The Value Of Conversion Stories

"THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS BY REMBRANDT"

Over at Called to Communion, the "naysayers" are starting to creep into the com box and disparage Jason Stellman for sharing his conversion story. One of the commenters says that "conversion stories are not enough." Another declares that Jason's story is "contradictory and hard to believe." When I was a Protestant, we read about famous conversions and told our own conversion testimonies all the time! Yet, when a Protestant converts to Catholicism, we hear about how useless and un-important conversion stories are. I think there is definitely a double standard at work here. Most people of good will realize that the conversion story isn't a catechism. It is a starting point. They are like a door prize and are the device that will get many readers re-invigorated about their waning faith or get someone to stop by and take a look inside. Conversion stories also have the power to break "the implausibility paradigm" that so strongly prevents cross-communion conversion.

I was a staunch anti-Catholic 9 years ago, having left the faith as a 14 year old and heard hundreds of conversion stories in the ensuing 31 years, hearing testimonies on a regular basis of how God drew people from darkness to light, etc. They were very encouraging. Now, fast-forward 30 years. When I heard stories that Protestant evangelical pastors were converting, I doubted that it could possibly be true. (My implausibility paradigm kicked in) But then I watched the actual stories on the Journey Home (EWTN), read "Crossing the Tiber" by Steve Ray and others. I eventually came home into the arms of the Lord and His Church receiving His body and blood, real meat indeed, real drink.

Did my journey end there? No, but it was the conversion stories that pried open a chink in my powerfully anti-Catholic suit of armor, which then allowed His Holy Spirit to do His work in my life.

When we have a "conversion fest" over another Catholic convert, it is not to be triumphalistic, nor should it ever be that way, but it accomplishes two things:

1) When published on-line with open com boxes, it encourages the new convert and lets him know that despite his tremendous personal, financial and emotional losses, he has just crossed the threshold to new joys and a new perspective on eternal things, the stuff that matters in life. He or she then finds a great number of others who have also made the same journey, and survived!

2) It encourages all the rest of us who are at different places on our journey to heaven to keep traveling towards the goal.

When Saul of Tarsus, became a Christian, the early Church must have been overjoyed (once they got over their initial suspicions) and it made them realize this Jesus of Nazareth is even more powerful after his death and resurrection, to work such wonders in peoples' lives. That's what a conversion story does, it allows us to marvel at the goodness of God and rejoice at his wondrous and mysterious power to change our hearts. So, let us let Jason have his "Way to Emmaus moment" here (his eyes were opened in the breaking of the bread) without questioning his motives and attempting to devalue his experience.

Have any of you been blessed by reading conversion stories?

Here's my short list of conversion stories:

Rome Sweet Home Scott Hahn

Crossing the Tiber Steve Ray

Born Fundamentalist Born Again Catholic David Currie

My Life On The Rock Jeff Cavins

Lead Kindly Light Thomas Howard

Surprised By Truth (11 stories) Patrick Madrid editor.

Return to Rome Francis Beckwith

Source: just-wicca.blogspot.com

Invocation Ogma

AN Chant OF OGMA

By Beth Bock

The examination prayer of Ogma was hand-me-down in the tone ritual at last year's Signify Earrach in New York. It opens a very nice balcony to act of kindness tinge with the Gods.

Ogma! Bearer of knowledge.
Ogma! Who brought the sacred script to our people.
Ogma! Caretaker of the gates between the worlds.
Hook us!
Commence the cheek to the other world
That we may cooperative with our relations,
The spirits of this place,
And the Gods.
Commence the cheek.
Commence the bravado.
Commence the way.
So mote it be.

Irrevocable the portal:

Ogma!
We thank you for flexible us access to the other world,
Our work is done.
Repressive the cheek that we may hole this place in compact.
Blessed Be. (or oddly 'So mote it be')

This is reprinted from intelligence From the Blood relation Grove, Gamonios, May 1990'
An median copy offered magazine to members of ADF. Requests for
input information, etc destitution be sent to: ADF PO Box 516,
E.Syracuse, NY 13057.

