Which history would you visit?

[KnightoftheRose]

Would anyone be interested in the Protestant Reformation? I think the whole thing would be fascinating--I wish I had a videotape of Luther hammering the proclamation to the door--so to speak.

It would be really neat just to sit down and speak with Luther. I've heard he was a serious nut-job (like many geniuses )

[arthra]

You know I think I've had favorite historical periods that I'd like to visit but in learning more about them and studying them, I have come away with the feeling and apprehension that there would be such a "down-side" to my visiting that period.

Some people like the Elizabethan era, but if they were close to the Court of Elizabeth they could quite easily lose their heads!

But one thing I'd think I'd like about the past and that would be nice to restore would be a slower sense of time...

I was researching a 1907 newspaper for my fatehr who was seaching for his grandfather's obituary... I couldn't find it even though he was buried in my town. But in searching this old newspaper, I really had the strong impression that everything was a lot slower and less harried.

So if I could have something from the past, it would be a less harried existence and slower pace of life.

[Padipa]

A very interesting discussion. I'm assuming that if we could travel back in time we would need to speak a variety of languages...

There are so many excellent places in time in which I would like to visit. I couldn't possibly name all of them. These are my top choices:

I would go back to the time of the Buddha and listen to one of his many discussions on Dharma (Dhamma). I would also visit many of the empires that existed way back when such as Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylon, etc. Also some of the South/Central American people like the Inca, Maya and Aztec (although I wouldn't want to be around for the human sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli, their patron god).

It would also be very interesting to be around in the time of the European explorers (late 1400 to early 1500 CE). Some of them were so mystified by the "unknown" while others were convinced that they knew what the world looked like (such as Christopher Columbus). I would've loved to just point them in the right direction.

The replies have been great so far, keep 'em coming!

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

If we can travel in time, could we not move forewards instead of backwards and see which (if any) of our promised prophets, messiahs and buddhas will arrive?

[dauer]

Originally Posted by Awaiting_the_fifth

If we can travel in time, could we not move forewards instead of backwards and see which (if any) of our promised prophets, messiahs and buddhas will arrive?

I put 200 bucks on the sayoshant. Anyone want to get in on this?

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

Well I'd bet everything on Maitreya, but since the time is not yet right I dont think Id be able to collect in this life.

Forgive my immense ignorance but who is the Sayoshant? (I know very little about Judaism which is, I assume, the relavent faith here)

[arthra]

I think Dauer was maybe joking a bit but a Saoshyant is from Zoroastrian tradition and is a Promised Messiah... there is more than one Saoshyant and some have posed the idea that Meitreya concept could have been influenced by Saoshyant. One example is found in John Clifford Holt's introduction to the Anagatavamsa Desana 1993 edition published by Mottilal Banarsidass, Delhi.

Also see this:

Saoshyant
 Concise Encyclopedia Article Page  1  of  1




In Zoroastrianism and Parsiism, the final saviour of the world.

He is the foremost of the three saviours who are posthumous sons of Zoroaster. He is expected to appear at the end of the last millennium of the world, miraculously conceived by a virgin who has swum in a lake where Zoroaster's seed is preserved. He will vanquish demonic power and resurrect the bodies of the dead, bestowing eternal perfection on them after all souls have been cleansed.

Source:

http://www.britannica.com/ebc/articl...ery=savior&ct=

In my religion Baha'u'llah (1817-1892) has been identified with Maitreya.

- Art

[dauer]

Yes, Sayoshant! Super-Sayoshant! Super-Maitreya! Fuuuuuuuuu siooooooon ha! Super-Sayotreya!

Judaism has the moshiach/messiah, a concept in significant ways different from the Christian concept, the traditional idea of which, the triumphalist one about a person, I reject.

Dauer

[RusticMusic]

Hello
Anytime between 400Bc and 300bc. Pellopenesian wars, thermopylae , Mantinea,
its sad really that in any period of history id want to be in the thick of battle.
Im really not a violent person but im drawn to ancient warfare like a moth to the flame. also, at the height of Alexandria in egypt, i could spend years in that great library. Id love to meet alot of people of that time, maybe just a glimpse of what they looked like, Herodotus, Perikles, Leonidas, Agis ,and of course Alexander of Macedon.
Hm my two cents.

[taijasi]

I do believe I'd like to travel back to that point of time in history - whenever it may have been - when there was a Wisdom in Egypt as familiar to the average citizen as arithmetic is to people today. I would like to have been present when the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids were seen as the Guardian and the Temple, respectively ... and not just an enigma and some tombs.

