Archive for May, 2009

How to Cast a Spell

May 30th, 09 / 6 Comments

It’s true there are a lot of these kinds of guides on the internet. They all seem to have their own slant though, so I feel as though it can’t hurt to add my own perspective on this. While I’m going to attempt to make this as comprehensive as I can, I’m still working only from my own experiences and limited research, so there will be plenty more information out there. So even if you find this is a good starting point, if you feel like something is missing, look around the internet or in bookstores and libraries, and you’ll probably find it. Or you could also ask for clarification in the comments section if you like as well.

What Is Magic?

First off, if you travel in paranormal circles, you might notice I don’t use a “k” at the end of magic like some people do. I don’t think the differentiation is needed between stage magic and real magic because, like many words, context tells the story. The most common definition you’ll find for magic will be something along the lines of “causing change to occur in conformity to will.” Basically, if you want something to happen, you can make it happen. Obviously, this assumes some sort of mystical component, and not just wanting a sandwich, then getting up and making one.

That said, magic is subtle. You don’t wave your hands, chant, and get a big ball of fire to throw at someone. This is real life, and the laws of physics don’t just break with the wave of your hand and some visualization. To use an idea I’ve heard before, magic is basically active prayer. I’ll slightly contradict this point later, but it makes the point now that you can expect results from magic that are similar to what you might expect from praying. You figure out what you want, you cast a spell to make it happen, then you move on with your life, working towards your goal, and if you were successful, your spell will help you out and help bring you what you wanted in time. It’s spiritual reinforcement for your goals. It doesn’t just make what you want appear, it just helps you out a bit. Certainly, one can dispute whether magic or prayer actually does anything to help, but many people do believe in the power of prayer, magic, or both, and it does seem to help in some cases.

As I alluded to earlier, I do make a distinction between magic and prayer. To me, calling upon a higher power, such as God, other spirits, angels, and other entities such as these is prayer. Using subtle energies, such as the classical elements, psi, or the energy of celestial bodies and setting your intention into it before letting it do the work is magic. Also, while some who use magic will advocate commanding entities to do things for you, I highly disagree with this approach, since at best you’re being rude and at worst you’re forcing them to work for you against their will. Surely you can simply offer a prayer and ask for what you want if you want the help of other entities. Seems the kinder thing to do if you ask me.

How Does Magic Work?

We don’t know. Simply put, this is the only answer I have. However, there are a few different possible ideas people have on this, and I’m going to share a few.

God Does It

The idea here is that God, or one of many gods, or spirits, or some other non-physical entity always has to intercede to make magic work. If this is the case, then casting the spell isn’t at all what makes something happen, but rather the interceding entity does all the work. He or she notices that you’re trying to make something happen, and decides to help you out. Alternatively, if you call on any of these entities, then they decide to help you out when they hear your plea.

Intention Manifestation

This is the idea that you attract whatever you think about. By thinking about something, you draw it to you. If this is the case, it’s the act of thinking about what you want that brings it to you, and casting a spell is just a mechanism that makes you think about it in a focused manner that communicates what you want to the universe. How you cast the spell doesn’t matter at all in this case, so long as you focus on what you want.

Energy Imprints

This is how I think magic works, and it’s actually pretty similar to intention manifestation in some ways. The idea here is that through focused intent, you can imprint your desires on the subtle energy permeating the universe, both on the physical plane and the subtle planes that coexist alongside the physical plane. From there, the change in the mental planes permeates through all the other planes until reaching the physical plane and causing a change here. The most important thing to realize is that thoughts become reality on subtle planes far removed from the physical plane, and in order to have them come through, they have to have enough “density” and energy to them to travel through all the intervening space. So, with enough focus, you build up the energy and strength of what you want on a mental plane so it can travel to you on the physical plane, and if it reaches you, you get what you were aiming for. Of course, working toward your goal also reinforces the spell, since thinking about it will provide more energy and “heft” to it and rejuvenate it if it’s almost ready to dissipate. Plus, you should be working toward your goal anyway, because magic won’t generally solve your problems for you without you taking some kind of action.

How Do You Cast a Spell?

If you’re anything like me, this is the part you’ve just skipped to without reading anything above. If so, that’s cool with me, just realize that what I said above provides some context for what I’ll say here. Most importantly, the way I think magic works and the ethics of dealing with other spiritual entities will definitely color my descriptions of the different ways you can cast spells.

Moving on though, you should know there is no one method to casting a spell, and many people experiment quite a bit before finding one they like. You can usually mix and match a few of these together to form a spell that’s right for you. The most important part is making sure you build up enough energy and get your intent out there, so it can make it back to you and bring you what you want.

Prayer

I don’t generally consider praying to be casting a spell, as prayer is asking someone else to do the job for you. However, many people do see prayer as magic, and I feel as though it’s appropriate to give this method a mention. Choose a powerful, benevolent being you believe in, and ask for help and guidance. Generally speaking, I feel most comfortable with prayer when it’s to help someone else out, or when it’s for something I really need for myself. I’d rather not ask for things I don’t really need, because it feels like God must have better things to do than grant every wish someone might have. Naturally, there are other viewpoints on this, it’s just my own take on the matter. I like to reserve prayer for things that are really important.

