Paradoxal

5 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

Very interesting. In your opinion (since you say you met the Christian God) would you say the Christian God is synonymous with the Jewish God or not? 

They're nearly indistinguishable, but it's been pointed out to me that *technically* the Christian god and the Islam god are both split-offs of the Jewish god, in that they were originally one being until their followers' combined delusions ended up splitting them. 

7 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

What would you say the general feel of the Christian God was?

I would say that it felt rather powerful, and certainly full of "light", but it felt like it was a facade. If I were to compare it to something physical, it's like a person pretending to shine with light while paying someone to always shine a spotlight on them from afar. I'm not sure if gods work the same way as us in terms of mental functions, but it almost gave off a narcissistic feeling, like it thought it was more than it actually was. It certainly was more powerful than most humans, but that power felt off for some reason (my personal theory is that said feeling was from the way its followers affected it, as gods and their followers are intrinsically linked). It did give me truthful answers to my questions, and felt rather genuine in its desire to help humans, but it still struck me as odd.

I have just realized that I had failed to mention one other deity that I've technically interacted with, but said deity was one of chaos. I don't know its name, but one of my friends has a habit of getting possessed by it. Not really much to say about this one, other than the fact that it's quite annoying when it possesses my friend. I've included this for the sake of a truthful response, but I honestly don't think there's much I can really say about this one.

40 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

May I ask how this came to pass initially? Who contacted you? What did they say? ect...

I believe I covered this in a previous thread with you, but it was Archangel Michael. Completely shattered my worldview at the time, and I would like to think it led me to change for the better.

As for the gods that contacted me, my patron is one from a well-known pantheon, but I've been forbidden to give its identity out by said god for whatever reason. I met my patron through work with a guide spirit, though it seems that its been helping me without my knowledge from before I became spiritually aware. I speak with my patron from time to time whenever I have serious questions that can't be answered in normal ways, but we do not chat much. The other ones that I have contact with and have discussed this to some length were the Christian god, and a local Japanese deity that never gave me his name. The Japanese deity resided in Asakusa, near Sensoji Temple (I'm unsure whether he was residing *in* the temple or not, as he never specified); this one looked like an elderly man dressed in Han Dynasty-era scholarly clothes. I'm not even sure on his location of origin, but he had a certain presence that I've only seen from rather powerful gods (specifically, the others were my patron deity and the Christian god). This particular deity helped me with a detox of some particularly bad energy and provided me pointers on better practices to engage in. 

I have interacted with one other god, but that particular god was not friendly; it was one that took a penchant to controlling humans, messing with memories, etc. It was not a high level god, as the others I mentioned were, and it was one that could be overpowered by powerful humans or groups of mages. Said god dwelled in a large, glowing-white library in the astral, with many spirits around it serving it and gathering information; the spirits were usually human in shape, and acted as if they were in an automated "company" of sorts, though it was much more "robotic"-feeling in their actions, almost as if they were just dolls without minds. It had an asura-like appearance, with bull-like horns sprouting out of its forehead, four arms, and a large bushy mane around its ape-like face. It appeared in formal attire, and appeared to be very muscular (though, it wasn't physical, so I suppose this is just the shape its spirit chose to take?). I met it in an area that appeared like a fancy office of sorts, but again, this was the astral, so things certainly were not as stable in appearance or function as the physical. The general modus operandi of this particular one was to lead a group of puppets to gather and preserve information, and it was extremely protective of its puppets in an odd way; it did not care if any of them were lost, but it refused to give them away or let their former minds take over their bodies once more. I am not aware of this particular deity had a name, but if it did, it was probably not very famous in the human world.

3 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

This is an interesting theory. What do you base it upon?

Directly from the gods I have contact with, though, I realize the health of a skeptical look at this sort of source. 

I started my path due to the interference of those of divine origin, so I've naturally been quite interested in figuring out how such beings tick and have spent quite a lot of time looking for answers in this particular subject.

