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There is a class of chemicals known as "entheogens." You could start there. But have some Thorazine handy.
Either most of the people telling these "Believe it or not..." stories are drug-free or there are a lot more people taking drugs and not admitting it than I have imagined.
Thank you. Couldn't rep. The risk of a late-life relationship. He seemed extremely strong and healthy, then suddenly he wasn't.
My sister has a good friend, lady, who I have also met. Good lady (a consultant for the company my sister works for). This lady had a long first marriage with a husband who eventually had dementia before dying. A difficult case of someone trying to be the best care-taker they can be even though they were never trained to be a care-taker or planned to be. In her 70s, after her husband died, she swore she would never get married again, but not all that long afterward she met another man who ultimately caused her to remarry. Not too long after that, he also began to suffer from dementia, and she is yet again a care-giver...
Sometimes I really don't know what to make of these stories or how life can unfold for some people. For any of us, but no doubt some of "our greatest blessings are what doesn't happen to us." Though I have been through some serious life challenges, I am forever wondering why I have been spared some of these very difficult experiences I've known others needing to endure. So far I've had it easy relatively speaking, but I always keep in mind "my turn in the barrel" could happen any time. So as I am always telling my wife, "we best not sweat the small stuff and make the most of every moment we can."
I'm sorry your later-life relationship didn't work out, but it's always nice to know that later-life experiences can be good ones too. Too bad they almost all inevitably end on more of a sad note...
Whether it be a god or anything else that might help us with "a sign" to help us through difficult times, here's to those signs from wherever they may come!
While driving in our car running errands yesterday, I was telling my wife about some of these stories and how I was thinking about visiting a psychic. Aside from all the other issues involved, my wife zeroed in on one I didn't mention in this thread before. She asked I not waste our money. Right. There is having to pay for the session regardless how it turns out...
While driving in our car running errands yesterday, I was telling my wife about some of these stories and how I was thinking about visiting a psychic. Aside from all the other issues involved, my wife zeroed in on one I didn't mention in this thread before. She asked I not waste our money. Right. There is having to pay for the session regardless how it turns out...
My sister has a good friend, lady, who I have also met. Good lady (a consultant for the company my sister works for). This lady had a long first marriage with a husband who eventually had dementia before dying. A difficult case of someone trying to be the best care-taker they can be even though they were never trained to be a care-taker or planned to be. In her 70s, after her husband died, she swore she would never get married again, but not all that long afterward she met another man who ultimately caused her to remarry. Not too long after that, he also began to suffer from dementia, and she is yet again a care-giver...
Sometimes I really don't know what to make of these stories or how life can unfold for some people. For any of us, but no doubt some of "our greatest blessings are what doesn't happen to us." Though I have been through some serious life challenges, I am forever wondering why I have been spared some of these very difficult experiences I've known others needing to endure. So far I've had it easy relatively speaking, but I always keep in mind "my turn in the barrel" could happen any time. So as I am always telling my wife, "we best not sweat the small stuff and make the most of every moment we can."
I'm sorry your later-life relationship didn't work out, but it's always nice to know that later-life experiences can be good ones too. Too bad they almost all inevitably end on more of a sad note...
Whether it be a god or anything else that might help us with "a sign" to help us through difficult times, here's to those signs from wherever they may come!
I would do it over again the same way because the few years we had were really good. Everything is temporary.
That's how it sometimes happens. Horrifying really.
Horror is a good word for it. The same psychic who told me the dragonfly thing also said, "he was very angry about what happened to him". I said, "Oh yes he was." He did not go gentle into that dark night, although the very end was peaceful.
But she also said that when we are in human form, we are fish out of water, and after death, we see things more clearly.
You make some important distinctions by way of this comment that are helpful to further "distill" what we are actually talking about here...
You are right that just because an atheist doesn't recognize any good reason to believe in the existence of a god (God as more commonly described), this doesn't mean an atheist necessarily does not believe in the possibility of "something else." Which leaves us, or some of us, with the need to explain or define what "something else" might involve.
