TALKING EVIL WITH ALEX TSAKIRIS -- GORDON WHITE -- RUNE SOUP

I do believe in the adage. Gerod said to me a long time ago that "thought is the most powerful force in the universe." When I talked elsewhere about "our power" and the "power of consciousness," this would be included in those statements. This doesn't mean that developing that level of consciousness is easy but using consciousness and intent to create/call to you what you wish to manifest sets forces in motion. Lots more could be said about this.
The Law of Attraction?? Does that really work?
 
@Alex - is Phil Harland on your radar? He has a whole podcast series on the cultural history of Satan.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"Philip A. Harland" satan

also: if anyone googles him I'd avoid the video of his presentation to Dennison Univ. His ideas are much better articulated in the podcast.

Hi, I see dozens of podcasts... It would take hours and hours for me to get to the answer I seek (if he has it in any of these podcasts) - The question I have is, when was the first "known" - meaning, we have, today, a reasonably reliable set of evidence to suggest - when was the first know representation of a "god" or being of any sort that represents an opposition to "God" that would be seen to give "God" a good "run for his money?"

And, this question, of course, can only be asked once "God" appears on the scene, yes? I guess the question might be better asked, when did the first "God" being (a representation of monotheism) appear on the scene?

And from what I think I know, "God" is not that old, thus Satan can't be either, right?

I put my money on this: The human race on earth today could be one of many iterations of a level of "human" with reasonably capable cognitive abilities, including the possibility our most ancient earthly ancestors were the children of "human beings" (or close enough) that were not born on this planet. So in the context of say, 100,000, if "God" and Satan arose as a dynamic that captured the attention of swaths of humanity, say, 5,000 years ago... what does that really say about either Satan or "God?" It says we made them up.

Note: I am not speaking of "God" in terms of what the perennial philosophy refers to when God is discussed. I am not referring to God that is found in traditional metaphysics. (Both are essentially the same thing - perennial philosophy and traditionalist (or "true") metaphysics).
 
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I'm on episode 7.3.

Earliest you had the battle archetype -- e.g. the younger gods defeating the older gods.

A bit later you get a moral element introduced: good fighting evil -- i.e. order fighting chaos. In this iteration, order does not defeat chaos; it only pushes it back/keeps it at bay.

Zoroastrianism then later introduces the idea that God/good will someday defeat evil for ever, leading to a "heaven on earth" type state.

that's as far as I've gotten :)

Satan has not been introduced yet.
 
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The Law of Attraction?? Does that really work?

Absolutely. With a few caveats: 1) There are other laws at work too. 2) Figuring out what you really want is difficult. 3) The subconscious part of you makes up more of you than the conscious part of you, so your conscious intent is not the whole picture. Bringing the totality of your being into alignment with a singular purpose requires a monumental lifelong effort.

That's not to say casual dabbling in focusing your intentions won't produce some results. After a period of initial success, you might find your powers of the will to be fleeting and diminishing or that your results become tainted as in a dream where it starts off so close to that tantalizing thing, but then it is taken away or morphs into something else, and you spend the last few minutes of your dreams trying to get back to that place, but you only end up waking yourself up.
 
Absolutely. With a few caveats: 1) There are other laws at work too. 2) Figuring out what you really want is difficult. 3) The subconscious part of you makes up more of you than the conscious part of you, so your conscious intent is not the whole picture. Bringing the totality of your being into alignment with a singular purpose requires a monumental lifelong effort.

That's not to say casual dabbling in focusing your intentions won't produce some results. After a period of initial success, you might find your powers of the will to be fleeting and diminishing or that your results become tainted as in a dream where it starts off so close to that tantalizing thing, but then it is taken away or morphs into something else, and you spend the last few minutes of your dreams trying to get back to that place, but you only end up waking yourself up.
Is there a method that you've tried and have found successful? I've read so much about it and it seems likes there's so many ways to practice that it's kind of overwhelming.
 
I do believe in the adage. Gerod said to me a long time ago that "thought is the most powerful force in the universe." When I talked elsewhere about "our power" and the "power of consciousness," this would be included in those statements. This doesn't mean that developing that level of consciousness is easy but using consciousness and intent to create/call to you what you wish to manifest sets forces in motion. Lots more could be said about this.
Thank you, Tom. I was not talking about the power of thought to create but the purported danger of thought focuisng on something. This form of the adgage claims that we need to avoid focusing on evil or we will / might well (?) atttract it to us (Vedas) or even become it (Alex). Yet you and I and Alex and this froum are focusing on evil without those dire effects. (I realize I was not clear in my post inqury about this and I apologize.)
 
