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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.
I can relate to feeling a sense of connection when enjoying nature which is important to me too. My wife and I always express appreciation of nature's gifts just about every day on our daily walks. Always nice to see the better side of human nature too. I don't think of these things as signs per say. I just feel lucky to be able to enjoy what there is to enjoy along these lines without too much contemplation as to why I should be so lucky. How it all came to be or for what reason(s). Watching the 9rs win yesterday was a real treat too...
That is because God is not some separate supernatural entity that created everything. God IS everything that exists and we perceive and experience God's "life processes" (physical laws, etc.) from inside as burgeoning "fetal Spirits" of God's consciousness. There is nothing supernatural about anything. Many things defy explanation because they exist at the higher energy level of quanta (where our consciousness resides), but are beyond the reach of our macro-level measures. I liked CCCyou's analogy of trying to describe or explain an "instantaneous" quantum experience using morse code at 30 baud!
I think you missed the part about why anyone should call all that exists something other than all that exists. Why call it God if it's all one and the same thing? Right. Never mind. I've read your explanation many times already. It just doesn't make much sense to me is all.
This is exactly why I did not care to speak with you any longer. You talk out of both sides of your mouth. You don't sound much like an atheist, you seem confused.
What kind of "sign" are you looking for? Or are you being facetious and playing games? I don't think you are being honest with yourself or anyone else.
What kind of sign would you accept if you were to receive what you thought was a sign? It may be nothing more than delusion or wishful thinking to others, real to you. That's not evidence of a god, that is a personal experience, albeit delusional.
I've had what I thought were signs or experiences, which now that I'm an atheist I know exactly what they were......things that were planted in my head to think that certain signs were of god. Dreams, daydreams, wildly unexplainable happenings (which were also manifestations of what was taught) when in fact, most everything has an explanation.
There are huge mysteries, like the mystery of life. The bible is not the answer to life. It's a joke. What is logical and reasonable are not signs of anything other than the fact that we do have answers. Just not the kind of magical fairy-n-the-sky type of answers or beliefs.
Don't feed the imaginary bears.
So why bother posting this comment directed at me again when you don't care to speak with me any longer? For all these many reasons? Sorry you feel the way you do. Fortunately there are others who seem to have enjoyed this "discussion" in ways you apparently cannot. "Can't please all the people all the time" as they say...
I do not need signs to know God. I cannot "prove" to anyone else that God exists, nor can anyone "prove" that God does not exist, except to themselves ( and anyone who wants to believe it ). Proof is just another illusion. If you have to rationalize the existence or God then you don't know God.
That said. Signs are whatever they are to whoever sees them. God and happenstance may very well be the same thing.
So. I once had a massive tree fall on my head ( and no, that doesn't explain everything ).
The 911 operator who screamed at me not to go to sleep while waiting for the VFD saved my life. I would have just let go.
The volunteer firemen who got to me first and started the IV saved my life. I would have died without them.
The EMTs who got me to the trauma hospital saved my life. I would have died without them.
The trauma surgeon saved my life. I would have died otherwise.
Were these signs from God? Don't know, doesn't matter. What matters is that I am grateful to God for everything.
Hard to disagree with some of what you explain here, but I'm not so quick to agree "proof is just another illusion." I don't try to prove God exists or doesn't exist. I simply consider all there is to consider and decide what to believe accordingly. Just like we do about so many things based on whatever facts, evidence and proofs we have available to consider. I really don't follow the logic that suggests to rationalize (anything) is somehow not to know (anything). I certainly can't rationalize something that doesn't exist in any case. Why should I?
Sure seems to me you have rationalized God's existence by way of some other form of knowing what you think you know. I agree with the part about how signs are whatever people might make of them, but I also think we can scrutinize what it is any given sign is actually telling us, or from where it comes. It's good that tree didn't kill you and that you got the help you needed. What "sign" might that tree falling on your head have been do you think?
Well, it does matter. When someone shares an experience and says, basically, 'God done it'. It does matter.
It matters because when you tell us a "sign story", you're sort of testifying...proselytizing...and you want us to believe you.
Heck, we've had people 'testify' here that god helped them find their car keys. Millions of people around the world starving and dying from dread diseases, but god is helping Irma find her car keys. No. Just no.
And when I told my story here on this forum...about why I tended to believe in past lives (as a Buddhist)...did I get any sympathy from christians about the signs that led me to that belief. Not at all. Quite the opposite. Do unto others had no part in that discussion!
So believe what you wish, but when you testify publicly, expect to be denied.
