Illusions and beliefs

Argh, I give up and admit defeat. I've been trying to post here a picture I took of a 3 armed rotary linen line, the reason being that looked at from a certain angle it has to short arms close together, and opposite them is a much longer arm.

Imagine if you will, a native from one of those so-called lost tribes of the Amazon jungles, hears about a new westernized settlement on the outskirts of the jungle. Being curious he wanders off to have a look at these new people. One of the first things he sees is the 3 armed rotary line. He'd never seen one before and didn't know its purpose. He went back to his village and told them he'd seen a strange totem, with arms reaching out to the gods. A new belief is born, and tales will be told and embellished, being added to over the years.

The human mind can be a strange puzzling for we can imagine all manner of things and be led into believing such imaginings and illusions are real. What have you seen that appears to be something completely different
to what it really is ?

stardesk wrote:Argh, I give up and admit defeat. I've been trying to post here a picture I took of a 3 armed rotary linen line, the reason being that looked at from a certain angle it has to short arms close together, and opposite them is a much longer arm.

Imagine if you will, a native from one of those so-called lost tribes of the Amazon jungles, hears about a new westernized settlement on the outskirts of the jungle. Being curious he wanders off to have a look at these new people. One of the first things he sees is the 3 armed rotary line. He'd never seen one before and didn't know its purpose. He went back to his village and told them he'd seen a strange totem, with arms reaching out to the gods. A new belief is born, and tales will be told and embellished, being added to over the years.

The human mind can be a strange puzzling for we can imagine all manner of things and be led into believing such imaginings and illusions are real. What have you seen that appears to be something completely different
to what it really is ?

Perhaps the mind is a lot more powerful than we realise, perhaps the brain has evolved way beyond our understanding because it has access to dimensions our consciousness has yet to register, as in deja vous, seeing ghosts or UFOs etc many of us have witnessed these events but perhaps that's simply a few brief moments of actually visualising a reality in a different dimension.

A lot of perhaps, perhaps!

Hi Scrat, perhaps you're right, we may bisualize something which is beyond our normal mental/brain activity and experiance such as you mentioned ufos and ghosts etc. Are they real or just our normal daily experiences and understanding trying to place them in a certain category? I think I mentioned the following in another topic: One evening I was sitting at my laptop at the kitchen table when something caught my eye, a white dressed lady I'd say in her thirties, came walking through from the sitting room into the kitchen then disappeared. Was it a ghost or a beam of light shining through from the sitting room window to the kitchen? I like to think it was a ghostly figure but, who knows? On another occasion, being a bird watcher, I was sitting on a bank on the edge of a marsh, looking across the marsh to the other side, about half a mile away was what I thought was either a swan or a little egret, both unusual in that locality. Even through binoculars it was hard to discern what it was, until it took off in a gust of wind. I felt a right twit when it came closer, what was it? A blasted shop carrier bag. Had I have gone away and not seen what it was I could have told other watchers about the bird being in an unusual locality.

stardesk wrote:Hi Scrat, perhaps you're right, we may bisualize something which is beyond our normal mental/brain activity and experiance such as you mentioned ufos and ghosts etc. Are they real or just our normal daily experiences and understanding trying to place them in a certain category? I think I mentioned the following in another topic: One evening I was sitting at my laptop at the kitchen table when something caught my eye, a white dressed lady I'd say in her thirties, came walking through from the sitting room into the kitchen then disappeared. Was it a ghost or a beam of light shining through from the sitting room window to the kitchen? I like to think it was a ghostly figure but, who knows? On another occasion, being a bird watcher, I was sitting on a bank on the edge of a marsh, looking across the marsh to the other side, about half a mile away was what I thought was either a swan or a little egret, both unusual in that locality. Even through binoculars it was hard to discern what it was, until it took off in a gust of wind. I felt a right twit when it came closer, what was it? A blasted shop carrier bag. Had I have gone away and not seen what it was I could have told other watchers about the bird being in an unusual locality.

The human eye is an amazing machine, but it is easily fooled, we search for shapes and similarities so it's hardly surprising that a connection should occasionally drift briefly into another dimension, however i believe if this were to take place then time itself would also be multi-dimensional.

Badbury rings is a Neolithic hill fort very close to me and every time I go there, I get a strange other worldly feeling, I was out hunting many moons ago with a buddy of mine who has a history of trauma, we parked up and let the dogs out to stretch, they both jumped out , stood still, hackles up and snarling, there was nothing there, we then heard a chap talking and a woman singing, then we heard some horses charging (the area is used for point to point), we all jumped back in the landy, I drove around to see if there was another vehicle and there was absolutely nothing there.

