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Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 2:05pm On Dec 06, 2010
Ladyrsky46:

Which is a real shame. I believe each Christian should be able to read the Bible for themselves and their leaders should be there to help them

True. We should read the bible for ourselves, and form our own views.
'Christian leaders' didn't write the bible though. They have no special advantage in comprehending it. All anyone can give is their own personal take on the bible, nothing more. Hence the multiplicity of views and denominations and divisions in Christianity, all based on the same bible. If we trust another person, there's nothing wrong with seeking their views and knowledge on the bible, and on spiritual matters, as long as we understand it's just that person's personal opinion. A Christian should read the bible for himself, and depend on God for knowledge and comprehension of things spiritual, not men. But we do precisely the opposite. We call the opinions of a man on a pulpit the 'word of God'. It's nothing of the sort. No man speaks for God, only for himself.


Ladyrsky46:

Which is a real shame. I believe each Christian should be able to read the Bible for themselves and their leaders should be there to help them
Then again, I wonder what Jeremiah 3:15 means in relation to Pastors and what they're there for,
"And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
Christianity is NOT the way of salvation. Jesus Christ is. No one should ever get that twisted.

I don't pretend to understand the OT in its entirety. But neither the verse nor the passage in Jeremiah 3 has a thing to do with Christianity and its 'pastors' and 'bishops' and 'popes'. Whatever Greek or Hebrew word was translated 'pastor' there is not referring to a system that didn't exist when Jeremiah was preaching.

You're putting the word 'Pastor' in its modern Christian context into an old testament passage that isn't using the word to refer to anything like that. It's like when pastors who extort money from others quote Malachi 3:10 to 'back up' the practice, ignoring the entire passage and its context. Or quote Matthew 23:23 to 'justify' tithe, when the word 'tithe' in the bible describes something entirely different from what 'Men of God' have decided to call 'tithe' now. Two different and unrelated practices, two different meanings, but because the biblical word 'tithe' was borrowed, extorting others in the name of God also became 'biblical'. Same with 'firstfruit'. They crudely borrow a bible word for something ungodly and unChristian, but as soon as we hear the word, it has associations with the Bible in our minds, and so we feel it must be valid.

Jeremiah 3:15 is not referring to modern 'pastors' in any shape or form. It's clear from the entire passage. Given that the OT are scattered writings thousands of years old, and the books on the prophets are compilations of decades of oral preaching to fellow Jews, there's very little 'justification' in it for anything in modern Christianity. Of course, your quoting the verse is quite innocent.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 12:29pm On Dec 06, 2010
They're just beautiful. I hope there's more where those came from. Will post others I found somewhere later.
Still a little downhearted. Still mourning bawomolo. Didn't interact with him much but I liked him tremendously. It's unreal.
Nairaland / General / Re: Celebrating Olubusayo Awomolo ( Bawomolo) by MadMax1(f): 12:24pm On Dec 06, 2010
Heavy-hearted since I got to know on Saturday. Shocking and unreal. Kept hoping it was some sort of mistake but it's obvious by now it isn't. Cool young man, funny and smart as they come. It doesn't get better than him. What an unbearable loss to his family.
Crime / Re: A Nigerian Student Shot And Killed In Us by MadMax1(f): 2:42pm On Dec 04, 2010
I'm shocked speechless. I can't believe it.  I can't believe it.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 3:23pm On Nov 30, 2010
There wouldn't be a thing wrong with that, if both sides understand the pastor is just airing his personal religious views on the pulpit,and isn't a spokeperson or proxy for God.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 2:55pm On Nov 30, 2010
MyJoe:

I agree people ought to bear in mind that Jesus and the apostles were quoting the OT within a Jewish context. But the disciples also used it in their ministrations to the Gentiles. In doing that they were following Jesus’ example, even though Jesus only did so concerning Jews. But then Jesus only preached to Jews. So when Paul wrote concerning the Hebrew Bible in 2 Tim 3:16 that the scripture in its entirety is of God, it is to be expected that Christians will take him seriously. It is these factors that join the OT and the NT at the hips. I think making distinctions in the application of the OT - just as they should with the New Testament – is reasonable. Acts 15 is clear on that matter. Christians do make these distinctions – nobody goes around killing goats today – but only, it appears, where it suits them. And so tithe, which was clearly intended to care for those of little means, has been hijacked by church leadership for personal enrichment.

True.
Under Mosaic law, written by men, Jewish men didn't need a reason to put away their wives. They could trade in a new model for the old one as often as they liked, divorcing their wives in minutes without having to give a reason. The lives of these divorced women was horrible.  Christ came and told the men they could no longer divorce their wives unless she was cheating on them. And the men could not commit adultery either. So they can't divorce their wives unless she commits adultery,and they too could not commit adultery. That is one of many instances of him changing mosaic law. If the original issued from God, why would he modify it? Why would the laws of God need correcting? It would already be perfect. But if those laws issued from men, on the other hand. . .

Christ did not live or teach in the context of any religion.  The OT writings were ALL his audience knew, so he occassionally drew from that to illustrate, and that not even frequently. It is the teaching of Jesus that is broadly accepted as Christianity. The Old Testament forms no part of that. Of course Christians may define what they
accept, as individuals. For some, Christianity includes the opinions of Paul. For some, it includes the Old testament. 

Christ advocated no religion. He created none.
He functioned above every religion. That was why his disciples didn't abandon Judaism. Jesus did not create an alternative religion. His was far deeper than that, a new way of life. It had no name and its variant wasn't labelled a religion until three centuries after his death. Christianity is a religion that has evolved over the centuries, accruing all manners of things along the way. In its present form, it bears little resemblance to what He taught, and what his disciples practised. Every man interpretes the testaments as he chooses. When a pastor gets on a pulpit to preach, he is not issuing the word of God, merely his own opinions and interpretations of the bible. And so you have diverse denominations and sects in Christianity, based on one person's interpretation, or another.

Those who fork over their money to other men, so-called 'men of God', are NOT paying tithe. Calling it 'tithe' doesn't make it so. All they're doing is handing over their money, nothing more. To pay tithe you have to be a Jew and live under Mosaic Law. You have to take a tenth of your farm produce, not to priests, but to a temple, so the poor and hungry, for whom the practice was instituted, can have at it directly. It extends to times of harvest, when you leave a portion of the crops on your farm for the poor to graze. The modern practice of pastors and churches collecting money from Christians as 'tithe', using subtle threat, twisted bible verses, guilt and religious blackmail, is a relatively recent development. It's criminal, the biggest religious scam in modern times. It's not even terribly clever, but crudely done. It's effective only because many Christians live in unquestioning obedience, like trained animals, not to God, but to other men. Most of us have been brainwashed and deeply conditioned to believe and  obey whatever the 'man of God' says. 

The mosaic law is a Jewish heritage. If Jesus' disciples quote from it, they're Jews and they're entitled. There was no bible. There was nothing else they could quote from. It was the only thing they knew. Quite rightly, they make a point of saying non-Jews aren't bound by it.  Posterity tends to ascribe divinity or infallibility to the apostles.  They were just men like everyone else. There are many men and many views and many quarells. There is only one Christ.

