I’ve been typed in MBTI but as a multitude of different types, and only once by Socionicists before (is that a word?), but was in a very unhealthy mental place then and I’m not sure it was accurate. I've filled out the questionnaire and tried to be thorough, although I think it comes across as rather muddled in some points, so I'm happy to clarify any bits. Thanks in advance for any help or input!
What do you study or do for a living? How did you come to do that? What do you like or dislike about it?

I study medieval languages and literature and folklore at a PhD level. I came into this somewhat accidentally - I’ve always been interested in history (not solely medieval), but began to specialise a bit more and found I had a knack for picking up several dead languages quite quickly. I always say I came to it by accident, but that sort of downplays how much I love it, and how I’ve been obsessed with history since I was a child.
I love getting perspectives from the past and thinking about different belief systems, how perspectives on the world have changed diachronically and vary geographically. I want to understand the people of the past, sort of as an example of innate archetypical humanity in incredibly varied contexts. Reading these texts helps me understand people I know, myself, and humanity as a whole better. I also love how varied my day can be - I go to new places each year, I work on different projects each month, and I solve different problems each day.
I dislike some of the instability surrounding future jobs - although I’m in one of the best departments in the world for this topic, it can be very difficult to get a job post-PhD in academia, something that remains a worry despite not being an imminent problem to solve.

What else do you do on a daily basis? What are your interests and hobbies? Why do you do them?

I work a lot and my partner says I don’t know how to relax. So a lot of my “hobbies” are doing things like learning extra languages (I recently started German), specifically languages that will be useful for my future studies/work.
I work out pretty consistently, a mix of strength-training and cardio. I try to keep it even (although I read somewhere that a 60/40 split is optimal, 50/50 is close enough). I do this for a mix of health benefits, stress-relief (possibly could be considered a health benefit) and vanity. I will drop workouts when work becomes too busy though (it’s not priority number one)
I like rock-climbing and hiking when I can, but I don’t do this daily.
I plan future travels and work, and I also really like organising social events, but most of that is centred around organising and helping run departmental events at the moment. Despite this, I can be a bit of a shut-in on a day-to-day basis.
I also play video games as stress relief, if I’ve completed enough stuff in the day. Games like Skyrim, Ghost of Tsushima, etc.
I also spend a lot of time on reddit reading about various topics related to fantasy novels or videogames, mythology, psychology and psychiatry, various personality-typing systems, true crime (although less into this one than the others) also watch youtube videos about such things.

What are your values, and why?

I value determination, grit, and intelligence in friends quite a bit, and a sort of “can-do” optimism
I value inclusivity, I dislike cliquish behaviour.
I sort of don’t know how to describe this, but I find it annoying when people try to interfere in my work to suit their agenda - I value a sort of friendly “live and let live” mentality.
Following on that, I value approaching people with an understanding rather than judgmental mindset

Describe your relationships with family and friends. What do you like and dislike about them?

I am not super hands on with my family - I live on the other side of the world from them - but I do like them, and keep connected electronically and through weekly or fortnightly Skype calls. I sometimes feel that they don’t really understand my interests, but they do care and try to pay attention regardless, and I know they see me as somewhat distant, but they see that as a personality quirk rather than indicative of lack of affection.
I don’t have a super large friend group at the moment but have in the past. I’m focussing on quality over quantity at the moment, after spending a lot of time working in nightlife earlier in my life and having the massive social circles.
I appreciate that my friends are intelligent, passionate, well-travelled and ambitious people.
I struggle sometimes when friends don’t take me into account when I have done so for them, and I also sometimes find people a bit too caught up in their own worldviews and concerns without seeing what (to me) is the bigger community picture. I also really dislike when people try to apply moral pressure on me (that I have to care about a cause or I’m a bad person, etc.). I also find it frustrating when I’m the sole organiser of events or meet-ups.

What do you look for in friends? In romantic relationships?

This was somewhat answered above, but I also enjoy outgoing and warm people, and people who I think I can rely upon. I try to take people as they come, though, and have had all sorts of friends.
In romantic relationships, I like when people are ambitious, determined, and intelligent but also kind and passionate people. I like them to have a level of overlapping interests with me (my partner is also a medieval scholar, but works more with artefacts and museum work).

What conflicts have you encountered recently with other people? Why did they happen? Which kinds seem to happen on a regular basis?

I can be accidentally rude at times without realising, and also can be a bit dismissive of views I think are dumb, sometimes hastily so.
I can over-explain or simply talk too much or over-theorise
I can be a bit of a people-pleaser
A recent conflict was my trying to organise a departmental event and the other graduate students not contributing or seeing the larger picture of how that would help our department as a community, which I got very frustrated by.

What are your strengths? What do people like about you? What do you like about yourself?

I work really hard
I try to create opportunities not just for myself but for those around me. I think we (not the whole world, obviously, but those around me) can all succeed.
I am thorough in everything and don’t really half-ass stuff.
I am pretty friendly and always up for a chat or to be a shoulder to cry on, and am pretty nonjudgmental (one friend says I always try to attribute other’s actions to a positive motive)

What are your weaknesses? What criticism do you often face from others? What do you dislike about yourself?

I can be impatient and don’t know how to relax/wait for things.
Sometimes I can come across as weird or intense, and I wish I was better at toning that down and relating to people
I get pretty insecure about what people think of me at times, and wish I was a little better or more confident there.
I take on too much work - I have been called an “arbeidsoptimist” before
Sometimes I can be overly conflict-avoidant - I’ll get frustrated by people, but try to work around that.
I can be a bit hesitant about making decisions
I have a moderately murky sense of self - hence the need for a typing questionnaire and struggles with self-typing
When stressed, I catastrophise a lot, and can have quite a lot of anxiety about not living up to my potential or failing at the things I am working on.

In what areas of life can you manage well on your own? In what areas of your life would you like help?

I am good at keeping myself on task and working towards goals, I don’t really struggle with motivation or such.
I’m pretty good at building connections and friendships with professors and other people and maintaining a sort of warm, friendly atmosphere in workplaces.
I need help at times figuring which information is important and which can be left out. My work tends to spiral outwards and things like page-counts in papers or time-limits in presentations seem horrendously oppressive.
I need help with taxes.
I sometimes need help figuring out why I’m upset about things.
I would like help figuring out my socionics type ;)

What things do you dislike doing? What things do you enjoy more than others?

I dislike cooking (it just doesn’t interest me, although I enjoy tasting different kinds of food, I am also happy eating the same thing everyday, which I do when I live on my own).
I dislike things like taxes.
I am struggling with this question. I guess I dislike when I cannot plan and have to wait and see about more information (not strictly a “dislike doing” answer). Unresolved problems or conflicts give me a lot of anxiety.
I enjoy going to museums, climbing, exercise (while listening to a podcast about an interest, preferably in another language), analysing medieval literature, planning initiatives, theorising and brainstorming with professors and some friends.

What goals, aspirations, or plans do you have for the future, and why?

I want to publish more articles in and outside of my field. I have a couple I’m working on now, which range from 19th century literature (recently accepted as a journal article!) to niche folklore topics (recently presented at a conference) to medieval travel literature (readying for publication), so that is my immediate term, along with some travel for language-study later in the summer.
Long term, I want to finish my PhD and become a professor in my field at a research-heavy (R1 or the equivalent) university
I hope to master more languages (I need working competency in 5 to even pass my PhD qualifying exams), and to do so, I plan to travel (and acquire funding for that).
I also want to be a little closer to my family, and take care of my partner and eventually marry.

What kinds of things do you do to manage and/or beautify your environment (your room, your house, etc.)?

I have a lot of trinkets, artifacts, candles, and pieces of artwork up in my room. They are pretty varied, from statues (a bronze buddha from Sri Lanka, a basalt Horus from Egypt, and so forth) to artwork (Dante’s inferno by Botticelli, a Dali painting is up too at the moment), to some tibetan prayer flags, etc. Basically just stuff I’ve gotten from travels or as gifts.
I’m pretty clean, in all honesty. I don’t mind clutter, but I don’t like when things are dirty.

If you won the lottery and didn't have to work anymore, what would you do?

Exactly what I am doing, but I’d have a nicer place to live and worry a little less. I acquire external funding for a lot of my travels, etc., so that stuff wouldn’t really change.

What traits do you find endearing that others might dislike? What traits are considered positive/neutral by others but tend to annoy you?

I find it somewhat endearing when people talk a lot about their own interests. I can usually relate it to things I am interested in without needing them to do that for me, and I also usually just find those things interesting.
I find it endearing when
I sometimes find it difficult when people leave all decision-making up to me, even if they’re trying to be flexible/easy. I can make the decisions, but don’t always like to.

How do you behave around strangers?

I am very polite, but don’t really engage with strangers that often. I can be a bit shy, and used to have a decent amount of social anxiety, but lately I’m just not interested in interacting with strangers.

How do you react to conflict? What do you do if somebody insults or attacks you?

Conflict really causes me a lot of anxiety if it’s with someone I know or have to see in the future. In those instances, I usually just don’t end up in conflict with them: I’m pretty friendly and try to see people’s perspectives.
If not, and it’s with a stranger, I kind of just ignore them.

Would you ever be interested in starting a business? Why or why not? What role would you play in it? What kind of business would it be?

Not sure. I kind of prefer doing what I’m doing now - the research and teaching aspects. I don’t really know what sort of value I’d be adding to the world with a business, but I suppose if I could find something that was both interesting for me and seemed to fill a needed niche, sure.
I like the business Facsimile finder, they make medieval manuscript reproductions. Perhaps something like that, or creating a sort of community centre/third place (I used to think about owning a pub, back in my bartending days).

How do you dress or manage your appearance?

I keep things pretty simple, and try to stick to classic clothes (rather than trendy). Timeless and simple, more or less. That being said, I enjoy colours, and try to model my wardrobe a bit off of an autumnal palate (I got really into colour season theory a couple of months ago briefly, and was “typing” all of my friends and myself, now I just use it when thrifting for new clothes).
I pretty much exclusively get clothes either as gifts or through thrift stores. I sort of really dislike shopping otherwise.
I take care of myself physically, and keep a simple but effective skincare routine and eat moderately healthy. It stresses me out when things like skincare have too many steps, though.

Do you like kids? Why or why not?

Yeah, I think kids are nice. I appreciate how much potential they have and how good-hearted and imaginative they usually are. That being said, I don’t always find them particularly interesting, so I guess more of a generally benevolent ambivalence from my end.

In what situations or times in your life did you feel most fulfilled, and why?

