Do you believe in Karma?

Johnny Foreigner

Do you believe in karma?
I am 35 years old on Wednesday, and when I look back over my life most of the people I knew are either in jail or the grave. I suppose you could call that karma.
Don't get me wrong, I am no angel myself. At 15 years old in 1992 I was dealing 100 Ecstacy tablets every Saturday night at raves in London. By 17 I had made enough to buy my first VW Golf GTI, at a time when my parents couldn't even afford to pay for my driving lessons.
Just think about that for a second, 100 pills x £10. I was selling £1000 of E per week. 52 weeks of the year. I never stopped, £52,000 per year. Even though I was giving my supplier 50% of my take, I was still clearing £500 in a night. More than my father was earning in a week at that time. It didn't take long for the money to corrupt me.
By 19 I had left home and become deeply involved. I became a supplier to dealers myself. That's when the line between fantasy and reality became blurred. Some of the things we did were psychotic. We were paying doormen massive amounts for protection and pitches in clubs to deal, and there were other dealers trying to rob your money and stock. Suppliers going to jail, or turning into Police informants. Things began to spiral out of control, and I saw my partners doing serious jail time. Nothing stopped me though, it all seemed surreal, like an occupational hazard.
Sometimes it was luck, sometimes chance that kept me away from jail or the grave. I remember one week having tonsillitis and for the only Saturday in a year I gave the club a miss. That was the night the club got raided and lost its licence. I watched the news the next day and couldn't believe my luck. Tonsillitis had saved me doing some serious jail time. If it had been any other Saturday night I would have had hundreds of pills on me.
I always wondered how some of us ended up in jail or the grave, and I was the lucky one. There were times when I came very close to both.
The thing is 3 years ago I decided to quit when I was ahead. I retired from my old life and moved from London to Ireland to start a new life.
Now when I look back over the last 20 years, from 15 to 35 it seems surreal. If there was karma I would be in jail or the grave for the things I have got away with.
All I have left of those times are my memories, my liberty, and my old Rolex watch.

Seachmall

I believe in Karma similar to self-fulfilling prophecies.

You piss people off and it will come back to bite you.

I don't believe the universe will balance things out for you. Some times bad people get away.


(I don't think you're a bad person for selling E, by the way.)

cade

Yea and I intend to name my first daughter Karma so that when people say 'Karma's a B*tch', I'll know it to be true

actions having consequences in relation to your dharma, sure

this "what goes around" shíte, no

TeddyTedson

As you say yourself, you're only 35;)
No though, I don't believe in Karma.
People dealing drugs may or may get caught.
They may also get caught up in the crazy lifestyle and die.

The whole idea of Karma is absolute bollocks really I think.
It's a very magical way of looking at things.
The truth is that if you piss enough people off, people may want to take revenge. That's not Karma, that's just life my drug dealing friend.

Napper Hawkins

That's some story!

mikemac1

A crutch, about as much use as depending on prayer

Sorry to say but bad things happen to nice people.

And you know that bully in work, the ruthless one who makes your life hell? Yes they will get promoted ahead of you

KeithAFC

No.

nicechick!

Not really!! but you had a lucky escape I hope your living a happier life now though all that drama

I do believe it in up to a point, but it's more that people who constantly screw others over and do awful things will eventually get what's coming to them by getting caught or p*ssing off the wrong person.

The reason I don't like the 'you get the life you deserve' attitude some karma-believers have is that I've met plenty of amazing people who have had a terrible time of it. Some people are just unlucky, others are lucky and that's it really.

Jesus Wept

No, I'm not a moron.

Duggy747

No, people apply this idea of Karma to things like there's a mystical law system at work that keeps the world in balance.

Paparazzo

Don't believe in it, but still use the word when something bad happens to a knobend.

CardBordWindow

Not really a believer.
My Name is Earl is good though.

Jesus Wept

CardBordWindow wrote: »

Not really a believer.
My Name is Earl is good though.

It's really not.

Plazaman

People adapt to changes in situations and mainly, as these changes are self created and usually through a lot of hard work, people focus on the hard graft of the change but can't see the wood from the trees to see it is them making a change be it positive or negative. They adapt, sort of like a chameleon changes its colours to blend in to another environment.

