TheInvisibleDan

And that we 'scoffers' who are so skeptical and being of a 'prove it' mindset, ... now we are _scoffed_? <_< Right! ... Look, if it is indeed a genuine miracle, and it happened as told, there should be no real problem proving so. Verifying it. Now this is what I like about the current Catholic process; whenever they are told of some 'miracle', they send out a team to investigate the matter, and endeavor to verify that it is indeed a miracle, rather than some bogus claim. (And no, I don't believe in Catholic doctrine, nor do I believe in their 'miracles' either. But I do respect that they make at least an attempt to thoroughly investigate the matter, ... which is a helluva lot more than I can say for a lot of televangelical ministers who advertise 'miracles' going on in their churches. "Read more about it, ... for a Love Offering of only $39.95". )

In all fairness, Robert Tilton never charged me a cent for the sealed plastic bag of miraculous "Holy Water" (amounting to about 10 C.C.) and 12 colored envelopes in which to stuff checks if ever the "Holy Ghost" convulsed me to do so. And for the thin vinyl hanky into which to blow my nose and send back to him that he mayeth lay hands upon it.

And for the poster of his squinting countenance, raising his holy hand as if from the other side of a TV screen. It's hangs on my garage wall with some of my other old comics.

The holy water has long since evaporated inside the package.

On the "being-dead-for-72 hours" thing: it was a belief held among the Zoroastrians, as mentioned in their scriptures the "Zend Avesta", that upon dying, a person's "soul" remained near the corpse for 3 days, "seated" near the head, at the end of which their "spirit" counterpart would come and lead that soul across the "Chinvad Bridge" into the next world.

If a person was good in their life, their "spirit" would be appear to them in the form of Angelina Jolie.

If a person lived an evil life - Hillary Clinton.

Have been on a vinyl-to-cd burning spree the past couple weeks.

Have been blown away by the remarkable quality of recordings, now that everything has been set up

just perfect between my stereo/turntable and computer.

The old 70s Pioneer turntable (vintage 70s, tag sale special) has made a big difference as well.

Wish cd-recorders had been massed-produced along with the players in the the 80s.

Wouldn't have re-purchased&replaced a number of albums commercially-produced on cds over the years.

My opinion: this is the kind of film you want to see on the big screen with a big crowd. Second time's better for the small screen (where you watch for subtleties you might have missed the first time around).

Took my son to see this last night - very effective, clever movie.

Caused a few "flashbacks" to 9-11.

Look forward to the dvd to catch those subtleties missed in the first viewing.

"Fun at Scientology's Psychiatry: An Industry of Death " exhibit.

I'm curious if anyone else here has seen Tom Cruise's bizarre Scientology video at Gawker over the past couple days.

The essence of his cultic convictions feels eerily familiar, like the excorcized ghosts of twi past.

Danny

"Well you see, my friend, it's just an optical illu-u-u-u-u-sion!"

-drunk who tried to sell me wrong junkyard part

"Too frilly...too sparkly...no, I am not a gift-wrapped present."

-my daughter, turning the pages of a prom gown catalogue

Sooooooo--------

Are you suggesting then that one can injure ones self by "lifting"?

Now that's nothing to sneeze at!

Such activity can result in hernias, as well as hyperventilation from overdoing "mannies".

Ephesians ch. 6 featuring the armored soldier waving his funky Bible sword may actually preserve

the remnants of a Mithraic hymn, reworked by the Christian writer/editor for the purpose of attracting

adherents from the contemporary rival movement of Mithaism, which was quite popular with soldiers

at the time.

"Paul" would no doubt have been familiar with Mithraism, which was quite popular in Tarsus.

So also Marcion, - if either the actual writer or editor to "Ephesians" (but entitled "To the Laodiceans"

in the earliest known NT canon) - like Paul, lived in the area of Pontus dotted with the presence

of Mithraeums.

It would be extremely fascinating if any ancient hymns and writings devoted to Mithra were ever discovered.

I would not be the least surprised if many of us found them strikingly familiar.

Danny

"Lift up"...."cast away"...which all reminds me - it's "garbage night".

:)

Brings to my mind to the recent hoopla over The Lost Tomb of Jesus promoted by James Cameron the past year.

And more recently the schoolteacher who let her students name a teddy bear "Mohammad".

And the multitude of "sebastians" which inhabit a neighboring town here, in no small part due to the local Church

which bears his name.

Albatrosses would seem to be my specialty, not Pelicans.

