People have a choice about where they want to put their emphasis,
on what they want to be preoccupied with. They can be somewhere on
a scale from anxiety to confidence. I for instance don't think
about doomsday much. And I never expect to encounter evil unless I
go into an area where I am expecting it.

But it is another thing entirely to say that something does not
exist just because you don't happen to have encountered it.
The flat out statement that occurs in some New Age channeling,
that evil does not exist, is just plain false. Such a statement is
not acceptable, on the part of some entity that presents itself as
some sort of guru.

This issue does not boil down to merely my reality or your reality.
That is not the end of the issue. There is a real reality out there
that exists regardless of what you or I happen to believe or happen
to have encountered. It is the business and responsibility of
people to know what might be there and what to do when you
encounter it, to be mentally prepared, even if you never seem to
encounter it.

I would advise people to sometimes get out of their New Age ghetto
and see the broad range of the paranormal.  Hauntings and Ouija
board stories include horror stories where people were barely able
to cope. These are rare but they definitely exist. I have often
heard paranormal scary stories called into the Art Bell/ George
Noory radio show, where people were desperate about what to do.
Also there have occurred in my family and extended family, cases of
unfriendly hauntings or possession. I also occasionally read in OBE
forums of scary out of body experiences. There is one story of a
person rushing to get back into his body before another entity in
the scene could enter it. Evil entities have their own independent
existence, just as we have our own independent existence between
lives. These do not need our thoughts to exist, their existence is
independent from us, and we did not create them.

Nevertheless, there is a predominance of astral adventures that were
not harmful, such that these things can be undertaken with some
confidence, and without too much fear. The sheer number of
travelers who say they have never encountered anything they had to
be afraid of, can enable a perspective, like you can get onto a
commercial airline with confidence, even though crashes occur.
But when people say there is nothing to fear, they are not being
accurate. They might accurately say, I have never encountered
anything to fear, but that is not the same thing as it being
nonexistent.

I am by no means an expert in what is called "New Age" thinking.  However, what I've read does not at all completely dismiss evil, it simply states that there are different levels of vibration of the soul or spirit.  As a generaly rule, New Agers believe that the more evil and damaging a spirit/soul is, the lower the vibration.   From what I have read, a spirit with this low level of vibration does not, have access to higher planes (such as Monroe's Focus 27). 

The earth plane (C1), and near earth astral are fairly low levels with regard to vibration (if one believes in that), and as such, it may be possible for misguided souls or evil entities to have an influence there or even menace someone. 

Several facts are important in this new age system, however.  The first is that our essence can not be harmed, truly - perhaps in C1 physical reality, with transient physical injuries, but not our innermost soul.

The second is that there is a natural desire of every soul to be saved or experience love.  Even one considered evil.  Thus eventually, they may seek to change their ways.  This, admittedly may be debated.

Matthew

I have never heard any saying of Jesus in which he either damned or cursed anyone.  If he did, I'd like to know the chapter/verse.  I do agree that evil may be spiritual beings behaving badly, or not understanding.

Matthew

Matthew

oops now maybe I'm going to get myself yelled at by the Bible scholars. In looking for this I think I must be remembering a nontraditional translation. I thought this was said in connection with one of the times Jesus worked on the Sabbath and caught heck from the teachers.

the quote I now find is like this:

"On the same day he saw a man working on the Sabbath Day, and said to him; ‘Man, if you know what you do, you are blessed, but if you know not, you are cursed and a transgressor of the law’ "(Cambridge MS, Codex Bezae).

I find that quite meaningful, but some may find it inaccurate. But I'm not sure where it is supposed to fit in with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, though in my memory it was in a particular one. I read that in something not on the web so I'm going to have trouble finding my source. I read alot. Bookworm, I am! but I don't take notes. That sentence obviously had an impression on me.

I found this extensive discussion of translations in loking for Codex Bezae. Words are important to us humans:
http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/intro.html


Rog you have obviously given this a bit of thougth and I see your point about taking it seriously.

Maybe it is analagous to driving. Other cars aren't bad but I still have to watch where I am going.

I see PUL as something that passes through me but I think it is something I am supposed to learn to direct. Maybe I can't send it now (or can I?) but someday I will.

Perhaps the most growth comes, when we're willing to disagree with ourself.  ???

I do not know of a case of Jesus cursing a man, although he did
say, "Woe to the lawyers". But he did curse a fig tree, because it
did not have any figs on it, even though it was not the season for
the tree to have figs on it. The tree later withered and died.
This is in Mark 11:13, 14, 20, 21.

This seems immature, to be angry at a fruit tree because it did not
have fruit yet because it was not the season.  The tree was not
guilty of anything, so that it should recive the death penalty.
If this is the man who could create loaves and fishes,
why did he not just ask the tree to grow some fruit for him?

I have wondered why this story was included, that seems to diminish
the man in some way. Were they trying to make him look powerful, or
to be feared? Or would this be a clue to the authenticity of the
story, in that they included this, when they could have omitted it?

It is also in Matthew 21:19, in less detail.

No I certainly don't believe everything I read in the Bible. I
emphatically reject the creation myth in Genesis and the end of the
world myth in Revelations. Also a long list of other things.
I also reject the similar end of the world myth in the Quran.

The most serious critics of Christianity say that the Jesus myth is
a recycling of similar stories that were culturally inherited, that
these stories included such things as the virgin birth, and the
persecution or execution of the stereotyped hero.

If one were to say that the story of Jesus was a created myth,
then my point is that this story of cursing a fig tree is out of
character if you are trying to create a story of a son of God who
is supposed to be way spiritually above the foibles of men.
I wonder how this story got in there, since it does not fit the
main message of who this man was supposed to be.

So one thought that occurs to me is that maybe it is in there
because it really happened, that a great guru had a childish fit of
temper, and it was a curious incident they puzzled over and could
not help making a note of.

As for whether the fig tree really died or not, that is something
you can be skeptical about. I have had trees fall over in a storm
when I did not need them any more, they were in the way of another
plan I had. Coincidence, of course. The elm tree next to that one
has prospered and grown a lot of leaves when I assured it that I
needed its shade in the summer. Of course, I watered it a lot
because I wanted the shade.

If you want to learn more about demons, read about exorcism here:

http://paranormal.about.com/od/demonsandexorcism/a/aa031405.htm