8 minutes ago, old3bob said:

I'd add that some gods and certain beings are born/emanated  that way and remain that way throughout the cosmic cycle thus never go through the valid processes you've mentioned.   I'm no expert on the subject and only have limited experiences but know enough that some of the beings are compassionate and tolerant towards humans while others are are keenly stern and sharp as a razor and "do not suffer fools gladly" if at all...and then there is Lord Yama

Yes, one of the most common ways for gods to be born is via human invention. Technically speaking, if one person even believes in the concept of a god, said god comes into existence. However, in most cases, such a god would be as fragile as a dried leaf in the wind. One major exception to this would be when religions branch off into different sections, and their believers end up accidentally "splitting" a god. Such a process creates two weaker deities from one stronger deity, and each one of these new deities retains much of the personality of the old. Depending on how the process unfolds, it could replace the original, split its duties, or even create two near-duplicate entities that fight for supremacy. If you want to see how such a process could happen, look at Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for an example. The dogma changes brought on by human arrogance and greed within these religions ended up creating different deities from one root entity, and vastly weakened said entity's influence. 

3 hours ago, old3bob said:

many dismiss gods (and angles) as superstition or as unimportant...but without them us humans who dismiss them as unimportant or deny them altogether would not exist.  How about that catch...

Angles are an extremely important part of geometry!

...Jokes aside, there's a certain level of development people need to be at in order to even perceive the divine in most situations. The first time I saw an angel was while I was asleep, and I still can't truly see them with my physical eyes (but I can summon them and feel their presence when they decide to drop in). As for the divine, they're at a higher level so it's even harder to sense. Of the gods I've interacted with, two of them made themselves known purposefully with an offer of help, one of them I reached through a mutual connection, and one of which was the one that likes to claim there are no others, and I met him through a series of coincidences. I wasn't capable of seeing any of them with my physical sight, and was only able to see them through projections, but I have taken the time to confirm the things they have said and claimed to have done, and have found them to be true. 

As for the idea that humans can't exist without the divine, I would say it's much more complex than that. A pyramid is built from the ground up, and likewise, higher spiritual beings generally got their foundations from lower spiritual beings. Some gods were created from human delusion, others are former humans, and even more were created as divergences in thought came about. This world is indeed something of a playground for higher beings, but that's only due to the fact that they have gone past our current level. A world-class tennis player could certainly play with beginners, and would certainly smash them, but said world-class most likely started as a beginner in the first place. Likewise, without the world-class athletes to inspire those outside of the game, much less beginners would even attempt to get better at the sport. The same can be said of the relationship between the divine and the baser classes. 

I started learning martial arts for two reasons: I wanted to learn more about using internal energy, and I wanted to learn how to protect myself without using weapons or magic. After starting in Traditional Wing Chun, the first three or so years were completely physical only. Sifu would actively deny that chi was more than breathing, and would purposefully steer us to only focus on learning how to fight and defend ourselves efficiently. I kept with it, as I've had to use self-defense stuff we'd been taught already, and knew that it worked well. Eventually, Sifu invited me to a neigong seminar, which is when he started acknowledging the more internal aspects of our system. Now, as I've done a bit more research, I see TWC as an interesting combination of a health-boosting qigong system and a pragmatic combat martial art. Yes, there are internal aspects. Yes, there are external aspects. Some things are kept from lower level practitioners due to their current development level (which includes your mental state!), and some things are truly as simple as they say. If you were to look through my posts on this forum, I think it would be pretty easy to see that I'm fairly new to this rodeo still, so I've clearly not learned all there is in the art I actively practice; but I still learn things from every class I take, and I practice outside of class often to help reinforce the things I learn.

As for MMA, I think it is important to remember the meaning of "MMA". "Mixed Martial Arts" is what it stands for. It's supposed to be a melting pot of various systems, and I think that's a beautiful thing, but if you start learning MMA without having a foundation in a single martial art, you won't get very far. The thing that sets professional fighters apart is their sheer athleticism, as well as their consistency, rather than their technique (though, oftentimes, their technique is still quite decent!). I recall a retired professional wrestler coming into class one day, and showing us his "warmup" routine. None of the advanced students could even get halfway through it! It was quite simple too, as he went from a squat to a bridge to a handstand and back to a squat (like a flip, almost), but the entire movement took him around five minutes to complete one rep. He took a simple exercise and did it extremely slow, which made it extremely challenging. 

