Many people have gone through a near death experience, they have been considered to be clinically dead and been resuscitated, they tell of a black void with a light in the distance giving the effect of 'light at the end of the tunnel', some talk of seeing what appears to be tortured souls in this void pleading for help (a friend of mine went through that very experience)

I believe this void is the absence of God, nothing more nothing less and if you refuse to accept the reality of the existence of God and that in fact you are that God then there is nowhere for you to go except to stay in the void, a self inflicted existence where no one hurts you except yourself. I think this void is what is referred to as Hell, exaggerated and embroidered until it becomes a fiery furnace with devil's prodding you with forks. You can come out of the void if you choose but stubbornness is one 'hell' of a power!

Beware of the possibility that suicide is not an escape. My belief is that death changes nothing, your illusion of being a human being in an objective world carries on and you believe that somehow your suicide attempt has failed. In that case your suffering continues so the only way out is to see your suffering through until the darkness recedes.

There is a theory that human sexual behaviour was tailored to pre civilization and that behaviour is hardwired into us. It goes like this:

Pregnancy doesn't have a great effect on female primates activity, and after giving birth a non human female primates activity is still reasonably unaffected, the baby just clings to its mother's fur leaving the mother's hands free to gather food etc. A different situation with a human female, after giving birth a human baby has a strong and continuous grip, enough to support its own weight with one hand! Trouble is its mother has no fur, so her activities are severely curtailed by having to hold her baby, enough to threaten both their survival, the solution is to have someone to help by 'bringing the bacon home' so to speak, she has to be careful who she has sex with, therefore she becomes choosy and sexually exclusive to one male. Is this exclusivity the basis for sexual harassment? After all non human female primates are available to all, so every male always has access to at least one female.

At 71 years of age I havent felt anxious about death for 2 or 3 decades now, reason being I've pondered deeply about a few odd experiences throughout my life that has led me to believe that death is an illusion and my real self is immortal. I think that the majority of people have these odd experiences and don't stop and think and keep following that thinking, instead they just shrug it off, not being curious enough I suppose, I imagine the amount of curiosity is inborn, for me I just can't stop being curious while some others can't help not being curious.

Edited to add: Though I'm not anxious about my death I do have the odd twinge about my possible pre death suffering, also being alone if my beloved wife dies first, but that's just self pity!

Proof can only be such if it has been accepted as such.

What I said was everything is based on mental health, what you say is everything in education is based on reading which I agree with.

The way I see it is that there is a problem differentiating between the mentally disordered and the ordered, black and white, the sane and the insane whereas in reality everyone becomes mentally disordered during their lives. A newborn baby is neither ordered or disordered as their mental 'cupboard' is empty, but as it starts to fill up with information it makes false assumptions and thoughts become jumbled and disordered, correcting those thoughts and putting them in order is difficult especially without the love and support of someone.

So what I'm saying is, when people think about sad things, like their own inevitable death for instance, it results in some depression. Instead of then going to a doctor or psychiatrist in the belief something is wrong we should all be educated about mental health from an early age so that we know that most depression is a normal condition for a thinking imaginative and intelligent human being. In other words if somone is never disordered then they are abnormal.

The trick is to understand that everyone is in the same disordered boat and that it's OK to be disordered and to gradually put your cupboard in order as you grow older.

Awareness of mental health should be at the forefront of education, after all everything is based on it.

Before we say "my thoughts" we need to question who is 'me' , are all our thoughts just the product of our brain or is the real me something or someone else? If, as I believe, we are all just the one God who is only able to experience itself as love and compassion, then it can only experience those human and therefore flawed thoughts via the brain.

For instance, giant waves that seem to come from nowhere have been reported by seafarers for centuries, dismissed by scientists as fantasy until the late 20th century when they were found by scientists to be real (satellite images being examined by a NASA employee in the 90s I believe?) Now those previously imaginary eye witness accounts have been given a cloak of respectibility by scientists even though they can't explain why those waves exist.

One thing is for certain, the climate is forever changing and always has been, it's never static, it's a dynamic system so it's impossible for it not to change. Human beings have an influence on that change as does every other species but to what extent we just don't know... yet.

I've come to believe that the real me has decided to experience life as a human being. Having accepted that I reason that my mortal existence is real but not ultimately real, so the trick is to hold those truths and carry on with the game, after all there must be a good reason for this drama production.

God is light, darkness is absence of light - absence of everything = nothing. So a part of God only recognising the darkness is unable to recognise itself and stays in darkness.

If your consciousness is the sum total of of your brain then you just think, period. But if that consciousness is something other, or 'external', to your brain then you are capable of observing your thinking brain, in that case I suppose you are thinking about your thoughts.

