I am going to simply post this here, for the simple reason that I can not really find a place to put it. Normally in most forums, the admins will move a topic to where it is supposed to be if it is in the wrong section. Hopefully, this will be the case if I am indeed posting this in the wrong section.
Let me begin this by saying that I am not a Christian, even though I was raised in one. Why? It is simple. I did not understand how Christianity would condem someone like me based on something that I could not help. What is this thing? It is simple. Ever since I can remember or rather ever since infantile amnseia wore off at around the age of six, I have always been aware of what other people were thinking or feeling. I have also been aware of other things outside of myself to the point of affecting them. In other words, I was born with empathic/telepathic abilities and psychokinetic abilities. When I meet a person I am aware of their consiousness and their emotions. I am also aware of fields and energy outside of myself. When I use the word field and energy, I am talking about fields and energy in the context of physics not hollicostic or occultic or new age context.
When I was six, I did not understand that society viewed such things so darkly. I was showing off for the other kids at church. They were having a baby shower or something of that nature. One kid ran off and told my mother who got the pastor and they sat there and said that I was going to hell for practicing witch craft. Ever since that day up until the age of 13 I struggled with one question. Am I evil? Am I going to hell? This lead me to delving deeper into christian theology looking for something but I found none. When I asked my pastor for answers concerning this, she was only able to give me one answer.
Belive me if I could turn of these troublesome gifts I would. It is no fun being aware of the consiousnesses of others and so on and so forth. I was utterly alone. I can not tell my family. They will think I am posseesed. I can not tell anyone they will think I am insane. The ones who I told and actually showed felt nothing but fear after that. Why would God curse me with something like this I began to wander? What did I do?
Not only did I recieve the burden of being mentally aware of those around me, I found that since I could percive matter out of myself I could affect it with my own consiousness. That was more thing I had to bear. Everywhere I turned within the christian community, I never got any answers. Does this make me wrong? Why me? Finally getting none, I left my christian faith behind.
One answer that I kept getting was that parapsychological incidents or psionic incidents fell under the category of the occult and that one was using demons, satans power and so on. In other words the cause was spirtual. So in other words my psionic abilities would be spirtual power not from God, which would be from Satan. However as I did research, I found that not to be true. This is small part from an article on the subject of consiousness:
"I have to point out, that all of these phenomena may be interpreted by an electromagnetic field model of consciousness, including the phenomenon of hypnosis. If consciousness is organised with the help of the EM field, this EM field may be able to transcend the borders of the organism emitting the waves (see the evidences later on), and interact with the consciousness field of another person nearby. This possibility is allowed by the measurements of Ravitz (1962), who showed that EEG changing during hypnosis presents a waking state pattern. Collective consciousness fields are suggested to act in the ancient Japanese no-theatre and in the truly cathartic theatre performances (Vekerdy, 1974). As Vekerdy formulates, the artist may exert an effect on the audience in three ways: using words, through hearing, by movements, through seeing, and using intense emotions, which exert their effects through telepathy, extra sensory perception. In an experiment conducted by Charles Tart, two graduate students were mutually hypnotising each other. He had Anne hypnotise Bill and after he was hypnotised, he had Bill hypnotise her in return. Anne and Bill in this state experienced the same fantastic, hallucinated reality (Tart, 1969). Richardson (1995) experienced that an imaginary playmate, observed independently and consequently by nine children, was also observed by one adolescent male and also perceived by herself, the teacher personally, as a real 4-year old person. Richardson writes 'In my own case, during the contact, I was not aware of suspecting that she was an apparition until I had the thought "She does not belong in our yard and she is not even dressed right for this century." At that moment we made eye contact and she vanished, dropping the baseball cap.' We may observe that consciousness is fundamentally related to (external and internal) collective, or social interactions, and is elicited through enhanced emotional levels. The collective consciousness field effect is especially amplified when a large number of participants are involved. Therefore, the collective consciousness field of mankind may not only be influenced by nature but also by a modification of social origin, e.g. when significant amount of people are involved in mutual hypnosis. Psychological researches have shown that creativity is triggered in intense emotional states. The hypothesis that the determining factor of consciousness is related to emotional states is developed, considered and evidenced later on."
