Medley of malodorous musings

A compilation of captivating controversies and catty comments.

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The Canadian Post reports on research into ghostly encounters in the trenches of World War I.

Archival research by Canadian historian Tim Cook has found First World War diaries are more rife with supernatural encounters than one would expect.

“There are spectral visions; people see ghosts, they see images of their mothers, they see dead comrades,” said the Canadian War Museum historian and the author of the First World War histories Shock Troops and At the Sharp End.

He told conference delegates about the “dozens and dozens” of supernatural accounts he has unearthed in 20 years of studying diaries, letters and memoirs.

One of the most vivid accounts comes from Ghosts Have Warm Hands, a memoir by Canadian veteran Will Bird published in 1968. 

Its defining moment comes when the writer, sleeping in a dugout, describes how he was awakened by the ghost of his brother Steve, who had been killed two years before.

“Steve grinned as he released my hands, then put his warm hand over my mouth as I started to shout my happiness,” he wrote.

Saying “get your gear,” Steve gestured for Mr. Bird to follow him before disappearing. Moments later, the shelter in which he had been sleeping was hit by a shell.

It's not clear how many of the recorded encounters were that dramatic. It's also unclear if the diary entries, in general, were less vivid and detailed than the later reminisces, such as Bird's book (not published until fifty years after the war). 

The article notes that sleep deprivation, common among soldiers in the trenches, can trigger hallucinations. So take the accounts for that they're worth. 

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Science is often celebrated for replacing irrational emotionalism with dispassionate objectivity. But that's not always how it works in practice. Just ask Gerta Keller, a geologist and paleontologist who has been vilified and ostracized by colleagues for daring to argue that the favored theory of dinosaur extinction is wrong. 

The Atlantic, in a long profile of Keller, reports:

The [asteroid] impact theory provided an elegant solution to a prehistoric puzzle, and its steady march from hypothesis to fact offered a heartwarming story about the integrity of the scientific method. “This is nearly as close to a certainty as one can get in science,” a planetary-science professor told Time magazine in an article on the crater’s discovery. In the years since, impacters say they have come even closer to total certainty. “I would argue that the hypothesis has reached the level of the evolution hypothesis,” says Sean Gulick, a research professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies the Chicxulub crater. “We have it nailed down, the case is closed,” Buck Sharpton, a geologist and scientist emeritus at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, has said.

But Keller doesn’t buy any of it. “It’s like a fairy tale: ‘Big rock from sky hits the dinosaurs, and boom they go.’ And it has all the aspects of a really nice story,” she said. “It’s just not true.”

While the majority of her peers embraced the Chicxulub asteroid as the cause of the extinction, Keller remained a maligned and, until recently, lonely voice contesting it. She argues that the mass extinction was caused not by a wrong-place-wrong-time asteroid collision but by a series of colossal volcanic eruptions in a part of western India ...

Keller’s resistance has put her at the core of one of the most rancorous and longest-running controversies in science. “It’s like the Thirty Years’ War,” says Kirk Johnson, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Impacters’ case-closed confidence belies decades of vicious infighting, with the two sides trading accusations of slander, sabotage, threats, discrimination, spurious data, and attempts to torpedo careers. “I’ve never come across anything that’s been so acrimonious,” Kerr says. “I’m almost speechless because of it.” Keller keeps a running list of insults that other scientists have hurled at her, either behind her back or to her face. She says she’s been called a “bitch” and “the most dangerous woman in the world,” who “should be stoned and burned at the stake.” ...

This dispute illuminates the messy way that science progresses, and how this idealized process, ostensibly guided by objective reason and the search for truth, is shaped by ego, power, and politics. Keller has had to endure decades of ridicule to make scientists reconsider an idea they had confidently rejected.

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Though I haven't had a chance to read it, I've heard good things about Our Secret Powers, by Terje Simonsen. Dean Radin says, "As an encyclopedic introduction to the psychic side of the fascinating but puzzling domain known as the paranormal, there is no better choice than Our Secret Powers." Stanley Krippner says, "This is an outstanding book and it deserves all the attention it can get." 