I find this vaguely insulting, yet amusing. Do you honestly think. LM, that YOU would have thought of this but somehow I wouldn't have? Do you think I was going to slap my forehead and say, "GOLLEE, I never thought of THAT? Good thing ol' LearnMe learnt me that." Seriously.
I did not even ever think to mention my brief encounter with the dragonfly to my friend. I was spending time at the late bf's home in a rural area hundreds of miles from the area where I, and my best friend, live, and it was a solitary experience that I tucked into the back of my mind and forgot about until the psychic mentioned the "message".
My friend recommended this psychic because when she saw her, the psychic told her two significant things. One was that she saw a woman (spirit) who was holding a remote control in her hand. My friend's mother died holding the TV remote. The other thing was that the psychic told my friend to get her shoulder looked at. My friend had had a single tumor on her spine treated earlier that year. Her shoulder was giving her some pain, which she thought was from moving furniture, but on her follow-up visit with the oncologist shortly after, it was discovered that she now had five spots of the cancer in her shoulder and was officially diagnosed with multiple myeloma (the single spine tumor is referred to as a primary myeloma). She's since had a stem cell transplant and is in remission.
By the way, when I walked into the room with the psychic, the door to which is a movable bookshelf, very clever and cool, my friend said she watched her "scan" me up and down, since doing a sort of health check is apparently part of her thing. She told me my liver and lungs were in good shape, a relief as an ex-smoker who has enjoyed her share of alcoholic beverages over my lifetime; that I will never get dementia, also a nice thing to hear, but of course in my head that also means I could be dead younger than anticipated, lol, and then she said to get my thyroid checked. I told her I have a rare thyroid condition and see an endocrinologist every six months. Also, not being as dumb as I might look and in fact being quite cynical and skeptical myself, my first thought was "yeah, I have a visible scar at the base of my throat where they attempted to remove my thyroid ten years ago and had to abort the procedure because of what they found when they opened me up."
As it turns out, when I saw my doc in October, he said it was time to do an ultrasound on my thyroid since it had been four years, and subsequently he called to say there was a new growth that was large enough that it needed to be biopsied. It was, and it's benign. Lucky guess, maybe.
The only way you would know is to go find out. OF COURSE I would recommend that you not leave any clues. I believe there are more shysters out there than there are genuine psychics, and the best way is to not give them too much information. But you know what? You'll be able to tell.
Here's one more for you, which I'd posted once before, some time ago. This one left me in more of shock than the lady with the dragonfly did.
I'd gone a "witchy" store where I buy jewelry and incense and whatnot, again, with the same close friend. We went to the store to shop, and at the last minute we checked to see if they had a reader available. They offer $20/10 minute Tarot readings, and if no one has booked in advance, they will do walk-ins. As it turned out, they had two openings.
My friend went first and walked out in tears after hearing something about her then-recently-departed mother. Then I went in. The woman said, "Before I do the cards, I like to see if I can pick up anything about past lives or any spirits that may be around you." Well, allrighty. She went on to say that she saw me in a past life, possibly during the medieval centuries, washing dishes for some sort of community of which I wasn't actually a part, but I felt as though they were not that different from me. I have no idea what any of that meant; in fact, at the time, I did not have a working dishwasher and my first thought was gee, maybe that's why I am still washing dishes by hand, lol.
But then, she said, "There is the spirit of a child near you. I don't know whether the child was a boy or a girl, but this child died when you were both very young, and you went on."
That got my attention. When we were both six, a child in my life did indeed die, of leukemia, and her death had a far-reaching impact on me for the rest of my life for reasons I've described elsewhere on this forum.
Then the psychic said, "Second cousin is what is coming into my mind."
Kathy was my second cousin, as my father and Kathy's mother were first cousins, although as children, we just knew we were friends and that our birthday parties were close together. But "second cousin" is one hell of a guess to pull out of one's ass when taking a chance that the person you are reading experienced a death of a playmate in childhood in the first place.
The psychic then went on to say that Kathy did not forget us playing together and that we will play together again one day. I said something stupid like "I hope that's not anytime soon", but I was in complete shock. I also had this weird sensation, like an electrical charge was going up my neck into the back of my head. My friend who was with me and with whom I have been friends for forty years did not even know about my lost childhood friend/cousin. I had to explain it to her after the fact.
The psychic then went ahead and read her cards, but to this day I have no idea what else she said, I was so stunned.
When I previously related this story on the A&A forum, one of our resident "I'm smarter-than-everyone-else" know-it-alls, who I know for a fact believes some very wrong information about a subject on which I do know quite a bit more than most people, told me how stupid I am because the psychic probably checked social media before I came in and blah blah blah--except that this information has never been on social media, and the psychic had nothing but my first name which I scrawled on the schedule ten minutes before I ever met her.