"How do we decide what objects have consciousness? We always tend to see consciousness from a human perspective associating it with subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and so on. How can we be sure that an inanimate object like stone does not have these attributes? Strictly speaking consciousness cannot even be defined because we can define things only in the realm of the known. But everything that is known is known only through consciousness and thus consciousness is outside the realm of the known.
We know that matter and energy are equivalent. Energy cannot be passive; in matter in any form elementary particles like electrons are in constant motion. When atoms combine to form molecules they exchange electrons. When an electron goes into an atom (or ion) it somehow knows which orbit it can enter, and which not. This is a fundamental principle that governs the structure of matter. It implies that the electron knows enough about the other electrons that are already there. And no known physical force is responsible for enforcing this behavior. It would seem therefore that elementary particles are in some way interconnected through consciousness. If consciousness manifests itself at this elementary level, it is reasonable to assume that it is present (as energy) in all forms of matter."
"In quantum physics there is also a phenomenon called 'phase entanglement'. Two particles having a common origin react to each other instantaneously irrespective of the distance and time separating them. If this idea is extended to objects, the interaction through the consciousness fields becomes understandable. The strength of the interaction would depend on that of the common bond at some point of origin in space-time however remote."
These are two very very small parts taken from articles. As I researched more and more, I began to understand my the things that I could do were not spirtual in nature, but they were caused by neurological, biological, and physical reactions that were beyond my control. However, when i discuss my "psychic abilities" which a Christian or engage them in a conversation concerning the physical and nervous and neurological aspects of this, they equate it with the occult and witchcraft. They condem me for something that I can not help and they condem others like me. I can not help the way I was born.
That is my big struggle with Christianity. How can I be part of a religion that condems me for something that I can not control, something that I was born being. In fact my empathic abilities are used most times to help people. I can feel another's pain and know what they experience so I can understand them. I can help them not feel so alone and soothe their pain.
Let me begin this by saying that I am not a Christian, even though I was raised in one. Why? It is simple. I did not understand how Christianity would condem someone like me based on something that I could not help. What is this thing? It is simple. Ever since I can remember or rather ever since infantile amnseia wore off at around the age of six, I have always been aware of what other people were thinking or feeling. I have also been aware of other things outside of myself to the point of affecting them. In other words, I was born with empathic/telepathic abilities and psychokinetic abilities. When I meet a person I am aware of their consiousness and their emotions. I am also aware of fields and energy outside of myself. When I use the word field and energy, I am talking about fields and energy in the context of physics not hollicostic or occultic or new age context.
When I was six, I did not understand that society viewed such things so darkly. I was showing off for the other kids at church. They were having a baby shower or something of that nature. One kid ran off and told my mother who got the pastor and they sat there and said that I was going to hell for practicing witch craft. Ever since that day up until the age of 13 I struggled with one question. Am I evil? Am I going to hell? This lead me to delving deeper into christian theology looking for something but I found none. When I asked my pastor for answers concerning this, she was only able to give me one answer.
Belive me if I could turn of these troublesome gifts I would. It is no fun being aware of the consiousnesses of others and so on and so forth. I was utterly alone. I can not tell my family. They will think I am posseesed. I can not tell anyone they will think I am insane. The ones who I told and actually showed felt nothing but fear after that. Why would God curse me with something like this I began to wander? What did I do?
Not only did I recieve the burden of being mentally aware of those around me, I found that since I could percive matter out of myself I could affect it with my own consiousness. That was more thing I had to bear. Everywhere I turned within the christian community, I never got any answers. Does this make me wrong? Why me? Finally getting none, I left my christian faith behind.