Christianity claims it's the way of salvation. But it's a man-made religion like every other. Every religion makes that claim. Every sect makes that claim, its adherents convinced they alone have found the answer and all other religions toil in vain. All religions, being human constructs to understand the Divine, are full of our human conceits.Christianity is not the way of salvation. Christ is. Christ is one thing, Christianity as we know it is another. That they're two different things is evidenced by the fact that you can have one without having the other. If a particular religion is the way, why didn't Jesus tell the Jews or his disciples to abandon Judaism, since it's not the 'correct' religion? But Jesus told them no such thing.

He is the way, the truth and the life. One cannot insist one religion he didn't create is 'part' of another religion he
didn't create. Christianity did not exist in his time.
Fashion / Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(f): 5:27pm On Nov 26, 2010
madlady:

The SILICON PLASTER comes in various sizes, it's called REJUVENESS, you normally get three in a box. You can buy it in large sheets also.

I sent this to someone, who was, frankly, over the moon about its prospects. Thanks.

hispinkolo:

hi mad maxx,
i ordered for olay regenerist daily regenerating serum on amazon but i got the advanced anti aging regenerating serum.
please what is the difference?thanks please reply,its urgent

Sorry if this took a while. I haven't been here in weeks. I've only used the dialy serum. I'm sure the ant-aging has its own strenghts. You might give it a whirl, buy the regurlar serum next time, and compare which wrks better for you.

betty002x:

Hi angels,i love this forum, it's da bomb,i 've learnt a whole lot from here.Pls does any one know where i can get pure retin A in naija?

Perhaps some of the larger cosmetic stores in Lagos?

davades:

@Mad_Max plz i had dark spots all over ma legs 2d xtent dt i can't wear shots.Can Mederma work?n plz where can i get it n hw much does it cost?

Is it hyperpigmentation? There are a great many pages back where the subject was treated. Perhaps you might take a look and see what might help? What's causing the dark spots? You need to eliminate the cause. Is it sun, a reaction to medication? Hyperpgimentation is easy. Look through the early pages for what will work for your skin type.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 5:10pm On Nov 26, 2010
Equitorial Guinea grin grin grin grin Your entire post just kills.

Haven't been here in ages. No vex jare. Been insanely busy.
Fashion / Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(f): 4:43pm On Nov 04, 2010
madlady:

@Mad_Max what do you think about Silicon Plasters?

I used one for a RAISED 2inch scar I had on my inner calf ( diy electrolysis) the scar's almost invisible. The plasters are very inexpensive.

A raised scar? Really? It works that well? Teetee, here might be the solution. I'm going to recommend this to a friend as well. Thanks.

sophy09:

I want to find out which product can i use for under eye wrinkles

You might try Neutrogena Healthy Skin antiwrinkle cream. It's the most effective over the counter retinol cream I know. Very cheap too. Less effective products want $45 for what Neutrogena sells for, I think, $9. You can use your regular face cream on top of it, but it shouldn't contain AHA.
Fashion / Re: Product Reviews: Stop Wasting Money! Beauty Products That Actually Work by MadMax1(f): 10:05am On Nov 04, 2010
Way to go, brownbaby. kiss

Who used neutrogena suncreen and got darker? Lol. It not only has one of the very best suncreen products, their helioplex range is the number 1 dermatologist recommended suncreen. I use the dry-touch helioplex spf 85 suncreen, and I tell you I'm as pale as a ghost from zero sun contact for ages.

Bad news about stretchmarks? They're not easy to get rid of. There are previous pages on it. You have stretchmarks when you lse elasticity at spots on your skin. It goes way beyond the surface, so applying stuff on the suface rarely works. You have to try at home microdermabrasion for months. It'll fade so much it'll belnd with your skin. Or you try body resurfacing. There's a cosmetic treatment that shrinks it.

teetee2, the problem with scars and products for them is, cosmetic companies lie all the time and promise heaven and earth with their products, which don't deliver. I think you might have to use a good fade cream for a few months to chemically thin the area so the scar becomes less noticeable and blends with surrounding skin. Keep pure aloe vera at home. We all have tiny injuries from time to time, and these form scars. After disinfecting a fresh injury, instantly apply aloe vera to it as well. Keep this up till its healed. It will NOT leave a scar.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 9:40am On Nov 04, 2010
MyJoe:

The enduring legacy of the Hebrew Bible was sealed when Jesus and his apostles quoted from it. That, plus the fact it dovetails into the Gospels, brought it into Christianity.

Perhaps. But I don't agree. Jesus and his disciples were Jews and if they quoted from the Jewish writings, they were entitled. It's their heritage. When they quote these things, they quote them to other Jews, who share the same cultural and religious heritage. It's not getting that that makes people think the OT has anything to do with Christianity. It makes them pay 'tithe' and 'firstfruit', etc Jewish OT practices no longer practiced by even the Jews themselves. Christ, somewhat caustically, talked about tithing, which is in the OT as a Jewish custom, with other Jews in Matthews 23,. That was somehow translated by some as endorsement for Christians to pay 'tithe'. Even the apostles made it clear. They said Jewish customs and other things Jewish didn't bind gentiles. They went, We and our fathers can't abide by these things. Why lay them on gentiles too? This and that will do for gentiles. Acts 15, I think. Christ and all he taught and all he stood for and all he did; that's Christianity. Then there are the Jews and all their religious norms and customs, of which every Jew then was a part, including Jesus, who paid nominal attention to some of it but frequently ignored or modified it as he chose. Very telling. Two entirely distinct things. Those who consider themselves bound by OT Jewish traditions are the ones binding themselves of their own volition. They're certainly bound by no one else. The OT is a collection of Jewish cultural myths, rules, records of customs, history along its royal lineage, the preaching of their prophets, religious stories for moral instruction, like the book of Job, proverbs and exquisite poetry. It's a beautiful document. That's it. Other cultures have cultural and religious documents just as gorgeous.

I may have gotten a different story about the Osun woman. I asked and was told she was some American scholar in African Religions in the US, and was converted and came over. I didn't ask anything beyond that. I could have it wrong, and they could be the same person. Will verify.

I don't get our tribal psychology. So if someone enters a shrine, 'something' must happen to that person? What? Reminds me of Mazaje's post, where he got disenchanted with religion because he beat up a herbalist, and nothing happened. He slept at a cemetary, and nothing happened. I'm not clear on exactly what he expected to happen, but you see our mindset about these things. He went to a Buddhist village and some people hadn't heard of Jesus. Naturally, like a good fundamentalist Christian he concluded they were en route to hell.  He also concluded all of Buddhism hadn't heard of Jesus, which is surprising, given every religion has levels of knowledge. It's like going to a Nigerian village where some of them had never of Buddha and concluding all of Christianity had never heard of Buddha. Buddhism, especially the Tibetan Lamaist version, has very interesting philosphical doctrines and theories about Jesus. There's something very odd about the traditional African mindset. You get the impression its gods are malevolent and are expected to 'deal' ruthlessly with trespassers. Or something.

