When God lends a hand

[Raskolnikov]

Inspired by and keeping in line with Bill’s When Angels lend a hand, I thought we might examine the subject from another angle by asking exactly when or at what moment in your life you may have experienced real God-like powers, the superpowers occasionally spoken about when a parent frees their child by lifting a car they shouldn’t be able to lift. We’ve all heard such stories of love manifesting into superhuman strength. Yet there are other powers beyond the merely physical that we could discuss as well, such as the clair-’s, the kinetic’s, and beyond, maybe some will surprise us.

Many of you have probably shared such stories in previous threads but I ask you to share again. The clearest and easiest example of such superhuman, God-given powers is Drunvalo Melchizedek’s story of the child who so loved salamanders he regrew a foot (arm?) because he was never told he couldn’t. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

We don’t know what we’re capable of in this realm because our entire lives we’ve been fed the opposite - fear, scarcity and limitation instead of God’s world of love, abundance and unlimited potential. So I pose these questions to you, my fellow seekers and lovers of truth: What are we capable of? What have you experienced? What miraculous and unexplainable situations and creations have you manifested? Nothing off the table.

I’ll start with my own peculiar experience, one that’s stuck with me for its sheer sense of otherworldliness, so much so in fact, that while it was happening I was keenly aware that it wasn’t the way this world operated so for me to be doing it was highly unusual indeed. A little background.

I experimented with mushrooms quite a bit in my high school years to my early twenties. The first experience a Grateful Dead concert, you can imagine my surprise. That night lasted forever and forever broke me out of my shell. It was a welcomed change as I was a painfully shy adolescent. It showed me the bigger picture, mind-expanding to be sure. I grew fond of the stinky little caps and stems and at one point did them for two-weeks straight. My older brother, dealing them at the time, would say, “Give me five bucks,” and then shove five grams in my hand. “Don’t mind if I do…”

The point here is that I was very accustomed to the drug and had never experienced anything even remotely like what I’m about to share so I don’t think one should so easily write it off as a simple drug-induced hallucination that was only occurring in my mind. I knew the people around me and even casually knew the two involved.

I grew up in a southern California beach town where drinking and experimenting with drugs was the norm. Yes, the rumors are true. I remember a bunch of us getting pulled over in my brother’s VW van and one of the cops singing, “And we’ll have fun, fun, fun, till our daddy takes the T-bird away…”

A couple friends bands were playing a show at a local hotel and the whole town was there. It was a fun night as my brother was still at it. After a full night of drinking and dancing, I remember walking up the stairs in the expansive front room that stretched the length of the long hotel. A staircase rose and fell on either side of the bar and stretched a good distance as well. It was a nice dimly lit area to catch your breath and be the observer. I leaned on the railing and began watching the customers at the bar directly below, most of whom I knew. I remember feeling really good as the music pleasantly filled the room. Something was in the air. I was standing there by myself and actually smiling, and not a brief smile mind you, but the long and unceasing kind of smile, a knowing kind of smile that comes from somewhere deep within. Just what it knew I couldn’t tell you, but it was all-encompassingly warm, pleasant and surreal. It was at this point I found myself focusing on a couple at the bar. They ordered drinks and were now coyly smiling at one another. Because of the music I couldn’t hear what they were saying but could almost read their lips. I became fascinated and tried to make out what they were saying. She had a radiant smile and I found myself thinking, “Come on girl, give him a kiss. Just lean in…” and suddenly she leaned over and gave him a kiss. I rejoiced at their good fortune. They both appeared to shyly recoil as if they weren’t really sure how or why the kiss happened. Again, I tried to read their lips. This time I could make out, “I don’t know,” and, “I’m sorry,” and then quickly, “No, don’t be sorry. I liked it.” And they both smiled with relief and renewed interest. They went back and forth in this way then relaxed next to each other sipping their drinks.

People came and went as the couple remained at the center. I’d seen them both around but didn’t really know them, very casual acquaintances as many were in the large beach town. They made a cute couple and seemed to be in a playful mood. I watched them coyly eyeing one another as if still unsure what to make of the kiss. I suddenly began planting words into his mouth and saying how he really liked her and thought she was very pretty to which she appeared to blush, obviously pleased. Then I switched to her and had her say, “I like you too. I think we should try that kiss again,” to which his eyes widened and smile broadened. I thought he should say, “You do?” which he said as the thought occurred. I have her acquiesce, “M-hmmmm,” with a smile while leaning in. They kiss again.

