Mel Hopkins

@Troy The answer, like I mentioned earlier, is Choices. I won't join you on the slippery and dangerous slope you are traveling. I'm frustrated that people voted against their own best interests in this last election, but I respect their choice. They still voted their interest - it just was the best interest. Same with transportation and distance...We're talking about inner cities here - transportation is the hallmark of inner cities - if you want to eat healthy you make the effort...it's not like we have sow and reap this year's crop or slaughter a cow or pig By the way, just like with hypnosis, there's no amount of marketing that can make someone do what they're not prone to do. We make choices to satisfy our wants. @Pioneer1 Then how do you explain the world's oldest profession? Don't let them women run game on you... they're quite tricky with that "catching feelings" stuff. LOL I think men confuse emotion with guilt... We women tend to have buyer's remorse or guilt when think about judgment but it only last until the next time we jump into bed with next dude... In fact, a lot of us women talk about throwaway sex - there are just guys you don't care to impress so you have sex to get some... and then there's the men you really like so you take a long time to have sex with you want to get to know him and ... you don't want him to think you're "easy"... If you think a woman has "caught feelings" that's a good sign - she wants you to think "sex" is very special to her.

@Pioneer1 LOL this made me giggle. I was trying to think how I can verify experience especially since experience is in the moment. Well, there is probably a physical location because of vibration but maybe it's a 4th dimensional construct. One that we can access at a certain level of consciousness. Keep in mind, I just agree calling this place where information is stored "Akaschic records" because the description has been my experience . When you look at the etymology of the word, it states it is derived from the Sanskrit word "Akasha" which means aether... As I mentioned in an other thread - that's what I called the place I returned to when I "died". Maybe death is just another level of consciousness; a flat line but a consciousness nonetheless. Here in this animated form we experience delta (change) which allows us to bounce between levels of consciousness. So maybe you can access the "Akashic records" by going to deeper or different levels of consciousness.

@Troy O/T First, I have to state, if one is able to make decisions for themselves and is not incapacitated then we all have the power to make choices and are responsible for our actions. Having said that, I have to put sex and food industries in the same category - . Consumption is based on choice, supply and demand. Malnutrition and starvation are different. I'm not including starvation in this scenario. Malnutrition is preventable in a America and doesn't matter where you live. Prior to this administration there was always assistance to eat well, whether it was through the government or nonprofits. It's not easy but it can be done. I remember growing up, there were some members of my family, one in particular, my 2nd cousin was single with 5 sons. I don't believe she finished high school at the time - but she kept her boys well fed, clothed and roof over their heads. Once when I was hanging out with her (she's about 13 years older than me) her boyfriend visited. He drove my cousins (one of her sons) and I to Sheepshead bay because my 2nd cousin had to go grocery shopping. He bought some food and she had food stamps to buy the rest. This was a regular practice for her. that is until they opened up a big red supermarket in bed-stuy. Then she took her shopping cart, just like her mother and grandmother before her, and walked a distance to purchaseg groceries. Before I left Brooklyn I would go to "Big Red" too because the produce and sales were excellent. No one is trapped in their own neighborhood when it comes to purchasing groceries... yes it's an inconvenience to travel outside your neighborhood to buy food but its doable. Back on topic "Why (black) Men Cheat" @Troy that's my point - if I'm in an intimate relationship - such as marriage there shouldn't be anything to hide. I don't snoop. If a man feels the need to hide something from me. I'd prefer we just not be physically together. It doesn't make sense to live with a stranger. The root of cheating is subterfuge (deception to achieve one's goal) and it takes away the opportunity for the partner involved to make decisions based on good intel. "Why Men Cheat" is simple, they are dishonest and/or can't face the truth of their own desires.

OK but this a little bit funny...

@Troy, I can't rule out if it's the same activity or not without knowledge of either. However, I don't believe there's a world of difference between the two. If someone engages in sexual activity whether it's solo, a commercial pursuit, domestic or casual - there's still a level of intimacy. People say "It's just sex" and while that phrase may be true, I've learned that we humans can turn the most perfunctory behavior into a habit. Also "servicing" comes in many forms to satisfy psychological needs. If we're in an intimate relationship I don't believe our spouses shouldn't be kept in the dark. Case in point, I enjoy cooking for my family and sitting down to eat a great meal with them. I also snack on junk food that has no nutritional value, eat chips in bed when I'm really not hungry. I enjoy going to great restaurants and can easily spend almost $100 on a meal. All are pleasurable to me...but if I'm 100 lbs overweight, obviously being serviced by food is a sign there's psychological distress. With food intake, or lack thereof, there are physical signs so it's difficult to hide this activity from my spouse. If I hide my sex servicing activity (unless it leads to STD or a baby,) from my spouse, then we're not intimate. He's just a roommate and not a very close one at that. By the way, I've never really known any man to hide his masturbation habits from me,. Not really sure what I should read into that lol

