Posts by Disillusioned JW

25

Did they read this today at the meeting?

by Jerryh in

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Disillusioned JW

A moment ago I checked my notes that are in my old Bibles about the two chapters, but the notes did not pertain to the verses about the faithful slaves and the wicked/evil slave. Thus, the conclusion I reached today about the identity of those slaves is the first time I drew that conclusion (at least in the fuller sense I now understand it) - though many years ago while an independent Christian I had tried to discover the answer. [Using the NIV Study Bible, another study Bible, and some non-JW Bible commentaries I found some proposed explanations, and one was close to what I mentioned in my prior post except it did not use chapter 25 to make the determination. (At least I don't recall them doing so.) As a result I was not completely sure of the identity of the "faithful and discreet slave" of Matthew 24:45-47. While I thought it might mean faithful Christians in general, I thought (perhaps due partly to WT influence) that more likely it meant faithful Christian ministers/pastors/elders of the congregations. Now I know what the Bible reveals its identity to be.]

I continue to study the Bible and my understanding of the Bible keeps getting better. It is very hard for me to permanently cease studying the Bible; some aspects about the Bible fascinate me (though some other aspects of the Bible anger me). Some Christians might interpret these matters to mean that I became saved and that I am still saved (and that Jesus is with me), even though I've been an atheist for more than 10 years who tries to persuade people to becoming atheists. One Christian woman (who attends a Bible Church) says I am an agnostic, even though I have many times I am an atheist. Perhaps that is because I sometimes say things (including explaining things) about the Bible from a Bible believing Christian's perspective - though as a part of looking at ideas from both sides of the issues.

Hypothetically speaking, if there is a heaven in the sense of a spiritual realm with God and Jesus maybe I will end up there. But if so, I sure hope that God is much more loving than the frequent portrayal of him in the Hebrew Scriptures OT Bible. The description of the Jesus Christ of the gospels seems mostly very good and very loving and very kind. Some evangelical Christians say "Once saved, always saved" and a long time ago (during the time period I partook of Memorial emblems at my home by myself) I did pray to Jesus, saying I accept him as my savior.

25

Did they read this today at the meeting?

by Jerryh in

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Disillusioned JW

I can read it if I enlarge it by clicking the "+" key of my PC keyboard multiple times while holding down the "Ctrl" key, since my web browser responds to that way of zooming in on a page. Another way to do it is use the pull down menu of the browser for enlarging a web page. However despite enlarging it is fuzzy and hard to read, but I can manage to read it.

Hey if the WT is saying that all faithful JWs are the "slaves" mentioned in Revelation 1:1 then they should also conclude they are "the faithful and discreet slave" mentioned in Matthew 24:45-47. That should especially be the case since the article cites Matthew 25:14, 19. How so. Well consider the following. Matthew 25:21-23 says that the industrious slaves of the group mentioned in Matthew 25:19 each are a "good and faithful slave" who will be rewarded by being appointed over many things! Furthermore, Matthew 25:24-27 says that the non-industrious slave of the group in verse 19 is a "wicked and sluggish slave". It thus just now dawned on me that Matthew 25:20-23 identifies who is the faithful slave of Matthew 24:45-47, and that Matthew 25:24-27,30 identifies who is the evil slave of Matthew 24:48-51! Wow! Holy spirit! Jesus Christ. Yahweh God Almighty! Eureka! Dynomite

Perhaps I had that insightful conclusion over 15 years ago when studying Matthew chapters 24-25 very carefully, but forgot about it. I do know that in some of my NWT Bibles I have notes in the margins in which I relate some of the passages of chapter 25 to some of the passages of chapter 24. I will re-examine those notes to see if any pertain to the two slave groups.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

There is a fascinating lengthy transcript of a portion of an interview of Eric Wargo at https://ideaspace.substack.com/p/author-eric-wargo-on-dreams-premonitions . That web page also has audio files to the full interview. Part of the interview says the following.

"YANCEY: How do you explain it?

ERIC: This is what I've been thinking about for the last ten years, and I've written two books about now. A lot of lines of evidence from a lot of different fields are converging on a possible explanation, and it's going to have to do with the brain. This isn't a spiritual phenomenon, although I believe that spirituality can very much involve the brain and its tricks.