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Speaking of Dean Radin, I admit that I've yet to read his latest book, Real Magic. I started it, but the opening passages kinda irked me, so I set it aside. I'm sure the book as a whole is very worthwhile, but to my way of thinking the author chose the wrong way to begin. 

Real Magic starts off with a "news item" from the year 2915:

It's difficult to appreciate what it must have been like to live at the dawn of the 21st century. The climate was spiraling out of control, viral outbreaks were endemic, and the global economy was failing. The population turned to demagogues who promised grandiose, unrealistic futures. As civil order declined, simmering resentments fueled nationalism and then tribalism, which accelerated the pandemonium.

Happily, we are told, this catastrophic scenario was turned around once "neomagic ... firmly placed consciousness on the continuum with matter and energy," leading to the breeding of "genetically enhanced magi" who "even as children … were able to quickly tame extreme weather events." Ultimately the World Federation of Magi was "tasked with restoring the climate, stabilizing the world economy and eradicating disease." stink so terrible why is it not work

Okay, I realize this is intended as a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of hooking the reader's interest. But it turned me off for two reasons. First, the litany of crises is mostly counterfactual. People can argue about global warming, but to claim that the climate is "spiraling out of control" is over the top. The worst-case scenario for climate change appears to be an overall temperature increase of about 2.8°C (about 5°F) by the year 2100. 

Epidemics are made more likely by the increasing interconnectedness of our world, but at the same time their effects are limited by the successes of modern medicine. The flu pandemic of 1918 is generally considered the worst pandemic in history. If we haven't seen another equally serious influenza outbreak in the century since, it's probably because we're a lot better at fighting the flu (and other infectious diseases) today.

The global economy is not failing; prosperity around the world has increased by leaps and bounds over the last generation, with the most dramatic gains taking place in less-developed countries. The World Economic Forum reports that, despite continuing inequality between rich and poor countries, there is a "broader trend of global poverty reduction. In 2015, the percentage of the world population living in extreme poverty fell beneath 10% for the first time."

It's premature to worry about "demagogues" destroying democracy. The high water mark of autocracy in the modern world was the rise of fascism and communism in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then, democracy has made huge strides. True, there have been recent signs of retreat here and there, but if we take the long view, the picture is still remarkably positive. Wikipedia tells us:

An analysis by the U.S. Government funded Freedom House shows that there was not a single liberal democracy with universal suffrage in the world in 1900, but that in 2000, 120 of the world's 192 nations, or 62% were such democracies.

In short, this litany of crises is much overstated. Does it matter? I think so. An author arguing that magic should be taken seriously needs, above all, to establish his circumspect judgment and cautious respect for facts. Striking the pose of a doomsayer, even for purposes of a thought experiment, is the wrong approach.

I found this opening problematic for another reason. Though we're told of "demagogues who promised grandiose, unrealistic futures," the preface itself is guilty of promising a more grandiose and unrealistic future than anything any dictator could envision. Certain forms of magic may be legitimate expressions of paranormal talents, and casting spells or engaging in prayer may subtly influence one's environment, though not always reliably. This would be broadly consistent with what we know (or think we know) about psi phenomena, which are subtle, ambiguous, difficult to predict or control, and generally elusive. But to suggest that paranormal abilities can be mastered to such an extent that a cadre of preteen psychic prodigies will mold the climate, the economy, and even bacterial and viral outbreaks to their will is venturing well beyond anything that can be proven or is likely to be true. It simply promises too much.

None of this means the book isn't of value; judging by the high quality of Dean Radin's previous work, I'm sure it is. But I wish a stern editor had taken a red pencil and nixed the preface.

And honestly, do we really want these creepy little snots controlling our world?

"Next we'll work on overpopulation ..." 

