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Pellisworth posted:This might be a dumb question and I'll take it to the Buddhism thread if we end up going at length, but since I've got a couple of you here: I can't say anything about Buddhist teaching, but the (def. controversal) surveys of remembered past lives in children conducted by Ian Stevenson in the 60s and 70s featured a few interesting cases: While most of his subjects 'remembered' past lives with the same sex, several were adamant about having lived as a person of the opposite sex and gender and experienced problems in 'getting used' to their new sex. Stevenson even wrote an article about it, which you can find here: https://som.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/267/2015/11/STE9.pdf SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Sep 29, 2016 |
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Sep 29, 2016 15:38
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Tias posted:Is patron to magicians as well, eh? I like! If you want the full magician treatment, you cannot go wrong with St. Cyprian of Antiochia. Dude was a full-on pagan mage initiated in many mystery cults and had quite a lot of street-cred - until he tried his love magic on a Christian virgin 8Justina) who destroyed all of his spells with the sign of the cross. Cyprian went "Wow, this god has the best mojo!", converted to christianity and now used his Christian magic to win magical duels with pagan court wizards and convert their bosses. He ended up a martyr, together with Justina, and is now venerated as a helper against demons+magic - but also as a patron of Christian esotericists. Also St. Columba of iona was basically Gandalf. Stuff he did in his hagiography (quote from here): "-Remoted viewed events in Ireland and telepathically influenced them. -Prophesied local events immediately before they happened. -Banished all snakes from Iona. (Popular power, that one.) -Could foresee others' deaths and predicted his own. -Controlled the weather. -Banished plague. -Cursed people and caused ships to sink. -Saved a marriage by praying for a wife to love and have sex with her husband. -Raised people from the dead. (Saint Oram in particular.) -Healed the sick. -Beat druids in magical combat. -Spoke with angels. -Shrivelled the hand of a monk who provided shelter to his murderous lover. -Was told of "the secret things that have been hidden since the world began." -Fought with demons seeking to take souls. -Opened locked gates and buildings with the sign of the cross." Edit: Added Columba! SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 20:42 on May 16, 2017 |
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May 16, 2017 20:32
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Hey guys, if you wanna know more about demons - maybe just ask them? disclaimer: I'm such a pussy that I was even too much of a craven to enter the "say the hail mary thrice backwards in a mirror" game in school. SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 18:23 on May 27, 2017 |
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May 27, 2017 18:10
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Little interdenominational question: How 'popular' are angels in the every day cultus of your denomination? How are they pictured and what role do they have for the faithful? German situation on the ground: Lots of people who are nominally christian - or even neutral to religion have overly cute guardian angel images or figures hanging around. Example:  I miss the more ... non-euclidian depction of angels from the OT:    But I really see the problem with those guys showing up near the opened tomb and telling people not to be afraid. SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jun 15, 2017 |
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Jun 15, 2017 21:50
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I'm actually following a rather freestyle interpretation of Purgatory not as something that God does to us, but as something we kinda do to ourself. Part of that understanding is the idea that 'Sin' is anything that removes us mentally from Divinity and makes us forget that we are actually part & mirrors of the Creator (irrespective of religion). People who spend most of their lives following material as well as mental obsessions and ignored their souls' needs get a really rude awakening when they die - not because God will punish them, but because they have spent most of their lives denying the most important parts of themselves. So to sum it up: they did all they could to bury their connection to the creator AND at the same time, the material things, people or situations they were clinging to are no longer there.  Postmortem mental breakdown time! So some people might get 'stuck' in cycles of terror / denial / self pity and have a really lovely time (yet still going  ) - which an all-loving God hates to see, but we have our free will, so the Creator and his angel dudes patiently wait until these people stop throwing themselves against the same metaphorical wall again and again  and are opening themselves to Divine companionship. Then it's time for healing and all the other amazing stuff.It might be a bit esoteric, but I really like this interpretation because it emphazises unfailing Divine love & forgiveness as well as our own free will. Also regarding the pity one could feel for other people possibly on the way to 'Purgatory' - I'm going full Origen with Apocatastasis and I see this ordeal as a learning experience a soul goes through - what pleasure can be greater than to 'rediscover' God and even finding out They were never really removed from us and loved us all the time  SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 16:30 on Jul 20, 2017 |
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Jul 20, 2017 16:05