Sifu has always told us "An amateur will learn a technique until he can do it right, but a professional will learn a technique until he can do it right at any time, at all times, no matter the situation."

6 hours ago, helpfuldemon said:

Everything is bound to time, what do you suggest isnt?

Nothing is bound to time, as time itself is an illusion. What we experience as "time" is just a construct of the realm we are currently in, and as soon as one leaves said realm, time becomes a nonfactor. It's why various experiences completely ignore the concept of time.

6 hours ago, dmattwads said:

Then why do you dismiss God out of hand? And what causes you to think there are any immortals then? What do you base this belief on?

"Gods" are different in nature compared to "immortals". Their source is different. If I had to try to put it into words, which is quite an impossible task, I would compare immortals to highly evolved animals, whereas gods are more like highly evolved plants? Naturally, it is not meant literally, but their root nature is entirely different. 

Anything that is different compared to the standard will be targeted, so it is better to remain in obscurity. Those attuned to the dao will be satisfied being water sitting in puddles, rather than water gushing out of fountains. 

2 minutes ago, Nungali said:

I ended up quitting as people wanted mundane results ; predictions about money sex power love and holidays and NOT the really valuable advice  and systems tarot contains .

That's not surprising, but it is saddening in a way.

As a college student, though, this does give me some hope of income, so I appreciate you bringing up the possibility of using tarot as a profession. I'd probably end up doing most of it online, but perhaps it could work for me.

8 minutes ago, Michael Sternbach said:

However, there must be certain universal principles behind it all. For instance, whether I am subject to reincarnation cannot depend on me being a Buddhist or a Hindu.

There certainly are universal principles behind it all, as I was alluding to previously. I can answer how certain aspects work according to my understanding, but I don't think it wise to trust another's understanding to create knowledge, so I don't usually try to go into detail on these things. In fact, the more detail you go into with a lot of these "universal systems", the less sense you end up making to the uninformed listener. If I were to oversimplify, this world is similar to a video game in its functionality, but the code running our world is much more complex than that running a game. Many moving parts interact with eachother, so very few concrete and simple rules are always true. 

12 minutes ago, Michael Sternbach said:

I have heard that individuals tend not to stay too long in the more hellish realms, whereas indulgence in heavenly worlds might last quite a bit longer...

Given that this realm is closer to the hellish realms than the heavenly realms... that is likely true. That said, there is value in the lower realms as suffering doesn't exist in the higher realms. Suffering motivates change, the lack thereof creates stagnation. Thus, even the gods will incarnate once in awhile to keep themselves growing. 

13 minutes ago, Michael Sternbach said:

Being 'foolish' is not necessarily a bad thing... The innocent and child-like nature of a fool is essential to many spiritual paths, from Daoism and Zen Buddhism to esoteric Christianity and Tarot.

The 'foolish' that I am talking about here is closer to 'the rebel' than 'the fool' in character. It is foolish to do something that you know will harm you for no gain, but some are sufficiently motivated to do so anyway. 'The rebel' is a negative fool, while 'the fool', as used as a child-like character, is a positive fool. Both sides have similar roots, but different effects. 

4 minutes ago, Nungali said:

The thing is, my data and results do not suggest the  'higher success rate' that you do .   Maybe this suggests a factor of the level of skill of the operator ?  In that case the experiment would seem invalid in regard to   any person trying it , especially the sceptic .

I'm unsure on that. The skill level and talent of the operator do factor into the success rate, but I have found that it still retains a fairly high success rate even for those without the prerequisite skill, at least, among the people I have directly taught and compared notes with. I recall the thing that seemed to change one particular student's mind was when they had cast the spell on a day with a 0.5% chance of rain, and it ended up storming. Nonetheless, weather forecasts are notoriously inaccurate, so it definitely must be repeated a multitude of times. 