Personally, I find these stories difficult to reconcile with the reality we all normally accept with respect to all that goes on around us. I can't help but always feel there is an explanation that does not involve "something else" that is supernatural, spiritual or beyond the realm of our shared reality. I can't reconcile these "Believe it or not..." stories with anything that makes much sense to me. Largely because I've not experienced any such experience myself. Most atheists I have known have also not experienced anything that would cause them to believe there is "something else."
I suppose when it comes to ruling out any possibilities, there is really no way to do so, but what of these many possibilities do we rule out anyway? Why for example, as an atheist, do you rule out the possibility a god exists? When there are FAR more people who will provide you similar story to suggest one does?
All I can do is question all such experiences I have not experienced myself and find very hard to reconcile with the reality I know. How to distinguish one from the other? You tell me...
In any case, believing in "something else" does not seem too far a stretch from believing in a good many things people believe that most atheists do not. Perhaps we need a word for people who believe in "something else" who are atheists.
"[In the U.S.] 81% [of atheists] say they do not believe in God or a higher power or in a spiritual force of any kind. (Overall, 10% of American adults share this view.) At the same time, roughly one-in-five self-described atheists (18%) say they do believe in some kind of higher power." - Pew Research
Let me try to explain. First of all it's not so much a 'belief' as a 'not ruling out' of 'something'.
Whatever that something is, if there is indeed something, is physical, of this universe, and not in any way supernatural.
I've spent a lot of time trying to understand how the universe works. I follow developments in physics as far as I can understand them in theory. I think whatever that something is lies within the physical laws within the universe, same as everything else.
Let's take for example this news story from a couple of days ago: https://phys.org/news/2023-12-physic...hastening.html
Here's a quote from it.
Quote:
For the first time, a team of Princeton physicists have been able to link together individual molecules into special states that are quantum mechanically "entangled." In these bizarre states, the molecules remain correlated with each other—and can interact simultaneously—even if they are miles apart, or indeed, even if they occupy opposite ends of the universe. This research was recently published in the journal Science.
150 years ago, nobody would have even contemplated or conceived of such a development.
If this is possible and beginning to be understood why should it not be possible that other things that we don't understand or even begin to contemplate have some explanation that lies within the physical laws of the universe?
Why do I rule out a god? Because 'God did it' is too easy. There's no version of god that fits as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't answer anything or explain anything. I'm not anti god, but the concept of god just doesn't provide any answers for me. It's superfluous in a way. The universe is more amazing without imagining some being came before it and invented it.
There are lots of things that we currently don't think too hard about how they work. Consciousness is the big one but there are all the other things that go alongside that like intuition and instinct. Or why a heart spontaneously beats for the first time and doesn't stop for it's hosts entire lifetime. Or why some people have extraordinary savant abilities that the rest of us can't begin to contemplate, like knowing instantly what day of the week any given date is in the past or future, or being able to draw an entire cityscape accurately from memory having only seen it once.
There are many things that defy explanation. But whatever they are are physical and of this universe even if I don't know how to explain them.
I'm starting this thread to ask people what experiences they have had that they would consider a manifestation of God. Curious, because I've had some experiences I could describe as manifestations of God. Especially when I was younger and a believer, I would associate certain experiences and/or feelings as a result of God's presence. Then later in life, as I became an atheist, I no longer experienced anything I could conclude was such a manifestation or sign from God. Not for a good many decades now. Not even when I was more "inviting" of such a thing. I'll let this thread be yet another request to see if maybe I get a sign. We'll see. I'll let you know. While meanwhile, what signs have you received? Past or present? Thanks!
For me being out in nature gives me a sense of awe and wonder and it just feels like there is something / someone out there that connects us all. And being out in nature helps me feel connected. Walking every morning and being outside in nature is so important to me
The other sign for me that almost makes me tear up and feel such a sense of love and gratitude is the goodness of people that I see every day. Altruistic loving things family member and total strangers do that just make the world a better place. It sounds like such a small thing, but to me it is absolutely amazing. And it makes me want to pass things on and do the same.
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