Posts by frozenangler9

jadetinker85 said:Generally, I wouldn't want to pile more onto any teacher than they already have. You can't work with kids if you're burnt out. Finn understood that perfectly.
Just look at how much they're going to load up the history and math departments.

Honestly, I’m disgusted. I teach math—hourly contract, too—and even though I’m not that far from retirement, I’m seriously considering retraining and just getting out of education entirely. Math teachers have always been overworked as it is, regardless of having a slightly lighter load. Between the endless piles of tests that require actual focus to grade, the mandatory overtime, and the constant retakes... it's a lot. If this actually happens, who is even going to be qualified to teach math? My guess? Nobody.

Jacob Lopez51 said:You might as well just grab some Fluimucan with N-acetylcysteine—or honestly, just buy pure NAC capsules. It’s cheaper and usually comes in bigger packs.
For me, taking it along with quercetin and massive doses of Vitamin C really did the trick when I had COVID.

I actually take NAC daily with my other antioxidants for neuropathy stuff, but man, it cleared out my lungs completely. I was coughing up straight garbage. XD

Good to know, thanks.
The main thing is my doctor put me on Panatus Forte, even though I don't even have a cough or any dry irritation. Seriously...

Still breathing, somehow!
Thanks for the input—I think I’ve finally worked up the nerve to try Bisolex. Didn't take anything yesterday since I wasn't really sure what would help. My mucous membranes feel super dry, and there's this lingering phlegm that just won't budge, probably coming from my sinuses. Plus, the heat just kicked on at the house, and I haven't been running the humidifier—which is a mistake, since I usually do that during the winter.

I'm definitely going to ask my doctor for an ENT referral first thing Monday morning. At least now I know what to look out for and how to manage it. I really hope this doesn't happen again; it was brutal for me, and even worse for everyone else in the house—they all woke up because I was coughing so loudly.

Anyway, yeah, about a week or so ago I had some mild bug with a scratchy throat and hoarseness. I know it wasn't acid reflux, though, because my husband and son both caught it the next day, and people at the office were dealing with the same stuff too. It wasn't COVID, either—we took tests and everything.

I almost choked to death last night. I woke up unable to breathe because my airway was totally blocked. I barely managed to cough hard enough to clear a tiny path just to get some air, then finally hacked all that mucus out. Feels like there’s still more stuck in there, though—plus my left side hurts a bit when I take a deep breath.

I sent that message to my doctor and she tried to squeeze me in today. Turns out she wasn't even in—some covering physician was there instead. He told my nurse (without even seeing me first!) that he already sent a prescription for Control4 to the pharmacy, and that was basically it. I asked my nurse what the hell kind of med that was, and turns out it's for the stomach!? I told her I've never had stomach issues in my life and that I probably need something to thin out this mucus—I've had this scratchy throat and hoarseness for a week now, and everything in my nose and throat feels so thick and congested it's a struggle to cough or blow my nose... I finally went in to see him, and he insisted it was acid reflux, claiming the nighttime choking and back pain are typical symptoms. He did give me something for a cough (turned out to be for a dry cough at the pharmacy), so I ended up just buying some Bisolex myself and heading home with a pile of meds that probably won't even help.

Still, that whole choking fit from the mucus hitting my airway has me worried. It felt like things could have gone south fast—like, fatal fast—because I was completely without air for maybe ten seconds. What if I hadn't been able to cough that stuff up? What if it happens again? Who am I supposed to call on a Friday afternoon to make sure this doesn't happen again?
What was even going on here?

Daniel Chavez14 said:I'll get my chance to say what I think in person. 😉
Right now, I'm just gathering everyone else's perspectives so I can be better prepared. 🙂

Just drop the coordinates for that thing, please... 🙏
Even if it's just via DM. 😘

Daniel Chavez14 said:Does anyone have a different take on what New Age actually means?
If not, I guess I’ll just have to settle for the definition provided by Douglas Brown4. 😉

And do you even have a definition for anything? (Seriously, anything at all? 😬 )

So, what's your take, Professor? Huh??? 😍

electricdrifter68 said:Greetings, everyone!
This fascinating topic caught my eye, prompting me to step forward and contribute my own thoughts to the conversation. Spiritual experiences? They certainly exist, and they are profoundly different from our physical encounters with the world. To my mind, they encompass everything that isn't merely a product of our intellect, our senses, or our physical bodies—those elusive moments we can never quite define, yet which we feel with absolute clarity.
These spiritual encounters manifest in various ways; we have already discussed examples ranging from astral projection and vivid dreams to metaphysical insights and even certain feminine energies. However, there is a singular common thread weaving through all of them: they serve as a gateway to self-awareness. The depth of these experiences directly dictates the intensity of the transformation within ourselves, because in any such moment, at least one facet of our being becomes illuminated. That is where the true value lies. If an experience results in us leading a more honest, more fulfilled life, then it has truly been a spiritual one.
But what, fundamentally, constitutes a spiritual experience? As the name implies, it is an encounter with the spirit within us—a direct touch of our very essence, a brush with our true authenticity. Because of this unique nature, no two spiritual experiences are ever identical.
As for the experience that changed me? It was an experience of pure self-awareness. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it didn't actually change me, but rather revealed to me the parts of myself that remain unchangeable.
Regarding the concept of spirit versus matter, I agree that it is a term born of dualistic consciousness, but there is a massive difference between accepting that as a theoretical truth and actually living through it as a lived experience.

