 8. The torment of the impermanence of the endless Round (Samsara) of births and deaths. This is why we are prepared to sacrifice so much comfort by performing difficult austerities. The other religions obviously don't supply such thorough, complete and quantifiable boons to mankind. They therefore are dangers to the gullible, who are pressured to put faith before the proof of evidence. My prediction is both good and bad news. The good news is that Jesus and Buddha were correct, and the bad news is the world's religions, as they are presently taught, are not correct, being false religions, because they save no one from anything, and provide only a false sense of safety. 10. FORNICATION VS. TANTRA From II Kings 9, in the Holy Bible: 11. FROM AS ONE FLESH TO AN ENMITY BETWEEN THEIR SEED From the Holy Bible - Genesis 3: 12. PEACE, LOVE AND KNOWLEDGE 13. ALL RELIGIONS MUST HAVE THESE CRITERIA 14. DON'T PISS ON ME SAY IT'S RAINING http://salvationscience.com/v016.htm **
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip I think Sandow simply is wrong about his take on the research Jacobs, not Sandow. In what respects? and has his own agenda when he calls for agenda free researchers. What he means by agenda free: At present there are quite a few therapists who work with abductees, but many of them are heavily influenced by New Age and aliens-as- Space-Brother ideas. They tend toward religious, transformational, spiritual, and mystical interpretations of UFOs and abductions. These interpretations are reflective of the therapist's mind-set, and have no relation whatsoever to the actual phenomenon. Unfortunately, they can transfer their particular agenda to abductees during hypnotic sessions and join together with them in mutually confirmational fantasies. These individuals are sometimes helpful to a few like-minded abductees, but more often they are detrimental to abductees' well-being and lead them into fantasies rather than dealing objectively with the abduction phenomenon and its effects on the abductees' lives. Jacobs isn't a fan of Mack for this very reason. I think hynosis has no place whatsoever in this kind of work. No better way to get a hysterical person more entrenched in false memories! Maybe you should read what Jacobs has to say in his book in defense of hypnosis and how to avoid the pitfalls. The focus of the stories on genitals is not surprising. Nobody said it was. Did you read what I wrote? What's surprising is that the reports of experimentation, according to Hopkins, *never* involve experimentation on the heart. Given the heart's central relationship to health and well-being, that's just astonishing, if people are making this stuff up (consciously or otherwise). For that matter, you'd likely be equally astonished if the reports never involved experimentation on the genitals, given *their* centrality to human well-being. I'm not sure you're getting the point of Hopkins's comments about the absence of certain features from the reports. Bottom line, if these reports are all just fantasizing/hallucination/false memory, you'd expect a great deal more variety than there is, even if the fantasies had a basis in stuff the abductees had heard or read about. What you would *not* expect is such consistency in the details, and the negative consistency about certain details' absence, when a great many of the details were not available to the abductees at the time they made their reports. I would not call Clancy a person with an agenda: Here is a book that talks about her theories: http://tinyurl.com/4k2fs7 (Thanks for using TinyURL.) Ruth, I just noted above that Jacobs's review is of that very book of Clancy's, in which, he says--with many examples--she simply does not engage with the evidence. And of course she has an agenda. According to Robert Fulford's review on the book's Amazon page, Clancy believes her subjects only in the sense that she believes they think they are telling the truth. From the reviews, a good part of the book is devoted to explaining how easy it is for anyone to remember things that never happened. She thinks most of these reports are a function of sleep paralysis, which is actually one of the easiest explanations to debunk IF you take the data into account. Did you read any of the negative reader reviews on the Amazon page? They bring up some good points. And for the huge number of factual inaccuracies in her book, you might want to read the review on Stanton Friedman's Web site: http://www.stantonfriedman.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: TM is just like screwing
Rick, I wasn't at the Santa Barbara ATR, but asked a question at Estes Parc TTC with similar content (I guess the late 60's and early 70's had lots of sex in the air). I'd been having enhanced pleasure and satisfaction from lovemenking. The response was that EVERYTHING IS MORE FULFILLING WHEN WE EXPAND. i GUESS THAT THE PURPOSE OF CREATION IS THE EXPANSION OF HAPPINESS --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Was anyone on the Santa Barbara ATR course where Maharishi gave a lecture in which he said over and over again that TM was just like screwing? No one could suppress their laughter and I don't think he understood why they were laughing.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: They're very plausible if you aren't familiar with the nature of the reports and the reporting circumstances. Once you have become familiar with them, the explanations you propose have to be to read the reports. I have read in the past some of these reports and I am not blown away. Boy, is that a non sequitur. Done with the topic and time to do some work. I can't believe I spent so many posts on this!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: snip What about this? Watch all 5 parts (you see them appear in the side bar on the right. This is part 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEPYOad1cnQ Thanks, but UFO technology isn't my area of interest.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