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Is there a method that you've tried and have found successful? I've read so much about it and it seems likes there's so many ways to practice that it's kind of overwhelming.

As a kid I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, so I tried prayer and faith. Sort of like I said... some initial success which faded. And some things morphed into what I didn't want. And I think that is probably because I hadn't developed and integrated myself enough. I remember when I was 14 one day I decided I had done a lot of spiritual development that summer so I was ready for love, so I asked God for it. The next day I got a letter from a girl I'd had a crush on. I'll spare you the rest of the cringeworthy details full of teenage angst and neurosis. Let's say I got some silly form of love but it wasn't really what I wanted because I wasn't self-developed. Later on I wanted proof that miracles happen and that faith healing was real, so I asked for my eyes to be healed. Didn't happen. I actually threw away my glasses one day thinking that I had to act as if it were true for it to be true. Didn't work... part of me still was confident I could use the contacts in my drawer. Later on I had hip problems and prayed for years to be healed. Didn't happen. But the angst and depression around my failed worldview and failed attempts at miracles ultimately led me to look outside of Christianity for answers, which included finding the Skeptiko podcast. Eventually I got hip replacement surgery and got Lasik, so my prayers were technically answered although not in the miraculous way I originally wanted and the end result was ultimately deeper learning and personal growth. I cannot think of a more efficient way to have removed me from fundamentalist Christianity because I was certainly dug in like a tick.

Several years ago, I tried the Bengston healing method, and found that several of my "positive ego images" used in the cycling manifested. I don't remember what all of them were now, but one of them was a significant pay raise, which I got shortly thereafter when out of the blue I was offered a good job. A few years later, I was recalling this and thinking about the nature of reality and the power of the will when I had a sort of burst of faith in the ability to manifest our desires. Again I imagined some images as I had done with the Bengston healing method including a pay raise. About 3 weeks later, I got a significant pay raise, doubled vacation, and a nice company vehicle, and shortly after that a Son. Some of the other positive ego images didn't pan out and some seem like a tortured inversion.

Recently through my musings here, I've become convinced that certain forms of asceticism, celibacy, fasting, etc., might sort of energize the unconscious to work for you. By creating a hunger, a constant frustration of desire, perhaps we create a power generator that can transmute that energy of the will into a creative act in the physical world. So I'm looking into that more...
 
I wonder what happens when this happens in consensus reality. Take for example an election that can produce a result A or a result B. Some people with the ability to use consciousness in that way are to be found on both sides. I can think of two possibilities:

1) The conscious creators push in opposite directions and partially cancel each other out. Thus at least some conscious creators do not get their wish.

2) Every conscious creator morphs reality according to his/her views, and at some point reality splits into two - A wins in one reality, and B wins in the other reality. Those realities might or might not be able to merge later on.

Seth seems to suggest a reality that contains more than one time line (as opposed to multiple time dimensions), and I must say, option 2 appeals to me aesthetically!

Do you have any thoughts - do write "lots more", but I suggest we leave the outcomes A and B abstract to avoid an obvious pitfall!

David
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But I like "A" & "B". Well, let's think of a possible "C" then... what if.. you can already subconsciously know an outcome in advance, so this actually moves you in direction "A". HOWEVER, maybe others look further down the road & see another possible outcome more conducive to their EGO dream so if they have enough "sway" they split the reality into "B" as you said.

That might be part of it, because we know we can kind of know the future of things if we want to. Remote viewing & all that jazz.
 
As a kid I was raised in fundamentalist Christianity, so I tried prayer and faith. Sort of like I said... some initial success which faded. And some things morphed into what I didn't want. And I think that is probably because I hadn't developed and integrated myself enough. I remember when I was 14 one day I decided I had done a lot of spiritual development that summer so I was ready for love, so I asked God for it. The next day I got a letter from a girl I'd had a crush on. I'll spare you the rest of the cringeworthy details full of teenage angst and neurosis. Let's say I got some silly form of love but it wasn't really what I wanted because I wasn't self-developed. Later on I wanted proof that miracles happen and that faith healing was real, so I asked for my eyes to be healed. Didn't happen. I actually threw away my glasses one day thinking that I had to act as if it were true for it to be true. Didn't work... part of me still was confident I could use the contacts in my drawer. Later on I had hip problems and prayed for years to be healed. Didn't happen. But the angst and depression around my failed worldview and failed attempts at miracles ultimately led me to look outside of Christianity for answers, which included finding the Skeptiko podcast. Eventually I got hip replacement surgery and got Lasik, so my prayers were technically answered although not in the miraculous way I originally wanted and the end result was ultimately deeper learning and personal growth. I cannot think of a more efficient way to have removed me from fundamentalist Christianity because I was certainly dug in like a tick.

