I attend a meditation group simply because I find the meditations very relaxing. They are a very good stress-reliever.

Every once in awhile, a lady will show up who afterward will do something called "channeling." Generally if I am "caught" in a situation where she is going to do this, I will discreetly slip into a back room because I find it obnoxious and I do not attend the meditations in search of this sort of "guidance" or a guidance counselor.

For those who don't know, "channeling" has come to mean speaking for spiritual entities who are either deceased or otherwise not in our earthly realm.

Anyway I just want to say that after a few years of having to every once in awhile "dodge" being around this (channeling), I have come more and more to suspect that those who do this "channeling" are WAY OUT on ego trips --- regardless of whether or not there is any "validity" to their "channeling."

For instance, they seem in my opinion to start to think they know everything about a situation or person, at times when I know they do not. They think they that they and their judgments are "higher" than the judgments of regular people who do not "channel."

I don't know that everyone who "channels" is this way, but the ones I've observed seem to be way off on an ego tangent, thinking they know more than regular people, or that they understand all aspects of every situation (somewhat like God might), and I'm being redundant but there are times they get judgmental when I am positive they do not know all of the factors involved in a situation.

There are stories that I heard from Shlomo Carlebach (I have them on tape actually) that certain people managed to contact
other people through dreams etc.. In fact on the "Haneshama Shel Shlomo" recording, Rabbi Carlebach's daughter Neshama relates the tale of how when Rabbi Vooker died he did not appear to anyone for about 4 weeks, notably not to his son and not to his best friend the Kotzker Rebbe. It's a story Shlomo referred to as the "Ocean of Tears" on one of his tapes.
And some of those spiritualist I mentioned in another posting claim they work with angels etc. It's all pretty bizarre to me.
When I was living in Israel at Shlomo's place near Lod airport someone informed me that Superman and Batman, et al, were demons. I still collect Thor comics since I like mythology.
And the Chabadniks talk about demonology too. It should be noted that Harry Houdini the escape artist made it a point that he was going to try to communicate with the living after he died. As far as I know it never happened.

I tried to send you a reply to this but somehow my computer (or something) logged me out by the time I had it written, and so I guess I lost it. I even tried to log in again and use the back button to retrieve what I'd lost, and it wouldn't let me do that.

Anyway I will just say briefly here (before it logs me out again), that whether or not these people really channel the dead, I am much more concerned with their motives in the first place about it. Because some of them start thinking they are like deities, I'm afraid, or like they know how to run other people's lives better than those actually living those lives. And often they maybe have a good agenda, but it does not necessarily have my (or other people's) best interests at heart, as I heard it said once.

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Originally posted by inspector 8
..., I am much more concerned with their motives in the first place about it. Because some of them start thinking they are like deities, I'm afraid, or like they know how to run other people's lives better than those actually living those lives. And often they maybe have a good agenda, but it does not necessarily have my (or other people's) best interests at heart, as I heard it said once.

The Hasidic movement was banned by the mainstream orthodox but it caught on anyway. The idea of "tzaddikism" or the infallability of the grand rabbi of any movement was anathema to the old guard.
My experience with the hasidim was that the rebbe's are there for the overall good of themselves and the movement they run, not for the good of any specific individual. More later.

I am remembering now that there is at least one person who communicates with the deceased who does not seem to be caught up in the ego of having special knowledge: he is the guy on television (I think it is the sci-fi channel), John Edward.

Also there is a lady who comes on the Animal Planet channel who is a pet psychic, and I think her motives are okay. She is just concerned about the pets.

There is so much I could say on different things but I just will have to wait until I have more time.

Thanks for your response.

The last five years or so I've been attending meditation groups fairly frequently.

Usually they are simpy that --- a meditation. Once in awhile, however, I have been "caught" in situations where the agenda has been changed after everyone arrived at the meditation.

Often, it is that someone is going to "channel" --- something I usually don't go for.

There is something I feel needs said about meetings in which the agenda is changed after everyone arrives:

When we are children, our parents take us (or drag us) to religious services and such, and the implication is that we are too young to decides for ourselves what is best for us.

When we are adults and attend meetings in which after everyone arrives the agenda is changed, the same insinuation is there: that we are "too immature" (or the like) to decide for ourselves what sort of meeting we need to attend.

