Does God exist?

@statisticalpc: Thank god for fisting.

You're god damned right.

@nod_calypse: did your dmt-like experiences give you any insight into all this stuff and what you've been through?

No.

You read the Word, and meditate on it. And you pray, asking for insight. This is what grants insight.

@statisticalpc: Again, dude, I love you, and I'm praying for you. Dragging down God, or trying to, doesn't harm me, or Him, at all. It just makes me more concerned for you.

allright settle down your holiness.

just curious because dmt is renowned for its ability to seek out deep rooted traumas, surface them, help you confront them, understand and resolve them etc. surprised it didn't even touch upon any of that with you given what you posted but guess the nod works in mysterious ways

You don't understand my meaning, so, please, let me clarify.

I am not some estimable holy vessel. I'm just flesh and soul, like anyone else. I'm an absolute rag in the eyes of YHWH. Deserving of nothing special.

As for DMT, it is a crystallization, a convalescing agent produced within the pineal. Yes, I am well versed with the effects and ultimate conclusion of DMT isolation, ingestion, and processing. However, I do not touch the substance, radically synthesized, or derived, from any exterior source. It is a long, arduous subject. Breathing techniques can bring about a surge of DMT within the body, subjecting one to expansive, wholly perception-altering experiences.

Yeah, my dude, I've had those experiences. Many of them. It is only by the grace of God that I have come away with insight into their meaning. I could share some DMT visions with you, if you're game.

Nobody knows but we'll all find out.

Funny just the other day I heard there was a study suggesting we lack free will.

That'd mean we live in a deterministic universe.

We are all essentially products of our environment.

As your eyes gloss across my words of seemingly inconsequential fashion just the most subtle influences of them will reverberate through your entire life and could be the difference of you winning a lottery jackpot or going on a mass murdering rampage.

I don't believe in reincarnation, and yet, I do in fashion that if my "soul" were put in the same shoes as anybody else perhaps my life would play out the exact same way. I don't believe we live all live each others lives though, but we share an interconnectedness that must content with how we are so connected, an our individuality is shaped by that, how the best and worst of us are more connected than we realize into determonistic outcomes by the seeds of our existence.

Even if this was some enlightening moment it will be fleeting, and only achieved perhaps by the natural flow of a deterministic universe. But if you've made it this far into my diatribe, I wish you all the best outcomes in whatever chaotic unraveling it has on you for years to come.

Some of us already have. It's surprising, actually, the shift from belief to knowing, but not in the way you might think. It's way more subtle, in the moment, than people might expect. Though the implications, and what it does to your life, are anything but subtle.

I don't think God is something we can comprehend because until we discocer God, God has no shape, rather something we have to find ourselves, and something we shape. That is the gift of our lives, the opportunity to find and to aspire to something greater than ourselves, to discover meaning and in doing so make our lives meaningful.

I believe religion is all man-made but there still lies an essential drive to think bigger than ourselves, to find meaning, and to have a meaningful existence. So, I will not fault religion as misguided, but recognize it is idealism. Idealism isn't inherent on believing in divinity, but simply, believing in something beyond themselves. Both religious and atheists can be similarly driven to be moral, and both can twist meaning for more perverse purposes or misguided idealism.

Perhaps some people aspire to discover scientific inquiry to discover the mysteries of the universe, that quest of knowledge itself can be seen as an aspiration of great meaning, and give those who aspire to it meaningful lives, and perhaps with a grander meaning of that knowledge being beneficial toward mankind itself.

Religions often include religious codes that absent the divine aspects at their heart are about better living. To elevate mankind from our primal savagery to a more cultured awareness. There are codes to healthier living, social order, and under the right lens and reflection and action, are to the benefit of the practitioners, and the greater society. And that itself is thinking beyond yourself to aspire and protect something sacred greater than just ourselves.

But as the old saying goes, those that believe in nothing will fall for anything. And reflecting on that, I believe this is when the lost, people who haven't found God or an aspiration beyond just themselves, are searching for anything in their lives to give their existence meaning, to make their lives meaningful, and such people can end up down darker paths believing they are doing the right thing.

Perhaps with the subject of free will, it isn't so much choice of doing right and wrong, I believe all aspire to do right, but we rationalize what right and wrong is differently.

