Mephistopheles (German /MEF-ist-OF-il-eez/) is a demon in German folklore who is also known as Mephostophilis [1] and Mephisto [2].
He originated as the chief devil in the Faust legend (Faustian bargain) [3]. This demon has since become a stock character appearing in other works of arts and popular culture.
Mephistopheles never became an integral part of traditional magic [4]. More
I'll make a deal with the Devil to give me musical talent. Where's the nearest crossroads at? (Robert Johnson)
NPR's [National Jewish Public Radio's] super Southern voice Ayesha Rascoe speaks with the pop star Kesha (Ke$ha) about her life, her afterlife, her music, and her new world tour: "The Freedom Tour." More
Interviewer Ayesha Rascoe is the host of Weekend Edition Sunday and the weekend host of Up First. As host of the morning news magazine show, she interviews nuts, newsmakers, entertainers, politicians, and others about the stories that everyone is talking about or that everyone should be talking about. More
Grey aliens -- also referred to as Roswell Greys, Zeta Reticulans, or simply as Greys [a] or Grays -- are a species of extraterrestrial beings on (and in) earth. [They are the ant people.]
They are frequently featured in claims of close encounters and forced alien abductions.
Greys are typically described as having small humanoid bodies, smooth, grey skin, disproportionately large limbs, hairless heads, and large, black, almond-shaped eyes like goggles or sunglasses.
The true story in Whitley Strieber's Communionis an iconic classic. Strieber describes his firsthand 1985 close encounter experiences. This book fundamentally changed the way Americans understand close encounters and alien abductions. The message of Communion, that something is really happening to people but that attempts to study, understand it, or even talk about it remain stifled by the powers that be. The book was first published in 1987. Strieber's riveting account of what he himself experienced, along with his relentless and expert pursuit of the reality behind the experience, is to this day the greatest such account ever published. It is a classic and powerful introduction that explores abductions as they stand today—and it's even more provocative as officials begin to admit that UFOs and ET visitors are real. More
Come spend the catastrophe with us in our caves
Precursor figures have been described in science fiction and similar descriptions appeared in later accounts of the 1947 Roswell UFO incident and early accounts of the 1948 Aztec UFO incident (the "other Roswell").
Greys would seem to be the underground "Ant People" (Makunwabu or ancient Greek Myrmidons, possibly Buddhist cosmology'sKumbhandas) of the legendary Grand Canyon Native American civilization that was saved from a natural cataclysm on the surface by being taken down into the dwelling place of these humanoid beings and being sheltered there for a long time until it was safe to come up again and repopulate the surface world.
A Buddhist kumbhanda is a kind of "dwarf" or "gnome," a short being shaped like a "gourd" but also described as having testicles as large as a pot (kumbha), two etymologies that give them their name. More
Grey aliens are typically depicted as grey-skinned, diminutive (small being 3 or 4 feet tall) humanoid beings that possess reduced forms of, or completely lack, external human body parts such as noses, ears, and external sex organs [3]. [They may be partly artificial synthetic-organic automatons with AI abilities sometimes seen operating under the direction or power of Tall Whites (Nordic aliens).] Their bodies are usually depicted as... More
Joe Rogan Podcast; Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) was an American channeler and clairvoyant who diagnosed diseases and recommended treatments for ailments while in trance [1].
During thousands of transcribed sessions while seemingly asleep, Cayce could answer questions on many subjects such as physical healing, scars of the soul, past lives, karma, reincarnation, dreams, the afterlife, past lives, nutrition, Atlantis, engineering, high finance, the stock market, and future events.
Cayce described himself as a devout Christian and denied being a Spiritualist or communicating with spirits. Cayce is regarded as a founder and a principal source of many characteristic beliefs of today's New Age movement [2]. More
Author Patanjali and translators Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood have 4.7 out of 5 stars with 567 ratings. This is a major work on the practice of yoga and meditation. Through these ancient aphorisms by the sage Patanjali, readers will learn how to control the mind and achieve inner peace. Although these methods were taught over 2,000 years ago, they are as alive and effective as they have ever been. This 1953 translation draws from the inspired commentary of both Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood.Part of: Routledge Library Editions: Yoga (10 books).More
Edgar Cayce (A.R.E. or Association for Research and Enlightenment) conducted trance-channel readings that revealed a great deal more than he the man could have known. The council or collective that came through brought forth much understanding.