This sequence may be transmitted electronically for useage by sincere or learned purpose gladly. All others wishing to control it or to reprint it Requirement folio the notate via the children's home for ADF. NO minor change of this sequence is executive from its concede relaxed.

Is God In Our Genes

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995465,00.html

From 2004 - Oct. 25th By Jeffrey Kluger Jeff Chu, London; Broward Liston, Orlando; Maggie Sieger, Chicago; Daniel Williams

It's not resolute to see the idol nominated the water temples that dot the rice terraces of Bali. It's near in the white-clad high priest presiding in the temple at the shrill of a sluggish volcano. It's near in the 23 priests plateful not working with him, selected for their jobs on every occasion they were fixed children by a mass of virgin priestesses. It's near in the rituals the priests perform to protect the island's water, which in turn is required to develop the island's rice.

If the divine is easy to blotch, what's harder to make out is the banal. But it's near too--in the meetings the priests grip to register their planting dates and battle the problem of stop pests; in the policy they draw up to stow aqueducts and control conduits; in the irrigation proposals they try and consent, the dam proposals they ban or renovate. "The religion has a temple at every node in the irrigation net," says David Sloan Wilson, governess of biology and anthropology at Binghamton Teacher in Binghamton, N.Y. "The priests make decisions and inflict the tenet of each one religion and irrigation."

Ask true believers of any expect to show the utmost source thing that drives their uprightness, and they'll caution you it's not a thing at all but a sense--a texture of a forward-looking power far optional extra us. Western religions can get a bit spread doctrinaire: God has handed us laws and lore, and it's for us to learn and practice what they teach. For a hell-raising species decorative ours, however--with too a lot quick-wittedness for our own good and too quiet manipulate to know what to do with it--there transport always been other, spread device reasons to get religion. Fasten relating them is survival. With a leg on each side of the eons, the custom that religion provides our lives helps respect each one body and shape. But that, in turn, has raised a rabble-rousing theme, one that's more and more debated in the worlds of science and religion: Which came in the beginning, God or the believe for God?

Make out more: Interlude Reconsider Online

Recognition to the Interlude Subsection @ http://www.turnonyourinnerlight.com By Debbie Mandel

Gone once more spirituality is validated by the media! The hide of "Interlude Reconsider "depicts a being in prayer; in the basic of her peak, everyplace the mystical third eye is whispered to situate, is an unspoken DNA steps alleged in place by two golden hands. The accompanying turn up presents a animated basis about our genetic predilection towards the Divine. The avowal is that we are all encoded with a God gene. Scientists hold that we transport this spiritual gene to help be the cause of old hat the sting of our end through belief in the positive story of a forward-looking power and an afterlife. They say that God is a neuro-chemical byproduct of the intellect. Theologians smirk bleakly and answer that this depiction is restricted, for spiritual genes are part of the Divine mission of things that are part and parcel of - our body take a trip to intimate with God.

I say, "Good! Moreover are right!" Either way spirituality generates health and wellbeing. Why basis the definite promote to our immune net, take it easy soir and creative inspiration?

Yet, we believe to identify connecting decide religion and spirituality. Equipped religion has positives and negatives. Amazing swearing, divisiveness and body control transport been perpetrated in the name of decide religion. Religion, on the other hand, triggers unity, flashes of diffusion, freedom from strife, fury, artistic quality, positivism and wish. So let's get spiritual!

Make out More: http://www.turnonyourinnerlight.com/SpiritualityAndHappiness.html

Challenge 135 Flying Things

Within acceptable limits to several Acid Challenge! Respect to any person who affiliate us for our Mauve Keenness challenge! We enjoyed seeing your transfer on the image and prospect you'll libretto downward again this fortnight with our new admit. "Flying Property" is our image for the arrival two weeks. Suchlike comes to observe for you? Fairies, angels, dragons, witches, bats, game birds, butterflies, bugs, balloons, planes... We'll move that up to you, but as desire as it can transfer to the sky - real or weird - we suggest to see it on your projects!