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CountFosco posted:"magicians by diabolic power tie spirits to images" Wow, crazy stuff!http://www.esotericarchives.com/oracle/iambl_th.htm Drawing divine presence into statues is apparently part of the everyday reponsibilities of ancient polytheistic priests. I guess I will keep that in mind next time I visit the British museum. Fun fact: the text also explains that every angel, god or daemon you summon during an initiaion ceremony will be forced to show you his sign/seal if you ask for it - so you know it's actually them and not an astral hobo impersonating them. "can you show me your ID badge, officer?" *edit: the same page also contains esoteric illustration, love this one: 
SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Jul 23, 2017 |
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Jul 23, 2017 22:13
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Numerical Anxiety posted:The fact that today's self-avowed "skeptics" are just another brand of dogmatism would make me smile, if they weren't so forceful about evoking a thorough cringe. The concept of a "secular religion" really makes sense in that context. I kinda fail to see the psychological advantages of binding oneself to and fervently defending a worldview which sees humans as badly-built meat-sacks on a socio-darwinistic race to the bottom - but I'm sure these advantages must exist. [edit:Looking at myself: I accepted that worldview mainly due to a)respect for the seemingly endless possibilities of science to explain the universe (still love the scientific method, just not scientism) b) the fact that this worldview is supported by almost all institutions & influencers c) I grew up with self-esteem issues and the concept of a hopeless, cold universe where chance-generated meatsacks hosed each other up just because they can 'harmonized' nicely with that] Also personally, as someone rediscovering Christianity after bad experiences in childhood/youth, I would really love to see (Catholic) christianity stop trying to fit into the contemporary mechanistic worldview and embrace its 'supernatural' aspects: Mysticism, ritual, angels, approachable saints, relics, prayer, incense, whatever happens during transsubstantiation - bring on the mindbending sh*t!! SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jul 30, 2017 |
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Jul 30, 2017 17:27
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Tias posted:Double, and completely OT post: Interesting, any reason why you guys pick South for representing Earth? I thought usually it's East=Air, South=Fire, West=Water, North=Earth? HEY GAIL posted:new religions Well, Santa Muerte is kinda dope, but I guess she's way too metal to become the main goddess of a mainstream religion. She will def. have a place in a weird new cyber-aztec-Catholic space pantheon - every respectable pantheon needs a god(dess) of death!  SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Aug 6, 2017 |
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Aug 6, 2017 17:21
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System Metternich posted:[..] people breaking down because they discovered that they used to be pampered nobles in a previous life and can't match this memory with their present life as a poor maidservant. Here's one of a kids being super bummed about being reborn in a poor family: quote:Jagdish Chandra Might just have been a kind finding a culturally viable way to demand cool stuff (and verifying that stuff is a nightmare), but who knows.
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Aug 8, 2017 22:51
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Tias posted:You know, for a church supposedly being persecuted as gently caress, you guys are making a lot of fun of my personal gnosis Just a personal observation as a middle-class dude in Germany, but I have the impression that even many members of institutionalized western religions have trouble coming to terms with and communicating about mystical experiences. Anecdote: I was participating at a contemplation workshop at a local monastery and in the introduction, several participants talked about having personal experiences with saints, angels, even Mary herself - most other participants (me included) were not really sure how to deal with this info and things were a little awkward for a minute. And that was in a monastery! Talking about spiritual gnosis outside of such a setting is pretty much impossible in (German)urban middleclass society, even among close friends - mechanistic materialism is the dominant model and everybody has to prove their rationality - or at least that the're no candidates for the loony bin. SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Aug 10, 2017 |
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Aug 10, 2017 19:06
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Josef bugman posted:I suppose it's because if we did all see the world through that particular vein we'd end up going completly mental anyway. Yeah, the basic problem of any moment of personal gnosis is that it's almost impossible to verify using outside sources. I'm not saying every person who claims to have received divince communication is right: most people might be making it up or be led to that point by their own wishes or even some mental issues - but what about those that aren't? Telling them that they're insane or shaming them into silence is a pretty unfair move by Western society.
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Aug 10, 2017 19:45
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Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn dudes surely love(d) their Ancient Egyptian headdresses: SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Aug 21, 2017 |
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Aug 21, 2017 22:08
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Gonna jump in the breach with my own heresy: We missed the feast day of St. Guinefort by a day! http://ultimatehistoryproject.com/the-cult-of-guinefort-an-unusual-saint.html A good boy! Not an official saint (in fact, his veneration was forbidden several times during the last centuries due to people doing really weird stuff at his shrine - and him being a dog), but apparently he still helps those who ask for his help and children in particular.  If it's wrong to like St. Guinefort, I don't wanna be right.
