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Poll

Do you regularly experience doubt?

No, I experience no doubt in my faith, or only rarely experience doubt.
1 (4.2%)
Yes, I experience some doubt that I've got it all right, but I believe my Powers are real and in touch with me.
5 (20.8%)
Yes, I doubt the reality of/my connection to my Powers sometimes, but I am certain divine powers (or even just some form of "magic") are real.
11 (45.8%)
Yes, I regularly experience doubt in the reality of the numinous.
3 (12.5%)
The concept of doubt is not relevant to my path or practice.
1 (4.2%)
I have some other experience with doubt versus faith.
3 (12.5%)

Total Members Voted: 22

Author Topic: Do you doubt your Powers?  (Read 5546 times)

ehbowen

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2017, 03:45:04 pm »
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

Get out of my head and get into my car!


--------Eric H. Bowen
Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #16 on: September 19, 2017, 06:15:01 am »
Does anyone else have similar experiences? How do you deal with doubt in your practice?


Yes, I doubt. I doubt everything, mainly myself.
Just like you I had an overwhelming pile of experiences about a year ago that made it very clear who and what was out there. It made me finally choose the pagan path that I had been stealing glances at for over a decade. But the experiences have dwindled and I revert back to doubt.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I don't deal with it. When it pops up I ignore it and ignore my faith in the process. I abandon it and sulk, brood and wallow in self pity until something happens that restores my faith. Something always does.
You're only given a little spark of madness, you mustn't lose it.

MeadowRae

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #17 on: September 20, 2017, 09:39:18 am »
I've had a tough time answering this question. As a nature-based pagan (and pantheistic about it), my deity is manifest, around me and in me, all the time; personal observation and learning more about science and the latest discoveries are the windows through which I watch Her in awe. So faith isn't really involved there.



In short: For me, the forces described by gods and their myths are real and demonstrable, not subject to doubt; the gods and myths are also free from doubt, since I accept that they are human inventions; and while I have doubts on whether those inventions have subsequently become "real", that's irrelevant to the truths they convey.

This is very relatable for me, although my conception is far less complex, admittedly. (I'm still kind of a baby pagan, after all!) My conception is psycho-spiritual in nature, that existence itself is god and that by changing our perspectives we can change our lives into something wonderful, albeit not painless or easy.

There are times that I doubt my ability to "hear" what Spirit is saying. I can't quantify or describe how truth is communicated to me, and thus sometimes I ask myself if I'm not just really crazy. However, too much has happened for me to doubt this. I also sometimes run into psychological roadblocks that complicate the problem such as impostor syndrome, survivors guilt, etc. I don't feel like I've earned my blessings/messages, so I downplay them to make myself seem less important or desirable (to the gods, to myself, to my partner, etc.) In short, yes, I do doubt my power, and I think it stems from deeper psychological issues.
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EclecticWheel

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #18 on: September 24, 2017, 08:03:33 pm »
My conception is psycho-spiritual in nature, that existence itself is god and that by changing our perspectives we can change our lives into something wonderful, albeit not painless or easy.

Yes, yes.  This is how I interpret certain doctrines and what I aim toward on my path.
My personal moral code:

Love wisely, and do what thou wilt.

Naunau

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #19 on: September 25, 2017, 09:13:05 am »
Mmmh I think I'm between the last two options of the questions above.

I think I lack faith as it's usually understood. I often doubt whether things are supposed to be one way or another, or how am I supposed to know, and how I belong and where, and I also doubt the validity of my feelings and rationalizations. It's simple but to me hard to explain.

Darkhawk

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #20 on: September 25, 2017, 09:25:57 am »
But I can already feel doubt creeping back in, which makes me wonder if it's just a part of my personality. I believe that there is a great spiritual dimension to reality now, but I find myself doubting my own personal connection to my Powers on a regular basis. Does anyone else have similar experiences? How do you deal with doubt in your practice?

I've been staring at this thread since it went up trying to articulate why I can't answer the question as asked, and after these weeks of failure I'm just going to punt and flail at it.

Doubt happens.  It doesn't matter that it happens.  It's just not relevant to anything that matters.

There are the things that work.  Are those things done?

There are the commitments I've made.  Have I followed through on them?  Even if they are to imaginary things?  Because even if these are figments, following through on my commitments is a mechanism of putting in effort to be a person who keeps their commitments.

Does anything I do depend on a functional lack of doubt?  No, not really.  But my stuff is very oriented towards the practical and the functional.  Things work or do not work whether or not I believe in them.  Does the mechanism by which those things work have significance?  Well, it helps in figuring out other ways I might try things that work, or building a consistent praxis.

But all of that is means to an end, not an end of itself.
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

ehbowen

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #21 on: September 25, 2017, 10:54:05 am »
Doubt happens.  It doesn't matter that it happens.  It's just not relevant to anything that matters.

When I said in the poll that I sometimes have doubts, I mean it in the sense that I think I might be forty or fifty nautical miles off of the ideal great circle course. I never honestly think that I'm actually heading for the Indian Ocean when I'm meaning to end up in the Gulf of Alaska.
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Where's the KABOOM? There was supposed to have been an Earth-shattering KABOOM!
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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #22 on: September 26, 2017, 03:24:53 pm »
When I said in the poll that I sometimes have doubts, I mean it in the sense that I think I might be forty or fifty nautical miles off of the ideal great circle course. I never honestly think that I'm actually heading for the Indian Ocean when I'm meaning to end up in the Gulf of Alaska.

I've had sufficient experiences in the past couple of years to insure I have no doubts whatsoever; some of which are backed by other witnesses.
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Hariti

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #23 on: September 29, 2017, 02:43:33 am »
I'm a born skeptic. I spent over three decades of my life yearning to believe in gods and magic but not allowing myself to do so, because I hadn't seen sufficient proof.

Early last year I began courting the gods, laying down groundwork for spirituality, even though I was still deeply agnostic. Finally, late in spring of this year, I experienced things that made me finally Believe with a capital B.

But I can already feel doubt creeping back in, which makes me wonder if it's just a part of my personality. I believe that there is a great spiritual dimension to reality now, but I find myself doubting my own personal connection to my Powers on a regular basis. Does anyone else have similar experiences? How do you deal with doubt in your practice?

Edited to add that I am aware the question of "is God real?" is a thorny one that everyone interprets differently. Feel free to take your own interpretation and run with it.

Hmm. How to answer this one? I don't doubt the existence of higher powers; I have been down that road and it led me nowhere, other than to nihilism and depression. However, I very often doubt that I have a valid and real connection to said powers. It's not the Gods who I worry about, it is me, and my ability to sincerely embrace them.
"The worshippers of the gods go to them; to the manes go the ancestor-worshippers; to the Deities who preside over the elements go their worshippers; My devotees come to Me." ... "Whichever devotee desires to adore whatever such Deity with faith, in all such votaries I make that particular faith unshakable. Endowed with that faith, a votary performs the worship of that particular deity and obtains the fruits thereof, these being granted by Me alone." - Sri Krishna

Jainarayan

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Re: Do you doubt your Powers?
« Reply #24 on: November 03, 2017, 01:19:13 pm »
Does anyone else have similar experiences? How do you deal with doubt in your practice?

I don't doubt in the existence of the gods and God I worship or in their interactions with me and protection, I doubt myself doing it right. I doubt myself being a true or worthy devotee. I doubt that I belong in temple with others, given that I am a white Italian-American among born Indian Hindus. For some reason I feel they have more of a claim on the gods than I do. But that's about the only thing I doubt.

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