BlueGiant Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Ok, so the recent fear of learning about other religions thread got me thinking. Some of us here have tinkered with a lot of religions/practices that may or may not have been aimed at expanding our conscioness/spiritual awareness/plain experience. I and others have clearly had positive experiences in the past, and have found great and meaningful things in them. Not all is success and glory, however, and I'm pretty sure people have had things go wrong in the past, done things that weren't well thought out, or missed the key warning, and had things go south but quick. So, I put the question out there, anyone here have cautionary tales that they want to share of what not to do? (other than getting involved with fundagelical Christianity.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 So, I put the question out there, anyone here have cautionary tales that they want to share of what not to do? (other than getting involved with fundagelical Christianity.) The only general thing that I can think is that some who are already into a particular "way" sometimes have a snooty or perhaps defensive attitude about it. Some are very insistent about having to do things a particular way, or that they have to lead the group. Basically the same sort of crap that infests many churches, just in other religions or paths. Try to find people that aren't control freaks or charlatans, pretending to be important. But there are certainly those who are very welcoming and insightful, and these people are helpful in figuring out whether a particular way is something to consider or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Since I have left Christianity and started exploring other religions I have not encountered anything like a "train wreck". I think if you join a group of people of any type of religion or philosophy there is the same thing you get in churches. There is the in group and the out group, the unfriendliness, and all the nastiness - which is how people act in groups. It starts out under the surface and if you are there long enough, it manifests. I haven't found any group yet where human nature has been totally changed into something different. I have studied some teachings that I realized after a few years were flawed, and where I didn't see the flaws for quite a while. A period of years. It was disappointing, but not devastating in the way Christianity has been. In the eastern religions, ceremonial magic and New Age thought that I have studied I have never come across anything remotely as damaging as Christianity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGiant Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Actually, the closest things I've run into that I'm referring to are much more independent explorations, usually involving altered states of consciousness and methods of arriving there. There are also the ritual-gone-wrong stories (let's just say long, billowing sleeves and candles are not good friends). On the social end, I did start to belong to, what I thought was, a more informal group of equals, and someone got it in their head that they were leader...yeah, that didn't end all that well. As far as this thread goes, I was referring more to specific practices and the like. Not so much the social drama, though I guess that could fall in as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vomit Comet Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 When I was at the height of my Pentecostal lunacy, I tried experimenting with empathic reading and even considered trying to experiment with remote viewing. I justified it by believing it could aid in my role as a Spiritual Warrior, and I figured they were natural human abilities (i.e., some people have "clairvoyance", etc.) as opposed to something involving the help of demons. Eventually I stopped doing it out of laziness and because I was worried the demons would pull a fast one on me if I wasn't really super careful. In fact, a pagan ex-christian actually warned me to be careful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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