Tag: view

A big fan of angels.

This post is part two of a recent post. If you haven’t read that one, this one won’t make much sense, so I am reblogging it here. Feel free to catch up on that one and come back here.

What exactly is a soul?

I talk to God a lot, and sometimes he answers my prayers, but not always. I honestly didn’t expect him to answer this one at all. I didn’t know how such an answer would even be delivered. I never heard the loud voice of God booming out of the heavens or anything, so I assumed it might be in a subtle sort of way. Honestly though, it wasn’t very subtle.

After reading the previous post, you might think I received an odd message that I needed to interpret, like what happened in another dream I had. That’s not exactly how the answer came to me though. It was a pretty direct message honestly. No need to decipher it, and possibly get it wrong. It also wasn’t exactly a dream. In fact, I don’t even recall having a dream that night.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I was awakened by something in my room. When I opened my eyes, it became apparent that someone in the room had wanted me to awaken. On the right side of my bed was a wall with a window, and a pale light streamed in from the streetlamps outside, but there was empty space at the foot of my bed. This space wasn’t unoccupied at the moment though. I could make out two figures at the foot of my bed, and another figure standing on my left side. You would think it would be very frightening to awaken to three figures surrounding your bed, but they didn’t evoke any kind of fear in me.

From what I remember, they were all dressed in long white robes that appeared slightly luminescent. I did not feel like they were of this world. They seemed like angels to me, but they didn’t have wings or halos or anything. They did have a warm feeling to them though. It was almost like goodwill was emanating from them. It made me feel very calm. I also had this feeling that I was in the presence of great wisdom, like they knew all the answers.

The one standing to my left started speaking to me. He said, you asked about your soul, and I am here to answer your questions. Your soul is a spirit, and spirits are made of ideas. After this message, they remained for a few minutes, telling me many other things. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the rest of what they said very well. Maybe it didn’t make sense to me at the time.

As I was listening to the one on my left, I noticed his speech began to gradually take on the sound of a loud hum. This hum sound grew until his words were no longer discernible. As this was happening, his body and robe seemed to fade away, and a new object started to materialize right before my eyes. This new object was a big electric fan sitting on a chair beside my bed, and the hum was merely the sound made by its motor and blades spinning at high speed.

When their presence was completely gone, I found myself wide awake and staring at this noisy fan. This direct move from sleep to waking state with my eyes open really made me question whether it was a dream or something else. I think this may have been my first visit to the place that exists somewhere between reality and dream.

As I sat there staring into that fan, my worldview began to change. It all started to make sense to me. God knew I was struggling to keep a worldview with him in it, but my logical mind just couldn’t figure it out. My thinking was too focused on the material because science is completely materialistic. The explanation was right in front of me now. I am not made of flesh and blood. I am made of something immaterial. I am made of ideas.

I also began to realize how much your worldview affects how you interpret reality. For instance, I could have seen these visitors as ghosts, not angels. I could have chosen to ignore them altogether and just say it was a strange dream. I might also say that the revelation was just my subconscious mind trying to satisfy me with an answer.

I believe how I interpreted this event is accurate for me, but I realize that many of you will read this story through the lens of your own worldview, and that’s fine. For me though, these were words of comfort that allowed me to keep my faith and better understand myself and the reality around me.

Have you ever awakened in a state somewhere between dream and reality? Do you think this was some sort of vision? Have you ever considered how materialistic our thinking is today? How do you think your own worldview affects how you see reality?

What exactly is a soul?

Many years ago, I was faced with a trial of faith, and this is how it ended, or should I say began.

As far back as I can remember, I was a child with a great sense of wonder. My curiosity about this universe stretched from the tiniest atom to the distant stars many light years away. I wanted to know about everything in creation and understand it completely.

Unfortunately, being a young kid didn’t allow me to investigate everything on my own, so I had to rely on the works of the many scholars and scientists who had lived before me. This caused me to spend quite a lot of my time reading encyclopedias and other non-fiction books. Basically, my intense desire for knowledge drove me to read a lot and become something of a science nerd.

As I have mentioned before, I was also a child with a very strong belief in a higher power. This was not just something taught to me, but something I felt deep within me. As my knowledge of science grew through reading and study, it was inevitable that I would eventually run headlong into the atheistic world view promoted by many prominent scientists.

I knew in my heart that God was real, but science did not, and so a deep rift began to form between my mind and my heart, and I didn’t really know how to get past it. Should I abandon my faith and accept the scientific worldview? That just didn’t feel right to me. I wasn’t sure I could even picture my life without God in it. This inability to harmonize my belief in God with my love of science troubled me for many years. The best I was able to do was flip back and forth between worldviews, depending on what I was studying.

Then sometime in my late teens, I was vexed with an odd question right before bedtime. The question was a simple one, but I didn’t really know the answer. I had heard the term soul used a lot in religion, but I honestly didn’t quite understand what it was. At the time, I honestly considered a soul to be something like a ghost. Unfortunately, my scientific mind had trouble believing in something like that. Is it like in Ghost Buster’s? Is there some sort of etheric or ectoplasmic thing inside me that is my real self? Does it ooze out and carry me away with it when I die and become my new body?