I’m pretty fulfilled right now, in all honesty. I have work that challenges me but is super interesting and allows (and pays) for lots of travel, I have a loving partner, I have a relatively secure future for the remainder of my PhD programme (minimum four more years).
I do wish I had a better social circle right now though, but I honestly haven’t put enough effort in to build one (I have two social circles but we’re all busy/inconsistent).

i really want a playlist which the songs are really euphoric and feels big and happy and sweet, good bridges and huge chorus, with themes of being in love, being happy, succeeding in life, laughing with friends and living the life.
examples of sounds and production im thinking (ignore the themes of some of them):
i don't wanna miss a thing - aerosmith summer of 69 - bryan adams new romantics & cruel summer - taylor swift livin on a prayer - bon jovi i wanna dance with somebody - whitney lazy song - bruno mars beautiful things - benson boone

I have two reddit accounts, so if these stories are familiar, that's why. Someone commented that one of these sounds like abuse from my Christian parent to me. So I've compiled all most of them here. (Most of them are to do with Christianity, the hypocrisy of Christianity, or the consequences of my choice to leave it.) Please be honest but also recognize that this isn't all the times sometimes these are amazing people and I love these people but for my sake I need to know if it's really that bad.
"I'm rather young. My mom (42F) and my dad (41M) both grew up in the church. My grandfather is the pastor of his own church and my mother was raised by her grandmother who played piano in the church. Growing up I'd say I was the perfect little Christian girl. I liked praying and went to church, I wanted to help the world, and I wanted to be baptized before I even started kindergarten. I remember that vividly. I was sitting in the kitchen in one of our folding chairs because we couldn't afford real ones and I was begging my mom to let me get baptized.
My family and I are African American. The church I went to when I was little was a black church. My mother was the praise dance choreographer so of course I did praise dancing. I'd go to Sunday school, I wore the big puffy dresses, and I knew all the songs. Of course I had the common experience of being assaulted in a sexual manor by someone I went to church with. But we were both the same age and I just knew I was uncomfortable and she just knew that's how people bigger than us touched each other. All that came of me telling my mom and me not having to go to her house anymore. I was always told that I was intelligent and I believed everything I was told without question. Then my sister was born and we moved. At first everything stayed the same. We ended up having to switch churches as the previous one was an hour away from our new home. We found a new church. A church were you can wear your hoodie and jeans like it's a Tuesday. I made friends and played sports and nothing really changed until I was eight. When I was eight there was a girl on my softball team I'll call E. E is Jewish and at the time I thought everyone was Christian. As in Christianity was the default and only option. But my friend E's church wasn't called a church but a synagogue, and she couldn't eat specific foods together. E also talked about BaBat Mitzvah's. When I brought that up to my mom she said my friend was Jewish and that being Jewish is like being Christian but they read from the old testament exclusively but they don't believe in Jesus.
Which a while later caused me to spend all night crying because I put the two and two together of: Believing in resurrection Sunday and that Jesus was gods son is what got us into heaven and I cried worrying one of my closest, sweetest friend and her nice family would go to hell. Then school, which had always been easy, became hard. Which made me feel dumb. Especially since my self worth was put into how smart I was and I wouldn't dare get below an A or high B because I was scared I'd get punished. Like the time I slammed my fingers a metal door on accident and spent the next fifteen minutes in tears and my mom told me if I kept crying she'd take me to the hospital to have them cut off my fingers. Because of moments like that disappointing my parent or having to big of an emotional reaction was not okay and it made me scared and uncomfortable. They knew I was struggling, they were the ones who stayed up till four something in the morning with me trying to explain the concept. But with every minor and major struggle I felt like my worth was slipping away. But the better I did in school the more my outstanding grades became the expectation which resulted in acknowledgement for my academic achievements disappearing. I felt like I was falling apart so I'd spend hours pray and begging god for help. To take the feeling of being worthless away. I developed an eating disorder sometime before ten. Specifically binge eating. My parents would find the trash, not understand that it was more than just "the sin of gluttony" and yell which made me feel threatened and eat more food.
And then I'd pray on my knees on the hard wood outside my room door with nails and splinters in it and hurt myself because not only was I a dumb glutton but I also apparently wasn't good enough for god to save or help. It made me think if he wants a relationship with me so bad why does he ignore me? I'd hold a knife to my wrist when I'd wash dishes to see if I felt him then. I questions if I'd even go to heaven. For all my problems the answer was to pray but the problem was I'm doing that but my prayers aren't being answered. I was having thought of death no twelve year old should have. On my birthday I was like a puppet simply going through the motions. Then I started questioning my sexuality. Not to mention, I'm now cut off from the world because this is all during covid, on the bright side they gave me my door back. Now I'm older and I have questions like. How was Adam able to name all the animals and understand god not wanting him to eat from the tree and their need to stay in the garden, but not comprehend his nakedness? How was Eve able to be tempted and not understand her nakedness? Why did they and apparently god think being naked was wrong? How are we not all messed up from tons of inbreeding and how do animals still exist after the inbreeding the would've occurred after Noah's ark if he only saved one male and female of each species? Why did god want to flood the Earth and purge it of it's evil humans if he was the one who decided free will would be a good idea? Since he is perfect and all knowing their shouldn't have been a moment of let me make something I'll destroy, wait nvm. My parents have changed a lot since I was little and have let me go to therapy. Of course I have a Christian therapist. Which I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that every time I bring up trauma that's linked to religion or need advice in terms of how to change a bad behavior or over come anxiety the advice is to pray. And at times I feel like I'm in a moment of doubt she feel she should try and pull me back in. But they also said I have to volunteer in the childern ministry at church.
I used to work with children ages three to five. Now I'm in one to three. And it feels like I'm spreading propaganda. They tell me what to say and what the goal is for the kids to believe by the end of the month. After I can't help but feel dirty. I'm at the point in my journey were I don't believe. But I have to keep working in the childern ministry, I have to go to church every Sunday, my parents are both devotional authors with published books. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't believe both extended and intermediate. I just wanna know I'm not crazy. I feel like I'm being brainwashed or something. Like drink the blood and eat the body of Jesus!? It's all too much. And now that my parents know they're trying to make me go back to believing. And I listen to them talk and it's like I can't have a conversations with you. You put your faith above all else. You believe whole heartedly, my point of view is automatically wrong to you because faith trumps logic so why would I share it with you? But at the same time it's majority of the music they play, it's all their advice, I go every Sunday, my classmates and friends are majority Christian and yet I even though I see the flaws and hypocrisy, I still can't help but wonder, am I the crazy one?"
"My grandma would grab me and call me "big booty Judy." And my butt was grabbed, spanked, and frequently talked about. Sometimes she'd just sit there tapping it while she talked. It started when I was around three or four and just continued. Though now I'm in my teens and rarely see her. But my breast were also a topic for a while. Comments like "where'd you get those from?", "she's bigger than you.", and "her sisters the tall one but she's the curvy one." They felt icky but I didn't dwell on them. But she's also an alcoholic along with many other things. She dated my mom's friends when she was in college, gets shit faced in at events like birthdays and funerals. Shakes her ass on family members and frequently offered us alcohol. But I always took pride in being her favorite grandchild. Which she constantly reminded me I was. She also has a serious spending problem. But the funny thing is. She goes to a church church. She's in the choir and used frequently as a look example. She hosts church events and potlucks. She even remarried in the church. Never mind the things I just said that'd be considered sins. She's the perfect Christian woman."
"How do you cope with the level of disrespect? I'm not eighteen yet, but I'm still able to be disrespected. My main problem is the disrespect from my parents. My parents who wish to be respected in their beliefs and don't want their minds to change. But at the same time, my dad has sent my scriptures and stuff for the past couple of months since it came out. I don't believe in God or Jesus. They force me to serve and volunteer at church and attend every Sunday. They paired me with a not so ethical Christian therapist. Then both gang up on me about it and take my silence as defeat when I'm just respecting their beliefs. I'm literally the only non Christian in my family. I also have mental problems from staying with them and just in general, but they won't test me because I don't behave in such a stereotypical manner. I want to say they love me, but does someone who blatantly disrespects you love you? I'm having a hard time with seeing if I should do something as drastic as no contact after I reach a certain age.
But at the same time their those awful parents who don't just blatantly suck but also have messed me up quite a bit, resulting in me not feeling like I have a right to be upset. I've told them about how Christianity mixed with their parenting drove me to suicidal thoughts, almost going through with it, and an eating disorder I'm still battling. I also can't just leave and close the door behind me. I'm the oldest, and their are two more kids just like me, and if I turned my back on them, I'd never forgive myself. They're my siblings, but they're also what stopped me from going through with the bad thoughts I was having. They need someone who will be honest, say the weird things, and answer the ignored questions. So, how can I deal with the blatant disrespect so that I'm around for them? What skill for stress management can I use? How do I block out the constant religious gaslighting that happens in church? Because I have over two more years of this."
"My dad said if people don't wanna have a baby, they shouldn't have sex even if they're married. But sir, you had three babies while financially unstable because you couldn't keep your damn hands off my mom. You were planning me, but your job fell through, and when my mom went to get back on birth control, it was too late, so I'll give you a pass with me. But my siblings were both surprises. So, quit judging and practice what you preach. But that's not what pissed me off the most. He said women will put all their time into work and not their husbands, and that's why some men cheat, but the way he said it, it was like he was justifying it. But my dad, he'd go to hooters alone, and when I needed tights, he got them from a woman their and it made me think what if. And I know it's stupid, but that what if. It is so loud.
And it's not even the first time he's said something along the lines of justifying it and almost blaming the woman who gets cheated on. But then he likes to be all up in arms about how his friend married a woman who cheated on him multiple times. My dad's like, I wanna pour into my kids but then makes no effort, and when we spent time with him, we had to initiate it. He doesn't do the hey you wanna . . . stuff. But he has his own company, and they can't get any work right now, so he spends most of his time at home. And then says I'm just to tired to spend time with ya'll.
My mom was sick to the point of being half passed out in a drive-thru after taking my brother to karate and having to pick up dinner. I would've offered to drive him if I could. I'm still leaning, and I'm bad at staying in one lane. But my dad was really busy on his PS5 with his made-up football team. So busy he couldn't take my brother to karate nor could he pause his game to get dinner. I'm kinda starting to hate him. He's also done a couple of other things, but that's what recently has made me mad. But I don't feel like I have a right to be mad because he's here and a lot of my friends dad aren't, and he's not physically abusive like my best friends dad is. I just don't know how I should feel. Is everyone's dad like this?
Edit: It's mothers day and he couldn't be bothered to get the food, pick up the groceries, nothing. #1Dad guys."

