Does anyone else do this?

[Artemis84]

I have the tendancy to be a rather skeptical Wiccan (which may sound a little ironic :) ). For instance: When I have a magickal experience through meditation, astral projection, etc. I believe it. I believe it when I see my "room goblin" (yes. I have a room goblin. He likes to hide my stuff in odd places.). But if this was a post by someone else I would be saying to myself, "Right... okay. Maybe that person is just a little psycho." Or I'll come up with scientific resoning to miracles that people claim to have witnessed. Does anyone else ever find themselves doing that?

[Melysande]

Yes. :) I'm actually feeling that way about your room goblin. **grins** But I'm accepting it anyway, because for you, it's real.

[Mithrea]

I was thinking pretty much the exact same thing Melysande :)

And on the flipside, I might share weird things that I've seen but I don't expect everyone to believe me either. :)

[Melysande]

Same here. :)

[Chibi-Fallon]

I've talked with one to many “vampires”, “dragons”, etc. to really buy a lot of the stuff people say anymore about those kinds of things. Granted if no one has given me any reason to doubt them in the past I’ll be skeptical but I won’t disbelieve them.

[Phoenix Blue]

**Nods** I think a grain of salt is healthy under the circumstances. You can believe your own experiences, because you were there. If you feel someone's being honest with you, there's not necessarily any reason to disbelieve what they're saying about their own experiences. But if your BS-o-meter peaks when you start talking to that "Dragon in a human's body," **smiles** listen to it.

[MistOfTheSea86]

I'm insane, I never accuse anyone of being crazy unless proven otherwise:D

[Ravens_Tears]

Sometime's I do that too, but the experiences I've had in this lifetime have made me more open to at least considering the "truth" of someone else's reality. I usually will get a really bad "gut" reaction to something that isn't entirely right. Over time I have found it is the best gauge for me.

[Myst]

It's not really ironic - Wiccan doesn't mean "so open your brains fall out". :D

I think one of the greatest things about Paganism and magic is that you are always welcome to take what you want from what you read or hear, and tailor it to your needs. This doesn't mean believe everything you see - on the contrary! It means think thorougly and watch that BS-o-meter, use your own best judgment, and think carefully. Always remember that terminology can be different from person to person and retain what seems right.

Incidentally, your room goblin is probably a type of fairy - fairies in general tend to move or hide stuff to tease. One of my friends has what he calls a Gargolyte that stays in his room and does the same sort of thing - basically the same thing almost.

[ChelleOfShadows]

Your bedroom goblin sounds like a ghost who felt he needed to protect me for about 10 years. Finally one day a coworker changed the name I had been calling him and he has not been around since. I recently read that people who experience hauntings, that NAME their ghosts can be plagued with their ghost for the rest of their lives. Or until someone else names them, because by naming them you command them. Go figure I commanded a ghost and didn't know it!!! Hindsight and all!

[Bethra]

Being doubtfull is good for you. We are lucky in the Pagan religion since much is left to the power of indervidual belief. If we do not question and acept things blindly we do ourselves and the religion an in-justice. We must always question the truth of the matter in order that we get closer to our goals.
As for nameing ghosts to comand them. Um well I'm not sure on that one. I am tempted to think that this is incorect since I doubt very much we mortals can efect what a spirit wants to do. I don't think you can demand anything of them be it calling or banishing. If we consider the ghost and enterty then we must accept it's free will and thus it will do as it pleases. To have a friend change it's name to banish it would only work if it was fed up with you anyway. If you find this happens again at all it might be nicer to just ask it to go or ask why it it with you. A friend has been followed around for sometime by a confused soldier who she could not place I took her along to the spyritualist church open circle and we worked with it and eventualy sorted him out. She knows his name now and a bit about him so he will probably leave her allown but he may go on to become a guid or such like.
Who can say your ghost might not have had a message for you and you banished him from you before he could tell it.
Good luck in your judgments
Bethra

[flar7]

I do!:boing:;)

[Sequoia]

I'd guess that roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of what I spout on a daily basis is taken by most as pure BS. . . *giggles* it's true to me! Might not be to you! Am I wrong? Are you wrong? What is the ultimate truth?

