Hi Herb,
it will may be surprising to you, but I'm happy to see that this board is more open than a few years ago to something else than retrieval accounts, questions about the existence of Afterlife, and how to explore it. I am aware it is Bruce's board, and that the main focus has to stay his work, and Afterlife exploration. But opening the mind to multidimensionnal realities has its consequences on personnal belief system, and it's really a need that this board partly act as an agora to discuss about perpectives and personnal truths.
I agree with you, questions of new members should be answered promplty. but I se you are good at it. You apply something I see as of value: be the source of what you want to see in the world
On the other hand, I don't share your desires about seeing clear cut folders on the forum, with everyone posting in the relevent folders, and avoid losing to be of support to Bruce's mission (what you refer to as Good Board Citizenry). Typically, people post on the folder having the most activity in it, regardless of the titles. they only want to be where the action is, that's all. They post their comments on a thread, modifiying the subject, instead of starting a new thread. I don't say it's the best way, it's just the way it happens on most boards.
Let me go back to the control issue, and why I think it's healthy for this board to include discussions on "related subjects of the non-physical spiritual culture of current humanity consciousness", be it reincarnation, channelling, reiki, crystals, meditation, you choose....
I don't know for how long you've been on this board, but I first came on this site in 1999, I think. My profile says 2000, because, if I remember it well, it was the year where a frenetic poster flooded the board with his messages, and that's when Bruce put in place registration in order to be able to post on his board. This poster got Bruce busy with up to 600 posts a day, if I recall it well, and I don't say nothing about the content and quality of those posts
Mandatory registration solved the "problem".
But registration wasn't what kept me away from this board for about 2 to 3 years (I resume visiting this board a few weeks ago, so excuse me if I don't know all about the recent dynamics, and as of why you are considered a maverick here
) . It's because I felt my posts where somehow perceived as out of place, even if I felt a strong connections with many members of the board. My posts were not often about retrieval accounts or direct experiences in the non-physical realms. They were mostly about my own reflexions, considering my experiences and those shared on the board, helping others "figure it out", strenthening their new mainframe "view of the universe", because it is one thing to learn to explore Afterlife, and it is another to harmoniously introduce the new insights and knowledge gained, without going through a belief system crash (as goes the expression used here to express the impact of the new thoughts with the old ones). these posts, of course, were also helping me clarifiying my own thoughts and overview, and I was not only replying to questions posted by others, but was posting about my own reflexions as well.
The many threads I started never had much success. The board was all about "first hand experience", and questions about how to get it. That's ok, it was the main goal of the board, and I enjoyed reading many, many retrival accounts, and always learned from it.
but people need to discuss their new beliefs and experinces, to integrate them in what they already are! I stopped to come to the board, because to me, there is no ultimate "raw", first hand experience. I have a quantum view of life, and the observer is part of the experiment, and how you see what you see affects what you are actually seeing (hmmm, not the clearest sentence of all, but since I am a french canadian, I cannot match your vivid and crisp writing style, Herb, and I am sure the meaning get across anyway ).
There is a critic phase, at the beginning of a personnal shift, between the time where you start to live things that greatly interfere with what you have believed so far, and the time you have established a stable connection with inner guidance that helps you sort it all and make sense of the new picture. If this board helps someone take its momentum and jump in the air, i think it should also be their at the landing, hopefully, not a crash landing. And, as in any board, there is still more people reading the posts than those actually posting. Many questions are kept untold, and many may quit afterlife exploration, because of fear of belief system crash. Would you stay for long on a board that brings interesting but disturbing experinces in your life, without offering some reflexions about how to blend in nicely the new stuff with the rest of your life, including your current ideas, religions, values or other references?
So, you may not personnally enjoy a discussion about channelling, and the historic reallity of Jesus, but it is important that people test their beliefs and truths, exchange point of view, try new possibilities, iin order to continue evolving in a smoother way. There is other board for discussing it, but why not here, too? Just take part in discussion you enjoy, don't read the rest. The board won't get empty, the net won't run out of potential new members, and net surfers are used to the messy mix of subjects you find on any board, knowing to seek what they are looking for, and craeting a new thread if necessary.
I started again to write here because I saw there is threads like the one Lucy started on good and evil polarities, (
http://www.afterlife-knowledge.com/cgi-afterlife-knowledge/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=a... )
and a few days ago, the one on "what do we really know?
(
http://www.afterlife-knowledge.com/cgi-afterlife-knowledge/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=a... )
Well, I realize I never really made it clear to me why I stopped to come on this board. Your post was the occasion for me of an intention "retrieval"...hehe Hope this reflexion will be valuable input for your own reflexion.
Joy and Abundance to everyone!
Wiz