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And here's another interesting tidbit - a man who remembers the details of nearly every day of his life.

Does the brain have the capacity to store all this info? Or is the info stored off-site, with the brain merely accessing it?

The NDE is particularly stunning because it shows how the mind can influence the body stronger than most evidence. Even if you don't take a survivalist interpretation, it is outright stunning to see remission of that magnitude.

Oh, sod it. Pretend that last comment had what resembled grammar and sentence structure.

Hmmm...I don't know about the Anita NDE. I am skeptical of people when they say things like "The clarity was amazing! I understood why I had the cancer, I understood how people get what they do, and I understood that life is a gift, but we don't realize it. I understood that we are very, very loved, no matter what. We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to god, and there is no 'heaven' or 'hell'. I realized we create our own heaven or hell here on earth, and I learned the key ingredients for creating my own heaven on earth!" And then she doesn't tell us why she had the cancer, nor does she say what the key ingredients are. Nor does the interviewer push her for these kinds of details. She also says that if you change your energy, you can make your body better almost overnight. We need these sorts of details, so I can at least try this myself. I hate to be so pessimistic, but some of this stuff just doesn't add up...

Anita's NDE was indeed impressive, and the dissemination of it can only bring more hope to more people that life is absolutely worth living, and that circumstances CAN change with attitude (but don't think materially).Much thanks to Ross W. for the heads-up. And Greg Taylor's article on the Randi Challenge is very germane to the topics generally covered both at the Daily Grail (I always visit the site whenever I'm online) and Michael's blog. If Randi is so committed to exposing phoneys he should expose himself (but not physically, please; I'd rather not re-experience my last meal).David Thompson a subject in the Spiritualist Chatroom? Swords will be sharpened for that commentary.

Mark: "And then she doesn't tell us why she had the cancer, nor does she say what the key ingredients are. Nor does the interviewer push her for these kinds of details."
She implies the cancer was as a result of her negative attitudes and fears...and the recovery offers a lesson to everyone. Isn't that the point? That she disseminates the information. You need to read the interview and the aftermath comments to get the full picture. Mind you, I do understand what you mean about being excessively positive. Not everyone is in that league - sometimes we have to accept we're here to learn hard lessons. I remember a story of a yogi who was asked why he didn't cure himself, and he said: "that would be too easy. Feeling the pain is harder." Presumably, there is no pain anywhere except on earth.

The little boy is interesting.
It won't surprise me that once he can talk he will speak about a white light etc as other children did about their NDE's.
If he acts like the mother says he does then it is predictable that he has indeed experienced an NDE and will talk about it once he is able...

greets,
Filip

I read the CNN piece on the remarkable memory abilities of certain few people, recalling the story of A.J. reported sometime back in 2007. At that time, I sent an email to the researchers at U CAL Irvine (Dr. McGaugh) to ask a question no one had apparently posed to A.J.: does she also remember all of her dreams? I never received a reply but, considering the experiences of myself and countless others with dream contents, I'd certainly like to know the answer.

For Mark
There is a thread on the NDERF website forum called Anita's NDE where she answers questions about her experience. There is quite a lot of stuff there.

http://www.nderf.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=91
&postdays=0&postorder=desc&start=15

You can also hear an interview with Anita if you go to NDERF main page and click on audio.
In my opinion for what it's worth she comes across as very genuine :)

Mark said: "I am skeptical of people when they say things like "The clarity was amazing! I understood why I had the cancer, I understood how people get what they do, and I understood that life is a gift, but we don't realize it. I understood that we are very, very loved, no matter what. We don't have to do anything to prove ourselves to god, and there is no 'heaven' or 'hell'. I realized we create our own heaven or hell here on earth, and I learned the key ingredients for creating my own heaven on earth!" ...I hate to be so pessimistic, but some of this stuff just doesn't add up..."

An experience such as this fills one with "a peace that surpasses all human understanding."

Over 25 years ago, long before I had even heard of an NDE or knew people had such experiences, I had an out-of-body experience that had many of the elements common to NDEs, including being in the presence of an entity I can only describe as a beautiful being of light (pure consciousness) and being enveloped in a bubble around us that was pure LOVE. It was bliss beyond anything you can imagine. And with that experience came knowledge about who I am as eternal spirit that is with me today, that no-one can ever take from me - expanded consciousness, universal wisdom. My experience changed my life forever with no turning back.