Directly Imprint Subtle Energy

This is the method I use most often. The idea is to draw in ambient energy from around you, imprint it with thoughts of what you would like to happen, then send it off to do it’s work. It’s a difficult process to describe, so the best I can do is give you guideposts. Basically, you want to try to mentally reach out and feel the energy around you. When you have a feel for it, mentally draw it towards you. From here, you can either allow it to hover close around you, or you can compress it into a little ball of energy between your hands, commonly known as a psi ball. Either way, once you have a substantial amount of energy gathered, think about what it is you want, and imagine the energy you’ve gathered holding this thought with you. This imprints your desire into the energy. From there, release the energy back into the universe, where the imprinted thoughts will work to bring what you want to you. Also, when working with energy, don’t try to force it. It tends to work much better if you guide it and let it flow after that.

An alternative to this is to gather elemental energies, which already have certain thoughts associated with them. For instance, water is widely regarded as soothing and healing, while earth is regarded as strong and protecting. Fire can be passionate, sustaining, or destructive, and air could be about communication and mental acuity. Of course, there are far more associations than just these, but they’re a start. The idea behind using elemental energies is that they already carry imprinted ideas, so using the right element will help reinforce the ideas you imprint, or you can not imprint anything at all if you’re just looking to improve the general traits that element posseses.

Find or Create a Ritual

It’s widely agreed that creating a ritual is more powerful than using one that has been created by someone else. However, you may want to search the internet for some premade rituals just to get an idea of what you might want to put into a ritual.

You can have a chant of some kind, which usually takes the form of poetry about what you would like to happen. If used in conjunction with prayer, you may also invoke a higher power and ask for his or her help in your chant as well. Naturally, this doesn’t have to be a poem, however, many people feel the cadence and possible rhyming poetry has helps set the mood of the spell.

You also may have certain materials on hand. Crystals are a very popular item, and if you look around online, you’ll find different associations with different crystals, or you can just choose the ones that feel right for creating the situation you hope to create. Salt is also a commonly used item if you feel creating a protective circle is important. The circle is generally used to protect against negative energies and entities getting involved in your spell. I’ve never found this to be necessary, but many people think it’s important, so certainly cast a circle first if you feel it’s necessary.

You may also wish to use correspondences such as the moon phases. In general, a waxing moon is a good time to cast spells to bring something into your life, such as new friends, a new lover, or monetary prosperity. A waning moon is a good time to cast spells meant to drop something from your life, such as that smoking habit you’d like to kick. Since I’ve brought it up though, I feel I should issue a word of caution on spells for love and friendship. You shouldn’t cast spells to make specific people become your friends or lover, because if it were successful, it would subvert their free will to choose. Rather, the ethical way to do this is to cast a spell to bring people to you who would like to be your friend or lover, so you can find each other in the first place. Yes, this is off topic, but it’s a point that ought to be made since it’s come up.

Back to the topic of ritual magic now, I want to describe a little bit about how I think it works. Basically, the idea is that going through the ritual will draw the energy you need to you without you consciously pulling it in yourself. I recommend building energy on your own as well, as I described in the previous section, but it’s up to you whether that’s the right approach for you. Since your ritual will be designed to have symbols of what you want, it will have you thinking about that already, which should imprint whatever energy you draw in with your desire. Finally, completing the ritual disperses that energy. Naturally, if you’re praying as part of the ritual, then a higher power may also be granting you what you want or helping out as well.

Really, there are many ways you can add to a ritual spell to make it your own, and what I’ve mentioned above are only a few. Ritual magic isn’t really my thing. So, if you’re interested in casting spells in this way, use these ideas as a stepping stone, and come up with other things that work for you. Also, you can find a lot more about ritual magic plastered all over the internet, so certainly feel free to take ideas from other sites as well.

Parting Thoughts

Hopefully, this guide has given you some ideas of how to cast your own spells to improve your life. Just remember, casting spells isn’t a substitute for taking action, it’s to supplement the actions you’ll take to improve yourself. If you’d like any help, feel free to ask in the comments or drop me an email, and I’ll try to help you when I can as long as I have some ideas, or you can check out forums about this kind of thing elsewhere. The Astral Society forum may be a good place to start. In any case, good luck with your first spells, or in making positive changes in your current spellcasting habits. I hope that either way, you found something that may help you out here.

Additional Online Resources:

Casting a Circle – Describes one method of casting a circle in detail while touching on a couple of others.

Elemental Correspondences Chart – Provides a very large list of correspondences between the elements and aspects of life they govern in a handy chart.

Wejee’s Wiccan Magick Correspondences – A list of correspondences that goes into less detail on elemental correspondences, but includes correspondences for moon phases, celestial bodies, star signs, and a few others you may be interested in. Although it’s aimed at Wiccans, the correspondences could be useful to anyone looking to make their own ritual spell.

Remember, the above links describe one way to perform a given task or one interpretation of the meaning of various symbols. If you feel the meanings don’t seem to fit or the processes aren’t quite right, there are other interpretations to find out there, or you can work out your own. Magic seems to be very flexible in how it works, so don’t hesitate to experiment a bit to find out what works for you.

