Oprah's ugly secret

[Angela]

Woweee!! When is your book going to come out? Your story inspires me.

Thanks for this:

Originally Posted by Praxislife

People ended up in front of me that I learned from (understand that there were negative people also, I chose not to buy into their negativity) I acted on the things that moved me closer to my desires.

The issue of trust is something that I've been wrestling with, and so of course my buttons get pushed by remarks and arguments that seem intended more for tearing down than for mutual support or understanding. I've been surprised lately to be seeing so much of that around here, where I would least have expected it. Then again, I'm attracting it, so I must take responsibility for it. As you so saliently reminded me, though, I don't have to choose to buy into it! Perfect timing. I appreciate it.

[renie408]

Originally Posted by Lucas

It's not a flaw in my logic because you don't happen to subscribe to it. It just doesn't work in your map of reality. And when I say we choose to have a certain human experience I don't mean that we look at a possible human venue and see it all mapped out. Not "Oh I am going to be born here because I will be raped and killed", rather the fact that it is a possibility and you attract those experiences you want to have. While it is tragic, it all makes up the human experience, because the fact is we do have free will, which is the same thing that makes saints as well as child rapists. People seem to want to deny the duality of it all and have only one side. There can't be one without the other, which is why in even in the most successful and happy persons life there is tragedy at one point or another. The beauty is that it is just a human experience, one of many you can choose to have throughout your infinity. While it may be uncomfortable, and a little morbid, they are all still experiences. I am sure you can think of myriad times you came out of a horrible experience a stronger and better person.

Not at all, where did you get that idea? A child is defenseless, regardless of what it was before it was born, and to prey upon that innocence is quite disgusting. However, you chose what life experience you wanted, so you cannot blame outside forces for what happens in your life.

I didn't say it was a flaw in logic because I disagree with your premise. I said it was a flaw in logic because, as it was written, it was flawed logic. Read it. Does the second one make sense? I understand your point as you have rewritten it and while I do not precisely agree, it makes sense.

[Vicariously Yours]

I am grateful to you for taking your time in leaving this blog. Yours is one of the truly sane, calm voices here, and I learn a lot any time I read any of your thoughtful responses. I hope you continue to drag your feet somewhat as you leave...

I recall a brief passage from one of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' last books, and it has served me well over the years to keep in mind. As you might recall, Kubler-Ross began her career from a purely clinical standpoint, preferring to objectively observe and record the impressions of people as they experienced their own deaths. Obviously, she wasn't too successful staying strictly clinical, and she eventually entered her "new-agey" phase, convinced that the soul is eternal and that we are far more than our bodies. Kubler-Ross tells the story of a conversation she claims to have had with a nonphysical being she describes as one of her guides. The guide told her, "When I’m born again to a human body, I want to die of starvation as a child." Never one to believe in the ennobling effects of suffering, Kubler-Ross responded with brutal frankness: "You choose to be born to die of starvation!? What kind of idiot are you?" To which her guide remarked, with great love: "Elisabeth, it would enhance my compassion."

The point is clear: we all choose our experiences, and all of our experiences have divine value. Period. From the supposed beginning of our lives until the very (supposed) end. Which means that, yes, the Jews did ask for (and receive) the Holocaust. I was tempted to say, sorry about that, but I am not. Read the Abraham-Hicks material (or the Seth material, or Conversations with God, or any of hundreds of other texts on the subject), and it will tell you that we all have set the circumstances of our own deaths. Shall we be sorry for that? Rape victims (and I can, in a fashion, include myself in this category, so I know of which I speak) did ask for (and receive) their rapes. Starving children asked for (and received) their god-awful conditions (are we really so naive as to believe that the infant is just some mindless thing without a guiding "higher self" who knows, in glorious detail, everything that's going on?) And Bill Gates asked for (and received) his billions of dollars. I'm sorry that some (if not most) people can't or won't accept this. They prefer to relinquish their responsibilities and blame others whom they perceive as outside their control. It's simpler that way, I guess, just floating along, experiencing "by default" rather than with conscious intent.