Several years ago, I tried the Bengston healing method, and found that several of my "positive ego images" used in the cycling manifested. I don't remember what all of them were now, but one of them was a significant pay raise, which I got shortly thereafter when out of the blue I was offered a good job. A few years later, I was recalling this and thinking about the nature of reality and the power of the will when I had a sort of burst of faith in the ability to manifest our desires. Again I imagined some images as I had done with the Bengston healing method including a pay raise. About 3 weeks later, I got a significant pay raise, doubled vacation, and a nice company vehicle, and shortly after that a Son. Some of the other positive ego images didn't pan out and some seem like a tortured inversion.

Recently through my musings here, I've become convinced that certain forms of asceticism, celibacy, fasting, etc., might sort of energize the unconscious to work for you. By creating a hunger, a constant frustration of desire, perhaps we create a power generator that can transmute that energy of the will into a creative act in the physical world. So I'm looking into that more...
***
WELL! You'll be interested to know I was thinking of YOU today. A giant black locust tree blew down across my driveway from the storm last night. I had to take the chainsaw & go forth. As I crippled back up my longggggg driveway suddenly you came to mind with your exciting HIPS! (bragger). As I sit here typing in my dollar store glasses (since I always lose mine) I grow envious of your HIPS and 20/15 vision!

Okay, I do have something to add, I too was brought up Christian & was taught like you. But Jesus & God are not the magic wish fairy. I mean all of us kind of live a "fairly" charmed life. But what about the lady who was about to face the gas house of Hitler with her child in hand. I bet she prayed like crazy to no end.

I think there must be karma. It is the only thing that makes sense (unless we just drop dead). Or there are some other things afoot we don't know or can't imagine.

My mom told me, that the bad things will keep happening to you until you learn the lesson. You have to learn the lesson. Or a pebble turns into a rock hitting you in the head. If you drop dead before you "learn the lesson" you are (doomed) to reincarnate until you DO learn the lesson. This is why some people are born in terrible situations... karma. Didn't learn the lesson from the last life.
 
Is there a method that you've tried and have found successful? I've read so much about it and it seems likes there's so many ways to practice that it's kind of overwhelming.
One thing that I think does work, is to focus attention on any part of your body that isn't quite working right. I find that can be quite effective. I have heard it said that that is just because the attention causes more blood flow to that area, but that sounds like a very weak standard materialist explanation - but anyway, it seems to work.

David
 
The Law of Attraction?? Does that really work?
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Yes, it works if you know how to do it & the stars aline. It takes a lot of energy if it wasn't supposed to be your... karmic path. You'll be undoing what you were here for. Depends on what you're asking for as well. You can be anything you want if you're willing to work at it. You can have anything you want, but you better be careful what you wish for.

I mean if you wanted to be President you probably could, but you'd have to start early & be willing to do the work. But, in the end, it might not be all it's cracked up to be.
 
***
WELL! You'll be interested to know I was thinking of YOU today. A giant black locust tree blew down across my driveway from the storm last night. I had to take the chainsaw & go forth. As I crippled back up my longggggg driveway suddenly you came to mind with your exciting HIPS! (bragger). As I sit here typing in my dollar store glasses (since I always lose mine) I grow envious of your HIPS and 20/15 vision!

Okay, I do have something to add, I too was brought up Christian & was taught like you. But Jesus & God are not the magic wish fairy. I mean all of us kind of live a "fairly" charmed life. But what about the lady who was about to face the gas house of Hitler with her child in hand. I bet she prayed like crazy to no end.

I think there must be karma. It is the only thing that makes sense (unless we just drop dead). Or there are some other things afoot we don't know or can't imagine.

My mom told me, that the bad things will keep happening to you until you learn the lesson. You have to learn the lesson. Or a pebble turns into a rock hitting you in the head. If you drop dead before you "learn the lesson" you are (doomed) to reincarnate until you DO learn the lesson. This is why some people are born in terrible situations... karma. Didn't learn the lesson from the last life.

