Is this forum dying?

Do you feel like it would be worth reaching out to people on Reddit? Perhaps DMing the few who seem like they might want to discuss stuff here as opposed to putting it out more openly?

My take on Reddit was that it had a lot of pseudo-skeptics who fled there after New Atheism as a larger evangelical movement collapsed...

I'm not sure about that. Some of the members seem quite knowledgeable about these topics but the majority of them are probably just seeking comfort. I just mentioned Reddit since I have read those discussions lately and noticed that there are a lot of people who are interested in this subject matter.

I’m still here 

Life gets in the way often. But also had taken a turn towards materialism which for some reason I had convinced myself was the sober end game of all rational beings. 

Then my life became absolutely miserable. My energy levels literally dropped and I struggled with getting up in the morning and performing my responsibilities.

I did not like this person that I had become!

Now, slowly reconnecting with my intuitive and spiritual self has given me more energy again. I remember all the anomalous events in my life (many of which are documented in this forum) and know that, there is something there that needs to be further experienced.

I wonder if the enigmatic Silence still visits the form? No doubt also that Doug keeps an eye over proceedings in this world and in here!  😁

I've been largely away and not for any strong reason.  That said the link to this community has remained steadfastly on my Google home page and for some reason I clicked on it this morning.

I realize this is an old post, but I hope this finds you (and everyone here!) well and happy.

I've been largely away and not for any strong reason.  That said the link to this community has remained steadfastly on my Google home page and for some reason I clicked on it this morning.

I realize this is an old post, but I hope this finds you (and everyone here!) well and happy.

Hello again!

I am curious if you have any other good links on your GOOGLE home page.

David

Sadly hardly anything seems to be going on here any more I don't know why.

If this is indeed the fate of PSQ, I hope the founders can ensure that all the discussions we have enjoyed here are fully preserved. We surely want a better memorial than Skeptiko!

David

Hey there, good to see you. I THINK, I remember you from the Skeptiko forums.  At least I assume that's you.  I've been away from these topics for a few years but have got the itch to start digging into them again.  I got an email from this forum encouraging members to come back, so here I am.  I'm not sure where to go to discuss these things so I HOPE this forum isn't dying out.  Are there any other communities you are active in?

Hey there, good to see you. I THINK, I remember you from the Skeptiko forums.  At least I assume that's you.  I've been away from these topics for a few years but have got the itch to start digging into them again.  I got an email from this forum encouraging members to come back, so here I am.  I'm not sure where to go to discuss these things so I HOPE this forum isn't dying out.  Are there any other communities you are active in?

Yes, I was there, but I used my real name back there.

I moderated the site for a while in an effort to keep things going, but honestly I didn't enjoy the job - mixing psychic things with politics just did not work.

I also learned a lot from Skeptiko. For example, there was a man on there called Lone Shaman (I think), and he forced me to rethink my view on evolution by natural selection. He helped me to realise how impossible it would be for life based on DNA/RNA and proteins to evolve (never mind appear in the first place), and that means that life on Earth was definitely designed in some way - which is an incredible fact to come to terms with!

I'm afraid you will have to remind me what ideas you supported on Skeptiko.

I really hope this forum doesn't die, because I think the world is starting to wake up to the reality of a non-physical reality.

David

Yeah it's really too bad the way things turned out on the Skeptiko forums as there were some great conversations and posters there. Anyways, While I do generally admit near complete ignorance as a philosophical principle/stance I can briefly outline what my working assumptions were/are.  We are pure consciousness.  Our bodies are avatars, for lack of a better term.  We inhabit or work through them temporarily for some purpose.  Maybe learning or growth, who knows.  We can leave them temporarily as per during an OBE/NDE or perhaps even every night as we dream.  I'm a big fan of Jurgen Ziewe's views and books on Lucid dreaming as a gateway to alternate realities (astral travel) and I like Tom Campbell's general outline of reality (as a vague and general helpful analogistic representation of reality) and consider myself an Idealist.  Meaning that consciousness is the only thing that exists and that what appears to be the external world is actually an experience within our consciousness. If consciousness were to somehow disappear then there would be no such thing as a material world. I believe that we are multi-dimensional beings that likely co-exist simultaneously in alternate dimensions.  Lots of OBE/Astral traveler experiencers who I find to be sincere seem to visit these "alternate lives" occasionally.  Again, going back to the ignorance philosophical stance, what this ultimately means is anybody's guess.  