So is it truly a horrible go no contact at eighteen situation, a be watchful situation, or is it fine? I know some of this stuff is a lot but some of it was also in a moment of extreme emotion. Remember like I said in the beginning they're not always like this.

by Asma bint Shameem
1️⃣ Praying Fardh salaah while sitting WITHOUT any valid excuse:
First of all, the default is that we HAVE to offer the Fardh prayer STANDING with the proper postures of rukoo and sujood on the ground.
And it’s NOT allowed for a person who can stand and pray with no disabilities or valid Shar’ee excuses to pray sitting down.
That’s because standing is one of the pillars of the Salaah, if one is able to stand and offer the prayer.
So praying in the car is NOT VALID unless you already offer your prayers in the sitting position routinely because of some genuine shar’ee excuse.
📌 Proof#1:
🍃 The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam told a sahaabi who was suffering from hemorrhoids, and therefore couldn’t stand and pray.
“Pray standing; if you cannot, then sitting; and if you cannot then lying on your side.”(al-Bukhaari)
📌 Proof #2:
The Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam would GET OFF the animal he was riding while traveling.
And he would offer his Fardh Salaah while standing with proper rukoo’ and sujood.
He would NOT pray the fardh Salaah while still sitting on his ride.
🍃 Ibn `Umar radhi Allaahu anhu said:
"Allaah's Messenger Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam used to offer the optional prayer on the back of his Mount facing any direction and also used to pray the witr on it but never offered the compulsory prayer on it." (al-Bukhaari)
🍃 The ulama of the Standing Committee said:
“With regard to offering obligatory prayers sitting down when one is able to stand, that is NOT PERMISSIBLE because of the general meaning of the verse in which Allaah says:
“And stand before Allaah with obedience” [al-Baqarah 2:238] and because of the hadeeth of ‘Imraan ibn Husayn, according to which the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam said to him: “Pray standing; if you cannot, then sitting; and if you cannot then lying on your side.” (al-Bukhaari, 1117) (Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, 8/126)
So praying your fardh while sitting, for NO reason when a person is ABLE to pray properly, is NOT VALID.
That goes for praying in the sitting position, just because you’re driving somewhere or don’t want to get off the car, or you’re too ‘shy’ or too ‘embarrassed’ to pray in front of others. Or you’re “too tired”.
Those are NOT valid Shar’ee excuses to pray your obligatory prayers sitting.
❓QUESTION ❓
What about praying the VOLUNTARY prayers while sitting?
It is permissible to pray the nawaafil and Sunnah prayers sitting with no excuse, and the prayer is valid.
But keep in mind that the reward for that is reduced to HALF the reward of one who stands.
📌 Proof:
Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr radhi Allaahu anhu said:
“I was told that the Messenger of Allaah Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam said:
“The prayer of a man who sits is half of the prayer of a man who stands.” I came to him and found him praying sitting. I put my hand on his head and he said, ‘What is the matter, O ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Amr?”
I said, “I was told, O Messenger of Allaah that you said, ‘The prayer of a man who sits is half of the prayer of a man who stands,’ and you are praying sitting.”
He said,
“Yes, but I am not like one of you.” (Muslim)
🍃 Imaam an-Nawawi said:
“This hadeeth is to be understood as referring to a naafil prayer offered sitting when one is able to stand.
This brings half the reward of a prayer offered standing.
But if a person offers a naafil prayer sitting down because he is unable to stand, then the reward is NOT reduced; rather it will be the SAME as one who stands.
With regard to OBLIGATORY prayers, if a person prays sitting down when he is able to stand, his prayer is NOT VALID and he will not be rewarded, rather he is sinning.” (Sharh Saheeh Muslim)
2️⃣ Praying fardh salaah while sitting for a VALID reason:
If there’s some disability or a GENUINE reason that a person cannot stand and pray, then it’s allowed to sit and offer the obligatory Salaah.
The prayer is valid and the person is not sinful.
For example a person is too sick, or injured, or too weak or too old.
Or the person will get dizzy or there’s a chance that he may fall or hurt himself if he stands to pray, for example on a plane or train etc.
Or in situations of fear, if a person is scared that he will be harmed if he’s seen praying.
But the fear has to be REAL and not based on emotions or paranoia.
Or a woman is pregnant and she cannot bend for rukoo or make sujood on the ground, so she can do that sitting on the ground or on a chair.
🍃Imaam al-Nawawi said:
“The ummah is unanimously agreed that whoever is unable to stand in an obligatory prayer may pray sitting down, and he does not have to repeat the prayer. Our companions said: his reward will not be less than the reward for offering the prayer standing up, because he is excused.
It was proven in Saheeh al-Bukhaari that the Messenger of Allaah Sal Allaahu Alaiyhi wa Sallam said: “If a person is sick or is traveling, the reward of what he used to do when he was healthy and not traveling with be written for him.” [ al-Majmoo’ (4/201)]
However in such situations, one should sit for only that part of the Salaah that they cannot perform the default way. The rest of the prayer should be prayed as is legislated.
So if a person can at least read al-Faatihah standing, they should do so. Then they may sit for the rest of the prayer.
Or if they can also make rukoo standing, they should do so standing and should sit only for the sujood.
Or if they can make sujood properly on the ground, but they cannot read al-Faatihah and Qur’aan standing, then they should sit ONLY for that portion of Salaah that they cannot do standing. And they should make sujood on the ground.
They should NOT make sujood while sitting in the chair IF they can make sujood on the ground.
🍃 Shaykh Ibn Baaz said:
“Whoever is able to stand but is unable to bow or prostrate is not relieved of the obligation to stand, rather he should pray standing up, then lean forward for Rukoo(i.e., whilst standing) then sit and lean forward for Sujood… and he should make leaning for Sujood deeper than that for Rukoo. If he is only unable to prostrate then he should do Rukoo` and then lean forward for Sujood.
If during the prayer the sick person becomes able to do something that he was unable to do, such as standing, sitting, bowing or prostrating, he should start to do that and continue from whatever he has already completed of his prayer.” (Ahkam Salat Al-Marid wa Taharatihi)
🍃And Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:
“Whoever is unable to bow should lean forward whilst standing, and whoever is not able to prostrate should lean forward whilst sitting” (Ash-Sharh Al-Mumti’, 4/475)
🔺HOW to pray sitting❓
If a person cannot perform rukoo and sujood the normal way and has to offer the prayer sitting, they should just bend themselves forward a little bit for the rukoo and a bend a little deeper for sujood.
There’s NO need to put a table in front to put the head on it.
Nor is there a need to put the arms forward in midair to make sujood in between the hands.
Just put your hands on your knees and lean forward for the rukoo and lean some more for the sujood.
📌 Proof:
🍃 Once the Prophet sal Allaahu Alayhi wa sallam visited a sick person and saw him praying (leaning) on a pillow, so he took it and cast it aside. So the man took a stick to pray (leaning) on it, but he took it and cast it aside and said:
“Pray on the ground if you can, but otherwise make movements with your head, making your sujood lower than your rukoo.” (at-Tabaraanee, Bazzaar, and others. Saheeh by shaikh al-Albaani In Silsilah al-Ahaadeeth as-Saheehah 323)
Shaykh Saalih al-Fowzaan said:
“The Prayer is the second pillar of Islaam. It is the foundational support-post of Islaam, and it is the first of all deeds a person will be held to account for on the Day of Judgment. If it is accepted [by Allaah], the rest of his deeds will be accepted. If it is rejected, the rest of his deeds will likewise be rejected. It is an obligation that no Muslim is ever excused from so long as he remains of sound mind. (With the exception of women during their menses and post-natal bleeding)
A Muslim prays according to his ability.
As Allaah has said,
“Fear Allaah to the best of your ability.” (Soorah at-Taghaabun 64:16)
And He, the Most High, has said,
“Allaah does not burden any soul beyond its scope.”(Soorah al-Baqarah 2:286)
Furthermore, the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa Sallam said:
“When I have forbidden you from something, stay away from it [entirely]. When I have ordered you to do something, do as much of it as you are able.” (al-Bukhaari 7288 and Muslim 1337).
From this [generality] is prayer.
A Muslim is to pray to the best of his ability, the best he can, due to the statement of the Prophet Sal Allaahu Alayhi wa Sallam:
“A sick person prays standing. If he is unable, then he may pray sitting. If he is unable, then he may pray [laying] on his side.” (al-Bukhaari 1117).
Prayer has its required conditions (shuroot), necessary elements (arkaan, lit. pillars), obligations (waajibaat), and recommended manners (sunan).
A sick person is to do as much of these things as he is able to.
Some things are to be done while standing, while others are done while sitting or in prostration.
What is done standing is the initial takbeerah (saying, “Allaahu akbar”), reading [Soorah] Al-Faatihah and whatever else is easy of the Qur’aan, and bowing (rukoo’), which is done by bending over with one’s head and back until the hands reach the knees, saying in that position, “Subhaana Rabbi al-Adheem” (Glorified be Allaah, the Great One).
What is done while sitting is the tashahhud, the prostration, saying, “Subhaana Rabbi al-Aa’laa” (Glorified be Allaah, the Most High) and the tasleem.
How does a [sick] person perform these actions?
If he is able to stand and sit, but cannot bow or prostrate, then he motions with his head for the bowing while he stands, and he motions with his head for the prostration while he sits.
If he is able to sit, but cannot stand, then he performs the initial takbeerah, the recitation of Al-Faatihah and what is easy of the Qur’aan to recite [while sitting].
He motions with his head for the rukoo’ (bowing) while he sits.
He prostrates on the ground if his able.
If not, then he motions with his head for the prostration while sitting, making his nodding [or bending over] lower for prostration than for bowing.
When praying seated, it is better and more complete to sit on the floor if one is able.
If not, then he may sit in a chair, and he does everything a person would do sitting on the floor.
The chair is to be lined up along with the row, and it should be a small chair whenever possible, so it does not take a large amount of space and encroach upon the space of those next to, behind, and in front of him.
He does not pray directly behind the imaam, to leave that place for healthy people who could take his place when needed, or prompt him when he cannot remember something in his recitation.
This is due to his (the Prophet ﷺ) statement, “Let the people of intellect and understanding stand directly behind me [in congregational prayer].” (Muslim 432) (Shaykh Saalih ibn Fowzaan al-Fowzaan, Member of the Council of Senior Scholars)
🍃 Ibn Qudaamah said:
“If a person is unable to do rukoo’ or sujood, he should indicate them by nods or gestures.” (al-‘Umdah Sharh al-‘Iddah, p. 126)
If you cannot even nod or gesture, then pray according to your situation; your rukoo’ and sujood could be by intention only, when you reach them and recite the appropriate adhkaar in them.
And Allaah knows best.

