Merkabah

[Skarekrow]

IBM Reveals Incredible New Brain-Inspired Chip

The world of computing just got a heck of a lot more exciting thanks to IBM’s incredibly powerful brain-inspired chip which was unveiled on Thursday. While their prototype single-core system, released back in 2011 as part of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project, was impressive, this new chip blows the old one out of the water.

The human brain tops the computing chart as the most efficient organizational system in the world, so it’s no wonder IBM and collaborators chose to emulate its capabilities for their new system. This so-called “cognitive computing” aims to mimic the brain’s abilities for perception, action and cognition.

Traditional computing systems can be likened to the left brain; they’re analytical and mathematical with superb number-crunching abilities. But if we want something that could be used in more sophisticated systems, say artificial intelligence, then we’re going to need something more right brain-like as well, which is exactly what IBM have been working towards.

This new chip, which is the size of a postage-stamp, addresses the right brain functions of sensory processing and pattern recognition. The idea is to be able to process, respond to and “learn” from information gleaned from the environment.

If successfully combined with a traditional “left brain” system, which is what IBM will be attempting over the coming years, we could have a “holistic computing intelligence” with vast capabilities in our hands.

The product, which has been coined “TrueNorth,” achieves this through a staggering network of 1 million programmable neurons, 256 million configurable synapses (connections) and over 4,000 neurosynaptic cores.

To put this into perspective, the prototype had just 256 neurons, 260,000 synapses and one core. That’s a giant leap in just 3 years. According to wired.com, these neurons, or “spiking neurons,” essentially allow the chip to encode data as patterns of pulses, which is much like one of the many ways scientists believe the brain stores information. Details of the chip can be found in Science.

IBM has put the abilities of this chip to the test in various artificial intelligence tasks, such as image recognition. One test, for example, involved presenting the chip with a variety of images, and it was found to be able to recognize a variety of objects with around 80% accuracy. Remarkably, the system was able to do all of this on just 63 mW of power.

Like the 2011 version, this chip is just a prototype. IBM hopes to eventually produce a neuro-synaptic chip system with a whopping 10 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses that can process information whilst consuming just 1 kW of power. Eventually, multiple chips will be strung together on a chip board to create a huge network.

IBM envisages that the technology could have a variety of applications, such as vision assistance for the blind, health monitoring and transportation such as self-driving cars.

 

[Skarekrow]

ASCEND ACADEMY: THE FOUR FOLD FOCUS



This is Phase Four of the Seven Stages of Mastery.
This is the tipping point where things start to get really interesting, so let’s look back briefly on what we’ve already revealed.

So far we have covered:
The Source’s One Consciousness diverging and creating through Sacred Geometry inPhase One,
The multiple manifestations of the creative Male and Female energies in Phase Two,
and the 3 main divisions of our Universe known as the Three Great Planes in Phase Three.

These perspectives of the unfolding universe all overlap on one another in their varying concepts, and become especially clear with the understanding of the 7 Hermetic Principles outlined before the Phases began.

When we understand that all is Mind, all is connected, all is vibration, everything is dual, everything has rhythm, everything has cause and effect, and that everything has gender, we begin to see the pieces fitting together.

Phase 1 is a rudimentary example of the principles of Cause & Effect as well as Mentalism, showing us how everything began with sacred geometrical concepts in the mind of God, which seeded all other manifestations to come into being.

Phase 2 represents the principles of Gender and Polarity, in which all things reveal a masculine and feminine essence which work in tandem to create a balanced consciousness continuum.

Phase 3 displays the principle of Correspondence, in which each Great Plane has various connections and relations with the others for the universe to work in uniformity.

Phase 4 is an example of the principles of Vibration and Rhythm, and you will now learn why.

Your Soul is the eternal, transcendental, true self that exists beyond time and space.
Other than Source, it is the only personal identity you can truly identify with, as it contains the very essence and consciousness of your being.

It is looking out through your physical vessel right now, observing you read these words in the physical body, interpret a feeling in the emotional or astral body, and contemplate them in the mental body.

It is beyond all that you sense, feel and think at the very core of you, observing (and simultaneously creating) everything you experience.
How does it go about this?
How does the Soul clothe itself in various densities of vibration in order to experience these different ways of being simultaneously?



If you would, imagine a dark room.

There is nothing to be seen in the room because nothing can be verified about the information therein.
Now imagine an orb of light floating in this room.

The light bounces off the walls in all directions, making the space hypothetically visible because the information of the boundaries is being recorded as the light makes contact with the walls and resonates with the vibration of the colour, texture, and all other visible aspects of the walls. Unfortunately it cannot be experienced unless it is being observed by something that receives and interprets light rather than reflects it.

Now imagine that this orb of light is also an eye. The eye still cannot see because it receives the light into it’s cornea but cannot interpret it as relevant information.
Now imagine this floating light orb eye has a mind, a space in which the information can be gathered and sorted out based on SOMETHING that goes on inside it that decides how this information is relevant to the experience.

The only thing that can be this something is BELIEF.

The mind must first have the belief that it exists, as a separate entity, and that there is something else outside of it.
Then, when it receives the light, it goes, “ok, well since I am, and something else also is, and this information is not coming from me, then that stuff that I’m receiving must be the other thing.”

Then it goes about investigating what this other thing is, determining that it’s something that stops existing somewhere else outside of it, in a certain shape, forming a related belief and so on and so forth. It eventually determines it is in a room, after building upon what it previously knew about itself.

For any mental processes to occur or build on one another, there must be a belief framework, a belief structure.
There must be something to base your experience of reality on for there to be any notion of reality, otherwise you’re just seeing ‘stuff’ outside of you.

Therefore, a Soul, who desires to have an intelligent observational experience of the universe, must CREATE belief structures that are relevant to the experience it wishes to have.
We already know that everything is on a degree of vibration, and as a Soul beyond time and space, there is an endless ocean of varying vibrations to choose from.

If thoughts are electromagnetic waves in the brain, we can then gather that beliefs are self-perpetuating mental vibrations (using the broader, universal definition of mind) that resonate with a particular frequency of reality for a relevant experience to take place.
In essence, beliefs are like the focusing lenses of the spiritual observer, in which each varying degree of sharpness narrows in on a particular vibrational spectrum.

Anything outside of a belief structure simply cannot be experienced by the observer as it can only resonate with experiences in the same vibrational range.
Even if evidence comes into it stating otherwise the mind will try to rationalize what occurs or simply block it out entirely as a hallucination.

This is why we call people “closed-minded” and why so many spiritualists talk about freeing or opening your mind.
The universe is infinite and vast with many possible vibrational spectrums, and when we set up our belief structures to account for infinite possibilities, we can then resonate with and experience a larger variety of those possibilities.



This article is about identifying which belief structures are the primary underlying foci that allow our Souls to have experience on all planes of reality.
Through my own contemplation and intuitive guidance, I have come across these primary belief structures, called the Four-Fold Focus.

In conjunction with the work of Frank Kepple (a student of Robert Monroe) and his Four Focus view on ‘Phasing’ (Monroe’s term for Astral Projection) in the Wider Reality, I will reveal which of these belief structures allows access to the various foci relevant to our experience.

(One thing to note, as stated in previous articles, is that every plane of reality or Focus exists simultaneously in the here and now, not as separate planes suspended in different locations.
They all overlap and interact, and every experience has its higher dimensional counterpart which can be experienced by your Soul.
We know this through the Law of Correspondence, As above, so below.)


Focus 1


This is our current “home focus” as described in Frank Kepple’s work, known as the Physical Reality.
We naturally experience this Focus because our Souls have decided to bring this aspect of it’s conscious attention here for the time being in order to learn and grow in many aspects.

It perpetuates this experience with the following belief structure:
“I am Matter, I am Physical, I have one identity that is separate from all that is, I can only get what I want if I act, I only exist if I consume, I am here in one time and one place, I am finite, I am far away from the Source ”.

Every belief structure that initiates physical experience has this basic structure to some degree.
This automatically creates an observation through a Physical-Etheric Vessel, being stimulated by nerves and impressions directly from the Great Physical Plane, including that of the energy body (aura and chakras) that we are usually unaware of.

Within this Focus exists a sub plane known as the Real-Time Zone (a term coined by Robert Bruce, author of Astral Dynamics), where many people tend to first Astral Project when they are viewing the physical world.

This is a sort of etheric reflection of the physical in “real time”, as it corresponds to the exact moments you left your body and progresses in a fairly similar time frame. This is more of an energy body projection than an astral projection.



Many objects in the RTZ are subject to reality fluctuations, as it is the intermediary between the Physical and Astral and contains aspects of both.
Sometimes thought forms or our own perceptual beliefs can leave an imprint onto this space, causing distortions and changes.

Some objects may be slightly moved, a different colour, a different shape entirely, as they may be perceived as ideas through those experiencing them.
Other factors come into place regarding these phenomenon but we will get to them in a little while.

Some entities can exist or pass through this space, and many will perceive these entities as ghosts or apparitions in the physical plane. We can receive information from this plane through a form of clairvoyance, but we will discuss that in a later article.

Many doorways, tunnels, and entrance structures exist here that may lead to parallel realities or higher planes/ different foci.
The center of experience for this whole Focus is the Ego self, and now you see clearly why it operates the way it does.
It undermines any attempts to go beyond this belief system because it is our home focus and thus has a very ingrained perpetuation of vibration.

The ego self is a holographic representation of the Focus 1 belief structure.
It was created for this very purpose, to keep us FOCUSSED on this reality, but since we are evolving beings, our belief structures are changing to accommodate a wider range of experience.

Our Souls no longer wish to keep the majority of our attention on the physical plane, they have learned a great deal of lessons here and are now ready for more vibrational spectrums of experience. You reading this right now is a good sign that your Soul is ready to expand beyond Focus 1.

Focus 2



This is the Focus we spend most of our time in while we dream, lucid dream, think, and where many people believe they are astral projecting.

This is the mental landscape where all thoughts, feelings, imagination, and past experiences exist as actual objects, people and experiences that we can interact with. Every single experience and dream we’ve ever had is accessible in this environment.

The primary belief structure for this Focus is:
“I am mind, I am my thoughts, my dreams, my experiences, I am imagination, I am here and now, I am attention and intention, If I think I become, my thought is action.”

Even if you don’t consciously attempt to reinforce this belief structure, it is not too hard to enter into it as we are already operating quite a bit on this level as we daydream and think.

Simply get into a comfortable position, close your eyes, and begin to disconnect from thoughts about your physical experience.
Let them pass through your mind without attachment while breathing in and out.

When things are a bit more quiet, just begin to notice.
Don’t attempt to make anything happen, just notice and observe what is occurring in your mind.

You will begin to see images and scenes appear almost like screens in the darkness. ‘Step into’ one of those scenes, immerse yourself in it and go with the flow of that experience.
Be in your mind.

This is our PERSONAL ASTRAL PLANE, existing within the Great Mental Plane and usually only experienced by the Soul who it belongs to.
This is the Astral bubble I was referring to a couple articles ago.

Focus 2 exists within the so called Astral, but is usually closed off to any other form of consciousness by means of normal exploration (unless someone else is subconsciously invited or attempts to communicate telepathically through this medium).

The physics here are simple, thought equals action.
You think, or intend, or bring attention to something, and it becomes your reality.

If you believe there is no gravity, there will be no gravity.
If you believe you are in the astral realm being attacked by demons, you will experience this too.

It’s all within the confines of your mind, but in no way is it illusory or any less REAL than the physical world, in fact all manifestations in the physical directly come from this Focus.

The main difference between this Focus and others is that all people and beings you see within this experience are aspects of your personal consciousness.

