Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

You know, some times people struggle so hard trying to be able to achieve something on a personal or "wanting to give" spiritual level, mostly it is an empathic "want to be able to give" to someone in need.

Its really not about what one can do or can’t do, because we are all unique and have our own special thing to give.
Be it through healings, readings, or just being there for someone with your presence, or just one word...

We never know what we can give, and sometimes dont even know what we are "giving" at the time...
But just the "want" in us will always bring something to the mix.

We often think we need to channel the energies or messages of the highest form/good.
But the reality is that the best things in life come "simple".

The universe, your guides, higher spirit, the angelic realm are really very good at "feeling and hearing your inner voice intent”...And even if you dont realize it they will bring forward what you need to "give"... as mentioned, in a big way, or just one word.

When we have a "want" and "intent" to help someone, or to achieve something on a spiritual or personal level, we “ eceive”...now it may not be exactly what you want, but it will be what is needed at the time...

We are sent the right people, right experiences (even if they don’t feel all that good at the time, we still need them to learn, grow from and prompt us to motivate ourselves into a beautiful future) the things you do or say contribute to anothers, and your own lives.

We find, I find, the people who do "Think" more spiritual are usually the biggest "givers" putting others first before themselves, and sometimes if you do get lucky to have a peek into their lives, you may find they are the biggest sufferers, have gone through issues you would not wish on your worst enemy...

This however gives them an understanding of many things, and an empathy that enables them to have that "Higher spirit " to wish to help where they can, or where and how they are directed from their guides, angelic or higher self energies...

These people will know when they "can and should" give, and when to give themselves some rejuvenation time...
They also underrstand that though they mostly in life put others first, there will come a time when their own issues will be resolved, and lifes gifts and beauty will be granted to them, which will enhance their “Giving"... once a Giver always a Giver...

No matter what one attempts to do on a spiritual level, if its meant to be it will, if something seems a struggle, let it go, let another flow come your way to explore...
As I said, the most amazing gifted people are only as good as what spirit side wish to give...

They are the "Channels" for energy, spirit...but sometimes the most amazing gifted person that you come across is the person that Gives just "one word".
We are all unique, and spirit side works with every one of us, sometimes in ways we just do not realize.

"Intent" a "Want to give" a "wish to achieve" is all that is needed to help others through what ever issues they have in life...
Sometimes it requires nothing more than your part being just a listener, or just to give a quiet thought.

You dont need to pull your hair out on fandangled rituals or intricate ways to bring in what is needed for another...
You dont need to be the very best healer, reader, spiritual councilor or what ever...

You are unique, and the universe likes it kept “ imple"… sometimes "keeping it simple stupid" is all thats needed ... sometimes its just your wish that people you know and love find their health and happiness... anything else you can do is just a sprinkle on the sundae...

Trust your heart, trust to feel the flow... the universe will always bring something "unique" to your Unique self ...

Enjoy the sundae's being sent
By Rick Krab APS Medium

 

[Skarekrow]

Empaths:
Could Your Intuition Be Causing You Anxiety?

Spiritual seekers tend to fall into one of two categories:

1. they want to develop their intuition so that they can experience the metaphysical and enhance their lives
2. they are already experiencing a great deal of metaphysical phenomena and they want to learn how to manage it

In my previous videos and articles, I’ve addressed how to open the third eye chakra and begin developing intuition.
But I have not addressed those who are already experiencing heightened sensitivity to energies.Highly psychic people, Indigos, empaths, healers, mediums, and otherwise intuitive people can sometimes find simple tasks like going out with friends, falling asleep at night, or going out into public spaces very difficult.

That is because they often experience influxes of energy that can be extremely difficult to understand and manage if they don’t have the proper tools.
For example, a medium may have a difficult time going out with friends because they are bombarded with communication from the crossed over loved ones of their friends.

Anyone who has mediumship abilities will know what I mean.
For empaths, it can be difficult to go out into public spaces because they receive the sometimes overwhelming energies of complete strangers.

I get many emails from people who are unsure of how to manage their abilities.
If you’re having a difficult time coping, here are some tips:

1. Be Honest With Yourself

There are times when severe trauma or mental imbalances can causes hallucinations that can closely mimic a spiritual experience.
Hallucinations from a trauma and a genuine spiritual experience are completely different.

It is important to know the difference and which you are experiencing.
If in doubt, definitely seek the advice of a licensed medical practitioner and if necessary, get the assistance you need.

2. Ground Yourself

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the influxes of energy you’re receiving, you’ll definitely need to work at including grounding exercises in your daily life.
When you ground the body, you become fully present mentally and emotionally (not caught up in emotions or thoughts).

Grounding puts you back in touch with the earth, which gives you a sense of stability and provides an outlet for the influx of energy you’re receiving.
Think of a grounding wire.

It’s there to ground the energy from a bolt of lightning into the earth.
Grounding activities do the same thing for the body.

Some examples of grounding exercises are: dancing, swimming, going for a hike, walking outside barefoot, getting physical exercise, and practicing mindful breathing.

