silent thunder

yup, feet don't have much value there

These started for me when I was meditating in pitch dark with my eyes open. They progressed from simple colors telescoping inward and outward, to spiraling geometric shapes of oscillating colors. I don't get the light when I'm in Qi Gong with eyes open, but if I close them for more than a few heartbeats, the show begins. I'm not particularly attached to it any more, it's comforting in a way and was fun for a while. Now it's just part of one of the processes that's me, or my idea of me... or something... edit: as far as I know it's the third eye firing off

I had a very similar experience in the Void. It was the absence of everything that I could conceive of and it was terrifying, I ended the trip abruptly. Soon after I had another spontaneous trip into the Void while taking a shower, which led to a long vision. This time it was absolutely spirit filling and renewing... Longest I've meditated in seated, traditional posture is 4-6 hours. My usual time is around 45-120 minutes, depends entirely on the day and my schedule and inertia. Though I've gone longer in a waking trance like state, walking around and interacting in a remote sort of fashion for far longer.

can't imagine anything like that has happened in the semi's ever...

*nods* sounds about right... 7-1 wow, just wow.

I've always thought skill/discipline had the edge, but I know a guy from the NBA and he says of 'gamesmanship' if you aren't cheating on some level, you just don't really want to win. I just shake my head and reply every time... 'who would want to win that way... that isn't winning to me', but I ramble... well played Germany? or really poor showing Brazil? or both...

Um... Brazil.... Germany.... WOW

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For me it's camping and stargazing, though again, not independently.

illusion of choice

Does seem the best ways to get to a championship, to be skilled or be dirty...

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:American_inventions&from=G

ugh... fast food

American technology hmm... computer chips. Jazz and Blues Cowboys wish we invented bacon....

I LOVE German food, but not independently

Independence from oil, fear and war would be neat... but not flowers... dependent on them always.

I find it implausible for any 'thing' to be independent...

stevia

The way I experience it... I have a palpable sense of the abiding nature of essence (reincarnation) which stems from two sources: first: my observation of nature... Everything around me is cyclical... it's Summer again, here in North America. The ice has melted, the animals are raising their young... again; as has happened endlessly for the present epoch... yet even in this repetition, this is a unique Summer. Like waves of the ocean, no two are the same, yet all are the ocean. My heartbeat... the way I walk... my breath. recently I've experienced greater depth of awareness of the cycles within my form, mind and emotional body. the cycles of intimacy and seclusion within my partnership and with my close friends life cycles through death repeating and yet not repeating, more like constantly yielding in unique expression... raw awareness... stillness... and second and ultimate kicker was experiencing consciousness untethered from my form. fortunately for me, this experience came first, when I was about four years old so I occupy the enviable position of having never experienced a fear of dying. the observations on nature came much later, some time after my exposure to the Tao.

I found this very thing in 1989. I've nurtured and cherished it ever since.

If you're truly starting at ground zero... my mantra is live teacher, in person teacher, teacher you resonate with...

Mr Winter has always held a special place in my odd little reality tunnel... he's one of the coolest vampires... ever. oh and he's passing good on that guitar too...

They're not opposite or opposing to me. They seem to be varied expressions of one thing. Human.

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