They are dream figures and thought forms that are enacting and representing your thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and associations.
Communicating with and learning from them is an excellent method of self exploration, as there are many aspects of our minds that are totally unexplored and would really benefit our spiritual growth.



“Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe and God.” – Pythagoras

I have called this the Inner Sanctuary in a previous article series because in meditation you can create a space here that you can learn about yourself, connect with your higher self, and practice your higher dimensional maneuvering and creation abilities.

It’s like your own personal temple. You can also create doorways into higher dimensions, thought forms which can exist independently of you, and connect with other Focus 2 realms.

At the edge of this Focus, usually found by thoroughly exploring and the intent to move beyond your mind, is something referred to as The Void.
It is an area of complete 3D blackness where you seem to float within. Many get stuck here, accidentally creating their preconceived notions about what this place is.
In essence, it is the border between Focus 2 and Focus 3, and acts as a sort of barrier for those who are not ready to pass through.

Many occult teachings have referred to this space as the dwelling of the Guardian of the Threshold, which may appear as a being, a voice, or as nothing at all.
Whatever this truly is, It’s only purpose is for us to confront our fears and move beyond them.

If you reach this Void area, simply do not think or say anything, be silent and calm.
This will cause nothing to appear before you.

If something does, don’t react to it as if it were something to be frightened at, no matter what form it takes.
Just don’t feed it any emotional energy and allow it to leave your attention as you direct yourself towards moving into a higher plane.
It will never attack you if you don’t expect it to, it only reflects what is within you.

One thing to remember is that you are actually a Soul at a higher vibration than this plane.
This experience has no power over you and you can choose to move beyond it with pure will and intention.

Once you’re ready you can then project yourself forward into the abyss or create an astral doorway, either of which will cause you to emerge in Focus 3.

Focus 3

This is the collective mental environment, in which all beings will either live invariably or pass through upon physical transcendence or disembodiment.

The actual landscape is created by the collective beliefs of it’s inhabitants, all playing some part in the unfolding and manifestation of the astral matter.
This is where all the minds exist referred to in the Great Mental Plane section of our last article.

Some beings, such as elementals, naturally inhabit this space as their home focus, and when we die we switch our home focus to this space as well.



The purpose of this space is to burn out all of our desires, creative pursuits, and experience limiting beliefs before we decide to reincarnate on F1 or eventually reintegrate with our Soul selves.

Millions, possibly billions of different locales exist in this vast focus with many beings traveling through or residing within them.
All of them correspond to very specific vibrations which entail some sort of theme, philosophy, religious belief or archetypal experience to collectively play out.

All conceptions of heaven, hell, and afterlife are experienced here at first arrival, and will be experienced for as long as the individual form of consciousness holds the belief in them.

The belief structure to resonate with this experience consciously is:
“I am what I believe, I choose my reality, I am not bound by a particular state, I am free to move through time and space, I exist to explore myself, I will exist until I have found who I truly am, All others are a reflection of me.”

Once a being has thoroughly explored their beliefs alongside others of similar persuasion and begins to have doubts about their experience, their frequency range will change and they will be able to explore other possibilities in Focus 3.
There is so much to explore that any one being could spend lifetimes wandering through different conceptions of reality. Anything you can possibly imagine (and more) exists here.

The lower vibrational aspects were referred to in the Great Mental Plane, regarding individuals still primarily focused on physical reality and primal desires.
They will spend their time exploring those desires through their unconscious creation scenarios for as long as they need to before they become sick of them or realize there may be something more.

As the spectrum increases in frequency, more free thinking and creative experiences become available, all of which will be populated by many individuals, thought forms, elementals, and all manner of related structures and objects.

These different locales are almost like countries of their own, with different cultures, values, associations, and overarching concepts which are prevalent in the minds of all who inhabit them.

Some of these beings are so entrenched in their beliefs that they don’t even realize they are not in physical reality, but this is alright, as it allows them to further explore those manifestations which they have created.

On occasion, you may see people similar to broken records which get caught in mental and emotional loops that can be quite displeasing to watch.
Many attempt to convince them out of their beliefs, and this can be an arduous task depending on the individual and the strength of their belief.

This particular field of guidance is called Retrieval Work, and many spiritual beings as well as many higher vibrational beings on the mental plane assist the progression of these Soul’s by interrupting their thought patterns long enough for them to catch a glimpse of the endless possibilities they can experience.



One of the greatest things about F3 is that you can create your own lasting structures for others to visit or for you to establish a sort of Astral Home for yourself.
It requires a little more effort to mentally create here but it can still be done, and many are doing it unconsciously, so why not give it a try?

A great feature of this is that when you physically die, you will usually end up at this particular locale, so it’s sort of like creating a checkpoint for yourself, saving your progress so you don’t have to start at World 3 level 1 again.

The Mental or Manasic plane briefly referred to in our last article once again becomes the border between F3 and F4.

When a being is completely satisfied or comes to the conclusion that there is an even greater experience to be had, they will go through a transition phase of becoming aware of their true nature.

In this frequency range we are stripped of the notion of being in a body or having one particular mind, and become more expanded in our perception of the whole reality.
We begin to see the big picture, review the karmic lessons we have learned throughout our personality experience, and begin to understand abstract knowledge as well as absolute truths.

We cast off all of our limited beliefs about ourselves and enter a more enlightened state of being.
This is the template level reality, where concepts and ideas take form and are experienced as ‘solid’ objects to view objectively.

This is where beliefs and light webs are created and where they vibrate to organize the lower vibrational frequencies into the experiences that resonate with them.
Finally, if we bring our attentions and intentions to reaching where these templates are created while simultaneously releasing any attachment to what we’ve experienced thus far, we then find our notion of individual selves completely disintegrating.

We become consciousness, limitless in movement and expression, complete subjective energy.

Focus 4



This is the Causal Plane, the plane of the Soul.

Here you are present as your Higherself, connected to the experience of all your other personality aspects.
The belief system here isn’t much of an illusory structure but more an absolute truth.

Rather, it’s more of a belief created by Source consciousness to fractal itself into Souls for individual reality creation, and goes as follows:
“I am consciousness, I am life essence, I am personality, I am a unique expression of All that is, I am connected to All that is, I create my reality to experience all aspects of myself, I am limitless, timeless, eternal.”

This plane is where we connect as Souls to all other Souls in what I have referred to as the Light Matrix.
It is like an infinite web of minds which are all creating realities simultaneously, all interacting with each other in various ways and on various frequencies for the purpose of self reflection and exploration, and for just plain fun.

I have had brief glimpses of being in this state, but according to Frank Kepple, communicating with other Souls is basically like fusing with them and sharing imagery, feelings, and various thought impressions.
This would make sense as the vibration of this plane is that of a transcendent oneness.

I felt very present with all the things I was experiencing, like I could move towards and be with whatever I wanted with no effort.
I was just so taken back by everything and was trying to observe what was here, I didn’t want to single in on any one thing.

Now as my full Focus 4 self, that isn’t a problem and all of that can be done simultaneously, but when you Phase to this level, it’s hard to translate and carry all of this simultaneous information back to Focus 1 without it getting blurry and muddled.

Let me describe to you what I have experienced of it thus far.

It is complete, and I mean complete, whiteness.
Everywhere you look there is vast infinite white.

From what I can intuitively gather the actual cause of the whiteness is a fabric of multiple souls all nested together for as far as I could view.
There seem to be these various white polygons floating and spinning around closer to what I perceived to be the “ground” even though it wasn’t a ground at all but rather a sort of threshold to enter lower vibrations.

I’ve concluded that these polygons are actually mental concepts from Focus 3 visible on Focus 4.
There is this cone like vortex that descends into this threshold, and once again I’m being told this is all entirely made up of Souls as well.

Now that I think about it, it seemed like I was inside a toroidal field! Everything seemed to have a tranquil silence about it, but I knew and felt it was all vibrating at a high frequency.

I guess that it was so harmonious that it appears as if there is no sound, or maybe I was just not capable at the time of perceiving those vibrations.
Maybe I was just not focusing on the sounds and thus could not experience them with as much clarity.

Everything felt so soft, indescribably plush and light. I felt so at peace, there was simply no need to extend my thought beyond just being there.
Those were all the things I could gather from my brief experiences on this Focus.

This does not mean everyone will experience this exact scene, maybe where I was nested relative to everyone else caused me view this particular arrangement.
Either way, you’re going to experience that vast whiteness when you re-enter this plane.

I hope this has inspired you to begin your Phasing journey.

Beyond Focus 4 are the higher aspects of the Great Spiritual Plane which, at this time, are not relevant to our spiritual growth until we are completely integrated within Focus 4, in which I assume further instruction will be thoroughly given.

Focus Overlay



Because each Focus inherently exists in the same space and time as all others(here and now), it is entirely possible for representations of different foci to appear on parallel planes, so as to give the appearance of apparitions, paranormal experiences and so forth.

This is experienced when certain vibrational resonances occur between different foci.

We can thus experience objects or beings of F2 and F3 from F1, F2 and F1 from F3, and finally F1 and F3 from F2.
F4 obviously is designed so that you can experience all the others, because they are all contained within and are created from that Focus in the first place.

What I’m getting at is that we can experience different planes of reality no matter where we are located within them, we just have to change our belief structures and in turn develop our senses so that we can resonate with those experiences.

I am working out methods to do this efficiently as well as some methods for Phasing and will be including these in Phase 6.

 

[Skarekrow]

A Poltergeist Can Be Fun - Or Else It Stinks



I can't see how anyone can seriously doubt the existence of the poltergeist phenomenon.
Not only has it been extensively documented, but it is not all that uncommon.

If you live in a low crime area, your house probably has a better chance of getting a poltergeist infestation than being burgled.
And it's no fun at all - at least, not unless your idea of fun is having your sleep disturbed by "things that go bump in the night", and your meals disturbed by flying cutlery and smashing crockery, clocks running backwards, electrical appliances turning off and on, and mysterious objects appearing out of nowhere, and others disappearing into thin air.

But at least they hardly ever hurt anybody. In one case the babies were regularly taken from their crib and gently placed on the floor, rather than being thrown. However, I suppose a low level poltergeist infestation might make life a little more interesting.

Although we often read news about the appointment of exorcists by the Vatican, the church of England also has diocesan exorcists. But since genuine demon possession is very rare (but not non-existent), the biggest part of their casework involves poltergeists.

And they have confirmed what the prominent psychical researcher, Harry Price said in 1945: a poltergeist cannot be exorcised. In fact, in one notable case, it made it worse.
But by now they have established the reason: a poltergeist is not, as the name suggests, some sort of discarnate spirit, mischievous but not malevolent.

It focuses on a particular person, whose disturbed emotions produce, by means unknown, an unconscious outburst of psychokinetic energy, a sort of psychic tantrum. The "treatment" is prayer and pastoral care.

However, sometimes there is a twist, as we shall see from this interview with the Rt. Revd. Dominic Walker, co-chairman of the Christian Deliverance Study Group, by his fellow bishop, Hugh Montefiore.

Walker: On the whole it seems to be caused by the people in the house.
Most of the cases involve youngsters, although amongst the adults it's almost always been with older people.

In fact, I was called in a couple of years ago to an old people's home where it was quite fascinating because they'd recorded it on camera.
It was sheltered accommodation, and people were being woken up in the middle of the night, and their doorknockers were going.

They would open their doors and there was no one there. They thought someone was playing a trick. The council put in a camera, and it was captured on video. We weren't able to trace the source because there were too many people, about twenty in all.

Montefiore: So what did you do about it?

Walker: I went and talked to them about it and tried to explain that this wasn't something from outside which had come to attack them, but a psychic phenomenon created by psychic energy, and I tried to reassure them.

But the staff got hold of me and said, 'What will they do if you get rid of this, because this is the one thing that holds that community together?' People would invite each other in the morning into their flats and ask whether they had had a peaceful night.

