so i started reading this thread a couple of days ago, and i must say, it takes a lot of patience and discipline to read 56 pages BEFORE saying anything! that being said, please bear with me while i try to respond to hundreds of posts and differing views all at once. i, for one, dont practice any particular religion, and i think i was able to escape childhood dogmatic brainwashing/programming as a result of religious curiosity mixed with feelings of trying to be 'duped' by the so-called 'church' but we wont get into that LoL. ok maybe for a second. i never felt that the bible was 100% true, so i started at a very young age to learn about different ways that people practice 'faith'. i have attended baptist, methodist, christian, catholic, and jehovah's witness churches (visiting each one more than 'just one time') and none of it felt right. so as a teenager i got bored with the whole god thing and read up on wicca as a solitary practitioner. i involved my best friend at the time, and mostly it was just reading about nature and safety spells and stuff like that. i lived across the street from a civil war period cemetary, and i kept having these scary incidences happen when i was home alone. being scared of what i cant see (aka DARK) since i was a kid, i turned to the protection spells, and needless to say, it worked. that particular incident is a very good story, so if anyone is interested in hearing it, let me know and i will post. when i was about 19 years old i came across 'journey of souls', a wonderful book written by a once-skeptic hypnotherapist who noticed that all of his patients were describing the same things whenever he asked them what happened to them after they died (the last life). so that got my mind into a spin. proof of heaven i guess is what i was looking for all along, so i got into buying books about spirituality and stuff. i wanted to know all about heaven and how it is set up. i wanted more than just 'be good AND do what i say, and you will go to heaven'.
i have read a lot about paranormal stuff, psychic stuff, and also ways that science discredits it all. however.... i think jpatt is right TO A CERTAIN DEGREE when he says that board experiences can be manifestations of our subconscious, and i will tell you why. i dont believe it's our SUB conscious, but rather our SUPERsubconscious, for lack of a better word. we have our awake consciousness(thats 1) our subconsciousness which does the dreaming(thats 2), and then we have the supersubconscious (3!) which i personally believe is our essence/soul AND shared energy/universal information pool (i hope this is making sense!). we already know that when we are dreaming, there is a point in time when we are in deep sleep, but not dreaming, and we are using the theta ( i believe, correct me if im wrong) brain waves, and THOSE are the brainwaves that science cant really explain. i guess i would call those waves the supersubconscious. now, IF this is all so, then what jpatt is saying tends to make sense, because we all have the ability to use those waves, and i must point out that those waves spike drastically in prayer and meditation. so MAYBE theta waves ARE the universal mind, and when using the board, you are tapping into that, and your brain helps you spell out the words that are coming to you. you dont have to be asleep to access theta waves..... it has been proven that deep inner reflection can get the motor running, so it only makes more sense that that is what is happening sometimes with the board. that in NO WAY implies that you are NOT indeed talking to spirits, because in my opinion, heaven/other side occupants MUST be in the universal circuit. where else can they be? so the supersub contacts a spirit, and your mind gets impressed (not as is 'cool man!") with the answer, then your brain makes the impulses to spell out the answers for you. i hope that made sense.
i believe the ouija board stories that iron posts, especially because of brian. autistics have probably the most rational, clean minds, minus the ability to exaggerate, embellish, and most importantly, lie. so when iron posts stories about HIM being blindfolded, and brian doing the board, i believe it THAT much more. someone PLEASE correct me if i am wrong, but didnt iron say that before he first met mommy, that he and brian did an hour long meditation for some sort of safety? it makes sense that he would get mommy, now doesnt it, given the explanation i just gave?
when it comes to the board, i think preparation is key, along with asking SPECIFIC questions. so silver, i hope you are reading this, because i have a few suggestions for you. just like iron does, make a welcoming inviting statement to the board, BUT just go a little further. i would say something like "greetings, we are physical/spiritual beings from earth, hoping to communicate with any beings of high intelligence/spirituality BUT WE ASK THAT ONLY BEINGS OF THE LIGHT COME THROUGH TO MAKE CONTACT WITH US." silver, i say that last part about the light because there are 2 types of entities. good and bad. dark and light. 'demons' would be dark. obviously. so if you do not want to deal with any, dont invite them. however, if you DO want to talk to demons, then simply ask for proection from the light beings against the dark while in communion with the board. i know it sounds silly saying that stuff outloud, but like many have said, its better to be safe than sorry, no matter how stupid u may feel in the process. we dont really know how it works 'over there' so that's what i would personally do. then again, i also believe that if you dont believe in demons, you wont get any. kinda like if your not scared of them then they cant hurt you.