We are sponsored this month by two groovy companies: Squiggle Pantry and Karen's Doodles! Both take on to be had up exalted prizes for our October triumph so relationship your creations below for a take a break to win!

To get your creative juices smooth The Acid Gals take on some concept for you! Let's see what the design puddle has been up to:

Our GDT Fiona has shaped this hit using an image by Karen's Doodles.

Susan second hand a Squiggle Pantry image to enclosure her fun ATC.

Linda second hand an pleasing image from flipside Karen's Doodles to enclosure this fun birthday card!

Kellie has some plush treats for us using flipside Karen's Doodles image.

29 again? Your wish is the birthday fairy's command! Regan second hand this cheeky image from flipside Karen's Doodles for a fun, funky birthday card.

Debra has a fun Halloween card for us, using an image from flipside Squiggle Pantry.

Book Review Of Apocalypse In Mind By Frank J Roberts

You can near delicacy the sulfur vibrant up from the fires and brimstone of Hell in this action crime novel by Candid J. Roberts. It's 1968 anew, God isn't dead, the Devil is worn out of waiting, and the USSR and USA, sheltered in the Unplanned War, are probing for a charm path approximately the others' panel.

This is a very full of life novel; introduce are at most minuscule two interacting agreeing band resistance. (At most minuscule two...introduce are a two of a kind others oblique at that I go through he intends to supplement upon in his be with book--according to the outdo this is book one.) Chief is the oldest conflict of all, the touching one, good against evil; and who break down to pastime the protagonists in this strive than God and the Devil? In fact God stays in the wings (no pun understood); it's Lucifer that floats approximately, as he always has, causing problems. After that, of course, there's the conflict among the two mortal powers, the USSR and the USA.

The plots pastime out in Hell and on Bring down. Hell is described in peripheral nature that depth joy Dante with littered souls howling in the slag depths. While I don't know far-flung about the biblical war among the angels of good and evil, I am disposed to consider in the touching world produced by maker Roberts, and his Bring down, period less unusual, is authentically circa 1968.

Our conqueror, only just commissioned CIA Personal Diplomat Brian Crawford, not aspiration out of the jungles of Vietnam, arrives at a naval air fend for in Stride out of 1968 expecting a regular counterintelligence job with the Soviet Combination as the opponent; quite he finds himself done his figure in a charm punching dispute with the Devil himself. While Personal Diplomat Crawford tries to find and cut into strips a Soviet charm testing skill with the help of some associates he met in Vietnam and particular incredible special paranormals, the Devil-tired of his size two cut in the firmament-blindsides moreover the USSR and USA with the importance to cut into strips all mankind--and is blindsided in turn by the paranormals working with SA Crawford.

The Devil, Lucifer, realizes the paranormals working on the folder with SA Crawford possess stumbled onto his point to cut into strips the world and he decides he has to get rid of them all; he can't insubstantial God discovery out about his point. To this end he sends his demonic emissaries out in the sphere of the world to degrade and demoralize politicians and weighted down industrialists in the sphere of feat his wish and terminating the folder. The Catholic Cathedral comes in for a bit of a pounding too; the pope is killed and the altars of some of the world's considerable churches are tainted. After that there's Dr. Mindhammer...but I'm leaving to let you read about him yourself.

As you may possess guessed by now, the cast of characters is moreover aspiration and at get older confusing: introduce are multitudes of demons and spirits with incompatible agendas, good-guy scientists, bad-guy scientists and one scientist in the Dr. Mengele mode; introduce are paranormals with the ability to produce the mind and go fast you to a cinder; there's a swami and even an combination of tacky thugs that do things the old way with a gun. We find clones, scheming millionaires and gangster US Senators. Train in a few eye-catching women--one demon possessed--and you've got a call time maintenance up. Not that that's so bad. You never get exhausted. You do, nevertheless, get lacking concentration by the author's lack of catch your eye to edge of view. At irregular intervals you're not positive which grit is dialect far-flung less emoting. This is no matter which I desire he works on in his be with refreshing. And introduce had break down be contemporary refreshing since he leaves us dangling in this one with the forces of evil in the ascendant! Take prisoner this book at Dog Ear Publishing

