villagewisdom

I think it might benefit you to investigate the Baptist church and black culture a little bit more. Or perhaps you are not in the US? The intact and virtuous black family in the US is largely held together (as much as it is) by the "black church" (whatever that means). The black families that are strongly Christian specifically look to pair the women and men that have credibility in the church -- whatever sect or group. Family members can still be called out and ostracized for lack of virtue within these communities, including the Baptist community. That is not to say that everyone in the church is virtuous. What I am saying is that there is a much greater likelihood of finding someone who at least accepts personal responsibility for their choices within the Baptist church and, more importantly, within any church. And I forgot to mention that, while a large portion of the black population may attend a Baptist church, it is by no means exclusively or even close to being the "black church" -- again, at least in the US. I'm attaching a Pew Research article. While 78% of the black population in the study attended church, 45% (of the 78%) attended a Baptist church (see chart). http://www.pewforum.org/2009/01/30/a-religious-portrait-of-african-americans/ This article also notes that persons in the black religious community are more likely to be pro-life. Here's a quote from the article: "For instance, just as in the general public, African-Americans who are more religiously observant (as defined by frequency of worship service attendance and the importance of religion in their lives) are more likely to oppose abortion and homosexuality and more likely to report higher levels of conservative ideology." I would never attend a Baptist church as their services are vastly different, however, that is no reason to judge them harshly. IMO

"right reasons" ??? What would those reasons be? Choose a reason and be true and honest about what it is.

I attend an Episcopal church and am pretty much in the same place. It gives me a regularly scheduled time and place to leave all earthly, material concerns behind and focus on who I am and whether I am living up to my potential. Am I living according to my principals and so on? Be honest and confess where I have been lax. Refocus on what is important. Renew my commitment to being a better human being today than yesterday. I currently have to listen to a liberal minister preach what is not gospel but politics. However, a new rector is close to being chosen and we shall see. If this continues I may have to find another church. Perhaps I will look to the Catholic church -- though I still highly favor the Anglican church which leaves out the pope. The services are much the same. Yes, predetermined on a yearly basis. Lots of repetition of things which helps to focus on the words later when you don't have to think about it so much because you are familiar with it. In my church if I were to do the daily recommended readings, in two years I would complete the New Testament twice and the Old Testament once. I like the singing as well.

Interesting. You don't want food that requires water because you may not have water. In that case, food will be moot. You can last much longer without food than water. Better to plan how to have abundant, clean water, then look at your food resources. It's standard disaster prep for any sort of power outage.

Says who? The clergy is the moral compass for individuals. "The fatherland" is a mental construct. I don't see any logic in "could". They can certainly be politically active as an individual, but not as clergy. Personal responsibility. The clergy would do their job to the best of their ability and preach enough about morality that "Caesar" learned to live as Godly and evil-free a life as possible. That is the entire point I'm making. Here is an example: Your math teacher instructs you in the principles of mathematics. You practice the principles and understand how it all works. Then, you take those principles / experiences and apply them to a career in the finance industry or architecture. Your math teacher does not instruct you in finance or architecture. Now, let's say you are an architect and run into a problem you can't solve for in designing a particular structure, so you seek the advice of your old math professor. You math prof would never tell you the answer, only add his greater understanding of the principles at work. The math professor knows his subject much better than you and can give you creative ideas about how you might think about the problem differently. The application of the principles is your responsibility. The math prof is not going to tell you how the design should or should not be done, only about the math that potentially creates the design. Gun control, a political agenda. Is it moral or immoral? Clergy: the commandments say nothing about the morality of gun control, only that it is immoral to kill another. If the clergy focused more on morality and less on politics, their message of "thou shalt not kill" might be more effective. The same goes for the Christian learning about God. If they focus more on personal responsibility and less on controlling the actions of others, the whole world would be served. None of the commandments says anything about "thou shalt tell others how to live" or "thou shalt determine whether your neighbor is living by the commandments and what should be done if they don't meet your expectations." In fact, there is that bit about getting the plank out of your own eye.

I don't get this whole idea I'm seeing here that the clergy is supposed to be political. Politics concerns my relationship to "Caesar" not God. Religion focuses me on my personal relationship with God and specifically away from "Caesar". The clergy are guiding their flocks in the ways of God not "Caesar". How we apply the ways of God in Caesar's world should not be dictated, else no free will. The Commandments are the only guide and all relate to personal choices when interacting with others, including politicians -- but not politics as such. IMO of course. While God might be introduced as a guiding principle in politics, politics would never be a guiding principle in the word of God. "God before country" as they say.