Now, if someone comes up to me going "hi I'm JFK reborn and it wasn't THAT guy who killed me, it was bill clinton's dad. So wanna cyber?" they're going to either get mocked, or punted, or blocked, or possibly all three. Because they're just asking for it. Heck, even if they ARE JFK reborn, you shouldn't be stupid enough to make a very difficult-to-belive claim and THEN ask for cyber. . . sheesh! *rolls eyes*

now, on a personal basis. . . . usually I find that once I start saying stuff, either that person seems to totally agree with me. . . or they kind of humor me and ignore me *chuckles* I try to be reasonable about it!

Hey, I could still be wrong about this whole 'universe' thing. It's a big place. For all I know, I'm a pinto bean or something. It could happen.


but yes LMAO stuff that I totally belive myself, I read a stranger say and I go "oh kaaaaaaaaaayyy someone found his mommie's happy pills today." :D

[Kaylara]

Puma. you get people claiming to be JFK??? I get Aliester Crowley, Napolean, Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, etc. etc. etc.

As far as I'm concerned, I know what I feel, and what I have experienced. I don't double guess myself anymore... Other people, I can be very skeptical of... It really depends on how outrageous the claim is... I have a friend who is a werewolf. I've seen him get upset, I've seen the shape of his body start to change, and I do believe him. But if anyone else claimed something like that, I would not believe them.

Kaylara

[Old Witch]

I should have never said anything about that Fairie!!!! That being said, I do it too..........I think "This person's gotta be nuts!!" But, to my credit, my next thought is usually that he's probably no more nuts than me.......(Please forget the fairie, Pleeeeeze)

[*~*Chary*~*]

"hi I'm JFK reborn and it wasn't THAT guy who killed me, it was bill clinton's dad. So wanna cyber?" they're going to either get mocked, or punted, or

heh i've had mother theresa, torquemada, Thutmose III, hatshepsut, Cleopatra, athene jeez u name em i had em lmao

[Sequoia]

it really makes you feel bad for those few who might actually be these people reborn. . . I mean, heck, chances are they're around SOMEWHERE. . . . :D

[flar7]

so, how come there are so many of the same people walking around?

I have a theory about that, but I think its in political pagan or healthy pagan
or theology? cant remember....

[Armitage]

Well, if you think of time as being non-linear, it could be. There's a book (it's fiction) called The Iron Dragon's Daughter, by Michael Swanwick, that goes into it. Basically, people die, their souls go to Spiral Castle (heaven, purgatory, whatever you want to name it) and can be reborn at any time that has existed. And there can be any number of incarnations of a person at one time, but it wouldn't be a good idea to get them together.
I'd recommend the book anyway, though. :)

edit: Late night spelling...Yick.

[earthcat]

Merry Meet, All!
I'm new to this, so please be gentle....

I've read The Iron Dragons Daughter, and I agree with your comments on it. Including the recommendation!

As far as being skeptical of others experiences, I'm guilty as well.
.....Even tho I have a ghost named Roger in my home....

I didn't name him; that's a story that would make anyone raise their eyebrows and say, "Yeah, Right!"

[Old Witch]

Welcome, earthcat! Glad to have you here!

[*~*Chary*~*]

Welcome Earthcat,

:wave::wave::wave::wave::wave::wave::wave::wave:

I'm Chary the MW tour guide, if you check your PM's i have sent you a welcome message with the MW tour, some helpful links and the basic information of the site

Again Welcome :wave:

Chary xxx

[FelixFire]

I'm like that too - I doubt others, but as gently as possible.

Ferinstance... I have very clearly heard my cats speak my name - two different cats, three different instances. I KNOW I heard them, and my name sounds NOTHING like a meyow. A cat's mouth probably isn't even capable of making the sounds of my name.

I also have entities that share my house...I call them "the house faries" even though I know they're not really faries. They move things around, and I talk to them and they put them back.

But I don't expect anybody else to really believe it. That's what Mystery is all about (capital M). You have to experience it to know it. Even my openminded hubby, who has seen me look for something, talk to the "faries", and then find the thing where I've already looked....even HE doesn't fully 100% believe, and he's SEEN it in action. He has yet to *experience* it though, and that (I think) is the difference between knowing something, and KNOWING something.

And I don't instantly 100% believe someone when they say they've met a dragon or a unicorn, or seen a fairy, or whatever, even though that's close to my own experiences. And I'm even less likely to believe someone who honestly claims to BE a dragon or a unicorn or otherkin, even if I totally respect their intellect and they seem like a very level-headed person. It's just too foreign to my own experiences, and therefore still part of the Mystery that is shrouded from me. I won't know that until I experience it or something like it, but I certainally do my best to understand what they feel or see or percieve, even if I'm not convinced it's real.

