They are often intertwined
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I would say roughly 15 years, the first half of my life I mainly studied the Bible, Christian testimonies and Christian literature. Actually, the time I've spent arguing with atheists and the time I've spent studying spirituality as a whole are about the same, perhaps arguing with atheists compelled my fixation even further. Maybe they exposed flaws within my belief system and because of my determination and desire to know truth I've adjusted those flaws. My fixation with God and my love for truth are one and the same, so I always align myself with what is true without compromising my love for God. I don't place beliefs and religion over God's status in my life, so I don't let beliefs dictate anything about God unless those beliefs are accurate. How I determine what is accurate follows in many different ways, basically the process that I personally use to discover truth or what follows in logic is a rigorous procedure. I'm cursed with non-stop debating in my own head and the constant sifting of information lol.
Lots of interesting things. The nature of God (what God is), the specifics of the soul (what the soul is), how creation is put together, specifics of alternative dimensions.....just more insights about all aspects of creation in general. Quite fascinating really.I'll tell ya what, here are the main sources I've really found a lot of useful information within, or rather the ones I favor most. Just consider that OT Jews are not the only people or culture capable of having observations about God or the afterworlds.
Hinduism was probably the first one I considered studying, then of course Buddhism, Native American Spirituality (whos culture I most love), Eckankar and then various factions of eastern and tribal religions.Hinduism seems to posses very instinctive knowledge about the nature of God and the nature of consciousness, meaning what God actually is and what that entails. Buddhism and Buddhist cosmology has great understanding and insights about how creation is put together, Native American Spirituality really has a lot of depth about the spiritual worlds, spiritual beings and so forth. Eckankar is beautiful in that it has wonderful knowledge about the soul and how that relates to God, they also have a very unique understanding of how creation is put together which is very similar to Buddhism.
Creation is put together in layers (which explains the afterlife), or you could say there are multiple parallel worlds. The closest theory put forward in philosophical circles is the multiverse theory, in time I believe this will become more prominent. It will be what opens the door for spirituality to become a global phenomenon once again, but not like the old days where fundamentalist religions ruled the world through tyranny and control rather the simple truth of what exists will captivate people.
One reason why I refuse to limit God or what God has done is because we seldom consider what an eternal Being means, in that God is not just a God but a creative Entity. Putting both the concepts of eternal and creativity together makes for very interesting implications. Since the nature of the soul is eternal God knows that the created worlds must be vast and various. Our physical universe is but one little cosmos and experience in the grand scheme of the eternal journey of the soul. This is why the multiverse theory fits so well in my estimations, because within creation the experiences the soul can have are virtually endless with heaven being only a single place and a single experience. In the multiverse theory there are several universes and within each universe there are countless galaxies, solar systems and planets. These are areas that the soul can sojourn.There's absolutely nothing wrong with the heaven scenario either, but it fits within the overarching reality of God's creative abilities, there's room for that and much more. This fits much better with the conception of a creative God and loosens the rigidity of how we normally think of God, creation and religion.
The is probably the most interesting thing for me because I too am very creative and something about there being just two places when we leave the physical body that just doesn't sit right with me. The Bible is very vague about the parallel worlds that exists and what that entails. It seems to have a certain focus for a specific group of people which is fine because the Christian Heaven is certainly a Kingdom, but a Kingdom that fits within a series of parallel dimensions, it resides on a planet of its own within a universe full of other planets. For Christians "heaven" is very much like the way we experience earth. To us earthlings, the planet earth is really the only thing that exists....and to Christians, heaven is the only place that exits when they die. Again though, this is all fine I'm just detailing what I feel is much more accurate.
NDE's (as well as paranormal observations) are a very good source of evidence that correlates with the proposition of the soul and alternate dimensions. These are first hand observations of what it is like leaving the physical body and so I've invested a lot of time in researching them and considering all the countless testimonies. That complied with my study of religion as a whole there's a wealth of knowledge and information that is highly beneficial for understanding spirituality and creation.
I grew up in an ultra conservative bubble where I believed women should not vote, work outside the home, or go to college. I wore skirts down to my ankles and my social life was exclusively church or people who believed just like me.
I had no access to the internet until I was 17 years old, and so I had zero exposure to pop culture or basic children's movies.
Joining DDO in like 2014 was a crash course in the world for me. I left it about four years ago because it was dying and I recently found this site hoping that reading other people's opinions will help me grow further.
I had zero exposure to pop culture................ I did not know who Elvis was until I was 19.
55 days later
