b, let us know the outcome of your experiment!
mccoy, b, and anyone taking an interest;
i sincerely believe that the number of guests is determined by the participation of the members, the service we give to others and the extent of participants getting the word out about us. Furthermore; the main experiments that we should conduct are experiments on ourselves. Until we r popular with God all worldly popularity and participation is rather minuscule in comparison. Let us find out the responses that God is giving us rather then those of human beings who are at best usually quite unreliable. i can understand an interest in the people and guests who come to this forum---We may gain new friendships and help others as they help us in our spiritual search. However; i just think it is better to concentrate on the fragile friendships we have and work at perfecting them. Everything else will take care of itself if we r taking care of our relationship with God and spirit and those people and qualities who exemplify and lead to that understanding. In the long and short of it i will act quite the same regardless of others or more specifically the numbers of others.
i do think though that some people base many of their actions on the relative popularity of those they encounter or the action they 'see' taking place. This has very little, if any influence on myself. i remember meditating and practicing yoga as a teenager and being a vegetarian from the times of being very young. Many people criticized me and made fun of me but this only made me undaunted and more determined to do what i felt was rite. If on the other hand i took a relative interest in what others were doing where would i be in my spiritual practices? i can't be responsible for the ignorance of the times and people i live in and with. i can only be responsible for my own ignorance and lack of effort to do something about it. There will always b people, forums and others who to try to cut off the heads of others to make themselves feel larger or more important. To fall into this trap is just one more ego blunder that we see taking place daily. Let us rather build up the efforts of others and see their growth just as important as our own as we identify with a larger consciousness that expands us all.
We must get used to the idea that not everyone has the same persistent desire for liberation and are old souls like some of us here. There will be many passing interests and coming and goings of those who are attracted by the insights, messages and crazy humor here on this site. Just as we meet people in daily life who have some small significance in our lives for themselves and us as well we also have the same phenomena happening here. There may be a significant glance, a word or phrase said or a service rendered that has a lasting influence on someone and at a later date they may seek us out or we may do the same with them. i have gone over and over the topic of communication and the different ways people communicate and refuse to. You can look to this subject for the answers to the questions below. See 'Communication' under "Freedom to Express' and 'Miss Random Thoughts'....under 'Social Topics' at the bottom of the forum.
SI, so you agree that these guests are mostly bots? I can't imagine who else these visitors would be, other than friends of Steve (why don't they log in and say hi?). For all I know he may have many friends checking in with him here. I don't know. But my guess is that they are bots as I don't know where else this traffic would be coming from. What do you think?