3. Recognize and Release Your Fears

There is nothing to be afraid of.
Your abilities are there to assist you in fulfilling your life purpose and enhancing your everyday.

It’s important to remember that if you are not detached from what you’re seeing, your emotions will colour your experience.
For example, if you are terrified to see ghosts because you’ve heard horror stories or watched scary movies, and then you have an encounter with a ghost, you will project that terror unto whatever it is you’re seeing.

So you will perceive your experience as “terrifying” because you already have that terror within yourself.
Your emotions will always colour your experiences, so work to release any emotional triggers you have regarding your gift or the information you’re experiencing.

4. Stay Balanced

You are a three part being: body, mind and spirit.
If you go about your day only focusing on the spiritual, you will neglect your other spheres and lead an unfulfilling life.

Remember that you are here for a reason: to experience life in the physical form.
So although you’re having a spiritual experience, take the time to enjoy physical experiences.

Get outside, take a course and learn something new, try new foods, do something you’ve always wanted to try.
These new experiences can not only ground you but also quickly balance you if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your abilities.

 

[Skarekrow]

Nonlocal Consciousness:
A concept based on scientific studies in NDE

[video=youtube;phL4fd5MqGU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=phL4fd5MqGU[/video]

For more than twenty years, cardiologist Dr Pim van Lommel has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) in patients who survived a cardiac arrest.
In this presentation he reviews his research and how it relates to non-local consciousness.​

 

[Skarekrow]

ISHAR Library

​

ISHAR (Integrative Studies Historical Archive & Repository) is an academic reference library.
We offer tens of thousands of free, qualified academic sources on a range of topics, the main coverage of which includes Integrative Health, Integrative Culture and Integrative Theory.

The contents of ISHAR include sources with varying levels of content: basic bibliographic sources, formalized abstract sources, full-length medical studies, abstracts of humanities sources, full-length humanities sources and complete journal sources.

These sources can be searched through a search bar, a discovery-based holistic mind-map of topics, and lists of topics organized into broad Health & Culture Wings.
ISHAR also features a variety of resources and tools, ranging from detailed tables of ancient cosmologies to full-access, free books on sacred texts.

http://isharonline.org/content/ishar-library
​

 

[Skarekrow]

Quantum Time Travel --"Can We Receive Messages from the Future?"

Around ten years ago researcher Dave Bacon, now at Google, showed that a time-travelling quantum computer could quickly solve a group of problems, known as NP-complete, which mathematicians have lumped together as being hard.

The problem was, Bacon's quantum computer was travelling around 'closed timelike curves'.
These are paths through the fabric of spacetime that loop back on themselves.

General relativity allows such paths to exist through contortions in spacetime known as wormholes.

Why send a message back in time, but lock it so that no one can ever read the contents?
Because it may be the key to solving currently intractable problems.

That's the claim of an international collaboration.
It turns out that an unopened message can be exceedingly useful.

This is true if the experimenter entangles the message with some other system in the laboratory before sending it.
Entanglement, a strange effect only possible in the realm of quantum physics, creates correlations between the time-travelling message and the laboratory system.

These correlations can fuel a quantum computation.

Physicists argue something must stop such opportunities arising because it would threaten 'causality' -- in the classic example, someone could travel back in time and kill their grandfather, negating their own existence.

And it's not only family ties that are threatened.
Breaking the causal flow of time has consequences for quantum physics too.

Over the past two decades, researchers have shown that foundational principles of quantum physics break in the presence of closed timelike curves: you can beat the uncertainty principle, an inherent fuzziness of quantum properties, and the no-cloning theorem, which says quantum states can't be copied.

However, the new work shows that a quantum computer can solve insoluble problems even if it is traveling along 'open timelike curves', which don't create causality problems.

That's because they don't allow direct interaction with anything in the object's own past: the time travelling particles (or data they contain) never interact with themselves.

Nevertheless, the strange quantum properties that permit 'impossible' computations are left intact.
"We avoid 'classical' paradoxes, like the grandfathers paradox, but you still get all these weird results," says Mile Gu, who led the work.

​

Gu is at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
His eight other coauthors come from these institutions, the University of Oxford, UK, Australian National University in Canberra, the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, and QKD Corp in Toronto, Canada.

"Whenever we present the idea, people say no way can this have an effect" says Jayne Thompson, a co-author at CQT.
But it does: quantum particles sent on a timeloop could gain super computational power, even though the particles never interact with anything in the past.

"The reason there is an effect is because some information is stored in the entangling correlations: this is what we're harnessing," Thompson says.

There is a caveat -- not all physicists think that these open timeline curves are any more likely to be realisable in the physical universe than the closed ones.

One argument against closed timelike curves is that no-one from the future has ever visited us.
That argument, at least, doesn't apply to the open kind, because any messages from the future would be locked.