Thinking of that movie of Annihilation, that alien thing in the shimmer without shape, I think that as the essence of God. It doesn't take shape without an attempt to understand it or bond with it and its influence. To those in the shimmer who are dumbfounded by what they see, they are the lost, they are brought into shimmer as if being born, waking up to lost time, no idea how they got there, and are lost in understanding. The horror in being lost is their bodies and own DNA are changing due to the influences of life they're interconnected with and that horrified them, and they fear what they are, what they can become. Like the person who believes in nothing falls for anything, so too the shimmer can warp something without shape. Perhaps the most enlightened character was the one who understood what the shimmer offered, decided to go out into the field and meld with the grass and vines and flowers and thus become a part of it. Or perhaps she just went down the path of least resistance. And whether that outcome is good or bad is relative, after all, we shape our existences by finding meaning, aspirations, in efforts to find "God" through our own lens. This quest to find God can be both ugly and beautiful.

Often the religiously zealots are at odds with ideas of secularism. They see it as antithetical to their beliefs, whereas in terms of governance and social order and respect, it is a preservation of religious freedom, a chance for everyone to find that sacred path on their own. Even John Milton proposed religious morality cannot be compulsively imposed on the ruled, and is an affront to God's will that mankind to exercise free will. Contemporary social order respects this in secular society, religion that means to undermine the sanctity of secularism does not respect our God given gift to find God on our own terms. Because no one person has the answer, and there is no one answer, it's relative.

To throw one more movie analogy out, in Willow, the guy holds his hand out and asks which of his own fingers does their power to control magic come from, of course everyone takes the bait, even Willow, but he hesitated because he'll later say the answer he wanted to say that his own power came from his own fingers. And like that, so is finding God, it doesn't reside in an institution, it isn't dictated by edict, you don't achieve it by blindly following the orders of others who tell you what it is or how to get there.

@nod_calypse: "Some of us already have. It's surprising, actually, the shift from belief to knowing, but not in the way you might think. It's way more subtle, in the moment, than people might expect. Though the implications, and what it does to your life, are anything but subtle."

Having said that I'd be curious what you think of my second reflection.

Yes, yes, YES. Discover God, and you will know. But you won't know until you're knowing, as crazy as that sounds.

As to shaping God, definitely no. God has a shape, a form, a structure all His own, but it is limitless, and that is mystery. I'll tell you something. It is very simple. This is when I learned of God:

I was around six or seven, give or take. It is difficult to pinpoint age that far back. To that point, I had not thought of God, did not know Him, at least in a conscious manner. I stepped out of my childhood home one sunny day, and stood on the front lawn. I was alone. I looked up at the sky, big and blue. I felt something, a kind of cool warmth wash over me, which is of course contradictory, but nonetheless this is what I felt. I knew, somehow, that that feeling came from God, and from that point forward, I knew God is real. Nobody told me about God at that point in my life, or if they did, I didn't listen. Nobody, furthermore, told me what to make of that feeling. I just knew what to make of it. I knew.

I did, later, come to rebel against God. I became an occultist. I fashioned myself at odds with the creator. I fashioned myself as something worse, as well. But when I finally came back to God, it was that day in front of my house, that moment looking at the sky, that helped me most of all. I knew He spoke to me then. I always knew despite trying, at my very worst, to forget it. And when I came crawling back to God, He told me what I had been doing wrong, and what I am supposed to do going forward. He let me know with the surest of feelings that Christ is real, and that the Holy Spirit is real, and that if a person is to deny these things, or to accept their existence but reject them ultimately, then they are committing their soul to not only death, but something far worse than death. I rejected Christ for a long time; then I was shown the error of my ways, and I accepted Christ fully.

God is real. But you will not know that until you let Him in.

@nod_calypse: limitless might be a good reflection, and perhaps whatever God is speaks to everyone but like in an infinitely nuanced piece of poetry, meaning is interpreted in infinite ways, and the connections people make to God are personal and unique as making those nuanced connections infinitely interwoven in the pros of God's poetry.

Ferdinand de Saussure writings on semiotics essentially talk about how meaning of words and what they represent is social construction, words don't represent absolutes, and when people talk the intention of their meaning cannot absolutely be communicated by the speaker, and nor too understood by the listener, but it's a living thing, a constant back and forward.

People who read religious verse, some do it their whole lives, re-reading the same lines, constantly reflecting on it, finding new profound insights. People never have things 100% figured out, but they aspire to. A desire for absolution must first recognize that we are inherently flawed, and a constant strive for self betterment, reflection on our flaws. And like you said, God is infinite, and there to, so are the many ways people hear God's voice.

