Auschwitz

[catseyes]

I don't......most wars are over religion   I think it is the perfect place.

[Christine]

I get that bit, but......isn't christianity or catholicism or whatever brand of Jesus, meant to be about peace and love? No. It isn't it is about money and greed. I guess I live in a fairy land where I think it should be what it is meant to be about, not what it actually is.

[Colleen]

Selling toy guns within Church grounds shows a total lack of respect for the church institution, whatever religion it is.  Yes, money is the name of the game.  Children within the community will grow up to think it is all normal, religion and guns, being just a part of everyday life, when it shouldn't be like that.

[Lonley knight]

I have been to Dachau concentration camp not far from Munich when I was travelling  the world trying to find myself in my early twenty's. I am not physic or in touch with anything outside the normal but this camp was one strange place. I have to admit that it was dark and lifeless if that makes any sense .  It also felt like you were in a church and everyone spoke in whispers . Another thing that I noticed that outside the wire you heard birds but inside it was still with no sound of the outside world. That's what I can remember of the place and when you walked down into the ovens it was very cool . Also standing on open fields that had written saying 40000 people lay here in one unmarked grave. I am big on military history so when I had the chance of going there I jumped at it. Looking back just maybe I did feel some paranormal feelings there as it is a very sad place. Not sounding cold but I am very glad I went and if I had the chance to go again I would for sure. I think most people should visit as it helps you understand that  these places should be kept open  so history won't be repeated and camps like this should never of happened in the first place.

[Rob080]

It's not unusual to see plastic guns and other assorted cheap Chinese plastic tat across Eastern Europe, even at places you would think it would not be tolerated or acceptable, especially by our standards. Believe me, I've seen much more ideologically worse things being sold at such places! I think the worst I saw was a T-shirt, designed to look like a typical band tour t-shirt with dates and so forth on it, except that it was the Hitler World Tour of Europe, listing each of the countries invaded by date.

Back on topic, I've visited more than my share of concentration camps and memorials in my life, far more than your average tourist would. Auschwitz was one place that I expected to be moved by, but wasn't. I put it down to the crowds of people, the nice sunny weather, and the fact I'd studied it extensively- I knew what to expect and got exactly that. Birkenau was much the same. On the other hand, Dachau was more moving, as were some of the remote & unvisited camps/memorials across the former Soviet Union. 

[Simon2]

Christine, as I am writing this I am feeling a heavy load around me, smelling a stench of death and tasting it as well.

I have always had these feelings about what happened at Auschwitz and other similar camps, since I was old enough to read about the horrors that went on.

Same feelings as I get about the massacre of the Cathars by Pope Innocence III.

I am also overcome with nausea.

I am so glad that I am now learning to "Live in the Moment", even at this early stage I can acknowledge the past but bring myself back to this moment, where I am writing this post.

I will be posting a new topic on "Living in the Moment", its history, etc., but more importantly my personal experiences and the positive benefits it is having on me.

[Christine]

Thanks for sharing your feelings guys.

[GaryTheDemon]

I saw some stuff on tibet.  I can't watch it at all.  It is home.  Feels like home.  i remember it - though I don't if you know what I mean.  And the horrors there ...   I can still immerse myself in most horrors and then translate them into words - fiction or some kind of almost non-fiction - but if I do that with tibet I will not come out the other side

[catseyes]

I do know exactly what you mean

[Simon2]

Unfortunately this is created by a flaw in humankind, which has continued from the time humans evolved.

We all have the potential to devolve back to our base instincts, which are with us from the moment of birth and dwell in what Sigmund Freud defined as the "ID". This along with our Ego and Super-Ego, form three parts of the "psychic apparatus" defined in Sigmund Freud's "structural model" of the psyche (refer the link below).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego

The Bible, Qur'an, Weapons of Mass Destruction (refer Iraq War), Economic Depression in Germany (reason Hitler came to power initially), etc., are only tools used by people to attain their own goals forsaking all cost of human lives, either directly or indirectly.

The paper I was going to Post but have now decided the time is not right, dealt with this in more detail and defined an ever decreasing time-cycle of events, which compress events such as wars into smaller and smaller timeframes, which I then used along with social and economic factors to forecast my view of the future of the human race.

One last thought, the 20th Century has been defined as the period of greatest advancement in technological achievements, which cannot be denied, but did you also know that, in terms of the number of "recorded and estimated" human deaths as a result of wars and genocide (refer Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Hitler, etc.), it was also the worst in recorded history.

Apologies for the above but, at this time, "perspective" is the "most important" attribute we all need.

[GaryTheDemon]

i tend to regard Freud as an over-sexed obsessive.  But I agree that there are many 'causes' of horror in the world which are actually just *used* as a power source, or an excuse, or a vehicle for that horror.  Ultimately, it comes back to ego (and karma which is not so distinct from ego).

I also agree that despite the advances, we are living in potentially one of the worst times.  We have unbelievable communication technology yet most people use it to tell their chums that they are in starbucks, they had egg for breakfast, or that they saw a cool youtube video.   We have the technology to explore planets, to go deep into the ocean, to probe the mysteries of the planet, yet we walk blindly past people living on the street, or dying on hospital trolleys.  We torture and kill billions of animals for food while fruit rots on trees, while harvests are buried in the ground, while children with distended bellies cry, fall silent and die.

Brave new world.  Or cowardly old one.

[Colleen]

Your words always say the truth Gary.  Absolutely correct. 

[Simon2]

As I have said in a previous Topic, Gary you have an excellent way with succinctly getting your point(s) over with very few, well chosen words, even if sometimes we have a point of difference.

[GaryTheDemon]

A point of difference is mutual blindness. 

OK, well maybe not but it DID SOUND GOOD DIDN"T IT!

[Simon2]

"A point of difference is mutual blindness"

I love it Gary; well done.