I remember reading that when there is a conflict between an ethical and a ritual mitzvah, you are obliged to follow the ethical mitzvah. The example given was Abraham leaving his prayers to attend to the three angelic guests, ie mitzvah of hospitality outranks mitzvah of prayer.
What is a good source for delving further into this question? I am not Orthodox so I don’t know the ins and outs of all the ritual observances but am interested in hearing from Orthodox perspectives. When do you typically find yourself putting aside a ritual observance to fulfil an ethical obligation?
On a related note, do you think following ritual mitzvot makes it easier or harder to follow ethical mitzvot? Sometimes I see the two opposed to each other, eg there is a negative stereotype of Orthodox Jews that they are only interested in ritual and consider ethics secondary, while Reform Jews consider only the ethical commandments to be binding. I can see how it may require too much to follow both, so people will tend to focus on one or the other. But I can also see how being diligent about following ritual laws can lead to greater diligence about ethics and vice versa. What are your thoughts?

Last night, someone on here made a post asking us what Dropouts opinion are we would defend 1M vs. one. My answer was that no matter how great the podcast is now, nothing will top the dynamic of the original trio. That discussion gave me an idea.
For some who may be new to Dropouts, I figured I would take a dive into “the lore” (as the kids say these days) to help explain some nostalgic pieces of the podcast you may or may not been here for. The best way to do that is talk about original running gags. Some of these are more known than others, some you may have forgot about, and some you may not remember.
But as someone who has watched from the very beginning, here are my top 6 Dropouts running gags of all time.
#6 - Indiana’s “fake” accent
This gag was fueled by social media comments that always wondered about the inconsistency of Indiana’s Australian accent. But it eventually became one of the more iconic jokes of the podcast. It seems stupid but for whatever reason, we always thought it was pretty funny when Indiana was called out her accent dropping out or coming back. With Zach constantly mimicking her sometimes-thick Australian accent whenever there’s a noticeable difference in annunciation. It was quite simple but genius. Turning a common misconception into a deadpan gag that still leaves people wondering to this day. Is Indiana from Australia? Yes. Does her accent come and go making it very confusing for a majority of viewers? Also, yes.
#5 - Swag-daddies
Who remembers this VERY old one? This gag was part of what each of the trio would call their individual teams/fanbases. Swag-daddies was the original name for team Zach in the very beginning. No one really knew what it meant, why it worked, or where it came from. But it stuck for a while and somehow perfectly displayed the embodiment of Zach’s presence. Memeable, out of pocket, and backhandedly crass. If I had to guess, I would say it’s kind of an ironic-undertone to mock the “TikTok fuckboy” population that was pretty relevant at the time. Although Zach’s online persona can be very polarizing on the internet, the OG fans would jokingly justify his antics as “just being a swag-daddy.” A much simpler time when Zach’s verbal antics were publicly seen as satire and nothing else.
#4 - Team Whole Milk
Swag-daddies was Team Zach, but this team name was by far the best. Team Whole Milk was the original name for team Jared in the beginning. In early episodes, Jared would open up about struggles with his weight as a kid. Which Jared would refer to this chapter of his life as ‘F.J.’ or ‘Fat Jared’. He shortly after revealed that as a kid that he would drink multiple glasses of whole milk every single day, believing it was healthy. For those who don’t know, it’s exact opposite. Either way, team Whole Milk was born. Representing Jared fairly well. The happy-go-lucky underdog with a wholesome and positive energy.
#3 - The Ketchup Bottle
This one is a bit controversial because of the behind-the-camera details we know now, but it’s still an iconic part of the podcast that needs to be mentioned. For the new fans of the podcast, next time you’re watching, make sure to look for the Ketchup and Mustard bottles that are now catty-cornered in between Zach and Tara these days. The history of those two inanimate objects is a lot deeper than you might think. For those of you that don’t know about the first recording set, it was originally supposed be for a show called “Zach’s Diner”. Where Zach would have guests on in a Nickelodeon-metaverse feel of Zach Galifianakis’ “Between Two Ferns”. In original diner set, between to the shiny red booths, were subway-style themed Ketchup and Mustard bottles, that would eventually be part of the Dropouts set. And still are to this day. The originated gag went like this. Whenever Zach pissed off Indiana, she would pick up the Ketchup bottle, and throw it at Zach as hard as she could. Missing him 99.9% of the time. This bit/gag was harmlessly funny at the beginning until we found out there was more darker story to it. I’m just glad Indiana has grown so much since then and really took the time to learn from her actions. It sucks that this iconic gag was a falling out example of the original trio. But it’s still huge part of the Dropouts Podcast lore. And it shouldn’t be forgotten.
#2 - The Beach
What happened at the beach? I’m asking because we still… really… don’t know. In an early episode of Dropouts, the trio had a psychic on as a guest to give them all readings. Whether you believe in it or not, the psychic went on to ask Zach and Indiana: “what’s the deal with the beach?” Prompting Indiana and Jared to freak out and run off the set. The comments blew up after this and the speculation of what this was about caught fire. In the following episode, the trio took notice of the fans reactions. Then challenged them to give the video version of the episode 20K likes and they’ll tell the story of what happened at the beach. To this day, this episode only has around 11K likes on YouTube and the story has still not been told. Even though hints were dropped over later episodes, sidetrack jokes were made, no one on the internet ACTUALLY knows what happened at the beach. And with this episode being 4+ years old, we most likely will never know. As far as we’re concerned, it will be locked away in the Dropouts vault forever.
#1 - The Snickers wrapper story
I’m pretty sure everyone who watches the podcast now or started watching from the beginning knows this one. The Snickers wrapper story is not only the most bizarre story told on the podcast but also a running gag that will probably contest the will of time. The origin of this story goes like this. In an early Valentine’s themed episode, Indiana asks Zach and Jared what was the weirdest thing they ever used as a condom. After Zach’s quick-witted answer of “prayer” (which is btw one of Zach’s funniest jokes on the podcast to this day), Jared revealed that he once used a king sized Snickers wrapper as a condom. It’s pretty safe to say that Jared regrets telling this story as the references to it are still made 200+ episodes later. Just know that as funny or as bizarre this story is, it goes back multiple years of episodes. And I don’t think it will ever get old. Making it an easy decision for the #1 Dropouts running gag of all time.
Now of course, every list has to have some honorable mentions:
HM1 - What’s up B-Words HM2 - Zach hitting on Indiana’s mom HM3 - Jared’s two moms/CB270 HM4 - Zach’s estranged father HM5 - Only Indiana gets censored HM6 - Sad-boy mic
I’d be also happy to explain any of the honorable mentions to anyone who wants the backstory on those as well.
Let me know what you guys think of this top 6. Thanks for reading if you made it this far lol.

Alhamdulillah, tonight marked the end of a 2-week intensive explanation of two poems in Tajweed: Tuhfah & Jazariyyah, explained by our Shaykh al-Muqri Abdur-Rahim Ieedy حفظه الله. The Shaykh granted us ijaazah of al-Jazariyyah.
Some individuals concentrate on mastering the recitation of the Quran without dedicating the same level of focus and effort to comprehending its meaning & application through the correct process; such as viewing it through the perspectives of the Sahabah.
Consequently, they end up becoming misguided - but proficient reciters. They then use their recital, acts of worship, and achievements as proof for their guidance, but the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said about the Khawarij:
"...and a people will come with beautiful words and evil deeds. They will recite the Quran, but it will not pass beyond their throats. They will leave the religion as an arrow leaves its target, and they will not return to it as the arrow does not return to its bow. They are the worst of the creation..."
"...If anyone of (you compares his prayer with) their prayer, he will consider his prayer inferior to theirs, and similarly his fasting inferior to theirs, but they will desert Islam (go out of religion) as an arrow goes through the victim's body..."
This indicates that an individual's skill in their recital, acts of worship, and accomplishments do not dictate their adherence to the truth.
Our respected Sh. Abdur-Rahim consistently educates us on the Quran's meaning and emphasizes crucial Aqeedah principles.
For example, after explaining line 58: إلا ب(ويل) (هل) وأولى (ناضرة)
The Shaykh pointed out the difference between the words: ناضرة & ناظرة in Suratul Qiyaamah.
وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَاضِرَةٌ * إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ "Some faces that Day shall be Nâdirah (shining and radiant). Looking at their Lord (Allah)."
Allah explicitly states that believers will look at their Lord. Hence, according to the Ahl-Sunnah, the believers will see their Lord on the Day of Judgement.
He then provided further supporting evidence from the Quran:
كَلاَّ إِنَّهُمْ عَنْ رَبِّهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَمَحْجُوبُونَ
"Undoubtedly they (evil-doers) will be veiled from seeing their Lord that Day."
Being veiled from seeing Allah on the Day of Judgement is a punishment for them. From this verse, we also understand that there will be others who will rewarded by seeing Allah on that Day.
This may seem like a basic point in Aqeedah (creed), but its significance cannot be overstated. Aqeedah and Manhaj (methodology) form the foundation of all disciplines within Islam, for those with profound insight. When calling others to Allah, it is essential to highlight the correct interpretation of Islam whenever the opportunity presents itself.
It is said that the Salafi will instill within you the proper Aqeedah & Manhaj - even if they are teaching mathematics!
May Allah accept and grant us to success to recite, understand, & implement the Quran as it was revealed.
✍️ Abu Awzaa’ee Abdus-Salaam al-Makki al-Hanbali وفقه الله 🕋 Makkah al-Mukarramah حرسها الله 🗓 Dhul-Qa'dah 5, 1445 (5/13/24ce) 🗝 Keys To Knowledge T.me/K2KNYC

If you are thinking about working at or if you are thinking about donating to Faith Comes By Hearing/Hosanna [https://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com](https://www.faithcomesbyhearing.com/) you should consider the following. Having worked at Faith Comes By Hearing myself for decades, you should be aware of their culture and ideology. (Arranged from most important to least.)

\*Treatment of the Bible:

Grammatical, historical and cultural context as well as literary genre are all ignored by top management. So, Scripture is often misquoted and misused:

Ignoring basic, common sense guidelines, rules for interpreting the Bible results in misinterpreting, misunderstanding, and misapplying the Bible. Management ignores the fact that observation (what the text says) must always come before interpretation (what the text means); and interpretation always comes before application (how the text applies to me). They do not consider the Bible text objectively first: They treat the text subjectively or relatively or assume what the passage text means. And they ignore the fact that a text cannot mean today what it never could have meant to the original authors and original readers. Exegesis is often contrasted with “eisegesis”; the Greek preposition εἰς means “into,” and hence eisegesis means reading your own meaning into the text. Bible study is not reading your personal theology into some biblical passage. Bible study is letting the text talk to us; we are the listeners, not the talkers. Many Christians just want to know what the Bible “means to me.” If you stop to think about it, this just is not possible. We must do the hard work of learning the author’s original meaning first, and without that we can’t ever know “what it means to me.” A text cannot mean what it never meant.