Probably an interesting movie to think of on this point is the film Mother, where the husband suffering writers block suddenly writes his magnum opus, whereby soon after his home is approached by waves of adoring fans touched by his words in the most profound way, and they come and come, a gathering becomes a house party, then a block party, then a warzone... and if someone watching this hasn't figured it out by now, the writer is God, and everyone loves his book, his word, his song, but everyone understands it differently, and that different understanding unfortunately leads to chaos and fighting.

Shin Megami Tensei games have a fascinating take on western spirituality, the God of the Abrahamic religions isn't as simple as good and bad. God is seen as a source of creation, of light and truth, of security, but also oppression, demanding allegiance. Whereas the forces of Satan and demons and such, they represent freedom, they represent strength and self determination, but also a world where strong prey on the weak. Humanity walks a tight rope between these two extremes, a victory of one over the other doesn't bode well for humanity. To know pleasure you must also know pain, know happiness to know sorrow, know love to know loneliness, know adversity to know accomplishment, etc etc. The most superficial sense, the yin and yang. Like in the Matrix they said they AI tried to make the Matrix a Utopia but people mentally/physically rejected it and it wouldn't take. Here too, how can humanity know good without the bad?

I don't believe in the eternal concept of reward and punishment, and if the afterlife exists, I believe it'll be some dance of the two extremes for eternity, after all, we can't experience the bliss of paradise without knowing its absense. Perhaps the next step isn't even the last step, perhaps the next threshold presents again, a new "the big question". If God is infinite, perhaps finding God is a journey without end.

😂

@nod_calypse: Funny, one of my earliest childhood memories is of me being overwhelmed by the beauty of a thunderstorm, while playing in the woods near home, and the idea that there was no god coming to my mind. Until this day I can feel the strength of that revelation in me.

And while in my day to day life that's not an issue that I think about, I can still trigger myself to connect to that revelatory moment. Usually I achieve it by looking at the night sky, seating by the sea or contemplating the landscape during a nature walk. It's like a form of meditation really, just losing myself, becoming part the universal process, mindless, moralless.

I guess in a way I found god by not finding him anywhere. Being free of guilt and sin is my greatest gift to myself.

@nod_calypse:

re: swapping dmt experiences, it's cool my friend, maybe another time. psilocybin is where it's at for me these days tbh

Hehe, alright homie, no problem. One reason I'm interested is there was this character I'd see a lot. Saw her so much, she invaded my dreams. Still pops up now and again to this day. Tall slender woman with super long black hair, like raven black, and a chalk-white face, angelically beautiful. Wondering if you had a similar encounter.

Anyway, take care out there in mushroom land.

@kathaariancode: Well, it comes down to wheat and tares. The wheat are the children of YHWH. The tares are the children of Satan.

You're either one, or the other, spiritually. Sounds like you made your choice.

But I still love you, and pray for you. Your salvation is important to me, dude. It is, ultimately, your choice, though, and I respect that.

@nod_calypse: I'm beyond that my dude. When you see it you know it, I hope you'll see it too someday because that is true salvation.

@kathaariancode: Like I said, you've made up your mind. I've been there, it's behind me. Whether we are mirroring one another in reverse organically, or not, is neither here nor there. God is ahead of you, regardless. You will stand before the throne, friend. On that day, all that you have said and done will be accounted for. I will go through the same. We all will.

@nod_calypse: You have to go beyond god, I didn't make up my mind things are what they are, hopefully one day you'll get there and save yourself from wasting your existence my friend. I still love you but you most go beyond the human construct that is god. Liberate yourself, become one.

Well, no, you did make up your mind, however the thing is, you don't realize this. We so often know not of our ways, of our doings. If we did, we would never require the journey to God. We would be at the destination from the start, as that would be the only sane choice.

I was exactly where you are. Not kind of, not similarly, but exactly. I read different words, thought in ways you are not thinking, pondered in many others, but it boils down to the same thing. This was when I was around fifteen, sixteen. The Enochian keys were my thing. The language of Nephilim is wrought with puzzles, and I could not get enough of it. Occultism engrossed me. The mystery schools, the regurgitated edicts of Blavatsky, Crowley, etc, onward to Thelema--all of these pillars of the hidden hand say the same thing, which is the construct, the construct, the construct, liberation, Lucifer, yada, yada, ad nauseum. I was one of them. I wrote manifestos to this end, endlessly. I had one on my bedroom wall. Freaked my mom right the eff out. I carried these endeavors up through adulthood.

Then I called on Christ in my moment of need, unexpectedly. Logically, even scientifically, certainly empirically, I was given undeniable, if subjective, proof. I'm not proud of needing it to go that far, but nonetheless, I am thankful. Profoundly thankful.