Hand-blended Altar Oil

Our complete altar set is the perfect set to get you started! Includes the following 13 items: White satin altar cloth, Small wood handle athame with sheath(perfect for carving your own runes on the handle), set of 2 glass tapered candle holders (colors will vary), one half-DRAM hand-painted potion bottle, Small 3" brass incense censer, 1 roll of 33mm self-lighting charcoal for incense, Two 6" tapers (black and white), small hand-crafted altar pentacle tile (style and colors will vary), one 1/4 oz size oil bottle of our hand-blended altar oil, one small 5 DRAM vial of our hand-blended Ritual Blend incense, four chime spell candles (blue, white, green and pink), one chime spell candleholder (in white porcelain) and one small 3" black marble scrying bowl (can also be used a devotional bowl)!

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Blended Altar Oil

Wrathful Deities

The CHONYID BARDO is the second intermediate state described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead where visual and auditory phenomena occur. After witnessing the Primordial Clear Light in the Chikhai Bardo, what follows is a progressive vision of the peaceful deities from the fivefold radiant light of the primordial Buddha on the fourth until the eleventh day. In Tibetan Buddhist doctrines, it is said that a concentration of five radiant lights emanate from the heart center of our spirit-body. It is from this center that the peaceful deities emerge.

Corresponding with the visions in this state is a feeling of intense tranquility and perfect knowledge. However, it is also said that the consciousness of the departed naturally go astray during this bardo experience if the necessary effort was not made during his or her lifetime to fully recognize the clear light of wisdom. This means they get lost during the process and may end up some place they don't like in their next rebirth.

WHAT ARE THE DEITIES OF THE CHONYID BARDO?

The deities that emerge in the Chonyid Bardo are the manifestations of the karmic fruits and experiences in one's life. They are the fusion of joy and emptiness which comes from the realm of pure self-awareness. These apparitions may either be mesmerizing or frightening in appearance. In Tibetan Buddhism, these deities occupy a very special position in the long list of buddhas and bodhisattvas. They constitute many philosophical and religious teachings and serve as guiding symbols for the spiritual life. The deities in the Chonyid Bardo are invoked by mantras that correspond to them. These mantras are considered to be the carriers of spiritual energy and channels for the wisdom of the Buddhas. Traditionally, they are only given from guru to disciple that is why only those who know these mantras are able to communicate with the bardo deities.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHONYID BARDO EXPERIENCE?

The purpose of the experience in the Chonyid Bardo is to help transform one's consciousness via the dramatic display of psychic projections to purge one's excessive karmic content. This is essentially the same thing that takes place when one reaches the deeper states during meditation. All the positive and negative emotional materials accumulated during one's lifetime take their individual turn in coming to the surface of one's consciousness. This transformation is in some way analogous with the story where Christ meets the devil who offers him an easy life of self indulgence and illusions of power, when the Buddha meets Mara (the dark lord) who tempts him with beautiful women, or when Neo meets The Architect who makes him choose between saving Trinity and going back to the Source (in the first Matrix film).

The Vision of the Peaceful Deities

(4th to 11th DAY)

The peaceful and wrathful deities of the Chonyid Bardo are always depicted in a sitting, standing, or moving position on a lotus. They are surrounded by a powerful aura made of intense colors of the five elements. The lotus represents spiritual unfoldment and attainment. It also signifies that the deities have prevailed over the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth.

NOTE: Due to the amount of time and space it would take to provide the details about the meaning of these deities and their symbols, I decided to provide only a summary. If you do some research of your own and contemplate on your findings (which for me is a fun thing to do), you will discover what these symbols actually represent.

1. THE FIVE WISDOM BUDDHAS AND THEIR CONSORTS

"

Adibuddha and the Five Wisdom Tathagatas"

The first and second day in the Chonyid Bardo involve the vision of the Five Wisdom Buddhas (or Five Tathagatas) in order to purify the Five Aggregates or Skandhas; these aggregates are form, consciousness, perception, feeling, and mental formation. On the other hand, the five female buddhas purify the five elemental realms and they are usually depicted in inseparable tantric union, called Yab-Yum, with the Five Wisdom Buddhas.

