Demons and Con Men
Most spiritual traditions have teachings about consciousness outside the body. Even the Holy Spirit is a discorporeal entity of a sort. And each of these traditions has “good” disembodied entities, and “bad” ones. Some people of their path through life have conscious experiences of messages, information, knowledge, or wisdom coming from ‘beyond’. This is for those people as well as those who are interested in their messages. If you have no interest or belief in anything like this, (as I didn’t for a long time), just skip this one. So, assuming I, or someone I know is getting knowledge, information, power, ability, understanding, or anything else from ‘beyond’, how do I know whether to listen, take it seriously, follow, or not? Let’s look at a couple examples on this plane of existence. We have people all around us. Correct? Some of them are trustworthy. Others are not. Right? How do we tell the difference between them? 1) Does what they say match our reality? 2) Does what they say make sense? 3) Does what they say feel right? However, some people also know that we are applying these tests and use them against us. For example, a man may come to me and offer to double my money within a week if I give him $1000. Now, immediately, this does not match my existing concept of reality, although for most people the idea would be quite nice as well, as I imagine all that I could do with another $1000. So this man finds me instantly incredulous and needs to overcome that. To do so, he uses a variety of methods. 1) Social proof 2) Ego flattery 3) Intellectual reasoning 4) Appeals to my greed So, assuming I do that, and he returns to me with $2000. WOW! Now I have 5) PROOF! Now I KNOW I can trust this man, right? Not so fast. All I know is that if I give him x dollars, after timespan y, he gave me 2x dollars. So my knowledge is very imperfect. I don’t know where he got the money or who he got it from. I just know I got some more money. So, what is the next step? Maybe he asks me for $5000 dollars now. After taking a deep breath, I give it to him. A week later: $10000. And perhaps this continues for a little bit. We become good friends. We play golf together for awhile. I ask about more opportunities for easy money, but he consoles me by saying that these special opportunities don’t come up all the time and that we have to wait for the next one. Then, when have almost given up hope on this easy money, but we are very good friends, he calls me up with some urgent news. And we meet. He tells me in confidence that the biggest sure thing has now arrived that he has ever seen. It will take a million dollar investment. Guaranteed to return at least 20% in just a few months. He is putting in $500,000 himself. And he wants to ask me, as his closest friend whom he wants to see successful more than anyone else, if I would like to put in the other $500,000. By this time he knows the the highest amount of cash I can possibly get ahold of and just below this number is the amount he names. I have had great success with him. We are good friends. It’s a sure thing. Yes, it’s much more than I ever wanted to risk with an investment. On the other hand, I could get an amazing amount. So I give it to him. And… Never see him again. And money can be healing power, insight, or other ‘seemingly magical’ skills or abilities. Now this has never happened to me, thank goodness. But it has almost happened in a spiritual sense many times. Many people claim access to ‘special knowledge’ outside the realm of sensory experience: channelers, tarot readers, psychics, astrologers, and more. They say they are getting information from the stars, god, angels, aliens, or my dead relatives. And many of them can tell me amazing things about myself and others. Things that make a lot of sense. Things that no one else could know. Things that confirm special knowledge. Well, if there are entities or intelligences outside our field of perception then they could have access to a lot of information we have access to. And probably have access to a lot of information we don’t have access to. In other words, in some ways they are going to seem more intelligent than we are. So how do we know whether to follow the messages? 1) Does what they say confirm itself to our sensory reality? If I can get you to let go of your own sensory experience and believe my words instead, I can move you into doing things the conflict with what is best for you. 2) Does it feel right? A thing may make a lot of sense logically, but my emotional needle is often much more sensitive and able than my mind which is not trained in logic or critical thinking in school (because that would be bad business for advertisers and make less obedient employees). If my emotions tell me something is wrong, this can be a reason to consider what it is I am about to accept and look for reasons to reconsider it. 3) Does experience confirm it? Does it match what I have experienced in the past? Or if I try it, does it give me what I want in the now? Does it help me meet my needs in a logical direct way in the present? I have found that applying these tests to any source of information or insight, externally or internally shows me with an almost perfect degree of accuracy whether to listen to the messages that I am being given or not. Also, asking people I trust for advice! Really, the truth is in you for your own life. And your body and mind give you access to everything you need to live that life. It feels very nice sometimes to give up responsibility to someone else to tell you what to do or how to live, but you will have the consequences and results. Not them. So don’t. No matter whether you can touch their body or whether they claim to be your long-dead mother.  |