God does not confine, but liberates. Sin confines; unbelief, in all its mental gymnastic forms, does the same. God frees you from the pull of sin, from the gravity of rebellion. When you walk in His ways, you are truly happy because you are the embodiment of constant fulfillment. You, yourself, speak of one, but fail to see that God is one. Truth is one, and truth is God, and God is truth. There are no two ways about it.

There is a reason when Jesus asked the unclean spirit its name, it replied, "My name is Legion: for we are many." God is I AM. Legion, pure evil, is We Are. This is because God is ONE. Legion is MULTIPLICITY. The many rebel against the ONE.

Meditate on that, for a start. It has the potential to be a big stepping stone.

Short answer is no.

@nod_calypse: You just need to know, really know. You're just a servant now, you must go beyond and become It, become one. You'll never know peace, freedom and salvation until you really understand this.

You were never where I'm at brother. You were tormented, what you describe from your past tells me you were never here, never near, you were always the servant. Now I can still feel the unrest in your words, the seek for judgement, the fear of punishment.

I want you to know that there's a place beyond what you know. And I hope you find that peace. Meditate on that. Seek to become It.

@kathaariancode: Then why do you keep coming back here? I'm where I'm at, and I'm never turning back. You are where you are, and that is your decision.

What are you trying to accomplish in this thread? Something keeps bringing you back.

@nod_calypse: It's called a forum. People write stuff, share ideas. We're all here my dude.

Okay, sure. But that doesn't address the fact that you've not illustrated your position. At most, you've vaguely echoed what certain others have said in here, with no branching for originality, evidence of gestation, etc. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, dude. I have no reason to believe, thus far, that you have any sound philosophy. You've produced no works, no marination, and, again, no conclusive gestation. You've only mirrored, and to the thinnest of degrees, at that. Throw in a bunch of vagaries about broken chains, and quasi-illumination, and voila, your entire worldview in a nutshell.

For instance. Have you taken in Cosmogenesis? Anthropogenesis? The fallen doctrine of the Mithraists? Do you even know what these things are? Morals and Dogma? Anything pertaining to what you are talking about? These collectively are the cornerstone of Fallen doctrine, which is your talking point, and yet you don't expound, or even show relational understanding in that area, let alone with any specific work, to any extent. The liberation of the Morning Star entirely encompasses everything you've said, but could you dissect the internals of such? Even a single organ? I mean, come on, you could at least share the shedding of your Bodhi tree.

@nod_calypse: I'm very interested in cosmology in general as I'm also fascinated by Darwin's work. Wonderful portals to a deeper understanding no doubt. But ultimately irrelevant as my revelation came before any intellectual or spiritual explorations. What came after, were years of exploration that led me to where I've been for near two decades now.

But I do know a troubled soul when I see one and that's why I want you to know that I love you and that's possible to go beyond. It doesn't change the fact that you're already part of it, but the shift to understand it and go beyond god is possible. You are not a servant of It, you are It. You are the universe awaking from its long slumber.

There's no place for punishment, damnation, judgement, fear or sin here, that's the mental hell you built for yourself.

Please understand, I seek not to explain myself nor convert you. I just want to know that there's place that is beyond.

That has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm referring to. You're talking framework, execution. Years of exploration in what? Where have you been for two decades?

What are you about? Other than evolution and "It"? Dude, you don't even know what cosmic genesis is, let alone its chronology, and yet you are here talking about it. God is not a shattered mirror, though that belief is certainly passed around, if most popularly in the late 1800s.

Again:

Have you taken in Cosmogenesis? Anthropogenesis? The fallen doctrine of the Mithraists? Do you even know what these things are? Morals and Dogma? Anything pertaining to what you are talking about? These collectively are the cornerstone of Fallen doctrine, which is your talking point, and yet you don't expound, or even show relational understanding in that area, let alone with any specific work, to any extent.

@nod_calypse: You have to realise that this goes beyond Judeo-Christian phantasies, and that while you're trapped in such human concepts you'll be forever trapped in that loop of fear, sin and punishment. I can see that me being beyond that sphere somewhat frustrates you, but again, I seek not to convert you nor to explain myself. That's pointless, I'm just telling you that the room you're at has a door that can be opened yet.

I could tell you where my early years were spent, church, bible, freemasons, brahman, luciferism, etc. But all that would be pointless because it's all an illusion, fairytales. Outdated tools that won't open the door. My revelation didn't came prepackaged.

The important is that I love you and you love me.

Dude, I'm not even talking about Judeo-Christian anything at this point.

