Spiritual Meme Question Twenty-Eight
28--Have you ever had any "spiritual" experiences that challenged your perceptions of reality? I put "spiritual" in quotes because even atheists can be spiritual in having a sense of awe and wonder. That word seems to mean different things to different people. What are your opinions about otherkin, therians, faeborn and similarly identified people?
Writing prompts: only ones that would be hard for you to answer please! {FULL!} - the eclectic ecstasy of an ecphorizing eccentric
Two (to me) totally unrelated questions.
Yes, spirituality is about awe and wonder; but even more it is about challenging perceptions. The normal state of a modern human being is to think that we are getting closer to an understanding of reality while we are actually drawing farther from such understanding because of the way we use our knowledge to feed our egos and separate ourselves from nature. The social and psychological consequences of sub atomic and cosmological science have yet to sink in, so "ordinary science" tends to drive us farther from a spiritual understanding of our selves and our universe. Spiritual experience WILL challenge my perception of reality or i will have reason to question its spiritual nature. I know that i am a deluded person living in a world of illusions. I know that my spiritual self is not a material form. I will feel successful when i have convinced myself that these are the only issues i need to concern myself with and that neather can be "answered" in the usual way that i try to answer questions or issues. Fortunately, many people from many traditions have grappled with these questions about reality and self and the consequences of whatever answers and non-answers they have come up with and i will try to follow the wisest of them to the extent i can. They have made the behavioral consequences very clear, even if nothing else is clear. So i must surely follow that part of their wisdom if i wish to be wise. Of course, my perception of reality has been challenged, and i hope someday it will be defeated.
As to the second question, i had to go to google again to find out what the question was about. I must confess that i have never met anyone who claimed to be a mythological or fictional, or video game character. Nor have i knowingly met any gods, goddesses, angels, demons or Wessens. I did encounter, on line, a claimant to avatar status, who tried unsuccessfully to share his knowledge about "death." But, if everything is an illusion, why should i accept some parts of the illusion (the parts the majority call real) and rejuct other parts (the parts the majority call illusory). I try to follow the rule that, unless i have good reason to do otherwise, i should call people what they wish to be called. Beyond that, i would have to consider whatever they might say from their mythological or fictional or animal, angelic, demonic or godly perspectve on its own merits. The avatar of a Hindu god who tried to correct my erroneous assumtions about death did not succeed, not because my assumptions are not erroneous, but because his seemed no less so.
I want to thank whoever came up with this meme (Topaz?). It was fun and made me think about things i don't normally think about.
Writing prompts: only ones that would be hard for you to answer please! {FULL!} - the eclectic ecstasy of an ecphorizing eccentric
Two (to me) totally unrelated questions.
Yes, spirituality is about awe and wonder; but even more it is about challenging perceptions. The normal state of a modern human being is to think that we are getting closer to an understanding of reality while we are actually drawing farther from such understanding because of the way we use our knowledge to feed our egos and separate ourselves from nature. The social and psychological consequences of sub atomic and cosmological science have yet to sink in, so "ordinary science" tends to drive us farther from a spiritual understanding of our selves and our universe. Spiritual experience WILL challenge my perception of reality or i will have reason to question its spiritual nature. I know that i am a deluded person living in a world of illusions. I know that my spiritual self is not a material form. I will feel successful when i have convinced myself that these are the only issues i need to concern myself with and that neather can be "answered" in the usual way that i try to answer questions or issues. Fortunately, many people from many traditions have grappled with these questions about reality and self and the consequences of whatever answers and non-answers they have come up with and i will try to follow the wisest of them to the extent i can. They have made the behavioral consequences very clear, even if nothing else is clear. So i must surely follow that part of their wisdom if i wish to be wise. Of course, my perception of reality has been challenged, and i hope someday it will be defeated.
As to the second question, i had to go to google again to find out what the question was about. I must confess that i have never met anyone who claimed to be a mythological or fictional, or video game character. Nor have i knowingly met any gods, goddesses, angels, demons or Wessens. I did encounter, on line, a claimant to avatar status, who tried unsuccessfully to share his knowledge about "death." But, if everything is an illusion, why should i accept some parts of the illusion (the parts the majority call real) and rejuct other parts (the parts the majority call illusory). I try to follow the rule that, unless i have good reason to do otherwise, i should call people what they wish to be called. Beyond that, i would have to consider whatever they might say from their mythological or fictional or animal, angelic, demonic or godly perspectve on its own merits. The avatar of a Hindu god who tried to correct my erroneous assumtions about death did not succeed, not because my assumptions are not erroneous, but because his seemed no less so.
I want to thank whoever came up with this meme (Topaz?). It was fun and made me think about things i don't normally think about.