1 Religious Rant + 1 Philosophical Theory + 1 Trivial Sidenote
Hi. I posted this in my MySpace and it seemed worthy of reposting here since I've practically abandoned this place and all. Whatever...
I was on the phone for nearly an hour with my grandparents trying to figure out which book in the Bible [allegedly] contains a verse that basically discourages people from trying to cheer up those who are depressed.
Okay, taking a step back - the other night I was on the phone with my friend Annie bitching about how I can't be around HAPPY people during this period in my life because no one seems willing to just give me the freedom to DEAL and SORT my shit out on my own time and terms; everyone just wants to fix my problems with empty words of encouragement or help distract me or whatever. Which is nice and all, but...not helpful at this stage. And Annie, who has been through Hell and back a million times over, agreed that it's theoretically wrong to do that, because you are essentially invalidating the person's experience. Then she said there is even a verse in the Bible where it says not to [either dance or act joyous or something to that effect] around those who are [either in mourning or sad in general], because that actually WORSENS their condition.
I needed to find this verse ASAP (and if anyone has any idea, please feel free to help a sistah out) to use it against people -- since, hey, I've had plenty of verses taken out of context and used against ME [*wink wink*] -- so I did numerous keyword searches on that awesomely useful BibleGateway site. My first inclination was to read through Ecclesiastes (I REALLY LOVE AND IDENTIFY WITH THAT ONE, by the way!) because that contains probably the second most famous verse about how there is a "time for everything" [to dance, to mourn, etc.]...but I couldn't find anything quite like what Annie described.
So I called the ol' God-fearing grandparents who have supposedly read the entire Bible countless times. Unfortunately, my Granddad somehow found himself on a tangent babbling about the book of Daniel and how it was similar to Revelations in the sense that so many of the events that were prophesied eventually did occur, and that all the "Signs of the Times" are coming true, you know...the whole JESUS IS SOOOO TOTALLY COMING LIEK RIGHT NOW OR MAYBE IN A COUPLE MORE DAYZ BUT NEXT WEEK AT THE VERY LATEST LOL fear tactic that's been around for, well, centuries.
...do you know how hard it is to bite my tongue with these people? I'm sorry, I just don't buy that nonsense. (The Bible is a fascinating read and a wonderfully written piece of literature with some revelational lessons to be learned and whatnot, but TO ME nothing more; I personally don't like being told what's right and wrong.) If something is written, and enough people are fanatic about it, they're going to FIND a way to MAKE it real. If people want Jesus to come back, they're going to do what they can to conjure his black ass up, even if it's to force war and destruction that was "foreseen". It's called SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: you tell a child that they're worthless, they feel worthless, they do worthless things, they therefore become a truly worthless adult. You propagate a convincing idea that a certain minority contains the most criminals, then they're gonna be the ones with the highest crime rates. Etc.
Very logically simple psychology, actually.
RANT OVER - CUE SEGUE.
That got me thinking. Have you ever had a psychic reading with a medium you KNEW to possess the real, true gifts...yet, in the end, some of what they predicted was drastically different or never happened? It's like...how did you know such specifics of my past and present, and some of my future, yet other significant things you were totally OFF on? The one I go to - or used to go to, rather - would always straight-out ask me shit like "What started the quarrel with your mother?" and "Who is this person with the initials XYZ [their actual initials, IN order!] who you refuse to let go of?" It's not like she's a phony, you know? But occasionally she gets things wrong. And I wonder...
Maybe it's similar to the mystical Quantum Theory that observation affects Reality. Scientists have been baffled by this phenomenon for a long time: through the very act of watching, the observer affects what is being observed. Basically, if you are sitting there watching, no matter how silent and still and distant you are, just the fact that you watching is affecting the behaviors/events which would have otherwise resulted differently without your mere presence entering the equation.
So I'm thinking that when it comes to psychics, no matter how gifted they are, a lot what of they see in the future is what WOULD'VE been...had you not gone to the psychic in the first place and learned of it in advance. I think that once it's been put out there, your awareness of what's to come immediately alters what comes.
Does that make sense or have I officially gone off the deep end? I dunno, just something to ponder. Regardless, I have decided to stop dabbling in the whole curiosity with psychics - it's basically fucking with Fate and that's wrong.
And in closing I'd like to point out something totally random: a lot of times, when I hate a song, I end up loving it or identifying with it waay later on down the line. "Ice" on my favorite Sarah McLachlan album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy used to bug and bore me to tears; it was the only track I skipped. Now it's my favorite on the album because the lyrics resonate with me so deeply, plus the acoustic guitar riff is just plain sexy. And lately? Blondie's annoying version of "The Tide is High" is, like, my fucking THEME SONG. I used to hate hate HATE that song, (and not only because I've always thought Blondie to be overrated). But I heard it recently and burst into tears at work.