Understand at this point my mind is on fire, not in disbelief or questioning anything per se, but thoroughly relaxed, humming, vibrant, and truly joyful like I’d never felt before. There was something in the air. In this state a playful side of me takes a hand at it and begins manipulating them to at one moment kiss, the next moment argue, then apologize and make up again. Everything I thought, all the words I desired them to speak, even their movements and facial features were playing out exactly as I planned. I thought of new ways to manipulate them and found myself continually breaking them up just so I could watch them make up again. But one of those times I watched her slap him in the face. “Did I do that,” I thought in horror. Thank God I was able to repair the damage and have them make up one last time. And then, as remorse for my devious interference set in, it was gone. I no longer had any effect upon them as I watched them leave together with a huge sigh of relief that I hadn’t permanently severed the connection.

Of course my moral mind expounds that I wasn’t mature enough to handle such powers yet. I wielded them like a child, like a present day politician provoking war and pushing division then half-assedly offering condolences only to do it all over again. There’s a lesson in there somewhere for sure, but I’ve said enough.

What other powers have been revealed?

[Bill Ryan]

I posted here about how back in 1984 my girlfriend Angi grew two and a half inches overnight.

That's biologically and physically impossible, of course, but it really did happen. We were both running around the house late at night looking for a tape measure because I realized she'd suddenly grown (a lot!), and Angi was refusing to believe it.

But that wasn't 'God'. She had a strong ET connection (at least!), all recounted here in as much detail as I could find any way to describe.

[Russian Bear]

Regarding clairvoyance.

In Orthodoxy, clairvoyance is considered a gift received not from God, but from the devil. The Church believes that people withhold this gift with the help of evil spirits—demons.

To describe clairvoyance, Orthodoxy uses another term—sagacity. It is received by people cleansed of sins and passions, usually chaste, meek, humble, and constantly engaged in church or private prayer.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that people who are not churchgoers and are not on friendly terms with God cannot have the gift of clairvoyance from God.


"Man by himself is nothing."

For example, in a sermon by Elder Luke of Philotheou, it is said: "By responding to God's love, man becomes a person; he understands that man by himself is nothing, but in the light of God's plan, he is valuable and significant."

There is also a quote from St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (Sokolov): "Man by himself has nothing but weakness, corruption, sin, and wretchedness, and if he has or does anything good, it is from God, not from him."

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
Regarding clairvoyance.

In Orthodoxy, clairvoyance is considered a gift received not from God, but from the devil. The Church believes that people withhold this gift with the help of evil spirits—demons.

To describe clairvoyance, Orthodoxy uses another term—sagacity. It is received by people cleansed of sins and passions, usually chaste, meek, humble, and constantly engaged in church or private prayer.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that people who are not churchgoers and are not on friendly terms with God cannot have the gift of clairvoyance from God.

"Man by himself is nothing."

For example, in a sermon by Elder Luke of Philotheou, it is said: "By responding to God's love, man becomes a person; he understands that man by himself is nothing, but in the light of God's plan, he is valuable and significant."

There is also a quote from St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (Sokolov): "Man by himself has nothing but weakness, corruption, sin, and wretchedness, and if he has or does anything good, it is from God, not from him."

Mod note from Bill:

You really have to stop belittling and invalidating others' genuine and sincere experiences, just because you yourself have a very rigid belief system which you refuse to question. You may very well be quite wrong in a great deal that you believe.

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
Regarding clairvoyance.

In Orthodoxy, clairvoyance is considered a gift received not from God, but from the devil. The Church believes that people withhold this gift with the help of evil spirits—demons.

To describe clairvoyance, Orthodoxy uses another term—sagacity. It is received by people cleansed of sins and passions, usually chaste, meek, humble, and constantly engaged in church or private prayer.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that people who are not churchgoers and are not on friendly terms with God cannot have the gift of clairvoyance from God.


"Man by himself is nothing."

For example, in a sermon by Elder Luke of Philotheou, it is said: "By responding to God's love, man becomes a person; he understands that man by himself is nothing, but in the light of God's plan, he is valuable and significant."

There is also a quote from St. Tikhon of Zadonsk (Sokolov): "Man by himself has nothing but weakness, corruption, sin, and wretchedness, and if he has or does anything good, it is from God, not from him."

I appreciate your great faith, Russian Bear, but was hoping for something a little more personal and revealing. I'm sure many of you great God-fearing Russians have a story to tell in this field of thought. Peace be with you comrade.