I appreciate your kind thoughts, everyone.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

6. Who are these beings endowed with supernatural powers?

7. From what world do these tremendous creatures come?

8. Do they belong to our world which is ruled by inflexible, known laws of the physicist, the doctor, the chemist, the toxicologist?

Perhaps they were beings which originated from the hollow earth.

It's been years since I last read "Morning of the Magicians".

Indeed, do eagles in the middle east still practice this custom?

What a difference a "velocity-sensitive" keyboard makes.

My sound card at the moment is an old SB Aew64 with the wavetable synth, but it's like hearing that for

the first time through this controller enabling more"hands-on" expression.

I've been hopping back and forth between Anvil and Cakewalk the past 2 nights.

Anvil is an excellent MIDI tutorial program, which in turn seems to make Cakewalk more

easier for me to work with.

Looking forward to learning more how to set up additional patch libraries so I can tap

away at my Mellotron samples.

Danny

The Jonah thing would make clearer sense to me if Jesus got swallowed by a whale.

There's something "fishy" about that allegory....

I thought about posting this in "Guitar Talk", but then, why not dedicate a thread to those who use MIDI to make music?

I'm in the process of upgrading my "midi gear". I just ordered an Evolution 49 key midi controller from Musicians Friend, in anticipation of some new musical adventures.

I'm looking forward to taking advantage of sound patches outside of my onboard synth chip on the old Soundblaster. It's quite exciting that one can play a virtual Mellotron, Farfisa, Hammond and even "conduct" a symphony orchestra through the magic of software synths and sound banks.

In any event, I've much to learn with MIDI programming. I have some limited experience messing around with MIDI over the years, through a notation program and a cheap MIDI keyboard.

I heard "Anvil" was a good program for composing in MIDI, and very easy to use. Does anyone here have experience with this prog, or any suggestions for decent, easy-to-use Midi progs - particularly ones which allows one to easily mixdown both audio and midi files?

Danny

Please bear in mind that half the Christian population throughout the Roman empire in the first 3 centuries of the Christian era did not make the

case for their faith on the basis of "the Creator" - to the contrary, they argued that Jesus introduced into the world a new higher God, which was

antithetical to the Creator and his creation.

The Marcionite work "Antithesis" drew attention to the dubious characteristics and deeds of the Old Testament Creator-god contrasted to the higher New Testament God of

love and light presented by Christ. In fact, 1 Corinthians 13, presenting the attributes of "love", exhibits a perfect example of this, if we read this in view of the personification

"God is Love". But the same cannot be said of the OT creator, who was quite "jealous", who behaved quite "unseemly", who was "easily provoked", etc.

I've little doubt that Christians in the early centuries were regarded akin to "athiests", which becomes all the more intriguing when observing a many athiests today practically employing half of Marcion's "Antithesis", through their citations of OT scriptures having to do with deficient characteristics of "the Creator".

But whereas athiests today employ those citations to make the case there is "NO God" - Christians used these same citations to prove there was a "Higher God".

But this higher God was not the creator of this world.

Danny

So he's not shackled between two cement bird feeders at Home Depot, waiting for his hair to grow back?

I vaguely recall someone teaching (in TWI) that when we speak too much about devil spirits (and their power) we glorify the Devil instead of glorifying God's power over the devil spirit realm. Anyone else recall hearing a teaching along this line?

As I recall, that comprised the reasoning behind the "Idiom of Permission" - Yawheh took credit for all the evil the Devil did throughout the OT so the devil would not become glorified.

Socks, "Photographing Faeries" was a great movie! I wish they would release it on dvd already.

I also loved the music throughout; had to go out and pick up a copy of Beethoven's Symphony No.7.

In fact, I think I'll bring that to work with me tonight.

Danny

My "red drapes" experience, circ. 1981.

I was preparing to move out my parents' house, to move in with a couple other believers who were also searching for a place.

We made a list of the kind of place we wanted, to search for and to pray about. A musician friendly place where we could make a lot of noise.

On the same sheet as my list, I doodled an unusual house, which wasn't your typical garden variety cape or ranch.

but more like a three part cabin, with the main living room/kitchen in the center building, flanked by separate room/building on either side.

A week later, we got a call from a realtor in Middle Haddam that there was a rental in that town. Situated atop a mountain, in the woods from which one could see

the Connecticut river from afar. When we saw the house, it was a dead-ringer for the doodle of the unusual house I had sketched.

