One soul passing away is not evidence of there being no compassionate god, no but millions of crying children dying slowly is just a hint that he might not exist...no we never did take note of his wifes name...it was my mothers decission.

Which is the bad part, the crying/suffering or the death?

the suffering...

so all suffering people, not necessarily the ones that are suffering and dying? i guess you have to ask why people are suffering. if someone gets shot in the stomach in a war, id blame man. if someone is murdered, i blame man. if a guy is surfing and a shark eats him i blame the shark. if someone i know gets cancer, i blame the cancer. to blame a god would mean that you believe in god?

No you have put the horse before the cart...If someone tells me there is a benevolent god i dont just take their word for it . I look for him or evidence of him. If no one had ever told me we had a benevolent god who had created us, i most certainly would not have guessed he even existed.

Hi! Everyone. Interesting thread. I am familiar with the experiences mentioned here, and this helps me to relax and feel that I might have something to contribute after all. I was worried that it might be a forum of stuffy armchair-philosophers. Sorry. I'm glad to say that is not the impression I'm getting now. I look forward to sharing.

How strange my mothers name was Rose,welcome Rose, its nice to say that name again...

Hey there Rose We are just a bunch of curious people. Id love to hear about your experiences. Anything to help contribute in this mystery of life is always appreciated.

xris, there are two people. those who believe without proof and those who need proof to believe. neither is bad, but whats important is that you want to believe and stay interested in figuring it out. instead of looking for reasons why a god doesnt exist, try looking for reasons why he might. ironically, contemplating the theory of evolution helped me believe in a big way.

Thank you both. That was very sweet.

I look forward to telling you about my strange and wonderful experiences.

But it's very late and I must get some sleep.

I personally believe there is an infinite ilusion with infinite layers, that is, we can never understand the universe, but we can understand parts of it. So I accept the possibility of there being unknow forces in action in this world, and I myself perceive coincidences that seen to be caused by my mind (Once I imagined wind in a eletric wire and a bird passed flying very low above the exact spot, almost touching it, before landing elsewhere).

However, altough I know that reality can "crash" at any time, it has been rather stable lately, as far as I can tell, so until I perceive it crashing myself I have decided to consider that such experiences are caused by mental disorders not yet discovered/studied and that may have pretty much any shape (Once in a life, affect multiple persons, etc) and even involve paranormal factors (In wich case they arent really mental disorders, more like a real things that makes you act like crazy, lets say).

Dont mind tough, everbody is crazy

To dismiss others experiences as illusions is OK with me as they where not yours but it does not diminish my belief in them...That's the thing with personal experiences they are personal...If i saw birds disappearing i to might think i was aaa biitt ,well i be worried.

Well you can believe they are enlighted people or nutshells, your choice
Of course there will always be people trying to get you to change your beliefs anyway.

Experiences must be treated with sceptical reasoning but not always with the same vigour.

But this vigor decides itself in the act of studying the experience.

I remember a book quite interesting in this topic (Not exactly on this topic but similar) called "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions", wich tells the story of a square living in a bidimensional world who is visited by a sphere from a tridimensional world.

withawhy,your philosophy is unduly indeed a lofty calibre.Thanks for sharing with us.