\*Feelings and experiences rule:

There is a focus by top management on personal experiences and feelings instead of a studied period of reflection: Emotional, simple, popular teaching instead of intellectually careful and doctrinally precise teaching. Bible studies go straight to the question, “What does this passage mean to me?” while bypassing the prior question, “What does the passage say and why do I think my interpretation is correct?” Management promotes and allows employees to get away with applying an understanding of a passage that is based on vague feelings or first impressions and not on the hard work of reading the context, verifying with commentaries and using study tools such as concordances, Bible dictionaries, and the like because a careful exercise of reason is not important in understanding what the Bible actually says for management. Besides, it takes work! For management, Christianity is identified with subjective feelings, sincere motives, personal piety, and blind faith. Management tests the truth not by a careful application of our God-given faculties of thought, or even by biblical mandates (for example, 2 Corinthians 10:5), but rather by private subjective experiences. For the most part, theoretical reason is just not part of the culture at FCBH. In fact, top management will often spiritualizing normal, everyday things like advice, facts, common knowledge:

Example during a meeting, the CEO said he saw a full moon, then clouds formed & covered the moon, then clouds dissipated. He then said he felt God say: "I can turn nothing into something; something into nothing; turn this ministry into something & if it goes thick & blocks Jesus; it has to diminish.”

So, personal, subjective experiences that top management shares equals truth that employees must agree with or at least accept as true.

Also, time is money, but management uses their mandatory meetings to discuss controversial or complex topics (e.g., fasting, communion, tithing, personal stewardship of money, helping the homeless, how to create more interaction with remote workers, how to retain employees, how to hire more Gen Z employees, past trauma), most of which are unrelated to the actual work. Then they ask employees (most of which have no authority to get things changed/done) what their opinion is about the controversial or complex topic, instead of consulting with professionals or experts.

So, top management will read a bible verse (not a paragraph, not a chapter, a verse; usually out of context) using a version of the Bible that is almost a paraphrase. Then share something personal that happened to them, something they did or saw or experienced or a personal conviction that is not related to the verse. Then explain how they felt about it, how they interpreted it. Then they will ask employees (especially internationals) to share similar experiences. And, then if no one shares or comments or speaks, management makes employees feel guilty: Along the lines of “So, God is not working in your life?”

Example: “I felt God give me this verse about gossip. Let me share with you some personal stories about gossip…. This is how I see it. Now, in the last 5 min of our time, I want people to share. I especially want input from internationals. Does anyone have anything to say about this? No, one? Is God not speaking to you? How can God not be moving and speaking? This is unreal….”

Top management will often use a reader response or subjective biblical interpretation: “This is what I think this verse means. What do you think this verse means? What stood out to you? What did you learn? What is God asking you to apply?” This is a very self-centered way to interpret Scripture. The focus is all about you. What you think. What you feel. But, “The Bible is not about you.” - Timothy Keller. And this leads to people looking at the same verse and coming up with completely different interpretations. Everybody seems to have an opinion on what the Bible says/teaches.

So, instead of discovering what the original author said to the original readers. They will take Biblical concepts (e.g., called to ministry; felt led by the Spirit; God spoke to me; felt peace) and then add new meanings to them which the original author did not intend. This is dangerous since it leaves employees with doubt, disillusionment, disappointment, discouragement, and false hope and can leave them with unmet, unrealistic, and false expectations. Top management will also take subjective, unclear biblical principles or non-essentials, or personal convictions and make them scriptural authority and then judge other Christians who do not agree. They will treat the Proverbs as promises. They will also not make an effort to distinguish between Biblical principles and practices which are relative, time bound, culturally subjective, Biblically illustrated (not commanded). They will often make hasty generalizations. They will beg the question. They will commit special pleading, dictionary simpliciter, reductive, faulty analogy and many other fallacies. They will also allegorize promises in Scripture and spiritualize all principles. They assume that all historical narratives have individual identifiable moral application. God’s word should be taught clearly, not in a distorted manner. Top management will proof text and use religious words to promote their agenda.

And top management will encourage others to have this view/philosophy of Bible interpretation. Many incorrectly interpret the Bible and do not even realize it.

I pray to God that this bad method of interpretation is not being taught to internationals, to people who have never had bibles, who do not have biblical discernment, who don't know any better.

\*Inductive Bible study and internationals:

Hermeneutics has been defined as the science and art of biblical interpretation. Hermeneutics helps us understand the Bible. It is a science because there are specific rules the interpreter must follow. It is an art because it takes years of practice to develop the ability to employ those rules properly. There is a difference between a novice and a seasoned interpreter. Hermeneutics has two basic steps, finding what the text meant to its original audience, and then seeing how it applies to our current situation. Unfortunately, many people (Americans included), impose their own personal experiences, theology, and modern culture on to the Biblical text.

Fortunately, God has allowed us (especially Americans) to have Bible dictionaries, commentaries, handbooks, atlases, etc., to help us with correct hermeneutics, to understand the essential historical and cultural information - the context of the original author and readers of the Bible. We have tools that shed light on the text and help us to arrive at the correct interpretation. When you read a commentary, it will provide checks and balances against your possible mistakes. They can answer questions that a reading of the text can never provide or ask questions that you may never think of asking. Unfortunately, many international people groups do not have access to these tools (or even access to mature, trained, and experienced Christians and pastors). And even if they do have access to resources, they may not know how to use them properly (i.e., limitations of commentaries).

Grammatical-Historical Method or Inductive Bible study can easily be done with printed or digital Bibles. But how can a person do this with audio and video Bibles? This is critical especially for international people groups that do not have access to (and may never have) print Bibles.

False gospels and heresies are popular in illiterate people groups because they are not taught discernment or how to evaluate Scripture and the thoughts of others for themselves. People with ulterior motives misuse Scripture and end up influencing the illiterate.

If these Bible Films and audio Bibles are considered to be actual Bible Translations – video and audio translations of the Bible and the equivalent to and sometimes a replacement for print scripture – then should we also make it a point to teach people who are watching and listening to our video and audio Bible translations Biblical hermeneutics (historical-grammatical interpretation)? How to study the Bible properly for themselves?

My experience has been that many non-Christians (and Christians) misquote or misinterpret the Bible because they do not know how to actually read and study it on their own to find out what the text actually meant to the original author and audience and seeing how it applies to their current situation.

There are many ways to study the Bible, and there are many excellent study aids available to help you with specific books of the Bible. But the most important thing you need to remember is that to find out what the Bible says, you need to read it yourself in a way that will help you discover what it says, what it means, and how you are to apply it to your life. And the best way to do this is through the process called inductive study. Inductive study doesn’t tell you what the Bible means or what you should believe. Instead, it teaches you a method of studying God’s Word that can be applied to any portion of Scripture at any time.

Inductive Bible study draws you into personal interaction with the Scripture and thus with the God of the Scriptures so that your beliefs are based on a prayerful understanding and legitimate interpretation of Scripture.

\*Artistic freedom concerns:

Another concern is with the artistic freedom or personal preference when it comes to audio and video Bible media (when these function as replacements for print Scripture). How much can be taken before you compromise the historical accuracy or the meaning and understanding of the original message? A good translation must be faithful to the historical situation and not change the cultural background. In Bible Translation, the translator’s first job is to study the text carefully to discover the correct meaning (what the original author wanted to communicate). Do international people groups understand that the “artistic freedom” (e.g., how the film is lit, the key shots, angles it shoots from, close-ups, point of view, sets, locations and props, editing, the dialogue and the actors’ performance and emotions, wardrobe choices, soundtrack, visual transitions, reference shots), the visuals and sound, are all NOT inspired?

Biblical and Orthodox Christianity teaches that All Scripture (not just some) is inspired by God who utilized the human element within man to accomplish this without error.The very WORDS (not just the ideas, even parts of letters, and sometimes the tense of verbs) are a result of the mind of God expressed in human terms and conditions. The Bible IS fully true in all that it teaches or asserts to be true (including historical and scientific matters). Only the original documents (autographs) are completely free from error. Does FCBH make an effort to explain this to people groups? If not, then there will be conflict when the visuals and sounds that are added do not match the Biblical text. There will be confusion, doubt, disillusionment, disappointment, discouragement, false hope when people are confronted with unmet, unrealistic, and false expectations.

So, using audio and especially video as Bibles should come with some teaching of the basic principles of film criticism, the doctrine of inspiration (difference between artistic freedom and the Word of God), and inductive Bible study or Bible interpretation.

\*Communicating the truth:

They employ a presuppositional and fideistic/experiential approach to evangelism: In the many testimonies that are shared, many of the people who receive the audio bibles say they believe in Jesus because FCBH gave them bibles that are in their native language. Makes you wonder what would happen if the audio was from the Quran or book of Mormon. Would they believe in anything as long as it was in their own language? FCBH does not seem to make sure people are actually believing facts. There seems to be no appeals to evidence and reason for the truthfulness of the Christianity. One should become a Christian and believe that Jesus is God because it is true (from reason, historical evidence, archaeological evidence, theistic arguments) and not because the Bible one reads is in a certain language. You should follow Jesus because He is God and proved it; not because He speaks your language.

\*Hearing from God?

Many in management practice “hearing from God” and then claim God said something specific and personal to them and to the ministry. This practice uses God's name in vain. And often use God to avoid personal responsibility - “I heard from God; God told me; I felt led; God spoke to me…” They then put what happens on God, so they avoid any personal responsibility if it does not come to pass. They make Christianity out to be personal, private, and a matter of “how I feel about things.” Many Christians actually feel spiritually sub-standard and defeated because for them “the heavens have been silent”. This can be debilitating, and it’s profoundly unfair to employees if their only shortcoming is entertaining a false expectation of what a relationship with God entails. Conversations are often littered with casual references to one’s latest revelations without any sense of the gravity of the assertion, or any sense of responsibility to justify the claim. Even Jesus Himself didn’t presume to speak for God without compelling evidence. But, management takes personal opinions and spiritualize them as if they were God’s word to give divine authority to impulses or thoughts that drift through their minds. To say “God is telling me” gives feelings an authority the Scripture does not justify and virtually ends debate. You can’t argue with the person if God supposedly gave the command. Trusting inner feelings is not biblical. It’s confusing at best, and dangerous at worst.

And with certain requests from employees, when top management does not want to do something, they will respond by saying things like: “I need to pray about it first. Sorry, I do not feel led. I need to get confirmation first. I need to have peace about it first. I need to hear from God first.” But with other things, with things they want to do, they do not need to pray about it first, do not need to feel led, do not need to get confirmation first, do not need to have a peace about it first, do not need to hear from God first. When management does not want to do something, they pass the responsibility off to God (“We cannot…. because God didn’t tell us to do it. Didn't get confirmation.”); but when they do want to do something, they don't seek God and do what they want (“We have decided and are going to… and we don’t need to ask God for guidance or permission”).