8 minutes ago, Nungali said:

I did  professional tarot for many years .   Yes, there where some that thought I proved  certain things by my readings .

I've never considered professional tarot a viable possibility for employment. How did you get clients? Was it mostly remote or in person? Why did you end up quitting (if you did)?

16 minutes ago, Nungali said:

Really ?   Please  soften up my mindset by supplying me with rituals  that will allow me myself to be able to change the weather .

I would have expected you to already know one; how interesting. Nonetheless, the "ritual" is as follows:

Hold your hands as if you were holding a ball, and visualize a ball of energy in said hand. It would be a good practice to keep focusing on visualizing it for a few minutes, if you are not experienced in energy work. Once you have the ball solidly constructed, focus on "commanding" the weather to change in your favor. An example command would be "Rain tomorrow at 4pm at this location", but as long as it is specific and you give it enough time to work, it should be fine. The longer time you give it between the spell and the specified event, the higher the success rate will be, at least, in my experience. Focus on imbuing said "ball" with that command, and intend for it to work. After spending a good time focusing on the intent, for beginners somewhere around 1-3 minutes is usually plenty, act as if you are throwing the ball to the clouds. "See" the ball leaving your hands and entering the sky, where it bursts and scatters across the world. 

Compare weather forecasts before you cast it, see if it works, and note down the results. It's common to fail, but it's also common to succeed beyond statistical probability. Repeating said experiment over and over again over the course of a few weeks to a month should provide enough data. 

One thing I should note, however, is that once the person begins to understand that there is more out there, it is important for them to direct their attention to other sets of actions, rather than this one spell, as changing the weather does have significant karmic consequences. Unfortunately, it's the only spell with concrete, measurable results that I know I can teach others regardless of their talent or my proximity to them, so it is the one of the most reliable ways to soften their mindset that I have found. Other than this one, it is possible to do so via predicting the future using tarot cards, but that one is only available for those with that particular skillset. 

Just now, dmattwads said:

That is a good point though I have noticed from watching hardcore materialist atheists on YouTube that they will reject any arguments for the supernatural just as out of hand as a fanatical religious person will reject anything that contradicts their religion out of hand.

The first step to convince anyone of anything is to recognize their views as valid, thus giving them legitimacy. Once that is done, it lowers the walls that usually pop up when people are told of their mistakes, and makes it easier for them to learn to correct them rather than falling into cognitive dissonance. 

In my personal experience, the easiest way to do this for both sides is to befriend them, and allow them to see you as a reasonable individual. If you bust a ritual out of nowhere, they'll likely enter cognitive dissonance instead of improving. Unfortunately, like a doctor can't help those out of their reach, it is near impossible to do that for YouTube celebrities unless you already know them. 

15 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

What about starting from the baseline of the materialist atheist who says there is nothing beyond the physical reality that science can verify and that all these other things that we think of as being metaphysical are just the brain's ability to abstract?

The first step when starting with a materialist atheist is to soften his mindset. This is where I find weather magic (or other basic magics with obviously observable effects) useful. By showing the materialist atheist how he himself can change the weather against the odds through certain rituals, that mindset begins to soften up. Once his mindset softens up, he can begin to properly work through "supernatural" experiences with less bias and will allow him to process what he sees much easier. This is also applicable with fanatic believers, but the process is somewhat reversed. 

If we were to compare mindsets to yin and yang, materialist atheists are extreme yin, whereas fanatic believers are extreme yang. One extreme pushed too far can switch itself for the lesser opposite, so the two viable methods of easing one such person out of that mindset are to push them further into the material (towards further yin), or to ease them out of the material (towards lesser yin). If you push them towards further yin, their switch can end up being explosive and dangerous to themselves, and they can easily fall into more traps. If you ease them out of their extreme yin mindset, it becomes easier for them to find the answers they seek. 

This is something I personally find rather amusing, as the types that typically dominate debates about the supernatural are either materialist atheists (who will argue against the supernatural at all costs, even at the loss of their own reason) or fanatic believers (who will argue for the supernatural at all costs, even at the loss of their reason). Neither side is truly ready to approach the subject, as they are both too unbalanced, but due to the nature of their disbalance, they end up attracted to the subject. It's as if they know they're mistaken somewhere, but can't truly find where without outside help. 

