|
|
 |
|
| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 22 2009 : 12:07:10 PM
|
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
I am taking up meditation regularly now. I am interested in this witness state because i am terrified of death.
Hey Gumpi,
Something that may help you in this read is George Anderson's book "Lessons from the Light". This guy is a medium who is able to communicate with souls that have passed onto "The Other Side". I read this book after my father passed away (my mother had passed away 10yrs prior, when I was 20yrs old), and it helped me tremendously. I am analytical by nature (its my job); but from my experience this guy is the "real deal". You are able to do private readings with him, which I did about a year after I read the book.
I went to the meeting skeptical, looking for evidence that he was a fraud, and he gave me information that only my parents would have known, very personal information that George could not possibly have known. And I set-up a "test" to verify the validity of his abilities and he passed beyond all of my doubts.
The messages in the book, and something my mom verified for me in the reading, was that she was afraid of death before she passed, but that it was literally as easy as walking from one room into another.
The other message that my mom gave us floor me. She passed after a 5yr battle with lung cancer, that was painful and debilitating. But she said that she would gladly go through the whole ordeal again-in a heartbeat- for the spiritual benefits she gained on the other side for having endured her illness. She also said that event though her illness was extremely painful and difficult from so many perspective (imagine as a mother having to leave behind 6 kids), she said from her perspective now, should could see nothing but beauty in the whole process.
Needless to say, this completley changed my perspectives about death as well as the suffering we endure in this lifetime.
I hope this helps in some way...
Peace & Namaste |
|
|
gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Mar 22 2009 : 6:45:00 PM
|
Parallax, the problem i have with mediumship is that it is entirely plausible that a "medium" is subconsciously reading body language which contains memories that can be transmitted from people to the "reader" in ways we don't really quite understand yet. But it is simply body language.
That plus the fact that all the so called physical materialisation medium photographs look like very poor evidences. If those photographs convince you of the after life i don't really know what to say. They certainly don't convince me.
And in the final analysis, i simply have no experience of an after life in any way, shape or form. I fail to see how this should be the case for me and not for other people, which i can only put down to auto-suggestion on their parts.
I would suggest you watch Derren Brown on Youtube to get an insight into the kind of abilities he has which duplicate all psychic phenomena. He even has duplicated pranayama techniques to enable a person to hold their breath underwater for longer than they normally would be able to.
People are so gullible though, that they truly believe in solid evidence of an afterlife communication. I reject that "evidence" completely as nothing more than fraud and the willingness on the part of the person taking part to see more into it than warrants serious doubt.
It is undoubtedly true that in hypnagogic states, which occur in meditation, a person can gather insights into their own life situations and problems in the form of visual flashes that are intuitively understood. But that kind of thing doesn't prove an afterlife, it proves that people have the ability to know more than they otherwise would in normal waking consciousness.
I'm sorry if the moderators believe my post is not relevent to this thread but i was given good reason to respond directly to a poster that wanted me to know certain details about death and the promise of an afterlife. So if this post is deleted or censored i know i did nothing wrong. |
 |
|
|
Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 09:09:21 AM
|
Hey gumpi,
If you're not open to it that's completely fine by me; just thought I'd throw you a life line so to speak to help you overcome your fear of death. I'm not looking for any validation on this topic, I've already received the information I needed on it. But I'll just hit a couple of points you bring up.
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
Parallax, the problem i have with mediumship is that it is entirely plausible that a "medium" is subconsciously reading body language which contains memories that can be transmitted from people to the "reader" in ways we don't really quite understand yet. But it is simply body language.
This is exactly what I was on gaurd for when I went in for the meeting; however: (i) he provided us with information about a soul that had passed on, that we insisted was wrong; he didn't push us on it but was firm that the soul was giving us the message. We all found out about 4 weeks later that the information was indeed correct and WE had been wrong, (ii) George rarely looked directly at any of us during the entire reading, (iii) he insisted on only "yes or no" answers, (iv) the sould provided information about future events in my life that later proved to be true, and (v) so far as I know, its hard to read from body language specific dates and places that only I (and the souls on the other side) knew about.
