I've started reading R. Craig Hogan's Your Eternal Self, and I'm finding it very interesting. It's basically a compendium of evidence for the proposition that philosophical materialism is wrong - that the mind is something apart from the brain, and therefore likely to survive the death of the brain. In a way, it's like a much less academic, much more popularized version of Irreducible Mind - though much briefer and also, thankfully, not nearly as pricey.
Much of the material is familiar to me, but not all of it, and even the more familiar stuff is still worth having in an easily accessible format, rather than scattered across dozens of blog posts and Web articles.
One story I don't think I'd encountered before concerns Jay Greenberg, a twelve-year-old musical prodigy enrolled in Juilliard.
Greenberg says that music just fills his head and he has to write it down to get it out. He doesn't know where it comes from, but it comes fully written, playing like an orchestra within his head: "It's as if the unconscious mind is giving orders at the speed of light," he reports. "You know, I mean, so I just hear it as if it were a smooth performance of a work that is already written, when it isn't." ...
In fact, at around age two, Greenberg started drawing instruments. Before he knew what a cello was, he had drawn a picture of one and had written the name ... At age three, he was drawing the notes for a cello performance. He had not been taught how to draw notes, and certainly not how to create a cello performance, yet they came to him.
In 2007, [his mother] reported that "... he told us he often hears more than one new composition at a time. Multiple channels is what it's been termed." Says Jay, "... my brain is able to control two or three different musics at the same time - along with the channel of my everyday life." He doesn't revise his compositions. They usually come out right the first time. [p. 43, Your Eternal Self]
In any book that covers so much ground, there will be room for nitpicking. The weaknesses in certain cases are not always mentioned. For instance, in a discussion of Charles Tart's experiments with a clairvoyant, there is no mention of the fact that a (very dim) reflection in the room could conceivably have allowed the subject to see the target object - a flaw that Tart himself has acknowledged. Hogan often points to the credentials of scientists who support psi, but this is a slippery slope, since there are many other scientists with equally good credentials who oppose it. And some of the authorities he cites are not the ones I would choose.
But as I said, this is nitpicking. Your Eternal Self is an important contribution to the debate over psi and life after death. It presents a wealth of specific cases, many of them quite recent, to lend credence to the idea that "you are not your brain." And it's got its own Web site, which includes additional cases like these.
R. Craig Hogan, by the way, is the coauthor with Allan L. Botkin of Induced After-Death Communication, another highly interesting and important book.
I cant relate to the channeling of music having had the same thing happen to me a couple of times, where for some strange reason I am compelled to get pen and paper and write, there's a sense of urgency and in doing so I have received lyrics and melody instantly in completion with verses, choruses and bridge in less than 10 minutes and simultaneously.
I have had dreams of songs to wake remembering the melodies which I have taped straight away but usually forget the majority of the lyrics.
Then I'm left to complete it or just add it to the pile of "I'll get to it someday" :-)
It's pretty common for this too happen to creative artists of different forms.
Posted by: Hope Rivers | March 22, 2008 at 09:36 PM
Michael,
Good review of Dr. Hogan's book. However, I question whether it is necessary to always give equal space to the debunkers when writing about paranormal phenomena. I'm referring to your comments about nitpicking the evidence and quoting reputable scientists who oppose it. As I was writing my book, which will hopefully be released one of these days, I started presenting the debunker's side, but that involved giving the evidence, arguments against, counter arguments, counter-counter arguments, and, in some cases, counter-counter-counter arguments, leaving the reader not familiar with the subject thoroughly confused, all the while doubling the length of the book. I figured I was not writing a scientific treatise on the subject and therefore I was at liberty to use my own judgment in presenting the case, much like a lawyer who presents his or her case to a jury. The lawyer may know the arguments by the other side, but it is not his job to present them, although he may at times do so to head off the opposition's arguments.
As you mentioned, Craig was writing for a popular audience, not a scientific one.
Concerning the music prodigy, I just happened to rent and view the video "August Rush," which is about such a boy who attended Juilliard. Perhaps it was intended as his story.
Posted by: Michael Tymn | March 22, 2008 at 10:25 PM
>much like a lawyer who presents his or her case to a jury.
I guess it depends on whether one sees one's role as that of an advocate or a reporter. Personally, I would not trust an advocate to give me all the facts, only the ones he finds useful to his version of events. For that reason, I generally don't find advocacy very convincing. I'm more likely to be persuaded by someone who is candid about the weaknesses (as well as the strengths) of his case.
To take a specific example, Your Eternal Self discusses the remote viewing program run by the US government and recounts some of its successes. But it doesn't mention that there were also many failures, and that the program was eventually shut down. I think these facts are relevant. If a curious reader finds out about them on his own and realizes they were left out, he may start to question the reliability of the whole book - which would be unfortunate, since it is generally well-researched and worth reading.
Posted by: Michael Prescott | March 23, 2008 at 12:32 AM
“These are the teachings we can be reasonably certain came from Yeshua's (Jesus) lips:
1. Love God and Love Others
2. Love All People, Not Just Those Who Agree with You
3. Make Peace among People
4. Forgive without Reservation
5. Do Not Judge Others
6. Be a Servant to All Others
7. Model Yeshua's Teachings So People Are Drawn to Spirituality
8. Listen to the Holy Spirit Speaking Directly to You”
These quotes above came from the website link under “the eternal self” posting.