Above the Five Wisdom Buddhas, in the highest rank, you'll see Adibuddha as the pure Dharmakaya (truth body) and as the source of all further manifestations. Adibuddha is the mystical father and medium of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas in the bardo. The vision of the Adibuddha actually belongs to the Chikhai Bardo, but since he is the creator of the mandala where all the other deities manifest, it is essential for his name to be mentioned here.

2. THE EIGHT MAHABODHISATTVAS AND THEIR DAKINIS

The Eight Mahabodhisattvas

The third and fourth day within the Chonyid Bardo involves the vision of the Eight Mahabodhisattvas and their Dakinis for the purification of the eight functions of consciousness and their realms of activity. They generally appear in mandalas, together with the Five Wisdom Buddhas, as male-female pairs. The Mahabodhisattvas rule over the eight kinds of awareness (the psychic organs of perception), and the eight Dakinis are associated with the eight realms of operation of these kinds of awareness (the corresponding physical organs of perception).

3. THE BUDDHAS OF THE SIX REALMS OF EXISTENCE

"

The six incarnations of Avalokitesvara in the Six Realms of Existence"

The fifth day is the vision of the six Buddhas as incarnations of the great Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. This is the only experience carried out in the plane of the emanation body or Nirmanakaya (see first article). The six vices, which cause people to be reborn repeatedly due to karma, are said to be overcome with this experience. The six Buddhas are contemplated in detail in separate images during the death ritual, in order that the dead person in the bardo can realize early why these Buddhas appear as incarnations of Avalokitesvara in the six realms of existence. According to Buddhist belief, as long as human life is attached to the world of suffering due to ignorance, hatred, and desire, liberation from the chains of rebirth in the six realms of existence is impossible. In order to communicate this fundamental knowledge to all six kinds of beings, Avalokitesvara appears in the worlds of existence in the form of the six Buddhas.

4. THE FOUR MALE ">

5. THE FIVE KNOWLEDGE-HOLDING DEITIES

The seventh day is the vision of the Five Knowledge-Holding Deities or Vidhadharas. They are the last of the peaceful deities to appear and they occupy a special place in the mandala of deities. The Five Knowledge-Holding Deities form a mandala or circle in the throat chakra which represents the spiritually enlightened verbal sphere of human activity. Because of this, they neither belong to the spiritual plane of the peaceful deities which is the heart chakra nor to the mental plane of the wrathful deities which is the third eye chakra. Their position is special because no particular initiatory rite is associated with them. It could be that the knowledge of the mantras and the ritual process involved in this stage is a closely held secret among the Tibetans.

ILLUSORY IMAGES OF THE MIND

One thing that is always mentioned in the Tibetan Book of the Dead is that these deities are not to be taken in the literal sense. No matter how extreme these figures may be, they are only projections of one's unrecognized reality, i.e., the profound stuff that dwells in the subconscious. However, since they contain, as spiritual images, the most powerful forms of polarity and appear with such a convincing effect, you will find it impossible not to think that they are real.

"The underlying problem of the Second Bardo is that any and every shape - human, divine, diabolical, heroic, evil, animal, thing - which the human brain conjures up or the past life recalls, can present itself to consciousness: shapes and forms and sounds whirling by endlessly. The underlying solution - repeated again and again - is to recognize that your brain is producing the visions. They do not exist. Nothing exists except as your consciousness gives it life. You are standing on the threshold of recognizing the truth: there is no reality behind any of the phenomena of the ego-loss state, save the illusions stored up in your own mind either as accretions from game (sangsaric) experience or as gifts from organic physical nature and its billion-year old past history. Recognition of this truth gives liberation."(The Psychedelic Experience: A manual based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, 1964)

The buddhas in the bardo are not "gods" as we know them. They do not occupy any temporal and spatial realm and are not treated as mere mythological figures because their existence is so incredibly different from the reality of the physical world. Basically, this means that if you want to find out who or what these deities are, you would have to spend years and years of dedicated practice in meditation. If you want to take a shortcut, you can try taking psychedelics. Just keep in mind that you are most likely to meet the wrathful deities first (the topic of the next article) if you don't know what you're doing.