Ridiculous and ironic how Life works out sometimes.
I was on the phone for nearly an hour with my grandparents trying to figure out which book in the Bible [allegedly] contains a verse that basically discourages people from trying to cheer up those who are depressed.
Okay, taking a step back - the other night I was on the phone with my friend Annie bitching about how I can't be around HAPPY people during this period in my life because no one seems willing to just give me the freedom to DEAL and SORT my shit out on my own time and terms; everyone just wants to fix my problems with empty words of encouragement or help distract me or whatever. Which is nice and all, but...not helpful at this stage. And Annie, who has been through Hell and back a million times over, agreed that it's theoretically wrong to do that, because you are essentially invalidating the person's experience. Then she said there is even a verse in the Bible where it says not to [either dance or act joyous or something to that effect] around those who are [either in mourning or sad in general], because that actually WORSENS their condition.
I needed to find this verse ASAP (and if anyone has any idea, please feel free to help a sistah out) to use it against people -- since, hey, I've had plenty of verses taken out of context and used against ME [*wink wink*] -- so I did numerous keyword searches on that awesomely useful BibleGateway site. My first inclination was to read through Ecclesiastes (I REALLY LOVE AND IDENTIFY WITH THAT ONE, by the way!) because that contains probably the second most famous verse about how there is a "time for everything" [to dance, to mourn, etc.]...but I couldn't find anything quite like what Annie described.
So I called the ol' God-fearing grandparents who have supposedly read the entire Bible countless times. Unfortunately, my Granddad somehow found himself on a tangent babbling about the book of Daniel and how it was similar to Revelations in the sense that so many of the events that were prophesied eventually did occur, and that all the "Signs of the Times" are coming true, you know...the whole JESUS IS SOOOO TOTALLY COMING LIEK RIGHT NOW OR MAYBE IN A COUPLE MORE DAYZ BUT NEXT WEEK AT THE VERY LATEST LOL fear tactic that's been around for, well, centuries.
...do you know how hard it is to bite my tongue with these people? I'm sorry, I just don't buy that nonsense. (The Bible is a fascinating read and a wonderfully written piece of literature with some revelational lessons to be learned and whatnot, but TO ME nothing more; I personally don't like being told what's right and wrong.) If something is written, and enough people are fanatic about it, they're going to FIND a way to MAKE it real. If people want Jesus to come back, they're going to do what they can to conjure his black ass up, even if it's to force war and destruction that was "foreseen". It's called SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: you tell a child that they're worthless, they feel worthless, they do worthless things, they therefore become a truly worthless adult. You propagate a convincing idea that a certain minority contains the most criminals, then they're gonna be the ones with the highest crime rates. Etc.
Very logically simple psychology, actually.
RANT OVER - CUE SEGUE.
That got me thinking. Have you ever had a psychic reading with a medium you KNEW to possess the real, true gifts...yet, in the end, some of what they predicted was drastically different or never happened? It's like...how did you know such specifics of my past and present, and some of my future, yet other significant things you were totally OFF on? The one I go to - or used to go to, rather - would always straight-out ask me shit like "What started the quarrel with your mother?" and "Who is this person with the initials XYZ [their actual initials, IN order!] who you refuse to let go of?" It's not like she's a phony, you know? But occasionally she gets things wrong. And I wonder...
Maybe it's similar to the mystical Quantum Theory that observation affects Reality. Scientists have been baffled by this phenomenon for a long time: through the very act of watching, the observer affects what is being observed. Basically, if you are sitting there watching, no matter how silent and still and distant you are, just the fact that you watching is affecting the behaviors/events which would have otherwise resulted differently without your mere presence entering the equation.
So I'm thinking that when it comes to psychics, no matter how gifted they are, a lot what of they see in the future is what WOULD'VE been...had you not gone to the psychic in the first place and learned of it in advance. I think that once it's been put out there, your awareness of what's to come immediately alters what comes.
Does that make sense or have I officially gone off the deep end? I dunno, just something to ponder. Regardless, I have decided to stop dabbling in the whole curiosity with psychics - it's basically fucking with Fate and that's wrong.
And in closing I'd like to point out something totally random: a lot of times, when I hate a song, I end up loving it or identifying with it waay later on down the line. "Ice" on my favorite Sarah McLachlan album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy used to bug and bore me to tears; it was the only track I skipped. Now it's my favorite on the album because the lyrics resonate with me so deeply, plus the acoustic guitar riff is just plain sexy. And lately? Blondie's annoying version of "The Tide is High" is, like, my fucking THEME SONG. I used to hate hate HATE that song, (and not only because I've always thought Blondie to be overrated). But I heard it recently and burst into tears at work.
Ridiculous and ironic how Life works out sometimes.