Let's start with physics. In physics it’s become much more accepted by a growing number of quantum physicists that at the smallest scales in nature, causes go both directions. The fact that we only perceive cause going one direction is an effect of entropy and things happening on a larger scale. But on the tiniest scales of particle interactions, there's really no way of telling. Temporal directionality is a lot less meaningful there.

Number two, what's even more interesting is in the last few years there's been a growth of research in quantum computing. That's where you try to scale up these tiny quantum effects into something that we can use to create a quantum computer. What they're finding in quantum computers is that you can reverse the temporal direction of a computation. It effectively means you could produce an output before an input.

YANCEY: Say that again?

ERIC: You could theoretically produce an output before an input in a quantum computer, because you can reverse the direction, the temporal order, of a computation. Now, I'm not an expert in this field, so the details are lost on me as well. But this supports the notion that there are ways to scale up this causal directional indeterminacy that goes on at the very smallest scales in nature.

Let's take it to another field. Quantum biology is an emerging field over the last two decades. Just a little over a decade ago it was discovered that plants are essentially quantum computers, because photosynthesis uses some of these same quantum principles. There has been a search for three decades now for quantum processes going on in the brain, because if there's anything in nature that ought to be a quantum computer, it would be the brain, right? There's growing evidence for this possibility that at least certain structures within neurons, called microtubules, might have quantum computing processing properties. If that proves to be the case that may be your explanation for how this works. Because one thing microtubules do in neurons is they reshape the tips of neurons as they form connections to each other. They’re involved in processes of memory and learning, because that's what memory learning is: the formation of new connections. The reinforcement of those connections as they're used, or the withdrawing of connections that aren't used, is the basis of memory and learning.

Now if those molecules that are controlling that process are getting information about their own futures, they're able to prespond to information ahead in time, even if we're talking a few seconds. That’s a potential mechanism where our learning processes, our connectivity in our brain as a function of memory, is influenced by experiences ahead in time. Not just in the past, the usual way we think of memory. When you study precognition and how it manifests in real life and in laboratory life, it looks an awful lot like memory, just memory going in the wrong direction. The similarities to memory are obvious if you pay attention to the research findings, and to the vast anecdotal data of dreams. It looks like memory for things future."

While at my local library today I noticed that one of its branches has available Wargo's book called Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future. I thus placed a hold on that book. Also while at the library I checked out a book called Psychic Abilities For Beginners: Awaken your Intuitive Senses, by Melanie Barnum.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

scooby_future, I realized that you were saying that you experience the next day exactly what you saw the prior day in vivid pre-sleep imagery. To my knowledge (to the best I can recall it) I have not experienced any event which I previously saw in "unbidden" mental images, but I wonder if the events of those images are yet to happen, or if they happened without me noticing them. I do indeed (to my knowledge) have aphantasia to a large extent (but not totally since I can see a very slight image, not counting when I get the occasional vivid images). Since that is the case I can not recall most of the details of some of the brief vivid mental images in order know for certain if I later saw such the regular way (such on TV).

Sometimes when I try to form images in my mind I can make them more clear, and if I were to practice extensively maybe I could get very good at forming mental images at will. When I described to a co-worker my difficulty in forming clear mental images, she said "In your mind you are blind". That description struck me as very accurate. I read a web page (at https://www.verywellmind.com/aphantasia-overview-4178710 ) more than two years ago and the day I found it was the day I first learned the word "aphantasia". I had forgotten about that word until you used it in your reply to my post. The web page has an article which says the following.

"People with aphantasia do experience visual imagery while dreaming. This suggests that it is only intentional, voluntary visualization that is affected by this phenomenon. Zeman explained to the BBC's Science Focus magazine that this is possible because what the brain does during wakefulness is different than what it does while dreaming. The imagery of dreams originates from bottom-up processes controlled by the brainstem. Visualization, on the other hand, requires top-down processing that originates in the brain's cortex. ... The available studies suggest that having aphantasia does not necessarily hurt a person's success in life. People from all walks of life experience this phenomenon, including successful doctorate students, engineers, and other professionals. ... Mental imagery also plays a role in learning, so not being able to visualize scenes in your mind may make certain aspects of learning more difficult."

