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Originally Posted by Seeker
K, I've been chewing like mad.. if the Holy Spirit is likened to God, or self-actualisation, or even the collective spirit, how can we be assured that these things are 'ultimately' higher?
In a religious sense, how do we perceive the Holy Spirit, and know that it is the Holy Spirit and not something else?, a trick of Satan's.. pulling the wool over our eyes.. he is apparently a very sneaky bugger...
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Satan is the Lord of Lies, but the simple answer is to pray to God and he will respond. You may need to search yourself for worldly deception but if you have a relationship with God then when he commands you, you will know.
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Originally Posted by Seeker
When we persue self-actualisation, how can we be sure that our actions are pure or of high regard? We ourselves probably have very many flaws that we may never be aware of, or get the chance to explore in our life time. How do we know that this self-exploration is not in fact self-trickery or delusion?
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Well, you don't need to! Those following the self-actualization path are attempting to reach a supreme state of worldly accomplishment searching for the "state of mind in which we feel complete" as MrSelfDestruct put it (appropriate name btw). As you might already see, self-trickery or delusion is the ultimate goal as a person would come up with their own idea of "the pinnacle of human achievement" and when achieving it then believe that they are such a super person.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Congratulations, you have self-actualized!
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Originally Posted by Seeker
I can see the sense in a collective spirit. A life energy inherant in all of us, with good and bad potential, of which we can choose to express either higher ideals or lesser ideals. Depression and sickness often go hand in hand with a downward spiraling set of aspects that makes 'seeing the light' more difficult with each perpetuation. But again, is this actually a good path? Can we be left on our own with this ideal? I wonder just how many of us have the capacity to tackle this on our own.. are we being satanistic when we take this path?
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Reducing God to a "collective spirit" destroys the idea of an overriding ethic, making your query "Is this a good path?" unanswerable. From a Christian standpoint it could be considered inspired by Satan because it tends to imply that man can become divine on their own.
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Originally Posted by Seeker
This may be ultimately be a personal choice, but how do others deal with this sort of questioning? Do they question it like I do? Does anyone else agonise over this, and if so how have you handled it? What did you do?
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You are not alone in your questioning, and I hope that you never stop because it is how you grow. In the end you will need to trust that you are talking to God, but when God talks to you I suspect you will know it.