Psychics, Skeptics and Religion

[themyst]

Hmm, how does one go about this, talking, writing in such away that you will understand my meaning as well as what I am trying to say.

Okay, first off, I don't believe that Psychics have any magical powers. This does not say that I do not believe that psychics are not very intuitive. I do believe that there are people who are very good at being able to read the signs and at understanding people.

Quick example of myself. T phoned me a couple of weeks ago to join her and her friends at her place for a sushi evening. The minute she told me this I knew that she had gotten engaged to her new boyfriend of 3 months. When we got there I was proved right. Does this mean I was psychic. Not in the least. I know T very well and I know the story behind her and the boyfriend. I knew her so well that the day I heard she started dating him was the day I know she is going to marry him. This is not being psychic. Many years ago T and the boyfriend did have a relationship, they broke up because both were married at the time. T has never gotten over him and the minute I heard he was free I knew that they would get together.

It is not being psychic, it is knowing people.

Now let me turn my attention away from psychics for a moment and towards Religion. Now what can I say about organised religion. I hate it with a passion and I will fight against it till my dieing day. They use their influence for their own betterment to a disadvantage of their congregation. They will pretend that they have all the answers in such a way that it will stop their congregation for even thinking about anything else. Now don't get me wrong this is not a statement against belief, that is a whole different thing. No this is a statement against religion and those that run/control the congregations.

It is impossible for a man of the cloth not to be corrupt. It does not come from his 'calling' but from the fact that he has power, sometimes even absolute power over those the follower him and we all know the statement about those with power.

Time for another whiplash change of subject. Rituals. Now as much as I laugh at religions and psychics and those of the same ilk. I look at rituals in a whole different light.

Rituals have two sides to them and one side is almost evil in its nature and yet the other side is almost equally holy in it's own nature.

Time for another example or two.

About a year ago I went to the Buddhist's temple in Bornkhourstspruit (sp?). Although it is a place of religion, it is also a place of profound peace and holiness. To stand in the center of the temple and to close one's eyes it to become close to the very center of things. It has nothing to do with the religion of Buddha nor the followers of the Buddhist's belief. It is something more. I am not sure what it could be but the word respect comes to mind. A respect for others and a respect for beauty and life.

Another example, Watching a deeply religious ritual, say a catholic ritual. To watch the holy man walk down the isle spreading the incense while the choir chants in the background is a moment of profound peace.

To hear an evangelical/charismatic church choir from the deep south in full volume can not but help to bring joy to the heart.

All these are good in that they uplift the 'soul' to a higher place above the mundane parts of life. It is far too often that the constant things in our daily life drag us down until we reach a point where we wonder why we suffer the pain. It is these aspects of rituals that help us see beyond the mundane but it does not require religion. An equally powerful ritual could be walking alone a beach untouched by modern man, or visiting a large family gathering where the people don't care about what you do or who you are or have saved, they only care about you and that you are one of them.

Religion gives a pseudo-effect in trying to make you feel as though you are part of a greater thing. Psychics give a pseudo-effect in trying to let you feel you are now part of a secret knowing. Skeptics try to throw the baby out with the bath water then look at the ground to see if indeed the baby was in the water in the first place.

There is a balance, a way of removing the baby from the water without throwing the baby away as well or just as bad, placing the baby tub fulled with baby and water upon a pedestal, for the baby all alone up there will surely die, either through hypothermia or drowning.

It is time that we stop pretending, life is full of magic and wonder without all the extra. We don't have to know how everything works to be amazed at the beauty of a field covered with flowers but equally true is that we do not need to attribute the beauty of the flowers to some higher being to be able to see the beauty.

Yes there is a place for ritual in our lives, so to is there a place for skeptism, for without skeptism all hell will break loose but there is no need for us to strip the oils off a painting to see the beauty.

And of psychics? Yes there is also a sort of place for even such as them. Sometimes we need someone from the outside to shine a light on us, the problem comes in when the psychics go beyond what is needed by trying to boost their profits and ego.

To end I shall post a quote on Tarot .....

"Tarot isn't about the cards telling you who you are or what the future holds for you. It's about challenging your way of thinking; to promote thinking differently or to divert the flow of your sometimes habitual ways of solving a problem. Every card tells a story and how you choose to use that story is up to you."

Believing in the magic of the Tarot will lessen your own self and your ability to solve life's puzzles but that does not mean that the Tarot does not have a place in our lives.

I shall end off (really this time) with a quote from a book I read this morning in the bath.

"Life is filled with problems, living is solving the puzzles."

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, in the majority of cases?

 

[Meadmaker]

I think you are painting the clergy with too broad of a brush. I don't think they are inherently corrupt.

Other than that, I agree with you. As you know, my avatar is the Knight of Cups.

Actually, though, I stopped doing tarot when I couldn't convince someone whose tarot I read that I was NOT using magic. He insisted I must be, despite my denial, and I didn't like the results.