I find Dr Ian Stevenson's, and others, research on reincarnation to be very convincing.  But what these past life memories actually mean I am unsure of.  Certainly I feel that it's possible that they were in fact memories of past lives lived here. 

I feel that NDE's have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that our minds can exist, certainly for some time at least, while the body is dead and at a time when there is no brain activity.  I find the skeptical explanations to be frankly absurd. But I just want to outline here, as I could go on a lengthy diatribe on this one. My biggest pet peeve was always the skeptical explanations of NDE's. The shared NDE phenomenon seems real as well, as an aside. 

I dislike peoples attempts to neatly classify anomalous phenomena of any sort into neat and precise little boxes.  "Bigfoot is a flesh and blood animal which exists on earth in the same way that a deer does."  "UFO's are visitors from another planet."  "Ghosts are representations of people who died and are revisiting the planet." "NDE's are representations of the afterlife."  Some of these explanations may be accurate, none of them may be accurate, all of them may be accurate in certain ways.  We don't know.  But the trickster phenomenon is real and seems to be involved in some sort in all of this phenomena.  I believe anomalous experiences are meant to be experienced but are essentially never allowed to be absolutely proven in a strictly scientific manner.  Why?  No clue.  And I fully understand how a skeptic could sit there and say, "well that's convenient."  Sure, I get it. But after listening to and watching hundreds of people talk about these experiences while seeing the sincerity and emotions on their faces it is obvious to me that these things happen.  But we aren't going to see a ghost appear on camera at the Super Bowl, for instance.  But, a lot of these cases, particularly the ones of the UFO  variety have tons of physical evidence supporting their claims.  And I do mean tons.  

I'm convinced that there are legitimate mediums.  I've tested this myself several times doing "personal studies" with personal readings with mediums who were reccomended to me by other people in the communities I used to partake in. I've also found Dr. Julie Beischel's research on the topic to be convincing.  But I'm not sure if they are actually  connecting with the dead or pulling information from our own minds.  Either possibility is incredible and it could be a mix of both.  I tend to believe that it is in fact a mix.  I did have a couple of readings where I had reason to believe that they were actually, at least partially, pulling info from my mind.  I could elaborate if you're interested. 

I'm not sure exactly what to make of evolution.  Certainly some change of form has occurred.  It's the macro-evolutionary claims which I find challenging.  the cambrian explosion, the lack of numerous intermediary lifeforms, the challenge of demonstrating that genetic mutation can cause significant positive changes on a macro-level etc.  I'm a bit rusty on these topics but I always found Ruper Sheldrake's theories interesting.  And it's a subject I always meant to dive into more.  I believe that consciousness drove rapid change in life-forms and/or beings from other planets or dimensions may have played a role.

Ultimately, aside from all of the things I've learned, it's intuition which leads me to believe that materialism as a belief is wildly insufficient.  Why are we here?  Imagine a giant taking an enormous can of atoms and shaking it for billions of years and when you open it and look you see New York City, Shakespeare, Beethoven, and all sorts of sentient creatures which are, according to materialists, conscious by virtue of the relationship and interaction of random colliding particles.  Intuitively, what I just wrote seems absolutely absurd.  Consciousness and the sense of self is, to me, pure magic.   No matter how advanced we get, I fully believe that we will never understand consciousness from a purely materialistic standpoint.

Yeah it's really too bad the way things turned out on the Skeptiko forums as there were some great conversations and posters there.

Thanks for that extensive reply, which I largely agree with. Here are a few extra thoughts.