14 minutes ago, CCD said:

Basically everything that I've said about "qi powers" applies just as well to gods & spirits. If they actually existed in any way, they'd be testable somehow. Even if we were talking about some weak god that's part of a large pantheon of gods, should at least be as powerful as an average human. Even if that god could only exist in one place at one time, it should still be just as capable of proving they exist. If an all-powerful god wanted people to worship him, it shouldn't be easy for the god to prove its existence, but none ever do. Most theists say that their god doesn't want you to believe because of proof, but you should have faith just because. That "just because" is usually either a vague threat or promise of some kind, with no proof to back it up.

Why do you assume that said gods and spirits actually *want* to be known and/or worshipped? It's a vast minority that actually want human attention, and most that want it do not want it for purposes that actually help humans. On top of that, you misunderstand the nature of said beings. They aren't physical, thus they do not have the ability to affect the physical as strongly as humans can. What they can do, however, is affect things in the physical via toying with chance. Weather, "fate", and freak incidents are where they manifest the most. Of the deities that I've met, one was strictly malicious towards humans, one helped me as a passerby, one has mentored but never interfered directly, and one strongly desires worship and will tell you anything you want to hear (no matter whether it has to lie or deceive you) to get you to praise it. Of the two of these that were named, one was a god from the Norse mythos, and one was the Christian god. Of the two, the one that was more pleasant to deal with was the Norse mythos one, and never did he ask for worship or praise. 

It's easiest to compare human interaction with gods to a human stumbling across a group of ants misspelling the humans' name on the sidewalk. Yeah, it'll get your attention. You might decide to give them sugar, or you might decide that they're an eyesore and wipe them out. It purely depends on what kind of human you are, and what mood you are in at that time. Gods are similar in their interactions with humans. While they may incarnate from time to time, very few truly care about the state of human affairs, much less proving themselves to said humans. Afterall, would you waste effort proving your existence to ants? 

2 hours ago, Michael Sternbach said:

Alas, there is that pesky inner voice reminding me of the unlikelihood of every religion actually providing its own Heaven and Hell...

While I agree with most of your message, this one point was something I felt I should add onto. Simply by imagining the possibility of a reality, that reality exists. It's one of the key aspects of magic. Thus, technically speaking, I would say that the various types of "heavens and hells" associated with all these different religions do indeed exist, but I would call them distractions rather than goals. Perhaps a house that you stay in along your way? Systems, what the meat is behind any religion, are simply templates that people can follow to help them reach a higher state of being easier. The dogma and individual mythos of each religion is what is manipulated by mortals in most cases, and said manipulation means it is impossible for it to be true. Thus, it is worthless to debate which religion is true, or what parts of which religions cross, as all of them are fields of falsehoods sowed with seeds of truth. Once one finds their path, they begin to see reality for what it is, without needing the lens of religion or mythos. Before the path is found, the allure of religion can certainly help guide one onto a proper path, but it is important to remember that all guides can be ignored if one decides to be foolish enough.

38 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

 Those who primarily seek powers remind me of the toddler that thinks there's no greater accomplishment than the ability to have as much candy as you want and can't understand why adults don't constantly eat mountains of candy everyday.

Well phrased. I would personally go even further, and say that from the standpoint of those "higher up on the spiritual totem pole", those that are less high up would seem as children do to adults. You see them acting out, but understand that they do so because that is where they are currently at, and it is not something to get angry at; though, it can certainly be lamentable to see people rushing ahead to their own detriment! 

@BindiHow fascinating! I didn't know this was such a widely known concept; I had thought I was clever for coming up with it! I do disagree with the opinion of the poster on that, but we can't agree on everything.

3 hours ago, Bindi said:

Except... A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. (Wikipedia)

Quite true, if we were talking in purely literal terms. Of course, all texts of any spiritual worth can be read with at least three different meanings, so how could what I say ever be intended to be purely literal? 