Related Posts:

Magic, Paranormal

Renewable Energy: Are We Serious About It?

May 24th, 09 / 0 Comments

I don’t think we are. Yes, we talk about using it a lot, discovering new technologies, and making existing ones more efficient. But we aren’t deploying all the technologies we have. Case in point: solar panels. We have the technology to drastically cut our reliance on traditional electricity production. In sunny parts of the U.S., homes can be powered entirely by solar panels that can fit directly on their roof. In less sunny parts of the U.S., such as my home state of Maine, they might still fully power a very energy efficient home, and even if not, they could provide a substantial portion of the energy said home would use, cutting down the need for a lot of the fossil fuel electricity we use.

So why aren’t we using more of these? Well, I have some ideas on this. One is cost. It’s a big investment to make, around $20,000. This is a big investment for a homeowner to make, and a big one for the government to make if it’s subsidizing all the homes in the country, or even those below a certain level of wealth. Assuming about 160 million homes in the U.S. (from the last Census count), that would cost the government 3 trillion dollars to pay for everyone to get solar panels installed. A good middle ground right now is that some state governments, and I believe the federal government, do provide rebates and tax cuts to those willing to invest in solar power for their homes. Still, the cost is high, and these programs aren’t really advertised and pushed. Of course, in the long term, they usually do pay for themselves in savings, but realistically, not everyone can make the up front investment.

Another issue, that I think plays a bigger role than cost, is that they don’t look nice. We make such a big deal about appearances in our culture that I think even if they were more cost efficient, many people wouldn’t adopt them even then. I’ve told friends that when I have my own place and the money to invest, I’m getting solar panels for my home. I’ve suggested others do the same for the long term savings. None of them cited cost as a reason not to do so. They all claimed that solar cells make a house look ugly. Honestly, this doesn’t sit very well with me. I’d say energy efficiency and renewable energy are a lot more important than how pretty the outside of the house is. Perhaps I’m just weird, but it seems like the substantial things are more important than aesthetics.

I think we ought to try another method of selling solar panels. Since they’re such a large and important investment, let’s see a monthly payment plan… perhaps companies could charge the savings in utility bills each month, so the person investing pays the same amount monthly for electricity, but is also paying to own the solar panels eventually as well. When the solar panels are paid off, the person who had them installed owns them in full. This would make investing in solar panels much more reasonable cost wise. Perhaps the government could provide some kind of subsidy to companies willing to work with this arrangement, in addition to the people investing in solar. Seems like it could help promote solar a lot in this way. We’d still have to deal with getting people to accept the aesthetic issues, but I think this plan could help deal with cost very well.

Of course, there’s also wind, water, and geothermal, and these seem to be gaining more traction, though there’s a lot more work to do. Some places do power themselves mostly on these forms of energy, since they happen to have the naturally occurring resources to make use of these kinds of energy. These forms of energy don’t require people to sacrifice appearances though, which is why I think they’re more popular. They’re certainly very useful, and we should promote these and other renewable energies as well. I do think solar has the greatest potential, since the sun shines just about everywhere, though obviously more in some places than in others. The arctic circle would have some special challenges, in that they would need a way to store large amounts of solar energy for a long period of time for it to be practical. Perhaps another form of energy would be more practical after hitting a certain northerly point.

In the end, solar may or may not be our best solution. I don’t really know. But right now, it seems like a very a good one that is talked about a lot, but implemented far less often. We have the technology now. We just don’t have the investment in it, or the drive to make it happen. This is what needs to change to make it feasible.

Edit: Someone on Reddit pointed out that I failed to consider corporate use of power, as well as the fleets of automobiles we have throughout the country. To be clear, this piece is only about cutting our consumption of fossil fuels in regards to producing electricity. As such, dealing with the auto issues is beyond the scope of this piece. Though it is true if we switch to electric powered cars, this is also an issue we’d have to deal with.

However, the point about corporate use of electricity is very true, and it very much slipped my mind. Taking automobiles out of the picture, $67 trillion would be very high, but the figure of $3 trillion I proposed would be too low. Also, bear in mind I wasn’t talking about completely replacing other forms of energy, but cutting down on the necessity of using them to maintain our standard of living. Basically, using none would be awesome, but using less is still very good.

My revised idea for dealing with that is this: let corporations make the first big investment in solar energy. Perhaps provide incentives to them for doing so, though honestly, I think it would be in the best interests of a corporation to make this investment without incentives. Obviously, it would cost more for a corporation to make the switch than a homeowner, as they have a lot more energy they need to produce. However, they would also see a faster return on their investment since they use so much more energy. Still, many corporations have the money to spend up front, though it would certainly effect the bottom line. Perhaps showing them the way it could benefit the company long term would be enough to get them to begin investing.

This initial investment would let corporations produce cleaner energy, and it would provide funds for research into more efficient solar power at the same time. More efficient solar power would mean reduced costs for those in the residential sector, as well as for any upgrades in the corporate sector. As the price comes down, more people could afford to invest in it, and it could spread more easily.