i dont have a board, and i dont really remember anything of what happened when i used one as a kid, except the fact that one of my friends got scared and peed her pants. i DO however, have a severely ailing 96 y.o great grandmother who is quite literally on her death bed. i went to her last year on easter weekend, when her heart stopped and we all thoguht she was going to pass. there was no way i could let this angel go, without asking her the most important question i have ever dared to ask anyone in my whole life. and i knew she was the ONLY person i could/would ever ask. i had a very private conversation with her and i asked her 'nana, i know this may sound odd and uncomfortable to hear, but i want to talk to you about where you are headed' she said ok, so we got to talking about heaven and what it would be like for her there. she told me she wasnt scared, just sad to leave everyone behind. = ( i could sense that the time was right, so i then asked her. i said 'Nana, when you pass, will you promise me that you will find a way to contact me and let me know that there IS infact a 'somewhere else'?" she said yes, but i felt i had to take it a step further, having read AND seen 'what dreams may come'. 'Nana,' I said, "please dont give up on trying to contact me. i am open to you and always will be. dont listen to what other 'people' might tell you up there. i dont know how it works but if anyone tells you that i cant handle it or im not ready for it, or that its impossible, FIND A WAY NO MATTER WHAT.' she asked me why it was so important to me for her to contact me and i told her. "i want to help people, and i dont want to lie, like so many other people do" SHe smiled, squeezed my hand gently, then raised her babysoft hand to touch my cheek. Nana and my gram have always told me i was special and that one day i would know what that meant. my gram has been after me since i was a kid to be a model, but i never attend her modeling sessions that she mails to me for fear of someone telling me im not pretty enough, or my boobs are too small, or that im not tall enough, blah blah blah. so im a scaredey poop!! "Nana, i want to help people, and if you can do this for me, and you DO contact me, i will turn my life around and do what you and gram have been after me to do all my life". i know that probably doesnt mean squat to anyone reading this, but i have not had an easy life. a lot of struggles, but it all makes me who i am, i guess. but i love me, so no worries = ) so al that being said, im not going to say that im sitting around waiting for her to pass, but im not dreading it. we have a pact, a solid pact. there was more that we said, so i know that this woman is going to keep her end of the bargain. am i going to try and contact her via ouija board? maybe, i dont know. i told her it couldnt be a one-time comminucation thing. it had to be a recuring no mistakes about it thing. i made an example to her about coming to me in my dreams. i am 25 and i have NEVER had a dream about my nana, which i told her, and we came up with one way for her to contact me. i told her i would know it was her if she showed up more than 3 times in one week in my dreams. and if i smelled moth balls when none were present. j/k i threw that in there to see if you all were still following = )
as far as being born with mediumship or being able to develop it, i think both applies. if my theory presented above is true, (which science says we ALL access theta waves) then i dont see any reason why you cant develop the skill after time, with the right teacher/mentor. keep in mind though that the harder you try, the harder it is. LoL but a good way to tell if you can ever develop it or not i guess would be your success rate with the ouija board, does that make sense? considering that skeptics have a very hard time producing ANY results worth mentioning.... or even any at all.... im not saying you have to be a hard-core believer, maybe just being open to the possiblity that
things arent always what they seem (ie the UNIVERSE!!) is enough to crack open the door, so to speak. ...
QUOTE
I know that we found out a lot more about the Abode. I'll have to go back and find the session records. It's an extremely interesting place. It's run by a "staff" of beings that seem very human, and they wear uniforms, and stuff. They are like workers at a very expensive hotel. It's crazy. The clientele of The Abode are sort of "lost souls" I guess -- but there are also many other types there -- including some beings that don't really want to be there, and they are waiting for others to perform certain things and do stuff that will help them "graduate" from the Abode. Some beings are very irritated that they have to be in The Abode.
(ironghost)
ironghost, and fans of mommy, i have come across a place described exactly the way iron describes it, but it goes further. it's a 'heavenly rehab' type place that iron said, but it's also for those who had no faith while on earth. these are the people that always said 'you only have one life' and the die-hard athiests, and people who dont believe in reincarnation. for these people, they just stay there until they finally 'see the light' so to speak. they are cared for, and protected. the 'staff' are constantly trying to get them to see what they are missing by not believing.... divine intervention in the afterlife? LoL but that's basically it = ) so amiee probably went there to recoup after her extended stay in 'the land of the lost', and i'm betting that she didnt have to stay very long = )
(the ideometer effect.... is KIND OF what i was referring to in my explanation of how the board works, but i took it further. i must make that clear, because the ideometer explanation tends to rule out the possibility of it really being an entity)
ok well i believe i have said my piece! im sure i left a few things out, but i'll be checking in all the time here! i have had a BLAST reading this thread, and i sincerely hope it continues for another 57 pages! hopefully more!! iron, keep it coming!!!