The world was a boozy whirl of lights and sounds. Images, broken and fragmented, came and went. Voices, laughter, screaming. The ground pitched like the deck of a tempest-tossed ship, and he felt heavy, as though the ground were pulling him to it. C’mere, Dommy. He fell, lay on the pavement, and pushed himself up again, staggering like a drunk on his way home. His head spun, his body ached, and things seemed blurry, like half-formed images glimpsed underwater.
It was the light blue hour before dawn and Dom was…somewhere. He should have recognized the stores and street signs around him, but he didn’t. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and a sense of confusion gripped him so strongly that he was beginning to panic. Where was he? What happened?
The world spun away again and the next thing he knew, he was lying in a heap of garbage bags, used needles, and rubbish. He came awake with a jerk and sat up so fast that a bolt of pain jammed into his skull. He winced and pressed his hand to his forehead. He felt hot, clammy.
Something was seriously wrong.
Somehow he got to his feet again and started walking. The sun was up now and the streets were filled with people. They all sneered in disgust as he passed, and he wrapped his arms around his chest like a baby comforting itself. He was getting cold. His muscles were sore. Tears streamed down his face and he wanted to cry.
Going on instinct alone, Dom made his way back home and climbed the steps to his apartment. Exhaustion swept over him and he sagged against the door as he dug in his pocket for the keys. They shook in his hand and he had to focus really hard to get the key into the lock.
Inside, he collapsed onto the couch and his eyelids instantly drooped. He was so weary that he couldn’t lift his head, couldn’t form a single coherent thought. Dom felt himself starting to sink, and snapped his eyes open with a start. Something in his soul told him that if he slept, he would die.
He couldn’t help it, though. He was falling, tumbling, hands reaching up from hell to grab him. His eyes fluttered closed again and the world started to go dark, his heart slamming in fear. He tried to fight, but the pull of darkness was too strong, too alluring. Why was he fighting? Why not just…give up? Hadn’t he thought of killing himself before? Didn’t he hate his life and himself? What was there to fight for? A wife? Kids? A community that loved and respected him? Shit, affordable groceries?
No.
There was nothing.
He had nothing and was nothing.
A sense of peace blossomed from the darkness, and suddenly death didn’t seem so scary. In fact, it was warm…inviting.
It was life that was cold and hateful. Not death.
Death accepted you no matter who you were. It didn’t reject you…it didn’t ignore you. If you sought it, you would find it, and if you embraced it, it would embrace you.
With that thought in mind, Dom gave up.
And died.
***
Bruce Kenner, captain of the 5th Albany precinct, sat behind his desk on the morning of June 28 and lazily leafed through a stack of files as he sipped from a mug of coffee. A roughly built man with a dark goatee and graying blonde hair, he looked more like a small town southern sheriff than a low level public works functionary. In fact, he tended to act like it too. He liked to hunt, fish, and drink beer on his off time. Albany wasn’t a big city, but it was big enough that you never got a fucking break. Run here, run there, arrest this asshole, investigate that asshole. By the time Friday rolled around, he was so ready for the peace and tranquility of a fishing trip he could taste it.
Already this Monday morning, he was looking forward to another one.
Over the weekend, three kids went missing in the Pine Hills and Washington Park area, bringing the total for that summer up to eight. All were teenagers, all were troubled. Most were boys, but two were girls.
Troubled kids run away all the time. They might be gone a few days, sulking at a friend’s house over something their father or mother did, but they’d eventually come home. None of these kids had come back yet and from what he knew, a few of them weren’t the runaway types. They were shits at school and caused problems, but they had no reason to up and leave. Hell, Bruce himself raised hell as a kid, but he always found his way back home, even if he spent the previous night dying in a field from Mad Dogg 20/20 poisoning.
One or two kids going missing…okay, it happens. Eight? Over a span of four weeks?
Yeah, something was wrong here.
But what?
There was nothing on any of these kids. No one saw them, no one knew anything - one minute they were here, the next they weren’t. What could he or anyone else do with that?. The public broke cops’ balls all the time, but if you don’t have evidence, you don’t have evidence. What do you want? Door to door searches? Roadblocks? Dogs and helicopters? Yeah, then when you actually do it, they cry fascism. Guess I’ll just use my Spidey Senses.
Bruce wished he had spidey senses. He wanted to find these kids as much as anyone, and he was starting to get pissed off that he couldn’t. He took another sip from his mug and read on. The latest kids to go missing were three boys between the ages of fourteen and eighteen.
They were all white, all thin (except for one). If there was a serial killer in town - and Bruce hoped to fuck there wasn’t - he had a type. What, black kids aren’t good enough to kill, cannibalize, and wear like a skin suit? They should charge him with a hate crime for discrimination.
That way he’d actually stay locked up.
The door opened and Vanessa Rodregiez, his deputy, came in. A tall, shapely Hispanic woman with dark eyes and a mouth poised always on the edge of a smile, she wore her black hair in a ponytail that would look stern and severe on anyone else, but on her, looked childlike. She was twenty-seven and had been on the force for three years, but you could be forgiven for thinking her much younger. “Bright and early, I see,” she said with a grin.
Bruce grumbled.
Vanessa held down the fort during the graveyard shift, acting to the night as he acted to the day. She was young and full of energy, which clashed with Bruce, who was old and just wanted to be left alone. Despite their differences, Bruce loved her like a kid sister…an annoying kid sister he wanted to throat punch sometimes.
“You missed all the fun last night,” she said and parked her butt on the edge of Bruce’s desk. He glared at her, but she ignored him.
“Good,” he said. Then: “What happened?”
“Big fight outside of Club Vlad,” she said. “It looked like a WorldStar video.”
For a moment, Bruce was lost. “Club what?”
“Club Vlad,” Vanessa said. “Where the Fuze Box used to be.”
Ah, right. The Fuze Box was an Albany landmark, a night club for punks…or goths…or someone. Certainly not for Bruce Kenner. It was small, dingy, and always had people in black waiting outside. On Friday and Saturday nights, it blasted strange music with lyrics about fighting The Man. Kids had been fighting the Man since before Bruce was even born and they hadn’t beaten him yet. Kudos to them for still trying.
Last year, The Fuze Box closed down and someone else bought it. It reopened last month and looked more or less the same: Posers, shitty music, and spiked hair. So much spiked hair. “Place is still a pain in the ass,” Bruce said.
“Yep,” Vanessa chirped. “It doesn’t know what it wants to be now. One minute they play nightcore, the next EDM. It’s all over the place.”
Bruce raised a quizzical brow.
“Not that I’ve ever been there in my free time,” Vanessa said in a tone that suggested she had,
Bruce gave a judgemental hum.
“Anyway,” Vanessa went on, “you see we have some new missing persons?”
Sighing, Bruce sat back in his chair. “Yeah. I did.”
“People are starting to ask questions,” Vanessa warned.
That brought a terse smile to Bruce’s weathered face. “Maybe they’ll solve it then.”
“Ha, fat chance,” Vanessa said. She got up and stretched. “Anyway, I’m bushed. Here’s my…” she trailed off and looked at her empty hands. “Damn, where’s my report? I just had it?” She turned in a confused circle as if she might be able to spot her report making a break for it. “Huh,” she said. She left the office and came back a moment later holding a folder. “Found it,” she grinned.
Bruce just looked at her.
“Um…here it is.”
He didn’t take it.
Her smile faltered. She carefully sat it on top of the files Bruce was looking at.
And his hands.
“I’ll just leave that right here.” She patted it for good measure.
“Thank you,” Bruce said.
“Okay. Night.”
“Goodnight,” Bruce said as she left through a shaft of morning sunlight. Alone, Bruce sat her report aside and went back to the missing kids. This case was giving him a headache and it wasn’t even nine. With a deep sigh, he slumped back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the armrests.
Was it Saturday yet?
He could really use a fishing trip.
***
Dom came awake in the cold purple twilight with a shocked gasp like a man coming up seconds before drowning. His eyes strained from his sweaty face and his mouth hung slack, twisted in a gruesome parody of The Scream. His mind was muddled, murky - he didn’t know where he was or even who he was, but he knew this,.
He couldn’t breathe.
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but his lungs did not fill with air. A great, unseen weight seemed to bear down on his chest, and panic gripped him. He tried to move, but his arms refused to heed his brain’s command. The weight seemed heavier, all over, crushing him like a bug. Confusion filled him and he started to pant.
Without warning, his bowels and bladder loosened, and horrible wetness filled his pants. He tried to sit up, but his body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. His chest rose and fell with the frantic labor of his breath, but his lungs remained inert. A cry of fear bubbled up inside of him, but escaped his mouth only as a breathy groan.
A bust of adrenaline shot through him and he tried to stand, but succeeded only in falling off the couch instead, landing face first against the cold tile floor. He felt his nose crunch, but the pain was muted.
Dom thought he lost consciousness after that, but wasn’t sure. His next memory was of shivering so violently that his teeth clacked together. A phantom chill - perhaps from the floor - had settled into his bones, and was colder than he had ever been in his life, colder even than the time he fell into a snowbank and got lost when he was two. Shudders racked his body, and though he tried to turn over, he was too fucking heavy. It was like every muscle in his body had turned to dead weight. Fragmented thoughts swirled in his head, faint colors in the dark, but he couldn’t put any of them together.
With great effort, he managed to push himself slightly up, but a wave of lightheadedness crashed over him and he lowered his head once more. He stopped trying and simply lay there. Shortly, his eyes began to burn and he realized that he wasn’t blinking. Jesus Christ, he wasn’t blinking.
For some strange reason, that brought a fresh bout of panic. He started to hyperventilate, but his lungs still wouldn’t work. He wasn’t blinking…he wasn’t breathing…what was happening to him?
A whimper burst from his throat and he started to cry.
He must have cried himself to sleep, because he woke sometime later to the most intense headache he’d ever had. It felt like something was eating his brain from the inside out. He was sore all over, and could feel his muscles twitching, as though a thousand living things were burrowing through his body. A cramp shot down his right leg, and the toes of his left foot curled involuntarily. Slowly, his jaw clenched closed, and the muscles in his neck began to strain…then to burn. His panic turned to terror, and Dom wiggled across the floor like a worm, his limbs screaming in red agony and his brain filling with heat. He somehow wound up on his right side, and his arms curled slowly up to his chest, crossing at the wrists like a mummy. He tried to pull them apart, but the slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain cutting through his body. His knees began to draw up to his stomach, and his fingers clenched tightly.
Cramps and spasms attacked every muscle in his body. He screamed through his teeth and shook, resembling a man in the electric chair as 40,000 volts of justice coursed through him. The pain grew gradually, getting worse and worse as minutes ticked by like hours. Higher, higher, higher - he clenched his eyes closed and shrieked as it became unbearable. Disjointed thoughts flashed through his mind - prayers, threats, curses, Jesus fucking…FUCK.
What was happening? God, what was happening to him? Was it fentanyl? He’d seen videos of people high on fentanyl, and they leaned in weird positions. He didn’t do drugs but maybe he ingested it somehow.
His panic may have returned if all of his muscles hadn’t picked that moment to contract as one. His eyes bulged from their sockets and his jaw unclenched just enough for him to utter a high. Agonized scream that echoed through his empty apartment like thunder.
A human being can only take so much before giving out. When the pain reached a crescendo, and Dom mercifully sank into consciousness once more. The sun rose and cascaded through the apartment’s sole window, falling over his huddled form. Slowly, it tracked across the sky before setting again. As the last rays disappeared behind the horizon, Dom’s eyes opened. The pain of the night before was blessedly gone, replaced by a feeling of numbness - the cool ash after the hot fire. His thoughts were slow and thick like molasses, but he could actually think again. Nightmare memories flooded back to him, but he wasn’t sure they were real. He was lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his chest as if for warmth, and his teeth lightly chattered against the icy chill. He was so cold that he didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t stay here forever. He needed help. He needed…
A shower.
Yeah, a hot shower. That would warm him up.
Gritting his teeth, he slowly sat up, ready for a burst of pain.
But none came.
He did, however, feel heavy. Getting to his feet, he stumbled and nearly fell, catching himself against the counter. His limbs had no feeling. It’s like they weren’t even there. Head hung, Dom tried to catch his breath, but it felt like he wasn’t breathing at all. His eyelids drooped closed and he felt like he was going to fall down. Summoning all the might he could, he shuffled into the bathroom with the stiff gait of an old man. He snapped the light on, and cold, white brilliance filled the space, blinding him.
Leaning heavily against the sink, he gripped the cold porcelain. Suddenly, he was afraid of looking into the mirror. He was sure that whatever reflection he saw, it would be of something else, something monstrous.
Dom lifted his head and faced the glass.
His heart shrank.
The man in the mirror was him but different. His skin was white as milk, lacking all color whatsoever save for the ugly purple patch on the left side. IResembling a giant bruise, it started at the temple and extended down to the slope of his neck, disappearing beneath his T-shirt. He gingerly lifted the shirt, and moaned when he saw that his entire left side was discolored, the purple edged with a puffy shade of pink. His sallow skin clung tight to his ribcage, and his hip bones stuck out so much it looked painful. Back in the mirror, his cheeks were sunken, hollow, and his eyes were a hazy, dishwater gray. His skull seemed bigger, his hair longer. Dom wanted to whip his head away from the phantom before him, to never see it again, but he was transfixed.
There was no way that thing was -
Dom looked away, cutting that thought off before it could finish.
A shower.
He needed a shower.
Slowly, stiffly, Dom undressed, peeling off his shirt and his soiled pants. He dropped them in a heap on the floor and stepped under the spray. He could feel the water pounding against him, but it provided no heat. It was neither hot nor cold. It was simply there.
Dom pressed his head to the slick shower wall and stood there for a long time. He was spent, tired, and fried - he had no more emotions left to give. He got out after a little while, dried off, and put on a clean pair of shorts. He settled into bed and lay there with his hands folded over his chest and his eyes open. They felt gritty, dry. His stomach felt bloated, gassy. He was drowsy now, the weight of the past two days (or was it two weeks?) coming down on him all at once. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.
He was still asleep - but aware - when the knocking on his door started the next morning. Time was funny in this state of being, fast and jerky but also slow and echoing. Keys rattled the knob turned. The landlord came in with a cop. They saw him on the bed, laid out like a corpse for a viewing, and the cop radioed in a code 35. Soon, cops were all around him, making noise and touching things. He had the vague sense of discomfort and embarrassment at the intrusion. A baling man in a suit stood over him, a cop who looked like a redneck beside him. “He didn’t die here,” the medical examiner said.
The cop looked at him questioningly. Dom caught the name KENNER on his name tag.
“See this?” the M.E. said and gestured to Dom’s face. “That’s livor mortis. When you die, your blood pools at the lowest point. If you’re on your left side, for example, it pools on the left.”
Kenner looked at Dom and then back to the M.E. “Someone moved him?”
“Looks like it,” the M.E. said.
“When did he die?”
The M.E. examined Dom as though he were nothing more than a side of beef. “At a glance? Three days. I won’t have a better answer until I open him up.”
Dom was still awake when they put him into a body bag and zipped it up. He felt a stirring of fear beneath the cold numbness, but he was too tired to worry about it now.
Later, he thought.
He would panic later.
For now, Dom slept.