@DelanoTowards the end of my post, after I describe what I call conduit thinking, I mentioned that I don't know how to continuously tune into the channel that is supplying me information. Your comment has just pointed me in the direction. Acquiring tunnel vision to channel thinking could be effective. ["Tunnel vision : : extreme narrowness of viewpoint : narrow-mindedness; also : single-minded concentration on one objective. ] Tunnel vision has a negative connotation. As usual, what the powers-that-be frown upon may be the way to secure information from what some mystics call the "Akashic records"

@Delano Would you believe I wrote something on this concept? Once again, I woke up with this idea and I wrote "Time is no respecter of persons" I'm not an expert in any of this - I just write what I "hear"... If feel like reading here is "Whose Got Your Ear which is based on this thread.

@Delano the process of thinking? Or looking for answers? Well I guess that gives you an idea how I think.. If it's thinking to find an answer -I call myself the "obedient scribe" because I'll ask a question and the answer appears - or at least the field of what I'm thinking about gets narrower. That is productive thinking. Thinking to just think is much easier because I just listen. Depending on what level of consciousness, I'm currently residing, I can "hear" . For example, I woke up with a request - "someone" asked me to research the "styles of the decade - and so before I got out of bed I began penning some ideas on the topic. It was surreal even for me - because I have no real interest in discussing fashion but I did it anyway focusing first on the 70s, then the 60s, 80s, and 90s. I even wrote a blog post, "Styles of the Decades | Voices inside My Head" It turned out to be fun and I got a chance to use some old family photos in the post. Here's where it got weird. I got an email on Friday that informed me that on the very same day I began writing the post, Tim Gunn, Project runway, a show I've never ever seen -- gave a talk at the Library of Congress on the topic of fashions in the 70s. In fact, there's an exhibit on disco fashion "Bibliodiscotheque" at the LOC that ended on Saturday. In his taped interview, he said, (paraphrase) "before you can talk about the 70s you must first talk about the revolutionary 60s" ...those were nearly the same words I used in my blog post. All this to say, I believe thinking is a result of being open to any given channel of influence, so to speak... I intuited this concept early on, and I tend to tune into the highest frequency I can perceive. It just so happened that day I dialed to dial into the Library of Congress's frequency. Thank you for today's blog post topic. I'm using this response ...

@Pioneer1 Most likely, but I don't know. He never informed me. At the least, let me know who the women are just in case they'd tried to run up on me. When I was married and my oldest daughter's father " and his wife came to visit our daughter and us; my ex had a fit. In fact, Ex was extremely jealous of my close relationship with him. My daughter's father and I were not and are not sexually involved. So I figured our marriage was closed. I was attracted to other men but I didn't act on it - if I wanted to I would've told my X-husband. It's mutual respect especially for those you love that is the foundation of all relationships. In fact, those are the type of people I associate with closely. I have respect for my daughter's father's wife and she for me, I suppose. She knows I wouldn't do anything with her husband without her consent. He has actually come to visit his daughter (us) with their children and she's remained home. Thinking about now, I realize that I just deal with very mature men and women who have no time for sneaking around. Which brings me to this. It's not about negotiating; it's about informing. The consequences be what they will. No one can tell an adult what they can and can't do. Now if there's a law against adultery on the books in the state that one lives in - then no amount consent will avail. If not, however, then engaging in intimate relationships might help with one's growth.

I study people like kid studies ants and I know we all are batshit crazy yet I overshare with those whom I am intimate. When I don't feel like sharing it's usually because I don't know and I'm in cocooning to find out. I'll withdraw until I understand then I share. It is important to Know ThySelf because if we don't that's when we find ourselves in compromising positions.

@Troy , There's no echo chamber here... We are eclectic personalities bringing our homemade dishes to the party. I can stay away, and when I return there's a whole host of different topics... But one the best things about posting here is even though we all have our own things going on, I feel if I post something everyone would "get it." I don't have to struggle to be understood.

