Ack, that's telling your friends how much you think of them.. lol

thats asking a lot of my friends to have me go to hell with them.

ive walked through hell on earth with various friends/family over the years...im not about to spend eternity their jsut because they do.

now if i was talking about one of my children this question would become more difficult. and thanks for not going there.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying...friends are great and all, but no human relationship could possibly compare to actual communion with your maker. I would think the only thing on earth that's even approaches that level at all would be the truely unconditional love of motherhood.
You seem to saying that to you God is just another person, equal in some respects to the rest of us but he isn't...He's the giver of life
The Holiest of holys, the alpha and the omega...He cannot be compared to anything or anyone...
I do wish you well in your struggle for spiritual enlightenment, even though you're glad you aren't my friend.

If it is possible to have a out of body experiance at all, drug induced or not, I would say that this alone would be pretty strong evidence that we have a spirit life dwelling within these bodies. Some people may not. There is the distinct posibility that David Ickes (auther)analysis of some of these issues is very true. I'm not worried about any of it, 1corinthians14:20, believe whatever you wish about the origins of this advice, It is good advice, luv ya, have a great day!

No I don't think God is special, because I have never experienced a god and frankly I doubt you have either, though I would like some of what you might be smoking.. Ok just yanking your chain.

My friends on the other hand have been there for me in the most difficult parts of my life, often when my own family could care less.

If you were my friend Allen, I could no more leave you outside the gates of heaven than I could leave those friends that stood by me through out my life no matter what they believed. I would not want to worship a god that expected that from me, or that would be that self absorbed and selfish.

It's sad that religion has made humans out to be so worthless and needy that they have little respect for those who are actually traveling on the same path as they are, that a God that doesn't show him/her self has more sway over friends and family.

By the way I am not struggling with spiritual enlightenment.

Catwoman: so it has to be one of your children before you had a problem with God? Interesting! Funny, I tend to love my friends as much as I would love my child, so my problem with God would be the same. I couldn't stand there and say, now wait God, you can send my friends to hell, I don't give a crap about them, but my child I have a problem with... And funny that your god expects me to love my neighbor as myself, and yet........ he would expect me to turn my back on them in favor of himself.. Very very interesting.

Why bother to have so many people in the world, why not just create robots that can only manage to obey their master, then we don't have to worry about those pesky emotional attachments to human beings.

Marty at the time of the incident, I did also think it might be proof of the existence of a higher power, but it also might be just proof that we only use a very small part of our brain as well, and have nothing to do with a higher power and the fact that it could mean several things doesn't mean it is in fact God of course.

I myself would love to believe there is a higher power, it would make things so much easier. That is why I don't particularly blame people that do believe it, I certainly can understand why they would want to. For me it might just be so that I never have to have these divisive conversations again in my life time, but unfortunately none of us can prove anything as of yet, though some would vehemently disagree. That experience was both fascinating and scary, but not something I am ready to experience again any time soon, or at least via a drug.

Hard Drugs are bad for us unless we truly need them. I have had this same type of acid experience you speak of. It is in some ways similar to a NDE, But is delusional. I never want it again either. On the other hand, If we would only evaluate the experience we have for what they are, instead of what other people think they are, we could possibly get beyond this fussing and fighting that kills and disfigures so many in the world.

I don't know that I would call either the acid trip or the NDE dilusional, as there is not proof one way or the other that i know of.

But I would love to get past the arguing, though I don't see that happening as long as there is a fairly decent amount of people that believe the Bible is the word of God and are bound and determined to make sure the whole planet believes it. We will spend far more time trying to prove that than searching for evidence of anything else. Heck we can't even discuss alternatives on prime time television in most cases, so we have a very long way to go before there is an end to this discussion unfortunately.

boo