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

There is a problem with Invoker's orbs. While you have a choice when you are to throw a lone sunstrike for example, you are certainly denied the choice once you want to cast a combo, since invoking a spell and then swapping orb is impossible if you try to cast 4, 5, 6, 7 spells at once. Spell Lifesteal also sucks and Spell AMP is inferior to CDR. It could be possible to provide each invoked spell the rest of the orb effects in scale, for a small time-window right after the spell is invoked, thus make combos better.
Formula: 2.5% x (sum_of_orb_levels-1)

min: 0% orb effect share (sum=0/1)
max: 50% orb effect share (sum=21)

Imagine you Invoke Sunstrike. For the first 1.5s since Invocation, assuming you still have EEE, you will receive WWW + QQQ effects by 50% at maximum level. That is 12% Spell Lifesteal and 10.5% CDR. If you have QWE, then you receive full Q, W, E and then 50% QQ, WW, EE. That is 8%+16%/2=16% spell lifesteal and 7%+14%/2 = 14% CDR and Magic Amp in total.
PS: Shard, Aghs or a Talent could increase the max effect by +50%, essentially providing all orb benefits for 1.5s after invocation.

"Now that you have learned of the doctrine—metaphysical, cosmological, eschatological—you wish to put it into practice in the measure possible, and to do so upon the formal basis of Christianity; in other words, you are aspiring to follow a Christian esoteric way. You know that pure metaphysics is 1. essential, 2. primordial, and 3. universal: being essential, it is independent of all religious or confessional formulations; being primordial, it is the truth that existed prior to all dogmatic formulations; being universal, it encompasses all intrinsically orthodox symbolism and can therefore be combined with every religious language. Next comes method, which is quintessentially prayer, not only in the most far-reaching sense, but also in the profoundest; examples of this in the Christian climate are the practice of the Hesychasts and the life of the “Russian Pilgrim”. And all of this requires, imperatively, the fundamental virtues on the one hand and on the other, extrinsically speaking, a corresponding mode of behavior, namely, one that is in conformity with the doctrine and the way."
Schuon, The Fullness of God (p. 169)

Welcome to /Psychotechnology!

Psychotechnology is an umbrella term describing the various traditions, practices, rituals, sciences, and tools that allow humans to improve their physical, psychological, and material well-being at both the individual and collective levels. This subreddit is dedicated to exploring these diverse approaches, fostering discussions, and sharing insights on how they contribute to our well-being.

What Counts as Psychotechnology?

Religion

Religions are organized systems of beliefs, rituals, and practices that often involve a commitment to a higher power or spiritual force. They provide moral frameworks, community support, and a sense of purpose. Examples include:

Christianity: Based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, emphasizing love, forgiveness, and salvation.
Islam: Founded on the revelations given to the Prophet Muhammad, focusing on submission to the will of Allah.
Buddhism: A path of practice and spiritual development leading to insight into the true nature of reality, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha).
Hinduism: A major religious and cultural tradition of South Asia, developed from Vedic religion, encompassing a variety of practices and beliefs in karma and dharma.
Judaism: The monotheistic religion of the Jewish people, rooted in the Hebrew Bible and centered on the covenant between God and the Israelites.

Spiritual Traditions

Spiritual traditions encompass a wide range of beliefs and practices that focus on personal spiritual development outside the confines of organized religion. Examples include:

Paganism: A group of contemporary religious movements influenced by or claiming to be derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe.
Occultism: A category of esoteric beliefs and practices that involve the use of magical rituals, symbols, actions, gestures, and language.
Druidry: A modern spiritual or religious movement that generally promotes harmony, connection, and reverence for the natural world.
Wicca: A modern pagan, witchcraft religion that emphasizes the worship of nature and the practice of magic.

Psychological Sciences

Psychological sciences involve the systematic study of the mind and behavior, often employing empirical methods and therapeutic techniques to improve mental health. Examples include:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A type of psychotherapy that helps individuals change negative thought patterns and behaviors.
Mindfulness: The practice of purposely focusing attention on the present moment—and accepting it without judgment.
Group Therapy: A form of psychotherapy that involves one or more therapists working with several people at the same time.

Exploring the Similarities

Despite their differences, religions, spiritual traditions, and psychological sciences share common goals and practices aimed at enhancing well-being. Here are some examples of specific practices within each category that might achieve similar benefits:

Meditation and Prayer

Buddhist Meditation: Buddhist practices like Vipassana or Zen meditation focus on mindfulness and developing insight into the nature of reality.
Christian Prayer: Engaging in prayer, whether communal or private, fosters a sense of connection with the divine and provides comfort and guidance.
Mindfulness Meditation: In psychological sciences, mindfulness meditation helps individuals cultivate present-moment awareness and reduce stress.

Rituals and Ceremonies

Hindu Rituals: Daily rituals such as puja involve offerings to deities and serve to reinforce religious devotion and community bonds.
Wiccan Sabbats: Celebrating seasonal festivals, Wiccans honor nature cycles and engage in rituals that foster a sense of community and spiritual connection.
Behavioral Activation: In CBT, establishing regular routines and engaging in enjoyable activities can enhance mood and overall well-being.

Ethical Guidelines and Moral Development

Islamic Ethics: Following the Five Pillars of Islam provides a moral framework that guides behavior and fosters community cohesion.
Pagan Ethical Codes: Many Pagan traditions follow ethical guidelines such as the Wiccan Rede, which advises against harming others.
Values Clarification: In psychological sciences, helping individuals clarify their values can guide behavior and decision-making, promoting a sense of purpose and integrity.

Community and Support Networks

Jewish Community Life: Participating in synagogue activities and Jewish festivals creates a strong sense of community and mutual support.
Druid Gatherings: Modern Druidry often involves gatherings in nature, fostering a sense of belonging and connection to the natural world.
Group Therapy: Provides a supportive environment where individuals can share experiences, gain insights, and build connections with others facing similar challenges.

Personal Growth and Self-Improvement

Christian Confession: The practice of confession and seeking forgiveness can lead to personal growth and emotional relief.
Occult Practices: Practices such as shadow work in occult traditions encourage deep self-reflection and personal transformation.
Cognitive Restructuring in CBT: This technique involves identifying and challenging negative thought patterns, promoting mental resilience and personal development.