Was someone out of sight, camping, in a bender, listening to a play on the radio and it had simply carried through the night air, was it the fact I'd been there a dozen times and every experience simply started to create such subconscious instances, my mate experienced it all and simply maintains it was the activities of mischievous spirits.

Hi Scrat. Fascinating stuff isn't it. Reading your last comment set me to thinking about how we interpret not only seemingly physical events, but also comments made by other people. How often have we been annoyed, upset of even angry due to a misinterpretation of what someone said? Of course, it's happened the other way round and we say 'I didn't mean that, sorry but you misunderstrood me.'

What are our minds doing? Does it secretly want to get annoyed, be agressive, behave like an animal, bite and bark? After all, we are animals and it's only our brains which set us apart from the animal kingdom.

I was brought up a good Christian lad until negative events happened in my life and from that point on I began studying other faiths and especially mythology and evolution. Religion got dumped into the recycle bin and I realised, (to my satisfaction) that belief in a God is no more than the mind not being 100% aware of itself and capabilities, but relying on a God to help it through life. When you study some accounts in Genesis and compare them to reality you begin to realize just how misguided the mind can be. BUT, that's a tale for another topic.

Cofee pot is calling, bye for now.

stardesk wrote:Hi Scrat. Fascinating stuff isn't it. Reading your last comment set me to thinking about how we interpret not only seemingly physical events, but also comments made by other people. How often have we been annoyed, upset of even angry due to a misinterpretation of what someone said? Of course, it's happened the other way round and we say 'I didn't mean that, sorry but you misunderstrood me.'

What are our minds doing? Does it secretly want to get annoyed, be agressive, behave like an animal, bite and bark? After all, we are animals and it's only our brains which set us apart from the animal kingdom.

I was brought up a good Christian lad until negative events happened in my life and from that point on I began studying other faiths and especially mythology and evolution. Religion got dumped into the recycle bin and I realised, (to my satisfaction) that belief in a God is no more than the mind not being 100% aware of itself and capabilities, but relying on a God to help it through life. When you study some accounts in Genesis and compare them to reality you begin to realize just how misguided the mind can be. BUT, that's a tale for another topic.

Cofee pot is calling, bye for now.

We are so interconnected that we don't know the half of it, every part of our being is connected with everything we see around us, we just don't know how to utilise this, nor perhaps are we ready to utilise it, perhaps we're evolving into a life form that will colonise space once it has finally learned to live in peace, and whilst I think that it is our own minds creating a pathway and opening a door into other dimensions, we also pick up on our surroundings and those who might accompany us.

I'm not a fan of the bible, I find Christianity just about the most unchristian religion there is, no,,,,I hold some earthly beliefs because I think we're naturally a part of this world but I don't pretend to understand any of it!

In keeping with this topic, and I think it's relevant concerning a life after physical death, in 1997 I had a heart attack and when I came round in the hospital the first thought that came in to my head was this: I was standing facing a large door, like one of those large castle doors, through which shone a very bright light. In the doorway stood a figure but becaue of the light behind him I couldn't see any features. Going by the tone of the voice it was a man, and he said to me: 'You can't come in here yet.'

Following this mind-boggling event I was back to normal and have been ok ever since. Was it a real event in the spirit world or just my own mind convincing itself it was going to survive a bit longer? I don't know but I will finish this bit by saying that if there be a spirit world then you don't have to be religious to experience it or go to it on death.

Another weird event happened only a couple of days ago but I'll leave that till you've read the above.

stardesk wrote:In keeping with this topic, and I think it's relevant concerning a life after physical death, in 1997 I had a heart attack and when I came round in the hospital the first thought that came in to my head was this: I was standing facing a large door, like one of those large castle doors, through which shone a very bright light. In the doorway stood a figure but becaue of the light behind him I couldn't see any features. Going by the tone of the voice it was a man, and he said to me: 'You can't come in here yet.'

Following this mind-boggling event I was back to normal and have been ok ever since. Was it a real event in the spirit world or just my own mind convincing itself it was going to survive a bit longer? I don't know but I will finish this bit by saying that if there be a spirit world then you don't have to be religious to experience it or go to it on death.

Another weird event happened only a couple of days ago but I'll leave that till you've read the above.