[Russian Bear]

Come on Bill, this inappropriate tolerance, I read the story, it was interesting. Then I expressed my opinion on several issues. I didn't humiliate or insult anyone. I openly and sincerely expressed my opinion. I'm not a hundred-dollar bill, trying to please everyone. I could have kept quiet and not commented. But I won't be hypocritical with you; I'm straightforward. How could I not keep quiet? Or do you want cliched, hypocritical opinions?

Raskolkov, are you offended by me? Did I say something wrong? Just tell me so I know!

Then I'll just keep quiet so as not to offend anyone.

Bill, I read your article about how you were taken by aliens (demons). You know, what you said was really scary; I was genuinely worried about you. You have no idea how much danger you were in. When you see such creatures, remember the prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ for help and protection from them, and you will see the true demonic face of these large-eyed humanoids.

The demons created these UFOs to wage war on God and zombify people. So that people would touch the semi-material ships and say, "Yes, these are starships from another universe."

Contact with UFOs is very dangerous; a person loses strength, which is what happened to you; they suck out your life energy.

Angie said that Earth is very beautiful. But the truth is, she never went anywhere; these aliens showed her various things through hypnosis. Here she is in space, here she sees unusual things underwater, and then something else... It's all a deception.

These humanoids lie to people and say whatever they want, for example, that they are being driven out by evil cosmic forces. In reality, they fear God and are at war with Him.

Their UFOs are fueled by diamonds supplied by the world government. They have been given permission to abduct people.

During the reign of the Antichrist, UFOs will descend to Earth and present themselves as both angels of light and aliens, setting up tents where people will enter, supposedly for healing and treatment. Then demons (UFOs) will take their souls, and when they emerge, they will be zombies, their souls already demonic.

Do you know what they want to do with a human soul? They want to turn your soul into something like a diamond, which will serve as endless fuel for their ship. They want to compress the human soul. But God will not allow this. When they conduct experiments on you, they may take a small piece of your skin to then grow a layer of skin and cover themselves with it, thus creating reptilians. They are among the people who are part of the world government. Basically, you are in grave danger; you don't even know what you're doing.

Take at least a few small marble pieces and make beads out of them. UFOs are afraid of marble; if their craft flies over a marble quarry, they will crash. This is an unusual stone. If they suddenly want to contact you, I urge you to start praying to the Lord Jesus Christ and obtain marble pieces. And wear a cross around your neck, if you are a Christian, of course. Whether you believe me or not is your business. But I care about you, otherwise I wouldn't be writing all this. Therefore, I cannot be tolerant when it comes to the salvation of the human soul. Or do you think I came here to be clever???!!!

I am doing everything I can to warn you. And I will speak openly with you, without hypocrisy. And I want to add that I have never insulted anyone or shown disrespect to anyone on this forum. I have told you what is in my heart, in a civilized manner and, most importantly, honestly and openly. If everyone here thinks I'm rude, I won't comment on any more articles. We think differently and have different spiritual and mystical experiences.

I don't think you're making anything up in your stories; I take them seriously. And what you're saying is serious and dangerous. Don't play with fire. They want to kill people and take them to hell. Well, it's up to you to decide.

If you're not used to hearing things that differ from your opinion, then really, I shouldn't be interfering with my comments. You are right about that.

(UFO demons) ACCORDING TO THE SCENARIO OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687554

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
Come on Bill, this inappropriate tolerance, I read the story, it was interesting. Then I expressed my opinion on several issues. I didn't humiliate or insult anyone. I openly and sincerely expressed my opinion. I'm not a hundred-dollar bill, trying to please everyone. I could have kept quiet and not commented. But I won't be hypocritical with you; I'm straightforward. How could I not keep quiet? Or do you want cliched, hypocritical opinions?

Raskolkov, are you offended by me? Did I say something wrong? Just tell me so I know!

Then I'll just keep quiet so as not to offend anyone.

Bill, I read your article about how you were taken by aliens (demons). You know, what you said was really scary; I was genuinely worried about you. You have no idea how much danger you were in. When you see such creatures, remember the prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus Christ for help and protection from them, and you will see the true demonic face of these large-eyed humanoids.

The demons created these UFOs to wage war on God and zombify people. So that people would touch the semi-material ships and say, "Yes, these are starships from another universe."

Contact with UFOs is very dangerous; a person loses strength, which is what happened to you; they suck out your life energy.

Angie said that Earth is very beautiful. But the truth is, she never went anywhere; these aliens showed her various things through hypnosis. Here she is in space, here she sees unusual things underwater, and then something else... It's all a deception.

