What unpopular spiritual/New Age opinions do you hold?

[BlueIris]

By unpopular I mean opinions or perspectives that you consider to be uncommon in the emerging culture as you perceive it.

My unpopular opinions are mostly related to phenomena I just don't think is paranormal or supernatural (or really even phenomena at all). Like orbs. I'm an orb skeptic. I have yet to see an orb photo I thought looked like anything other than a bunch of dust particles/snowflakes/raindrops catching the light in front of the lens. I don't believe in Atlantis, the Loch Ness monster, alien abduction/interaction with humans or the idea that the world is going to end in 2012. I don't even really think anything special is going to happen in 2012, at least not in the spiritual sense.

Finally, and I know this is going to irk some of you so please refrain from judgment, I don't believe that everyone has the power to just manifest whatever they want. Although I do believe that manifestation is possible WRT some things we need or want to create, I don't believe that we manifest every single last thing that comes into our lives, except maybe through our actual choices. For instance, I don't believe that a person can magically make herself get into a car accident simply because she was thinking about it earlier that day or week, or that "negative thoughts" alone can "give" someone cancer or cause him to lose his job.

Hey, c'mon, Mercury's retrograde; it's the perfect time for a thread like this.

[Why Syzygy]

1. Well ..

I'm not sure 2012 is going to be the huge event as expected either. It's the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar, but in that case, it just starts all over again from the beginning. I HOPE our world evolves through it. But, I'm not hitching my wagon to that hope.

I'm not sure about aliens. I believe it's possible, but haven't seen anything that completely convinces me.

OTOH of your feelings on manifestation, I think we manifest far more than we realize.

I'm very skeptical of the whole Ascended Masters thing. I believe that was introduced by Madame Blavatsky, and I view all her works with skepticism, due to what I understand as her motivation.

Frankly, I question all of "reality" and history and time. I puzzle why there is so much confusion and so many different "truths". Why does everything have to be so messed up?

I was recently reading about the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, and it REALLY ticks me off that power hungry men throughout history have killed people of the light and burned untold millions of words and artifacts that would give us a clearer view of ourselves and our possibilities.

[omega minimo]

18. It looks like the last paragraph

answered the question in the previous one.

I've been wondering the same question re: the "science" battles on DU. The way it's represented by the most vocal here is as static, dead, paranoid, hidebound, literal/fundy as something pretending to be science could get. How have people been indoctrinated to be so overcompartmentalized that the big picture disappears? Is it recent, educational, social (result of overspecialization or rigid demographics) and/or an outgrowth of that same history of domination you mentioned?

[Celebration]

2. I leave most things as open questions

Other than the things I personally experience. I know for sure that healing can be done by distance, for instance, but I don't really know the mechanism. Intention is very powerful, and there are ways to harness it that are really crazy/magic/scientific. I know that we can communicate with people that have passed on, and that there can be some level of communication by distance among us earthlings. Synchronicities can be signs.

Other than that, I haven't been abducted, but I suppose other people have and pass lie detector tests. So, who knows? I haven't encountered any angels or guardians or anything, and none of them have spoken to me in a clear manner. It is true that sometimes I feel "guided" but that could be anything, including my imagination. I haven't seen the Lock Ness Monster. Some of these things interest me more than others, but for the most part I don't think about them that much.

As for 2012, I don't think that year means anything other than perhaps a big year for solar flares. If so, I am not looking forward to it. My auric fields are strong I think, but those solar flares can really do a number on people with holes in their auric fields. And get some strong enough, and whoopsie, there goes the internet, cars, modern communications, etc.

I think we would know a lot about our history if we could figure out exactly who built the Pyramids, and what was their purpose. I don't feel that we have a complete answer for that. I would actually love to know that.

[MorningGlow]

3. I think people misinterpret the process in "The Secret"

Too many people believe that the message of The Secret is that you have to really, really want something and you'll get it. I believe that you have to do more than that to help manifest it, but if winning the lottery is not in your life plan, it ain't going to happen nohow (because it would take you away from your true path, whatever that may be). Like you, BI, I also don't believe that people can't give themselves cancer due to negative thoughts. However, I do feel that harboring negative thoughts can put your life in a right mess and bad experiences multiply, so you end up having worse and worse "luck".

I also strongly disagree with people who treat 2012 as a New Age version of the Rapture, with the "chosen ones" hoovered up into a new dimension and the "unworthy" left behind.

[rosesaylavee]

4. You funny!

And this is one of the pukiest merc retrogrades I can ever remember.

Things I question...

