and I don't either. but you discount others beliefs but hold to your own for the same reasons others hold to theirs. just like the "laws" you talk about. you discounted me and said the Golden Rule isn't a law but karma is. you come across (,maybe not meant to) but you come across that everyone is wrong and you are right. i don't believe I have discounted others. i try to learn and even if i don't agree...it's agree to disagree.

The Bible was created by Man too. I'm sorry you can't get that.

Unless we learn how to regain our power of telepathic communication, all we really have are words to communicate with, unless you want to include body language.

That being so, the written word becomes important. If it were not for the written word you would not have any Bible and you would not even know about Jesus, and you would be going to hell ~according to what you believe.

The ranting that Christianity is not a religion is ridiculous.

Belief in Jesus and that he died for the sins of mankind is a religion and that religion was passed on with written words that have meanings.

The problem with the Bible translations is that nobody can agree on what the words mean, and so everybody argues about what scriptures mean, and thousands of different religious sects evolve who all argue with each other and disagree on silly details about their religion like when did Jesus get stabbed in the side.

I would like to communicate with people of different faiths but we can't even agree on what a simple four letter word means. So I give up.

JB

Your kids inherit the property, your real friends show up at your funeral, the state tries to take everything they can if you don't have a will, the funeral home gets richer selling overpriced crates they call caskets! As to our soul, there has to be a God and judgement or I would be getting even! I believe you reap a lot of what you sow here on earth but religion is man made, if God doesn't answer you with fire, try another god!
Mike

I am sorry I came off that way, but then everybody else does too. That is no excuse of course, and I may have you confused with a few other people on here.

Just rest assured that everything I say is just my opinion. And to add to that, I will say that my opinion don't mean sh*t.

Not to anybody but me anyway.

JB

omg JB...I SAID THE BIBLE WAS CREATED AND COMPOSED BY MAN. follow the bouncing ball here. that is how I was comparing the 2. just like words in the dictionary....it can mean different things. just because webster said it doesn't mean it's complete and alot of the English words can't be accuratly translated...LIKE THE BIBLE. which is why we have brains and can use them to interprete things. i even pointed out to you about fear and you argued with me. i even posted the definition of fear....which one of them was AWE.

JB...i can respect your opinion and even told you I have utmost respect for you. i value others beliefs and like to learn what they think (even if I don't agree). your opinion does mean something to me....that's how i learn about others, but i will fight tooth and nail to anyone (not saying you) that attacks how i believe.

And I have actually found more wisdom in Webster's Dictionary that I found in the Bible. Maybe Webster's Dictionary is the word of God.

At least a dictionary adjusts meanings of words according to how people use them.

JB

that is a sad sad statement.

Why? Here is what I found in a Webster Dictionary. ( Not all dictionaries are equal. I like Webster's.)

I Looked up the word "Infinity" and found it defined as "The quality of infinite being."

The definition of "being" was "to exist, to be"

Since God is said to be "infinite" and the definition of Infinity was the quality of infinite being and the definition of being was "to exist or to be,"

I discovered that Infinity = an infinite being. In other words God.

The mystery of God discovered in the Webster's dictionary.

JB

EVERY BODY FIGHTS OVER YOUR STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to understand why a person would fight "tooth and nail" over their belief.

(It's not like anyone is telling you to convert or die.)

Perhaps you are afraid of being persuaded? Are you afraid you might loose your faith?

If you are confident in what you believe, why do you feel you need to defend it?

It is my feeling that if you are secure in what you believe then you don't need to defend it.

JB

doesnt matter what ya believe.....reapers acommin....anyway...

lol hardly JB. I just feel there are things worth standing up for and if someone tells me i'm wrong for believing them...then I won't back down. I hold my beliefs and values very important and they help define who I am. if someone attacks them...they attack me. may not be the most christian thing to do but I'm not perfect. why do you defend your beliefs btw?

Rick Strassman, M.D. Order a copy of DMT: the Spirit Molecule. Other Writings
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In 1990, I began the first new human research with psychedelic, or hallucinogenic, drugs in the United States in over 20 years. These studies investigated the effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, an extremely short-acting and powerful psychedelic. During the project's five years, I administered approximately 400 doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers. This research took place at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, where I was tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry.

I was drawn to DMT because of its presence in all of our bodies. Perhaps excessive DMT production, coming from the mysterious pineal gland, was involved in naturally occurring "psychedelic" states. These might include birth, death and near-death, psychosis, and mystical experiences. Only later, while the study was well under way, did I also begin considering DMT's role in the "alien abduction" experience.

The DMT project was founded on cutting edge brain science, especially the psychopharmacology of serotonin. However, my own background powerfully affected how we prepared people for, and supervised, their drug sessions. One of these was a decades-long relationship with a Zen Buddhist training monastery.

The Spirit Molecule reviews what we know about psychedelic drugs in general, and DMT in particular. It then traces the DMT research project from its earliest intimations through the maze of committees and review boards to its actual performance.