I would also refer you to the book "The Afterlife Experiments", where they conducted tests on the process that included readings performed for people in different rooms, and readings that were done for people remotely.
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
That plus the fact that all the so called physical materialisation medium photographs look like very poor evidences. If those photographs convince you of the after life i don't really know what to say. They certainly don't convince me.
Me either
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
And in the final analysis, i simply have no experience of an after life in any way, shape or form.
Then obviously it can't possibly be true! 
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
People are so gullible though, that they truly believe in solid evidence of an afterlife communication. I reject that "evidence" completely as nothing more than fraud and the willingness on the part of the person taking part to see more into it than warrants serious doubt.
I respect your opinion; you are certainly free to believe what you believe. But I believe that there is also a danger in rejecting everything which we don't believe in as "fraud". Are there clearly frauds in the area of mediumship? Absolutely Does that mean all mediums are frauds? I think that may be throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Also, didn't you just comment in one of your recent posts that you "know NOTHING". Your absolute certainty in other people's gullibleness and that all mediums are "frauds" would seem to indicate otherwise.
May you find peace, love and happiness!!
Namaste |
|
|
|
gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 2:30:13 PM
|
Parallax,
I don't have much problem with mental mediumship as there do seem to be a couple of people around that seem to pluck information from nowhere that they couldn't possibly ordinarily know.
The problem i have is with the materialisation medium seances. There are people on the internet who claim that spirits materialise in spirit forms that can be touched and seen with infra red cameras but i cannot find any pictures or videos that corroborate this. There are people that are adament that this is real and yet they cannot even show this evidence, which would be vitally important.
|
|
|
|
karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 4:27:04 PM
|
Easy to be a sceptic, my immediate response is 'cold reading' and then prove it wasn't.
However I have come across stories (and really, how can you substantiate them), particularly from the Lady that worked in our office (we will call her Miss X) who was a born sceptic. She was contacted by a medium who does does not advertise as a medium or charge money. She would contact her from time to time with messages. The contact was through a friend.
She told me several stories, but the one in particular made me go a bit cold.
She was contacted by her friend who had insisted that she gave a message to miss X. The message was that her dead son in law was very worried because he could no longer see her. That was the whole mesage and made absolutely no sense to Miss X.
Miss X went home that night to find that she had knocked down the picture of her son in law that was on her dressing table that morning because she had been late and had slammed one of the drawers. The picture was face down. She picked it up and set it straight.
Next day the medium again made contact through her friend to tell miss X that her son in law was very happy that he could now keep an eye on her !!!
It's that sort of story, with no connection and absolutely no physical or verbal contact that would be very difficult to fake.
From the point of view of the use of this type of mediumship ? It appears to serve no purpose and personally I would have no interest in talking to the recently departed......infact I sometimes have a hard time raising the interest to talk to the living  |
|
|
|
Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 4:34:05 PM
|
I totally hear you gumpi. That's the difficulty in the areas of gurus/mediums/etc. There are clearly fakes out there trying to make a buck off of other people's weaknesses and vulnerabilities; and it tarnishes the credibility of any of the "good apples" 
That's why I'm such a fan of Yogani: ie, focus on the practices  |
|
|
|
Parallax
USA
348 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 5:09:50 PM
|
Hey Karl,
Interesting story; I think the purpose of that type of seemingly pointless communication is probably as simple as the deceased spirit validating for their loved ones that their energy is still there...that their true essence has survived long after the flesh has given way...
What was interesting about my experience (in addition to some very specific validations that I received, having gone in with a doubting-but-open mind)was that their personalities came through in the reading. We had gone in expecting to hear from my Dad, but it was my mom who took control of the reading, and my Dad would stay off to the side, throwing in one-liners throughout the meeting...just as it had been when they were alive. Literally many of the phrases that they were fond of using came up again and again.
And the general messages were that we are all here on a spiritual journey, to grow ever closer to the "Infinite Light", and the events and experiences we have in our lives are meant to help us to learn the "lessons" that we most need to progress on our spiritual path.
