How many of you have found when talking with other occultists that they just over think certain things? this is making me more careful of who I try to chat with.

You mean when people think so much about the complexity of a certain thing that they fail to see what is practically before their eyes? Not sure if this is what you're getting at, but for me personally I love keeping things simple, but I often have trouble telling my mind to shut up.

Ah well. It's annoying at least.

Yes, something like that.

I try to keep things simple but then new avenues related to the issue at hand just pop up and I have the complusive urge to explore them all. Complex issues bring about complex debate. However I'd like to think I've improved on my over thinking over the years.

Alot of those types mistake the "how does it work" for "what it is."

Their spirit and mind, as of that moment, have not learned the difference when it coems to whatever topic they were talking about/delving into at the time.

Essentialy, just a fancy way of saying they studied it when off center.

I get caught in the same snare as Acid.

Simple issues can often be really hard to express, though. And, sometimes when the intellectual types encounter what seems to be a simple truth, they're unable to accept that it's really a lot simpler than it is. Especially if they are more attracted to the occult for its (seemingly) complex nature.

However, I think that one of the benefits to letting those people go on and on, is that then you don't have to do all that thinking. You can peruse/listen to it and keep and eye out for the intuitive 'tug' that hearing something important sometimes gives you. After all, while they were busy thinking it over, you were able to be still and listen.

I sometimes go on loooooooong rants about issues that could be summed up really simply. Afterwards, on occasion my friends will afterwards point out things that I said that had the most weight. Sometimes, I only come to meaningful conclusions by thinking a subject to death. Afterwards I take all the good stuff and forget about all the words in between. It's usually a good way to get a few good markers for meditation.

Of course, there are also the types that over think in the sense of drawing sooooo many connections and conclusions between things that really aren't related to one another in the context of the discussion. That's a little different, but there can sometimes be merit to drawing abstract connections between seemingly unrelated issues.

ultimately, every thing that comes out of anyone's mouth is an expression of some aspect of truth in consciousness. Look at it all as a symbol and even the craziest talk can have a tidbit of wisdom in it somewhere.

peace

I've noticed I kind of vary between the thinking and the less thinking. I naturally always want to figure out exactly why magick works and the history behind it, but other times I want to fall out of it and just think "It works because it's MAGICK." But I do agree that overanalyzing everything can get kind of tedious.

Edit: Cloud Hex, could you post the information here rather than directing people to another site which cannot be viewed unless people register, they may not wish to. Cheers.

this is a thread I started that got to me to make this one.

This post has been edited by Radiant Star: Jan 10 2007, 12:34 PM

my problem is that someone saying something starts all these related questions popping into my head, which is apparently my brain's learning method when given a new subject

the sherlock homes approach - like is dissecting an idea to death a bad thing? what if there was something hiding in there that was an ultimate truth but you hadn't seen it yet and then theres all the insights that come from putting it into your subconscious and 'digesting' it for abit or even asking your guides about it - like the other side of the coin situation for instance, or a particular color or vibration i get off a particular thing that relates somehow to something else and it suddenly becomes apparent that they are related somehow and thus percipitating the derivation of a gestalt on the object - i suppose you'd call this method 'forced realization'

versus the dr watson approach - accepting what is observed or given as true or trusted, possibly with some emotional checks and balances and skeptical doubts, but not too deep an introspection of it as not to spoil the current realization - other aspects may come later or not, as they do or they don't - i suppose you'd call this method 'natural realization'

not that one's better than the other - just two sides of the same coin (tee hee)

I prefer to just do,,,,,chaos magic......

Whenever a friend of mine is haveing problems the first thing i tell them to do is go back to basics and dont worry about how so much. Just the knowledge that you can is so powerful. A simple meditation and good breathing is all you need (at least for dreaming).

Im just as guilty as anyone though when i get caught up in a talk and i want to know the facts. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

posters post:

1. I disagree that only people who remember their past lives still have lessons to still learn from those lives. In many cases, people do not remember a particular past life so that they have the freedom to not make the same mistakes that they made in those past lives. Remembering a particular past life merely sets the stage for sticking in the same rut, and responding to similar stimuli in the same manner. Or, you have the choice to respond differently.

It is true that we have many lessons to learn from one past life to another. Clinical psychologists have demonstrated through past life regression, that when a person is taken back in time, they often relive events in a past life that, once become cognizant of, current life crises are averted. These range from asthma to persistant unreasonable fears, such as claustrophobia, wearing tight clothing around the neck, fear of heights (or falling) and so on. In the vast majority of these cases, the patient has no clue about their past lives, yet they are affected by them.

2. I agree with oldsoul. The past has always something to teach, and if not something specific in a given situation, it can always inspire. Who we were is in continuity with who we are. Are greater being is, in fact, the totality of the thread of our experience from past happening to future possibility.

To address the school analogy, a professional of any given field never throws away accesses to the knowledge of past courses. You will always find the need to reference with the past to get a more complete view of the present as well as the options available.

To me learning only to forget the source of learning makes the learning faulty and incomplete. I think people may not remember past lives because they are focused on their current form and situation. This is well and good, but sometimes this focus can be quite rigid. I have used hypnotic regression to access past life material, and had some success often with great detail, but except for a few cases of marked vividness, I could never tell if the material was real or my subconscious putting current issues in the context of past life symbolism.

Years later, I started getting a different kind of past life understanding. This was not centered on details, but on general life themes, personality trends, and the thread of my current aspirations revealed in a past context. I found this kind of access much more constructive and devoid of the temptation to miss the forest for the trees.

So one may need to examine if the generalization that "if something is difficult it is not meant to be" is an attitude that can be limiting in esoteric development.

3. If one remembers their past lives, isn't the idea of your soul eventually remembering all of its past lives, whether in this one or a next life, sort of sound like the key to eternal life?

What I wonder is if at some point, you "remember" the lives of _other_ people in your lives? Wouldn't that make "being one" understandable in a non-esoteric sense? If eventually I will "remember" what you experience in your life, and you will remember mine, then couldn't we be seen as one mind?

The point being they seemed to have missed the point about the main topic of the thread, as I will now post as number 0.

0. The point of the great work is total spiritual maturity, the reason for this is simple, eternal freedom. I've read a few things that try to explain why most people in Reincarnation don't remember their past lives, to me the only real reason that doesn't happen is either their not supposed to, which is the case for those that try and to that end can. When you learned a lesson and understand for all that it is you no longer have to bother with about it, because its done and over with, like a test that you've just aced at school, spiritual maturity is like that, when you reached a certain point with it pretty much being total in nature you pretty much are free from it, forever.

Those who remember their pastlives have a lesson, even if they don't know this it will come in time. most people learn this lesson piece by piece while most of the time they are procrastinating in some way for form, the great work is taking time to study seriously so it won't bother you ever again. Like taking one test, just once and never having to go to school anymore.

I'm a chaote, and in this being the case I can say that my path to the great work is different from someone who does not follow the middle path, or as I prefer calling it the ambidextrous path.

I'm not interested in becoming enlightened like buddha or endarkend like anyone who cares to say that they are so that thats what they are, what I'm interested in is finding my own way for the purpose of the great work, because for me its the only way to go.

Peace...

This post has been edited by Cloud Hex: Jan 10 2007, 01:55 PM