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Aug 23, 2017 12:32
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Smoking Crow posted:HOWEVER I also feel like an rear end in a top hat because I don't see the faith the same as someone raised in the church. They have the correct view of the faith and I do not. I also feel like I will never become true Catholic because of this I thought most people raised in the Catholic church are actually less educated about its theological dimension than those who join it later. Most of us have never opened the catechism and religious education (at least here in Germany) tried to underplay any of the complex rules or overly supernatural elements of the faith. It was more like: "Jesus was an awesome dude who probably even existed! Let's look at some historical sources. Also there are the 7 sacraments, but don't sweat it, we're gonna talk about those in detail when it's time for each of them". Excluding the old people (who were lashed in school when making mistakes in reciting the catechism) and a few devout youngsters, most of the fellow Catholics I met had a rather relaxed / half-assed view of the faith, like "well there's the kneeling, standing, singing that you learn habitually, then there's the basic truth of the faith (Jesus is the Christ, dat's cool - also trinity?!), maybe some Saints and the Virgin Mary who are kinda rad, and then there are the nice social aspects of hanging out in the parish." Also some of the knowledgeable, devout old ladies are doing old school folk magic that would have gotten them into serious trouble a few centuries ago without seeing it in any way clashing with the rest of their faith - things are fluid. Same for people venerating 'illegal' Saints like St. Guinefort - is it incorrect? Might be, but he's such a good boy! So it's all good, don't feel like you don't have a 'correct' view edit: Historically I would say, being a "true Catholic" effectively meant "upholding the basic core of the Faith while trying to get away with as much superstitious & fun stuff as you could when the priest's not looking your way." SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Aug 24, 2017 |
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Aug 24, 2017 09:54
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It's not a bug, it's a feature!  Inhabiting a body that has to survive in this world (hormones, lizard & monkey brain parts that keep the species going) comes with the potential to get us stuck in some pretty (self-)destructive behaviour patterns that are really hard to break. That's another reason why I don't believe that a god worth its salt would be super disappointed when when gently caress up from time to time - it's part of the built-in difficulty level.Some theologicians on the heretic/weird side even went so far to assume that (based on the idea that God wants consciousness to experience itself in any possible form because They're just into dat poo poo, yo) intelligent species exist on other worlds with less 'harsh' conditions. As an example: intelligent jellyfish floating around in an endless ocean would have less issues with sexuality, territorial aggression etc. - not sinning might be much easier for them, but they would both lack the temptation and the possible reward of resisting it, stumping their spiritual growth. So from a Goon perspective: we're all basically playing Dark Souls Iron Man mode on this world, hl gf. edit: Afaik Buddhism also assumes that gods exist and are basically having a jolly good time being almost immortal, always healthy, never hungry, etc. - which fucks up their chances to reach enlightenment big time, because they don't have to struggle with existence, suffer, etc - all the stuff that makes you grow spiritually. SavageGentleman fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Aug 28, 2017 |
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Aug 28, 2017 09:30
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The (otherwise mediocre) episodic Korean film "Doomsday book" features a robot that has reached enlightenment: Without hormones and our monkey brain parts holding it back, it almost immediately recognized the Four Noble Truths and started meditating incessantly.
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Sep 20, 2017 22:27
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Idunno, maybe being a Bavarian Catholic already makes me half-pagan, but I don't have issues with thinking that the dead (to some degree) still hang around, either lending a helping hand or being profoundly confused. If more than 95% of all human cultures have practiced ancestor work since the beginning of time, who am I to say that they were wrong? Afaik the actual gospels do not feature a detailed description of what happens to the dead, like "and exactly 30 seconds after death they arrive in heaven or hell, no other option!", so I'm open to the idea of the dead having more adventures before getting their final rest.
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Oct 22, 2017 12:58
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Ceciltron posted:Do any 9f you people crack open the catechism ever or is it just open season on Dangerous Comforting Thoughts in here? Just basing myself on the 4 gospels, I cannot find a detailed cosmology on death and what comes after. Many allegories about heaven and who can enter it more easily than others, a few quotes about a judgement and about the lovely time those judged poorly will have, and that's basically it. Can you help me with more quotes?
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Oct 22, 2017 13:18
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