I divorced my ex-husband for being disrespectful, not for an "adulterous" affair. I found out he was having an intimate and sexual relationship with another woman but didn't bother to tell me. If he would have told me he was seeing someone else, it would have given me an opportunity to decide how to proceed. He didn't. His silence took away my choice and also put my life in danger. I believe when you're in an intimate relationship you don't keep secrets from each other. Openness and vulnerability toward each other is the foundation of a great relationship.

@Troy said " I can and will add discussion forum content to the homepage to reflect the conversations that are taking place on these forums " That is a good idea! Maybe if you also add "create your own profile and join in the discussion" this will encourage folks who are looking for a social networking site to participate. The discussion forum, encourages transient traffic. Those visitors aren't necessarily coming to the site because they put in a search term - they're visiting because they have an opinion on the topic and want to express it. If they stay to join the community -even better. As for those visitors who responded "it's just books" that wasn't a put down. I've sent "readers" here... they like books. They just couldn't find the discussion forum. I've noticed that in the past, you've posted discussion topics on twitter - in fact that's how I met @VL Towler she was very vocal in topic - and the link on twitter took the visitors right to the discussion. Well that sucks... I have a facebook page. I have followers (5) not friends. I send my wordpress blog posts to facebook, twitter google etc. I'm able to syndicate my blog posts that way. But my website isn't a social networking site like AALBC. I have subscribers not members (at least not yet.)

That part of the comment was for @CDBurns, - The board merges the comments even if you quote from other posts. haven't noticed a way to keep them separate when responding.

"cheating" is nothing more than an attempt to control the behavior of the spouse. It's a level of cowardice. As in the "cheater" rather sneak around than have a conversation with their partner to change the terms of the initial agreement of a closed marriage. If it weren't - the topic of this discussion would be "why do black wo/men have multiple sex partners?"

Please Please bring this feature back! 1 1/2 years later and I'm still working on my AALBC project but that is one of my findings - you are a missing a chunk of forum dwellers by not attaching the discussion forum to social media. There's an intellectual audience that is simply looking to be social but without an highbrow outlet. (remember that dude who thought he could match wits and decided we were too 'ignorant" lol) But I digress, I like using my profile here and it's only second to twitter... in the rough draft of my AALBC strategic study, I think I included how engaging the profile page could be - but in a way, I was talking out of my butt because it was. I saw what I posted on twitter appeared here back in 2010. When I refer those who are looking for another social network, they respond "it's nothing but books"...and that is how the front page appears when you first visit the sight. The discussion forum/profile/blog pages aren't obvious. Anyway, I wil soon finish because I want you to have it. What's keeping me from finishing is I've been working on my two websites to use as a vehicle for passive income - and what I've learned during my pursuit of growing a valuable website is this: When I "press" your monthly newsletters on theleadstorydotorg... they experience fast growth and are my highest performing content! Also theleadstorydotorg is very popular on baidu.com and the visitors seem to be very interested in aalbc. com. Not the heck sure what the people's republic of china wants with us - but I'm going to keep promoting your site on the leadstory lol Really? Tell me more! Have you tried depop? I've been on almost a week and absolutely love this app although I haven't sold jack! You on the other with new product may kill on this app. https://www.depop.com/mellymelle

Believing is seeing...and it's how we, as magicians or the faithful, manifest what we seek to have in our lives. BUT, while I respect it, I tend not to mess around with optical illusions, especially those involving colors, for this very reason. Its effects is two-fold. On one hand, it seeks to reinforce you can't trust your own mind, since "seeing" is a function of the mind. But at the same time, it teaches you NOT to trust everything your mind reveals... which is a good thing too because "what you believe can kill you"... Since words create images for me; and I score very high on spatial intelligence... I use my other senses such as "feel" (not to be confused with touch, btw) to determine reality

Bravo! We have the power to tell our own stories! The time is now!

@Troy, I don't think lacking ability to concede to another perspective is a function of gender per se, but rather society's expectation put upon men. I also believe "catty" behavior is a function of women too. We will nearly annihilate one another to win the favor of men. My favorite quote is still "Patriarchy isn't men or women but society. We all have the capacity to become caricatures of our selves. BTW, I was around. I don't think Sara and Cynique were catty with each other.. Those arguments were downright eyebrow singeing-edge-snatching vicious. So glad they are over. I missed Cynique's Corner, so I was anxious to read what Cynique has to share. I thought the arguments took away from her content. Same with you three, when you all stopped building and start tearing down, the lessons, the how-to-use the knowledge was lost.