Edit 6/8/2010: Also, here’s an image about how much solar panel coverage we would need to power the entire world using just solar panels. Yes, it’s a lot, but it’s probably not as much as you expect.

Related Posts:

Sponsored Link
Renewable Energy

Lucid Dreaming and Other Dream Experiences

May 16th, 09 / 2 Comments

I was introduced to lucid dreaming in my 7th grade science class, when we did a unit on dreams. We learned the scientific explanations of what causes them, as well as ways we could learn to influence them. We were also invited, for extra credit, to keep a dream journal. I didn’t bother, because at the time, I wasn’t really interested in putting in the effort, though I found the topic itself fascinating.

Within a year or two though, I began experimenting with lucid dreams. For those who haven’t heard of lucid dreams, a lucid dream is a dream in which you become aware of the fact that you’re dreaming while still asleep. This awareness allows you to shape the dream as you like.

First I tried the dream journal approach. I wrote all my dreams down, since that’s supposed to help with both dream recall as well as noticing similarities in dreams that might help you catch yourself dreaming. It definitely helped with the dream recall, but it never really helped me pick out a common thread that let me become aware of my dreaming.

So, while keeping the journal, I moved on to reality checks. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s when you get in the habit of asking yourself if you’re dreaming while you’re awake. This habit eventually carries over into your sleep, at which point you realize that you are actually dreaming. Variations include checking your digital watch often while awake (this used to be my favorite), or trying something impossible, such as slowly lifting off the ground via willpower. If you’re dreaming, the watch will show some sort of nonsense instead of the time, or if you’re trying the levitating trick, you’ll actually start levitating. When something weird like that happens, it becomes the clue that tells you you’re dreaming.

As I mentioned before, my favorite reality check used to be checking my watch all the time. It worked really well, because anytime I saw anything other than the time, I knew I was dreaming, and could take control of what was happening. After using this reality check for a long time though, something weird happened: I learned to read in my dreams. When I looked at my watch, it would show a real time, no mistakes. When I opened books, they had completely consistent writing that made sense. In short, something happened in my mind that made this reality check no longer helpful to me. This does help dreams become a bit more immersive though, as there’s now another outlet of information I can perceive while dreaming. I’ve had far fewer lucid dreams since that time, though in truth, I’ve grown not to care as much. They’re definitely fun, but they do take a fair bit of effort to have consistently. Now, I usually become lucid just through asking myself if I’m dreaming and realizing that I am. Of course, when a normal dream involves casting powerful spells to push meteors away from Earth, holding back natural disasters, and fighting off crazy monsters with magical swords and armor, it takes a bit to make you realize “oh yeah, this is a dream, I can take control now if I want to.”

To be honest though, I’m sometimes curious as to why this happened. Did I just acclimate to my own lucid dreaming technique? Is there a reason not to dream lucidly all the time, such as letting the mind just shut off and rest? I don’t know the answer to either of those, though sometime I should see what I can find. It would probably be pretty interesting.

While having lucid dreams, I did realize something useful though. When you want to change what’s happening in a dream, it’s much more useful to make gradual shifts, or to use some method to make a major shift seem believable. For instance, if you want to be in Japan, don’t try to just teleport to Japan, or rebuild the world in your mind. That much effort usually causes only one thing: the end of your dream as you wake up from exerting too much mental effort. Instead, pick a building to walk into. If there is no building in sight, turn around to see the building behind you. Then walk into the building. Then walk out another door into Japan. While it gets the same result, it provides a sense of continuity to your dream that’s lost if everything just changes around you. This seems to take less effort, and keeps you happily dreaming.

There’s one more experience I’d like to talk about, because it amuses me. I’ve been killed in a dream before. I share this only because people believe dying in a dream causes you to die in real life as well, and I have an experience that says otherwise, at least sometimes. Basically what happened was I was exploring a nuclear power plant with a friend when something went wrong. The plant exploded, and I was at ground zero, so the blast killed me. I blacked out for a bit, then woke up to my spirit floating above where I was a minute before, alongside my friend’s spirit. After feeling slightly freaked out, I really woke up. Needless to say, I don’t worry about dying in my dreams anymore, though it hasn’t happened since that time.

As you can probably tell, I really do enjoy my time spent dreaming, whether lucid or not. Lots of really cool stuff happens that just won’t be happening in real life, and while it’s not a substitute for waking life, it’s a great set of additional experiences to have.

Related Posts:

Dreaming

Don’t Rely on The Paranormal to Pull You Out Of Your Mess

May 14th, 09 / 0 Comments

Most people who believe in some kind of magic, prayer, or other form of mystical power have at one point contemplated using it to get themselves out of a jam. Far be it from me to tell you otherwise. But don’t rely on it with nothing else to get you out of whatever jam you’re in. It won’t work. Okay, it might work, but the odds aren’t in your favor given everyone else’s stories.

Perhaps I’m a little late to the party, as The Secret is no longer the big thing everyone is talking about. But I still see plenty of people looking for help on forums in order to get intention-manifestation, magic, the law of attraction, or any other paranormal thing they can think of to get them out of whatever mess they’re in, usually some kind of money or relationship problem. Unfortunately, there’s something a lot of people don’t seem to be teaching anymore: that you shouldn’t rely only on the paranormal. It’s finicky, especially when it comes to magic and similar processes.

