Sunmaster

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks for sharing that experience. I can't say if it was an override, but it certainly was something special.

I tried MDMA when I was young, but it wasn't like that. Or maybe it was like that, but times a million. I shared my experience here before, but it is now buried somewhere around page 2- or 300. Let me see if I can find it.

Yes, I've seen one in real life about 5 years ago. I was very happy, but definitely not ecstatic like the guy in the video. A bit too much for my taste 5555 The kind of ecstasy I was talking about was a different kind though, or more intense perhaps.

I'm still not sure about fear, or a certain type of fear to be precise. But for ecstasy, based on my personal experience, I can confidently say that no thought was involved when it happened. I say this because I have never experienced anything like it before or after. There was no framework to work with or even a similar feeling I could relate it to. It happened without thought because it was something that transcended the mind. The question I would rather ask at this point is whether we should classify it as an emotion in the first place. My experience was not just a "mental transport" and I wasn't contemplating anything divine at the time. In fact, I was atheist when it happened. And yet, it was an ecstasy on all levels: physical, mental and above all spiritual. That's why I always point out that direct experience is the key to true knowledge. Books and intellectual models of reality can be helpful in making sense of the experience, but without the experience itself, they are just pretty, empty boxes.

Easy. God is God. The Bible, the Quran, any religious doctrine....were written by men. 2 very different things. Even if those texts were written by men under the influence of divine inspiration, and I believe this to be so in part, even then the info received had to go through the unique filter of the person writing it down, thus distorting the original message. Not to mention all subsequent revisions throughout history that even further distorted the message.

The question I was asking myself was "If emotions are all a product of thoughts, what about ecstasy and (sudden) fear?" They are both defined as emotions, but I can't see how they would be produced by thought. Maybe most emotions are produced by thoughts (thought>emotion), but maybe some come before thoughts (emotion>thought). Anyway, still trying to make sense of this.

Or what about fear in the face of a sudden danger?

What about the feeling of ecstasy? Do you think it's created by thought?

Welcome back! ????

I think you're addicted now and need your daily fix of metaphysical debate.

I just stumbled upon this video. One of the funniest and scariest things I've seen in a while. Patrick Bateman in American Psycho is an amateur compared to this guy. https://youtu.be/9LtF34MrsfI

I know....I'm a weirdo....

I can't say I share the same sentiment...

Unusually short posts from you today. Are you feeling ok? ????

By exploring your inner world. This can be done through a number of different methods. Yoga (not just the stretchy western style), meditation, psychotherapy, art/being creative, trusting your own intuition, self-inquiry and many more. The inner senses are like muscles...they need to be used and trained to be effective. The more effective they are, the more you can trust the info they offer you. The more you trust them, the more you will use them. The more you use them, the better you will know yourself. It's a learning process just like when you learn to play a musical instrument, with the difference that in our case, YOU are the instrument. No mumbo jumbo here, but a very practical and logical approach to what people call spirituality.

Anyone, of course.

Whenever you use the term mumbo jumbo, you automatically stop any possible conversation and exchange of ideas. You (I mean in general) dismiss arguments outright, without analysing them or bringing counter arguments to refute them. That's what I don't like. As for the cult part, I don't think that even needs a reply tbh.

I understand. And you must also understand that when I read stuff like that, coupled with "mumbo jumbo" (a term I very much dislike), my BS alarm bells go in overdrive. ???? Talk to you soon.

You are jumping too far, I think. I didn't ask about a Super Being or Creator and I certainly never asked anyone to just have faith. On the contrary. From the very beginning of this thread (yes, I went back to check), my main argument with both skeptics and believers, was that the only way to know if we are more than a flesh machine, is through direct experience. Only direct experience can offer you proof of the existence of that something else. Only direct experience can eliminate the need for faith. Only direct experience has the power of lasting transformation. I don't believe what I believe because I have faith. That wouldn't be enough for me. I need to grab the bull by the horns, look the tiger in the eyes, I need action, I need verification. I need to know who or what was (and is) there before the ego was constructed. This is where I believe all the answers lie and I will hold to this until I die. This is my path. I don't have the arrogance to say that it should be everyone's path, because it isn't. Yet, I think that the endpoint is the same for everyone.

Carl Gustaf Jung, among others, would disagree... https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=edpsychpapers

You don't have an ego?? Who is typing this? Are you an online bot?? ????

Ok Another question... What or who do you think you were, BEFORE you constructed the ego. If the ego is an accumulation of "add-ons" and a tool to interact with the outside world, what do you think was there before it developed? Tabula Rasa?

I'm waiting for @save the frogs to explain it to me. He seems to have a clear (non mumbo jumbo) idea.

So you are saying you don't trust what comes from your inside? Do you only trust what comes from the outside? What do you think the inner Self is?