Vajra - when I was about 4 years old, the ultimate unholy terror of my life was that the neighborhood kids were going to feed me through a meat grinder into the equivalent machine. So Thanks for another pleasant memory of childhood   

I've noticed that all of us here seem to have one or another semi-major issues. It's rather like the tradition of the shaman as the wounded healer. And what can be more shamanic than to get right into the nitty gritty of spiritual confrontation?

Adam lost a rib (considering some divorces, he got off lightly) to the process - a sort of exteriorization throgh tragedy. Others have lost everything from bodily organs to internal chemistry that is hard put to maintain any kind of homeostasis.  The usual result seems to be that we decide that we have to do it all personally, rather than maintaining faith in those who are training us to be social.

I recall growing up behind barbed wire - always on a military base, and usually one that was shut down and very empty while being converted, refurbished or something. What a wonderful place to get into trouble as a pre-teen and teenager! At one time I had a small (35 lb) antipersonnel bomb in my bedroom as a souvenir - I forgot about it, and the movers came and it got packed and shipped to  our next residence where I discovered it years later. It came complete with bursting charge, but I had trouble locating a fuse - fortunately - and as the explosive used in such things has a tendency to age and decompose, increasing its sensitivity, it more or less scared the pee out of everyone - the thing now rests deep in the mud of SF Bay. - 

I suppose that this sort of fits my fear about being shredded. It definitely fits my recollection of being blown up by a bomb. Like when Wiley Coyote looks down the barrel of the Road Runner's canon and a moment later there's just a cloud of flying smudge.

My theory on this is that we sometimes get eaten by the bear, so we get a stuffed bear as a toy, to make it OK. That reconciles us, at least indirectly.

So we get abused by society and have started out to make it better by fixing things on a spiritual level. I think that's a very realistic approach.

dave

I have been out of town.  I saw the new posts when I got back.  A lot of good conversation.

Something in the thread brought out a lot of childhood memories.

There is probably something in Bruce's books about how people choose the families they come back into but I didn't see it.  If anyone can refer me to the pages I would appreciate it.

I guess it can be inferred from his descriptions of people sprung from various hells and hollow heavens, but if there is more I would like to read it.

Thanks in advance.

More seriously, I have met no spiritual beings who were demons. When challenged, they all turned out to be misguided spirits whothought that they would be preserved forever if only they kept hooking onto people. Then, to exercise themselves, they interfered, and thus got into the negative definition of self and so on. 

Casting them out is as simple as getting to know them, assuaging their fears, and helping them understand that in the Light they will find total love and forgiveness. Then I sometimes ask their dead friends to explain that it's a nice place to go, and for those that really give me a bad time, I offer to let them ride along with me if they don;t like it in the Light. (Of course most of them don't like the way I base my identity on pure emptiness - it kinda makes it difficult to be demonic or anything else, and brings in the question about who we really are etc. So except for a few scientists and perhaps a bored sage or two, invited to assist in my writing and studies, I have no such issues.)

The very worst way to handle malicious spooks is through exorcism. It creates vast amount of negative energy, and they use the energy to do their thing even more effectively. Love conquers all - especially the really mean and nasty ones.

dave

Hi Alysia-
I don't think that I said anything about my parents "allowing" me to have a bomb. Unused empty casings are often laying about when a base is shut, and this was a base where they loaded these things. The also loaded a lot of other things. I discovered how to enter the buildings where they did that kind of work and steal high explosives by the pound. That wasn't "allowed" either, but as a thirteen year old I was sneaky as hell.

I suppose that you can tell by this that I had a predestination for discovering the spirit world, and that the question was more on the order of how long it would take me to arrive, and by what means.

dave