It is difficult to put into words and really has to be felt to comprehend the HUGENESS of it. Reality goes from being a body in a mundane, material world to infinity and eternity. There is no death, period. Consciousness extends far beyond the brain or individual sense of self. The spark within these physical bodies which we call a soul is just the tip of the beauty, grandeur and power that is our true God-selves - extensions of God/Source, the same "stuff" and image of God/Source Itself. We are Love and Light and Awareness in the purest, highest sense.

An NDE, or an experience such as mine, are beyond words. Words can't do it justice. It's truly a precious gift, the best gift that God/Source and your own God-self can give you. I wish everyone could experience this at least once in his or her human lifetime, and then this clarity, this peace would be understood by all. All people would see that we are all connected, that we are all one Spirit/Consciousness beneath the illusion of separate bodies. We are unique, beautiful diverse individuals, and yet, we are all ONE.

May you all be blessed to experience that peace which surpasses all human understanding, even for a brief, eternal moment. Peace!

I understand what you guys are saying, and I understand that a lot of people who have NDEs say that it is all hard to put into words, but I wish that maybe someone who was better at articulating themselves would have an NDE so that specific statements could be made that could be tested. Like if Anita had given specific instructions that we all could try to be able to fix our bodies, then we could see whether or not she is right. I would think that she has a moral responsibility to try to help others if she can. Obviously thought is not the only thing that is required, otherwise it would have worked long before now. There has to be something else that she found out that she isn't articulating properly, if this story is true...

Hey, everyone gets a Hat Tip but me! I get to be "A couple fof readers". I'm taking my ball and finding another blog to play with!

Sorry, Tony M. I was too lazy to track down the comments.

>Like if Anita had given specific instructions that we all could try to be able to fix our bodies, then we could see whether or not she is right.

In the interview that follows the main piece, she does attempt to give instructions about raising our "self-love," which, she says, will improve our physical circumstances. Whether or not this works, I don't know. I'm a little skeptical of the power of self-talk, as she calls it, since it has never yielded any noticeable benefits for me. But maybe I've been doing it wrong ...

The problem, perhaps, is that many of us have deep-seated feelings that will undermine our positive self-talk. I'm not sure how to overcome this problem. Maybe it takes an NDE or equivalent experience to do it!

>The problem, perhaps, is that many of us have deep-seated feelings that will undermine our positive self-talk.

Michael, I love what Anita M has to say. And yet, as I was reading the article, I too was thinking that something was left out. It has to do with precisely what you're saying—"the deep-seated feelings"— we carry around. The stuff that colors our thinking no matter how hard we try to be positive.

So what I tell myself myself is this (and I'll bet Anita would agree): don't pretend to feel good or positive about something. Don't pretend at all. If I'm thinking negatively, then sometimes I simply need to be aware of that thinking. By not fighting it, I allow myself to discover the deeper feelings—the fear, sadness, shame, and anger—which causes it.

I need to love myself enough to let myself feel pain. Then I can bring healing to it. And then my thoughts change without my having to do a thing.

Michael Prescott said, "The problem, perhaps, is that many of us have deep-seated feelings that will undermine our positive self-talk. I'm not sure how to overcome this problem."

Yes, that's it, Michael. For the positive "self-love" affirmations to work, one's subconscious must also be aligned with one's waking conscious in order to be fully aligned with or to follow the healthy, whole energetic (spiritual) blueprint of the body one envisions.

To love oneself, one has to be able to love the (perceived) bad/dark aspects along with the good/light aspects of our total being. So if there's a part of you that you feel bad about, it boils down to fear - what are you afraid of? Say you constantly lie about something - is it fear of punishment, or really a fear of being rejected by loved ones if they know the truth? You have to get down to the bottom of the issue, let it go and forgive yourself in order to love yourself, all of you, not just the "acceptable" parts.

Truth is, we - as spirit/consciousness - are here to experience both the light and the dark of duality, and that means experiencing things on the dark side of life, which we've been taught are "bad." But it's all experience, it's how we learn and grow and evolve spiritually. Once one understands this - after you die you won't be condemned by any entity (other than yourself! So why? Don't punish yourself!) - you can let it go, love and forgive yourself, and move on.

It takes a lot of courage and strength to look deeply inside to acknowledge the dark spots, and then resolve to heal and change oneself. Most people won't do this hard work of transformation - they deny, run away, they use addictions to cover their pain rather than face it and explore it... Those who succeed in healing wounded aspects of self and integrating and loving all aspects into the whole self will raise their vibration and "self-love" in order to bring physical healing. Where there is a will to be whole - in spirit, mind and body, in that order - there is a way.