JOHN, A TM Governor requesting email suggestions sent directly to you at [EMAIL PROTECTED] non-cults and cults. Why? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, taskcentered [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Give me a moment. I mean to give this post a positive agenda. But it may take a second to get there. I could complain about Transcendental Meditation. But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future, at least. Heck, science fiction has always been my preferred literature form. This is what I observe. When critics label a group cultic, there's a knee-jerk reaction. The group enters an escalating spiral of defensiveness. First, they claim they are not a cult. They give dozens of reasons why they're just like other religions or groups. They attempt to destroy their critics. They claim critics are disgruntled, criminal, bankrupt, unbalanced -- downright crazy. When these tactics don't work, cults ratchet up repressive isolation of their members and forbid them to read critics. Critics rightly point out these defensive maneuvers make the groups even more cultic than before. Which sets off another round of defensiveness. Once in a great while, modern cults claim they have reformed. Scientology and ISKCON come to mind. I remember opening my apartment door one sunny, Sonoma summer day in 1996 to Gene Ingram's smiling face http://web.tampabay.rr.com/sp/PI.html . Gene's a private investigator best-known for allegedly intimidating critics of his main client, Scientology. He heard I left a startup cult activist foundation. So he thought I might be sympathetic to Scientology's side of the story. Scientology used to have some problems. But it's over. We threw the bad guys out. The good guys won. Gene left me his business card and invited me to Los Angeles for a private tour of Scientology's facilities there - and a private audience with some church bigwigs. Somehow, I never got around to that trip. Gene sadly misjudged my state of mind. Despite his assurances, cultic abuse complaints continue to dog Scientology some 12 years later. Maybe the mainstream media didn't get the memo. Hare Krishnas reform? Same tune, different day with ISKCON's Hare Krishnas http://www.rickross.com/reference/krishna/krishna7.html . Okay. So on to my positive agenda. Not every organization that critics label a cult started out to abuse its members. But without forethought, any organization can become cultic. Look at the problems the Catholic Church faces. So here are a few tips for Nader, Hagelin, and the other new TM leaders. Maybe, just maybe they can dodge the cult label. Be Transparent * discuss policies, procedures scandals openly * publicize open complaint procedures * report public scandals promptly to members, law officials public media * allow free information flow fully disclose secrets, especially those that might affect potential members' choice to join * fully disclose the group's political legislative involvement * fully disclose finances, particularly international finances, with third-party audits * create a member-driven task force to set reasonable fees for retreats courses * dialogue openly with laity, the press the public Be Accountable * publish - and adhere to - a set of ethics * publish - and adhere to - all fees donation policies * oversee clergy other agents with governing boards * if any group agent acts unethically or illegally, take full responsibility Advocate Freedom * allow open questioning of the leader's beliefs practices * Create a mechanism for modifying beliefs practices * create an elective or accountable structure of representation (as in most churches) * promote freedom of speech within the group, without reprisals for contrary opinions * promote academic freedom for clergy scholars * allow access to files/records held on members public individuals * advocate freedom to explore our spirituality without shunning or other repercussions * avoid use of shame or guilt to control members Provide Member Protections * institute safeguards against members devoting damaging amounts of time, money emotional resources to the group Value Respect for Non-Members * foster a systemic respect for other spiritual traditions non-members * foster a systemic respect for the rule of law, rather than the belief the ends justify the means * foster a systemic respect for members' families, whether they are members or not * foster a systemic practice of charity support to the less fortunate * encourage members to live or socialize with non-group members Provide Informed Consent * fully disclose negative side-effects of group's mind-altering or medical techniques * undertake real efforts to address heal side-effects
[FairfieldLife] Re: What if?