​

It would appear that, in this case, the psychic tantrum was thrown by some old codger against the crashing boredom of the place.
I hope I never end up in any place as dull as that.

Bishop Walker mentioned himself seeing objects flying around, and he met a woman who was able to control it enough to demonstrate to him how she could move a piece of paper by looking at it.
Her poltergeist activity gradually dissipated as she received psychotherapy.

In another house sugar used to appear out of nowhere when the family wasn't watching.
He was present on one of those occasions.

It was a highly dysfunctional household, and the little girl on whom it focused tried to befriend the poltergeist by writing letters to it addressed to "Polty". He was shown a biscuit tin of the poltergeist's notes, written in an unknown childish handwriting, which used to appear every morning in reply to the child's notes.

The next example is not exactly what most of us would call a poltergeist, but it gives an idea about how these things originate.
A house was afflicted with a disgusting smell which switched itself on at five o'clock every afternoon and disappeared at seven o'clock.

However, for that two hours it was so foul that the resident couple had to abandon the site for the period.
The interesting thing was that whenever a doctor, priest, or any helping agency was present, it didn't occur.

So the bishop decided to arrive at six o'clock. No luck. "It" knew he was coming, and didn't show up.
Eventually, the full story came out.

The wife had been employed as a cleaner for a students' hostel.
However, on her last day there - she refused to go back - she remembered she hadn't cleaned one lavatory because it had been occupied at the time.

When she returned, it was still locked. When banging on the door produced no response, she opened it herself with her pass key.
A student had hanged himself inside.

That was at five o'clock.
The police didn't let her go until seven.

Reference: Hugh Montefiore (2002), The Paranormal: A Bishop Investigates, Upfront Publishing, pp 118 - 122, 131 - 132 (This book is actually a very good introduction to the paranormal, including subjects which are not often discussed. The author's own supernatural experience is described on
p 234.)

 

[Skarekrow]

Ectoplasm (Ghost Slime) Seriously Studied by a Nobel-Prize Laureate and Other Scientists


Left: Charles Robert Richet, 1905. (Wikimedia Commons) Right: Alleged emission and re-absorption of ectoplasm by a medium, observed by German physician and psychiatrist Albert Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing in 1913. Background: A concept image of ectoplasm. (Thinkstock)​

The universe is full of mysteries that challenge our current knowledge.
In "Beyond Science" Epoch Times collects stories about these strange phenomena to stimulate the imagination and open up previously undreamed of possibilities.
Are they true?
You decide.

Ectoplasm isn’t an invention of the classic movie “Ghostbusters.”

At the turn of the 20th century, some renowned scientists took seriously the study of excretions made by purported spiritual mediums during séances. It was thought to be a materialization of either the spirit itself, or perhaps simply a substance inherent in the human body excited by the experience of the séance.

Leading this study in 1890 was Charles Robert Richet. Richet won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1913 for his research on anaphylaxis, a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

Robert Brain, a history professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada wrote of Richet’s studies and goals in a paper titled “Materialising the Medium: Ectoplasm and the Quest for Supra-Normal Biology.”

Brain said Richet “sought to distance himself from an earlier generation of lay table-turners and ghost photographers by offering new, scientific conceptualisations of the expanding range of occult and psychic phenomena that had been recently recorded.”

Richet coined the term ectoplasm for the gelatinous substance that seemed to seep from mediums.

He saw it as a substance that probably all people have within them that would be excreted at times of hysteria, as he viewed mediums as hysterics.

Richet described ectoplasm: “In the early stages there are always white veils and milky patches and the faces, fingers, and drawings are formed little by little in the midst of this kind of gelatinous paste that resembles moist and sticky muslin.”

Alleged emission and re-absorption of ectoplasm by a medium, observed by German physician and psychiatrist Albert Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing in 1913.

What is said to be ectoplasm on a woman’s bare torso, just below the breasts. Ectoplasm was said to sometimes excrete from the breasts.
From J. Bisson’s “Les Phénomènes de matérialisation, étude expérimentale,” 1914.

It was said that ectoplasm would be excreted often from the mouth and other natural orifices, but also from the top of the head, finger tips, and other extremities.
It was described as not simply remaining in place as a lifeless substance, but moving–sometimes rapidly–over the surface of the body and organizing itself into shapes and forms.

Albert Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing, a contemporary German physician and psychiatrist at the University of Munich, described ectoplasm thus: “Its appearance is generally announced by the presence of fluid, white and luminous flakes of a size ranging from that of a pea to that of a five-franc piece.”

German embryologist Hans Driesch saw this so-called “materialization” during séances as comparable to embryological development.
He termed the form-giving ability of this ectoplasm “entelechy.”

He wrote: “Think of the little material body, called an egg, and think of the enormous and very complex material body, say, an elephant, that may come out of it: here you have a permanent stream of materializations before your eyes, all of them occurring in the way of assimilation, of a spreading entelechial control.”

He also compared materialization to the process of the brain recovering from brain damage.
Driesch didn’t conduct his own experiments on the substance, but spoke more from the perspective of a philosophy of biology.

He became the president of the Society for Psychical Research in 1926.
Neurologist Jules Bernard Luys conducted experiments showing that the “bodies of hysterics underwent a spasmodic consumption of energy and gave off a ‘radiating neural force’ in the forms of a luminous fluid that flooded out of the bodily orifices, especially the eyes and mouth,” explained Brain.

He used photographic plates held to various parts of the body to show that emotions and ideas cause emissions from the body that produce various, corresponding impressions on the plates.

Other scientists who, by the early 1920s, had studied ectoplasm included Théodore Flournoy, a professor of psychology at the University of Geneva; Cesare Lombroso, an Italian criminologist and physician; and Oliver Lodge, a British physicist.

Brain explained in his paper that at the turn of the century, many discoveries were made possible by the use of new measurement instruments.
Such devices had detected for the first time electromagnetic waves, X-rays, wireless waves, and more.

The climate of that period included an excitement about the possibility of measuring hitherto unknown substances–and séances were in full fashion, with a plethora of devices crowding the dimly lit rooms.

“The convergence of instrumentation and spiritualism occurred just as a welter of startling new findings in physics suggested a vast and unexplored world of unseen forces,” Brain said.
Ectoplasm Today

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Séances and physical mediums fell out of fashion, and interest in ectoplasm dwindled after some mediums had supposedly been exposed as faking the ectoplasmic emissions. Some purported mediums today, however, still say they emit ectoplasm.

Particularly poorly done photographs of fake ectoplasm taking the form of ghosts. (Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1933 via Wikimedia Commons)

While the scientists of the late 19th century and early 20th century had studied ectoplasm by on-site observation and through photographing it, it seems genuine samples that could be tested in a lab remained elusive.

The substance is said to be sensitive to stimuli, to be easily disturbed.
It is said to dematerialize at the end of a séance.

For example, journalist Montague Keen attended a modern-day séance before which he was instructed not to make any moves toward the ectoplasm; those conducting the séance explained to him “the dangers to which the medium was exposed should anyone make an unauthorised grab at any ectoplasmic extension.”

Keen wrote about his experience in an article for SurvivalAfterDeath.org.
He’d been invited to inspect the room beforehand and to inspect the ties that held the medium’s hands and legs down so no sleight-of-hand could produce fake ectoplasm.

The medium, David Thompson, appeared to emit the substance and his body was allegedly used by a spirit to speak.
The spirit said it partially materialized in the ectoplasm, which it used also to coat Thompson’s voice box and control his voice.

After the séance, Keen was told that the ectoplasm had dematerialized and “it was dangerous when the ectoplasm was out of the medium.”

The spirit had purportedly said through Thompson, “Of course, there will always be those whom you cannot prove to them no matter what you do.
Within our field you will always have those who believe or wish to believe, and those who do not. This is a fact of life.”

 

[Skarekrow]

A Theory on How Birthmarks Could Correspond to Wounds From Past Lives

The power of the mind to leave physical marks on the body


Could birthmarks be left by mental impressions from past lives? (Shutterstock*)

​

Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia had learned through years of studying reincarnation accounts to accept that reincarnation exists–but the strong indications that birthmarks correspond to past-life wounds still puzzled him.

“I didn’t see how a wound on one body could show up as a birthmark on another, even if you accepted the idea of past-life connections,” he wrote in his book “Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives.”

His mentor and predecessor in reincarnation studies, Dr. Ian Stevenson, had verified many cases.
Some children among the approximately 2,000 reincarnation cases he studied recalled their past lives in such detail that they could identify their previous incarnations.

Checking autopsy records or going to talk to the families of the deceased, Stevenson learned that the children often had birthmarks that corresponded with great accuracy to the wounds suffered by their supposed past-life incarnations.

An example of a case Stevenson and Tucker worked on together is that of a boy named Patrick in the American mid-west.
Patrick had three birthmarks that seemed to correspond with wounds his dead brother Kevin had on his body.

Kevin had died of cancer as a child before Patrick was born.
During his treatment, Kevin had a bruised and blind left eye.

Patrick had a white opacity covering his left eye and he was essentially blind in that eye.
Kevin had a tumor over his right ear.

Patrick was born with a nodule above his right ear.
Kevin had a central IV line inserted on the right side of his neck.

Patrick had a mark on the right side of his neck.
Furthermore, Kevin walked with a limp, and so did Patrick.

Patrick seemed to remember doing things he’d never done, like living in the family’s old apartment, which Kevin had done.
He also named a deceased relative, “Billy the Pirate,” who was murdered and whom Patrick’s mother didn’t even know existed.

What he said about Billy turned out to be true.
Billy supposedly talked to Patrick in his time between lives.

How Could a Birthmark Travel From One Life to Another?

As Dr. Tucker said, even if one accepts that reincarnation exists, it seems hard to understand how or why a mark would physically appear on the new body.
In his book “Reincarnation and Biology,” Dr. Stevenson cited the example of a young man who had vividly recalled a traumatic experience from years earlier.

His arms had been tied behind him during this experience, and as he recalled it, his arms developed what looked like rope marks.
If a person’s mind can cause physical marks to appear on his or her body, memories of a past life could cause marks to appear on the present body, said Dr. Stevenson.

Many birthmarks seem to relate to traumatic experiences in past lives–and to fade as the memories fade. Very young children often seem to recall past lives, but the memories become weaker as they get older.

Neuroscientist Joe Dispenza, featured in the documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” has also said a person’s thoughts can have a physical impact on his or her body.
For example, in an experiment, subjects were asked to repeatedly pull a spring-loaded device with one of their fingers for an hour a day for four weeks.

The exercised fingers became 30 percent stronger.
Another group of subjects was asked to imagine performing this exercise for the same amount of time.
Without physically lifting a finger, their fingers increased 22 percent in strength.

Some illnesses, some physical symptoms, are also found to have their roots in the mind.
Patient advocate and health writer Trisha Torrey wrote in an article for About.com: “Psychosomatic Illnesses, also called psychophisiologic illnesses (a combination of psychology and physiology), are diagnosed for patients who have physical symptoms, but their origin seems to be psychology based.”

Dr. Tucker wrote: “If the mind continues after death and inhabits a developing fetus, then I could see how the images could affect the fetus.
It would not be the wounds on the previous body per se that produced the birthmark or birth defect, but rather the images of the wound in the individual’s mind that did it.”


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What Is the Probability of 2 People Having the Same Marks in the Same Place?

The probability of two people having two birthmarks that would correspond to two wounds on another person is 1 in 25,600, according to Dr. Stevenson’s calculations.

Dr. Tucker summarizes the logic: “[Dr. Stevenson] began with the surface area of the skin on the average adult male being 1.6 meters [5.25 feet].
He then imagined that if this area were square and laid on a flat surface, it would be approximately 127 centimeters [50 inches] by 127 centimeters.

