All right, I will not discuss religion. How stupid of me not to know that religions are beyond debate as it involves beliefs, and beliefs involve choice - choice to believe in something in spite of it all.

But I can discuss about mind because it's mostly facts than beliefs. Here, I can consider myself expert. I know almost every aspect of mind. You mentioned something about ego, and yes I know there is such term but I learned about mind directly through experience and haven't studied much about it outside so I'm just using my own terms. Basically our mind has two parts (actually it has more). They say humans are half beast and half god. There is some truth to that because one part of the mind is what I call the lower mind, which is I think what you meant by ego, while the other, the higher mind. The lower mind is the primitive mind which is driven by the survivor instinct, which is basically fear. From this mind comes greed, anger, hatred, war, envy and most of all fear. The higher mind, on the contrary is bright, calm, firm, joyful and exhilirating in subtle way. But you can access the higher mind only when your lower mind is silent. Actually people experience it once in awhile but mostly in fleeting sort of way because the lower mind usually drags you down from it. Have you had a sudden feeling of being inspired, that's when you are accessing your higher mind. Over the decades, I've learned to control and silence my lower mind and when I meditate, I am filled with bright light, calm and firm, usually unrattled by anything and feeling a subtle joy throughout. At the same time, when you access your higher mind, you are actually connecting to the universal power which gives you some special powers. You may call me nuts, but I receive certain powers, predicting certain events is not the only one. I've one time received instant skill at doing a certain thing. And I routinely 'see' what my partner see from distance apart. You may laff at me but I shall prove it to you when one of my visions comes next time. Even what I write here, I usually don't do much research or even study hard about them. They just flow when I write, that's why I believe they are true, and that's also the reason why I am always firm in my belief and never rattled. When you firmly believe in something, nothing can upset you. And the best part of it is that I never feel anything bad about anyone. I'm easy most of the time. I just let go of my lower emotions. But I have to say this is just a summary of what I know about the mind. There are many other aspects like the evolutionary influence and the childhood influence on our mind but it will take volumes so I can't go into all of them. If I write it all down, it will probably take 2-3 books long.

Well Andre, I think you have had enough of me here so I will conclude at this post. I just hope I didn't upset you about your beliefs. But just remember this, if you truly believe in something, nothing should upset you - that's the sign of true faith. And remember also, pacfan always sees everyone with deep understanding, respect and appreciation, whatever his beliefs, as long as he is sincere, and that includes you, my friend. Adios for now, see you at some other thread.