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, danfriedman2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Didn't take long to get snarky. One word spoken reveals the man's entire way. Enjoy Sal isn't a man but an old, frustrated woman. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunshine@ wrote: On Jun 20, 2008, at 9:11 AM, danfriedman2002 wrote: TM requires practice for the development of full benefits. Going from 'boat to boat' will not get the seeker to the other shore. And the thunder crashed, as the lightening flashed when the Great Pronouncement was made. Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, taskcentered [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nablusoss1008, Labeling people animals because they do not believe the way you do is a primary symptom of cult thinking http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/culttales.html . When I was a TM Governor, we used to refer to nonmeditators with disdain. There was even an underlying fear that we might catch some of their stress. We used to call them mud -- after that story the Maharishi told about another monk in the Himalayas. This black/white, us-vs.-them thinking is unhealthy for both us and them. It's one of the primary things I mention need reform in the TM Org. A true spiritual organization advocates respect, care, and concern for all life -- at least human life. It's a measure of just how spiritually bankrupt the TM Org has become that that attitude is prevalent in some quarters. But I believe in the strength and potential of the wonderful people I have known in the Movement. Creative. Intelligent. Spiritual. I believe -- together -- we can create a TM Org we would be proud to be a part of. J. - -- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 wrote:Your common sense is rubbish. The TMO does not need any silly input from the majority of the people who are living like animals. Their ideas being widely accepted will hopefully never happen simply because the world would blow up. Too much Sattwa too quickly is not a good thing. Relax, get a checking
[FairfieldLife] Re: Use the razor on your beliefs, not just your tonsure.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Boy, is that a non sequitur. snort Oh Judy, I just don't see the reported accounts as compelling as you do. My failure to be impressed is hardly a non sequitur. You don't have to sound so disgusted when people disagree with you. ;) Cripe, I have to log off or I will keep checking back. I was going to skip out of work early today and I won't at this rate!
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Abduction researcher Budd Hopkins has some good articles debunking the debunkings here: http://www.intrudersfoundation.org/if_readings.html (I just read the articles I discuss below this morning *after* posting my responses to Ruth, BTW, so those responses weren't influenced by what Hopkins or, later, Jacobs says.) In Part 1 of a four-part article called Patterns of UFO Abductions, Hopkins notes that of all the reports he's aware of (thousands, including those he elicited himself), the vast majority of which involve the abductee being examined by the aliens while naked, none of the accounts mention embarrassment at being naked. In Part 2, he writes: In these hundreds upon hundreds of UFO abduction accounts, I have yet to hear anyone state that the UFO occupants paid the slightest attention to an abductee's heart during the physical examination procedures that routinely occur during these encounters. The aliens' interest is almost invariably focused upon the abductee's genitals and lower abdomen. There are frequent additional 'operations' involving the abductee's head, and in particular the nasal cavity, the eyes and ears. We also occasionally hear of procedures having to do with the feet, the major joints and the rectum. But never, ever, the abductee's heart. If that's true, and if all these reports are false memories, it's quite remarkable. In Part 3, he notes that none of the abduction accounts he's aware of feature food and drink, even peripherally. He points out that fantasizing normally involves at least some elements of real life, especially of very common and important human activities. Again, the absence from the reports of any references to eating and drinking, if accurate, is astonishing if we assume they're all fantasies or false memories. Finally, in Part 4, he notes the almost complete absence from any of the reports (including several from police officers) of the aliens wielding weapons of any kind. Especially given the forced-abduction scenario described in these reports, if they're all fantasies or false memories, this absence, if accurate, is startling. In other words, if the accounts are just fantasies or false memories, in accord with the standard patterns of fantasy, one or another of these elements should be present in a significant percentage of the accounts. Hopkins believes the accounts are of real live aliens, and that these absent features support that notion. As I've said, I doubt the premise of alien beings. But at the very least, the absences indicate that there is something about abduction accounts that is qualitatively different from ordinary fantasizing, false memories, or even hallucinations. They're just not the same phenomenon. Hopkins's Response to the ABC Peter Jennings 'Seeing Is Believing' TV program is also of interest. He takes direct aim at the sleep paralysis explanation for abduction accounts. He was interviewed for the program and made the same points I'm about to list, but none of them made it into the finished documentary, which proposed sleep paralysis as *the* explanation for abduction reports: --For the first 20 years of his research into abduction reports, none of the experiences took place while the subject was in bed asleep (or half-awake); they all involved abductions while the subject was engaging in routine daily activity. --In a number of cases, several people were taken at the same time, and the abductees afterward reported identical details. --He also cites some apparent physical evidence, such as new but healed scars. --Of the abduction reports he's aware of, some 30 percent were not obtained via hypnosis. (I haven't read the other articles linked to on this page.) Another site I looked at this morning-- http://www.ufoabduction.com/research.htm --has some interesting material. David Jacobs, the abduction researcher who runs the site--rather grandly called the International Center for Abduction Research--reviews Susan Clancy's book Abducted. (Clancy is one of the authors of the Memory Distortion study Ruth cited.) It's an openly hostile review, but many of the points it makes about Clancy's not having engaged with the evidence are significant. He also has a critique of the Jennings ABC special, making points similar to those of Budd Hopkins (they're colleagues, so that's not surprising). He says, flatly, It must be understood that all debunkers commit one or more of three errors: 1, they do not know the data, 2, they ignore the data or 3, they distort the data to make it conform to their explanations. There are no exceptions to this rule. He also has a multipart article titled Thinking Clearly About the Abduction Phenomenon that I plan to read later today, if I can