When I first became a part of a number of paranormal communities, their was one thing they all had in common. They recommended that one use magic, prayer, and the like as a way to bolster your efforts in the physical world. A good luck charm might not help you out, but it can’t hurt. Plus, keeping your goals in mind long enough to cast a spell or pray about them will at least give you direction for when you go work on them. The key phrase there is “work on them.”

See, that’s the thing about magic. It’s subtle. You don’t know if the results were from the magic you performed or if they were just your own effort. It blends in with what I’ll call normal reality, making it seem as though nothing unusual happened, other than a possible string of good luck being capitalized on. This means you have to provide a way for what you want to happen to actually happen. You can’t just sit back and let your own personal genie do everything… at least, no one I’ve met can do that, and neither can anyone I’ve heard of who hasn’t first put in the effort to create their own successful business.

Does that mean it’s impossible to make magic work without accompanying physical effort. Not necessarily, but I haven’t heard of anyone who’s done it. You aren’t likely to be the first. Instead of looking to magic as a universal way to solve your problems, look at it as a complementary action you can take, if you have time, in addition to the much more important part of going out and working towards the goal you wish to achieve. By actively working on what you want, you’ll be much more likely to get it. And if the magic works too, you’ll get what you’re aiming for all the faster.

The point is, as much as we’d like a quick fix to all our problems, that usually isn’t what we get. So go ahead and do a little ritual to help yourself out, whether it’s using candles and calling upon the elements, sending your intention to the universe, a short prayer, or any number of things people do. But once you’ve done that, stop sitting around, get up, and work on achieving what you want. We live in the physical world, so don’t ignore it, or the rules that govern it. Sometimes you might be able to bend them a bit, but they don’t break.

Related Posts:

Paranormal

On Theism and Atheism

May 12th, 09 / 4 Comments

Why is it, on the internet at least, atheists and theists have such a hard time getting along? Why all the preconceived notions? Well, okay, I can understand why, in that we’re bombarded with the stereotypes of each all the time. But buying into these preconceived notions makes things worse, because then one side attacks the other, which makes the other side feel justified in attacking back to defend themselves.

Meanwhile, in real life, I’m friends with a number of different people with different beliefs. Devout Christians, not-so-devout Christians, atheists, agnostics, Jews, Pagans, and probably others that I just don’t know. More over, they manage to be friends with each other as well. Looking around on many of the religious sites and forums on the internet, you wouldn’t imagine an atheist could be friends with a devout Christian, but it happens all the time.

The reason for this is pretty simple. Where I’m from, at least among the groups of people I hang out with, we’re tolerant of other people’s religious choices. This includes lack of religion as well, of course. We discuss them sometimes, and disagree on some things, but we’re civil and no one leaves angry.

We also have lots of common ground. Everyone can see how having a social contract is useful. We disagree on some points of said social contract, but we all recognize the value of some form of shared morals.

So, now that I’ve had that spiel, I am going to stereotype a little. I want to say up front that anything I say about a specific group after this paragraph doesn’t apply to everyone in that group. Many people are quite reasonable, regardless of their beliefs.

So, first up, Christians. If you’re trying to convince a non-Christian of something, (and they’ve agreed to listen!), they likely aren’t going to see the Bible as evidence for anything, especially atheists. Use logic, use historical evidence, use science if you can, but don’t bring up the Bible as evidence. It isn’t.

All believers, atheists are big on science and logic. Use these tools in your discussions with them. Mystical experiences generally don’t cut the mustard unless you have very good evidence. We’re talking close to unassailable evidence. Same goes for holy writings.

Atheists, not all religions are trying to push themselves on you. Grow up. Especially when it comes to bashing Christians. The ones bashing you are the minority of believers, not the majority. This is true of other religious groups as well.

This also applies in reverse. Believers, stop bashing atheists for having no faith. Some people don’t want faith, they want logic. Let them have it. They aren’t harming you. They’re finding their way through life just like you’re finding your way through yours.

Atheists, stop assuming all religious people are crazy. They aren’t. Yes, they hold beliefs that are unproven, and some are even untestable. So what? They also understand this, and don’t generally try to force those beliefs on others. The ones who do are, once again, a minority. Also, realize that sometimes faith is reasoned, and not just followed blindly.

Everyone, stop making the fallacy that science and belief in God are incompatible. They are compatible. You can’t take the Bible literally when you understand science, but a belief in God, as well as reading the Bible metaphorically, work perfectly fine with scientific understanding. So does simply believing in God without the organized religion.

Everyone, stop assuming you’re the one who’s right. You don’t know. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t catch that the first time: you do not know if you are right. Furthermore, there is no way to test if you are right that we are aware of. We’re talking about things you can’t know while living, and since we can’t talk to the dead (reliably, at least, depending on whether or not you believe in mediums), we won’t know until we die.

Atheists, science working doesn’t prove God doesn’t exist. Stop claiming it does. It almost certainly invalidates a literal interpretation of most religious stories, but it doesn’t invalidate the possible existence of God or an afterlife of any kind. Feel free to continue not believing, just don’t claim lack of evidence implies lack of God.