People go to trouble and efforts to carve time out of their busy schedules and attend these meetings sometimes, only for it to be changed from what they'd expected. It is rude and disrespectful to the individual and the individual's right and abilities to decide for himself.

Often the agendas of these meetings are changed under a guise of "following THE spirit." And I would like to also address that point: it is my opinion that there are VERY VERY MANY " spirits out there, and very very many agendas, too, which as I heard it put once, don't necessarily have a particular individual's best interests at heart, even though they might have a good agenda. (Author Robert Perala is said to have said something along that line, although I have not read any of his books.)

So if the idea is to take the seeming one and only chance in post-modern day life to "follow the spirit," then the question still remains: WHOSE spirit, and WHOSE AGENDA? (Yours, mine, his hers, whose?)

Thanks for hearing me out on this.

A quick p.s. --- I don't think I'd mind if the agenda of a meeting was changed in very rare instances --- such as to commemorate a death, or if the speaker is ill and can't make it --- rare extenuating circumstances such as those.

Even then though, respect for all who came to attend the meeting and their purposes and the trouble and distance they went to to attend, should be considered.

Greetings inspector 8:
I was wondering if you thought that there ARE "entities" that are communicating through channelers (at least through some of them, anyway)? By "entities" I mean disincarnate, spiritual beings of some sort with their own personalities/consciousness-seperate from the channeler-that use human beings as a vehicle of communication. I am interested in your viewpoint and experience(s) if you care to share them.
Respectfully,
Terry Huffman

Hello Terry:

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond but my life has gotten busy (too busy) lately so I haven't had time to even check back on what responses have come.

I am not too familiar with "the spirit world" myself, but I definitely believe it is there, and that all people are more or less "in tune" to it.

In fact I read a book once (a true story) about a woman who long ago (at the time of the situation she later described in her book) would have sworn up and down there was no spirit world at all. And yet through her actions, I can't see how it was anything but some sort of spiritual "guidance" which saved her life.

Whether these "spirits" were her ancestors, her guardian angels, God himself, or just what --- I cannot make any good guess.

Anyhow I have come to conclude that people making claims to being in tune with the spirit world are not necessarily any more that way than those who make no such claims, or make opposite claims.

Also I think when any of us decides to seek out the spirit world --- it is very important for us to keep in mind something I read in Robert Perala's book (I never did get to read the whole book):

It is to remember that all of these "spirits" have their own agendas (or purposes), and that while these agendas might not be entirely bad, they also might not have your best interests at heart.

Wish I had more time today to think and write about this some more, but maybe some other time.
I think that some of these "channelers" are actors and doing it for a show. Others of them are some combination of show and "real" --- but I have had to realize that even "real" might still be diabolical.

Sometimes in life we need to distinguish what is actual as well as what is "right," being that the two don't always concur.

Greetings Inspector 8:
Thanks for getting back. I concur with you to a degree and think I understand your viewpoint so far (your message ended abruptly so I think it got cut off). I wd. go even further and say that not only do these "entities" or spirits not have your best interests in mind, but may be malicious to the point of seeking to harm you. It seems to me that you are wary about accepting everything out there that is going on. Does your thinking allow for the existence of evil-personal evil-in the universe? Secondly, is there a test thru which one cd. determine that the "spirit" is good or evil so as to not be misled(assuming that you accept the idea of good and evil)? I'd welcome your response as you have time.
P.S. The rest of your message??
Respectfully,
Terry L. Huffman

I'm working out or perhaps reworking out my beliefs in spirits and disembodies conciousnesses. When my beloved dog Princess was put to sleep, she was cremated and her remains were put in my parent's break front before the urn was buried.
I was at my folk's and we were talking about her and all of a sudden, we could feel her presence. It wasn't like she could talk or communicate with us or anything, but we could just feel her around and we all experienced it at the same time.
But in terms of what happens after someone or something dies, I don't know. I read in a book on Hinduism that after death, the soul becomes subsumed into the Brahmin.
Judaism says that sleep is like 1/60th of death and there are many stories about deceased people contacting the living. But I've never had contact with deceased people like my grandparent or Shlomo Carlebach, although I've had dreams where I think about them.