Why These Practices Matter

By examining these diverse practices through the lens of psychotechnology, we can appreciate the shared human endeavor to enhance well-being. Whether through religious devotion, spiritual exploration, or psychological techniques, these practices offer pathways to improved mental health, stronger communities, and a greater sense of purpose.

Key Benefits Across Practices

Stress Reduction: Practices like meditation, prayer, and mindfulness help manage stress and promote relaxation.
Emotional Support: Community activities in religious and spiritual traditions, as well as support groups in psychological practices, provide emotional and social support.
Moral and Ethical Guidance: Ethical teachings in religions and spiritual traditions, and values clarification in psychology, help guide behavior and decision-making.
Personal Insight: Reflective practices in all three domains foster self-awareness and personal growth.

By framing these diverse concepts as sharing a common goal—directly and indirectly enhancing one's personal psyche—this subreddit aims to provide a platform for exploring and discussing these varied approaches, both their merits and drawbacks. So please create discussion threads, share books/articles/videos/podcasts, and other resources! Feel free to ask for questions and advice, and share any personal stories you have!

Community Guidelines

To keep our community welcoming and productive, please adhere to the following guidelines:

Respectful Dialogue: Respect differing opinions and experiences. Personal attacks or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated.
Stay On-Topic: Keep discussions relevant to psychotechnology and related practices.
No Spam: Avoid posting irrelevant links, self-promotion, or advertisements without prior approval from the moderators.
Confidentiality: Be mindful of sharing personal information and respect the privacy of others.

Welcome to /Psychotechnology!

I grew in a Christian and community. I believe I have a relationship with God and have been searching for answers regarding what is the “correct religion” - the Gospel has always spoken directly to my heart and I resonate and accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.
I do have religious trauma due to some personal experiences in a cult, churches and people who claimed to be Christian’s and all this has affected my journey on my personal faith.
In the past few months I’ve been in some weird situations in which I feel like Islam is pulling me, I’m reading the Quran and I also resonate with that perspective. Besides, I’ve encountered some Muslim people who seem to be (in my experience) more devoted to their beliefs and an actual example of the principles in their Holy book. I’m surprised by the conversions to Islam especially in the UK and the coincidences specifically in my life are so odd.
From a Christian perspective I’m I being put to test? Is this a spiritual attack?
I appreciate your prayers for clarity and direction and some words of wisdom if anyone has been through something similar.

Chapter II: The Sacred Whores of Satisfaction and Spiritual Union
In the depths of Khemu, where desire reigns supreme and passion flows like molten fire, there exists a sacred sisterhood known as the Whores of Satisfaction. These divine emissaries of pleasure and ecstasy are the embodiment of carnal desire, guiding seekers on a journey of sensual enlightenment and divine union.
The Whores of Satisfaction:
Within the darkened halls of Khemu, the Whores of Satisfaction hold court, their presence a beacon of temptation and allure. They are the guardians of forbidden desires, the keepers of hidden pleasures, and the conduits of divine ecstasy. To seek their company is to surrender to the depths of desire and embrace the fires of passion.
Spiritual Marriage Ceremony:
The Spiritual Marriage Ceremony is a sacred union between a seeker and a Sacred Whore of Satisfaction. It is a ritual of profound significance, marking the union of mortal and divine, flesh and spirit, in a bond of ecstatic love and union.
Preparation: 1. Sacred Space: Prepare a sanctified space for the ceremony, adorned with scarlet draperies, flickering candles, and the heady scent of exotic incense. Let the atmosphere be charged with anticipation and desire, invoking the presence of the infernal deities and the spirits of passion. 2. Invocation: Stand at the threshold of the sacred space and invoke the presence of the infernal deities with a chant of reverence and devotion. Call upon the powers of desire, passion, and ecstasy to bless the union that is to come.
Union: 1. Entrance of the Sacred Whore: As the Sacred Whore of Satisfaction enters the sanctified space, greet her with reverence and respect. Offer her a libation of wine and honey, symbolizing the sweetness of divine union. 2. Exchange of Vows: Stand before the Sacred Whore and exchange vows of devotion and commitment. Pledge yourself to her in body, mind, and spirit, and affirm your desire for union and ecstasy. 3. Blessing of the Deities: Call upon the infernal deities to bless the union, invoking their presence with prayers and invocations. Offer offerings of blood and incense to honor their divine grace and seek their blessing upon the union.
Step-by-Step Sex Ceremony: 1. Sacred Touch: Begin the ceremony with gentle caresses and touches, allowing the energy to flow between you and the Sacred Whore. Explore each other's bodies with reverence and intention, awakening the senses and kindling the fires of desire. 2. Invocation of Desire: Call upon the spirits of passion and lust to infuse the space with their fiery energies. Offer prayers and invocations to invoke their presence and invite them to partake in the sacred union. 3. Ecstatic Dance: Engage in a ritualistic dance of ecstasy and passion, moving your bodies in harmony with the rhythm of the divine. Surrender to the primal energies that surge between you, allowing them to guide your movements and awaken your senses. 4. Tantric Union: Merge your energies with the Sacred Whore in a tantric union of body, mind, and spirit. Explore the depths of divine ecstasy as you become one with each other and the infernal energies that surround you. 5. Sacred Release: As the ceremony reaches its climax, surrender to the waves of ecstasy and release, allowing yourself to be consumed by the fires of passion and pleasure. Merge with the divine in a moment of ecstatic union, transcending the boundaries of the mortal world and ascending to the realms of divine ecstasy.
Through the Sacred Whores of Satisfaction and the rituals of spiritual union, seekers are initiated into the mysteries of divine ecstasy and ecstatic communion. They are guided by the wisdom of the infernal deities and the sacred teachings of the underworld, paving the way for spiritual liberation and union with the divine.

I understand the sentiments of the majority of the people from these and similar groups who've left Islam on account of the multiplicity of contradictions in the Quran, as well as the Ahadith of Sihah Al Sittah, as well as the Sahih Tafasir of the Quran from the Sunni sect.
I don't even need to delve into the historical personage of Mohammad from the perspective of the aforementioned Sahih works. From the Pedophilia, the killings and beheadings, and the later conquests on the part of those who allegedly came after him, those are all well documented and argued upon by relevant parties, extensively.
In the Shia sect, we understood that "people apostated after Mohammad" but the number of people to whom this Apostasy is ascribed often varies. Herein lies the very first contradiction of Islam in general, and Sunni'ism I particular: The Apostasy Wars, as was waged by the first Sunni Caliph, Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr, as Islamist books tell us, sent armies left and right, fighting people all over the place, and killing well over 40,000 people or more in the course of 1 year. Abu Bakr was killing people whom 1. He thought had "apostated," (his definition of them apostating is the fact that they refused to give Bay'ah to him and even those who did give Bay'ah, withheld Zakat from him, so in his Ijtihaad they had apostated. 2. Those who withheld Jizya (Islamist/Arab tax imposed on the conquered people.)
The books also tell us that there were various people who had come out claiming to be prophets, after Mohammad. A well known name in that accusation is "Musaylama." Abu Bakr also slaid these people and their armies. But here is the strange part: what we know about Musaylama is what we have been told by Abu Bakr and his supporters. An example would be analogous to Hitler, destroying all the Jews, and then living to tell the tale about how he did the world a favor by annihilating all Jews from the face of the earth. i.e. writing the narrative from HIS perspective. Was it Abu Bakr who had apostated, or the people HE was killing for having apostated?
The number of people who claimed to be Prophets AFTER the supposed or alleged existence of Mohammad is a testament to the nonsensical absurdity of the Islamist claim that "Mohammad is Khatim al-Anbiya." It is no wonder that early Islamists had to enshroud their newly created mythical prophet into a Supreme prophet who is not only the best-of-the-best but also "the seal of Prophethood," to the extent that such absurdities have been sold to us through various Ahadith from the Sihah Al Sitah that say "Ya Ali, you are to me like Haroon was to Musa, except there will be no Prophets after me." This idea of this fictitious mythical prophet being embedded into the minds of a generation of illiterate and improvised people was further intensified by over 8 centuries of Persian propaganda throughout the Abbasid dynasty.
Going back to Abu Bakr, having killed people, I doubt that Abu Bakr, Uthman, Ali, or Umar, etc ever actually existed. Muawiyah, on the other hand, is pretty well preserved in terms of the fact that we have coins from his time that depict the Christian Cross. The Ummayad dynasty were more than likely just an offshoot branch of Christianity based on the fact that coins from their time have no mention of a "Mohammad," nor of "Islam" as a religion. But on the contrary, show the Cross.
Islam, as a religion, has been plagiarized and stolen off of various different sources. Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism. The Quran itself is an amalgamation of multiple myths from different sources that came before, during, and after it. The entire religion was not canonized until several centuries after the supposed existence of the child lover prophet. Although, to be fair, Mohammad, from the perspective of the Shias was not married to a 6 year old child.
The Abbasids and Ommayads had several back and forth bloody civil wars, and even prayed their respective prayers in different directions. "Islam" as a mythical cult came several centuries after Pedo Mo, and the form and structure of Islamism varied based on the culture of the people who adopted the myth. The only people who usually tended to and continue to benefit from this cultic myth are the ones sitting at the pulpits and stands, preaching the mythical garbage that comes from this almost Satanic cult. Everyone else at the bottom tends to be poor and blindly following the speaker.
While this is one of many posts I plan to be doing, this is just an introductory post. I'm certain that neither Mohammad, nor the "Rashidun" Sunni Caliphs, nor the 12 Shia Imams ever actually existed. The only sources that claim they ever existed, happen to be Muslim sources. The historicity of any of these characters, but most importantly the historicity of Pedo Mo himself are all accounts of their nonexistence.

Examples of invocation prayers

PrayingDoesntWork

Introduction

Once Upon a Female Rage...

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Conclusion/TLDR

Welcome to /Psychotechnology!

What Counts as Psychotechnology?

Religion

Spiritual Traditions

Psychological Sciences

Exploring the Similarities

Meditation and Prayer

Rituals and Ceremonies

Ethical Guidelines and Moral Development

Community and Support Networks

Personal Growth and Self-Improvement

Why These Practices Matter

Key Benefits Across Practices

Community Guidelines

The Error of “Acting to Prove Your Faith”

Understanding Faith from Everyday Life

The Principle of Faith and Faith in Christ

What Really is Faith?

Invest in Your Faith

SurahTaha #Ayat39 #WazifaForLove #IslamicWazifa #LoveSpells #QuranicWazifa #PowerOfPrayer #FaithOverFear #ManifestLove #DuaForLoveBack #SpiritualHealing #TrustAllah #LoveSolutions #RelationshipGoals #DivineIntervention #ChooseLove #PatienceInLove #UltimateHappiness #BlessingsAround #HealingPrayers