8 hours ago, old3bob said:

I'd say that the concept of oneness of all paths is a "new age"  gloss-over that only works with the common ground needs of human beings, (which are mostly under one roof)  Anyway there are the obvious exoteric and esoteric facts that all paths are not one and do not lead to the same goal or destination.  For instance the end goal of Christianity leads to a Christian heaven with Jesus and God the Father.  (thus in a universe, of subtle or gross realities, that accommodates such differences)

All rivers lead to the ocean. One river may start on a mountain, another in a forest, and yet another may begin in a rocky desert, but all of them will lead to a single ocean if followed for long enough. If one cannot see the ocean from a river, perhaps it has not been followed thoroughly enough?

47 minutes ago, dwai said:

You know...speculation -- what might or might not be the next steps

"There is no such thing as 'no such thing'" is a quote I find quite applicable here. It is useful to exercise caution whenever speaking in absolutes, as it is extremely easy for a freak possibility to exist. 

A village of people believes that there is nothing outside the walls of said village. One person claims there to obviously be things beyond the walls, as said individual has seen such things for themselves. The rest of the village may ostracize said individual, for none of them have seen what he has seen. Yet, in not checking for themselves, the villagers do not realize that there is a pack of wolves inhabiting the forest until the wolves grow to be too many in number, and destroy the village as a whole.

I spend most of my training time on seated practices, at least, at this point. Around 4-6 hours a day are spent on "meditative" practices, including ones meant to refine internal energy. I've gotten tremendous gains from it, in fact, I would say that my combat and mental capacity grows multiple factors faster via seated practice than via standing or moving practice. That said, I still do standing and moving practice. If I were to only sit, it would make me sick due to inbalance. 

I have also made myself sick through forcing inappropriate seated practices, so I will vouch that if it doesn't feel right, then you should probably consider taking a break. I think that this topic would count under "Dragon Sickness", though, I am not well-read enough to tell for sure. What I have found, despite my negative experiences, is that as long as you keep proper precautions in place, seated practice can be massively helpful. "Can be", being the key phrase here. If your body, mind, and energy system are not ready for it, it can certainly be harmful. 

This thread might help, if you haven't already looked into dragon sickness:

"There is no place in the world for someone who believes there to be no place in the world for themselves."

As where I live is something of a hotspot, encounters with non-physical entities are a near-daily occurrence for me; thus, I will select some of the more unique or interesting (in my opinion!) encounters I've had. 

We recently had to put one of my family cats down; her kidneys had failed and there was no hope of survival, only suffering. A few moments after the injection, no more than one or two minutes, and no less than thirty seconds, I found that she had taken a ghost-like form. Her physical body was still on the table, but her spirit was walking around the room energetically. Of course, the doctors and my family were not able to see it, and my physical eyes could not see her either. It was simply a presence that I've gotten somewhat attuned to, so I used my mental screen to see rather than my physical eyes. When she rubbed up against me, as cats do, I could feel my energy field being pressed, but not my physical body. She followed us into the car, and stayed with us on the way home. It felt much like she was trying to comfort my family, because we all felt extremely guilty about having to put her down, and we were grieving at the same time. After getting home, she followed us into the house, walked around for a bit, and then left. 

Another, much briefer, encounter that happened recently, was at around 4:00am. I was up late, and was looking for food in the kitchen. All of a sudden, I felt a presence in the living room, and so I looked in. There was a visible aura around my father's favorite chair, somewhat human-shaped. I asked mentally what it was doing there, and why it was here. It said it was visiting, and meant no harm, but asked me to let it be. Usually, when things wander into my house, I exorcise them without a second thought, but my gut told me to do as this one asked. It felt distinctly like a ghost (I've had encounters with three ghosts before this one), so I asked who it was. It felt like it was smiling (of course, I couldn't see a mouth on it, but that was the sensation I found), and said that I shouldn't worry about who it was. I went to check on my father, as I wanted to make sure he hadn't died in his sleep, and he was still alive. Thus, I summoned a familiar to keep watch over my family to make sure they were not harmed in their sleep, got my food, ate my food, and went to bed. The next day, I found out that my father's best friend had overnight in his sleep. He had known me as a child, but I don't remember him. 