It could mean 'there's non so blind as those that will not see'

What will happen in 12 years time? No one knows, same for any time in the future. We are careering headlong into the unknown.

It's OK, just joking :wink:

Sorry, could you be a bit clearer? :smile:

"You can't be perfectly me. I can't be perfectly you"

If every thing is God then your true identity is God, not 'me' in the sense of a separate being, there is only the 'one' so that self image is a false one.

First define love. My take on it is - concern for the wellbeing of...another.

If, as I believe, Creator/God/Allah/Brahman etc etc (refer to it with whatever label you like) is everything, then it follows that concern for yourself is automatically concern for your neighbour and every so called 'thing', (that would include your so called enemy!)

I think "Love thy neighbour as thyself" is a veiled meaning, the real meaning being "I am you, you are me, we are one"

A medal for modesty, worn with pride.

Problem with understanding others is putting yourself in their position, (the other man's shoes, or woman's.) But to really understand what it's like to be that person you have to actually be that person, even then you may not really understand yourself.

Heh heh.

I could but I ain't going to!

Those that know don't talk. Those that talk don't know.

I think I'll practice a bit of that!

You die. Your consciousness carries on. Your body decays. That's it. Plenty of reasons to believe that, as much as we might like to fantasize about other stuff, as much as we might like something else to be the case :smile:

I suggest you research near death experiences (NDEs)

Or you are dreaming your so called 'life', convinced it is real. But if before death you haven't realised you are dreaming, then after death you will carry on dreaming.
If you realise before death you are dreaming then after death you will realise you have died and will 'wake up' to who you really are.

Row row row your boat gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.

Using the analogy of a computer simulation. Imagine being in a suit with sensory technology from the day you were born, you wouldn't have outside knowledge to know it was an electronic illusion, that in fact the simulation had no substance and it was being constantly created.

Of course only if it was, but if it was, then probabilities would go out of the window because they would be an illusion along with the world as (we think) we know it.

You're perfectly entitled to your opinion.

Well if those ideas are dumb then so is philosophy, or any ideas that are strictly non scientific.

Because if the world was created yesterday, or today or even just now then our senses are deceiving us. All sorts of reasons.

Yes, but if we wish to test those ideas we still only have our senses.

All we have are the five senses which can easily be fooled.

As I believe everyone is the one consciousness, or God if you like, then your real identity is that consciousness, separate from the body/brain. So I conclude that the real you is independant of your body/brain which is the manufacturer of emotions. To identify the real you just observe your other you, anger, lust, greed etc, then hopefully it will separate from the real you, it might even fade out altogether leaving enlightenment.

If, as I keep stating, God is playing the part of everyone, then your enemy is really you in a different guise. If that is indeed the case then rather than hating the enemy, (yourself!) then you need to keep that identity in mind, don't defend your negative actions as that enemy, that would be encouraging the real you to be disfunctional.

The whole point of the objective world is to provide discord. God the creator exists alone, pure loving consciousness, and created an imaginary world in which it could develop itself by imagining itself to be all things. You are that creator, gifting that imaginary world to yourself. No good or bad, just contrast in the form of experience. If this world became free of problems it would just be a closer copy of the ultimately real world that God has imagined which is perfect. If we imaginary beings tip the balance totally either way towards 'good' or 'evil' then there will be no more contrast so pointless to carry on with it. We, as God, our true identity, will then wake up and delete the dream.

"The answer to the problem of suffering is not away from the problem but in it. The inevitability of pain will not be met by deadening sensitivity but by increasing it, by exploring and feeling out the manner in which the natural organism itself wants to react and which its innate wisdom has provided".

Alan W. Watts.

Some believe, as I do, that the one consciousness that is called God/Allah/Brahman etc is the only thing that is ultimately real, it is pure love but in order to know what it feels like to be that loving consciousness it has to experience the opposite to get some 'contrast'. But because that opposite doesn't exist it has to imagine it does, so it pretends to be everyone, forgetting what it really is for a while to make the 'dream' seem real. By experiencing the bitter and the sweet it doesn't harm anyone else because there isn't anyone else, it's only doing things to itself, 'you' 'me', the one consciousness sufferering in a dream and eventually waking up.

This might help some to understand the possible meaning and reason for suffering.

Only my belief of course.

Anchovies :vomit:

When I was in my teens and twenties I used to swing between happiness and unhappiness, but as the years have rolled by that swing has evened out and now in my seventies it has become a mix of both, a sort of calmness consisting of contentment and acceptance, quite pleasant really. It does lack the adrenaline thrill but I realise that is a double edged sword, been there and done it

Funny thing is, during the changing moods in my adulthood I've never wanted to be different, even when I was depressed.