There are far more complicated traditions than that of the Jews. The Hindu, for one. The Chinese, for another. Ours even. Other cultures, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Arab, have preserved their cultural history for thousands of years. We haven't. I don't know why. I don't think it's to do with literacy. The Incas did it, and they couldn't write. Europeans can't tell the Chinese or the Indians or the Jews what their history, cultural and religious, is. We haven't presevred ours, and so they have the gall to define us, and they continue to do so. I don't mind that Christianity came here, any more than I mind that Islam did. I love my culture, but I'm not a culture-hugger. I freely sample other cultures, and can't issue my culture virtues it doesn't possess, merely to elevate it. All culture is the knowledge and wisdom of generations past. There is much to love in it, but there is much that is appalling in it as well, because there is wisdom in the past but there is also a great deal of ignorance as well. I find it odd that people can criticize Africans for accepting Christianity in the past, and at the same time, breezily acknowledge that some Christians put a stop to the effects of past ignorance, like throwing living twins in forests and sacrificing people to gods. We don't have a self-correcting mechanism in place, and some of the ignorant practices of the past continue in effect till this day.  It doesn't mean the Europeans who brought Christianity were superior in any way. These were people who, in their own tribal history, burned children and millions of women for 'witchcraft'. A woman and her daughter took off their stockings in one English town. There was a heavy rainfall. They hung the two ladies as the 'cause' of the storm. These were people who thought bathing was unhygenic, did it once or twice a year, covered the stink with perfumes and suffered from plague after plague, epidemic after epidemic, which they thought were punishments from God for sin.

The same lot are the ones telling us what our cultural and religious history is. When the Asians first encountered them they thought Europeans were filthy animals, savages, barbarians. I don't know which is worse, Europeans who consider themselves 'superior' to Africans, or Africans who agree that they are, and immitate them no end. One of the most irritating things in existence are people who fake foreign accents in the mistaken belief that since they are immitating people they consider superior to themselves, by immitating them they too now have this elusive superiority. Some of them have never even been to an airport. I was talking to a fellow who was rolling his rs all over the place I remarked on his accent.  Oh, says he, I've been here for years. Yet we all know Europeans who'd been in Nigeria for decades. I don't hear them speaking with a Nigerian accent.

I wasn't bewailing other religions coming here. If we didn't have them, I wouldn't be a Christian and you wouldn't be in Yoga. We would be spiritually destitute, and neither of us would know it. It's why we don't export our own religions I was wondering about. Part of the problem might be a mindset that expects 'something' to happen in shrines. The traditional African mind is fearful of 'unseen forces', and walks about in fear of angering these forces or the people who 'wield power' on their behalf, like herbalists. When they convert to another religion they take this mindset with them, and walk about fearful of these same 'forces' and of the people who 'wield power' on their behalf, in this case 'men of God'.

I love the cultural myths you included. Wish you'd elaborated on them. I'm going to see if I can learn more about them.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 9:32am On Oct 30, 2010
Actually, I found out later he took it from the I Ching, the Chinese teachings thousands of years older than the birth of Christ . This is a paraphrase summarising its metaphysics:

The metaphysical speculation of the I Ching appears to have been primarily concerned with the question: How can the Absolute, being wholly self-sufficient, act and manifest itself? The I Ching distinguishes in the supreme and sole First Principle or Perfection two different aspects;
Chien- the unmoving and unknowable Source of all activity, and
Chuen-knowable Activity, which eternally manifests perfection in a process of spiral evolution and an endless flux of forms.

But these two aspects merge in one single and self-identical Being, and all things, after passing through all the forms of evolution, of which the human cycle is but one curve, must return to Chien.


Chien is God, Chuen is Christ. ('Jesus' is just one of an infinite number of things that He/ She/It is and was. Christ has no gender, actually) Since this is ancient Chinese thought, predating the birth of Christ by thousands of years and still extant, naturally one can't expect to see the words 'Jesus' or 'Christ' in it. But you do see what I mean. All religions truly are saying the same things. I must read this I Ching.

You know of the American scholar who was converted to the Osun religion and became an Osun priestess? She learned Yoruba and was able to access the material, and it spoke to her spiritually. She left everything behind in America and came to Nigeria and became an Osun priestess for the rest of her life. Now that's devotion. I'm a Christian. You're a Yogi. Aren't we, all three, far from home? Look how we found what spoke most deeply to our spirits flung far away from what's merely nearest. If that woman hadn't learned Yoruba the Osun religion would have been closed to her and her life would have taken a different turn. Why do you think African religions make no effort to export itself, so it can speak to others wrldwide like that woman? I've come across books on African religions written in English by, maddeningly, Europeans. First, these Europeans tell us our history, now they tell us what our religions are? It's why I envy the Jews the Old Testament. I can't claim it because it's a Jewish heritage and I'm not a Jew. It has nothing to do with Christianity. Even if the Jews killed in it, which is always a bad thing, it doesn't subract from the fact that it is a priceless heritage, beautiful and ancient and all theirs, and we Africans have nothing similar. Yes, they killed in it. They went to war in it. But that was thousands of years ago. In the century we were born in, there were two world wars and countless tribes warring on another, including the Hutus killing a million Tutsis in Rwanda in the 1990s, in just three months. Nigerians burn people to death if they hear 'thief'. Ife and Modakeke went to war. There's no tribe or people wihtout a bloody history. The Jews merely wrote theirs down. The OT is a truly beautiful thing, utterly priceless. If it were my heritage I'd balloon with pride. I certainly wouldn't apologise for it. I've never heard of a single Jew doing so. He or she would have to be mad. Can Eurpeans tell the Jews what their history is? Do they dare tell the Jews what their religion is? No. Priceless, priceless Jewish heritage, the Old Testament.

Still, we make no effort to export our religions. I wonder how many people from how many corners of the world would be practicing African religions now, if we had bothered to put it in an accessible medium. We don't do enough. My biological son is half-European, still very little, just beginning to talk, and I scream blue murder if I hear only English from his mouth. I don't talk to him in English. What for? Took a while to forgive my husband for being European sef. You were going to spend your life with an African and you couldn't take the trouble to be born African, abi? Though peple who think all Africans must practice African religions are silly and irritate me no end, we don't export our religion. I keep wondering why that is.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 9:07pm On Oct 20, 2010
I didn't read the Cayce online article well. Just skimmed the beginning and thought you'd find it interesting. I haven't finished the book. When you said the Yogi author called the caste system the curse of India, I wondered where he made the statement. Mystic Christianity? I skimmed that too. I really should read these things more throughly. I don't think the Yogi is Indian though.

Oh. A thing about the time travel thingie: if you go forward in time you can never return. You will have to live out your natural life wherever you jump to. Travelling back in time is impossible in physics, perhaps because it's already happened and is a fixed absolute. Once you speed-of-light to the future, there is no coming back.

I came across a book that astonished me today. The thing about being here to learn, going from place to place towards God? I found that it is already known and read about it today as described by a Chineseman 600 years before Christ! He described it succintly. Truly, there is nothing new in religion. He was describing Christ and God, and Christ hadn't even been born here at the time! I was amazed., and I am rarely amazed I'll post a quote from it, if you wish.