Unfortunately, these same people will never be able to improve their lot in life, simply because they don't believe they can. Worse, they can't even bring themselves to "pretend" the LoA might work, as you have suggested. Too bad.

I many years ago subscribed to the notion that God is the All That Is. Meaning, there is nothing (and nobody) that is not God. Read this again: there is nothing that is not God. Now, if one subscribes to that notion, how then is it possible to believe that anything happens by chance? How is it possible for one part of God to be (genuinely) ignorant of, or at odds with, another part of God? How is it possible to view any of the horrible things that are happening in this world as anything other than an elaborate game, a cosmic theater production we (as parts of God) have constructed for our own amusement and/or instruction?

And how is it possible to believe that we are not, ourselves, parts of God who share in all the power and creativity that that implies???

"...it would enhance my compassion." I love that.

[renie408]

Originally Posted by Vicariously Yours

The point is clear: we all choose our experiences, and all of our experiences have divine value. Period. From the supposed beginning of our lives until the very (supposed) end. Which means that, yes, the Jews did ask for (and receive) the Holocaust. I was tempted to say, sorry about that, but I am not. Read the Abraham-Hicks material (or the Seth material, or Conversations with God, or any of hundreds of other texts on the subject), and it will tell you that we all have set the circumstances of our own deaths. Shall we be sorry for that? Rape victims (and I can, in a fashion, include myself in this category, so I know of which I speak) did ask for (and receive) their rapes. Starving children asked for (and received) their god-awful conditions (are we really so naive as to believe that the infant is just some mindless thing without a guiding "higher self" who knows, in glorious detail, everything that's going on?) And Bill Gates asked for (and received) his billions of dollars. I'm sorry that some (if not most) people can't or won't accept this. They prefer to relinquish their responsibilities and blame others whom they perceive as outside their control. It's simpler that way, I guess, just floating along, experiencing "by default" rather than with conscious intent.

Well, if it is as clear as all that, then it must be so. Silly me for having doubts. It is, after all, crystal clear.

Look, it is clear TO YOU. This is YOUR truth. It isn't mine. If it works for you, cool. It doesn't work for me. And oddly enough, I happen to think there is some middle ground between "holocaust victims brought that on themselves" and "relinquishing all of my responsibilities and blaming others". You know, you can relinquish SOME things. Like natural disasters. Just what do you think caused the cataclysmic natural events which occurred on this planet before there was life here?? Who manifested THAT?

[Vicariously Yours]

Don't know. Don't particularly need to know (not that I could). The point is, do I or do I not participate in that cataclysmic event? I happened to be in California when the tsunamis hit the far east. Meaning that I (on a higher level) did not choose to die in that fashion. I can, instead, have chosen to die by a building falling on me when the big earthquake eventually hits. Doesn't matter, does it? If you look at life as an eternal adventure, what does it matter the methods we choose to move from room to room, from lifetime to lifetime?

I agree with you...my way of thinking isn't for everyone, and I'm okay with that. I can't say your point of view is wrong, and in fact it is as valid as my own. Mine is simply a belief system that gives me great comfort...knowing (or at least believing) that I have some control over what goes on in my life. I look around me and I see evidence (yes, I am aware, it is not proof) to support my point of view. I offered it here because I thought my particular perspective might give someone else a little hope, too.

Cheers to you, Renie.

Bill

[renie408]

Originally Posted by Vicariously Yours

I agree with you...my way of thinking isn't for everyone, and I'm okay with that. I can't say your point of view is wrong, and in fact it is as valid as my own. Mine is simply a belief system that gives me great comfort...knowing (or at least believing) that I have some control over what goes on in my life. I look around me and I see evidence (yes, I am aware, it is not proof) to support my point of view. I offered it here because I thought my particular perspective might give someone else a little hope, too.

Cheers to you, Renie.

Bill

Thank you, Bill.

I don't think there IS a universal 'right'. Without definitive proof, we are all trying to fit our experiences, our understanding and our basic natures into our personal spirituality. What is clear to you isn't so much so to me and vice versa. But yours to you and mine to me. As long as it works for us and doesn't hurt anybody else, that's what matters.