Who else went through a Pagan/New Age phase?
Offline I know I did. It was during my middle school/early high school years. It all happened when I met a few of the friends I had back then. They had strange beliefs of alternate dimentions, mythological creatures, and magic. They watched a lot of anime too... which is what I blame for their way of thinking. Anyway I was skeptical at the time, but I decided to see what they were about because it sounded cool. Traveling to another dimention to slay demons? Awesome! Where do I sign up? That's what they told me they did on a regular basis. And by this time, I had gotten to be close with many of those friends, so why would they lie to me?
Then I came in contact with the Pagans. They fit the stereotype perfectly: Dark clothes, painted black nails, pale faces, nontraditional hairstyles (usually longer), etc. Anyway, the Pagans tried to sway me over to their side, because they said my friends were screwing with peoples' heads (which was true). So I did. I got into Paganism for awhile, and wanted to pursue it further. However, after much thought, I decided that they too were full of shit. Both sides--the new agers and the pagans believed that a big war was coming, and I had to chose sides because only one side will come out victorious. Crazy eh?
Some other notable beliefs I heard was my one friend, who actually believed that she was the incarnation of Link (from the Legend of Zelda video games) in another life. She would astrally project into Hyrule, and have many adventures. And recently she told me that she has discovered the world of Megaman games, and have been hanging out in that particular dimention. Many of the other beliefs were just as crazy.
Anyway, just wondering who else went through that kind of phase, where they took a nontraditional approach to find the meaning of life. I'm also intrerested to seeing what other kind of crazy beliefs you've heard of as well.
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I've known quite a number of pagans and wiccans over the years, and not a single one of them has been someone I could come close to calling smart, sensible or logical. They have always been the most mentally deficient people in the group.
People are often told not to stereotype, but I have never met a group of people who varies so little from my own stereotype than pagans or wiccans do. Most of the time I have formed my opinion on those involved (and this opinion isn't exactly complimentary) long before I find out they are in fact pagan or wiccan. All I can think is "Yep, should have known".
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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Alas, I fell in with a small group of pagans/wiccans in junior high school. Never believed in the god/goddess "proper", more as symbolic archetypes to embrace. I always kind of brushed off the astral projection and spell stuff as ceremonial to focus our minds on the ideas rather than arcane communications with higher powers. They, on the other hand, believed in it completely. Unbeknownst to me, until there was an argument, and they told me my ears were blocked from the goddess by disbelief.
Luckily, by the time I encountered the "coven" that was in my loose circle of friends in high school I was already wise to their kooky shit. They claimed fairies were real, and that they had magical abilities from the goddess. Once, a friend was sick and everyone was lost downtown and they were trying to get him to a quiet place to rest. So one nutbar I knew ran ahead to stoplights and squinted and "changed" the light so everyone wouldn't have to wait. Yes. She believed she had the magical powers to make a red light green. I'm dead fuckin' serious here. That's the one who told us when she was a child she could fly, so there may be more going on there.
They were all various shades of harmlessly batshit insane.
At any rate, I first thought of this Otakukin thread of mine, when you mentioned the Link girl. You already poked ur head into that thread, very enlightening too, I might add, but here it is for anyone who missed it.
[edit] Oh yeah, they all looked like hippies. Long skirts, sandals, peasant tops, long hair, dreadlocks. No dark nail polish, or gothy look or anything. That was MY department, LOL.
I wouldn't say I went through a phase exactly. I still study occultism, mostly for interesting metaphysical theories. Not that I believe any of them are true (most of them are unfalsifiable), but they are interesting nonetheless.
As for Astral Projection, I believe it happens, but it's basically a purposefully induced lucid dream. Most of them feel more real though, hard to explain. I do toy around with Astral Projection, I enjoy naturally produced states of altered consciousness.
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]
Yeah I definately went through the whole pagan thing. My view was somewhere between being pantheistic and deistic. I never really experienced some of the people lucidfox13 and glamourkat are talking about though. I've heard of people like that. I just never had the pleasure of actually associating with them. Most of the pagans I've known/still know are fairly rational. Yet still not as much so as my atheist/agnostic friends.
"I, on the other hand, do not feel it necessary to construct a lofty meaning for myself. I prefer the style of the butterfly myself. I will eat what I want, flit about aimlessly, and enjoy the sunshine. Then, I will die. " - Nero, RRS Forum User
Nope. Went from Christian to agnostic to Atheist!