I've been seriously busy and haven't been in here since that last post. This is just a quick Hola. I'll take a look at the link to your views on Ghandi. What does Yoga teach about God, I wonder? I haven't finished Ramacharaka's book and thus far, it is all about the spiritual development of the pupil. Nothing about God yet.

Hope your learning is going well. I trust it is.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 5:46pm On Oct 09, 2010
'Prophetess'. lwkmd. You guys are a hoot.

Now and 2081 wouldn't be happening at the same time, I don't think. MyJoe would be gone from 2010, and inhabiting time elsewhere.You won't be in both places simultaneously.You can't. Time travel is a solid possibility. I first came across the advances in it in a book by Stephen Hawking.It may sound fantastic now, but just imagine describing current advances in science and technology to people who lived a mere 200 years ago. You could tell them about the internet, that instead of months at sea,you can get anywhere in the world by air in hours. You tell them they can fly.Tell them we travel out of the planet now,and have visited the moon and taken photos of Neptune and Pluto. See how possible they think all that is. We take it for granted because it's our reality. Future generations will have a different technological reality than us, one that would amaze us too if we knew. Time travel isn't something I'm suggesting. It's what physicists say is solidly possible, and based on the evidence, I agree. It's just a matter of time.

You're absolutely right about us poisoning whatever is divinely revealed. It's processed through a complex maze of conscious and unconscious desires and motivations, and what emerges after that processing is a mess. If there's one thing we human beings are gifted in above all else, it's unlimited self-deception.There's another very dangerous thing we do as well. Say a man gets a glimpse of the divine once. Do you know that he then begins to believe everything that issues from him afterwards is also from God,also 'divine'? If he gets a thought, he'll think it's divine.His opinions are divine. It's God 'using' him to speak. It's horribly common in pentecostal churches. The pastor is the one talking and thinking and issuing his personal opinions,but he'll have you believe it's God using him as a 'vessel' to 'speak'. That's why they go by silly monikers like Man of God,and why they're worshipped.

That trait seems to cut across all cultures, because we're still following the 'divine' thoughts and opinions of men just
like them,expressed thousands of years ago and preserved. I know a bit about the Hindu caste system, but you've clarified it even more. I think it was the Brahmins who instituted the system,placing themselves at the apex. Something about right speech, right thinking, right conduct and all the rest. But it was so long ago. The caste system is a curse but maybe there's an even greater curse: accepting what a bunch of people say is from God,with no proof whatsoever. Those people have been dead for centuries and yet they continue to run the world from the grave. Look how Islam tries to fit the present to the past, to subject people to a long gone time as encapsulated in the koran. A religion subjecting people to the barbarism of antiquity because the koran is 'the word of God'. Same with every old religion. Christianity subjects women to mental abuse because of the opinions of bible writers thousands of years ago, things written for and meant for those who lived in the times they were written in. Same illness afflicts the Hindus. There doesn't seem to be any cure except time.

I had no idea Ghandi didn't rise above the limitations of the Hindu caste system. I thought the reverse was the case and he championed the Untouchables. Isn't he deserving of the world's high regard? It would be interesting to know more.

Which modern religion endorses the caste system and racial superiority? We're having a discussion here, you and I. There are no 'people' to offend. If you don't say a thing, you'd still think it. There really isn't a difference. Please say your mind freely.Your thread is a haven of free speech; it's why I prefer it.

I am reading There is a River by Thomas Sugrue.It's the autobiography of Edgar Cayce. I like him but I don't know what to make of him and his gift. He was born in the late 1800s. He was a devout Christian, and wasn't much educated. Thus far in the book he questions his gift and worries about its source; is it God or the devil. He helped thousands and never took money, which is why I like him. I can't dislike him just because I don't share many of his beliefs. I don't think he's a fake, and yet his sources are not infallible. It's possible many of his views aren't his, since he himself is unconscious while doing a 'reading'. There's a part in the book when he does a reading for a few men and when he woke up and asked them what he had said, they started issuing elaborate religious ideas. Cayce says, "I couldn't have said all that in just one reading." It's hard to tell what he said from what other people wished he'd said. The two is mixed up. I don't know what to make of him. I took a look at a weblink on him while typing this. I'm posting it here. It's how he thinks we arrived on this planet, and where he thinks we were coming from.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce03.html

It is NOT an endorsement and I don't accept it in any shape or form. It's the first time I've come across a religious theory on the process of humanity's physical arrival on the planet; I thought you might find it interesting.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 9:59pm On Oct 05, 2010
@Nuc: I'm not going into it, sweetie.  

@MyJoe

I don't get personal religious beliefs from books. ALL religious books are written by people and lack of proof. They not only expect you to just take their words for it, the authors insert themselves in it. I liked Storm's book and came across one or two interesting new things in it but it didn't mean I 'accept' them. Being a believer in Christ, I deeply enjoyed the reported conversation. Storm is very, very Christian, very churchy. I liked that he didn't assume Christianity was the automatic religion to get into after the ADE. Still, he takes the Bible as the sacred word of God. Most of the things in the book aren't new.

I don't know much about the Cassiopaeans. Weren't they discredited or something? Involved in a financial scam? A husband and wife team, a woman who claims the ouija board speaks to her, beings from the future?  I distrust people who claim beings are speaking through them, who say they're channeling. I avoid certain occult material. Can you shed more light on the Cassiopaean experiment? Do you think it's genuine? How could you tell? The husband is a theoretical physicist. Do you think that's a factor?

Time is a thread. Space is a thread. We exist in a dimension comprised of a fabric woven with time and space. Time only exists because physical space exists. Time is relative but can be manipulated. While the man in the spacecraft is traveling at the speed of light,time would go on 'normally' here. In his spacecraft time the clock would be counting normally. Nevertheless, because of the speed at which he is traveling,the fabric of time and space is being distorted and when he returns, 250 thousand years would have passed 'normally' here. Ten years would have passed 'normally' in his ship.  The ordinary laws of physics that makes sense in our world break down at the subatomic level. A particle would pass through two points in timeand space, simultaneously. MyJoe, that's impossible. It's like saying you, a single physical unit, exited a building through the front door and the back door, at the exact same time. Within this physical world you have a subatomic world with counterintuitive laws of its own, where strange things are observed, where our everyday human laws break down. Imagine what is going on outside the physical uiverse itself.

The question isn't: can physics enable time travel? The question is: will we be allowed to? Physicists know how time travel can be done. They understand the theories and mechanics involved perfectly. It really is only a matter of time before it's done, if we're allowedl. We live in a 3 dimensional phyical universe. Time is a dimension of sorts, a rule or measure, useful only to calliberate things here. There are other phyiscal universes with more than three dimensions, comprised of things we can't imagine as 3 dimensional creatures. For all we know there may be physical universes with a hundred or a thousand dimensions. And physical creatures perfectly adapted to that universe. But when the spirit departs the physial body, it is no longer bound by the physical laws here. It can hang in the air, soar to the skies, fly across vast distances, walk through walls; nothing here bounds it, because it is not a physical thing. Hard as it is to imagine a place where time isn't a factor, that is eternity, that's the realm of the spirit. There is no time, because time is a 'physical' substance, a measure of the physical universe. There are other things in eternity to which the spirit takes to, being its natural environment, and there are quite possibly, laws there as well. But time as we know it doesn't exist there. It's a realm different from all that we know in our dual nature. This universe is a construct, and time is just an ingredient used in its manufacture.

