When i was a kid (or when i was in Nepal), i used to believe in God. I did however have reservations on religion but i still believed in God. Its been a year in US now and having met people from other cultures, the existence of a supreme being doesnt make sense anymore. 

I think that believeing in GOd instills in a person faith, confidence and positivity to get through good times and be appreciative of the bad ones. I want my children to have these qualities so i dont want to tell them that GOd doesnt exist. Moreover, i cant imagine what my parents/relatives will make of me when i talk to them about this. It isnt going to be pretty. 

It does give me great discomfort to think about all this. I must admit i feel less confident and more pessimistic these days. I want to believe in God but my logic doesnt give in anymore. In fact, i get irritated when i hear things like "God COMMANDED you to.." "GOd will PUNISH you if..", "We are SERVANTS in from of Him" "(on Christianity): "Jesus died on the cross for you"(THere are many who have made a similar magnitude of sacrifice). 

I think that God and religion are ancient theories that havent been discarded yet. And it hasnt due to the fear in people of what might happen if they didnt. One of my teachers once said "if there is no god and you believe in god, there is no harm but if there is god and you dont believe in god, there is harm". i feel this and cultural and social stigmas lead people to be religious and not question their beliefs. 

I wanna know what you guys make of this.

Many of you have requested to hear my story. I struggle to come up with the vocabulary because it is such a different experience than most of you have experienced. But I will still try to explain, since you have requested.

Pinpoint,
In many ways, my story is like this movie:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones_and_the_Temple_of_Doom

Indiana Jones is a very curious person. He is intrigued by the mystical side of things. So he goes exploring, like I did. And in the course of his journey, he definitely discovers very amazing things. But he also explores and finds very scary things. Things that almost cause him to lose his life.
The same happened to me.

My story is also like the story about the lead character in the movie "Contact." My story would begin where the movie "Contact" ends.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(film)

Tell me PinPoint, would you ever agree to go through an experience like this consciously?

 Imagine the conflicts and contradictions that someone like Jodi Foster's character ( Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway) would suffer from for the rest of her life because she went through a unique experience that she couldn't "prove."

I'm not sure if going through a unique experience would be a gift or a curse if it was an experience that was so different from what other people considered "normal" that people would not believe it when you are trying to explain your experience to the world.

I'm not sure how many of you would want to experience what she did about any experience, including Extra-terrestrial life. But the only catch would be that we would die with that experience without being able to communicate it to a "serious audience." Would we accept to be privy to such a unique experience?

Especially for a scientist like her, that would be pretty harsh. Her reputation would go up in flames. She would lose everything, while experiencing that which she sought to prove...that there is Extra-terrestrial life. But would never be able to 'objectively' prove it to others. What emotions would they go through? How would they deal with it? How do they cope with it?

and in one movie unicorn existed and this kid had a hard time proving that it really did exist.

and in another movie Dorothy had a hard time explaining that she visited Oz and in another Alice went almost crazy after she couldn't prove that she indeed visited the wonderland.

So tell me now are you Jodie, Dorothy or Alice?

Pinpoint,

Naturally I expect you to be skeptical to what I write. If someone else was telling me this story the way I am telling you it would be very hard for me to digest if I had not gone through anything close to this experience.

What is so new about this?

There was a time when the early scientists were burned and tortured by the church for believing in science:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno

So through out the history of man kind, we have always ridiculed people who think differently than us and who have a different experience than us. There is nothing surprizing or amazing about this. This is how humans are.

This is why understanding what your particular paradigm is so important. Our paradigm shapes how we see the world. And generally, we see our own paradigm as being objective and other people's paradigm as being false. This is what causes us to look down upon and make fun of people whose paradigm is different from our own.

You see this in politics all the time. People who are convinced of the Liberal paradigm think that Conservatives are crazy. Those who are of the Conservative paradigm think that Liberals are lazy and crazy. The ignorant of either paradigm generally become radicals either of the political Left or the Political right. Even a country like the United States with so many educated people, is politically polarized because of people's complete refusal to see the other person's perspective.

That is why they say not to discuss religion/philosophy or politics. Both have very rigid paradigms. We generally pick our paradigm and fight from it rather than choose to study our paradigm to revise it.