These humanoids lie to people and say whatever they want, for example, that they are being driven out by evil cosmic forces. In reality, they fear God and are at war with Him.

Their UFOs are fueled by diamonds supplied by the world government. They have been given permission to abduct people.

During the reign of the Antichrist, UFOs will descend to Earth and present themselves as both angels of light and aliens, setting up tents where people will enter, supposedly for healing and treatment. Then demons (UFOs) will take their souls, and when they emerge, they will be zombies, their souls already demonic.

Do you know what they want to do with a human soul? They want to turn your soul into something like a diamond, which will serve as endless fuel for their ship. They want to compress the human soul. But God will not allow this. When they conduct experiments on you, they may take a small piece of your skin to then grow a layer of skin and cover themselves with it, thus creating reptilians. They are among the people who are part of the world government. Basically, you are in grave danger; you don't even know what you're doing.

Take at least a few small marble pieces and make beads out of them. UFOs are afraid of marble; if their craft flies over a marble quarry, they will crash. This is an unusual stone. If they suddenly want to contact you, I urge you to start praying to the Lord Jesus Christ and obtain marble pieces. And wear a cross around your neck, if you are a Christian, of course. Whether you believe me or not is your business. But I care about you, otherwise I wouldn't be writing all this. Therefore, I cannot be tolerant when it comes to the salvation of the human soul. Or do you think I came here to be clever???!!!

I am doing everything I can to warn you. And I will speak openly with you, without hypocrisy. And I want to add that I have never insulted anyone or shown disrespect to anyone on this forum. I have told you what is in my heart, in a civilized manner and, most importantly, honestly and openly. If everyone here thinks I'm rude, I won't comment on any more articles. We think differently and have different spiritual and mystical experiences.

I don't think you're making anything up in your stories; I take them seriously. And what you're saying is serious and dangerous. Don't play with fire. They want to kill people and take them to hell. Well, it's up to you to decide.

If you're not used to hearing things that differ from your opinion, then really, I shouldn't be interfering with my comments.