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, off_world_beings [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com , guyfawkes91 guyfawkes91@ wrote: But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future,at least. This is one of the best posts I've seen on here for a long time. I think it's a bad reflection on the group that it hasn't generated more support or comments. People here are mostly up their own arses arguing about really miniscule points or issues that the group thinks are important but no one else does. John's post lays out some good points for people to think about and they're issues that affect a lot of the lurkers here. I think the TMO is capable of reform, though it will take a long time and maybe even a generation before the present structure is dumped. These guidelines are simple common sense changes that the TMO needs to make before it has any chance of seeing its better ideas becoming widely accepted. None of this will matter anyway soon. The planet is either going back to a dark ages chaos soon (and I will be the King -- loved by all the people due to my harsh rule ;-) ...or there is going to be a very powerful transormation of consciousness that is WAY MORE than people just being a bit nicer to each other. The changes will be tumultuous and powerful. Less than 5 years, but probably this year. OffWorld Agreed, but take a look at this : As men look back, by the Master The Master's article for Share International magazine, June 2008 As men look back by the Master , through Benjamin Creme, 23 April 2008 A few years from now, looking back, men will wonder why they hesitated so long in taking the obvious and most natural action: sharing the resources of the world. Experiencing warmly the new stability, the lack of tension, the ease of international co- operation, men will wonder how they could have been so blind to the self-evident, so wilful and destructive to their own best interests for so long. Humanity stands now at the threshold of an entirely new experience in which every global decision and act will be seen to be for the better, as nourishing and sanctifying their lives, and strengthening the bonds of Brotherhood which, up till then, they had ignored and all but forgotten. Gladly, men will now work together for the Common Good, the hatred and distrust of the past put firmly behind them. Thus will a new kinship emerge as Goodwill and Respect, like vitalizing yeast, saturate their awakened lives. Thus, too, in ever strengthening measure, will love and joy embrace and lighten the hearts of men and women everywhere. Alchemy What subtle alchemy can it be that will work this magical transformation in the lives of men? Not alchemy but the divinity which dwells in the hearts of men themselves, evoked and brought forth by the wonder of Maitreya's Love. Sharing, He has said, is divine; the first step into sharing is the first step into your divinity. In man himself lies the full measure of that divinity. Sharing will demonstrate that man is a potential God and is equipped to express the creative Will of his Source. Slowly but surely, that creative Purpose will manifest through men and so direct their actions and decisions. The old lawlessness will wither away and disappear like a faded memory of a distant, childish past. So will it be. Brilliant future We, your elder Brothers, see ever more clearly the outlines of a brilliant future stretching ahead for men; We see the blueprints of a science which would astonish the most fertile and sophisticated minds of today; We see, too, an art whose beauty and creative power has never, as yet, been seen by men. Above all, We recognize that this creative outflow, unprecedented in scope in human history, is the inevitable result of the great inner change through which humanity is passing: learning to live within the Laws of Life. When men see and understand this consciously, as a fact of life, they will take, gladly, the steps which lead directly to Peace and Justice, Freedom and Right Relationship. That first step is called Sharing. With Maitreya, the Lord of Love, and His group of Masters to help and guide, how can men fail to see that Sharing and Right Relationship are the same, have the same impulse: to demonstrate the urge to Unity which underlies our apparent separation, and so reveal the true nature of men as Gods. http://shareintl.org/magazine/SI_current.htm#master
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
Say it isn't so (or that you now know better), please: When I was a TM Governor, we used to refer to nonmeditators with disdain. There was even an underlying fear that we might catch some of their stress. We used to call them 'mud' --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, taskcentered [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Nablusoss1008, Labeling people animals because they do not believe the way you do is a primary symptom of cult thinking http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/culttales.html . When I was a TM Governor, we used to refer to nonmeditators with disdain. There was even an underlying fear that we might catch some of their stress. We used to call them mud -- after that story the Maharishi told about another monk in the Himalayas. This black/white, us-vs.-them thinking is unhealthy for both us and them. It's one of the primary things I mention need reform in the TM Org. A true spiritual organization advocates respect, care, and concern for all life -- at least human life. It's a measure of just how spiritually bankrupt the TM Org has become that that attitude is prevalent in some quarters. But I believe in the strength and potential of the wonderful people I have known in the Movement. Creative. Intelligent. Spiritual. I believe -- together -- we can create a TM Org we would be proud to be a part of. J. - -- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 wrote:Your common sense is rubbish. The TMO does not need any silly input from the majority of the people who are living like animals. Their ideas being widely accepted will hopefully never happen simply because the world would blow up. Too much Sattwa too quickly is not a good thing.