God, what exactly is a soul?

I could have pondered this question for years to come, but for some reason I took a very different approach that night. I thought if there was one person who might know what a soul actually was, it would be the one who created it. God would be the one to ask, so I did just that. That night, as I closed my eyes and prayed to God, I asked him a very simple question. I said, God, what exactly is a soul?

Have you ever asked God a question? Were you also a science nerd? What is your worldview? Do you find yourself flipping back and forth between worldviews? Are you atheistic, agnostic, or religious?

Think about it.

Thinking is actually hard to do, so much so that a lot of people avoid it. Instead of thinking, they use their learning to short circuit the need to use their thinking mind. This works great for a lot of things, but it does get in the way when you really need to think about something.

It is also the leading reason why people get into a rut. They have already learned something, so they don’t need to think about it anymore, or they have been trained to think in a certain way at an early age, and don’t recognize that they never really considered another viewpoint. This usually causes considerable confusion when the person runs into someone who was taught something totally different.

My challenge to you is the next time someone tells you something, fully investigate and think about what they are telling you. Often what people really want is for you to think like them. If everyone thinks like them, then they won’t have to change their thinking. Things will just stay the way they always were. See how this is problem? Laziness in thinking can create a very stagnant society. Also, every now and then, try and rethink something you already thought you knew. It might surprise you. You might end up with a completely different opinion.

Here’s an interesting YouTube video I found on how we can get stuck in our learning.

Do you think memory and learning short circuit thinking? Is relearning good for society? What ideas do you think society takes for granted that might not actually be true? What ideas are holding us back? Is there sometimes a good reason to keep an untruth going? Think about it, and let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

Dinner on the 12th floor.

Last night I made reservations to eat dinner at a restaurant on the 12th floor of a building downtown. I enjoyed the evening sitting out on the large balcony overlooking the city. It has some really nice views and the food was very good. I had the roast chicken. I think I will venture up there more often. I’ve found that Thursday is a good night to go out to eat, because there’s a much smaller crowd. Weekends are just too crowded in the city. I also made a short video and took a few photos to share. Bon appétit!

Restaurant on the 12th floor with great views.

Have you ever had dinner on the balcony of a tall building? Do you enjoy making reservations and going out? Are you afraid of heights? Let me know in the comments, and please remember to like, share, and subscribe!

The shows I remember as a kid.

I watched after school cartoons and sometimes reruns of old sitcoms. It was nice, but I preferred to go outside and do things in the yard. Looking back, I think it was the adventures I had as a kid that made life extra special and fun. Even right now, I’m not watching TV. Maybe it’s embarrassing, but sometimes people will mention a Netflix series, and I haven’t even heard of it. I’d honestly rather be thinking, talking, reading, writing, or doing. I’m just not much of a passive viewer.

What do you spend your time doing? Are you a big TV or Netflix fan? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for being here!

A word that too many people use.

On a few occasions, I have considered writing about a word that too many people use. The word that comes to mind is the word stupid. Growing up, I heard this word all the time. I believe everyone has used the word before. Some people use it all day long. Sometimes people ignore it, sometimes people get mad, sometimes they admit it, and sometimes they call themselves stupid, but it is a word that I believe no one should use at all. This also applies to other words with a similar meaning that are equally misused, like dumb, ignorant, retarded, idiotic, foolish, moron, imbecile, etc.

The reason why I think no one should use it is because the definition people have of it has nothing to do with what the word really means. If you look these words up in the dictionary they will likely lead you to believe that they are referring to a slow person, or someone of low intelligence. That has nothing to do with it. People with high or normal IQ probably get called stupid as much as people with a low IQ. In fact, people would feel guilty about calling someone dumb if they actually did have a learning disability.

So what does the word stupid really mean? Stupid is a word that is used to manipulate or bully people into conformity. If you disagree with something that someone did, or you don’t like the way they are living, you call them names. The idea is that they will change their behavior of you call them stupid. Very often though, people don’t call you stupid to your face because they don’t want you to realize they are your enemy. They say it to other people with the hopes of destroying you reputation to the point that no one will believe anything you say, or maybe even shun your company. It’s the same objective that all bullies have, without the violence.

I know everyone is unique and they have views that I may not agree with, but it’s not my job, or even my right, to tell them how to live. It’s also not right for me to say words that might destroy them just to build the kind of society that I feel comfortable living in. It took me many years to fully understand this truth. They were give something very special by their creator. They were given their own life to live and a mind to direct them. Likewise, I was given mine, and I would appreciate the same courtesy.

Possible discussion ideas.

  1. Did you ever consider the real meaning of these words?
  2. How does it make you feel being called names?
  3. Were you ever bullied through the use of words?
  4. Ever have people slander you behind your back?
  5. Is it hard to resist the urge to call someone stupid?
  6. Do you believe people should be allowed to be themselves?
  7. Do you think everyone should conform?
  8. What words that denote promiscuity, are they spoken

Let me know what you think in the comments, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!