You're Invited!

[firstmutant]

First Mutant's LiveJournal Halloween Party!The party will begin next Saturday, October 22nd. We'll be playing games, talking about horror movies, holding a seance, and much more. You may choose to come as you are, or in costume--once you find an outfit you like, post a link/picture/description here so that we will know what you're wearing. You can

Comments

[dave_rainbow]

Love the costume

[firstmutant]

Hooray, someone else recognizes Rhythm Nation Janet Jackson! I feel much better now. :)

Nah, you're not a killjoy, Dave. This pretend "seance" will just be for entertainment purposes. As you already know, I myself am unsure of whether there is anything to contact in reality, or even if there is an afterlife. In this matter, you probably know a great deal more than I.

[dave_rainbow]

Well I could tell it was Janet, no one else dresses like that but her brother --- except at Halloween --- the trick was, you showed her fully clothed

[firstmutant]

That's always a good thing, coming from you, since I enjoy hearing your thoughts.

They gather together on a Sunday, because they believe that someone else is there, and then they ignore him and talk to each other. How nuts is that? But primarily, that's what happens. If they all gathered round a table, ate together a little, called on the one they believed was there, and expected that each one of them might come to be in some form of contact with them - why, they would be the disciples! And it is because of the absence of that element from corporate worship, that it commonly doesn't work.
Interesting point. In psychology, an important aspect of group therapy is social interaction--simply meeting other people with similar difficulties is itself a form of therapy. It seems worship is different.

[dave_rainbow]

Religious services don't normally involve meeting anyone, even the other people there. In the real old churches, each attendee sits in their own little box, with a gate at the end. In the normal service, if the person next to you spoke to you, you'd run a mile. That, and everything else about corporate worship as it is commonly experienced, are abnormal and absurd

[firstmutant]

Religious services don't normally involve meeting anyone, even the other people there. In the real old churches, each attendee sits in their own little box, with a gate at the end. In the normal service, if the person next to you spoke to you, you'd run a mile. That, and everything else about corporate worship as it is commonly experienced, are abnormal and absurd.
Yes, I've been in churches like that. My mother used to belong to a Catholic church for a while, the membership of which was very non-social. The same was true of several of the Episcopal churches we attended in connection with my school. Black southern Baptist churches are another matter, however. Church is an incredibly social event for these people. They are a community in many senses of the word.

In many ways it should have and sometimes no doubt does have things in common with AA, but again I'm not qualified to speak on AA, so I'm guessing.I don't doubt it, since AA is supposed to have a basis in Christianity. That's one of the most frequent complaints I hear from non

[dave_rainbow]

Black southern Baptist churches are another matter.
Yes! Hooray! :)

AA is supposed to have a basis in Christianity.
I'd never heard that before, but it would explain a lot.

It isn't a disorder in psychology unless it creates a problem for the individual.I know people who have gone to the doctor and asked for help with homosexual feelings that they have but don't want to have. Now if the doctor tells them that their feelings are normal, is he stating an opinion he can absolutely swear to, or is he expressing a view, and telling people not to be upset about things that they want help with? It seems to me that medicine has rightly accepted that it has no 'cures' for homosexuality, and I certainly wouldn't advocate any of those that have been tried (aversion therapy). But of course if you can't cure someone, it is awfully easy to tell them that they are well, and much harder to accept that you have simply failed to heal them

The 12 Steps

[firstmutant]

From the AA official site

Re: The 12 Steps

[dave_rainbow]

Thank you so much for that. If you remove the references to alcohol and replace them with any other condition that can be named that is considered sin by the bible, the same approach will work. Sadly it often takes people to become utterly lost and aware of their own incapacity to mend their lives before they will try them - and paradoxically the more sure that they are that this is so, when nothing else can or will help them, Jesus does

Re: The 12 Steps

[firstmutant]

I always enjoy hearing positive stories like yours; because of my profession, I don't hear happy things often. They give me hope for the future.

Re: The 12 Steps

[dave_rainbow]

Autism test

May 5th: Score 25
July 30th: Score 9

In 1987 you could have found a church full of happy stories like that, with 1300 people a week seeing the same things happening, and doctors among them praying for people. Sadly even in that situation there were a few malcontents in key places who wanted to keep a grip on the service. Ministers. Some of them. However when they had got control again, God left. To this day those affected are like so many seeds, waiting to flower when they are ready. Soon, please ---

Re: The 12 Steps

[firstmutant]

Just went through it. I can see the reasons behind including each question, but as with personality tests (have you seen Myers-Briggs?) I can also understand how scores might fluctuate on such a test. Mine would even change from day to day, depending upon my mood and degree of introversion. There are some indices which might be more stable: do you notice more details than the average person, are you fascinated by dates, etc.

Re: The 12 Steps

[dave_rainbow]

Everyone else who took it both times fluctuated somewhat. But not more than five points. Sixteen, in my case, is not going to be due to an accident.

In my case it acted as a prompt to ask those close to me what differences they had noted, and it turned out they were very real. In practice I know a lot of things about me have changed that make it easier to get on with life, and I'm more than glad. I also know I can now relate to the only person I know who got a lower score (eight). Six months ago we couldn't even hold a functional conversation, though we liked each other, because our minds were completely incapable of dealing with each other's ways.

I have a lot of ideas about how it happened in both spiritual terms and in mechanistic terms, though as is often the case with healing, I didn't see it coming when it happened. But I had better finish for the 'night' now, as work is pressing for the next day!!

Re: The 12 Steps

[firstmutant]

Understood.

I have a lot of ideas about how it happened in both spiritual terms and in mechanistic terms
Good. When you get a chance, I'm happy to hear them.

Re: The 12 Steps

[dave_rainbow]

Briefly, I got to a place with poetry where I realised that there was a radically different way to do the same things. It was more 'inspiration' and less 'technique'. I was then producing about 500 to 1000 lines of poetry (and therefore also checking and revising them) a week. Making yourself write that amount of poetry in that amount of time in a new way, is like re-programming your mind, and although I wasn't aware that this was what I was doing, in retrospect that's what I did

Re: The 12 Steps

[firstmutant]

Pretty remarkable. I'll have to remember that.