UFOs
Orbs*
Seances
Crystals
2012 Mayan Calendar stuff

HOWEVAH, I do leave the door open on learning new stuff and that may include new stuff re the above. It may be that these things just don't hold any interest for me too.

*Was hit in the chest by a ball lightning 'thing' while driving in the passenger seat of a car in the 80s... so I think like many things, the whole explanation of the perceived phenomena still needs to come out. My husband saw it hit me out of the corner of his eye and it sure took me by surprise. Hurt like hell.

[Shallah Kali]

5. Living in a physical body is not a punishment

The physical body is not a putrid horrid thing to be escaped from

There is such a thing as evil but I don't believe in living embodiement of it such as 'the devil'

White light is not a cure all and never did diddly for my shielding. Works for some people just not me.

Being attuned to Reiki or other spiritual energy won't prevent the attunee from picking up STUFF from clients. It *will* help them be more resistant, reinforce their natural aura boundary, and clear the STUFF they do collect.

2012 is not some New Age style rapture. Humanity will not be 'saved' by outside intervention including Space Brothers. Humanity broke it and now has to buy it.

Unhappy - even horrific - lifetimes do not mean the person did horrific things to others in past lives.

I do believe in UFOs - Unidentified Flying Objects ;) - as well as aliens or maybe extra or intra dimensional beings visit earth.

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. "Living in a physical body is not a punishment".

David Lynch, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, calls the body "the suffocating rubber clown suit". Having myself worked through some deep emotional traumas and thus releasing lots of junk, I can attest to some level of agreement.

[MorningGlow]

31. Day-um, dude's got a thing about clowns, doesn't he?

:rofl:

(Sorry for the OT!)

[Shallah Kali]

38. I should have been more precise - Living in a body is not intented to be a punishment

The body was not intended to be a punishment. Living on earth was not meant to be torture and total seperation from spirit.

I have done body centered psychotherapy for years releasing everything from birth trauma to wounds from other lifetimes to tons of this life crap. It hurt. I still hurt every day but if I didn't believe I was not intended to suffer down here and others were not intended to stuffer I would check out today cuz what the heck should I play that game? If physicality only = evil, pain & suffering why stay? It's like the fundies who think life on earth is evil yet have as many babies as they can while praying for Jesus to come and take them away before the evil world corrupts them :WTF: No I believe that while things got plenty fouled up many times along the line while the Creator never intended to punish or torment any of us.

[Celebration]

6. I have to comment on the cancer thing just a bit

Misinterpreted, it sounds kinda "mean" to say that someone caused their own cancer by having negative thoughts. So, I think that is why we discount it. After all, nobody would wish cancer on themselves. I truly believe that!!

However, once we get rid of the "fault" and "blaming" we actually have scientific evidence that cancer is more prevalent in people that are have been through stressful situations. I'm not going to Medline now to find the evidence, but there have been actual studies on this.

Anecdotally, I used to do reiki at a cancer support group, and I found so many people that had been through stressful job situations--and people who had endured bullying at work.

Energetic techniques that are rather painless and easy can counteract all the negative impact on health that stress brings, so it makes me sad that people discount these, and/or are not familiar with them. Saying that stress can cause conditions that invite cancer causing conditions into the body has nothing to do with blaming the victim, and everything to do with getting them potential help. Please keep that in mind.

[BlueIris]

11. Oh, I didn't mean I think that negative thinking, especially chronic negativity,

long-term abuse, neglect or trauma, can't contribute to the process through which a person develops cancer or other health problems. I just can't stand people who think (and insist on sharing) bullshit like, "Liars get cancer," "Pessimists get cancer," "She/he has 'cancer energy' and I don't want it to infect me and give me cancer" and other horrifyingly inappropriate and inaccurate nonsense.

[Celebration]

14. ewwww

I don't hear that much. But I did get an earful of emotional abuse stories doing reiki at the cancer clinic. But most likely I would have heard the same kind of stories if it had been some other kind of clinic.

I do know a person who has had cancer (a serious type) for awhile, and honestly I think it was pretty much triggered by her being emotionally abused by just one person, in one incident (that lasted a period of time), in the workplace. I don't know what particular emotions were evoked in her during that incident. The other person was the one at fault but she was the one pretty devastated by it all. Here is a clue though: no need to stay away from people with cancer--I don't know of any evidence that it is contagious. I think I have read that Epstein Barr or mono might be related to certain types of cancer, though, but I don't know much about that.