(UFO demons) ACCORDING TO THE SCENARIO OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687554

~~~

You have no idea what you are talking about.

[Russian Bear]

If you first start praying to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then tell me what happened to those UFOs when you started praying, you will cause them immense pain with your holy prayer. You can't even imagine what will happen. And then you will understand what I was talking about.

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
To describe clairvoyance, Orthodoxy uses another term—sagacity. It is received by people cleansed of sins and passions, usually chaste, meek, humble, and constantly engaged in church or private prayer.

The Russian Orthodox Church believes that people who are not churchgoers and are not on friendly terms with God cannot have the gift of clairvoyance from God.

"Man by himself is nothing."

Here we disagree. I believe people can by on friendly terms with God without going to church. It's an inner connection with God first and foremost, church or no church. In fact, almost every time I've entered a church I've felt repulsed by the hypocricy and felt my connection with God diminish. For example, I attended the funeral of distant relative where the pastor, in his long sermon and eulogy, said, "It's too bad she won't make it into heaven because she wasn't baptized before she died." I looked around the room to see if others had heard what I just heard. Only my closest cousin caught it and was just as outraged as I was. I approached him later and voiced my disgust. Religion is the most intolerant of all, division of the highest order. We all bleed red, or at least I think we all do, who's to say what the reps and greys bleed?

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
Raskolkov, are you offended by me? Did I say something wrong? Just tell me so I know!

Not in the slightest RB. But I would greatly appreciate hearing from others and getting this thread back on track if you wouldn't mind. It was never my aim for this thread to create a rift between members.



(that's a joke, more superpowers, less dumpster fire)

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
If you first start praying to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then tell me what happened to those UFOs when you started praying, you will cause them immense pain with your holy prayer. You can't even imagine what will happen. And then you will understand what I was talking about.

We've made the decision now to retire your account.

This is not a 'ban', as you've not really broken any forum guidelines. But you truly don't belong here — in a community which is eclectic, spiritual, highly aware, very understanding of others' views and experiences, and (importantly) where no-one ever tries to preach. (I know you've said a few times that you're not a preacher, but you really do try.)

You're 25 years old, and you think you know everything — including that the Earth is Flat. (For others reading this, he started the thread titled Flat Earth is reality. People do not know the secret of the universe 4 days after his forum application was approved.)

We tolerated that — an exception to our usual internal rule — because some of your other threads, especially the historical ones, seemed interesting, intelligent and well-researched. But that very topic reveals that everything you feel you understand and believe so very strongly may not be as well-founded as you think.

But all your posts — even the Flat Earth ones — will remain, and we're not going to delete or remove anything. And because you're just 'retired' (not 'banned') you'll continue to be able to read anything on the forum, including in members-only sections, if you want to do so.

A word of advice, if I may.

Another Russian member, Mashika, posted extensively before she went on sabbatical 2 years ago. (She started 120 threads and had 3,400 posts on every topic one can imagine.) She was your age, having joined when she was younger, but her humor, her sincere interest in almost everything that was posted by other members, and her razor-sharp intelligence (not to mention her willingness to learn English, which she mastered very quickly) might be a good example for you to think about.

But I don't think you've ever seen a single thing that she wrote.

Unlike her, you've been far more intent on posting your own material than exploring the forum to discover what else is there, an enormous library of information and shared experience for anyone of any age to learn from. (That's a little like someone at a dinner party who increasingly irritates the other guests because they will not stop talking and are not interested in listening to anyone else.)

Finally, regarding the two threads on which you did read and post on recently — this one and its companion, When Angels lend a hand — you failed to take any time to understand that the references to 'Angels' and 'God' were metaphors.

But instead, as soon as you saw those words, you jumped straight in to preach. Some members may have been interested in what you shared (and your posts will stay) — but I suspect very few.

Мы искренне желаем Вам всего наилучшего.

[Hym]

Before I spend any time writing a response to YOUR posts R.B., I'm going to schedule a root canal, a colonoscopy and 30 hours of tattoo removal just to remind myself that there have to be less painful, more useful endeavors than responding to your ignorance here.....
Heavens....I might even schedule a hysterectomy, which would be an historic event considering that I'm a man. I also don't have any tattoos, at least from my limited views.

Addition: I wrote this while Bill was writing his post above. Thank You, Bill. It seems that I'm going to have to cancel all of those appointments.

Russian Bear, What are you doing on this forum?
It is a forum of some deep respect for the faith and experiences of others, which your narrow mindedness completely works against.

In this obvious context it seems that you are eventually, if not initially, a reminder of the pitfalls of a very studied and impressively closed mind. No one here wishes to change anything you write or attempts to convince you of your experience's giving you either validity or self delusion, until you insist that others grasp on to your engagement with fear, your being married to Fear. Not to worry about anyone here having any fear of your words or your influence. Your extensive and scholarly writings are a much different read to most of us than what your intentions are trying to elicit from any of our responses.