Our suffering is not necessarily accidental. While bad, offensive, and sometimes insufferable, there is something that could be learned if we would view it that way.
The Aggregates that experience are dukkha.
What is "suffering"? The Buddha often spoke of it long before Cayce, so it might be good to ask him, as this is a very misunderstood term. The ancient term is dukkha, "disappointment," "unsatisfactoriness," the range of the unpleasant between annoyance and agony. The Buddha defined suffering this way:
"Rebirth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; contact with what is disliked is suffering; separation from what is liked is suffering; not getting what one wants is suffering. In short, the Five Aggregates clung to as self are suffering [unsatisfactory, disappointing, unable to fulfill, associated with pain]" (SN 56.11).
Hey, why talk about it? Why doesn't the B shut up already? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we suffer. Got it. That's clear enough. We're doing everything we can to AVOID it. So the less we talk about it, the better we'll feel. Duh! Become a hedonist. And shut yer yapper, O Great One.
Sadly, this view has been prevalent since before the time of the Buddha, so when the Buddha, the Awakened One, bothered to mention this ugly word, dukkha ("suffering"), were people or devas happy to hear it? No way. That's the last thing they wanted to hear about.
Pain is inevitable, but suffering's optional.
This is where the misunderstanding begins, and it could end here if hearers would just put away their aversion and LISTEN. A doctor comes in with the results of your scan and examination. Want to hear what's wrong? No way, just get right to the cure! Let's only talk about perfect health. What's it going to take? It's going to take all that? Forget it. I'll keep my illness. Why, I never... It's only when we see how bad and big the problem is that we adopt the right view about it and are open to the cure.
The Buddha would have had a much nicer time to only speak positively and in an "airy fairy" sort of way, doling out magic, bliss, sprinkles, blessings, smiles, good cheer, good news, and the energy of a modern motivational speaker. He could have just told everyone who came to him in pain, confused, or ignorant, "That's right, you're doing great, attaboy, right on, keep it up!" They would have been so happy to hear it. But because he understood and was willing to show us the awful truth, he came to be called the Master Physician. He never met a kind of pain he couldn't cure. The first step? Recognition. Second step? Cause or diagnosis. Third step? Assessment or prognosis. Fourth step? (This is the best one!) The cure, solution, course of treatment, the way to fix what's broken as described in the first step.
"Suffering"?
I can take it because I'm a bodhisattva. Ouch!!!
No single English word captures the range, depth, and subtlety of the ancient Pali and Sanskrit term dukkha. Many translations try ("disappointment," "suffering," "unsatisfactoriness," "stress," etc.) Each captures part of the meaning in a given context. There is value in realizing more than one term is needed because the thrust of Buddhist practice is broadening and deepening the understanding of a term so important to the Buddha that he often claimed to only teach two things -- what is dukkha and what is the elimination of dukkha. Until its roots are finally exposed and eradicated, we will not understand why he focused almost as much on the problem as its solution. When landing on the single best English translation, think again. No matter how we translate dukkha, it's always subtler, deeper, and less satisfactory than that.
There's an interesting wrong view from the time of the Buddha. At that time, there were six sectarian teachers ("six heretical teachers") each teaching their own doctrine.
Two of these, Makkhali Gosala and Purana Kassapa, are very interesting because they taught a particularly pernicious wrong view (miccha ditthi) that deeds (karma) have no results, no effect on anything. We're just helpless pawns of Fate or Destiny, Kismet or Chance, Luck or some arbitrary God-being, but not to worry since rebirth (samsara) will run out by itself. There's nothing to do other than just live and suffer or try to have a good time as best one can.
The Buddha declared this wrong view (called the inefficacy of karma) as being very bad, very harmful, and very dangerous. Why? It can lead to inaction or a sense of helplessness, as if we are all just "victims" of the universe, suffering needlessly without recourse to any permanent relief.
In fact, we are suffering for a reason -- because of ignorance (wrong views/delusion/confusion), craving (lust/grasping/clinging), and aversion (hate/fear/frustration). These are the Three Poisons of the Mind/Heart. And something can be done about suffering because something can be done about them.