So sorry to hear about your church. I'm having a similar issue with my church, though maybe not as intense as racism. It's heartbreaking for me at times. I also attend for social interaction, getting to know others in the community and a weekly attention to something larger than myself and out of my control. I chose the church of my childhood. Only now they are moving farther and farther left and that is disappointing. Looks like they intend to actually change Our Father to something else more generic. That might actually end it for me, but for now I'm hanging in there. No changes have been made as yet. I was so frustrated I did a podcast in haste after a sermon on gun control. I was really pissed about the politics. We have an interim minister while awaiting a new one (previous one had to step down due to cancer). He is a university professor. Sermons always include something like gun control, climate and, this past week, transgender. These are all political issues IMO and have no place in a sermon that is about personal relationship with God/Jesus and so on. Why bring politics into it at all? It's like they are telling me I am a sinner because I believe climate change is actually climate hysteria, gun control is the beginning of fascism and transgenderism is a mental illness. I have enough sins without that. Don't know what any of that has to do with my relationship with God. It's frustrating to see the church go downhill this way but I'm hanging in there as there is nothing I can do about the sermon and the rest of the service is everything I could ask for. Again, so sorry for your experience. They are stealing the sanctuaries of our hearts.

I think you may have missed my point. Perhaps I should have said, "No one outside of you is telling making you or her to do anything." Regardless of what you ask for, regardless of what her mother tells her to do, regardless if God speaks to her, in the end, she will make the choice to contact you or not. You and she may act as if life is controlled by the other or her mother or someone else, but that does not make it true. That describes the victim/oppressor relationship, the co-dependent relationship, the "my life is dependent on what other people do and I have no control" relationship. There is a reason that believing in free will is empowering. Without it, you are simply a victim of circumstances your entire life with no power to make a difference either way. So far in this thread you have given over your power to prayer, God, your daughter, and her mother. From the very beginning of the thread you were trying to get her to call you rather than you taking charge and calling her. That is obviously my interpretation of words on a board and please forgive me if I have misunderstood. May I suggest you step up to the plate and do what you want to do with your life regarding your relationship with your daughter? Take the other circumstances into consideration, certainly. But act. You are in charge of you. Let go of needing to control and be controlled. Have your read Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life? Again, my apologies if I have misinterpreted. Peace be with you always.