You do your soul a great disservice by doing no investigation of the fearlessness that only your purposeful removal of your ego can awaken.
You do take much pride in your abilities to repeat scriptural rules and regulations, which in the lives of those of us who have spiritually rejected the deliberate reconstruction of the words and intentions of Jesus, tell us that those weren't his words or intentions anyway. In fact, the history of the world that has misused His examples and tremendous sacrifices, only to abuse and misuse their fellow brothers and sisters, is proof of how futile, how deceitful those dogmas and doctrines are.

Dogmatic religious institutions have rewritten truths, turning them into lies and attributed those lies as the words, the examples and the life of Yessuah Messah, Jesus. This world has for a long time been the reckoning ground for the stark misuse and abuse of the words of great men, the life and times of Yessuah being the worst example. Brother to brother, child of the Creator to child of The Creator, I know that it is not fear that brings anyone to living a spiritual life.

In some contexts the words you quote can be universally sound, until they attempt to define the lives and the intentions, even the self sacrifices of others who do not hold so steadfastly to the empty rituals and dogmatic indoctrinations of this worlds religions, religions which by definition are not spiritual.

We attribute deceit to the real world evil of some other entity and not to the words of other humans, when it is only through the words of other humans that the life of a Christian can be manipulated. They don't need the influence of demons to be evil, just as they don't need the experience of Jesus, nor the re-interpretations of his words, to be real Christians. It seems that you either didn't spend enough time in a monastery or you spent too much time there without getting out into the world, while in your human body, to non-judgementally serve others. That is exactly what the example was, and is.

Your comments, RB, are some of the best examples of dogma and prejudice, both attributes of spiritual ignorance. I'd put you in any survival situation with others who live with different spiritual practices, as well as those religious fanatics from any other path, like some of those Russians who are your countrymen, and then ask you where were their demons and devils when they put their lives on the line for you, even as they may know you come off to them as a very prejudiced and close minded man, who none the less also deserves to live the life God granted. If you ever find yourself in those situations again, do know that your close minded opinions will put you at the end of the line when they choose to fight with you. Not my choice, because I would not judge living that way, but common sense tells anyone that would be the case. I do not reward ignorance by treating it differently than efforts made to understand, but your working so hard to expose and not learn from the dogma you hold so dear will not protect you from the judgements of the other people you meet.

My advice, if you choose to heed a call from one who has read the same writings from the minds, the words and the hands of others exactly like yours over the years, is to calm yourself down and allow nothing but The God you personally do not know, show you the way beyond your fear, because the words you put here are not the words of a spiritually aware soul, claiming you know God, which your words do not confirm. God is not dogma, altho I see the modern interpretation of both of those words as the same thing.

If there is anything that a human might fear, beyond the ridiculous notion that it is God we must fear, it is not understanding and removing why fear has any influence in our lives. Do fear that lost opportunity to find and fulfill your own life's Loving Purpose. The translation from religion texts of "fear" should in all reality be fearing that we have not accomplished, worked for, engaged in, or learned why each one of us is personally here, having these experiences, and not be the atheist calling out for protection when their lives are threatened. If there is any perception that the reasons should be to harm others beyond the needs for self protection, you are sorely mistaken. You know not what you are doing.

The excuses of people calling the evil they choose to do as being the result of the influence of demons are the excuses of those people who do not honor the responsibilities given by life itself, given by God if you will. Without personal responsibility to your life and the lives of others you will forever be the pawn of those who created religions in the first place. We are responsible for those things we can protect and change, just as we are not responsible for the actions of others, including nature.

Accepting the ignorance in others, especially the ignorance that held our attention at some point in our own lives, is accepting the growth we have gone through and informs us about how we can apply our own compassion and sharing from our lives to the lives of others.

You have written quite a bit on this thread, in the only forum that would accept you into a space if you are looking to discover the deeper and obvious reasons for your outstanding ability to convey ignorance. My response, as well as those you have received from others, is because you are calling out for another view. If you are looking for converts or affirmations of your extreme biases you are in the wrong place. If you don't understand this, there is nothing that can be shared with you that confirms your biases, let alone some respite from wasting the precious gifts of time.

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Hym (here)
This thread is one of the best examples of dogma and prejudice

Hym, your superpower is the ability to completely ignore the aim of my thread and then throw me under the bus with RB. The OP is anything but dogma yet somehow my face is covered in tire tracks. Trying to make light of a difficult situation. I agree with much of what you said Hym. Religious fervor in the young can be strong yet misguided. And now you're all giving RB a Jesus persecution complex and he probably feels more righteous than ever. If it means anything RB, I enjoyed some of our conversations, but religious intolerance is truly the scourge of this world. If God is love, then it's time to prove it in your words and actions. Peace be with you comrade.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Raskolnikov (here)

Posted by Hym (here)
This thread is one of the best examples of dogma and prejudice