The Daily Galaxy via The Center for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore
Image Credit: Top of page, https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NdKNWECJ9ZQ/maxresdefault.jpg; NPJ QUANTUM INFORMATION, DOI:10.1038/NPJQI.2015.7 (2015)

 

[Skarekrow]

The Magical Main Event:
Friar Bacon vs. Vandermast

“SORCERY, n. The ancient prototype and forerunner of political influence. It was, however, deemed less respectable and sometimes was punished by torture and death. Augustine Nicholas relates that a poor peasant who had been accused of sorcery was put to the torture to compel a confession. After enduring a few gentle agonies the suffering simpleton admitted his guilt, but naively asked his tormentors if it were not possible to be a sorcerer without knowing it.” — Ambrose Bierce

Dueling is for chumps, especially when your opponent can raise the dead.


​

Let’s get ready to rumble!
Tonight’s 13th Century “Dance in France” cage match before the Kings of England and France to determine who takes home the all-time heavyweight title for sorcerous skill is a battle of titans.

In this corner, wearing the brown Franciscan habit is the monk with the junk, the scholar who’ll make you holler’, the spastic Scholastic, Somerset native son, and Doctor Mirabilis, Friar Roger Bacon.

In the opposing corner is the thamaturge with the urge, the Teutonic Tonic, the pride of German prestidigitation, Vandermast.
May the best warlock win!

I figure the introduction went something like that when polymath, scientist, and reputed wizard Roger Bacon (1214-1292 A.D.) and the continental conjurer Vandermast faced off for the amusement of aristocrats during peace negotiations.

As usual, France and England were at war.
Which war is not entirely clear, but we can narrow it down to the 1242 Saintonge War or the Second Barons’ War (1264—1267), which probably means Henry III was King of England and in all likelihood since the conflict was taking place on French soil, it was probably the Saintonge War, a little tussle over the accession of King Louis IX’s brother Alphonse as Count of Poitou.

Henry III arrived to support Count of La Marche, Hugh de Lusignan and a few other rebellious French nobles, and was already a little miffed that Louis IX had not chosen Henry’s brother the Earl of Cornwall for the countship.

At the time, Roger Bacon was a big name in alchemy, astrology, math, linguistics, Aristotelian philosophy, and optics, not to mention the “street cred” he had as a master of the occult sciences.

Bacon had impressed Henry III with a few party tricks, but kings are generally more impressed by people who can knock down castle walls, so as he went about burning and pillaging a few towns in France, he enlisted Bacon’s aid during a particularly thorny siege and it is said, “The king soon wanted friar Bacon’s services, and the latter enabled him, by his perspective and burning glasses, to take a town which he was besieging. In consequence of this success, the kings of England and France made peace, and a grand court was held, at which the German conjurer Vandermast was brought to try his skill against Bacon” (Wright, 1851, p131-132).

We’re a little sketchy on the biographical details of Vandermast, identified only as a “German conjurer” in the service of the French King’s brother.

It is said Henry III treated the inhabitants of the town he had just taken with such clemency, that he earned the respect of the King’s brother, who merely called in Vandermast to perform some magic purely for Henry’s post-banquet amusement.

Henry III, understanding what the nature of the entertainment was to be, quietly requested that Friar Bacon (and his colleague and student , a certain wizardly prodigy named Friar Bungay), quietly observe the demonstration.

When the banquet was over, Vandermast asked the king of England if it was so that he would choose to see the spirit of any man that had formerly lived.

The king said, “Yea; above all I would see Pompey, who could brook no equal.”
And Vandermast made him appear as he was attired at the battle of Pharsalia, whereat all were mightily contented (Hazlitt, 1892, p88).

Everyone was contented, that is, except for Friar Bacon. He was unimpressed.
Plying his sorcerous trade, but as of yet remaining anonymous, “Bacon responded by opposing to it the shade of Julius Caesar. The apparitions fought, and Pompey was vanquished” (Frost, 1876, p45).

With this little bit of magical one-upsmanship, Bacon revealed himself, and everyone agreed that Friar Bacon was the superior wizard, having put Vandermast’s apparition to shame.

Vandermast demanded a rematch, and in all fairness Bacon had bushwacked him from the crowd, but Bacon had seen all he needed to see of Vandermast’s inferior wizardry, and tagged out.

He turned matters over to his slightly less talented colleague Friar Bungay.
That’s just cold.

And he talked some trash too, saying “it is a little thing will serve to resist thee in this kind. I have here one that is my inferior (showing him Friar Bungay) try thy art with him; and if thou do put him to the worst, then will I deal with thee; but not till then.”

Friar Bungay then began to show his art; and after some turning and looking in his book, he brought up among them the Hysperian tree, which did bear golden apples; these apples were kept by a waking dragon, that lay under the tree.

He, having done this, bade Vandermast find one that durst gather the fruit.
Then Vandermast did raise the ghost of Hercules, in his habit that he wore when he was living; and with his club on his shoulder.

“Here is one,” said Vandermast,” that shall gather fruit from this tree: this is Hercules, that in his life time gathered of this fruit, and made the dragon crouch; and now again shall he gather it in spite of opposition.”

As Hercules was going to pluck the fruit, Friar Bacon held up his wand; at which Hercules stayed, and seemed fearful. Vandermast bade him for to gather of the fruit, or else he would torment him.

