Group Work

1. Sharing: sharing of information, of similar interests, and of companionship is a primary reason for entering a group. It is always beneficial to know that there are others who believe as you do.

2. Get other points of view: Metaphysical work is a process of always learning. It is very easy to get stuck in some particular mode of belief. Being in a group exposes you to different points of view, sometimes forcing you to re-think what you believe. The end result though, is a stronger spiritual development.

3. Get to practice psychic skills and healing abilities. Some groups even have classes in developing ESP abilities and in healing. This is a good chance to learn a lot more, and get hands-on, practical experience at the same time.

FINDING A GROUP

Let's say you want to join a group. How do you go about finding one?

1. Check New Age-type bookstores. They will often have a bulletin board posted with notices, and will also usually have a variety of fliers from different organizations. You can also talk to the people who work there. Almost undoubtedly they will know of one or more New Age-type groups in the area. If you are very lucky and have access to a New Age-type bookstore that specializes in American Indian materials, as we do here in Cincinnati, you can also find out about Native American groups in your area.

2. Newsletters- various New Age groups will publish monthly newsletters. These often list a variety of organizations that you can contact and find out about in the area.

3. Some organizations have Special Interest Groups where people of like mind can meet together to discuss things. Sometimes these are in-person groups, while at other times they are groups that only meet through the mail.

For example, Mensa, the organization for people in the top 2% of the population in "intelligence" has the following SIGs that relate to concepts in this book: Astrology, FEMism, Fortean Mysteries, Gay/Lesbian, Homeopathy, Parapsychology, Philosophy, Psychic Science International, Raptorphile, Theocentric, and a Time Travel special interest group.

4. Another MAJOR source of such groups is the computer Bulletin Board Systems. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of these exist across the country; most of them are local, run out of someone's house. Most cost nothing to connect to; some charge perhaps $10 to $25 per year for connection privileges.

Then there are the national/international services such as Prodigy, Compuserve, and various others. Costs for these are usually on the per-hour basis, ranging from $1 an hour up to $8 an hour or more. Most services also offer some form of basic package plan, allowing you to use some of the services without additional charge, then charging additional for chat services. Chat is when you can get onto a BBS and talk directly, real-time to other people. Each service has various "rooms" or "groups" of chatters, usually formed around a specific topic, and just as usually not staying to that topic. You can quite easily talk to people from other countries and wide-spread areas of the U.S. all at one time. This gives a person a whole new breadth of experience in meeting and communicating with people from other areas and other cultures.

All of these have various divisions and categories available to those interested in topics covered in this book. They may have their own "bulletin boards" or "news groups", all centered around specific topics. You can post messages to the group and read the groups messages; the difference between chat and this is that chat is real-time, and news groups/bulletin boards involve a wait between the time your message is posted and when you get any replies to it.

What do you need to access such groups? You need a computer, a modem, and usually a computer program to access the boards.

On the Internet, you have the following types of divisions:

1. News Groups: Based on specific topics; you post messages and sometimes get replies to the group or addressed to you in your own "e-mail". Topics related to this book that can be found in news groups include: alien visitors, astrology, consciousness, divination, dreams, feminism, homosexuality, magic, magick, meditation, mind control, native, out-of-body, pagan, paranet (includes abduct, paranormal, science, skeptic, UFO), politics, recovery, and basically countless others.

2. Mailing Lists: Once you join one of these you are automatically sent postings around a particular topic. Some of these include Celtic culture, environmentalism (various mailing lists), the philosophy of science, the scientific study of religion, paganism, feminism, and parapsychology.

3. The ability to access articles, programs, and pictures through the "FTP", "WWW", and "WAIS" functions.

4. The ability to tie into various major libraries and check their card catalogs, along with places that offer back articles from newspapers, etc..

5. The ability to do a lot of things not covered above since the Internet, like the other services, is always growing and adding new dimensions to your ability to find information and interact with other people.

There are even more groups. I have listed only some of them. Such a variety should satisfy anyone's need to find those of similar beliefs.

By the way: some people argue that talking to people on computers is not really interacting with "real" people. You are interacting with real, live people. Using a telecommunications network is like letter writing, really. You may have written to many people you have never met. You may never meet them in your lifetime. You still know them, like them, and consider them friends, though. Computers expand your writing horizons to a great extent, for the whole world is brought together in the communication networks, all available to you, generally at a very reasonable cost.