What do you guys think of stories like this? From New age to Christianity.

[Shane Hanlon]

 

[nhoktinvt]

he committed to christianity in the 2nd part at 25:47 
basically he believes in the bible, the bible is the truth (to him)

[Osaid]

Ego backlash

[Shane Hanlon]

1 hour ago, Osaid said:

Ego backlash

Ya I think that makes the most sense.
How do we help people who struggle with this kind of thing?

Edited December 19, 2022 by Shane Hanlon

[Osaid]

1 minute ago, Shane Hanlon said:

Ya I think that makes the most sense.
How do we help people who struggle with this kind of thing?

Ease them into it. You have to talk to them from where they're at in terms of development. It's like the difference between jumping straight into a cold shower vs slowly decreasing the temperature.

For example, telling a stereotypical hard-nosed religious person "You are God" will likely cause backlash. But, if you instead ask, "What is God?", or "How do you know what God is?", these statements are much more palpable and easier to explore for them.

A lot of times psychedelics do work, though. The experience completely shatters their paradigm. But some egos recover back. Some people are harder to change. 

I also think a lack of spiritual and epistemological foundation could be an issue as well. They're just easily swayed by the opinions and ideas of others. Their process for grounding themselves and finding truth aren't very rigid. This is probably related to why some people are harder to change.

 

[axiom]

16 minutes ago, Shane Hanlon said:

Ya I think that makes the most sense.
How do we help people who struggle with this kind of thing?

Tell them over and over again how right you are. If that fails, then you could wear a sandwich board, set up peaceful (at first) demonstrations, and lobby government to mandate ‘God Realisation’.

Failing that, kidnapping and torture.

[Shane Hanlon]

10 hours ago, axiom said:

Tell them over and over again how right you are. If that fails, then you could wear a sandwich board, set up peaceful (at first) demonstrations, and lobby government to mandate ‘God Realisation’.

Failing that, kidnapping and torture.

LOL

[Shane Hanlon]

10 hours ago, Osaid said:

For example, telling a stereotypical hard-nosed religious person "You are God" will likely cause backlash. But, if you instead ask, "What is God?", or "How do you know what God is?", these statements are much more palpable and easier to explore for them.

It didn't seem like this was his problem. He was already deeply into psychedelics and meditation. Then he felt it wasn't working for him and felt like he was getting signs to look towards Christianity.

 

10 hours ago, Osaid said:

I also think a lack of spiritual and epistemological foundation could be an issue as well.

I do think this could have been a problem of his. He was into all of the shiny things in nonduality/spirituality without seemingly having an understanding of them.

[LfcCharlie4]

How do you know it isn't what that person needs right now? 

Religion can help a lot of people & give them a moral compass to guide their life. Often, it can be very beneficial and might be what some people need. 

I don't think everyone needs / or is ready for awakening, when you read how life-changing awakening can be & often life destructive (in terms of turning someone's life on their head) not everyone is ready for that.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think religion is the end goal, but if these are good people, who are happy & healthy, and have found peace in their life, what's the issue? 

You always hear in Non-Dual circles that all religions point to the same thing etc (maybe in a roundabout way often!) so maybe the kind of 'Prepatory practices', structure & discipline that religion offers is exactly what a lot of people need right now. 

The 'New Age' path just isn't for everyone, and Religion isn't for everyone either. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by LfcCharlie4

[Shane Hanlon]

24 minutes ago, LfcCharlie4 said:

Don't get me wrong, I don't think religion is the end goal, but if these are good people, who are happy & healthy, and have found peace in their life, what's the issue? 

This is so valid. Thanks for your perspective!

[Aaron p]

there is solid evidence to suggest that the spirit of god has preserved teachings through religions like christianity...some really interesting and powerful stuff. christianity is right, but its symbolic. I actually have seen that there is tremendous power in christianity, the baptism of the holy ghost, multiple scriptures fall in line with simple stuff like 1 John 4:8 "...God is love."

There is also some really great teaching about the three kinds of love Eros (sexual), Philos (friendship), Agape (unconditional love of God). 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

there are references of people being struck down in fear at the light of the presence of a being of power...and instances of people being "baptised in the holy spirit" ...shaking all over and speaking words that arent man made (martin ball said he sees this sometimes in 5meo ceremonies).

...there is something very comfortable about christianity but just give it time, it'll fail him...i have studied multiple denominations of protestant christianity, catholicisim, jehovas witnesses, mormons, jewdism and read the greek and hebrew manuscripts of the bible...and even the books that were deemed unfit for cannon by the cathoilic church...its a big confusing ball of unnecessary symbolism...that guy has clearly had some kind of special experience but he's mistaking the content for the structure He needs to recognise that his awareness needs to be placed on perception itself as opposed to the shapes they adopt...and that god is linked to his direct qualia. To love something means that there are no barriers of distinction between you and that thing...such that you are that thing...therefore its completely accurate to say that i love jesus christ ...or at least thats my current thesis lol

Edited December 20, 2022 by Aaron p