But do stay away from people with untreated or unsuccessfully treated bipolar with tendencies to rages, particularly if they are in positions of authority over you. Say away, stay far, far away, and clear your energy fields if you come in contact with them. Not that I don't feel for them, but they can be very damaging physically to the people around them.

[get the red out]

7. I have a few:

I believe that the idea of "manifesting abundance" can be twisted to be as cruel as organized religion often is. We can use a decent idea that can help us point our energies in a good direction to blame others for their misfortunes and make us feel superior to them. It can make us hard if we see others as having surely erred in their thinking and thus caused their own problems. We can abandon compassion and fail to see that people can be harmed through no fault of their own. And through ignoring people's suffering we ignore causes that can be changed, enabling further suffering through our misguided thinking.

I think 2012 will come and go. If we focus attention of achieving something positive out of this perceived milestone then we will. And I would be just fine with that. And if we do, then the people who predicted that were right to begin with.

I believe that there is quite a lot to the UFO phenomenon and have been fascinated by the idea and devouring information about it since childhood. But no, I have never had a sighting (yet). I didn't know this was unpopular, but since someone else mentioned it I thought I would fess up.

I believe that our bodies are not evil, sex is good and not evil; and we need to fully experience being human instead of wasting this physical life trying to run from it.

I don't believe in end times, never did for a minute. Everything cycles.

Sometimes I really wonder if our reality isn't the mid-term project of a couple of college sophomores in the REAL reality, and they do most of the programming on the weekends after the all night beer blasts following the football games.

:shrug:

[Why Syzygy]

8. On manifestation...

David Wilcock has a very interesting series about "The Secret". I may not get this exactly right, but the gist:
He equates the manifesting ability with Higher Self. He didn't like the movie at all. He writes that using manifestation in the way it is portrayed, as a goodie jar, is the same as using Higher Self as a prostitute. You pay a price and order exactly what you want and how you want it. He suggests relating to Higher Self as a 'maiden', someone we get to know and understand. In doing this, we can manifest everything Higher Self needs to be fully developed and satisfied.

[I Have A Dream]

9. Yes, we protect ourselves by saying "for the highest good of all involved".

It tells the Universe that we realize that we only know part of the picture and that we're asking to be protected if what we are asking would inadvertently hurt us or anyone else.

[NJCher]

12. google "Jim Elvidge"

Sometimes I really wonder if our reality isn't the mid-term project of a couple of college sophomores in the REAL reality, and they do most of the programming on the weekends after the all night beer blasts following the football games.


He doesn't say it's a couple college sophomores but that's his theory. If it's true, and the recent research on holograms suggests that it has possibilities, then it explains everything.


Cher

[BuelahWitch]

10. Ok, here's mine

I don't believe in "Gurus," ie. people who periodically put out books and charge enormous amounts of money for lectures. Much of what they say is hashed and rehashed in book after book, or is basic common sense. Once you've read one Guru's book, you've basically read them all.

I don't believe in Jesus as Savior. I don't believe that you can "save" anyone besides yourself. It's a silly belief because even though your sins are "washed away" in baptism, sooner or later you are going to "sin" again. If this were really the case baptismal fonts would need to be installed on every street corner so you could "wash away" all the sinning you've done that day.
Truthfully, I am not sure why he was crucified, but I don't think that it had thing one to do with me.

Don't believe in an "end times" whether it's 2012 or rapturing or what have you.

Don't believe in Nessie or BigFoot

[NJCher]

13. I don't know if I believe in anything

I had this teacher who taught me a way of thinking. It is to take everything as a hypothesis and think of it as something one tries on for size. The idea itself is a "book" (metaphor) that one puts on a shelf and whenever it comes in handy, it is consulted.

Consequently I have a lot of ideas I try on for size but I'm not sure how much of anything I really believe.

Well, for sure I believe consciousness survives and that there are other dimensions. I know absolutely that the ones we love and who have crossed over can still contact us and show themselves in our lives.

I also think I'm able to do this consulting book thing because of my personality type, which is the ENTJ and the INTJ. I'm 50/50 on the introvert or extrovert (E and I).

So for me, beliefs are kind of like stretchy T-shirt.

This way of thinking also has me wondering why people fight over ideology.


Cher

[Celebration]

20. I totally get this

I don't really look at things as true/untrue, but as sort of subjective probability distributions in my mind. And, I treat them accordingly.

eg.

There is a single God, or godlike force 80%

Healing at a distance works 99%

There is an identifiable Bigfoot species 20%

Not that those are my actual subjective probability distributions, but you get the idea.