There is a way to liberation from samsara!
Samsara will NOT roll out like a ball of yarn that runs out; it will keep going and going like a hamster wheel, which never comes to an end so long as a hamster keeps treading it.
Things that happen to us due to causes, not without them. There are always causes. We may not like them or accept them, but things are not happening without them. Therefore, we can do something about it. It would be rare that nothing could be done.
We must do something about our circumstances or never expect disappointment (dukkha) to stop. There was a third teacher, Mahavira (Nigantha Nataputta), the founder of Jainism, who understood many things and had a great deal of respect for karma; it's just that he had an imperfect understanding of it, which led to wrong views and conclusions. Worse perhaps than these six heresies is the popular Vedic/Hindu view that all rebirths are progress towards heaven or liberation (moksha).
The Buddha, often accused in modern times of being a "Hindu," rejected this completely, just as Edgar Cayce rejects it in this video. Not all rebirths improve us and send us on our way in an upward direction. Most are useless, often very harmful, a "downfall" (niraya) of needless suffering not conducive to growth.
It is much better to suffer a little here (as by restraining ourselves or delaying gratification) rather than always trying to gratify our ego and having to pay the high price for it later -- due to our ignorance (delusion), greed (craving), and aversion (hatred, anger, fear).
It is remarkable that the council or collective being channeled by Cayce understood this so well, even if they keep speaking of a "soul" as if that were a fixed and permanent reality when it is not. But it sure will seem that way to anyone who develops the third eye (dibba cakkhu) to see beings being reborn according to their actions, because psychic powers like telepathy or the "divine eye" do not impart enlightenment or liberating wisdom without the path-of-practice and purification the Buddha spent 45 years teaching to the world.
With those practices (the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment), one can see what gives rise to rebirth, the illusion that the gandhabba (the continuity of the impersonal consciousness process) is a "soul," that all things are impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal, which will naturally cause one to let go of clinging and thereby be freed of all further suffering.
Meg, stop. You're causing the wheel to go round.
As that is far from the path most beings are pursuing, there is no reason to think anyone is headed for enlightenment and nirvana anytime soon. However, in the meantime, one can be reborn in a better world, in a safer world, a heaven, far from the subhuman planes of rebirth, which are full of suffering that is far worse than we meet with here in this middling human world that has as much suffering as pleasure, as much opportunity for wisdom as oppression.
Edgar Cayce reveals: Which spiritual realm am I in based on my level of spiritual evolution?
Cycling through major 31 planes
(Soul In Reflection) Aug. 3, 2025: Edgar Cayce, America's greatest psychic, documented exactly which spiritual realm our soul will inhabit based on our current consciousness level through over 14,000 psychic readings.
This shocking revelation from the Akashic Records shows how souls [the consciousness stream assumed to be the same person life after life, which in fact is not ultimately the same being yet it is not another] get trapped in lower dimensions for centuries and the specific practices that can elevate our spiritual frequency instantly.
Discover the consciousness mirror technique that reveals our exact spiritual evolution level in under five minutes.
Learn why some Atlantean souls incarnated now to help humanity's massive evolutionary leap. Cayce's documented cases prove that REAL forgiveness is the master key unlocking higher spiritual realms.
Find out which of the seven spiritual planes you're destined for and how to accelerate your soul's evolution in this lifetime.
We've all been trying to tell you these things.
Based on authentic readings from the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E. at edgarcayce.org) archives in Virginia Beach. Our spiritual evolution determines our eternal destiny.
Did Jesus (Saint Issa, Yeshua, Jehoshua) travel to India, Persia, and Tibet to continue his spiritual education outside of Bethlehem and the Nazarenes (vegan/vegetarians) and Essenes? Did he in fact, as Cayce reported during trance channeled readings, have past lives (rebirths) to develop the qualities he would need to become a Christ figure ("Messiah," Maitreya figure) in his most recent human life like some kind of Buddhist bodhisattva?
It's maya, an illusion, but it follows rules this samsara, wheel of life and death, rebirth and suffering. It is as real as a dream. Are we the divine play of Brahman, GOD,
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