The roots of quasi-spirituality and the misery it causes, based on people like this!

bluemason3 said:unknown

At least with Carlos Castaneda, we know he was a real person who actually wrote the books attributed to him. When it comes to Jesus, though, that's a much harder sell. 😁

unknown

We all know what he was up to. We know that applies to Popes too, but can we really draw that comparison? It’s not like Carlos Castaneda invented some brand-new religion; he just took what was already there, gave it a Western makeover, and let the chips fall where they may. What actually came of it is the real question. Those wicked popes actually stuck to the core principles of Christianity, even if their actual behavior told a different story. Power corrupts—it’s just a fact. Honestly, who could stay clean while running the show as a secular leader? I can't help but wonder what Carlos Castaneda would have been like if he had stepped up as the President of the United States. 😁

Are they? And what exactly are those principles? They seem to be rooted in Judaism—which was basically a plagiarism to begin with—likely mixed in with a whole mess of other belief systems.
Since we’re on the subject, let's look at what one of the Popes actually did. He basically issued a directive to weave pagan beliefs into Christianity just to make conversion easier. It was a tactical move. That’s why you see things like old deities being rebranded as saints, goddess cults morphing into Marian devotion, and even the whole thing with little gods and Christmas trees. It's just a long string of pagan elements rebranded for a new era.

So, did they actually stick to their religious principles?
Are there actually any religious principles that simply can't be questioned right from the jump?

Even though a massive chunk of Catholic tradition is rooted in paganism, you have someone like Blazevic—who’s basically a top-tier expert on Eastern religions—pointing out the exact same flaws in other faiths. It actually aligns pretty well with the mainstream discourse happening within the Church here in America today. So, regarding this:
unknown

What’s acceptable for a complete idiot isn't necessarily okay for some New York con artist.

Lisa Morales4 said:I mean, sure, Jesus wouldn't need copyright anyway since everything he ever spoke was for God rather than himself, yet his words are still universally recognized as his

That's just what spirituality is all about.

wearyowl29 said:What kind of spirituality are we even talking about here...?

wearyowl29 said:What kind of spirituality are we even talking about here...?

Lisa Morales4 said:I mean, sure, Jesus wouldn't need copyright anyway since everything he ever spoke was for God rather than himself, yet his words are still universally recognized as his

That's just what spirituality is all about.

wearyowl29 said:What kind of spirituality are we even talking about here...?

Michael Gonzalez77 said:The real issue is that we have a massive amount of stuff attributed to him that he almost certainly never said, but the apostles wrote down anyway. It's like people today need a psychic like Vanga to sift through it all to figure out what's real and what isn't. The fallout from that is messy. You have genuinely kind, spiritual people who can take one simple sentence about tolerance—like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"—and actually live by it. Then you have the intolerant, brainwashed types who have the Bible memorized word-for-word, but they haven't applied a single thing to their actual behavior. The Scripture hasn't even touched their character. 🤷

Honestly, it seems like Jesus wasn't just familiar with Buddhism, but deeply understood all the philosophies of his time. His teachings are universal truths, even if they feel eclectic in how they blend different philosophical ideas. At the end of the day, truth is singular; where it came from doesn't change the fact that it's true.

Lisa Morales4 said:Zivom. She’s the one who inspires and gives strength

to the feminine side 😁 if you really want to know 🙂
.. just a little curious thought 😍

EDIT
She is the one from whom you live through love and for Love itself
as the driving force of life
there isn't any psychedelic out there that can ever replace that

Exactly. The only author truth is God creating everything visible and invisible, and Christ is one with Him. You become one with Him too when you accept Christ as a brother—then you possess everything granted to anyone searching for the truth. You don't need books, or specific knowledge, or any fancy techniques, because everything ever written resonates within you. In that moment, time expands to feel as vast as the entire universe, without beginning or end. Verb tenses lose their meaning, and you don't need a clock with hands anymore; you just need a pendulum, whose steady rhythm reminds you that you are breathing within the Zivom God.