Since he considered a correspondence between a birthmark and a wound to be satisfactory if they were both within an area of 10 square centimeters [3.94 inches] at the same location, he calculated how many 10 centimeter squares would fit into this body surface area and found that 160 would.

The probability that a single birthmark would correspond to a wound was therefore 1/160. The probability that two birthmarks would correspond to two wounds was 1/160 x 1/160 or 1 in 25,600.”

Some had criticized Dr. Stevenson’s calculations, so he and Dr. Tucker asked for the help of two statisticians when working on Patrick’s case.
They expressed interest, but declined.

One of them said that calculations would oversimplify the complex situation.
He did say, however, that “Phrases like ‘highly improbable’ ad ‘extremely rare’ come to mind as descriptive of the situation.”

 

[Skarekrow]

Study Explores Whether the Dead Can Communicate Through Electronics


A concept image of a ghost appearing on a flickering television set. Could the dead communicate through electronics as some have claimed? Dr. Imants BaruÅ¡s investigates. (Thinkstock)​

Dr. Imants Barušs at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, has conducted two studies attempting to verify reports that deceased persons have communicated to the living through electronic devices.

In the first study, he was able to reproduce this phenomenon in a weak sense, he said, but not a strong one.
This study was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration in 2001 and detailed in the Epoch Times article “Fascinating Study of Purported ‘Phone Calls From the Dead’ Phenomena: Some Confirmation.”

He and his team recorded the static between radio stations under controlled circumstances and while talking to any spirits that may be around; they heard what could be construed as some words or phrases in the recordings.
His results hinted that the so-called “electronic voice phenomenon” (EVP) may exist, but the results were not sufficiently anomalous to be considered a replication in a strong sense.

His second study, published in 2007, attempted to address some weaknesses of the first.
Instead of using the static between stations, which was more open to interpretation by the listener, he used computer programs that would randomly generate letters and whole words to see if anomalous phrases would appear.

If the researchers saw a pattern or bias that deviated too far from what could be expected to appear by chance, it could indicate that a spirit was influencing the machine to convey a message.

He simultaneously used an EVPmaker, a device that chops sound files and reassembles them randomly.
The idea was to see if there was any overlap between the random word generator and the EVPmaker that could make a stronger case for spirits trying to communicate a particular message.

The results were mixed, with at least one significant string of words appearing, but not a wealth of anomalous signals.
The most significant result was found in the use of another computer program, one that randomly generated either the word “yes” or the word “no.”

The researchers asked 11 verifiable yes-no questions, nine of which were answered correctly by the random generator.
The two questions it answered incorrectly were slightly open to interpretation.

It answered incorrectly the question, “Do we live in London?” It said “no,” when the team did live in London, Ontario, Canada.
Barušs noted, however, that the question could be misconstrued to refer to the more famous London, England.

It was also asked whether one of the research assistants had five “kids.”
It answered “yes.” In fact, the assistant had three children and two dogs.

BaruÅ¡s noted that, if a being were influencing the random yes/no generator, it may have considered the dogs somehow among the “kids.”
Either way, the result of 9 correct answers out of 11 questions was considered by BaruÅ¡s to be a “statistically rare event.”

The program had a 4.2 percent chance of obtaining this result.

ITC (instrumental transcommunication) refers to the random yes/no response generator. It may be noted that the provincial election referred to in the questions was expected to be called on the Wednesday mentioned, but it was actually called on the preceding Tuesday, so the ITC was correct in answering “no.”

Much of the recording and the output by the random generators did not otherwise show a strong indication that spirits may have been trying to communicate.
Barušs did, however, highlight a few other events of interest.

A woman who is considered to be a medium was used in the experiment.
The idea was that she might be able to detect any spirits trying to communicate through the devices, and she might thus give the researchers advice on how to tweak the experiments for success.

During one of the sessions, the researchers posed the question, “What do we need to know that we don’t understand about this?”
The medium immediately heard the EVPmaker produce the word “opportunity.”

The random word generator had been activated at the exact same time and produced the phrase “on sharp opportunity are was yes name.”
BaruÅ¡s and another research assistant present did not hear the word “opportunity” immediately, but they did hear it upon playing back the tape.

During another session, the researchers posed the question, “What would you have us do to make this work better?”
The answer produced by the random phrase generator was “We ITC dimension fortunate when irreparable continue.”

Baruss and the team wondered whether the word “continue” indicated that they should continue.
They activated the word generator again, producing the phrase, “Feel acquire light figure logical people continue.”
The word “continue” was repeated.

The random letter generator did not produce any results Barušs felt worth highlighting.
The medium said she understood it to be an arduous feat for the dead to impact electronic devices and that few would make the attempt.

She said she received some messages from deceased researchers, including BaruÅ¡s’s late colleague who “discoursed about quantum theoretic mind/matter interactions in what appeared to be much the same style as when he had been alive,” BaruÅ¡s wrote.

Barušs and the medium tried meditating before the tests, as suggested by a spirit via the medium.
“As we experimented with such speculative strategies, the medium and I felt that we entered a zone of uncertainty that was contrary to the clarity required of scientific research,” BaruÅ¡s wrote.

“However, we thought that such uncertainty may be necessary, at least for a while, if these phenomena were to be given a chance to develop so as to be able to manifest in a measurable form.”

He continued: “For instance, during the eleventh session, we decided not to test the yes/no generator since that would take us outside the realm of ambiguity.
It was not until the 25th and last session that we deliberately evaluated the output from the yes/no generator with a series of questions to which we could know the answers.”

This is why they had not conducted more of the solid yes/no verifiable line of questioning that produced the strongest results.
Barušs also noted that the computer programs may have been insufficiently random in their word generation.

This may have inhibited any beings trying to influence the programs.
Another possibility that must be considered, he said, is that the minds of the researchers may have influenced the devices.

Testing at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) at Princeton University has shown the mind may physically affect electronic devices.

 

[cvp12gh5]

A Theory on How Birthmarks Could Correspond to Wounds From Past Lives

The power of the mind to leave physical marks on the body


Could birthmarks be left by mental impressions from past lives? (Shutterstock*)

​

Dr. Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia had learned through years of studying reincarnation accounts to accept that reincarnation exists—but the strong indications that birthmarks correspond to past-life wounds still puzzled him.

“I didn’t see how a wound on one body could show up as a birthmark on another, even if you accepted the idea of past-life connections,” he wrote in his book “Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives.”

His mentor and predecessor in reincarnation studies, Dr. Ian Stevenson, had verified many cases.
Some children among the approximately 2,000 reincarnation cases he studied recalled their past lives in such detail that they could identify their previous incarnations.

Checking autopsy records or going to talk to the families of the deceased, Stevenson learned that the children often had birthmarks that corresponded with great accuracy to the wounds suffered by their supposed past-life incarnations.

An example of a case Stevenson and Tucker worked on together is that of a boy named Patrick in the American mid-west.
Patrick had three birthmarks that seemed to correspond with wounds his dead brother Kevin had on his body.

Kevin had died of cancer as a child before Patrick was born.
During his treatment, Kevin had a bruised and blind left eye.

Patrick had a white opacity covering his left eye and he was essentially blind in that eye.
Kevin had a tumor over his right ear.

Patrick was born with a nodule above his right ear.
Kevin had a central IV line inserted on the right side of his neck.

Patrick had a mark on the right side of his neck.
Furthermore, Kevin walked with a limp, and so did Patrick.

Patrick seemed to remember doing things he’d never done, like living in the family’s old apartment, which Kevin had done.
He also named a deceased relative, “Billy the Pirate,” who was murdered and whom Patrick’s mother didn’t even know existed.

What he said about Billy turned out to be true.
Billy supposedly talked to Patrick in his time between lives.

How Could a Birthmark Travel From One Life to Another?

As Dr. Tucker said, even if one accepts that reincarnation exists, it seems hard to understand how or why a mark would physically appear on the new body.
In his book “Reincarnation and Biology,” Dr. Stevenson cited the example of a young man who had vividly recalled a traumatic experience from years earlier.

His arms had been tied behind him during this experience, and as he recalled it, his arms developed what looked like rope marks.
If a person’s mind can cause physical marks to appear on his or her body, memories of a past life could cause marks to appear on the present body, said Dr. Stevenson.

Many birthmarks seem to relate to traumatic experiences in past lives—and to fade as the memories fade. Very young children often seem to recall past lives, but the memories become weaker as they get older.

Neuroscientist Joe Dispenza, featured in the documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” has also said a person’s thoughts can have a physical impact on his or her body.
For example, in an experiment, subjects were asked to repeatedly pull a spring-loaded device with one of their fingers for an hour a day for four weeks.

The exercised fingers became 30 percent stronger.
Another group of subjects was asked to imagine performing this exercise for the same amount of time.
Without physically lifting a finger, their fingers increased 22 percent in strength.

Some illnesses, some physical symptoms, are also found to have their roots in the mind.
Patient advocate and health writer Trisha Torrey wrote in an article for About.com: “Psychosomatic Illnesses, also called psychophisiologic illnesses (a combination of psychology and physiology), are diagnosed for patients who have physical symptoms, but their origin seems to be psychology based.”

Dr. Tucker wrote: “If the mind continues after death and inhabits a developing fetus, then I could see how the images could affect the fetus.
It would not be the wounds on the previous body per se that produced the birthmark or birth defect, but rather the images of the wound in the individual’s mind that did it.”


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What Is the Probability of 2 People Having the Same Marks in the Same Place?

The probability of two people having two birthmarks that would correspond to two wounds on another person is 1 in 25,600, according to Dr. Stevenson’s calculations.

Dr. Tucker summarizes the logic: “[Dr. Stevenson] began with the surface area of the skin on the average adult male being 1.6 meters [5.25 feet].
He then imagined that if this area were square and laid on a flat surface, it would be approximately 127 centimeters [50 inches] by 127 centimeters.

Since he considered a correspondence between a birthmark and a wound to be satisfactory if they were both within an area of 10 square centimeters [3.94 inches] at the same location, he calculated how many 10 centimeter squares would fit into this body surface area and found that 160 would.

The probability that a single birthmark would correspond to a wound was therefore 1/160. The probability that two birthmarks would correspond to two wounds was 1/160 x 1/160 or 1 in 25,600.”

Some had criticized Dr. Stevenson’s calculations, so he and Dr. Tucker asked for the help of two statisticians when working on Patrick’s case.
They expressed interest, but declined.

One of them said that calculations would oversimplify the complex situation.
He did say, however, that “Phrases like ‘highly improbable’ and ‘extremely rare’ come to mind as descriptive of the situation.”

This is very interesting. I know this is going to sound strange, but when I was about 3yrs old, I remember first noticing a birthmark on my leg that looked like a red star. It was very unique. I knew that it wasn't just a birthmark, but that it meant something more. This was weird since I was only 3...but I just knew. I'm still unsure of its meaning. I don't think it corresponds with a wound from a past life, but more along the lines of something spiritual. Do you know much about this topic and what my particular "mark" may mean?

My 9month old has a birthmark on the right side of his forehead, and after googling it, I have come to the conclusion that he is the anti-Christ. I guess I have my hands full.

 

[Skarekrow]

This is very interesting. I know this is going to sound strange, but when I was about 3yrs old, I remember first noticing a birthmark on my leg that looked like a red star. It was very unique. I knew that it wasn't just a birthmark, but that it meant something more. This was weird since I was only 3...but I just knew. I'm still unsure of its meaning. I don't think it corresponds with a wound from a past life, but more along the lines of something spiritual. Do you know much about this topic and what my particular "mark" may mean?

My 9month old has a birthmark on the right side of his forehead, and after googling it, I have come to the conclusion that he is the anti-Christ. I guess I have my hands full.