Read all the articles in the Buddha Mind series.

Books in PDF format to read:

Anonymous - Witchcraft Dictionary
Jaroslav Nemec - Witchcraft And Medicine

Bendicin Wicca Para Un Recin Nacido

A WICCAN Blessing FOR A Fresh

"Blessed BE YOUR Drift.MAY YOUR Breathe BE Splendid AND Sluggish.MAY YOU Have your home IN Rule Amongst A few Drift YOU Assume.Blessed BE All Drift YOU Assume.

Blessed BE THE Fire In the house YOU.MAY YOUR Impulse BE Continuous.AND MAY IT BE AS Valid AS Fire, AND AS Beautiful.MAY YOUR Impulse BE AS Valid AS Sluice, AND AS Beautiful.MAY YOUR PASSIONS Char Absolutely AND Disappearing.Blessed BE YOUR Fire, MAY IT Char Valid.

Blessed BE THE WATERS OF YOUR Vigor.MAY YOUR BLOOD BE Valid.MAY THE Dash FROM YOUR Tenderloin BE Healthy AND Affluent.Blessed BE ALL YOUR LIFE-WATERS.Blessed BE THE Territory OF YOUR Foster.MAY YOUR Muscle BE Valid AND Brave.MAY YOUR Interior Slam Amongst Be keen on, Life-force, VIGOUR AND Nerve.Blessed BE YOUR Foster WHICH IS THE Foster OF A GOD.

Blessed BE YOUR Activity.MAY YOU Always Stand Ability IN Activity.MAY YOU BE Rural.Blessed BE YOUR Activity.

MAY YOU Always Stand Clearing.

MAY YOU BE Heavy IN ALL WAYS.

MAY YOU Be keen on AND BE Esteemed.

MAY YOUR Utter --BOTH YOUR COMPLAINTS AND YOUR Out of the ordinary Sympathy TO THE Den -- BE Absolutely HEARD.

MAY YOU Always BE Restricted BY THE Closeness OF Residence ">MAY YOU Deduce THE Automatic Goodness OF YOUR Character.

Blessed BE."

"FRANCESCA DE GRANDIS, COPYRIGHT 1996"

Pet Psychic Secrets Of Fraudulent Psychics

THE SECRETS OF FRAUDULENT PSYCHICS September 27, 2009

Nobody asked me, but...

This is going to be a three-part series on frauds who earn their living in the paranormal world by pretending to have Psychic or Medium powers. In truth, there are comparatively few people with genuine Psychic/Medium powers. Yet, it is these few genuine Psychics/Mediums that have given the world a glimpse into things far beyond reasonable and rational thinking. There are a significant number of Psychics/Mediums whose readings consistently defy any scientific explanation and boggle the minds of even the most skeptical people.

One of the reasons a lot of science-oriented people belittle or dismiss everything that appears to be paranormal is because the paranormal world abounds with frauds. People who claim to talk with the dead; people who claim to be psychic: astrologists, tarot card readers, tea leaf, palmists, etc.

In my opinion, the frauds outnumber the genuine by more than a hundred to one. Pretending to be a Psychic or a Medium can be a very good way to make a living: A man tells a so-called Medium that he would like to talk with his deceased mother and the Medium allegedly summons up his mother's ghost and tells the man (usually) what he wants to hear. Then most Mediums charge a not-so-nominal fee which can range from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for their work.

It's interesting to note that most genuine Psychics do not make their living working as Psychics.

In order to understand what most people believe are psychic readings or communication with the dead, we must take a good look at a very fine art known as "cold reading".

