GENIUS FORUMS

Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

I knew a guy who firmly believed in ghosts. He was alarmed that I lived by a cemetery, as I did a few years ago (and by another one a few years before that). While we were sitting there by the cemetery, we chatted about his experience of seeing a ghost. He had been thinking about his deceased mother, and during the night, woke up to see "her" by his bed. I said it was likely his strong emotions about his mother had affected his subconscious, and that during his sleep he probably dreamt of her. Those strong emotions probably woke him up, and his dream-state affected his waking moments. On hearing this, he agreed my explanation was reasonable.

'Supernatural beings' are often creations of a troubled psychology. Buddhist rebirth is meant in this psychological sense. Sometimes we see people reborn as demons, or we 'demonise' others when we ourselves are demons.

These realms or worlds are very strong realities. Many of us acknowledge them.

There is also a theory about ghosts offered by some scientists, which suggests that ghosts are merely some sort of quantum footprint left by a person's daily habits when they were alive. That could explain why eye witnesses claim that a ghost does the same type of behavior day in and day out, so perhaps some individuals are more perceptive to the history of environments.

For instance: There have been rare cases of some psychics who were able to explain the events surrounding a murder, and these individuals were not a fraud as their descriptions were quite accurate. However, perhaps their talent is due to some sort of intuitive ability in sensing an environment's past, and intuitively experiencing those events over again, as its history remains locked in the environment itself.

However, the above theory is just speculation, as perhaps all these incidents are merely the result of malfunctioning brains, as Kelly says, who knows.

Or perhaps--. At a certain point, "scientific" explanations (refutations) of "super"-natural phenomena sound less likely than the phenomena themselves.

Anyway, the replies are off-topic (feminine). :)

They wail and keen?

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

Interesting observation. I could quibble with it, but I choose not to. But isn't the true spirit of philosophy really Occam's Razor applied to the throat of everything?

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged.

If you are engaging in philosophy and not mere mysticism, you should be asking yourself whether or not these claims can be doubted, and in what way. How well have you anticipated criticism if all you have done is put science in quotation marks?

I don't see much evidence that you've scrutinized what you just said.

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality,

These aren't the only fairy tales in reality, I used to read and watch a bunch of them when I was younger, but they just didn't do it for me anymore by the time I hit puberty.

Atum wrote:acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

So what should one acknowledge to help the cause of wisdom?

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

They are a reality in the same symbolic realm where 'self', 'soul' and 'mind' are existing as well.

It's by their expressions that we might recognize them: but then they end up as merely existing through the way we describe them, being it 'troubled psychology' or 'quantum footprints', 'intuitions or 'mysticism'.

This is why their actual reality is not supposed to be held true, as one would open the door to a further descend into materialism, all conveniently wrapped up in a spiritual sounding language. Ignorance only feeds on this.

Diebert van Rhijn wrote:

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

They are a reality in the same symbolic realm where 'self', 'soul' and 'mind' are existing as well.

It's by their expressions that we might recognize them: but then they end up as merely existing through the way we describe them, being it 'troubled psychology' or 'quantum footprints', 'intuitions or 'mysticism'.

This is why their actual reality is not supposed to be held true, as one would open the door to a further descend into materialism, all conveniently wrapped up in a spiritual sounding language. Ignorance only feeds on this.

Interesting that you include 'mind' in the category.

So what would you say is doing the identifying,or demarcating,if not 'mind'?

Ataraxia wrote:Interesting that you include 'mind' in the category.

So what would you say is doing the identifying,or demarcating,if not 'mind'?

When talking about 'mind' it's mostly about the various expressions like perception of matter, senses, cognition, etc. The constituencies of mind are in fact countless and are only categorized for convenience, so we can talk about them, investigate them as concept.

That's why I lined it up with siddhis, ghosts, demons as they are a way to talk about the way certain events are being expressed, manifest in our lives. But it can be very deceptive to consider an existence somewhere for a 'ghost' just as well as considering it for our 'mind'.

To answer your question more directly: the devil's doing it. The bastard!

dele

Dan Rowden wrote:

Atum wrote:Though other worlds, siddhis, ghosts, demons, demi-gods, and literal reincarnation are in fact a reality, acknowledging their reality does not help the cause of Wisdom, therefore they shall not be acknoweldged. This organization is the total Occam's Razor of spirituality.

Interesting observation. I could quibble with it, but I choose not to. But isn't the true spirit of philosophy really Occam's Razor applied to the throat of everything?

I agree. The true spirit of philosophy is discrimination, namely, between what is ultimately real and what is causally real. I agree. You don't need to believe in ghosts, etc. to see what is ultimately real; indeed, these things may be distractions.