Thank you all so much for the warm welcomes here! I was getting worried for a bit when nobody replied originally...
Okay, let's evaluate what Mr. Baby Fart thinks he knows this far...
1- My fundamental Christian belief system -
A: I'm a Catholobapticostal, aka "I pray standing on my head and squeeze my nose while I make wierd noises"... At least it shows I have an open mind, a desire to discover and challenge my beliefs!
B: The Bible and Church suppressed much knowledge of the Spirit realm, I believe to keep the sheeple from tangling up with devils and demons. I believe that certain teachings of Jesus and the Apostles were "dumbed down" either in word translation or at the pulpit, to keep people from learning about the power of the Spirit world, although the later "Spirit Filled" denominations (hmmm... notice if you switch the first "N" and the "M" around, what you get!!!) grasped the connection with the Spirit realm in the aspects of the Holy Spirit, Angels, demons and being "caught up" in the Spirit. Many of the Pentecostal-like denoms actually had reports that would parallel OBE's and NDE's of visiting Heaven and talking to people and relatives there.
C: The traditional "Heaven and Hell" models couldn't possibly be 100% accurate if God is indeed "Love". I don't buy the belief that someone who never heard "the Gospel" or had an experience where they were "saved" went to hell by default. That couldn't possibly be true with a God of Love, who seeks to "save" the entire world. I don't believe that someone like Karen, who loved God with all her heart, would be punished to Hell for ending her suffering by her own hand either.
D: The fact that every denomination claims they're "right" and all the others are "wrong" cannot possibly be true. This brings up the question of "why is the Church now "splintered" into thousands of different denominations in the first place??? God never intended that - that's totally the doing of man and based on doctrinal differences, usually about how a particular passage of Scripture is to be interpreted. One little child once asked another some function where many various Christians were present, "so, what abomination are your family??" which I found to be quite accurate!!
E: Since Jesus' main teachings are about "unconditional love toward one another" does it not then make sense that this is what we are to do while we're on Earth? That this is our "purpose" on Earth? Makes sense to me!
F: Human suffering... well, the popular teaching is that "it's from the Devil"... yeah, to some extent probably, but I think that God has to allow it simply because it's a side effect of the evil which man set loose on this earth. "All things work together for good for those who love God" meaning that He allows it because we need it in order to grow in our love and our purpose in life. He surely doesn't delight in it, "Jesus wept" being proof of that.
G: Hinderances. I know I'm going to have to challenge some aspects that are going to block my progress.
2 - Meditation -
A: I understand it as teaching the conscious mind to shut up and stop distracting and blocking our mind so we can concentrate on what our Spiritual "receivers" are trying to pick up.
B: There's different "levels" of meditation, which I really haven't grasped the concepts of yet.
C: Alpha, Beta, Theta... Alpha and Omega please help me!!! And then there's hemi-sync, which I understand the concept of forcing your brain to hear the beat signals from the frequency offset recieved by each seperate hemisphere of the brain. Okay, I can buy that. Different frequencies produce differing states and effects. Makes sense.
D: My meditations... they're awful! I can't get my mind to produce visualizations, as if my imagination is disabled. It could possibly be due to some of the medications I'm taking. I wouldn't doubt that. I guess it could also have something to due with aging in general. At 43, I don't have the vivid imagination I had as a child. I would guess there's exercises I can do to help stimulate my imagination so I can visualize better?
E: "Guided" meditation. Well, I decided to check one out. Found a basic one on ebay for like $6.99. It certainly can't hurt!
3 - Spirit Guides -
I know everyone has one, but that's about all. I'd like to learn more but haven't found much that is useful at this point.
4 - Information -
What I've found on the web thus far has been really hit or miss. It's taking up a LOT of time searching and reading and I spend way too much time on the computer.
What books/tapes/CD's would you say are absolutely essential for me? Bare in mind that I have a really limited buget this month because I'm on sick leave.
That's probably enough typing for now... I shall let my numb fingers recuperate!
With Love,
Eddie