I love Bertrand Russell as well. No doubt he's discovered the atheists have it wrong by now. But don't imagine God is bound to runs things by what our religions preach. I wouldn't worry about Mr Russell. I really wouldn't.

What are the dark sides of Hinduism? Can you elaborate? I've been glancing through Yoga's philosophies.I acquired three books on the subject.  I think yoga teaches you mastery of your spirit form, and you interact with the world from that vantage point. In times past, that would have been labelled witchcraft grin. Given that it confers an unfair advantage over the rest of us, lol, I'm not sure it still isn't. Afterall, the 'super-consciousness' and awareness of universal harmonics comes from your spirit man consciously directed, taking over the relatively poor reality the brain furnishes the physical being. It's fascinating stuff.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 2:32pm On Oct 05, 2010
nuclearboy:

Whenever I rebel, get too angry, go "crazy", I get these dreams where I'm back in the university and at times, even in high school and just failed an exam or am about to take one and know I'm not prepared. I have met just the one person who also has the same experiences. Regretably, we're no longer in touch though she remains one of the people I've respected most in my life.

Every single time? That's strange. What's happening there? Any theories?

obi1o1:

Nairaland nawa.I was just thinking the Grail message adherents were piecing everything together(wanted to get there book),now Mad Max has spin everything Inside out & Upside down.I really appreciate how everybody has elaborated on this topic,you all made my day splendid.Everything is so complicated,still everybody bring plausible explanations(esp Mad Max).Now i know we will never know until we leave this earth,so am sticking to my bible.All the miracles,blessings & personal relationship with Christ is enough.Just wanted to know more but i guess nobody knows,& i ain't failing or repeating no class either. smiley

The bolded is making me laugh so hard right now. A genuine personal relationship with Christ is enough. He knows. Verses in the bible mention the 'inner man', the 'hidden man of the heart.' It stops being coy and declares at a point: 'There is a physical body and there is a spiritual body.' I guess our dual nature is Religion 101.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 1:40pm On Oct 04, 2010
Some of King titles you requested weren't available in digital. Here's what's available:
Thinner, Running Man, Cujo, The Long Walk, The Green Mile, Christie, The Dead Zone, The Dark Tower books, Skeleton Crew,Pet Sematary, Night Shift, Misery, Just after Sunset, Gerald's Game, Firestarter, Different Seasons, Salem's Lot, Carrie and The Stand.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 1:34pm On Oct 04, 2010
Notice how, as we grow older, we get wiser from our experiences. We can't help it. We see things differently, and accumulate wisdom and lessons learned from life. Each experience teaches you something, and makes you into a particular kind of person, naturally; no faking. Everything you learn is in your spirit, because you are a spirit being. When we die we lose nothing that we have gained here. It goes with us. We continue from where we left off. We don't take the class again. I think it's absurd to imagine we get wiser as we grow older, and die old and wise, so that we can take all that wisdom to the grave and to oblivion. It doesn't even make evolutionary sense. No. It's preparation for a higher state of being, and the higher you go, the more different you get, so that the spirit being you are during your Masters class is not what you were in primary
3. You grow in knowledge, in wisdom, in beauty, in power. By the time you have your PhD, you will have attained the nature of Christ, and you join God and others who are done learning, and work with God. You retain your individuality but you want what God wants and love all of creation as He/IT/She does, naturally and truly, of your own free will. That is the result and the end of all the learning and the classes you've been taking; it is all to achieve that result. You can do a million things with the power you have, including helping your fellows who are still stuck in primary 3. Having finished your Phd you are a stunningly powerful spirit being, full of the power and the perfect love of God, something impossible to describe. If you appear to your old classmates who are still in Primary 3, they will not recognize you. They will think you are God and try to worship you.

But you are not God. Re-uniting with God is the sole purpose of existence, and Love and compassion is the process that takes us there, and how we pass this class. We do not come here over and over and then become perfect in primary 3 and get a PhD. It's an imprecise analogy but I really don't know what else to use; it's so complicated, and there are so many factors and involved.

There are 'short-cuts' apparently. Christ can furnish that, but only if you let Him. You can make huge leaps in progress with Him, he helps you become more like Him. Buddhism has its own advocated short path as well.

Yesterday I read about a devout American fundamentalist Christian woman who died, I think during childbirth, and whose spirit left its prison of flesh. She expected to go straight to God. It didn't happen. They succeeded in reviving her body so of course she had to return. After that, she wondered, in her own words, 'Why God did not see it fit to take me to heaven.' It didn't happen as she had supposed. She didn't understand what had happened, and probably never will till she dies. In one NDE back there I posted one on Rev Kenneth Hagin, who was dying and was a Southern Baptist Christian. It doesn't get more hardcore than Southern Baptist. Because he was dying his spirit kept leaving his body. Each time, he wasn't taken to God. He was dragged down somewhere. He obviously thought there must have been some kind of mistake, because he shouted, "I'm a Southern Baptist Christian!" He shouted that, and nothing happened. No effect whatsoever. That was why I included that NDE. It was revealing.

But people do fail this class. Some fail woefully. They do not progress towards God, but are separated, because your spirit has stored the lessons you've learned here, good or bad, and all the chocies you've made. And separation from God is hell. Maybe you think there is no hell because you think there's a cycle of earthly rebirths. But it's a mistake to imagine almost every religion mentions it for no reason. But like the glimpses of all things divine, we distort it. We can't help it. There is a hell. But there is no such thing as an 'eternity of hellfire.' Hell is when you fail this class and go back to primary 1, or farther. And even there, learning is going on, so that you can leave. But it is not pleasant and for some, it will be so horrendous that all learning is beyond them, all hints and pleas and suggestions. They will never learn. They are merely suffering horribly. To end their suffering their spirit is annihilated, because they will never learn and they want that annihilation so the suffering can end. They choose to cease to exist forevermore. Others suffer, learn and leave. No outcome is predictable; it depends on that spirit and is between that person and God.It's nothing to do with 'punishment.' It's only that some prefer to learn the hard way, and that is the method they themselves have chosen; it is our choice. Everything is.

Eternity is not an infinite number of years. Time only exists here, and even here, it's relative and behaves funny, and can be manipulated. In Physics, time travel to the past is reckoned an impossibility. Time travel to the future is a definite possibility. They know it can be done. They know how. They can make it happen. It's only a matter of time. When a thing travels at close to the speed of light, time gives way. So that if a man travels at close to the speed of light for five years in any direction in space, even if it's just going in circles somewhere, and takes another five years to return to earth; ten years will have passed in total in his ship. He will have aged ten years. When he returns to earth, two hundred and fifty thousand years would have passed. Time is not an absolute, but merely relative. Eternity, outside the physical universe, is NOT time going on and on and on without end; Eternity is the complete ABSENCE of time.