Hercules was more fearful, and said, “I cannot, nor I dare not; for great Bacon stands, whose charms are far more powerful than thine; I must obey him, Vandermast.”

Hereat, Vandermast cursed Hercules, and threatened him: but Friar Bacon laughed; and bade him not to chafe himself, ere that his journey was ended.

“For seeing,” said he, “that Hercules will do nothing at your command; I will have him do you some service, at mine.”
With that, he bade Hercules carry him home into Germany.

The spirit obeyed him, and took Vandermast on his back, and went away with him in all their sights.
“Hold, Friar,” cried the ambassador, “I will not lose Vandermast for half my land!”

“Content yourself, my Lord,” answered Friar Bacon, “I have but sent him home to see his wife; and ere long he may return.”

The King of England thanked Friar Bacon, and forced some gifts on him for his services that he had done for him: for Friar Bacon did so little respect money, that he never would take any of the King (Thoms, 1846, p106-107).

Vandermast, having been soundly bested, later contracted a hitman to go after Bacon, who avoided the assassination attempt handily, but a later magical duel between Friar Bungay and Vandermast would sadly result in both of their deaths.

This so saddened Bacon that it is said “he became melancholy, and at length he burnt his books of magic, distributed his wealth among poor scholars and others, and became an anchorite” (Spence, 1920, p62).

The whole episode would be immortalized in the most significant Elizabethan comedy written by Shakespeare’s contemporary Robert Greene (1558-1592) called The Honorable Historie of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.

Wizarding is a competitive gig.
It’s a pretty small fraternity of those who successfully consort with dark forces and live to tell about it, thus one hopes to see all that necromancy and conjuration at least result in the respect of one’s peers and some worldly prestige.

Sadly, there is always somebody better out there waiting to steal the spotlight.
We’ll never know whether Vandermast was actually a skilled sorcerer.

All we know is that Bacon opened up a can of “whoop ass” on him.
As poet William C. Bryant said, “Winning isn’t everything, but it beats anything in second place”.

References
Adams, W. H. Davenport 1828-1891. Witch, Warlock, And Magician: Historical Sketches of Magic And Witchcraft In England And Scotland. New York: J. W. Bouton, 1889.
Frost, Thomas, 1821-1908. The Lives of the Conjurors. London: Tinsley, 1876.
Hazlitt, William Carew, 1834-1913. Tales And Legends of National Origin Or Widely Current In England From Early Times.. London: S. Sonninschein, 1892.
Spence, Lewis, 1874-1955. An Encyclopædia of Occultism: a Compendium of Information On the Occult Sciences, Occult Personalities, Psychic Science, Magic, Demonology, Spiritism And Mysticism. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1920.
Thoms, William John, 1803-1885. Gammer Gurton’s Famous Histories: of Sir Guy of Warwick, Sir Bevis of Hampton, Tom Hickathrift, Friar Bacon, Robin Hood, And the King And the Cobbler. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 161 Broadway, 1846.
Wright, Thomas, 1810-1877. Narratives of Sorcery And Magic; From the Most Authentic Sources. London: R. Bentley, 1851.

 

[Skarekrow]

Very interesting!!

The Robot Buddha

[video=youtube;jOR01USWgN0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jOR01USWgN0[/video]

Some scenes spliced together from the movie "Doomsday Book".


If you want to see the whole thing, here it is!

[video=youtube;Nz2BXykC5xg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Nz2BXykC5xg[/video]​

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[PintoBean]

[MENTION=5045]Skarekrow[/MENTION] you might like Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind if you are interested in microtubule theory. It was kind of beyond me (though I tried real hard!), but I imagine you could understand it and appreciate it.

 

[Skarekrow]

@Skarekrow you might like Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind if you are interested in microtubule theory. It was kind of beyond me (though I tried real hard!), but I imagine you could understand it and appreciate it.

Thanks!
I haven’t actually read that book, I’ll have to find an online version or go hit up the library.

On this page, post number 3763…is a very nice speech by Pim Van Lommel, who worked with Penrose and Hameroff in developing that theory (Orch OR - Orchestrated Objective Reduction).
His talk is mostly on near death experiences, but it was mostly through his data, collected by his experiments and studies, then reproduced by various others - that Penrose drew his conclusions.

It’s a very interesting theory…I don’t feel that we are at the point to prove this yet scientifically, but I appreciate those who try to make sense of it all more than provable results.
IMO they are on the right track…but idk if consciousness can ever be explained wholly…I guess we shall see eventually when we die if we blink out or continue on somehow ;-)

