I am considering the writing of a book. I know, scary stuff. While I have been addressing questions on this topic for a long time, in my own fashion, I was curious what others in this boat would want to tell others.

As a little role playing, maybe pick one and write me a note.

If I were God.

If I were Joseph Smith (be nice)

If I were someone in your family you felt like you lost because of faith differences.

Thanks

Write a book about the making of the Book of Abraham and how Mormons were duped by the silly Explanations of the Facsimiles.

That's it.

Why would be important to you? Was it a more important then other 'lies' that you found? Or is it just one among others?

I hope you do write a book, SPG. You practically have - just need to do it more formally. You have a lot of good ideas and insights that have helped me and would likely help others.

Of the 3 options in your exercise, Joseph Smith is less personal and on this forum I’ll take that more basic superficial route...

Joseph Smith, I know your heart was in the right place at first - but you didn’t deal with your shadow aspects well, it seems. Still, you began something incredible that has flourished - but in some ways has warped from what you intended.

Amore, thanks for your role in that too. It's interesting to see how my thoughts have evolved and how what sometimes still feels new, are old thoughts.

SPG, you'll do as you will and as you please in order to satisfy your ambitions and dreams. But if you want some advice from a wise old owl who happens to know a thing or two -- write a book on the making of The Book of Abraham and you'll get noticed. Everything else is likely to fall through the cracks and be consumed by the whirlwind. You have an opportunity to strike and score right now if you reach out and do it.

The choice is entirely, yours. It has to be what you want and there must be passion in order to be successful in doing it.

I am really grateful to know you. I feel like you’re my brother from a different mother. :) I know what you mean about new yet old thoughts - processed in new ways maybe.

I’ve thought about writing something too - if nothing else for people close to me. You have helped me see multiple perspectives - & likely contributed to saving my life & family from being destroyed - as happens sometimes in overreacting to faith crisis.

A couple things you wrote that I love:

“I'm Mormon but I have to be bigger than the church. I have to love those who are taught to fear and hate me. I have to be patient with those who have yet to learn how to be, without being.

We all like to think that God is on our side. But God knows all sides and is no respector of persons.
Don't let the fact that people are afraid of truth discourage you. You will learn that being afraid of truth is a reality of life on this planet. For everyone.”

I believe God is on everyone’s side - basically the spirit of reaching for higher GOoD - which applies to all. And I also realize truth can suck - & we all have some truths that we choose to ignore or that scares us.

I get that a lot, for obvious reasons. :)

I really miss chatting on this boards. Sometimes I was as entertained by what I wrote as I meant it to for others. But like that thought, "to be, without being." How to be something specific, and yet to be something more then that. That is how we become God, to be someone/something and still more than that, so big enough to embrace the whole universe.

With new theories coming out in quantum physics, the idea that the universe is observer based, (I called it consciousness based) how we literally create our own universe is fun.

And I am humbled and honored that you found my posts helpful. Things are going well for you? It's been a while since we have chatted.

You don't seriously believe you become God, do you?

Yup. Already am. All of us are. Just a matter of sorting out how it works.

Basically, the universe that created me, is still me, and am I still it. Tricky, but true.

Tell you what. Once you are dead, come back here and provide us with some hard evidence that you have become god, as you are part of the universe in some form outside of your base elements becoming part of the ecosystem.

Pretty sure you guys are defining God VERY differently. Not uncommon. God is defined in almost 800 different ways - in the bible alone.

You seem to have explored - in study, thought and experience - psych-ology and spirituality in ways that I can relate to and find interesting. What is more helpful and applicable than understanding our own filters which affect us not just psychologically but also physiologically!?

This forum is not the same as the old - though in some ways similar (most have had a faith crisis in both). Here, I don’t usually feel like opening up a lot - and have generally accepted this as a place of superficial venting humor roasting. :) Though it needs more maybe - probably.

One thing to keep in mind is (if things haven’t changed much since we last communicated), you’re not living amidst the cult anymore. I am - & my husband threatened divorce over our faith differences & my mom & sister blamed me while dismissing his abuse and infidelity - all because he’s “active” temple-going member while I just go & serve in church. Of course there’s more to it - & I’m no angel - but much (not all) of my pain is from the dysfunctional cult-mentality. I have to live with this every day - so sometimes I need to vent.