Some interesting teachings to keep in mind this Easter Sunday. I suspect it is easier to conquer a country than live by any one of these teachings.
Posted by: william | March 23, 2008 at 12:36 AM
And these are from Chapter 7 of "Your Eternal Self":
1. I am an eternal being having a physical experience.
2. The goal for my life, over any physical realm goals, is to grow spiritually.
3. My highest calling is to serve others.
4. All other people are one with me.
5. My love for all others is without conditions; I love without reservation.
6. I help all others grow spiritually so humankind is developing toward heaven on Earth.
7. I am one with nature.
8. I am one with the Higher Power.
9. The intuition that guides me is the Higher Power and beings on the other side of life whose sole desire is to help me grow spiritually.
Posted by: Ross W | March 23, 2008 at 07:47 AM
Yes and in combination there's the truth.
Posted by: Hope Rivers | March 23, 2008 at 08:56 AM
Interesting as always, Michael. Hogan's book is on my Wish List and Jenny Wade's "Changes of Mind" just arrived in yesterday's post. I never want for reading material, especially as you read along the same lines and offer advance critiques, thus saving me time and money. For that alone I'm grateful. Additionally, I share your attitude regarding balanced presentation versus advocacy. Mr. Tymn would probably be best served by the inclusion of at least some of the counter arguments, with his editing skills limiting the verbiage.
I'm always pleased to read of the experiences of others regarding the spontaneous mental realization of creative material (hat tip to Hope). I've been painting under this kind of influence for decades now (what I describe as "involuntary imagery"), and retain my curiosity as to what "meaning" such creative processes carry and what effect they have on viewers. In a related item, Dr. Dean Radin's blog of Wednesday the 19th offered one of his experiences with such a spontaneous event and how it relates to precognition. Of great interest was his response to the comments of "Caecilius", in which he gave the result of a presentiment experiment not yet published. To the question of whether presentiment or precognitive visions "see" the probable "future" as a "present-time superposition of possibilities (as quantum theory would have it), or...the actual future regardless of that future's a priori probability", Dr. Radin reported the result suggests we see the ACTUAL future, independent of prior probability. A fascinating finding certainly in need of further experimentation, but bound to cause much consternation for those who wish to retain the notion of "free will" in human life. Clearly, improbable events HAVE allowed themselves the luxury of occuring on an indeterminable number of moments, and Everett's Multiple Worlds Hypothesis HAS always seemed cumbersome and unwieldy.As with so many people, I would LIKE to feel that I have the power to make my own choices, but I doubt if the Universe cares. Even my own dreams have literally told me that there is "no choice, no option", so I find myself aiming for the most extreme form of reluctant acceptance. It all raises so many questions with little hope of finding all of them answered within one lifespan, and seems to go far beyond a blanket characterization of "good" or "bad".
Posted by: Kevin | March 23, 2008 at 12:20 PM
A little surprised to see you say that, Kevin. I don't see the problem of reconciling free will with a single actual future. Why not see it in terms of String theory's multiple dimensions? Imagine looking at a sheet of paper with dates written on it. 14 billion BCE at the top and 2012 at the bottom, for instance. All can be seen at once from a godlike perspective, where time is just another dimension among many. We in our 3D 1-T universe can make choices, but they are already known from a higher perspective.
Posted by: Ross W | March 23, 2008 at 02:35 PM
<<<>>>
Michael,
I understand your point, but does a book about "white crows" have to mention all the "black crows" or the white crows with black spots? Just because some debunkers come up with far-fetched theories saying the white crows are really black crows does the author have to mention all those theories? Consider, for example, the theory offered by Faraday and others that the communicating raps being heard by the early spiritualists were really the mediums slipping their knee or ankle joints. When we consider that many of the "raps" shook the entire house and that the raps communicated information which the medium could not possibly have known, is it really necessary to mention such a theory?
Is it necessary to mention the rumor that Sir William Crookes had a romantic interest in Florence Cook, the medium who produced Katie King? As indicated by one of the recent entries at this blog, some people hear that rumor and completely dismiss all of Crookes' research.
As for the remote viewing, the fact that there were failures does not diminish the value of the successes. You can find many failures wherever there are successes in any field.
I know we could go around in circles on this subject all day and I probably should not have started the discussion.
Posted by: Michael Tymn | March 23, 2008 at 03:43 PM
An analogy, it may or may not be appropriate.
Edison had far more failures than successes when inventing the Electric light bulb but he’s not regarded as a failure.
And most science books don’t detail every failure, they just mention that their were many.
Rod McKenzie
Posted by: RodMcK | March 23, 2008 at 06:41 PM
Ross: acknowledged, but I don't expect to attain such a perspective.I can readily accept the premise behind Mr. Hogan's book title, as I cannot conceive of non-existence (how can non-existence exist?), but reconciling experiential life with these conceptualizations can be challenging, both emotionally as well as intellectually.The sticking point is in the acceptability.It is those other mental "inputs" which create the conflict. In my own particular life they are unignorably prominent, so the sense of being steered along a certain course becomes inescapable, while simultaneously engaging my curiosity. I read of the experiences of others to try and better understand my own. but I can't report that the light has shone greatly on my efforts.
Posted by: Kevin | March 24, 2008 at 12:28 AM