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

I had several of these dreams as a child, it was usually my Mom with her back turned away from me, when I would call her name she would turn around and have no face at all, just blank.
Then all Hell would break loose in the dream/OOBE(?), there was a noise I always associated in my dreams/OOBEs with the entrance of something sinister, it was an electrical buzzing noise, very specific, like when you stand under the high-tension power lines and can hear them buzz…it was like that except with a boom or a whoosh and much louder (even to this day I hate standing next to those power lines because I can hear that noise).
I definitely knew I was asleep, but for years I was unable to wake myself up…the best I could do was run back to my bed and hope I woke up…which sometimes I would and sometimes I would think I was awake only to really get the shit scared out of me as reality crumbled around me.
I finally learned to will myself awake, at which point the night terrors and the vivid dreams of me wandering the house late at night ceased.
I very rarely have nightmares now…like maybe once a year something will shake me up for a second, but for the most part I rather enjoy a good nightmare now (that may sound weird but it’s the truth).
Then I have the vivid dreams where I feel OOB again, usually because something has entered my home and I go from dreaming about something innocuous to lucidly rising from my bed knowing I am asleep to “push” out the negative entity that seems to trigger this reaction subconsciously in me now.
I wonder if my childhood experiences necessitated this somehow?
And now this article brings up the possibility of alien contact…swell…that’s all I need.
I remember another very vivid reoccurring dream I had was trying to find the “secret door” that would lead to a very long spiral slide that would take me somewhere, and no matter how hard I try to remember I don’t know where it went, but I remember wanting to go there - very badly…I remember becoming lucid in my dreams and then trying to find the door, but when I was lucid, I could never find it.

'Faceless Woman' Phenomenon

​

​

Late 1960s or early 1970s - Adams, Tennessee, USA

Stephen in Tennessee called in to Darkness Radio to tell of something strange he remembered as a child.
He grew up in Adams, Tennessee around the Bell family farm (The Bell Witch) so he was accustomed to hearing ghost stories but this event happened when he was only around 3 years old.

It's interesting that he describes a blue light bathing his room and the sudden appearance of a faceless woman.
Faceless women have been encountered in numerous alien contact cases.

“When I was three or four, like I said, this is one of my very first memories.
And for years I just told it as a really creepy dream I had and it was one of the first things I remembered.

I was in my crib.
I was still sleeping in a crib and I saw this... this...

The whole room seemed like a blue haze and I saw this woman drift into the room with no face.
She came to the edge of the crib and she looked down at the egde of the crib and she had like a wash rag in her hand and she was getting ready to wipe my face off.

I screamed bloody murder and that was, to me growing up, it was just a wild dream that I had and then I heard you guys talking about these creatures, people calling in seeing these creatures without faces and I was like, holy crap, was that maybe real?”

Host Dave Schrader asked the man to describe the face of the woman.
“smooth, flat. Yeah, it's been 40 some odd years ago and I still remember it very clearly.
Somebody with no face wants to wipe your face, you kinda, even at three years old you kinda freak.

I guess the thing that freaks me out the most about it is, as a three year old, I would have no cultural reference for that.
I couldn't have made that up out of the things that I knew.

It had to be something that I experienced.”

​

Source: Darkness Radio - July 27, 2015

Transcribed by Jamie Brian

NOTE: The faceless woman phenomenon has been reported for eons and most now see it as a harbinger...to take heed or a warning.

Some people believe they are being visited by a ghost or malevolent being...or possibly a demon, which is doubtful.

It can appear in dreams or while awake.
There have been instances of a faceless being appearing during an abduction scenario or non-terrestrial encounter.

There is an urban legend as well - The Curse of the Faceless Woman.

I have had clients who stated they experienced the phenomenon...but none of the cases resulted in tragedy or bad luck.
There is also the Japanese legend of the Noppera-bō, frightening faceless human-like beings used in stories to rely a specific message.

And a follow up story:​

A few days ago, I posted 'Faceless Woman' Phenomenon.
Since then, I received the following account:

Lon,

I was jarred back to memories of when I was growing up in NY.
I must have been 12 to 14 yrs of age, having several reoccurring instances that I took for VIVID dreams.

The dreams include several periods of paralysis that would ALWAYS end with my choking for air and on most occasions vomiting.
In these states I would be asleep in my bed facing up, I would open my eyes and find that I was drawn to one particular section of my ceiling and I couldn't take my eyes off the area.

I would feel the room expand... I may have a better word for this later but expansion was definitely one of the senses I was having.
I would then begin to rise straight up parallel to the ceiling and go through what would be an ever expanding blackness.

I can remember seeing myself even though I was still face up, it was like having a vision of myself instead of actual site.
I would then proceed to feel cold, very cold and eventually there would be stars...after seeing the stars everything would eventually go black and the next vision I would have would be of myself on top of a large ORB, it was as if I was one with it or molded with it because it seemed that my body was flush with its surface.

I want to say it was silver but it may be that my mind just saw it as a huge BB.
I am in a MASSIVE chamber that went on and on forever, no light, no things to gauge distance.

At this point the same things would always happen, I would start to move away from myself "my vision of this always had me seeing myself from over my left shoulder".

As I moved further away from the place of the B&B's "dock" I would begin to fade, disappear, and the choking would begin, at first it was just hard to breathe then I would be very aware of what was happening to my body that was left behind in my bed and that is when the puking would begin ... The more faded I became the worse the choking would get and eventually I would wind up back in my room with a rushing of GREAT speed.