More than two years I also found and read an article at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/ . It says that after a study had been published in 2010 about aphantasia a number of people came forward, "... all saying they had never been able to create mental images, unlike MX, in whom the problem was new. Zeman and two colleagues then had 21 respondents answer questionnaires about their visual experiences, including one known as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ)." The article continues by saying the following.

'They published the findings in 2015, using the name “aphantasia” for the first time. Most of the 21 said they realized only in adolescence and early adulthood (through conversations or reading) that other people could call up images in their mind. And although many of the respondents had dreams or flashes of visual imagery while awake, all were substantially or completely unable to purposely call up images in their mind, such as of past vacations or even their own wedding. ... Based on the first 700 or so surveys, Zeman estimates that aphantasia affects about 2 percent of the population ....

One of those who approached Zeman—Jonas Schlatter of Berlin—describes his own moment of discovery. ...

When Schlatter first began to discuss his discovery with friends, he also learned that “people’s ability to synthesize images differs.” Zeman concurs. His 2015 study included 121 control subjects. Most of them showed a moderately good ability to visualize. But there were outliers at both ends of the scale, with more subjects falling at the high end than the low end. Zeman calls the above-average ability to create vivid images hyperphantasia.'

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

Other than when such visuals "pop" into my mind, I am unable to form clear detailed images in my mind while fully awake - even when trying very hard to visualize in my mind (such as when reading a story, or imagining what I intend to do later in the day, or even when remembering a past experience of mine).

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/precognitive-dreamwork-and-the-long-self-eric-wargo/1137364581 has an overview of Wargo's book called Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future, as well as an except from it and a list of the chapters of the book.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

scooby_future, the types of images I am referring to, ones which "pop' into mind, are as vivid and real looking as what I see in my fully awake state in an every day basis looking through my eyes. Often times the images are actually videos, instead of still frames, though of brief duration since the visuals only last for about a second or so (but seemingly for a few seconds for some, if I am lying down at the time). The images/visuals fill my entire mental field of vision, just like seeing though my eyes (and like dreaming). [By the way, when I dream with my eyes closed, it is always in full color.]

Most of the visuals are not scary or even negative, but some of them are very gory and scary (like watching a horror movie or other very violent show). Some are like what one sees on TV shows, such as a news broadcast, a fictional show about a shooting (or other means of killing) a person or group of people, or a fictional horror show. [Other than saying that, at this time I don't wish to mention specific visuals I've seen in my mind.] Once (or maybe twice) an image "popped" into mind while I was walking on the sidewalk - when I was about to enter the street (or perhaps to look both ways before deciding whether or not to wait before entering the street)! The timing of that was scary, because if it had happened a moment later my being distracted by it might would have resulted in me getting run over by a car!

Other than when such visuals "pop" into my mind or when I dream, I am unable to form clear detailed images in my mind - even when trying very hard. Thus the above experiences are very striking to me.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

Dr. Miller makes some extraordinary claims about himself at https://www.richardalanmiller.com/about which are extremely hard for me to accept. That raises questions in my mind in regards to his credibility. I am in the process of investigating those claims.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

A book called ESP Induction Through Forms of Self-Hypnosis (by Richard Alan Miller) is described at https://books.google.com/books?id=MlwmkgAACAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en . It might be a useful book to read. https://books.google.com/books?id=0zwbnQEACAAJ&newbks=0&hl=en mentions a book called The Non-Local Mind in a Holographic Universe by the same author. Besides the web page having a description of that book it also briefly describes the author.

6

Developing Your Own Private Channel to God

by metatron in

jw
friends

sounds absurdly ambitious, doesn't it?

follow my thinking here and you'll understand what i mean.. i believe in the godhead concept, not a personal creator ( who would be a lunatic for making t rex, guinea worms and countless other horrors).

so, i see "god" in everything as consciousness fills the universe and maintains it.

Disillusioned JW

More than a year ago I checked out from the library some books about parapsychology studies and experiments on ESP. Even when I was an active believing JW (and perhaps even prior to baptism) I thought that ESP might actually exist - without it being the work of Satan and demons.

