How have your beliefs and worldview changed since childhood?

Question

Do know things now that you thought were impossible then & vice versa? Philosophy, science, metaphysics? Field day!

Answer 1

As a child I thought the world a very small place which revolved around my particular take on things. I believed in magic. I believed in the sentience of plants and animals. I believed in the spirit world.

As an adult I broadened my view to encompass other humans, as difficult as that was at times, and I worked at seeing a more complete picture, a more balanced one.

I still believe in the sentience of animals and plants. I still believe in the spirit world. And I still feel there is magic, although I feel it is most probably made up of scientific principles we simply have yet to discover.

Answer 2

When a child, believed people generally were loving, kind, truthful, joyous, and the like.

Growing up, a decision was made: do I value love, kindness, truth, mercy, justice, joy, or become like the false/inauthentic/warring people as portrayed in the news?

Once decided, learning how to keep on keeping on led to moral teachers and teachings, such as resonated: Psalms, Saint John the Beloved, Saint Francis of Assisi, Doctor Maria Montessori, Paramahansa Yogananda.

The greater wisdom, insight, and experience of such Teachers encouraged further championing of what Plato and Plotinus called the Good, or One Mind Soul-individuation, "letting this Mind abide, which was also in Christ Jesus," as the Apostle Paul taught.

The contest was then between those scoffers who'd abandoned their innocence, their inner sense, their inner child, for the synthetic self-ishness of spoiled childishness become adulteration, gross materialism, illogical atheism, rather than ad-ultimation, the logic of inquiry into various types of evidence, awareness of Self, etc.

Scientific confirmation of the difference has been noteworthy. For example, Tibetan Buddhist insight meditators regularly enter high gamma wave states, which are otherwise found in spiritual, peak, creative experiences. This is a very different state than e.g. beta wave awareness, which may be rather gross, plodding, and ignorant of its category error attempting to parse all states of awareness in its image.

Thus, examples such as http://www.yogananda-srf.org and http://www.easwaran.org and Dr. Jack Kornfield's "Meditation for Beginners" began to illustrate the truths of e.g. Saint Teresa of Avila's "Interior Castle" "seven spheres" meditation, and Saint John Climacus' "Ladder of Divine Ascent" meditation.

Later, encountered such reliable and scientifically precise scientists as Dr. William A. Tiller, http://www.tiller.org "Psychoenergetic Science," whose work involving meditators regularly produces quantum effects otherwise obtainable only with high-cost physics apparatus.

His and Dr. Elizabeth Mayer's/Dr. Robert Jahn's et al. models ("Extraordinary Knowing," Dr. Mayer, "The Master of Lucid Dreams," Dr. Olga Kharitidi, "Entangled Minds," Dr. Dean Radin, etc.) provide cogent theories as to how out-of-body experiences and seership, whether of a Swedenborg or, more contemporaneously, a Mark Prophet ("The Masters and Their Retreats") or an Ann Ree Colton ("Men in White Apparel," "Watch Your Dreams"), may occur. The accurate and statistically significant evidence of many careful and controlled studies, particularly when using trained and excelling subjects, is beyond the typical uninformed and unthinking sceptism which tends to perform a useful service when it debunks fantasy and poorly designed experimentation, but notably has had no such success in the rare event that it even deals with the more evidential areas.

Presently, am aware that some philosophers and scientists are reunifying mind, spirit, and body, which for centuries were cartesianly classified as dual and theologic/philosophic.

http://www.integralscience.org http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bdj10 http://www.divinecosmos.com http://www.quantumbrain.org http://www.noetic.org are some of the interesting works in progress.

cordially,

j.

Answer 3

I think as a child I tended to look at the world through rose- colored glasses. I think age and life events made me much more of a realist. I now tend to look at things much more logically. I tend to have a scientific approach to alot of things I am trying to figure out or resolve.

Answer 4

I thought it was impossible to earn 10 bucks doing chores, but it really isn't that hard now. And.... I used to think cookies and candy were the best foods everrr, but now my tastebuds have matured. These answers might not be as "deep" as you want, but this is all I got!

Answer 5

When I was a little girl I was told that God takes care of you if you are good. Some terrible things used to happen to me. I used to think that it was because I wasn't good. Otherwise, God would be protecting me.

I grew to learn that bad things do in fact happen to good people. And, that God is a myth. It was very liberating and did wonders for my self-esteem.