Also, a thought.
IM is the primary form of long-distance P2P communication on the digital plane; Telephony is the primary means of P2P communication on the physical.
So is prayer the primary means of P2P communication on the spiritual plane?
And notice that IM, as awkward as it may be with someone else for the first time, is quite tame in terms of awkwardness in comparison to when you actually attempt to talk to that same person on the phone (as I did with Dom and Mingant a couple of weeks back).
So, if the phone is considered to be something of a more sacred means of communication between two people, then what about prayer? Sir Edward B. Tylor’s definition of it (“the address of personal spirit to personal spirit”) leads me to think that prayer is a means by which one person can talk to another on a spiritual basis by spiritual means.
I’m wondering about this because, for certain people I came across early in my digital lifetime, the one whose essays I read (and made me aware of otherkin, therianthropy, and, in his own particular case, Draconity), but has since taken another identity…or two…I just want to let him know that 1) I’m OK (and that I hope he’s doing the same, too) and 2) that I’m just as serious about therianthropy (or probably even more so) as I was when I first emailed him (I believe that it was the first email that I had ever written ***anyone***).
I won’t mention his name, as I have done so in a past posting.
However, I just want to leave him a message after the tone.
*beep*
I think prayer is just a practice. It’s a P2P connection to order a boost of faith.
Prayers
I think Prayers are meant to consult the guide from the spirit plane.
However there are people who are sensitive enough to sense the spirital plane itself, like me for example. Although I cannot control such receptivitiy of spirital messages, I do try my best to make sense out of it. Sometimes it comes from someone i know. I wonder that myself
Re: Prayers
I was warned on more than one occasion (back in my church days, of course) that the spirit plane was sooooooooo “OMGWTF” that if we were to see the space around us through “spiritual goggles” (which I’ve been thinking about myself), we’d see a scary-half-to-death multitude of demons, angels, and whosits, among other things.
Not a direct quote, but it does capture the spirit of what they were saying.
Re: Prayers
Exactly!
Re: Prayers
The unnerving thing about this is that Mom wants me to “talk to God” tonight.
Now, she *did* say that this doesn’t have to be involving Christianity or the hangovers from such; what she did say:
“Talk to God. No religion, no Christianity, none of that, just ask God to speak with you in the same way that you’re speaking with me. Just normal dialogue.”
Hmm…should I?
Re: Prayers
Well God is a universial word for all religions and culture. For whatever reason, us human beings are inclined to turn toward the greater centeral being that is nothing more than reflecting your superego. God is a manifestation of a human’s SuperEgo. What you believe in God defines what he is, regardless of religions. If you think about it, you are actually talking to your inner self the entire time, consulting to your soul that is connected to the spirital plane. Sometimes soul recieves messages in reply, oftentimes in very unusual ways.
Re: Prayers
Yep.
Strangely enough, I talk to myself whenever I’m someplace by myself.
And I think I’ll try that out tonight. I mean, if its only consulting a part of your unconscious (that is, the one that archives everything that you see, feel, or (even slightly) come into contact with at any and all points in your physical existence [or two or more of them, if reincarnation comes into play]), then it shouldn’t be that hard to consult it for a response.
If the unconscious holds that much record of your existence (thus making it omniscient [like God in the traditional aspect] as far as the individual is concerned), then consulting the superego is like how, as the story goes, Solomon asked God for wisdom (rather than material wealth). The superego = the conscience in such a regard.
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If you did…would you recognize his voice? Would you know that he is talking back? I think we do pray sometimes with out knowing it. I think crying is a form of praying…asking for help without having to say it. People believe you have to close your eyes and bow your head and clasp your hands to pray…that is only to show submission…and surrender…you can talk to God with eyes open…anywhere…but would you know if he is talking back if you don’t know him. I am not going to try to force you into anything, but I want to add to what your mother said…not saying you should follow a religion…but read the bible…not the whole bible…but just the parts that describe God…then pray. Just a suggest…not a command.
Re: Prayers
Different people have different ways of asking for things they want.
I consider crying a way of asking for help too.
The ancient Greeks had another way of showing submission when praying for something. They would kneel in front of the person, lock their right arm around their master’s knee and lift the left arm to rest the fingertips under the master’s chin. That was the sign of total and utter submission.
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That is interesting, androgynism. I wonder why they put their hand on the chin.
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To show total submission. I don’t think the act in itself has any particular meaning, just like putting your palms together to pray doesn’t have any meaning, other than what is has been attributed.
Kneeling does however. It simply shows that you consider yourself lower than God/whoever you’re praying to/begging
Spirituality is like UFOs: Some people believe in it and others don’t, but none of them have been proven.
I’m agnostic and as such, don’t believe in any kind of religion, fate, soul or god.
I believe that everything is ruled by coincidences which in term are ruled by the laws of physics, mathmatics and biology.
Even religion is based on these laws in many aspects. The Bible or the Koran doesn’t hold the answer for why we can walk the earth without falling off, or how this message is being read by you. Science does.
Religion just holds its own interpretations about many things.