Go get new Hips, they're great! Anterior approach. I was out walking the next day and climbing mountains a few months later. Of course I was... 29 I think, so I bounced back quickly.

And I mostly agree with the idea of Karma, sowing and reaping... etc.

Just thought of another one of those answered prayers... Around the time I was desperately depressed with my hip situation and barely able to walk (maybe 24), I started attending a class at church on spiritual gifts. The teacher instructed us to spend the next week thinking about our calling and what we loved to do. I decided that I liked to write, to teach, to do photography, and I wanted my spiritual gifts to be healing and prophecy. But I wasn't sure about all that so I prayed sincerely that God would send someone to lay hands on me as with Timothy and tell me what my calling was. Friday that same week we had a gathering at the church and there were some students there I had never met before. I was telling one that I needed prayer for my hips, and they said, "oh you need this other guy we know to pray for you" (I think his name was Rama), so they brought their friend over... all I told him was I needed healing for my hips. Didn't know him from Adam. He lays his hands on my shoulders in awkward silence for about a minute that seemed like five. The first thing he says: "You're a writer. You're a teacher. You're a healer. You'll see heaven opened and paint pictures of it." He went on to pray for my hips like I had asked, but that was totally out of nowhere and he essentially read my mind and was an exact answer to my prayer. Now... have I fulfilled my calling? Not really... not yet at least. I'm hopefully only half done with this life.
 
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I vote for #1. You can't dictate equality. There's gotta be winners and losers or the economy doesn't function. The Left wants everyone to get their wish, but it ain't gonna happen.

The #2 universal basic income model would essentially mean everyone else but you is a NPC.
I'm not sure you get #2. The concept is that reality consists of a network of timelines woven together. If two conscious creators compete in opposite directions, reality splits (a bit like Many Worlds in QM) and both gets what he wants.

Seth seems to imply that reality is structured like that, and I'd argue that the power of consciousness creation would be vastly diminished if there were just one time line.

David
 
I'm not sure you get #2. The concept is that reality consists of a network of timelines woven together. If two conscious creators compete in opposite directions, reality splits (a bit like Many Worlds in QM) and both gets what he wants.

Seth seems to imply that reality is structured like that, and I'd argue that the power of consciousness creation would be vastly diminished if there were just one time line.

David

I get the concept... but that means that in your branch of reality the other person is not getting what they want, and in their branch your alter is not getting what you want, so the only authentic person with agency in each branch is the self... the rest are doing what they're told... reading a script... like a non-player character (NPC). Another interpretation of this is that everything that can happen does, and the branch you find yourself on is pure chance in which case your feeling that you willed yourself onto this branch is in fact an illusion and you have no free choice.
 
Thank you, Tom. I was not talking about the power of thought to create but the purported danger of thought focuisng on something. This form of the adage claims that we need to avoid focusing on evil or we will / might well (?) atttract it to us (Vedas) or even become it (Alex). Yet you and I and Alex and this forum are focusing on evil without those dire effects. (I realize I was not clear in my post inqury about this and I apologize.)
 
Urgent request to tomz: In your book I found a quote which is vital to my own work, but for which I can't find the source in Wm James:

The refusal of modern “enlightenment” to treat “possession” as a hypothesis to be spoken of as even possible, in spite of the massive human tradition based on concrete experience in its favour, has always seemed to me a curious example of fashion in things scientific. That the demon theory (not necessarily a devil-theory) will have its innings again is to my mind absolutely certain. One has to be “scientific” indeed to be blind and ignorant enough to suspect no such possibility.—William James

In your book it opens Chapter 4. Do you still have the citation? I have spent hours looking for it including Google Scholar. Deepest thanks.
 
Urgent request to tomz: In your book I found a quote which is vital to my own work, but for which I can't find the source in Wm James:

The refusal of modern “enlightenment” to treat “possession” as a hypothesis to be spoken of as even possible, in spite of the massive human tradition based on concrete experience in its favour, has always seemed to me a curious example of fashion in things scientific. That the demon theory (not necessarily a devil-theory) will have its innings again is to my mind absolutely certain. One has to be “scientific” indeed to be blind and ignorant enough to suspect no such possibility.—William James

In your book it opens Chapter 4. Do you still have the citation? I have spent hours looking for it including Google Scholar. Deepest thanks.
It's from "Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research " III, 1909, p. 586
 
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