A few years back, I had a rather extended encounter with a spirit serpent. Its appearance was that of a bright, leafy-green snake, with a double-scaled pale tan belly. If I were to estimate size, it would have been around sixty centimeters in diameter, and at least three to five meters long. Its head was arrow-shaped, and was a bit taller than most real snakes I've seen. It had multiple spikes swept back on the back of its head, and two smaller spikes above each eye pointed forwards. Its eyes were of a dark green, with black pupils. Its scales shone in multi-colored reflections, and its tail was spiked much like its head. It appeared in multiple dreams, and I would often feel like a snake was nearby in various locations where there were no snakes. This was at a point when my spiritual awareness was rather low, but it made quite an impact on me mentally. Eventually, I called out to it mentally, and had a conversation. Among other things, I asked why it was following me, what it was, and what it wanted. It had replied, paraphrased, that it was a "spirit serpent", and that it was following me because it was curious about me and wanted to see more. After that conversation, it stopped appearing near me and stopped following me. I have encountered it since, but that was when I specifically called out to it.

One of the more recent major occurrences happened this summer. I worked as a pizza delivery driver at the time. I got the feeling of wanting a break from my work for around two weeks, getting stronger as the weeks went by. Over the weekend of one week, I decided to call in and tell them to take me off my shifts for a week because I was getting exhausted. They agreed, but told me to finish out the week I was schedule to first, which was a matter of course. At the end of the second-to-last shift on the job, one of my buttons popped off. On my way home from that shift, I saw the form of a dragon in the clouds (a western dragon, and not a good sign in this case). When I got home, and counted the cash I made from that shift, I made an exact 66$. Throughout the rest of the next few days, I felt a massive sense of foreboding. At the beginning next shift I was assigned to, I was T-boned by someone going well over three times the speed limit in a residential area while on their phone. My insurance refused to cover, as I did not have the right type. It completely totaled my car, cost me my job, and messed my back up rather badly. While this occurrence wasn't completely supernatural, I would say that this particular instance convinced me to listen to my gut with more conviction.

As a final story for this post, I'll tell a cautionary tale of my own mistakes. The year I was learning to drive, I had also been studying astral projection. During the week I was taking driver's ed classes, I was working on lowering my connection to my body to make astral projection easier. By the time I went to class one night, I had been up for around 20 hours straight, and hadn't eaten in around 36 hours; I had planned to try to astral project after class. During that class, they showed a video of a fatal car crash from within the car. Apparently, they're not supposed to warn the students beforehand, so noone can leave the class. If a student leaves during the video, they have to retake the entire set of classes. Well, the video was from facetime records. A group of teenage girls was facetiming while driving on a highway, and due to the driver's attention being on the call, they veered off the road and crashed into a fencepost. The driver shattered all the bones in her body, the front seat passenger got her cheek impaled on a splintered wooden fencepost, and the ones in the backseat got cut up from the glass and beaten by the impact. Only the driver died. However, when the video started, it triggered an accidental projection into the video itself. I felt the whole crash from the perspective of every person involved, starting from around a month prior and ending around a month after. I felt death from all the bones being crushed, I felt the fencepost impale my cheek, and I felt the horror of the first responders. I felt the grief of the parents, the anger, the fear, all of it. I can remember the funerals, as well as the arguments involved. All of this happened in an instant in realtime. When I came back to my body, I immediately ran outside and threw up. It took around three months for me to mentally process all that I experienced in that instant. Thus, my warning, is to be extremely cautious in what practices you take seriously, and do not underestimate the risks of sticking your nose in things you do not understand. The supernatural can be wonderful, but it can also bring experiences much beyond the purview of most people. Practice caution, learn about things before attempting them, and stick to your gut feelings. 

I hope this has helped, despite how dark some of the stories may be!

6 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

I would be happy for you to continue :-)

Then I will do so in the morning, after breakfast. It is late night here, so I do need some sleep.