I would say telepathy rather than "religious". I realize that telepathy is yet unproven, but I find no reason to believe that it might not be proven in the future. We already know that the earth has magnetic fields. Some animals communicate and navigate in ways that are related to the magnetic field of the earth. It is not that big a stretch to look for individual magnetic fields around humans. People report seeing "auras" but that is not enough. And so there are studies being done. The people doing the studies will be disparaged and laughed at until it is proven and becomes common knowledge. This is simply how it works. There is so much that we do NOT know about human beings. I suggest there is a whole lot yet to be found. Having said that, full disclosure, I've studied metaphysics and the mind at an institution that stresses "try this for yourself" and "practice this technique" so it's not just "blindly believe me". I'll be using that education here. It was certainly my experience that there are many capabilities of the mind and brain that have yet to be fully developed. Mental exercises and practice can increase your ability in certain areas according to your talent. The problem is that it requires hours and hours and hours and hours of dedicated practice to see consistent results. Who can keep that up for very long? I'm not a researcher. I just want to live a better life. Anyway, while it is not possible to just "read minds", the possibility that it may be a mental skill that can be developed in the future is very real for me and many others. I no longer put in the effort to develop the skill but retain the memory of the experiences. I use what I did learn to acquire greater self awareness and self knowledge. I had many experiences similar to what you describe. Based on my education and personal experience here are my thoughts. Focus and attention on a person has the potential to create a magnetic field and/or electrical signal similar to radio waves (Obviously not proven yet, but see article below). I have had experiences with an actual "feeling" such as you describe and subsequent pseudo-confirmation of the feeling with physical contact from the individual (though I did not test her and God). Because the skill or mental ability is not fully developed, and in fact is quite rudimentary, consistency is impossible. Hence, when someone says I think I'm telepathic and the response is, "read my mind right now" failure is pretty much ensured. Some things that affect the experience are intensity of emotion, depth of focus and concentration, willingness and openness to receive communication, and prior mental and/or emotional "connection". I kind of mushed that together. Specifically, there is a transmitting mind and a receiving mind. The transmitter must be focused and emotionally engaged. The receiver must be open to receiving the "message". It helps tremendously if there has been a previous connection as a mental pathway has already been created. An interesting phenomenon is that receptivity is something that requires a lack of force -- a conscious lack of force but not passivity. Think of the interaction between male and female lovers. One exhibits aggression or initiates the interaction, the other must be open to receiving -- though not passive. This gets really complicated and, as I said, requires a lot of self awareness and lots and lots and lots of practice. But sometimes we naturally fall into it. The time delay is the real fly in the ointment. Especially in the situation you describe. There is an emotional difficulty between the participants. Therefore, there is hesitation to follow through on the thought (the thought was yours). This is an interesting mental state because it can also be the cause of the intensity of the original thought communication that gave it motion (emotion) in the first place. After the emotion wanes, the call can be made (or in your case, received) with relatively better emotional control. In the end, time delays cause doubt. I refer back to the "read my mind right now" challenge. It just doesn't work that way in our present state of self knowledge. I trust that some day in the future that it will. But that will take lots of research and then acceptance and then teaching from a very young age in order for it to become a "normal" experience of being a human. IMO, there is nothing religious about your experience. There is a strong desire to communicate on one end (yours) and a very open mind on the other end that desires to receive the communication (hers). The hypothetical electromagnetic connection has a pathway and makes the connection. At this point in our evolution, the connection is made willy-nilly when certain conditions come together so it looks like magic or a religious experience. My advice is to not focus on the experience so much (except to note that it happened). The message is the point and continuing your efforts with your daughter is the important thing. No one outside of you is telling you or her to do anything. You are simply aware of your thoughts. Acting on your thoughts is what is important. Next time, instead of making it the responsibility of God or your daughter, you might just call her and tell her you were thinking of her. Maybe that would be hard for you. Based on what you describe it is likely. You want to talk to her, but give the responsibility for the choice to God and her. That's going to create the kind of emotional tension that just might create a subconscious communication. Again, it looks like magic, but it is not. Part of the problem with "psychic" abilities is just what you are describing. You look for someone or something else to tell you what to do. You look to something other than being responsible for your own thoughts and emotions. You work from the premise that there is some mysterious force that knows more than you about who you are and what is best for you. Wrong. If these abilities do exist, they exist to extend our ability for autonomy and responsibility for our lives and the choices we make. They exist to assist in our personal self awareness and/or self knowledge. I know that was long but the subject is a complex and difficult one. I hope something here helps you or others in understanding your personal responsibility for your life. Don't give it away to religion and/or superstition. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/maverick-scientist-thinks-he-has-discovered-magnetic-sixth-sense-humans p.s. not dissing religion here. I go to church myself though not particularly religious. It has a place in my life. It guides but does not control.

the google "white american inventors"

I did not have to wait. Perhaps the email was lost. Have you contacted them again? Send another email and ask.

I thought he stated it quite well. He doesn't like politics. It's a nasty business. People fight for their point of view and run for re-election. Not much there for him as he is interested in a different career.

The dream is about you and your conscious state of awareness. The dream is describing your relationship with yourself. The ex-girlfriend is a representation of the inner you, the you that has the inspiration, the motivation, the drive toward one thing or another. Also the you that strives for excellence and self-improvement, to be a "better person" if you will. The cafe, a place of eating, generally seen as taking in nourishment or knowledge. Doorways lead to areas of exploration in your mind. You have created narrow and specific pathways to knowledge of yourself. Perhaps a little more complicated than necessary or perhaps just a preferred way of organizing how you learn. Water represents life experiences. Getting to know her (your inner self - your heart) is dependent on your life experiences. The action indications there is an on again-off again relationship with her (you). This reminds me of having a certain discipline to gain greater self-knowledge and union between inner (who you desire to be) and outer (how you see yourself). Yet there is a disconnect with understanding that the two go together (why don't we go together). The main impediment is uncontrolled and very strong thoughts. Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. Thinking so much it is hard to stand up. She is "above" thinking and not affected. Bring the two together. Don't let thoughts dominate. Feel the heart and bring that along, too. Bottom line: If you are practicing meditation only while you are sitting still, in the correct position, for the correct amount of time, you are missing the point. The connection made during meditation is a marker for bringing that sense of self into every day life and living. Hope this helps.

1. Decide who you want to be. 2. Make it so.

If you know the manufacturer, the ingredients and warnings would still be valid. Diseases are not "treated" with vaccines. They are supposed to be prevented by vaccines. Perhaps you meant something else. Good luck. Merry Christmas