I tend to assume people are smarter than they are, and I'm often proven wrong. It works the other way, too. If someone else has had different experiences than you have, or if you cannot immediately reconcile what you know with what someone else is telling you, it does not further your knowledge or the dialogue to assume that the discrepancy is born of the idea that they simply aren't as bright as you are. Because, well...that wouldn't be very smart.
Learn Me, be skeptical, but at the same time, keep an open mind. Balance is the best way to proceed in most of life's ventures. If you do decide to consult a psychic, find one through a recommendation by someone whose judgment you trust, and when you get there, trust your own intuition and judgment to help you accept or reject anything you might hear.
And bring the stories back here.
ETA: TO BE CLEAR, I am NOT putting forth these stories as any sort of proof that a deity exists or is involved in sending messages in some way. I honestly don't know where any of this comes from, and I won't pretend that I do. I just know what I experienced.
Well...
My apologies. I don't know you but I've long felt you were an intelligent woman from reading your comments. I didn't really think my question would be a gee golly moment for you as much as I was just interested to know more about the circumstances. That your best friend took you to this psychic put those questions in my mind. So I asked. Glad you found the questions also amusing anyway. Too bad people can feel insulted by such questions, and I can certainly understand how and why that can happen, but I didn't mean to come across as smarter than you or anyone else.
I would have no problem heeding your advice, but sadly I don't know anyone who can recommend a psychic to me. Not that I know of anyway. Seems you've had more than a few "believe it or not..." experiences. I wonder why I haven't a one. I've traveled the world. Engaged with thousands of people professionally. Lots of friends and family too. I've almost been killed a few times. Lots of stories both good and bad, but so far anyway, none that have left me feeling, seeing or experiencing the likes of what you describe.
I would say I was in your same boat for awhile. I had no interest in God whatsoever. But something changed after I read a message in a book True Gospel Revealed Anew By Jesus. First thing I learned was Jesus isn't God. He was the first Divine man on earth.
After reading this book, I became a believer and began doing what was suggested - praying for God's Divine Love. Now 48 years later, I have a very personal relationship with God, which is what He wants. I receive His Love in my soul delivered by His Holy Spirit and when I ask Him for a hug, I get one!
God is awesome. All any of us need to do is reach out to Him. He's knocking on the door to our heart so that we may know Him as our loving Heavenly Father. He created us to be with Him in the next world.
Whatever you do... do not fear Him. He is LOVE. He is FUN.
P.S. Hell isn't eternal. There's no actual fire and brimstone. What is felt is the burning sensation of shame, guilt and remorse. Best thing is not to go there in the first place. God's Divine Love removes all the junk on our soul, so that we don't have to experience it in the next world. Our soul cleansings take place in the here and now. Not pleasant, but a must to get rid of negativity, etc.
Best of luck and I hope that you will experience this wondrous Love of God in your soul. It's life changing.
You remind me of how someone once HIGHLY recommended I read the book, "The Celestine Prophecy," by James Redfield. Thinking it would have the same effect on me that it did on him. Something like reading your book had on you. I wish I could read all of them, but there are far too many and too little time, and I've read a good many already as it is...
I wonder if you were ever "in the same boat" as I am, because I DO have an interest "in God" from the standpoint that so many people express the sort of experiences and stories like you do. I can't imagine becoming a believer as a result of reading anything but I've always been interested in learning what I can about such things; notions, concepts, testimonies about things that puzzle me more than just a bit. All I can say is that I don't seek God or fear God. I just live my life the best way I know how, with "eyes and ears" always as open as can be far as know, and hope for the best in terms of whatever my life experience can be.
I don't feel my "soul needs cleansing," though of course I have my regrets about doing some things I'd like to undo or redo if it were possible, but I don't dwell on what I can't control or undo. I just do my best to do better going forward. I try to avoid negativity, but I don't think life can always be all positive either.
Watching Miracle on 34th Street and thinking about you, phet.
And a bah, humbug to you!
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That is because God is not some separate supernatural entity that created everything. God IS everything that exists and we perceive and experience God's "life processes" (physical laws, etc.) from inside as burgeoning "fetal Spirits" of God's consciousness. There is nothing supernatural about anything. Many things defy explanation because they exist at the higher energy level of quanta (where our consciousness resides), but are beyond the reach of our macro-level measures. I liked CCCyou's analogy of trying to describe or explain an "instantaneous" quantum experience using morse code at 30 baud!
Do you think I was going to slap my forehead and say, "GOLLEE, I never thought of THAT? Good thing ol' LearnMe learnt me that." Seriously.