I cannot help but feel that everything is an illusion. This is
partially from contemplating the statement made by someone that the mind is
only a function of the brain. I strongly agree with this.
I am a person that *trusts* that her "mystical" experiences are
just that, an explanation of what I don't know, meaning they are falsly
percieved. A good example of this is how I know that I have had
'supernatural' experiences in my life, but I don't really believe in "the
supernatural". Like what has been discussed recently, I had a few "outside
of the body experiences" in which it appeared something 'beyond myself'
happened. Of course it *seemed* 'real', and like many others, you can't
communicate this to other people. However, I do not attribute this to
*external forces* (gods, spirits) I think that if I can frequently have
vivid dreams and hallucinate, and these ordinary things are accepted as
normal experiences, then why can't the 'mystical' be nothing more than a
product of my mind? I agree with Sodom in that what we convince ourselves
to exist is just a fearful notion; a creation of our own mind. And so,
this worries me that I *know* nothing, and that all this thinking is
fruitless. If I may borrow that clever analogy ERiC, I suppose I am
walking through life with a pair of purple sunglasses on, my conciousness
if you will, which inhibits me from seeing Anything at All as it truly is.
(such as infared rays)
And then there is my considerations of the posts on this list; they
always contradict themselves, and that is the nature of us arguing about
it. And yet what confounds me the is when an intelligent person makes an
assertion, and I am willing to accept it. Then, another person offers a
different view, disagreeing, which seems acceptable, and so I believe that
as well. And then the same thing happens again, and so on and so forth.
The end result is that both make sense. Both seem true, and then both seem
false. Given the infinite amount of perspectives, this means to me that
everything is right and wrong, at the same time. Does this mean that no
religion, or philosophy, or science can be proven?
This is all just another *opinion* from me. Some of you will
agree, and others dispute me. It's all part of the on-going process.
However, I don't really hope for any kind of "truth" to be acheived. (No
Bob H., I promise I will not go there, for your disdain of it.)
=)
~kjs