I might not have had the mind for geometry or the higher calculus, but to have even been present when these were more commonly accepted as attainable by all ... would have been (was?) a blessing. I would give anything to have had the rare honor & privilege of learning something of the Sacred Science of Astrology/Astronomy ... from those who designed those mighty monuments and saw through to their completion - by means that we have yet to re-discover & understand.

I know, or believe that the secrets are safely guarded, tens of thousands of years later, but to see them unearthed & made available to the spiritual seeker of today ... would be like traveling through time - both to Ancient Egypt (and Atlantis), as well as to a similar Utopian future which may yet dawn if are able to reconcile our differences and work for it.

Until the time is right, there is always the Imagination!

protokletos

[MagnetMan]

I had the priveiledge of visiting with the Stone Age Bushmen of the Kalahari and via that association, re-experiencing our original psyche, before social and religious dogma distorted it. I discovered a wonderful sense of family values, in which meticulous sharing was the central ethic. The visit also renewed my faith in spiritual values, when I witnessed animimism in practice. Bushman have an innate reverence for Mother Nature and the invisible forces that protect ethical trespass. When a disobedient child transgresses and Nature nips back in one of Her inimitable ways, the whole family joins in the chuckle at the quick adminstration of poetic justice. The beauty of animistic superstition, is that the child grows up to be self-policed. When we consider the vast sums we spend on artficial law-making and policing our modern societies, I would advocate the reintroduction of superstition, during the first seven years of a child's growth and let Nature do it Herself in hger own inimatible way. I have had eight children of my own since that visit and applied animism on them. Every one of them has ended up as self-policed individuals. The fact that every culture on the planet can be traced back via DNA evidince to the Bushmen, and that we all invested some 99,000 generations in this friendly family based milieu, and are therefore all deeply imprinted with those fundamental behavioral ethics, bodes well for our survival beyond this current superficial teen Age of ours.

[Quahom1]

The possible future, is the "history" I'd like to observe, even if I could not change the "past" that could affect that future. Why? For starters I would be an instant celebrity...a "relic" from the past. And though I might not be able to change "my" future, the stories I told and the lessons I learned and passed on might change their "future".

Why might that be possible? Have you ever spoken with your parent on an issue, and came away with a "what does he/she know" attitude? Then spoke with a grand parent or great grand parent on the same issue and think "wow, they are pretty wise..."

I have. And it caused change in my life. And I realized my own parents aren't so off the mark after all...

v/r

Q

[17th Angel]

Mine is quite selfish,

I would vist back to the dawn of man, with this era's technology of weapons and such and proclaim myself King of all.....

[Amitola]

I seem to be abit odd here, but it would be the Tudor period, specifically henry VIII. The conflict of the Christians is an interesting story! And i also have a funny feeling that i was previously apart of that time in another life!

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by MagnetMan

I had the priveiledge of visiting with the Stone Age Bushmen of the Kalahari and via that association, re-experiencing our original psyche, before social and religious dogma distorted it. I discovered a wonderful sense of family values, in which meticulous sharing was the central ethic. The visit also renewed my faith in spiritual values, when I witnessed animimism in practice. Bushman have an innate reverence for Mother Nature and the invisible forces that protect ethical trespass. When a disobedient child transgresses and Nature nips back in one of Her inimitable ways, the whole family joins in the chuckle at the quick adminstration of poetic justice. The beauty of animistic superstition, is that the child grows up to be self-policed. When we consider the vast sums we spend on artficial law-making and policing our modern societies, I would advocate the reintroduction of superstition, during the first seven years of a child's growth and let Nature do it Herself in hger own inimatible way. I have had eight children of my own since that visit and applied animism on them. Every one of them has ended up as self-policed individuals. The fact that every culture on the planet can be traced back via DNA evidince to the Bushmen, and that we all invested some 99,000 generations in this friendly family based milieu, and are therefore all deeply imprinted with those fundamental behavioral ethics, bodes well for our survival beyond this current superficial teen Age of ours.

Excellent response, MM. If I were to visit a "historical" era it would, similarly, be paleolithic or neolithic times--or perhaps I should go stay with the Bushmen (also known as the !Kung, I believe...?). I would also like to visit (or live in) ancient Crete, as interpreted by Riane Eisler in her book The Chalice and the Blade. I would definitely want to participate in the "partnership" cultural paradigm that she proposes as being a sane response to what she terms the current "dominator" paradigm. And so in that regard, I have work to do here in this time!