One answer that I kept getting was that parapsychological incidents or psionic incidents fell under the category of the occult and that one was using demons, satans power and so on. In other words the cause was spirtual. So in other words my psionic abilities would be spirtual power not from God, which would be from Satan. However as I did research, I found that not to be true. This is small part from an article on the subject of consiousness:
"I have to point out, that all of these phenomena may be interpreted by an electromagnetic field model of consciousness, including the phenomenon of hypnosis. If consciousness is organised with the help of the EM field, this EM field may be able to transcend the borders of the organism emitting the waves (see the evidences later on), and interact with the consciousness field of another person nearby. This possibility is allowed by the measurements of Ravitz (1962), who showed that EEG changing during hypnosis presents a waking state pattern. Collective consciousness fields are suggested to act in the ancient Japanese no-theatre and in the truly cathartic theatre performances (Vekerdy, 1974). As Vekerdy formulates, the artist may exert an effect on the audience in three ways: using words, through hearing, by movements, through seeing, and using intense emotions, which exert their effects through telepathy, extra sensory perception. In an experiment conducted by Charles Tart, two graduate students were mutually hypnotising each other. He had Anne hypnotise Bill and after he was hypnotised, he had Bill hypnotise her in return. Anne and Bill in this state experienced the same fantastic, hallucinated reality (Tart, 1969). Richardson (1995) experienced that an imaginary playmate, observed independently and consequently by nine children, was also observed by one adolescent male and also perceived by herself, the teacher personally, as a real 4-year old person. Richardson writes 'In my own case, during the contact, I was not aware of suspecting that she was an apparition until I had the thought "She does not belong in our yard and she is not even dressed right for this century." At that moment we made eye contact and she vanished, dropping the baseball cap.' We may observe that consciousness is fundamentally related to (external and internal) collective, or social interactions, and is elicited through enhanced emotional levels. The collective consciousness field effect is especially amplified when a large number of participants are involved. Therefore, the collective consciousness field of mankind may not only be influenced by nature but also by a modification of social origin, e.g. when significant amount of people are involved in mutual hypnosis. Psychological researches have shown that creativity is triggered in intense emotional states. The hypothesis that the determining factor of consciousness is related to emotional states is developed, considered and evidenced later on."
"How do we decide what objects have consciousness? We always tend to see consciousness from a human perspective associating it with subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and so on. How can we be sure that an inanimate object like stone does not have these attributes? Strictly speaking consciousness cannot even be defined because we can define things only in the realm of the known. But everything that is known is known only through consciousness and thus consciousness is outside the realm of the known.
We know that matter and energy are equivalent. Energy cannot be passive; in matter in any form elementary particles like electrons are in constant motion. When atoms combine to form molecules they exchange electrons. When an electron goes into an atom (or ion) it somehow knows which orbit it can enter, and which not. This is a fundamental principle that governs the structure of matter. It implies that the electron knows enough about the other electrons that are already there. And no known physical force is responsible for enforcing this behavior. It would seem therefore that elementary particles are in some way interconnected through consciousness. If consciousness manifests itself at this elementary level, it is reasonable to assume that it is present (as energy) in all forms of matter."
"In quantum physics there is also a phenomenon called 'phase entanglement'. Two particles having a common origin react to each other instantaneously irrespective of the distance and time separating them. If this idea is extended to objects, the interaction through the consciousness fields becomes understandable. The strength of the interaction would depend on that of the common bond at some point of origin in space-time however remote."
These are two very very small parts taken from articles. As I researched more and more, I began to understand my the things that I could do were not spirtual in nature, but they were caused by neurological, biological, and physical reactions that were beyond my control. However, when i discuss my "psychic abilities" which a Christian or engage them in a conversation concerning the physical and nervous and neurological aspects of this, they equate it with the occult and witchcraft. They condem me for something that I can not help and they condem others like me. I can not help the way I was born.
That is my big struggle with Christianity. How can I be part of a religion that condems me for something that I can not control, something that I was born being. In fact my empathic abilities are used most times to help people. I can feel another's pain and know what they experience so I can understand them. I can help them not feel so alone and soothe their pain.