These events happened to me infrequently at first but then began to escalate...
My feelings were that whatever was doing this no longer cared about whether or not I believed it to be a dream or not, it didn't help that I didn't have a family member that would listen to me as they never experienced anything, when this happened the home always seemed empty or totally devoid of life other than my own.

This thing happened to me for what seemed like years, during those years I went through a lot of behavioral issues "violence, bed wetting, dissociation of family.

I was then confronted with the faceless women.

The same events would happen but instead of going off to the void all the time, I would be brought to a huge chamber...
Again very black no light at least none that could be explained or truly seen.

In this chamber I would be in a circle of about 15-20 apparently mature women, they were spread out about arms length apart and I would float in the middle of the circle and be "asked" to choose my mother, I would look around at all of them and they were all very similar.

As I would try to see them better I would either move closer to the one I thought was my mother or just concentrate on the face. When I looked at their faces they were always missing, gone or blurred like an old black and white TV screen.

It was impossible to choose and when I did I would always begin gasping and choking and would be told to pick again...
This would go on and on without ever having an answer or an end.

I'm not quite sure at what stage of my life this finally ended but as I get older it gets easier for me to remember these details.

I hope I explained this well enough for you to understand.
MG

​

This is an interesting, though a disturbing variation.
It's hard to image any child going through this ordeal for any length of time.

 

[Skarekrow]

[video=vimeo;145251635]https://vimeo.com/145251635[/video]​

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

Is Consciousness More than the Brain?
Interview with Dr. Gary Schwartz


[video=youtube;x-6hosFAObI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=x-6hosFAObI[/video]​

We at The Thunderbolts Project think that no truly coherent cosmology can fail to address human consciousness.
As Wal Thornhill has written, "A real cosmology must be a broad and coherent natural philosophy. It may always be incomplete, based on our limitations, but to be valid there can be no exceptions in our experience. In particular, cosmology must address issues of life and the human condition. Therefore it must be a truly interdisciplinary pursuit."

Today, perhaps the ultimate unsolved mystery of human life is: how and why does consciousness exist?
Although some scientific literature still acknowledges that the question remains open, the overwhelming consensus among neuroscientists today is that the brain alone creates conscious experience.

However, for decades, acclaimed scientists around the world have conducted research into consciousness that provides a very different picture.
One of the most remarkable of these researchers is Dr. Gary Schwartz, professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona and director of its Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.

We asked Dr. Gary Schwartz for his thoughts on the mystery of consciousness.

Dr Schwartz's website: http://www.drgaryschwartz.com/

Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Surgery at the University of Arizona, at the main campus in Tucson.
In addition to teaching courses on health and spiritual psychology, he is the Director of the Laboratory for Advances in Consciousness and Health.

Gary received his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in 1971 and was an assistant professor at Harvard for five years.
He later served as a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University, was director of the Yale Psychophysiology Center, and co-director of the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic, before moving to Arizona in 1988.

 

[Skarekrow]

Debated where to put this cartoon…here or in my politic thread?
It’s sadly true in any universe.

 

[Skarekrow]

What would Oliver Sacks
say about the afterlife now?

Near-Death Experience Research,
Dr. Jan Holden and her colleagues reveal their latest findings.


​

The question might sound crass, but then again, why should it?
Dr. Oliver Sacks was one of the world’s best known and beloved neuroscientists, but at the time of his passing he was also an outspoken opponent of scientific findings suggestive of an afterlife.

So, should a question contemplating a reality he was never willing to consider offend?
Our cultural reflex to respect the dead may be trying to tell us something about underlying scientific question — what happens after we die?

Join Alex Tsakiris for an interview with near-death experience researcher and University of North Texas professor, Dr. Jan Holden, author of The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences:

Alex Tsakiris: I was wondering if we could talk about the recent passing of the most famous neurologist of our time, Dr. Oliver Sacks.
If anyone remembers the movie “Awakenings” with Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro about this patient who’s experiencing these horrible, neurological conditions — that doctor is really the Oliver Sacks figure.

And I wanted to talk about him because I hear what you are saying… about more people being open to looking at near-death experience science, but I juxtapose that against what mainstream science is saying, and what Oliver Sacks was saying before he passed into that next dimension — NDEs are hallucinations.

And they may have some nice language about how those hallucinations are formed, but they’re [still insisting that NDEs are] hallucinations.
And I just wonder how much progress we’ve really made because science isn’t done in a vacuum.

It’s a social enterprise.
It’s a cultural enterprise–it shapes culture and culture shapes it.

So this whole [endeavor] of NDE research boils down to NDE researchers and the people doing the science on one side, versus Oliver Sacks and the neurologists and the neuroscientists on the other side.

[This is] because NDE science is a direct attack not just on their profession but ultimately on their livelihood…
Maybe do ourselves a disservice if we don’t understand and share with other people the extent to which the battle lines are drawn.

Dr. Jan Holden: I’ve wondered too what Oliver Sacks would say now–that he has actually moved into my way of thinking [or] an extension of physical life.
But it’s hard to get people who stay dead to come back and participate in interviews so we may never know.