Perhaps it WAS something spiritual like you think…perhaps it was a tattoo of (maybe a red star) some magical or ritual significance from a previous life…or something along those lines.
On my right wrist I have a hair-thin line running up and down the inside of my wrist…it’s been there ever since I can remember ( I suppose it is still possible though, to have been cut when I was really young).
Anyhow, I find it to be more than just coincidence that there would be a scar on my wrist from what I feel may have been a suicide in a previous life…while I share my own suicide scars on the other arm from this life.

 

[Skarekrow]

STAYING CONSCIOUS

Christof Koch. Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist. MIT Press, 2012.

Virulent debates about the nature of consciousness have been going on for centuries; and in general three possible answers have been given; the first is that consciousness is a property of brains, perhaps secreted as the liver secretes bile, often called central state materialism; the second is that consciousness is either itself some spooky extra thing on top of the quotidian things of the world, or is a property of such a spooky extra, substance or Cartesian dualism; the third is that consciousness, or potential for consciousness is a an intrinsic property of everything, or at all information processing systems, panpsychism or property dualism.

Koch, who is a professor of both biology and engineering at the California Institute of Technology recounts his own life journey in the neuroscience of consciousness, including the loss of his childhood Roman Catholic faith, his long time collaboration with Francis Crick the co-discover of DNA in the development of a science of consciousness, through to his own existential (spiritual?) crisis on the death of his own father and his mentor Crick.

Koch takes us through the search for the origins of consciousness in the brain, noting that portions such as the cerebellum, at the back of the brain, can suffer quite extensive damage with severe physical effects without any dimming of consciousness, while even slight damage to tiny areas elsewhere can have profound effects on the phenomenology and nature of consciousness.

Koch‘s view on consciousness is based on the theory of ‘integrated information’ developed by Giulio Tononi, now of the University of Wisconsin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Tononi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory

Koch is now engaged on a project the ultimate aim of which is to find an object measure of the degree of consciousness in a range of organisms, and in human patients with persistent vegetative state, locked-in syndrome, coma etc. It might also give the insights which would us to build a fully conscious computer.

Koch sees a way of envisioning consciousness as a metaphorical crystal in a trillion dimensions. This may be the 21st century version of the soul, but when the underlying physical system disintegrates, the crystal is extinguished. Without some carrier or some mechanism, integrated information can’t exist.

Those who propose some kind of life after death then, would have to propose some kind of mechanism that would allow continued information processing (and presumably acquisition and storage). This ‘psychon’ would then have to be at least as complex as the human brain, a rather large task. – Peter Rogerson.

 

[Eventhorizon]

Always interesting things to be found in this thread.

 

[Skarekrow]

Haunted house in East Toledo is no laughing matter

A two-story house in a nondescript neighborhood, the cozy three-bedroom home is white with a metal fence around the front-yard perimeter.
Inside the home are hallmarks of an active and bright toddler who loves to draw, talk, and play.

The “feel” of the home is airy and bright – certainly not the heaviness one would expect to encounter in a place so haunted that its two owners left, their daughter feared for her 2½-year-old son’s safety, was the subject of a recent investigation by the paranormal series The Dead Files, and ultimately required an exorcism from a priest.

The owners are Leslie Mullins, 45, and her longtime partner, Angie Whitty, 43, who sunk almost everything they had into the purchase of the home nearly a dozen years ago, and settled in with Angie’s daughter, Maggie Whitty, now 20, and Leslie’s son, Josh, now 24.

About a year later the family noticed objects would move around the home and even disappear – the kinds of things that happen to everyone and no one thinks twice about.
Until you see a headless woman in a white dress float through the bedroom and disappear through a window.

“When I was in fourth grade,” Maggie says, “I was half-asleep and then Les just woke up and she was screaming and I went in there to comfort her. And she said she saw someone lying next to her, but she didn’t have a head.”

Leslie offers this: “It wasn’t a dream. I saw her walk through the room and out the window. I was awake ... . Then after I saw that, when I was rolling over, I looked over and there was a face on the pillow next to me.”

Everyone in the family has seen the apparition since, heard doors opening and closing by themselves, and footsteps, voices, and even singing from unseen figures. Ghostly orbs have also appeared in photos taken inside the home.

But the family’s paranormal troubles were only beginning.

The Calvary Arrives

It was nearly four years ago that Mullins reached out online to The Dead Files for help.
The popular Travel Channel docu-series features a retired New York detective named Steve Di Schiavi and a Denver psychic named Amy Allan who separately investigate a haunted location, then meet with the owners to reveal the history of the house and what’s happening to them, and whether they should leave or stay.

If it’s the latter, the psychic offers advice on how to “cleanse” the home of the spirit infestation.
As Leslie waits to hear back from the show, things are getting worse – especially after Maggie’s son, Nate, was born almost three years ago, leading not only to a surge in poltergeist activity, but a more sinister tone in the hauntings.

As The Dead File’s later details in the Toledo episode, Nate is having horrific nightmares and is being levitated and pushed, Maggie is experiencing wild mood swings, and Angie is pinned to her bed and molested by an invisible force.

It’s late in 2013 when the show contacts the family to see if they are still interested in being on the show.
“It was really cool,” Maggie says. “They seemed really eager to help us.”

By late January, the calvary arrives in a large black van and two nice cars.
The family remembers the approximately 15-member Dead Files crew as being polite and quite busy, setting up cameras throughout the house and the front yard, removing personal artifacts that might tip off Allan during her walkthrough of the home, and even darkening the windows with black cloth to create an eerie vibe for the interior shots.

They also meet Di Schiavi, who is hanging around the home for a couple of days during the initial filming.
Finally, the family will get answers.

All is Not Lost

It is an exceptionally snowy night for the family’s final shooting sequence.
The county is at a level three snow emergency beginning sometime around midnight. And somewhere out there in it is Allan, who is staying at a hotel in Perrysburg.

Allan shows up at the home around 2 a.m., two hours late and after the snow emergency drops to a level two.
Mullins, Whitty, and Maggie are kept upstairs and out of sight from Allan, who – in a rare case of reality in reality TV – prefers not to meet the homeowners until the cameras are rolling.

It’s when they sit down with Allan and Di Schiavi that the three of them first learn the home’s history – including a former owner named Clarence who is deceased but apparently still living in the home and trying to protect the family from something more sinister: demons.

These child-size creatures with bat-like heads and sharp teeth, which Allan sees and has an artist sketch for the family, were apparently invited into the home by one of Clarence’s sons, and have since become rather fond of Maggie and Nate.

During her walkthrough of the house, seen early in the show, Allan tacitly blames the family for what’s going on: “The house isn’t the issue. They are … the living people.”
Maggie, who says she’s an empath medium like Allan, still seethes over this comment.

“She never said anything like that to us,” she says. “She told us the son conjured it up. She made it seem like I’m the devil, I’m involved in black magic. I’m not. I’m a 20-year-old waitress.”

Adds Whitty: “I just think we were misrepresented slightly.”

Allan also tells Maggie off camera that she’s willing to help her understand and cope with her abilities and that she will stay in touch.

“She said I could email and I emailed her and she never replied,” Maggie says. “That was about five months ago.”

Finally, Allan tells the family it’s safe to stay in the home, but that a priest needs to cleanse it and an exorcism might need to be performed on Nate.

The night after the crew left Maggie says was the worst yet.
Noises, singing, and moaning kept her and her boyfriend up all night.

Coincidentally or not, a few days later Al Luna, the 55-year-old cofounder of Perrysburg-based PSEI: Paranormal Spirit Encounter Investigations, passes a business card to Maggie at the Taco Bell where she worked.

“I have a habit of handing my card out most everywhere I go,” Luna says. “She looked down at it and looked at me and said, ‘Is this for real?’ I said yes.

She said, ‘You’re not going to believe this but they just finished an episode of The Dead Files at our home in East Toledo.’

“She asked me if we could help with the demon situation and I said, ‘Yes, I believe we can.’ ”

The Cleanse

A week later Whitty calls Luna about having an exorcism performed on the home.
He then contacts a Catholic priest from the Detroit area he knows performs these kinds of rituals, but on the down low.

“His bishop knows that he and other priests do this, but they don’t like to make it public,” Luna says.
Meanwhile, The Dead Files wants to film the priest performing the exorcism for a follow-up episode, The Dead Files: Revisited, which the priest will not allow.

After a week of negotiating between Luna and a show producer, he says he doesn’t want to delay the exorcism any longer.

The priest arrives on a late-afternoon Thursday.
He is accompanied with Luna and his wife, as well as Mullins, Whitty.
Maggie and Nate wait in a car outside.

After changing into a long robe and white sash, the priest pulls out a holy water, a crucifix, and St. Michael prayer book and Psalms, all of which are in Latin.
He gives everyone else English copies of the prayers to say along with him.

He then explains what he’s going to do, says a prayer of angelic protection for everyone in the room.
As he recites the prayers, Luna records the ritual.

First Whitty feels ill, and later Luna. Both say silent prayers and the pain quickly dissipates.
“I started getting tingling going up from my neck to my head and down into my back,” Luna says. “I reached into my shirt and grabbed a cross that my priest had blessed and in my my own mind I said, ‘Leave me alone, back off.’

Within five seconds … that [feeling] started to go away.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that before.”

The priest and Luna go to every room in the home, including the attic and basement, sprinkling holy water and saying blessings.
Maggie and Nate are then asked to come into the home, where the priest says another prayer of protection for the family and for the angel to watch over them.

“Once we got through with everything … the priest even chimed up, Doesn’t the house feel lighter to you?
And everyone agreed. It was just a different air to the place, everyone felt more comfortable and better.”

That night, Nate stays in the home with Maggie for the first time in months.
“He was playing and just having a blast,” Luna says. “He just had nothing bothering him.”

Epilogue

Their ghost story doesn’t end there.
Mullins and Whitty began experiencing hauntings at their North Toledo home.

Whitty’s been scratched.
They’re seeing apparitions.
The fear is returning.

Nearly two months after the exorcism at their East Toledo home, they call Luna, who will use his recording of the priest to perform an exorcism on their home and bless it with holy water.

Luna says the demons, once kicked out of the East Toledo house, followed Mullins and Whitty to their North Toledo home.

Since following the show’s advice about the exorcism, he says, the family hasn’t had any more trouble.

Mullins and Whitty and Maggie all agree and say without the fear and stress and sleepless nights, they are getting along much better.
But the hauntings haven’t completely stopped, Maggie says.

She still hears voices and singing in the East Toledo home, but there’s no longer the sense of dread that accompanies the paranormal activity. She doesn’t rush upstairs to her bedroom at night, or look around to see if anyone’s watching her.

At this point, Maggie says, her biggest problem isn’t from the dead, but from the livi: those who think she’s crazy or making up the ordeal, that her son is possessed or the devil’s child, and then harass her about it online and in person.

“I’m hearing stuff, but I’m not scared,” she says. “I’m not worried about anything. I’m more worried about what people are saying.”

 

[Skarekrow]

Always interesting things to be found in this thread.

Thanks man…I try to mix it up!

 

[Skarekrow]

I Feel Like a Natural Monster: Theological Teratology

“We are an impossibility in an impossible universe” — Ray Bradbury


What’s so unnatural?
​

In the examination of those pesky hypothetical and anomalistic critters we collectively refer to as monsters, the terms unnatural, supernatural (first used in the 15th Century A.D.), preternatural (mid-13th century A.D.), and paranormal (early 20th Century A.D.) are often used interchangeably as shorthand for “weird” or “foreign to my daily experience”.

Each of these terms, does of course have a technical meaning.
Unnatural and preternatural both imply that something is contrary to nature.