Spiritualists have a "mantra" (introduced or used/endorsed by Edgar Cayce, I believe): Spirit is Life, Mind is the builder, and the physical is the result. Physical matter depends upon - came into existence because of! - its energetic blueprint. If the vision of the blueprint is distorted by the mind (think of the mind as a lens), the body will be ill/distorted as well. But if the mind - including the subconscious - is free of flaws (negative perceptions/beliefs), the image will be seen in its pure, perfect form, and the body will conform in health and wholeness.

We are all powerful spiritual physicians. Physician, heal thyself! :-)

We need these sorts of details, so I can at least try this myself . . . Obviously thought is not the only thing that is required, otherwise it would have worked long before now. There has to be something else that she found out that she isn't articulating properly, if this story is true...

I understand the frustration Mark. I think the reason NDE testimony, experiences such as Light Seeker’s and the testimony of the mystics seems so impenetrable, is that it is impenetrable if we attempt to do so by using our minds in the manner we are accustomed to.

I tend to agree with Michael and Bruce. If you’ll read it again, you’ll notice that Anita’s health issues didn’t disappear because she stopped thinking negative and started thinking positive. It didn’t involve any active effort on her part. It was simply that when she experienced the perspective of the higher consciousness, she intuitively understood that she had innocently created her own distress, which in her case had manifested as an illness. Just the personal realization of that caused it to dissolve away:

And the charge I felt from the empowerment and the understanding - nothing else could explain the shift I felt in my way of thinking! . . . It not only makes me feel that everything (including cancer) is not real (a shift in consciousness made it disappear!) but it also makes me feel very powerful, and I have a totally different understanding of life now . . .

For me, personally, I was made to feel that in order to keep my energy/vibration level up, I only had to live in the moment, enjoy every moment of life, and use each moment to elevate the next moment (which then elevates my future). It is in that moment of elevating your energy level that you can change your future (like my test results). It sounds very simplistic, but it felt very deep when I was experiencing the understanding of it.

I can only suggest that the shift in consciousness she is attempting to communicate is the same shift Syd Banks and Eckhart Tolle are pointing to. I’d guess that what she describes as 'energy/vibration' is what Banks and Tolle describe as thought itself. Not any given thought, or thoughts, but just the moment-to-moment process thereof. I suspect that understanding her and emulating her is about seeing thought as thought, and discovering the depth of the moment through an inner awareness that our ideas of the past, future and even the present are nothing but ideas. If there are details and effort involved, it’s along the lines of just seeing ourselves as the thinker, and not taking too seriously anything we might happen to be thinking at any moment.

Unfortunately, as Michael suggests, it appears that for many it requires an NDE or something similar to stop taking our thoughts so seriously. (We really are all nuts!) :-)

Michael P says "The problem, perhaps, is that many of us have deep-seated feelings that will undermine our positive self-talk. I'm not sure how to overcome this problem. Maybe it takes an NDE or equivalent experience to do it!"

For you this shift will occur beyond 2011
:-) and this time I am certain, from God's ear to my Keyboard.

Here you go everyone a bit of prophecy make sure you all hang around to see it :-)

Mark: “I hate to be so pessimistic, but some of this stuff just doesn't add up...”

Research into NDE’s will reveal that the NDE will reflect the person’s experiences in life and their religious beliefs and religious experiences as children. She stated she was not that religious but one has to look at her childhood religious experiences.

Many of her statements are more in with Hindu thought. Stated another way religious beliefs I suspect are a significant variable in what one experiences in their NDE. Also remember these are temporal experiences and entities that come through mediums often give us more clarification of what the other side is like.

Many state it is our vibration level or what she called our energy level that decides what type of plane of existence we gravitate to. This is a fascinating story and reveals to us the power of our mind to heal but it appears she had some help.

“She intuitively understood that she had innocently created her own distress, which in her case had manifested as an illness.”

Become exposed to some environmental hazard and it causes an illness. Too often we want to create one variable to explain away some form of suffering or illness. Christian science loves to do this but as the spirits state in the spiritist book Christian Science is neither Christian nor science.

“Once one understands this - after you die you won't be condemned by any entity (other than yourself!” my research supports this statement. We have met the enemy and it is us. Our own self-judgment can hold us back from the light and even paradise once we cross over.

As far as an NDE changing our lives it is a significant emotional experience and that can change our life. Experiences are only opportunities and an NDE is a profound opportunity to allow us to see the world and ourselves anew.