But I do agree with what you’re saying Alex–the mainstream scientific perspective is that consciousness is a product of the brain–such that when the brain dies, consciousness dies. And what near-death research and especially in concert with research of other phenomena like after-death communication, nearing-death awareness, deathbed visions, reincarnation, and so forth.

When cardiologists like Dr. Pim van Lommel calls a convergence of evidence, it points to the idea that consciousness exists essentially separate from the brain but of course extremely interrelated with it while we’re physically alive.

In my view, first of all I think that culture changes slowly and as some famous person said it changes funeral by funeral.
So it does take time for a paradigm shift in thinking to occur.

But you said something that I find really interesting: neuroscientists and so forth seemed threatened by this information.
I do understand them feeling threatened in the sense that we’re always threatened when our fundamental beliefs are challenged.

But on the other hand, there is no reason for scientists and other medical people to be threatened by the idea that consciousness is essentially independent of the brain because from that perspective the brain is seen as a source of limitation.

It’s a filter on what actually is our bigger capability, and that filter is critical.
If I’ve had a stroke, I want a neurosurgeon who knows a lot about how the brain works to help me regain as much as my brain function as possible because I can’t access my consciousness while my body is alive.

I shouldn’t say can’t–my capacity to access my consciousness is very limited based to a great extent on what my brain is capable of.
So there is still a place for all the science and scientific discoveries and all that’s needed for managing the brain and maximizing its ability to access the consciousness for which the brain serves as kind of a cell phone.

So it would be like saying that just because you discover that the message coming to you on the cell phone doesn’t originate on the cell phone then cell phone repairers should feel threatened?

I don’t think so because I still need the cell phone to get the message.

Listen Now:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Click here for Dr. Holden’s Website
​

Read Excerpts:

Alex Tsakiris: You just mentioned that you see a gap in the near-death experience research when it comes to, for example, Shiite religious people in Iran.
What do you think is the nature of that gap in the Muslim community in general in terms of this near-death experience research?

Why is it there?
How is it there?

Ali Ghasemiannejad: There are only two of three articles that are publishable–most of them NDEs; and the participants only [were] five or ten.
So I started to interview Muslim Shiite NDE-ers.

More than 50 maybe.
And I established a website [to] educate people about Muslim NDE-ers.

It was the first time they heard about NDEs.
I think our professors and researchers in Iran don’t know about NDEs, unfortunately.

And when I wanted to start the research there wasn’t anybody to help me and I had communication with professors from the United States or other countries that conducted research about NDEs.

And if you look at articles [or] books, you can see that there is a lack of attention to Muslim NDEs, especially Shiite.
There are no articles about Shiite Muslim NDEs and the majority of Iran is Shiite Muslim–more than 80% are Shiite Muslim.

So I think it can be helpful to investigate to help us understand about the nature of NDEs from different cultures.

Alex Tsakiris: I just had an interview with Dr. Evan Thompson, a philosopher from the University of British Columbia–very prominent in the NDE debate circles–always taking the other side, the neurological model because that’s also his background.

[He’s] well-versed in the near-death experience literature.
He’s written a book directly challenging Dr. Pim van Lommel.

I also interviewed a couple years ago Yale neurologist Dr. Steven Novella.
Again, this is Yale.

This is supposed to be one of the most highly-regarded institutions in the country.
I directly addressed with him how his neurological model doesn’t fit the data.

Again, let’s understand each other and understand where these guys are coming from.
One of the words and phrases they like to kick around is the “neural substrates of emotion.”

They’ll say things like, “All of these experiences…they’re fantastic. They’re wonderful but there’s a neurological basis if we really get down to the heart of it.”
Then when you push them like I did [with] Novella, you say, okay Steve, look at the research of Dr. Jeffrey Long.

Hundreds and hundreds of near-death experiencers…92% are experiencing deceased relatives and only deceased relatives, no one who’s living.
You’re going to tell me there’s some aspect of the brain, some little neuron we can put our finger on that says you’re having this kind of experience, therefore let’s only key up and create these hallucinations with deceased people.

It’s a bizarre notion and yet that’s what these people are advancing.
But they’re not advancing it in a vacuum they’re advancing it in direct response to the research that you guys are generating.

So maybe I’m pushing this too hard but I don’t think I am.
I think the battle lines are drawn a lot deeper than we think, and a lot deeper than the near-death research community wants to acknowledge.

I don’t think we can dismiss these people as just uninformed [or] they haven’t really read the research.
They’re just attacking the research because it’s in their interest to do so.

Dr. Jan Holden: I think what you’re saying is accurate.
Some people are familiar with the research yet still disregard some aspects of it.

I think there’s selective attention to aspects that they feel capable of criticizing.
And I have yet to hear an explanation of any kind of veridical perception.

How people–numerous cases of people who based on the condition and position of their physical body shouldn’t have been able to perceive what they report having perceived that is later investigated and found to be accurate.

I just don’t know of a way to account for something like that in a hallucination model.
And I almost have a hard time even giving the hallucination model any credibility because so many researchers have already clarified the numerous differences between hallucinations and near-death experiences.