I don't think anyone is sure what happened to Alex, but it is worth noting that he became increasingly interested in the dark side of psi, and developing a strong interest in such subjects is supposed to be dangerous.

As regards Idealism, I feel it probably is the ultimate explanation, but it isn't much use as a scientific theory because the spirit can presumably do absolutely anything - so Idealism isn't falsifiable.

Jurgen Ziewe's accounts seem a bit hard to believe - but that may just be me!

I do agree about Rupert Sheldrake, although I couldn't understand why he became a Christian!

Have you come across Dean Radin? He seems to have amassed a lot of evidence for short-term precognition (which he calls presentiment). Data is collected automatically - which means it is much less likely to be due to wishful thinking.

David

Thanks for that extensive reply, which I largely agree with. Here are a few extra thoughts.

I don't think anyone is sure what happened to Alex, but it is worth noting that he became increasingly interested in the dark side of psi, and developing a strong interest in such subjects is supposed to be dangerous.

As regards Idealism, I feel it probably is the ultimate explanation, but it isn't much use as a scientific theory because the spirit can presumably do absolutely anything - so Idealism isn't falsifiable.

Jurgen Ziewe's accounts seem a bit hard to believe - but that may just be me!

I do agree about Rupert Sheldrake, although I couldn't understand why he became a Christian!

Have you come across Dean Radin? He seems to have amassed a lot of evidence for short-term precognition (which he calls presentiment). Data is collected automatically - which means it is much less likely to be due to wishful thinking.

David

I definitely remember listening to Radin on a few Skeptiko interviews and watched a couple of Youtube videos a while back.  I’d be interested in listening to or reading a debate between him and somebody in the field who may be skeptical of his work. I tried to find something on Youtube to listen to for my lengthy commute home last night and couldn’t find anything.

Regarding Jurgen, at a minimum, he no doubt believes what he’s said and written.  I have corresponded with him a fair amount of Facebook in a couple of groups I used to be active in and he’s a great and genuine guy.  I don’t have any doubts whatsoever that he, at a minimum, believes what he’s said and written. I suppose it could be that he’s just an incredibly gifted lucid dreamer. And that these realities are just parts of those lucid dreams. Though perhaps the lines begin to blur there regarding the nature of ultimate reality. There does seem to be some congruency between his reported experiences and those of a couple of other OBE practitioners I used to read/follow. William Buhlman being one of them. William is fantastic if you’ve never listened to or read any of his stuff. He’s a brief 2 minute video of him speaking.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iw71sVGGBr...BidWhsbWFu

I definitely remember listening to Radin on a few Skeptiko interviews and watched a couple of Youtube videos a while back.  I’d be interested in listening to or reading a debate between him and somebody in the field who may be skeptical of his work. I tried to find something on Youtube to listen to for my lengthy commute home last night and couldn’t find anything.

It seems to me that there are a number of areas in which science finds itself pitted against evidence that orthodox views are wrong. The response is to simply shun any real debate on these issues. This approach is effective in the short term, and here is an interesting example of one such debate on evolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-KPfFPIaVU">

I think it is clear by the end, which side 'won'!

Regarding Jurgen, at a minimum, he no doubt believes what he’s said and written.  I have corresponded with him a fair amount of Facebook in a couple of groups I used to be active in and he’s a great and genuine guy.  I don’t have any doubts whatsoever that he, at a minimum, believes what he’s said and written. I suppose it could be that he’s just an incredibly gifted lucid dreamer. And that these realities are just parts of those lucid dreams. Though perhaps the lines begin to blur there regarding the nature of ultimate reality. There does seem to be some congruency between his reported experiences and those of a couple of other OBE practitioners I used to read/follow. William Buhlman being one of them. William is fantastic if you’ve never listened to or read any of his stuff. He’s a brief 2 minute video of him speaking.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iw71sVGGBr...BidWhsbWFu

I see he has written several books, which one would you recommend for someone like me?

David

which one would you recommend for someone like me?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apparitions-Cel...0900076097