I don't know if you ever studied the life of Carl Jung, a well known, famous psychiatrist/psychologist. He was not affiliated to any particular religion (to the best of my knowledge), but was deeply spiritual. This was a person founded in science, with freud as a mentor, yet described the human condition as emanating from different sources (metaphysical vs. phallic). There is an interesting story about his childhood and life, as he was raised from very religious parents (father was minister). To quickly get to the end, he spent many of his final years in seclusion to become more in touch with his spiritual self and castrate himself from the material world. He often walked on the beach, and had conversations with an angel by the name of Philemon. He wrote much of his experiences. Now the question is, do you believe Philemon existed? The power of the mind in isolation is a powerful one. Science also shows (via types of advanced fmri) that religious believers have a more active particular region than atheists, just as autistics have more grey matter than normal individuals. --------------------------------- short excerpt from wiki: "Jung's work on himself and his patients convinced him that life has a spiritual purpose beyond material goals. Our main task, he believed, is to discover and fulfill our deep innate potential, much as the acorn contains the potential to become the oak, or the caterpillar to become the butterfly. Based on his study of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Gnosticism, Taoism, and other traditions, Jung perceived that this journey of transformation, which he called individuation, is at the mystical heart of all religions. It is a journey to meet the self and at the same time to meet the Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung thought spiritual experience was essential to our well-being." ------------------------------------------- Be careful to note, he isn't referring to the God you would typically expect; he's referring to gnosticism, which is an entirely different representation of god than most understand (similar to kabbalah and free masons). But I digress. Sufi mystics spend much of their lives in self induced pain and isolation, but there is no proof it does them any good. They do it because of the power of belief in something they were taught from others, a very powerful trait built into most of us ( and one reason many sociopath leaders advance well via trickery). Although his story is inspiring, and I don't doubt his veracity, there are plenty of more incredible and inspiring stories told by charlatans, such as yogis from india. I read a book that was supposedly non-fiction that would blow you away (transporting matter by mind, etc), but I think the authors, although good spirited are full of it.
Exactly .... he relies on his insecurities to solve his insecurities. Very much like borrowing your way out of debt. Or ... continuing the floggings until moral improves. Once this is understood it becomes easy to see why most people fail at trading and no it is not because the playing field is not even. If you can make the distinction between spirituality and religion (most people do not even consider it) and you are thereby able to isolate religion in it's context ... ask yourself this Did God create man or did man create God? sosueme
This is not to say that people should not practice their religious beliefs, unless of course they impact on the freedom of others. This right of freedom goes without saying, but when have we ever lived through a period of relative freedom in the history of mankind. Which brings us to "faith" when all else fails. How many people have died in the name of faith. sosueme
That is a very interesting concept and I would be interested to see where you are going [/QUOTE] I do not think that there is any curiosity for an open discussion here, but let me just say that trading as offered to the retail customer is greed repackaged as opportunity. What is offered to the retail customer is not in their best interests but it is presented in such a manner as to offer financial salvation and all that is required is a leap of faith. sosueme