Do you believe in spirits?

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Totally agree!

Last night I encountered the spirit of Jim Beam...

I invoke the spirit of my Old Grand Dad all of the time.

If Yukon Jack appears you can expect projectile vomiting and the head spins to occur later.

I did as a child, and as a young adult. I was steeped in a culture and belief system that fully accepted without proof that each person had some non-corporeal, eternal component that was the essence of that person. Then when my oldest child was diagnosed I began to really dig into neurology and consciousness and how we process and store sensory input (and sensory feedback, and...). And I found that although not everything is known yet, enough is solidly known to be able to safely assume that there is not such eternal, non-corporeal component to a person. We are the aggregate of our neural functioning at any given moment.

There was a time, lasting many hundreds of years, when the mainstream culture believed and assumed without a doubt that irrational (non-provable) essences existed and were as much a part of our world as we are. That was also when people with autism, epilepsy, bipolar, schizophrenia and other non-typical neural functioning were burned at the stake or thrown into Bedlam for not conforming to neurotypical expectations of behavior.

What seems to come front and center, in any system I've studied, is balancing of the four internal elements. Putting that in more lay/secular terms it's recovering the subconscious from the animal or really humanizing it to work seemlessly or hand-in-hand with the conscious mind and with far less friction rather than the usual lot people get which is having to fight tooth and nail with all kinds of intrusive urges, all the time, that both exhaust them and limit their capacity to really be at their best in a gainful manner.

It's to that last point that I think esotericism/occultism offers a much more well-constructed approach that modern psychology has brought forward to date and even for a reductive materialist it's a very healthy, vibrant, and alpha baby in the bathwater - not one they'd want to throw away. Really its one of the best way forward if we don't want a society that's filled with people trying making up the cognitive dissonance by being an SJW, a member of one self-elevated victim group or another, etc. etc.. We have all kinds of internal resources and the dominant culture seems to strongly discourage people from using their own internal resource wisely. It's almost as bad at times as if to say 'better to light a candle than to curse the darkness' is a minion phrase in favor of the bad 'ol status quo rather than an equilibrated path forward.

Putting it in pseudo-scientific psycho-babble ...

It's cute the way believers throw around these terms as if they actually mean something. It's even more adorable when believers get together and pretend to accomplish something with their alleged "talents" while name-dropping their favorite spiritual hucksters leaders and playing "Can You Top This" with their alleged spiritual anecdotes.

But what's really funny (in a sad way) about Spiritualism is that they only things accomplished by going through such ritualistic indoctrination so as the Golden Path, the Enochian Teachings, and other such nonsense is the brainwashing of more converts to the Spiritualist belief system.

It's all just another form of the Roman Catholic Church, but without priests, popes, or Jesus.

I've gone a little while without saying this, but I'm going to say it now.

Fnord, I'm tired of your constant antagonizing of other people's faiths and beliefs. Didn't your mama ever teach you that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all? You clearly have no decency and no respect. I don't care what condition you have your why you're on this forum in the first place, or even how long you've been here. You're kind of a huge jerk.

Sorry, mods, if you see that, and I'm sorry if I'm banned or whatever for saying this, but I'm really, honestly freaking sick of all his ridicule.

And as a note, Enochian magick is not a belief system. It is a magickal system. There are no dogmatic principles within it, therefore never being tied to any kind of church. I do not have a spiritual leader. That's why I can worship Lucifer and work with Enochian angels at the same time.

Slow down here... that there be a man who be a Materialist. Just like Haters will be Haters, the same with how Skeptics will be Skeptics, and you should try Studying them instead of becoming an Organic-Portal.

I apologize for my outburst.

My spirituality is very important to me, and I simply wanted to make that apparent. (Even my career centers around metaphysics. I'm quite serious about it.) It's like saying to a person who is clearly madly in love with another person, "Your romantic interest doesn't really love you. It's all a lie."

I grew quite excited when I saw some conversations starting about spirituality, because it's a strong point in my life that I can bounce on and offer my input. You must understand I just came directly from a close-knit metaphysical community where everyone believes similarly. It's still quite surprising to me to see other people hate and ridicule people's lifestyles and beliefs simply because they don't personally jive with it.

The comments, in my opinion, were snarky and belittling to something I take very seriously (and yes, make a living from), and I snapped.

The thread is "Do you believe in spirits?" not "Aren't all those spiritual people just absolute psychos?" :/

I just quoted the only part of that last post that had any worthwhile content.

Not a problem, for I study a lot of so-called Abnormal-Psychology, and have done much learning of documented research in Para-Psychology, too. I may not necessarily go into details of my own experiences with psychic-phenomenon but will just point out that some people have lower sensitivity levels to being able to see or perceive that of which may come across as obvious to another. Cats can see light-frequencies that are invisible to humans, dogs can hear sound-frequencies that are silent to humans, but humans themselves are an anomalous phenomenon, such that some humans may feel the emotional-frequencies that others cannot;

You should be familiar with Chakras by now so just consider how the world is perceived by those whose every single chakra may be closed. I actually now have a lot more technological-vocabulary available to me to describe para-normal or spiritual-phenomena these days but the vocabulary I use is usually dependent upon my audience (why I am reminding you of chakras). Not everybody is ready to receive the new information, some concepts may be beyond another individual's current mental-capacity to either understand or accept, then there are belief-systems, but in the case of the majority of subscribers to the materialism-philosophy, more like disbelief-systems... they are systematic after all ! ;o (I can link you many articles/documents that have studied them by the way)

You're definitely right. And very eloquently put! And yes, I am familiar with chakras. XD That does make an awful lot of sense when you put it that way. I'm going to have to remember that for next time someone offers opposing ideas, haha.

Lol, organic-portal.

Do you call anyone who does not kow-tow to your belief system "a huge jerk"? Do you insult them and their mothers, as well? Were you expecting heaps of praises for having fallen for a belief system based solely on imaginary forces and anecdotal accounts? Do you want nothing other than to surround yourself with people who agree with everything you say, not matter how non-sensical it may seem? Are these what Spiritualism is all about?

I've been a member of the Spiritualist movement. My grandmother founded a branch of the Spiritualist Church. Two of my cousins are now ordained ministers within that church. I worked as a Supporting Deacon, and was ordained as a Working Missionary of that same church. I have performed readings of clients "for recreational purposes only" in exchange for monetary "love gifts" to the church.

... so I know exactly how empty and misleading the claims of the Spiritualist movement really are.

I will share what I know wherever I can so that no one else has to endure the same lies and deceptions that turned me off to spiritualism and religion in general.

The topical question of this thread is "Do You Belive In Spirits?" I am answering not only that question, but any question as to 'Why'; but I refuse to call anyone a 'jerk' for their beliefs.

That's all great, just that LittleLu is a private practicing Luciferian and I study Hermetic philosophy.

Also, if you were touched inappropriately in any way by these people there are places you can go for help.

It wasn't a matter of your beliefs here. The way your worded your previous comment made it sound like belittling. It is OKAY to disagree with people. People disagree with me about what I believe every single day. But that DOES NOT give you free access to insult them.

I am sorry that you had a bad time with your previous spirituality. And I am sorry for calling you a jerk. I'm simply bothered with the fact that you are so adamant to call something I deem clearly serious in my life "cute" in such a demeaning manner as well as calling my practices "funny in a sad way." I may have many accusations and angry insulting things to say to the members of the Christian churches who have hurt me in the past, and even to atheists, but I would never say it out loud or write it out, let alone call their talk "psycho" even if I knew them personally.

Kind human beings show respect instead of attempting to make waves. Let's just put it that way.