Hym, your superpower is the ability to completely ignore the aim of my thread and then throw me under the bus with RB. The OP is anything but dogma yet somehow my face is covered in tire tracks. Trying to make light of a difficult situation. I agree with much of what you said Hym. Religious fervor in the young can be strong yet misguided. And now you're all giving RB a Jesus persecution complex and he probably feels more righteous than ever. If it means anything RB, I enjoyed some of our conversations, but religious intolerance is truly the scourge of this world. If God is love, then it's time to prove it in your words and actions. Peace be with you comrade.

Please do allow me to step in here briefly!

1) Hym was actually referring to Russian Bear's posts as "one of the best examples of dogma and prejudice". Not anything at all that you wrote, or the intention of your thread itself — which I fully support, as does he.

2) The religious intolerance came from Russian Bear himself. We have quite a few other threads about all aspects of religion, and the respect and tolerance for many different points of view is one that I think the community can be fully proud of.

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Raskolnikov (here)

Posted by Hym (here)
This thread is one of the best examples of dogma and prejudice

Hym, your superpower is the ability to completely ignore the aim of my thread and then throw me under the bus with RB. The OP is anything but dogma yet somehow my face is covered in tire tracks. Trying to make light of a difficult situation. I agree with much of what you said Hym. Religious fervor in the young can be strong yet misguided. And now you're all giving RB a Jesus persecution complex and he probably feels more righteous than ever. If it means anything RB, I enjoyed some of our conversations, but religious intolerance is truly the scourge of this world. If God is love, then it's time to prove it in your words and actions. Peace be with you comrade.

Please do allow me to step in here briefly!

1) Hym was actually referring to Russian Bear's posts as "one of the best examples of dogma and prejudice". Not anything at all that you wrote, or the intention of your thread itself — which I fully support, as does he.

2) The religious intolerance came from Russian Bear himself. We have quite a few other threads about all aspects of religion, and the respect and tolerance for many different points of view is one that I think the community can be fully proud of.

I know. Thank you Bill. Your superpower has always been tolerance and respect, that's what drew us here in the first place, but even tolerance has its limits and we've got greater things to concern ourselves with,





so we're gonna need to tap into those superpowers if we're going to make it...

[Hym]

Thanks Bill.
And in your response to his response to my response from my ignorance of the beauty of the original post of his thread:

I'm So Sorry, Raskolinkov. I fixed my post by changing one word, from "thread" to "post", yours to his. And knowing you a bit, I know you knew what I meant. All the more, and none the less....Missed it, I did.

Your original post is surely a prompt to share some experiences, tho I will have to post an "Adult Content Warning" to begin some of them. Good God, I still am trying to get used to that word....sometimes, as in this case, I overreact and forget who I'm talking with.

Back to the Topic:

Reading your account of those shroomed moments in time is interesting because I have some insight being around some colorful few who possessed those abilities and used them in very ethical ways, without additional chemical prompts, or being permanently stricken with those abilities by overuse of chemicals. When these experiences have happened regularly in our lives without ingesting anything special, quite like Ulli has said, we see and feel them as normal. However, it is the habit of many of us to externalize what only could occur as a part of the interconnectivity between all we are and what is, tho it may seemingly come from outside of us.

I only met one notable figure who abused these abilities. In that darkened soul's case every single encounter I had with him turned out to be hilarious, even if, especially because, he was so unethical and humourless. In those encounters, they were so illustrative of why most humans should not have them without some guidance, that I either laughed or put away any extra weapons I carried,.... and he always skulked away, or grunted in response.

[Johnnycomelately]

Looks like “God” has lent a hand, to this thread. Nice to see barking stop and some friendly sniffs ensue.

I say “It’s nice when things turn out nice”, but I think we owe it to our bother Bill for helping that along. Perhaps a new thread titled “When friends lend a hand”?

Rask, dude, about your OP, post #1. I have felt when my intent has triggered other people, but only in real time, never ~predictive like you describe. Are you sure that this perception wasn’t a result of a, what I call a time-warp, due to your shroom loading?

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)
Looks like “God” has lent a hand, to this thread. Nice to see barking stop and some friendly sniffs ensue.

I say “It’s nice when things turn out nice”, but I think we owe it to our bother Bill for helping that along. Perhaps a new thread titled “When friends lend a hand”?

Rask, dude, about your OP, post #1. I have felt when my intent has triggered other people, but only in real time, never ~predictive like you describe. Are you sure that this perception wasn’t a result of a, what I call a time-warp, due to your shroom loading?

Shroom loading? Time-warp? Hey, it’s certainly possible, my synapses were most definitely firing. By using the word God in the title, I refer to the power of the Creator and God is as good a word as any. It’s something larger than ourselves which connects us all. Most people around the world refer to this power or energy as God. In this respect, I agree with Russian Bear when he said, “Man by himself is nothing.” There is a higher power involved and we must open a way to connect ourselves more strongly with it. Do we even truly understand what It is and how It works? And yet it is our life force, plain and simple. So in this vein I like to think it was God’s little way of showing me a bigger picture at work.

