A good discussion.  See the full exchange in the comments section starting here.

An excerpt (I am “success”):

X says:

I’ve studied numerology and came across the Kabalarians. I found their name descriptions to be very accurate. I think their disregard for Chaldean numerology is a weakness. A name may bring a successful destiny but if the name has a bad Chaldean meaning it can be bad. Wilhelm Reich is an example of this.

A correction for you: Alfred J Parker is balanced.

success says:

Hi, thanks for the comment.

Their name descriptions are their main strength, at least in theory. They have however significantly changed their descriptions in the last 12 years in the online presentation of the name analysis.

The Chaldean numerology is unlikely to be integrated. For one thing, combining both Chaldean and Yantric (the basis for Kabalarianism) is too complex to easily create a balanced name in both system. For another, they feel Chaldean simply has no impact.

Wilhelm Reich is a good example, you’re right!

However, you are wrong about Alfred J Parker. By adding the “J” all he was doing was creating what they perceive to a be a balanced total. The first name on its own is not balanced even according to their own system. The last name is, but only as a first name.

Additionally, the “J” was an affectation. In transcripts of the case where they the Kabalarian organization was sued for the abuse the young women experienced at the hands of their leader, Ivon Shearing (what a name! Like shearing the sheep), the legal reference was to “Alfred Parker” only. Courts did not include the “J” – this would not happen if it were a legal change of name

So Alfred “J” Parker is not a balanced name even according to their system, only has a balanced total with the “J”, and the “J” was seemingly not even a legal change.

It looks to me very much like Mr. A.J. Parker was scamming his followers. How many people promote such a system and don’t even follow it themselves? And then have their organization degenerate into typical sexual abuse events which courts found the leader to be guilty of? This is the case even with their supposedly balanced names.

Even in A.J. Parker’s day sex scandals were the norm for the Kabs, just not with young girls. That twist was for later once more people had balanced names. The irony is overwhelming.

A very sad story here, with this little girl gone missing and now presumed dead.  Very sad.

The name of this person, Michael Rafferty, is a ‘balanced name’; that is, it has certain numerological parameters that meet what the Kabalarians would give out to people as a balanced name.  Of course the Kabalarians would make certain claims, such as perhaps he used ‘Mike’ too often, or similar obfuscation.

You can make your own decisions.  Even if  this guy is innocent of the charges brought against him this is not what you’d want to come to pass if you go through the trouble of acquiring a ‘balanced name’ according to the simplistic Kabalarian system.

What good is a balanced name if this can be the result?

They use a simple system and only a total of  2-5 name possibilities.  Almost all women get one of two totals and men almost always get the same total for one option or the same as one of the women.  So that means three options as a general rule; there are slightly more possibilities, rarely used.

By contrast in Yantra yoga there are 81 possibilities, not counting totals – if you count the larger number of options for totals in Yantra the number of combinations jumps spectacularly compared to Kabalarianism.

Unfortunately for everyone the founders/promoters of either Yantra or Kabalarianism don’t always follow the systems they teach as being so wonderful.  At least for Yantra the scribe and advocate and teacher of it, Swami Gitananda, seems to have fully balanced his name at least for one of his minor lessons.

By contrast, Alfred Parker, the leader and founder of the Kabalarians, never did.

Balanced name numerology reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and the phrase, “how deep does the rabbit hole go?”

Very deep indeed.

The more nuanced truth is there is some validity to those worlds; not nearly as much as the fans of practitoners of the occult believe, but still some.  That slight validity creates a tension in the individual mind between fantasy and reality, raising questions of what is real and what aspect of the occult does what it does.

It’s all too easy to fall between the cracks of imagination and reality; we live in mind, after all.  Everyone does that, it’s human nature, and almost everyone believes they are more clever and less deceived than others.

Ah, the ego…

Just be careful out there.  Tread carefully and never think that making decisions in these realms is to be taken lightly or rushed.

