A commonplace book

Going through my old notebooks, I came across some snippets of writing and a few quotations that I thought might be worth posting. Of course I could be wrong. But I have to fill up the blog with something.

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Failure is God. What I mean is that only in total surrender do we have a chance to know God. Only the failures, the losers, the defeated can really know God. "Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are the humble... Blessed are those who mourn..." The defeated have a window to God that the "successful" never have. Failure is the path to God. We all fail upward.

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"The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter... We ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter." - Sir James Jeans

"I incline to the idealistic theory that consciousness is fundamental, and that the material universe is derivative from consciousness, not consciousness from the material universe... In general the universe seems to me to be nearer to a great thought than to a great machine. It may well be, it seems to me, that each individual consciousness ought to be compared to a brain-cell in a universal mind." - Sir James Jeans

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"You do not come into this world to have a dream run -- without pain, suffering, without problems. The more varied your experience, the more learning from many mistakes, the more valuable your lifetime." Anthony Borgia, The Hereafter

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And finally, this peculiar (and thankfully unfinished) contribution ...

This whole issue raises an important question -- namely, what do discarnate entities eat for breakfast? I'm not aware of much evidence pertaining to this matter, but I do recall reading about a near-death experience in which breakfast played a role. The incident, recounted in Emmylynn Seraphim's Exfoliated by the Light, concerns a skeet shooter who accidentally discharged his weapon up his own anus and was clinically dead for more than 30 minutes before the paramedics stopped laughing long enough to revive him. During this interlude, he perceived himself leaving his body and floating down a dark tunnel, at the end of which was a hearty breakfast of Quaker Oats and a Spanish omelet. While dining, he encountered a Being of Light who advised him to wipe his mouth. When he refused, he was promptly whisked back into his body and awoke in great pain owing to the numerous shot pellets lodged in his sphincter.

Another breakfast-related account, this one of mediumistic origin, is found in Dr. (later Sir) William Woolgatherer's contribution to the May 1929 edition of the Journal of the Society for Cyclical Research. A summary of Woolgatherer's article is available here and here, but not here. Writing of a series of séances with London medium Lily Pipesnipe, Woolgatherer reports:

At the third sitting, whilst Mrs. Pipesnipe was in trance and under the control of Chief Moltingfeather [described as her "Red Indian spirit guide"], my departed nephew Budgie came through. To ascertain Budgie's identity, I inquired of him what his favorite breakfast food might be, for this was a topic of which we had oftentimes conversed in between bouts of buggery. "Budgie" replied that his preference for a morning repast was bubble and squeak, which he consumed voraciously every day until felled by a fatal case of indigestion. The accuracy of this answer was undeniable, and it was a fact known to absolutely no one in the room except myself and Mrs. Pipesnipe, with whom I had discussed Budgie's dietary habits in some detail earlier that day. But as she was in trance, she could scarcely be suspected of employing this information herself for any duplicitous purpose.

It may be of some passing additional interest to note that "Budgie," still speaking through the entranced medium, said that he remained in the habit of beginning his day with bubble and squeak in the spirit realm, and that the meal was much the same as he had enjoyed on earth, only with an evanescent, luminous glow and a pinch of tarragon.

Comments

[floridasuzie]

re:Failure is God. What I mean is that only in total surrender do we have a chance to know God. Only the failures, the losers, the defeated can really know God. "Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are the humble... Blessed are those who mourn..." The defeated have a window to God that the "successful" never have. Failure is the path to God. We all fail upward.
I agree with this premise. I heard someone recently describe it as "Where I end is where God begins". It's certainly been true for me, too.

[Ally Eden]

I think that we suffer when we move away from the acknowledgment of something;someone greater than ourselves,we are basically selfish in our prime and only to our detriment learn that we come far to realize we need assisting from that voice that is our inner conscience/mind who's author is, God.

[Paul Welsh]

I suspect that most people hear the inner voice or conscience but many then choose to ignore it. I know I do sometimes, whether it is God or not I wouldn't like to say - I would say it has never formally introduced itself which is rather rude.

I would agree that most lessons are learned when something goes wrong and not when all goes well. Oh don't the day seem lank and long when all goes right and nothing goes wrong and isn't your life extremely flat when there's nothing at all to grumble at. (apologies to W S Gilbert)

[yestom]

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