What a cool place this was. Perfect for two guitarists and a drummer. So isolated one could record stuff in the middle of the night, in the bedrooms which were

separate buildings attached to the house

Someday, I'll have to dig up this sketch, and take a trip to Middle Haddam down the road to snap a pic,

and post them here side by side.

Interesting that these two events in my life occurred in my first three years with the Way, before I got more heavily involved with the organization itself.

Danny

Several years ago, my mother went into the hospital with a severe kidney infection. It was a horrible experience for her, and she underwent a mental

breakdown atop of everything else (apparently they had also given her some bad saline solution).. It didn't help that she was placed in the same room as a terminal cancer patient, continually attended by this patient's relatives actually shunning my mother's presence there. I am still angered to this day by the way those god-damned worthless doctors and nurses ignored her, and brushed aside my desperate inquiries as to what the hell was going on with my mother, and what they were doing about it.

The next night she had ended up in the psych ward. And the following day a doctor inquired of her as to what was going on at home to have driven her to such a state(!)

No doubt, an exercise in preserving the supposed good name of the hospital. Looking back now, we should have sued those b@*#rds.

In any event, I prayed very intensely for my mother. I prayed in tongues, and I prayed with my understanding. I envisioned her in my mind, dressed up and packing her suitcase, getting ready to leave. When I went to the hospital the following day (she was expected to be there another week), I was absolutely blown away when walking into

her room, to see her all dressed up and packing her suitcase, getting ready to leave. Just as I had envisioned this happening in my mind. A week ahead of schedule.

And I thanked God. I will never forget this.

There was - and I think may still be- something behind this "believing" stuff.

I don't pretend to understand it all. Nor do I assume Wierwille did either.

But he nonetheless struck some chords which inspired and motivated a many minds here, for better and for worse.

I think Linda Z hit on something extremely important in her post earlier. Exchange the word "believe" for "trust" and I think we approach closer to how

this verb - or idea - might be better understood. Or so at least to my own mind.

Now that I'm considering this experience concerning my mother, gives me pause to re-consider the way I've interpreted it all these years.

Did I myself generate this vision in my mind of my mother leaving the hospital amidst my prayers, - or did this vision actually originate from the Higher Power-

A prophetic vision in answer to my prayers?

Danny

It is staggering to consider the total life lost around the world as a result of WWII -

estimated anywhere between 50 to 72 million.

72 million.

It is the same for those who are heck bent on exploring the gnostic gospels. <BR><BR>The rationale is similar, trying to find hidden truth in "lost" books. Surely, because they were "hidden" they must have the real truth.<BR><BR>Just as we have eyewitness accounts of the camps from the soldiers, survivors and liberators, we have plenty of documentation on how we got the Bible and why some books made it and others didn't.<BR><BR>But why bother with the facts when there's a juicy conspiracy to exploit.

Baloney.

The so-called "gnostic" texts are of immense critical value to scholars and anyone exploring Christian history and

the development of Christian theology. Not all who explore the gnostic writings are driven by the rationale of seeking

out a "juicy conspiracy".

It's a good thing for historians and theologians today that certain writings had become "hidden" - otherwise, it is most likely that your bloodthirsty decendants would

have burned them along with the writers and admirers of these works.

Many opinions expressed so far are predicated on the assumption that we are concerned with only one deity.

Yet it's estimated by F.C. Baur that about half the population of Christians throughout the Roman empire during the first three centuries held to the belief in two gods – the Creator deity of the Old Testament, and the new “Supreme” deity revealed through Christ in the New Testament.

To touch only a couple examples from Marcion’s Antithesis (as reconstructed from Tertullian’s Adversus Marcionem):

Jesus Christ and none else revealed a new God, who, in the Old world and in the Old time and under the Old God was unknown and unheard of ; Whom is accounted by no one through long centuries back, and ancient in men's very ignorance of Him - even in ancient names He was unknown and concealed. He had remained unknown by any works from the beginning. Even the Creator was unaware of the Supreme God being above himself, Who, although He did not manifest Himself from the beginning and by means of the creation, has yet revealed Himself in Christ Jesus….

The Creator called out to Adam, "Where art thou?" as if ignorant of where Adam was; and when Adam alleged that the shame of his nakedness was the reason for hiding himself, the Creator inquired whether he had eaten of the tree, as if he were in doubt (Genesis 3:9-11)... Whereas Jesus – unlike the “Creator” – actually perceived what was in the hearts of men (Luke 5:22).