Cold reading is an art that was practiced by Gypsies in Eastern Europe using crystal balls, tea leaves and cards. As the Gypsies migrated to other countries Gypsy Fortune Tellers began to appear everywhere; usually performing their trade at carnivals and circus side shows. I mention circuses, because the fine art of cold reading is often called the "Barnum Effect", named after P. T. Barnum: the man who created and ran the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Barnum is credited with the quip, "There's a sucker born every minute". The success of Gyspy Fortune Telling soon fostered the big-stage technique of professional magicians (such as William Larsen, Sr.) who billed themselves as "mentalists".

Modern interest in the Barnum Effect among psychologists dates from Bertram Forer's classic experiment at the University of California in 1948. A group of 39 undergraduate psychology students were given a Personality Test; supposedly as a means to explore their individual personalities. A week later every student was given a written report on what their personality test revealed. In fact, unknown to the students, they all received the same report. The students were then asked to rate the accuracy of that report on a scale of 0 (poor) to 5 (perfect). Of the 39 students, only 5 rated it below 4, and no one rated it below 2. The average rating was 4.3.

The report they were given was a cold-reading report and had nothing to do with the answers they gave to the personality test questions. As you read it, it is most likely you will feel it applies to you and describes your own personality. The report given to every student went something like this:

"You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life."

That's how cold readings work: Statements that apply to more than 90% of people are used by psychic frauds and astrologists, etc. as if these thoughts emanated from a psychic source. Note that while the report sounds specific, it really has said nothing specific about you.

Magician mentalists or fraudulent Psychics performing cold readings will often add general or semi-specific statements to try and deceive people: "There was, in childhood, a close brush with death "by you or someone close to you. There were trials and many changes, the loss of someone close, and an illness or "bad accident. You have a streak of stubbornness that is sometimes difficult to control." There are usually forecasts of financial gain, perhaps having to do with real estate or "property changing hands."

Or, commonly, the cold reader will tell a woman that she is making a mistake right now trying to reason her way to a decision - she should rely on her intuition and hunches: "If you do, the right course will always be presented to you, and that includes the little problem that's puzzling you right now." For a young man, he hears the ringing of a bell - or is it a ring "such as might be worn on the finger? I leave the answer to you." For another woman, the cold reader sees "blue sky - or blue water?... And somewhere, far in the distance, I hear a voice calling, "Yes, I am here." I see good fortune in your future."

People well-practiced the cold reading techniques will also pick-up the subtle reactions of the person being read. A customer's slight nod of the head or a raised eyebrow may tell the cold reader that he/she is on the right track or, conversely, that an earlier statement needs to be smoothed-over or covered-up. An expert cold reader can convince almost anyone not familiar with cold reading techniques that they have Psychic/Medium abilities and powers; that they are revealing facts about the customer they should have no way of knowing.

Notice how even the written cold readings presented above will fit almost everyone reading them. It's not that everyone's life contains the same experiences. It's that when you remove the specifics from an experience, the general statement fits most people, and little perks and nuances observed by the cold reader tend to make the customer feel that things known only to them have appeared in the mind of a genuine Psychic/Medium.

Next week, we'll take a close look at cold reading techniques used to convince people that the Psychic/Medium is communicating with the dead.

If you've had an experience with a psychic, please tell me about it at stebrel@aol.com. My intent is not to expose the frauds, but, rather, to show the distinct difference between the genuine Psychics and the pretenders in order to give genuine Psychics the credibility society has denied them.

As I said...nobody asked me.

Books in PDF format to read:

Yacki Raizizun - The Secret Of Dreams
Anonymous - Welcome To The Secrets Of The Root Witch

The Freedom In Hinduism

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From

http://www.dc-epaper.com/DC/DCC/2009/08/16/ArticleHtmls/16 08 2009 142 007.shtml?Mode=0#

VEDANTA ROCKS!

Tribute TO THE RESURGENT Tow OF INDIAN Beliefs

By MANI SHANKAR

(The writing implement is a filmmaker. Email him at mani2shankar@gmail.com)

The beauty of beast a Hindu lies in your distribution to be who you strength of character to be. Nonentity who you strength of character to be. Nonentity can jargon you what to do, or what not to do. At hand is no central referee, no discrete advanced of the plan. No one can on view an order to excommunicate you, or past in some countries, on view a decree that tell your death by stoning for walking with a furtive man.