Theists, stop saying your holy writings of choice prove God exists. They don’t. They’re stories handed down through the ages, orally, then written down, then translated into different languages and versions. No matter how meticulously they were copied and preserved, over a long enough time, mistranslation, forgetting or omitting parts of a story, and embellishment creep in. It happens. Your holy books aren’t proof that you’re right. Feel free to continue believing, but don’t claim everyone else should just because your book says so.

Okay, so thats the end of my rant, and I’m going to stop the stereotyping now. I want to reiterate, what I said about each group just now doesn’t apply to everyone in the groups I’ve mentioned. Many atheists and religious believers alike are quite reasonable, and I don’t wish to do a disservice to them by claiming they aren’t. However, I wanted to point out some of the things that I see people claiming to be representative of each group doing that simply aren’t helping us all reach a place where we can all be tolerant of other people’s beliefs.

Related Posts:

Religion

Another Reason We Need Better Health Care In the U.S.

May 10th, 09 / 1 Comment

Ah, health care. Something we all need at some point in time, yet many can’t afford for one reason or another. It’s expensive after all. There are lots of reasons people like to list in saying we need either universal health care or less expensive health care. A lot of these arguments talk about how health care is a right, no one should be turned away simply because they can’t afford it, and similar ideas. I agree with these thoughts, but you’ve heard them, and many others, argued about quite often by now I’m sure.

I want to talk about another reason we need better health care, one that might even get through to those who have oodles of money and don’t want to “subsidize everyone else’s health care.” Because this reason effects them too.

Remember the outbreak of swine flu we had recently? Remember how it wasn’t a big deal, but many people seemed to think it would be? Well, what happens when we have a real epidemic?

Under our current system, those who can afford it get preventative treatment, whether it be a shot, some kind of medication, or some other way to prevent the disease. Those who can’t afford it will go to the emergency room after they get sick. Guess what happens then? The disease spreads like wildfire, because it has plenty of carriers who simply couldn’t afford preventative treatments. And then it’s more likely to infect those who could afford preventative treatments, because said treatments aren’t usually 100% effective, especially when they’re new treatments, or general treatments for a variety of illnesses. Which means, by letting the poor get sick, the rich are also more likely to be sick, because more carriers of disease means that there are more chances for everyone to get infected.

Now, if we had universal or inexpensive health care, we’d see something different. Yes, some people would still get sick. But, with everyone getting preventative medicine, fewer people would get sick, which will leave fewer chances for the disease to spread. This is good for everyone, not just the people who have health care who otherwise wouldn’t.

Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that no matter who you are, it is in your best interest that everyone have access to affordable health care. Because really, your health will be affected by the health of everyone around you, and the people they’re around as well. So, even if you don’t believe health care is a human right, at least bear in mind that by denying a segment of the population health care, you’re putting yourself at greater risk too.

Related Posts:

Sponsored Link
Health, Politics

Stop Being In Such a Rush

May 9th, 09 / 0 Comments

If you’re one of those people who can’t stand to lose five minutes of your time because it will make you late for your next engagement, and this is a habitual thing for you, I have some news for you: you need to calm down. Plan your time a little better than you are now. I’m not saying you should micromanage everything for more efficiency… actually, I’m saying exactly the opposite.

Micromanaging your time for absolute perfect efficiency is a bad idea. If you do this, you’ll leave no time for the unexpected, because you’re filling that time up with things to do. And the unexpected will happen, because you can’t control other people, and most people don’t micromanage their lives to that level. So even if you do micromanage your time, the person in line ahead of you at the supermarket probably doesn’t. And will probably spend the next three minutes looking for exact change, only to realize he doesn’t have it and hand the cashier a twenty instead. Now, sure, this can be irritating, but if you don’t have those three minutes meticulously planned, you don’t have to pop a vein over it.

So cut some of your less important things out of your busy schedule. Sure, the bills need to be mailed out, but if they don’t need to be mailed for a few days, leave them in the car and mail them out next time you’re out by the post office, or when you just have some extra time to kill. You don’t need to squeeze mailing them out into the five minutes between leaving work and meeting that cute girl for dinner. In fact, you shouldn’t, because it’s just a recipe for more stress when there’s a long line at the post office. This goes for all sorts of other things that could be done now, but really, it won’t kill you to do them tomorrow. I’m not advocating procrastination, just realizing things don’t need to be done right now, this instant when you have other things to do too.

Also, leave early when you want to be on time. Remember that five minutes I mentioned above before the date with a cute girl? Make it fifteen. That way, if there’s traffic, or just someone who actually drives the speed limit instead of ten over, you don’t feel a case of road rage coming on. This goes back to my earlier point, in which not everyone micromanages their time, and some people really just aren’t in a rush. The world isn’t going to revolve around you, so don’t act like it will. Leaving that time will make your life a lot easier when the unexpected happens.

