Drilldown #1: TBMs, details re your spiritual experience

[_Morley]

Well, then what happened? You seem to be missing the best part here. Was he receptive? Did he get baptized? Is this a serial and you're going to tell us next week?

Don't leave me hangin', man!

Sorry about that. I was just getting to the conclusion when it occurred to me that maybe it didn't make any difference what actually happened after I tapped on this guy's shoulder insofar as the reality of the experience to me.

I am interested in hearing what you and others have to say about this. (I'm not trying to be cloak and dagger here . . . okay, just a little bit.)

Would/should this experience be accepted by others (or even myself) as any more or less "truthful" based upon what happened afterward?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

(Emphasis mine.)

Of course it would be. Context always matters.

Some possible endings:
1) And then I realized my friend had been whispering to me, trying to get my attention.
2) And then I saw a hovering, blonde angel with a flaming sword and she told me her name was 'Nephina.'
3) And then the percodan-laced 'shrooms wore off.
4) And then I saw my future wife.

Sure. Having the complete story matters.

[_Fence Sitter]

Well, then what happened? You seem to be missing the best part here. Was he receptive? Did he get baptized? Is this a serial and you're going to tell us next week?

Don't leave me hangin', man!

Sorry about that. I was just getting to the conclusion when it occurred to me that maybe it didn't make any difference what actually happened after I tapped on this guy's shoulder insofar as the reality of the experience to me.

I am interested in hearing what you and others have to say about this. (I'm not trying to be cloak and dagger here . . . okay, just a little bit.)

Would/should this experience be accepted by others (or even myself) as any more or less "truthful" based upon what happened afterward?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

It is like playing a song but stopping at the penultimate chord.
The song is not complete till the last note is played.
It is sort of like starting a sen

[_consiglieri]

[quote="Oh, and I don't doubt what you wrote happened to you at all, no matter what you tell me the outcome was (although I reserve judgment on any additions to the story).

Okay, here's what really happened.

He said he would be interested in hearing what I had to say, so I walked with him back down the stairs to the open air bus depot and we sat down on a bench with my doryo and we taught him a quick first discussion.

By the time we were getting to the end, I was starting to worry he would not be interested in making a second appointment. (You know how that goes. Even those few who agree to hear the first rarely schedule for a second.)

But he did agree to a second appointment.

Only he didn't show up.

Me being a lame 20-year old missionary had neglected to get his phone number or any contact information.

To my knowledge, that is where the story ends.

What do you think?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_harmony]

I see your post as being highly patronizing of Liz, Harmony. As if she's such a delicate flower that any skepticism, no matter how mildly phrased, will cause her to flee like a frightened rabbit.

It's time for all of us to put on our grownup pants and realize that it's okay if someone doesn't agree with us. It's not insulting to politely disagree. In fact, the only disrespectful, insulting posts in this thread have come from you. The level of sensitivity you're expressing sounds like it's coming from a place of insecurity in your own spiritual experiences.

Your interpretations of what "don't buy it" and "more reasonable" "really" mean cannot reasonably be inferred from the context in which they were given.

At least I own it, Buffalo. I don't try to mask what I think behind words that are oh-so-polite and condesending.

Liz is one of the world's sweetest people... I'm not. Deal.

My spiritual experiences can be summed up in 4 words:

Run
harmony
Yes
Stop

And you can do whatever you want with those.

[_Scottie]

Liz is one of the world's sweetest people... I'm not. Deal.

Liz is also strong enough to accept some criticsm of her experiences. You're not. Deal.

[_harmony]

Liz is one of the world's sweetest people... I'm not. Deal.

Liz is also strong enough to accept some criticsm of her experiences. You're not. Deal.

Oh Scottie. How could you? I'm crushed! Crushed, I say! How will I ever bear it? Seriously! Crushed. Or something.

Deal.

[_Scottie]

Oh Scottie. How could you? I'm crushed! Crushed, I say! How will I ever bear it? Seriously! Crushed. Or something.

Deal.

I love you Harm!! :)

[_Some Schmo]

To my knowledge, that is where the story ends.

What do you think?

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

I love ya, man. I just need to get that out of the way, so you can put this next comment in context. I just want you to know that I honestly respect the kind of person I perceive you to be. No joke about that. But...

That story isn't that remarkable to me for the reasons I already stated. I suppose it's possible, however, that I should be paying more attention to the odd things I hear every once in a while in the dead of silence.

[_Jhall118]

If we are left with two explanations:

1) Life after death exists, spirits can interact with living humans.
and
2) These experiences are not supernatural, but have a natural explanation

Then shouldn't those that support number 1 have to come up with a pretty damn good reason why EVERYONE that dies can't visit whoever they want? I mean, why did so and so's grandma get to come visit her, but whoever's ex-wife doesn't get to come visit him? What a horrible thought that some intelligent being (presumably with human emotions) chooses to bless some with these allowed visits, and then torture others.

Reminds me of Houdini's wife. He promised her that he would show up the following Halloween after he died, to prove whether or not there was an after life. Dude never showed up.

Any Mormons care to expand? The only explanation I can see with MY COJCOLDS glasses on is that these people NEED such experiences. However this makes no sense, as I doubt it would have shaked liz's faith to NOT have this experience given she wasn't expecting it.

[_Fifth Columnist]

Okay, here is my story.

On my mission, my companion decided that we should pray for a week for ministering angels to prepare two specific streets for us to tract. When the week was up, we would tract those streets and find someone to baptize. He said this technique was especially powerful and it had worked for someone else he knew. I thought it sounded good so we did it.

After a week of praying with every ounce of faith we had, we tracted the street. At one door, a disabled woman and a man answered. The woman looked at us and said that she already talked to two men from our church two days earlier.

I instantly thought that there is no way that happened because this is our area and no other missionaries should be in it. We owned this part of town and the bike elders sure as heck didn't huff it all the way up here to poach on our turf.

I thought that she must have confused some Jehovah's Witnesses knocking doors with missionaries from our church. Before I had a chance to respond, the woman said "they left a book for me to read, but I'm really not interested so I'll give it back to you." The man then went and retrieved a soft cover copy of the Book of Mormon like the ones we passed out as missionaries.

I realized then that Jehovah's Witnesses don't pass out copies of the Book of Mormon so I started quizzing her about these two missionaries. I asked "What did they look like?" "They were both short, had very blond hair, and dressed just like you two (white shirt, tie, dark slacks) but they didn't have name tags."

No missionaries in our area even remotely matched that description, especially the lack of name tags. I responded "are you sure they didn't have name tags?" "Yes, I'm sure," she said.

She politely declined our invitation to hear the discussions and we left. I have always interpreted that experience as God fulfilling our prayers by sending his ministering angels to the people on that street in advance of our visit, but the people were so hard-hearted that they even rejected them.

Now that story is just a big question mark. I have no idea what happened there, although I kind of doubt God sent his ministering angels to that woman.