Probably sounds self-evident to many here in the forums, but at the time it is what initially got me started in earnest on the spiritual path.
For whatever its worth...
Peace & Namaste |
|
|
|
gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Mar 23 2009 : 7:46:39 PM
|
karl, the thing i have come to understand (damn i seem to be saying this more and more!), is that there are definitely unknown variables in life, things that we cannot explain by models we construct like reincarnation, which do not explain those phenomena.
Now, these anomalies do exist otherwise there wouldn't be so many people recounting them. But as to exactly what they mean, why they happen, where they come from etc etc etc - nobody know that, i believe. And herein we have a clue as to what is occurring.
But an afterlife based on medium ability? No way. Why do the dead have nothing better to tell their departed loves ones on this side of the veil that they left their dirty socks in the laundry? You would think they would be able to come up with something more substantial, or at least tell us what life on the other side is really like. I just find it hard to accept these mundane kind of mediumistic explanations. |
|
|
|
Peter
Italy
25 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 05:27:22 AM
|
Neil - touché! you win!
Ösel, Sparkle, Christi et al - the issue of whether to talk about one's experiences or not is something we each need to decide on our own. For some people, following Ösel's advice will work, while others will find it best to share. Finding out what works best can be part of the work...
gumpi - there are many strategies available for dealing with the topic of death. Most can seem quite irrational to a rational-thinking mind. Here's a strategy which might work for a mind given to rationality:
We begin with the assumption that the universe (this perceivable entity within which we find ourselves and that apparently started from a "Big Bang") is finite. By that I mean it’s a finite collection of whatever it’s made up of (particles, energy, a finite portion of infinite consciousness....let's call it Whatever). Within that pinpoint of Whatever that began the universe 15 billion years ago, there was LOTS of Whatever. But not an infinite amount - just enough to make all the galaxies and cows and whatnot we find in this universe 15 billion years later.
So far, so good - seems reasonable enough.
Now, take any finite collection of entities and arrange them in a pattern. There will only be a finite number of possible patterns. For example, three objects can be arranged in only six distinct patterns:
123
132
213
231
312
321
It doesn't matter how many objects you have. As long as it's a finite collection, there will be a finite number of possible patterns in which they can be placed.
It follows that this particular universe in which we exist right now is one of a finite number of possible universes.
However, Totality itself is infinite. I don’t mean just your everyday ordinary infinite, but really and truly INFINITE!
Take a finite collection of entities and rearrange them an infinite number of times, and any given pattern will be reproduced an infinite number of times.
Now, we have it on record that Totality has on at least one occasion arranged Whatever into a universe. Namely, this one we're in.
It seems rational to suppose that Totality will arrange Whatever into a universe again. Why not? Indeed, it seems perfectly rational to suppose it will do it an infinite number of times.
The logical conclusion: if Totality rearranges finite collections of Whatever into universes, then any given universe will be reproduced an infinite number of times.
So coming back down to earth, what does this mean for you? The conclusion is obvious: we’re coming back an infinite number of times. We’re here to stay! And what is death, then? Nothing. Just an unnoticeable, brief flicker of unconsciousness between two replications of you!
There's more around this concept that deals with the ifs, ands and buts, but that's the gist of it.
Hope it helps. |
|
|
|
karl
United Kingdom
1812 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 08:43:08 AM
|
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
Hi Kathy,
I am taking up meditation regularly now. I am interested in this witness state because i am terrified of death.
and five minutes after you die, how will you feel then ? |
|
|
|
AYPmod
53 Posts |
|
|
gumpi
United Kingdom
546 Posts |
Posted - Mar 24 2009 : 4:05:55 PM
|
quote:
Originally posted by karl
quote:
Originally posted by gumpi
Hi Kathy,
I am taking up meditation regularly now. I am interested in this witness state because i am terrified of death.
and five minutes after you die, how will you feel then ?
How am i supposed to know that? |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
| AYP Public Forum |
© Contributing Authors (opinions and advice belong to the respective authors) |
|
|
|
|
Mediums and the Afterlife