Comments

[Amos Oliver Doyle]

Michael,
The beginning of Radin's recent book Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe is an example of a quirky academic tongue-in-cheek humor that might be characteristic of Dean Radin. It is in the preface to the book and Radin would have us imagine that it is taken from a "Guest Editorial" of the 'New Seattle Province' (get the humor there) written 900 years in the future in 2915 in which were comments about a recently discovered digital relic from the twenty-third century written in "Galactia Today"

Perhaps beginning the book with that fabrication was not the best way to impress serious people who might want to read this book , but once one gets into Chapter One it becomes clear that Dean Radin is now speaking---not some fictitious newspaper editor from the "American Northwest" in the year 2915. It is a bit confusing but that bit of fluff at the beginning has little or nothing to do with Dean Radin's serious thoughts about parapsychology, i.e. magic, and consciousness which he discusses in the rest of the book. Radin's use of the word 'magic" throughout the book can be misleading when he really defines it thusly:

"Real magic falls into three categories; mental influence of the physical world, perception of events distant in space or time, and interactions with nonphysical entities. The first type I'll call force of will; it's associated with spell-casting and other techniques meant to intentionally influence events or actions. The second is divination; it's associated with practices such as reading Tarot cards and mirror-gazing. The third is theurgy, from the Greek meaning "god-work"; it involves methods for evoking and communicating with spirits. "

This seems like an interesting book which I need to order. - AOD

[Michael Prescott]

I get that the presentation is tongue-in-cheek, but the message seems to be serious: that the world is facing a terrible confluence of crises, and "real magic" may be our only hope.

To me, it was a turnoff, but the book has received good reviews and appears to be selling well, so I guess other people didn’t find the preface off-putting.

I still intend to read Rral Magic when I have the time.

[Kathleen]

I'd argue that we already have creepy little snots running the world anyway! I tend to think human history has just been a string of decent people doggedly trying to improve the human condition (or at least make it more comfortable), but whose good work is routinely overthrown by the bad apples, and that this will continue forever, sigh.

My only upside to this is that I am pretty much much convinced that there is an afterlife, from my own personal experiences and from others, particularly NDEs.

Also, that first bit about supernatural experiences in and around the battlefield, reminded me of the famous "Angels of Mons" story about British archers from centuries ago protecting British soldiers in a World War I battle. The Wikipedia entry on this one is pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons

[James Oeming]

I cringed when I heard the title "Real Magic". I think it is in danger of scaring off those who would most benefit by the content of the book.

I want Dean Radin to help educate the well-intended materialist scientists who have a deep-seated bias and misunderstanding about paranormal research. The word "Magic" in the title, to me, is potentially an instant turn-off word for many members of the scientific materialist establishment.

The LAST thing I would endorse is ANY hint or intimation of woo, regardless of the intention behind the word. I would prefer a more sober, safe, staid title, not using the word "Magic".

This reminds me of going on a sales call to an important potential client. One is well advised to play it very safe and wear respectable middle-of-the-road businesswear, not a tie-dyed shirt and sandals. One runs the grave risk of getting rejected at first glance if one gets too "out there".

Imagine the visceral reaction of a James Randi-type Skeptic upon hearing that Dean Radin's latest book has "Magic" in the title. The hooting and derision would begin before the first word was read.

[Amos Oliver Doyle]

I have read some of the one-star reviews and others of Radin’s book and some of them apparently were looking for an explanation of how to do magic tricks, perhaps using a magic wand. If they had only read the very first paragraph in ‘Chapter One’ (easily available on Amazon) they would have read Radin’s disclaimer as follows:

“This book is about magic.

Not the fictional magic of Harry Potter, the feigned magic of Harry Houdini, or the fraudulent magic of con artists. Not blue lightning bolts springing from the fingertips, aerial combat on broomsticks, sleight-of-hand tricks, or any of the other elaborations of artistic license and special effects.

This is about real magic.”

after which Radin goes on to define the magic he will be discussing in the book (previously quoted above).

Still somewhat confusing I agree but Radin’s use (or his publisher’s use) of ‘magic’ in the title of the book and Radin’s constant use of that word in the text probably is off-putting to many people, especially of the ‘scientific’ type. That is unfortunate since Radin has some important things to say, especially to the scientific community and ‘magic’ gives ‘Skeptics’ a hook to hang their derisive hats on. Unfortunately Radin’s concept of trying to bring parapsychological things down to ‘street level’ was perhaps a poor concept for his book from the get-go. If he had left ‘magic’ out of the title and just used the subtitle “Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe” maybe it would have been better received---but, maybe not, as more than 80% of the reviews are favorable five-star reviews of the book titled as it is.