@Cynique it is the earthly male's greatest downfall. They have the most difficult time with -AND- . I see three men who absolutely want to be heard by each other but go about it in the most clumsiest way. I read through all these posts and I didn't see anyone saying anything diametrically opposed to the other...I saw the proverbial blind men and the elephant. And the frustration building from not each seeing exactly from each other's perspective. Still, I do agree with the alpha theory - it's hard to build alliances without having your POV heard and respected in this society. We as a society do tend to follow and form allegiance to the folks who know the most. (Still can't figure out why 45* is in the Oval office) But I digress.

I originally want to re-post here for @Pioneer1 but think my response to @Troy "Can blacks ever be normal" about "astral projection and agreement" can go here too. We didn't say anything that is in disagreement .. I never lost my consciousness. We don't lose our consciousness when we join the THE ALL... We are in agreement until we ARE NOT that is when we individuate. In Astral projection you are still corporeal entity, You're still matter. Your question reflects a value system; a hierarchy. Value systems exist here in this dimension - This is indicative of people who are still attached to material things... We all are attached to matter in this dimension...It is the foundation of the value system. Still it makes it difficult to answer but I'll do my best. Just like you don't believe there's such a thing as race - the same is true in the other dimension. There's no hierarchy. There's no value system in the eternal. What is the value of infinite? But if I had to judge what has served me well, here, it is understanding of energy and its vibration. Also seeing light in the dark. Livings things, even things we don't believe have life are illuminated here in this dimension. If it is made from life or of living that energy remains with it. It is same with people - some people give off more light than others - and while I don't believe what people say I do trust their light. The one thing I'll tell you about leaving this dimension and traveling beyond is this: There was no "bright" light like most people say they see. It is an incredible darkness ( I wrote this part in my novel) like looking into a school at night where those cut-out shapes of Washington and Lincoln, made from black construction paper, are taped to windows. You can see the shapes even though they are pasted to the window in a dark classroom. When you return here... you can see beyond darkness because everything is illuminated to different degrees.

We didn't say anything that is in disagreement. I never lost my consciousness. We don't lose our consciousness when we join the THE ALL... We are in agreement until we ARE NOT that is when we individuate. In Astral projection, you are still corporeal entity, you’re still matter. Your question reflects a value system; a hierarchy. Value systems exist here in this dimension - This is indicative of people who are still attached to material things... We all are attached to matter in this dimension...It is the foundation of the value system. Still it makes it difficult to answer but I'll do my best. Just like you don't believe there's such a thing as race - the same is true in the other dimension. There's no hierarchy. There's no value system in the eternal. What is the value of infinite? But if I had to judge what has served me well, here, it is understanding of energy and its vibration. Also, seeing light in the dark. Livings things, even things we don't believe have life are illuminated here in this dimension. If it is made from life or of living that energy remains with it. It is same with people - some people give off more light than others - and while I don't believe what people say I do trust their light. The one thing I'll tell you about leaving this dimension and traveling beyond is this: There was no "bright" light like most people say they see. It is an incredible darkness (I wrote this part in my novel) like looking into a school at night where those cut-out shapes of Washington and Lincoln, made from black construction paper, are taped to windows. You can see the shapes even though they are pasted to the window in a dark classroom. When you return here... you can see beyond darkness because everything is illuminated to different degrees. I'm going to post this in the spirituality discussion for @Pioneer1

From my experience, there's only agreement in the astral realm - All are in the ALL. It was how I was able to return here. As soon as I voiced "I" want to return "I" have something to do... I individuated from THE ALL.

Absolutely it makes sense! Let me let you in on a secret.. I don't believe anything people say. I do, however, believe they believe it. For example, I don't believe you don't believe I visited another dimension...but I do believe that you rather not believe it because it would force you to lose your grip on this spot and you're doing everything you can to keep your foothold... I get that too - because I'm afraid of losing my grip too. So in a way, skeptics especially natural skeptics allow us, those of us who float between dimensions, an anchor or tether as you mentioned earlier.

bwhahahaha! Straight from a comedy skit... Yes, syntax is our best friend especially in discussions on the internet. So, @Troy what would you convince that people die and return? That is if there "earthsuit" (body) is viable, that is.