Using the library books as a metaphor, some books you just tuck away and they gather dust. Others you consult all the time. But you always realize that you have a step stool handy, and a feather duster ready to go. And you can always go back and consult that book that you overlooked, or put away.

[MorningGlow]

15. I thought of another one

That the material world is all about "suffering". I think people misunderstand this Buddhist concept and think that life on Earth is unavoidably filled with suffering and we should expect to be miserable, when that's not what it means at all. These people also tend to think that we have to strive to get out of this world and into the spiritual world. I think both the material world and the spiritual world serve a purpose, and the material world shouldn't be discounted, dismissed, or ignored.

[get the red out]

22. I agree with that one too

People cause themselves to suffer and be angry at their own humanity (and waste a lot of time) believing this. And it isn't only Buddhists, it has been a misused theme in many spiritual paths.

[MorningGlow]

23. That's true

Look what it's done in Christianity--even to the point of allowing Christians to think that animals don't have souls and we don't need to be environmentally conscious because this world doesn't matter as much as the next one.
:scared:

[winyanstaz]

36. I believe this physical plane is "school" for us awesome energy beings...

and we are here on this physical plane where all is slowed down and we can see the consequences of our thoughts, our actions and our in-actions.
We are awesome beings with unlimited potentials and we need awesome lessons.
I also believe heaven and hell are a state of mind.
I believe this as I have been all over the inner planes starting with out of body experiences from my earliest childhood and including a visit with a teacher on the inner planes taking me to levels I was not able to get to on my own at that time. I found no heaven and no hell..
What I have found is the Universal mind and seven planes and my seven bodies/principles. Each has rules that govern those particular vibration rates.
Although I have seen many a strange light in the heavens as I am in the deep mountains and woods a lot and look at the sky a lot..but I have no real proof that they are alien..could be our own for all I know..all I know for sure is they move like nothing I have ever seen in our skies in the daylight.
As I remembered pieces and parts of several past lives as a small child I happen to know for myself that reincarnation is very real.
I am not so sure about people that claim to be from other planets as every single shaman/healer/put your favorite label here that I have ever taught (as I am older than dirt..and have been doing this for many many way too dang many moons now..) all felt like they didn't fit in as children and that the other children knew it.
I believe that it is true because they are of a different level of consciousness/spiritual growth and that is what the other children were feeling.
I am sure there are other things as well but this is a long enough list for now.

[lib2DaBone]

16. I think 2012 has lost its appeal.. but the Pole Shift appears to be actually happening...

I think 2012 will come and go like Y2K. It will be just another day on the calendar.. but the shift of consciousness that accompanies 2012 (i.e. the trip through the Galactic Center) will be real.

On the other hand.. the pole shift seems to be real. My brother is a professional pilot.. and often comments about the change on his magnetic compass headings. He says he has noticed the magnetic poles shifting dramatically over the last few years. Mariners will also make the same comment about compass headings.

I think the extreme weather patterns now underway worldwide are a result of the pole shift.. not 2012.

[omega minimo]

19. Does he describe how they're shifting?

:hi:

[dbt]

17. How long ya got?

For openers, let's talk about Faith Healing. No, not the sort you see on TerrorVision where some goob strikes a "cripple" on the forehead and yells "HEAL!"

I speak of healing burns ("blowing out fire"), stopping any bleeding that is not of natural causes and healing the mouth blisters which are known as "thrash."

For whatever reasons, these Gifts of Spirit have been roundly ridiculed on certain websites--to the point of having threads locked almost instantly when I have had the apparent temerity to mention them.

[NuttyFluffers]

21. that sylvia browne, for all her flaws, is essentially decent and generally right

she doesn't resonate to me as problematic as i find other people reacting to her. a bit off putting at first, but i think that's a bit more from her regional upbringing than anything else. i've known people from various places in the world whose standard mode of communication just rubs some people absolutely the wrong way. i think her lack of genteel and couching things in vague flowery words catches her heat from all sides.

her "stock market by 2010+ will essentially be gone as we understand it" which i read around 2002 (? or was it published 1999?) was basically right.

sorta like when i spooked my friend way back in mid-1990s when saying by 2005 some astrology calculations says we'll find enough new planetoids to bring about a new reassessment to our standard 9 planet theory, and that astrologically the mathematics shows they've been there all along, we just haven't been able to see them -- but something had to account for some wobble in calculations...

and she was the person who first spoke about polar shift on TV, pretty much again around mid/late 1990s. that's been picking up major interest and now assumed as general inevitability that we are now going through it.

she's not all bad, people. :)

[BlueIris]

24. Here's a random one: I think patchouli is a sophisticated scent.

Not the scent of dorky, clueless hippies, but a scent that reminds me of a posh, expensive townhouse (or mansion) in the Bay Area circa 1982. Delicate and refined are the qualities I associate with patchouli.