I did the whole pagan thing briefly in high school, but I did it very quietly and alone so I never met any kooks. I think I might have been embarassed. I also tried to be Buddhist, but I'm too tense for that. In elementary school, I really wanted to be a Christian until I found out that in order to be loved by god you had to be bad (original sin). I just remember the Sunday school teacher telling us we were all very very bad boys and girls and always will be. It didn't make sense to me in the least bit.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
It looks like some of the responses here may counter that sentiment. I am not sure what the conditions are in Australia but in the U.S. the new agey thing is fairly common. I never went through this phase myself, but there are many intelligent, sensible people who go through this "phase" just looking for answers.
I should say though, that I did meet a few pagans who did actually study up on their mythology and such, so they did have a background on what the hell they believed in. But besides that, they were still screwy. I remember I had tarot cards at school once and I didn't believe they were magick or anything (notice that extra "k" at the end of magic. That means that you're special), but I liked to used them just for fun. Tarot cards give such general predictions that anyone can relate, like horoscopes. However the Pagans got all crazy when they saw someone touching my cards. They said "Hey, what the hell are you doing? Don't you know you're not supposed to let anyone else touch your cards? It will, like, totally mess up your energy dude! Bad vibes!" Well... they didn't exactly say it like that, but instead more "serious." Meh, whatever.
Oh, another time my friends and I actually went out into the woods to "banish" an evil spirt. To fit in, I went along, and said I saw spirits. It seemed no matter what I did, they would always seem to play along with me. We had a magic fight once, where we were tossing fireballs back and forth... um... yeah...
JESUS SAVES!!! .... and takes only half damage!
Eh kinda. As I have stated before in the chat room and what not, I generally have never considered myself part of any religion (it was only till recently I stated that I was an atheist, used to be where I considered myself agnostic). The study of religion has always interested me and for a while a few years ago I was in a time of my life where I was trying to find something to "believe" in (for whatever reason back then I thought that there had to be something to believe in) so I ended up looking at a bunch of religions, especially pagan ones. However, even forgetting the idea that I had issues even then thinking there was one god, let alone many, I just could not get past the spells and whatever. After that little time I just went back to my normal agnostic idea tho leaning towards there was no god till I started reading some atheist stuff (especially the God Delusion which was interesting because I read it the whole time thinking that I had not read anything before that made more sense to me and how I felt than that book).
Anways, I have known a few others who also have looked at pagan/new age stuff but generally if your in search of a faith in something, going from believing in one god to multiple and then to throw in spells and even more supernatural things is usually not going to work out.
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It could be more than that, it could simply be a matter of the ones I happened to run across. I try to keep that thought in the back of my mind and I'm just waiting for the day I meet someone who is (not was) pagan/wiccan and does actually have some sense of logic, intellect and common sense.
That said, in all walks of life my biggest flaw is my eagerness to give people (and humanity in general) the benefit of the doubt.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
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The exact same thing happened to me. I used to have a deck and read them for people in jr. high, and a bunch of kids were all amazed at my "gift". I was apparently really "in tune with the spiritual world". No matter how much I told them I was just telling what the cards mean and making general adjustments based on how the person reacted, they believed I had great power with the Tarot. I found out later in life what I was doing was called "cold reading". Also known as BULLSHITTING. LOL
They were also weird about other people touching my cards, and "energy vibes". I dated a guy who refused to use this ONE artists' deck because he felt the beings depicted on them were different than normal Tarot spirits, and they disliked him. He was NUTS about it too. ImmaculateDeception knew him in high school too. Care to weigh in on kooky pagans, ID?
People are weird. They latch on to these really strange ideas, and hold onto them so tightly. Yay, religion.
LoL...Crowley and his invented/modified words. :P
"The idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I am unable to take seriously." [Albert Einstein, letter to Hoffman and Dukas, 1946]
I played with the idea a bit when I was young, but that's all it was: play. An exercise in imagination. Kind of fun actually.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that did this. I spent most of high school doing the occult/magick (yes with the k) thing. The longer I did it the less I was convinced it was mystical and more psychological. Read a lot of Jung.
Even had a girl break up with me because I was 'subconciously attacking the energy bond between her and her friend.'
Also, friends of mine also belived in the literal truth of Lovecraft's stories and that 'the Necronomicon' actually exsisted. That's probably the weirdest I've got.
WWTFSMDFAKB?
There's a resident Wiccan on atheistnetwork.com, called JeffK627
If he never told anybody he was a Wiccan, I doubt very much anybody would know.
Yeah, I went through it too. Was a wiccan for a short time. I think it was the last "life-rope" I held on to before I really became brave enough to let go of theism. I'm so glad I let it all go. I am a much happier person.
"Killing for peace is like fucking for chastity"