I think that Radin’s way of thinking is not mainstream. He does make associations which are sometimes difficult to grasp and maybe he is a little flippant at times but fortunately he has a ready sense of humor but which also is sometimes a little off-the-wall requiring a little mulling around in one’s mind so Radin is not a ‘quick read’, it takes time to absorb what he is saying. One has to think about it or “deal with it” as he said at the end of the book. - AOD

[Matt Rouge]

My objection to the title is that "magic" is a specific concept with a history, and it *is* real. It is ritualized intention, and it does have an effect on the world. Radin probably doesn't believe that such magic actually exists, so he is calling everything paranormal "magic." It's sloppy thinking and writing. I'm sure the book has good information in it, but it's going to muddy the waters a bit too in the process.

[Art]

I'd like to reiterate here that it doesn't have to be either "all true or all lies." If even some of it is true it is life changing and has amazing implications about who and what we are and why we are here.

Like William James said "it only takes one white crow to prove that not all crows are black."

https://japantoday.com/category/national/pure-white-crow-spotted-in-shimane

[Kathleen]

Wow, Art you found the white crow! (And what a weird-looking thing it is.)

BTW, I thought it my duty to report, in very trying circumstances, that I received a first-hand account of an NDE from someone who never believed in them and argued with me against them. He now says they are the real thing. I almost fell out of my chair at the hospital as he presented an in-depth account - of a soothing experience being greeted by a friendly spirit and more. The circumstances don't enable me to press him for more, but I can say I was quite surprised.

[Art]

Tonight on the History Channel, In Search Of with Zachary Quinto, they are going to be talking about "Life After Death." It comes on at 9:00 pm Central time. I don't know if it will be interesting and good or not but I am planning on watching. I hope it is interesting...

[Art]

Okay, I watched Zachary Quinto on In Search Of. I didn't care for the part about cryogenically freezing people and wasn't all that impressed with the EVP segment but he did okay with the near death experience. And also they talked about increasing longevity with drugs and used mice as examples... which to me isn't life after death related. One other thing, people donating their bodies so they can harvest parts was creepy. They got a whole company that specializes in taking bodies apart and selling them to researchers and schools and stuff. It was rather gross.

I was disappointed that Mr. Quinto didn't talk about deathbed visions and nearing death awareness. I think if he had spent some time reading up about deathbed visions he would have been blown away.

One other thing that amazes me too is terminal lucidity. I have now met two people who told me personal stories about their relatives "waking up" right before they die, becoming lucid, and remembering who they were, talking and telling them they loved them, and then right afterwards laying their heads back down on their pillow and dying. One is a woman at our church whose brother hadn't spoken in couple of years woke up and had a conversation with her, and the other guy was a Methodist minister that I met at a hospital and he told me about his mother, who had alzheimers, and she woke up and talked to him, and then she died right afterwards. Two people fairly close together shared terminal lucidity stories with me.

[Michael Prescott]

I’m sure Quinto just reads whatever's on the TelePrompTer. It’s not like he writes the script.

[Art]

Yeah, and I really don't know how interested in this stuff he really is? He might just be trying to cash in on his Spock character on the new Star Trek movies so someone offered him a job hosting In Search Of and he said sure because it was a job?

So, I wanted to write Zachary Quinto and ask him if he knew about Deathbed Visions and nearing death awareness and realized it was a ridiculous and pointless idea and talked myself out of it. Or how about recommending he read Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan and Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms by David Kessler?

So, if you missed In Search Of last Friday night and you are interested in life after death stuff... you didn't miss much, and if you have read anything about NDEs, etc. more than likely you know more than what little was presented.

[Bruce Siegel]

Art, I agree that accounts of terminal lucidity can be moving. Even this self-styled "radical rationalist" writing in Scientific American, no less, gets emotional when he remembers how his grandmother came alive in her final moments:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/one-last-goodbye-the-strange-case-of-terminal-lucidity/

He also describes what seems almost certain to be a precognitive dream, involving a dog. But I think Michael has some experience with pd’s that features animals—though not always friendly ones. :)

[Art]

I've had several precognitive dreams that have come true. Some amazing ones. In fact once I dreamed that some terrorists were trying to blow up a dam and when I woke up I called the FBI in Knoxville, TN and said to them "You may think I'm nuts but last night I dreamed that some terrorists are trying to blow up a dam."