When you have Karma on your side you are like a chameleon, you come and go, you come and go. And you know, loving is easy but only if your colours are like your dreams, maybr red coats and green or something along that line of fashion.

Corvo

Nice to know you made it through the tough life you had.

Wonder how all the people you sold E to are doing.

Karma might catch up with you yet.

theg81der

Well it depends - what kind of person are you now? Do/did you ever do anything good for other people? Are you happy? Did you ever hurt or cause anyone to be hurt?

chin_grin

<upvotes thread>

:pac:

RhubarbCrumble

Do I believe in karma? Maybe to a certain degree.
I'm not claiming to be an angel myself, but have never deliberately set out to hurt anybody, however I have had it done to me by people I was very good to and cared about.
I had two 'friends' (or so I thought) going through problems in their life, and I was always there for them, and looked after them both, however both of them used and abused me and messed me around. I'm not going to go into details, but suffice to say it was cruel and unneccessary.
In the past few months I've found out that one of them now has serious health problems and the other has serious relationship problems.
Would I wish it on them? No, but at the same time a small part of me thinks they deserve everything they get, and I do feel a bit smug.
I certainly don't have any sympathy for either of them after the way I was treated, so maybe karma does exist.

Seachmall

Griffin1988 wrote: »

Wonder how all the people you sold E to are doing.

Karma might catch up with you yet.

If Karma was going to catch up with him for selling E he'd fall in love, marry a model and frequently have the best sex any man could hope for.

scrubber72

sore throat eh ? rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttt!!!;)

Radharc na Sleibhte

scrubber72 wrote: »

sore throat eh ? rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhttttttt!!!;)

(in best Eastenders accent)

E's a graws (He is a grass)

I kid, I kid.
Cheers for the autobiography op.
Sounds like you had an eventful 35 yrs in fairness.....

Loomis

No, because I'm not an idiot.

Standard Toaster

When is the book coming out?

idunnoshur

Very well written OP, I believe it's true but it wouldn't be out of place in a film.

To answer your question OP I don't believe in karma, for example I have stopped in the car to help coloured woman trying to change a wheel and last year during the ice I pulled a few cars out of the ditch with the tractor and nothing good has happened to me.

EDIT: I forgot to add that its a load of ****

Seachmall

idunnoshur wrote: »

coloured woman

Perhaps the reason nothing good happened to you is because you feel the need to arbitrarily mention the woman you helped was green*.

*I'm assuming green because you didn't specify the colour.

the_syco

I believe in karma, but I also believe that if karma doesn't get you, I will :P

BaconZombie

I believe is Reddit Karma....

getz

KARMA hindu-ism [sanskrit fate] the sum of ones actions,carried forward from one life to another,or is it the buddhism one of the nirvana,

ItsNoAlias

Technically, only effected the next life and therefore any 'luck' you may have is in no way related to what you have done in the past, but based on past lives... so eh no. I dont believe in it.

pragmatic1

No. Theres babies starving to death in poorer parts of the world. Karma is wishy washy hippy bollox.

SV

I believe that if people don't learn what karma actually is and keep calling it bullshít I'm going to cry.

CrazyRabbit

<---Punches OP in face for being a drug dealer.

**** karma.

seamus

I don't believe in karma in the sense that everyone's guaranteed their comeuppance for their bad deeds. That's just another manifestation of the Just World fallacy.

I do however believe that if you consistently act like a dick, then eventually it will bite you in the ass. Regression to the mean, means that everyone will have their ups and downs. If you're a horrible person, then you will have less options to recover yourself when you're down and more of struggle to maintain your "ups".

If you're a decent human being however, you will have more people who will support you both when you're up and when you're down, resulting in longer ups and shorter downs.

Nothingbetter2d

lol OP's only night off and the club gets raided..... i smell a rat

RichieC

No. thatcher wasn't eaten by wolves.

John Doe1

Is karma is real, why has bertie ahern not been eaten by wolves?

Johnny Foreigner

John Doe1 wrote: »

Is karma is real, why has bertie ahern not been eaten by wolves?

The Mahon Tribunal will suffice.

Captain Graphite

[bitterness]If there was such a thing as karma, my last ex would be dead now. (The other ex would be permitted to live but would forever encounter minor irritations on a regular basis.)[/bitterness]

So no, I don't believe in it. I don't think there's any basis for it. That said, I don't look down on those who do believe in it.