By the way, Michael's link to the article on unusual memory brought to mind the http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/memory/foer-text.html >cover story that ran in National Geographic last fall.

They profiled both AJ, who's mentioned in the article Michael linked, but also an elderly man referred to as EP, who has lost the ability to create new memories since herpes simplex ravaged his brain fifteen years ago. Though his illness occurred in the early nineties, for some reason he can only access memories from before 1960.

It's illustrative of how little we know about how the mind really works.

I really do hear what you guys are all saying. I think it really boils down to you all saying that this is not the sort of thing that can be articulated through language. This is a possibility, but I have always been skeptical of this line of reasoning. It's like a black person saying "You'll never understand what it's like until you have this skin," or like a member of any group saying, "You just don't get it, so you aren't part of our group." I'm going to repeat that if I believed her story I would say that she probably is not articulating herself properly. I wish these NDEs would happen to people who are better able to explain their point. Anyway, I will reread the NDE because I don't remember some of the things that you guys are saying about the NDE and her communications about it.

I suspect that her "positive self-talk" simply allows her to re-access the feelings of transcendence that she had during her NDE, and that these transcendent feelings are what really matter.

But I may be wrong ...

This is all pointing me towards the existence of qualia. You can know everything about a phenomenon, but unless you've actually experienced it, you can't know.

Michael, I will agree that what you said about positive self talk is more likely than the idea that simple positive thinking makes things better. Another possibility I was thinking of might be that the positive thinking has nothing at all to do with it, and that she is just conning herself into believing that. One of the things I was struck with when I reread everything (aside from this woman's ridiculously high opinion of herself - her "positive energy" that radiated onto me made me want to puke) was how she spoke so much of how it felt on the other side. We all know feelings can be deceiving. Just because it feels like we are all part of a collective whole doesn't necessarily mean that's true. I wonder if some of these feelings that she felt were erroneous. Didn't you do a post a little while back about real NDE experiences being mixed with dreams? If she was healed as quickly as she said, then there's no doubt that something profound happened to her, but when she manages to make statements that are vague, sweeping, and demonstrably false all at the same time I have to wonder if at least some of the things she claims happened did not really happen.

"You can know everything about a phenomenon, but unless you've actually experienced it, you can't know."

The Buddhists teach there is a lower knowledge and a higher knowledge. Dr Hora has knowing about something and understanding. Example we can teach our children to know about something but they must have experiences if they are to have the opportunity to attain understanding.

From my point of view understanding comes through realization. A knowing beyond knowing that removes all doubt and defensive hostile behavior

“I wish these NDEs would happen to people who are better able to explain their point.”

Words often cannot define or explain experiences we have. In the dream/visitation or whatever I had I find it impossible to put into words. The acceptance/compassion/love/understanding/nonjudgment or whatever that this entity showed me through telepathic communication is beyond my ability to put into words.

Nothing like this has ever happened to me in my life and I know of no words or concepts to explain this experience. Human interaction and communication that I have experienced in this life is pale compared to what I experienced in that dream, which many call a visitation.

Well, William, you might be right, but once again I tend to be skeptical of this line of reasoning. I also want to make the point, as respectfully as I possibly can, that simply saying that you cannot put such an experience into words does not necessarily mean that it cannot be put into words.

Sean Harribance and Ingo Swann showed paranormal powers under rigorous conditions against fraud. The results were published in an important scientific magazine:

http://neuro.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/13/4/515#R4465332

01. Int J Neurosci. 2002 Feb;112(2):197-224.

Neurobehavioral and neurometabolic (SPECT) correlates of paranormal information: involvement of the right hemisphere and its sensitivity to weak complex magnetic fields.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12325407?ordinalpos=73&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

02. Percept Mot Skills. 2002 Jun;94(3 Pt 1):927-49

Remote viewing with the artist Ingo Swann: neuropsychological profile, electroencephalographic correlates, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and possible mechanisms.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12081299?ordinalpos=80&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

03. Percept Mot Skills. 2002 Dec;95(3 Pt 1):989-98

Possible disruption of remote viewing by complex weak magnetic fields around the stimulus site and the possibility of accessing real phase space: a pilot study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12509207?ordinalpos=64&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum


Mark seems to be confusing the mode of communication with the content which is attempting to be communicated, complaining about "articulation". His frustration is understandable, and may arise in part from a false assumption that ALL experiences and conceptualizations can be communicated with written or spoken language. Yet, if an experience is truly "ineffable" it would be, by definition, indescribable linguistically. We have such experiences available to us on a daily basis, yet take them for granted. There are countless such examples in the arts,music being only one. If I sit at the piano and play a theme and improvise some variations on it, I could then send an email describing in words the key signature and meter, the harmonic sequential framework upon which I played a melody of specified tones and duration, and the same information to describe the variations played. But unless you actually heard the music, with its phrasing and inflections, you wouldn't understand. The late-Romantic composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) once said: "If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music". Perhaps better still, the jazzman Louis Armstrong: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know. There are some people that, if they don't know, you can't tell them". This is neither a reflection of Mark's intelligence nor Anita's linguistic skill, but rather the intrinsic ineffability of the Near Death Experience.

Kevin, you're absolutely right. I do not believe anything is truly ineffable. Maybe our current language is limited, that I can accept, but to say that there are some things that there can never be any way of communicating, I have to say I just disagree. I do not believe it is a false assumption, but rather the most likely possibility. Maybe spoken language is not a good way to communicate music, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there is no way to communicate the music without hearing the music.

"that simply saying that you cannot put such an experience into words does not necessarily mean that it cannot be put into words."

Maybe someone like Michael P could put it into words but I suspect if you researched many NDE's you would find most people state something to the effect they cannot put much of their NDE experience into words.

You can write the words love and compassion but you know if you do they do not reflect what people call or what you have previously experienced that you thought was love and compassion. The love and compassion we think we give others here on earth or what we receive that we thought was love and compassion is not even close to what you have experienced in a visitation or I suspect an NDE. So you know your words are hollow.

The same holds true for telepathic communication with a life review. How do you put that into words, as you have never at least in this life experienced such a thing? How do you explain a life review in an instant with telepathic communication and no judgment and total acceptance? And the entity that did the life review not only knew what you have done in your life but the reasons why you did what you did.

Such understanding is impossible to put into mere words. Instant mind to mind communication, no missteps. Look how difficult it is for us to communicate on this blog and how many misunderstandings we have. After an experience like that you realize we are a very judgmental people and we really don’t have a clue what compassion truly is.

To me that is not the biggest issue the biggest issue is how a person's NDE appears to reflect their system of beliefs. Some of the experiences they report back on appear to reflect their beliefs. Example if a person claims to have seen Jesus you will find often that they met a Being of light that showed them love and they believed it was Jesus.

Kind of like here on earth we tend to see what we think we are supposed to see.

So, Mark, do you believe in the reality of qualia?

To answer you're question directly, John, no. However, I do believe that there is a significant chance that it could be correct. It's like the difference between a strong and weak atheist. A strong atheist says that it is very unlikely that and god exists. A weak atheist/agnostic (me) says that I do not believe, but that there is at least a significant possibility. I do not believe in qualia, but I am not willing to say that there is not a significant chance that it is true. Too often, I think some people think that saying I do not believe is stronger than it really is. I hope I haven't rambled on too much.

Oh and to William, I would say pretty much the same thing. I don't believe what you are saying, but I am willing to say that there is at least a significant possibility that you are right. I will agree that our current language is limited, but to say that because of that there is no possible way to ever communicate certain points is, I think, going just a little too far...

“I will agree that our current language is limited, but to say that because of that there is no possible way to ever communicate certain points is, I think, going just a little too far...”

Actually Mark I did not say there is no possible way to communicate certain points, if you read my comments again you will see that I stated that Michael P might be able to communicate this level of understanding with words.

Below is the exact quote from my comments.

"Maybe someone like Michael P could put it into words"

This in my view proves my point how difficult communication is in the physical world with words and concepts compared to what I experienced in that dream. And mine was only a dream.

After what I have read about NDE's, I suspect that one cannot even imagine what these people have experienced. For most of them it changes the way they view the world.

Mark: “I will agree that our current language is limited, but to say that because of that there is no possible way to ever communicate certain points is, I think, going just a little too far...”
Mark, when I joined this blog a fortnight ago, I had spent years believing in what you say here. But I now consider myself convinced by the reality of qualia. Kevin must be right. Of course music can’t be described in words. It’s self-evident. A description cannot include the emotional or spiritual experience. This is subjective.

As for your suspicion of Anita’s self-love and what Michael P calls “the power of self-talk”, I have to agree. Some religious traditions talk of the need to forget the self and put others before ourselves. A lot of the New Age stuff says you can’t love others until you really love yourself. I seem to be missing something here. Maybe you are too.

