Sendraks wrote:John Platko wrote:The key to understanding what Jesus was going on about is to have the experience for yourself (but I don't recommend this
as it is dangerous, very dangerous) - then you'll know and won't be stumbling over meanings of words.
Why is it dangerous?
That's rather difficult to explain, I think largely because it's difficult to explain what the experience of loss of ego or "poor spirit" is actually like. Carl Jung tries pretty hard to do so but he invents a language to do it and that's problematic too.
But I'll give it a go and try to just describe the experience using standard language.
Imagine that in a very short period of time (on the order of months or much less) your entire view of the world, your view of reality, and your view of yourself shifted. What you used to value you no longer value because it no longer seems important in the big picture that you now believe you see. And along with this change of your view of reality comes a euphoric feeling. You feel connected to everything and everyone. Your identity is no longer yourself but your identity is part of all - all is one. And this all is one is not just words but you actually believe this - this has now become your reality. This reality shift is so sudden and large, and strange that you're not sure what happened. You try to sus out what's going on. You even wonder if you died. You wonder if you're dying. In a way you have died, at least a part of you psyche has died - you are not the person you were. But reality hasn't changed. The people around you haven't changed. You find yourself now, all of a sudden, seeing life in a very different way than everyone around you. You feel quite alone while knowing that you are connected with all. You feel protected by this euphoric feeling. You feel intense love from - well you imagine it must be God (sort of like Natalie did in the Derren Brown video).
This new view of the world you have is so different that you start to question everything about your old view. You're now like a young child, exploring the world, questioning everything, asking why. Sometimes you get answers, sometimes you don't. But some of the answers you get only reinforce this change. If you're lucky, you know how to test to see if the answers you get are good, if you don't, you're in a state that has left you very vulnerable.
Since we're in the Christian section of the forum I'll relate this to Jesus. He had just been baptized, he saw heaven open up and the Holy Spirit came upon him and he heard the voice of God saying this is my son who I love and with whom I am pleased.
Then Jesus goes off in the desert and among other things had to fight off "temptations", in the state of mind he was in he was tempted to jump off a cliff and rely on God to save him. And that is a very real and tangible example of the kind of danger this ego loss state can create - and there are others. Jesus was well prepared for this experience and he survived the desert but then he had to return to the rest of the world.
And that brought a different kind of danger, his egoless state pit him against many, his world view was unlike that of most. His ideas created dissonance in the minds of many, they saw him as a virus that must be eliminated, - a very dangerous position to be in.
I think there's a very good reason why more people don't follow in his footsteps, I think most would end up in a psycho ward or actually dead- and the rest would end up feeling very alone, which carries a danger of its own.
I like to imagine ...
by 
)