Supernatural refers to an occurrence beyond the laws of nature.
Paranormal has the specific connotation of being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.

The differences are no doubt subtle, but all involve the notion that a thing or event is in direct contradiction to or outside the bounds of our understanding of the natural universe.

The presumption is that we understand the bounds of nature, as it would have to be in order to identify something as categorically beyond those bounds.

The seeming arbitrariness and confining effects of our desire to categorize into “nature” and “not nature” has been giving anomalists migraines for millennia, and when we stumbled upon empirical methods, we assumed we had found the cure rather than simple relief from the symptoms, and brazenly began applying them in a vain attempt to explain the unexplainable, only to run up against the limitations of our preconceived margins, a hall of mirrors so eloquently expressed by Charles Fort when he described a bit of kitchen madness:

“I had used all except peach labels. I pasted the peach labels on peach cans, and then came to apricots. Well, aren’t apricots peaches? And there are plums that are virtually apricots. I went on, either mischievously, or scientifically, pasting the peach labels on cans of plums, cherries, string beans, and succotash. I can’t quite define my motive, because to this day it has not been decided whether I am a humorist or a scientist. I think that it was mischief, but, as we go along, there will come a more respectful recognition that also it was scientific procedure.”​

Curiously there have been a number of theologians, compilers of bestiaries, and philosophers who rejected the notion that anything in nature (specifically concerning themselves with monsters) could indeed be considered “unnatural”, since that would seem to be tautological from the standpoint of strict Boolean logic i.e. the unnatural by occurring naturally, must be natural — a statement true for all its variables.

This led to a number of fine, meditative fellows performing intellectual gymnastics to assure themselves and others that monsters were a natural phenomenon, assuming they had the gall to exist at all.

Superstar Christian theologian and philosopher Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), later to become Saint Augustine, had a profound effect on the development of Medieval Christianity, if not the entire Medieval worldview, but was heavily influenced by Gnostic Manichaeism (from which he conveniently converted to Christianity in 378 A.D., right after Roman Emperor Theodosius I declared Manichaeism punishable by death), and which had as one of its central features a dualistic cosmology, that allowed for the concurrent and natural existence of both good and evil.

Augustine was thought to have been similarly swayed by the neo-Platonic ideas of the Greek philosopher Plotinus (204-207 A.D.), particularly the transcendent “Oneness” that governed the universe, beyond all categories of being and non-being.

Augustine spent a lot of time thinking about monsters, clearly a man after my own heart, and came to the eminently reasonable conclusion that monsters either (1) did not exist, or (2) if they did exist, they were perfectly natural, as any other presumption implied that the Big Guy was not infallible.

He suggested that because we see “monstrous” births among humans, there is no reason to suppose that entire races of monstrous men do not also exist, and if such a thing is possible, than non-anthropoid monstrosities were equally plausible, and more importantly, natural.

It is also asked whether we are to believe that certain monstrous races of men, spoken of in secular history, have sprung from Noah’s sons, or rather, I should say, from that one man from whom they themselves were descended.

For it is reported that some have one eye in the middle of the forehead; some, feet turned backwards from the heel; some, a double sex, the right breast like a man, the left like a woman, and that they alternately beget and bring forth: others are said to have no mouth, and to breathe only through the nostrils; others are but a cubit high, and are therefore called by the Greeks “Pigmies:” they say that in some places the women conceive in their fifth year, and do not live beyond their eighth.

So, too, they tell of a race who have two feet but only one leg, and are of marvellous swiftness, though they do not bend the knee: they are called Skiopodes, because in the hot weather they lie down on their backs and shade themselves with their feet.

Others are said to have no head, and their eyes in their shoulders; and other human or quasi-human races are depicted in mosaic in the harbour esplanade of Carthage, on the faith of histories of rarities.

What shall I say of the Cynocephali, whose dog-like head and barking proclaim them beasts rather than men?
But we are not bound to believe all we hear of these monstrosities.

But whoever is anywhere born a man, that is, a rational mortal animal, no matter what unusual appearance he presents in colour, movement, sound, nor how peculiar he is in some power, part, or quality of his nature, no Christian can doubt that he springs from that one protoplast.

We can distinguish the common human nature from that which is peculiar, and therefore wonderful.
The same account which is given of monstrous births in individual cases can be given of monstrous races.

For God, the Creator of all, knows where and when each thing ought to be, or to have been created, because He sees the similarities and diversities which can contribute to the beauty of the whole.

But He who cannot see the whole is offended by the deformity of the part, because he is blind to that which balances it, and to which it belongs.

We know that men are born with more than four fingers on their hands or toes on their feet: this is a smaller matter; but far from us be the folly of supposing that the Creator mistook the number of a man’s fingers, though we cannot account for the difference.

And so in cases where the divergence from the rule is greater.
He whose works no man justly finds fault with, knows what He has done.

At Hippo-Diarrhytus there is a man whose hands are crescent-shaped, and have only two fingers each, and his feet similarly formed.

If there were a race like him, it would be added to the history of the curious and wonderful.
Shall we therefore deny that this man is descended from that one man who was first created?

As for the Androgyni, or Hermaphrodites, as they are called, though they are rare, yet from time to time there appear persons of sex so doubtful, that it remains uncertain from which sex they take their name ; though it is customary to give them a masculine name, as the more worthy.

For no one ever called them Hermaphroditesses.

Some years ago, quite within my own memory, a man was born in the East, double in his upper, but single in his lower half–having two heads, two chests, four hands, but one body and two feet like an ordinary man; and he lived so long that many had an opportunity of seeing him.

But who could enumerate all the human births that have differed widely from their ascertained parents?
As, therefore, no one will deny that these are all descended from that one man, so all the races which are reported to have diverged in bodily appearance from the usual course which nature generally or almost universally preserves, if they are embraced in that definition of man as rational and mortal animals, unquestionably trace their pedigree to that one first father of all.

We are supposing these stories about various races who differ from one another and from us to be true; but possibly they are not: for if we were not aware that apes, and monkeys, and sphinxes are not men, but beasts, those historians would possibly describe them as races of men, and flaunt with impunity their false and vainglorious discoveries.

But supposing they are men of whom these marvels are recorded, what if God has seen fit to create some races in this way that we might not suppose that the monstrous births which appear among ourselves are the failures of that Wisdom whereby He fashions the human nature, as we speak of the failure of a less perfect workman?

Accordingly, it ought not to seem absurd to us, that as in individual races there are monstrous births, so in the whole race there are monstrous races.

“Wherefore, to conclude this question cautiously and guardedly, either these things which have been told of some races have no existence at all; or if they do exist, they are not human races; or if they are human, they are descended from Adam.

(St. Augustine, Civitas Dei. Book 16, Chapter 8).

Bad Boy of Bestiaries, Isidore of Seville (560-636 A.D.) reached back to the original etymology of the word “monster”, derived from the Latin monstrum(an aberrant occurrence or sign that something was wrong with the natural order), actually rooted in the word monere (“to warn”), and hypothesized that all monsters were meant to be a warnings from God to us thick-skulled humans, and thus rejects the notion that any aberration, even those of a monstrous or phenomenal sort, are not part of the natural world or contrary to its normal function.

It’s not often when one can take perverse pleasure in pointing out how medieval Christian saints were busy being incredibly reasonable and open-minded in contrast to the self-assured skeptics of modernity.

Portents, Varro says, are those births which seem to have taken place contrary to nature.
But they are not contrary to nature, because they come by the divine will, since the will of the creator is the nature of each thing that is created.

Whence, too, the heathen themselves call God now nature, now God.
A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to known nature.

Certain creations of portents seem to have been made with future meanings.
For God sometimes wishes to indicate what is to come by disgusting features at birth, as also by dreams and oracles, that he may give forewarning by these, and indicate to certain nations or certain men coming destruction.

This has been proved by many trials.
But these portents which are sent in warning, do not live long, but die as soon as they are born.

And just as there are monstrous individuals in separate races of men, so in the whole human kind there are certain monstrous races, as the Gigantes, Cynocephali, Cyclopes, and the rest (Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, Book 11, iii.1-12)

Here in the 21st Century, as we begin to monkey with genetics in earnest, the idea that we are somehow moving outside the bounds of the natural in our attempts to build better biological mousetraps seems to have again reared its head, fears encapsulated in our anxiety about “playing god” or blurring the lines between man and monster.

We are approaching an era where we can create in a lab what would have once appeared in a medieval bestiary (I vote for “bacon-fruit”), and have consequently begun rekindling arguments about natural vs. unnatural life.

The idea that there is a simple and obvious distinction between different species is deeply rooted in our culture.
Yet modern biotechnology, with its ability to create chimeras (mixing embryonic cells from different species) and genetic hybrids (incorporating genetic material from different species into a particular genome), makes the self-evidence of this distinction problematic.

Scientists can now manipulate the genetic information that plays a part in the developmental process of all life forms.
Using sophisticated recombinant-DNA and cell-fusion processes, genetic information from unrelated species can be inserted, deleted or even stitched and fused together, creating forms of life that have never before existed.

This has provoked deep anxiety among many people, an anxiety that has been variously described as a rejection of the ‘unnatural’ or a fear of the ‘alien’ or the ‘dangerous’.

On the other hand, from ancient times, our culture has been fascinated by creatures that combine varied features from different animals, or animals mixed with humans, such as griffins and centaurs.

Such hybrids, or monstrous creatures, challenge our usual sense of categorization and provide us with the stimulus for thinking about the truly fundamental aspects of both biological and physical human nature (Caccavale & Reiss, 2008, p48).

The strange things of this world are generally shuffled off into a limbo of impossibility, an unnatural realm of natural things that make us uncomfortable, but confronting the uncomfortable is the bread and butter of anomalistics, for as author Arnold Glasgow suggested, “Progress is what happens when impossibility yields to necessity”.

Plus, it’s not nice to discriminate against monsters just for the mere fact of being monstrous. Not like most of us are all that pretty ourselves.

References

Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. The City of God. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1888.

Brehaut, Ernest, 1873-. An Encyclopedist of the Dark Ages: Isidore of Seville. New York: Columbia University, 1912.

Caccavale, Elio & Reiss, Michael. “Miracles, Monsters, and Disturbances”. Creative Encounters: New Conversations in Science, Education and the Arts, Levinson, R., Nicholson, H. & Parry, S. (Eds), Wellcome Trust, London, pp. 48-63, 2008.
​

 

[Skarekrow]

What Should We Do with Our Visions of Heaven–and Hell?

By John Horgan

Is heaven real? Eben Alexander thinks so.
He is a neurosurgeon who learned his craft at Duke and honed it at Harvard.

In 2008 he fell into a coma, his brain infected by bacterial meningitis.
He emerged from the coma with memories of a fantastical adventure, during which he rode on a butterfly beside an angelic blue-eyed girl into “an immense void, completely dark, infinite in size, yet also infinitely comforting.”

In Proof of Heaven (Simon and Schuster, 2012), his bestselling book about his experience, Alexander claims to have learned that “God and the soul are real and that death is not the end of personal existence but only a transition.”



In a cover story he wrote for NEWSWEEK and in an interview with The New York Times, Alexander sounds intelligent and sincere but a tad short on self-doubt.

Pulling his rank as a neurologist, he insists that what he experienced must have been “real,” because during his coma his neo-cortex was completely “shut down” and “there is absolutely no way that I could have experienced even a dim and limited consciousness during my time in the coma, much less the hyper-vivid and completely coherent odyssey I underwent.”

Absolutely no way?
Really?

As Martin Samuel, who heads Alexander’s former department at Harvard, tells The Times, “There is no way to know, in fact, that his neo-cortex was shut down.
It sounds scientific, but it is an interpretation made after the fact.”