Lisa Morales4 said:Zivom. She’s the one who inspires and gives strength

to the feminine side 😁 if you really want to know 🙂
.. just a little curious thought 😍

EDIT
She is the one from whom you live through love and for Love itself
as the driving force of life
there isn't any psychedelic out there that can ever replace that

Exactly. The only author truth is God creating everything visible and invisible, and Christ is one with Him. You become one with Him too when you accept Christ as a brother—then you possess everything granted to anyone searching for the truth. You don't need books, or specific knowledge, or any fancy techniques, because everything ever written resonates within you. In that moment, time expands to feel as vast as the entire universe, without beginning or end. Verb tenses lose their meaning, and you don't need a clock with hands anymore; you just need a pendulum, whose steady rhythm reminds you that you are breathing within the Zivom God.

Lisa Morales4 said:Zivom. She’s the one who inspires and gives strength

to the feminine side 😁 if you really want to know 🙂
.. just a little curious thought 😍

EDIT
She is the one from whom you live through love and for Love itself
as the driving force of life
there isn't any psychedelic out there that can ever replace that

Exactly. The only author truth is God creating everything visible and invisible, and Christ is one with Him. You become one with Him too when you accept Christ as a brother—then you possess everything granted to anyone searching for the truth. You don't need books, or specific knowledge, or any fancy techniques, because everything ever written resonates within you. In that moment, time expands to feel as vast as the entire universe, without beginning or end. Verb tenses lose their meaning, and you don't need a clock with hands anymore; you just need a pendulum, whose steady rhythm reminds you that you are breathing within the Zivom God.

Michael Gonzalez77 said:That’s the reality of it. If only the human race weren't just a bunch of lost sheep projecting every random thought from their subconscious back into themselves, trapped in an endless loop. Generally speaking, people crave spiritual teaching regarding the most fundamental truths, yet they fail to find it. Even though they carry everything they need inside them, they don't see the key, they don't look for the key, and they don't even believe a key exists. Instead, they spend all their energy chasing third-rate distractions.

Jacob Sanchez7 said:Prayer, meditation, mantras, rituals—none of them can substitute for that.
Spirituality is woven into everything, but if you can't see it within yourself, you'll never truly possess it.

BUT, prayer, meditation, a mantra, a ritual, or even a psychedelic—they can all serve one purpose: reminding us of what we already are.

We are already one with Him. Everyone. Because if we weren't, we wouldn't exist at all.😁 (A technicality, sure, but vital for perspective.)

We’ve wandered into an adventure here. An adventure of forgetting, of limitations, of pure experience. And people don't actually "need" anything. They don't have to *do* anything. There are deeply spiritual people who have never even heard the word "spirituality," while others "study" spirituality and miss it even when it's staring them in the face.

Only one thing matters. Who do we want to be? What story are we telling the world through the lives we lead? That is the only thing of consequence. Other people aren't the point; what matters is how we show up in relation to them. 🙂

No judgment, no preconception, no expectation.

frozengull2 said:The real deal.

The kind that actually gives you the guts to change from the inside out... provided you actually put in the work.

Then there’s all the other garbage versions out there.
I’m talking about all that mainstream nonsense that tries to convince us "spirituality" is just some personal playground designed solely to
feed our own "personal ego trips."
It’s like that one commercial;
They ask a kid what they should eat to stay healthy, right?
And the kid just goes, "If kids were in charge, everyone in the world would just eat Krispy Kreme all day!"
Click!
Forget fruit, veggies, or a homemade chicken soup—none of that matters if it doesn't hit that sugar high. It's just annoying to them.


In a world full of spoiled, childish, and mostly blind people nowadays, that shallow stuff is unfortunately what sells best.

Such a shame.

Della17;41773068 said:

True.

What kind of shoes are you wearing? ...well, real ones, I guess.😁

So what's actually true here?

The kind that gives you the strength to change from within... if you put in the work.

Honestly, life's chaos changes us from the inside too—that’s just how the human psyche works.

There are also forms of spirituality that don't do that.
I’d group those under everything the mainstream tells us is "spirituality," where the only goal is
feeding our own "personal myth."

But what’s wrong with a personal myth?

Do we really need to set up some universal equalizer—because if we do, aren't we just pawns of the system?—or should we celebrate everyone's unique fingerprint? Is there room for our individual stories?

