[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by John Freestone

I wouldn't advise anyone just try "going into alpha", let alone manifest their desires or expect good things to happen to them as a result. For a start, meditation teachers usually advise people to check with a doctor before starting.

So are you advising the opposite? Are you advising to not meditate at all? I would think you'd be into real benefits of relaxation. Surely there's science in that. Oh, that's right you do agree with the body mind connections...

Secondly...well, it's a big secondly...but there are potential pitfalls in the manifestation practices. Things are not always what they seem. The mind is a little trickster. Getting free of prejudice is a wonderful opportunity, but I don't think it comes to those who stop having opinions.

Perhaps this is the same thing I say about coming from the ego with our desires. We "think" we know what we want, what will make us happy. But maybe we have prejudice about that because it's our ego wanting more and more. We decide that getting so and so will make us happier or be cool to have or be a fun thing, when we don't really know that getting such and such will being happiness. We ignore the evidence that "things" or particular life situations may not be how to become whole again. It's our mind being a trickster.

For me, all this IMing is about getting to the root desire. Which is keeping me busy since really it's a wonderful life anyway. What else do I really want? I just go back to why do IM anyway? Or I start to fall back into bad habits and think, oh I need to use IM now. But that is falling into feeling lack about life and then thinking I know what will fix that.

I have never argued a radically intellectual philosophy, and see a great deal of usefulness in balance. It is good to suspend judgement and thought, I just think that ALG is offering a very one-sided approach: don't think, just follow my instructions and try it out for yourself. That might seem innocent to some people - after all, if you don't like it you can stop again.

But can you? What if deciding not to test anything anymore is seductive, even addictive? It wouldn't be too far fetched. If practice requires you to not test things rationally, but just believe and trust, that might become habitual to some extent and interfere with your assessment of whether you feel you should give it up again. If not a one-way trapdoor, it seems, potentially, like a slippery slope.

I see that too. Then also what about how many have worked on IMing at some level that just breeds more frustration and then more lack and then more feelings that make them want IM to work to try to get rid of that lack, again.

But then, what would happen if we sat down, became meditative, conjured up peace feelings by imagination? But didn't expect that particular imagination to occur in real life - that it's just a vehicle to find peaceful feelings and get that into the body? Now how would you test this? It would not have to be tested because while you are feeling peace you have it with you. You are generating peace by doing this. Is there any prejudice here? Is there some dangerous assumption going on that might create less peace?

Ah, but I'm not expecting anything other than more peace in my life. Which, I am actively putting into my body during the meditation anyway. But, maybe I would expect that state to spill into my day - because it does. Doing a meditation and generating peace as a focus also sets my habits in that direction and it will become my way of being normally more and more. Maybe this isn't IM. But this is part of what the IMers suggest to do as a method. Meditate and generate the feeling state of your intentions.