clergyq

Can't you, like, OD on potassium if you eat too many bannanas? My mom's a paranoid freak, but i remember her forcing me to stop eating them. because I was eating like 3 bananna sandwiches a day. SHE TOLD ME I WAS GONNA DIE!!

dizilluziondmasokist, not all people pray for things to happen. Many prayers are for strength, understanding, and courage to do things for ourselves. Prayer differs from spellcraft in that they are meant to be reaffirmations of faith... to speak and feel yourself be heard. If you don't talk to a friend in a long while, chances are you'll drift apart and stop talking at all. Its a way to align yourself with what you consider divine and keep the sacred from being buried by the mundane daily trials of the material.As for scientific evidence of god's existence... you won't find it if you aren't looking. Empirical science is based on the physical senses, and on the belief that all things can be observed through them and (in time) comprehended. If you are looking for evidence of something that presupposes all known things (including the physical realm science is bound within) and is by definition beyond human comprehension, then emperical science is the wrong route to take. The concept of god is a philosophical truth -- or untruth. To accept the concept of god shows a belief that life, matter, time... in short the world and everything in it.. exist for a reason, and that the will behind that reason is still somehow alive and in effect. To reject the concept of god is to reject the idea of worthy reasons beyond our own (either as individuals or as a collective); without it this is all entirely pointless and/or accidental, and we have to make the point ourselves. Belief in god is a philosophical choice, and belief will outline what you percieve. How you choose to define that belief, or what name and face (if any) you choose to give to god, are other matters entirely.Science is not necessarily contrary to faith; it is the study of the "hows" of a "why" we already have. There is no anser to the "why's" in science, only more explanations of more machinations... and machinations are systems, not reasons.**grinz** i'm finally out of things to say.. so i'm gonna stop now

I know there are some recent ones i've seen that made me exlaim... that was a dam_ good movie! but i cant remember them. These are my favorites from immediate memory.1) In the mouth of madness2) the hunger3) they live4) kill bill5) night of the living dead -or- war of the roses (i cant decide =P)

This isn't really a complaint, but i didnt know where else to post it:Since my hosting account is for my coven, do you guys mind if they post under my member name as well? There's only two of them.. and only one is interested. Not sure if you cared, but I figured I would ask.

Personally, i've always thought that paying attention to your body is the best diet. If you just eat when ur hungry, and eat what you crave (and stop as soon as the hunger is gone), i've always found it to keep my weight pretty stable. Do understand that there is a difference between cravings and habitual eating. I like coffee, but i rarely crave it.. i just want it out of memory and habit.**shrugs** works for me

I think our perception follows our attention. Have you ever become so familiar with a room that you only notice the things in it you haven't seen before. Our expectations screen out what we already believe will be there; Most of us dont waste our time studying everything afresh when we go to a place we already know. I think this applies to ghosts and all manner of "subtle perceptions" as well.As children, we learn what is relevant from our peers and parents. Ghosts don't play a major role in our society, so i think most of us start screening such things out of our world-view around the same time we are learning to talk. If infants see things that no one else seems to care about.. and the infant is struggling to meet the rest of humanity, eventually they'll just stop paying attention. Eventually they forget.Same thing with dreams.. they have whole set of laws (physics, if you will) that have very little in common with our waking environment.. but since most of us are taught that dreams dont really have anything to do with who we are and what we do, few of us bother to explore them.**grinz** at least, those are my thoughts on the matter.

Last book i finished was "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." pretty good.Right now i'm reading Freud's Group Psychology: an analysis of the ego. .. well, i would be if i could find it =P

I suppose it is easy to believe that we created God in order to understand our own existence, but only if you have ideas about what God and existence should be and your perceptions don't match these ideas. It is human arrogance, based in the importance we place on ourselves and our own explanations, to ridicule what we only pretend to understand or refuse to accept. You still live a life you did not create. Your existence is still bound by laws you did not set in motion. You are still just an aspect of the patterns evolving around you. Saying "so what, it doesn't mean anything" does not nullify these truths. Existence is a mystery, regardless of how tempting it may be to believe we know everything there is to know about it. People don't think God is seen these days because most don't bother to look. You don't recognize E Coli unless you know what it is. You don't notice a leech until you get out of the water. You won't see the undefinable if you believe you have it defined; it will invariably escape your view, because you will look for something that exists only in your own opinions. You could see a brown recluse 50 times and swear you haven't if you only know them as 'spiders'. Those that look, see, and tell, are still around in abundance. We put them in straightjackets or just point at them an laugh. Of course, they don't qualify as "people," do they?

