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Post by Lena on Sept 20, 2010 0:42:20 GMT -5
I want to join too! Hopefully I won't be too slow though. Cool, welcome! I have a feeling you'll be fine. We can all go at whatever pace is comfortable for us. For some people, it might be reading the whole book in a week and for some it might be taking their time with each little detail. We all have different learning styles.
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Post by Lena on Sept 20, 2010 0:36:39 GMT -5
I hate to spread cliches, but exercising really raises vibration. After reading this thread, I was making myself a snack and thinking how I felt a little scattered and irritated today, then I realized that my best day of the week is Friday, which is also my yoga day. Of course, yoga is energy raising exercises all on its own. The whole point of yoga is actually raising energy up your spine to your spiritual eye.
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 22:27:20 GMT -5
Thanks Linda, yeah, I do remember some controversy going on the other time I was looking into it all. I found their course on Astral Projection pretty sound though and this meditation course looks like it has some solid basic concepts. I'm afraid a lot of movements and leaders out there have some kind of controversy attached At least that's what I found...
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 20:20:48 GMT -5
This is the same as what used to be gnosticweb, right? It's the same organization. Seems like it's a new course or maybe I didn't notice it before.
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 10:57:53 GMT -5
I agree with Bez, that in practice most religions are very similar because in individual practice, there is more influence of that particular individual, than there is of their chose religion. For example, some Christians pray every single day, upon arising and going to sleep and also have their special temple or icon. My great grandma was like that, no matter what she would pray every single day and it was quite a show to watch too. Some Christians will not do this and will have more theoretical knowledge of their religion, such as reading Bible. So Christians are gnostics, and practice astral projection and developing psychic powers, etc.
A few years ago, I took a History of World Religions class. This was a while ago, so all I remember are general impressions that I was left with. The best part of the class was having guests come and speak about their religion. One Christian person talked about achieving enlightenment and surety of his connection with God. He was so sincere and the whole experience seemed so transcendental, that I was amazed. We had a Hindu lady come speak and she was so beautiful and kind, and spoke about her personal practice, and having a temple at the house with her spiritual teachers and deities on it, and communicating with them every single day. I loved that aspect of Hinduism, which was also present in Wicca, when I practiced it for a while, and seemed so much more personal to me, than say Buddhism or Taoism, two others ones I really enjoyed learning about. Buddhism always seems a bit sterile and impersonal to me. I don't know why, maybe just my own impression, although Buddhists that I have met have always been amazing, charismatic people with their inner power just shining through their humble manner.
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 10:33:30 GMT -5
Ooh, I like Leo. Gotta see Shutter Island then! As a personal challenge I haven't been watching TV, including movies, this month. Actually, that was my challenge last month but then three days before I was done, my husband got me into a movie. This time, I'm holding out until the last day!
Loved Avatar. Thankfully, we saw it in the movie theater and I was totally in love ;D
Another Sci Fi movie, also about aliens, but completely different style, was Section 9, although it was pushing my max for violence, but I avoid violent movies in general.
Alice in Wonderland was wonderful too...
Looking forward to watching Inception, which is incidentally with Leo too and it's about lucid dreaming! ;D
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 2:42:53 GMT -5
You guys are such advanced dreamers. But you are right, I remembered a few times I could go back in my dream too, especially if it wasn't interrupted for long. But what about like the following night?