@chaurey, back to the reality, they are all fictions, even if it's a  metaphor, it's bad one and nothing to do with the so-called reality we're are living in. I mean common, they are all fictions.
Everyone holds their own beliefs and they don't need to prove them all. Why would they need to do that? 
That was bad metaphor anyway.

No, it was not a bad "analogy" at all. let me explain: if Alice had a dream about being in wonderland and Dorothy had a dream about being in the land of Oz and both did not have any proof, then according to Homey ji it still is real and that they don't need to prove shit about being in those places, their experiences (dreams) should be  enough proof to make everyone else believe in what they think is real, in this case Wonderland and Oz.
Homey ji had a similar experience as Alice and Dorothy and he does not have any proof, he thinks it's godly and strongly believes it is related to god.
Get my point?

@chaurey, O I C

bottomline is there is a god. there is just one god. it's also the truth, when buddhist dies he sees buddha, when christian dies he sees jesus and so on. It's just the projections created by their conciousness. common factor, is that single higher self of our own entity which we give this name god.
Here when I wrote God, it's not like typical mind would think as worshippable one. It's just to denote the higher self of your own consciousness thats it.

however way you take it, take it.

No Chaurey,

The point is that I don't need to tell my story at all. The point is, I couldn't care less if you think my story is real or not. The point is, I don't consider you to be that important for me to me to need your validation before my story has validity. You are just not that important to me.

The only reason I am telling this story is that Pinpoint and others want me to tell this story. I am telling this story in a forum like sajha despite people like you, whom I know will make comments like the ones you do.

You are the last person in sajha that I feel I need to prove myself to. Apart from putting people down and making fun of them, what kind of proof of reality or truth have you established?

Are you an authority of any kind? Where is the proof of your authority?

oh so the dead resurrected to tell you what god they saw when they died? what would an atheist see if they die then? i suppose nothing?

The best you can do is listen to my story as a 'hypothesis.' You don't have to agree with it or disagree with it. Then do your own experimentation. Then based on the results of your experimentation you will have the proof you need to believe or to not believe. Then make your own conclusion.

homey chill brah...just cause you don't have proof doesn't mean it aint real right? i saw this one dream which i don't remember now...that doesn't mean it wasn't really a dream right? anyway i can send you to jail because i believe you did commit a crime but i don't have proof for it....my perception that you committed a crime which i don't have any proof of can't be held against you to send you to jail... in all likelihood you have not mentioned what it is that you think you saw or felt that ties your belief that it was indeed god.... in essence can your experiences not be your mind playing tricks on you? what did you see or feel? if something can be seen or felt that im sure it can be measured scientifically...in my mind there is no way a GOD as you had described it to be omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent can make you so confused that you dont even know what it is that you experienced...im sure if GOD exists and is that powerful to begin with it would have the right thing to say and do to make us realize that it really exists.... at this time and age if an alien craft that travelled XYZ million light years to reach earth comes with a copy of bible/koran/Ved etc and tells us that god does indeed exists then maybe maybe i will believe in an entity that exists, however if anything exists it sure can't be what the taditional view of GOD is, it then makes the GOD more vulnerable and opens up weaknesses by which we can question and measure these entities or beings!!! 

ok sir im going to be silent...on with your story then!

@chaurey, the world spins around constant researches and findings. You and I are writing on this forums there are other genuises doing some sort of researches at this very moment. There were people declared dead by MDs and hence they're dead but they came back to lifee due to some unknown phenomenon. There are researchers who specially hunt for these kind of incidents. Now-a-days, doctors keep these kind of rare experiences in their journals as well. It could be career suicide to explicitly go public about these experiences but they know what's the real dril.  Their anecdotes shows what kind of experiences they felt after the death. Sum of all those incidents was what I've written in above. It's spiritual stuff, not an ordinary minds play.
Chaurey, ignorance is bliss but truth is a bigtime shocker. It just take little effort to expand the horizon of your knowledge. I take your comment as evidently natural response. no fuss :D 

so they are not dead? as far as non religious dude dying what did they see? or is this phenomena only related to religious people?

can you cite the source?

so these doctor's decided to share their journal and experimentation with you? sorry i did not understand that part...how in the world did you get to know all the "insider information" if they have not publicized it yet? even so, that experiment strengthens the argument that God and religion are man made and that if chirstians see jesus and buddhists see buddha when they die, we can also hypothesize that their minds were altered into believing that a certain group of people will only see what they were told to believe and not other gods. Why wouldn't a buddhist see jesus and christians see buddha when they are dying?   see what i am saying?