Oh, sorry: forgot to mention John, too: he used the term "qualia" first.

"A description cannot include the emotional or spiritual experience. This is subjective." To further clarify: that's why we have art and music: but presumably poetry gets closest in words to the multifacted nature of experience. Of course, a poem is often on more than one level, and needs to be interpreted by the reader (a subjective experience)!

William I dont agree with your position on your religious beliefs tying in with your NDE experience, thats a whole lot of rubbish, what appears is just an appearance, its more the expecation of the NDE'r, they think they are seeing "so and so" but how many of their beings have come up to them and said,

"How you going I'm Jesus!" Go find me that statistic where the beings have confessed who they are.......without the NDE'rs jumping to a definite conclusion and filling in the spaces of their "hope".

That was me! :-)

That was me! :-)

Hope, I think that's what William was more or less saying.

Hope and William are dead right. It's often easy to interpret the "Being of Light" as the their own higher self. Another exceptional NDE worth looking at is Nanci L Davisons on the same site: so good, in fact, that I've just ordered her book.
http://www.nderf.org/nanci_d_nde.htm

?

Well Ross what does that say about me and my being of light who was the best looking thing ever, does that mean that's my higher self? or how I see myself ;-)

The other thing my first being of light I recognise today as someone who was alive at the time I had the NDE only he was glorified in his appearance, I was amazed at seeing him. He went on to die 10 years later. I only worked it out it was him because of various factors.

Which means I time travelled 10 years into the future, saw someone who was yet to die, what do you think of that! and God is my witness, also I have family and friends who can testify at the time when this occured when I was babbling this experience to them.

I'm glad I didn't come back knowing who the person was, although I knew during the NDE he was someone I knew very well.

The other thing I had a vision of this person dying 3 years before the NDE, and close family heard about that one at the time also.

There is more to NDE than what meets the eye. I was raised Catholic, didn't see Jesus or Mary, one thing I do know is these beings don't give out business cards with names of their identity. You receive a knowingness without knowing when you wake up, its very weird, its almost like who they are isn't important to know.

Dreams are amazing things they can take you anywhere :-)

I should add this also, when I had the NDE I did for a split second think the being was him but then wasnt sure because he was so perfect looking but it felt like how he felt, if that makes any sense, so upon coming out of this experience I chalked it down too just another dream with a hottie.

A year later with the visitation of the other spirit being was what made me realise I left the planet literally.

I'm in the process of putting it all in words on my blog......just need to make time to do it.

I seem to leave the planet alot, through dreams and visions, I am the snickers as Ross puts but after the NDE these things become even more profound

It must be a great gift to have dreams, visitations or OBEs we can remember like yours, Hope. And it does seem to take a long time to "interpret" everything as the experiences seem to be deep and often symbolic, which goes back to what we were saying about the difficulty of expressing them in words others can understand. I look forward to seeing your finished product!

Hi Michael
The Spiritualist Chatroom has been hacked and all references to David Thompson and Victor Zammit have been deleted!

Hi Michael
The Spiritualist Chatroom has been hacked and all references to David Thompson and Victor Zammit have been deleted!

In reading Anita’s NDE again, it really is a qualia thing. Her commentary in the following interview about how collective and individual beliefs blind us to the deeper reality is as good of a description of my understanding in secular terms as I’ve seen. I can also understand that if someone hasn’t caught a glimmer, either via NDE, or Williams dream, or Kevin’s apparition of his dad or some other experience of a higher level of consciousness, it would all seem completely “out there”.

I thought this was a particularly hopeful observation from Anita:

”I believe that once people are willing to expand their minds to let in such occurrences into their own reality, it may even trigger off further inner work to allow for such a shift to happen within them. I don't believe everyone has to have something as drastic as an NDE to see such miracles occur. Perhaps just a willingness to let go of beliefs which may be holding them back.

“From that state, where this life looked like an “illusion” created by collective minds and beliefs, it looked like our strong attachment to certain beliefs is what holds the illusion in place. Perhaps a willingness to look at and let go of beliefs that may be holding us back could help us to move forward faster, as a collective consciousness (perhaps a better term would be “collective unconsciousness” – because we humans do this without awareness).”

Mark is well beyond where I was twenty years ago just by contributing to these threads and even considering there might be something to any of this stuff. I’m sure I would have concluded the whole bunch of us here were total flakes. I’ve thought before that it would be interesting to observe an encounter between who I am today and who I used to be. I was as certain then as I am now, and the certainty may be the only common denominator.

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