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Post by Lena on Sept 19, 2010 2:21:37 GMT -5
OK, here's a very beautiful song, that comes from my FAVORITE TV show from my childhood. I couldn't find a descent translation, so I think I'll tackle it myself a little later. But for now, you can guess what it's about
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Post by Lena on Sept 17, 2010 20:52:06 GMT -5
I am a lacto-ovo veg. I would suggest taking that step before vegan, it was a smooth transition for me. I'm just now after almost four years thinking about going vegan. I'm one of those people who gets seriously revolted by meat anymore and it sucks because I work in a restaurant. My opinon on a couple of the issues raised first in regards to fish. The oceans are extremly polluted, as are most rivers. Fish have a concentration of these toxins in the bodies. I also see them still as being animals, saw a T-shirt that I want, "Yes, I'm a vegetarian. No, I don't eat chicken or fish." Second, I firmly believe the statement, you are what you eat. I only eat natural or organic products. Food is fuel, your body needs it to run at optimum. If you feed it processed and chemical fuel, it will not be happy in the long term. I chose to be vegetarian because I see it as a small impact that I can make in the survival of our planet, we are evolved and have the resources to make this healthy sustainable decision. Yes, you know, whenever I think about just eating fish and cutting out other flesh products, I always think: "well, why am I discriminating like this?" But the honest truth is fish is easier for me to kill and eat. It's easier for me to handle. Just like if a mosquito is drinking my blood, I don't hesitate to take its life. I can keep going and say that plants are also feeling beings. Incidentally, there are fruitarians out there, who do not kill plants to eat, but eat what is given by a plant. That includes fruit classified as vegetables too, of course, because you don't have to kill the whole plant to eat. I think root veggies would be out like potatoes and carrots. Also green leafy vegetables, since you pretty much take the whole plant. I mean, we could keep going and say that ideal is to sustain ourselves on air and sunshine. I'm not really advocating either that or meat eating, but just thinking out loud here. That's why the whole cannibalism thing is interesting. If we are willing to eat a baby of another animal, why not human baby? It just seems really wrong, right? But then why does it not seem terribly wrong to eat other animal's baby? Just something to think about...There is the gray area of eating meat and then there is extremes like eating human meat and only surviving on sunshine and air. We have to probably find a solution somewhere in-between. Would be interesting dream question ;D
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 22:00:21 GMT -5
So I did some more research on yoga and vegetarianism and found this great quote: "As my Cherokee husband often tells me (he is also a vegetarian), many Native American tribes had deeply spiritual experiences as they hunted and ate what they killed. They not only honored their experience as hunters, but they honored the being they were hunting. It was a merging of spirit, they believed, to take an animal's body to feed the tribe. The animal's spirit merged with their own in a deep union of hunter and hunted. To them, the spirit never died, only the animal's flesh. To them, the animal was liberated from the limited life afforded on this plane, and set free into the limitless spirit world. Isn't this spiritual?" From www.huffingtonpost.com/olivia-rosewood/yoga-levels-meat-eaters-a_b_244106.html
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 21:25:46 GMT -5
LOL, Yea I think once you start dreaming of frying up human babies maybe it's time to cut back a bit... Or maybe he's denying himself meat to the point to where he's ready to just eat a damn baby! lol No evolving for you, Derek :-P You know I've heard a lot of good things about Sun Warrior protein powder. Actually I tried some at my mom's house in my smoothie. It's all raw and delicious. Regardless, if you are going to eat meat or not, maybe you could try it to give you a bit of a boost for work-outs. My husband uses hemp protein and I make a smoothie for him with raw hemp protein in there every morning. He told me that he would rather cut down fifteen years of his life, than give up meat. No evolving for him either Just joking, of course. Recently, he told me his theory that maybe the reason he does better on "normal" food is because he is more evolved. ;D There is lots of highly respected spiritual masters out there, who do eat meat, although there are those who don't too, like Yogananda and other yoga masters. There are geniuses, who ate meat. I find it amusing that everyone thinks Einstein was a vegetarian. He wrote about it, but I think it was something like the last two years of his life, that he gave up meat, so he made plenty of discoveries, while eating it. I do think that it's nice to know how your body is reacting when you eat a certain food, and you are in a perfect position, Derek, to figure out how meat makes you feel, since you went a while without it. Oh, and for health purposes, sometimes timing is important too. Like fruit feel better to me in the mornings. Too much fruit in the evening can be an unwanted spacey effect.
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 19:52:05 GMT -5
I've heard people say they don't like it or are even revolted by it, but it's not the case for me, which is confusing too because if it's not natural, then why does it taste good? I would bet that if someone were prepared human without knowing that it was human flesh, that it would taste good as well. But for some reason it's frowned upon... ;D Though there's lots of animals that will eat their own kind. quote] Oh ew, for some reason canibalism has been coming up for me lately. Like one of the things I read in Robert Moss' book was a dream a guy had about frying up human babies. Apparently, the dream's interpretation was that guy needed to cut back on meat or something. I tell my baby that his plump cheeks are tasty all the time
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 19:01:21 GMT -5
Use this thread to discuss Conscious Dreaming by Robert Moss.
I wanted to add a few thoughts on this book, since I just finished reading it. I didn't try any exercises, as I went through it pretty quick. Still trying to reestablish my dream recall! It would be worthwhile and give some of them a try, although I suspect he'll have similar exercises in the Dreamgates (see our study that starts 10.10.10). I found a few fascinating concepts in this book, and even though, I said in our study thread, that it is simple, I find some of them pretty advanced.