30

What is your PSI / ESP potential?

by manon in

jw
friends

experts estimate that one person out of twenty possesses an unusual degree of extrasensory perception-esp or psi energy.

the following questions may determine your own psi potential:

1- is it unusual for you to be reduced to tears?

Disillusioned JW

I used the search engine of this site to find topic threads about ESP and thus I found this topic thread. I made my post in this topic thread in order to further discuss ideas I presented at https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5711169410039808/simple-question-re-1914?page=45 regarding the Block Universe scientific theory and implications regarding Precognition and Retro-Causation. I decided this topic thread is much more appropriate for such. Furthermore, other reasons why I posted here are that the other topic thread is now closed and I am not allowed to create new topic threads.

Last night I learned about a book by Eric Wargo called Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious, while doing an internet search (using Google) on the keywords of 'science of precognition'. The author has a PhD in anthropology and works as a professional science writer. For a review of his book see https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/book-review-time-loops-precognition-retrocausation-and-unconscious-eric-wargo . At https://www.amazon.com/Time-Loops-Precognition-Retrocausation-Unconscious/dp/1938398920 there is a review of the book which says in part the following. "... there is growing evidence that we seem to have an ability to send ourselves messages from our own personal future ...." A different reviewer of the book says the following. "Eric makes a bold hypothesis in this book, simply put all forms of parapsychology are a byproduct of our brain’s ability to see in an extra dimension, both backward and forwards in time."

Regarding the book https://broadspeculations.com/2020/10/18/time-loops/ says the following.

"The idea simply is that precognition does exist and happens regularly but it doesn’t involve direct knowledge of things that will happen in the future. Rather precognition is a memory of an experience in the future. It is a future memory. ... The mind contains past experiences as memories but it also has access to future experiences. Of course, the future experiences are usually disregarded because we have no context for them. We abort our future memories routinely so they must manifest to us in dreams, during hypnogogic revelry and altered states, and during psychoanalytic free association.

... In Wargo’s understanding of precognition predestination is real. We live in a block universe and our experiences are caused not just by the past but also by the future. The arrow of causality does not go just one way. Our present is determined by our past and our future coming together in a loop. Occasionally in obscure and muddled ways we are given access to that future in our dreams and thoughts."

I am thus not alone in thinking that the scientific theory of the block universe indicates it might be possible to receive information of the future from our future self, and to call the mind ('remember') our future!

The author also has a book called Precognitive Dreamwork and the Long Self: Interpreting Messages from Your Future. A review about that book at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1644112698/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0 says the following.

"For Wargo, the human brain/mind is best described as existing across space-time in the so-called four-dimensional space-time "Einstein/Minkowski Block Universe." The implication of this view is that our future "exists" just as tangibly as our present and our past."

When I become very sleepy, while trying hard to stay awake and think about various things, sometimes a mental image flashes into my mind for a second or so, and then I "snap" out of the "vision". The type of such mental images I receive are very different subjects from what I dream about while sleeping. The images resemble that of visual memories, except I don't recall seeing such before through my eyes using regular vision. I thus wonder if they instead are memories of what myself in the future 'saw'/'sees'. The images which have "popped" into my mind have absolutely nothing to do with the topics I was thinking about consciously just before the images popped into my mind.

Other times, thoughts will "pop" into mind that seem far more brilliant to me that what enters my mind during its normal mental state, and the thoughts are completely different than what I was thinking about before the other ideas entered my mind. The experience makes me wonder if there is a part of my mind which is of higher intelligence (perhaps even a genius) than my regularly experienced conscious mind. As a result, I sometimes try to specifically access that other part of my mind, and I wonder if it might even be a separate mind of mine (like that of those with split personalities). Those thoughts which "pop" into my mind like that are ones which I can't fully hold onto after I "snap" out of the other mental state, but I retain the impression that the sudden thoughts were brilliant! Such impressions make me wish that my regular mental state of mind was that of my "other mind".

Such experiences of my mind cause to relate very much to something Thomas Paine wrote in his Age of Reason book. I plan to quote it after I find it again in his book. He said something about especially paying attention to thoughts which enter his mind unbidden. [Paine's book promotes deism and refutes much of the Bible and Christianity. Part II of his book especially focuses on refuting much of the Bible and Christianity.]