I imagine this may be similar to others here. Except most posters here seem to still struggle with all-or-nothing thinking and thus when they realized the cult for what it is - they went the opposite direction but took dogmatic (unquestioned) herd-mentality with them. Generally. Not all.

Who ya gonna call!

Ok, seriously, I think of God as degrees of GOoD experienced “within me” as Christ said or as Moses discovered: I AM THAT I AM. My experience of everything is within me. I choose what to focus, what to say, do - where to go etc. In a way, I AM god of my own reality.

Symbolic icons like Zeus, Buddha and Jesus - were projections of human beings’ imaginations of God. Why not take the reins and decide your own focus, images etc? What if, how you think is all mostly unsubstantiated but still affects your reality? What would be some good things to consider? -Just for the sake of exploring thoughts?

Someone posted this idea I found fascinating. Of course, it’s hypothetical - but when it comes to death and afterlife - what isn’t? This guy dies and is met by someone in heaven who tells him that his next life will be as a peasant in a village in Asia... and then a king in Africa. Then more suprises - that he was basically every person in this world. He didn’t see how he could be so many people, places and times - but the angel/God told him that things there were eternal (“beyond time”). The main message is that we are all one - we are all children of God - all from the same source, but different expressions. So in a way, when I am kind or mean to another, I am being that way to myself.

If this is only .0001% probable, but it helps make this world a much better place by living if it might be true - isn’t that GOoD?

That's what you said last time. And the time before that.

You must find God. You cannot really be shown to you because he is a part of your own consciousness.

Right. You have defined god in such a meaningless nebulous way that it is now worthless.

This rock is part of the universe & the universe is part of this rock; ergo this rock is GOD!!!!!

Define god. Define what it means to be god. Demonstrate that you are god. Or GTFO.

Some say that there are three aspects, physical, mental, and emotional. All have divine force behind them and that one is not necessarily more important then the other. I definitely focus on the mental aspect of things. "Mastery" is supposedly the balance of the three.


Yup, just trying to be funny.


I'm sorry you are getting mistreated. I have my own struggles. I'm not much different then others here in the regard that I have gotten myself in trouble because of beliefs I have. But working them out has been educational, thus entertaining. Not all days are good, but in the end, most of my problem are within my power to fix, without having to fix other people. I guess I am lucky in that way.

That I am talking to you demonstrates that I am God in a number of ways. 1)that I have patience of God. 2)you haven't really thought out the layers of stuff to realize that anything that exists is by pure magic.

Like, take the big bang. What caused it? If you add everything back together, you get nothing, which means, in truth, there is steal nothing. That we are here at all, is pure imagination. The "stuff" that sustains us, is nothing short of Godlike. It shapes us, yet, we have some ability to shape it. (Quantum stuff.)

And while I get this doesn't mean anything to you, it doesn't mean that it is meaningless. . . . except to you. Yes, God is the rock, and the rock is God. But, it goes a lot deeper then that. Like, did you know that it is being discussed by the great minds that everything in existance might be just one particle, (nicknamed the God Particle?) What creates you, and me, the baby that makes three could all just be one thing?

If that is true, then . . . . literally, God is me, and I am god. If that isn't quite true, and there are many quantum particles, they each have godlike abilities. They can be influenced by thought, yup, even my thoughts, which means that I can influence the powers of God, even become one with them. The trick, being able to accept what I am, and yet be what I could be. It's gets into layers of reality, and dimensions, and eternal processes, and stuff, but still, I am God.

And if that doesn't boggle the brain, think of this. You are stardust, talking and ____ with other bits of stardust. If that ain't magic. . . . . I don't know what it will impress you.

SPG,

I’m glad to have you on board. ;) :)

I am too. But I would politely suggest you limit yourself to the Celestial Kingdom mostly. Perhaps the Terrestrial on occasion. You should not be down here. Just my friendly advice.