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  1. Ben Heaton

    Steve Briggs, Took His MBA to the Himalayan Yogis And Discovered… |452|

    There is some truth to that Alex, although I think that there is a level of judgement of good and bad, and another level where God is in all things and experiences all things without judgement. One of my favorite quotes: “The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed...
  2. Ben Heaton

    Steve Briggs, Took His MBA to the Himalayan Yogis And Discovered… |452|

    I don't think that Steve is disputing any of this. But I think that you are missing the point Alex. This is not the lived experience of every person who interacted with Maharishi. Like I said, I think Maharishi was a HUGE positive influence in Steve's life, at least from what I know. And...
  3. Ben Heaton

    Steve Briggs, Took His MBA to the Himalayan Yogis And Discovered… |452|

    Alex, I don't think that its just certain gurus that you are cynical of, but even more so the organizations [religions] that they start. I don't have any personal experience or connection with Maharishi. In addition to the flaws that have been mentioned above, the other problem that I have with...
  4. Ben Heaton

    Steve Briggs, Took His MBA to the Himalayan Yogis And Discovered… |452|

    I've read both of Steve Briggs' books and thought they were both great. I think that the Vedic/Yogic tradition is a safe and promising pathway for an individual to personally probe extended consciousness. I liked the discussion of the Granthis or knots in our subconscious that impede the flow of...
  5. Ben Heaton

    Grant Cameron, No Such Thing As Evil ET? |449|

    I thought that Grant Cameron had some interesting perspectives and I don't have too much disagreement with what he said. I just think that he is a poor listener and communicator. It seems he may be letting his ego get the best of him. If one believes in the nondual concept that everything is...
  6. Ben Heaton

    Dr. Dana Sawyer’s Biography of Spiritual Giant Houston Smith |335|

    One would hope that they could expect more from a religious institution than a secular one, but both are going to have human flaws and imperfections. Virtually every group, religious or secular, will have something that each member will be able to find to disagree with. I think that we need to...
  7. Ben Heaton

    Dr. Dana Sawyer’s Biography of Spiritual Giant Houston Smith |335|

    I agree with most of the comments here, but I think that religion in general (and more specifically Christianity) is often treated in a simplistic manner, as if it were one homogeneous entity. There are a myriad of religious groups and subgroups, both large and small. Every person in each group...
  8. Ben Heaton

    Dr. Dana Sawyer’s Biography of Spiritual Giant Houston Smith |335|

    Using that logic, it is wrong for a person to choose to associate with any group, but EVERY group is going to have human imperfections. The average member of most groups does not have the power by themselves to create significant change in the entire group, or to purge from the group those whom...
  9. Ben Heaton

    Dr. Dana Sawyer’s Biography of Spiritual Giant Houston Smith |335|

    I liked the quote from the podcast that religion is like a cow- it kicks, but it does give milk. It is easy to see that Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy is embedded in the great religions of the world, and in their scriptures. (I guess that’s what makes it “perennial”.) For many people, the...
  10. Ben Heaton

    Gordon White, Pieces of Eight: Part 1, Christianity’s Shadow |332|

    For this analogy let’s assume that “The Hobbit” was reported to be written 2000 years ago, we had minimal records of its authorship, and that there was no significant evidence that the Hobbit as a person actually existed. It would be concerning if the “The Hobbit” had been used to justify wars...
  11. Ben Heaton

    Gordon White, Pieces of Eight: Part 1, Christianity’s Shadow |332|

    I wanted to add a couple of other thoughts to round out my last post. I believe that the Bible is considered by many academics as a great literary work, regardless as to whether it is historically real or not. Great works of fiction, by authors such as Shakespeare and Dostoevsky as a couple that...
  12. Ben Heaton

    Gordon White, Pieces of Eight: Part 1, Christianity’s Shadow |332|

    I finished the second half of the podcast this morning and I really liked it. I liked your excerpt from Richard Smoley, totally agree with it. I think the main point is that the Bible is not everything that mainstream Christianity thinks it is. When you look at the writings of Biblical scholars...
  13. Ben Heaton

    Gordon White, Pieces of Eight: Part 1, Christianity’s Shadow |332|

    I agree that much of Christian apologetics is an easy straw man to knock down. However, if Christ is first mentioned in the writings of Paul in the 50's CE, Josephus surrendered in 67 CE, and wrote The Jewish War in 75 CE, then doesn't Paul's account of Jesus predate Josephus' writing by 25 years?
  14. Ben Heaton

    She Brings Wicca to Psychotherapy With Tangible Results |329|

    I think that Alex's original question for this episode is interesting, what do we make of Christ Consciousness? Here is one site that has a number of CC accounts: http://www.near-death.com/science/research/jesus.html As I read these accounts, the people seem to be relating to the Jesus of the...
  15. Ben Heaton

    She Brings Wicca to Psychotherapy With Tangible Results |329|

    The New Testament has many allusions to earlier oral and written traditions, as does Nag Hammadi. Some Nag Hammadi writings such as the Gospel of Thomas, which mentions Jesus by name, and has some elements which are thought to possibly come from the Q source, post-dates and seems to have New...
  16. Ben Heaton

    She Brings Wicca to Psychotherapy With Tangible Results |329|

    The Nag Hammadi Library dates to the 2nd to 4th century AD (per Wikipedia). The Books of Mark dates to about 70 AD, Matthew and Luke to 80 or 90 AD, John later. The Nag Hammadi has some quotes attributed to Jesus that are not found in the NT, but I would think of it as essentially a Gnostic...
  17. Ben Heaton

    She Brings Wicca to Psychotherapy With Tangible Results |329|

    The name "Jesus Christ" and his story originates in the New Testament. As far as I know there are no other original sources, so if there were no NT, then there would be no story of Jesus Christ and hence there could be no "Christ" consciousness. I agree that NDE experiences are tuned for the...
  18. Ben Heaton

    She Brings Wicca to Psychotherapy With Tangible Results |329|

    I am late to the conversation, wanted to make a couple of points. I thought that the discussion about duality versus nonduality was interesting. I don’t see that the two are mutually exclusive. We live in a world of duality. I think that having an understanding of duality (which most people...
  19. Ben Heaton

    He thinks chaos magic offers a better explanation than science. Of course, he’s right |309|

    Great podcast. The term “magic” tends to have a pejorative sense, as in trickery or something that only an uneducated person would believe. Gordon White forces people to reexamine their relationship to magic and hopefully see its pervasiveness in their lives. I liked the idea that the cathedral...
  20. Ben Heaton

    Should family therapy include your deceased great-great-grandmother? Epigenetics meets after-death c

    I am listening to the podcast again and have a couple more questions for Dan and Emily if you are still around. 1. Epigenetics appears to me to be an area of science that falls more in the arena of scientific materialism, independent of theories of a field of consciousness. The trauma would...
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