Alternative healing, meditation, new age, crystals, etc...

[tom502]

Hi,

I was just interested if any of you had any interest in these metaphysical fields, and if you do anything with them? Spritually, I call myself an Eastern mystic, philosophically. And the ideas of psychic phenomena does interest me as well. I know a lot of people out right dismiss anything that's not of a materailistic nature, but the ideas and practices of various energy related traditions do have their followings.

[sgreger1]

I have always been interested in learning about it, though I am not convinced it's even real. It makes sense in a way, the whole concept of chi and energy and all that. I odn't know about crystals and all that but it seems people from cultures past seem to have takena different approach to healing and it seems to have worked at least to some extent. Would be interesting to study but all I can find online is nutjobs talking about how carrying crystals around will make your life better, which I doubt.


Edit: Ive been doing Roy Masters` medidations since I was little.

www.fhu.com

[tom502]

I am not personally convinced of anything, though I may be in theoretical agreement with many. I do believe in energy fields, and vibrations, and the potential of psychic power. Certain gems and metals may release a certain energy. Combining things may produce an amplified energy. I really don't know for sure. I have recently became interested in radionics. The idea is to tune in to certain frequencies, of certain things, and people, and direct this energy to a certain objective. www.radionics.org has a lot of info. It seems it started back in the turn of the century mainly as an alternative healing method, but now seems to embrace many metaphysical ventures. I have also read it being related to magick, ritual magick. I am new to this train of thought, but am finding it interesting.

[jamesstew]

Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.

[tom502]

Son, "There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."

I agree with that. I never heard anyone say there was, unless you mean "God"?

[jamesstew]

Son, "There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny."

I agree with that. I never heard anyone say there was, unless you mean "God"?

Sorry, stupid movie quote. Although I have as little belief towards Eastern mysticism and psychic phenomenon as I do in Western religion.

[texastorm]

I come from a long line of spiritualists, I watched my mother and siblings do everything from meditation to I Ching to magnets and group brainwashing. The only thing I can assure you is that believing in any of this is half the battle. In other words if you believe aspirin has no effect on your headaches, it probably wont. If you believe that drinking your own urine makes you healthier then it very well may.

Of all the tools we have mastered our own brains elude us. But other than that most of the holistic healing BS is just that... BS. (thats what my brain says, so it has no effect on me)

[NonServiam]

I have always been interested in metaphysics and the paranormal. I read a very interesting book years ago titled "After We Die What Then?" by George Meek. He addresses energy and light waves not detectable by the human eye. It was very interesting read, or at least it was back then.

I really don't think crystals, talismans, etc... carry any inherent powers. Unless maybe it is an item that has been passed down through the ages. But the merchandise made available online that is made in some sweat shop and packaged off of an assembly line is worthless. The new age industry makes a fortune off of the gullible, and it is filled with cons and charlatans.

Although, I do see that they can be used as a tool for focus. The individual holds the power, not the object. Some people need accessories to focus and funnel their intent. Others do not and can successfully practice what is called internal magick.

Of course it's not magick like in the movies. It's bringing about subtle changes according to your will. Christians practice "magick" as well, but they call it prayer. It's all about the power of the mind, desire, and determination. But that's just my opinion, and that's what works for me.

[PipenSnus]

I agree with NonServiam. I like to define what others call metaphysics, mysticism or magic as "dynamic psychology". Or, as a favorite author of mine once put it, "I don't believe in supernatural powers -- I believe in the super powers of the natural." The human mind is capable of feats that would appear miraculous to many, but they are merely things for which we do not yet have a scientific explanation.

As texastorm points out, belief is a big part of what makes such things work. It's not the only factor, but it's an important one. Those who refuse to admit the possibility of such things literally cannot perceive them, because their disbelief has blinded them. But those who are merely gullible and believe any "psychic" fad that comes along are equally blind. You have to transcend both belief and disbelief before you can begin to see clearly.

[Frosted]

It's not the 'accessories' that make you psychic, it's what and how you do it.

The mind set is important - first you've got to really want to do whatever it is that you want to do and couple that with daily meditation. It's quite a discipline.
I did this for a short period of time before I got a startling result. It was so startling I don't speak of it in detail (sounds mysterious huh?). Let's just say, I haven't done it again since, not that it was frightening - it was just too real and quite personal.

I have a chanelling crystal at home.

p.s. I don't take drugs and I only drink once a week.

[tom502]

Yeah, I see it the same as most of you have put it. I think the full potential of our mind(maybe not just the brain) has not nearly been harnassed, and nature is super powers. Harnassing, manipulating, controlling them, or willing them, to cause change, seem the core idea behind magick.

