Very cool, Zinco, thanks for the thoughtful response! The question of suffering is something many of us throughout the ages have sought to understand, I suppose. And I appreciate your sharing the Christian Science philosophies you agree with. Those sound like things I agree with also!

I'm glad you've found at least a partial solution and things that work for you and that your spirituality brings you so much peace and contentment. Right now I'm thinking that for me spirituality and medication don't have to be mutually exclusive. A priest recently reminded me that, as Thomas Aquinas put it, God often works His miracles through secondary means. A decent mood stabilizer I could tolerate might actually enhance my spirituality (or it might not, I don't know....I still grapple with it.)

I did AA for a while, but had some weird experiences in some meetings. Was sober for many years without it, then relapsed for a couple of years and finally regained sobriety a couple of years through SMART recovery, which for me is an awesome program. But going to an AA meeting has crossed my mind recently as I'm in a new town and would like to meet people and get some support.

I like Pope Francis a lot too, I worry about his safety sometimes, though. That maybe he's shaking things up too much.


Thanks for the video, Vital. I've watched part of it and intend to continue viewing it today. Interestingly enough, a few weeks ago I put his book The Ultramind Solution on my Amazon wishlist. Would've bought it if I'd had any money. I'm very open to that sort of worldview. Like I said to Zinco above, I'm on the fence about whether or not to go back on meds. But it's been a difficult journey this year trying to figure out what's going on with me. Had a battery of tests, thyroid checks out, etc etc and everything seems fine. But I know that physiological things can cause depression and other states ... earlier this year I had severe hyponatremia, came the closest to suicide I'd been in a few years, completely lost touch with reality, but then when the dr's discovered the low sodium, as soon as I increased my salt intake I started feeling better. A couple of people have suggested I should get tested for lyme disease, but the tests are so expensive.

On the other hand, the most severe depression I ever experienced, and the other closest time I came to suicide I was vegetarian, ate healthy foods, didn't smoke, drink coffee or eat sugar, got lots of exercise, meditated, all that jazz. I was very healthy mentally and physically . . . and then BAM! everything fell apart. I was drinking a little bit of wine every now and again, though, and had come off an SSRI without tapering a few months before, so those may have been factors. So I don't know. It's a mystery. I miss that healthy me so much though.

That's very interesting Jimi! Thanks for sharing that you actually saw mention of aliens and alien possession in those documents.

I knew that Scientologists operated rehab centers, but that seems odd to me that your school would send students over there. Is there still a lot of Scientology in your area?