Big Nasty

Interesting story OP. What are you at these days?

Son Of A Vidic

OP - is that material for your first book or something? Because surely you can come up with something better than that.

Tomk1

I don't go for Karma, but I believe Chicken Karma is tasty, even though my body rejects it.

Really OP, wouldn't it be the case that your life should be pretty crap now, untill you fixed/balanced out past mistakes. Instead 'all is good'.

It's like this: his a real gentleman, a nice fellow allways willing to help out wanting nothing in return, never a bad word to say about anyone, just found out he has cancer and a year of pain ahead before he dies -reply: O that's Karma for you.

The only way I think the idea of Karma can have any bearing, is if someone is feeling guilty for something they did to another and it plauges on their conscience, and the only way to relieve it, is by trying to right the wrong, problem is things done in the past cannot be fixed, maybe patched, so instead (like carbon-tax trading) you feel you have to trade a higher amount of good to offset the bad, but this is guilt-laden-good... Best just get over it move on and try to live the rest of your life in peace, without repeating past mistakes.

I think the film 'The Mission' incorporates this very well.

Dudess

If you keep being an ass, you may eventually get punished - that's just logic and commonsense but it's not mystical karma stuff.
A guarantee that dicks always get punished thanks to an intangible force is wishful thinking though IMO.

charlemont

Some of the worst scum I'v ever encountered have gotten it all back on them. But its fair to say some decent people have also had tragedy's too.

RainbowRose81

Johnny Foreigner wrote: »

Do you believe in karma?
I am 35 years old on Wednesday, and when I look back over my life most of the people I knew are either in jail or the grave. I suppose you could call that karma.
Don't get me wrong, I am no angel myself. At 15 years old in 1992 I was dealing 100 Ecstacy tablets every Saturday night at raves in London. By 17 I had made enough to buy my first VW Golf GTI, at a time when my parents couldn't even afford to pay for my driving lessons.
Just think about that for a second, 100 pills x £10. I was selling £1000 of E per week. 52 weeks of the year. I never stopped, £52,000 per year. Even though I was giving my supplier 50% of my take, I was still clearing £500 in a night. More than my father was earning in a week at that time. It didn't take long for the money to corrupt me.
By 19 I had left home and become deeply involved. I became a supplier to dealers myself. That's when the line between fantasy and reality became blurred. Some of the things we did were psychotic. We were paying doormen massive amounts for protection and pitches in clubs to deal, and there were other dealers trying to rob your money and stock. Suppliers going to jail, or turning into Police informants. Things began to spiral out of control, and I saw my partners doing serious jail time. Nothing stopped me though, it all seemed surreal, like an occupational hazard.
Sometimes it was luck, sometimes chance that kept me away from jail or the grave. I remember one week having tonsillitis and for the only Saturday in a year I gave the club a miss. That was the night the club got raided and lost its licence. I watched the news the next day and couldn't believe my luck. Tonsillitis had saved me doing some serious jail time. If it had been any other Saturday night I would have had hundreds of pills on me.
I always wondered how some of us ended up in jail or the grave, and I was the lucky one. There were times when I came very close to both.
The thing is 3 years ago I decided to quit when I was ahead. I retired from my old life and moved from London to Ireland to start a new life.
Now when I look back over the last 20 years, from 15 to 35 it seems surreal. If there was karma I would be in jail or the grave for the things I have got away with.
All I have left of those times are my memories, my liberty, and my old Rolex watch.

Well I am a Christian not a Hindu so I don't believe in karma

Johnny Foreigner

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Interesting story OP. What are you at these days?

Retired.
I am looking for a house to buy and let out.

DublinWriter

Johnny Foreigner wrote: »

Do you believe in karma?

As a Buddhist, yes I do.

I've also seen the flip-side of this argument, 'bafoon' people like Richard Branson and other very rich and stupid people like Bill Gates making fortunes.

OP - you sound conflicted about your early life, maybe you should write a book about your experiences?

starlit

No, not really.

daithi1970

No, but the corollary of Murphy's Law "Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate" musn't be ignored either..............

daithi

AnamGlas

If you act the bollox to someone and get your head kicked in as a result, it's not karma. It's the consequence of being a prick. Basic enough really.