Too bad the rest of the world looks at me like I'm a hopeless, crazy-ass New Ager whenever I wear it.

[get the red out]

25. Reincarnation, I believe in it - but not in reincarnated appearance

I have always had an internal belief in reincarnation, even when I would have told you I was an Agnostic. I just kind of came with that built in. But I don't buy into the idea that you have to look the same every lifetime. I believe I have been both male and female and been different races. No proof, just some interesting dreams and visions. That being said, I believe I was male in my last existence before this one and from what I saw in meditation one time (the clearest experience I have had yet) he and I have very similar curly brown hair.

[Brewman_Jax]

26. There are quite a few

Mine are related to history and historical events. I don't believe the legendary itinerant Jewish rabbi actually existed. Most of the writings related to him are older philosophies rewritten and prophecies reverse-engineered for the benefit of the readership. There likely was an ancient Civilization X (Atlantis or what-have-you) that was technologically advanced but disappeared for whatever reason, but left their remnants and some technological information. Hunter-gatherer societies don't magically acquire advanced techniques like metallurgy overnight. The idea that the Pyramids of Giza were built by thousands of laborers for decades using wooden rollers and ropes in a land where trees are very scarce is absurd. Add to that the logistics required to feed, house, manage, and administer such a workforce and the absurdness jumps to ludicrous speed. Same with Machu Picchu, at attitudes where most living things don't live. There are plenty of other examples. I could go on... Oh, and 2012 will the year before 2013, 2012 just happens to be the end of the Mayan calendar cycle, I guess that they didn't think the world would be around so long. :shrug:

[ricochetastroman]

27. I believe Pursah and Arten appeared to Gary Renard

I joined a "The Disappearance of the Universe" group and no one in the group believed that the two angels actually appeard to Gary.
I do. Hell, we've been reading about angels appearing to people for millenia - why not now? Because it's not on tv? A more reliable source.

As soon as I told the group that, a BRILLIANT FLASH FLASHED ACROSS THE ROOM. There was no lightening that day.
And I DO mean brilliant.

[Celebration]

28. Ha, that sounds interesting

Even though I don't know what you are talking about. Was the group an online group? Or a group that meets somewhere. Are you the only one that saw the light?

Honestly, if a brilliant flash of light appears to you, I mean, you have to honor that for sure.

Hasn't happened to me, nor have I seen any angels. I probably need more meditating.

[ricochetastroman]

29. It was a live group in one living room

we all saw it. CLEARLY too.

I am referring to the books by Gary Renard, one entitled, "The Disappearance of the Universe" where two angels appeared on his couch and verified the writings, channeled from Jesus, that became "A Course in Miracles"

great book

[BlueIris]

32. Oh, yeah, and it's not my job to convert anyone to a spiritual way of thinking.

Not only is that not my responsibility, it's not the responsibility of any enlightened person to try to "change" those who have not yet awakened. I think it's actually quite pointless to try to "make" anyone see the Universe in a spiritual context, as the discovery process is different for each individual.

There's a difference between spiritual awareness and organized religion. So called spiritualists who don't understand the distinction are the worst kind of ignorant.

[crikkett]

33. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and Doggonit people like me."

(snicker)

Good Thread, BlueIris.








(Is Al Franken seated yet? What's keeping Minnesota anyway?)

[Fire Walk With Me]

34. God exists.

2012 is already ramping up and as Karen Bishop and others have stated, is about "co-creation", in which manifestation is significantly strengthened, requiring responsibility...meditation is real and empiric, as are other yogic techniques...lucid dreaming is real and is used by certain traditions as a time to pray and meditate...the Kundalini is real...

Never believe me (who does?); go find out for yourself.

[Fire Walk With Me]

39. Also, Karen Bishop's writings are the only thing that makes sense to me anymore.

[crikkett]

35. ETs are among us.

Peace is at hand!

[Celebration]

37. Re; the title of this thread

What unpopular spiritual/New Age opinions do you hold?

Does this also mean

What popular spiritual/New Age opinions do you not hold?

I think I am getting my corollaries mixed up. Hey, it has been awhile since I took grammar/English/logic, etc.

It took me this long to even formulate the question. Duh, me. (And I hope I am using the term corollaries correctly).