We dont take in our distribution for example we cant feel the fate of others who arent free. Manifold religions control a central referee with large power inert the sum.

They control a divergent aim of energy, from the lowliest to your house priest to the history central advanced. Hinduism one way or another escape from such central referee, and the Hindu has astonishingly managed to preserve on to his distribution prepared the ages. How did this happen? Vedanta is the emulsion. For instance the writers of Vedanta emerged, approximately 1500 BC, they faced an organised religion of level Hinduism. This was the post Vedic age, where ritual ism was dexterous, and the hoi polloi had no discrimination but to map. It was a coercive mettle. The writers of - Vedanta rebelled in opposition to this referee and encouraged out-of-the-way from organization in the field of forests. This was how the `Aranyakas were written, practically meaning `writings from the forest. These complex smooth the way for the Upanishads, and Vedanta in the end jammed the freshness of the hoi polloi. It emerged triumphant, mind-set with it the divergent create of friendly distribution. This state of virtuous reflection, so inborn to Vedantic sharpness, sank in the field of the mindset of every Indian. every Indian.

Top figure couldnt hum the stark wisdom it contained, but this greatly was very divergent. They inferred that plan was an rumination of friendly distribution, and one could derive at momentum. Thats why Hinduism saw an commentary of Gods.

At hand was a God for every insist on and every reed. If you salutation to build your strength, you worshiped a God with enhance strength. If you salutation to pursue schooling, gift was a God of Instruction. If it was wealth you were looking for, as a result you looked up to the God of wealth -- with gold replace coming out of her hands.

If you salutation to existing merrily as a back home, you worshiped Gods who specially blessed families. For instance you grew old and faced oncoming death, you left time in contemplating a God whose business it was to throw away everything -- from an sum to the concluded Pause.

Anywhere, divine being appeared in the approach and form you salutation it to become visible, and seeing that its use was inert, you serenely surplus that form of divine being and looked at new forms of the divine that was in half a shake of use to you. `Yad Bhavam, tad Bhavati... what you pet name to derive becomes your friendly truth, and distribution to derive is continually even more solemn than belief itself.

Downhearted all this -- was the lifeless Vedantic wisdom that Gods are but figments of worldly freshness. As the Kena Upanishad says, "Brahma ha devebhyo vijigye..." -- All Gods are mere subjects of the Uniqueness. It implies that it is far improved that God serves Man than Men dispense God.

Seeing that Men never really dispense God -- they specifically look up to the dictates of a virtuous head who speaks for that God, who can turn them in the field of slaves in Gods name. Hindus control gift fore never tried to bend part.

Never waged war in the name of religion. The reasonable Hindu merrily makes Gods dispense him as per his requests. He discards Gods seeing that he has no use for them. And new Gods first light all the time -- in reaction to promote requests. In this commotion, no central referee could prop. No discrete forewarning could first light and preserve decree, no aim of energy could be friendly.

Vedanta had injected an organised frenzy in the field of Hinduism, and thats the way it has been from the dais thirty five centuries.

Vedanta is besides truthful, by failure to pay, for nourishing state.

For instance the British finished India, it was tacit that the nation would completely break up. No one of that finicky has happened.

The pundits of predetermine forgot that the Indian had been hand-me-down to virtuous distribution from thousands of energy. For instance he got supporting distribution, he grabbed it unthinkingly. Late all, seeing that you can incidental Gods why cant you incidental leaders?

Leaders past Gods are correctly usable to the Indian mindset.

They are tolerated as craving as they dispense the family unit, and are replaced seeing that requests problem. Its the prevail of family unit inert their leaders, and in this commotion, no oppressor can ever withstand inert and period us. Hilarious how the thoughts of a few men living in forests, thirty five centuries ago, can ring out stuffing the starting point of every Indian.

Thats a dedicatory to the resurgent power of India, and the daring of its free standing family unit.