No, i don't think god cares about us as we care about ourselves. We view our existences from the inside, so there are many things we see and cannot understand how they fit in with the big picture, the whole. This affects our interests, and our self-concerns and concerns about those close to us are fairly narrow. Most of us don't like death and pain and suffering and war because we don't want any of it happening to us or our loved ones. We have no right to blame the Creator of all things simply because these things show up suddenly on our doorstep. We know they exist before they show up, and if we live our lives in a comfortable little state of oblivion doing nothing to understand or change these things until they happen to us, then we have made our own miserable beds. THEY EXIST!! If there were no reason for their existence, they would have faded away by now. We say they are evil, bad, bad things and shouldn't happen to anyone.. THIS IS OUR OWN PETTY FEARS TALKING. We think life is OURS and nothing should take it from us. We think health is ours and nothing should change it. This is a moronic choice to ignore the reality of natural law. You will die. You will get sick. You will suffer. Understand that these things are true, stop acting as if you are immortal, and find something to make these things worthwhile! Life is temporary, and part of living is finding something MORE important to us than ourselves... finding something to justify our existences... finding something WORTH DYING FOR. A life centered around the preservation of life and nothing else is futile and pointless, time WILL defeat you. If you don't like the way things are, then use your free will and act to change them! If your will and Gods will coincide, you will succeed. If you don't succeed, then i guess you will know you were wrong.Good and evil are two sides of the same coin: existence. God minted the coin, and we named the sides. We make judgements about the sides of the coin, but these are OUR judgements and not Gods. The coin exists. We did not make the coin. There are laws and patterns that all things in existence follow, including us. Every action we take with our free will is taken within the confines of this divine scheme. Yes, i think God is good, but not because divine will coincides with our conceptions of what is beneficial to us. God is good because there is no greater power; no person place or thing is powerful enough to define what is "better." "Evil" is nothing more than human dissatisfaction trying to establish itself as a divine (or anti-divine) force. If god is all-powerful, then all things exist because he wills it. Evil exists, then, because god wills it. If god is all-powerful, then what god wills is the highest determinant of what is good. Therefore, evil is good. The distinction between the two lies only in human conception.

Triple X, these are call dream wounds.. I used to have fights with a sorcerer who specialized in them. For a short while, we were friends and he explained how they work. He said if you can invade anothers dream or go and visit them in an OBE/projection while they are sleeping.. you can attack them. If you can get them JUST when they cross over the threshold from sleeping to waking, you can make the wound follow them into the real world. The really nasty ones will manifest as illnesses or real wounds.. like when he cut my coven sister's finger off in a dream... she felt it all day, and then in the afternoon she cut it to the bone opening a can. The nerves are still severed, but its pretty much healed. The ones that aren't so bad will just fade with time.. or give you an ache or heartburn or something similarly annoying but not very harmful. To fix them, you have to lure yourself back into that sleepy state, and undo the damage before they 'set in' to reality. I know sorcerers and some of the more unethical reiki people and dreamers can do it. I think some kinds of spirits can do it, and i think we can do it to ourselves in our own dreams -- or rather our own 'internal demons'. Scary stuff.

I was 18 and living in a small apartment with a friend (who is now one of my covenmates). We had twin beds on opposite sides of the room, and we were training ourselves to "see in the astral" while awake. We used to lie in our beds and lure ourselves into trances and compare what we saw in the room. One night, i was lying there trying to meditate, and my chest got real heavy like there was a big weight on it and i couldnt breathe very well. This had happened maybe 4 times before so i didnt think anything of it.. i thought it was just my mind trying to distract me from what i was doing (trying to enter a trance). She had been lying silent for maybe half an hour practicing her 'sight' (i thought she had fallen asleep). Suddenly she said "Ben." really quiet like (cuz she thought i might be asleep too). I said "yeah?". and she said "something's sitting on your chest." I opened my eyes real quick and saw a solid black figure hovering cross-legged over me with its hands pressed down on my chest and its face a couple feet above mine. All of the sudden i understood why i couldnt breathe and flipped out. Later i figured out what it was and how to get rid of it, but at the time it was the scariest thing that had ever happened to me.