There is karma and karmic debt; and it is a factor in what happens on the journey. Every choice has consequences, in this life and the next. Everything must be balanced, all debts must be paid. But those things aren't new. Karmic debt is 'sin' in Christianity. Karma is 'sowing and reaping'. They describe precisely the same things. There is Karmic debt. But at the same time, there is the forgiveness of God. It's available to those who ask, and Christ described how to get in the gospels. He described how karmic debt can be paid or balanced in one parable and how it can be rued ( parable of the king who forgave a debtor a huge debt. The debtor then went to throw someone who owed him a paltry sum in prison. The king was angry and demanded the cruel man pay all he owed himself. ) There is a relationship

between forgiving others (your debtors) and being forgiven the incalculable karmic debt you owe. Sowing and reaping, or karma, is wired into the very fabric of existence. We reap what we sow. All debt must be paid. It is inescapable.

I read of a woman who died and went to Christ. And she felt she hadn't used her life well, that she'd made too many mistakes. She was told she could come back here if she wanted. But there was a clause: she would return here as a baby, be born somewhere, and start the whole thing all over again, with the same choices presented to her again. Also, she would have no memory of the conversation they were having. She thought about it, and said she didn't want rebirth. Somehow she recognised it as retrogression, going back and doing it all over again. What guarantees were there that she would make different choices the second time? None. She opted to continue from where she was, and try her best. It was granted. She was revived and she continued with her life. And she remembered that conversation.

There was a case of a man, an American. He wasn't religious. He was a widower with a one teenage son. The boy was attacked by an assailant, and murdered. After the funeral, all the boy's father wanted to do was kill the man who had murdered his son. Any parent would feel the same. He planned the crime;taking his revenge was all he thought about. One night, he woke up and found his son by his bed. The boy was wearing blue jeans. He knew it was his son, and could tell the boy wasn't comprised of flesh, yet was real. The boy and he had a talk, and the boy begged his father not to kill the murderer. And that his obsession with revenge and his unhappiness was causing him (the boy) a great deal of distress. The man agreed to drop the murder plan. He asked how come the boy could be here, and how things worked over there. The boy said, "I'm just a rookie there, Dad." The man asked after the boy's mother, and he said she was fine. He told the boy to tell his mother he was sorry he'd forgotten her, and the boy said she understood. They talked and then the boy was gone. Of course some would say he dreamt or imagined it, the boy didn't return in his pure spirit form to talk his father out of murder. But the man knew it was real, and only he can be the judge of that. And he did stop planning to kill the boy's murderer. That was a young man, terminated in his teens. Yet there was no automatic rebirth to re-do the whole thing here, or automatic rebirth for its own sake, as part of a cycle. The story doesn't constitute any kind of evidence for me; but since it's true it was worth a mention. I'll look for a link to the story and if found, will post it.

It is precisely because of what each person is really doing here, that murder is prohibited by God in so many religions. When the rich young man asked Christ the way of salvation in Matthews 19, 'Commit no murder ' was the very first thing Christ said. There is no taking this class again, unless under special circumstances. We do this just once. You get demoted or promoted, and it has little to do with professed religious beliefs, but everything to do with what you learn here. You take it with you when you go: love and compassion, or hatred, selfishness,cruelty. Christ gave the way of salvation in all his teachings. It had nothing to do with verbal formulas or a particular religion being the 'real' religion; and others false. People who choose to bear his name should at least read what HE says on the subject. Say a verbal formula if it makes you feel better, but if His way isn't followed, that formula and all our mantra of 'saved by blood' avails one nothing. Love and compassion is his way, and He explained it clearly. We decide our fate here and in eternity, and we do it day by day, in the little things and the big things.

You might collect clinical death cases verified by a hospital or doctor, across all cultures. They're revealing if one doesn't collect only things that corroborate what one already thinks. A lot of organisations do that. There was one telling people there is no accountability after death, do what you like, it's all light and love when you die. Yet a great many after death experiences were overwhelmingly negative. Some were real horror shows, a foretaste of where they would remain if they hadn't been revived. You can do it for a lark if you want, and see if a picture emerges. But beliefs about reincarnation don't matter; whether it's continous cyles of earthly rebirths or something else or no reincarnation at all. It's the choices we make and what we do to other people that count.

Oddly enough I've found in most religions that the holy books tend to contain the banal and the superficial; the deepest and highest teaching in any religion is never found in the holy books, or written down anywhere; it's always orally transmitted to a few. Jesus may have chosen the 12 for that purpose. But they're the only ones who knew what they were taught. The rest of us were not there and can only guess. It is so in other religions as well. They have 'levels' of knowledge, which is earned. I've been taking a look at teachings in Raja and Gnani yoga and the principles of Yoga itself. It's very, very interesting, but they're human interpretations of the divine, like other religious systems. There was a fascinating passage describing the animal passions inherited from out ancestors, how they come to the fore, and it was mentioned there are the minds of animals, savages and the civilised mind. Guess who the 'savages' are? In that passage, all human minds were not deemed equal, but different among races. The book's title is Lessons in Raja Yoga. All religions are human systems, beautiful yes, but flawed too. No single one has all truth. Will read more on Yoga. It's not something that can be 'rushed'.
Religion / Re: The Problem With Dreams, Visions And Clairvoyance by MadMax1(f): 1:20pm On Oct 04, 2010
MyJoe:

Not necessarily. There are people who do just the physical stuff. I could do stages 1-4 before having to make up my mind whether I want to take on 5-8, the real mystical stuff. I am sufficiently motivated but a lot else is needed.

Yoga is fascinating. But it’s much more. I think it’s also special. It does not make specific promises beyond “communion with God”, but different people report different results at various stages of practice. People are cured of “incurable” illnesses. Some start experiencing OBEs and other “supernatural” phenomena naturally.

This non-linear reincarnation sounds interesting. But all the circumstantial evidence one has supports earthly rebirth. I guess I will treat it as one of the beliefs out there, for now, and keep an open mind on it.
Em, the great philosopher wasn't talking about quantity, Deep Sight!  smiley

Your belief system teaches automatic earthly rebirths. I sort of took it as a given that it's what you must subscribe to. We meant different things by reincarnation. I knew what you meant. I was clarifying what I meant. There is discussion. There is no intent to convert or convince. It would be lovely to look through the evidence for automatic earthly rebirths though.

I didn't give my actual sources, merely the one that got me started on the search in the first place (that the church suppressed the doctrine and removed it from canonical texts.) Letters exchanged by church fathers can hardly give rise to a detailed doctrine. The real source of the information I accept beyond doubt, but cannot, or will not, mention it.

Buddhism acknowledges there may be other possibilities than earthly rebirth, citing seven realms one may be born into, from rocks and animals to 'demi-gods'. No religion has absolute truth,be it Christianity,Islam, Buddhism or, lol,Yoga. No group and no individual has it either.