And so it’s hard for me to understand how someone could still hold that position.
But I think it’s selective.

I think to step back though, the only thing I can think to do is continue to research; continue to look at all of the evidence; have faith that [what] seems to have happened in the past when there was resistance to new ideology because of a well-established existing ideology, eventually the weight of the evidence shifted and what was once heresy is almost know thoughtlessly accepted.
———————
Alex Tsakiris: If you’re really going to advance that Ali does this work with the Iranian Shia and they have a similar experience.
And Natasha reports from New Zealand as have so many other researchers across cultures.

If you’re really going to jam that back into a neurological model, buddy you better have some pretty convincing evidence because it just doesn’t make any sense that could trace back to some neural correlates.

I don’t see how that could work.

Natasha Tassell-Matamua: I’ll just jump in here.
In my other incarnation, the thing that I teach is cultural psychology and that’s why I’m quite big on the cultural stuff and the cultural question.

But what we do know is people from different cultures process information differently.
So just looking at cognitive processing, we know that people from more individualistic cultures tend to have a more analytical style of processing whereas people from more holistic cultures seem to process more holistically.

So when we’re looking at the neurological model we know that the cognitive processing information systems that people have [correlate] to the culture that they’re from.
So the fact that we’re finding some sort of universality or appear to be finding some universality I guess is in many ways a contradiction to what we know about cognitive processing.

So I guess it’s a starting point for saying there’s something more going on than just the underlying neurological basis.
Because you would think from what we know that cognitive processing styles are different cross-culturally.

So just based on the evidence you would think that perhaps NDEs should also differ just given the fact that people–given it’s a psychological experience–people would psychologically process them in different ways in different cultures and yet as far as we know, we’re not finding that.
———————
Alex Tsakiris: Ali, one of the papers you recently presented at the recent IANDS Conference was on the elements of near-death experiences in the Koran.
As you show in the paper, there are many references that either directly or indirectly refer to some of the aspects that we commonly understand as being part of the near-death experience.

So do you think that’s going to be surprising to Muslims?

Ali Ghasemiannejad: Absolutely.
We are going to publish an article both in Iran–in Persian philosophical journals.

They encourage me to do this so I think it would be a surprising thing for people in Iran–Muslim people in Iran–they [would] like it.
Because I don’t know or not the [30 percent] of verses in the Koran talks about death and after death.

It’s wonderful for them to [contemplate] subjective psychological phenomena of NDEs based on their beliefs, so maybe it can be [taken as] empirical evidence of survival after death.
——————-
Alex Tsakiris: Jan, tell us a little bit about this other paper that you sent me, Disclosing Near-Death Experiences to Professional Healthcare Providers and Nonprofessionals.

Dr. Jan Holden: For the [psychospiritual] potential to be blocked because of an ignorantly based response to what [NDE experiencers] experience just seems really tragic to me.

Alex Tsakiris: What are one or two of the most important things you feel you could tell a healthcare professional about how to handle this situation–particularly if they’re not convinced of the reality of this?

Or they’re somewhat aware of the near-death experience research but it just doesn’t fit in with their belief system.
What advice would you give them for how to approach this in a Do No Harm basis?

Dr. Jan Holden: I’ll reiterate the points I made before: The things that seem to make for a helpful response are to know and name the experience; really say to the experiencer it sounds like you may have had a near-death experience–and give the experience a name because as well known as NDEs are, a lot of people aren’t aware of them.

Or they think that they’re…not all NDEs involve a tunnel–moving through a tunnel toward a light, only about 20% do.
And what they may not realize what they experienced was an NDE.

Alex Tsakiris: So even if I think it’s a hallucination of your mind I can still at least acknowledge that this is a medically recognized phenomena that we call near-death experience; and I can name it so that’s going to help that patient.

That’s number one right?

Dr. Jan Holden: Right.
That’s going to be a help.

Another thing is whether or not you personally believe that the experience is real, most near-death experiencers are adamant that experience was real.
Unlike dreams and hallucinations, when people return to normal consciousness after those experiences they look back on the experience and say, as real as it felt at the time I now know that it wasn’t real.

In near-death experiences, people look back on the NDE and they still say, absolutely, that was real.
And so just accepting that it’s phenomenologically real to the NDE-er; and also if they want to be open to research that the research points to accurate perceptions when the person was completely incapacitated…that really do point to the potential reality of the experience.

 

[Kgal]

Have you seen this interview where they talk about communication with those on the spirit world and other phenomena? There was a man who could talk with some ET's and demonstrated it by having them create physical phenomena on Earth. He would predict and then there'd be proof.

[video=youtube;F4XCGJoyagU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XCGJoyagU&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Skarekrow]

Have you seen this interview where they talk about communication with those on the spirit world and other phenomena? There was a man who could talk with some ET's and demonstrated it by having them create physical phenomena on Earth. He would predict and then there'd be proof.

[video=youtube;F4XCGJoyagU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4XCGJoyagU&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I haven’t seen that one, I will add it to my queue!
I am no very up to date on the happenings of UFOs and such.
Thanks for sharing it!