LA in the 80’s was a very materialistic world, a very empty world, and this was God’s way of demonstrating some profound cosmic principle that both showed me the existence of that all-connecting force while alluding to the limitless potential and unimaginable possibilities of remaining in that holy space of love to ultimately become one with that force. Maybe this is our purpose because isn’t that what all the great mystics were trying to teach their adepts? I think He was trying to show me that I still had some inner work to do. Those are my thoughts anyway, I’m sure some will simply write it off as shroom loading (love that!), but it wasn’t any more than usual and that never happened before or since.

And don’t sweat it Hym, I was just having a little fun trying to redirect back to the OP. Guess all that preaching got people a little fired up.

[Matthew]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
...

Mod note from Bill:

...

Ok, so there's enough off topic with this so I'll keep it brief and then let it go. I think I understand the final decision but I want to say for the record Russian Bear reflects the view of the Bible accurately, be it with a rusk delivery that .. well, while his posts did attribute the view as "the Orthodox Church's view..." clearly it was also his own view. Look, I wouldn't have put it as rusk as RB did, but it's also my view. No disrespect is meant to you reader but there's no getting round it. I know what you're thinking? that I post such opinions with more experience of the forum and tread more tactfully, carefully. So I think I get the decision. If RB's opinions weren't so openly and explicitly Biblicaly aligned/quoted then I suspect he would still be posting here as normal. I think he understands about the preaching because him and me have chatted since his banning, and he's a good guy imo with plenty of compatible posts here. I know the rub and brusqueness was off, I think he can learn and change. But that's too much from me already, so I shall move on quickly.


Now on-topic.

I strongly believe I have had divine intervention after divine intervention. My favorite was when God cured me of fleas. I prayed "Jesus my healer, rid me of these fleas or give me the knowledge to rid myself from these fleas". I then had the most surreal vision I couldn't even make up: half a lemon then me washing myself in it and going to bed all happy. Seriously, I thought "that wasn't from me", and just glared at these seemingly random mental images. After I had accepted them as a vision from Heaven I looked up lemons and fleas on the internet. I learnt D-Limonene which is extracted from lemons by steeping them (boiling for a few minutes then letting them sit in the water for four to eight hours), will kill fleas and flea eggs. After straining then washing myself in the steeped lemon water I went to bed. The fleas jumped to me and then died. I did this for a few mornings and bedtimes.

But there are others, so many others. I didn't play guitar, and refused to learn more than five open chords until my Church invited me to play 'bass guitar'. The strange thing was when the pastor was typing the message on WhatsApp to ask me to play bass guitar I knew exactly what the message was going to be about. There was no precedent for me knowing this, not ever played bass guitar, or for her to invite me to play it, so it wasn't as if I could have guessed, but I absolutely knew what message was that she was currently typing to me. I had played hand-drums and synth keyboards but not for the Church. I wasn't involved in the Church music, had never been asked nor had ever asked myself.

But I knew what she was going to ask me. I even started to respond to it, which made her stop typing. But then I thought it's weird enough already, I should let her type her message (that I knew what it was) because otherwise it's even more confusing. She finally finished her message, exactly as I expected with one addition: she had a bass guitar that she could lend me. I reluctantly accepted but a bit overwhelmed with the prospect of having to learn bass technique, and more music theory (that complements bass guitar really well, I mean I barely knew what a chord was.). I was getting stressed with the prospect of learning bass, but when she turned up with the guitar she was going to lend me, it turned out to be a regular 6 string electric guitar. This was a relief because that's easier (less foundational, structural and more mucking about over the top of the music).

A few weeks later, after spending my life rejecting the identity as a guitar player, mocking them saying "I refuse to play an instrument made of cheese wire", well, a few weeks later I was playing guitar in Church. I won't be the greatest guitar player but people have said they thought I'd played guitar for seven or eight years, but it's about a year and a half.

When God lends a hand it's not by any ritual, and boy His blessing overflows. It's like a blast domino effect of blessings emanating from you. God isn't the only one who lends a hand though, and non-God 'blessings' are weak, often involve ritual but not always, can backfire, and are generally a bit ****. I have more stories, some that make me cry because of God generosity and mercy for my friends and family, with timings and coincidences and such an unlikely chain of events that it's surely supernatural. But from my very stubborn point of view this supernatural power is from the Host of Hosts. I also believe in the supernatural power of fallen angels. If you literally want to meet Jesus Christ of Nazareth it's your personal privilege and you can ask in the secret place.

[Ernie Nemeth]

Too bad about his attitude. I really enjoyed his history lessons on Russia.

His offerings were a lot more useful than many other posts here on Avalon.

But, his religious fervor (spellcheck says this is not a word) was his undoing.

Like in all things, I am mostly immune to this sort of travesty to my sensibilities these days, having experienced so many others leave or be expelled over the years.


The moral of the story might be that fanatical believers are a scourge on society as they are inherently intolerant and have no mercy for those of other beliefs. And that goes for any belief, including ideology, politics, religion, science, philosophy, or metaphysics. With a small caveat, even mathematics can be added to the group.

A treatise could be written about the difference between to believe and to know.

Some might say it is the difference between an angel or God lending a hand...

[Sue (Ayt)]

I enjoyed RB's informative posts about Russia, too.

What I do not enjoy is when people rush in to "rain on our parades."
No one asked for opinions on this thread, but for personal experiences shared.
(if you can't participate in the fun, better to stay home)
People that do this are also known as "Debbie Downers"

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ObdC3uhPeEY