Besides, spirituality doesn't need an audience or a yardstick. We are our own standard.

Lisa Morales4 said:Zivom. She’s the one who inspires and gives strength

to the feminine side 😁 if you really want to know 🙂
.. just a little curious thought 😍

EDIT
She is the one from whom you live through love and for Love itself
as the driving force of life
there isn't any psychedelic out there that can ever replace that

Exactly. The only author truth is God creating everything visible and invisible, and Christ is one with Him. You become one with Him too when you accept Christ as a brother—then you possess everything granted to anyone searching for the truth. You don't need books, or specific knowledge, or any fancy techniques, because everything ever written resonates within you. In that moment, time expands to feel as vast as the entire universe, without beginning or end. Verb tenses lose their meaning, and you don't need a clock with hands anymore; you just need a pendulum, whose steady rhythm reminds you that you are breathing within the Zivom God.

wearyowl29;41794700 said:

frozengull2 said:The real deal.

The kind that actually gives you the guts to change from the inside out... provided you actually put in the work.

Then there’s all the other garbage versions out there.
I’m talking about all that mainstream nonsense that tries to convince us "spirituality" is just some personal playground designed solely to
feed our own "personal ego trips."
It’s like that one commercial;
They ask a kid what they should eat to stay healthy, right?
And the kid just goes, "If kids were in charge, everyone in the world would just eat Krispy Kreme all day!"
Click!
Forget fruit, veggies, or a homemade chicken soup—none of that matters if it doesn't hit that sugar high. It's just annoying to them.


In a world full of spoiled, childish, and mostly blind people nowadays, that shallow stuff is unfortunately what sells best.

Such a shame.

Especially when you’re suffering from severe lower back issues. Seriously, you have to practically engage every single muscle in your core just to stay upright.😢😲😁

frozengull2 said:Brenda Cook4;
unknown

So we just back away (because that’s the whole issue I’m talking about... and honestly, you could practically cut the tension in the room with a knife).

You're right there.

This topic is way too heavy for this subforum.

There aren't many people around here who are actually gonna point stuff like this out.

unknown

Explain it to me, what makes the New Age so "dark"?

The fakes sitting at the core of "New Age" teachings.
Carlos Castaneda is the perfect example, considering how much he's influenced the mainstream.

Anyway, what defines the New Age is this general sense of confusion and a "fast food" vibe that the whole movement promotes.
It isn't even about real spirituality; it’s just massive-scale self-serving ego trips.
People just grazing on bits and pieces from everywhere because they don't want to actually open their mouths and bite into anything real.
It mostly just feeds that consumerist-individualist-neoliberal appetite (basically a hungry mind focused entirely on its own comfort zone), rather than being anything authentic or capable of actually changing someone from the inside.

unknown

Moving on, how much of Carlos Castaneda have you read, and what specifically bugs you about him?

I've read it all.

What bothers me is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrB5...feature=relmfu

The thing that jumps out is his manipulative nature and his ego, which is just off the charts.
It shows up heavily in how he treats women, which borders on pedophilia (if not goes right past it); Amy, Patty (when they were super young)...
By the way, five women from his inner circle ended up killing themselves.

And the worst part? Thousands of his followers are basing their entire lives on him.

Basically just isolating themselves from the world.

unknown

Totally, everyone has the right to criticize any concept, and I wouldn't believe otherwise—even Christianity—from any standpoint. Being "authentic" would mean having some actual knowledge of the subject matter and using arguments, though when picking a spiritual path, it's hard to say who holds primacy, since it's all about what resonates with one person and not another. It's not like there's some scientific methodology that will reject one thing as flawed and declare another as true.

I'm saying it again;
The right to an opinion or to criticize anything isn't up for debate.
And I'm exercising that right by starting this thread.

I don't get why you keep stressing that?

I just notice that the people who do that often seem to have a bit of a "stink" on them regarding the very things they're criticizing.

I'm the least to blame here... no matter how ridiculous it might seem.

Lisa Morales4 said:Hey, let's not attribute everything to Bog. He gave us free will for a reason 🙂

What's missing from a personal legend?