A return here after death is a possibility, nothing more, and it meant something went wrong while that person was here. Because a return here is retrogression. Belief in reincarnation exists in diverse forms in most cultures, and many incorporate them into the community religion. We have 'abikus' and 'ogbanjes' in our culture.Endless, automatic cycles of earthly rebirths come from Hinduism, from which Buddhism and Yoga are offshoots of a sort. Hinduism says that the universe goes into cycles of being; it lives, dies, and lives again, over and over and over, in an unceasing continuum. It will never end this cycle, but will do this forever. All things in the universe reflect that cycle, and so human beings too live,die, and are reincarnated human over and over again; they too mirror the cycle of the universe. But here is the thing: thousands of years ago it was unimaginable that other worlds existed, or other beings existed as dual-natured beings. It took the 20th century, and a peek into space and its expanse, for us to begin to see that. Even now, in the 21st century, you still come across religious sects where you are told God created the entire universe only for man, and that we are the only living planet in it. This drivel is taken as 'proof' of 'God's love for man'. There was an nthropomorphic view of man's existence back then too, thousands of years ago, in which it was just us, and there was just this world in all existence. There was this world, and after it there was heaven or nirvana. It was a perfectly natural view. Even now we can't imagine what other living planets and biological beings in other places might look like.

Though physicists disagree on figures and some other variables, they are mostly agreed that there is other intelligent life in the universe. By their most pessimistic calculations, intelligent worlds numbered in the millions. But the distances involved are so large, humans have no numbers for it. We certainly can't travel it. So we search the skies with radio waves,and sent an automated craft into the unknown, bearing, among other things, music from different cultures and sounds of people and animals, as well as 'hello' in dozens of languages, and other things NASA thought an alien civilisation might want to know about us. That was dispatched decades ago. What will become of it, if it will be spotted and received by another civilisation as intended, is beyond our present knowledge. That there is intelligent countless inhabited worlds in this universe I knew, not from the guesses of physicists, but from religion. Religion has many flaws, but in many ways, it is light years ahead of science. Even some common folktales predated science, which were derided until the facts later bore them out. There had been folktales about the moon and its effects for centuries, before science later corroborated and explained some of it, having to do with lunar gravitational pull on the earth. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is centuries old, the ideas in it came about at a time where there was no modern medicine to resuscitate people from the dead, and it describes what people see when they die. The initial accounts in it tally with what modern NDEs and ADEs and the resuscitated experience now. Yet the book was written to guide people who are DEAD, and for whom there is no return.

An atheist MIT professor wrote an influential pulitzer-shortlisted book on the computational theory of mind. He says 'We should not be surprised if impressive new cognitive abilities are discovered in humans.' But religion has been doing that since time immemorial; from lamas and yogis to some Christians and Moslems to ancient martial arts masters, anyone who toed the spiritual inevitably found himself with 'impressive new cognitive abilities'. It's been happening for eons and science only now begins to recognize the possibility. That there are other universes, some in other dimensions, I also knew from religion. I merely check science now and then to see how well it's coming along. That's why people who claim there's no God from 'science' are a real hoot. Understandable, but a hoot nevertheless. When it comes to the spiritual, science is far behind. There are people who do not wait till death to discover they're spirit beings; they can separate their spirit from their bodies and experience the bizarreness of bi-location; simultaneous dual consciousness of the spirit on one hand and their living bodies on the other. Science doesn't fully understand consciousness yet, much less acknowledge we have a body and a spirit, much less develop the technology to discern spirit bodies. Science is hopelessly behind in spiritual things and is not at all qualified to determine religious belief.

But we make assumptions about the world, and we factor those assumptions into our thinking. We assumed, in the past, that rain had mystical connotations and we sought to propitiate it. The sun as well, and the moon. We assumed, in antiquity, that this world is all there is, and knew nothing of the universe. There were ideas about it, but we had nothing back then to really know it with. The assumption was we were the only thing that moved. And yet there was the wind of the divine that people glimpsed imperfectly, and saw that human beings were on a journey, and that learning is the core and unity with God the sole purpose of our existence, and that a single lifetime is not enough for beings who had no idea they were learning and changing, each time they made a choice. So if this earth was all there was, there could be only one place where reincarnation took place: earth. Hence the cycle of earthly rebirths. These are ideas hatched thousands of years ago, and still extant.

But earth is not the only thing God made, the only place life is, the only world there is. And the story of our existence is more complicated than that. There are infinite physical worlds and infinite universes, but there are also non-physical realms of existence comprised of stuff we can't imagine. I'm not rehashing something I read somewhere, and so might have trouble conveying this well. The closest analogy I can describe it with is a group of people who want to get a PhD. You have to start from nursery school, through primary school, secondary school and then on to college, then a graduate degree, then the advaced graduate degree - the PhD. Let's say this world is primary 3. You have to pass through primary 3 to get to primary 4. Without the foundation of primary 3, you cannot understand or function in primary 4, and so on. It's a continuous thing, building on what you've learned in previous classes. Now people have different aptitudes. Even though everybody started at the same time, some have learned so fast, that they already have their Phd. Some are still stuck in primary 1. We, (earth) are primary 3. Now if you fall ill and cannot attend that class, you may get the opportunity to take that class again. You may select a different school, or you choose the same school, but you must take primary three.

Some people learn all they need to learn in a single term, and go to primary 4. Some take three terms, and still don't pass. These may get demoted, and go to primary 2 to relearn the foundation for 3. So age and duration of stay is irrelevant. A man may live 70 years before he learns what another may have learned at the age of 19. When you're done learning, at whatever age, you leave the class and are promoted.If you fail that class, you may take the class again there or elsewhere. If you fail woefully you get demoted. If you pass you move ahead, but we do not take that class over and over again until we become 'perfect'. We may not remember the details of every lesson, but we take all we have learned with us when we leave primary 3, and no progress and lesson is ever lost. We merely go elsewhere, and continue from where we have left off.

To say we are born over and over here is to say we repeat the class over and over. The thing is, there is a limited amount of things we can learn here. No number of repeating the class will increase that limit. At best, you master primary 3 so completely that you're like some kind of primary 3 wizard or guru, and your classmates come to you for tips. But that's it. Success means leaving this place and never returning. Failure means repeating the class or getting demoted. It is not a desirable outcome. If we return here, something has gone wrong. Death as a baby or child. To have an adult return happens but it's not common, and it is retrogression. The goal is to keep moving on, and this world prepares us for something better (Primary four, or even, for some fast learners, a jump to secondary school). We take all we have learnt and become here with us. It is never lost.But this is not something we do again.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 7:53pm On Sep 25, 2010
Purist:

Mad_Max:

I love you too, baby! kiss

Lol. Let me have the Stephen King titles you want. Koontz I have only in hard copy.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 8:14pm On Sep 24, 2010
How's graduate studies going? We enjoy the same books so your suggestions are always helpful. I've seen the Ben Hur movie and liked it. But if I've seen the movie adaptation before the book I tend to not the read the book, since I already have the 'gist' from the movie. It's why I never read the English Patient,The Hours, etc. Never heard of the Curious Incident. What's it genre? Who's the author, so I can look for it? Thanks.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 3:29pm On Sep 24, 2010
The book exchange was obviously between friends. I don't see anyone else calling it a 'dishing out to all sundry' and jumping in to demand 'their share'. I found your demand a little odd. Given our last exchange, I assumed right off the bat you thought it your due since I've a religious script to follow. It's a very common mentality amongst the non-religious to think people who are religious can be manipulated by their religious beliefs to do things. I come across it a lot and the answer is always No. In your case I had a hoot, and dallied. It wasn't anything serious, I was just privately amused. You wanted all Dean Koontz and all Stephen King titles, which is more books than everybody here combined have requested. The past spat was a trifle, but you didn't deem it necessary to be friendly even once in the months since then, till you imagined there was some book bonanza. If that hadn't been the case, if you'd addressed a single post to me since then, I would have sent whatever you wanted without a second thought. Since you didn't, it had to be the religion thing. Come on, you have to see the humour in that from my POV. I told you there are no grudges and no apologies are necessary since the exchange was two-sided. If I went in for things as silly as grudges I think the pc thing would have been to ignore you, which is easily done. But if it suits you to think there's a grudge, go ahead. I've mentioned why I've been laughing and why I initially said No, but you can't seem to get it. And you're still at it. I swear you've cracked me up again.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 1:24pm On Sep 24, 2010
@ Spikie
I liked A man of the People by Achebe, Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie and the Famished Road by Okri. Few Nigerian novelists can cut it on a world level, but those three do. The Man Died by Soyinka is the best non-fiction book by a Nigerian, and simply world class. It's what nudged the Nobel Prize his way, not those plays of his. The Famished Road is about an abiku child who lives in a Nigerian shantytown, and knows its poverty and local politics. At the same time, he experiences his abiku spirit world and traverses both with ease, with no demarcations in-between. It's a very strange and wonderful book, the only Nigerian book to win the Booker Prize, I think. I don't have Tolstoy in soft copy. Please issue an email addy and I'll have the titles sent, along with others you haven't read that I have in soft copy.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 9:57am On Sep 24, 2010
See there, that's why I delayed. You were hostile and insulting in our previous encounter. In the next you casually demand books. You figure since I'm a 'Jesus follower', I have appearances to keep up and a gallery to play to, and must oblige you. Wrong tack, so I had to say No. I've been only a little amused before but your last post increased my merriment. Thanks for the entertainment and feel free to not take my 'mantra' seriously. It might occur to you my 'mantra' is none of your concern and your feelings about it are irrelevant. But then, you know, it might not. wink
Politics / Re: Buhari Visits Adeboye To Seek For Electoral Support by MadMax1(f): 10:07pm On Sep 23, 2010
A country of clowns. No wonder we're stuck in a rut.
Literature / Re: I Need A Literary Agent For My Books by MadMax1(f): 10:02pm On Sep 23, 2010
Reputable agents do not charge money to represent a writer. They also do not charge reading fees. A literary consultant is not a literary agent, merely someone who critiques your work for a fee. Litarary agents charge nothing. They're agents; they work on the commission they get the writer, a percentage of the writer's earnings. There are no literary agencies in Nigeria, but you could check out some UK agents. Visit their websites, look at what each agent represents and email the one you think might like your work. Agencies like United Agents, www.unitedagents.co.uk, are always looking for good talent. Look for websites that list agencies and browse through. Make sure your work is really good though, and that the agent likes African writing. Chimamanda Adichie is represented by Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency. Chinua Achebe, and the best writers on earth, are represented by David Higham Agency, www.davidhigham.co.uk. There's also Curtis Brown agency, www.curtisbrown.co.uk. Do your homework. All the resources you need is online, free; agent websites, and agent contact information. Find out more about how to contact them, what not to do, how to write a query letter that'll 'hook' your target agent, etc. That's all I know. Good luck.

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Politics / Re: Buhari Visits Adeboye To Seek For Electoral Support by MadMax1(f): 9:28pm On Sep 23, 2010
Jakumo:

Ha ha very nice deflection there Madmax.  I am inspired by the way you ducked that drunken left hook, sending its owner sprawling.    And yes, Ayatollah Buhari is indeed a proud former torturer-in chief, and a self-proclaimed Islamic fundamentalist terror monger who yearns for a 18th century Nigeria where women are stoned to death on the flimsiest of pretexts, and thus that chit for brains perennial election LOSER  is eminently UNqualified to assume any post higher than excrement collector in a sewage plant.

You give the moustached dolt too much credit. There are more qualified candidates for that. Professionals who've spend years collecting poo. He hasn't the brains. The only thing he's fit for is an unpaid internship with them, learning how.
Literature / Re: A Mean Consensus - A Short Short Story by MadMax1(f): 9:14pm On Sep 23, 2010
I've merely been slightly amused. I like the sound of 'You acrimony me, now me pointedly diss you' though. Sounds like a Chinese blockbuster.
Politics / Re: Buhari Visits Adeboye To Seek For Electoral Support by MadMax1(f): 8:45pm On Sep 23, 2010
Kobojunkie:

Sigh!!! I asked you a simple question. All you need do is prove detailed answers simple or tell me this is all you have to offer to this debate.

I don't have a debate going on. I merely stated an opinion, and it wasn't pointed at you, so I've nothing to 'prove' to you. Proving it accomplishes what, destroys the horrid political system in the country? All the proof marshalled against those who looted the country blind changed what? Landed them where? Aren't they the same silly jokers going back for more? Please. If he's running for president he may at least be forgiven if he's qualified. It's pointedly obvious he's not. Since competence is not a condition for running for president, any clown may run for president and other clowns support them. I don't know which is worse, their deluded brainless arrogance or the clannish citizens who see virtue where there is none and let them get away with murder.
Politics / Re: Buhari Visits Adeboye To Seek For Electoral Support by MadMax1(f): 8:24pm On Sep 23, 2010
Kobojunkie:

WOW  . . .  do you have any proof of the highlighted?

Perhaps you were in some alternate universe when he was running the country. He's a joke and his presidential campaign is a product of a horrible and hopelessly flawed political system. If you believe he has the qualifications to successfully run a country, because, you know, running a country well is a stroll in the park and any moustached rodent can do it, produce them.
Politics / Re: Buhari Visits Adeboye To Seek For Electoral Support by MadMax1(f): 8:11pm On Sep 23, 2010
Buhari is a nuisance and has zero qualifications for ruling a country. He and idiagbon ran the country like some private fiefdom, subjecting people to whatever nonsensical whim took their fancy. He embezzled money, nuzzled the press, trampled on the rights of citizens, and showed himself of no character whatsoever. Why people who haven't a functioning brain cell in their heads and can't rustle up proof they have any education at all continue to think running a complex country of over 100 million people is a joke is beyond me. They've run the country to ground, the most incompetent and corrupt set of 'leaders' in the world, and keep garrumping back for more, and people let them. A presidential race featuring Buhari and Babangida and Atiku, whose collective behinds should be rotting in jail. Nigeria continues on its downward spiral. Awon were.

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