RE: [FairfieldLife] Re: What would FFL be without its most strident voices?
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of danfriedman2002 Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:01 PM To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: What would FFL be without its most strident voices? As a member of the 'lurkers', I took your warm invitation and posted. I'd hoped for discussion (got a bit of sarcasm instead). Perhaps FFL could be moderated a bit more closely. That's a slippery slope. We've taken a step or two down it once or twice. Don't want to go there.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Memo to New TM Leaders: How NOT to Be a Cult
M regulary reminded us that we are The Movement and if we see better ways, to change things. John is doing that. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But I'd like to give the new leaders a few tips on how not to be a cult. In the future,at least. This is one of the best posts I've seen on here for a long time. I think it's a bad reflection on the group that it hasn't generated more support or comments. People here are mostly up their own arses arguing about really miniscule points or issues that the group thinks are important but no one else does. John's post lays out some good points for people to think about and they're issues that affect a lot of the lurkers here. I think the TMO is capable of reform, though it will take a long time and maybe even a generation before the present structure is dumped. These guidelines are simple common sense changes that the TMO needs to make before it has any chance of seeing its better ideas becoming widely accepted.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Abduction research, for Ruth (or not)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: snip I think Sandow simply is wrong about his take on the research Jacobs, not Sandow. In what respects? and has his own agenda when he calls for agenda free researchers. What he means by agenda free: At present there are quite a few therapists who work with abductees, but many of them are heavily influenced by New Age and aliens-as- Space-Brother ideas. They tend toward religious, transformational, spiritual, and mystical interpretations of UFOs and abductions. These interpretations are reflective of the therapist's mind-set, and have no relation whatsoever to the actual phenomenon. Unfortunately, they can transfer their particular agenda to abductees during hypnotic sessions and join together with them in mutually confirmational fantasies. These individuals are sometimes helpful to a few like-minded abductees, but more often they are detrimental to abductees' well-being and lead them into fantasies rather than dealing objectively with the abduction phenomenon and its effects on the abductees' lives. Jacobs isn't a fan of Mack for this very reason. I think hynosis has no place whatsoever in this kind of work. No better way to get a hysterical person more entrenched in false memories! Maybe you should read what Jacobs has to say in his book in defense of hypnosis and how to avoid the pitfalls. The focus of the stories on genitals is not surprising. Nobody said it was. Did you read what I wrote? What's surprising is that the reports of experimentation, according to Hopkins, *never* involve experimentation on the heart. Given the heart's central relationship to health and well-being, that's just astonishing, if people are making this stuff up (consciously or otherwise). For that matter, you'd likely be equally astonished if the reports never involved experimentation on the genitals, given *their* centrality to human well-being. I'm not sure you're getting the point of Hopkins's comments about the absence of certain features from the reports. Bottom line, if these reports are all just fantasizing/hallucination/false memory, you'd expect a great deal more variety than there is, even if the fantasies had a basis in stuff the abductees had heard or read about. What you would *not* expect is such consistency in the details, and the negative consistency about certain details' absence, when a great many of the details were not available to the abductees at the time they made their reports. I would not call Clancy a person with an agenda: Here is a book that talks about her theories: http://tinyurl.com/4k2fs7 (Thanks for using TinyURL.) Ruth, I just noted above that Jacobs's review is of that very book of Clancy's, in which, he says--with many examples--she simply does not engage with the evidence. And of course she has an agenda. According to Robert Fulford's review on the book's Amazon page, Clancy believes her subjects only in the sense that she believes they think they are telling the truth. From the reviews, a good part of the book is devoted to explaining how easy it is for anyone to remember things that never happened. She thinks most of these reports are a function of sleep paralysis, which is actually one of the easiest explanations to debunk IF you take the data into account. Did you read any of the negative reader reviews on the Amazon page? They bring up some good points. And for the huge number of factual inaccuracies in her book, you might want to read the review on Stanton Friedman's Web site: http://www.stantonfriedman.com It is easy for people to remember things that never happened. That has been my point all along. I have read enough about hypnosis to be convinced that it should not be used in these kinds of cases. OK, I'm done. If you want the last word on the subject, take it. :)
