Michael Prescott's Blog

Segway to the afterlife

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up. And neither is the Associated Press, I assume. 

A wealthy British businessman who owns the company that makes the two-wheeled Segway has been found dead in a river in northern England after apparently falling off a cliff on one of the vehicles, police said Monday.

Walking: 1

Segway: 0

By the way, I stole the title of this post from one of the comments at the linked site. Another good comment:

"Next invention - Segway With Wings"

Life gets in the way

Apologies for the light blogging lately. I've been preoccupied with a personal matter and haven't been able to give much attention to this blog -- or, unfortunately, to Chris Carter's new book, Science and the Near-Death Experience. From what I've read of it, I would say that the book is intellectually serious, comprehensive, and persuasive, but until I've read the whole thing, I can't give a proper review. I do encourage those who have read the book and enjoyed it to post a reader review at Amazon.com or Amazon's UK site.

One thing I was thinking about before I got sidetracked by "real life" was the perennial controversy surrounding reincarnation. I'd been reading Michael Newton's second book, Destiny of Souls, and while I can still see valid reasons to be skeptical of Newton's hypnotic regression therapy, I must admit that the concepts his patients elucidate while in trance somehow "ring true" to me. Of course, the fact that something feels right doesn't prove that it's actually true. But I am finding more value in this area of research than I'd expected.

Probably my biggest reservation about Newton's work is the difficulty in reconciling it with accounts provided by mediumship. However, the stories told by Newton's patients do dovetail pretty neatly with some mediumistic material, notably The Spirits' Book by Allan Kardec (text online here). Another interesting area of overlap is the so-called "Seth material" channeled by Jane Roberts. As you probably know, the alleged entity called Seth said unambiguously that reincarnation is a reality, though he also indicated that the mechanism is more complicated than we realize.

Here is an interesting excerpt from the book Seth Speaks, which bears on this subject:

When you have learned to your capacity in this in-between period [i.e., the period between incarnations], you are ready to progress. The in-between period itself, however, has many dimensions of activity and divisions of experience. As you can see, to put it as simply as possible, everyone does not "know" everyone else.

Instead of countries or physical divisions, you have psychological states. To an individual in one, another might seem quite foreign. In any communications with those in these transitional states, messages through mediums can appear as highly contradictory. The experience of the "dead" is not the same. The conditions and situations vary. An individual explaining his reality can only explain what he knows. Again, such material often offends the intellect that demands simple, neat answers and descriptions that tally.

Most individuals from these stages who communicate with "living" relatives, have not reached at the time of choosing [a new incarnation] as yet, and have not completed their training.

They may still be perceiving reality in terms of their old beliefs. Almost all communications come from this level, particularly when there is a bond of relationship in an immediately previous life. Even at this level, however, such messages serve a purpose. The communicators can inform living relatives that existence continues and they can do it in terms that the living can understand.

They can relate to the living, since often their beliefs are still the same; in fortunate circumstances they can communicate their knowledge as they learn. Gradually, however, their own interests change. They take up relationships in their new existence.

At the time of choosing, therefore, the personality is already preparing itself to leave for in other existence. In terms of time this in-between period can last for centuries. It can last only a few years. Again, however, there are exceptions. There are cases in which a personality goes very quickly into another physical life, in perhaps a matter of hours. This is usually unfortunate, and is caused by an obsessive desire to return to physical life.

Such a quick return, however, can also be taken by a personality who is charged with a great purpose, who disregards or discards an old physical body, and is reborn almost immediately into a new one in order to finish an important and necessary project already begun.

[pp. 184-185 of the Bantam paperback edition]

NDE top forty

Here's an interesting website that links to "Forty Insightful Articles about Near-Death Experiences." There's something here for everyone, as the site does not take a position on the cause or meaning of NDEs, and includes both skeptical and paranormal material. 

In such a controversial area, it's nice to see a balanced approach. 

Sunday morning bird attack

You've probably already seen the trailer for Birdemic: Shock and Terror, an ultra low-budget movie that generated a lot of buzz on the Web when it came out earlier this year. But if you haven't, you really must.

And if you have seen it, you'll surely want to watch it again. And again and again.

Remember, it's from "visionary writer/director James Nguyen,  the Master of the Romantic Thriller ™."

Fascinating background on this unheralded masterpiece can be found at Wikipedia.

Here and Hereafter

Clint Eastwood has a new movie coming out called Hereafter, which deals with the topic of life after death. Michael Tymn, blogger and author of The Articulate Dead, pointed me to an interesting review of the film by John H. Foote, who has a more personal perspective on this subject than most.

Foote writes:

Two hours later [i.e., after the film had been screened], it was an audience divided. While some, like myself, liked the film and applauded Eastwood’s daring for once again stepping outside his comfort zone, many wondered: Just what was Eastwood thinking in making a metaphysical study that feels so much like a European film?

“Hereafter” is a handsomely [made] film about the question of an afterlife. It has a deeper meaning for me perhaps as nine years ago I was in a near fatal car accident, and spent three weeks in a coma in the intensive care unit of Toronto's famous Sunnybrook Hospital. While unconcious for that time I saw things as real to me as the people on the street I see every day, as true to me as my wife and kids, and I cannot to this day discuss the matter without weeping, or explain entirely what happened to me.

The doctors told me it was a combination of the intense pain and the morphine. Maybe, but how did these, visions I suppose attach themselves so powerfully to my soul, to my mind? To this day the memory of the visions haunts me, and thus I believe we go somewhere after this life, though I don’t know where.

Eastwood's daring, meditative film explores that, yes, perhaps there is something that comes after, and there are people who have been given connections to the dead.

Quantum grapes

I'm continuing to read Ross Rhodes' excellent online book, The Reality Program, which makes the case that the physical universe can best be understood as a virtual reality simulation. Yes, the idea does sound crazy ... but it also appears to make sense of quantum phenomena that would otherwise be illogical, magical, and downright inexplicable.

I was especially impressed with Chapter 3, "The Uncertainty Principle, Quantum Properties, and More on the Measurement Effect." In an extended discussion of "quantum grapes" (hypothetical units that possess the properties of subatomic particles), Rhodes clearly explains the paradoxical nature of quantum phenomena, and then shows, in step-by-step fashion, how the paradoxes disappear if the VR model is employed.

It's a real tour-de-force, and I recommend it to anyone who has ever puzzled over the mysteries of the double-slit experiment and similar head-scratchers.

It's here!

Chris Carter's much-anticipated new book, Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness  Survives Death, has now been released and is available on Amazon. 

Yay!

The book is also sold on Amazon's UK site. 

Chris suggests that if readers enjoy the book, they might consider posting reviews at either (or both) of the Amazon sites, in order to raise the book's visibility in this crowded marketplace. 

I've been looking forward to Science and the Near-Death Experience - a follow-up to Chris's excellent Parapsychology and the Skeptics - for more than a year, and I'm glad it's finally here.

(I just wish it were available as an ebook ... but that's another topic.)