The FBI told me they didn't think I was nuts and I guess they put the word out because the next week they caught two Egyptians up at Norris Dam which was only 7 miles from our house up there taking pictures of the Dam at 5:30 in the morning. A park ranger confronted them and asked them what they were doing. Turns out their I.D. was fake and they had fraudulent driver's licenses from North Carolina. They were also in the country illegally. I don't know what happened to them after that.

I also dreamed about the last space shuttle that blew up a week before it happened. I even wrote a post about on the near-death.com message board. I dreamed it blew up and pieces of it landed in our backyard. I went inside to get my camera to take pictures of it but by the time I got back outside the Feds were already there cleaning it up and didn't want me taking pictures. And that is pretty much what happened except it blew up over Texas and Louisiana and it landed in other people's backyards instead of mine. Anyway, right after I had the dream I posted about it and the next week it blew up!

And there was a bridge collapse on I-40 in Oklahoma. I dreamed the week before that I saw a boat of some kind hit a bridge abutment and it collapsed and the bridge collapsed. The next week a bridge in Oklahoma collapsed.

[Michael Prescott]

Interesting, Art! I haven’t had any precognitive dreams as impressive as those. It’s interesting that the authorities took your tip seriously. I suspect that many law-enforcement officers pay more attention to ESP-related tips then they will admit publicly, for fear of ridicule.

[Amos Oliver Doyle]

Art,
Those dreams of yours are pretty impressive. I hope you are keeping good documentation of your dreams just in case more of them turn out to be precognitive. - AOD

[Douglas]

On the subject of PDs, you should pick up the classic work 'An Experiment with Time', by the British soldier, aeronautical engineer and philosopher J. W. Dunne.

Dunne realised that many of his precognitive dreams were not in fact precognitions of the event itself, but rather the *media reportage of the event*. He realised this when after one such precognitive dream about a disaster, he recognised the image in the newspaper - the image was the same image which he had witnessed in his dream.

Interesting stuff? This points to the collective consciousness and the impact of these events to our awareness via the media. This impact can send ripples back in time.

The researcher Anthony Peake also writes about this, and references Dunne's work in particular.

Regards,

Douglas

[Art]

There seems to be a link between the emotion the event evokes and whether I might "think about it" before it actually happens? I remember one time I was at a dinner my wife's soccer league had at a Chinese buffet and they were giving out door prizes. We all had tickets. I was looking at my ticket and I knew that the next number they would read out would be our number. It was "a knowing." What we won were 2 free dinners to that same Chinese Buffet.

Also one time I was doing dishes, sort of zoning out while staring out the window over the sink, and a voice sort of popped into my head and seemed to say "Bonnie (my wife) is going to come in here and say "thanks for going with me." Earlier that day we had gone to a meeting in town, which was about 45 minutes away, and I had gone with her. So in about a minute my wife walked into the kitchen and said "thanks for going with me." It was the exact words that had popped into my head.

Another time we were sitting in church and I all of a sudden I mumbled "that's a hard act to follow" and as our song leader was walking down the aisle to the front of the church he said "that's a hard act to follow." Our preacher, Darryl, who always sits in front of us, turned around to me and said "how do you do that?"

The truth is I don't know how I do it but sometimes I just "know" a few seconds before hand what is fixing to happen? I buy lottery tickets and I check the numbers on the computer at night. Oftentimes as I am getting on the computer and fixing to check my numbers I'll know, sort of a feeling, whether I won anything or not? I think the emotion of the event, that I'm fixing to experience, sort of gives me a heads up beforehand whether I'm going to win or not? Sort of along the same lines of when we won those two free dinners at that Chinese buffet?

I told our preacher once that they didn't want me teaching any classes, like middle or high school, sunday school classes to kids because I have all kinds of weird beliefs that aren't exactly kosher in the Church of Christ. Don't worry, our preacher knows about my kooky beliefs. He knows I believe in NDEs, deathbed visions, nearing death awareness, some mystical and transcendental experience, and of course the holographic universe theory and quantum physics and its connection to NDEs and DBVs. {grin}