You've answered nothing, and have shown no understanding of Mystery doctrine, Fallen doctrine...anything of that nature, really. You speak of chain releasing, shackle unbinding, but could not begin to explain to me the nature of Theo, emanationist cosmology, the works of Henry Olcott, William Judge, etc. Why can't you unveil Isis? Who is Isis? Who are you? These are the principles, but you've not gone there in a single syllable. You mentioned the FMs, at least. I guess that's something: so, what's the difference between the fourth degree, and the thirty-fourth book of the Death?

Your revelation? Really? You've been spouting half-conceived 33rd degree pamphlet literature.

Well, okay. I'll leave it. No point. Got a kid to put to bed.

Have a good one. And yeah, I love you too. Really. Hope the best for you and yours.

@nod_calypse: Of course you're talking about Judeo-Christian "something", but you keep mentioning the bricks of your prison as if it was my duty to try to tear them down when I've told you several times already that's not my intention. You might as well throw Star Wars lore at me, the thing about our own prisions is that only we can touch their walls. I'm just telling you that there's something beyond that, something that frees you from fear, sin and judgement. A path to mental health.

I'm not here to end your agony or kill your demons. There's no lore dump that can set you free.

@kathaariancode: Lol, okay, dude. Well, don't take this as an antagonism, because that's definitely not my intent, but you're the quintessential example of someone raised on the internet, and taking their spiritual advice therefrom. I mean, you don't even know that we've branched the conversation into theosophy, spiritism, universal IQ, thelema, etc.--literally the cornerstone opposite of Christianity. You don't know these things because you haven't ingested the essential writings. You speak of oneness, but can't recount the pillars. You don't even know what they are.

To say the very least, you can't expect to stay afloat in this area without having perused any of the literature. And yes, I've been there, not in the lack of reading territory that you're in, but conceptually. Back in the early 2000s I was puffing trees, going around believing I was a shard of universal intelligence. I would have spouted to anyone requesting that the essence has no interest in the personality, and looks the other way, so to speak, until we awaken from our follies. Harmonious adjustments with finer planes of consciousness; no one breaking the law, but the law breaking them. No punishment, but punishment punishing unaccountably nonetheless: the concept of it. Obeying nature's laws, befriending them. The parallel lines of being, the laws of being, observing that staying on the road and losing awareness of their existence is folly to the utmost. Believing that when we lose our true center, we strike against the walls, saying we've broken a law because we feel we are suffering. And all this to strive toward that shard awakening, that piece of the Eternal--I myself the Universe, and all around me awakening, UNIVERSE. WE, UNIVERSE.

*cue in fart sound*

So, yeah. That was me. But not anymore. Please do not take any of what has passed between us as a motivation to delve into the occult, or to explore thelema (the "Love", love under will, love is the law, which you are already unwittingly exploring), theosophy, pseudo-brahman Supreme Self counter-culture mishmash, etc. I suggest only, simply, that you call on the Holy Spirit, which is to say, that you call on God, and ask Him for guidance; the Holy Spirit will guide.

The hope is that I've planted a seed. You're slumbering, dude, and really, really deeply. I was there. The universe is not conscious. You do not awaken as the eternal, you do not reclaim your Supreme Self, or your supreme anything, but rather God awakens in you your thirst for actual truth. And hopefully that thirst leads you to Him, eventually.

I pray for you, I love you, and wish you well. Have a great day.

@nod_calypse: Nothing antagonic in your fantasies and projection. I know that fear and left it behind me long ago.

lol. Read some more of this extremely stupid thread, and apparently "subjective proof" is a thing, and gay sex is evil.

Hardcore christians make me lmfao so hard.

Fantastic contribution. Well thought out. Truly nuanced take.

Thank you! But I truly don't think christians deserve more.

No problem!

AKA: You have nothing more to give.

Well, I could go into detail of how much of a fucking asshole most christians are.

Like acting like a shitload of people, who have done absolutely nothing wrong, are "evil" because of their sexuality. Wtf is that even? Like.. **** off, you pieces of shits?

Uh huh.

Absolutely stunning structural analysis.

Oh, you have nothing more to give?

I am positively awestruck. Speechless.

lol, idiot.

Another gem. Absolutely dynamic.

@nod_calypse: Why are you talking to me if you have nothing to say? What is the point?

Guess you just want to piss me off? How very christian of you.

Well, I'd like to say that I love you.

Good for you, or something. I would like to rid the world of your shit.

Okay. Well, have a wonderful day. I wish you and yours only the best.

@nod_calypse: Yeah, you obviously really don't want to talk about what I brought up. Much easier that way.