This leads me to another point: your time isn’t more important than my time. Seriously, I just don’t care. And no one else does either. For those who talk like they just have too much to do and not enough time to do it, I have news: most people do have too much to do and not enough time. We manage to work it out anyway, without popping a gasket when something comes up that takes longer than we would like. My time is just as valuable as yours. That doesn’t mean I won’t let you go ahead in line if you have one item and I have a cartload. Kindness is a good thing. Just be aware, I’m not going to bend over backwards for you, and most other people won’t either… some won’t even offer you the kindness I just mentioned, and you should be prepared for that.

So, just remember, the world doesn’t revolve around you, and you shouldn’t expect it to. Plan accordingly, because sometimes, things aren’t going to be as efficient as you try to make yourself. Drop some things from your busy schedule until you have some extra time to deal with them. The unexpected happens, so if you have some extra time in there, you won’t be in such a rush. Then maybe you can stop getting so frustrated everytime something doesn’t go according to plan.

Related Posts:

Personal Development, Time Management

Paranormal Experiences I’ve Had

May 6th, 09 / 0 Comments

I’ve had a fair number of experiences that some people would say qualify as paranormal. On some of these experiences, I agree, on others, I think another explanation seems more likely. The main reason I’m writing this is to show how there is a lot of uncertainty in dealing with anything paranormal, and even if there are some pretty solid experiences, it’s still very easy to question yourself. This is healthy, as I pointed out in my last piece on the paranormal. At the same time, it may also be frustrating to practice for a long time, only to realize you still aren’t certain of anything. I have some good and bad news on this: it’s normal. If you find yourself in this position, there are lots of others trying to learn in the same position. Of course, that means it’s also going to be difficult to get past that point, and you’ll likely have to find your own way. I’m still working on that part myself. However, now I want to get on with the experiences.  Hopefully, reading about these and the way I view them might help you out in some way.

1) Call the Card

The Experience: I was chilling  with some friends in the basement of their house, when one of them just looked over at me, showed me a deck of cards, and said “top card, what is it?”

I immediately responded “ace of spades” and flipped the card over with a confident flourish… and they started flipping out saying how awesome that was. Confused, I looked at the card to see that it was indeed the ace of spades, and I had called it. Of course, then they wanted a repeat performance, so I tried again a few times. The very next card, I got the right number, wrong suit, and after that, I had nothing.

Was It Paranormal: I doubt it was anything other than blind luck. You guess enough cards, you’re bound to get one right eventually. I just happened to get it right on the first try, which made it seem awesome. If I had managed a couple more hits in a reasonable amount of time, I’d have been convinced, but as it happened, I’d say I just hit my 1 in 52 chance. Let’s face it, those odds are better than the odds of me winning $20 off Powerball, and I’ve managed that before too.

2) See a Level of an Unreleased Video Game

The Experience: I had a dream one night, and in this dream I was playing a Sonic the Hedgehog game I’d never played before. I played through one zone of this game, full of crystals, and a stand for the chaos emeralds. Later on in life, I got my hands on the game Sonic and Knuckles, and when I reached the Hidden Palace Zone, I felt an intense feeling of deja vu. Probably because I’d played through the zone before… in the dream I just talked about.

Was It Paranormal: I think so, but I do still question this one sometimes. After all, I never wrote the dream down beforehand, so the feeling of deja vu could have been from something else, and then I could have constructed the dream memory to explain the feeling. I really don’t think that’s how it went down, but human memory is tricky, and with no written record, I would be remiss in not mentioning the possibility. Other than that though, I’m pretty confident in this one.

3) Pinging a Friend… a Little Too Strongly

The Experience: I’m not sure how commonly the term ping is used in psychic communities, as it’s a term I’ve really only seen at Psipog, so in case you aren’t sure of what I’m talking about, a ping is supposed to be a kind of brief telepathic greeting, like a mental handshake of sorts. I was attempting to use a psi ball to do so, but I had also been experimenting with some elemental magic ideas at the time. So, I used a symbol of elemental fire to add some oomph to the psi ball, and consequently, the ping. Then I sent it flying at his head telling it to get his attention. It did. Apparently it also gave him a splitting headache, because he asked me what I did, so I told him. He told me not to try that again, because it really hurt. So I haven’t tried it since then.

It should be noted that we had an agreement it was ok to do this before, because we wanted to see if we could really get each others attention in this way. We found our answer, and decided that was enough of that experiment.

Was it Paranormal: In a word, yes. That is, I can’t think of any other explanation. Sure, it could be a coincidence, but the timing was very good if it was. Too good, so I find it unlikely. It wasn’t psychosomatic, because I did this with no motion, and was behind him when I sent the ping, so he couldn’t have seen me. Given that he reacted right when I sent the psi ball to him, I find it hard to believe it was anything but success. I am open to other explanations, but so far, I haven’t found one.

Not sure if I could replicate this one now or not. For the obvious reason of not wanting to cause others pain, I haven’t really tried.

4) Unblocking My Stuffy Nose

The Experience: I had been dealing with a stuffy nose for a  rather long time one winter, so I decided I was going to try and do something about it. Now, I could have just used some nasal spray, but that stuff is really uncomfortable, so I tried something else first: energy healing. I just sent energy at the blockage with the intent to clear it up and be able to breathe easy again. Sure enough, within five minutes, my nasal passages were clearing up. I now had quite the runny nose, and went through many tissues in dealing with it. It wasn’t stuffy anymore though, and that was the goal. I just forgot that everything still needed a way out.