The best you can do is listen to my story as a 'hypothesis.' You don't have to agree with it or disagree with it. Then do your own experimentation. Then based on the results of your experimentation you will have the proof you need to believe or to not believe. Then make your own conclusion.

We do this all the time. Let me tell you a different story:

In a Nepali gathering, Rajesh dai will say, "Hey you know, I took my children to the Anaconda Rollercoaster ride in Disney world. My children had  a wonderful experience."

Chaurey jumps on his feet and starts yelling, "Where is the proof? Where is the proof that you had fun?"

Rajesh dai looks around at the other Nepalese gathered in the living room as if to say, 'is everything alright with Chaurey?' They look back at Rajesh dai with their eyebrows raised and shrug. They haven't seen Chaurey act like this before.

Rajesh dai says, "Well Chaurey, you can take your children to Disney World too. Take them on the Anaconda ride and they will know if they enjoyed the ride or not."

Chaurey, his back arched forward, ready to fight, "Chill out Rajesh dai. I am just looking for the proof. Why should I believe you? Where is the proof?"

Rajesh dai now is quite alarmed. He doesn't know what to say. If Chaurey would just follow his GPS to Disney world and put his children into the Anaconda Rollercoaster ride, he could come to his own conclusion about whether they found the Anaconda Rollercoaster ride to be fun or not. But poor Chaurey only knows how to overreact and make a spectacle of himself in a Nepali gathering. Rajesh dai simply shakes his head, amused, and continues to sip on his masala tea and sighs to himself.

@chaurey, literally yes. most probably, non-religoius or atheist won't see anything at all when they die. Because, that's how their level of deep subconscious is setup where they accept no godly figure at all. And, the time near death when they retain at least the amount of consciousness to be able to come back to life and tell his/her experiences is still not considered in true sense a real consciousness.


But when I talk about spirituality, it's not just the mere issues with this physical form or brain. The consciouness is divine, it's a root. You may cover it with layers of beliefs and non-beliefs in the physical form, in some corner of the brain but when brain/body dies , the true consciousness merges somewhere else. I've been trying to follow that real me within me, and have not been successful but I've had slight experiences of it. Buddy, you don't need to be a hermit to know all these. It just needs practice. I'm  young , I enjoy life, I eat/drink, basically everything what most other young people do, but the only thing that differs me from them is I'm a new age spiritual guy who enjoys every aspects of the life, Midnight, I sit alone, stare at burning candle, contemplate and go into another state. This is what they call meditation but due to marketed meditational ad materials, I now am quite reluctant to tell ppl about what I do. I've now begun to say that I simply contemplate myself. Don't even know if they understand what am saying.

so, I just did a little search and here is the link, should give you a little hint:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/science-life-after-death.htm

@chaurey, I think we're having a little lag here , and our responses seems overlapping one another. BUt that's okay. Your question again is natural. If it's confidential, how the hell it is surfaced and here I'm telling you folks. It's no more confidential. You are absolutely right. Off all students in a class, it's not mandatory that they all pass the exam, some may fail. There are hundreds of thousands of MDs, many of them know what it means to discuss materials like this, it's so totally against their profession. But still some MDs after their retirement, do reveal such experiences because by the time they have no more obligations and they don't really care. You must have known internet is a sea of information and there are thousands of non-profit blogs and sites created every seconds on many topics. Some of them were doctors-turned-spiritual blogs and sites. If you look at these ppl's sites, they had great careers during their time, they're doctors, scientists and excuse me somewere strict atheists as well, but the experiences that life taught them turned them into believer of unknown phenomenon.

You are right, they don't need to come to me to personally hand me down their journals. In this age and time, every scripts and journals can be fetched off the net. They don't even need to blow the whistles in my ear. I've a full logical sense, I can do research on them and I can jump on conclusion.

Chaurey, it seems like you are quick on jumping into conclusion. I've an honest suggestion for you... think before you speak, I mean "write" in this case here..

well dammit if you had made that clear in the first comment i would not have asked you to clarify...you write stuff that contradicts your own comments...like for eg: "this thing is confidential and is not publisized " and then you come out here and say "oh well the sea of information is floating out in the internet" and yet you tell me to think before i type?