Theos-Talk Archives (May 2009 Message tt00503)

I have a friend whom I have known for many years.
All this time his basic view has been that of a materialist
and atheist. He is totally convinced that there is ONLY a physical
world. Humans do NOT have some sort of soul or spirit that is non-
physical or superphysical or however one might word it. He views
a human being as simply a biological entity who is born and when
that physical entity dies there is no survival of personality or of
consciousness or of soul. When the physical body and brain dies,
whatever we consider to be our personality, our consciousness dies
(ceases to exist) just as the physical body dies and returns one
way or the other to the environment from which it came.

He doesn't believe in any kind of God whether it is personal or
impersonal or however you might describe it. He thinks what HPB
writes about the Absolute is just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. --- mere
words. But all theologians and religionists of ALL religions and cults write just mumbo-jumbo, he would add!

Now my friend is a nice guy, friendly, sociable. He loves his wife,
his son. He's kindhearted, a giving person. He tries to be honest,
etc. etc. 

He simply doesn't believe that all these things
about "god", life after death , Masters, auras, psychic phenomena, 
even religion in general, really mean anything and in fact
from his perspective none of it is REAL or TRUE. Empty beliefs.

I also have another friend who is a mystic and once he was in Eckankar.  He would get out of his body and see the various Eck Masters, go to the  various Eck temples on the inner planes, and would even see while wide awake the Eck Master Rebazar Tarz in his own living room!

Pretty real and vivid experiences yet he no longer believes those
experiences about the Eck Masters were really real.

For more on Eckankar see David Christopher Lane's critical book on Eckankar.  See the online edition of Lane's book at:

http://www.geocities.com/eckcult/

To this day my friend does NOT deny that he had these experiences even while wide awake but his interpretation of some of
them is quite different than what it was back then!!!!!

So when people have experiences with the dead or near death
experiences or out of body experiences, encounters with Masters or
angels, or WITH GOD, etc. no doubt they probably have such
experiences but how do you explain the experiences? What really is
going on in each of these experiences?

Now my mystic friend is still convinced that there are dimensions
beyond the physical, that our "consciousness" survives the death of
the physical body, based primarily upon what he has experienced
when "out of the body" in what he considers are psychic and even higher mystical planes and states, etc.

But he is no longer believes that those Eckankar Masters really exist!!

And my other friend, the highly skeptical materialist and atheist,
thinks my mystic friend is simply a victim of hallucinations
and that all his so-called paranormal and mystical experiences are illusory and brain-generated!

What a contrast:  polar opposites you might say!

Daniel
http://hpb.cc