Hmm... just because someone can't fully wrap their head around what they felt doesn't mean it's some mystical, undefinable phenomenon.

bluemason3 said:I mean, damn, since they clearly didn't get it—they failed to mention that a mystical yogin can enter a river at one point and pop out anywhere else they want.😳 🙏 😎 😍 😬

So what, does swimming upstream or downstream count as some kind of mystical insight or something?😁

Taylor Campbell4 said:From an absolute standpoint, sure, but it doesn't affect us—not unless we're operating purely on an intellectual level. You might grasp Timotheus intellectually, I guess, but it isn't part of your lived experience. Someone who actually *knows* it experientially could, say, travel at light speed and pop in and out of existence whenever they felt like it.

Also, if that were part of your actual experience, you’d have total control over your feelings, thoughts, and all that stuff.

Man... I'm not gonna go as far as saying you're talking nonsense, but... I have a feeling that you're talking nonsense... 😁

Like... capping the spirit's speed at the speed of light? And honestly—speed—what even is that? 😬

Or talking about (material) "appearing" and "disappearing" as if it's some purely spiritual thing... whatever. 🙄 😛

Hannah Thompson2 said:so you take physical rules and try to use them to explain the spiritual side—it just doesn't hold up, this whole theory of yours,

Oh, really? And does it hold up when you claim that the spirit and the body are opposites? 🙂

If they’re opposites, then logically, the more I know about A, the more I understand its opposite, non-A. 😍

Since you're such a genius, why don't you go ahead and define "spirit" or "spiritual" without dragging the material world into it? Just once. Then maybe I'll actually believe there's zero connection between the two...

And another thing—it's way easier, if you ask me, to manipulate spiritual knowledge. It's easy to con people (and even yourself) in an area where almost nobody is truly "expert."
Sticking to the facts of the material reality seems—I don't know—more honest. To yourself and everyone else. No fluff, no fake mystical glow...

At the end of the day, if you stay awake and ready to learn, you can pick up a ton—and I mean a ton—from seemingly insignificant, "material" experiences.

If you're just sitting there, asleep and dazed, waiting for some spectacular, unexplainable spiritual epiphany... you might find your whole life passes by while you're just waiting. That "big lesson" or "great teacher" might never show up, while you're busy tossing aside those small, everyday moments as useless sources of wisdom.

Bottom line: all sources are worth something if you know how to "read" them, and they all lead to the same place. 🙂

Hannah Thompson2 said:then you clearly haven't had a spiritual experience, because there's a massive gap—the body is the polar opposite of the spirit, so you can't even compare spiritual stuff to physical sensations.

Oh sure, and I bet you typed that out while levitating over the Mojave Desert... oh, wise one! 😬

First off, this whole body vs. spirit dualism thing? Total fail. The body is—if you want to call it that—just one way the spirit manifests. If you think you can just sit in your physical skin and somehow bypass everything to experience "pure" spirituality, I guess you're just kidding yourself.

Once you actually wrap your head around the body—you know, matter, physical presence, laws of physics, math, all that—you've got enough data to build a picture of the non-physical side... the spirit. To me, that's just the most straightforward, natural path for us mere mortals.

And honestly, walking up to random people and just blabbing about your "spiritual experiences"... I don't know... it's just not really something you do with strangers. 😉

brightgardener40 said:the whole process of giving birth wasn't even remotely pleasant for me—let alone some kind of spiritual epiphany. I'm talking about kids and the feelings you have toward them, especially with the first one, because this whole new wave of emotion hits you out of nowhere.

But... does a spiritual experience always have to be (physically 😉 ) pleasant? 🤔

The act of birth itself is actually a perfect way to see just how relative physical (dis)comfort really is.

For me, that experience was pretty intense—and honestly, the discomfort was nothing compared to the massive shift in perspective... 😉

brightgardener40 said:I didn't say giving birth was a spiritual experience, just the actual birth itself

Right... because kids are just pure love and have zero connection to childbirth... or physical reality at all... god forbid... 🙄

brightgardener40 said:The biggest shift for me was definitely this whole earthly experience thing—specifically having my first kid. That’s when I realized I wasn't the center of my own universe anymore; suddenly, there was this little being I loved more than anything else (and yeah, that happened three times, and I still feel that way). I always compare it to divine love because if our human love is just a tiny shadow compared to His, imagine how massive His actually is. I'd give anything to feel even a glimpse of that.