It’s true, it is the nature of some to always push the boundaries, and that is good.

The purpose of this blog is to save years of pointless wandering among those few who are driven to push the boundaries; and to find out and share what is real in a world where the truth is hard to determine.

Once in awhile science makes perfect sense.  The title says it all and here’s the article referring to the study:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090428/sc_livescience/soundsscarescrawnypeoplemoreeasily

One of the useful things to recognize is all types of meditation are tools. And like all tools they can and will get old.

They are not ends in themselves. They are not where your focus should be after a certain point of working with them. They are at best stepping stones to a larger reality.

What is the purpose of meditation practice?  To train and control attention.  To control where the mind focuses.  To know the nature of mind.  To still it so a larger reality can come into your awareness.

Eventually meditation practice should be discarded or modified to be replaced by the practice of awareness throughout the experiences of life. Gardening, playing music, playing hacky sack, martial arts, contemplating numerology, are just a few of the infinity of examples of activities that will meditate you.

Let go of the meditation practice after awhile, once you get the idea.  Bring awareness into life.

There is almost no real science research about why people are successful, especially financially.

The self help industry is an industry of illusion spinners.  They sell what people want to believe, not what is true.  Usually what people want to believe is that which is the most distant to reality, not what is closest to it!

Endless websites say they know how you too can become successful… for the lowlowlow price of onlyonlyonly x$.  Come on!

Working hard is not it; it’s not why people are successful.  Some inheritors are successful in what they undertake and didn’t work hard at it; others burn out the family fortune in years.

Good looks are not it.  They may help but for every Hollywood star there are the beautiful hundreds who are still valets and waiters who didn’t get lucky.

Talent is not it.  See above.

So what is it?

That’s a good question.  The first thing to realize is that almost no one out there knows.

You might get a report, or an entire book, about how millionaire’s think but for all you know (this is the classic fallacy of confusing correlation with causation, the bane of science research) the millionaires are thinking that way BECAUSE of what is happening to them and what they are doing, not the other way around.

Realizing that, where does that leave you?

It leaves you with a good question.

My hypothesis is goal setting is totally and completely unnatural.

And it doesn’t actually work for most people.

The entire success and self help industry is founded on  ideas and writings that sound good but  in fact do not work.

Google may become the first planetary AI.  I hope that happens soon.  It’s dragging its ass a bit right now at its current speed of development.

The US Navy, in the recent shooting of the pirates who took an American hostage, had a chance to end the standoff peacefully when negotiating with Somali elders – the elders wanted to return the hostage with guaranteed safe passage for the pirates.  The US Navy said no, and insisted on ‘bringing the pirates to justice’.  Now, while the work of the US Navy Seals is admirable in freeing the hostage, the US has brought upon itself increased likelihood of further bloodshed.

Now for some suitable meditations on the numbers of 7 and 8, the numbers involved in spirituality, analysis, fate, and success…

What governs success?  Is it all chance?  Fate?  It seems to be fate if you think about, even if it is unfashionable to say so.

I’ve spent a lot of time and energy researching success, financial and otherwise.  Despite what people say there seems to be NO method, set of steps, or anything concrete or definable that helps one become successful.  It seems like karma or fate.  It may be ‘working hard’ but you also need skills and a lot of beneficial chances or luck coming your way.

There is no avoiding the fact you need luck, even if it is the luck to inherit the right skills, height, beauty, talent or whichever criteria you need to get where you wish to go.  On top of that then you need yet more luck!

It’s luck in the first place to have the energy and disposition to get the skills to even give you a chance.

Really most people have no idea why they are in the situation they are in, and almost no one has gone from  ‘zero to hero’, except by luck.

Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, writes about this.  If you want a middle class life learn the skills and hope for the best (no injury or attack by a sociopath).  But to be rich you need a lot of luck.

Continued meditations on luck, numbers, life and fate coming up…