Heheheh - It is interesting how mine and Manjit's circle of doubts run, at times, in similar directions - Manjit if you read this I believe you were raised Hindu as I was?
I suspect it might have something to do with being raised Hindu, coming to realize the religion can't be 100% true as given, but retaining a sense that materialism is inadequate.
That said there does seem to be one key separation - I lean more toward post-mortem survival while Manjit seems to lean more toward Super Psi?
Hey SSP!
Actually I was born in a Sikh family, which I guess is more or less Hindu on most levels (socially, culturally, theologically, linguistically etc) ...but don't let any militant Sikh Independantists hear me say that!! ;)
But my family wasn't really religious (which is still basically raving fundamentalist religious nuts according to secular western standards hehe ), don't wear turbans, rarely go temple etc. I was clearly the most interested in the subject in my family, and my parents and everyone just let me get on with it.....I actually begged to be allowed to wear a turban when I was very young, about 7 or something, but my dad said it would cause me too many troubles in the area and social climate we lived in. That was the only time they ever really stopped me in my choices, but I was very young.....and alas my dad was probably right.
Besides which, I don't really associate or i-dentify myself with any labels, religions, race, social class, belief sets etc nowadays, I find it quite hard to do actually, and am only reminded of all these distinctions when someone reminds me of my "place" in this world. I just feel like consciousness myself :)
It's interesting you lean more towards post-mortem survival actually, I never really got the sense you had come down on one side of the fence, even if with one foot?
I don't really lean towards super-psi I feel....I cannot, I haven't even got the foggiest idea what it means really! I'll let smarter people than me work that one out!
I just live with my intuition. And I can't help but feel that the universe, reality, consciousness, being, divinity or whatever.......is just so much fucking more mysterious, awe-some, magical, astonishing, incomprehensible, mind-shattering than anything humankind has conceived of.
I believe we may be like cute little dogs trying to understand the universe, and wondering which theory is more applicable; Is the sun a big biscuit, or is it actually a chew toy?
:)
EDIT: Sorry SSP, I wanted to ask a question a while back but couldn't find your post. You mentioned somewhere something about "the more people who see my avatar icon in psychedelic/altered states...." Do you recall? I just wanted to ask what you meant by that? Not sure if you read my post where I mentioned when I took DMT first or second time, I literally saw the picture of your Avatar but as if in real life, kind of growing out of the ground! Now that what at a point where I was reading a lot of your output on this forum, and really appreciating it deeply......but afterwards I also noticed somebody on the DMT Nexus forums, which I had been reading for days before I took it, also had the exact same avatar, and I had read several of their posts.
I found it really interesting why you made that comment now? Is there a lot of people seeing that exact image?!