 

[themyst]

I think you are painting the clergy with too broad of a brush. I don't think they are inherently corrupt.

Other than that, I agree with you. As you know, my avatar is the Knight of Cups.

Actually, though, I stopped doing tarot when I couldn't convince someone whose tarot I read that I was NOT using magic. He insisted I must be, despite my denial, and I didn't like the results.

Yes, you are correct I may be painting the clergy with an awfully large brush and I know some members of the clergy that do good work but then again even if they are doing good work they are still deriving a salary for someones belief in something that has no basis in truth and they continue to build on those peoples belief without offering any proof. So to say that they are corrupt may be going a bit far but they are, even unintentionally, making money out of nothing at all.

I still use the Tarot on rare occasion, when I find myself stuck in life, it does assist in showing me the 'other paths' out there, I still have to decide if I wish to follow those paths.

 

[yrreg]

How to get unstuck in life.

I still use the Tarot on rare occasion, when I find myself stuck in life, it does assist in showing me the 'other paths' out there, I still have to decide if I wish to follow those paths.

There are more systematic ways of bringing up to your mind and heart for consideration other paths in life, when you find yourself stuck in life -- than using Tarot cards which is not as systematic.

Being stuck in life means you are not getting anywhere in life or your life is not satisfactory.

First then, you must -- and this is a systematic way of seeing other paths in life that are possible and feasible and desirable for you when you find or feel yourself stuck in life -- you must first examine what you want in life, understanding want as including everything from wish to obsession or fixation or addiction.

Make a list of all the things you want in life. For example, people want sex in life, they want comforts in life, conveniences in their homes, even luxuries. So make a list of all such things and states of body and mind and heart you want in life.

Keep a piece of paper in your shirt pocket and a pen and take down notes of what you want in life which you are not having or not having enough of or not having better dosages of.

Second, when you have already made all the entries to your list of what you want -- meaning from wish to obsession, fixation, and addiction or even not addiction but dependency as for example smoking and drinking, all the entries so that you cannot imagine anything new to the list you have already compiled so far -- and this list does not have to be made in one single day but you should take days to complete it while going about your normal days of jobs and routines at home and at work and anywhere else you find yourself.

Third, now that you have a list of all the things and states of body and mind and heart that you want to have or to be or to do, examine yourself to learn what are your resources of body, heart, and mind, and also what is your financial status.

Fourth, match what you want in the way of new paths in life because you are stuck in life and you want out and into a better condition of existing in this earthly world, match what you want for the remaining years of life or for the next period or epoch of your tenure here in time and space prior to death, or better match what you possess of physical and moral and mental resources and of course money with what you want for a different path in life.

Fifth, and this should have been mentioned earlier, consider also your personal social circumstances, people you are attached to, people you depend on, people who are attached to and dependent on you for material or emotional reasons, these are also your resources -- and liabilities; find out what personal and social links you want to keep and improve and which ones you can on serious evaluation dispense with.

Sixth, now you are in a position to make a decision and to take action, and execute your plan which implementation of your plan can take days and weeks and months and even a year's time.


Take my example. I was working in an office where the company there, I mean the people there, are terrible, starting from the boss to the lowly janitor. And who is not working in a terrible human setting, when you care to examine everyone in the work environment where you find yourself bound to for the sake of making a living.

No, I didn't consult Tarot cards, nor psychics, nor religious people in order to discover new paths in life.

But I must confess that I got myself into that kind of a job because I thought it was good in financial return and it was flattering to my sense of self-importance. Well, as a matter of fact it was paying good and people inside the office and people outside who knew me and my kind of work and position accorded me due respect and regard, in a token manner at least.

But the trouble is that the work condition is too competitive for comfort, meaning you have to bear with unpleasant people, many of them in the office, trying their darn worst to bring you down and show you they are better -- if you have any sense of reality and honesty you have to say to yourself that it is a hell of a working life and milieu.

What did I want instead? I went through the methodical process I described above and I came to the conclusion that I want to work for myself and at my own pace and without having to put up with anyone always trying to topple me or cut me down to what he thinks is my size, namely, smaller.

So I went into business for myself. You want to know what kind of livelihood activity I went into for myself as a self-employed person, or what you might call a small businessman? I will tell you when you have done my suggestion on how to find new paths in life and implemented your plans, then we can compare notes.

Now I am much happier: myself, my family, and have a better home in the sense of no or very much lesser tension and stress as with my previous job in an office where everyone is into toppling everyone else -- except yours truly who cannot for his own kind of mild temperament engage in what I might call the strategic survival in the snake-pit.

No, I am not making more money and commanding more respect in my modest business and livelihood, but I am free from tension, stress, and best from people who smile and act cordial but who are just looking for ways and means and occasions to put you down lower, that is, below themselves.


Yrreg