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#9 Are Neopagans different mentally, differently abled?

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havenne17
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:16 pm


There are at least two aspects to this discussion area: Are pagan people wired differently than those who follow other faiths? Do pagan people tend to have additional abilities or senses than other people (or is it just that they recognize these abilities or senses and practice them?).

I was inspired to start musing on this topic by a new guild member who is on the spectrum. We didn't used to have a way to discuss how people's heads may be wired differently, yielding different ways of processing ideas, of using imagination, of responding socially and of cross-linking our thoughts. Now we can discuss varying degrees of autism, Asperger's syndrome and similar types of mental variation. You can get by in the 'normal' world - all of us long past our youth had to learn to cope without the recognition of how we just plain thought in a different way (or we crashed and burned). The hard Sciences and Information Tech is full of us. The Neopagan movement is full of techies; they've done studies....makes me wonder. Is Neopaganism the path for us logic-heads?

Additionally I wonder about those other senses that pop up: being able to sense and work with spirits, being able to take mental 'trips', reading other people's minds or emotions, the arts of divination, seeing things, knowing things......
Neopaganism is full of people who believe and who work with these types of abilities. Are these types of talents more prevalent among us or do we just recognize them? Does practice develop them from latency into usefulness?

Am I grasping at correlations or actually finding a real connection?
PostPosted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 7:31 am


I don't consider myself extra "psychic" or "sensitive," but I've long been quite analytical. Reading about and spotting inconsistencies and bloopers in movies has always tickled my brain, and I loved reading about logical fallacies.

When someone declared, "every verse the Bible is for our edification!" everyone else was agreeing. Me, I was thinking "Yeah, sure. There's got to be something in there that's just fluff."

Yanueh

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havenne17
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 24, 2010 1:27 pm


Well, there's someone I haven't seen in awhile!

I will admit to having a certain amount of skepticism - I don't believe in everything put about in 'pagan' circles. Energy healing and reiki.....crystals.....some of the forms and motions, uh, no - I don't believe. I have run into some things that are definitely pagan snake oil.
Analytical? I guess I can own up to having some of that - I do Chemistry for a living. But I still believe in what I have experienced for myself; guess that's logical. Blind faith, like believing divine inspiration in the Bible, no - that book is bits and pieces from many hands assembled long after the fact. It doesn't take much study of Harper's Commentaries to come to that conclusion.
PostPosted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 6:26 pm


I don't consider myself a sensitive or anything like that either ^.^ I've never really had those skills (although I wish.... ^.^).
I am very smart, though. Even though I'm very young and sometimes I don't know what I'm talking about (please forgive me in those instances) I find it hard to relate to people because usually they just aren't on the same page as me. Stuff that they worry about I find unessacery and has no real importance. I will always remind myself that life is only a state, so nothing is perminant. I just find myself on a whole different wave length, even from my friends.
But yes, I do think that most NeoPagans or people like such have differences than most of other faiths or thought processes. Not to say that those others are any lesser, we all have certain abilities to contribute while we have our time here on the Earth.

Nin Astralite


havenne17
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:51 am


I sometimes get into these discussions about whether talents are innate or whether they can be learned (or some combination). I didn't come into my full divinatory skills until adulthood and they are definitely a 'honed' ability. Perhaps I've always had some natural talent and not just learned it all but I should point out that there's the 'reaching' for information that I do and the learning that went into knowing what all the various tarot cards stand for.
I would almost believe that many people have additional 'talents' but they go unrecognized, unused or ignored. As a pagan I've run into a lot of people with a claim to interesting senses or abilities, some understandable, demonstrable useful. But, as with so many other things that require belief, I suspect I've seen my share of frauds, also.
PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 7:39 am


I've run into a few people who claimed that they could totally perform psychokinesis and could totally get a video of it up on YouTube.

I ask them to deliver the goods, and what happens?

Their camera is oh-so-conveniently missing, stolen, or broken.

Yanueh

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havenne17
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2010 2:46 pm


It saddens me sometimes, the 'snake oil' out there being sold as healing, religion, salvation, therapy. Of course, when someone doesn't like the answer I give them with the cards, well, you get the picture: it's happened a time or two.

On the one hand, I like some of the 'unorganized' nature of neopaganism - I like the freedom - but there isn't much other than individual judgment to keep the fraud at bay.
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 5:55 am


I know it's a bit late, but I just found this thread and am very interested. From what I've been able to find, a large portion of Neopagans are very analytical or articulate, to the point where most of us have an innate talent for book writing or technology.

As for psychic ability, I don't know about Neopagans, but there are definitely people who have higher or lower abilities. There was a parapsychologist (can't remember when) that said that there's a psychic 'muscle' in the forehead, that gets stronger with exercise and can start at varying levels of atrophy from birth just like any other muscle in the body.

And also, in a religion where most people believe in spirits and the power of the psyche, it's natural that a larger portion of us would be able to accept and strengthen our abilities to visible levels. I know I'm talking strangely, but when I'm discussing things like this, my speech patterns seem to change to that of a teacher for some reason neutral .

Witch of Swords


HavenneShadow
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2011 5:54 pm


Yes, an argument could be made for Neopagans developing abilities because they accept what is already there and practice, rather than having innate talents different from people of other faiths. Perhaps before you deliberately use an ability you tend to accept its existence, accept the possibility of unseen or unexplained things.

Practice does make one more proficient.
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