I understand why skeptics like biologist P.Z. Myers deride Alexander’s claims as “bullshit,” but I can’t dismiss them so easily.
I’m fascinated by mystical experiences, so much so that I wrote a book about them, Rational Mysticism (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), from which I’ve drawn some of the material that follows.

Many people conclude, as Alexander did, that their experiences revealed Ultimate Reality, God, whatever.
The problem is that different people discover radically different Absolute Truths.

In The Varieties of Religious Experience, more than a century old and still the best book ever written on mysticism, psychologist William James described experiences, like Alexander’s, that revealed a loving, immortal spirit at the heart of existence.

But James emphasized that some mystics have perceived absolute reality as terrifyingly alien, uncaring and meaningless.
James called these visions “melancholic” or “diabolical.”
James himself had at least one such vision, a kind of cosmic panic attack.

One mystical expert I interviewed, German psychologist Adolf Dittrich, told me that mystical visions—whether induced by trauma, drugs, meditation, hypnosis, sensory deprivation or other means—fall into three broad categories, or “dimensions.”

Borrowing a phrase that Freud used to describe mystical experiences, Dittrich called the first dimension “oceanic boundlessness.”
This is the classic blissful experience reported by Alexander and many other mystics, in which you feel yourself dissolving into some benign higher power.

Dittrich labeled the second dimension “dread of ego dissolution.”
This is the classic “bad trip,” in which your self-dissolution is accompanied not by bliss but by negative emotions, ranging from mild uneasiness to full-blown terror.

You think you are going insane, disintegrating, dying, and all of reality may be dying with you.
Dittrich’s third dimension, “visionary restructuralization,” consists of more explicit hallucinations, ranging from abstract, kaleidoscopic images to elaborate dream-like narratives.

Dittrich referred to these three dimensions as “heaven, hell and visions.”

During a drug trip in 1981, I experienced all three dimensions described by Dittrich.
The trip occurred in early summer, just after I had finished my junior year of college.

I had left my apartment in New York City to visit friends in suburban Connecticut.
One of these friends, whom I’ll call Stan, was a psychedelic enthusiast with an unusual connection: a chemist who investigated psychotropic drugs for a defense contractor in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

The chemist had recently given Stan a thimble’s worth of beige powder that was supposedly similar to LSD.*

One morning we each ingested about a matchhead-worth, a dose that Stan’s friend had recommended.
Within a half hour, I felt as though a volcano was erupting within me.

Sitting on a lawn, barely holding myself upright, I told Stan that I feared I had taken an overdose.
Stan, who for some reason was less affected by the compound, tried to calm me down.

Everything would be fine, he said; I should just relax and go with the experience.
As Stan murmured reassuringly, his eyeballs exploded from their sockets, trailed by crimson streamers.

That was my last contact with external reality for almost twenty-four hours.
Stan and a couple of friends whose help he enlisted told me later that during this period I was completely unresponsive to them, although they could with some difficulty move me about.

For the most part I lay or sat quietly, staring into space.
Occasionally I flailed about, raving, grunting or emitting other peculiar sounds.

For a while I stuck my arms out and hissed like a five-year-old boy pretending to be a jet-fighter: “Fffffffffffffff!”
My expressions tended toward extremes: beatific, enraged, terrified, lewd.

Occasionally I furiously clawed holes in the lawn.
My eyes were for the most part wide open, the pupils dilated to the rim.

My companions said I never seemed to blink, even when particles of dirt from my excavations were visible on my eyeballs.

Subjectively, I was immersed in a visionary phantasmagoria.
I became an amoeba, an antelope, a lion devouring the antelope, an ape man squatting on a savannah, an Egyptian queen, Adam and Eve, an old man and woman on a porch watching an eternal sunset.

At some point, I attained a kind of lucidity, like a dreamer who realizes he’s dreaming.
With a surge of power and exaltation, I realized that this is my creation, my cosmos, and I can do anything I like with it.

I decided to pursue pleasure, pure pleasure, as far as it would take me.
I became a bliss-seeking missile accelerating through an obsidian ether, shedding incandescent sparks, and the faster I flew, the brighter the sparks burned, the more exquisite was my rapture.

This was probably when I was making the “fffffff” noise.

After eons of superluminal ecstasy, I decided that I wanted not pleasure but knowledge.
I wanted to know why.

I traveled backward through time, observing the births and lives and deaths of all creatures that have ever lived, human and non-human.
I ventured into the future, too, watching as the Earth and then the entire cosmos was transformed into a vast grid of luminous circuitry, a computer dedicated to solving the riddle of its own existence.

Yes, I became the Singularity!
Before the term was even coined!

As my penetration of the past and future became indistinguishable, I became convinced that I was coming face to face with the ultimate origin and destiny of existence, which were one and the same.

I felt overwhelming, blissful certainty that there is one entity, one consciousness, playing all the parts of this pageant, and there is no end to this creative consciousness, only infinite transformations.

At the same time, my astonishment that anything exists at all became unbearably acute.
Why?

I kept asking.
Why creation?
Why something rather than nothing?

Finally I found myself alone, a disembodied voice in the darkness, asking, Why?
And I realized that there would be, could be, no answer, because only I existed; there was nothing, no one, to answer me.

I felt overwhelmed with loneliness, and my ecstatic recognition of the improbability—no, impossibility—of my existence mutated into horror.
I knew there was no reason for me to be.

At any moment I might be swallowed up, forever, by this infinite darkness enveloping me.
I might even bring about my own annihilation simply by imagining it; I created this world, and I could end it, forever.

Recoiling from this confrontation with my own awful solitude and omnipotence, I felt myself disintegrating.
I awoke from this nightmarish trip convinced that I had discovered the secret of existence.

There is a God, but He is not the omnipotent, loving God in Whom so many people have faith.
Far from it.

He’s totally nuts, crazed with fear of his own existential plight.
In fact, God created this wondrous, pain-wracked world to distract Himself from his cosmic identity crisis.

He suffers from a severe case of multiple-personality disorder, and we are the shards of His fractured psyche.
Since then, I have found hints of this theology in Gnosticism, the Kabbalah and the writings of Nietzsche, Jung and Borges.

So which mystical visions should we believe?
The heavenly, blissful ones, like Alexander’s, or the hellish ones, like mine?

Or are both somehow true?
The reasonable answer is: None of the above.

The sensible, skeptical part of me knows that I was projecting my own fearful nihilism onto the universe, just as Alexander, a Christian, projected his yearnings.

Our experiences were delusions brought about by aberrational brain states. The differences between our experiences–like the differences between our dreams—can be explained by our different backgrounds and personalities.

But another part of me is dissatisfied with this dismissal.
My drug-induced visions possessed a mythical, archetypal quality that my dreams lack.

The visions seemed not absurd and meaningless, like most of my dreams, but almost too meaningful.
They seemed too artful–too laden with metaphorical and metaphysical significance–to be the products of my puny, personal brain.

I felt as though I had left my individual mind behind and traveled into another, much more expansive realm.
Alexander clearly feels the same way about his visions.

For the most part, I’m a hard-core materialist, but my experience–and those reported by Alexander and others–makes me suspect that our minds have untapped depths that conventional science cannot comprehend.

And although I’ve reluctantly abandoned my neurotic-deity theology, I have an abiding sense of reality’s profound weirdness and improbability.
What William James said in Varieties still holds true:

“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.

We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness… No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded… [T]hey forbid our premature closing of accounts with reality.”


​

Let me ask you skeptics this:
If scientists invented a technology–a drug or brain-stimulating device—that could safely induce a mystical experience, wouldn’t you seize that opportunity?

Wouldn’t you like to see heaven, even if you don’t believe in it?

[*After hearing me describe this drug’s effects, Harvard psychologist John Halpern, an authority on psychedelics, guessed it was 3-quinuclidin-3-yl benzylate, otherwise known BZ, or an analog thereof.
BZ is a potent hallucinogen developed as a chemical "incapacitant" by the U.S. Army in the 1950's.

Although BZ was apparently never deployed, the Army stockpiled canisters of the drug through at least the early 1970's, when President Richard Nixon ordered the stockpiles destroyed.
Whatever the drug I took was, I don't recommend it.]

 

[Skarekrow]

Depressed about the world? Awesome! Stages of being awake, catalyzing transformation​

Depression can be ontologically (way of being) embraced as a natural expression of empathy; a rational response to the present conditions of psychopathic Earth “leadership.”

Choosing to embrace rather than resist so-called “depressed” thoughts and feelings opens a pathway to possible proactive thoughts, speech, and actions to transform present conditions to unpredictable and even unimaginable virtues.

That is, if a human being is going to participate in the transformation of present Earth conditions, then it seems normal for most people to have reactions that may include shock, horror, denial, sadness, fear, rage, depression, and anxiety in becoming responsible (response-able) to Earth conditions when factually embraced.

This is a temporary stage that those of us with experience observe often, and almost all of us have gone through ourselves.

Initially painful reactions is a transitory phase to discovering openings for action in this condition.
It also opens real-world exercise of religious/spiritual/philosophical self-expression for ontological peace within this condition.

In simpler terms: Duh. Who wouldn’t be upset when you wake-up to how badly we’re being fu*ked? And who wouldn’t step-up to help when you see the OMFG crimes centered in war, money, and media(and ~100 other areas)?

Let’s look at depression as one example of the victim/initial phase, with opportunity as a validating response of empathy. What most people call “depression” includes two interpretations before a potential breakthrough third:

1. External conditions are somehow “wrong” or “bad.”
2. Internal power or resources are insufficient to substantially improve those conditions.
3. Even though external conditions are not preferable, and resources might be insufficient to alter those conditions, human beings are free to dance in full creative self-expression regarding our condition and resources.

Let’s look at each of these three interpretations of the world.

External conditions are “bad”: As humans awaken to the facts, these are certainly “bad” compared to what ~99% of us would prefer:

• peace over lie-begat unlawful Wars of Aggression,
• money rather than debt and mathematically guaranteed debt-slavery,
• Facts about our most important stories rather than Orwellian corporate media lies (with much distraction).
• And then many of us awaken to other 100 or so game-changing areas, such as Dr. King being assassinated by the US government as proven in the family civil trial, it’s cheaper to provide housingthan endure homelessness, GMO non-foods, cancer cures, chemtrails, vaccines being toxic, fluoride in water also toxic, and, well, about 100 more!

So! Appreciating objective, measurable, and independently verifiable factual world conditions, ~99% of us would truthfully assess such conditions as “bad” relative to a range of alternatives!

A big part of such an assessment of “bad” is natural empathy for those suffering under such conditions.

Resources are insufficient to improve “bad” conditions:
Connected to the assessment of “bad,” we naturally prefer to upgrade those conditions approaching “good.”

That said, awakening humans notice their previous “entranced” state still existing for almost all humanity when we try to naturally share our factual findings with others.

The result for almost all of us is we find that other humans, even those we believed who most care for us, are not ready to engage in factual consideration of the human condition.

In combination with corporate media’s propaganda of oligarchs’ continuous manipulations to continue neo-slavery over the 99%, we can naturally conclude that our personal and perceivable resources are too small to overcome the history and existing propaganda that maintains these Orwellian conditions.

Even when we realistically assess how many humans are awake enough to recognize the Orwellian conditions, my colleagues who I ask estimate a range of 1 to 10 million Americans (3% at maximum), with likely higher percentages outside the US.

The effects upon US policies to date seem to suggest that we have enough of us awake so we’re difficult to ignore, but too few to alter much in what happens.

So! It just seems accurate data from our experience that many or most people are not ready to factually embrace world conditions, and our total resources are not sufficient yet to significantly alter such conditions.

That is, the “bad” conditions are likely to continue into the immediate future.