Many people have had a near death experience, although my own experiences were not that spiritual,  I do remember that atropine seemed to speed up time, I don't recall any spirits or voices, just the slowing down of time and then a sudden defibrillator jolt, a burst of activity and a slight corridor effect, the light that people often talk about could simply be brain shutting down, much like the lights going out along a corridor. I've been under GA a few times, the last time I felt the anaesthetic travel up, (never felt that before) the lights went out and I woke up in the recovery ward, I existed, I didn't exist and then I existed again, I don't think that once we die we exist again, I think that's it, it's over, but I accept that there are hundreds, if not thousands of ideas on how we travel on, I simply struggle to believe any of them,,,,,,,most of the time.

Faith is a tide that comes and goes, I guess we're all searching for a reason.

Whether there is a life after death or not is a hard one to answer isn't it. I suppose those who are religious will believe there is, but for non-believers its a case of personal experiences, wishful thinking, or the fear of dying. I honestly don't know, and I don't suppose anyone really does understand it all.

Strange events do certainly happen that can make you think, such as this that happened to me a couple of days ago: I was sitting on my stool in the porch having a smoke, I don't smoke indoors, and was thinking about this topic, then I began to wonder am I already in a spirit world and don't know it. For a few moments I felt mentally peculiar, confused, until I looked around the garden at the birds feeding, smoke from chimneys and other physical events. It certainly was a peculiar and disturbing thought/experience.
Oh yes, and the phone started ringing, I doubt if they have phones in the spirit world...lol...

"Smoke from Chimneys" I haven't seen that for years.

stardesk wrote:Whether there is a life after death or not is a hard one to answer isn't it. I suppose those who are religious will believe there is, but for non-believers its a case of personal experiences, wishful thinking, or the fear of dying. I honestly don't know, and I don't suppose anyone really does understand it all.

Strange events do certainly happen that can make you think, such as this that happened to me a couple of days ago: I was sitting on my stool in the porch having a smoke, I don't smoke indoors, and was thinking about this topic, then I began to wonder am I already in a spirit world and don't know it. For a few moments I felt mentally peculiar, confused, until I looked around the garden at the birds feeding, smoke from chimneys and other physical events. It certainly was a peculiar and disturbing thought/experience.
Oh yes, and the phone started ringing, I doubt if they have phones in the spirit world...lol...

Some people believe that "life is but a dream" and that we're already living in the spirit world, I struggle with that analysis, I fear that what we experience is the reality and it is best simply treating it as such!

Otherworldly events are in my estimation occasional drifting into dimensions that we've yet to comprehend.

Hi Scrat. I don't think we can say much more on this topic. I had hoped other's would take part but no, they haven't. So, thanks for your thoughts on the subject. See you in other topics.

stardesk wrote:Whether there is a life after death or not is a hard one to answer isn't it. I suppose those who are religious will believe there is, but for non-believers its a case of personal experiences, wishful thinking, or the fear of dying. I honestly don't know, and I don't suppose anyone really does understand it all.

Strange events do certainly happen that can make you think, such as this that happened to me a couple of days ago: I was sitting on my stool in the porch having a smoke, I don't smoke indoors, and was thinking about this topic, then I began to wonder am I already in a spirit world and don't know it. For a few moments I felt mentally peculiar, confused, until I looked around the garden at the birds feeding, smoke from chimneys and other physical events. It certainly was a peculiar and disturbing thought/experience.
Oh yes, and the phone started ringing, I doubt if they have phones in the spirit world...lol...

I didn't see this post. This topic interests me actually.

I don't always think we have even half the answers about spiritual matters - most people tend to dismiss these things. Have you ever had that experience before?

stardesk wrote:Whether there is a life after death or not is a hard one to answer isn't it. I suppose those who are religious will believe there is, but for non-believers its a case of personal experiences, wishful thinking, or the fear of dying. I honestly don't know, and I don't suppose anyone really does understand it all.

Strange events do certainly happen that can make you think, such as this that happened to me a couple of days ago: I was sitting on my stool in the porch having a smoke, I don't smoke indoors, and was thinking about this topic, then I began to wonder am I already in a spirit world and don't know it. For a few moments I felt mentally peculiar, confused, until I looked around the garden at the birds feeding, smoke from chimneys and other physical events. It certainly was a peculiar and disturbing thought/experience.
Oh yes, and the phone started ringing, I doubt if they have phones in the spirit world...lol...

What were you smoking?