I fell in love with the Elder Scrolls when Daggerfall came around. That game was one of the worst addictions i had faced til then. The programming sucked though... there were all sorts of nasty things the game did to my computers (2 of them).I was afraid to play Morrowind at first, but i finally broke down. I was pleased to learn it was fun, but not so dangerously soul-consuming as daggerfall.Badinfluence, i havent read anything on it either, but i know from the other games that Oblivion is the Realm the Deadras (the ES version of demons) come from, so i would assume it has something to do with them.

No. I got it as a gift when it first came out, but i couldn't get it working on my system... so i gave it to someone who thought they could get it working. I was pretty upset because the game looked awesome.

synapticflame, i couldn't agree more. I have several friends in school for marketing and advertising, and we argue regularly over the ethical base for what they learn. Not only do the advertisements not have anything to do with the products anymore, the Advertisers KNOW it. A large part of advertisement today centers around psychological appeal, and basic Ericksonian hypnosis and 'neuro-linguistic programming' are staple study for those entering the field. I find many commercials insulting in their shameless attempts to override my ability to think for myself with loops of trash; in particular the recent campaign ads that had differnent people finishing each others sentences and repeating the same short phrases REALLY bothered me. Since, i've seen the same method used by companies. These commercials aren't meant to prove anything to us, or convince us of anything... they are meant to creep inside our heads and override our own opinions with loops of thoughts that arent ours. It is literally brainwash, and advertisers expect us to be too busy and/or stupid to notice.

Censorship definitely compromises aristic and self expression, but how do we discern what has expressive value and what is simply mean to sell. There is, by far, too much money involved in the entertainment industries, and much shameless employment of base psychological manipulations... It is widely known that certain concepts hook and lure the human psyche... concepts like sex and death. Hypnotic methods are now staple in advertisement and entertainment. These things are employed to attract our attention and our money.. unfortunately our children tend to be attracted to them as well.How can we seperate what is intentional psychological victimization and what is genuine expression? I'm not sure we can while human greed has a hand in it. I dont think we should child-safe our entire society.. the populace shouldn't suffer expressive repression because Guardians aren't guarding... but the parents' job should at least be made possible.I'm not sure what the answer is, but it seems to me the entire issue of censorship is based in a much larger problem... the psychological degeneration of our society based on nothing less than Greed. The question isn't "should people be allowed to express their views and opinions".. of that there is no question, American democracy demands it... the question is "should we willingly subject ourselves to brainwashing techniques by those who want our money."

Nah, i'm just someone who has faith in the Great Unknown and won't stand by while i watch the Big Big Boring consume the world. There are huge gaps in our modern understanding of reality, and i'm one of the people who hope those gaps never close and trap us in.

Uhm, yes, the accounts ARE necessarily contradictory - unless, of course, the corpse had second thoughts about casting his 'reward of iniquity' down in the Temple, went back to retrieve it, bought a field with it in another geographic area (Aceldama) at a later time, went frolicking in his undead glee over his new property and THEN burst asunder in the midst of this new location. It isnt infrequent that unreasonable stretches of the imagination MUST be employed to upkeep the illusion of the bible's infallibility.

I love South Park almost as much as i love taco flavored keeses. I have to say though... Baseketball was probably my favorite piece of ... favorite thing Matt and Trey have done... (though i never got to see Cannibal: the musical.) I was in tears for nearly the entire sitting.

I was a fan of the orginal Legend of Zelda, Link was all right, and I absolutely Love Ocarina of Time. It's probably my favorite. It was even more fun the second time.. when i watched my 6yr old 'nephew play it. He absolutely shamed me at gameplay.. the only thing he needed me for was to sit there and read the text to him. I would swear gaming is in their blood now! (oh, what have we done to the children?)