Personal truth is a powerful thing, and if my truth doesn't match someone elses I try to always remember that we could very well both be wrong, or even possibly both be right and the universe is a whole lot more flexible than I've been taught. *shrugs*

[earthcat]

Wooo Hooo! Someone else with talking cats! I love it!!!
I've got 4, and one who says 3 words: Mom, No, and Eat.
No one believes it; then they hear it for themselves.
The Mom and the No are very distinct; I'm the only one that has heard him say Eat.

And as far as sharing our home with someone else, my hubby (Tommy) also was thinking I'm a little nuts. (Although when we walked into the kitchen and found every cabinet door and the oven door open, he was starting to believe.)
Then about 2 weeks ago, Roger :ghost: 'got' him. He was in his upstairs music room, and Rog started near the door and went around the room knocking things off shelves and blowing out candles. Tommy came downstairs and said, "Ah, Honey? I think Roger just visited me....."

Like most of you, although I wonder about things other people experience, I try to be openminded, and not question them. (at least out loud! :rolleyes: ) I'm a firm believer in 'non-interference' as far as other peoples' beliefs.....

[Garnet]

Welcome, Earthcat!
My ghost that hides things is called George. (He just felt like a George.) He used to turn on the hot water in the loo, but stopped when I redecorated. Most of the time when I get mad & yell at him, the stuff turns up. I've only had to threaten to have him exorcised a couple of times.

[Myst]

There's a quote around here somewhere (and I dont' remember where, tho I know I mentioned it :rolleyes: duh me) about how one belief is no more real then the next. No belief can be proven totally more then any other one can, as far as spirituality and magic.

[phoenixsong]

Re: strange online people: one guy got my email from Witchvox and started asking if there were floating islands in Ireland. Oh, and leprechauns. I can understand being asked about leprechauns, but floating islands? No idea where he got that from!

My aunts' and grandma's dog, Tiny, tries to talk. He complains in this weird whiny bark whenever he's annoyed - which is a lot. He was got when he was young, so maybe he thinks he's human. I doubt he's a dog. To tell the truth, he's definitely a bit unhinged - thinks his tail is a different animal and snarls if it's touched, hides from anyone he doesn't know, attacks himself from time to time - not enough to do harm, but enough to look scary to anybody watching. Very strange.

[Demeter]

Originally posted by phoenixsong
Re: strange online people: one guy got my email from Witchvox and started asking if there were floating islands in Ireland. Oh, and leprechauns. I can understand being asked about leprechauns, but floating islands? No idea where he got that from!

My aunts' and grandma's dog, Tiny, tries to talk. He complains in this weird whiny bark whenever he's annoyed - which is a lot. He was got when he was young, so maybe he thinks he's human. I doubt he's a dog. To tell the truth, he's definitely a bit unhinged - thinks his tail is a different animal and snarls if it's touched, hides from anyone he doesn't know, attacks himself from time to time - not enough to do harm, but enough to look scary to anybody watching. Very strange.

Scoff not. A brief web search on "floating islands" turned up a number of references, from islands that have the optical illusion of floating, to homes built on floating artificial islands. (These were built by the Scots, not the Irish, but they're still Celts and it ain't that far off.)

But I think this was what he was referring to: "In the Speculum Regale (also called the King's Mirror, written in Norway around 1250), it is told of an island called Loycha that floated on a lake in Ireland, on which grew herbs that could cure all ills, but no more than one person could land on it at a time. This island would float for seven years, then attaches permanently to the shore, and then another floating island would appear."

I also found a very nice recipe for a custard dessert called Floating Islands which I shall have to try.

When it comes to people passing themselves off as elves, dragons, vampires, reincarnations of Cleopatra and so on, I generally take a good look at them and what else is or is not going on in their lives and wind up feeling sorry for them that they need to use such fantasies because they are so unsatisfied with their mundane lives.

But I won't disbelieve stories of miraculous healings, reincarnation in general, housefae (I have my own "house elves" that ride around on my cats from time to time), and so on. I believe that quantum physics not only explains but requires such things, and that there are stranger things in the world than we know. And isn't it wonderful!