Our research subjects were healthy volunteers. The studies were not intended to be therapeutic, although all of us believed in the potentially beneficial properties of psychedelic drugs. The project generated a wealth of biological and psychological data, much of which I have already published in the scientific literature. On the other hand, I have written nearly nothing about volunteers' stories. I hope these many excerpts from over 1000 pages of my bedside notes provide a sense of the remarkable emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects of this chemical.

Problems inside and outside of the research environment led to the end of these studies in 1995. Despite the difficulties we encountered, I am optimistic about the possible benefits of the controlled use of these drugs. Based upon what we learned in the New Mexico research, I offer a wide-ranging vision for DMT's role in our lives, and conclude by proposing a research agenda and optimal setting for future work with DMT and related drugs.

The late Willis Harman possessed one of the most discerning minds to apply himself to the field of psychedelic research. Willis, earlier in his career, had published the first and only scientific study using psychedelics to enhance the creative process. When I met him 30 years later in 1994, he was president of Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization founded by the sixth man to walk on the moon, Edgar Mitchell. Mitchell's mystical experience, stimulated by viewing the Earth on his return home, inspired him to study phenomenon outside the range of traditional science, which nevertheless might yield to a broader application of the scientific method.

During a long walk together along the central California coastal range one day, he said firmly, "At the very least, we must enlarge the discussion about psychedelics." It is in response to his request that I include highly speculative ideas and my own personal motivations for performing this research. This approach will satisfy no-one in every respect. There is intense friction between what we know intellectually or even intuitively, and what we experience with the aid of DMT. As one of our volunteers exclaimed after his first high dose session, "Wow! I never expected that!" Or, as Dogen, a thirteenth century Japanese Buddhist teacher said, "We must always be disturbed by the truth." Enthusiasts of the psychedelic drug culture may dislike the conclusion that DMT has no beneficial effects in and of itself; rather, the context in which people take them is at least as important. Proponents of drug control may condemn what they read as encouragement to take psychedelic drugs and a glorification of the DMT experience. Practitioners and spokespersons of traditional religions may reject the suggestion that spiritual states can be accessed, and mystical information gained, through drugs. Those who have undergone "alien abduction," and their advocates, may interpret as a challenge to the "reality" of their experiences my suggestion that DMT is intimately involved in these events. Opponents and supporters of abortion rights may find fault with my proposal that pineal DMT release at 49 days after conception marks the entrance of the spirit into the fetus.

Brain researchers may object to the suggestion that DMT affects the brain's ability to receive information, rather than generating those perceptions themselves. They also may dismiss the proposal that DMT can allow our brains to perceive dark matter or parallel universes, realms of existence inhabited by conscious entities.

However, if I did not describe all the ideas behind the DMT studies, and the entire range of our volunteers' experiences, I would not be telling the entire tale. At best, The Spirit Molecule would have little effect on the scope of discussion about psychedelics; at worst, the book would reduce the field. Nor would I be honest if I did not share my own speculations and theories based upon decades of study, and listening to hundreds of DMT sessions. This is why I did it. This is what happened. This is what I think about it.

It is so important for us to understand consciousness. It is just as important to place psychedelic drugs in general, and DMT in particular, into a personal and cultural matrix where we do the most good, and the least harm. In such a wide open area of inquiry, it is best that we reject no ideas until we actually disprove them. It is in the interest of enlarging the discussion about psychedelic drugs that I've written The Spirit Molecule.




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Well......It's 3:00 am in the morn..and who would believe I am up....not listening to gospel as usual.......but ....
listening to Abra and Rabbit's hummingbird song!!

Gotta love it!!!

Hey...not bad...not bad.....

Who's singing.....sounds good....is that you, Rabbit?
And Abra ?
Both?

Sounds Great!!!....

Nashville.....here they come !!!

lol MS...I'm proud to be the inspiration to the warped poem and song lol

I dont yet understand life. How could I understand death ?

I do understand that. But here is what happened to me. I held a belief once that I was sure was the truth and I felt that everyone else was wrong.

I discovered that my strongly held belief that I defended so passionately and argued over and tried to share with others was wrong.

It was a lie and a cult.

So I changed my core belief system completely. It was a devastating and traumatic mental, emotional and even physical event. I was sick for three months.

Okay, what I learned from this experience is what is important.

I learned that I was the same person. Who I am does not depend upon my core belief system. Beliefs do change. They are not WHO YOU ARE. They never were.

Finding out who you are goes beyond what you happen to believe.

JB

Milesoftheusa,

Very interesting post Miles, I may have to acquire that book. I sounds very interesting.

JB

Jeanniebean

yes i think i might to. I saw it for $17 Just surfing i found many excerts from the book that are really wild. He claims that in studies it has been found that this gland in your body has prodused 40 times the amount of Halullciantes that lcd does at death. I find that quite mind bogling to me. If anything I believe the book is intersting enough that i could actually finish it Shalom..Miles