I Loved FFX, so much in fact i couldn't bear to see it end. I Played it twice and deleted my saves when i reached Yu Yevon both times. I was a bit upset that i didnt go ahead and finish it whe they released the sequel tho =P. I'm still playing FFX-2 (i stubbornly refused to start it until a month ago).

Yes, but if you quoted Matthew 27:5 "And [Judas] cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself", and then Acts 1:18 "Now [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out," you have two very clear and contrary accounts of the same events: what Judas did with the silver and how he met his end. Being written by a whole bunch of diverse authors, the Bible is, of course, inconsistent in its messages.. be they spiritual guidelines or historical records. Feel free to read the verses and verify for yourself that they are relevant, and that i am not reading anything into them.

I'm a bit confused. My post count says 14 (maybe 15 after this), but when i "find posts by member" on my member screen, it pulls up the 24 or 25 i've really made... why arent those 10 showing up, and which count should i go by where hosting requests are concerned?

No, i am saying that the word used as a negativism at all supports the social belief that being gay is unacceptable. The very self-surity and confidence that would defend a person from the opinions of others is developed in a healthy psyche through support from friends and family... something many young homosexuals still do not have. Hearing said family and friends use an adjective that describes them --a word which they identify with themselves-- used as a general insult is neither sensitive nor supportive. Perhaps our usage of speech does 'depend highly upon your surroundings and how you grew up and where you grew up and that is always a variable,' but if you 'shouldnt have to change what [you] say and how [you] speak just to please another within [your] general confines of speech,' then why is environment a factor in the way you speak at all? You BEGAN using the words you do to be accepted by those in your surroundings.. to fit in with those you were drawn to.. why should it be so difficult to CHANGE it for the same reason? Personalized speech, like any aspect of self-expression... is used to identify ourselves to others... to communicate what we value and attract those with similar interest, ideals, and opinions. YOU CHOOSE THE WORDS YOU USE. You don't have to refer to 'that lifestyle' when you use 'gay.' The word itself does. It was (and still is) used as to signify all things queer. If you call someone gay, meaning it as an insult you ARE indeed referring to their sexual preference. It is an insult at all BECAUSE it means homosexual, and is a particularly effective insult to those of the heterosexual persuasion with security issues. It hasn't been redefined, its usage as a negativsm is simply spreading.. and a choice to use it as such displays consent and agreement that it is, indeed a shameful condition.

I've had maybe 5 OBE's. The first was accidental.. i had no idea what was happening at the time. The second was also accidental.. but i'd kinda figured it out. The last three, i'd studied them and had been trying out techniques to recreate the experience. I had a problem with gravity and i couldnt get the hang of it until the last couple times. i felt REALLY heavy and i couldnt get my face off the floor. I figured out you have to get away from your body and gravity goes back to normal.. maybe 15-20ft. I also figured out you can go back to your body, if you start to 'fade', and leech off of it to stay out longer... dont do it too much though.. i did it bunches and got sick =P.Also, there's a difference between OBE's and Astral Projection. I've Projected before; its similar but not the same.. In an OBE everything looks pretty much the same as when ur awake, except sometimes there are things there that arent usually.. and you can hear people thinking like they were talking it out loud if you get close enough to them.... In projection.. everything's all funny and morphy and wavy like a dream... gravity isnt as messed up, but its hard to control your movement. I was lying on the couch the first time i did it, and i moved around the house still lying down. there were walls where there shouldnt be.. and funny things walking around that didnt respond when i yelled at them. When i got scared everything started rushing and roaring and got real creepy. I like OBE's better, but i can't figure out how to make it happen at will.. it has something to do with a feeling you get when you totally relax your body.. it kind of feels like your shaking only your not.. almost like an itch but more like ur vibrating... you JUST GOTTA MOVE or you think it'll drive you crazy.. if you can stay calm and relaxed and NOT MOVE-- just let it keep doing it, you'll feel a pop or hear a whoosh just when you think u cant take it anymore. That happened both times i MADE myself do it, but it's happened a few times where i just went to sleep afterwards, so i dunno.

I don't know , but we should all be afraid... very afraid...Especially of each other... since most americans WANT him there.