[tom502]

I bought one of these radionics machines, just to experiment with. The subject is very interesting. I've been still learning all about it and have used it a little bit. It's not like a jenie lamp of course, it works more like amplifying intent to specific target. I've just been concentrating on self betterment. Though I suspect it takes a little while to learn all the stuff it can be used for, as well as just getting used to it, and learning more about the practice in general.

[sgreger1]

I think so many of the people here are on the same wavelength it's amazing. Here's the thing, throughout time people have believed in this stuff. We can write it off as nonesense by primative people, or we can look at what the cause of all these "alternative" ideologies are.

Like someone mentioned earlier, no item possesses any inherent magical power. But the brain itself is "magical" in a certain way in that it is so extraordinay in it's "powers", especially for the person who the brain belongs too. Think about it, the brain does everything, like for example it regulates the chemicals in our body. If one meditates, you can be more "in tune" with your body and "controll" some processes voluntarily that would normally be primarily involuntary. For example, euphoria is nothing more than some dopamine and seratonin being produced by one gland and floating around being recieved by other parts of the brain. When this stuff squirts it makes you feel good. Or pain for example, pain is nothing more than a defense mechanism your body uses. It uses your sensory perceptions to interpret things that might be dangerous and kicks the body, telling it "no, this is bad, get away". With meditation, one can learn to control this involuntary response and tone it down a bit, causing the person to not feel pain. Some of you may be familiar with some eastern practices where people use meditation to allow them to put molten hot metal on their tongue without pain or to be able to comfortably walk across a pile of red-hot coals. There is no magic going on here, just that the person has learned to control the body's impulses.


This is what is going on with magical artifacts, as well as with modern day pharmaceuticals: the placebo effect. Believing something will work usually makes it work, this is just the consciouse mind beliving something so much that it actually influences the subconscious mind. When someone believes a pill will cure something with all their heart, it often times will. The thing is that if it's a sugar pill, it still works...

Like depression, if one holds all their faith in medical science, taking a new prescription pill will fix it like magic. Same thing with someone who drinks lemongrass tea and thinks it will cure depression, there's a good chance it actually will (for that person). Because the mind believes it will work, so the body makes it so. It's really just the conscious mind exerting a certain level of control over the subconscious (which handles all of your body's functions like your heart rate or your mood etc).




But the brain is even more amazing than that. Some people believe that the whole world around us is nothing more than a projection from within. Some say that the world looks different based on your perception. The thing is, who's to say they are not right? Think about it, we know the brain is capable of this. When we dream, the world is filled with real people who seem seperate from you, you feel like you are in a regular 3d world like when your awake, and often times you still feel pain and emotion etc. You may even have conversations with people in your dreams about topics that you normally wouldn't talk about, creating the illusion that you are talking to someone else as opposed to just talking to yourself (which is what you are relaly doing, because your dreaming). Given that this is possible, what is to say that the conscious world isn't equally as deceptive. We know the brain can create a full, realistic environment within itself and make you feel like your living in it, what's to say that the real world is nothing more than a dream.




Anyways, this is an interesting topic because theres obviousely something to all of this magic/talisman/alternative thinking stuff. I think for the most part it is the brain's superpowers unleashing themselves for those who know how to control it. Like in a dream, you are held to the same constraints as you are during your daily life. But if you wake up and realize you are dreaming, suddenly in your now lucid state you find that you are able to manipulate the dream (because it's really just all happening inside of your head). I think that is part of what is going on here, people are just learning how to control their body, or maybe even things "outside" of their body somehow by using various methods.

What if concensus reality is like the matrix, where we are all just living in a shared dream. If one is able to wake up in the dream and become lucid of the fac that it's a "dream", than that person may have control of their environment in a way that the other, non-lucid, dreaminrs may not have. Maybe this is what magic is? Who knows? Great way to waste time at work though!

EDIT: This is one of the best quotes ever: "Of all the tools we have mastered, our own brains still elude us." Good one!

[Frosted]

I think that we create our own reality in a quantum like way, through the act of perception and observation, thoughts desires etc.
I know that sounds quite "duh! really Einstein?" but I believe that the whole of our own personal view of the outside world is indeed a personal view, and possibly a totally independent universe, independent of yours. Reality is what goes on inside our own heads.
I also believe that events can be changed through our own observation, thoughts desires etc. I do believe that our minds and the universe are very much linked.

I'm not at all religious but I believe that we're part of an infinite energy, that when we die we just become a different energy. In a nutshell.

[sgreger1]

I'm not at all religious but I believe that we're part of an infinite energy, that when we die we just become a different energy. In a nutshell.

If that's true than when I die I want to be re-incarnated as the energy behind the bullet that kills Frosted for causing the worse oil spill in history (AND releasing the lockerbie bomber).