For example, dream reentry that he writes about so much seems like a difficult feat to accomplish. I think I've done it before, but not because I was trying, but in a more relaxed manner, just maybe thinking about the dream and then going back into it. It seems like a worthwhile technique to pursue as you can go back inside your dream to get more details and ask what messages your dream holds for you. Has anyone tried it on purpose to get more clarity about their dream? Has anyone tried using drumming? I think I may try playing it one of these days, when I find a dream I want to come back to. Oh, I've heard this technique before, but there is another technique to ask dream for its meaning. Having a conversation with one of the dream characters, as in writing down your question, and then writing down the answer of the dream character, as if they are answering you. Dream reentry seems more exciting to try though, more first hand or something. Hmm...in our group meet-ups on this forum a little while ago, we did try going places together and while we set a physical location, I think there was plenty of people who went to other astral levels, that were not that close to the physical.
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 18:34:31 GMT -5
I figured I would contribute something. I mean, this one is probably pretty common knowledge by now, but I still hear people say that they don't dream. It's a myth! Everyone dreams. They just don't always remember.
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 16:01:02 GMT -5
Nani, you are right, thinking so much about food is not that good, and I faced that myself. When a way of eating comes naturally and joyfully, it feels better and emotional states are more positive, than trying forcing yourself to eat and not eat things. I actually found when my motivation was high and I was eating all raw foods (vegan), I could sustain that for about a couple of months, before I started getting tired of preparing food and fussing over food. The good thing is some of those habits stuck with me, so for example, I still make salads and green smoothies, but I don't have to put much willpower into it anymore.
Better treatment of animals I feel is really going to be the key to a more compassionate world! Thing is it would make people healthier and happier in the process. But yeah, feeling guilty over eating a piece of chicken is no good and it doesn't benefit anyone. Either don't eat it or enjoy it lol
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 15:43:23 GMT -5
Ronni, indeed nuts and berries, that kind of summarizes the raw diet. Of course, there is also avocados and coconuts, all kinds of yummy tropical fruit like mangos, and oh how I love seaweeds! This morning I had a smoothie from mango, orange, banana and a bunch of dandelion (like a whole bunch). That's an acquired taste I find, putting lots of greens in your drink, but you start craving it after a while, after your body learns how good it feels after. Speaking of which, green leafy vegetables like romaine lettuce, kale, chard and such is very important to vegetarian diets I feel because they replace a lot of protein and especially minerals. A more mild smoothie is some bananas, spinach and mint. You won't even taste the spinach. It'll be like drinking yummy melted mint ice cream (use frozen bananas).
As for the cost of it all, that probably goes along with what Nani said, do what you can, as that's all you can do. Catching fish is probably cheaper than buying. Growing a garden is nice, as is indoor gardening with some herbs and sprouts. If you eat beans and grains, buy in the bulk section and cook them yourself. I bet that's cheaper than eating beef. You can find some discounted fruits, that don't look so great anymore, maybe getting some brown spots. Those are actually fully ripe and best to eat anyway. Banana bread bananas I get all the time and they are cheap and make a great smoothie base.
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Post by Lena on Sept 16, 2010 0:08:29 GMT -5
lol yah I agree, I think I know him in real life, seems like I met him through a magic shop I used to go to. Im pretty sure hes from michigan right? Yes. You think you met him, but you don't know for sure? ;D
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Post by Lena on Sept 15, 2010 19:37:48 GMT -5
Hi Earthfaerie, I love that there is such a variety of interests in this forum. Do you ever feel like you just wanna go spend a day in the bookstore and read the New Age section? I have that impulse all the time ;D
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Post by Lena on Sept 15, 2010 13:27:23 GMT -5
No video, but a cool song :-)
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Post by Lena on Sept 15, 2010 13:22:59 GMT -5
Hey, in case anyone else was interested, go here to read plenty info on it: www.gnosticawakenings.com/gnostic-courses/gnostic-meditationI've taken one of their courses before, although I probably didn't apply myself as much as I should have. It was nice with lots of step by step instructions. Really great basic techniques to get started. My meditation practice hasn't survived over the years. Even when I do yoga, I meditate for only 5-10 minutes at the end cause I'm always in a hurry to go make breakfast or change diapers, etc. I'd really like to go a little deeper into it. Anyhow, I thought it would be nice to take a course dedicated to meditation. It starts one day after our Dreamgates study, but I think they'll compliment each other nicely.
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