Was It Paranormal: Maybe. The timing was pretty good, but it wasn’t perfect. In addition, I haven’t been able to replicate this often, but I do occasionally get results. I also haven’t had success on helping anyone other than myself. This leads me to think that a placebo effect is also a very good option to consider in regard to what happened. Coincidence also can’t be ruled out here, since the timing isn’t directly in line with treatment, and since it doesn’t always work. Naturally, not working all the time could also mean I just need more practice. Still, I think the jury’s out on this one, and it’s tough to make a good call here.

5) It Needs to Snow… NOW!

The Experience: I was walking to class with a friend, and there had been a significant lack of snow days that particular year. Not uncommon, as I always found days off in college to be a nice stress reliever, and a lack of them to be irritating. On this particular day, I really did not want to be in class, and I came out and said “it needs to snow now!” And no sooner had I said it, then it started snowing. Just flurries mind you, so not nearly enough to get me that snow day. But there was no snow in the forecast, so that was kind of cool.

Was It Paranormal: Well, the timing was spot on, so points for that. However, as anyone in New England knows, the weather here is notoriously unpredictable, and subject to change at a moment’s notice. So even though it wasn’t in the weather report, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen on its own. Could have also been coincidence due to this. And as many psychologists like to point out, we remember the big coincidences and forget the ones that don’t seem to work out. Then again, the timing was right on. And it’d be really cool if it was me. But I’m really just not sure.

So that’s it for now. While I certainly have other paranormal experiences, these are the ones that stick out in my mind. As you can see, there’s only one experience in here I’m sure was a real paranormal experience, while most of the others fall into some kind of nebulous area of possibly paranormal and possibly coincidence. From what others I talk to about this have to say, this is pretty normal, so I’m not too worried, especially since I have the one experience that would be difficult to explain in a way not involving the paranormal. In short, while it’s good to be discerning in what you believe is real, it’s also good to have some faith in yourself. You might not be sure of what’s happening, but  believing in your ability makes it easier to continue practicing, and may help bring you to one experience that would be difficult to explain any other way.

Related Posts:

Paranormal, Psychic Abilities

Tune in Now for the News That Could Save Your Life

May 1st, 09 / 0 Comments

How often does the news use this tactic to get you to watch whatever news program they’re pushing? Even better, how often does the news tell you to tune in at 11 for the news that could save your life? While you’re watching the five o’clock news and they could just tell you then?

Now, I’m no genius marketer, but it sounds to me like one of two things are happening when they do this. One is that they’re holding vital information hostage so you’re forced to tune in and see what you need to do in order to survive. The other is that they’re exaggerating the danger so it seems like they have information you must have in order to survive. Either way, they’re hoping your fear of death or desire to live will keep you glued to the TV to find out what new survival tricks they’re peddling.

Generally speaking, the second alternative, that the news exaggerates the danger, seems more likely to me. If something were truly dangerous and in need of immediate attention, the emergency broadcast system would kick in. That’s what it’s for, real emergency situations. Otherwise, it’s almost always the case there is no imminent danger, and you can read all about whatever you need in the paper or online tomorrow with no real concern. Or check out the relevant news site for clips from the news. It’s not urgent, or they’d tell you now, so they just make it seem urgent so you think you need to tune in, and they can get more viewers.

On a related note, it’s the current crisis du jour that has me irritated by this. Swine flu, H1N1, whatever you want to call it has people panicking because it’s been hugely played up by the media. “It’s spreading like wildfire.” “It could wipe out tens of millions of people if it isn’t stopped.”

As Jon Stewart puts it at 2:37 in this Snoutbreak ’09 clip, “I like a good scare as much as the next guy, but for six mild cases of the flu you’re going to turn four million square miles bright red?” The four million square miles refers to Canada, for those not watching the clip. And while I understand they were just looking at Canada as another region, I think the point still stands.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t practice good hygiene to prevent getting sick or anything. I’m just saying there’s a place for precaution and a place for a little bit of perspective. Scientists studying the virus have found it’s most likely less dangerous than the seasonal flu we’re hit with every winter. Of course, that’s not nearly as exciting a news story, so it needs to be sensationalized to the point where everyone starts freaking out. At least then the news networks have viewers.

In short, I’m just ranting a little about what many people already know. Take the news with a grain of salt, and do some research on your own as well. Being cautious is good, but never leaving the house for fear of any number of the bad things that could happen to you is going to really kill your quality of life. So at least make sure it warranted that you board up your house before you go ahead with that plan. Most of the time, it’s usually not worth it. For now, it seems like this is one of those times where it’s best to just get on with life, and perhaps review our hygeine practices. A lot of the normal news outlets have picked up on this and started reporting as such. For those outlets, good job. For those still spreading fear about how we’re all going to die, please, just stop now. And for all news, in the future lets try keeping things in perspective first, then if there is a real danger to report, report it once you know, instead of latching on to any and all wild speculation that comes up.

Related Posts:

Media