If Satan was fictional...

[Poseidon]

Originally Posted by Bob Crowley

I've also had the experience of something gripping me during the night, and on a couple of occasions of the bed shaking, as part of the process. I know others on this forum have experienced something similar, because I've seen them say so.

And they're pretty strong. The only thing that's stronger is God, and His angels. So when the grip ceases, as far as I'm concerned, it's been ripped away by a "good" spirit, and certainly not by my own strength. I may as well try to stop a ten ton truck single handed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_p...haracteristics
Was it something like this? I don't doubt your sincerity, but I'd like to put forward an alternate explanation. Things like what you described aren't all that uncommon.

[Gaber]

Originally Posted by Poseidon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_p...haracteristics
Was it something like this? I don't doubt your sincerity, but I'd like to put forward an alternate explanation. Things like what you described aren't all that uncommon.

Yes, I've had that. Very scarry! I thought I was going to die! But when I learned what it was, I just let it happen.

[Qoeleth]

Originally Posted by Gaber

Oh? Whose world construct do you live in? Are you not in control of your reactions/responses to your perceptions? If you are, you just may be a world lord!

The only thing you didn't make in your world is your sense of "I am." That's a given. If you say "I am me," the "me" is totally what makes up your personal experience. So if you look into what constitutes "I am," you can discover how to much more fruitfully understand and utilize the part you call "me."

Despite all my Christian, Stoic, Skeptic, Cynic, Buddhist efforts to the contrary, I do not really feel in total control of my reactions. I would love to be like Pyrrho, and not flinch when dogs attack, holding it to be indeterminate whether such things are good or bad. Or like Epictetus, and receive bad news with total indifference, but having no opinion on it. Or Diogenes and continue to walk about regardless of tempest and rain, as things indifferent. Or like Gotama Buddha, and feel no anger or fear when my body is being torn apart. Or like Jesus, and wish forgiveness on those who hurt me, or see poverty and riches, and mourning as happiness. I guess these people were really masters of their own world. But I am not..

Do you feel as if you are Lord of your own world?

[Gaber]

Originally Posted by Qoeleth

Despite all my Christian, Stoic, Skeptic, Cynic, Buddhist efforts to the contrary, I do not really feel in total control of my reactions. I would love to be like Pyrrho, and not flinch when dogs attack, holding it to be indeterminate whether such things are good or bad. Or like Epictetus, and receive bad news with total indifference, but having no opinion on it. Or Diogenes and continue to walk about regardless of tempest and rain, as things indifferent. Or like Gotama Buddha, and feel no anger or fear when my body is being torn apart. Or like Jesus, and wish forgiveness on those who hurt me, or see poverty and riches, and mourning as happiness. I guess these people were really masters of their own world. But I am not..

Do you feel as if you are Lord of your own world?

That was quite a piece! I enjoyed reading it.

You and I are lords of our our decisions and our thinking, and therefore of our world. We are not Lord of the World, (i didn't use a capital, did I?) save by an insight of exceptional rarity, and that is not a matter of personhood in the last analysis. So while what appears to us as "exterior" may not be under our direct control as a phenomenon, our experience of it is. And ultimately, how we do that is what determines our experience of our self, our character, and even, though my definition of it is radically different, our salvation. As one man said, "'You' are the world you wander through. I hope you like it."