Again, considering this frame to observe “depression,” anyone with empathy for those suffering would feel both the “bad” conditions and the rationally-assessed likelihood those conditions will continue.
The “silver-lining” is this validates our empathy.

Human beings are free in self-expression:
After the shock, fear, depression, and whatever else is embraced, we see those as normal initial knee-jerk reactions for humans who see “good” as very different from what we have on Earth.

And after the lack of responses of our sharing (or “bad” responses) are embraced, we begin to see an Earthian tragic-comedy in play.
This is not necessarily bad as a genre, and certainly requiring critical mass force of unawakened humans to exist!

So! Given human power to self-express as we see best that all of us experience in areas of expertise/power, we can sense/feel power to dance with world conditions as we choose.

What we can see:

• Empathy drives us to transform “bad” conditions to “good.”
• Our Earthian tragic-comedy challenges self-expression to produce such “bad” to “good” outcomes, given direct communication often produces denial/resistance.
• We humans are free to self-express in this area of Life, and all other areas (this is where your sense of Faith/religion/spirituality can inform what you best feel of virtue to express and experience on the journey).

Conclusion:
Humans are free to self-express, and as guests on this planet we’re not part of management to determine anyone else’s choices.
Experiment and do what feels best, feeling that your empathy is a virtue to fuel your self-expression.

If we are to win, and I bet we are, the victory will be swift in an Emperor’s New Clothes moment, with my preference being Truth & Reconciliation for the evil and minions to fully disclose the facts.

Personally, from political activism since 1977, here’s what seems to drive my self-expression (more here):

• Know your purpose has 95%+ agreement when people have the facts.

• Do what is natural and virtuous for your self-expression: Given a position of power that you have an outcome people really want, AND given a condition that people may not recognize easily the attractiveness of what we offer, experiment with your most virtuous self-expression to play this game. Your unique, powerful, and beautiful sense of virtue is attractive when expressed, and the best you have to offer. Connected with my next point, my own sense of virtue is to be of simple service and fun with others. I only offer information when a genuine opening occurs consistent with someone’s expressed interests. My friend, Bucky Fuller, called this particular indirect outcomeprecession (and here), similar to the contribution honey bees make with pollination as a side-product of their interest in honey. The outcome is ever-increasing experience and expression of virtue.

• Relax and have fun ‘cuz we’re guests on Earth, not management: For the first part of my activist career, I operated to save human lives from poverty as quickly as possible. The hard truth is that I am insufficiently powerful to produce that outcome on my own; I am only able to offer this outcome (or any other) in networks for various groups’ consideration. Given my gradual acceptance of an apparent status as a human guest on Earth outside of direct managerial decisions, I’ve looked at different perspectives to be effective and enjoy this experience. From having “played” as hard and fast as I could for years, I’ve surrendered to Bucky’s conclusion/observation of precession.

If a pathway hasn’t opened to your powerful self-expression so far, and you’re interested, look from the power of purpose, what’s natural to your sense of virtue, and what seems fun.

Having a chat with like-minded friends should also open valuable ideas, or perhaps a poet’s advice

 

[Quiet]

[MENTION=5045]Skarekrow[/MENTION] ...worlds of information on this thread, Thank You for taking the time to putting it together

maybe you've already posted these...

http://www.near-death.com/

http://www.spiritualtravel.org/

 

[Skarekrow]

@Skarekrow ...worlds of information on this thread, Thank You for taking the time to putting it together

maybe you've already posted these...

http://www.near-death.com/

http://www.spiritualtravel.org/

Glad that you enjoy the thread!
Thank you for the links…I don’t think that I have posted them on here before.

 

[Kgal]

[MENTION=4956]charlene[/MENTION] I agree...this an awesome thread. :nod:

Here's something for fun! ET's footage etc...

[video=youtube;B2E2_b62ZxU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2E2_b62ZxU&list=UUJjuggclDEHRQ09vXG61ulw[/video]

 

[muir]

Depressed about the world? Awesome! Stages of being awake, catalyzing transformation​

Depression can be ontologically (way of being) embraced as a natural expression of empathy; a rational response to the present conditions of psychopathic Earth “leadership.”

Choosing to embrace rather than resist so-called “depressed” thoughts and feelings opens a pathway to possible proactive thoughts, speech, and actions to transform present conditions to unpredictable and even unimaginable virtues.

That is, if a human being is going to participate in the transformation of present Earth conditions, then it seems normal for most people to have reactions that may include shock, horror, denial, sadness, fear, rage, depression, and anxiety in becoming responsible (response-able) to Earth conditions when factually embraced.

This is a temporary stage that those of us with experience observe often, and almost all of us have gone through ourselves.

Initially painful reactions is a transitory phase to discovering openings for action in this condition.
It also opens real-world exercise of religious/spiritual/philosophical self-expression for ontological peace within this condition.

In simpler terms: Duh. Who wouldn’t be upset when you wake-up to how badly we’re being fu*ked? And who wouldn’t step-up to help when you see the OMFG crimes centered in war, money, and media(and ~100 other areas)?

Let’s look at depression as one example of the victim/initial phase, with opportunity as a validating response of empathy. What most people call “depression” includes two interpretations before a potential breakthrough third:

1. External conditions are somehow “wrong” or “bad.”
2. Internal power or resources are insufficient to substantially improve those conditions.
3. Even though external conditions are not preferable, and resources might be insufficient to alter those conditions, human beings are free to dance in full creative self-expression regarding our condition and resources.

Let’s look at each of these three interpretations of the world.

External conditions are “bad”: As humans awaken to the facts, these are certainly “bad” compared to what ~99% of us would prefer:

• peace over lie-begat unlawful Wars of Aggression,
• money rather than debt and mathematically guaranteed debt-slavery,
• Facts about our most important stories rather than Orwellian corporate media lies (with much distraction).
• And then many of us awaken to other 100 or so game-changing areas, such as Dr. King being assassinated by the US government as proven in the family civil trial, it’s cheaper to provide housingthan endure homelessness, GMO non-foods, cancer cures, chemtrails, vaccines being toxic, fluoride in water also toxic, and, well, about 100 more!

So! Appreciating objective, measurable, and independently verifiable factual world conditions, ~99% of us would truthfully assess such conditions as “bad” relative to a range of alternatives!

A big part of such an assessment of “bad” is natural empathy for those suffering under such conditions.

Resources are insufficient to improve “bad” conditions:
Connected to the assessment of “bad,” we naturally prefer to upgrade those conditions approaching “good.”

That said, awakening humans notice their previous “entranced” state still existing for almost all humanity when we try to naturally share our factual findings with others.

The result for almost all of us is we find that other humans, even those we believed who most care for us, are not ready to engage in factual consideration of the human condition.

In combination with corporate media’s propaganda of oligarchs’ continuous manipulations to continue neo-slavery over the 99%, we can naturally conclude that our personal and perceivable resources are too small to overcome the history and existing propaganda that maintains these Orwellian conditions.

Even when we realistically assess how many humans are awake enough to recognize the Orwellian conditions, my colleagues who I ask estimate a range of 1 to 10 million Americans (3% at maximum), with likely higher percentages outside the US.

The effects upon US policies to date seem to suggest that we have enough of us awake so we’re difficult to ignore, but too few to alter much in what happens.

So! It just seems accurate data from our experience that many or most people are not ready to factually embrace world conditions, and our total resources are not sufficient yet to significantly alter such conditions.

That is, the “bad” conditions are likely to continue into the immediate future.

Again, considering this frame to observe “depression,” anyone with empathy for those suffering would feel both the “bad” conditions and the rationally-assessed likelihood those conditions will continue.
The “silver-lining” is this validates our empathy.

Human beings are free in self-expression:
After the shock, fear, depression, and whatever else is embraced, we see those as normal initial knee-jerk reactions for humans who see “good” as very different from what we have on Earth.

And after the lack of responses of our sharing (or “bad” responses) are embraced, we begin to see an Earthian tragic-comedy in play.
This is not necessarily bad as a genre, and certainly requiring critical mass force of unawakened humans to exist!

So! Given human power to self-express as we see best that all of us experience in areas of expertise/power, we can sense/feel power to dance with world conditions as we choose.

What we can see:

• Empathy drives us to transform “bad” conditions to “good.”
• Our Earthian tragic-comedy challenges self-expression to produce such “bad” to “good” outcomes, given direct communication often produces denial/resistance.
• We humans are free to self-express in this area of Life, and all other areas (this is where your sense of Faith/religion/spirituality can inform what you best feel of virtue to express and experience on the journey).

Conclusion:
Humans are free to self-express, and as guests on this planet we’re not part of management to determine anyone else’s choices.
Experiment and do what feels best, feeling that your empathy is a virtue to fuel your self-expression.

If we are to win, and I bet we are, the victory will be swift in an Emperor’s New Clothes moment, with my preference being Truth & Reconciliation for the evil and minions to fully disclose the facts.

Personally, from political activism since 1977, here’s what seems to drive my self-expression (more here):

• Know your purpose has 95%+ agreement when people have the facts.

• Do what is natural and virtuous for your self-expression: Given a position of power that you have an outcome people really want, AND given a condition that people may not recognize easily the attractiveness of what we offer, experiment with your most virtuous self-expression to play this game. Your unique, powerful, and beautiful sense of virtue is attractive when expressed, and the best you have to offer. Connected with my next point, my own sense of virtue is to be of simple service and fun with others. I only offer information when a genuine opening occurs consistent with someone’s expressed interests. My friend, Bucky Fuller, called this particular indirect outcomeprecession (and here), similar to the contribution honey bees make with pollination as a side-product of their interest in honey. The outcome is ever-increasing experience and expression of virtue.

• Relax and have fun ‘cuz we’re guests on Earth, not management: For the first part of my activist career, I operated to save human lives from poverty as quickly as possible. The hard truth is that I am insufficiently powerful to produce that outcome on my own; I am only able to offer this outcome (or any other) in networks for various groups’ consideration. Given my gradual acceptance of an apparent status as a human guest on Earth outside of direct managerial decisions, I’ve looked at different perspectives to be effective and enjoy this experience. From having “played” as hard and fast as I could for years, I’ve surrendered to Bucky’s conclusion/observation of precession.

If a pathway hasn’t opened to your powerful self-expression so far, and you’re interested, look from the power of purpose, what’s natural to your sense of virtue, and what seems fun.

Having a chat with like-minded friends should also open valuable ideas, or perhaps a poet’s advice

lol

yeah we're at a funny stage at the moment where the awakening are still in the minority so they are viewed as 'crazy' by the majority

It's kind of amusing in a way to watch people talk in such a confused way about whats going on in the world...you just want to step in and say ''look, this is whats going on...''

But when you do what you are telling them is so far removed from their current perception (the one that has been given to them by the powers that be) that they think you are crazy for deviating from the accepted narrative!

Also i sometimes forget how shocking this stuff is when you're first getting to grips with it...it's mindblowing

This can be a bit frustrating....to know you are right and yet to be called 'crazy' or 'paranoid'

lol

You have to laugh at the sheer madness of the situation!

 

[Skarekrow]

lol

yeah we're at a funny stage at the moment where the awakening are still in the minority so they are viewed as 'crazy' by the majority

It's kind of amusing in a way to watch people talk in such a confused way about whats going on in the world...you just want to step in and say ''look, this is whats going on...''

But when you do what you are telling them is so far removed from their current perception (the one that has been given to them by the powers that be) that they think you are crazy for deviating from the accepted narrative!

Also i sometimes forget how shocking this stuff is when you're first getting to grips with it...it's mindblowing

This can be a bit frustrating....to know you are right and yet to be called 'crazy' or 'paranoid'

lol

You have to laugh at the sheer madness of the situation!

Exactly…
Sensiko and I always joke that any moment we expect to “wake-up” wearing a straight-jacket in a padded cell…lol.