Since you brought up birth (lol, talk about a ritual that requires some serious innate talent 😈)... I also felt like I was basically reborn after going through it. 😁
But... isn't it kind of awkward to talk about the whole birthing experience in front of people who are totally denied the chance to ever go through that kind of initiation? 😬

So, what's actually the difference between a spiritual experience and a non-spiritual one? To me, they feel pretty much the same. 😉

I was sitting here thinking about it, trying to dig up some kind of "spiritual" moment from when I was a kid, and this one memory popped up:

I was five years old, playing with marbles (you know, those little glass spheres with the colorful swirls inside 😁). I was obsessed with them—just wanted to know what was actually going on inside, how they felt under my fingers, if they were soft or hard... I wanted to feel it all, but then I realized that if I smashed them, I’d just destroy the thing I was admiring. I wouldn't even learn what I wanted to know because it wouldn't be the same thing anymore...

I figured out that it was this tiny little "universe," and the best way to learn about it was through careful observation without messing it up by breaking it... so I spent a good chunk of time just "meditating" on that little, colorful, happy universe. 🙂

And, I don't know if that experience changed me or if I was just born this way... but I'm still like that... I observe, I try to grasp and understand things without physically interfering, whenever possible. Some people might call me lazy... what a joke... 🤣 😬

Someone already pointed this out above; once you start feeling like you're the only sane one left... hmmm... 😁 😁 😬

Indiana Jones said:Ugh, just that awful crowd constantly trying to dictate how we losers should live our lives.

Can't even blow off some steam in peace...😠

Look, we all know society makes plenty of baseless demands to crush people. 😬

Taking it out on other people (or their stuff 😁) is obviously a no-go, but just "venting" by wasting your own damn energy—which happens a ton when you're young, I guess—why should anyone actually care?

Daft Punk said:I feel like society is constantly pushing this idea that I have to "live life to the fullest," but honestly, I'm totally fine without all the adrenaline rushes.😕

Look, the bottom line is you gotta listen to your own gut, regardless of what everyone else expects from you.

Not that I'm out here advocating for anything illegal or crazy—don't want to get that twisted... 😉

mistyrider7 said:People like that usually just spend their time daydreaming about the "glory days" of their youth when they were actually living life—which just proves they haven't learned a damn thing, since they still think life is somewhere out there where they failed to find it.
It’s especially pathetic when those types try to desperately recreate that same lifestyle once they hit old age.

I think there's plenty of people who dream about their youth, but they're mostly just regretting how they didn't actually live it... even though deep down, that's what they wanted all along. 😉

Then, right as they're hitting old age, it finally clicks—they realize they spent their whole lives living by someone else's playbook (socially forced stuff that didn't fit who they really are) and suddenly, at the last minute, they actually want to start living for themselves.

That's my take, anyway.

The ones who actually lived it back in the day? They don't have these issues. They were always being true to themselves and have nothing to regret. (Trust me, I know. 🙂 )

mistyrider7 said:That analogy is way too simplistic—honestly, maybe even a bit reductive.

And that's because actually living through something is a whole different beast than just learning from mistakes—which is basically what people here are suggesting.

It’s this weird, specific thing—kind of a niche phenomenon—that involves... That whole craving for "life"... I don't know. It’s like this constant, restless itch—this feeling that you're just waiting around for something real to actually start. Maybe it's just burnout, or maybe we're all just chasing some phantom version of happiness that doesn't even exist. I guess people call it "living," but most days it feels more like just surviving the grind. Just an observation.Look, life is basically just one big design flaw—it’s misconfigured from the jump. Everything starts being set in stone during those formative years when you're still figuring things out. That’s when the real damage happens, I guess. It leaves these permanent marks that follow you straight into adulthood, especially once those core patterns start hitting harder.
Populations aren't just getting tired—they're hitting a state of total, genuine stagnation. And honestly? Anyone claiming this is just because life has become too routine is barking up the wrong tree.
Those guys mostly just sit around dreaming about the "good old days" from when they were out living it up—which basically proves they haven't learned a damn thing. They still think life is back then, in all those places where they failed to actually find it. I guess.

I guess walking could be seen as a pretty stellar example—of physical activity, anyway.😉 People want more out of life—but crashing because you tried too hard, too soon? That’s not exactly a "learning experience." It’s not like you didn't know better. It's more about having immature motor skills or just being physically unready for the grind. I guess it's less about ignorance and more about just not being developed enough yet. Maybe.

I don't think you're really hitting the mark here—trying to pit "living life to the fullest" against "just existing" like they have some kind of moral hierarchy... I guess it's a bit of a stretch.